Some of iPhone Life's most popular articles have been about saving battery life on the iPhone, which just goes to show how much room Apple still has to improve when it comes to battery life. Luckily, you have a new source of information for saving battery life that’s directly from Apple: Battery Life Suggestions. Now, when you view Battery in your Settings app, Apple will present some suggestions for ways you can improve your battery life. Here’s how to use those Battery Life Suggestions for better battery life with iOS 11 on iPhone.
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Top 3 Address Book & Contacts Apps for iPhone
By Sarah Kingsbury
If you've ever wondered how to delete multiple contacts on iPhone or how to create groups of contacts (hint: it requires a computer), then you know the iOS Contacts app that comes with your iPhone has a few shortcomings. For the casual user, these shortcomings may be no more than an inconvenience; but for power users who manage hundreds or thousands of business contacts, these shortcomings may be deal breakers. If you're looking for a great alternative to Apple's Contacts app, read on for three alternative address book, phone book, and contacts apps that will meet your contact-management needs.
How to Get Siri to Stop Interrupting You on iPhone
By Sarah Kingsbury
It's like the Interrupting Cow joke that delights school-age kids everywhere; you activate Siri and start speaking your request, only to be interrupted by, "Here's what I found on the web." At which point you probably say something like "If you'd just let me #$@%ing finish, Siri, you'd know I'm trying to call my wife, not do a web search!"
I can't help you with your anger issues, but I do have a very simple solution to your problems with Interrupting Siri. Here's how to get Siri to stop interrupting you and listen to your entire question.
Apple HomePod Review: 5 Things We Love About Apple's Smart Speaker, & a Few We Don't
By David Averbach
Should You Purchase the HomePod?
iPhoneLife CEO and writer David Averbach reviews audio quality, "Hey Siri" performance, the HomePod's fit into Apple's ecosystem, five of his favorite HomePod features, and who should and shouldn't purchase a HomePod.
Best Waterproof iPhone 8 & 8 Plus Cases:
- Lifeproof Fre for iPhone 8 & 8 Plus ($89.99)
- Catalyst Case for iPhone 8 & 8 Plus ($79.99-$89.99)
- Dog&Bone Wetsuit Impact iPhone 8 ($79.95)
- (2Pack) Universal Waterproof Pouch ($7.95)
Best Protective iPhone 8 & 8 Plus Cases:
- Underwater Casetify Case for iPhone 8 or 8 Plus ($40)
- Otterbox Defender Series for iPhone 8 or 8 Plus ($49.95)
- Aknacase Glamour Series - Blue Wave for iPhone 8 or 8 Plus ($20)
The Best iOS Racing App without In-App Purchases
By Conner Carey
I love gaming on my iPhone, and I am happy to pay for an app. But too often, I’ll get into a ‘free’ game only to end up spending more on in-app purchases than I ever would have on a single game for any regular gaming console. Which is why Riptide GP: Renegade is such a refreshing surprise. I spent $2.99 for the initial game, which is a great price considering the developers don’t upsell you within the app at all. The graphics are beautiful, the racing controls are the smoothest I’ve ever tried, and it feels like a normal game because once I buy it, it’s fully-featured and ready to play. All of this combined makes Riptide GP: Renegade the best racing game on the iPhone. We’ll cover more on what this game offers and why I love it below.
Everyone has to eat to live, which is why apps that make planning, shopping, and preparing healthy meals are a godsend. This year I’ve been cooking the most I ever have in my life, and I’ve quickly realized how difficult it can be to keep all the recipes I’ve tried (or want to try) organized. And on top of that, there seemed to be no way to use those recipes to create a shopping list. But what I didn't previously know about is today’s incredible app: Paprika 3. For a one-time purchase of $4.99, this app allows you to save recipes from the internet without having to type any ingredients or directions. You can create a list of everything in your own pantry, build a meal plan with recipes you’ve saved, and add whatever you need to buy to a grocery list. All the work that takes place outside of the kitchen can be done with Paprika 3. There’s a whole lot this app can do, and we'll cover it all below.
How to Make Song Volume Consistent on iPhone
By Leanne Hays
iPhones provide many useful services, not least of which is listening to music in a portable, convenient, and customizable fashion. One thing that can really deter from enjoying music on our iPhones, though, is the way that the volume can shift up and down from song to song. It can be a bit of a Goldilocks experience; first the iPhone volume is too high, then the volume level is too low, and sometimes it's just right. Luckily there's an easy iPhone trick to fix this issue so that you're not constantly having to adjust the volume on your iPhone. Let's get started learning how to enable Sound Check on your iPhone to level out the volume throughout your listening experience.
I have never used my Photos app to properly sort my pictures into albums, and I’m going to make an educated guess and say that this is true for most of us. We take a bunch of photos at an event or with friends, share the ones we love, and let the others take up space on our devices. When it comes time to find a photo, I’m always searching through the All Photos album, scanning for the one I need. But there is a better way! I found Slidebox because I was looking for an app that would let me easily create albums, sort photos into those albums, and delete the photos I don’t need to keep. To my absolute delight, Slidebox allows me to do this super easily by using swiping gestures to quickly sort through photos like you sort through potential connections on Tinder. Learn more on why I love this app and what it does below.
Organizing your life so that it works for you instead of against you is a great way to lower overall stress and free up some brain power. Wunderlist is a to-do list and task manager that allows you to easily keep track of any area of life, get reminders about what you need to do, and collaborate with others from right within the app. I also use Wunderlist to make lists of random things I want to remember, such as movies I want to watch or books I want to read. On the surface, it’s easy to look at Wunderlist and see just a to-do app, but the plethora of features make it an incredible tool for staying organized and on top of things without having to remember it all yourself. We’ll go over more on what Wunderlist does and why we love it below.
There are certain keyboard symbols that are just not readily apparent when you search for them on your iPhone. One example is the copyright symbol; just where is it on the iPhone's keyboard, anyway? Don't worry, there is a simple way to type the copyright symbol on your iPhone so that you can easily let people know that they need to ask for permission to reproduce, distribute, or perform the work in question. Let's learn how to include the copyright symbol in messages from your iPhone!
There are the apps we try and the apps we use. For the longest time, Day One sat on my iPhone as a wonderful journaling app I never used. Then iPhone Life magazine’s managing editor Rheanne Taylor showed me how she organizes her Day One journaling app. And in that moment, I realized I completely missed arguably the best feature this app has: the ability to create multiple journals. I’ll go more into her brilliant organization below. But with a simple change of outlook, the app has become more invaluable to me than any other note-taking, journaling, or markup app available. If you’re not familiar with Day One, then you’re really in for a treat. This journaling app is beautifully designed and works like a dream. I’ll go over more on what Day One does and why we love it below.
Find Your Art History Doppelganger with Google Arts & Culture
By Conner Carey
Google found a clever way to make people pay attention to its already impressive Arts & Culture app: selfies. If you’re on social media, you’ve likely seen someone's face next to a piece of art that looks eerily similar—they probably did that with the Google’s Arts & Culture (Free) app. Once you’ve found your doppelgangers, you can learn more about the artwork and the artist that created it. Aside from this really cool feature, there is an incredible reservoir of information available within the app. Anyone with an interest in art, art history, iconic figures, and culture will be delighted by the plethora of fantastic information from around the world and throughout time. We’ll go over more on what the app does and why we love it below.
Track Calories Using Your Voice with the Simple Evolve App
By Conner Carey
Let me start off by saying that this is not a perfect app, but I still think Evolve (Free) is worth your time. It’s an app that’s still building momentum, so it lacks some of the features I’ve come to take for granted in an app such as MyFitnessPal. But I’ve been using this app to track my calories for over a week, which is something I’ve never before been able to do every day. But Evolve’s minimalist user-interface makes a huge difference in the level of stress or discomfort I feel when tracking calories. Other apps have amazing features; but for me, it’s often too much. Evolve’s goal is to make tracking food the easiest and simplest it’s ever been. And at this, it succeeds. The clean, unobtrusive interface lends beautifully to this, and the streamlined design is mirrored in Evolve’s features. One of the app’s most promoted features is the ability to track what you’ve eaten with only your voice, which is meant to take only ten seconds (and sometimes does). I’m going to dive into the specifics of Evolve below; find out if it’s right for you.
If your credit or debit card is lost or stolen, you'll want to suspend it in your iPhone's Wallet & Apple Pay app. If your phone is lost or stolen, you'll also probably want to remotely erase your device. Better safe than the sorry victim of credit card fraud or identity theft! So how do we go about suspending lost or stolen credit cards to prevent someone else from using them? And how can we suspend our cards if our iPhone is also gone? Don't panic; in just a few easy steps you can suspend credit cards in Apple Pay on your iPhone, or remotely if your iPhone's been lost or stolen and you have access to another smartphone or computer.
Currency Symbols: How to Type the Yen Symbol on Your iPhone
By Leanne Hays
Have you ever had the frustration of needing to use the yen symbol in a text or email and being unable to find it on your phone? After all, in addition to being Japan's currency, the yen is Asia's most traded currency, and the third most traded currency in the world. So surely Apple must have a way for iPhone users to type the yen symbol, right? Good news, there's an easy trick for typing the yen symbol on your phone. Let's learn how to type the yen symbol on your iPhone's keypad .
Currency Symbols: How to Type the Euro Symbol on Your iPhone
By Leanne Hays
Have you ever needed to use the euro symbol on your phone but been unable to find it? You're far from the only one who's had this currency symbol issue! The euro is the second most traded currency in the world at the moment. This is because not only is it used by 19 out of the 28 member nations of the EU, but also by more than 210 million people in countries around the world that peg their exchange rate to the value of the euro for stability. Let's get started learning how to type the symbol for euro on your iPhone's keypad so that you can communicate easily and effectively about the European Union's official currency wherever you are in the world.
Have you ever found yourself wondering, "How do I use the pound symbol on my phone?" Britain's Pound Sterling is the fourth most traded currency in the world at the moment, and 3.2 million people traveled to Great Britain last year for vacations or business—that's a lot of people needing to change their money to pounds! Let's get started learning how to type the pound symbol on your iPhone's keypad so that you can communicate easily and effectively about Britain's currency wherever you are in the world.
Where & How to Watch The Crown Online or on Apple TV
By Leanne Hays
The Crown, an exclusive Netflix offering, won Best Drama at the Golden Globes this year, and viewers are already excited about news about The Crown Season 3. Will The Crown cast change much? Who will the new Crown actors and characters be? Will Helena Bonham Carter really join The Crown cast? We'll have to wait to find out, but speculation sure is fun! For now, though, if you haven't watched The Crown yet you haven't fallen too far behind. Seasons of The Crown are ten episodes each, and Season Two just premiered on Friday, December 8, 2017. This means that you have nearly all year to watch seasons 1 and 2 of the Crown and can look forward to wrapping your 2018 holiday gifts while watching The Crown Season 3. Here's how to stream The Crown online through your iPhone, iPad, Macbook, or Apple TV.
If you have fond '90s cartoon memories of watching Ms. Frizzle and the gang take amazing trips in their magic school bus, I have great news! Your kids can enjoy The Magic School Bus in an updated form, The Magic School Bus Rides Again. In this reboot of the classic kids cartoon, Ms. Frizzle becomes a college professor, so her little sister Fiona Frizzle takes her place as teacher and bus driver at Walkerville Elementary. There are episodes reminiscent of the classic cartoon: trips to outer space, through the human digestive system, and under the ocean, but also shows with updated themes like renewable energy. If you're looking for an educational cartoon on Netflix that you can watch and enjoy as much as your kids will, this is the one!