Apps

In episode 98, the iPhone Life team focuses on the best apps for you to use this holiday season. Learn how Apple’s new augmented reality app called Measure can help with your festive baking and what app you can use to record a special moment every day with friends and family. Other topics include tips for the Notes app, Siri Shortcuts and navigation in Google Maps

Feel like nothing's ever happened in your hometown? Wish you could find somewhere more special to visit than Ye Olde Tourist Trap? If you're interested in local history or are wanting to find unique vacation spots, the Inquire app's easy and efficient search results can help.

At WWDC 2018, Apple made a big deal about Siri & Shortcuts during the keynote presentation. Shortcuts is based on the app Workflow, which Apple bought in 2017. In this article, we'll provide the basics to get you going with the Shortcuts gallery and the editor's screen. Now that Shortcuts is available for iOS 12, it seems that no one quite understands how the app works. Even Apple's official guide to Shortcuts fails to answer some important questions. Grab yourself a cup of a soothing herbal tea and let's dive into this mess together.

One of the iOS 12 features I've been eagerly awaiting is Apple's new Shortcuts app. This new app allows you to instruct Siri to accomplish a task or series of tasks with native and third-party apps, all triggered by a phrase of your own choosing. In addition to creating your own Shortcut, Apple's latest help app also lets you choose from a Gallery of pre-designed shortcuts. Let's get started learning how to find the Shortcuts app on iPhone and iPad, and then use the Gallery to install a Shortcut we all need from time to time: finding directions home. Once you've installed the driving directions Shortcut, you can choose and configure as many other Gallery Shortcuts as you need. We'll go over how to create your own Shortcut in a future tip.

In the 94th episode of the iPhone Life Podcast, members of the team discuss the pros and cons of reading books on their iPhones, using a Kindle, listening to audiobooks, or buying old-fashioned paperbacks. Other topics include how to take advantage of iOS 12's location-based Do Not Disturb settings, tuning apps for musicians, and an iPhone game that has recently become Sarah’s guilty pleasure.

Here's a fun thing to try with Apple Maps on your iPhone; did you know you can change your Maps settings from Map to Satellite and see all the real-life detail of the area you're viewing? This setting is Apple's version of the popular Google Street View. Let's get started learning how to change Apple Maps' settings to Satellite now. 

Every morning, five days a week, we publish iPhone how-tos to help you get the most out of your phone. But just as important as understanding how your Apple devices work is finding the best apps to use with them. That's why every Saturday we share one of the apps the iPhone Life Team has used and loved with our readers. 

According to AARP, only four out of ten American adults have created a will. Writing a will is an important step for every adult, particularly for those of us with children, because we don't want those we've left behind unprotected and confused about our final wishes. Since I'm one of the six out of ten who haven't made a will yet and don't want to spend the time and money to visit a lawyer, I've made it my mission to find a way to write a do-it-yourself online will, preferably for free. I've found an iPhone and iPad app called Tomorrow that not only helps users write a will, including designating heirs, executors, and guardians for children and pets, but also walks us through the process of purchasing life insurance and setting up a trust for our beneficiaries. To learn more about how the Tomorrow last will and testament app works, read on.