iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Once a technology, in this case, backup batteries, becomes a free give away for marketing purposes, it gets harder and harder to find products that warrant a review. MyCharge has managed to create a new backup battery worthy of your attention. The $49.99 MyCharge AdventureMax packs a 10050mAh battery into an attractive but rugged  compact portable charger that weighs just half a pound. The plastic case looks great and the material offers a secure feel when it's being held. The AdventureMax will charge two devices at a time via its 2.4A standard USB ports.

You rely on your iPhone for everything, so why not for dinner tonight? If you've been in a recipe rut, or just want help to become the best home chef you can be, download these free cooking and step-by-step recipe apps to get you started. Some of these cooking apps require a trip to the grocery store, while others help you find recipes to work with ingredients you already have in the fridge. As a bonus, if you lack motivation, check out our top foodie Instagram account choices to get all the culinary inspiration you need.

If you love podcasts, and also love iPhones, iPads, and other Apple devices, you've probably heard that you can sync your podcasts across your devices. Once your devices are synced, you can use the Podcasts app to listen to a podcast on your iPhone, then pick it up right where you left off on your iPad. Syncing across Apple devices includes not only podcast playback positions but also your podcast subscriptions and stations. If this sounds like podcast heaven to you, follow the steps below to sync up your devices and start listening.

Apple announced the Apple Business Chat platform at WWDC 2017 and iOS 11.3 has finally introduced us to the program. The Business Chat platform allows iPhone users to connect with companies through iMessages, or from the businesses' app or website, rather than talking on the phone. Apple is rolling out Business Chat slowly; it's only available as a beta version right now, with a limited number of partner companies. Let's stay ahead of the curve and learn how to use Business Chat on our iPhones. 

I don't know about you, but before I purchase an app in the App Store, I like to read a few reviews to see how other customers have liked (or disliked) their purchase. Now iOS 11.3 makes it easier than ever before to sort app reviews so customers can find the information they want about individual apps. Let's get started learning how to find and sort user-submitted reviews in the App Store on our iPhones, so we have more information before purchasing apps. 

The Apple News app is great for keeping up to date on the day's top developments and stories. The more users interact with the News app, the more customized it becomes, and now, with iOS 11.3, Apple has made the News app even more individualized. The For You section of the News app now allows you to tailor the For You video selection to your preference. Let's get started learning how to personalize the For You section of Apple's News app on your iPhone, so you can get all the content you're really looking for by keeping or eliminating the Today's Videos and Must-See Videos section. 

The NHL Playoffs 2020 are coming up, and excitement is building for the Stanley Cup Finals. Questions about the NHL Finals? We'll go over the NHL Playoff schedule, including the Stanley Cup Finals schedule for 2020. You'll also find the playoffs and Stanley Cup channel, and how to live stream all the Stanley Cup Finals to Apple devices including the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, without cable.

When it came to light that Apple was throttling processor speed for older iPhone models, the fallout was ugly. Apple explained that the throttling was meant to prevent iPhone models 6 through 7 Plus from shutting down when their batteries couldn't keep up with the demands of their processors. Apple also lowered replacement battery prices to $29 to assist customers in getting their iPhones back up to speed. Now, with iOS 11.3, Apple is letting go of the automatic throttling plan and allowing iPhone users the ability to decide for themselves whether they'd like to slow processor speeds when their iPhone's batteries aren't able to keep up. Let's learn more about the throttle setting on your iPhone, actually called the applied performance management feature, and where to disable this setting if you choose.

How to Check Your iPhone’s Battery Health

Apple landed in hot water with customers several years ago when a feature designed to slow the processors of older iPhone models to keep them from suddenly shutting down came to light. Critics maintained that Apple was throttling the speed of earlier iPhone models to push customers toward newer devices, while Apple insisted that the feature was necessary to cope with aging batteries. Now, Apple lets users monitor their iPhone battery health.

I love gaming on my iPhone, and I am happy to pay for an app. But too often, I’ll get into a ‘free’ game only to end up spending more on in-app purchases than I ever would have on a single game for any regular gaming console. Which is why Riptide GP: Renegade is such a refreshing surprise. I spent $2.99 for the initial game, which is a great price considering the developers don’t upsell you within the app at all. The graphics are beautiful, the racing controls are the smoothest I’ve ever tried, and it feels like a normal game because once I buy it, it’s fully-featured and ready to play. All of this combined makes Riptide GP: Renegade the best racing game on the iPhone. We’ll cover more on what this game offers and why I love it below.

The numbers in the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal just keep climbing, from an original 55 million to a new estimate of nearly 87 million account holders who have had their data breached. This is because the quiz, "This Is Your Digital Life," collected data not only from Facebook users who completed it, but from all their Facebook friends as well. Facebook has barred the personality quiz from the platform and sent a message to all account holders who took the quiz, but if you'd like to make sure your data wasn't also breached, there's a way to find out. Let's check and see if our Facebook accounts have been compromised by Cambridge Analytica; it's easy to do right from your iPhone. 

In light of Facebook's recent data leak that compromised the personal information of up to 85 million users, the iPhone Life team shares advice on how to check on and delete third-party apps you've granted access to your account in order to help you protect your data from getting into the wrong hands. Other topics include iOS 11.3 bugs and Apple's new iPad and red iPhone 8.

Pages