
Say hello to the new you. The new you doesn't ask for directions or wonder which restaurant in your city serves the best Pad Thai. The new you never has a "what was that movie title again?" moment, because the new you has constant access to Google. The new you shoots and edits video of that a cappella group performing on the subway, sends emails to the office, checks out Saturday's forecast and listens to the new Ben Folds song -- all on the way to work.
So you got a smartphone this holiday season. You have arrived. But what are your first steps as a new citizen in the land of touch screens and voice control?
IPHONE
- Get a case. Though it is powerful, your iPhone screen isn't made to withstand much wear and tear. If you drop it, the screen will crack. And it will look like a spider web.
- There's an app for that. Check out the App Store icon on your home screen. You can navigate through hundreds of thousands of apps by checking out Featured items and Top Sellers, and by searching for specifics. We recommend downloading some of the iPhone favorites, which include Twitter, Pandora, ESPN Score Center, All Recipes, Shazam (which will help you identify a song from the radio), and eBuddy, which streamlines various chat services (AIM, GChat, Facebook Chat, etc.).
- Can you see me now? FaceTime. It's one of the coolest additions to the iPhone technology, and it's very easy to use. Go to Settings, click on the Phone menu and enable FaceTime. Then choose a contact, scroll down, and choose FaceTime. Just make sure the contact also has an iPhone 4 before you call or you're not going to get anywhere.
- Get personal. This means changing the wallpaper (found by going to Settings and choosing Wallpaper) and deleting some of the home screen clutter. To move or delete an icon, press it and hold. The icons will start moving, and little X's will appear next to them. Tap and drag apps to move them, or create new folders for them.
- Typing. It takes a little practice, but we promise you'll get the hang of it. A few tips: if you tap and hold a specific vowel, C, N, $, ?, ! or the quotation marks, a list of foreign language versions will pop up. Shake to activate the Undo button. If you're typing a URL, tap and hold the ".com" for a list of other extensions.