This holiday season, many of you may have received a new iPhone, iPad or iPod as a holiday gift, or you may gift yourself the latest iOS 8 update to make your existing device new to you! Whatever the case may be, this month I would like to share some features of this latest update.
Apps & Battery Usage
- Discover which apps are using the most battery
- Go to Settings > General > Usage
- Select Battery Usage to see the proportion of battery used by each app when the device is not charging
Grayscale Mode
- Go to Settings > General > Accessibility
- Select Grayscale which will shift the entire display into shades of black and white
Guided Access
- Allows you to set a time limit in an app before it shuts off
- Go to Settings > General > Accessibility
- Select Guided Access and turn on
- Set up your passcode
- Select Time Limits to choose sound or speak, which gives a warning before the time ends
- Go into any app, triple click the Home button
- At the bottom of the screen, you have many options such as turning off hardware buttons, disabling certain areas on the screen or setting a time limit
- When finished, press Start, and Guided Access is now enabled
- 30 seconds before the timer is up, there will be an audible warning
- Once the timer is up OR if you wish to exit prior to that, triple click the Home button and enter the passcode
- Select End to exit Guided Access
Predictive Text
- Go to Settings > General > Keyboard
- Turn Predictive on
- This enables word prediction to increase typing speed
*Only available with the onscreen keyboard, not a Bluetooth wireless keyboard
Safari Passwords
- Go to Settings > Safari
- Select Password and AutoFill
- You then have the option to enable autofill of contact info, previous names and passwords or credit card info
Speak Screen
- Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech
- Turn Speak Screen on
- Now you are able to swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen to hear the contents of the screen
- This feature can read text, names of buttons and other interface elements
*Speak Screen is different from Speak Selection
Add Photos to Notes
- Photos can be inserted into the Notes app from the Photos app
- When in notes, double click where you want the photo to be inserted
- Select Insert Photo and then make your selection from the Photo app Timer Mode
- When using the Camera App, there is an option for a Time Lapse that can be set for 3 or 10 seconds
- Recover Deleted Photos
- In the Camera app, use the small preview icon at the bottom of the screen to open up a view that allows previously deleted photos to be recovered
- Tap on the Trash Can to retrieve your photo
- You can clear these photos by emptying the Recently Deleted album in the Photos app
Enjoy your brand new device or your new-to-you upgraded device this holiday season!
Nicole Weckherlin, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist