La Counte S. - A Beginners Guide to iOS 9 and iPhone 6s / 6s Plus

A Beginners Guide to iOS 9 and iPhone 6s / 6s Plus

(For iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 5c, iPhone 6, iPhone 6+, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 6s Plus)

By Scott La Counte

2015. All Rights Reserved.

Cover Image pkproject - Fotolia

Table of Contents

If you believe some news stories, the latest iPhone update (iOS 9) is radically different and you should beware of updating! Theyre wrong! This book is for both new users of iPhone and those upgrading to the latest update. Ill walk you through the changes and show you why updating is nothing to be afraid of.

The iPhone doesnt come with a handbook / user guide; this doesnt mean that you have to buy someone elses handbook! iPhone does have a handbook! There are three ways to get it:

1. Download it from the Apple iBookstore (its free)
2. Get it online by going to manuals.info.apple.com
3. Get it on your phone; if you go to your bookmarked pages on Safari, the last bookmark is for the iPhone User Guide.

So why do you need this book? This book was written for my parents; people who needed to know as much as possible, as quickly as possible. There are people who want to know every single little detail about the iPhone, and you will find that in Apples comprehensive manual. If you are like my parents though, new to the iPhone and just want to learn all the basics in about 30 to 60 minutes or an hour that is, then this guide will help you. People who just want to know how to add their contacts, how to take photos, and how to email.

Its not for advanced users, though if you are upgrading from the previous Apple iOS (iOS 8) then you will most probably find it useful.

If you are ready to learn read on!

iPhone is known for making radical changes in a way that is simple and easy to get adjusted to. So if you have heard that iOS 9 is a giant step forward, you need to realize to things:

1. It is!
2. Theres very little learning curve

This guide includes new features to both iOS 8 and 9because even if youve been using iOS 8, you might have missed a few features.

There are new gestures; new apps; and new menusbut most of the major changes are cosmetic changesso the OS (Operating System) will a look little different, but largely behave the same.

From first look, the OS is very flat lookingturn the phone to an angle, and youll see how much dimension there is to itas you move it, it gently moves with you.

One of the biggest new features brought to users in iOS 8 is the ability to get to virtually everything with one swipe. On your menu screen (when you first switch the phone on), there is no longer a bar to swipeyou can now swipe to the right anywhere on the screen to unlock.

On older iOS menu screens (prior to iOS 8), you could swipe up the bottom right corner to quickly access the camera. Thats still there, but now theres more. Swipe just a little bit more left of this corner (or in the center bottom) and youll have several other options.

The top bar has five round buttons:

• Airplane Mode Switches cellular and wifi to off
• Wifi toggles wifi on and off
• Bluetooth toggles Bluetooth on and off
• Do not disturb toggles on and off
• Auto rotate toggles on and off

Below this is the brightness bar so you can quickly make your phone more or less bright.

Next, the largest row, is the music bar, which lets you skip / pause a song you might be listening to.

AirDrop and AirPlay is the second to bottom row. AirPlay is an older feature that let connect your iPhone to Apple TV and AirPlay enabled devices (such as speakers); AirDrop is a new featurethis lets you send photos and videos to people nearby who also have iPhones; its a great (and easy) way to share photos.

The last (bottom) row has four buttons:

• Flashlight one of the most popular apps on iPhone has always been flashlights (which use your phones camera flash and turns it into a flashlight); Apple has finally made the popular app one of their own by coming out with their own flashlight app and building it right into the main menu. Now you can quickly access the useful app anytime you need it.
• Timer A long time iPhone app, this app lets you time what youre doing (such as cooking)
• Calculator
• Camera You can access the camera in two different places; here and in the lower right corner.

Also from the main menu, you can swipe down and see a number of different alerts (i.e. missed calls, email, text message, calendar, etc), which is called your phones Notification Center. Your calendar is on the first tab Today; other apps that you have allowed alerts to will show up under the All tab.

iOS 9 now adds apps to your Today screen when you swipe down; so now you not only see your calendar and notifications, but you can see frequently used apps.

By default, the only thing that displays is battery life of active deviceswatch and phone in the example above. But when you tap the Edit button, you will see a slew of other apps that you can add.

To add any app, tap the green plus button (and to remove any, tap the red minus button), and then tap done. After hitting done, your today screen will be automatically refreshed.

Remember, not all apps support this new screen; so if you arent seeing an app, that doesnt mean its not installed, necessarilyit just means its not supported on this screen. Its a new feature, so while it may not be support now, it may be supported in the near future.

The swipe up from bottom and swipe down from top are two new gestures that work on all screenseven within apps. So anytime you are using an app, you can use these gestures to quickly adjust your sound, brightness, etc.

A new feature on iOS 9 is double pressing the home button to access passbook. This lets you bring up the app quickly anytime you want to pay for something; and dont worry about someone else using itit reads your thumb print, so only you have access.

Previously (iOS 6 and earlier), if you wanted to search for an app, you would unlock your device, and swipe right until you got to the search screen. Now on the menu, swipe down from the middle of the menu and youll be able to search for the app (or contact / email).

Searching on iOS 9 is a whole lot smarter. Before you even search, it will show last active apps. As you type what you are searching for, Siri begins to guess what it might be and make suggestions. It also will look deeper into apps for contentso it not only search for apps, it can search through email and documents for what you are looking for. If you have used a Macbook or iMac, it works a lot like the Finder.

Double tapping the home button, would previously bring up the apps you were using (the multitasking menu), and it would let you close them by tapping on the X. Double tapping still brings up the last app, but to close them, you will swipe up. When you swipe up, you will see the app disappear. This looks a little different than iOS 8, but still works the same way.

The only major new app added in the past two years is Music. If you are familiar with Pandora or other music streaming services, then youll be used to the interface; it works by playing music that sounds like music you love. So when you start it youll type in an artist (like the Beatles); it will instantly start streaming different music by the Beatles or similar in sound to the Beatles. You can also type in a genre like Pop. To access this app, tap the Music app icon. The most popular station is the default Beat 1 station.