iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

When Does an Android Beat an iPhone?

Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m an Apple head, but I wasn’t always this way. I’ve had a smartphone in my pocket ever since they became mainstream, and that smartphone has been an iPhone since 2019. The heated Android vs. iPhone debate has always interested me because of the almost fanatical passion on both sides. Let me tell you all the things that Android phones do better than iPhones and why I don’t see myself switching back to Android anytime soon.

Did you know that you can close all your Safari tabs that have been open beyond a set amount of time, instead of waiting for Safari to hang up or slow down? When you close tabs regularly, Safari runs much more smoothly, but it’s easy to forget to close tabs in between use. Luckily, you can create a schedule to close all your Safari tabs. Here’s how to close tabs on Safari automatically.

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 Spring 2020 issue, we featured photographer and blogger Amber Faust, who uses her iPhone for social media, photo editing, games, weather, and more. If you have a story and apps you'd like to suggest, email Tamlin Day, and we may feature you in an upcoming issue of the magazine!

The Best VPN apps for iPhones and iPads can be difficult to choose. Between looking for VPN apps that don’t track you, that provide good server coverage, good customer service, and all the different features, there is a lot to check up on. We’ve written before about what a VPN is and what to look for when shopping for a VPN, but here we’ll list our favorite VPN apps, with a special emphasis on ease of use and simplicity rather than feature bloat. 

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to try ReliefHeat smart heat wrap ($99). I had just spent about eight hours flying to Vegas, so my back was sore and this was just what the doctor ordered. In fact, I might have given ReliefHeat an iPhone Life Best of CES 2020 award, but the company didn't have a formal booth at CES, just an exhibit at one of the evening events for the press. Still, it was a great example of smartphone technology that meets the everyday needs of consumers.

You can search Safari on the iPhone to find words or phrases, but did you know you can also Safari Search your open tabs? If you tend to have large numbers of Safari tabs open at once, this tip will help you search Safari for the tab you want without having to scroll through all your open tabs to find it. Read on to learn how to search Safari on the iPhone to switch between tabs.

These days, anyone can be a weather nerd. There is so much information from so many good sources that we can plan our vacations and outings with greater confidence than ever before. Using our iPhone weather apps, we know when the sun will rise and set, we can see the paths of impending storms, and we can even see whether lightning is striking the ground or vice versa. What we love about having access to all of this information is that there is a weather app for everyone. Between free weather apps and paid weather apps, there is no limit on the information available for the casual user or the full-on weather enthusiast. So here are our picks for each category.

The current panic about the novel coronavirus causing the COVID-19 outbreak has made us all a little more conscious about bacteria, viruses, and germs in general. While you're busy house cleaning and washing your hands to prevent disease and kill germs, remember to disinfect and sanitize your Apple devices, including your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, EarPods, Mac, and even your Apple TV remote. Whether or not you ever come in contact with the coronavirus, studies have shown that our phones are downright filthy. A University of Arizona study shows that the average cell phone carries ten times more germs than a toilet. Ew. Bacteria found on iPhones include Streptococcus, MERS, and E. Coli, and viruses can linger on your smartphone as well. If this news leaves you wondering how to clean your phone and other Apple devices, this article will fill you in on all the methods to disinfect or sterilize them all without damaging them. Let's get started.

We've already shown you how to buy Kindle e-books on your iPhone or iPad, but did you know that there's a whole library of free e-books available for anyone who knows how to find them? There are literally thousands of books to read, in e-book form, and audiobooks as well, if you know where to download them. Come along, bookworm, and we'll reveal the reading apps that offer more free books to read than you can get through in a lifetime. 

Getting out of town is great, but what if you don’t know what to do once you get there? Whether you’re planning a solo outing, have some free time during a business trip, or are planning your annual family vacation, these travel apps can make your trip memorable and avoid having “sitting in the hotel room” be the most-used description when you’re back home. Our list of the best travel apps for 2020 includes familiar favorites like Groupon and Lime, as well as some you may not have used before, including a coupons app, parking app, a concert tickets app, and of course, a restaurant app. These travel apps will help you create an itinerary of concerts, historical sites, and unique restaurants for your best trip yet.

I have been a fan of Catalyst's iPhone cases for some time, in large part because the company made iPhones waterproof long before Apple attempted to. I was able to try the Waterproof Case for AirPods Pro ($29.99) when I visited the company's booth at CES. They've done it again, this time for AirPods Pro. Keep in mind that the AirPods Pro case is considered water resistant but not waterproof. This is an important distinction that you don't want to find out the hard way, given how expensive those earbuds are.

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