Reviews

If you own an older vehicle, you may be USB port challenged. How will you know? When the posse sits in the back seat of your truck or car, they either end passing phones to the front for a quick power top off, or they struggle up, leaning forward to tap the all too short shared lightning cable plugged into the one charger. If you are lucky, a dual-port charger allows for two devices to charge at the same time. CableJive's Powerportz ($19.95) is a clever solution to the problem. It starts with a typical two-port car charger, the kind that fits into the car's power port, or what people used to call a cigarette lighter. If you are driving a car without a USB port, it may well still be called a cigarette lighter. What it probably doesn’t sport is anything useful in the passenger cabin for charging devices.

Most of us wear watches they way we purchased them. Perhaps we swap out a band now and then. Some even come with a variety of band colors or styles. But if we own a good watch, such as a Citizen, an Omega, a Rolex, or a Movado, we wear the watch as purchased because of its overall design. Why pay all that money to cover up the cool watch you spent all that money on? The Apple Watch is different; but should it be? Although the Apple Watch is, in most cases, less expensive than the watch brands listed above, the market seems to want us to protect our Apple Watch from scratches and dings  with a rugged watch case or watch screen protector more so than its expensive brethern.

Someone tell Casetify to send me a whole collection of these lovely cases. Pairing the beautiful designs Casetify is known for with multi-color grips for drop protection makes for a case that’s a gem to look at and use. I was sent a case for the iPhone 7 Plus; it has a yellow grip with watercolor-like flowers on the back. But you can visit Casetify iPhone 7 Cases Collection ($40) to see a whole array of designs. The latest in the Casetify line are these multi-colored grip cases, which come in mint green, lemon yellow, cotton candy pink & sky blue. I’ve been using my Casetify case for about a week now. I love it because it’s the type of case I can see myself using for a long time. I try out a lot cases, so finding one that I want to keep using well past review time is a fairly rare occurrence that I revel in.

The number of Bluetooth wireless speakers available on the market is staggering, and choosing which one to buy is like choosing which outfit to wear. Depending on the occasion, the right speaker can make the difference between an enjoyable experience and an infuriating one. While some manufacturers have designed for very specific use cases, others, like 808 Audio, have opted for a kitchen sink approach. Hence, its Hex Encore XL Wireless Speaker ($399.99) is the Swiss army knife of speaker units. Does it accomplish these objectives successfully and, more importantly, does it sound great doing so? Read on to find out.

The iHome iPLWBT5 Docking Clock Radio ($129.99) could really eliminate some of the clutter on your nightstand. It's a clock radio, which iHome has been making for years, but it also doubles as a dual charging dock for your iPhone 7 and Apple Watch. There's a Lightning dock on the top, which should accommodate most cases except really protective ones. For iPhones in protective cases or an iPad, there's a USB port so you can charge a device via your own Lightning cable. Finally, sitting on the side is an Apple Watch magnetic charging base. 

TreasureHunter ($4.99) is a  iOS board game conversion of the identically named, mildly popular board game released in 2015. This card game was created by legendary game designer Richard Garfield (the creator of the wildly popular Magic the Gathering trading card game). The conversion to iPad board game app was done by the game's Germany-based publisher Queen Games, a company that has had a somewhat mediocre track record digitally converting its other physical board games such as Alhambra and Kingdom Builder to iOS board games. Does TreasureHunter rise above those previous efforts? Read on to find out.

iPhone and iPad word processors are nearly as plentiful on the App Store as flashlight apps. In order to stand out from the crowded selection, developers need to offer products that meet a specific need. In the case of prose composition, one word processing app that enables the narrative (e.g. story and screenwriting) and article construction and evolution process is Scrivener ($19.99). Originally available only for the Mac, Scrivener has recently made the leap to the iOS platform. How does it fare on both? Read on to find out.

If you are on the hunt for a powerful outdoor Bluetooth wireless speaker, one that can pump out massive volume and is also well-equipped to handle extreme environments, then the following head-to-head review of these two behemoths will be for you. I'm putting two of the best modern Bluetooth boomboxes to the test, to see which one of them fares the best.

Over the decades, I've heard some call iOS gaming escapism, while others may call it a distraction from the headline news on any given day; but as a lifetime core gamer, I've found myself extremely grateful on more than one occasion for the comfort, the exhilaration, the competition ,and the break from the day-to-day, real-world ups and downs that some of the more deeply immersive iOS game can provide. Mobile gaming has come a long way over the years and we now have plenty to choose from when it comes to core iOS games. On that note,  it's my pleasure to present iPhone Life's picks for best core iOS games.

The original console-based version of Jade Empire scored an 89 on Metacritic, a remarkably high score for a game. The follow-up Special Edition for PC released a few years later scored an 81 which is still admirable. Since the actual game's story, interface, and gameplay mechanics in this iOS version  of Jade Empire: Special Edition ($9.99) are identical to original game, I won't spend much time on going into those aspects of this conversion.  For those interested in a review of the core gameplay experience, there are a number of reviews for the game already on the web such as this one from Gamespot.

Christmas shopping on a budget is essential for most. And, of course, we want to get presents for as many of our friends and family as we possibly can. But it doesn’t have to hurt your budget to get gifts for everyone—even good gifts. No candles here. We’re sticking to a budget of $25 and looking for the best tech gifts we can find. There’s still time before the holidays to check off gifts for all the people on your list. These stocking stuffers will please your friends and family without bursting your budget; here’s our best tech gifts under $25 for this holiday season.

What good is a rugged, waterproof wireless speaker if you have to carry it around with you while on an adventure? That's the thinking behind the Braven BRV-1M ($99.99), an attractive, solidly built outdoor Bluetooth speaker that is designed for on-the-go use. It's waterproof (IPX7) and quite rugged. But unlike most competing outdoor Bluetooth wireless speakers, it has a GoPro mount built-in, so you can easily attach it anywhere a GoPro camera would go, such as on a bike, boat, or motorcycle. I just wouldn't mount it to a helmet since it is somewhat heavy.

I have seen the future of online mobile gaming, and it is MOBA. Multiplayer Online Battle Arena is a term familiar to any core, hardcore, or professional gamer. If it's not already a common term in your vocabulary, popular iOS MOBA titles like Vainglory and Ace of Arenas plan to change that, as they help usher in a new renaissance of mobile gaming.

Who doesn’t like getting cool technology gifts? A hundred dollars in tech gifts goes a lot further than it used to. Whether you’re looking for fun tech gifts to give this Christmas, Hanukkah, or another holiday— we’ve got you covered with our gift guide to tech under $100. Filled to the brim with great gift ideas, we’ll cover everything from headphones and wearables to cases and e-readers. There’s a lot to choose from on a tight budget. Here’s the best tech gadgets and gifts under $100 to get your favorite people this holiday season.

With the elimination of the headphone jack, Apple has effectively thrown its full weight behind Bluetooth technology. After years of being considered a faulty and glitchy transfer medium, Bluetooth has finally come into its own after years of refinement and technological advancement. The quality of playback that a Bluetooth speaker can pump out can easily be CD quality, depending of course on the source. Certainly it's been consistent and of a high enough caliber to fool die-hard audiophiles in blind acoustic tests. The following speakers are all top of the line Bluetooth speakers, each with its own merits and unique characteristics.

Black Friday falls on November 25 this year; it’s the perfect time to save money on tech gifts for the holidays. Whether you’re looking for Black Friday iPad deals or Amazon gadgets, there’s plenty of Black Friday specials to go around. Target, in particular, has some of the best Black Friday deals this year, with Best Buy and Walmart tying for second. Amazon will feature its Echo at a great deal and cut back on tablet prices for Black Friday too. From iPhone and iPads to Apple Watches and the Amazon Echo, here’s the best deals you can expect on tech for Black Friday 2016.

Continuing along the theme of revisiting apps that have been essential since the early days of iOS, Reeder 3 ($4.99, iOS, $9.99, macOS) by Silvio Rizzi is a feature-rich RSS reader for iPhone currently in its third incarnation. The RSS feed reader app has greatly expanded its support for a variety of third-party services and kept up to date in the modern era of iOS devices. Do these enhancements offer enough value to continue using it above other RSS feed apps? Read on to find out.

I've had the opportunity to test the best Bluetooth headphones over the past several years and one thing is for certain; Bluetooth technology has come a long way since it first went mainstream. No longer is it a laggy, unpredictable medium by which to transfer audio data. These days a good pair of wireless Bluetooth headphones can reproduce sound with remarkable clarity and accuracy. Whether or not you like the fact that Apple eliminated the headphone jack, it's not surprising that the company would consider Bluetooth reliable and mature enough for their iPhone 7 series to rely heavily upon it.

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