iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Check out our top app picks for texting, calling, and sharing media. Text messaging is hugely convenient, and many of us (myself included) prefer to send messages and content rather than to have unnecessary face-to-face interactions. These apps take on a whole new level of importance now that so many of us are working remotely. Sending quality documents, images, and text is crucial when conducting business and personal info-sharing, and apps that we once thought of for personal use only are now being employed to keep us employed.

Want to add widgets on your iPhone's home screen? We can finally do it. With the release of iOS 14, you can add them anywhere you want, set them to one of three sizes, and even customize their contents. This brings a lot more versatility and customization to the iPhone Home screen. You can even add widgets to your iPad Home screen! Let's learn how to do this on your iPhone first.

Getting notifications on your Apple Watch prevents the need to constantly check your iPhone. However, if your Apple Watch ringing is causing too many disturbances or you're just tired of hearing the constant dinging, it may be time to switch on Silent mode. This article shows the quickest ways to silence the Apple Watch.

We share a lot of moments with friends, and capture those memories with photos. Unfortunately, it’s often hard to consolidate all of the photos taken at an event or gathering, especially if many people took pictures, or you tend to forget like I do. Apple has made it easier to share photos by adding a Sharing Suggestions feature to the Photos app.

Apple claims its newer iPhones are waterproof, and they can indeed support being splashed or sometimes even submerged in water, but my daughter found out the hard way when her iPhone suffered water damage that you cannot use them underwater as if they were a purpose-built waterproof camera. If you truly want to take photos and videos underwater on your iPhone, you have to check out the AxisGo (starting at $149) waterproof iPhone housing case from AquaTech. The company sent me a review unit to try and I cannot convey how well-built and rugged these things are.

During Apple's September event, Apple announced its new fitness subscription service: Fitness+. Apple says Fitness+ will create comprehensive, personalized workouts that include music, metrics, and instructors for all lifestyles and fitness levels. This is a logical offering in a time when many gyms are closed and many people are looking for safe and solitary ways to stay fit, but with so many free fitness programs out there, how will Fitness+ differentiate itself and justify the monthly price tag? One unique feature is that this is the first digital fitness program to synchronize with the Apple Watch, so tracking your activity, heart rate, calories, and more will be easier and more in-depth than if you were using a different program, and workout suggestions promise new levels of personalization. Users will play a workout on their iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV while their Apple Watch tracks and records their activity. And even though the Apple Watch will be collecting and analyzing more data than ever before, Apple promises that all the information, from instructors to calories, will be kept private.

In a significant break from routine, Apple's 2020 September Special Event did not include an announcement of the 2020 iPhones. Instead, the event focused on the new Apple Watch and iPad models. While the Apple Watch and iPad announcement times vary year by year, this is the first time since 2011 and only the second time ever that the new iPhones were not announced in the September event. The first time was in 2011 when the 4S was announced October 4 and released ten days later. This year's delay is linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, and while we're still waiting on all the most important information regarding the 2020 iPhone announcement and release, let's take a look at what we do know.