Apps make the iPhone come alive. While iOS apps development for iPhone is a big business and thousands of iOS apps developers are busy building apps even at this moment, very few apps can match the quality and functionality offered by in-built iPhone apps. Every iOS app developer studies the apps built by Apple, and hopes that his app would come close to what the programmers at Apple have created.
While in-built iPhone apps like Camera, Siri, Reminders, Safari, Maps, Game Center and Find My Phone may generate the greatest interest among users, apps like calculator, clock, weather, stocks and voice memo are also pretty useful. Although we use these less interesting apps many times during the day, we don't delve deep into them, nor do we try to uncover their special features. Let's take a look at some of the cool features of iOS apps that most people don't know about.
1. Calculator
My kid has the annoying habit of turning to me for answers while completing her Math assignments. She thinks that using a calculator is cheating, but feels that it's all right to ask her dad for answers. I'm not Math whiz myself and I rely on the trusty old iPhone calculator app for the answers. One day I turned my iPhone from the portrait mode to the landscape mode and was startled to see that the screen changed. The simple, normal calculator turned into a scientific calculator! Yes, your iPhone has a powerful scientific calculator built in.
2. Stock
It's amazing what you can achieve by the simple action of rotating your iPhone. Nature abhors vacuum, and I guess that the Apple programmers who design apps share the dislike for blank, empty spaces. When you rotate your phone to the landscape mode while viewing the Stock app, you get a wider chart. Not only does this make the information a lot more palatable, but it also allows you to adjust the range of the charts from one day to two years!
3. Clock
The Clock app is loaded with an astounding number of utilitarian features. For instance, you can use it to view the time in different countries, set timers, and you can also use it as a stopwatch. But hidden among these extremely useful features is a gem that you'll appreciate the value of, if you tend to fall asleep while listening to music or watching videos. All you need to do is launch your clock app, tap on the timer tab, look at the deals that allow you to set minutes and hours for your time to run and tap on button title When Timer Ends.
What you usually do when you open this section is select the sound that should ring when your timer's up. But ignore all those sounds. Scroll down and you'll notice an option – Stop Playing. One you've selected this option, the music or video you are listening or watching on iPhone will stop when the time's up.
4. Voice Memo
If you are ready to do a little bit of tinkering with your iPhone, you can use the Voice Memo app to create customized ring tones. You'd expect that the team involved in iOS apps development for iPhone would make things simpler. But this is not exactly a deliberate feature. It's just something you can do by making a bit of effort.
Turn on the Voice Memo and record your message or ring tone. Email it to yourself. Look at the bottom right corner; there's a list of memos. Select the recording and tap the share button. Thereafter, download the file on your Mac. Rename the file and change the .m4a extension to .m4r. Drag your file on the iTunes. Now it will be recognized as a ring tone. You can sync it to your phone and use it for whatever purpose you want.
5. Weather
We usually open up the Weather app and take a look at the weather forecast. But if you swipe the forecast to the right or left within the Notification Center, you get a new option. You can choose between a 6-day forecast and current conditions. Also, you can open up the weather app by simply clicking on the weather bar from within the Notification Center.
While in-built iPhone apps like Camera, Siri, Reminders, Safari, Maps, Game Center and Find My Phone may generate the greatest interest among users, apps like calculator, clock, weather, stocks and voice memo are also pretty useful. Although we use these less interesting apps many times during the day, we don't delve deep into them, nor do we try to uncover their special features. Let's take a look at some of the cool features of iOS apps that most people don't know about. 1. Calculator
My kid has the annoying habit of turning to me for answers while completing her Math assignments. She thinks that using a calculator is cheating, but feels that it's all right to ask her dad for answers. I'm not Math whiz myself and I rely on the trusty old iPhone calculator app for the answers. One day I turned my iPhone from the portrait mode to the landscape mode and was startled to see that the screen changed. The simple, normal calculator turned into a scientific calculator! Yes, your iPhone has a powerful scientific calculator built in.
2. Stock
It's amazing what you can achieve by the simple action of rotating your iPhone. Nature abhors vacuum, and I guess that the Apple programmers who design apps share the dislike for blank, empty spaces. When you rotate your phone to the landscape mode while viewing the Stock app, you get a wider chart. Not only does this make the information a lot more palatable, but it also allows you to adjust the range of the charts from one day to two years!
3. Clock
The Clock app is loaded with an astounding number of utilitarian features. For instance, you can use it to view the time in different countries, set timers, and you can also use it as a stopwatch. But hidden among these extremely useful features is a gem that you'll appreciate the value of, if you tend to fall asleep while listening to music or watching videos. All you need to do is launch your clock app, tap on the timer tab, look at the deals that allow you to set minutes and hours for your time to run and tap on button title When Timer Ends.
What you usually do when you open this section is select the sound that should ring when your timer's up. But ignore all those sounds. Scroll down and you'll notice an option – Stop Playing. One you've selected this option, the music or video you are listening or watching on iPhone will stop when the time's up.
4. Voice Memo
If you are ready to do a little bit of tinkering with your iPhone, you can use the Voice Memo app to create customized ring tones. You'd expect that the team involved in iOS apps development for iPhone would make things simpler. But this is not exactly a deliberate feature. It's just something you can do by making a bit of effort. Turn on the Voice Memo and record your message or ring tone. Email it to yourself. Look at the bottom right corner; there's a list of memos. Select the recording and tap the share button. Thereafter, download the file on your Mac. Rename the file and change the .m4a extension to .m4r. Drag your file on the iTunes. Now it will be recognized as a ring tone. You can sync it to your phone and use it for whatever purpose you want.
5. Weather
We usually open up the Weather app and take a look at the weather forecast. But if you swipe the forecast to the right or left within the Notification Center, you get a new option. You can choose between a 6-day forecast and current conditions. Also, you can open up the weather app by simply clicking on the weather bar from within the Notification Center.
