iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

The Best of CES 2024

By Amy Spitzfaden Both

The tech world started off 2024 with a bang at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The convention bustled with life after some atypical years caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the show floor was full of hot tech and innovation of all kinds, we were on the lookout for the best gear and accessories for Apple users in particulart. Smart home products were everywhere, with vacuums and air fryers taking center stage, while wireless charger makers were keen to emphasize their adoption of Qi 2 technology. And it seemed like everyone had their own answer to othe upcoming VisionPro. Here, in no particular order, are our picks for the very best of CES 2024.

Find Out If Your Data's Been Compromised

(Sponsored Post) By Amy Spitzfaden Both on Wed, 10/15/2025

Here's a hard truth: your personal data is being taken advantage of daily. But who are these people buying and selling your information? This is where our friends at Incogni come in.

Many families share iOS devices such as the iPad. Not only do the adults in the household use the device but the children do as well. The internet is a vast and unpredictable place—if you want to make sure kids don’t end up on adult websites, you can set Restrictions within the Settings on iPad or iPhone. Here’s how to restrict access to adult websites on iPhone or iPad.

Ever since my mom got an iPhone she’s been complaining about the alarm. In general, she feels that the darn thing just isn’t loud enough for her to hear it. I too have slept through my iPhone alarm more times than I care to admit, but I’ve never been able to figure out why the volume is so quiet—until recently. If you feel like you’re constantly sleeping through your iPhone alarm, here are some things to do about it. Here’s how to make sure you don’t sleep through your iPhone alarm.

Some names are really popular. You might have four Davids in your Contacts on iPhone and no clear way to tell them apart. If you have a lot of contacts with the same name, this tip will help you tell them apart and keep your Contacts organized. Also, this tip is helpful when sending iMessages, since a select contact only shows the first name of the recipient. Here’s how to organize Contacts with the same name.

How to Lock Portrait Orientation on iPhone & iPad

It's super convenient to be able to rotate your screen from portrait to landscape mode automatically, as well as lock it later when you need to. Luckily, both the iPhone's and iPad's screen rotation lock buttons are easy to access via the Control Panel. With the orientation lock enabled, you can keep your screen from adjusting regardless of whether the device is rotated vertically or horizontally. Let's go over how to adjust your iPad's and iPhone's auto-rotate settings!

Some iBooks in the Apple iBooks store include multimedia elements you can interact with, such as movies, diagrams, presentations, galleries, 3D objects, and more. But when you stumble across one of these multimedia iBooks, how do you navigate it? There’s a couple different taps, pinches, and swipes to know before you start reading. Here’s how to read an iBook with interactive multimedia.

The Podcasts app on iPhone allows you to listen to all of your favorite podcasts in one simple app. There are podcasts on literally every topic imaginable, from creativity to tech and beyond. But those podcasts pile up if you aren’t an avid weekly listener. One way to make sure you don’t miss episodes from your favorites is to create a station, which is the Podcasts app's version of a playlist. Here’s how to create a station of your favorite podcasts.

The News app on iPhone is a relatively recent reincarnation of the old Newsstand stock app by Apple. It’s similar to other news apps such as Flipboard, which brings together multiple articles from different print and web publications into a single app for viewing, reading, and sharing. However, if you’re looking for something specific, you can search in the news app. Here’s how to search in the Apple News app.

The Mail app on your iPhone can connect all of your email accounts in one place with different folders that allow you to organize and view your emails in the best way for you. One way the Mail app helps you stay on top of your communication is with the Drafts folder, where you can find messages you started and saved, but never got around to sending. You can use this tip to quickly and easily see all the drafts you’ve begun across all of your Mail app connected accounts. Here’s how to view all drafts in the Mail app on your iPhone right from your Inbox.

The iHome mini iBT82 ($49.99), the mid-sized iBT35 ($69.99), and iHome's largest boombox, the iBT9 ($99.99) are three excellent alternatives for those in search of a reliable, affordable, and portable Bluetooth speaker solution. These rugged Bluetooth speakers are part of iHome's Weather Tough line of Bluetooth speakers, all of which are waterproof, shock proof, and dirtproof. They also float, even the biggest of the lot, the iBT9.

SIM cards (Subscriber Identity Module cards) are how carriers connect your iPhone to their network; they also makes it easy to keep your number when switching phones. If you get a new iPhone, you may end up needing to remove the SIM card from your old phone and insert it into the new iPhone. You may also want to switch one SIM card for another when traveling abroad in order to use a local carrier. Most modern phones have SIM cards, and if you have an iPhone 4s or later, your phone definitely has a SIM card slot in case it’s needed. Here’s how to remove or insert a SIM card from your iPhone.

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