Consumers new to iOS -- as well as novice users or those who do not closely follow Apple updates -- have a new learning resource in Apple's new "Tips" app, added to iOS 8 in the mobile operating system's fourth beta.
As its name implies, Tips provides with users short instructions on how to use hidden, or simply less well-known, features in iOS Apple says that new tips will be added every week.
Topics covered in the first round of tips include "Quickly respond to a notification," "Notify me when there's a reply," "Hey, Siri," "Send a spoken message," "Quickly manage your mail," "Be in the shot," and "Come back soon."
Each tip is short, providing a screenshot and a one- to two-sentence explanation of how to use the feature. "Be in the shot," for instance, instructs users thusly:
Use the shutter timer to include yourself in your photos. Frame your shot, tap [the timer button] and the number of seconds, then tap the shutter button. Now jump into the picture!
The Tips app was first outed in screenshots that surfaced in March, though accompanying apps -- iOS versions of Preview and TextEdit -- have yet to appear. Many believe that if those apps were indeed legitimate, they were likely designed to test the functionality of Apple's new iCloud Drive.
