7 hidden gems in iOS 7

Last week, I detailed the seven best features in iOS 7 and explained how its new management capabilities are a game-changer for business. But there’s more to iOS 7, including some easily overlooked enhancements that make your life easier. Here are the seven best hidden gems.

1. Backup to multiple computers Apple has long tied an iOS device to one PC’s or Mac’s iTunes, as a way to ensure that media files weren’t copied, violating the commitments Apple made to get the music and movie industries to distribute their wares via iTunes. But as iPads and iPhones have become less satellite devices and more stand-alone units, such as through iCloud media and app syncing across multiple devices and even computers, the limitation of backup to one computer grew more and more awkward. iCloud backup is convenient and avoids the issue, but it doesn’t back up everything.

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Now, you can back up the same iOS device to multiple computers, as long as their iTunes use the same Apple ID. (You’ll need iTunes 11.1 or later for this to work.) The first time you connect, you’re asked whether to trust the computer, which means allow its use for backup. Reminder: You back up by clicking the Back Up Now button in your device’s Summary pane in the computer’s iTunes or by clicking the Sync button in iTunes. And if you go to the Settings app’s General pane and tap iTunes Wi-Fi Sync, you should see a list of the multiple computers you’ve trusted.

Keep in mind that if you sync an iOS device to a computer other than the one running your master iTunes library, you’ll still lose all the checked content from the previous iTunes library on your iOS device if you sync. (Uncheck the various sync options for the device in those other iTunes libraries!) Multi-iTunes backup doesn’t let you sync multiple media libraries to one device.

2. On-the-fly mail groups Sadly, iOS 7 doesn’t let you address emails to groups, a shocking omission that has survived multiple iOS versions. But iOS 7 does notice when you tend to send messages to the same group of people, and when you address a new email to a person in such an ad hoc group, it shows that ad hoc group in its suggestions.

For example, if you often send emails to John, Aimee, and Peter, and you type in “Peter” in one of Mail’s address fields, you’ll get a menu of all Peters in your Contacts app and all Peters you’ve emailed previously. In addition (this is what’s new), you’ll see “John, Aimee, and Peter” in the list of suggested recipients. (Credit to reader Drew Saur for alerting me to this gem.)

3. Smart mail account selection Saur also tipped me off to this other cool Mail gem: If you use multiple accounts, you’ve probably noticed that Mail will reply from the account in which you received the email, no matter what your default account. But when you create a new email, Mail uses your default account, so you may need to change the From field, an easily overlooked step. iOS 7 notes who the addressee is and what server it came from, then automatically adjusts the From field for you. When you send an email to someone in your corporate Exchange directory, the email is defaulted to come from your corporate email account, even if your default account is your personal account.

4. Zoom-level calendar navigation on the iPhone The Day, Month, and Year buttons are gone in iOS 7’s Calendar app on the iPhone (and iPod Touch). Instead, you navigate the same way you do in the revised Photos app: by zooming. (The iPad still uses these buttons, but has no zoom-level navigation — pity.)

For example, if you’re in month view, tap a date to zoom into that date, or tap the year to zoom out to year view. From day view, you can slide through the weeks and zoom out to the month. From year view, you can zoom into a month by tapping its name or to a day by tapping its date. As with iOS 5 and 6, rotate the iPhone to get the week view; there are no zoom navigation controls here, though you can scroll through the weeks.

I do wish that iOS 7 let me preview a date’s events by holding on it, as Photos works for collections. Still, it’s a faster way to get around, and it frees up screen real estate.

5. Audio-only calls in FaceTime When you see the video camera icon, you’re supposed to think of the FaceTime video chat service that works with Macs and iOS devices. But there’s a new icon in iOS 7: a phone, though it doesn’t open the Phone app. Instead, it makes FaceTime Audio calls — on iPads, iPod Touches, and as of OS X Mavericks, Macs, too. FaceTime uses a lot of bandwidth; even though many carriers now allow its use on their cellular networks, it’ll chew up your data plan. Also, sometimes you really don’t want to be seen. FaceTime Audio helps on both counts: It allows for voice-only chats among iOS 7 devices and OS X Mavericks Macs, sort of an Apple-only Skype.

6. iTunes sharing One of the cool things about Apple’s technology suite is how easily media interoperate among its devices. You can use AirPlay to send video or music from an iOS device or, in iTunes, from a Mac to an AirPlay-compatible speaker, stereo, or Apple TV. Using the free Remote app, an iOS device (including an Apple TV) can play music, movies, podcasts, and even photo slideshows from a Mac, if all devices are logged into the same Home Sharing account.

iOS 7 makes this simpler. In the Videos app, there’s now the Shared button at the top, next to Movies, TV Shows, and/or Music Videos (you only see the buttons for the media files on your iOS device). That Shared button lets you access videos stored in iTunes on your computer, if Home Sharing is enabled on the devices and they’re on the same network. You also get the Shared button in the Music app for access to your computer’s iTunes-managed music, though you may have to tap the More button first to see this option. You’ll still need the Remote app to control your Apple TV, but no longer your Mac’s or PC’s iTunes library.

7. Device lock to your Apple ID There’s been a lot of frustration voiced this year by big-city police chiefs over the rampant thefts of smartphones, which are easily snatched and easily resold in the black market, leading to a rise in robberies — some of them violent. The police wanted the smartphone makers or the carriers to lock devices, so even if stolen, they couldn’t be reused. There’s a largely ineffective registry of device IDs the carriers maintain, but those IDs can be spoofed, and it’s clear that few carriers overseas — where the bulk of stolen devices end up — check the U.S. registry anyhow.

Apple fixes that in iOS 7. If you turn on the Find My iPhone feature in the iCloud pane of the Settings app, your device is locked to your Apple ID. If it’s stolen and even wiped, that Apple ID is needed to unlock it. You can even send a message to the stolen device so that anyone who tries to activate it or use it gets a message like “This iPhone was stolen!” It’s a no-brainer action for users to protect their iOS devices. Yes, you can still sell or give away the device to someone else; just turn off Find My iPhone first, then the new owner can activate it with his or her carrier.

This article, “7 hidden gems in iOS 7,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Galen Gruman’s Mobile Edge blog and follow the latest developments in mobile technology at InfoWorld.com. Follow Galen’s mobile musings on Twitter at MobileGalen. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.