iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Best Widgets to Organize Your iPhone

Widgets have been available on the iPhone’s Home Screen since iOS 14, but many of us don’t take full advantage of them, despite certain apps’ pleas for us to add them to our Home Screens. Widgets may seem like bigger distractions, taking up screen real estate and demanding our attention, but in reality, they can offer helpful information at a glance and allow us to interact with the apps without fully opening them or getting lost in other app notifications as we scroll to find one. Here are the best ways to utilize widgets to keep your display streamlined and efficient, plus a few team favorite favorites for you to try out.

Most people prefer listening to audio on their AirPods in stereo (where sound is fed through at least two channels). This requires listening to both AirPods to get the full dual-channel experience. But what if you only want to use one AirPod? You're going to miss out on the sounds coming through the other AirPod. Mono audio is a feature on iPhones that makes sure you don't miss anything when using one ear instead of two. Whether you have hearing loss in one ear, want to share the other AirPod with someone else, have misplaced one of your AirPods, or just want to keep one ear tuned in to what's going on around you, it's possible to make all the sound come out of one AirPod by enabling Mono Audio in your Accessibility Settings. Switching to this single channel setting means you'll be able to hear all the audio from either AirPod, so you can choose which AirPod to use.  

App Saturday: Grubhub

By Hallei Halter

Looking up your choices for "Food delivery near me" and not happy with the results? You can place a takeout order on Grubhub for restaurants (even those that don't offer delivery) and a driver will pick up your order and deliver it to your address. Grubhub orders can also be placed for pickup, but the real advantage of Grubhub is having the menus and pricing of local restaurants all on one app.  

One of my favorite uses for my iPhone is taking and sharing pictures, but with so many different methods and platforms, it can get a little tricky. Let's cover everything about saved images and photos, including how to save and share pictures from text and iMessage, from email, with AirDrop and iCloud, from Shared Albums, and even social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 

This article will tell you how to access the keypad on your Apple Watch and switch the audio output. If you use your Apple Watch for phone calls, sometimes you'll need to use a keypad or even switch the audio output to a different device such as a speaker or headset. If you're wondering "Where is the keyboard on my Apple Watch?" read on. Here's how to open the keypad and how to change the audio output during an Apple Watch call. 

App Saturday: Lyft

By Hallei Halter

On vacation or a business trip and hate trying to maneuver your way around unfamiliar territory? Lyft is a rideshare app that employs local people as an alternative to conventional taxis, and provides discounts for cheap fares. To save time and hassle, Lyft can get you to your destination with just a few taps.

Image searches are great for when something catches your eye while browsing and you want more information. Here's how to do an image search or reverse image search using the Google Chrome app. There are other search engines that can be used for image searches, along with a growing number of apps solely for this purpose. However, I like using Google Chrome since the image search option while browsing is easy to use with just a few taps.

Apple News Plus, Apple's premium news membership that lets you access over 300 magazines and at least 2 newspapers, is here! Here's how to subscribe to Apple News Plus on your iPhone or iPad. There's no risk in giving Apple News Plus a try; you'll be able to browse the titles Apple News Plus has to offer before confirming your subscription and you can cancel any time during the 30-day free trial.

Last week, to very little fanfare, Apple released the iPad Mini 5, the next generation iPad Air, and the new AirPods. Apple’s reason for the quiet soft-release of its new hardware was to avoid robbing attention from the March 25 announcement today in Cupertino, California. But was Apple’s services-oriented announcement worth quietly releasing the highly anticipated iPad Mini 5 ahead of the event? We’ve got all the details on Apple’s new subscription-based services, from the Apple TV Plus collection of original content to the brand new Apple Card. Read on to learn all about Apple’s pricing for their new services, availability, and all of the relevant details Apple didn't share today.

Apple finally announced its rumored TV streaming service at the March 25 event in Cupertino. The tech giant is branching out in a big way and bringing other streaming and cable subscriptions under the umbrella of a completely redesigned Apple TV app. As well, Apple will offer original content through its premium Apple TV Plus service. Let’s go over everything we know so far about the updates to the Apple TV app and Apple TV Plus streaming service.

Today during its services announcement, held at the Steve Jobs Theater in its Cupertino headquarters, Apple announced a new premium magazine subscription service called Apple News Plus. With the Apple News Plus membership, readers can access thousands of articles by hundreds of publications in one place. Having a single digital subscription to several magazines and newspapers can make it easier for you to read and know more about current events, be it news or upcoming trends. The service is available today with the iOS 12.2 update on both iPhone and iPad, and on macOS 10.14.4 on Mac. With the $9.99/month price, you'll have access to 300 magazine titles, which includes content from back issues, and at least two newspapers. You'll be able to share the subscription to up to six people at no extra cost with family sharing. 

The iPhone Xs, Xs Max, and XR have Dual SIM cards, which includes a nano-SIM and an eSIM. The eSIM is a digital SIM that allows your phone to have a second active cell plan from your carrier. Essentially, your phone will have two phone numbers. This is great if you want a business number separate from your personal number or are traveling out of the country and want to get a phone number from a local carrier without swapping out the physical SIM. Typically this feature only works with iOS 12.1 and later with a few carriers in the US. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile currently support this feature with varying restrictions. Check with your carrier to understand how you can best use eSIM with your device. Below, I'll give a general overview of how to set up an eSIM.

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