iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Every now and again, I decide it’s time to treat myself. My beloved House of Marley headphones recently fell apart, so I began searching for a new pair to invest in. A few Google searches later, I found myself ogling the Ultra Violet Beats Solo3 Wireless ($299) headphones. I’m a sucker for an elegant presentation, but are Beats more than just a pretty face? I’ve been using my Beats Solo3s for about two months now; so was it worth the price tag?

Is Apple’s new Clips app a replacement video editing app for iMovie? Not quite. The Clips app taps into the Instagram/Snapchat generation, offering an extremely easy platform in which users can create video stories and share them with friends. While Clips is a pretty awesome free video editing app, it’s not going to fulfill the same purposes as iMovie. For the video editing professional, Clips isn’t going to cut it for complex projects. But for the everyday person, it’s a fun new way to create professional-looking videos that are easily shareable with friends and via social media. I’ll go through everything you need to know to start creating and editing videos with the Clips app. This is the latest Apple app, and it seems that its main purpose is, simply, fun.

If you already have a Paypal account that’s connected to either your bank account or debit/credit card, sending a friend or family member money couldn’t be easier with Paypal on iPhone. The best part is that Paypal doesn’t charge you anything to send money to friends and family, which means it’s perfect for splitting a bill, settling a bet, helping a friend, or whatever other reason you might need to send them money. Here’s how to send someone money via Paypal on iPhone.

Need iPad and iPhone help? Sign up for iPhone Life Insider and I’ll help you with all of your iPhone troubleshooting and iOS-related issues. Here’s a question from an Insider who wants only certain contacts from their Favorites to be able to call them when do not disturb is on.

While you're enjoying the great outdoors this Summer, whether at the beach or elsewhere, you’re going to want the loudest portable waterproof Bluetooth speaker you can find. Your Bluetooth speaker needs to be wireless and portable to easily go on adventures with you while also being rugged (ideally waterproof) and as loud as possible so that everyone in your party can enjoy the music. Furthermore, there is a seemingly endless array of excellent quality Bluetooth speakers, however, out of the multitudes of Bluetooth speakers on the market, only a limited and select few can lay claim to being loud, waterproof, portable and heavy duty. I've compiled a list of some of the best, most durable and rugged Bluetooth speakers available right now. What follows are the top outdoor wireless Bluetooth speakers for those who are adventurous or accident prone.

Instagram is my favorite form of social media. We’ve been trying to convince our web editor, Sarah Kingsbury to get an account for months. And she finally did once I invited her to join, which was easy to do within the Instagram app since she’s also my Facebook friend. If you have friends on Facebook who don’t know the join Instagram, here’s how to invite them to give it a try.

With the success of the recently released Nintendo Switch portable gaming tablet, there has been a resurgence of interest among iPad gamers to bring their iPads to parity with what the Switch has to offer. One standout feature of the Switch is its analog joysticks on the left and right side of the screen. Perhaps Nintendo got its inspiration for this design from GameVice, a company that announced the first iteration of its iPad game controller back in 2014. Now that its iPad game controller idea has been amplified by Nintendo's success, read on to find out how the current version of the GameVice Mfi controller ($99.95) works with the iPad Pro and Mini form factors.

When you allow Siri to be accessed from your Lock screen, you may want to consider what Siri is capable of doing without unlocking your device. For example, let’s say you’re in a room with multiple other people. If one of them were to activate Siri when you have Voice Dial turned on, they could tell Siri to call someone without needing your passcode. But if you have Voice Dial turned off, Siri won’t make the call until you enter your iPhone’s passcode. This may or may not be important to you, but it’s good to know what can and cannot be accessed from Lock screen. Here’s how to turn Voice Dial off on iPhone.

If you're like me, you spend a lot of time each day dealing with email. The swiping gestures available for marking and flagging email messages on iPhone can save you some of that time. You can use swiping gestures to mark emails as read or unread or flag them for follow-up, as well as every other function, such as forwarding or moving to another folder. Here’s how to use swiping gestures in Mail on iPhone.

When you tilt your screen on iPhone, it automatically rotates. This is helpful in many different scenarios; but on iPhone Plus models, a horizontally rotated phone makes certain stock apps look slightly different—this is called Landscape mode on iPhone.The larger screen on the iPhone Plus models is used to present more information in split screen format. When your iPhone 6, 6s, 7, or 8 Plus is held horizontally, your iPhone is in Landscape mode. Some iPhone Plus users appreciate the split screen Landscape mode, especially in apps like Mail, where they can simultaneously view their inbox and a specific email. However, there are plenty of iPhone 7 Plus or iPhone 8 Plus users who would rather just turn off auto rotate on iPhone or Landscape mode entirely. We’ll show you what Landscape mode looks like in different apps below with horizontal iPhone screenshots from the iPhone 7 Plus. Then we’ll get to how to turn off auto rotate on iPhone in case you decide Landscape mode is not your style. We'll also cover how to remove split screen from Landscape mode on your iPhone Plus and continue enjoying the extra horizontal screen space.

Tagging someone on Instagram is pretty straightforward. If you’re viewing an Instagram photo you really like that you want to share with a friend, you can simply tag them in the comments and they'll receive a notification. But did you know you can also send an Instagram picture as a dm, or direct message? If you choose this option, it's more private because you don't have to mention them in the public comments. Let's learn how to direct message a picture on Instagram, or how to just tag someone on an Instagram photo without sending them a dm.

Unfollowing friends on Facebook is an easy way to stay friends with someone without seeing their posts. But maybe you want to reconnect with them now. You can easily choose to start following them on Facebook again, which will simply allow Facebook to show you their posts in your News feed. Here’s how to reconnect with people you unfollowed on Facebook.

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