Apps

I think all of us have accidentally closed a tab in Safari on our iPhones and wished we knew how to open closed tabs so we could get it back. Luckily, there's a simple way to reopen closed tabs. Let's get started learning how to open recently closed tabs you accidentally closed on your iPhone.

Humans have passed down culture from generation to generation through spoken word. Reading, on the other hand, is a relatively recent human invention that requires the brain to convert symbols to words in order to decipher the meaning. Maybe it’s not surprising then that I enjoy listening to a book more than reading it.

In January of 2017, while looking over old photos from my trips to Glacier National Park and Denali National park, I found myself comparing the size of the glaciers fifteen years ago to their current state. The glaciers were obviously shrinking. I already knew that they were, but to see the difference in my own photos made it more real. Comparing my photos to current photos online, you could see that they were noticeably smaller in just the last 15 years. In just a few days’ time our new President would be taking office. His proposed platform appeared to have little regard for even acknowledging our changing climate.  In was in this moment that I hatched the plan for my summer motorcycle tour. I would be taking an 18-day motorcycle ride from my home in SE Iowa to Alaska to see as many glaciers as I could and I would be packing the best iPhone gear and downloading the best iPhone apps for the trip.

We're all aware that there are millions of apps in the App Store, which means there’s very little chance any one of us has heard of even a quarter of what’s available. That’s why we love to look for lists of the coolest iPhone apps, best apps for iPhone, and now, the best unheard of apps, including apps for travel, photography, dating, and more. Lots of cool apps are bound to slip under the radar. But we’re all excited when a new app we’ve never heard of turns out to be fantastic, and better yet, free. We’ll cover eight apps that aren't trending but are still awesome, educational, and helpful for iPhone users. 

These five to-list apps and task management apps are fairly simple, contain a sleek interface, and most importantly, keep you organized. Say goodbye to forgetting to write important tasks down and having to remember the paper list on the counter. The following to-do list apps can help you keep up with your everyday life while keeping the process as simple (or detailed) as you like and as personalized as you desire. Also, they all have free versions with the option to pay for premium with an in-app purchase. Give one (or all) a try and comment below on how it goes.

So you took the initiative to invest in an Apple Watch. Now what? As it turns out, there’s more to your fancy high-tech gadget than tracking your personal fitness and keeping the time. While using your Apple Watch to monitor your daily fist-pumping workout sessions is just fine and dandy, you may be surprised to learn there’s a whole slew of multitasking apps available to you as well. As an Apple Watch owner who’s constantly on the go, I’ve found these six productivity apps are the best at keeping you on task, no matter where you find yourself.

If the iPhone Calendar app that came with your iPhone is just not meeting your scheduling needs, don't worry; you've got options! Here are five of the best calendar apps for iPhone. Find out the pros and cons of our favorite calendar apps.

A while ago, Facebook introduced autoplay for videos on the social network. Perhaps the most obnoxious part about it is that every time a video ad starts playing in your News Feed, you are essentially paying with your precious data or battery power for them to advertise to you. Fortunately, it's easy to disable this feature. Here’s how to disable Facebook’s video autoplay.

In the Featured iUsers column, iPhone Life fans share their go-to apps for handling all the crazy details of work and life on their iPhones. In this column, copy editor Alma Cook shares the details of her iPhone's Home screen.

Now that the new iOS 11 Beta has been available to the public for a bit, we've had a chance to test drive a lot of the new iOS features coming with the new iOS 11. Here are our ten favorite new iOS 11 features that we think you'll love when the shipping version of the next iOS update is released in the fall. We'll cover everything from Peer-to-Peer Apple Pay, iPad Drag and Drop, Live Photo editing, and more! If you can't wait that long for the newest iOS update, check out our article on how to update to iOS 11 beta.

Apple's HomeKit has made setting up home automation a simple affair. However, some products still require additional hardware bridges and networking knowledge to implement effectively. Koogeek's Smart Light Bulb ($54.99) attempts to solve those headaches by including all the HomeKit connection hardware in the base of the light bulb itself. Read on to find out if this bulb is smarter than all the rest.

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2017 issue of iPhone Life magazine. Click here to subscribe.

It is now possible to live stream anything you want or to tune into a livestream from anywhere in the world. As long as you have a smart phone, live broadcasting in high-definition is now available to everyone. These apps will be sure to please anyone with the desire to start live streaming or following content.

Music is important to Apple and therefore to Apple's users. Beatshare (free) from the firm with the same name, Beatshare Inc., makes it easy to share music clips, customized to play back over your own photos and videos. And it's all legal, thanks to Beatshare's use of official third-party Application Programming Interfaces. 

In the 61st episode, the iPhone Life team shares a few of their favorite apps and podcasts to try this summer. They also teach you what happens when families share one Apple ID and show you how to manage which apps use your cellular data.

These are the best apps for writers who want to finally complete that novel they’ve been letting collect dust. I’ve got recommendations for apps that will help you write your story in every part. First, we’ll look at the best writing apps for planning your story, from mind-mapping to idea generating. Then it’s time to sit our butts in the chair and get started, so we’ll look at creative writing apps for actually doing your writing. Lastly, there are some tools every writer needs during and after the process, which is why I’ve got a writing app with tips for the business side of writing. As a writer, I use all of my devices to work, including the iPhone, iPad, and a Macbook. So each writer's app below will also indicate which devices it’s available on. I believe we’ve all got a book in us. Here are the nine best writing apps for getting your book onto paper and into the world.

I have an Apple Watch, but there are times when I don't always wear it. That's why I was pleased to try the Activity Tracker app (free) from Bits&Coffee. Even as I type this, my Apple Watch battery has less than 10 percent left. This is why I can't always wear it, but I almost always have my iPhone with me. When combined with the Activity Tracker app, I can keep track of steps via the built-in pedometer independent of my Apple Watch.

This year at the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) Apple announced some significant changes to the way the iPhone will behave while its user is driving. The new Car Safety features in iOS 11 arrive in response to increased pressure from the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, which has urged Apple and other cellphone manufacturers to develop safeguards to reduce death and injury attributed to distracted driving. Distracted driving has been an issue in at least some capacity for over 20 years without much response at the developer level. Distraction related accidents, whether involving gadgets or otherwise, killed nearly 3,500 people in 2015, according to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, with 391,000 lesser injuries.

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If you have a limited data plan or a data cap for your iPhone, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on where your cellular data is going. But how do you find out which apps use the most data? How much data does Spotify use? What about YouTube? If you can find out which apps are sucking your data, you can turn off Cellular Data usage for them, which means you’ll only be able to access the apps over Wi-Fi. If you have unlimited data, how to check and manage data usage on an iPhone isn't a big deal. But if you’re trying to stay within a certain amount of gigabytes each month, this data saving tip will make it easy. Here’s how to check what apps are using the most data on your iPhone.