Third-Party Apps

I’m sure there are plenty of people who love logging on to Facebook and seeing the latest sports scores. I only tend to see these while a game is currently underway, but Facebook is the only way I know a game is being played because I don’t care for watching sports. So if you’re like me and you’d rather not see those sport scores at the top of your Facebook feed, there is a way to turn it off. Here’s how to get Facebook to stop showing you sports scores.

Tired of getting too many notifications for Facebook Live posts on your iPhone? You can disable Facebook Live notifications, but turning them off can’t be done on iPhone, except individually. Facebook Live allows users to record what’s going on as it happens. Currently, Facebook sends you a notification whenever someone you’re friends with or someone you follow begins recording live. This has resulted in a lot of users being inundated with Live notifications, leaving us wondering how to stop the Facebook Live notifications from alerting us throughout the day. You can do this easily from your computer, since the desktop version of Facebook is needed. We’ll also go over how to turn off all Facebook notifications on your iPhone, from your iPhone. Here’s how to turn off Facebook Live notifications.

Even people living under rocks have heard of Pokémon Go by now. In fact, they’re probably under that rock looking for a Geodude Pokémon. I downloaded Pokémon Go a couple of days ago, and despite being red as a lobster after a weekend camping trip, I spent three hours outside yesterday trying to catch them all. Outside! Pokémon Go, in short, uses augmented reality to bring the beloved Pokémon of many childhoods into the real world. As you move around in the world, your avatar moves. If you want to catch them all, you have to get off your butt and explore. Furthermore, the game has turned many a strangers into friends sharing a common bond. Here’s three reasons Pokémon Go may save us all.

It’s not that I don’t like cooking, it’s that I don’t want to cook at the end of a long day. Yet I’ve felt the consequences of microwave meals and take out— my body is not a fan. So when I was asked to test out Mealime Pro ($5.99/mo), I figured this was a great excuse to get back in the kitchen. Mealime is a meal planning app with quick recipes that can be tailored to your personal eating preferences. The service offers five different menu types from Low Carb to Vegetarian and scales the amount of food you make based on your selection of 2 or 4 servings. Overall, I’ve made some incredibly yummy and healthy dishes the past couple weeks. But there’s certainly room for improvement here too.

It appears that Apple is in talks with Tidal to acquire the music streaming service owned by rap mogul Jay Z, reported The Wall Street Journal. The initial report came as a surprise to many, but now bloggers are making the case for why it could be the best of both worlds. Tidal and Apple Music both have exclusivity with certain artists, but Tidal has maintained higher pay-per-stream rates for Tidal artists.

Furthermore, Tidal now has 4 million paying subscribers while Apple Music has 15 million. If either plan to catch up or surpass Spotify’s 30 million paying subscribers, combining efforts could be a way to help bridge that gap.

Facebook uses complex algorithms to try to provide you with the content you want to see the most. Some people hated it when Facebook made the change, because now there are posts from friends you may never see. But Facebook has also added the ability to choose whose posts pop up at the top of your news feed. Here’s how to choose whose posts you see first on Facebook.

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.

Running from the law? Stuck on a moped that can’t go over 50 miles per hour? No worries. Whatever your reason (we don’t need to know), Google Maps makes it easy to avoid highways on your iPhone. You can easily turn off highways in Google Maps options, and get directions that steer clear of those highly populated highways. The alternative route will likely take more time, but if back roads are what you want, Google Maps can help. We've covered avoiding toll roads in Google Maps before; now it's time to avoid those highways. Here’s how to use Google Maps to avoid highways.

Here’s how to manage your iTunes account and cancel iTunes subscriptions on your iPhone.

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down and tap iTunes & App Store.
3. Tap on your Apple ID at the top.
4. Tap on View Apple ID.
5. Fill in your Apple ID password and tap Sign In.
6. Scroll down and tap Manage.

Face it; kids are going to use technology as a regular part of their lives. Whether it's a home or at school, for recreation or education, or all of the above, your children and grandchildren will learn all the ins and outs of your iPhone, iPad, and whatever other devices you may have around the house. We already know it's important to limit screen time to keep our kids well rounded, but what about other parental controls? Apple has created several iPhone and iPad restriction settings that adults can put in place without ever needing to purchase a parental control app, and even more settings are coming with iOS 12! There are many reasons you might enable restrictions on your iPhone; they act like a child lock app and control major aspects of privacy, allowed content, and more. Here are two restrictions I find very helpful; preventing kids from adding or deleting apps on your devices. Let's get started learning how to use these parental control settings.

This is something I’ve always wondered about but didn’t realize there was a solution for until recently. When someone dies, what happens to their Facebook page? This must have been a question posed by many users because Facebook allows you to designate someone to manage your Facebook page if you should happen to die, this is called a Facebook legacy. You can also set your profile to automatically delete once Facebook has been notified of your death. Either way, here’s how to create a will for your Facebook page.

If Facebook is draining your battery, gobbling up your storage by caching huge amounts of data, or otherwise causing problems on your iPhone, you can delete the app and create a Home screen icon for the website instead.

Spotlight Search, with iOS 9, is able to search within the apps you use and link directly into specific sections of that app. For instance, you could search for a recipe from Spotlight Search and receive results from multiple cooking apps on your phone. However, each new app downloaded is automatically added to Spotlight Search. For the applications you don’t need Spotlight to search through, turn them off in Settings.

Finally, in iOS 9, there is an option to delete all of your mail via the Mail app. This only works with individual mailboxes, such as Yahoo, not the All Inboxes mailbox. If you're using Gmail, you'll need to select Delete All instead of Archive All in Gmail Settings.

So, a few days ago I needed to find an ATM, but I wasn't familiar enough with the area to know where to find one.  Thankfully, Google Maps makes it easy to find nearby ATMs, grocery stores, and gas stations!

If you travel or do business internationally, you know how costly roaming charges are. Unless your mobile carrier is T-mobile (limited to 2G data speed), you need an additional service plan for international texting. AT&T international texting costs $10 a month, as does Sprint, but don't worry; you can text free in Italy, Germany, the Philipines, or almost any other country you can think of with iMessages. With iMessage, you can text from anywhere for free, as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection and the person you're messaging also has an iPhone or Mac. If you want to be able to internationally text friends without iPhones for free, you'll need a free texting app. Let's get started learning how to avoid monstrous phone bills by sending free iMessages, or using a free text app!  

Our phones have officially become our cameras too, with our Photos apps full of everything from selfies to vacation shots. Yet how do you take that suave picture of youself and put it on Facebook? Or, upload that gorgeous photo you took of Niagara Falls as your cover image? Easily.

Some of your Facebook friends like games. A lot. Some of your Facebook friends want you to like games a lot too. And you know this because they've sent you so many Facebook game requests that you are considering unfriending them just to make the onslaught stop. 

We at iPhone Life don't want to tell you who to be friends with, but you don't actually have to unfriend the Facebook gamers you know in order to make the game requests stop. Here's what you can do instead:

If you are traveling to a place where you won't have reliable or affordable access to data or Wi-Fi, Google Maps allows you to save the maps you need ahead of time for later offline use. 

Have you ever been watching something on Netflix with your iPhone or iPad only to realize the app was using cellular data instead of Wi-Fi? Most of us do not have unlimited data available, so that can be an expensive mistake. To avoid using data when you don't have to, it's a good idea to prevent data-gobbling apps from accessing data as their default setting. You can do this by turning off cellular data for specific apps, like video and music streaming apps, and changing the frequency with which apps like Mail fetch new data.