Apple pays Globalstar to provide the satellites needed for the iPhone’s Messages via satellite service, and an updated agreement between the two companies includes a $1.1 billion payment for the infrastructure.
Clearly, this is an iPhone feature that’ll be available for years to come.
Apple might switch to in-house Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips starting with next year’s iPhone 17. The company plans to fully transition to its custom Wi-Fi chips within three years after that.
Broadcom currently supplies Apple with more than 300 million Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules yearly for its products.
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.
Apple is secretly testing a new health app designed to help individuals with prediabetes manage their diet and lifestyle choices, according to a new report. The experimental app, tested with select employees earlier this year, focuses on helping users understand how different foods affect their blood sugar levels. That might help stave off Type 2 diabetes for some.
Some might use it just to marvel at how that cookie is spiking their blood sugar and choose an apple next time, instead.
With Apple Intelligence features coming out to much fanfare, it seems smartphone users don’t actually rank AI very high on their wishlists when considering smartphone upgrades, according to a new survey out Friday. With AI low on smartphone upgrade wishlists, what do they crave? Much higher among their hopes are longer battery life, more storage and better cameras. You know, the “classics.”
In central London, thieves snatch an iPhone out of someone’s hand every 6 minutes, often via passing moped. The problem is so pervasive someone came up with a new line of comically intimidating iPhone cases as part of an awareness campaign called “The Unsnatchable.”
One case bristles with silver spikes. Another looks like an angry electric eel. A third conveys a curse within. And a fourth takes the form of a gauntlet you wear to clutch the handset in an iron grip.
Studies show that a haptic keyboard improves touchscreen typing speed and input accuracy, but very few people know you can enable it on your iPhone.
Android phones years ago had haptic keyboards, but without a precision vibration motor, the haptic feedback was too slow to complete the illusion. With the Taptic Engine — hardware in every iPhone since the iPhone 6s that can simulate all kinds of vibrating textures — Apple created a perfectly convincing effect to enable the haptic keyboard way back in iOS 16.
Leaving the keyboard click sounds on in public is a minor social faux pas, but you really do type better when you have some sort of feedback for hitting the keys. It feels incredible. I turned it on years ago, and every time I type something in on a friend’s phone without it enabled, it feels broken. You can’t go back once you turn it on — it’s that great.
Read on to see where to enable it.
iOS 18.2 beta 1, which went to developers on Wednesday, includes a new section in Settings that lets users specify which applications to set as their defaults for handling email, messages, phone calls and more. In some cases, setting this simply gets easier. In others, changing the default app previously wasn’t possible at all.
We already knew this change would happen in Europe, but Apple made it clear Wednesday that it’ll be available worldwide.
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.
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.
Multi-device chargers for iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch come and go, but Journey just rolled one out that really catches the eye: the Journey Nova 3-in-1 Fast Charging Station. It’s available for preorder now.
“Our designers envisaged an anti-tech aesthetic for Nova,” said a Journey spokesperson. “The exterior complements decors much like a vase, chair or pot plant might.”
A pot plant, they say! Well, that is a good aesthetic model to emulate, although it being on the “anti-tech” side seems debatable.
The cool kids own an iPhone. And the non-cool kids. Really, nearly all U.S. teens own one. That’s according to new data from a market analysis that found that 87% of teenagers in the United States use an iPhone.
That’s likely to continue with more than 20% of teens planning to upgrade to an iPhone 16.
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.
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.
With Hurricane Milton taking aim at nearly the entire Gulf Coast of Florida, with a probable late Wednesday landfall, evacuees and others might want to make sure they download iOS 18 — specifically to get the new Messages via satellite capability.
That way, if power, Wi-Fi and cellular coverage all get knocked out, you can still communicate via satellite on your iPhone with family and friends. And of course you’ll also have the option of using the related Emergency SOS via satellite if you need to reach emergency services.
Apple released iOS 18.0.1 on Thursday to fix an annoying bug that made the touchscreen unresponsive on iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. The new iPadOS 18.0.1 corrects several problems, too, including one that bricked some M4 iPad Pro units when installing the original iPadOS 18 version.
In addition, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1 and visionOS 2.0.1 also arrived Thursday with minor bug fixes.
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.
iPhone SE 4 will debut early next year, according to a reliable source, and supposedly will support Apple Intelligence, the AI-powered features coming soon to iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. The previous iPhone SE 2022 model didn’t perform as well as expected, which may have led Apple to rethink its strategy. Learn more about why Apple created the iPhone 16E in response to the SE’s shortcomings here.
Apple’s 2025 budget handset reportedly will receive a significant redesign. And previous rumors suggest the handset will come with an upgraded display, too.
Most of us store thousands of pictures and videos on our iPhones. If you want to create a bulletproof backup, you need to know how to transfer photos from iPhone to an external hard drive, SSD or flash drive. It’s easy, assuming you have the right software and (and possibly an adapter).
A Tata Electronics plant in Chennai, India, that makes components for iPhones reportedly caught fire on Saturday, halting production.
It’s not clear yet how this will affect iPhone assembly in the country. It’s certainly not good news for Apple’s efforts to become less dependent on China.
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.)
A request by former President Donald Trump that Apple help law enforcement access the contents of iPhones owned by men who tried to assassinate him is apparently based on a mistaken idea about how encryption works.
If the contents of the devices are secured by encryption, there’s nothing Apple can do to access them. That’s the very nature of encryption.
Whether you’re shooting an iPhone video of a breaking news event, chronicling your global travels for your vlog, or capturing a particularly choice dance move to show off on TikTok, certain tools can help you boost your video quality as well as your creativity. For example, the Hohem iSteady V3 Gimbal Stabilizer is a great tool to steady and extend your shots.
It’s a three-axis iPhone gimbal with a magnetic AI tracker and fill light, a built-in extendable rod and tripod, and a detachable remote control. We explain how this must-have video tool can help below. And what’s more, you can get it now for 20% off at Amazon.