If you’re an early iOS 7 beta adopter, you might want to restore iOS 6 for a number of reasons. Perhaps you just don’t like the beta experience, preferring a less changeable, buggy iPhone software. Maybe you just want to put the official iOS 7 software on your iPhone when it releases, possibly in early September. Maybe you just miss the iOS 6 version of Maps.

For whatever reason, though, it’s a fairly straightforward process; here’s how to do it.

Every once in a while, I’m listening to a song via the Music app on my iPhone, or (lately) listening to iTunes Radio on my iPad through a bluetooth speaker in the house, when I want to quickly figure out what’s playing, or maybe mess with the controls, skip a song, or something like that.

Typically, I’d double click the Home button to get a basic controller to pause or skip a song, or click into the home screen, find the Music app, launch it, then tap the Now Playing button, and then make any adjustments.

Now, however, with iOS 7 beta’s new Control Center, you can tap right through to the Now Playing song with a swipe and a tap. Here’s how.

I’m sure you all know that you can take a photo with your iPhone using the volume up button. If not, do it real quick right now, and prepare to have your entire iPhone photo taking experience changed.

No, really, launch the Camera app, flip that iPhone onto its side, putting it into landscape orientation, and then hold it like a traditional point and shoot camera. Press down on the volume up button to snap a picture. Brilliant!

Camera+ was the first non-Apple app to use this control scheme, at least until Apple put a stop to it by rolling the feature into the actual operating system. Now, in iOS 7 beta, Apple’s added another little fun feature. Here’s how to activate it.

We weren’t expecting Apple to drop a new iOS 7 beta so soon, but Apple just dropped iOS 7 beta 6 in our laps this late Thursday afternoon. Developers can download the new beta build from the Dev Center or as an OTA update.

Once we dive into the beta we’ll let you know if there are any big changes, but it looks like it’s mostly just a fix for an issue with iTunes in the Cloud.

Here are the direct download links:

Notifications in iOS 6 can be annoying, for sure. To dismiss them takes some funky gestures, which we tipped you on a while back.

In iOS 7, however, notifications look different, and — thankfully — are a little easier to dismiss. Here’s how it works.

Back when iOS got “multitasking,” it was a matter of pride in my group of geeky friends to be able to double click the home button on their iPhones and then space three or four of their fingers *just* right to tap a bunch of apps’ little red circles to force quit the apps all at once. “Hey,” they’d say, “why settle for force quitting just one at a time?”

I suppose they had a point, as today’s tip is all about “flick quitting” up to three apps at once on the iPhone, provided said iPhone is running iOS 7 beta.

iOS 7 beta has a ton of new features, tricks, hidden things, and ways to get stuff done. We’ve been showing it all to you as we delve into the latest and greatest mobile OS for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch for a few weeks now.

But we’re not ready to stop. Here are even more (five of ’em!) secret, hidden, or just plain surprising features we’ve found in iOS 7 beta.

I’ll admit it. I really like buying things. I don’t like searching for them, or shopping per se, but I dig the heck out of wanting something, and then buying it. Go figure I end up a tech writer.

One of the ways I keep myself from overspending is to take pictures of items and store them on my iPhone. I do this a lot in book stores, where the number of new science fiction books I want far outstrips my ability to pay for them.

I use a Wishlist on Amazon, too, to track the stuff I want, perhaps later to actually purchase. Who knows?

In iOS 7 beta, you can add any apps you want to a new Wishlist feature, keeping the spending to a minimum, too. Here’s how.

iOS 7 is chock full of new things to discover and explore. We’ve been spending some time with it on our iPhones and iPads, and have found a bunch of surprises hidden within–features and new ways of doing things that are new, different, and just plain interesting.

Here, then, are six of those surprising tips and tricks, ready for you to try out on your own iOS 7 beta-enabled iOS device.

iOS 6 gave us the Compass, which, honestly, I’ve never really used that much.

The new iOS 7 beta, however, has given me some functionality I’m much more likely to need and use. Heck, I even have a third-party app to make sure my handyman projects around the house aren’t crooked.

I’m talking about a level, and there’s a new one built right into iOS 7 beta, within the Compass app on the iPhone. I haven’t found a comparable app on my iPad running iOS 7 beta, but maybe in the future?

Either way, here’s how to find and use the compass and level app.