siri

iphone x

Alright, so you just spent a month’s salary on the new iPhone X, but now what?  Do you even know what to do with it?  Maybe that question sounds harsh, but am I really that far off? This is the smartphone of the future, which means it has a ton of new features.  Understanding how it works is really going to be your main priority, I think. The good news`is that we’ve got everything you need to know.  Here are the top 10 things you need to know about your new iPhone X.

10. Learn All Those New Gestures

Without a Home button, you are going to have to learn all the new gestures.  Some are explained to you when you first set up your phone, but in case you’ve forgotten:

Basically, whenever you see a little line at the bottom of the screen, that’s your cue to swipe up and go back to the home screen. It’s always there, but sometimes it fades slightly (or disappears altogether) depending on the app you’re in. Swipe up from the bottom once and it’ll show up, then swipe again and you’ll jump back to the home screen. You can also switch between apps here too, without going to the app switcher. Just swipe up from the bottom corner of the screen in a curve, and you’ll flick between whatever apps you’ve got open.

9. App Switcher Madness

How you switch apps has changed slightly from previous versions of the iPhone.  The App Switcher holds everything in suspended animation while you’re not using it.  Which makes it ready for you to be able to jump back in where you left off the moment you open an app again.  But without a home button, where is it? Don’t panic, just swipe up from the bottom of the screen and hold your finger in place, roughly around the middle of the screen until you feel a vibration. Do it in one smooth motion and the app switcher will appear.

8.  What About My Opened Apps?

This tip isn’t all that important for saving battery life, as iOS doesn’t drain any extra power if you’ve got loads of apps open at once – it can actually end up needing more juice to open them afresh instead of resuming from standby. Still, no-one likes a messy app switcher screen, so feel free to force-close the apps you’re not using a lot. Head to the App Switcher screen, and then long-press on an open app. This’ll stick a tiny red close icon at the top left corner of the app preview. Tap it to close an app completely. Changed your mind? Then tap anywhere else onscreen and the close icon will vanish again.

iphone x siri

7. Wake Up Siri with a Squeeze

This sounds dirty, but I’m kind of ok with it. On the old iPhones, you had to activate Siri by double-tapping the home button.  Or you could shout at your phone looking like an insane person in public.  But without the Home button, you aren’t going to be able to do that.  Instead, you’ve got to give the button on the right side of the phone a squeeze.  Long-press for a second and Siri will wake up, ready to answer all your questions.

6. Pay with a Double Tap

You can now authenticate Apple Pay by using your face (or password), instead of a fingerprint.  You’ll need to hold the phone up to get a clear view of your face before you’re ready to transfer any cash.  Once the screen shows that you’ve been authenticated, just tap your phone on the contactless reader to make a payment.

control center

5. Take Control of Control Centre

In the days of old, Control Centre used to appear when you swiped upwards from the bottom of the screen.  Not anymore.  Instead, you drag down from the top-right corner of the screen.  Once you’ve trained yourself to do things a bit backward, Control Centre works in pretty much the same way.  You will see the same toggles as before like auto-rotation, Night mode and screen mirroring.  This is the only place you’ll be able to see your battery percentage: it’s hidden on the home screen but appears at the top here to show how much juice you’ve got left.

iphone x

4.  How Can I Take a Screenshot?

To snap a record of whatever’s on your display, Tap the right side button and the volume up key on the left of the phone.  The pic is then shown as a thumbnail at the bottom of the screen: ignore it and it’ll disappear, saved to your camera roll, but if you tap it, you can then edit it before you save it. Crop tools, pens, pencils, colors, and shapes can be doodled on top of whatever you’ve snapped.

3.  Power Down to Save on Battery

This one is kind of weird.  If you don’t want any notifications coming through your phone, you will have to hold down two buttons, and then swipe to fully power down.  My hand hurts thinking about this.  Press and hold the right side button and either of the volume keys (not both) for two seconds, until a prompt appears onscreen. Slide to the right and the iPhone X will shut down. To wake it up again, just hold the button on the right side of the phone.

2.  Catch Up With the Cover Sheet

By default, the iPhone X hides your notifications away from prying eyes, only revealing them when it detects your face (and your face only). Older notifications disappear from the lock screen once you’ve swiped up, but you can always go back and check on them with the Cover Sheet.  To bring it up, you’ve got to swipe down from the top-left of the screen. This will let you scroll through old notifications, clear individual ones, or wipe off entire days from your recent list to bring things into order. Tapping any notification usually takes you straight to the relevant part of the relevant app, too, so it can be quicker than tapping on all those icons with notification badges.

animoji

1. Make a Poop Talk with Animoji

This might be my favorite thing of all.  Why? Because I’m kind of gross. But this is why Apple created the iPhone X, isn’t it?  Just kidding. How can you create a poop Animoji? Open a message, or create a new one, then tap on the monkey icon at the bottom of the screen. This will open up the Animoji pane, letting you choose which emoji to turn into a talking, emoting character by wiggling your face bits about. Tapping the up arrow fills the screen, and sliding vertically picks different animals.

Hold your phone up so it can properly scan your face, and then all your movements will be translated onscreen by your avatar. Either snap a still photo with a tap, or tap and hold to record a 10-second video, complete with audio recorded by the phone’s mic. You can then change between different characters and see how they animate, using what you’ve just recorded. Finally, a tap and hold will let you save the animation as a video, for sharing on other social apps outside of iMessage.

 

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