iOS 5: All the Little Things (Undocumented Features)

[jdmlight]

When you double-tap home to bring up your recently used apps, swiping to the left brings up the iTunes controls like it always has, but swiping left one farther brings up a volume control for iTunes.

You can use the device while syncing. Threw me off when I synced for the first time because I didn't see the usual "Sync in progress" screen. There is a little chasing arrows in the top of the screen next to the Wifi signal strength.

You can set notification types on an app-by-app basis. You can choose the new banner-style notification or the old popup-style notification.

I don't know if this is new to iOS 5, but you can switch from the silly Marker Felt font for the Notes app.

Everything is noticeably smoother on my iPod Touch 4g. I really like it.

 

[ThE.MeSsEnGeR]

Now you can tap and hold on a song/album, and you'll get a nice new popup, but with basically the same info you're seeing. But it should have different info (year, genre, rating, etc)

 

[hypouxa2677]

I am experiencing some weird behavior with my music files, songs that are being displayed on my iphone 4 in the music app are not what is actually being played. Maybe a corrupted itunes database file?

 

[Mikeyswen79]

This one is an iOS 5 + Mac OSX thing:

As we all know, Reminders can be synced with Reminders on iCal, which is great!

The problem is you can no longer copy a calendar event in iCal and paste it to Reminders. It's basically to the point where there's a sub-application in iCal because now Reminders is completely independent of iCal.

iCloud makes it very tedious to make different Reminder calendars so you're kind of stuck with the iCal Reminders calendar for now as well.

One thing I'll miss but that I can live with. X_X

 

[Victor Star]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Take a picture, swipe right to see it.

No need for small icon on bottom left

Great tip. Maybe it was timing but I was able to take a couple of photos, swipe right and delete one of them. The deleted one never came into Photo Stream.

 

[Flake]

I just appreciate how much smoother the animations got. on the iphone 4 opening/closing folders and the multitasking tray when on a full home page is now butter smooth.

 

[MrHappy]

If you press and hold an iMessage that has not been delivered not only do you get the normal copy option, there is also an option to send the message by SMS.

 

[BLOND37]

I just appreciate how much smoother the animations got. on the iphone 4 opening/closing folders and the multitasking tray when on a full home page is now butter smooth.

mine always were like that :/

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If you press and hold an iMessage that has not been delivered not only do you get the normal copy option, there is also an option to send the message by SMS.

oh st soozie.. dont get me started on imessages.. big mess!

 

[sportfan6197]

Assisstive Touch is awesome, especially if your home button bugs out at times

go to Settings>Genereal>Accessibility>Assistive Touch and toggle it on, now you can lock your phone, volume controls, rotation controls, and even custom patterns etc

 

[ahbdesign]

When you double-tap home to bring up your recently used apps, swiping to the left brings up the iTunes controls like it always has, but swiping left one farther brings up a volume control for iTunes.

I think this was a feature of iOS 4 albeit in the later versions.

Also, since I'm an avid podcast listener, when I used to play a podcast and go to the home screen or lock my phone, there was a gap, as in an interruption. It would only happen when I lock my phone or go to the home screen from the iPod screen. This seems to have stopped with iOS 5 though. Small difference but nice nonetheless. Anyone else notice this?

 

[slimbek]

This could have been there forever, but...

I noticed a Sleep iPod function in the Timer when choosing the tone, ie: play for 30mins while the kid falls asleep.

 

[Airmark1]

This could have been there forever, but...

I noticed a Sleep iPod function in the Timer when choosing the tone, ie: play for 30mins while the kid falls asleep.

Been there a while.

 

[Qramohn]

For vivid photographers out there. You can use the handsfree as remote shutter for the camera. Just get a GorillaPod so that you don't drop the phone.. Guess it works for with a bluetooth handsfree too.

In camera-mode. Swipe left-to-right for quick access to the photoalbum.

If you get an UPS tracking number in a mail or SMS, then you can just touch the number and you will get an option to track the number. You'll be directed to the UPS-website. Guess it works similar for TNT and other similar companies.

 

[sim667]

If you swipe across an artist, album, or song in the music app you can delete it on the fly.

 

[berlyjen]

Thanks everyone! These are great!

 

[ggbrown]

I am experiencing some weird behavior with my music files, songs that are being displayed on my iphone 4 in the music app are not what is actually being played. Maybe a corrupted itunes database file?

I experienced this also, along with a few songs that simply didn't play.

The solution for me was to plug in my iPhone, go to the Music section in iTunes and uncheck "Sync Music", then sync.

Once it's done, re-check Sync Music and sync again. Takes awhile, but solved my issues. All has been good since then.

Good luck.

 

[Cakester]

I experienced this also, along with a few songs that simply didn't play.

The solution for me was to plug in my iPhone, go to the Music section in iTunes and uncheck "Sync Music", then sync.

Once it's done, re-check Sync Music and sync again. Takes awhile, but solved my issues. All has been good since then.

Good luck.

I had the same issue, used the same procedure and it worked perfectly.

 

[dccorona]

When playing games (to me this happens mostly in games), trying to pull down the notification center, will only show the handle of the notification, so then if you are sure you want to pull it down then you have to pull down the handle...
So in another word the pulling down the notification center will require to actions..

This is neat a feature specially for games so you don't accidentally pull down the notification screen in the middle of a game play...

This. Probably the smartest little feature they introduced. It occurs in all apps that run fullscreen (eg they cover up the status bar)

 

[boltjames]

For those of us with Windows, Reminders can sync to Outlook's Tasks. Just go to Settings > Mail > Exchange on the iOS device and turn "Reminders" to 'on'.

BJ

 

[aicul]

By the hours

In weather app, touch a day and an hourly view of weather is presented

 

[chutch15]

You can show the percentage of battery life remaining next to the battery icon.

Settings > General > Usage > Set "Battery Usage" to "On".

 

[codencis]

Calendar

You can hold down a date in Calendar (month mode) and it will create an event with start/end set at "all-day".

 

[jimthegreek]

You can show the percentage of battery life remaining next to the battery icon.

Settings > General > Usage > Set "Battery Usage" to "On".

Welcome to IOS1.0. Thanks though.

 

[Rubo Draco]

Now you can setup Mail app to show you the last 1000 emails.
it used to be upto 200.

 

[BLOND37]

we could do without the your email has no subject every time