iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Have you ever left your iPhone behind and didn’t realize it until it was too late? We’ve all been there! Luckily, your Apple Watch can now alert you if your iPhone, or other Apple products, have been left behind. Plus, there are other Apple Watch features to help you find your iPhone once you’ve returned to the location where you left it. I’ll walk you through the steps!

iPhone location based alerts not working? Maybe you've found that your Focus Mode is erroneously activating when you're near the set location, or is not activating even though you're at the location. In either case, we'll show you how to adjust the geofence boundaries for location alerts on your iPhone so that your location based Focus Modes will function smoothly. 

Check Out the Newest Body Composition Scale by Withings

(Sponsored Post) By Olena Kagui on Wed, 09/28/2022

Are you still using an analog scale or a digital scale that only tells you how much you weigh? It's time for an upgrade! Withings is known for its award-winning smart scales, and they are launching a brand new one on October 4th. This new Body Comp scale gives you precise information about your muscle, fat, water, and bone mass, as well as your visceral fat. Plus, each purchase of Body Comp comes with a 12-month subscription to the premium Health+ app to help you assess your overall health.

I've referred to Snow Lizard’s SLXtreme iPhone cases before as the case to use in a survival situation. If you’re an outdoorsy or military type, or an extreme adventurer or survivalist, the SLXtreme for the iPhone 5/5s ($149.99) is without a doubt a perfect case for you. Its rugged design, with its high level of impact protection, waterproofness, and the solar panel incorporated into its backside, which charges a built-in 2,550 mAh battery, make this a superior case for extended use when traveling to wild and challenging environments or for extended treks off-grid. While its size and heft may make this case too big and heavy for the average, casual iPhone user, for the person who requires the reliability and protection of one of the most rugged and dependable cases on the market, this particular case should fit their needs nicely.

When I tried to download the iOS 7.1 update for my iPad Air in the evening, it took three hours. This morning when I downloaded it for my iPad mini, it took five minutes. Lesson: always download updates as early in the morning as possible. Blogger Todd Bernhard and I have outlined some of the changes in iOS 7.1 in previous posts. In this post I want to highlight several useful new features. One important new feature is ability to have HDR mode be automatically available on the iPhone 5s. It's previously been available, but you had to turn it on when you wanted to take advantage of it. What does HDR mean? HDR stands for high dynamic range, and I'm guessing many people, especially those who aren't camera buffs, don't really know what this is. So I think it's a good thing that you can now have it turned on by default. HDR can have a dramatic effect on the quality of certain photos.

One of the most useful apps on the iPhone and iPad is one I use multiple times throughout the day; the Calendar app. Beyond the ability to create an event or appointment and add it, the Calendar can be synced between all your Apple devices using iCloud. In addition you have the choice to use multiple calendars, such as one for work and one for home. When you make and add an event to the Calendar app, it's automatically placed in the default calendar on your device. Let's get started learning how to create Calendar events, add event details, and, if you choose, place your events in separate Calendars.

With Apple's introduction of Lightning connectivity to its mobile devices, accessory manufacturers are still playing catch-up. 30-pin-enabled speaker docks used to crowd the accessory scene, but that isn't the case with Apple's new Lightning connector. Bluetooth seems to be the go-to solution for wireless audio, and the Wren Sound Systems V5BT ($399) steps up to the plate in style.

Review: Documents 5 by Readdle

By Krisoy Desouza

Documents 5 (free) allows users to read, listen, view, download, and annotate almost any content they desire on their iPad. the app is more than just a tool that will help you stay organized; it combines a document viewer with a file manager and a media player. The app is super-fast and looks good with clean graphics. There are plenty of options to use and everything is easy to locate on the app. 

Recently, I unsubscribed from all but a few of the email newsletters I receive. Now, when I write “newsletters”, I am referring to those emails that are blog posts. I didn’t unsubscribe from them because the emails were no longer relevant or important to me (they still were) but I did so for two reasons:

1. I was getting a lot of emails. Some sites I subscribe to post several times a day.

2. It was not easy to share the content with my followers on social media via email.

One of the great things about being an Apple-based environment is the lack of (or at least scarcity of) viruses and malware.  So I found it intriguing today when I received not one but two phone calls from 000-000-0000 according to Caller ID, trying to sell me anti-malware software.

The first time they called, I explained I had a Mac and that ended the call.  The second time, I played along.

The success of the freemium model is impossible to deny. Taking a look at the top grossing games in the App Store paints a clear picture. In 2013 all ten of the overall top grossing games were freemium titles. The highest grossing paid game, Minecraft ($6.99) only ranked 18th in overall top grossing games.

If you migrated to iOS gaming from a dedicated gaming device like XBox, Playstation, or even PCs then the freemium game model is most likely not that appealing. Likewise, if you came into iOS gaming as a veteran gamer of the 90s or early aughts, then overall the freemium game system is very likely viewed by you as a travesty.

And yet, this hotly debated new gaming modality is undeniably bringing in the big bucks, at least for certain developers and gaming houses. Enough game developers are making money exploiting the freemium model that the trend continues much to the dismay of what seems like the majority of dedicated gamers.

Camera phone videos, particularly of outside activities, are often rolling and jerky enough to make one practically lose their lunch when viewing them, which is why a camera tripod is a great tool. You can't lug one everywhere however, and it's usually impractical for your iPhone. Apple has added software image stabilization into the iPhone, but there are limits to its effectiveness. You can save yourself and your loved ones some replay discomfort by adding a more robust video stabilizer app to your iPhone library. There are online tools available on sites like YouTube, but for a finer level of control, you might try Emulsio (free), which was just updated on February 24.

If you've purchased a new iDevice, the good news is that you don't have to set it up from scratch if you are replacing an older device. One of my favorite things about owning Apple products is the simplicity in which transferring content can be done. As long as you back up your previous device using either iCloud or iTunes, your new device can be synced with all your content, including saved messages, email accounts, photos, notes, and other personal settings.

Here's how:

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