Need iDevice Help? Three Tips for Common iPhone and iPad Problems

While most of the time iDevices make our lives easier, sometimes they can make us want to scream in frustration. If you’ve ever had issues with the Home or Power buttons or wondered how to get more battery life out of the device, read on for a few simple solutions to common iDevice problems. Slow It Down The Home button on the iPhone, as well as on the iPad, is by far the most used physical button on the device. The Home button is used to exit apps, multi-task while using the device and engage Siri (if you have an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5). You may notice, however, that sometimes your commands don’t always register or are misread. This could be because the Home button click speed may be too fast. Many of you may not realize that iOS actually gives you a way to customize the Home button click speed. Since iOS will always register fast taps, the only settings offered are to slow it down. If you find that your iPhone is registering double taps as two single taps, slowing the speed down a bit could prevent this issue from happening. Here's how to adjust the Home button click speed:

• Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
• Tap on General.
• Scroll down a ways and now tap on Accessibility.Under the Physical & Motor section, tap on the option for Home-click Speed. Here you can choose between Default, Slow and Slowest.

(i)Phone Home As mentioned above, the Home button is the most used physical button on the iPhone. It is no surprise then that one of the most common hardware issues with iDevices is Home button failure. Power button failure is another hardware issue that many iDevice users face. Home and Power button issues can present as either of these buttons becoming hard to press, not reading presses at all, or intermittently malfunctioning. There is a way around them by using the Assistive Touch accessibility feature. This will give you a virtual Home button and Power button that can supplement the hardware. It isn't the most ideal solution, but if you need a quick one it will work until you can get the button(s) fixed or replaced.

• Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone.
• Now tap on General.
• Scroll down and tap on Accessibility.
• Scroll down again and tap on Assistive Touch under the Physical & Motor section.
• Turn Assistive Touch to On.

You'll now notice a white dot appear on your screen that will remain there. You can tap on this to expand the Assistive touch menu. The Home option will allow you to tap it in the place of a physical Home button and be returned to the Home screen from wherever you are. To access the Power button function, tap on the Device menu and then tap on the Lock Screen icon and your screen will shut off. Running Out of Juice iPhone and iPad battery life is a precious commodity we just can't seem to get enough of. All of our social networks, email accounts, texts, and other apps want to send us notifications, which in turn, consumes more battery life. Try the following changes in the Notification Center to save some battery life.

• Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
• Tap on Notifications.
• Find an app that frequently sends you notifications and tap on its name.
• Scroll down towards the bottom and you'll see an option for View in Lock Screen.
• Turn this option to Off for any apps that aren't important enough to be displayed on your Lock Screen.

By doing this, you'll still receive push notifications and you'll hear the tones, your screen just will not light up and they won't filter into your actual Lock Screen area. Upon unlocking your iPhone or iPad, checking Notification Center will still show them, they just won't appear in the Lock Screen portion. Less screen use equals better battery life, sometimes up to 15 to 25% more per day.

Author Bio: Jennifer Frakes is a social media marketer and blogger who specializes in writing about technology and IT solutions.