Home Sweet Home Screen

The first page of your Home screen offers a bevy of icons, each representing a different bundled app or function. Because the rest of the book covers each and every one of these babies in full and loving detail, we merely provide brief descriptions here.

To get to the first Home screen, press the Home button. If your iPhone is asleep when you press, the Unlock screen appears. Once unlocked, you’ll see whichever page of icons was on the screen when it went to sleep. If that screen happens to have been the first Home screen, you’re golden. If it wasn’t, merely press the Home button again to summon your iPhone’s first (main) Home screen.

Three steps let you rearrange icons on your iPhone:

1. Press and hold any icon until all of the icons begin to jiggle.

2. Drag the icons around until you’re happy with their positions.

3. Press the Home button to save your arrangement and stop the jiggling.

If you haven’t rearranged your icons, you’ll see the following apps on your Home screen, starting at the top left:

Messages: The Messages app lets you exchange text messages (SMS) and multimedia messages (MMS) with almost any other cell phone user, as described in Chapter 5.

The Messages app also lets you exchange iMessages with anyone using an Apple device with iOS 5 or higher or a Mac running Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) or higher, which is to say other iPhone users as well as iPad, iPod touch, and Mac owners. We’ve used a lot of mobile phones in our day, and this app is as good as it gets.

Calendar: No matter what calendar program you prefer on your Mac or PC (as long as it’s Calendar. iCal; Microsoft Entourage, Outlook, or Exchange, or the online calendars from Google or Yahoo!), you can synchronize events and alerts between your computer and your iPhone. Create an event on one and it’s automatically synchronized with the other the next time they’re synced. Neat stuff.

Photos: This app is the iPhone’s terrific photo manager. You can view pictures that you took with the iPhone’s built-in cameras, transferred from your computer, received through e-mail, saved from Safari, or acquired as part of your photo stream. You can zoom in or out, create slideshows, e-mail photos to friends, and much more. Other phones may let you take pictures; the iPhone lets you enjoy them in many ways.

Camera: Use this app when you want to shoot a picture or video with the iPhone’s built-in cameras.

Videos: This handy app is the repository for your movies, TV shows, music videos, video podcasts, and some iTunes U courseware. You add videos via iTunes on your Mac or PC, or by purchasing them from the iTunes Store using the iTunes app on your iPhone. Check out Chapter 9 to find out more.

The Videos and Music apps were new in iOS 5; in earlier releases, both audio and video content appeared in a single app called iPod.

Maps: This app is among our favorites. View street maps or satellite imagery of locations around the globe, or ask for driving, walking, or public transportation directions, traffic conditions, or even the location of a nearby pizza joint.

Weather: This app monitors the six-day weather forecast for as many cities as you like.

Passbook: This app stores gift cards, coupons, tickets, boarding passes, and other passes in a single location.

Notes: This program lets you type notes while you’re out and about. You can send the notes to yourself or anyone else through e-mail or just save them on your iPhone until you need them.

Reminders: This app was new in iOS 5 and may be the only to-do list you ever need. It integrates with iCal/Calendar, Outlook, and iCloud, so to-do items and reminders sync automatically with your other devices, both mobile and desktop. You’ll read much more about this great app and its shiny location-based reminders, but you’ll have to wait until Chapter 6.

Clock: This program lets you see the current time in as many cities as you like, set one or more alarms for yourself, and use your iPhone as a stopwatch or a countdown timer.

Stocks: This app lets you monitor your favorite stocks, which are updated in near-real time.

Newsstand: This app is where you find publication-specific apps for magazines and newspapers. Shop for subscriptions at the App Store; you read more about Newsstand in Chapter 15.

iTunes: Tap here to access the iTunes Store, where you can browse, preview, and purchase songs, albums, movies, and more.

App Store: This icon enables you to connect to and search the iTunes App Store for iPhone apps you can purchase or download for free over a Wi-Fi or cellular data network connection.

Game Center: This is Apple’s social-networking app for game enthusiasts. Compare achievements, boast of your conquests and high scores, or challenge your friends to battle. You hear more about Game Center in Chapter 15.

Settings: Use this app to adjust your iPhone’s settings. If you’re a Mac user, think System Preferences; if you’re a Windows person, think Control Panel.

You won’t find the Utilities folder, which we’re about to describe, on your Home screen — it’s on the second Home screen of apps (which you find out about in Chapter 2). If you just can’t wait to see them, swipe your finger across the screen from right to left and they’ll appear like magic.

Utilities: The Utilities icon is a folder that contains four utility apps:

• Contacts: This app stores information about your contacts, which can be synced with iCloud, Mac OS X Address Book or Contacts, Yahoo! Address Book, Google Contacts, Microsoft Outlook 2003, Microsoft Outlook 2007, Microsoft Outlook 2010 (Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7), Windows Address Book (Windows XP), Windows Contacts (Windows Vista or Windows 7), Microsoft Entourage 2004, Microsoft Entourage 2008, or Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac.

• Calculator: The Calculator app lets you perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Period.

• Compass: The Compass app is kind of like having a magnetic needle compass inside your iPhone, but better.

• Voice Memos: This handy little app turns your iPhone into a convenient handheld recording device.

Again, note that the Utilities folder appears only on iPhones that had iOS 4 or 5 preinstalled. iPhones that have been upgraded to iOS 4 or 5 from previous versions or iPhones restored from a previous backup won’t have a Utilities folder if the backup didn’t have a Utilities folder.

Finally, four icons at the bottom of the Home screen are in a special area known as the dock. When you switch Home screens (see Chapter 2), all the icons above the dock change; the four items in the dock remain available on all Home screens.

If the four apps in the dock aren’t the ones that you use most, you can move different apps to the dock, as described in Chapter 2.

Phone: Tap this app icon to use the iPhone as a phone. What a concept!

Mail: This app lets you send and receive e-mail with most POP3 and IMAP e-mail systems and, if you work for a company that grants permission, Microsoft Exchange accounts, too.

Safari: Safari is your web browser. If you’re a Mac user, you know that already. If you’re a Windows user who hasn’t discovered the wonderful Safari for Windows, think Internet Explorer on steroids.

Music: This icon unleashes all the power of an iPod right on your phone.

Okay, then. Now that you and your iPhone have been properly introduced, it’s time to turn it on and actually use it. Onward!