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Use iPhone Life Insider to Master Your AirPods, iPhone & More

(Sponsored Post) By Erin Smith on Wed, 01/13/2021

Our catalog of expertly designed guides for Apple devices are one of the biggest draws of our iPhone Life Insider program. They help our subscribers master their apple devices via simple guidance and detailed how-tos, all while giving users the flexibility and control over when and how they access the information. Our upcoming AirPods Guide will be an excellent resource for anyone who wants to truly become one with their AirPods.

If you have favorite pages and sites that you visit frequently, it makes sense to add them to Favorites in the Safari browser. This way, you'll be able to go back to them with a few taps of a finger, rather than typing in the URL or searching the web every time you want to reference them. We've already gone over how to bookmark web pages on your iPhone and iPad, as well as how to make bookmark folders. Now, let's learn how to save Favorites in Safari, as well as how to find your Safari Favorites.

How to Set Up the Apple Translate App

By Amy Spitzfaden–Both

This article will tell you how to set up Apple Translate on your iPhone. Apple Translate is one of the many new and exciting features introduced with iOS 14. You can use it to translate a web page in Safari or translate text or spoken conversations in real time. The icon is added automatically to your Home Screen when you update to iOS 14, but how do you get the app up and running. Turns out, it's very quick and easy to do! Let's take a look at how to do it. For more tips on new iOS 14 functions and updates, be sure to check out our Tip of the Day.

This article will tell you all about the iOS 14 widget stacks and answer some of the most frequently asked questions we've encountered. Widget stacks are a great way to organize your Home screen, but can get a little confusing when you're not familiar with them. We're going to learn to make app stacks out of widgets, what a Smart Stack is, how to remove widgets from Smart Stacks, choose the size of your Smart Stack, and more, so let's get started!

I have a friend who calls folks who believe in conspiracy theories "the tinfoil hat people." So, at the risk of being a tinfoil hat person, have you ever wondered, "is my phone listening to me?" The truth is, yes, it's listening, but it's not some nefarious iPhone monitoring scheme; it's only so your iPhone can meet your needs more easily. Nevertheless, I'm one of those people who would like my iPhone to stop listening to me. We've gone over how to turn off Siri and how to turn off the microphone on your iPhone. In this article, I'll show you how I got my iPhone to stop listening to me. First, we'll turn off a setting that lets Siri listen for "Hey, Siri" at all times. Next, we'll turn off the microphone, app by app. Let's get started.  

When will the new iPhone come out? With so much hype about the new iPhone 12 lineup, people are clamoring for details about iPhone 12 release dates, prices, and where to buy them. This year is especially interesting, as cellular retailers are offering surprising discounts, and standard pricing on certain models that is lower than that of the SIM-free iPhones you can get directly from the Apple store. To add to the confusion, Sprint customers and potential new T-Mobile customers have some new choices to make with regard to their plans to switch or upgrade, since the two companies merged back in April. We'll take a look at the prices to buy a new iPhone 12 model, how to decide whether to get your new iPhone from the Apple store or from your cellular carrier's stores, and some other details to help you shop for your new iPhone 12.

On Apple devices, Safari is the default browser. However, many people prefer to use Chrome or another browser instead of Safari. It's frustrating to have to constantly manually switch browsers when opening links on your iPhone, but you can change the default web browser on your iPhone to your preferred one. This article will show you how to switch your default browser so that your preferred browser opens when you tap on a link. This is especially helpful if you use a different browser on your MacBook than you do on your iPhone, or if you just find a different browser easier to use.

Handwashing is always important, but it's especially important during the age of COVID-19. Sometimes it’s easy to forget these simple precautions, so Apple programmed their Apple Watches to help keep people safe with Handwashing and Handwashing Reminders. We'll look at how to use Handwashing on your Apple Watch, how to customize Handwashing Reminders, and which Apple Watches are able to perform these functions.

How to Use the Apple Translate App

By Amy Spitzfaden–Both

This article will tell you all the ways you can use the Apple Translate app, available with iOS 14. In 2020, Apple released a translation app that works with 11 different languages. The Translate app comes pre-installed on your iOS device and, as you might expect, offers translations from one language to another. If you're looking for an easy-to-use offline translator, the new Translate app in iOS 14 is a great option. Its features include both voice and text translation, auto detect language capabilities, and even the ability to translate a page to English on Safari. Even with these many options, the app is simple and fairly intuitive to use. The language options are currently somewhat limited, but do cover many of the world's most commonly spoken languages. Let's take a look at how to use this new app and some of the possibilities that can come from it.

Some people prefer a cleaner look to their iPhones, so they do anything they can to reduce clutter. This sometimes includes hiding unwanted Home Screen pages, but what do you do if you want to get back a hidden Home Screen page? Fortunately, restoring a hidden Home Screen is a very simple fix. So simple that you can undo it and redo it on a whim, whenever you feel the need to tidy up your iPhone! Here's how to get back or unhide a Home Screen that's been hidden.

We haven’t seen a new Apple TV since 2017, although rumors have been flying about the potential release of a new model sometime soon. If you’re curious how old your Apple TV is or if you’re thinking of upgrading when the opportunity does finally present itself, you may be wondering “What Apple TV do I have” so you can figure out the specs and value of your current model. Since the set-top boxes are all so similar on all Apple TV models, it isn’t immediately obvious at first glance. Fortunately, there are several ways that you can find out the exact Apple TV version that you own, and this article will walk you through each of those methods. Keep reading to learn how to identify your Apple TV.

One of the most visibly noticeable features of iOS 14 is, of course, the widgets. Widgets can completely transform the appearance of your phone screen and allow a level of personalization that was previously unheard-of. While not all of your existing apps will already have a widget, many of them do. There are also plenty of new third-party apps that offer great widgets. These third party apps for iOS 14 are not just pretty, they are also practical. The best widgets will give you updates and important information without requiring you to open the app. These are our top recommendations for third-party apps with widgets for your iPhone in iOS 14.

The default mail app in the iPhone and iPad has always been Apple Mail. While it is a great email app, users who prefer Outlook, Gmail or something else have been at a disadvantage. The new iOS 14 update, however, allows users to pick the default mail app of their choice. Changing your mail app will make it auto-open when you click on an email link while browsing the internet. This can make managing your personal and work email accounts easier, allowing you to easily navigate incoming and outgoing email.

This article will tell you how to add widgets to your Home Screen by pulling them from your Today View. Your Today View is the screen farthest to the left when you're swiping through your Home Screens. In iOS 14, your Today View will show you all sorts of widgets, from weather, to photos, to tips, and more. While it's helpful to have all your widgets in one place, you might want a couple of them on your Home Screen instead. If you check the news a lot, you might enjoy having the headlines right there next to your apps, or if you enjoy seeing your photos even when you're not in your camera roll, these widgets might be ones you want to add to your Home screen. So how do you do it? Let's take a look.

You might wonder “which AirPods do I have?” or “how do I know if I have the AirPods First Generation or Second Generation?" Sometimes it's hard to know which AirPods you have just by looking at them, and the difference between AirPods 1 vs. 2 is even more difficult to spot. This article will tell you how to answer these questions and will give you more information about your AirPods. Here's how to find your AirPods model number on your iPhone or iPad and on the AirPods themselves, and then use it to look up what kind of AirPods you have.

Keeping your iPhone and iPad Wi-Fi connected while at home reduces cellular data usage and ensures a fast internet connection. It's best to turn Wi-Fi off when you leave home, though, to avoid connecting to unsafe networks and to reduce the battery-drain that happens when your iPhone searches for available Wi-Fi networks. If doing this manually seems tedious and difficult to remember, the Shortcuts app is here to help. With this handy app, you can set up your devices to automatically disable Wi-Fi when you leave home. Here's how to use Shortcuts to automatically turn off Wi-Fi when you leave home, and automatically turn Wi-Fi back on again when you return.

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