iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

With the tech market saturated with so many gadgets, how can you know what’s worth your time and money? At iPhone Life, we know a good product when we see one. After testing out stacks of protective iPhone cases, Bluetooth wireless headphones, rugged Bluetooth speakers, iPhone and Apple Watch chargers, and more year-round, we can appreciate the difference when a company goes the extra mile to make an iPhone or iPad accessory that works seamlessly and is a pleasure to use. This holiday season, we’ve compiled our very favorite 47 tech gifts that we know anyone on your list is going to love. 

Investing in stocks is something that can feel intimidating to learn how to do and difficult to jump into. Stockpile (free) makes it easy to everyone to start trading stocks, even kids. When you buy and sell, Stockpile charges you just $1 for the transaction, the rest is yours. I’ve tried other stock investing apps in the past, but always got hung up on how much it would cost to buy stocks or the process of setting up my back account with the app. But Stockpile takes a different approach by walking you through the process of buying stock immediately. In the last ten minutes, I was able to buy ten dollars in Apple stock, create an account, and begin the process for connecting my bank account. You heard me right—I bought ten dollars in Apple stock. But how is that possible when a single Apple stock costs way more than that? Learn more on this app, what it does, and why we love it below.

Screen Recording is a useful tool for any time you need to capture something on your iPhone, either to share with others or to review later. iOS has a simple tool for screen recording built right in, and we'll show you how to use it to make sure you're capturing the sounds you want and nothing else.

Protect your privacy on iPhone by hiding notification previews. When you make your notifications private on your iPhone, your notifications will only show the app and simply say "Notification." This way, you can keep prying eyes from seeing sensitive information. In this tip, we'll go over how to make your notifications private on iPhone by hiding previews.

Want to know how to start a Siri FaceTime call? It’s no secret that you can use Siri to do things like control your music or launch apps. And most people are familiar with using Siri to make a voice call, but you can also use Siri to make a FaceTime call. My mom is a huge fan of this as she continues to learn the best ways to use her iPhone; using Siri to FaceTime me is her personal favorite how-to. Here’s how to use Siri to make FaceTime calls.

With the weather turning, now is the time to consider the ClimateCase 700 Series ($28.95). It's easy to forget and leave your iPhone in your car overnight where it can be exposed to low temperatures. And in the summer, the same is true of high temperatures. That's where the ClimateCase comes in.

We can all use a bit of help fine-tuning our productivity. And technology is one way we’re able to be more productive with less stress while juggling all of our responsibilities. It’s even better when the technology's already at your disposal, which is what we strove to accomplish with our brand new Insider Guide to Productivity Apps. Get up close and personal with Apple's Notes, Reminders, and Calendar apps on your iPhone and iPad. All of these apps come with every Apple device and have a lot of useful functions for organizing your life, so why wouldn’t you use them? With a video for each tip to make learning easy, we’re excited to present the latest offering from our premium membership, iPhone Life Insider. Get a sneak preview of the new Productivity Apps Guide and learn about all the benefits of an Insider subscription below.