Help! I'm a new iPhone user.

[Zomp]

So because I'm a big shot, I got a new iPhone 5C from my company.  I have to call them to set up my e-mail and stuff tomorrow, but I have a few questions as someone who has only been on an Android platform in the smartphone era.  If someone wants to take the time to answer this stuff, I'd appreciate it.
 
1. First off, I have 7GB of data per month.  Is that a lot? A little?  Is there an app that I can track my usage?
 
2. Since I'm on android, all of my contacts are saved through my g-mail account.  Is there a way to import them to my iPhone?
 
3. On android, I use swiftkey.  I'm assuming there will be a way to use that with an iPhone?
 
4.  Which is better, Chrome or Safari?
 
5. When I first activated the phone, I put in my wifi passcode in my house.  Will it automatically connect to wifi every time I'm here now?
 
6.  How do I delete apps off of the main screen?
 
7. This one may be complicated, but my personal laptop shit the bed.  I have all of my music on my iPod.  Is there a way to put all of that music on my iPhone?  Do I need a new computer to transfer the files from one to the other? I could use my wife's for that.
 
 
I'm sure I'll have more questions, so please have patience with me

 

[AlNipper49]

1. Its plenty as long as you're not streaming Spotify or whatever

2. Yes. When you setup the mail accounts it will ask you what you want to sync. Watch out if you're adding multiple email accounts, you can muck up contacts easily (Facebook once fucking sync'd all my friends and my outlook contacts are still all douched up)

 

[Zomp]

I can add multiple e-mail accounts?  Cause I'd like to.  My business and personal, obvs.
 
 
143 Nip!

 

[Drocca]

Am I using data when connected to wifi?

 

[Zomp]

I believe Drocca is being sarcastic because he defriended me on facebook

 

[Zomp]

PP, will my phone auto upgrade to iOS 8 when it comes out?
 
I've been thinking about ditching my phone and just having this phone but new swiftkey is a deal breaker.

 

[Gdiguy]

You will get an alert when it comes out. Settings app will have a small red circle with 1 in it. You have to manually do it because some people choose not to. I'd suggest waiting at least a few days to do it after release. Usually the first couple days everyone pounces in it and it takes a couple hours to download it due to the traffic. If you wait a few days it probably won't take more than 20 mins.

 
This isn't really relevant for you (being so new you won't lose too much), but also make sure your phone is backed up before you do an update; I've had to factory reset my iphone and restore it after updating twice over the years
 
Usage tracking will depend on your carrier - I know Verizon's iPhone app itself will show you current data usage, I don't know about the other carriers (though it seems likely?)

 

[AlNipper49]

Zomo you can add as many email accounts as you want. Personally I download different email clients for different accounts. The reason I do this is because from time to time I'll forget and send a work email from my personal account or whatever. The email that goes on the stock mail app is the one that i want to sync my contacts and mail to.

Obviously you don't have to do things this way, more of a "how I do things slightly differently" bend.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

Zomp - I use DataMan to track data usage. Not perfect but very close.

 

[LESDL]

1. For me it's a lot, but I'm a very low-power user. I don't watch videos or stream anything. AFA tracking usage, in your settings/cellular option it will track your total data usage- wifi does not count. You reset this on your monthly "re-start" date.

 

[derekson]

7 GB is a lot for anyone who uses wifi at home and/or at work. If theres no wifi you can connect to at work, it may not be a TON, but I doubt you'd run over it regularly unless you watch Netflix or something over cellular frequently, or listen to Pandora/Spotify or something all day at work over cellular.

 

[Drocca]

I wasn't being sarcastic. I deactivated, not defriended. Nothing but love.

I am getting my first iPhone Friday and am going to be on a 2gb (between two people) plan. I checked our past usage of our crappy galaxy1 phones and we, combined,never hit 1gb in a month but I am concerned that, with cooler apps and shit we will go over.

 

[Drocca]

Also, I am getting a 4S that is 8gb. That sounds small. How will that affect me? I use my phone to make calls, check email, set a fantasy lineup, that kind of thing.

 

[Zomp]

Drocca is getting the 4S, I have the 5C, can we facetime?

 

[bohous]

 
4.  Which is better, Chrome or Safari?
 
 

 
I'm a desktop Chrome user but I prefer the Safari app for iPhone. It's worth noting that Safari will always be the default browser when opening a link from another app. 
 
 

Also, I am getting a 4S that is 8gb. That sounds small. How will that affect me? I use my phone to make calls, check email, set a fantasy lineup, that kind of thing.

 
If you don't store music or video on your phone you can get by with 8gb.
 
 

 
 
Drocca is getting the 4S, I have the 5C, can we facetime?

 

Yep.

 

[derekson]

 
I'm a desktop Chrome user but I prefer the Safari app for iPhone. It's worth noting that Safari will always be the default browser when opening a link from another app. 
 
 
 
If you don't store music or video on your phone you can get by with 8gb.
 
 
 

Yep.

 
I believe in iOS 8 you'll be able to set a default browser if you want to, but Im not entirely positive about that.
 
In my experience on OS X, Chrome isn't nearly as well optimized as Safari and will kill battery life much quicker and things like that. I'm not sure if it is the same way on iOS or not. 
 
Why a 4S at this point? A 5C with 8 GB will be free on contract or the same price a 4S is today with the new one coming out. The 4S is 3 year old technology and probably won't be supported past iOS 8 or maybe 9.

 

[Drocca]

The lady on the phone said the 4s was $0.99 and the 5 was $100.

 

[jayhoz]

5C will be free shortly if not already.

 

[Drocca]

That's annoying, but, I mean, am I going to even be able to tell the damn difference? I seriously doubt it.

 

[trekfan55]

I wasn't being sarcastic. I deactivated, not defriended. Nothing but love.

I am getting my first iPhone Friday and am going to be on a 2gb (between two people) plan. I checked our past usage of our crappy galaxy1 phones and we, combined,never hit 1gb in a month but I am concerned that, with cooler apps and shit we will go over.

 
The iphone does consume a lot more data than the Galaxy. So usage will change.

 

[ifmanis5]

One more tip- call yourself from your iPhone to activate voicemail, otherwise you won't be able to retrieve them.

 

[trekfan55]

Honestly, yes. The 5 and 5C are bigger screen and much much faster.

 
That plus the fact that the 4S will ikely be dropped from future IOS updates and therefore the latest apps.

 

[Drocca]

Can I call AT&T (I am a new customer) when the phones arrive Friday and request that I get the 5 and return the 4? Does that sound like something that would work?

 

[derekson]

Can I call AT&T (I am a new customer) when the phones arrive Friday and request that I get the 5 and return the 4? Does that sound like something that would work?

 
They should have a 14 day or 30 day exchange policy, meaning you should be able to just walk into a retail store and turn in the 4S and get a 5C, if not now then after the new models launch.

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

I'm a desktop Chrome user but I prefer the Safari app for iPhone. It's worth noting that Safari will always be the default browser when opening a link from another app. 

 
It's also worth noting that Safari is the only browser on iOS that is allowed to JIT-compile Javascript into machine code. What this means is that Javascript-intense websites will run (interpreted) very slowly on any browser other than Safari.
 
----
Edit: apparently things will change in iOS8 for developers willing to migrate to a (new and different) Modern WebKit. Devs interested in the detail should look at "Introducing the Modern WebKit API" on https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2014/.

 

[Apisith]

Random other tips : every once in a while, double click the home button and close apps you're not using. They will stay open in the background and suck battery life. This method can also be used to swap between apps using more than one at a time. Also set your mail to check for new mail every 30 mins instead of being on push unless your job dictates otherwise.

Turn your brightness down to save battery as well as notifications (to also save annoyance). You have a huge data plan but if you're worried go into settings:cellular you set each app to use data plan or wait for wifi.

The double tapping and closing apps in the multitasking menu doesn't help with battery life because those apps aren't running in the background. Basically shutting those off don't do anything for your phone.

 

[SumnerH]

I wasn't being sarcastic. I deactivated, not defriended. Nothing but love.

I am getting my first iPhone Friday and am going to be on a 2gb (between two people) plan. I checked our past usage of our crappy galaxy1 phones and we, combined,never hit 1gb in a month but I am concerned that, with cooler apps and shit we will go over.

 
I went 3GS -> Motorola Atrix -> LG G2 and have been toting around my grandfathered unlimited data plan, but  I've never exceeded 400MB of data usage in a month.  Unless you are on the road a lot or do a lot of tethering or stream video/music when not connected to wifi, 2GB for 2 people is a lot.

 

[Zomp]

Say I download a bunch of apps, then iOS 8 comes out.  Will I lose my apps if I update?

 

[Zomp]

Zomo you can add as many email accounts as you want. Personally I download different email clients for different accounts. The reason I do this is because from time to time I'll forget and send a work email from my personal account or whatever. The email that goes on the stock mail app is the one that i want to sync my contacts and mail to.

Obviously you don't have to do things this way, more of a "how I do things slightly differently" bend.

 
I like this idea, especially since I use my personal e-mail to send Kuhn pictures of my junk.
 
My company uses Lotus Notes (ew) so I'll need a client for that, then I have Gmail.  Any recommendations?

 

[Zomp]

One more tip- call yourself from your iPhone to activate voicemail, otherwise you won't be able to retrieve them.

 
lol wut?

 

[Apisith]

Say I download a bunch of apps, then iOS 8 comes out.  Will I lose my apps if I update?

No. It's the same when Samsung sent out an OS update on your old Android. The software will update but the apps won't be affected.

 

[johnmd20]

No. It's the same when Samsung sent out an OS update on your old Android. The software will update but the apps won't be affected.

 
Crikey. Imagine if a software update caused all your apps to disappear? That would be a travesty.

 

[Drocca]

They should have a 14 day or 30 day exchange policy, meaning you should be able to just walk into a retail store and turn in the 4S and get a 5C, if not now then after the new models launch.

Thanks, this is super awesome and helpful.

 

[Drocca]

I went 3GS -> Motorola Atrix -> LG G2 and have been toting around my grandfathered unlimited data plan, but  I've never exceeded 400MB of data usage in a month.  Unless you are on the road a lot or do a lot of tethering or stream video/music when not connected to wifi, 2GB for 2 people is a lot.

I knew I was safe when my first response to this was to google what tethering meant in this context.

 

[ifmanis5]

lol wut?

It may depend on your carrier but it happened to me and it's happened to many. Trust me, call your own phone and set up voice mail as soon as you can.

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

 
Crikey. Imagine if a software update caused all your apps to disappear? That would be a travesty.

An OS update could cause more than that to disappear, which is why you backup before taking the update...

 

[Zomp]

Is there a way I can download songs to my iPhone on iTunes, then transfer them to my iTunes on my computer to make the MP3's?  Trying to put a playlist together on a flash drive for a party I'm hosting.

 

[Blundatola]

Is there a way I can download songs to my iPhone on iTunes, then transfer them to my iTunes on my computer to make the MP3's?  Trying to put a playlist together on a flash drive for a party I'm hosting.

 
Yeah, you can do this.  After you've made purchases on your iPhone you can either sync (Wi-Fi or USB) to get the files in iTunes or you can authorize your computer to download directly following the instructions here.  Once the songs are in iTunes/saved to your computer you can open your encoder and select the files to convert to MP3.  File locations will depend on your OS.  This link lists where the actual files can be found.

 

[Fratboy]

Go here for tips and tricks to improve battery life, Zomp:
 
http://www.zdnet.com/how-to-improve-your-iphones-battery-life-updated-for-ios7-7000014902/#photo

 

[cgori]

Strongly suggest you move all the apps you don't care about / don't use to the second or third screen - hold down on the app until it switches to a little vibrating thing with an X in the corner, then you can move it wherever you want by dragging.  Don't feel bad about totally rearranging the location of any/all apps on the first screen, or the bottom bar - put the stuff you care about on that first screen (and the absolute most common stuff on the bottom bar).  There's a lot of crap that comes loaded by default.
 
Tip: If you cant remember where some app is (or where you put it), just pull down from the top-left on the screen and there will be a search box.  Type the first few letters of what you are looking for, it will find it.  Also works to find contacts or appointments in your calendar.
 
Get the SoSH app.

 

[derekson]

Strongly suggest you move all the apps you don't care about / don't use to the second or third screen - hold down on the app until it switches to a little vibrating thing with an X in the corner, then you can move it wherever you want by dragging.  Don't feel bad about totally rearranging the location of any/all apps on the first screen, or the bottom bar - put the stuff you care about on that first screen (and the absolute most common stuff on the bottom bar).  There's a lot of crap that comes loaded by default.
 
Tip: If you cant remember where some app is (or where you put it), just pull down from the top-left on the screen and there will be a search box.  Type the first few letters of what you are looking for, it will find it.  Also works to find contacts or appointments in your calendar.
 
Get the SoSH app.

 
In iOS 8, the Spotlight search looks for a whole lot more than apps, contacts, and appointments. It'll pull up web results, map results, wikipedia, etc now.

 

[Boston Brawler]

I downloaded iOS 8 last night on my 4s and now I can't connect to the internet (through wifi or 3G/cellular). It seems this is a known issue right now, but I can't find a solution. Any suggestions?

 

[derekson]

I downloaded iOS 8 last night on my 4s and now I can't connect to the internet (through wifi or 3G/cellular). It seems this is a known issue right now, but I can't find a solution. Any suggestions?

Try going to Settings, general, reset and resetting the network settings.

 

[IpswichSox]

I'm about to give my 14-year-old son my iPhone 5S. He has an iPhone 4S. He doesn't have his own iCloud account, and he doesn't currently back up his phone to, say, my wife's iCloud account.
 
So the question is how best to transfer the apps, pictures etc on his current phone to the new phone? Could i backup his profile and data to my wife's iCloud account and then restore that profile and data to the 5S without also importing data/pictures/apps that are on my wife's phone?  With the new 200GB iCloud storage plans, my wife has tons of free space available, so I'd like to use a portion of her storage to backup and restore for my kid as well as creating a permanent backup for him.
 
I could create an iCloud account for my son to accomplish the same thing, but he has more than 5GB that's offered for free, and why pay monthly fees if he can use 30GB or whatever of my wife's 200GB.  Is this doable or do I need to do something else to transfer the data that's saved only on the 4S to the 5S? 
 
Thanks in advance.

 

[derekson]

Id just make him an account, with the new family sharing thing he would have access to all the purchased apps and stuff so you wouldn't need to re-buy any of that. Are you sure he's using morethan 5 GB (or 20 GB is only $.99/month) for iCloud backups? If you backup music thats purchased and apps and stuff it doesn't actually count those as space taken up, it just marks them as installed to redownload from the store if you need to restore the backup.

 

[Zomp]

So I've enjoyed my iPhone experience so much I just picked up a 6 for personal use.  One question though...
 
For my gmail I have 3 tabs in my inbox.  Primary, Social, and Promotions.  That is on my desktop, so when I sign on and it says I have 3 new messages, those are all in my primary folder.  I get hundreds of e-mails per day in my social and promotions tabs so it doesn't count those.  On my Galaxy, it also followed this rule and when my icon showed a number for unread messages, it was only for the primary.
 
I've synced my gmail account with this phone and it says I have 5000+ unread messages and they are all in one folder.  Is it possible to divide them like I had on my Galaxy?

 

[Zomp]

Looks like the answer is to download the gmail app.

 

[soxhop411]

Looks like the answer is to download the gmail app.

I believe that is correct… My school uses gmail for its email client, and when I used the stock mail app, ALL of my gmail goes into the inbox (when like you said on the desktop it has it in three folders)

 

[FenwayFrenzy]

Looks like the answer is to download the gmail app.

Zomp, try Outlook for iPhone (free on App Store) as well. I dumped the Gmail app a few weeks ago and love the way Outlook manages attachments. It also has a split mailbox that separates your 'focused' mail from the spam-ish stuff.

 

[B H Kim]

Zomp, try Outlook for iPhone (free on App Store) as well. I dumped the Gmail app a few weeks ago and love the way Outlook manages attachments. It also has a split mailbox that separates your 'focused' mail from the spam-ish stuff.

 
Outlook for iOS has a number lot potential security problems, not the least of which is that it stores all of your email data (including passwords) on Microsoft servers.  I'd stay away from it of there are better alternatives.