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iPhone Screen Grabs and Other Tricks

Here's 4 iPhone tricks that hardcore iPhone users probably know about but they took me a little while to figure out:

Taking a Screen Grab of Your Current iPhone Screen

You may know how to take a screen grab (or "screenshot") on your PC or Mac, but did you know you can do it on your iPhone? I had no idea this was possible until my friend Dave Cascino showed me at lunch one day. Just simultaneously hit the round button at the bottom of the iPhone and the small silver button at the top of the iPhone simultaneously. You'll see the screen flash white for a second and your screen grab will be available in the "Photos" section of your phone.

I wish I knew about this feature when creating instructions on how to configure the iPhone to connect to Zenbe for our email users.

Controlling the iPod When Your Phone is Locked

Your iPhone probably locks itself after several minutes of not using it and you need to use the "slide to unlock" feature to get to your home screen. This is kind of annoying if you're listening to music and want to pause or advance the track (and don't use headphones with iPod controls built in).

No problem. When the phone is locked, just double click the round button at the bottom of the phone. A little menu will appear at the top. It shows the current time, as well as controls for pausing, playing, adjusting the volume, and moving forward or backward a track. Here's a screen grab of what it looks like with an audiobook I was just listening to (note I used the screen grab technique described above to get this image):

Jumping to the Top of the Screen in Safari

A lot of people know about this shortcut now, but I figured I'd throw it in anyway. If you're browsing a long web page in Safari and are close to the bottom of the screen, just tap on the menu bar (where the time and battery indicator is displayed) and Safari will auto-scroll back up to the top.

Many other third-party applications that scroll now support this feature so try it out.

Getting Back to Your Home Screen

If you're a hardcore iPhone user you may have several pages of applications you've downloaded or bought. As of the 2.2 firmware update, you can now click on the round button at the bottom of the iPhone and you'll jump back to the very first page of applications.