January 31, 2012

My 10 Favorite Hidden iOS 4 Features

Double-click the home button and slide right to reveal audio controls and a screen rotation lock

Apple released version 4 of their iPhone OS iDevice (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) OS last month after a grand WWDC unveiling. Although there are many changes and new features, not all are as obvious and noteworthy as multitasking, home screen folders, and background audio. After working with iOS 4 on an iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 for a month, I thought I might highlight my favorite hidden features. Did you know these existed?

iPhone 3.0 Exchange ActiveSync: Better But Not Perfect

As the release of iPhone OS 3.0 nears, I set out to discover how the new OS changes the iPhone’s ability to synchronize data with Microsoft Exchange servers using ActiveSync. What follows here is my deductions so far, and is of course subject to change when the new OS is released!

Tuning Time Machine

Time Machine Preferences

I’ve been very pleased by Apple’s integrated backup application in OS X, Time Machine. It cleverly removes many of the barriers to backup, and makes restore both simple and fun. But I’ve noticed that it’s not quite perfect out of the box. Two default settings in particular bother me: It is set to back up everything, including OS files and caches, and spotlight needlessly indexes your Time Machine drive. Luckily, both are easy fixes.