iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

iView: iPhone in Nature

By Hal Goldstein

iView: iPhone in Nature

My wife and I are most fortunate to own and share 33 acres of rural Iowa forest with birds, trees, plants, grasses, insects, fish, reptiles, small mammals, and deer. Admittedly, staring at my iPhone when walking in our woods is not a good look. Yet, worlds have opened thanks to apps that let me name trees, identify birds, diagnose plant health, and plot our newly created paths.

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.

There are various ways to share Kindle books. With friends, you can loan ebooks out for a couple weeks. But if you set up Family Sharing with Amazon, you can share Kindle books with family members easily and with fewer limitations. When you share Kindle books, the recipient can read the Kindle book you lend them via the Kindle app on iPhone or iPad, as well as Kindle devices, including Kindle Fire. Kindle family sharing allows two adults to create an Amazon Household with up to four children. The two adults in your Kindle family must have separate Amazon accounts. However, setting up family sharing and sharing Kindle books with your Amazon Household is actually quite straightforward. We’ll go over how to set up Family Sharing on Amazon, how to share Kindle books with that family, how to access content shared with you via Amazon Kindle family sharing, and how to leave an Amazon Household should you need to in the future. Here’s everything you need to know about how to share Kindle books with family members.

Since the release of iOS 8 a few years back, the Mail app on iPhone has swipe options. This means that when you’re viewing an inbox, you can swipe an email left or right to select options such as mark read/unread, delete, flag, or archive an email. Plus, tapping the More option gives you access to all the other email actions. However, you can choose to customize these gestures, though the options are somewhat limited. And you can even turn them off, if you so choose. Here’s how to change mail swipe options in Settings on iPhone.

I finally broke down and bought a new MacBook Pro with USB-C ports, which meant it was time to get an adapter so I could plug in my legacy equipment. Some vendors offer USB-C to USB-2 or USB-3 adapters, or USB-C to HDMI adapters, but I prefer the USB-C Multiport Adapter ($79.95) from Moshi. This way, I can plug in one USB-C cable and instantly connect to my HDMI monitor (up to 4K) and my seven-port USB hub (for keyboard, mouse, hard drive, and more) while also connecting to USB-C for power.

How to Set Up Out of Office on iPhone: Outlook

We'll cover how to set up out of office for Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, and more. Here is how to set up out of office for Outlook. It's reccomended you set up your out of office reply on a computer. 

  • Sign in to Outlook.com.
  • Tap the Settings icon that looks like a gear in the top right corner.
  • Choose Automatic Replies.
  • Check the box Send Automatic Replies.
  • Choose the start and end date, then check the box Send replies only during this time period.
  • Below that is a blank body of text. Enter the message you want people to receive as your out of office reply.
  • You can check the box for sending Ooo replies to everyone or just to your contacts.
  • Click Ok at the top when you’re done.

If you set a start and end time and check the box, “Send replies only during this time period,” your out of office reply will automatically turn off. If not, you can easily turn off by revisiting settings, clicking Automatic Replies, and checking the box, “Don’t send automatic replies.”

The TV app on iPhone or iPad allows you to bring all of your shows and movies together in one app. You can sign in with your cable provider to watch shows from ABC, NBC, and many others. You can also connect your streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, and HBONow. If you’re concerned about using too much cellular data watching shows, you can turn this feature off. But if you’ve got enough data and want to watch your shows even when you don’t have Wi-Fi, use this tip to turn on Cellular Data for playback.

Most everything you do on your iPhone centers around your Apple ID. Your Apple ID account is what grants you access to iCloud, iMessage, and Facetime. It's also what allows you to make purchases from the App Store, iBooks Store, and iTunes Store. Since your Apple ID is so important for running your entire Apple ecosystem smoothly, we put an awesome collection together of Apple ID video tips that will make it easy for you to set up and manage your Apple ID account.

Our video tip collections are one of many incredibly helpful benefits of our iPhone Life Insider subscription. When you sign up, you’ll get instant access to this collection and many more features, which I’ll review below. With this post, you’ll get a sneak peak with one awesome video tip from the collection that will help you master your Apple ID account. Here’s our essential tips for setting up and managing your Apple ID account on iPhone or iPad.

Before iOS 9, you were limited to sending five photos via email from iPhone. But now that limit is gone for the Mail app. Some people have reported being able to email up to 100 photos. While that is a lot of photos to email, it’s a great feature to have for sharing photos privately with family and friends. For the longest time, I emailed pictures to myself to easily transfer photos from my iPhone to my computer. Whatever the reason you need to send photos via email from iPhone, you can send a lot more than you used to be able to. Here’s how to email pictures from iPhone.

Apple recently released a new app for iOS 10.3 users and beyond. The new Clips app can be downloaded on iPhone or iPad. In short, the Clips app is a video creation app that allows you to add captions, effects, filters, and music, and then share it with your friends. I was skeptical of the app at first, thinking it would be gimmicky. But after writing a full-length how-to on using the app, I’m impressed with its features, particularly the ability to record and have the app automatically turn your voice into captions. The Clips app removes the social part of social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram in favor of focusing on the awesome shareable videos you can create. Here’s how to download Apple’s new Clips app on your iPhone or iPad.

14 Best Golf Apps

If you’re an avid golfer, having the best iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch golf apps can improve your game experience and performance. Our favorite golf apps help you find nearby ranges, track your score, and offer everything from golf tips to full-on golf lessons (say hello to that perfect putt!). Here's our roundup of the best golf apps.

This is a roundup of iPad mini 1/2/3 cases, If you have a newer iPhone, check out our roundup of rugged cases for the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display. Smaller and more portable than its more cumbersome older siblings, the iPad mini is a device designed to come with us wherever we may wander. As a result of the mini's superior portability, it's also far more likely to be in the line of fire. At such times, a reliable iPad protective case comes in handy to ward off scratches and scrapes. A good, heavy-duty iPad case can make the difference between a catastrophic, life-ending event for your iPad mini and a mere bump in the road. The following are some of the best iPad mini cases available, each with its own unique features and advantages yet all designed to absorb and redirect the potential damage your valuable iPad mini will likely encounter. 

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