Over the past eight weeks at Boston Startup School I have been asked countless times to describe myself, often in 140 characters or less. After a great deal of thought and contemplation, my go-to line has been: Software developer, technology evangelist, Apple fan-boy, snowboard aficionado and Ohio State University Buckeye.
Graduation Day at The Ohio State University , ’08Other than working in a slope-side office atop Aspen Mountain, EverTrue’s modus operandi is a perfect fit: Education Start-up? Check. Innovative technology? Check. A handful of beautifully designed and executed iOS apps? Check!
Right out of the gates, after meeting Brent on the first day of Boston Startup School I knew a career at EverTrue would be monumental. This was all reassured after learning more about the mission and meeting the incredible team behind an amazing product.
So, here I am, EverTrue’s newest iOS developer and I think the fit is just perfect. After a two year stint as a Genius at Apple in San Francisco, I could not be more excited about working on a truly amazing set of iOS offerings.
In addition to introducing myself, I wanted to take this chance to share some of my Apple genius.
Like many of you out there, for the holidays I recently acquired a crisp new iPhone 5. Like any new iPhone, the new OS offers a wide variety of new features along with changes to a few you may know and love.
Here is a breakdown of my favorite tips and tricks for iOS, including some for the new iOS 6.
The old and all-too-underused “Tap the time to scroll to top” feature:
Whether you’re scrolling through your late night New Years call history, or keeping up with your alumni circle on EverTrue, go ahead and tap the time at the top of your phone and you’ll instantly be brought back up to the top of your app to see the most recent events.
Want to share a photo of that hilarious text conversation you’ve had with your mom? Enter the screenshot:
While viewing the screen of which you would like to take a picture, hold down the home button and give the power button on top a quick press. You’ll notice a screen flash and BAM! Now its time to open up EverTrue and share the conversation with the class!
My new favorite – “Keyboard Shortcuts”:
We all like to type as little as possible on our phones, Apple was kind enough to take this into consideration and in iOS6 has given us an amazing feature to make this possible. Open up Settings app, navigate to General and then Keyboard to see the “Add New Shortcut…” button where you can create snippets of text that will be expanded into full phrases.
Getting your pictures in focus:
Out of focus pictures are rough. Taking pictures while moving and in low light really make it worse. Next time you are taking the next greatest Instagram shot of all time, tap and hold on an object in the camera’s view to lock the camera’s focus and white balance to ensure the perfect shot…despite your puppy’s unwillingness to sit still.
Last, but most certainly not least, iOS 6 has given us the power to say “enough is enough, I’m going to sleep.”
Tonight, when you’re done fielding emails and just want to get some sleep, head back into Settings -> Notifications -> Do Not Disturb to set up the amount of time during which you want nothing to do with your phone. What if someone important calls, you may ask? Well, Apple has your back here too, you can specify contacts who’s calls will make your phone ring. And if you’re worried about an unknown number calling with an important message at three in the morning, you can elect to allow the second phone call in a three minute span to come through. What Genius.