Enhancing Your iPhone with Apps

Your iPhone is an impressive, eyebrow-raising device right out of the box. It does everything you want it to do - or so you think, until you find out about some previously unknown feature and wonder how you ever lived without it. It's hard to imagine that anyone would, or even could, improve the iPhone. However, as you see in this section, the App Store can make your iPhone more convenient, more productive, and more, well, anything!

Accessing the App Store on your computer

You've seen that your iPhone comes loaded not only with a basketful of terrific technology but also a decent collection of truly amazing apps, all of which take advantage of the special features on your iPhone. But it probably also won't escape your notice that the iPhone suite of apps is incomplete. Where are the news and sports headlines? Why isn't there an easy way to post a short note to your blog or a link to your Delicious account?

Fortunately, it's possible to fill in these and many other gaping iPhone app holes with the App Store. You browse and purchase apps in the App Store the same way that you browse and purchase music in the iTunes Store - although many apps are free for the downloading. You can even use the familiar iTunes software on your Mac or Windows PC, or you can connect to the App Store directly from your iPhone, which is explained later.

To access the App Store on your computer, follow these steps:

Launch iTunes.
Click iTunes Store. The iTunes Store interface appears.
Click App Store. iTunes loads the main App Store page.
Click the iPhone tab. iTunes loads the iPhone version of the App Store page.

Note:
Usually you can't tell just by looking whether an app is free. However, the App Store does have a Top Charts section on the right side that includes a handy Free Apps list. It's a good place to start if you're looking for free stuff.

From here, use the links to browse the apps, or use the iTunes Store search box to look for something specific.

Accessing the App Store on your iPhone

Getting apps from iTunes is great, but what if you're away from your desk and you hear about an amazing iPhone game, or you realize that you forgot to download an important app using iTunes? This isn't even remotely a problem because your iPhone can establish a wireless connection to the App Store anywhere you have Wi-Fi access or a cellular signal (ideally LTE or 3G for faster downloads). You can browse and search the apps, check for updates, or purchase any app you want (unless it's free, of course). The app then downloads to your iPhone, installs itself on the Home screen, and you're good to go!

To access the App Store on your iPhone, tap the Home button to return to the Home screen and then tap the App Store icon.

Your iPhone organizes the App Store similar to the iTunes Store (as well as the Music app). That is, you get five browse buttons in the menu bar: Featured, Charts, Genius, Search, and Updates. You use these buttons to navigate the App Store.

Here's a summary of what each browse button does for you:

Featured: Tap this button to display a list of videos picked by the App Store editors. The list shows each app's name, icon, category, and price. Tap New & Noteworthy to see the latest apps and tap Categories to see a list of app categories, such as Games and Newsstand. Tap a category to see a list of the apps available.
Charts Tap this button to see three lists of the most downloaded apps: Paid, Free, and Grossing (that is, the apps that have generated the most revenue).
Genius Tap this button to turn on Genius Recommendations for Apps, which shows you apps that are similar to those you currently use.
Search Tap this button to display a Search text box. Tap inside the box, enter a search phrase, and then tap Search. The App Store sends back a list of apps that match your search term.
Updates Tap this button to install updated versions of your apps.

Note:
Tap an app to get more detailed information about it. The Info screen that appears gives you a description of the app, shows a screenshot, and may even offer some user reviews.

Syncing apps

After you download an app or two into iTunes, they won't do you much good just sitting there. To actually use the apps, you need to get them on your iPhone. Here's how:

Connect your iPhone to your computer. iTunes opens and accesses the iPhone.
In iTunes, click your iPhone in the Devices list.
Click the Apps tab.
Select the Sync Apps check box.
In the app list, select the check box beside each app that you want to sync.
Click Apply. iTunes syncs the iPhone using your new app settings.

By default, any new apps you add to your computer are automatically synced to your iPhone. If you'd rather not have all your new apps synced without your say so, deselect the Automatically sync new apps check box, which appears just below the app list.

Viewing and updating your apps

When you click Apps in the iTunes Library, you see a list of icons that represent all the apps that you've downloaded from the App Store. To check for updates to your apps, click X Updates Available (where X is the number of updates you have waiting for you). When the developer releases a new version of an app, the App Store compares the new version with what you have. If you have an earlier version, it offers to update the app for you (usually without charge).

When you access the App Store with your iPhone, take a look at the Updates browse button in the menu bar. If you see a red dot with a white number inside it superimposed over the Updates button, it means some of your installed apps have updated versions available. The number inside the dot tells you how many updates are waiting for you. It's a good idea to update your apps whenever a new version becomes available. The new version usually fixes bugs, but it might also supply more features, give better performance, or beef up the app's security.

Follow these steps to install an update:

On the Home screen, tap App Store. Your iPhone connects to the App Store.
Tap the Updates button. Remember that you are only able to tap this button if you see the red dot with a number that indicates the available updates. You then see the Updates screen.
Tap an update. The App Store displays a description of the update.
Tap Update. Your iPhone downloads and installs the app update.

Multitasking apps

Your iPhone is capable of multitasking, which enables you to run multiple apps at the same time. This is useful if, say, you're playing a game and an e-mail message comes in. You can switch to the message, read it, respond to it, and then resume your game right where you left off.

At its most basic, multitasking on the iPhone means that whenever you run an app and then switch to another app, your iPhone keeps the first app running in the background. In most cases, the first app does nothing while it's in the background - it doesn't take any processor time away from your current app and it doesn't use battery power. This means that you're free to open as many apps as you like. However, if the first app is performing some task and you switch to another app, the first app will continue to perform the task in the background.

To get a firm grip on how iPhone multitasking works, you need to understand the three modes an app can have on the iPhone:

Closed State: This mode means the app is completely shut down. If you reboot your iPhone (by turning it off and then back on), all your apps are then in the Closed State.
Suspended State: If you launch an app, then press the Home button to return to the Home screen, usually your iPhone places the running app into the Suspended State. This means the app remains loaded into memory, but it's not running, it's not using up processor time, and it's not draining the battery. However, the app still maintains its current conditions, so that when you return to it, the app resumes where you left off.
Background State: If you launch an app, start some process such as playing music, and then press the Home button to return to the Home screen, your iPhone puts the app into the Background State, which means it keeps the app's process running in the background. When you return to the app, either you see the process still running or it has been completed.

The vast majority of apps go into the Suspended State when you switch to another app. However, if you launch an app and your iPhone doesn't have enough free memory available, the iPhone starts putting suspended apps into the Closed State to free up memory.

So how do you switch from one app to another? Double-tap the Home button to reveal the multitasking bar, which displays the running apps. Flick left or right to bring the app icon into view and then tap the app to switch to it.

As an added bonus, the multitasking bar also includes a few useful iPhone tools. Flick the multitasking bar to the right until you see the controls. Tap the Rotation Lock icon to prevent the iPhone from rotating between portrait and landscape modes, and use the audio icons to control the playback of the most recently used audio app.

To help you navigate the list of running apps, shut down any apps you won't be using for a while. Double-tap the Home button to display the multitasking bar, and press and hold any app to put the icons into edit mode. Then tap the red Delete icon in the upper-left corner of any app you want to shut down. When you finish, press the Home button to exit edit mode.

Using Siri to launch an app

One of the main complaints about the initial incarnation of Siri, the voice-activated iPhone assistant, was that you couldn't use it to launch apps. True, that's not a big deal if you have just a couple of Home screens to flick through, but if you're rocking your iPhone with dozens of apps, Siri would have been a great way to avoid the drudgery of scrolling through a bunch of screens to locate the app you want.

Fortunately, that shortcoming has been overcome in iOS 6, and Siri now lets you launch any app on your iPhone by using any of the following verbs: "launch," "run," "open," or "start," followed by the name of the app. Here are some examples:

"Launch Safari"
"Run Photos"
"Open Settings"
"Start Notes"

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