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May 4, 2024

10 bite-sized iPhone SE tips and tricks

It’s fairly slim pickings for anyone who wants a powerful smartphone with a smaller screen, so Apple’s iPhone SE certainly has a big market. If you’ve been tempted to buy an iPhone SE because of its manageable size and you’d like to unlock your new phone’s potential, then you’re in the right place. Behold, our menu of tasty, bite-sized tips designed to help you get more from your smartphone. After all, they do say big things often come in small packages — and it doesn’t get much smaller than the SE.

Related: 10 best cases to keep your iPhone SE looking like new

Siri, battery life, Live Photos, Night Shift, and Wi-Fi calling

How to use Siri hands-free

You can activate Siri on your iPhone SE without even touching the phone. Take a look in Settings > General > Siri and toggle Allow ‘Hey Siri’ on. You’ll need to say, ‘Hey Siri’ three times, so your iPhone knows what you sound like. Now, it will listen for your commands, and you can say, ‘Hey Siri’ at any time to get some help.

How to save battery life

If you take a look in Settings > Battery, you’ll find a Low Power Mode. It extends your battery life, but it will disable some background syncing, animations, and the ‘Hey Siri’ feature. Check out our iPhone battery tips for more ideas.

How to use Live Photos

Apple Live Photos

The iPhone SE boasts an excellent 12-megapixel camera and support for Apple’s Live Photos feature, which debuted on the iPhone 6S. You can tap and hold on a photo to bring it to life with Live Photos. It basically captures a short video, with a second or two on either side of your shot.

Related: Will it bend? Watch the iPhone SE and iPhone 6S submit to torture tests

To turn it on, tap the three circles icon in the Camera app. When it’s yellow, the Live Photos feature is on. Remember that Live Photos also records audio, so you have to be careful what you say while shooting. Live Photos also take up considerably more space than regular photos, so you may want this feature turned off by default, especially if you only opted for the 16GB iPhone.

How to use Night Shift

There’s a fair bit of evidence that blue light can keep us awake at night, and so Apple has included the Night Shift feature on the iPhone SE. It reduces the amount of blue light your display gives off, thus reducing the impact of blue light on your natural drowsiness. Turn it on in Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift and set a schedule or allow your iPhone to work it out by selecting Sunset to Sunrise.

How to use Wi-Fi calling

With Wi-Fi calling, your iPhone SE can detect when you have no cellular signal and allow you to make a call over Wi-Fi instead. It’s not supported by every carrier, but try going to Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling and toggle Wi-Fi Calling on This Phone to on, if you want to check. You should see “Wi-Fi” after your carrier name in the status bar if it’s available.

Secure notes, hide photos, desktop site, delete typing, and storage

How to secure notes

notes-app-locked

Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends

Did you know that you can lock your notes with a password or your fingerprint to make them accessible only to you? Go to Settings > Notes > Password to add a password, with a hint in case you forget it, or toggle on Use Touch ID. To actually lock an individual note, open it up and tap the Share icon, and then hit Lock Note. You’ll see a lock icon on all your protected notes.

How to hide photos

You can hide photos from Moments, Collections, and Years. Select the photo you want to hide and then tap Share > Hide. You can tap, hold, and drag to select multiple photos. They will still be visible in the Album and All Photos view, though.

How to get the desktop site

It can be annoying to get stuck with the mobile version of a website sometimes. If you want to request the desktop version, like you would see on your laptop or desktop, all you have to do is tap and hold on the refresh icon and select Request Desktop Site in Safari.

How to quickly delete typing

If you make a mistake while typing and want to delete everything you just entered, you don’t have to do it one letter at a time. You can shake your iPhone SE. When the Undo Typing pop-up window appears, just tap Undo.

How to free up space

It’s easy to run out of space on your iPhone SE, particularly if you’ve opted for the 16GB model. Take a look in Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage to find out which apps are using the most space. Check out our iPhone storage guide for more ideas on freeing space.

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1VSxnlH
Simon Hill

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