Introduction
Precious few products ever come close to generating the kind of buzz seen with the iPhone. Its messianic arrival receives front-page treatment in newspapers and top billing on network and cable TV shows. People line up days in advance just to ensure landing one of the first units. Years from now, people will still insist, “I was there on day one.”
But we trust you didn’t pick up this book to read yet another account about how this year’s iPhone launch was an epochal event. We trust you did buy the book to find out how to get the very most out of your remarkable device. Our goal is to deliver that information in an informed but light and breezy fashion. We expect you to have fun using your iPhone, and we hope you have fun spending time with us.
About This Book
Let’s get one thing out of the way right from the get-go. We think you’re pretty darn smart for buying a For Dummies book. That says to us that you have the confidence and intelligence to know what you don’t know. The For Dummies franchise is built around the core notion that all of us feel insecure about certain topics when tackling them for the first time, especially when those topics have to do with technology.
As with most Apple products, every iPhone to date is beautifully designed and intuitive to use. And though our editors may not want us to reveal this dirty little secret (especially on the first page, for goodness' sake), the truth is you’ll get pretty far just by exploring the iPhone’s many functions and features on your own, without the help of this (or any other) book.
Okay, now that we spilled the beans, we’ll tell you why you shouldn’t run back to the bookstore and request a refund: This book is chock-full of useful tips, advice, and other nuggets that will make your iPhone experience all the more pleasurable. So keep this book nearby and consult it often.
But before you do that, let us tell you a bit about how we go about our business. iPhone For Dummies, 8th Edition, makes generous use of numbered steps, bullet lists, and pictures. Web addresses look like this: www.boblevitus.com. For those reading the e-book version, links are live so you can click them.
We also include a few sidebars with information that is not required reading (not that any of this book is) but that we hope will provide a richer understanding of certain subjects. Overall, we aim to keep technical jargon to a minimum, under the guiding principle that with rare exceptions you need not know what any of it really means.
Foolish Assumptions
Although we know what happens when you make assumptions, we’ve made a few anyway. First, we assume that you, gentle reader, know nothing about using an iPhone or iOS — beyond knowing what an iPhone is, that you want to use iOS, that you want to understand your iPhone and its operating system without digesting an incomprehensible technical manual, and that you made the right choice by selecting this particular book.
And so, we do our best to explain each new concept in full and loving detail. Perhaps that’s foolish, but … oh, well.
One last thing: We also assume that you can read. If you can’t, please ignore this paragraph.
Icons Used in This Book
Little round pictures (icons) appear in the left margin throughout this book. Consider these icons miniature road signs, telling you something extra about the topic at hand or hammering a point home.
Here’s what the five icons used in this book look like and mean.
This text contains the juicy morsels, shortcuts, and recommendations that might make the task at hand faster or easier.
This icon emphasizes the stuff we think you ought to retain. You may even jot down a note to yourself in the iPhone’s Reminders app.
Put on your propeller beanie hat and pocket protector; this text includes truly geeky stuff. You can safely ignore this material, but we wouldn’t have bothered to write it if it weren’t interesting or informative.
You wouldn’t intentionally run a stop sign, would you? In the same fashion, ignoring warnings may be hazardous to your iPhone and (by extension) your wallet. There, you now know how these warning icons work, for you have just received your very first warning!
Denotes a feature that’s new in iOS 8, new in iTunes 12, or new in the latest and greatest iPhones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. What do we mean by new? Mostly that it wasn’t available last year and wasn’t covered in previous editions of this book.
Beyond the Book
We wrote a bunch of things that just didn’t fit in the print version of this book. Rather than leave them on the cutting room floor, we’ve posted the most useful bits online for your enjoyment and edification.
Here’s where you’ll find them:
- Online articles covering additional topics are at
You’ll find a fairly complete list of phrases Siri understands; an essay on cameras, megapixels, and image quality; making sense of the alphabet soup of cellular data networks (EDGE, 4G, LTE, HSDPA, GSM, CDMA, and more); why your computer offers a shopping mall for content while your iPhone doesn’t; and much more.
- The Cheat Sheet for this book is at
www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/iphone
Here you’ll find tips for mastering multitouch; a list of things you can do during a phone call; managing contacts; and where to find additional help if your iPhone is acting contrary.
- Updates to this book, if we have any, are at
Where to Go From Here
Where to turn to next? Why straight to Chapter 1, of course (without passing Go).
In all seriousness, we wrote this book for you, so please let us know what you think. If we screwed up, confused you, left something out, or — heaven forbid — made you angry, drop us a note. And if we hit you with one pun too many, it helps to know that as well.
Because writers are people too (believe it or not), we also encourage positive feedback if you think it’s warranted. So kindly send email to Ed at [email protected] and to Bob at [email protected]. We’ll do our best to respond to reasonably polite email in a timely fashion.
Most of all, we want to thank you for buying our book. Please enjoy it along with your new iPhone.