My iPhone for Seniors, Second Edition (2016)

Introduction

Using This Book

This book has been designed to help you transform an iPhone into your iPhone by helping you learn to use it easily and quickly. As you can tell, the book relies heavily on pictures to show you how an iPhone works. It is also task-focused so that you can quickly learn the specific steps to follow to do lots of cool things with your iPhone.

Using an iPhone involves lots of touching its screen with your fingers. When you need to tap part of the screen, such as a button or keyboard, you see a callout with the step number pointing to where you need to tap. When you need to swipe your finger along the screen, such as to browse lists, you see the following icons:

The directions in which you should slide your finger on the screen are indicated with arrows. When the arrow points both ways, you can move your finger in either direction. When the arrows point in all four directions, you can move your finger in any direction on the screen.

To zoom in on the screen, unpinch your figures by placing them together on the center of the screen and then sliding them apart while still touching the screen. To zoom out on screens, place your fingers a little apart on the screen, and then pinch them together. These motions are indicated by the following icons:

When you need to tap once or twice, such as to zoom out or in, you see the following icons matching the number of times you need to tap:

If you use an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus, you can use pressure on the screen to activate certain functions. The following icons indicate when you should apply some pressure or slightly more pressure:

When you can rotate your iPhone, you see this icon:

Occasionally, you shake the iPhone to activate a control. When you do, you see this icon:

As you can see on its cover, this book provides information about a number of iPhone models, which are the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and 5s, iPhone 6/6s, and iPhone 6/6s Plus. Each of these models has specific features and capabilities that vary slightly from the others. Additionally, they have different screen sizes with the 4s being the smallest and the iPhone 6/6s Plus being the largest.

Because of the variations between the models, the figures you see in this book may be slightly different than the screens you see on your iPhone. For example, the iPhone 6/6s has settings that aren’t on the iPhone 5s while the 5s and later models support Touch ID (fingerprint recognition) while the 4s and 5/5c don’t. In most cases, you can follow the steps as they are written with any of these models even if there are minor differences between the figures and your screens.

When the model you are using doesn’t support a feature being described, such as the Display Zoom that is on the iPhone 6/6s and 6/6s Plus but not on previous models, you can skip the information or read it to help you decide if you want to upgrade to a newer model.

If you have used an iPhone before running an earlier version of its software, you will notice that there are many changes in iOS 9, some are significant and still others are entirely new. In the case of those features that have changed significantly, or are completely new, we have added an indicator to the text and table of contents to help you easily locate them. When you see New! be sure to check out those tasks to quickly get up to speed on what’s new in iOS 9.

Getting Started

Learning to use new technology can be intimidating. Don’t worry, with this book as your guide, you’ll be working your iPhone like you’ve been using it all your life in no time at all.

There are several ways you can purchase an iPhone, such as from an Apple Store, from a provider’s store (such as AT&T or Verizon), or from a website. And, you may be upgrading from a previous iPhone or other type of cell phone, in which case, you are using the same phone number, or you might be starting with a completely new phone and phone number. However you received your new phone, you need to turn it on, perform the basic setup (the iPhone leads you through this step-by-step), and activate the phone.

If you purchased your phone in a store, you probably received help with these tasks and you are ready to start learning how to use your iPhone. If you purchased your iPhone from an online store, it came with basic instructions that explain how you need to activate your phone; follow those instructions to get your iPhone ready for action.

For this book, I’ve assumed you have an iPhone in your hands, you have turned it on, followed the initial setup process it led you through, and activated it.

With your iPhone activated and initial setup complete, you are ready to learn how to use it. This book is designed for you to read and do at the same time. The tasks explained in this book contain step-by-step instructions that guide you; to get the most benefit from the information, perform the steps as you read them. This book helps you learn by doing!

As you can see, this book has quite a few chapters. However, there are only a few that you definitely should read as a group as you get started. You can read the rest of them as the topics are of interest to you. Most of the chapters are designed so that they can be read individually as you move into new areas of your iPhone. For example, when you want to learn how to send messages, read Chapter 10, “Sending, Receiving, and Managing Texts and iMessages.”

After you’ve finished reading this front matter, I recommend you read and work through Chapter 1, “Getting Started with Your iPhone;” Chapter 2, “Connecting Your iPhone to the Internet, Bluetooth Devices, and iPhones/iPods/iPads;” and Chapter 3, “Setting Up and Using iCloud and Other Online Accounts” in their entirety. These chapters give you a good overview of your iPhone and help you set up the basics you use throughout the rest of the book.

From there, read the parts of Chapter 4, “Configuring an iPhone to Suit Your Preferences,” and Chapter 5, “Customizing How Your iPhone Looks and Sounds,” that are of interest to you (for example, in Chapter 5, you how to change the wallpaper image that you see in the background of the Home and Lock screens). Tasks covering how to protect your iPhone with a passcode and how to have your iPhone recognize your fingerprints to unlock it and to make purchases from the iTunes Store should be high on your priority list (this is covered in Chapter 4). Chapters 4 and 5 are good references whenever you need to make changes to how your iPhone is configured.

After you’ve finished these core chapters, you’re ready to explore the rest of the book in any order you’d like. For example, when you want to learn how to use your iPhone’s camera and work with the photos you take, see Chapter 14, “Working with Photos and Video You Take with Your iPhone.”