Whether you want to be protected while traveling or you like the extra layer of privacy while browsing at home, a VPN can help. Here's how to set up one on your iPhone.
Your iPhone apps should update automatically, but if they aren't, you can check for updates manually through the App Store.
You can't run iPhone apps on a Mac computer without an emulator, though that will change with a new set of Macs, coming out by the end of 2020.