iPhone 5 Portable Genius

Managing Your Contacts

One of the paradoxes of modern life is that as contact information becomes more important, you store less and less of it in the easiest database system of all — your memory. Instead of memorizing phone numbers like you used to, you now store your contact info electronically. When you think about it, this isn’t exactly surprising. It’s not just a landline phone number that you have to remember for each person anymore but also a cell number, e-mail and website addresses, a Twitter username, a physical address, and more. That’s a lot to remember, so it makes sense to go the electronic route. And for the iPhone, electronic means the Contacts app, which seems basic enough but is actually loaded with useful features that can help you get organized and get the most out of the contact management side of your life.

Creating a new contact

I show you how to sync your computer’s contacts program (such as Contacts on Mac or Windows or the Outlook Contacts folder) in Chapter 7. That’s by far the easiest way to populate your iPhone Contacts app with a crowd of people, but it might not include everyone in your posse. If someone’s missing and you’re not around your computer, you can add that person directly to your iPhone Contacts.

Begin by creating a contact with just the basic info: first name, last name, and company name. In subsequent sections, I show you how to add data such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Here are the steps to follow:

1. In the Home screen, ...