Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2024 från iPhone Life Magazine

The first time I saw the Apple logo light up on the inky black surface of the Vision Pro headset, a feeling of awe settled over me. The last time I had that feeling was almost a decade ago in 2015 when I unboxed my first-generation Apple Watch. Now, Apple was once again launching a product in a new category, opening the potential to disrupt markets and change the face of consumer technology. As I lowered the Vision Pro over my eyes, one simple knob made it easy to fit the strap snugly around the back of my head. Suddenly I was inside the Apple ecosystem, familiar yet foreign. I could still see sunlight filtering through the trees outside my window as I sat back comfortably on the couch in…

DESIGN Canva (Free) Create presentations, social media posts, projects, and more with this easy-to-use design app. Easily create any design you can imagine with just the free version! Coolors (Free) Browse and design color palettes. Select a color from a photo and randomly generate a palette designed around it. Easily export the palettes for further creative work. FamilyAlbum Pro ($4.99/month) Easily create photo albums and videos to share with family. Explore curated collections and select photos to print for gifts, home décor, and more. Evite (Free) Design beautiful invitations with just a few taps of your fingers. Pick your design and guests, add details, and you’re good to go! You can even add a ‘What to Bring’ list for potlucks and more. DREAM Freeform (Free)…

HIDDEN GEMS Voxer Walkie Talkie Messenger (Free) Sending voice messages is faster than typing. Voxer prioritizes push-to-talk messaging and is secure to boot. You can also text, share photos and videos, and share your location. Signal - Private Messenger (Free) Chat with up to a thousand people without jeopardizing end-to-end encryption! You can also securely call groups of up to 40 people. Telegram Messenger (Free) Delete all messages for both the sender and recipient at any time. It will leave no trace! Telegram is private, reliable, but still fun, with customizable themes and stickers. WeChat (Free) Merge messaging with social media. Exchange money with any WeChat user, have fitness competitions with contacts, and so much more. GREATEST HITS Google Chat (Free) One-on-one or group chats…

HEALTH ON THE INSIDE MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter (Free) Easily track the calories and macronutrients in your meals. Sync your Apple Watch to automatically see the calories burned through exercise to calculate your calorie deficit. Journal (Free) Clear your mind by recording your thoughts and feelings through writing, voice memos, and media. Get suggestions based on your activities, memories, and prompts. Welltory: Heart Rate Monitor (Free) Dive into your health with a focus on stress through your heartrate variability. Learn how to analyze your mood, sleep, diet, and exercise. Calm ($14.99/month) Feel calm in just 10 minutes with sounds and stories that improve your sleep, health, and more. For busy schedules, enjoy meditations as short as 3 minutes or as long as 25 minutes. HEALTH ON THE…

ENJOY YOUR HOBBIES iNaturalist (Free) Connect with other nature lovers to share plants, fungi, and animals. Share images, keep a record, and get accurate identification for what you find. Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab (Free) Identify not only the birds you see but also hear! Use a picture or audio recording and let the world’s largest database teach you more about birds. knitCompanion (Free) Create knitted projects by following patterns and tracking your progress. Upload any pattern for whenever and wherever the mood strikes. Headway: Daily Book Summaries ($8.99/month) Learn something new every day by reading condensed versions of popular self-help and motivational books based on your interests. Save fun facts you wish to review and remember. VIBE AT HOME Zillow (Free) Search for…

Security keys are physical items that can be used to verify your identity when logging into your Apple ID. If you are planning to use security keys, make sure you have at least two. Apple requires you use two, so that if you lose one, you will have another as a backup. At iPhone Life, a brand we recommend is the Yubico Yubikey 5Ci ($75). Note: If you are using hardware keys for your Apple ID, then you should also consider using them for your other accounts as well. For example, accounts that control your recovery email address or your password manager, and for any file-sharing apps you use, such as iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive, or DropBox, etc. Here’s how to set up security keys for your Apple ID on…

Countdown & Count Up Timer (Free) “When I set goals, like ditching sugar or starting a daily workout, I love using this countdown app to track my daily streaks or days until I reach my goal. I can even add events or goals as widgets on my iPhone Home Screen, so I’m reminded each time I open my phone. It’s a super simple hack to help me stay motivated and focused!” - Ashleigh Page, Associate Editor FoodbyMaria (Free for access to recipes only, $3.99/month for all features) “I stumbled upon Food by Maria, a Greek and Mediterranean-based recipe app and website while searching for plant-based recipes to help with my NewYear’s resolution. Wow, what a treasure trove! More than 700 recipes, over 400 of them plant based, with categories…

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked by friends and family is “Which app should I download?” With millions of options out there, choosing which apps to use is a task that stumps many people. Will a free version overload you with ads? Is the paid version worth it? Testing apps and deciding which earn our seal of approval is one of the more fun parts of my job, and one of the most important. From budget, to security, to storage space, we consider every angle when it comes to which apps we recommend you use. This time, writers Olena Kagui and Ashleigh Page have joined me in combing through hundreds of options to bring you only the ones we think will enrich your life. Do you have an…

CHASE NEW CONTENT NYT Games (Free) Wordle was successful for a reason—daily puzzle games are fun! The NYT app offers you an array of daily puzzles even without a subscription, though subscribing gives you more access. BritBox ($8.99/month) If you love a good mystery show or true crime series (who doesn’t?), BritBox is a goldmine of the best whodunit shows on British TV, plus other genres. Threads (Free) If you’re looking for an alternative to X (formerly Twitter), Threads is it. Enjoy a similar format in a calmer environment with higher character allowances. Bleacher Report (Free) Enjoy comprehensive sports coverage, follow your favorite teams, and interact with other fans all in this one app! A must-have for any sports fan. LISTEN & READ Libby (Free)…

EDIT & ENHANCE Diptic ($2.99) Diptic lets you create collages of your photos. Merge multiple pictures, pick a color for the border, add a frame or texture, and change the aspect ratio to suit your artistic needs. GoDaddy Studio (Over): Design (Free) Create beautiful social media posts or professional-looking logos using pre-made templates. You can even create a free Link in Bio site and make AI videos using an exclusive library. CapCut - Video Editor (Free) CapCut offers free video templates for recreating social media trends. It also features powerful video editing tools that create the effect of two twin subjects interacting. Classic Camera by Hipstamatic ($2.99) Return to the basics with an analog-feeling digital photography app with a full editing suite! Experiment with exposure, focus,…

HASSLE-FREE DINNER NYT Cooking ($4.99/month) Enjoy easy-to-follow instructions and recipes videos to help visual learners. If you’re short on time, browse using a time filter, with the expected time to complete a recipe. Too Good To Go (Free) This clever app aims to fight food waste. Restaurant leftovers are packed into Surprise Bags (usually less than $5) that you can reserve and pick up from the store location. OpenTable (Free) OpenTable allows you to easily search and filter between nearby restaurants to find a location with the type of cuisine, seating (indoor or outdoor), and price you’re looking for. Yummly ($4.99/month) Enjoy a personalized experience through AI to learn your dietary preferences and suggest recipes, perfect for those nights you can’t decide what to cook. THE…

I turned 72 this year and have been enjoying photography for close to 50 years. I started with a Pentax 35mm film camera and while taking photos of my children one day in the living room with a wonderful light coming in my south window, I captured several images that were accidentally extraordinary. With that experience, I was hooked. Fast forward 30–40 years, and now I enjoy an incredibly rich universe of photographic capabilities I can carry around in my pocket. EMBRACING THE APPLE ECOSYSTEM I adopted the iPhone as soon as it came out in 2007. Over the years, I have usually bought the latest phone for its updated photo capabilities and have become an Apple fan with a Mac mini desktop, two MacBooks, an iPad, and an Apple…

FOCUS FOR FREE Obsidian - Connected Notes (Free) Obsidian is similar to the native Notes app but has some extra features like a graph view that lets you organize and navigate your ideas in a unique way. Google Voice (Free) Keep your personal and work lives separate by creating a free phone number. Use it from your phone or computer to call, text, and leave voicemails. Asana (Free) Make teamwork a piece of cake by splitting up tasks and delegating them directly through the app. Easily track deadlines and cross off finished tasks. Structured - Daily Planner (Free) Split your day into waking hours and get a realistic idea of what you can accomplish between the time you wake up and go to bed. Easily add,…

PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTIONS Monarch: Budget & Track Money ($14.99/month) Monarch is an excellent all-in-one finance app. Manage your budget, track your money, set financial goals, and analyze your investments. Rocket Money - Bills & Budgets ($6.99/month) Premium lets you manage subscriptions (and even get you a refund!). It can also track your net worth, including NFTs, jewelry, and fine art. SumUp - Credit Card Reader (Free) After a free trial, business owners can simplify their orders, payments, and reports. You can even add staff and manage their access to the app. Oportun - Save, Borrow, Budget ($5/month) Build a nest egg by linking an existing bank account and setting up automatic withdrawals based on your unique savings goals. Make it easy by picking from pre-existing…

FOR KIDS PBS KIDS Games (Free) Enjoy free, educational entertainment that will help your little one learn and enjoy digital independence. You can download many games to play offline. Best of all, there are no ads! Duolingo ABC (Free) Let your child practice basic literacy in Duolingo’s gamified format. Select your child’s age, then let them explore stories, letter matching, and more, as their skill set builds. Moshi Kids ($12.99/month) Enjoy a variety of activities aimed toward engaging your child or helping them wind down. Whether you’re looking to play, relax, or sleep, this app is an excellent resource. Messenger Kids (Free) Give your child the freedom to message other kids and trusted adults while still overseeing who they are in contact with and enjoying high-level…

WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER Whisper Memos - Speech to Text (Free) Apple Watch can take notes for you using AI. Whisper Memos accurately listens to audio and saves the text on your phone, making it easy to save, share, or email. Things 3 ($9.99) Rated #3 in productivity in the App Store, this app lets you see your upcoming to-dos right on your Apple Watch face with a complication. Simple and distraction-free! Focus ($39.99/year) Carve out blocks of time to be productive and rest. Schedule productivity timers for specific tasks and sync them across your Apple devices to keep you focused. Streaks ($4.99) This habit builder app lets you pick daily to-dos and keeps track of your streaks and successes! It sends reminders and lets you…

After receiving a pre-diabetes diagnosis at my yearly physical, it was clear I needed to exercise more than just an occasional walk or monthly outdoor activity. I hadn’t been to a gym in a very long time and never went with much of a plan, so I had some hurdles to overcome. As a massive techie, I ended up on the track of researching smart gym equipment and decided to go with the Speediance Gym Monster ($3,049). WHAT IS IT? A smart gym is typically a compact cable exercise machine with a digital screen or app that lets you choose and track exercises. The Gym Monster comes with a vertical rack, a big touchscreen, and several adjustable vertical mounting points. The Speediance app (free) is great for scheduling your workouts…

If there’s one thing that keeps me hooked on Google Photos, it’s sharing. With Google’s Partner Sharing feature, any family photo I take automatically appears in my wife’s photo library, and vice versa. That way, we both have the latest pictures of our kids, and those pictures also sync with our Google Photos smart displays, regardless of who took them. “BUT WHILE GOOGLE’S AND APPLE’S SHARED LIBRARY FEATURES SERVE SIMILAR PURPOSES, THE TWO COMPANIES HAVE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHIES FOR HOW SHARING SHOULD WORK.” The advantages of frictionless sharing aren’t lost on Apple. With its rollout of iCloud Shared Photo Library last year, you can keep your entire photo collection in sync with a partner and other immediate family members. But while Google’s and Apple’s shared library features serve similar purposes,…

Apple Wallet lets you virtually store your credit and debit cards, rewards cards, boarding passes, movie tickets, and more all in one secure place. Once set up, Wallet is incredibly convenient, allowing you to ditch your wallet or purse when you go out to eat and make online purchases in a matter of seconds. In this guide, we’ll go over how to add cards and passes to Apple Wallet and how to use them. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN APPLE WALLET & APPLE PAY? Apple Wallet is the virtual location where you store all your credit cards and tickets. When you go to make a purchase using one of your stored cards, however, you use Apple Pay. Apple Pay is a service that Apple unveiled in October of 2014, allowing iPhone,…