Magazine

The iPhone Life team has rounded up some of our favorite productivity-boosting tools and gear to recommend to all of you. Whether you're looking for just the right wireless printer, a keyboard cover for your iPad, a set of headphones, or a standing desk to keep in shape while you work, we've got you covered. Read on to find the gear that you need in your work life.

In every issue of iPhone Life magazine, we feature the iPhone Home screens of people from different walks of life, so our readers can see how they use iPhone apps to meet a variety of needs. In our Spring 2019 issue, we featured magician and clown Brandon Baglivo, who uses his iPhone for researching magic tricks, planning publicity, and even setting up family activities. If you have a story and apps you'd like to share, email me and we may feature you in an upcoming issue of the magazine!

Looking to add more color, creativity, and self-expression to your life with your iPhone? I’ve sifted through a sea of choices to find this lineup of creativity-boosting apps geared toward the writer, artist, and musician in us all. Try using any of the following apps to turn up the fun in your life with drawing, painting, singing, journaling, and even karaoke!

• Read more about How My Kids Inspired Me to Change My Phone Habits
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We all want to be healthy, and we want it to be easy, effortless enough to work into our busy lives jobs, errands, and other important tasks we pursue daily. Here's a selection of exercise, journal, gratitude, and meditation apps, some free, some paid, for you to use to meet your self-improvement goals. I’ve downloaded (and subsequently deleted) countless apps while researching this article. I’m proud to say the apps I settled on can and (probably) will improve your health and well-being in 10 minutes or less a day.

The Apple Watch has many awesome features and useful capabilities. One of the standout offerings of the Apple Watch is the Workout app. With the release of watchOS 5 last fall came new fitness-tracking features that can help you achieve a better level of physical and mental health. Read on to learn six tips for getting in shape with watchOS 5. Note: Sadly, watchOS 5 is incompatible with the first-generation Apple Watch.

Do you have trouble staying focused? Yeah, me too. In fact, while researching this article, I found myself drifting off to other tasks that definitely needed to be done right away (plot twist; they did not, in fact, need to be done right away). It’s hard to say how much time we waste just worrying about how much time we waste. If, like me, telling yourself, “I have to focus!” feels more abusive than it does helpful, you’re probably dealing with an interruption to one of your executive functions. And while your smartphone use can be a symptom of an attention problem, it can also become part of the solution.

I admit, I was one of the last people at iPhone Life to own an iPad. I just didn’t see the use in it. My iPhone could do whatever I needed; and for those times I needed a bigger screen and a keyboard, I had my laptop! Well, after two months with the iPad Pro, I see the appeal, particularly when it comes to being more productive in my creative pursuits. The following apps have become my favorite solutions for everything from learning new skills to efficiently accomplishing my artistic goals.

All of us have had to plow through at least one difficult day of school or work after a less-than-optimal night of sleep. But what happens when a rough night becomes the norm? The Centers for Disease Control collects data about the sleep habits of Americans and reports that one in three of us are getting fewer than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night. Whether you can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, or both, insomnia is not only miserable but bad for your health. I’m one of those insomniacs who wakes up more nights than not after about four hours of shut-eye, and who’s unable to drift off again for at least an hour or two. If you’re like me and have spent many wakeful hours wishing you could just relax and sleep, it’s time to find some help. I’ve been researching why insomnia occurs, as well as testing iPhone gear and apps meant to deliver a good night’s sleep. Here, I’ll share the tips, apps, and gear that have been most effective so far in my quest to cure my insomnia.