iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Apple's WWDC 2021 keynote highlighted an important and oft-missed point about the health care industry: whether you're caring for yourself or for family members, health monitoring can be a hassle, and it's difficult to remember health history and details by the time you're in the doctor's office. With improvements set to roll out with the fall 2021 release of iOS 15, Apple is aiming to change that. 

What is spatial audio

In today's WWDC 2021 keynote presentation, Apple announced upcoming features and software updates for AirPods and Apple Music that will focus on an overall improvement to your listening experience. For AirPods, Spatial Audio and beamforming reigned supreme, while Apple Music made some serious upgrades in audio quality—at no additional cost—through the incorporation of Lossless Audio tiers and Spatial Audio. We'll discuss these fun new updates, along with some very practical upgrades to AirPods, such as the ability to locate these tiny devices with the Find My app.

Expect macOS Monterey to further blur the line between your Mac and your iPad. A new Universal Control feature Apple announced at its WWDC keynote allows you to control a Mac and iPad simultaneously using the same keyboard and mouse and drag and drop files easily between devices. Aside from opening up this hybrid work option, macOS includes new iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 features, like media sharing in FaceTime and notification controls tailored for different activities. Other macOS updates include redesigned tabs in Safari and an organization option called Tab Groups, which lets you sort your tabs into—you guessed it—groups that you can revisit later. And let's not forget that your Mac is now an AirPlay destination!  The macOS Monterey beta is available for those who want to try the new features now, while more cautious users can update to macOS Monterey in September when the finished version is released. 

iPadOS 15

Though Apple's latest iPad Pro has an M1 chip and all the power to perform like an iMac, iPadOS is still no macOS. Apple announced new iPadOS 15 features at its WWDC keynote, including multitasking upgrades, widgets, an iPad App Library, improvements to the Notes app (including the new Quick Note), the Translate app on iPad, and updates to Swift Playgrounds. The iPadOS 15 beta is available for those who want to try the new features now, while more cautious users can update to iPadOS 15 in September when the finished version is released. 

WatchOS 8 is coming to an Apple Watch near you this fall! This much-anticipated software update, announced at Apple's WWDC keynote event, was met with sighs at the focus on revamping the Breathe app. While the improved Health features come with exciting possibilities, the spattering of minor core features, including more flexible text writing, AirTags on the watch's Find My app, and a new Portrait watch face raise more questions than whoops of excitement.  The watchOS 8 beta is available for those who want to try the new features now, while more cautious users can update to watchOS 8 in September when the finished version is released. 

Anticipation is building for the WWDC keynote on June 7, when Apple will kick off its developers conference by introducing the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS. Our editorial team will be watching the WWDC 2021 keynote livestream and hosting a conversation in our private Facebook group as the event happens. And you're invited to join in, ask questions, and share your opinions! After the keynote, watch or listen to the iPhone Life Podcast, where we’ll discuss everything just announced. Read on to learn more about how to be a part of our event coverage. 

A good house cleaning app can be a lifesaver when you're trying to keep your home organized. Not only can it remind you to clean those spots you keep forgetting, but it can also help break down what can seem like insurmountable tasks into bite-sized pieces. Better yet, many can be shared with other household members so that the app can pester them to do their chores and save you the trouble. Here are the best cleaning apps we've found to keep your household running smoothly.

The Apple Watch Activity rings reflect your daily burned active calories, minutes exercised, and hours in which you stood and moved around for at least one minute. You can also use the Fitness app on your iPhone and the Activity app on your watch to see your averages over time. I will help answer all your questions about Fitness Trends and Apple Fitness Challenges!

AirPlay 2 support is now included in the Apple Fitness Plus app, so you’ll be able to stream your workout from your iPhone to any AirPlay 2-compatible TV. This means that, for the first time ever, you don’t need an Apple TV set-top box to project your workout to your television! We'll show you how, and discuss which features will be limited.

As of the update to iOS 14.5, Siri can now learn and remember which music service app you prefer to use when you ask it to play music on your Apple device! We'll show you how to activate Siri so that the virtual assistant will ask which music service to use, and then how to set your preference for later.

How to Update Apple TV

By Erin MacPherson

Each Apple TV update brings bug fixes, better functionality, and a generally better tvOS software experience. We recommend keeping your Apple TV updated to the latest software, and to do that you'll either need to perform a manual Apple TV software update or set the latest Apple TV update to occur automatically whenever a new tvOS version is available. We'll show you how to do both!

How to Delete Messages on Apple Watch in Bulk (watchOS 10)

Ultimately, you can't delete multiple messages at a time from your Apple Watch. Additionally, when you delete messages from your Apple Watch, they won't always delete on your iPhone and vice versa. This is super important to know if you are trying to protect your privacy or maintain a surprise. However, you can still delete messages en masse from your iPhone, and individuals from your Apple Watch. Let's get into it.

If you're anything like me, you frequently have anywhere from fifteen to thirty different browser tabs open at a time. Inevitably, some of them start playing some irritating ad or video that you can't get to shut up, leaving you to wonder how to mute a tab in Chrome or another web browser. Luckily, all the modern browsers you may be using have an option to mute an individual tab, so you can continue browsing in peace. 

Did you know you can print items from the Notes app on your iPhone? It's a super useful tool, but it's tricky to figure out how to print from Notes on iPhone unless you know where to look. In this tip, we'll show you how to print notes from iPhone so you can save paper copies of your notes or scanned documents.

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