iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

How to Unlock Your Mac with Your Apple Watch

If you have an Apple Watch and a Mac, there are a few cool but hidden tricks you might not know you can do with the two devices together. One of those cool things is the ability to unlock your Mac or MacBook with the Apple Watch. This can be super useful if you're busy while someone wants to use your computer, plus you avoid being forced to tell them your password or type it out in front of them. Here's how to unlock your Mac with Apple Watch.

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.

At the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I picked up a pair of ThinOptics Glasses and Case (starting at $19.95) from ThinOptics. The company has a novel design for reading glasses (and computer glasses) that rest on your nose without temples, so the glasses are quite small. They are also flexible and durable.

If the Apple Watch is too geeky and a typical fitness tracker doesn't do enough for your overall health and well-being, the GoBe 2 ($169) from Healbe may be of interest. They sent me their "Smart Life Band" which is something inbetween a smartwatch and a fitness tracker. The GoBe 2 measures (or recommends) calorie intake, energy balance, sleep quality, emotional states, water balance, burned calories, heart rate, stress level, steps, and distance. In short, it addresses all or most of the health benefits of a smartwatch, and perhaps more, but without the excess capabilities many fitness users wouldn't bother with.

How to Boost Music Volume on Your iPhone

Are you using your iPhone as a speaker while you listen to music, and wishing there was a little more oomph to the the audio? Here's a quick trick to get an audio boost for your iPhone's music when just turning up the volume isn't cutting it. Essentially, this tip for the Apple Music app works by suppressing the bass tones of the audio, so you'll hear softer sounds more clearly.

A big theme at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was "Retro" and yet the cutest item I saw was both retro and futuristic at once. The folks from Divoom gave me a Tivoo ($59.90) to try and I love it. It looks like a small, old-fashioned CRT television set from the 50s or 60s, without the rabbit ears. It's sold in assorted colors for a reasonable price.

App Saturday: Amazon Music

By Hallei Halter

While you may think of Spotify or Apple Music when it comes to streaming music, if you're wanting to stay up to date with new music or browse your tried and true favorite albums, Amazon Music just about has it all. And you already have access to it if you are an Amazon Prime member. With the ability to find and listen to thousands of hours of music, you won't have to search for long to settle on something you enjoy.

Logitech has been a major player in the PC speaker scene for years, and the company recently has begun to branch out to support other devices besides its core market. One of these major growth opportunities is with iPad customers who are seeking a high quality wireless audio solution included with their usual PC audio needs. Logitech's Z606 5.1 Surround Sound with Bluetooth ($129.99) was created for this customer in mind. Read on to find out how well this flexible PC and mobile device audio solution delivers on its promise.

Want to see what any given week has in store for you in your iPhone's Calendar app? Just turn your iPhone on its side and you'll see your week in more detail. The Calendar app is one of a handful of iOS apps that shows you a different view if you hold your iPhone horizontally instead of upright. (You can see the Week view in both landscape and portrait oritentation on the iPad.) Looking at events in the week view allows you to see at a glance what you have planned over the next few days and makes it easy to reschedule events by dragging them from one time slot or day to another. Here's how to see the week view in Calendar. 

Having a timer with you that you can use at a moment's notice is incredibly handy. Setting a timer on your iPhone can prevent a cooking mishap or get you motivated if you're trying a time management style like the Pomodoro Technique. I often use my iPhone Timer when I have about 30 minutes before I need to leave the house, so I can catch up on dishes without being late. Here's how to set a timer on your iPhone. 

Most people prefer listening to audio on their AirPods in stereo (where sound is fed through at least two channels). This requires listening to both AirPods to get the full dual-channel experience. But what if you only want to use one AirPod? You're going to miss out on the sounds coming through the other AirPod. Mono audio is a feature on iPhones that makes sure you don't miss anything when using one ear instead of two. Whether you have hearing loss in one ear, want to share the other AirPod with someone else, have misplaced one of your AirPods, or just want to keep one ear tuned in to what's going on around you, it's possible to make all the sound come out of one AirPod by enabling Mono Audio in your Accessibility Settings. Switching to this single channel setting means you'll be able to hear all the audio from either AirPod, so you can choose which AirPod to use.  

App Saturday: Grubhub

By Hallei Halter

Looking up your choices for "Food delivery near me" and not happy with the results? You can place a takeout order on Grubhub for restaurants (even those that don't offer delivery) and a driver will pick up your order and deliver it to your address. Grubhub orders can also be placed for pickup, but the real advantage of Grubhub is having the menus and pricing of local restaurants all on one app.  

Have you ever wished you could set up an auto-reply text message on your iPhone for times when you can't or don't want respond to text messages? Well, Do Not Disturb While Driving has an auto-reply feature that sends a message to people who text you letting them know you're driving and can't reply. If you want to send auto-replies even when you're not driving, all you have to do is customize the message and then use Do Not Disturb While Driving instead of the regular Do Not Disturb when you are in meetings or are otherwise unable to answer texts. Here's how to set this feature to be used with ease!

One of my favorite uses for my iPhone is taking and sharing pictures, but with so many different methods and platforms, it can get a little tricky. Let's cover everything about saved images and photos, including how to save and share pictures from text and iMessage, from email, with AirDrop and iCloud, from Shared Albums, and even social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 

This article will tell you how to access the keypad on your Apple Watch and switch the audio output. If you use your Apple Watch for phone calls, sometimes you'll need to use a keypad or even switch the audio output to a different device such as a speaker or headset. If you're wondering "Where is the keyboard on my Apple Watch?" read on. Here's how to open the keypad and how to change the audio output during an Apple Watch call. 

Pages