Six Clicks: iOS 7 tips and tricks

There's little doubt that the king and queen of the post-PC era are the iPad and the iPhone, and while these devices both started out life as content consumption devices, they've grown over several hardware and software iterations into formidable content creation devices.

But as with any device, there are tips and tricks and shortcuts that can help you get more from your iDevice investment. Here I'm going to present you with six tips and tricks that will help you be more productive when using your iPad and iPhone, whether you use it for work or play.

Want some peace from calls and texts? Use the Do Not Disturb mode present in Settings > Do Not Disturb. This can either be set on demand or to come on based on a schedule.

Want to still be able to receive some calls while in Do Not Disturb mode? Use the Allow Calls From setting to control which of your contacts can get in touch.

What about those urgent calls from people not in your contacts? You can use the Repeated Call feature to allow a call through if it is the second one made within three minutes.

Prior to iOS 7.1 the noise cancellation feature was only available to iPhone 5S owners. Now Apple has made that feature accessible to all.

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and switch on Phone Noise Cancelation.

One of the biggest visual changes that Apple introduced in iOS 7 was to throw out the old on-screen metaphors for buttons, switches and dials. While this wasn't a problem for some user, there are those who'd prefer to have their buttons, switches and dials look lie the once did. In iOS 7.1 Apple gave people a way to bring these visual elements back.

If you're one of those people who want them back go to Settings > General >Accessibility and turn on Button Shapes.

Find yourself typing a lot of text and numbers? Do you find switching back and forth to the numeric keypad time consuming? Press and hold the "123" button and slide up to the character you want to input then, when you let go, the standard keyboard will return.

AirDrop is a great way to share files with other iPhone and iPad (not all devices are compatible) users using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (both need to be enabled for it to work).

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up Control Center and tap on AirDrop. Here you can choose to make your device discoverable for Contacts Only or Everyone or turn it off completely in here. When you choose someone to share with, or they choose you, there’s a notification giving you a preview of the file and the option to deny or accept the transfer.

Spend a lot of time looking at your iOS device in low-light? Invert the screen colors for more comfortable viewing.

To do this click Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on Invert Colors.

Another tweak you can make to make the interface easier on the eyes is to go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Increase Contrast and toggle the options present there.