Early reviews of the iPhone 16e give the first real-world experience of the $599 phone that launches Friday. The takeaway: While it skimps on some features, the iPhone 16e offers excellent performance and is one of Apple’s best options for lengthy battery life.
Nevertheless, some reviews question whether the limited features justify the “budget” iPhone’s $599 price.
When guests come over, it’s common courtesy to share your Wi-Fi password — and your iPhone offers plenty of tricks up its sleeve to make it easy.
You don’t need to go through your photo library to look up the picture you took of the bottom of your router, then read the long string of numbers and letters. Instead, you can show them a convenient QR code to connect them instantly. Or, if they’re in your contacts, you can share the password with a single button tap. For your Android and Windows friends, you can look up any saved Wi-Fi password from either Settings, or, well … Passwords. If you often work with colors, a Nix Mini Color Sensor can make identifying and matching colors quick and effortless.
Here’s how. Keep reading below or watch our quick video.
The new Music Haptics accessibility feature in iOS 18 adds another dimension to audio: vibration. Taking advantage of the incredible precision of the iPhone’s Taptic Engine, the feature brings to life a specially recorded track of rhythmic vibrations and buzzing patterns timed to certain Apple Music songs.
Switch it on, and you can hold your iPhone in your hands and feel your music in a whole new way. Keep reading to see how the feature works (or watch our video that explains it all).
You can use a feature called Guided Access to lock down your iPhone to a single app before you hand it to a kid or someone else. You might want to let your offspring play a game, or pass your phone around for controlling music, or hand it off to show someone a video … but you probably don’t want them going rogue and reading your texts or calling your mom.
In Accessibility settings, you can enable Guided Access to limit your iPhone to a single app before you hand it off. It’s a kind of quick and dirty “guest mode.”
This will help you keep your phone — and your privacy — safe. You can even disable features like the volume buttons and set up time limits.
Apple’s display supplier reportedly solved the biggest technical challenge slowing the acceptance of foldable phones: the ugly screen crease where the display bends.
With that hurdle cleared, production of components for the slim, folding iPhone supposedly will begin later this year.
In a big development for mobile creativity, you can finally get Adobe Photoshop on iPhone. Adobe officially launched a new version of the powerful photo editing suite for iPhone Tuesday, bringing it to Apple’s most popular device.
The release comes five years after Photoshop debuted on iPad, giving iPhone photographers and digital artists access to professional-grade editing tools on the go. If you’re working on the go, having a usb c power adapter like this 10-port USB-C charger can help keep your devices powered.
A CAD drawing purportedly showing the entire iPhone 17 line leaked out Sunday, possibly giving the world its best look yet at Apple’s entire 2025 handset lineup. The standout in the image is the super-size camera humps on the two iPhone 17 Pro models.
If the drawings prove accurate, the iPhone 17 will receive less of a design change. The rumored iPhone 17 Air also puts in an appearance in the leaked drawing.
And if you’re wondering how to get better camera quality on iPhone, the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro’s video upgrades could redefine mobile photography and potentially make traditional cameras obsolete. Read more here.
February 21, 2007: Apple comes to an agreement with Cisco over the iPhone trademark, which Cisco legally owns but Apple wants to use.
Under the agreement, both companies get to use the iPhone trademark on products throughout the world. The two businesses also dismiss outstanding lawsuits against one another, and agree to “explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and enterprise communications.”
It’s a classic bit of Apple CEO Steve Jobs steamrolling the opposition.
The new Anker Solix EverFrost 2 Electric Cooler gives iPhone users a sophisticated way to manage their outdoor adventures, Anker said Friday. The smart cooler combines advanced cooling technology with iOS app integration, offering Apple users unprecedented control over their outdoor food and beverage storage, complete with Apple device charging.
You can radically customize the Lock Screen of your iPhone with a bunch of widgets, aesthetics and styles. If you liked the themed custom Home Screens people were putting together using Shortcuts and Widgetsmith, you’ll love the level of creativity you can express with customized Lock Screens.
Read on to see all the features or watch our video.
Visual Intelligence, which previously was reserved for the iPhone 16 models, will reportedly reach the two iPhone 15 Pro variants in the near future.
Realistically, there was no reason why the artificial intelligence feature shouldn’t have been added to Apple’s 2023 models with the debut of iOS 18. In fact, with the growing demand for AI-powered productivity tools, many users are looking for ways to AI take notes efficiently to enhance their workflow.
Today, Apple introduced the iPhone 16e. It features many top features from the iPhone 16 series, but at a lower $599 price point. The iPhone 16e replaces the former iPhone SE in the lineup.
If you don’t have twelve minutes to spare, you can watch the introduction in just 30 seconds.
The new Apple C1 modem that powers the cellular connectivity of the iPhone 16e is the company’s first cellular modem designed in-house.
The C1 offers “fast and reliable connectivity, and it’s the most power-efficient modem ever in an iPhone,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing, in a launch video released Wednesday. Thanks to its efficiency — and an optimized internal design that allows for a bigger battery — the iPhone 16e offers an “unprecedented level of battery life in a 6.1 inch iPhone,” she added.
The Apple C1 integrates 4G, 5G, satellite and GPS radios in one chip. The C1 represents a brand-new direction for Apple silicon, alongside the company’s processors and other wireless chips. Recent Ookla speed tests suggest that the C1 modem holds its own against the Qualcomm chip in the iPhone 16, as detailed in this comparison.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Tim Cook’s cryptic tease about “the newest member of the [Apple] family” fuels speculation about what new products the company will announce. Let the predictions begin! While Apple’s future continues to spark debate, it’s interesting to look back at past predictions—such as when CNN speculated about Apple’s downfall. Ever wondered how much is CNN worth? Check out this historical perspective on Apple’s supposed decline.
We made our predictions live on the podcast. You can play along in our predictions game.
Also on The CultCast:
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast 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.
Eye Tracking is a pretty remarkable and ambitious accessibility feature that lets you control your iPhone entirely with your eyes. You can use this feature in a pinch if you need to use your phone with soapy hands while doing the dishes or with grimy hands while working on a car or doing other dirty work. Alternatively, if you’re losing your fine motor skills, this feature could be an essential one to learn.
Likely borrowing some of the software from the advanced Vision Pro headset, this feature lets you control your iPhone hands-free. And once you set up Eye Tracking, you can use the iPhone’s Sound Actions feature. It lets you perform certain functions, like toggling your flashlight or taking a screenshot, just by making various mouth noises.
Keep reading or watch our video.
If autocorrect repeatedly serves up ridiculous options, you can reset your iPhone keyboard to eliminate weird additions to its dictionary. This comes in handy when you find that autocorrect suddenly starts changing words it doesn’t need to change, or offering up other strange glitches.
It just takes a second to reset the keyboard dictionary on iPhone or iPad. We’ll show you how.
Apple’s comprehensive new health study, its largest yet, investigates how its mobile devices and other technology can improve users’ physical and mental well-being, the iPhone giant said Wednesday. The Apple Health Study, now available through the just-updated Research app, comes in collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate.
“We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of how technology can improve our understanding of human health,” said cardiologist and Harvard Medical School professor Calum MacRae, M.D., Ph.D., the study’s principal investigator. “We are excited to be part of the Apple Health Study, as it will continue to explore connections across different areas of health using technology that so many people carry with them every day.”
President Donald Trump’s recent threat to cancel the CHIPS and Science Act, which offers tax credits to companies that produce processors in the United States, could throw a monkey wrench into plans to boost U.S. chip production. Trump argues that tariffs would do the job better.
That raises questions about the future of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plants being built in Arizona thanks to the CHIPS Act. TSMC’s Arizona chip fabs already make processors for iPhone and Apple Watch.
iOS 18.3.1, iPadOS 18.3.1 and more updates went out Monday. These bring bug fixes, while a security update makes them highly recommended for anyone with a compatible iPhone or iPad.
In addition, you can download macOS Sequoia 15.3.1, watchOS 11.3.1 and visionOS 2.3.1 — each with their own fixes — now as well.
Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues feature will help you use your iPhone in the car by reducing feelings of motion sickness. With the feature turned on, dots along the edge of your iPhone screen will animate in sync with the motion of the plane, train or automobile you’re riding in.
According to Apple, “Motion sickness is commonly caused by a sensory conflict between what a person sees and what they feel.” Apple says these animations “reduce sensory conflict.”
It may sound weird, but the feature evidently works really well. Here’s how you can enable it.
The iPhone SE 4 could launch this week, bringing a significant redesign to Apple’s budget handset. It’ll reportedly mean the end of features that were iPhone hallmarks for many years, like the Home button. Plus, it’ll support Cupertino’s new collection of AI-powered features. Stay updated with the latest iOS news and what this means for iPhone SE owners by checking out this article.
Read on to learn everything that already leaked out describing the revamped fourth-generation SE.
Apple could launch its first foldable iPhone as early as 2026. With iPhone sales slowing down and smartphone competition increasing, Apple “intends” to launch the foldable iPhone next year, according to a new report.
Android foldables have yet to go mainstream, but they have improved leaps and bounds in the last few years. Apple risks falling behind its competitors if it does not launch a foldable device soon. Given the premium pricing of Apple’s devices, many are curious about the mac cost, especially for this first-generation foldable model.
To tackle your party planning, the new Apple Invites app can help you get organized with RSVPs and keep everybody up to date. It can even handle a shared music playlist and photo album that anyone can contribute to.
And yes, you can invite people who don’t have the app installed yet, don’t have an Apple Account or don’t have an Apple device at all. You can invite people via email; they can RSVP on the web and get follow-up notifications in their inbox.
Keep reading or watch our video guide — and download the app here.
Apple offers end-to-end encryption for many more types of iCloud data than it once did. Advanced Data Protection encrypts iCloud Photos, Notes, iCloud Backup and more. But you have to activate the feature to take advantage of the data protection. It is easy … once you find the switch buried in Settings.
We can save you some time. Here’s how and why you should activate it.
In the updated Notes app in iOS 18, you can transcribe audio to text for free: Your iPhone will automatically transcribe voice notes for later.
This is a great feature to use in a college class, if you want to record audio of a lecture alongside your notes. You can use it in meetings — the irritating in-person kind — for recording what people actually said alongside your notes. It’s also great for generating podcast transcripts or any kind of writing. It’s a quick and easy way to get a first draft.
Read more or watch our video guide.