Before you can start using your new iPhone, you need to set it up, configuring its operating system (iOS) — the software that makes the iPhone tick — to work the way you want it to. You may also need to activate the iPhone to connect it to Apple’s services and to your cellular carrier’s service.

You can turn on and set up your new iPhone with an internet connection. You can also set up iPhone by connecting it to your computer. If you have another iPhone, an iPad, or an Android device, you can transfer your data to your new iPhone.

Prepare for setup

To make setup as smooth as possible, have the following items available:

• An internet connection through a Wi-Fi network (you may need the name and password of the network)
• Your Apple Account and password; if you don’t have an Apple Account, you can create one during setup
• Your credit or debit card account information, if you want to add a card to Apple Pay during setup
• Your previous iPhone or a backup of your device, if you’re transferring your data to your new device
• Your Android device, if you’re transferring your Android content

Turn on and set up your iPhone

Turning on your iPhone

Start by turning on your iPhone. Press and hold the side button, the physical button on the iPhone’s right side. When the Apple logo appears on the screen, release the side button and wait until the Hello screen appears. Then swipe up from the bottom of the screen to begin the setup process.

Choosing the language, country or region, and appearance

A series of screens walks you through the first three steps of the setup process:

• Language: Choose the language you want your iPhone to use, such as English.
• Country or Region: Specify your country or region, such as United States.
• Appearance: Drag the slider along the Default–Medium–Large axis to choose the size of text and icons on the screen. Tap the Continue button.

At this point, the Quick Start screen appears, enabling you to finish setup quickly by using your current iPhone or iPad. Read on.

Using Quick Start or continuing setup

If you have an iPhone or iPad set up with your Apple Account, you can use that device to set up your new iPhone quickly. When the Quick Start screen appears, unlock your current device and bring it close to your new iPhone. Your iPhone then displays a complex pattern on the screen, and the Camera app opens on your other device, showing a target ring. Aim this ring at the pattern to establish the connection between the devices, and then authenticate yourself on your iPhone by entering the current device’s passcode. Follow the prompts to set up your iPhone based on your current device.

If you don’t have an iPhone or iPad to use, or if you want to set up your new iPhone differently, tap the Set Up Without Another Device button, and then follow through the next subsection.

Setting up your iPhone without another device

If you chose to set up your iPhone without another device, work your way through the following screens:

• Choose a Wi-Fi Network: Tap the Wi-Fi network you want to use, type the password on the Enter Password screen, and then tap the Join button.
  • If you need to use a Wi-Fi network that hides its network name, tap the Choose Another Network button. On the screen that appears, type the network name and the password, and then tap the Join button.
  • If no Wi-Fi network is available, tap the Continue Without Wi-Fi button to use a cellular data connection.
• Activation: Wait while iOS activates your iPhone over the Wi-Fi connection (or the cellular connection, if you tapped Continue Without Wi-Fi). Activation may take several minutes.
• Data & Privacy: Read the information, and then tap the Continue button.
• Face ID: Follow the prompts to scan your face by aiming the recognition circle at your head, and then rotating your head to replace the white marks with green marks. On the Use Face ID with a Mask screen, choose whether to configure Face ID for use when you’re wearing a protective mask.
• Create an iPhone Passcode: Tap the six-digit passcode you want to use, and then confirm it on the second screen.
  Tip: If a six-digit passcode doesn’t suit you, tap the Passcode Options button on the Create an iPhone Passcode screen. In the dialog that opens, tap Custom Alphanumeric Code, Custom Numeric Code, or 4-Digit Numeric Code, as appropriate, and then enter the code twice on the following screens. A custom alphanumeric code of eight characters or more is the most secure, though it will take longer to type. A custom numeric code enables you to create a numeric code of the length you prefer. Four digits is the minimum. Each digit more than six digits makes the code that much more secure. A four-digit numeric code is not strong enough for serious security, but you might want to use such a short code on an iPhone you’re using for a demonstration, such as at a trade show.
• Transfer Your Apps & Data: Choose whether (and if so, how) to transfer your apps and data to your new iPhone. You have five choices:
  • From iCloud Backup: Tap this button if you have a backup of your current or previous iPhone and want to restore it to your iPhone.
  • From Another iPhone: Tap this button if you have a current iPhone and want to transfer its apps and data. Normally, you would use the Quick Start feature earlier in the setup process to transfer your data from your current phone, but this button provides an alternative means.
  • From Mac or PC: Tap this button if you used your Mac or PC to back up your previous iPhone and you want to restore data from one of those backups.
  • From Android: Tap this button if your current device is an Android phone or tablet. You won’t be able to transfer apps available only on Android.
  • Don’t Transfer Anything: Tap this button to set the iPhone up from scratch.
    For the first four choices, follow the prompts in the resulting screens. For example, when restoring from an iCloud backup, you need to sign in to iCloud using your Apple Account, and then select the backup to use.
• Terms and Conditions: Read as much of the Terms and Conditions as you wish, and then tap the Agree button if you want to proceed.
• Make This Your New iPhone: This screen appears after you set up the means of transferring apps and data using one of the methods mentioned previously. The screen displays buttons summarizing what can be transferred, such as Apps & Data, Settings, and Wallet. If one of these buttons has > at its right end, you can tap the button to reveal a list of details — for example, tapping the Wallet button reveals a list of the payment cards to be transferred with Wallet. Tap the button again to hide the details. Tap the Continue button to continue with this selection, or tap the Customize button if you want to choose what to transfer.
• Update Your iPhone Automatically: Tap the Continue button if you want iOS to automatically download and install updates. Keeping iOS updated is wise from a security perspective, but it means you may occasionally find your iPhone updating when you want to use it. If you prefer to control when iOS installs updates, tap the Only Download Automatically button instead.
• Location Services: Tap the Enable Location Services button to enable Location Services immediately. Normally, you’ll want to enable Location Services because apps such as Maps depend on it. You can tap the Disable Location Services button if you don’t want to use Location Services or if you plan to enable it later.
• Apple Pay: Tap the Continue button (and then follow the prompts) if you want to set up Apple Pay now, adding one or more credit or debit cards. Tap the Set Up Later button if you prefer to set up Apple Pay later or not at all.
• Siri: Tap the Continue button to set up the voice-driven virtual assistant now, or tap the Set Up Later in Settings button to set up Siri later (or never). If you enable Siri, the Improve Siri & Dictation screen appears, prompting you to share your Siri audio recordings anonymously to help Apple improve Siri; tap the Share Audio Recordings button or the Not Now button, as appropriate.
• Screen Time: Tap the Continue button if you want to activate iOS’s parental-control and self-control feature now. Screen Time can be highly effective for tracking iPhone usage, either your own or that of your family members. However, if you don’t plan to use Screen Time, tap the Set Up Later in Settings button instead.
• iPhone Analytics: Tap the Share with Apple button or the Don’t Share button, as appropriate, to choose whether to share analytics data anonymously to help Apple improve the iPhone and iOS.
• App Analytics: Tap the Share with App Developers button or the Don’t Share button, as appropriate, to choose whether to share app analytics data with developers, again anonymously.

Once you’ve completed setting up your new iPhone, the Lock screen appears. Unlock it using Face ID. After you unlock your phone, the Home screen appears.

See also: How to Restart, Force Restart, or Reset an iPhone

The post How to Set Up Your New iPhone The Right Way appeared first on nerdsmodo.

1. Take a Screenshot on iPhone Using Physical Buttons

To take a screenshot on an iPhone, simultaneously press the side button and the volume up button. You’ll see a flash on the your iPhone’s display which indicates that a screenshot has been taken.

2. Take a Screenshot on iPhone Using Siri

You may not have realized that one of Siri’s lesser-known tricks is taking a screenshot for you. Simply summon Siri by saying "Hey Siri" or pressing and holding the side button. Say, "Take a screenshot," and after a moment, Siri will acknowledge the request and take a screenshot as normal.

This method comes in handy if your hands are dirty, or when you can’t perform the gesture to take a screenshot for whatever reason.

3. Take a Screenshot on iPhone by Tapping Its Back

For even more convenience, you can use an iPhone accessibility shortcut to take screenshots without the buttons. This feature is called Back Tap and allows you to perform actions simply by tapping the back of your iPhone with your fingers.

To configure it, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. You can customize two actions that happen when you tap twice and three times on the back of your device.

Tap Double Tap or Triple Tap, and then select Screenshot to take a fast screenshot with a few taps.

4. Take a Screenshot on iPhone Using AssistiveTouch

Another way to take a screenshot on an iPhone without pressing buttons is by using AssistiveTouch. This accessibility feature puts a button on your screen that you can use to perform multiple tasks, like taking screenshots.

To turn on AssistiveTouch, open your iPhone’s Settings app and tap Accessibility. On the Accessibility page, tap Touch. Tap AssistiveTouch and toggle it on in the subsequent menu. This will add a white circular button on top of your screen.

Whenever you tap this AssistiveTouch icon, it opens a menu that provides quick access to various functions. To easily add screenshot functionality to the menu, select Customize Top Level Menu from the AssistiveTouch settings menu.

Here, tap an icon you’d like to replace and choose Screenshot from the list of actions. You can also add another icon by tapping the Plus button and assigning the Screenshot action to it.

If you’re not a fan of tapping through these menus, there’s a faster way to take screenshots on iPhone using AssistiveTouch. On the AssistiveTouch settings menu, select the Single-Tap, Double-Tap, or Long Press option and set it to Screenshot. Then, quickly tap once, twice, or press and hold the AssistiveTouch button to take a screenshot on your iPhone.

This is even more convenient, as you don’t have to show the full AssistiveTouch menu that takes up screen space. If you find the AssistiveTouch button annoying, lower the Idle Opacity in the settings menu to make it more transparent when you’re not using it. You can drag the button to any corner of the screen you like when you’re not using it.

Now, all you need to do is select Screenshot from the AssistiveTouch menu or perform your assigned tapping shortcut, and your iPhone will take a screenshot. This works just like the usual method of taking an iPhone screenshot with the buttons. When you take a screenshot, the AssistiveTouch button and its menu won’t appear in the image.

Where Do Screenshots Get Saved?

After you take a screenshot on your iPhone, it gets saved to the Photos app. To see all of your screenshots in one place, open Photos, tap Collections, scroll down to Media Types, tap Media Types, then tap Screenshots. You can edit, delete, or share screenshots just like you would any other picture saved in the Photos app.

Take a Full Page Screenshot on iPhone

A full-page screenshot, or scrolling screenshot, captures an entire page — webpage, document or email — without you having to take multiple screenshots and then stitch them together. For example, if you wanted to screenshot a 116-page document in Safari, you would only have to take a single screenshot to capture the entire thing.

To take a full page screenshot on your iPhone, first take a regular screenshot by simultaneously pressing the side button and volume up button. You’ll see two options: Screen and Full Page. Select Full Page.

If you need to trim down how much of the page is included, select the Crop tool at the top of the screen and make your adjustment. When you are finished editing, hit Done.

Finally, tap Save PDF to Files or Save to Photos (if available) to save the screenshot.

If you’re saving the screenshot to Files, you must choose a folder to save it in. By default, the Files app will select the last folder you saved something to or the Downloads folder.

Before, you could save long screenshots only as PDF files. And that’s sort of still true — depending on the length of your screenshot.

The most obvious way to see if your scrolling screenshot can be saved to your photo reel is to just check by doing the steps above. The option to save the screenshot to your photos will either be there or it won’t.

Where to Find Full Page Screenshots on iPhone

As mentioned above, extra-long screenshots are automatically converted to PDFs, so they’re saved to the native Files app. To see full page screenshot on your iPhone, open the Files app, go to the folder in which your screenshot was saved and tap the screenshot.

Here you can rename the file, draw on it, leave comments and more. You can also share the scrolling screenshot, but the other person must have Files or another PDF-reader to view it.

If you saved your screenshot to your Photos app, then that’s where you can expect to find it.

Now you know how to take a screenshot on your iPhone, even if you can’t use the physical buttons.

The post How to Take a Screenshot on iPhone (Step-by-Step) appeared first on nerdsmodo.

Using Your iPhone Controls

On every iPhone, you take most actions via the touchscreen, the main hardware control. iPhones have several other hardware controls, such as the Side button on the right side and the Volume Up button and Volume Down button on the left side. Newer iPhone models (iPhone 15 and later) include a dedicated Action Button on the left side. Many iPhone models use Face ID to authenticate the user, while some older iPhone models use Touch ID.

Identify the Controls on The Side of Your iPhone

Near the top of the right side of your iPhone is a button called the Side button. This button enables you to take several actions, including powering on your iPhone; putting it to sleep and waking it; and summoning Siri, the virtual assistant. You can use the Side button in combination with the Volume Up button and the Volume Down button to perform other tasks like powering off your iPhone. Some newer iPhone models have a Camera Control on the right side, a dedicated control for activating the Camera app, taking photos and videos, and adjusting camera settings.

The left side of your iPhone has several controls:

• On iPhone 15 and later models, near the top of the left side is a button called the Action Button. You can customize it in the Settings app to take your preferred action, such as recording a voice memo or turning on the flashlight. The action button’s default action is to toggle between ring mode and silent mode; long-press the action button until you feel haptic feedback confirming the mode change. On older iPhone models, there is a physical ring/silent switch instead.
• Below the Action Button or ring/silent switch are the Volume up/down buttons. The Volume Up button and Volume Down button enable you to control the volume quickly without having to use the touchscreen. The upper button increases the volume; the lower one decreases it. You use the volume buttons to raise or lower the loudness of the ringer, alerts, sound effects, songs, and movies. During phone calls, the buttons adjust the voice loudness of the person you’re speaking with, regardless of whether you’re listening through the receiver, the speakerphone, or a headset. These buttons also work in combination with the Side button for other actions.

Turn Your iPhone On and Off

To turn on your iPhone when it is powered off, press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears on-screen; then release the Side button. Your iPhone continues to start, and then the lock screen appears.

To turn off your iPhone, press the Volume Up button once, press the Volume Down button once, and then press and hold the Side button until the Power Off screen appears; then drag the slide to power off slider to the right.

Unlock and Lock Your iPhone

If your iPhone has Face ID (available on iPhone X and later), hold the iPhone so the front cameras can scan your face. The iPhone unlocks and the "Swipe up to open" prompt appears at the bottom of the screen. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen. The iPhone unlocks, and you can start using it.

If your iPhone has Touch ID (iPhone SE models and earlier iPhones with a Home button), place your finger on the Home button or the Touch ID sensor. The iPhone unlocks, and you can start using it.

To lock your iPhone and put it to sleep, press the Side button once. Depending on how the iPhone is configured, the iPhone may also go to sleep automatically after a period of inactivity.

Using Sleep and Wake, Siri, App Store, and Apple Pay

When your iPhone is awake, press the Side button once to put it to sleep. When your iPhone is asleep, press the Side button once to wake it.

On your iPhone, press and hold the Side button at any time to activate Siri, the virtual assistant. Your iPhone plays a tone and displays a lighting effect around the screen’s edges.

When making a purchase or installing an app from the App Store on your iPhone, double-click the Side button to authenticate yourself via Face ID (or Touch ID on supported models) and confirm the purchase or continue installing the app.

Tapping, Swiping, Dragging, and More

To control your iPhone, you gesture with your fingers and (sometimes) thumbs on the touchscreen. The following list explains the eight main gestures:

• Tap: You tap the screen, placing your finger on it briefly and then lifting your finger again, to select items or to give commands. For example, you tap an app’s icon on one of the Home screen pages to open that app. Similarly, you tap to start playing a song in the Music app, and you tap to open a photo album in the Photos app.
• Double-tap: You tap the screen twice in rapid succession to take actions such as zooming in and out on web pages, maps, and email messages.
• Triple-tap: You tap the screen three times in rapid succession to give special commands, such as enabling the Zoom feature, which lets you zoom the whole screen rather than zoom in individual apps.
• Flick: You flick your finger across the screen to scroll quickly through lists of songs, emails, and picture thumbnails. To flick, place your finger on the screen and then move it rapidly in the direction you want the content to move. For example, flick up a list of songs to move the list up so that you can see later items. You can either wait for the list to stop scrolling or tap to stop the scrolling.
• Pinch and spread: On a web page or picture, pinch your fingers together to shrink the image, or spread your fingers apart to enlarge the image. Pinching and spreading (sometimes called unpinching or pinching apart) are easy and effective gestures.
• Drag: Place your finger on the touchscreen and then, without lifting your finger, move it. You might drag to move around a map that’s too large for the iPhone’s display area.
• Swipe: Swiping is like a more controlled version of flicking; you place your finger on the screen and move it quickly but not extravagantly. For example, you can swipe left on the first Home screen page to display the second Home screen page.
• Slide: Sliding is a move you use with the onscreen keyboard’s QuickPath feature, which lets you enter a word by placing your finger on the first letter and then sliding your finger to each other letter in turn without lifting it from the screen. When you finish the word, or when the Predictive feature guesses it correctly, you lift your finger, and iOS enters the word.

Multitasking and Switching Apps

Multitasking lets you run numerous apps on your iPhone simultaneously and easily switch from one app to another. Normally, only one app is visible and is displayed full screen. This is the foreground app. All other apps are in the background, where they keep running, but you don’t see them. For example, the Music app can keep playing music in the background while you work in the Mail app in the foreground. You can switch quickly from one app to another, bringing a background app to the foreground and thereby moving the previous foreground app to the background.

The main exception to only one app being visible is that the picture-in-picture feature enables you to watch video or take part in a FaceTime call while working in other apps. The picture-in-picture video feed appears in a small window in front of the foreground app.

To switch from one app to another, you use App Switcher, which you display by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, and then pausing for a moment before lifting your finger. App Switcher appears as a carousel containing previews of your open apps. The foreground app appears on the right, with the next most recently used app to its left, followed by other recently used apps in order. Each app’s icon appears above its preview. Swipe from left to right to see more preview pages. Tap the icon or the preview for the app you want to switch to, and the app appears, enabling you to restart work or play where you left off.

To display the Home screen, tap it below the App Switcher’s carousel.

To close an app, swipe it up off the carousel. This move is especially useful when an app is not responding, but you can use it on any app at any time.

Navigating beyond the First Home Screen Page

The Home screen is divided into pages, one of which appears at a time. iOS normally starts you off with two Home screen pages, plus the App Library page, which appears after the last Home screen page. You can add other pages freely to organize your apps and widgets the way you prefer them. iOS also adds Home screen pages automatically when you install apps that overflow from the last existing page. You can have up to 15 Home screen pages.

The four icons in the bottom row — Phone, Safari, Messages, and Music by default — are in a part of the screen known as the dock. When you switch from one Home screen page to another as just described, these icons remain on the screen, unless today view, App Library, Control Center, or Notification Center is in view.

By default, the oval search button appears above the dock, enabling you to search quickly from any Home screen page. This button does double-duty with a series of dots that indicate the number of Home screen pages (the total number of dots) and which page is currently displayed (the dot that is white rather than gray). The dots appear when you swipe left or right between Home screen pages.

Tip: If you want to see the dots all the time, choose Settings > Home Screen & App Library, go to the Search area, and then set the Show on Home Screen switch off (white). You can then display the Search panel by performing a short swipe down the middle of the Home screen.

If you swipe all the way from left to right, today view appears; see the section "Using Today View," later in this guide. Swiping all the way from right to left displays the App Library page; see the section "Visiting App Library," also later in this guide.

You can easily move icons within a screen or from screen to screen. Long-press any icon until a menu appears; this menu varies considerably from app to app. Tap Edit Home Screen on this menu — or simply continue to long-press — and all the icons on the screen will begin to jiggle. Then drag the icon you want to move to its new location. The other icons on the screen step aside to make room. To move an icon to a different Home screen page, drag it to the right or left edge of the screen and wait for the next page or previous page to appear. When you’re satisfied with the new layout, tap the Done button to stop the jiggling.

To move an app, long-press any icon, and then tap Edit Home Screen on the menu.

A circled minus sign also appears on each of the jiggling apps. Tap it if you want to remove the app from your phone. For a third-party app, you can remove it from the Home screen but leave it in App Library, or you can delete it. For either move, you’ll get one last chance to change your mind. For most built-in apps, your only option is to remove them from the Home screen but leave them in App Library.

Want to jump back to the last Home screen page you used? Simply swipe up on the screen. Want to jump to the first Home screen page, assuming you’re not already there? Swipe up again.

Press and hold down the side button for a second to invoke Siri.

Organizing Home Screen Icons into Folders

To organize the apps on your Home screen pages, you can create folders and add app icons to them. Like the Home screen itself, each folder can have up to 15 pages; each page can contain up to 9 icons; so a folder can contain up to 135 icons.

To create a folder, go to the Home screen page that contains the first two icons you want to put into a folder. (If they’re on different Home screen pages, move one of them to the other’s page.) Long-press one of those icons, and then tap Edit Home Screen on the pop-up menu, making all the icons on the screen jiggle. Drag the icon on top of the second icon, and iOS creates a folder for you, opening it and assigning it an automatic name based on the category of the two apps — for example, Productivity. To change the name, tap the x-in-a-circle to the right of the name, type a new name, and then tap Done on the keyboard.

Tap outside the folder to close it. You can then drag other app icons to the folder.

To launch an app that’s inside a folder, tap that folder’s icon, and then tap the icon for the app that you want to open.

You can drag apps into and out of any folder. If you drag all the apps outside the folder, or delete the last app in the folder, the folder automatically disappears.

Visiting App Library

App Library is a tool for storing and accessing apps you don’t use so often. To find App Library, swipe from right to left on each Home screen page in turn.

At the top of the App Library screen is the search box. Tapping in the search box makes App Library display its contents as an alphabetical list.

You can scroll down to the app of choice, start typing the app name in the search box, or tap a letter on the side to jump to listings beginning with that letter. The # symbol (after Z in the list) takes you to apps whose names begin with a number.

Back on the initial App Library screen, just below the search box, iOS organizes apps into the Suggestions category and the Recently Added category. Suggestions contains suggested apps based on time of day, location, or activity. Below Suggestions and Recently Added, iOS presents the apps in various categories, such as Utilities, Creativity, Social, and Productivity.

Apart from Suggestions, each category contains three full-size icons and one group icon containing up to four miniature icons. Tap a full-size icon to launch that app. Tap the group of miniatures to display the remaining apps in the group. You can then launch an app by tapping its icon.

Using Today View

Today view, which you access by swiping left to right on the Lock screen or the first Home screen page, presents a collection of widgets designed to give you an overview of what’s happening (or should be happening) today.

To get the most out of today view, customize it to contain only the widgets you want, and put them in your preferred order. To start customizing today view, long-press a blank space until the widgets start jiggling. You can then remove an existing widget by tapping its remove icon (–), add a widget by tapping Edit > Add Widget, and drag your widgets into your preferred order. When you’re done, tap the Done button.

Searching Your iPhone

The Search button that appears on each Home screen page by default enables you to search your iPhone’s contents quickly. Tap the Search button to display the Search screen. Look quickly at the Siri Suggestions box and the items below it to see if either shows what you want. If so, tap the item; if not, start typing your search term. Search results appear, and you can tap the search result you want to see.

Remember: If you chose not to display the Search button on the Home screen, swipe a short distance down the middle of the Home screen to open the Search panel.

Tip: If your searches produce too many results, you can limit the search scope by choosing Settings > Search, and then working on the Search screen.

Using The Control Center

Control Center puts your iPhone’s most essential controls at your fingertips. From Control Center, you can turn Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb Mode, and Orientation Lock on or off; control music playback and volume and direct your iPhone’s audio and video output to AirPlay devices; change the setting for the AirDrop sharing feature; and quickly access key apps and utilities.

To open Control Center on your iPhone, swipe down from the upper-right corner of the screen.

See also: Is the iPhone waterproof? Here’s what you need to know

The post How to Use iPhone for Beginners (Step by Step) appeared first on nerdsmodo.