iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Charging our phones is part of everyone's daily routine at this point; so when the process goes awry, there's such a feeling of confusion. You've done everything the way you usually do, used the same outlet, cable, power adapter, or wireless charging pad. So why won't your iPhone charge, or why is the charge stopping at a certain point? Before you conclude that there's something wrong with your battery and contact Apple Support, let's go through a troubleshooting exercise to find out why your iPhone isn't charging. We'll go over a variety of possible explanations as to why your device won't charge, and discuss methods to get your iPhone charging once again. 

Whether indoors or out, plants add oxygen to the air and bring a sense of calm to those who look upon them. I’ve always dreamed of an apartment filled from top to bottom with sprawling green plants, but remembering the various watering schedules amid my busy schedule means more plants die on my watch than thrive. No longer! If your thumb ain’t so green, the Happy Plant (Free) app is what you need. The app lets you create a little profile for each of your plants and set a watering schedule. For each plant you add, the app prompts you to take a picture of the plant. And each time you water it, the app asks for another picture. Overtime, all of those photos are strung together for a time-lapse of your plant and its growth. I’ll go over more of what Happy Plant does and why I love it below.

Without a Home button, how do you turn off the iPhone X? There are a couple ways; in a previous tip, I went over how to turn off your iPhone without buttons, which is more of an iOS 11 feature than an iPhone X one. However, you can still turn off your iPhone X with buttons, it’s just a bit different than you’re used to. We’ll also cover how to turn on your iPhone X. Here’s how to turn on and off your iPhone X.

Have you ever needed to use the euro symbol on your phone but been unable to find it? You're far from the only one who's had this currency symbol issue! The euro is the second most traded currency in the world at the moment. This is because not only is it used by 19 out of the 28 member nations of the EU, but also by more than 210 million people in countries around the world that peg their exchange rate to the value of the euro for stability. Let's get started learning how to type the symbol for euro on your iPhone's keypad so that you can communicate easily and effectively about the European Union's official currency wherever you are in the world.

The iPhone X is an incredible device, so it follows that you’d want to know all the ways in which you can use it. From big changes like navigating without a Home button to awesome and fun new features like Animoji and Face ID—our iPhone X Guide will walk you through everything you need to know. This is also a great guide to check out if you’re still on the fence about getting the iPhone X; we cover all the fine points and even walk through an unboxing of the iPhone X so you can see if it’s a good fit for you. As always, our in-depth video guides are part of the super useful iPhone Life Insider program. With an Insider membership, you’ll get instant access to not only the iPhone X guide, but also our entire library of guides, and much more, which we’ll cover below. The iPhone X is Apple’s premium tenth anniversary-edition iPhone; here’s how to use it.

Why have speakers for your Mac or PC and separate ones for your wireless devices? Logitech has an interesting alternative with the MX Sound ($99.99). The beautiful speakers can plug in to your computer using the 3.5mm input jack, while also being paired with not one but two Bluetooth devices. This means you could connect an iPhone and an iPad to the same high quality speaker and alternate use between the devices.

Just as the Mac became the predominant music-crafting tool in the 1980s, the iPad is quickly assuming this role in this decade. The tactile display coupled with powerful hardware make it an ideal surface to construct digital musical landscapes. While eager budding musicians can begin their explorations with Apple's Garage Band, experienced music architects will need a program that allows the full realization of sampling, sequencing, and looping possibilities. This is the space that iOS developer Retronyms hopes to fill with its embodiment of Akai Professional's MPC dedicated music hardware within a software equivalent called iMPC Pro 2 ($24.990. Is the app worth its relatively expensive (in comparison to other tap-centric music construction apps in the App Store) price? Read on to find out.