iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Some apps we use once and never visit again. Others become addicting rabbit holes where time disappears. Every now and again, we find a few good apps that stick with us through the good and the bad. They’re the staple apps often found on Home screens, free of folders to confine them, because they’re used too often for the extra tap. These are five of those awesome (& free!) apps that you’ll use often, if not every day.

It's hard to believe that after all these years, someone could reinvent a USB cable and leave me impressed. But that's exactly what Lander did with its Neve Lightning Cable ($29.99). Lander paid a lot of attention to the pet peeves of most users. The cable is remarkably thin and while I've seen flat cables before and I've seen fabric braided cables before, I've never seen one cable that is both flat and covered with braided fabric. The result is a tangle-free, comfortable cable with an attractive design. It's one of the best lightning cables out there. 


The New Year is quickly approaching and it’s time to reflect on how the previous year has gone. As we do so, we appreciate the goals we met and strive to improve the areas we didn’t. Featurings apps for quitting smoking, staying calm, getting good sleep, and improving nutrition, here’s five apps for keeping your new year's resolutions. Plus an app that focuses on goal tracking, allowing you to join a community of people on a similar path. 

Apple released its top 25 apps of 2015 list on the App Store last week. The company declared these apps the “most visionary, inventive, and irresistible” of the year.  Did your favorite make the cut? Top picks include Paper for sketching and Instagram for sharing, but the winners range largely in category. So let’s get to it: here’s a look at the top award winners on Apple’s list and quick links to all the apps.

Before the recently enhanced Apple TV was introduced, rumor sites speculated that Apple might actually make large-screen television sets and embed its Apple TV intelligence into them. I was never a fan of that strategy. TV sets are fragile and bulky, and Apple doesn't need to get into that business. For several years, I have relied on an Epson projector connected to an Apple TV for my home entertainment. I've never looked back since I set up the home theater system. My screen is as large as my wall, which is far bigger than any TV set at Best Buy. I mounted the Epson projector to my wall and painted the screen-side of the wall with a special paint to make the image even better.

Walmart hasn't adopted Apple Pay, and it's not clear whether it will (though one report I read said the company is increasingly open to it). Now, however, you have another option for paying at Walmart. Last week the company launched a new mobile payment system at selected stores that lets you pay for your purchase at the checkout counter by scanning a QR code with your iPhone or iPad. (For it to work on an iPad, though, you'll likely need to have a cellular data model.) The new mobile payment system will be available nationwide by the first half of next year.

Social media is one of many ways to keep in contact with someone these days; it makes sense to include that information within a contact card, especially for the people you interact with most. Doing so allows you to view their social media profile directly from Contacts. Here’s how to include someone’s social media profile information in their contact card.

It seems like there are thousands of fitness apps to choose from and little advice on where to get started. Meanwhile, the most difficult part of any workout routine is to begin. Running, in particular, can feel daunting when you’re sitting on the couch, but nothing beats the movement of propelling one’s body through the air. Here’s a list of four running apps to help beginners feel like pros.

I use reading glasses for some things, a concession to middle age, but fortunately I don't ever need them when I'm using my iPad. That's because I've adjusted the settings so that the text is larger and bolded, making it much easier to see. These settings apply to all of Apple's apps and to third-party apps that support Apple's Dynamic Type. Ever since iOS 8 was introduced, Apple has gathered text size, bold, view, and brightness into a single panel in Settings.

How to Hide Subscriptions on iPhone & iPad

Want to keep your subscriptions private? Many people want to know how to hide subscriptions on their iPhone or iPad, but it's not completely possible at this time. We can show you how to hide subscriptions from your Family Sharing group, though! Of course, keeping your iPhone locked goes a long way toward keeping your subscriptions and subscription history private; we'll show you how.

Pages