iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

At the recent WWDC 17 keynote, the HomePod smart speaker was one of the biggest announcements of the day. The seven-inch HomePod will come in Silver and Space Gray and will be available in the U.S., U.K., and Australia in December 2017. The Siri smart speaker has better audio quality than Amazon Echo and Google Home and is smarter than the Sonos smart speakers. It's also significantly more expensive than the Echo and Home speakers and there is reason to doubt it will be as smart as the Amazon and Google smart assistants. However, unlike the Echo and Home, the HomePod promises a great deal more privacy to its users. Wondering whether you want to invest in Apple's latest gadget? Here's what you need to know before you make a decision.

There’s nothing quite like a hammock and a margarita to swiftly erase the stress of adult responsibility. Add the beach to the mix, and you may even find yourself dreaming up ways to turn your vacation life into your everyday life (you’ve always wanted to run your own bed & breakfast, right?).

We tend to think of our iPhone getting hacked as a far-off scenario, but large tech companies like Apple pay big money to white hat (good ‘witch’) hackers to find the bugs and loopholes they can’t see. Just recently, Apple decided to make iOS 10.3.2 available to even older iPhone users because of a flaw found that had gone unknown for a couple of years. While it’s not worth panicking over, it’s good to take precautions. iOS 10 has more security features directly on your iPhone than ever before. Can someone hack your iPhone? Sure; it’s even possible for someone to hack an iPhone remotely. But you can do a lot to secure your iPhone and protect it from possible hackers. The ten tips below will ensure you’ve implemented every safeguard possible; here’s how you can protect your iPhone from hackers, both local and remote.

You can turn off flashlight on iPhone in the same place that you turn the iPhone flashlight on—Control Center. If you’re wondering how to access flashlight on iPhone, you do so by opening Control Center, which is opened by swiping up from the bottom of your screen. The flashlight on iPhone is a simple feature that’s extremely useful in a number of situations. All iPhones have the flashlight feature, including older models like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5, as well newer models such as the iPhone 6, iPhone 7, and Plus models. There’s also a quick way to turn off flashlight on iPhone, which we’ll go over below. Here’s how to turn on flashlight and turn off flashlight on iPhone.

Apple Watch fans have much to look forward to in the fall release of watchOS 4. The Siri watch face has the potential to transform the Apple Watch into a truly useful digital assistant with its ability to show users what they need to know based on time of day and location. The Music app will finally support multiple playlists and some of those playlists will be automatically synced to the Apple Watch. But the most exciting updates are to the Apple Watch's fitness and health monitoring, from more workout tracking options and gym equipment connectivity, to smart coaching notifications and better Music and Workout app integration. I use my Apple Watch almost exclusively as a fitness tracker; here are the new watchOS 4 features I'm most excited about and the one upgrade I'd trade all of them for.

I recently wrote an article on how to turn on Two-Factor Authentication on your iPhone for better security. Two-Factor Authentication requires the use of multiple devices. For example, if you get a new iPhone, when you log into your Apple ID account for the first time, you’ll need to use your Mac, iPad, or old iPhone to confirm that it’s you logging in and not some stranger trying to access your account on a random device. This is important since your Apple ID is used for everything including making purchases with your credit card. However, if you don’t feel the need to turn this feature on, or if you have it on and decide it’s unnecessary at some point, you can use this tip to turn Two-Factor Authentication.

Last Monday, Apple held its WWDC keynote event, and it was a big one. Not only did we get to see previews of iOS 11, watchOS 4, tvOS 11, and macOS High Sierra, Apple debuted its Amazon Echo competitor, HomePod and released a full new lineup of iMacs, Macbooks, and the 10.5-inch iPad Pro. After Apple revealed the new iPad Pro, it gave us a preview of all of the incredible things you’ll be able to do with iOS 11 on iPad Pro. A stand-out feature is the new Files app, which will allow you to bring all of your file management systems (iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc) into one app. That feature plus the ability to drag and drop pictures, documents, and more from one app to another with ease makes the iPad’s file organization honestly better than what you get on your laptop. So with iOS 11, can the iPad Pro finally replace your Macbook? Tell us what you think.

Different than two-step authentication, two-factor authentication is the latest in Apple ID security from Apple. When two-factor authentication is turned on, even someone who knows your Apple ID password won’t be able to sneak into your account. This is because two-factor authentication requires a confirmation from a trusted Apple device when someone is attempting to sign into your Apple ID account. Here’s how to set up two-factor authentication on iPhone.

Many people have different alarms for different days. Maybe you need to get up at 5:30 a.m. for work, but like to sleep in until 8 a.m. on the weekends. Maybe you need more motivation to “GET UP!!!!” before work in the morning. Never fear: you can name your alarms for that extra boost, or to remind you which one you need to use that day. Here’s how to name your alarms on iPhone.