Five Things You Didn’t Know about the iPhone 5

Hotly Anticipated iPhone 5 Goes In Sale In Stores

It seems like pretty much everyone now owns some type of smart phone, but most tend to think of or choose Apple’s iPhone. While Android phones are equally as competent and even sell more in certain locations, the iPhone and Apple brand is known widely around the world. People can do a lot with smart phones, but little do people realize Apple’s products always have some nice features that go unnoticed by tons of owners, so here are five things you didn’t know about the iPhone 5.

5. Use your volume button or headphones to take a photo

Although this one might seem like a no brainer to some, I still find myself teaching plenty of people that they can use the volume buttons to capture a photo when holding the phone in landscape mode. For those who understand this little trick, you know how bothersome it can be to watch someone awkwardly trying to hold the phone and tap the screen while trying to take a landscape photo. You can use the volume buttons, it makes it so much easier, and even when you have headphones in with volume buttons (like Apple’s) they too will snap a photo when the camera is opened.

4. Putting your iPhone on airplane mode will charge it twice as fast

Yes, when you plug in your phone to charge and put it on airplane mode it will charge with double the speed. How so? It’s actually really simple; when you turn airplane mode on it disables most of the phones functions that use a lot of battery while running. It takes away your cell service, wifi, and bluetooth which all use up a lot of battery to constantly search for devices to connect to while on, so by disabling them it allows the phone to charge faster.

3. Take a burst of photos 

Another simple little function that most stumble upon is that you can take a burst of photos for moving shots. All you have to do is hold down the capture button when you touch the screen or volume buttons to get the multiple burst shots. It’s nice that they throw this feature into the phone and many probably wish they had known about it years ago.

2. Find out what planes are flying in your area

This is sort of a quirky one but honestly the only that I never knew about. I don’t really use Siri, but can appreciate the functions she provides, even this one. By asking “what flights are above me” or “planes overhead” the device will take about 30 seconds and bring up the information about any airplanes flying around.

1. Create a passcode with letters

Yes, this was another I found out about more recently. By going through the settings you can turn off “simple passcode” which lets users create a word based password for their phone. You can activate the feature by going to settings, then “general” and choosing passcode lock.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Written by Blaise Hopkins

Feel free to contact Blaise on Twitter @Blaisehopkins or check out his blog Man and His Movies.