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Just when you think you know a lot about Apple's iOS, there's another tip or trick that is completely new to you. Tony Vincent shares some of his most useful iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch tips, including adding icons to the homescreen, stripping ads from webpages, finding app sales, and keyboard shortcuts. Plus, there is plenty of time for the group to share some of their favorite tips and apps.

Web Browsing

  • Tap the Share button to add any web page to the Home screen as an icon.
  • Tap the Reader icon in next to the address bar to strip ads and extra information from a webpage. The Reader icon does not appear on all sites.
  • Tap the time at the top of the screen to jump to top of a web page.
  • Easily go to pages you have open in Safari on other devices or Macs by tapping the Cloud button in the address bar. Use Chrome instead? You can log into Chrome to access tabs you have open in Chrome on other devices and computers.

Keyboard Tips

  • Touch and hold certain keys to access hidden characters. For example, touch and hold the 0 key to see a degree symbol. Touch and hold the ! key to see an apostrophe.
  • Pull the keyboard apart to split it into two. Now you can hold iPad while typing with your thumbs.
  • Double-tap the spacebar at the end of sentence to insert a period, a space, and to activate the shift button.
  • Tap the spacebar with two, three, four, or five fingers at once to type that many spaces at once.
  • Shake your device to see the Undo button.

Speak Selection

  • Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on Speak Selection. Now when any text is selected in most apps, you will see the Speak button.
  • Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on Highlighting so that your device highlights words while it is reading text.

Zoom

  • Turn on Zoom to be able to magnify parts of the screen.
  • Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on Zoom.
  • Double-tap with three fingers to activate zoom. Drag your fingers up the screen to control the level of zoom.  Scroll around using three fingers.
  • Double-tap with three fingers to turn off zoom.

Guided Access

  • Limit iOS to running a single app.
  • Go to Settings > General > Guided Access. Turn on and set a passcode.
  • Read more on Tony's blog.

Camera Tips

  • Always take video with your device held in landscape. The video will then match computer and television screen's width.
  • Use the Volume Up button instead of the onscreen camera button to take a photo within the app.
  • Tap on your screen to focus and white balance on that area.
  • Go to the Photos app to view and organize your photos. Tap the Edit button when viewing all of your album to create a new album.
  • Don't get confused! Apps refer to your photos as the Photo Library or Camera Roll.

Collect Videos

  • Video longer than 50 seconds cannot be emailed.
  • You can connect your device to any computer with the white sync cable and copy videos like you would a digital camera.
  • Or, trying using DropItTo.Me. First, you need a Dropbox account. Then sign up at DropItTo.Me. You will your own URL that leads to a form where students to submit their videos. Read more.

Loads of Apps

  • 825 Apps added per day on average
  • Tony's List of Lists of Apps
  • Appitic.com app director
  • Best way to search for apps? Google!
  • Search Twitter for #iosedapp
  • Put the Twitter search for #iosedapp into the Flipboard app. 
  • Random educational app

More Tips

  • To save yourself headaches and setting changes, allow apps to access your Location and Photos.
  • To minimize distractions, do not allow Notifications.
  • Wirelessly project your device's screen to an Apple TV.  Or, to a Mac or PC with AirServer or Reflection. Read more.
  • Zwipes microfiber clothes for easy fingerprint removal.
  • Kill germs without chemicals using a UVC sanitizing light.
  • Transfer photos from one device to another using the Bump app. Transfer from a device to a Mac or 
  • PC by pointing your computer's brewer to bu.mp.
  • Don't have Siri on your iPad 2? Try the Google Search app!
  • App Crayons are styluses made for young children. 
  • Buy inexpensive styluses in a 3 pack from Amazon. $1 with free shipping!
  • There are lots more tips!