iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

View FaceTime Video Voicemails on the Apple Watch (watchOS 10)

iOS 17 brought some cool new features to the FaceTime app. One of those features is FaceTime's new video voicemail option. This feature is awesome because if a person doesn't pick up a FaceTime call, you can leave them a voicemail in the form of a short video message. But you may not know that you can view a FaceTime video voicemail on your Apple Watch! It's a bit hidden, so I'll show you exactly how to find it!

If you have an Apple Watch paired with your iPhone, you’re familiar with Activity rings. On the Apple Watch, your activity is represented by three concentric circles that track how much of your daily goals you have met. There’s a red circle for your Move goal, a green one for Exercise, and a blue one for Stand. However, you can also view these Activity rings in graph form in the Health app and include it as a part of your health Dashboard. Here’s how to view your activity rings in your health app dashboard.

In this fifth installment of my series on HomeKit-compatible devices, we'll look at yet one more gadget that Elgato has given me: Eve Door & Window ($39.95). Its simple function is to tell you whether a door or window is open or closed, and it keeps a log of openings. Previous posts have covered iHome's SmartPlug ($39.99) and Elgato's Eve Room ($79.95), Eve Energy ($49.95), and Eve Weather ($49.95). 

When things stop working, whether in an app, with Bluetooth, or anywhere else, the first thing to do is turn off your iPhone and turn it back on. Often this will reset whatever wasn’t working and fix your problem. This may seem obvious, but judging by the number of readers whose problems we have solved with this advice, perhaps it isn't. So, here’s how to turn your iPhone on and off when things aren’t working.

There are multiple ways to control volume on the iPhone or iPad. One such way is the volume control on the side of the device, another way is within the app playing audio. You can also adjust the volume from Control Center. This is nice because you can easily swipe to adjust the volume. Here’s how to use Control Center to adjust the volume.

Happy Earth Day! At its Spring Event, Apple covered all the ways in which it’s helping the environment. Apple’s goal is to run all of its operations on 100 percent renewable energy, and it’s a goal the rest of the world needs to take more seriously as well. When it comes to a getting a case for our iPhone, there are often other factors we consider like protection and functionality. So here’s some of the best cases that deliver both on features and eco-friendliness.

This year, Mother’s Day falls on May 8. That means it’s time to buy a gift and plan for flowers. I don’t care who you are, your mom waddled around for nine months and gained a tiger’s skin worth of stretch marks (or went through a strenuous adoption process) — the least you can do is get her a gift to show your appreciation. Even if your mom isn’t a tech pro, there are plenty of tech items she would love and get a lot of wonderful use out of. Here’s awesome Mother’s day gifts for the tech mom in your life.

I'm pretty rough on my iPhone, so it's a good thing I typically have it in a sturdy protective iPhone case. These days you absolutely do not have to have a bulky case to have a thoroughly protective iPhone case. In fact, in terms of bulk, many manufacturers of heavy-duty cases have managed to whittle their size down to the bare minimum, in some instances putting them on par with minimally protective iPhone cases. One of the newest cases to hit the market combines simple, unobtrusive style with above average protection without sacrificing a slim profile or adding a lot of extra bulk. The Pelican IP68 Marine (starting at $79.99) is the latest waterproof case for the iPhone 6/6s and iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus series of iPhones. At first glance it looks great, but how does it actually perform in the field? Read on to find out my first impressions of this latest case from Pelican.

Nomophobia is the fear of being out of contact with your mobile phone. It’s fairly new term that’s risen in popularity as our iPhones become more and more a part of our lives. Like with anything, there’s a balance to be struck. Here at iPhone Life, we recently did a podcast in which associate professor Ana-Paula Correia from Iowa State University came on to talk about the phenomena. Are you nomophobic? Do you have an iPhone Addiction that’s going unchecked? Take this questionnaire to find out.

In your Contacts app, you can assign photos to each contact for easy recognition. When you open the Messages app, you’ll see a photo next to each message if that contact has been assigned a photo. However, if you’d prefer to turn this feature off, it’s easy to do. Here’s how to disable contact photos.

Getting started with Apple Watch is a fairly simple process. With the Watch app, Apple does a good job of walking you through the bare-minimum basics. But once you’ve been wearing the Apple Watch for awhile, small things begin to bother you (like too many notifications, or Now Playing auto-opening), and often, we’re not aware that there’s a different way. Particularly since it’s such a small piece of hardware, knowing the tips and tricks will make your experience with Apple Watch smooth and awesome. Here’s 15 Apple Watch tips that’ll make you a pro.

I'm enjoying making my home smarter via Apple HomeKit-compatible devices. In this post I'll cover a handy gadget from Elgato that lets you monitor how much electricity an appliance is using: Eve Energy ($49.95). Elgato has also given me Eve Weather and Eve Door & Window and I'll cover those HomeKit devices in future posts.

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