New smartphone owner, some general advice please

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Operaghost

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 4, 2004
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So I'm finally going to be owning my first smartphone, at age 36, go ahead and mock me young ones haha.

I am being given a friends iPhone 5c.

I guess my request here is for some suggestions on "ease of living/use" type of apps that will enhance my experiences on my new phone. Things such as calendars, Alarm clocks, etc.

Also, any links to good guide videos is definately welcome.

One thing I am interested in particularly is an "auto" transferring app that will copy my photos over to my PC.

I'm not very familiar with cloud services, and honestly don't like the idea of my personal photos being transferred or stored out on the web. So I don't really know what my options for this would be.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions in bringing me out of the jurassic age haha.
 
Young ones, HA! :D You still have a ways to go to catch up to me and many other members here, actually. I think if we did a poll around here the median age might be in the 35-40 year range (that's the median, you understand). Anyways...

You're getting an iPhone and that means iTunes for practically any and all PC connectivity - you did specifically say PC and you've got a "PC" build in your sig so, that means Windows more than likely assuming you're not into Linux of any particular distribution. iTunes is the default application on the Windows and OSX (now macOS) platforms to make use of the iPhone or iOS devices. It IS entirely possible to make use of an iPhone with Windows using third party applications/programs that take the place of iTunes and provide most of the same functionality - having said that, since this is not only your first smartphone but an iPhone as well, I strongly recommend you just use iTunes and when you're familiar with it and how the iOS ecosphere works then you can do some experimentation later on with third party apps and see what they offer.

But iTunes by design will handle:

- contacts (of any and all kinds as entered into the phone manually or added from data stored on a SIM card, etc)
- calendar activity (part of the iPhone's default apps)
- music and video (it will sync whatever you have added to the iTunes music and video library on the PC in the My Documents/Music folder, and the audio/video players on the iPhone will handle playback but there are third party apps like VLC for video and others for audio if you desire something more feature-laden)
- pictures (iTunes will sync whatever is in the My Pictures directory - I think but I'm not 100% sure of this so don't hate on me if I'm incorrect - the one issue that might crop up is iTunes tends to "shrink" images when transferred to and from the iPhone/iOS device, at least did in the past so I can't say for sure if it does any more, that might have been fixed or can be altered with a setting someplace, someone else can answer that one I suppose)
- alarms (alarms are part of the default clock app on the iPhone but again, third party alternatives are available I believe)
- and most anything else related to iPhone/iOS connectivity with your PC and iTunes

As for the "cloud" stuff, that's iCloud of course and works basically in conjunction with iTunes and the iPhone IF (big IF there) you choose to allow it to do so. It's not enabled by default and must be enabled for it to function. I'm not sure what the current status of it is but I think that Apple provides 5GB of storage space for free for data syncing/cloud storage and you can obviously pay for larger storage options.

The basic purpose of a smartphone is not just a cellular phone but a small portable computer more commonly referred to in the past as a PDA aka personal digital assistant. The iPhone and Android devices and Windows Phone devices and others of a similar vein are just offshoots of the old Palm and Pocket PC devices (so no, Apple didn't invent the damned things no matter what their marketing would have you believe, they were very late to the party indeed). The installed OS on modern smartphones, whether it's iOS on Apple hardware, Android on various other brands, or Windows Phone on some that share Android too are all meant to provide the basics that most people require such as making calls, contact lists, SMS/MMS texts and messaging services, music and video recording and playback, a whole bunch of things honestly.

If you want a recommendation on how to get started I'd say get one of these if and when you can: iPhone The Complete Manual Eighth Edition | Imagine Shop

That is the most current version of that guide and while technically it's a magazine published in the UK I believe you can find it at Barnes & Noble locations, perhaps through Amazon as well. It is about the best single source of (mostly) up to date information, tips, tricks, and apps to keep an eye out for that you'll find in one easy to use and handle publication. There are hundreds if not thousands of forums out there about Apple devices, MacRumors.com having one of the better ones and a treasure trove of info and helpful users if you care to head over and join their forums, and many many more that you might come across in your new path of being an iPhone owner.

This should get you started, but if you have any questions just ask and I or someone else will offer up what we can to help.

Disclaimer: I've owned a few iPhones, I use OSX in a virtual machine on my "PC" laptop, but I am most definitely a Windows 7 and Android user by and large but that doesn't mean I don't touch upon multiple devices in my own path. I'm a Geek, always have been, always will be, so it comes with the territory. :D
 
iCloud and it's ease of use for backups/restore is what makes it worth using IMO. You can do a complete 1:1 restore without connecting the device to a computer which is really nice as you won't be tied down to a physical computer for backing up / restoring. You are only given 5GB of storage, but an easy way to stay under that 5GB amount is to turn off photo sync and sync photos w/ google instead using the drive app if you really have that many photos you want to keep in the cloud. iTunes related media isn't tied to that number as well.
 
I'm 39 and you'll be fine. The iPhone is crazy easy to use, just try it out. Everything is very self explanatory.
 
Others have covered the bases on getting started, so I'll focus more on apps.

Dark Sky -- the stock weather app will normally be fine, but if you want super-local or super-timely weather reports, this is the way to go. What you use if you want to know whether or not you need your umbrella for a 10-minute walk.

Google Maps -- Apple's built-in maps app is fine for most purposes, but Google still has the edge in terms of raw data. That and Apple's mass transit directions are still limited to a handful of cities, if you need them.

Transit -- On that note, if you do use mass transit, you'll want this. It'll give you the arrival times for buses/subways/trains near you, including live times if your local transit authority uses GPS data. Good for those times when you're actually hoping the bus is running late.

Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive -- you'll probably want to use some kind of cloud storage service. If you have a Google account, you already have access to Drive.

Lyft or Uber -- Ridesharing kicks the stuffing out of taxis as a rule, so you should have something like this to hail rides. I prefer Lyft (generally friendlier/more skilled drivers, option to tip them in-app), but Uber is certainly fine more often than not.


One thing to note on cloud photo syncing: it might be on the internet, but it's not public by default on services like iCloud Photo Library, Google Photos or Dropbox. They're private and locked down. It's only on social services like Instagram and Flickr where it's public as a matter of course, but those aren't for syncing in the first place.
 
Pushbullet

I downloaded my entire state of maps for offline use on Here Maps and it worked fine
 
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