iOS 7′s 10 coolest hidden features

Apple rolled out iOS 7 yesterday, and with it, a number of changes to its mobile operating system. Most notably, iOS 7 looks vastly different from iOS 6, adopting flat colors and skinny text as its visual backbone. The operating system still works like it always has, but this time around there are a number of new, useful hidden features.

Text timestamps

Perhaps the most mind-blowing feature in iOS 7 is that text messages now have individual timestamps. Simply load a text conversation, then swipe from right to left, and you’ll invoke timestamps for every chat bubble in the thread. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an option to permanently display them, but finally having them is a great step forward.

Block contacts

In the past, if you gave out your number to someone at bar just to shut them up and get back to talking to your friends, you would’ve had to endure their text messages. You could ignore them, sure, but your phone would still alert you to their arrival. Now, you can block contacts from calls, texts, and FaceTime. Simply go to Settings, then either Phone, Messages, or FaceTime. From there, go to Blocked, and you can add contacts to the blocked list for any of the message apps.

Unlimited folders

In previous versions of iOS, the folders had a hard cap on the number of apps they could contain. While having capped folders is much better than not having folders, it definitely wasn’t enough for some of us. Now, folders can hold an infinite number of apps. Unfortunately, there’s a trade-off. Previously, the capped folders allowed a four-by-four grid of apps. This time around, the uncapped folders only allow a three-by-three grid per folder page. So, you can have less folders cluttering your Home screen, but you’ll have to swipe around more often.

Built-in flashlight

The iOS platform has a plethora of competent flashlight apps that utilize the phone’s camera flash. Now, iOS 7 as a flashlight built in. Simply invoke the Control Center app by swiping up from the bottom of the iPhone’s screen, and the little flashlight icon sits in the lower left corner. It doesn’t have as many options as your standard fare app found on the App Store, but it’s fully functional, and finally built in.

Safari collects missed Twitter links

Buried deep within iOS 7′s native browser, Safari, is a list of tweets from your Twitter feed you might’ve missed that contain links. Load up Safari, click on the bookmarks icon, then click on the @ symbol tab. It’s certainly strange that a cool feature like that is shunned away two-tabs-deep in a single app, but it’s nice that it exists.

Level built into compass

The compass app in iOS 7 now has a built-in level. Simply load the compass, then swipe a screen over. The level is a minimalist, black-and-white affair, but like with the built-in flashlight, you’ll no longer have to grab a level from the App Store.

Automatic updates

Instead of loading the App Store, navigating to the Updates tab, then hitting Update All, you can now have your apps update automatically. Go into Settings, then iTunes & App Store. Scroll down a bit to the Automatic Downloads section, then enable or disable automatic downloads for whichever app you prefer. We’d suggest shutting it off every option other than automatic updates, just so you conserve your device’s battery.

Spotlight search

In previous versions of iOS, you’d swipe all the way to the left screen in order to pull up Spotlight. Now, you can simply perform a downward swipe motion anywhere on the screen to invoke Spotlight.

Go back

Now, you can swipe to go back to a previous screen from within in app, like a back button in a web browser. Start the left edge of your screen, then swipe from left to right, and there you go. Unfortunately, some apps use that gesture to do other things, and there does appear to be conflicts with the go back gesture.

Multitasking

The iOS 7 multitasking pane is now much different. Rather than a little linear bar filled with apps on the bottom of the screen, you’re brought to a standalone menu that not only displays the app icons, but their associated window. To close an app, swipe the window up toward the top of the screen; but that’s not the trick. When scrolling through your apps, you’ll notice that the icons scroll at a different speed than the windows. In order to scroll though your apps as fast as possible, use the line of app icons to scroll rather than the windows.

Apple’s new mobile operating system has a plethora of new features, but the majority of them are front and center. So, while the above list doesn’t encompass everything that’s new about iOS 7, it does feature options and services that aren’t readily apparent
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HOW TO: Hack the iPhone to work anywhere in the world -- 10 step guide with pics

The 8GB iPhone dropped to $US399 ($AU483) overnight, so what are you waiting for? Here's the 10 step complete guide on how to hack it to work in Australia.

WARNING: APC makes no guarantee that the instructions below will not damage your iPhone. The procedure described below is an unauthorised modification to the normal operation of the iPhone, so any damage that occurs is your responsibility.

With the price of the 8GB iPhone dropping to $US399 ($AU483) overnight , how can anyone resist the temptation of buying one and hacking it to work in Australia?
Here's the step-by-step on how to get it working on any 2G mobile network in the world -- including Optus, Telstra, Vodafone or Virgin Mobile in Australia. (The iPhone cannot be made to work on Three because it is a purely 3G network and the iPhone is 2G only.)
This tutorial uses the TurboSIM method and assumes you are on a Mac.
There are various other approaches floating around other than what is described in this tutorial, but this is a compliation of the easy methods that worked for me.
If you've got questions ask them in the comments and I'll try my best to respond.

Step 1: buy an iPhone

Sounds obvious, but of course, Apple doesn't make it easy for anyone outside the US to get one.
If you know someone in the US, you're set -- anyone can walk into an Apple Store and buy an iPhone with no requirement to sign up to a service contract.

You can also buy online via Apple.com as long as you have a US delivery address and phone number you can use on the order form.
You don't have to sign up for an AT&T contract at the time of buying the phone at the Applestore -- that's supposed to be done via iTunes when you get home, which you obviously won't do if you're using the hack outlined below.
There are also many iPhones being sold on eBay, but be sure to buy from a seller who has a long feedback rating for expensive electronics items -- don't get sucked into buying a brick (literally) from someone who has 3,000 positive feedback entries for low value items like matchbooks.
If you're really, really desperate to get your hands on the iPhone and don't trust any of the methods outlined above, I'll just point out two totally separate, unrelated facts, one fact for you and one fact for your wife: Apple has stores in Hawaii and flights to Hawaii can be found for as little as $900. Do not speak of these two facts in the same sentence in a domestic situation, however.

Buying an iPhone is the easy part. Just choose between a 4 or 8GB model.

Step 2: buy a TurboSIM

To be honest, at the moment this is by far the most difficult part. TurboSIMs, manufactured by a tiny company in the Czech Republic, are in short supply.
You can either wait for Australian distributor Votech to get their store back on-line or you can try buying one off eBay. Unfortunately the eBay prices are highly inflated.

Finding a TurboSIM is the hardest part of this procedure.

Step 3: download these free tools

Download and install the following software.

• Apple Developer Tools (Xcode) - to get this, you'll need to sign up for a free Apple Developer Connection (ADC) membership
• The iPhone Firmware that matches the version you have on your iPhone. Links are 1.0 , 1.01 and 1.02. Once the file is downloaded change the extension to .zip and expand it. iActivator needs it in order to be able to activate your iPhone.
• iActivator - this is the the best program to use to accomplish both activation and "jailbreaking" -- the removal of the iPhone's file system protections, so you can actually make changes to the files on the phone.
• MacPorts

Step 4: download some more software for the TurboSIM

Download the following software and keep handy. You'll need it to get the TurboSIM working.

• ssh-sftp-installer.zip
• turbo-cable-utils-iPhone-0.7.0-rev1.tar.gz
• Applesaft

Step 5 - Activate your iPhone

Activate your iPhone using iActivator. Plug your phone into your Mac and quit iTunes when it opens.
In iActivator click 'Perform Jailbreak' and follow the onscreen instructions.
Once your phone has been jailbroken you'll need to click 'Put PEM File' and click 'Generate Activation'. This generates a .plist file which you'll need for activation.
Lastly, click 'Activate iPhone' and point it to the .plist file you've just created.
In my experience, iActivator will return an error when clicking 'Activate iPhone'. Don't panic, just quit iActivator and try again. It should work by the third or fourth try.

iActivator - Just follow the onscreen instructions.

Step 6 - install some apps on your iPhone

Once your phone is Jailbroken and activated you need to install the SSH and SFTP features so you can transfer some other software onto the iPhone.
On your Mac, open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
Type cd followed by a space, then drag the unarchived ssh-sftp-installer folder onto your Terminal window and hit enter. (It will paste the complete path for that file into the Terminal window.)

Install SSH and SFTP

Next type ./installer.sh followed by a space, then type any password -- this will become the password for ssh and sftp on the iPhone itself. Hit enter and restart your iPhone as prompted by the onscreen instructions.
(Credit to Shaun Inman for devising the original steps described in this part of the tutorial. See his instructions here.)

Step 7 - connect to the iPhone using SFTP

To install the TurboSIM applications you'll need to SFTP to your iPhone.
To do this grab a copy of the excellent FTP app Transmit from Panic.
When creating the FTP connection in Transmit, you'll want to enter 'root' as the username and the password you specified above. Also, make sure you select SFTP -- the default mode of Transmit is FTP, which will not work.

SFTP using Transmit. Remember to select SFTP from the drop down menu.

You'll also need to determine the IP address of your iPhone. To do this tap on 'Settings', 'WiFi' and click on the arrow next to the name of the network you are connected to.

Select WiFi from the Settings menu

Click the arrow to find your IP details

Finally, your IP address. Enter this information in the address field of Transmit

The next screen should show you your IP address. It's also important to remember to keep the phone from going to sleep in this step, otherwise the SFTP connection will reset (you could just set the 'Auto-Lock' settings under 'Settings', 'General' to 'Never'.

Step 8 - install the TurboSIM applications on the iPhone.

You're nearly there.
Now, you need to copy the Turbo Utils and Apple Saft across to your iPhone.
Copy the unzipped turbo-cable-utils-iPhone folder to the iPhone's /bin directory.

Copy the Turbo utils across to the /bin folder on your iPhone

Now select all the files you have just copied and go to the 'File' menu and select 'Get Info'. Make sure you tick 'execute' for all rows.

Make the files executable by selecting the files, clicking get info, and ticking the 'execute' boxes

Now, copy Applesaft to the /private/var/root directory on the iPhone.

Copy AppleSaft to your home folder on the iPhone

You now need to Disable CommCenter on your iPhone.

To do this open /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist on your iPhone and select 'Edit with Transmit' from the 'File' menu (or right click).

Edit the text file using transmit.

Add <key>Disabled</key><true/> just above the text </dict> on the second last line (last line being </plist>) and save the file.

Now, you'll need to restart your iPhone (to do this just hold down the sleep button until the red slider appears on the screen. Slide the slider across and the phone will shutdown. Once the phone has shut down press the sleep button to restart it.

Step 9: cut up your SIM cards (gulp)

It's now time to cut up your own local SIM card and the AT&T SIM card that came with the iPhone, so they both fit the TurboSIM nicely.
The good news here is that it's more scary than it sounds: the plastic you're cutting off is 'dead plastic' -- and won't affect the functionality of your SIM card in other phones, even if you use it without the TurboSIM in the future.
Of course, since you're about to cut up your SIM card, we'll just refer you again to that red disclaimer at the top of the article about us taking absolutely no responsibility for you being a little overenthusiastic with the kitchen scissors.
Insert the AT&T+TurboSIM combination very gently into the iPhone. I used a little bit of scotch tape to secure the two SIM cards together. If you need to apply too much force then you haven't fitted the card to the tray properly. Also, it's OK to trim the back of the SIM card so it fits more snuggly.
OK... once you've fitted your TurboSIM + AT&T card open Terminal again and type the following:
ssh root@'your ip address' (replace 'your ip address' with the IP address you figured out above by looking at the iPhone's WiFi settings) and press Enter. Now type in your password when prompted. The password is the one you set for SSH/SFTP earlier.

SSH to your iPhone to run the turbo-app command

Now enter the following command: turbo-info and press EnterYou should see a summary and OK.
Next, enter the following command:
turbo-app /private/var/root/applesaft.trb
You should see a reply with OK (it can take 30 seconds or so)

Now, re-enable CommCenter on your iPhone by deleting the <key>Disabled</key><true/> you added previously. Save the file, and restart your iPhone again.
If everything has gone to plan you should have a new menu under 'Settings', 'Phone' that's called SIM Applications. Click in here and select AppleSaft, and then hit 'Set' and 'Accept'. OK - the hard part is over.

If you've successfully installed AppleSaft you should have a new menu in the Phone settings called SIM Applications

Select AppleSaft

Now that you've got AppleSaft on just hit set (with your AT&T Sim card installed)

Hit Accept, insert your regular SIM and start enjoying your new iPhone!

Now, insert your local SIM into the iPhone, and if everything has gone smoothly, and you've inserted the SIM properly you should be able to start using your iPhone.
Step 10
Enjoy using your iPhone outside the US. I've been using mine for the past few days and apart from the lack of visual voicemail the iPhone has been superb. It's the best phone I've ever used by miles.