iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

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.

Apple has incorporated biometric authentication into the iPhone since the 5s, when Touch ID was introduced. Last year, thanks to the TrueDepth camera that's able to map 3D surfaces, the iPhone X included a brand-new feature called Face ID. iPhone X owners who've set up FaceID can use the feature to unlock their devices, as well as pay for purchases in the iTunes store, Apple Books, the App Store, and to make payments with Apple Pay. Although this feature does add significant convenience to the iPhone experience, many Face ID users have complained that only one person can be registered per device, as opposed to the five different fingerprints that could be set up in Touch ID. It looks as though this issue may be solved with iOS 12, though, because the Beta version gives users the opportunity to register an Alternative Appearance upon setting up Face ID. 

Using two-factor authentication helps ensure that the accounts associated with your Apple ID are safe. Even if someone has your login name and password, they won't be able to access your accounts without a verification code from a trusted phone number or one of your trusted devices. Once you verify a new device, you won't need to use two-factor authentication again unless you sign out of it completely, erase your device, or change your password. Similarly, when signing in on the web, you can choose to trust that browser so that you don't have to go through the verification process each time you sign into your account on your computer. Let's go over the steps of signing in to a new device or iCloud account with two-factor authentication.

When you have thousands of photos, there’s no way you’re going to look through them to try and spot the duplicates. There’s also the matter of exact versus similar duplicates—it would be a pain in the ass to try and sort that out manually. Well, a question in the iPhone Life Facebook group about this very topic sent me on a search for the best app for easily removing duplicate photos. And I do believe I’ve found it: Remo Duplicate Photos Remover on the iPhone is a free app that scans all of your photos, presenting you with a quick look at all of the duplicates. Then the app makes it easy for you to quickly remove the photos you don’t want to keep. Learn more on what this app does and why we love it below.

Instagram account holders have been hit with a wave of spam lately, and from a different source than many have previously experienced. I'm talking about the auto-like or auto-follow phenomenon, where Instagrammers suddenly notice they're following unfamiliar accounts. How does this happen? Insta-following seems to happen when Instagram apps are granted more access to our accounts than they should have. Let's learn how to revoke permissions from spammy apps so we can reclaim our iPhone's Instagram feeds.

The first iPad was released on April 3, 2010, and Apple currently offers three different iPad models: the recently announced 9.7–inch iPad 2018, a 10.5-inch and 12.9–inch iPad Pro, and a 7.9–inch iPad mini. Now there's an Apple event scheduled for October 30, and we're hopeful that at least one new iPad, whether it be an iPad Pro or even an iPad Mini, will make its debut. We had hoped for one or more new iPads at September's special event, but although Apple did give us three new iPhones and the Apple Watch Series 4, we were a bit disappointed about the lack of new iPads. iOS 12, Apple's latest iPhone and iPad operating system, has given us tantalizing hints about the next iPad(s) and their features. Will some new iPad Pros will join this tablet lineup very soon, along with several long-awaited capabilities? What about the iPad mini 5? Let's discuss when the new Apple products may be released, which upgrades and improvements to expect, and all the other iPad hints and rumors we've been collecting for the past several months. There's no way to know exactly what Apple has in mind until October 30, but we can have fun piecing together clues and making educated guesses in the meantime! 

You can't effectively use an iPhone without an Apple ID; luckily, it's free and easy to sign up for an Apple ID. Once you create your Apple ID and sign in, you can use it for any Apple account or service, including purchases associated with your Apple ID and iCloud account. In this article, we'll show you how to create an Apple ID using any of the iPad generations or iPhone models, from older versions like the iPhone 6, up through later models like the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE (second generation). Let's get started learning how to get a new Apple ID on your iPhone. 

Apple unveiled iOS 12 today at the WWDC 2018 Keynote, and we can expect exciting improvements and features when the iOS update is released in the fall. From overall upgrades to performance, privacy, and security, to app overhauls for the News and Stocks apps, to fun additional Animoji choices, as well as the brand-new Memoji option, Apple engineers have put together a well-balanced crowd-pleaser of an operating system that we can't wait to upload to our devices! Let's go over which devices are compatible with iOS 12, discuss all the new iOS features, and learn how to sign up for the Apple Beta Software Program to try out iOS 12 before the official release date. 

Facebook recently announced a new facial recognition feature that informs account holders when their image appears in other people's photos and videos, then allows them to tag themselves. In addition, the feature warns Facebook users when their picture is used to open another account. While some Facebook users find the facial recognition feature innocuous, or even helpful, others prefer to steer clear of what they perceive as an invasion of privacy. For those of you who would like to turn off facial recognition on Facebook, read on to learn how to do so on your iPhone.  

I downloaded a lot of mediation apps in my search for the one I wanted to feature. And there are a lot of incredible meditation apps; this is by no means the only good one available. But it’s the one I chose for a couple different reasons. Headspace is one of the first apps that became massively popular for meditation, and it hasn’t let the competition surpass it since. The app does a fantastic job of getting you started and immediately launching you into the first meditation. Within three minutes of opening the app, I pressed play and had my first session with the app. At the end, the narrator lets you know he’ll be back tomorrow with another guided meditation. In total, there are three basic meditations that give you three days to see if this app is right for you. Learn more on what it does and why I love it below.

Here's a time-saving feature to boost your productivity: Lock Screen apps. You can open the Notes app directly from the Lock Screen of your iPhone. Lock Screen Notes are helpful for quickly marking down all the notes, checklists, links, and sketches that you want to have close at hand, without having to unlock your device. Let's get started learning how to add Lock Screen Notes to your iPhone so you can master this feature. 

Change Your iPhone to an Alphanumeric Passcode

Touch ID and Face ID are great iPhone security features, but if you want the best protection for your device, you need an iPhone passcode. Apple's default six-digit numeric passcode is already pretty hard to crack, but you can change your iPhone passcode to one that's even more secure. You can change your iPhone's passcode to an alphanumeric code that's six digits or longer.

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