It’s been about 6 months since my wholesale conversion to Apple goodness, and almost 6 months to the day I got gifted with a gorgeous iPhone 4 (thanks sweet hubby!).  Recently, I came across a couple of things that are not so obvious that I thought I’d share:

1. Tap the status bar to quickly get to the top

You are reading a text from someone and want to call them.  I used to scroll up, thumb swiping away, until I get the top, giving me access to the “Call” menu item.  There’s a simple shortcut:  just tap the status bar, the one with the operator name and time, and voila, you’re at the top!  This also applies to Safari and other apps where you happen to be at the bottom of the screen.

2. Voice control

I should have know this would be built in, but it wasn’t until I went to download Vlingo that it occurred to me to google it first.  Yup, voice control is built-in for dialing (Dial person’s name) , iPod control (“next song”, and “who sings this?”), and cute things like “what’s the time?”.  To activate voice control, press the home button for about 3 seconds.  For a complete list of voice commands, here’s a handy cheat sheet.

3. Entering URLs

When in Safari or any other app where you would need to type in the URL, at first glance it seems that unless it’s a .com domain, you would have to spell out other extensions.  Not so.  Holding down the .com key will bring other options such as .net or .org.

4. Screenshot

There are times where taking a screenshot is useful.  Think an SMS you want to save quickly or taking screen shots for tutorials.  Hold down the Home key, and the power key together.  You will hear the snapshot sound, and the screenshot will be saved to your photos.

5. Quick access to punctuation

Tapping the punctuation/number key takes you to the number keyboard.  You would then tap the quotation mark or comma, then tap on ABC to patiently come back to typing letters.  Just holding down the punctuation/number key for an extra second will bring up the keyboard.  Without taking your finger off, just slide it across to the key you want.  Releasing it will record the key you just pressed, and immediately bring you back to the letters.

I’m sure there are many more, but these are the ones I was most pleased to find as an iPhone newbie.

Feel free to share other hidden gems in the comments.