iPhone - page 9

Upcoming iOS 26 feature Apple Music Concerts solves one of music lovers’ biggest heartbreaks — finding out too late that your favorite artist already passed through your neighborhood on tour, unbeknownst to you.

The feature lets you see shows coming soon to your city, with convenient details on venues, ticketing, set lists and more. You can also look up an artist’s tour and see all their upcoming shows.

Supposedly, Apple Music Concerts will even notify you when a tour is coming nearby. The feature, available now in iOS 26.4 beta 2, hasn’t been out long enough for me to test. But if it works like the Apple Music notifications that alert you about new tracks, it could be a lifesaver.

Unfortunately, though, there’s one serious drawback. Here’s an overview of Apple Music Concerts. 

A hidden gesture on the iPhone and iPad lets you quickly select a bunch of items in a list — kind of like Command-A (⌘A) for Select All on a Mac. I use it all the time to select a bunch of emails to archive, a bunch of reminders to rearrange, a batch of files to sort, etc. 

Once you learn this two-finger swipe gesture, you’ll use it everywhere. It’s great for getting work done on the go with your phone. Watch our quick video or keep reading.

Following the success of the cosmic orange iPhone 17 Pro, Apple reportedly plans to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro in a deep red color. It will seemingly be the new flagship color for 2026 Pro iPhones. 

The company may also be testing similar hues internally.

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 Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Desktops and Displays, despite what its lengthy product name may imply, is a simple and straightforward product that does one thing remarkably well. It mounts your iPhone to a desktop display with MagSafe.

It’s straightforward to set up; it’s easy to plop your phone on and pull it off; it’s well made and feels nice in the hand. It’s great for Continuity Camera. The Belkin iPhone Mount with… no, I’m not writing all that out again. The Belkin iPhone display thing is an easy recommendation.

For the first time in 18 years, Apple redesigned the oft-overlooked Phone app. The overhaul in iOS 26 simplifies the Phone app’s layout, putting your favorites, call history and voicemails in one tab, and providing easier access to search.

Its fancy Liquid Glass-inspired layout goes hand-in-hand with the Phone app’s excellent call filtering features.

Here’s how you can learn to love the new design — and how to nope out of it if you don’t like it.

Six survivors of a deadly backcountry avalanche near Lake Tahoe in California this week communicated with emergency responders through an iPhone’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature to help ensure their rescue, according to reports. It helped safeguard their lives, though nine others were killed in the tragedy. 

The GameSir X5s is a great and affordable way to upgrade your mobile gaming. Your phone, whichever model you have, slides right in the middle, and suddenly you have console-quality physical controls. It’s lightweight, ideal for traveling, and comes with a simple plastic travel case. 

It even works with the Nintendo Switch — its ergonomic grips are far more comfortable than the flat Joy-Cons. There’s also a matching accessory, the FX5 cooler, that adds active cooling to your iPhone. It’s great for high-performance pro gaming over long periods of time. 

All in all, the GameSir X5s is a great way to take mobile gaming to the next level, whether you’re playing full 3D games or 40-year-old ROMs in Delta. 

Accidentally texting the wrong person can bring disastrous consequences, and yet it’s incredibly simple to mix up threads. Luckily, iOS 26 offers a great way to keep things straight: You can add specific backgrounds to various Messages conversations on your iPhone so you can easily tell them apart.

For instance, if you set a shimmery blue background for your group chat with co-workers, you’ll never confuse that conversation for a sensitive one-on-one text with your closest colleague. You’ll never accidentally send a message to your boss meant for your partner if the chats look obviously different.

Setting up an iPhone Messages background is super-easy — here’s how it works.

Apple released its own figures showing that iOS 26 adoption tracks closely with previous releases, countering claims that this latest update is seeing an unusual slowdown.

iOS 26 has seen an unusual amount of criticism on social media, but it’s not stopping people from installing the new version.

Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about connection. But every year, candlelit dinners across the country glow less from romance and more from the light of an iPhone screen. There’s even a word for it: “phubbing” — snubbing someone in favor of your phone.

If there’s one night when iPhone users absolutely must resist the reflex to check notifications or Instagram, it’s February 14.

Apple News gives you a streamlined way to keep up with current events. It’s a sane, if somewhat generic-looking, way to stay on top of the news that matters to you. If you want more, Apple News+ offers paywall-free access to major publications, local news and magazines. And to sweeten the deal, it has fun daily puzzles, excellent recipes and audio stories.

Admittedly, not a lot of people pay for Apple News+ on its own. It’s hardly a fan favorite. But if you have the Apple One Premier bundle, you can enjoy all of its hidden benefits — here’s how to make the most of it. Keep reading or watch our quick video. 

The Messages app gains flashy new features in iOS 26 that make group chats far more fun and efficient. It also filters out spam texts, translates conversations and more.

As the iPhone’s default messaging app, Messages is one of Apple’s darlings. The app gains new features with every major update, but iOS 26 stands out as one of the best in years. Here’s how all the new Messages features work — keep reading or watch our quick video.

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:

• A new leak offers more info on the upcoming foldable iPhone. And another new leak indicates Apple might make a different style of folding phone, too. Do we really need such things?
• Apple updates some ancient iPhones, pretty much laying waste to the Cupertino conspiracy theory about forced obsolescence.
• And finally, Griffin shows an iPhone tip that could prove lifesaving for some — and definitely will prove useful for many.

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.