Opinion

In every issue of iPhone Life magazine, we feature the iPhone Home screens of people from different walks of life, so our readers can see how they use iPhone apps to meet a variety of needs. In our Summer 2020 issue, we featured Luca Sforza from Seattle, Washington. Luca runs a real estate photography business called Lensit Studio. The world of real estate photography has evolved in recent years to include video tours, drone photography, and 3D virtual photos, and the apps on his iPhone help Luca do it all.

Ghost in the iMachine: Spooky Tech Stories

As much as we love technology, we have always been suspicious of it. You only need to look to our horror stories to understand that: from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Ring to M3GAN, we are captivated by the idea of what happens when technology turns on us. Even Frankenstein, considered by many the first true science-fiction story, is about the dangers inherent in toying with technology whose consequences we can’t fully understand.

iView: iPhone in Nature

By Hal Goldstein

iView: iPhone in Nature

My wife and I are most fortunate to own and share 33 acres of rural Iowa forest with birds, trees, plants, grasses, insects, fish, reptiles, small mammals, and deer. Admittedly, staring at my iPhone when walking in our woods is not a good look. Yet, worlds have opened thanks to apps that let me name trees, identify birds, diagnose plant health, and plot our newly created paths.

Saved by the Apple Watch: Stories from Our Readers

I frequently call my Apple devices lifesavers. I would miss 99 percent of my appointments without the help of my iPhone alarms, but it may be a bit of an exaggeration to say I would die without my HomePod. There was no hyperbole needed for many of you who wrote in with stories of when your Apple devices saved the day! Once again, you came through with some amazing tales of your iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirTags coming to your rescue. I will reproduce several of them here, edited for space and clarity.

Baby's First iPhone

By Amy Spitzfaden Both

Before my daughter was born, I was convinced I wouldn’t let her have access to any screens before the age of five, and after that I’d impose strict limits on her digital access. I shook my head at parents who bought tablet devices for their preschoolers.

If you have an iPad that gets a lot of use, you may be wondering if it's worth it to invest in an Apple Pencil to go along with it. Maybe you're an artist wondering if the Apple Pencil can help you get into digital art on your iPad, or maybe you're more a note-taker who wants the freedom of longhand writing without having to lug around a bunch of notebooks. In this article, we'll go over who the Apple Pencil will be good for and who might want to take a pass.

MacBook Pro M1 Max: Should You Buy It?

Apple’s 2021 MacBook Pro is loaded with updates and improvements that make it “the world’s best pro notebook,” as Apple executive Greg Joswiak proclaimed upon its release. But these high-end features come with a hefty price tag. Does the 2021 MacBook Pro warrant the price? Is it a better idea to wait for the refreshed MacBook Air that’s sure to arrive in a year or less?

If you have AirTags, Apple’s new(ish) tracking device, you probably already know all about the standard ways you can use them: to keep track of your keys, your bag, your bike, or even the ever-elusive remote. But what else can you do with AirTags? Of course, you don’t have to do anything else with them. They exist to keep you from losing your valuable possessions, but you can do some fun and unexpected things with your AirTags, too. Maybe you bought a four-pack, but only have three things you need to keep track of. It would be a shame to let that extra AirTag go to waste. Here are six fun and (mostly) functional ways you can use that extra AirTag.

Apple revealed the 2021 MacBook Pro at its October event, and it's loaded with updates and improvements that make it "the world's best pro notebook," according to Greg Joswiak, Apple's Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing. But these high-end features come with a hefty price tag. Does the 2021 MacBook Pro warrant the price? Or is it a better idea to wait for the refreshed MacBook Air that's sure to arrive in a year or less? 

Many of us have had a conversation with a friend, only to be scrolling on our phones later and come across an ad for the very thing we thought we’d been discussing in private. My colleague, Erin MacPherson, told me this story: “My mom was talking to me about wanting a side-by-side double trash can for under her breakfast bar, and a few days later, I was seeing Amazon ads for exactly those. It was... freaky. Up until then, I had pretty much assumed that I’d forgotten about Googling something or looking it up on Amazon, but I was sure I hadn’t with that one.” Stories like this raise the question—is your iPhone spying on you?

Do you remember when the first smartphone came out? It was only a little more than a decade ago. A couple years later, my husband told me he wanted to upgrade from his old-school flip phone to an iPhone 4. Let me tell you, I was not on board. I remember complaining that he would be on it all the time—just like all our friends who had already converted. Fast forward to today, and I myself am the proud user of an iPhone X and am sad to say that my behaviors are probably worse than those of my friends all those years ago. It took me a while to realize I had a problem. 

Following the WWDC 2021 event, Apple's Beta software for iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, tvOS 15 and watchOS 8 are scheduled for a public beta release sometime in July. If you enjoy being an early adopter and testing the newest technology, you might be interested in enrolling in the Apple Beta software program and becoming a beta tester. Being a beta tester can be an exciting and rewarding experience, however, all bets are off when dealing with pre-released software. In the article below, we'll discuss the Apple Beta Software Program in further detail, and also cover the pros and cons of enrolling in the program. 

Have you ever held your iPhone 12 Pro Max in your hands and wondered, like David Byrne, “How did we get here?” It may seem like we’ve always had our smartphones in our lives, but in reality, it was just 14 short years ago when the first iPhone came out. Imagine, the year 2007: no one owned an iPhone and the term “selfie” wasn’t even a twinkle in a future Instagrammer’s eye. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and learn what made the first iPhone the household name it is today.

Yesterday, Instagram introduced a new icon and app design meant to focus on content. My first thought was, “dear god why?” While the new logo is full of pretty rainbow gradient, it barely looks like a camera at this point and completely abandons the nostalgic polaroid look of the original. Alas, all good things must come to an end, but we can complain about it anyway.

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