How-To

If you've ever wondered how to download videos or music from YouTube and been frustrated that you can't, there's a fix for that. Better yet, it's a legal one, and it doesn't violate the YouTube terms of service. I'm talking of course about YouTube Premium (formerly called YouTube Red), a paid membership that allows you unlimited access to commercial-free videos, background play to keep your tunes going even when you're using other apps or your screen is off, and the ability to download songs and videos to watch on your iPhone even when you're offline. Let's go over the details of YouTube's premium service, so you can decide if this is the way to save YouTube videos you've been looking for. 

I appreciate a good podcast though I have never cared for the built-in Podcast app on my iPhone. Yet it wasn’t until very recently that I decided to finally look for a solid replacement. There are various options in the App Store; you can certainly try out your fair share of podcast apps and see which you like the best. But my choice was surprisingly easy to make: iCatcher Podcast Player is a highly customizable podcast app that makes discovering new podcasts fun and listening to those you already love easy. Learn more on what it does and why we love it below.

If you've ever wanted to create your own emoji, then you're going to have a lot of fun playing with Memojis, a feature in the new iOS. Think of Memoji as an iPhone emojis update that can be used in real time as live, talking avatars in FaceTime or Messages, similar to Snapchat filters, but better. It's like being able to create your own Animoji, but not just any Animoji, Animojis of yourself or any character you can dream up. You can design as many designer Animojis as you want, some for family, some for friends, and you can customize their features, hairstyles, accessories, and much more. These personalized and animated emoji faces can only be created on the iPhone X, iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, and iPhone XR since these are the only versions of the iPhone to incorporate the front-facing TruDepth camera. If you don't have or don't plan on buying a new iPhone, you'll still be able to receive Animoji and Memoji messages, although you won't be able to create them. If you still want some of the fun of custom Memojis, check out this article about a free emoji creator app. Let's go over how Memojis work, so you can make your own avatar.

Using two-factor authentication helps ensure that the accounts associated with your Apple ID are safe. Even if someone has your login name and password, they won't be able to access your accounts without a verification code from a trusted phone number or one of your trusted devices. Once you verify a new device, you won't need to use two-factor authentication again unless you sign out of it completely, erase your device, or change your password. Similarly, when signing in on the web, you can choose to trust that browser so that you don't have to go through the verification process each time you sign into your account on your computer. Let's go over the steps of signing in to a new device or iCloud account with two-factor authentication.

When you have thousands of photos, there’s no way you’re going to look through them to try and spot the duplicates. There’s also the matter of exact versus similar duplicates—it would be a pain in the ass to try and sort that out manually. Well, a question in the iPhone Life Facebook group about this very topic sent me on a search for the best app for easily removing duplicate photos. And I do believe I’ve found it: Remo Duplicate Photos Remover on the iPhone is a free app that scans all of your photos, presenting you with a quick look at all of the duplicates. Then the app makes it easy for you to quickly remove the photos you don’t want to keep. Learn more on what this app does and why we love it below.

You can't effectively use an iPhone without an Apple ID. It used to be, in the pre-family sharing days, that family members sometimes shared an Apple ID; this created all kinds of complications. If you want to buy apps in the App Store, sign up for Apple Music or an iTunes account, or use iCloud, iMessage, or FaceTime, you'll need your own Apple ID first. Once you've created your Apple ID, you can use it for all of the purchases, services, and accounts I mentioned before; it's really nice not to have multiple login names and passwords to remember. Signing up for an Apple ID is free and easy to do; let's get started learning how to sign up for a new Apple ID on your iPhone. 

iOS 11.4 is here, and one of the most long-awaited features included is the ability to store photos and other message attachments in iCloud and sync them across devices. This means, of course, that when you delete a message or attachment it will now be deleted on every iPhone, iPad, or Mac you own (previously, you had to delete the message individually on each device); and when you purchase a new device, all your messages will be there as soon as you sign in to the device. This new capability will offer not only convenience, but also save space on your iPhone and iPad while preserving your privacy with end-to-end encryption. Let's learn more about how messages in iCloud works and what you need to do to use this feature, and how to turn on messages in iCloud, as well.