With well over a billion iPhones in use, Apple beats all rivals in the size of its active installed base. Roughly one in four active smartphones worldwide is an iPhone, according to new research.
This didn’t happen by accident — Apple actively supports older iPhone models for a good reason: they’re an important source of revenue.
On the latest episode of the Cult of Mac podcast: Apple makes a pretty bold move by adding third-party AI coding tools to Xcode. This will make it easier for professional developers to deal with drudge work.
It also makes it simpler for beginners to write their own apps. With AI in Xcode, anyone with a good idea can make their coding dream come true. And this raises all kinds of questions …
Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:
Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
iOS 26 is the most controversial iPhone update in many years. That includes dislike of the Liquid Glass design, but there are also plenty of reports of performance problems. That makes iOS 27 such an important update — Apple needs to fix bugs and maybe even find a way to deal with those unsatisfied with the new look of the operating system.
Early reports indicate Apple made fixing iOS 26 problems a focus of the next major update. But which models get iOS 27? And who gets left out in the cold? Here’s what we know now.
“Love is a many-splendored thing,” goes the old saying — like a multifaceted, intricately cut diamond. Fortunately, your valentine probably doesn’t expect a diamond for a gift on February 14 (hopefully, for the sake of your wallet). But you can still spend loads of cash on Apple’s picks for Valentine’s Day gifts. We selected a bunch below.
All the tiny signs, symbols and icons on the Apple Music app’s Now Playing screen lack labels — and it’s not obvious at all what they do. Do you know what tapping the infinity symbol does? How about the two wavy lines?
This quick guide runs through all the Apple Music buttons and controls, so you can get acclimated to its interface. Keep reading or watch our short video.
February 5, 2008: Six months after the first-gen iPhone went on sale, Apple releases a new version with a whopping 16GB of storage.
“For some users, there’s never enough memory,” says Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod and iPhone product marketing, in a statement. “Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world.”
A conspiracy theory argues that Apple does everything it can to force people to buy new iPhones. That’s Grade A certified bullplop, and I can prove it. How? Apple recently released iOS updates for every single iPhone going back to 2013.
If you still own a 12-year-old iPhone 5s, it just got an upgrade to iOS 12.5.8, so you can continue to use it for years to come. So tell us again how Apple hates old iPhones?
Apple’s satellite connectivity journey began as a lifesaving emergency feature with the iPhone 14 in 2022. But the company’s ambitions go far beyond distress signals to more advanced iPhone satellite features. Experts see a dramatic expansion of satellite capabilities coming to transform how we think about smartphone connectivity. iPhone 18 in 2026 and later handsets could see satellite features evolve from emergency backup to everyday uses.
A new leak out of China purports to detail the iPhone Fold’s design. The leaker known as Instant Digital says the foldable iPhone will feature a Touch ID power button, as seen on the iPad Air and iPad mini.
The device will supposedly feature a black rear camera plateau, housing two cameras, a microphone and the flash.
Developer Mode lets you run unsigned code on your iPhone or iPad. Enable it, and you can download and run apps that are not from the App Store (or alternative app marketplaces) or in TestFlight, Apple’s tool that lets developers invite users to beta-test new apps.
If you want to write your own apps in Xcode, you will need to enable Developer Mode on your iPhone or iPad before running your app.
Developer Mode is also essential if you want to sideload apps onto your device from a Mac, using an app like Sideloadly. This could include apps that aren’t allowed on the App Store (such as porn app Hot Tub) or apps that are no longer available from their original developers, like Apollo (the now-shuttered Reddit client). For sideloading to work, you will need to turn on Developer Mode.
Read on to see how to enable Developer Mode on your iPhone or iPad, as well as the potential security implications.
Before Apple even launches its first folding iPhone, the company is reportedly exploring a follow-up model with a clamshell-like form factor, similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola Razr.
There’s no guarantee that Apple will launch such a model. But for now, it’s at least under consideration.
“I am proud to say that we just had a quarter for the record books,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during Thursday’s earnings call, before rattling off numbers that surprised Wall Street analysts — in a good way.
The highly successful quarter was also one for the stat geeks. Apple racked up several all-time highs during the quarter (technically Apple’s Q1 2026). From overall revenue (a new all-time high!) to customer satisfaction ratings (through the roof!), the numbers Apple put up during the 2026 holiday quarter will blow your mind.
Apple broke all kinds of revenue records during the critical holiday quarter, the company said Thursday, including setting an all-time quarterly high of $143.8 billion. The shockingly good revenues led to sky-high earnings per share that blew past Wall Street’s lofty expectations. And Apple gave the iPhone much of the credit.
“Apple is proud to report a remarkable, record-breaking quarter, with revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16 percent from a year ago and well above our expectations,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a press release. “iPhone had its best-ever quarter driven by unprecedented demand, with all-time records across every geographic segment, and Services also achieved an all-time revenue record, up 14 percent from a year ago.”
Get set for Apple to report boffo results from its latest financial quarter on Thursday. Wall Street expects Apple’s earnings report to reflect a record-breaking holiday season, with analysts anticipating significant growth driven by strong iPhone 17 demand.
Revenue may be up as much 11% year over year. Apple hasn’t seen revenue growth that strong since 2022. This should lead to truly stellar earnings per share.
I finally figured out the perfect set of controls to assign to the iPhone’s Action button. I created a shortcut that cleverly combines the two controls I want to use it for.
The Action button can toggle the flashlight, mute audio, toggle an accessibility feature, open the camera, start translation, run any shortcut of your choosing and more. It’s so open-ended that figuring out what to use it for can trigger decision fatigue.
Don’t panic — I discovered what you should use the iPhone’s action button for. And I’m sharing the shortcut, which combines two actions into one elegant system, so you can use it, too.
On the latest Cult of Mac podcast: Details emerge about Apple’s work on an AI pin, and we’re all wondering the same thing. What the heck will it do?
The AirTag-size device that Apple’s testing reportedly packs multiple cameras and microphones. And it will work with the new, chatbot-style Siri that’s also in the works.
We all saw how miserably Humane’s Ai Pin failed. What could possibly go wrong with Apple’s AI pin?
Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:
Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
January 26, 2016: After nine years of spectacular growth, iPhone sales flatline for the first time. Some observers say the sales plateau means that “peak iPhone” has finally arrived.
Numbers posted by Apple show that during the final three months of 2015, iPhone sales grew by only 0.4%. The crucial holiday season sales compare quite unfavorably with the 46% jump recorded during the same period a year earlier.
Apple’s attempt to keep online advertisers from tracking Safari users had the unintended effect of completely throwing off reporting on iOS 26 adoption.
Rather than only a small percentage of iPhone users installing some version of Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 26 adoption is only a bit below average.
If you want to make your iPhone easier to use, you can customize its Control Center to gain faster access to the buttons and toggles you rely upon to perform frequent tasks.
Plus, you can remove all the junk you never touch from the iPhone Contol Center, putting the vital controls you actually use front and center.
Keep reading to find out how and why you should customize the iPhone Control Center to make the device your own.
Nothing illustrates the power of Apple’s ecosystem like the Continuity features that help your Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch work seamlessly together.
Thanks to Continuity, your iPhone can serve as your Mac’s webcam — and you can remotely control your iPhone from your Mac. You can start an email on one device and instantly pick it up on another. You can use the same keyboard and mouse with a Mac and iPad, copy and paste across devices and more.
These features flex the power of Apple’s hardware and software — and they would never be possible on a PC.
In this post (and the accompanying video), I will show you some of the time-saving, annoyance-busting Continuity features you can enjoy when you go all-in on the Apple ecosystem.
The new Pisen Qi2 8-in-1 140W Mega Charging Hub — just launched on Amazon — offers Apple users a comprehensive desktop charging solution that combines wireless charging for iPhone and Apple Watch with high-power wired charging for MacBooks and iPads, the company said Thursday.
It features not only a Qi2 MagSafe charging platform for recent iPhones, but a magnetic Apple Watch charger, USB ports and even power outlets for plugs. And you can get it not only in basic black, but in a surprising yellow!
Whether you’re working remotely from a coffee shop, camping with your MacBook or preparing for the next power outage, the Anker Solix C800 X Portable Power Station delivers reliable backup power for all your Apple devices. And it’s currently available as a killer deal with savings of $250.
A major ransomware attack on Luxshare, one of Apple’s most critical manufacturing partners, allegedly exposed over 1TB of confidential data from the iPhone giant and other tech behemoths. Stolen information in the Luxshare data breach includes product designs, engineering documents and employee information spanning from 2019 to 2025, according to a new report.
If you’ve noticed your iPhone storage filling up faster than it used to, you’re not imagining things. Modern iOS apps now routinely consume hundreds of megabytes, with some reaching multiple gigabytes in size. What’s behind this relentless growth? Why do iOS apps take so much space? And what can you do about it? Read on.
Apple likely will struggle to acquire a critical component for all its products this year. In fact, the whole electronics industry will face the same problem, and the competition will drive up prices, according to analysts.
What’s the missing product? RAM. Why is it so hard to get? AI. But the full story is more complex than those two basic facts.