When you have thousands of photos, there’s no way you’re going to look through them to try and spot the duplicates. There’s also the matter of exact versus similar duplicates—it would be a pain in the ass to try and sort that out manually. Well, a question in the iPhone Life Facebook group about this very topic sent me on a search for the best app for easily removing duplicate photos. And I do believe I’ve found it: Remo Duplicate Photos Remover on the iPhone is a free app that scans all of your photos, presenting you with a quick look at all of the duplicates. Then the app makes it easy for you to quickly remove the photos you don’t want to keep. Learn more on what this app does and why we love it below.
Apple Apps
How to Make Your Own Ringtones for iPhone on iTunes
By Leanne Hays
Your iPhone has a variety of free ringtones to peruse, and the iTunes Store has a gigantic selection of iPhone ringtones to purchase, but what if you want to make your own custom ringtone? Good news! You can make phone ringtones free using already purchased songs from your iTunes library. All you need is your iPhone, a Mac or PC, a Lightning cable, 20–30 seconds of your favorite song, a little bit of time, and a willingness to try something new. Let's get started learning how to make your own custom free ringtones for iPhone with iTunes!
How to Quickly Mark All Emails as Read on iPhone
By Jim Karpen
Mail on the iPhone and iPad has a lot of helpful features that makes it easier for you to deal with the onslaught of email messages. Luckily, there is a quick way to mark all email messages as read that’s been around since iOS 8. Unfortunately, unlike iOS 8, iOS 11 no longer makes deleting all your emails simple. However, there’s a glitch which you can take advantage of to delete large chunks of your inbox at once. Here’s how to mark all your emails as read and bulk delete emails from inbox on iOS 11.
How to Get Breaking News Notifications from the Apple News App
By Conner Carey
The Apple News app on iPhone allows you to keep up to date on all the topics and publications that interest you. You can also sign up for breaking news alerts on your iPhone, which appear as notifications. You can choose which news sources are allowed to send you breaking news alerts. You can see news alerts for publications you follow or other large, well-known channels that often cover breaking news. If you don’t have a favorite source of news, you can turn on News Top Stories as a means of getting breaking news notifications from a wide range of media outlets. Here’s how to turn on breaking news alerts in Apple News on iPhone.
How to Use Business Chat on iPhone with iOS 11.3
By Leanne Hays
Apple announced the Apple Business Chat platform at WWDC 2017 and iOS 11.3 has finally introduced us to the program. The Business Chat platform allows iPhone users to connect with companies through iMessages, or from the businesses' app or website, rather than talking on the phone. Apple is rolling out Business Chat slowly; it's only available as a beta version right now, with a limited number of partner companies. Let's stay ahead of the curve and learn how to use Business Chat on our iPhones.
How to Sort App Store Reviews on iPhone with iOS 11.3
By Leanne Hays
I don't know about you, but before I purchase an app in the App Store, I like to read a few reviews to see how other customers have liked (or disliked) their purchase. Now iOS 11.3 makes it easier than ever before to sort app reviews so customers can find the information they want about individual apps. Let's get started learning how to find and sort user-submitted reviews in the App Store on our iPhones, so we have more information before purchasing apps.
Best Productivity Apps: Top Picks from the iPhone Life Team
By iPhone Life Team
The Apple News app is great for keeping up to date on the day's top developments and stories. The more users interact with the News app, the more customized it becomes, and now, with iOS 11.3, Apple has made the News app even more individualized. The For You section of the News app now allows you to tailor the For You video selection to your preference. Let's get started learning how to personalize the For You section of Apple's News app on your iPhone, so you can get all the content you're really looking for by keeping or eliminating the Today's Videos and Must-See Videos section.
The New iPad Will Have Apple Pencil Support
Apple unveiled a new 9.7 inch iPad for 2018 with lower educator pricing and an expansive package of classroom-management and curricular apps at its recent "Let's Take a Field Trip" event. The new hardware and applications are designed to launch teachers, students, administrators, and the classroom itself into an integrated, streamlined future where educational and creative opportunities are expanded, organized, and optimized.
I have never used my Photos app to properly sort my pictures into albums, and I’m going to make an educated guess and say that this is true for most of us. We take a bunch of photos at an event or with friends, share the ones we love, and let the others take up space on our devices. When it comes time to find a photo, I’m always searching through the All Photos album, scanning for the one I need. But there is a better way! I found Slidebox because I was looking for an app that would let me easily create albums, sort photos into those albums, and delete the photos I don’t need to keep. To my absolute delight, Slidebox allows me to do this super easily by using swiping gestures to quickly sort through photos like you sort through potential connections on Tinder. Learn more on why I love this app and what it does below.
If your credit or debit card is lost or stolen, you'll want to suspend it in your iPhone's Wallet & Apple Pay app. If your phone is lost or stolen, you'll also probably want to remotely erase your device. Better safe than the sorry victim of credit card fraud or identity theft! So how do we go about suspending lost or stolen credit cards to prevent someone else from using them? And how can we suspend our cards if our iPhone is also gone? Don't panic; in just a few easy steps you can suspend credit cards in Apple Pay on your iPhone, or remotely if your iPhone's been lost or stolen and you have access to another smartphone or computer.
How to Remove the U2 Album from iPhone in 2018
By Conner Carey
How to Remove U2 Album on iPhone:
- Visit: https://itunes.com/soi-remove.
- Click Remove Album.
- Sign in with your Apple ID and password.
- A confirmation page will let you know that you’ve removed the U2 album from your library.
- You may still see the album in your iTunes library. The confirmation page suggests signing out of iTunes and back in. You can also select the songs, right click, and select Delete from Library.
This will remove the U2 album from your iTunes library; the next part will show you how to delete the U2 album off your phone as well.
Tagging someone on Instagram is pretty straightforward. If you’re viewing an Instagram photo you really like that you want to share with a friend, you can simply tag them in the comments and they'll receive a notification. But did you know you can also send an Instagram picture as a dm, or direct message? If you choose this option, it's more private because you don't have to mention them in the public comments. Let's learn how to direct message a picture on Instagram, or how to just tag someone on an Instagram photo without sending them a dm.
How to Delete Instead of Archive Your Emails on iPhone
By Leanne Hays
Email inboxes fill up quickly, and it's easy to get overwhelmed by the ever-increasing pile of unopened messages in your inbox. That's why it's so helpful to be able to check your email on your iPhone; even a few minutes of deleting emails here and there can make a big difference. If you've connected your Gmail account to the iOS mail app on your iPhone you may have noticed that the option to delete isn't offered by the iOS mail app. Instead, you're given three choices: Mark, Move, or Archive. Where do archived emails go? Choosing archive means the email will be moved out of your inbox and sent to an archive folder, but it's still available if you want to open or re-read it later. So many emails don't even need to be read a first time, though, much less archived! It's time to learn how to delete google emails on iPhone, rather than archiving them. Inbox zero, here we come!
More than 160 million people use Snapchat every day, and developers keep rolling out new, versatile features to keep Snap fresh. Whether you want to use Snapchat to send a photo, video, or message to one friend or to a whole group of followers, live video chat, or discover short-form content from publishers and celebrities, there's a lot to keep you connected and engaged. Beyond that, Snapchat allows users to send and receive money through Snapcash, create avatars, augment content with filters and AR lenses, stickers, and a drawing feature, and share locations for still shots and live chat. Formerly a non-archival platform, Snapchat now allows users to save photos and videos, called snaps, with their Memories feature. A frustration many Snapchat users share is the inability to download Snap for iPad. Snapchat for iPhone is super convenient, but when you have the ability to use an iPad, it sure would be great to have a larger drawing surface so you can add more detail to your still shots and filters, and have more screen space to explore Stories. Although Snapchat for iPad is not officially available, there's an easy trick to install Snapchat on iPad. Let's get started learning how to get Snapchat on iPad!
Signal: How to Get the Encrypted Chat App for Your iPad
By Leanne Hays
Signal is a privacy app that uses end-to-end encryption for individual and group texts, videos, documents, voice, and picture messaging. Open Whisper, Signal's parent company, produced Signal using grants and donations, utilizing Open Source software, with the aim of providing a free and secure platform for worldwide communication, without SMS or MMS fees—this even includes free long-distance calls to anyone, anywhere in the world who also has the Signal app! No one at Signal or anywhere else can read or view communications on the platform, they can only be viewed by the individual user, who can also choose when each message will disappear. Since the whole point of an encrypted communication app is to ensure privacy, Signal is free of tracking, affiliate marketers, and ads. Signal uses your existing address book and phone number, and will only allow you to register one mobile device, so you'll need to choose if you want to use your iPhone or iPad. Getting Signal on your iPhone is free and easy, it pops right up in the App Store, but Signal for iPad is a bit more complicated. Read on to learn how to get Signal on your iPad!
Can't Sleep? The Sleep Genius App Is Here to Help
By Leanne Hays
All of us have had to plow through at least one difficult day of school or work after a less-than-optimal night of sleep, or even an all nighter. But what happens when a rough night becomes the norm? The Centers for Disease Control collects data about the sleep habits of Americans, and reports that one in three of us are getting fewer than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night. Whether you can't fall asleep, can't stay asleep, or both, insomnia is not only miserable, but bad for your health. I'm one of those insomniacs that can't stay asleep; waking up more nights than not after only about four hours of shut-eye, and not being able to drift off again for at least an hour or two. If you're like me, and have spent many wakeful hours wishing you could just relax and sleep, it's time to find some help. While relaxing bedtime routines, meditation for sleep, natural insomnia remedies, calming teas, and even sleeping pills can help, there's one more thing I think you should try: a sleep app for your iPhone! I tried Sleep Genius for two weeks, and am still using it every night. Sleep Genius is a sleep app that combines soothing sleep music, a gentle alarm, a relaxation program for anxiety at any time, and even a power nap feature! Read on to learn more about Sleep Genius, and why I think you should give this sleep app a home on your iPhone.
How to Shoot Clearer, Better Photos on Your iPhone
By Rheanne Taylor
I’ve heard it said over and over again that the best camera is the one you have with you. Honestly, I couldn’t agree more. I have an amazing DSLR and yet I find that the majority of my pictures are taken with my iPhone. Unfortunately, our iPhones still struggle in a lot of ways that more advanced cameras don’t. One of those ways is the iPhone’s intolerance for low-light situations. If you’re sick of blurry, unclear images, then here are a few tips and tricks that have really helped me out. Here’s how to shoot clearer, better photos on your iPhone.
How to Limit Ad Tracking in Apple Apps on iPhone
By Leanne Hays
Do you find it totally creepy when an ad pops up on your iPhone for just exactly the sort of thing you’d like to purchase? Does it seem like your phone has just a little too much inside information about your preferences, and you’d like to establish some boundaries between yourself and the wide world of capitalism? If so, it’s time for you to learn how to limit ad tracking in Apple Apps on your iPhone.
The Ultimate App for Dog Photos: BarkCam
By Leanne Hays
The camera roll on my iPhone is jam packed with pictures of my dogs—there's just something about those fuzzy faces that demands to be adored and photographed so that the pictures can be adored as well. Then of course there's the sharing; #instadog #socute #sorryyouguysicantrestrainmyself. I've been known to take dog photos with Instagram, share them to Facebook, then text and private message them to friends and family that really must see the latest iteration of canine cuteness right away. Therefore it is with great delight that I announce the discovery of my new favorite app, BarkCam, the "Instagram for Dogs."