The iPhone Language

The ways in which you touch your iPhone screen are the words in your communication vocabulary. Here’s a quick rundown of the many ways you can speak to your iPhone:

» Pressing the Home button: The iPhone’s Home button lives below the touch screen and is marked with a white or gray square. Press the Home button at any time to return to your Home screen with its list of applications. Double-pressing the Home button displays icons in a row at the bottom of the screen for all apps that are currently running and, with a flick to the right, displays a set of controls for operating the iPod app.

» Tapping: Tap your iPhone by touching your finger to the screen and removing it quickly. Tapping selects web links, activates buttons on the screen, and launches iPhone apps. When typing text on the iPhone’s virtual keyboard, you may want to tap with your forefinger or, if it’s more comfortable, your thumb.

» Double-tapping: Double-tapping means tapping your iPhone’s screen twice in quick succession. Double-clicking may be important on your personal computer, but double-tapping isn’t used all that much on the iPhone. In Safari, you can zoom into columns of text or pictures on a web page by double-tapping them, and then you can zoom back out by double-tapping again. In the Photos app, double-tapping is used to zoom into and out from pictures.

» Two-fingered tap: The iPhone’s Multi-Touch technology means you can tap the screen with more than one finger at a time. To do this, tap the iPhone display with your forefinger and middle finger at the same time. In Maps, double-tapping zooms into the map, while a two fingered tap zooms out.

» Holding: This gesture consists of putting your finger on the screen and leaving it there until something happens. Holding brings up the magnifying glass while you’re typing. You can also move app icons around on your iPhone by holding an icon until the app icons begin to “wiggle.” They can then be moved around the display and between Home screens to organize your apps, and they can be fixed in place by pressing the Home button. For apps that you’ve installed on your iPhone, holding an app icon also displays a small circle with an X in it in the upper-left corner of the icon. Tap that icon to delete the app from your iPhone.

» Dragging: Drag your finger by pressing it to the screen and moving it in any direction before lifting it. Use dragging to position the view in Maps or to scroll up or down a list of messages in Mail. Some apps offer an alphabetical index on the right side. To use this index, drag your finger along it until the item you want becomes visible.

» Flicking: When you’re dealing with long lists, you can give the list a quick flick. Place your finger onto the screen, and then move it rapidly in one direction—up, down, left, or right. The display responds by scrolling quickly in the direction you’ve indicated. Use flicking to move the names in your Contacts app quickly.

» Stopping: During a scroll, press and hold your finger to the screen to stop the scroll. Apple’s legal text provides a great place to practice flicking, dragging, and stopping. To get there, select Settings ➤ General ➤ About ➤ Legal. Have fun with its endless content of legalese that you can flick, drag, and stop to your heart’s content. If you don’t want to stop a scroll, just wait. The scroll will slow and stop by itself.

» Swiping: To swipe your iPhone, drag a finger from the left side of the screen toward the right. Swiping is used to unlock your phone and to indicate you want to delete list items, such as an e-mail item or contact.

» Pinching: On the iPhone, you pinch by placing your thumb and forefinger onto the screen with a space between them. Then, with the fingers touching the screen, move the two fingers together as if you’re pinching the screen. Pinching allows you to zoom out in many iPhone programs, including the photo viewer, Safari, and Maps.

» Unpinching: To unpinch, you perform the pinch in reverse. Start with your thumb and forefinger placed together on your screen and, with the fingers touching the screen, spread them apart. Unpinching allows you to zoom into those same iPhone applications that pinching zooms out of.

Source of Information :  Taking Your iPhone 4 to the Max

The iPhone Language