Five Favorite Hidden Features of iPhone 3
11:55 pm, June 26th, 2009, Leander Kahney
After using the iPhone 3GS for a week, here’s five of my favorite, non-obvious tricks I’ve picked up.
Show Battery Percentage
The iPhone battery meter is so imprecise as to be useless. But in iPhone 3, you can show the percentage charge. To show the battery percentage, go to Settings>General>Usage and turn on Battery Percentage.
Variable Speed Scrubbing
I listen to a lot of radio shows on the iPhone from my hometown, London. These shows can be a couple of hours long so I often “scrub” through to the best parts. On the iPod with a scroll wheel, this was easy. But on the iPhone, it became an ordeal — the song bar was notoriously fiddly and the track would often jump when you pulled your finger off. But with the 3.0 software, scrubbing can now done be at different speeds. When you hit the song bar it starts glowing, allowing you to scrub through the track from left to right. But the further you drag your finger vertically *down*, toward the “Home” button, the finer you can control the scrolling speed: it goes from “high speed” to “half speed,” “quarter speed,” and finally “fine scrubbing.” No more jumping tracks.
Double Tap “Home” To Launch Camera
I’m using the camera a lot on the new iPhone 3GS. Instead of going to the Home Screen and hunting for the Camera icon, the camera can be launched with a double tap of the Home button. Go to Settings>General>Home and select “Camera.”
(Alternatively, you can map the Home button double-tap to iPod, Phone Favorites, Search or Home).
Easy Email Suffixes
When typing out an email address in the “To” field, there’s a shortcut for adding .net .edu .org .com suffixes. Press and hold the “.” key (the period key) and the suffix options pop up.
Sound Check
This is really an Easter Egg, not a hidden feature, but delightful nonetheless. The new Voice Memos app shows the image of a microphone. Tap the image of the mic, and the VU meter jumps as if you were tapping a real microphone.
Posted by Leander Kahney in How tos, Software, Top stories, iPhone, iPhone 3G S | Comment on this article
I’m running 3.0 on a 3G. I’m able to do all of these things EXCEPT show the battery percentage, the one thing I really wanted. Lame.
Dylan, on June 27th, 2009 at 2:54 am
The changing of what the double tap does was there even in iPhone 3G with software 2.0.
Daniel, on June 27th, 2009 at 4:16 am
I do NOT see any battery percentage indicator in my General settings under usage.
Mary Hunt, on June 27th, 2009 at 4:47 am
The “Easy Email Suffixes” was in 2.2 (and possibly earlier)…
Fact Check, on June 27th, 2009 at 7:37 am
no battery % on my 3g??? WTF??? Also, I’m pretty sure the email suffixes were there prior to 3.0.
angusshangus, on June 27th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Because I have terrible ATT coverage at my home I use call forwarding. My favorite new feature is the new icon next to the wifi indicator reminding me it’s on.
Kesem, on June 27th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Email suffixes was there prior to iPhone 3.0.
Peter, on June 27th, 2009 at 9:14 am
The battery % can be done as a hack on a jialbroken 3G. Otherwise it is not available and 3GS only.
http://gizmodo.com/5302258/how-to-get-the-iphone-3gs-battery-indicator-on-all-iphones-and-ipod-touches
Jimm, on June 27th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
The email suffix hint is really useful. I found the .com button does the same thing in Safari too. I’d not known either of these before. I’ve learnt something today.
Thanks
Jon, on June 27th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
The battery percentage is really nice and I have it working on my 3G. You have to jailbreak for it to work. Not sure why it is not in the settings. I guess it is only unique to 3GS.
Dave W, on June 27th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
As stated above the only thing that wasn’t already there is the Battery thing and the mic/VU meter connection. But that VU thing is rather lame for a favorite ‘hidden’ feature. That’s what any VU meter is supposed to do if you tap or heaven forbid you blow on a mic connected to anything with a VU meter on it. DOH! And there are other apps that will show sound levels and indicate the same ‘tapping’ response. :rolleyes:
But I’m glad you’ve found more things to help you enjoy your new phone, but you really should get out more…
8-P
Jim, on June 27th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
You’re a dick, Jim!
mike, on June 27th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Dude, first of all, none of these features are “hidden.” Second of all, at least one of these features has been around since at least the release of iPhone OS 2.0. You guys at CoM are REALLY falling off your game. Might have to remove you from my RSS feeds if you don’t get it together.
What happened to the good, informative posts you guys used to do? Now it’s just improperly-titled link-bait and incorrect articles. I’m really disappointed.
I miss the old, GOOD Cult Of Mac. I hope it returns.
AdamBitTheApple, on June 27th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
ditto on what AdamBitTheApple said!
Pooch, on June 30th, 2009 at 9:17 am