The iPhone has three sensors: First, It has an accelerometer that detects when you’ve rotated the iPhone into landscape orientation. In programs like Photos, Safari, and iPod, it triggers the screen image to rotate as well. Its that cool feature where the image rotates when you rotate your iPhone.

The other two sensors are camouflaged under the black glass where you can’t see them, except when you use a bright flashlight. The second sensor is a proximity sensor that shuts off the screen illumination and touch sensitivity when the phone is against your head (it works only in the Phone application), and the third is an ambient-light sensor that brightens the display when you’re in sunlight and dims it in darker places.

Apple said that they have experimented with having the light sensor active all the time, but it was weird to have the screen get brighter and darker all the time. So the sensor now samples the ambient light, and adjusts the brightness; it does this only once—each time you unlock the phone after waking it.

Now here comes the fun part. You can use that tip to your advantage. By covering up the sensor (just above the earpiece) as you unlock the phone, you force it to a low-power, dim screen-brightness setting (because the phone believes that it’s in a dark room). Or when you want your iPhone in full brightness you can do so by holding it up to a light as you wake it. In both cases, you’ve saved all the taps and navigation it would have taken you to find the manual brightness slider in Settings.

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