Apple’s announcements this week of the first M4 Macs were impressive and full of surprises. But if you don’t have time to sit through all three videos, totaling nearly 40 minutes, you can watch our edit of it all in just 90 seconds.
Skip the hassle of manually sending your family all the vacation photos — enable a shared iCloud Photo library instead. Everyone in your family automatically gets all the family photos as if the images were in their own camera roll — in full quality.
Your iPhone will identify faces in photos (securely and privately), and any pictures of people who are in the family will be added to the shared library. If all of your phones are in the same place while you’re taking a lot of pictures, even if you aren’t in them (like at an aquarium or a museum), those pictures will be added automatically, too. As you’re shooting in the camera, you can easily toggle between the shared library for everyone and the private photo library on your own devices.
Starting a Shared Photo Library with your family is the best way to organize family photos. Continue reading to see how to turn it on.
Apple unveiled the radically redesigned Mac mini on Tuesday, with versions powered by the M4 chip and a new M4 Pro chip. The smaller-than-ever desktop computer features a new design with convenient ports on the front and back, faster processing speeds and, for the first time, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity and a carbon neutral guarantee.
“The new Mac mini delivers gigantic performance in an unbelievably small design thanks to the power efficiency of Apple silicon and an innovative new thermal architecture,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in a press release.
The faster Mac mini is available for preorder now, with a release date of November 8.
Apple Intelligence brings the long-awaited new Siri … but not quite yet. The Siri improvements so far include extensive knowledge of Apple products, integration with ChatGPT, a brand-new design and the ability to text Siri your questions rather than speaking them aloud.
The even-more-powerful Siri that will be able to see your screen and take actions on your behalf inside apps has been delayed to iOS 19 — with a fully conversational LLM-powered Siri likely another year further.
But there are quite a few neat things you can try out now, if you’re willing to board the Apple Intelligence train. Here’s what the new Siri can do.
iOS 18.1 comes with a veritable boatload of big new features. The update, which is out now, brings Apple Intelligence, hearing aid support for AirPods, sleep apnea detection for Apple Watch, phone call recording and more.
Apple Intelligence features are being rolled out slowly with every new iOS update. The process is expected to take a while. This first update hits the ground running with 10 features. But that’s not all — there’s more in this update for those of us with an older iPhone or who live in the European Union.
Keep reading or watch our video on the new features in iOS 18.1.
It’s only taken 17 years, but iPhone call recording is finally here. In iOS 18.1, you can record a phone call on your iPhone for future reference. If your device supports Apple Intelligence, you’ll get transcriptions of the phone calls, too.
This feature is a great way to refer back to a previous conversation. Who said what? What date did they say? What exactly did you agree to?
If you used a shady call recording app before, you can bid it adieu. There’s a convenient button built right into the Phone app; and you can refer back to your recordings in Notes. Here’s how it all works.
Location sharing is an incredibly versatile feature of iOS that makes coordinating with others much easier. Whether you’re meeting up with someone, exploring a new place, or spending the day out with friends, it’s a breeze to share your location. This feature is especially helpful in large public spaces, such as malls, amusement parks, and stadiums. If you’re wondering how does sharing location work on iPhone, you can check out this detailed guide: Everything You Need to Know About Location Sharing in iOS.
Giving directions on precisely where to pick up someone along a street block or in a parking lot is made much easier by sending a pin in an iMessage chat. With Family Sharing, I can see if my wife is on her way home without first sharing her ETA in Apple Maps. Another benefit is that I can use Find My to ping her phone if it’s lost in the house.
Here’s how to use location sharing.
Here is how to stop your iPhone from autocorrecting swear words. It’s not a simple toggle switch in Settings, unfortunately — but it’ll only take you a few minutes to fix it once and for all.
Apple presents an annoyingly family-friendly image. It doesn’t want the iPhone to autocorrect a swear word to protect the innocence of children. It doesn’t want porn on the App Store (even if it’s a tap away in Safari).
Luckily, for the adults in the room, it’s all surface-level means of protection. Here’s how you can get your iPhone to let you swear again.
After a full day of toiling inside Vision Pro, I often keep my headset on for evening entertainment — shows, games or looking at photos. Vision Pro has almost completely replaced my television. It enables a new way of watching videos as well; I watch video all around the house as I wander about doing chores.
The Vision Pro also excels for perusing my photo library. It’s the best way to view photos ever — and by a huge margin. Spatial photos are unbelievable. Videos look fantastic. Panoramas, a largely forgotten feature, are mind-blowing.
In other areas, Vision Pro disappoints. I’ve played some super fun games, but gaming isn’t a serious thing on Vision Pro yet. And while Apple’s own immersive 3D movies on Apple TV+ are super cool, it feels like we’ve only been given an appetizer.
Watch our video or keep reading for more detail.
To heck with “go big or go home” because there’s never been a better time to go mini: these Mac mini deals are the cheapest way to buy a new Mac.
The Mac mini is a desktop computer, so you’ll need to supply your own display, keyboard and mouse. It seamlessly replaces an aging PC and its diminutive size fits on any desk.
And even though Black Friday sales are still weeks away, now is an ideal time to buy. Apple’s smallest Mac carries big discounts. The entry level (and current) M2 and M2 Pro models at least 12% off, while the prior M1 model can be had for $400.
Reduce Interruptions is a new Focus in iOS 18 that judges on the fly which notifications seem important, using Apple Intelligence.
Setting up a Focus mode by hand is a bit of a chore. You need to know exactly which contacts and apps you want to silence and let through. You need to keep maintaining them as you add new contacts and download new apps.
Reduce Interruptions is a new Focus mode that’s a slightly smarter Do Not Disturb. There’s no work necessary. And, if you do have a highly customized existing Focus, you can add its smarts on top of your existing rules and customizations. Here’s how to make the most of it.
You can create a photo memories movie using the Apple Photos app, powered by Apple Intelligence. Just type in a prompt, it’ll browse through your collection, and create a bespoke video set to music of your choosing. It’s a fun way to put together a memory movie. And you can be very specific with the kinds of prompts you give it.
The new Photos app powered by Apple Intelligence also has a more powerful search feature. Here’s how it all works together.
It’s easy to rename multiple files at once on a Mac using the Finder’s batch rename tool. If you have a big series of pictures, videos, screenshots or documents in a series, you can use this feature to rename them all in a similar format and sequence.
You don’t have to take on such a tedious task by hand.
You can easily remove any object from a photo using the new Apple Intelligence Clean Up tool.
As the graphic designer among my friends, I’ve always been asked to Photoshop things out of my friend’s pictures. A romantic shot in a gazebo, with a phone sitting on the handrail in an obvious spot. A group photo from a fun night out, with someone’s tote bag sitting by their feet. A picture from a big conference, with an ugly lanyard around someone’s neck.
Now, you have the power to clean up your own photos — a chance to make your almost-perfect shots perfect. Here’s how it works.
A hot feature of Apple Music playlist collaboration. In advance of a party, road trip or any kind of themed event, you and others organizing the music can build a playlist together.
This isn’t to be confused with a similar feature, SharePlay, which lets people in the same room add songs to a live queue. SharePlay is more ephemeral; it lets others nearby play songs in the car or to a Bluetooth speaker without passing around your unlocked phone.
A shared Apple Music playlist is saved and can be replayed at any time. To find out everything you need to know about Apple Music playlist collaboration, keep reading or watch our quick how-to video.
Those tiny, cryptic symbols on clothing tags and car dashboards can confuse anyone. However, your iPhone camera can quickly decipher the meaning of laundry symbols and dashboard icons. You don’t need to look up a guide or Google their meaning. Just take a picture and your iPhone will tell you.
While in my testing the iPhone didn’t identify every single symbol, the feature will do in a pinch. And if you want to use a third-party app for the best possible results, I can recommend two that I found on the App Store that can help you.
After eight months of using my Apple Vision Pro, I’ve found it immensely useful for my writing work. I try to spend as much time writing with my Vision Pro as possible.
There’s still a lot I have to do on my Mac — but the work I can do from the Vision Pro is so good that I can’t wait for the platform to develop and grow even further.
Watch our video or keep reading to learn how.
Set up scheduled, automatic Apple Cash payments to send money to your friends or family on a regular basis. You can use this to pay back your housemates for bills, send your kids some money or pay back personal debts.
Whatever the reason may be, Apple Cash is a fast and easy way to send money. I even have a pro tip for scheduling a singular payment in advance. Here’s how to set up recurring payments.
The new Apple Sports app gives iPhone users a handy tool for tracking sports scores and stats. Previously buried inside Apple News, the constantly updated sports data becomes much more accessible when delivered via a dedicated iPhone sports app.
You can choose which teams and leagues you follow, get live updates on scores (and betting odds), and tap to open live coverage of the game in a streaming app.
The official Apple Sports app is available on the App Store now. Here’s how to use it.
Apple added several nifty new features to Safari in iOS 18. The iPhone’s redesigned web browser boasts an all-new Page Menu. Plus, two big new features help surface what you’re looking for on the web.
The last big Safari redesign for iPhone, which arrived three years ago, moved the address bar to the bottom of the screen by default. It also shoved several useful features into a menu in the address bar, which made it difficult to discover them. Apple tries to reverse that second problem in the new Safari.
Here’s what’s new in iOS 18 in Safari on iPhone — keep reading or watch our video.
iOS 18 is getting a bunch of cool new accessibility features this year, including bringing eye tracking to the iPhone for the first time. You also can feel haptic music, control your phone with custom voice commands, use your phone in the car without suffering from motion sickness, and improve the accuracy of Siri and dictation.
Check out our video to see it in action or keep reading below.
Apple Intelligence makes its debut with 10 new features — and some of it is fantastic. Apple Intelligence has some genuinely impressive new features, and some of it will have a big impact on daily life.
Apple Intelligence is the name for Apple’s next-generation AI and machine learning-powered features that are coming to iPhone, iPad and Mac. These first 10 features are available in iOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1 right now. Some of the biggest features like Visual Intelligence, Image Playground and the all-new Siri aren’t here (and might not ship for a while) but Apple has still managed to make a good first impression.
Here’s what you can expect. Keep reading or watch our video to see it in action.
The iPhone’s Action button replaces the former ring/mute switch, and while it can fulfill the same purpose, there’s much more you can do with it. Apple gives you a bunch of options out of the box if you want instant access to your flashlight, camera, Shazam and more.
You pick the function, and it’s just a button push away. You can even turbo-charge the Action button by running a shortcut.
Setting up the Action button to do your bidding is easy. And once you do, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy quick access to your favorite feature.
In iOS 18, Apple’s Messages app gains five great new features that will make texting all the more fun. New message effects let you bold text in iMessage and animate it for extra emphasis. If you’re the forgetful type, you can schedule your messages to send later — automatically. You can reply to a message using any emoji you like. Finally, texting will get easier with your friends on Android — and in the middle of the Gobi desert.
Watch our video or keep reading to see the best new Messages features after you upgrade to iOS 18. (You can find the new iPhone operating in Settings > General > Software Update.)
Every model in the iPhone 16 lineup comes with a Camera Control, the new camera button that’s pressure- and touch-sensitive. It offers an entirely new way to access and adjust your settings in the Camera app by clicking and swiping. But what kind of iPhone case works best with the Camera Control? Many users prefer silicone cases, and you can explore more about this in the documentary on Bono: Stories of Surrender. Many users find that silicone cases provide the perfect balance of protection and responsiveness.
Most cases come with a cutout, exposing the Camera Control on the side of the iPhone. Other cases cover the new button completely, but feature a capacitive sensor that conducts your finger’s swipes through the case.
In evaluating which cases work best with the iPhone 16’s new Camera Control, I considered a few questions. Is it any harder using the Camera Control through a cutout? Do third-party iPhone 16 cases with a capacitive sensor work as well as Apple’s cases?
Here’s what I found out — you’ll definitely want to know before you make a decision. Keep reading below or see the results for yourself in our video.