iPhone For Dummies Updated for iPhone 12 models and iOS 14

by Baig, Edward C.; LeVitus, Bob

• ISBN13: 9781119730026
• ISBN10: 1119730023
• Edition: 14th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2020-12-30
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

The latest edition – updated to cover iOS 14 and iPhone 12

Nothing seems to change faster than an iPhone. Just when you think you know your way around the device, a new update arrives and you have to learn everything all over again. This fully revised edition of iPhone For Dummies arrives just in time to keep you up to date on iOS 14, the version of the iOS operating system released in late 2020, as well as all the updated features of iPhone 12. But don’t worry if you’re sticking with your current iPhone or buying an older model. This book offers help on using any iPhone that runs iOS 14, all the way back to iPhone 6.

Written by two longtime Apple fans and experts, this revised guide covers the essentials you’ll need to know about the industry-leading device and its slick iOS operating system, kicking off with set-up—navigating settings, hooking up to wifi, sharing audio and video—and then gearing you up to warp speed with the many incredible ways this smartphone’s tools and apps can bring a joyful extra dimension to your life.

• Explore the basics of iOS 14
• Enhance your interests with apps
• Get artsy with photos, video, and more
• Troubleshoot common problems
• Learn what makes the iPhone 12 different than the 11, X, SE, or older models

Whether you’re just getting started with a new phone or want to get even more from your current version, iPhone For Dummies puts the power right at your fingertips!

Author Biography

Edward C. Baig (New York, NY) is the technology columnist for USA Today.

Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus (Austin, TX) is the tech columnist for the Houston Chronicle and has written over 86 books on technology. The two have paired on all previous editions of this book as well as iPad For Dummies.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Meet Your iPhone 5

Chapter 1: Unveiling the iPhone 7

The Big Picture 8

The iPhone as a phone and a digital camera or camcorder 9

The iPhone as an iPod 10

The iPhone as an Internet communications device 11

Technical specifications 11

A Quick Tour Outside 12

On the sides 12

On the bottom 13

On the front 14

On the back 16

Status bar 16

Home Sweet Home Screen 18

The first Home screen 19

The second Home screen 20

The dock (all Home screens) 22

Chapter 2: iPhone Basic Training 23

Activating the iPhone 24

Turning the iPhone On and Off 25

Pointing a finger at Touch ID 26

Facing up to Face ID 28

Continuing the setup 29

Locking the iPhone 30

Mastering the Multitouch Interface 31

Discovering the special-use keys 33

One-handed keyboard 34

The incredible, intelligent, and virtual iPhone keyboard 34

Anticipating what comes next 34

Correcting mistakes 37

Choosing an alternative keyboard 38

Cutting, copying, pasting, and replacing 38

Multitasking 40

Navigating beyond the Home Screen 41

Organizing Icons into Folders 42

Visiting the App Library 43

Watching Widgets 44

Proactive Searching 45

Notifications and Today view 46

Chapter 3: Synchronicity: Getting Stuff to and from Your iPhone 51

A Brief iCloud Primer 52

The Kitchen Sync 54

First things first: About iPhone backups 54

Sync prep 101 56

Syncing Your Data with iTunes or Finder 61

Syncing contacts 62

Syncing calendars 63

Advanced syncing 63

Synchronizing Your Media 64

Music, movies, TV shows, and podcasts 64

Photos 67

Manual Syncing 68

Chapter 4: Understanding the Phone-damentals 71

Making a Call 72

Adding contacts 72

Setting up favorites 74

Viewing the Recents list 76

Dialing with the keypad 77

Accessing voicemail visually 77

Recording a greeting 80

Voice dialing 81

Receiving a Call 81

Accepting the call 81

Announcing the caller 81

Rejecting the call 82

Replying with a text message 82

Blocking callers 83

Silencing unknown callers 83

Avoiding disturbances 84

Choosing a ringtone 85

While on a Call 86

Juggling calls 87

Making conference calls 88

Handing off calls 89

Seeing is Believing with FaceTime 90

Part 2: The PDA iPhone 95

Chapter 5: Taking Control of Your iPhone 97

Controlling Control Center 98

Summoning Siri 101

Figuring out what to ask 103

Siri shortcuts 104

Using dictation 104

Correcting mistakes 105

Making Siri smarter 105

Typing to Siri 106

Chapter 6: Texting 1, 2, 3: Messages and Notes 107

Getting the iMessage 107

You send me: Sending text messages 109

Alert: You’ve got messages 110

Being a golden receiver: Reading and replying to text messages 110

MMS: Like SMS with media 113

Massive multimedia effects 114

Group messaging has never been better 118

Taking Note of Notes 119

Chapter 7: Twelve Indispensable Apps and Utilities 121

Working with the Calendar 121

Year view 122

Month view 122

Day view 122

Week view 124

List view 124

Adding Calendar Entries 125

Displaying multiple calendars 128

Responding to meeting invitations 129

Subscribing to calendars 129

Sharing a family calendar 129

Calculate This 130

Punching the Clock 130

World clock 131

Alarm clock 132

Stopwatch 133

Timer 133

Voicing Memos 134

Making a recording 134

Listening to recordings 135

Trimming recordings 135

Adding a title to a recording 136

Reminding me 138

It’s a Wallet 141

Dropping in on AirDrop 142

Controlling Lights, Locks, and More 144

Using the iPhone in the Car 144

Unlocking the Car 145

Measuring Things 145

Translating Text or Speech 146

Keeping in Good Health 147

Part 3: The Multimedia iPhone 149

Chapter 8: Music to Your Ears: Audio on Your iPhone 151

Introducing Your iPhone’s Music Player 152

It’s music, just not your music 152

My Music is Your Music 156

A library without library cards 156

Play it again, list 158

Share and share alike 160

Taking Control of Your Tunes 162

Customizing Your Audio Experience 164

Setting preferences 164

Setting a sleep timer 165

Using your voice to control your music 166

Listening to Podcasts with the Podcasts App 167

Shopping with the iTunes Store App 168

Chapter 9: “Smile”: Taking Pictures with Your iPhone 171

Taking Your Best Shot 172

Making Photos Come to Life 174

Keeping Things in Focus 175

From the front to the rear — and back 176

Firing up the flash 177

Night mode 177

Using zoom 178

Two (or three) rear cameras are better than one 179

Applying filters 180

Binging on burst shooting 181

Using the self-timer 183

Tracking Down Your Pictures 183

Choosing albums 185

Viewing all your photos 186

Making memories 187

Categorizing your pics 189

Adding captions 191

Searching for pictures 191

Sharing your photos 192

Admiring Your Pictures 194

Maneuvering and manipulating photos 194

Launching slideshows 195

Storing pictures in the (i)Cloud 197

Editing and Deleting Photos 198

Livening Up Live Photos 201

More (Not So) Stupid Picture Tricks 203

Chapter 10: Starring in a Blockbuster: Video on Your iPhone 207

Finding Stuff to Watch 208

Playing Video 209

Shooting Video 213

Going slow 217

Going fast 218

Capturing stereo 219

Editing what you shot 219

Sharing video 220

Watching video on TV 221

Augmented reality 221

Restricting video and other usage 222

Part 4: The Internet iPhone 223

Chapter 11: Going on a Mobile Safari 225

Surfin’ Dude 225

Exploring the browser 226

Blasting off into cyberspace 226

I Can See Clearly Now 228

Opening multiple web pages at a time 230

Looking at lovable links 231

Book(mark) ’em, Danno 232

Altering bookmarks 234

Viewing open pages on other devices 235

Letting history repeat itself 236

Launching a mobile search mission 236

Saving web pictures 237

Reading clutter-free web pages 237

Translate web pages 238

Private Browsing 239

Sign in with Apple 239

Smart Safari Settings 240

Chapter 12: The Email Must Get Through 243

Prep Work: Setting Up Your Accounts 244

Setting up your account the easy way 244

Setting up your account the less easy way 244

See Me, Read Me, File Me, Delete Me: Working with Messages 248

Reading messages 248

Filter mail 250

Managing messages 251

Threading messages 253

Searching emails 255

Darling, You Send Me (Email) 258

Makin’ messages 258

Settings for sending email 267

Setting your message and account settings 269

Special Mail options on 3D Touch and Haptic Touch models 272

Chapter 13: Tracking with Maps, Compass, Stocks, Weather, and Files 273

Maps Are Where It’s At 273

Finding your current location with Maps 274

Finding a person, place, or thing 275

Views, zooms, and pans 276

Timesaving map tools: Contacts, Recents, Guides, and Favorites 278

Smart map tricks 281

Contemplating the Compass 285

Taking Stock with Stocks 285

Adding and deleting stocks, funds, and indexes 286

Details, details, details 287

Charting a course 287

Weather Watching 288

Keeping Track of Documents with Files 289

Part 5: The Undiscovered iPhone 291

Chapter 14: Setting You Straight on Settings 293

Sky-High Settings 294

All about you 294

Airplane mode 295

Wi-Fi 296

Bluetooth 297

Cellular 299

Emergency SOS 300

Report, Sound, and Appearance Settings 301

Notifications 301

Control Center 302

Do Not Disturb 302

Privacy 302

Sounds 304

Happy Home button (iPhone 7, 8, and SE models) 305

Brightening up your day 305

Auto-lock 306

Home Screen 307

Wallpaper 307

In General 308

About About 308

Software update 308

Storage 308

Background App Refresh 309

Siri & Search 309

AirPlay & Handoff 309

CarPlay 310

VPN 310

Battery 310

Touch ID/Face ID & Passcode 311

App Store 313

Wallet & Apple Pay 313

Screen Time 313

Date & Time 315

Keyboard 316

Language & Region 317

Fonts 317

Dictionary 317

Accessibility 318

Reset 321

Phoning in More Settings 321

Promoting harmony through Family Sharing 321

Sorting and displaying contacts 322

Nothing phone-y about these settings 322

Find My 324

Chapter 15: Apps-O-Lutely! 327

Finding Apps 328

Browsing for apps 328

Finding more information about an app 329

Downloading an app 330

App Library 330

Updating an app 332

Deleting and Organizing Your Apps 332

Deleting an app 332

Organizing your apps 333

App Clips 335

Apple’s Arcade 335

Books, Newspapers, and Magazines 336

Books app 337

Newspapers and magazines 338

Chapter 16: When Good iPhones Go Bad 341

iPhone Issues 342

But first 342

Recharge your iPhone 343

Restart your iPhone 344

Reset (force restart) your iPhone 344

Remove your content 345

Reset your settings and content 345

Restore your iPhone 346

Renew your iPhone with Recovery mode 347

Problems with Calling or Networks 348

Sync, Computer, or iTunes Issues 350

More Help on the Apple Website 351

If Nothing We Suggest Helps 352

Dude, Where’s My Stuff? 353

Part 6: The Part of Tens 355

Chapter 17: Ten Appetizing Apps 357

Shazam 357

Action Movie FX 359

Halide 360

Evernote 360

Words with Friends 2 361

IMDb 362

Libby 363

Waze 364

BeCasso 365

Dark Sky 365

Chapter 18: Ten Helpful Hints, Tips, and Shortcuts 367

Use QuickPath for Speed and Accuracy 367

Autocorrect is Your Friend 368

Assault on Batteries 369

Tricks with Links and Phone Numbers 371

Share the Love and the Links 372

Choose a Home Page for Safari 372

Like a Time Machine for iPhone Backups 373

Create Ringtones for Free in GarageBand 374

Getting Apps Out of the Multitasking Screen 376

Taking a Snapshot of the Screen 377

Index 379