A lot of people sleep with their iPhone by their bedsides, since an iPhone makes a great alarm clock. However, sometimes the incessant email alerts, push notifications, SMS alerts, and phone calls can keep us from actually drifting into a sweet, sweet slumber. In this week's tips, we'll show you how to silence those notifications, as well as show you how to monitor your data usage, monitor the memory on your iOS devices and walk you through the difference between deleting and archiving your Gmail inbox.
Note: starting this month we'll make an assumption, that unless otherwise stated, all tips are compatible with both generations of the iPad. Additionally, unless otherwise stated all iPhone compatible tips work on the iPhone for AT&T or Verizon.
Launch the Settings App and turn Airplane Mode on--you'll find it at the very top of the opening screen labeled Settings.
Airplane mode will shut off all wireless connections, which will keep your notifications from sounding off in the middle of the night. Unlike silencing your phone, your alarm will still go off in the morning, while your email and SMS will arrive after you switch your phone back to regular mode.
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
If you want to closely track your data usage, launch the Settings app, tap General > Usage > Reset Statistics.
On that same screen, there's also a tally for cellular network data usage. You'll need to keep an eye on this information if you don't have an unlimited data plan. If you do have an unlimited data plan, well then you're really lucky and why are you reading this, anyway?
You should also check your carriers website to see if they provide additional tools that will help you monitor your data usage.
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad.
If you accessing your Gmail from your iPhone or iPad, you'll have to swipe at the message to archive it. But that gets annoying when you'd rather get rid of the message. So, launch the Settings app, tap Mail > Contact > Calendars, and then tap your Gmail account. Under Archive Messages, you can toggle whether you want to swipe to delete your messages or archive them.
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
It doesn't matter how much space you have on your iOS device, it matters how you use it. One thing is for certain: it can fill up fast. So it is important that you keep track of it and consider leaving at least 1GB or 2GB free for emergencies...or, y'know, some music or something. Launch the Settings app, tap General > About to get the stats of your hard drive space.
Follow this articles author, David W. Martin on Twitter.
strabes
March 17, 2011 at 1:30pm
Actually, the alarm clock does go off even when the iPhone is in vibrate mode. Every night I turn it on vibrate mode (in case of local notifications) and turn on Airplane Mode.
tekkyn00b
March 17, 2011 at 1:47pm
+1 Yuppers. I've set mine to not vibrate but just go silent, and my alarm still goes off in the morning.
And I wouldn't really call it "Memory", I'd call it "Storage". But *shrug*
Avenged110
March 17, 2011 at 3:23pm
In that respect, "get the stats of your hard drive space." should really be "flash memory space".... lol
