iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

One of the best ways to use the Apple Watch is as a fitness tracker. Luckily, Apple designed the Apple Watch with fitness in mind, including various features, sensors, and metrics built-in to the device. If you're interested in strength training but are not a fan of using weights, or you would prefer to exercise in a way that's more natural to the body's movements, you'll want to learn all about Functional Strength Training on the Apple Watch.

For everyday uses, the iPhone has a decent built-in microphone. But if you want to get any level of professional sound, whether it be to film a movie, record a song, or conduct an interview, you’re going to need an external mic for quality sound. There’s a wide variety of options, but it’s definitely the type of product where you get what you pay for.

There are iPhone cases for every type of personality, from the rugged, life-proof beasts to the professional, leather covers. Collections of cases are made fairly streamlined though; what if you want to show off your personality or love of art with your iPhone case? There is an array of websites offering graphic design covers but, recently, I came across Redbubble, a company that features independent art on all kinds of gear. Here are seven of my favorites amongst the 8000 options the website offers.

HealthKit allows you to collect and share data on various aspects of your health. From Fitness and Nutrition to Sleep and Reproductive Health, the Health app is great way to get an overall view of your daily habits and how they’re contributing to your wellbeing. The HealthKit is also being used in medical professions for research groups, and the app allows you to export your data if you need to share it with your doctor or a personal trainer.

The iBooks app for iPhone is a great way to collect and read your favorite books or pdfs. The iBooks store has the latest in e-reading across all genres. However, if you’re an avid user of iBooks, it’s easy to lose track of which books you’ve read and how many you haven’t. iBooks doesn’t let you filter by read and unread, but you can create collections to organize your reading list.

Apple has a hidden page on its website featuring awesome artwork and the artist’s process creating their art using Apple devices, apps, and accessories. The Start Something New campaign aims to inspire creatives to use their Apple devices to let their imaginations run wild and create. The campaign features 11 artists and shows that technology is no longer a barrier to creating amazing art. The artists featured used only their iPhone, iPad, Mac, and accessories. One artist even utilized his Apple Watch while another used an Olloclip with her iPhone.

When Apple announced iOS 9, I got really excited about the forthcoming News app. And now that I'm using it regularly, I feel my excitement was warranted. Plus, I like the snappy and seamless manner in which one can toggle between the overview of the news and a specific story. And I recently learned there's an even easier way to return to the overview, as well as to read the next story without going to the overview.

Apple first announced HomeKit, its smart-home platform, in June of 2014, but HomeKit-compatible devices have been slow in coming. And frankly, it may not have been easy to understand exactly what HomeKit is and what the benefits are. iHome generously sent me its smart plug a few weeks ago, and now I finally get what HomeKit is. It's really cool. I want to share with you what I've learned, in case you're interested in what HomeKit is and whether you may want to start creating a smart-home environment. This is especially relevant now, because with the annual Consumer Electronics Show currently going on, more and more HomeKit devices are being announced.

Virtual reality is starting to go from a developers-only situation to a common consumer situation. CES in Las Vegas is full of such products, proving that VR is for everyone with the many different companies here showing off their latest and greatest. The first step to getting consumers into the virtual reality market is giving them something familiar and easy to use–Speck has done just that with its new Pocket VR viewer ($69.95, available Spring 2016).

I've had a SCOTTeVEST jacket for several years now and have found it increasingly useful. As the airlines get more stingy about luggage and even carry-ons, it makes sense to try to keep your gadgets on your person when traveling. Plus, I attend a lot of trade shows, including the upcoming CES in Las Vegas, and I like to carry a lot of items, including business cards, battery packs, chargers, and USB cables—not to mention my iPhone and iPad mini. SCOTTeVEST's travel jacket with hidden pockets can handle all that, and more.

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