iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

You've probably heard of AirDrop before, but you may be wondering what AirDrop is, how it works, and of course, how to use it! AirDrop is a feature that allows you to wirelessly send and receive photos, videos, websites, locations, and more with nearby Apple devices running on iOS 7 or later. You can also share with Macs running on Yosemite or later if your iPhone runs on iOS 8 or later. For AirDrop to work, both WiFi and Bluetooth must be turned on, and you must be signed into your iCloud account. I love using Airdrop to easily transfer pictures from my iPhone to my Mac. Airdrop is also a great way to share photos with friends after you've attended an event together. Let's get started learning how to enable AirDrop on our iPhones, and how to use it. 

One of the things you can do to save your iPhone battery is to turn off automatic app updates. However, doing so means your app updates pile up and eventually you have to update them all, usually at the same time. Let’s say you’re updating ten apps, but one of those apps is Facebook Messenger and you need to reply to a friend’s message as soon as possible—you can use 3D Touch to prioritize that app’s update before the others. Here’s how to prioritize app update downloads with 3D Touch.

For Christmas last year, I decided to splurge on myself by buying the Apple Watch. This was long before we even knew when an Apple Watch series 2 would make its debut, and I wasn’t willing to wait. I got it and quickly fell in love with all (well, most) of its features. Sure, apps loaded far too slowly, but I rarely used it for third-party apps. Having directions on my wrist when driving, skipping songs in two taps from the watch, and easily tracking activity throughout my day were the features I used and loved the most. But I got really tired of constantly being in touch. Honestly, I don’t need half the functions the Apple Watch has and I always feel slightly weird wearing one in public, “Walking Apple nerd, coming through.” So this Christmas, I decided to simplify. With a desire to improve my fitness in the coming year, I looked for a wearable that focused more on health tracking and less on everything else. I set a budget of a hundred dollars and required the wearable also be waterproof. Hello, Fitbit Flex 2 ($99.95). Here’s my five reasons I’m replacing my Apple Watch with a Fitbit Flex 2 this year.

If you want to join the rest of the world by reading your weather temperatures in Celsius, you can choose to make the switch in the Weather app. It’s a quick tap to switch from Fahrenheit to Celsius and back, but it’s hidden at the bottom of the page. And if you’re only looking at a single destination's weather, you might miss it altogether. Here’s how to change your Weather app temperature to Celsius on iPhone.

What good is a rugged, waterproof wireless speaker if you have to carry it around with you while on an adventure? That's the thinking behind the Braven BRV-1M ($99.99), an attractive, solidly built outdoor Bluetooth speaker that is designed for on-the-go use. It's waterproof (IPX7) and quite rugged. But unlike most competing outdoor Bluetooth wireless speakers, it has a GoPro mount built-in, so you can easily attach it anywhere a GoPro camera would go, such as on a bike, boat, or motorcycle. I just wouldn't mount it to a helmet since it is somewhat heavy.

The calculator app that comes bundled in iOS is adequate for basic, quick calculations, but it lacks even a simple memory function or running history of operations. Hundreds of alternative calculator apps, both free and paid, are available from the App Store. But when you want the best, the absolute top of the category, PCalc ($9.99) from TLA Systems claims that it's the one to beat. Let's find out if that's the case.