* Set a passcode to lock and protect your iPhone 5 = Go into Settings, then click General and scroll down to Passcode Lock. Turn it on and select a code that's easy to remember. Our phones tend to have social networks, e-mail, photos and other sensitive items that we want to keep from prying eyes, so be sure to lock your device.
* Lock and unlock screen orientation = If you want the screen to stay in portrait mode while you're lying down in bed or on the grass at a picnic, simply double tap your home button to bring up the system tray. Swipe the tray to the left and you'll see the orientation lock at the far left. Simply tap it to turn it on or off.
* Use Siri = If you need a little help from Apple's digital assistant simply press and hold the home button for a few seconds and you'll see Siri's microphone pop up. Tell her to set a calendar event for you or to set an alarm. You can even have Siri reserve tables at restaurants or give you movie times and reviews. If you're unsure what you can ask Siri, simply press the little "i" when the microphone pops up.
* Find apps contacts e-mails and more = When you're on the very first page of your home screen, simply swipe to the left and the iPhone 5's universal search bar will appear. Find what you're looking for there!
* Shoot photos with your camera, then do a little more with it = Open up the camera app by tapping on the camera icon, then simply press the shutter button or the iPhone 5's volume up key to snap photos! Looking for a little more functionality? Press the Options button and you'll see toggle switches for Grid, HDR and a panorama button. You can also turn flash on and off or set it to auto, or switch to the front-facing camera. The grid comes up to help you compost images and make sure your horizons are straight. HDR makes sure you get details in photos that have very bright and very dark areas in one scene. The Panorama button will take you to a new feature in iOS 6 that allows you to take a sweeping photo of a very wide scene. Simply follow the instructions that pop up on the screen.
* Download and update apps = Open the App Store and feel free to poke around for apps you might like. Don't see what you're looking for? Try the search tab indicated by the magnifying glass. If you see a red badge on the update section or on the app icon from one of your home screens, it means an app needs your attention. You can update apps one at a time, or simply hit "Update All" and let your phone do the rest.
* Opening and closing apps = It seems simple enough, but I'm baffled by how many people don't know how to close apps out of the system tray. You'll need to do this every now and then if an app is acting funny or crashing. To open an app, just tap on it. To close an app out of the tray, go to your home screen, double tap the home button and all of your most recently used apps will pop up. Press and hold any one of the apps until they start wiggling and you can hit the red badges on the apps you want to close.
*Refresh your e-mail with a simple gesture = Addicted to e-mail? If you don't have push email setup, you can simply go into your email inbox or list of inboxes and swipe the whole screen downward. This will force your iPhone 5 to check for new messages.
* Search your inbox = If you are looking for a message? Once you get into your inbox of choice, simply pull down on the screen and a search bar will be unveiled. Can't find what you're looking for? You'll have the option of checking your e-mail server if the iPhone 5 can't find it in its history.
*Set up VIP contacts = With iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 you can set up VIP contacts so that all your important messages are organized in one place. You can even set up notifications so that when your VIP contact messages you, you'll know right away that it's not just another junky e-mail coming through. Click here and we'll show you how to set up VIP on your iPhone 5.
* Insert images into your e-mail = You can either share directly from your Photos app, but what if you're composing an e-mail and you decide you want to throw an image into the body? Simply go into your photos app and, in gallery view, click the edit button on the upper right. Select the image or images you want and click copy. Go back into your e-mail, press and hold in the body where you want to insert the images, and select "paste."
* Scrubbing music and video = Do you want to scrub through audio or video a little slower than the default mode? When you touch the progress bar on video or music to skip forward or back, press and hold the progress indicator and slide your finger downward and you'll have the option for half, quarter and fine scrub. This way you can move forward and back over just a few seconds instead of like 20 or 30 seconds at a time.
* Update your Twitter or Facebook status quickly = If you log into your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts in Settings. Go into Settings and scroll down for Twitter and Facebook you can update your status from anywhere on the phone. Simply pull the notification center down by dragging the bar that shows you the time and your battery life and you'll see two buttons for Twitter and Facebook.
* Add special characters in your messages and emails = Looking for a letter with an umlaut or something a little special? Simply press and hold a key on your keyboard and you'll see a bunch of special characters pop up. Slide your finger over to the one you want and you're done.
* Find your stolen iPhone 5 = First install Find my iPhone from the App Store and make sure you're all set up on iCloud. A friend lost her iPhone at a party over the weekend and had Find my iPhone on her device, but wasn't set up over iCloud! You need both, folks, so head over to www.icloud.com and set up an account and do the same in your phone under Settings.
* Save battery life = Go into your settings and you'll find Notifications just underneath Do Not Disturb. From there, you can manage the types of notifications you want to get from certain apps. Do you really need your screen to turn on and your device to notify you every time someone replies to a tweet on Twitter? Turn off the "View on lock screen" feature for apps that can wait. It'll save you a headache and battery life since your display won't be turning on every single time you get a notification from every app that supports push notifications.
* Sharing contacts and locations = Did you know that you can share addresses and contacts with your friends via Messages? Go into a contact or an address from Maps and look for the "Share Contact" or "Share Location" buttons. Tap the buttons and you'll get an option to share via Messages or through e-mail. Seems easy enough but when I shared a contact this way with a friend who was pretty mobile savvy he asked me if I was a wizard. The beauty is that if you're sharing with other iPhone users, they can quickly add the contact to their address book with the touch of a button. As our editor Marin Perez would say "Neato burrito."
* Add emoticons or Emoji to your text = Typing in a colon and parentheses is a decent way of letting someone know you're smiling, or thinking of smiling, or that you aren't sending a nasty message. But you can take it to a whole new level by adding in a few pints of beer and an eerily smiling cat. Simply go into Settings>General>Keyboard>Keyboards>Add new keyboard>Emoji. When you go into Messages or anywhere else the keyboard pops up. Tap the little globe next to the space bar and you'll see all of these glorious icons you can send to other iOS users.
* Save a Web page to your home screen = When you're on the page you want to access quickly from your home screen, tap the arrow button on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. A list of options will come up; select "Add to Home Screen." Now you'll have an icon on your home screen that will take you straight to that Web page. This is useful for Google Maps if you hate Apple Maps.
* Save an article for offline reading, or read it as text only = See the URL bar on Safari? It's got that icon on it that says Reader. Click that and you'll see a beautiful, text-only version of the article or page you're trying to read free of ads and photos. Want to save that article for offline reading? Hit the arrow button at the bottom of the screen and you'll see a selection of options pop up. Click on "Add to Reading List" and now, when you click on your bookmarks icon, you'll find the article saved in the Reading List bar.
* Save an image from the Web = Simply tap and hold on any image you see and tap "Save Image" when the option pops up. The image will be saved into your Photos app.
