iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Best Widgets to Organize Your iPhone

Widgets have been available on the iPhone’s Home Screen since iOS 14, but many of us don’t take full advantage of them, despite certain apps’ pleas for us to add them to our Home Screens. Widgets may seem like bigger distractions, taking up screen real estate and demanding our attention, but in reality, they can offer helpful information at a glance and allow us to interact with the apps without fully opening them or getting lost in other app notifications as we scroll to find one. Here are the best ways to utilize widgets to keep your display streamlined and efficient, plus a few team favorite favorites for you to try out.

The Reminders app, Apple's free to-do list app, allows users to stay organized by creating to-do list on the iPhone. Reminders can also be edited to include subtasks, nested tasks that will help you break down jobs into smaller components. Learn how to use Reminders on the iPhone to add subtasks to your to-do lists, three different ways. 

It's wise to have a screen protector, and they days, an anti-microbial option is ideal. The folks at Zagg, under their InvisibleShield brand, sent me a review unit of the Glass Elite Screen Protectors (starting at $39.99). They actually have several screen protector options, depending on your needs, including Anti-Glare, Privacy, VisionGuard (Blue Light Filter) and, as mentioned, Anti-Microbial, all with tempered glass for shatter and scratch protection.

I have a special place in my heart for Jabra, as the company made the first Bluetooth earpiece I ever owned about a decade ago. So I'm always interested in their latest model. I saw them at CES and was able to pick up a review unit of the Elite Active 75t ($199.99). First, it looks great, and is sold in assorted colors including black, black with copper, navy blue, mint green, and sienna. If you want to stand apart from the boring, white-AirPod-wearing crowd, these will help. They fit snuggly in the ear and have adjustable tips to help stay in during workouts for active users, hence the name.

Like many readers, working from home is my new norm. And that means acquiring the right teleconferencing equipment. Additionally, podcasters, hardcore gamers, streamers, and YouTube influencers all need a quality microphone. That means a USB-based digital microphone and not analog. And you might want one that accommodates different type of conversations (conference room, one-on-one interviews, and solo broadcasting.) For years, I've been using the microphones from Blue, like the Snowball and Yeti. Recently, Logitech, which owns Blue, let me try its higher-end model, the Yeti X ($169.99). 

As popular as Apple's AirPods are, there are openings where other vendors can fill in the gaps. For starters, enough with the white plastic. I had the opportunity to try ATH-CK3TW In-Ear Wireless Headphones ($99) by Audio Technica at the Consumer Electronics Show. Immediately, you see the dark teal blue color and know these are not your standard earbuds. They are also sold in black or white for those who prefer more mundane color choices.

I've reviewed several game controllers from GameSir, but the latest one is a sharp departure from previous models. The company sent me the F4 Falcon Mobile Gaming Controller ($35.99). While most of GameSir's other iPhone game controllers are large and enclose or prop-up the entire iPhone, the Falcon is quite compact and folds into itself to be smaller than a computer mouse. The wings expand, like a falcon, and it can clamp on to an iPhone.

Remember when Apple announced, and then later cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat? The concept was straightforward, simply have a flat surface upon which to lay your Apple iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch on, and have those devices recharge wirelessly. Apple shelved AirPower due to potential heating and uniform power concerns. Unsurprisingly, that hasn't stopped Apple third-party accessory companies from attempting to emulate the anticipated all-in-one wireless charging mat. Indeed, the Vissles-W 3-in-1 wireless charging pad ($45) even appears at first glance to be nearly identical to the Apple AirPower mat design. However, upon closer inspection, it isn't quite what Apple originally had in mind. Read on to find out why.

If you alternate between listening to music and podcasts or web conferences, there's a pair of headphones for that. ONANOFF sent me a review unit of its Fokus headphones ($49.99) to try. The name is appropriate, as at the flick of a button, you can switch between music and voice modes, to emphasize bass sound or spoken words, alternatively. Additionally, they are covered in stylish gray fabric on the earcups, exterior, and headband. I found them quite comfortable to wear for a long time, in part due to the fabric, but also because the earcups go around my ears instead of resting on them.

The announcements at Apple’s WWDC 2020 had plenty of hype for iPhones, iPads, Mac, and Apple Watch, but not every reveal that day came with a song and dance. A few key features of the new suite of operating systems were slipped into documentation released online without fanfare: on-device Siri processing; deeper support for third-party mail, web browsing, and music apps; and more. Maybe Apple thought we wouldn’t be as excited about these features, but for at least a few of these, we definitely are!

Today during the WWDC 2020 keynote event, Apple announced all the features of its upcoming software updates, including iPadOS 14. In addition to all the new features being developed for iOS 14, iPadOS 14 has a few additional enhancements optimized for the larger screen real estate of the tablet. App Layouts have been improved, with many receiving a new Sidebar for easier navigation. Siri interactions and phone call announcements no longer take up the whole screen. And the Search bar behaves more like Spotlight does in MacOS. With over 1 million applications exclusively designed for the iPad now available on App Store, Apple expects this number to rapidly grow as iPadOS continues become more and more similar to macOS.

Opinion

During the WWDC 2020 keynote event, Apple announced that it will be transitioning to its own ARM-based silicon processors in future builds of Mac computers. If you aren’t a developer, this announcement might not have had much gravity. The thirty minutes Apple dedicated to this part of the announcement did little to explain why users should care about the transition, but this historic shift will change the way Mac software will work for the foreseeable future. While the shift will be gradual, Apple said it will release its first silicon-powered Macs by the end of the year. So why should we, as Mac users, care about this change? What will it mean for us moving forward? 

Apple covered a lot of ground today in its fast-paced virtual WWDC 2020 keynote, announcing all the new features coming to macOS Big Sur, iOS 14, iPadOS 14, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7 along with plans to switch from Intel processors to Apple silicon for the Mac. When it came to software updates, a unified user experience seemed to be the theme of the day, with the Mac getting a customizable Menu Bar with a Control Center and app icons that match those on the iPhone and iPad, and the iPad getting sidebars similar to those on the Mac, among other improvements. Additional highlights included a Home screen redesign for the iPhone, handwriting recognition for the Apple Pencil and iPad, sleep tracking for the Apple Watch, new privacy features, AirPods with surround sound, and more. We've got all the details below.

One of the biggest announcements Apple made at today's WWDC keynote was its new macOS, which it ambitiously named Big Sur. While it's currently unclear whether the version will be called macOS 10.16 or 11, the name Big Sur encapsulates Apple's goal for the OS, which is to be "entirely new yet instantly familiar." Almost every aspect of the design is new to macOS but borrowed from iOS, from app icons and symbols, to a whole new suite of sounds. The goal is to add consistency across Apple devices. Floating buttons, a new sidebar design, and a space-efficient toolbar are all exciting features of this redesign aimed toward making it easier to access what you need. Arguably the most exciting feature of Big Sur is the new Privacy Report in Safari, which gives you a look at which sites are using (and sharing) your data, as well as keeps tabs on which of your passwords may have been compromised. In an age when data can spread like wildfire, these updates are not only reassuring, but needed.

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