Setting Up a New iPhone

In this section, you discover how to set up a brand new iPhone.

Unless your iPhone is brand spanking new and fresh out of the box, chances are you’ve already performed the steps that follow. If so, please skip ahead to the next section.

That said, here’s how to set up a brand new iPhone:

1. Turn on the iPhone or wake it if it’s sleeping.

An arrow appears near the bottom of the screen, flashing messages in many languages. We’re pretty sure they all say, Slide to Set Up, because that’s what the English rendition says.

2. Swipe the Slide to Set Up arrow to the right.

The first thing you see on your shiny new (or freshly restored) iPhone is the Language Selection screen.

3. Tap the language you want this iPhone to use, and then tap the blue arrow near the top-right of the screen.

The Country or Region screen appears.

4. Tap your country or region, and then tap the blue Next button.

The Choose a Wi-Fi Network screen appears.

5. Tap to choose a Wi-Fi network, type a password if necessary, tap the blue Join button, and then tap the blue Next button.

Tapping Next initiates the activation process, which requires either a Wi-Fi network or your wireless carrier’s cellular network and may take up to five minutes.

If neither network is available, you’ll see an alert that says you need to connect your iPhone to your computer and use iTunes to complete the activation and setup process, as described in the first four steps in “The Kitchen Sync” section, later in this chapter.

After your iPhone has been activated, the Location Services screen appears.

6. Tap to enable or disable Location Services, and then tap the blue Next button.

Location Services is your iPhone’s way of knowing your precise geographical location. The Maps app, for example, relies on Location Services to determine where in the world you are. (See Chapter 13 for more on Maps.)

You can turn Location Services on or off globally or for individual apps in Settings, as you discover in Chapter 14.

The Set Up iPhone screen appears.

7. Do one of the following:

• If you’re replacing an old iPhone with this one: Choose either Restore from iCloud Backup or Restore from iTunes Backup to have the new iPhone restored with the settings and data from your previous one. You’ll see either the iCloud Sign In screen or the Connect to iTunes screen. Follow the on-screen instructions and choose the backup you want to restore from. In a few minutes (or more if your old iPhone contained a lot of data), your new iPhone will contain all the apps, media files, and settings from your old iPhone. You’re finished and can skip ahead to the next section, “A Brief iCloud Primer.”

• If this is your first iPhone: You won’t have any backups of your iPhone yet, so unless you want to restore it with the data from an iPod touch or iPad, you should choose Set Up as New iPhone and tap the blue Next button. The Apple ID screen appears.

8. Tap Sign In with Your Apple ID or tap Create a Free Apple ID. Then (you know) tap the blue Next button.

You can tap Skip This Step and proceed without supplying an Apple ID, but we advise against that choice. You’ll need a free Apple ID to take advantage of the myriad excellent and free features — including iCloud — described in this and other chapters.

The Terms and Conditions screen appears.

9. To agree to the terms and conditions, tap the blue Agree button in the lower-right corner.

A Terms and Conditions alert appears.

10. Tap the Agree button and then tap the blue Next button.

What happens if you disagree? You don’t want to know. And, of course, you won’t be able to use your iPhone.

The Set Up iCloud screen appears.

11. Do one of the following:

• If you want to use iCloud: Good choice! Tap Use iCloud and then tap the blue Next button. Follow the instructions on the Back Up to iCloud screen, and tap the blue Next button again.

If you’re committed to using your iPhone PC-free, we urge you to use iCloud to back up your iPhone.

• If you don’t want to use iCloud: Tap Don’t Use iCloud, and then tap the blue Next button.

The iCloud Backup screen appears.

12. Tap Back Up to iCloud to back up your iPhone to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi; tap Back Up to My Computer to back up to your computer’s hard drive; then tap the blue Next button.

The Find My iPhone screen appears next.

13. Tap Use Find My iPhone or tap Don’t Use Find My iPhone, and then tap the blue Next button.

Find My iPhone is a seriously cool feature that lets you locate and secure your iPhone if it ever gets lost or stolen, as you’ll discover in Chapter 14.

14. Tap the phone numbers and e-mail addresses you want to use for iMessages and FaceTime calls, and then tap the blue Next button.

People can use an e-mail address or your phone number to send you iMessages and place FaceTime calls to your iPhone. Tap all the ones you want to enable. Don’t sweat your decisions; you can always add and remove addresses in Settings⇒Messages.

If you have an iPhone 4, you don’t have Siri, so you can skip the next step.

15. If you have an iPhone 4S or 5, tap Use Siri or tap Don’t Use Siri, and then tap the blue Next button.

Siri is an intelligent voice-controlled assistant available only on the iPhone 4S and 5. It’s so wickedly cool we devote all of Chapter 7 to its use.

We can’t think of a good reason not to enable Siri, but if that’s your choice, you’ll still be able to use voice commands for dialing the phone and controlling the Music app.

If you just can’t wait to hear what Siri can do for you, tap the What Is Siri link at the bottom of the screen for a brief description. When you’re finished, tap the blue Done button.

The Diagnostics screen appears.

16. Tap either Automatically Send or Don’t Send, and then tap the blue Next button.

If you tap Automatically Send, anonymous diagnostic and usage data will be sent to Apple.

The Thank You screen appears.

17. Tap Start Using iPhone to, well, start using your iPhone.

Your iPhone’s Home screen appears in all its glory.

One last thing: Apple’s free iCloud wireless storage and synchronization service (described in the following section) is strictly optional, but it’s especially useful if you’re planning to use your iPhone PC-free or only plan to sync it with a computer occasionally.