iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Can You Remove the Camera from an iPhone Lock Screen?

The only way to disable the camera icon on your iPhone Lock Screen is to completely disable the Camera app in Settings. While I don't recommend keeping this setting permanently enabled, this is a good temporary solution if your camera activates during certain activities, or if you have mischievous loved ones who adore taking dozens of selfies from your Lock Screen. 

How to Organize Your Calendar in 2025

(Sponsored Post) By Amy Spitzfaden Both on Thu, 10/31/2024

Apple is pretty good about updating its products, but it seems to have forgotten about the Calendar app and its many downsides. The makers of Informant 5, on the other hand, do not forget to regularly improve their app based on user experience. The latest updates to this calendar and task-management app are a productivity game-changer.

The Blood Oxygen app for the Apple Watch Series 6 is a timely and important update in our COVID-affected world, but it's not obvious how to set up the Blood Oxygen app the first time you use it. We'll show you how to set up your Apple Watch oxygen monitor, plus we'll help you understand the basics of how to read your results so that you can monitor your oxygen saturation levels.

Your HomeKit enabled cameras can now help you keep your home safe by telling you who is coming and going. Any camera with HomeKit Secure Video support will be able to pull faces from your camera roll and let you know when people it recognizes pop up. Let's take a look at how to turn this feature on and manage the faces it recognizes so you can get the most out of your Apple HomeKit security.

Have you ever wished that your iPhone could map a bike ride for you? The Apple Maps app got a great update with iOS 14. Now, Apple Maps users can get biking directions that include turn-by-turn directions, elevations, options to avoid hills, and even information about how busy roads are. Cycling directions are currently limited to urban areas, but, over time, more and more areas will be included.  Let's go over how to get the Maps app to map your bike ride. 

Apple's over-ear headphones have been rumored for over two years, and now, they're here. Apple announced the AirPods Max on December 8; they're currently available for pre-order and ship on December 15, just in time for Christmas. Apple calls these headphones "the ultimate personal listening experience... radically original, completely reimagined, and elaborately simple". The high-fidelity, wireless AirPods Max and offer Active Noise Cancellation with Transparency mode, Adaptive EQ, spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, and more. The catch is... the price is $549! If you're an audiophile, that price point won't make you blink but, for everyone else, it seems a bit outrageous. So, what makes the AirPods Max so expensive and, how do they compare to similar high-quality headphones from Bose, Sony, and Beats?   

With iOS 14, your iPhone incoming call notifications now appear as banners at the top of your screen. The benefit of this compact notification is that it notifies you of incoming calls without interrupting anything else you’re doing on your phone. The full-screen version, on the other hand, offers a couple of menu options that are not readily available on the banner. Some people love the brief banner-style alerts, others miss the functionality of the full-screen notification. With this guide, you can permanently switch back to full-screen notifications or learn how to access those menu options while keeping the banner as your default.

This article will tell you how to draw perfect shapes on your iPhone and iPad. Whether you just like to doodle or are looking to mark up your photos, you might be interested in how to draw shapes on your iPhone perfectly. Maybe you want to add a heart to a photo of you and your family but don't like the way yours look, or you're trying to create a geometric pattern in your notes app, or want to teach a child about shapes and how they're made. Whatever your reason, learning the trick to draw shapes on your iPhone or iPad perfectly can save you from downloading third-party sticker or design apps. Perfect shapes make for easy drawing on your iPad and iPhone, so let's get started!

An adventurous or active lifestyle means you're more likely to invest in an iPhone that takes great pictures and videos to capture your favorite memories, such as the iPhone 12 Pro or Pro Max. Unfortunately, adventure and shenanigans go hand in hand with an increased likelihood of dropping or damaging your phone. I can't count the number of times my iPhone has fallen off of a rock climbing wall, slipped out of my backpack on a hike, or tumbled from a saddle bag while riding. Needless to say, I'm a bit of a protective iPhone case connoisseur, and I have high expectations of any case I use. With that in mind, I've put together a list to help you narrow down your search for the best drop-tested, shock proof, or otherwise strong and durable iPhone case.

good headphones and headphone brands

There are various Bluetooth wireless headphones and wired headsets available on today's market, which can get a bit overwhelming for the average buyer. We have made a list of the best headphones for all your potential needs. If you are a gamer or listen to your music via your iPhone or iPad, you will find that this review of wired headphones and wireless Bluetooth headphones will help limit your decision.

There are so many types and brands of phone cases out there that it can be hard to know which is the best iPhone case for you. Personally, a wallet phone case suits my needs best, based on my tendency to lose small items. Having an iPhone case with a card holder for my ID, debit card, and, of course, coffee punch card has been so convenient that I've used an iPhone wallet case with every new iPhone I've purchased. Let's go over my favorite iPhone wallet cases of 2020, so you can pick your very first iPhone wallet case, or find the best wallet case for your new iPhone 12. We'll go over an Otterbox case, two options from Smartish, and more, that will fit everything from an iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 through the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 lines.  

This article will tell you all the group messaging features in iMessage introduced in iOS 14. Group messages are a great way to keep families and friend groups in close contact, whether you're all in different places in the world or just want to have your plans written down in one place. However, if there are too many people talking about too many different things, the group chats can get confusing, and if you have too many going on at once it can be hard to keep track of which is which. iOS 14 introduced some new ways to organize and label your group messages to keep your communication easy and fun - as it should be! Let's take a look at these new features and how they can help you get the most out of your group chats.

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