Learning is like wine

Some people like it and some people don’t.

I realize there will be a lot of people who will read this and yawn thinking this is old news. But in my defense, I learned these on my own and figured someone could benefit from my sleuth-ee ways.

The iPhone. Most have one, but most don’t know the little things that make having it that much better. (this is all for the latest version) For instance:

- When your screen is locked, and you hit the home button twice, the camera and your ipod will come up allowing you to go to either without entering your phone.
- To take a screen shot all you have to do is press the power button at the top and the home button at the same time and ‘click’ it’ll take a picture of whatever is on your screen.
- While in your phone or app, hit the home button twice and the quick menu will come up on the bottom allowing you to go back and forth from apps.

- When your phone is locked and you see a text, tweet, call or app sitting their, slide the app (as apposed to the ‘slide to unlock’ feature and it will open directly to that app.
- After typing and you see you misspelled a word that’s toward the top, touch the screen near the misspelled word and the magnifier will appear and while still holding down, move your finger to the exact spot you want to fix.
- Your location may be showing for each and every picture you take when posting to FB, twitter or email…and anyone can search you and find where you are by clicking the picture. Be sure its off by going into Settings> Location Services> Camera and it’ll show whether its on or off.

Gmail:
The majority of us bloggers have it and many aren’t too keen on the new layout they have, but did you know you can virtually make it identical to the old version? G-man has gmail and was pretty upset about the new version, declaring he would find a new email provider because he hated it so much. But! Emily to the rescue and I talked him down from the ledge by showing him how to make it just like normal.

- After switching to the new version, each email in the inbox will be HUGE and far apart, but if you go into your settings, that little bolt looking thing directly above your email on the right; it’ll give you the option to have your display density be:
Comfortable
Cozy
Compact
Make it compact and it’ll look like it used to.

Now have you ever deleted an email within a long line of emails you had with someone? Or saved 1 email out of the entire conversation only to delete all the rest?

This was G-man’s biggest gripe with gmail. He hated when he’d save 1 email, delete all the others within the conversation, clear out the trash bin and find the email he saved was permanently deleted along with the rest. Its because it was still ‘attached’ to the ‘conversation’ as gmail puts it.

Once again, Emily to the rescue and I showed him all you have to do is:
- go into the settings> (The very top bolt looking thing) Mail Settings> General and turn ‘conversation view’ to off.

He was eternally grateful at that point as I successfully talked him down from jumping ship to another email account.

OK! and finally this one you may just not know as its an insiders tip.
Directv:

Did you know you can update your DVR or box software? Did you know it needed updating?
If you see its getting a little slow, it might need an update.

- Hit the red button on your DVR to reset your DVR
- When the screen says, “Hello, Your DIRECTV receiver is starting up’, press 0-2-4-6-8 (no dashes, just the numbers)
{it must be done in that screen}
From that moment, it won’t look like anything happened but eventually it will say its updating the software. Go do the dishes or a load of laundry at that point since it will take 25+ minutes. So make sure it won’t interfere with your tv time when you do this.

{mine clearly needed an update}

Whew, I know that was a lot but maybe someone can find the tips helpful. It’s a season of giving after all…

I know there are far more tips out there that I don’t know about and I would love to hear them. What great tips have you learned?? Share share share with the class!! Pin It Now!