iOS has additional system wide zoom abilities accessible by a gesture, much like OS X’s zoom feature. To use the extra zoom gestures on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, first you’ll need to enable them in iOS:

1. Open Settings and tap on General
2. Scroll down to “Accessibility” and tap on “Zoom”, flick the switch to ON
3. Verify the zoom gesture works by using a three fingered double-tap on the screen

Once zoom is enabled, using three fingers you can:

• Double-tap with three fingers to activate zoom and zoom in and out on any application
• Double-tap and drag with three fingers up and down to increase or decrease zoom level, from 100% to 500% zoom
• Drag three fingers while zoomed to move around screen

This zoom feature is systemwide and will work in any iOS app running on the device, including even the lock screen, and it works in addition to the standard pinch and spread gestures that are active in many apps already. Standard app functionality also remains while zoomed in allowing for manipulation of onscreen controls and data.

Want to see more of an email than the default two lines of body text? Don’t want to see any preview of email contents, other than the subject of a message? If you’re not happy with the default setting, you can change the line count of mail previews within iOS easily:

1. Tap on “Settings”
2. Tap “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
3. Under the “Mail” subheader, tap on “Preview”
4. Select a preview length, ranging from no preview to 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 lines of body text

Double-tap the Home button and switch between Settings and Mail to get a quick visual of how the change will look.

These settings will be the same on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, although how good each setting looks varies per device, with the larger previews fitting best on iPad and the smaller 1-3 line previews working better for the smaller screened iPhone and iPod.

iMessage in iOS and the Messages for Mac beta let you send files like movies, text, pdf, audio, and pictures between a Mac and iOS device easily. To use the file transfer feature:

• Drag a file from the Mac into a Messages chat window
• Click send from the Mac
• The user on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iMessages will receive the file in a familiar fashion to iChat file transfers

The iOS user is then able to open the file, be it an mp3, video, picture, whatever. This is a great feature that is easy to use and welcome for all Mac and iOS users.

Use iMessage With Unsupported File Types & As SFTP Alternative

Now, what is less known is that you can technically transfer just about any file type between the two OS’s using the same technique, even obscure file formats. This means iMessage can be used as a simple method of moving any files to an iOS device without using SSH and SFTP, although the destination folder of these files creates some limitations.

Files sent to and received by the iOS device end up at the following location:

/var/mobile/Library/SMS/

This is where the limitation comes in. Accessing that directory isn’t possible without a jailbreak and an app like iFile to navigate around the hidden iOS file system, and moving files around within the iOS file system after the fact requires an SSH client like Prompt, in addition to some knowledge of the command line. This makes it a useful feature for advanced users who are comfortable with jailbreaking, but for the average person sending anything other than standard media files and documents isn’t too useful.
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You probably know by now that you can delete songs on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, just by swiping on a song and tapping “Delete”, but what if you want to remove all music from an iOS device? That can be done too, and although it’s a few settings deep to prevent accidental access, it’s easy to do in just a few steps.

1. Tap on “Settings” and tap on “General”
2. Select “Usage” and tap on “Music”
3. Tap the Minus symbol next to “All Music” then tap on “Delete” to remove all songs from the device

The total storage space taken up by the music collection will be listed alongside the “All Music” label, letting you know how much space is about to be freed up by removing all the songs.

Just remember, there’s no going back if you choose to do this without resyncing to iTunes or downloading songs again from iTunes Store or iCloud. Also keep in mind that if you have iTunes Automatic Downloads enabled on the device, any future music downloads on other iOS devices will continue to copy over to the once cleared out list.

You can prevent the installation of new apps onto an iOS device by enabling a restriction setting. There are plenty of reasons to want to disable app installing, but this is a particularly effective kid-proofing feature before letting a youngster use an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to prevent any accidental charges or purchases.

Disable App Installation in iOS

• Launch Settings and tap on “General”
• Tap on “Restrictions”
• Tap “Enable Restrictions” to allow access to additional options and set a passcode
• Scroll down to “Installing Apps” and swipe to OFF

While in the Restrictions settings, disabling in-App purchases is a just a bit further down the list and makes some sense to use as well. Similarly, you can also disable the ability to delete apps in the Settings screen, preventing any accidental deletion of data or apps.

To undo the app install restrictions, you will need to reenter the previously set passcode, then swipe the ON switch next to “Installing Apps” again.

iOS is generally very stable but every once in a while you’ll encounter a third party app that isn’t. Apps can freeze or become stuck, you’ll usually know instantly because the iPad or iPhone becomes unresponsive to touch behavior or something within the app is clearly running amuck. When this happens the best thing to do is to force quit the app.

Force Quit an App in iOS

This will be the same on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch:

1. Hold down the Power button at the top of the device until the “Slide to Power Off” message appears and then release the power button
2. Now hold the Home button at the base of the screen until the app forcibly quits, this can take several seconds

You’ll know force quitting was successful because the app will close and you will be returned to your home screen and icons.

iPhone and iPad apps should rarely freeze, if you continuously encounter stability issues you may want to backup and then reset to factory defaults or restore to try and resolve the problems.

It’s the rumor that just won’t die, Apple is said to be actively testing an iPad with a smaller 8″ screen, according to a new report from Wall Street Journal.

Officials at some of Apple’s suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has shown them screen designs for a new device with a screen size of around 8-inches, and said it is qualifying suppliers for it.

The smaller screened iPad is said to feature the same display resolution as the existing iPad 2 at 1024×768 pixels. The Wall Street Journal cautions that “Apple, which works with suppliers to test new designs all the time, could opt not to proceed with the device”, but suggests that Apple is continuously looking at the smaller iPads as a way to expand the product line in an increasingly competitive market.

Many competing Android tablets have opted for smaller displays, most to limited success, although the Kindle Fire has become quite popular since it’s launch late last year. Rumors of Apple working on smaller iPads, or “iPad Mini“, have existed for quite some time, with a recent report from DigiTimes stating such a device could ship in the fourth quarter of this year.

For the time being, the only new iPad you should expect is iPad 3, which is expected to be announced on March 7 with a retina display, 4G LTE, and a quad-core CPU.

The next iPad will feature high speed 4G LTE wireless capabilities and be available on the AT&T and Verizon networks, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Citing several sources, WSJ says the following:

Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. will sell a version of the coming iPad that runs on their newest fourth-generation wireless networks, according to people familiar with the matter, as the battle to cash in on big investments in mobile broadband heats up.

Apple Inc. appears to be planning to announce the latest version of its tablet computer in the first week of March, according to another person briefed on the matter.

Whether other carriers will also sell the device couldn’t be learned. Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile USA and Apple declined to comment.

The iPad 3 is said to drop down to 3G and possibly even EDGE connectivity if 4G access points are not available. The remainder of the report is behind the WSJ paywall, but the important takeaway is the next generation iPad supporting 4G LTE. This is contrary to what many have believed (including us) given the existing battery issues with 4G connectivity, but this suggests that Apple has found a way to overcome the notorious battery drain issues of current generation 4G LTE cell phones.

While it’s unclear if the 4G iPad will also be offered on Sprint or T-Mobile, we have only a few short weeks until the expected announcement date of March 7 to find out.

Just a few days ago The Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported that iPad 3 will be released the first week of March, and now new claims have surfaced suggesting that the next iPad will be announced on Wednesday, March 7. Specifically, iMore says:

According to sources who have been reliable in the past, Apple currently plans to hold their iPad 3 announcement on Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Along with the 2048×1536 Retina display, the iPad 3 will feature a quad-core Apple 6 system-on-a-chip, and possibly 4G LTE networking.

The date wouldn’t be too surprising considering March 7 is the only date vacant during the first week of March that is open on the Yerba Buena Center event calendar, and Apple has traditionally announced prior iPads at the YBCA in San Francisco. The rumored specs seem to add up to past expectations, although the 4G LTE capability is reasonably unlikely given Apple’s reluctance to adopt the battery hungry technology.

Earlier today, pictures claiming to be a partially assembled next-gen iPad showed up online at 9to5mac, and other than a few very minor differences they look practically identical to iPad 2.

Keeping the same enclosure could indicate that the next iPad may be labeled as an iPad 2S or iPad 2HD, similar to the recent iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S update, rather than calling the device “iPad 3″. Ultimately the naming of any Apple device is largely insignificant beyond speculation and Apple’s marketing efforts though, and whatever the next iPad is called it will surely be popular.

Update: The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the next iPad will have 4G LTE connectivity.

Have you ever wondered how an iOS developer tests for application compatibility with the myriad of devices and versions of iOS out there? This picture from developer David Smith gives us an idea, as you can see it takes a lot of hardware. Four iPads, four iPod Touchs, four iPhones, each with a different version of Apple’s mobile OS running (there are even a few non-iOS devices thrown in there for other mobile testing, with two Android phones, a Windows Phone, a Kindle Fire tablet, and a Kindle 4). If you’re wondering why this is necessary, David explains:

I can test anything from iOS 3.1 through iOS 5. The older OS versions are especially helpful to keep around since it is essentially impossible to replicate an issue on iOS 3.X without having a dedicated device kicking around.

This isn’t a fragmentation thing though, this is more a look at how meticulous some iOS developers are for ensuring compatibility for even the most obscure use cases. How necessary it will be for developers to hold onto so many variations of iOS remains to be seen, but the adoption rate of the latest iOS versions looks to accelerate dramatically thanks to Apple bringing the OTA update feature to iOS 5. Of course this also means that those who are lingering on earlier versions of iOS will inevitably begin to miss out on new application features and full compatibility, as anyone using old iPhone and iOS gear can already attest to, and it’s likely that future iOS compatibility labs will include just two devices: an iPhone and an iPad.

For the Mac side of things, it’s also interesting to note that Apple has a Mac compatibility lab at the 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, California that developers can schedule appointments to use. You can read more about the Mac compatibility lab at Apple.com and explore its vast amount of Macs, but apparently no such lab exists for iOS gear… yet at least.