Best Advice for New iPhone Owners
2012-01-10 14:01:57
A friend of mine just got his first iPhone. He asked for some advice, so here's my first stab at it. Off the cuff, random, but 100% absolute, indisputable truth.
(Sorry, this is biased towards boys. If you aren't a boy, it might be totally wrong.)
1. Set up iCloud backup, find my iphone, contact sync.
2. Also set up iCloud sync on your mac. You don't have a Macbook? What the fuck, are you insane?
3. set up Photostream on your Mac and iPhone
4. Upgrade your iPad to iOS 5 if you haven't
5. Don't use a case. Cases are for girls. Pick a pocket, left or right, and always put your iphone in that pocket, and nothing else, ever. no keys, no change, no money. just the phone.
6. Don't drop your iPhone. Ever.
7. Actually, you do need a slip cover for your phone when you have to put it in your case/backpack/whatever to go through security. This is the best one: http://www.senacases.com/apple/iphone-4-cases/ultraslim/
8. Don't ever let a child play with your phone. At all. Even for 5 seconds. No matter how cute they are. Kids can play with your macbook, with your iPad, with your Rolex, whatever. But you need your iPhone to LIVE, so don't let any kids touch it. It's made of glass for christ sake.
9. My Cast is the best weather app.
10. Pocket Casts by Shifty Jelly is the best podcast listening app.
11. MLB is worth buying every season.
12. You should have two screens worth of apps. Use folders.
13. Get the Apple Store App; you can walk into an Apple Store, buy shit, check yourself out and leave without talking to an Apple employee.
14. Get 1Password and Dropbox.
15. The Gmail app is great for the one gmail account you use the most. Otherwise the regular mail app is fine.
16. Put a passcode lock on the phone. Set the passcode lock timeout to 5 minutes. Set the phone to erase itself after 10 incorrect passcode attempts. Choose a passcode that people won't guess in 10 tries.
17. Go through notifications settings and turn off all notifications except for SMS, calendar and the very very few apps you care about. You really don't want things appearing on the lock screen all the time. Trust me.
18. Set up find my friends, and put your wife/girlfriend on it. If you have kids, put them on it. If you don't want your wife/girlfriend to know where you are at all times, get a new wife/girlfriend. If you don't want your kids to know where you are, what the hell is wrong with you?