Leanne Hays has over a dozen years of experience writing for online publications. As a Feature Writer for iPhone Life, she has authored hundreds of how-to, Apple news, and gear review articles, as well as a comprehensive Photos App guide. Leanne holds degrees in education and science and loves troubleshooting and repair. This combination makes her a perfect fit as manager of our Ask an Expert service, which helps iPhone Life Insiders with Apple hardware and software issues.
In off-work hours, Leanne is a mother of two, homesteader, audiobook fanatic, musician, and learning enthusiast.
By Leanne Hays
Want to see what apps are draining the battery on your iPhone? Your iPhone's battery usage is broken down app by app in the Battery Health section of your Settings app. The data lets you see the percentage of battery life used by each app, and also how long you spent on individual apps. You'll be able to save your battery life and save your phone by picking out the apps that use more battery than they should be.
By Leanne Hays
I absolutely love going on road trips, or travel of any kind, really. One of the most fun aspects of any trip for me is finding places to eat, as well as museums and shops that are off the beaten path, local favorites that become part of my mental "must visit" list for future adventures. One of the best tools I've found for trip research to destinations near and far is the Yelp app. Yelp is a free app that collects professional and business reviews from all over the world including restaurants, movers, home cleaning services, shopping, and even doctors and clinics! Yelp has collected over 135 million reviews so far, and the number keeps growing as more and more smartphone users discover this handy app. If you're the type of person that likes to plan ahead and get the most for your money and time, you'll want to learn more about Yelp, including how to set up your own free account and use it to read and write reviews.
By Leanne Hays
Did you know you can change Apple Maps to satellite view and see all the real-life details of the area you're viewing? This makes it easier to view local terrain and notable landmarks on the map as they would appear in real life. Here's how to turn on satellite view in Apple Maps.
Screen addiction is a real issue for many smartphone users, and Apple has a solution. There are several Screen Time features that can help iPhone and iPad users become aware of how much time they spend on their devices and cut back if needed. One of these settings is called Downtime, and we'll go over what it is and how to use it.
By Leanne Hays
Name any hobby, sport, interest, or diversion, and you'll find out more about it than you ever dreamed possible on the Pinterest app. Not so very long ago if you wanted to find guidance for your latest woodworking project, some fresh new garden ideas, inspiration for a unique vacation destination, or an exciting new craft idea, you'd have to pore over books and magazine articles or spend tons of time surfing the web to find all the most helpful links. Now, though, your search can be much more quick and rewarding; you can look to Pinterest as a clearinghouse for pictures, videos, and information about over 100 billion different topics ranging from wildly popular to extremely obscure, right on your iPhone or iPad. What's more, you can share your favorite Pinterest categories and findings with friends and family who are also using the site or app, and keep all your best pins (saved posts) for whenever you'd like to go back and refer to them. Let's get started learning about everything Pinterest now, so you can start pinning with the best of them!
By Leanne Hays
If you want to send a picture in the Messages app, you'll need to know where to find your photos. This process has changed a bit with recent iOS updates. Let's go over how to share photos on iPhone via text message.
Apple groups app notifications and email and message threads together in the Notification Center to help users see all their updates at a glance rather than sorting through them individually. But what if you don't like how your notifications are sorted and want to ungroup them? If you don't like receiving these notification bundles, it's easy to ungroup some or all of your notifications. Let's get started learning how to ungroup notifications in your iPhone's Notification Center.
If you're wondering, "how can I stop spending so much time on my phone," Screen Time settings can help you combat smartphone addiction. Apple offers Screen Time settings on your iPhone and iPad with a section called App Limits that tracks and limits how much time you spend on particular activities, sites, and apps. Read on to learn how to set restrictions on the iPhone and iPad and limit screen time for specific apps.
By Leanne Hays
If you have favorite shows in the Podcasts app, but keep forgetting to check for new episodes, you'll probably benefit from turning on notifications so you can keep up to date. On the other hand; if you're subscribed to lots of podcasts, it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the new episode notifications. Let's learn how to customize your Podcasts notifications, so you're informed about the shows you really want to listen to, while silencing notification about the ones you only occasionally tune into.
By Leanne Hays
Every morning, five days a week, we publish iPhone how-tos to help you get the most out of your phone. But just as important as understanding how your Apple devices work is finding the best apps to use with them. That's why every Saturday we share one of the apps the iPhone Life Team has used and loved with our readers.
According to AARP, only four out of ten American adults have created a will. Writing a will is an important step for every adult, particularly for those of us with children, because we don't want those we've left behind unprotected and confused about our final wishes. Since I'm one of the six out of ten who haven't made a will yet and don't want to spend the time and money to visit a lawyer, I've made it my mission to find a way to write a do-it-yourself online will, preferably for free. I've found an iPhone and iPad app called Tomorrow that not only helps users write a will, including designating heirs, executors, and guardians for children and pets, but also walks us through the process of purchasing life insurance and setting up a trust for our beneficiaries. To learn more about how the Tomorrow last will and testament app works, read on.
