iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Prevent Text Predictions from Putting Words in Your Mouth (iOS 17)

If you updated to iOS 17 recently, you might have noticed autocorrect is behaving a bit differently than you’re used to. Now, you’ll see suggestions inline while typing, which can be accepted by tapping the space bar. However, if you find yourself accidentally hitting the space bar without wanting to accept the suggestion, you may want to disable these new predictions.

How to Add Apps to Apple Watch

By Rachel Needell

How to Add Apps to the Apple Watch (iOS 17)

Most apps on the Apple Watch need to be downloaded via the iPhone before you can download them directly from the App Store. However, if you've downloaded the app previously and it's still in your iCloud, you can re-download it to your Apple Watch without your iPhone. But did you know that you can automatically download the companion watchOS version of an app you’ve added to your iPhone? You can also turn this feature off and choose only specific apps to download to your Apple Watch if you'd like to save space. Here's how it works!

How to Organize Your Calendar in 2025

(Sponsored Post) By Amy Spitzfaden Both on Thu, 05/08/2025

Apple is pretty good about updating its products, but it seems to have forgotten about the Calendar app and its many downsides. The makers of Informant 5, on the other hand, do not forget to regularly improve their app based on user experience. The latest updates to this calendar and task-management app are a productivity game-changer.

What Is AE/AF Lock & How to Use It

When you capture an image with your iPhone, the camera's autofocus (AF) and auto exposure (AE) features will automatically determine the best focus position for you and the best exposure for that area of focus. However, you can manually adjust these settings and lock them so that you don't have to reset them between shots. Now, let's find out how to use AE/AF Lock!

Siri is an awesome time saver. Want to view your most recent calls, text someone, get directions, or post to Facebook? Just ask Siri. You can even do all this from your lock screen. The problem is, so can anyone else. If your settings allow for it, anyone can access your call history, send a tweet, or get directions to a contact's home from your lock screen just by bringing up Siri and asking.

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:

There are a variety of reasons why you might want to transfer your photos from your iPhone to your computer. Maybe you’re running low on storage space and need to clear out some room in your Photos app; or maybe you just like the extra bit of security that comes with having your photos on multiple devices. Here’s how to use AirDrop to transfer photos between devices.

 

How to Use Google Maps Offline

By Sarah Kingsbury

Have you ever asked, "Can I save a Google Map offline?" The answer is yes! If you are traveling to a place where you won't have reliable or affordable access to data or Wi-Fi, you can actually download maps in Google Maps, which allows you to save the maps you need ahead of time, and you will be able to access them offline.  

 

Panoramic photos are great for capturing an expanded view of a beautiful landscape. Typically, this is done by moving your iPhone from left to right or right to left as you take the photo in Pano mode. But what about when you want to capture a shot of something really tall, like a tree, for example, or even the Eiffel Tower? Well, you'll be excited to hear that you can take vertically oriented panoramic photos with your iPhone too!

Do you have an idea for an app but lack the programming knowledge to begin building it? In this weekly blog series, I will take you, the non-programmer, step by step through the process of creating apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Join me each week on this adventure, and you will experience how much fun turning your ideas into reality can be! This is Part 21 of the series. If you are just getting started, check out the beginning of the series here.

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.

The ability to mark, move, or delete emails using the Mail app comes in handy when you need to manage your inboxes. You can easily mark, move, or delete an email in your iPhone's Mail app from within the body of an email using the menu at the bottom of your screen. You can also manage individual emails from within your inbox by swiping to the left over the email. But this is tedious if you have a large number of emails to deal with.

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