iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

It can be frustrating when you attempt to make a call on your iPhone and you’re given the error message “Call Failed,” and you find yourself wondering, "Why does my iPhone keep saying call failed?" After first rebooting your iPhone and updating your iOS software, as well as moving to various locations, here are several simple steps you can try to solve the iPhone call failed error before contacting your carrier.

Being able to make hands-free calls and send texts can come in handy when you're trying to keep your eyes on the road. Siri is a common method for dictating texts, but Siri can't function properly when you've got spotty cell reception. Luckily, you can still dictate texts in Messages even if Siri is offline. You can even use this method to make corrections and edit out mistakes. Let's dive in with how to dictate and edit texts on your iPhone without Siri.

Every year, iPhone Life's team of editors searches the halls of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for the best new technology for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch users. We saw all kinds of amazing tech (driverless cars! Smart fridges!) and sometimes puzzling products (a robot that brings you toilet paper? A hands-free carry-on that tries but sometimes fails to follow you through the airport?). The following Best of CES 2020 Awards go to the most forward-thinking and useful iOS gear we found that's coming to market this year.

Gaming on the iPhone and iPad has certainly evolved over the last few years. What was expected straightforward pricing in the early days has become a multi-faceted marketplace of everything from freemium, in-app purchases, and an exclusive premium subscription via Apple Arcade to premium pricing matching that of traditional PC gaming costs. Dire Wolf Digital's latest digital conversion of a well-known board game (at least among board gaming enthusiasts) has opted for the higher-end premium pricing model. Reiner Knizia's Yellow & Yangtze ($9.99) is charging a penny short of ten dollars for the game on either the Android or iOS platform (with the PC version asking for a $14.99 payment for the privilege to play on that platform). Does the price justify the amount of entertainment packed into this board game conversion? Read on to find out.

If you prefer a leather folio case for your iPhone that has slots for credit cards, but also prefer a more compact case, the folks at Hex have a 4-in-1 iPhone Case ($99.99) they'd like you to try. They sent me one and it's got a lot going for it. It has three (or four in the case of the iPhone 11 Pro Max) slots on the back for credit cards, plus an internal slot for cash or more cards. And when you want to go it alone, the protective polymer phone case is easily detached from the wallet folio thanks to the metal plate and magnets built-in.

I have been covering (and using) cases from Urban Armor Gear for several years, and the cases always had a military-grade feel to them, with a rigid exoskeleton design. It looks like the company now wants to appeal to the masses, based on the Civilian Series iPhone Case ($49.95) it sent me to try. While the traditional models were thicker and had lots of flat surfaces, the Civilian is thinner, smoother, and rounder. But this protective iPhone case still has a rigid design that doesn't skimp around the ports, which some cases do.

Apple's HomeKit works wonderfully for smart home automation needs, as long as you stay within the Apple ecosystem.  However, if your smart home houses people with mixed technology preferences like mine, getting everyone to agree to a single operating system platform may be a futile exercise. Fortunately, the Philips Hue home automation lighting technology works on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and even with smart voice assistants like Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant as a consequence of the stand-alone base station that controls its smart home hardware. Because of this unique positioning and large market share, Philips has begun branching out beyond smart light bulbs into more elaborate lighting and even smart power outlets. This article reviews two recent additions to the Philips Hue product family.