9 Great Time-Saving Tricks for iPhone and iPad

Written by Kevin Liew on 09 Mar 2016
13,220 Views • Mobile Tips & Tricks

From the first release of Apple iOS until now, it has been updated with tons of visual tweaks and features. In iOS9, 9.1 and 9.2, Apple added a few heavy weight features such as multi-tasking, split-screen, picture-in-picture and etc.

Besides those popular features, the iPhone has a lot of hidden features that are unknown to many people. Now we have 9 little-known tips and tricks that can make your life a lot easier.

Sketch in your notes

Notes is one of my favourite Apple app. With iOS9, there's a lot of features being added to Notes. Do you know you can sketch in your notes? If you used Paper from FiftyThree before, the user interface and the way to use it are pretty similar. You can choose different drawing pens, ruler for measurement and draw straight line, eraser and color picker.

iOS TIps and Tricks - Sketch in your notes

Make your phone last longer with Low Power Mode

Do you feel frustrated when you see the red battery icon? Here we have a nifty new feature introduced in iOS9. It's designed to squeeze every single bit of the battery juice into good use. It's not enabled by default, but you can go to Settings > Battery to enable it. Low Power Mode temporarily reduces power consumption until you can fully charge your iPhone. When this is on, mail fetch, background app refresh, automatic downloads, and some visual effects are reduced or turned off.

iOS TIps and Tricks - >Make your phone last longer with Low Power Mode

Hide Your Unglamorous Photos

There's a feature to hide your photo without removing it. Tap on the photo, choose multiple photos that you want to hide. Click on the option menu and choose 'Hide". The selected photo will be hidden from Moments, Collections and Years but still visible in Albums.

iOS TIps and Tricks - Hide Your Unglamorous Photos

Save an attachment to Note

In iOS 8, Apple has enhanced the way how apps talk to each other. You can save a photo, text and save it in a Note easily. By referring to the image below, you need to tap and hold the photo you want to edit and then the option menu will show up, choose Notes. You can save it in a new note or an existing one.

iOS TIps and Tricks - Save an attachment to Note

Markup Image in Mail

You can draw on the image you received in Mail. Just follow this simple steps:

  1. Tap and hold the image you wish to edit
  2. Option dialog will be displayed, choose "Markup and Reply"
  3. You can draw on the image
iOS TIps and Tricks - Markup Image in Mail

Sign a PDF document

Do you know you can sign or edit the PDF file without printing it out? iOS supports this pretty well. Similar to markup image in Mail, you can tap and hold onto the PDF file in the attachment, then choose "Markup and reply". You can type text, draw on it and even add signature. It's a very handy feature if the document need to be signed immediately.

iOS TIps and Tricks - Sign a PDF document

Do quick Math calculation with Search Bar

Just like Finder in Mac, you can use iOS search bar to perform mathematic calculation. Go to Home, swipe down then type in numbers. It works really well with simple math, but if you need to do multiplication, the default Calculator app is still the best.

iOS TIps and Tricks - Do quick Math calculation with Search Bar

Use Siri to set a reminder about what's on the screen

I love using Siri to set reminders, it works really well. Here's another trick, Siri can set reminder for you based on something on your screen. It works really well with Apple's own app.

iOS TIps and Tricks - Use Siri to set a reminder about what's on the screen

Search Your Settings

As iOS evolves, it's getting more and more settings. Sometimes it's really hard to find something you want to change. Don't worry, there's search built-in for Settings. Just go to Settings and swipe down, you can start searching for the option you're looking for.

iOS TIps and Tricks - Search Your Settings
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