Apple wants you to know how easy Apple Pay is. Photo: Apple
To mark the release of the iPhone 8 and iOS 11, Apple has posted two new videos, reminding customers of just how easy it is to use its Apple Pay mobile payments service.
The videos focus on how to use Touch ID to make payments and how to add new payments cards. Check them out below.
iOS 11 introduces 'offloading,' a way to delete an app without deleting its data. Here's how to manually offload and reinstall any app on your iPhone or iPad Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
iOS 11 can automatically delete apps when space gets tight on your iPhone or iPad. It’s called offloading, and only the app itself gets removed.
All the app’s data is saved. That way, if you reinstall the app in the future, it will be like you never deleted it. Wouldn’t it be great if you could choose to offload apps yourself, instead of deleting them? Well, good news, because you can totally do that. Here’s how.
In iOS 10 and earlier, if you don’t like the order of your photos in an album, then tough luck. In iOS 11, though, you can rearrange photos as easily as dragging them into a new spot. It’s just like rearranging pictures in a real photo album, only without all that futzing with sticky cellophane corners.
Search and rescue teams are still looking for people trapped under collapsed buildings. Photo: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Flickr
Apple’s generous spirit and its bank account continue to keep on giving in light of another major disaster, this time in Mexico.
The company already donated millions of dollars to relief efforts for hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Now Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed that the company is sending money to Mexico to help clean up the damage done by the recent earthquake.
Beware sketchy QR codes if you’re using iOS 11. Photo: Thomas Leuthard/Flickr
QR codes are set to take off in a big way, thanks to a new feature included in iOS 11 that makes scanning the quirky-looking blocks easier than ever before.
Apple didn’t announce the feature during its WWDC 2017 keynote, but the new QR-scanning capability is among the many minor iOS 11 features that may prove to be a big deal. Even though QR codes have been around for nearly two decades, they haven’t been super-useful to regular consumers.
Bose's Quietcomfort 35 II wireless headphones are the start of a partnership with Google. Photo: Bose
Apple’s AirPods and Beats headphones are getting some fresh competition from one of the biggest audio companies in the game. And they’re getting a little help from Apple’s rival, Google.
Bose unveiled two new products today. One is its first ever foray into the world of truly wireless earbuds. The other is a pair of brand new noise-canceling headphones that are also designed to work with Google Assistant.
You can now record iPhone screen easily using the Control Center toggle. Photo: Apple
Recording your iPhone screen used to be a hassle. If you wanted to capture iOS gameplay, or make a funny or informative GIF of on-screen action, you needed to download a third-party app or connect your device to a computer.
Those days are over: With iOS 11, Apple baked in sweet functionality that lets you record your iPhone screen effortlessly. Here’s how to do it.
Notes app behaves more like a piece of paper than ever in iOS 11. Photo: Cult of Mac
Up until now, if you wanted to do fancy formatting with the iOS Notes app, you had to dust off your Mac to do it. Now, with the iOS 11 Notes update, you no longer need to boot up a desktop computer just to switch a note to a monospaced font, or add a table. You can do it all on your iPhone or iPad. And this is in addition to the great new in-line sketch features and document scanner that headline this update.
Enable settings on a per-site basis. Photo: Cult of Mac
Apple is out to “sabotage the economic model of the internet” as it protects users from shady tracking while browsing the internet, according to several organizations representing digital advertisers.
Six different digital ad and marketing trade associations recently signed and sent an open letter to Apple opposing a pending Safari update aimed at protecting how your browsing data is used.
Spotlight in iOS 11 is a power-users dream, letting you find anything -- whether on the web on on your device -- fast. Photo: Cult of Mac
Spotlight search gets a big overhaul in iOS 11. The Spotlight updates in iOS 11 don’t seem quite as spectacular as the iPad’s new Dock, or drag-and-drop, but the small tweaks make the search tool a lot more useful.
Now you can search both your iPad and the web, similar to how you conduct a search in Safari. If you ever used Launchbar, Alfred or Quicksilver on the Mac, the new iOS 11 Spotlight will feel familiar.
Angela Ahrendts at the iPhone X keynote. Photo: Apple
Apple’s boss of retail is finally getting some recognition for her large role at the world’s most powerful tech company.
In its latest rankings of the most powerful women in business, Fortune has placed Angela Ahrendts in the top 20 of influencers, raising her up one spot from last year and putting her ahead of executives at companies like Google, JP Morgan Chase, Microsoft, and Boeing.
The new Control Center is just one of many great new iOS 11 features. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Over the past two months, Cult of Mac scoured the iOS 11 betas to collect tips and tricks for Apple’s latest mobile operating system. We’ve covered everything, from the iPad’s amazing new Dock and Drag-and-Drop to the iPhone’s new lifesaving Do Not Disturb While Driving.
We’ve created this iOS 11 guide, which we will update going forward, so you can easily find links to our best iOS 11 tips and how-tos. Read on for more on the radically improved Notes app, iOS 11’s powerful new camera features and more.
These simple stick-on macro lenses turn your iPhone into a mobile microscope. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
It’s a great big old world out there, but let’s face it there are enough photos of the Eiffel Tower. Meanwhile, there’s an entire universe in every park, garden, or living room at the small scale. Unfortunately, your iPhone isn’t really equipped to photograph it.
More iPhone buyers selected a newer phone, like the iPhone 8, than when the iPhone 7 line was new. Photo: Apple
Apple has begun shipping early orders for iPhone 8, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K.
All three devices make their official debut tomorrow, September 22 — one week after they were made available to pre-order. If you haven’t already claimed yours, you’ll now have to wait at least three weeks for it to ship from the Apple online store.
There's still work to be done to perfect Apple Watch. Photo: Apple
The Apple Watch has come a long way from the first model. With each update, Apple adds important missing ingredients, like GPS, a faster processor, cellular and an altimeter.
So has Apple Watch finally reached its true potential? Cupertino certainly thinks so. Apple COO Jeff Williams described Series 3 with cellular as “the ultimate expression of Apple Watch” at last week’s special event.
But three big problems still remain (not including the cellular connectivity glitch Apple is scrambling to fix ahead of this Friday’s ship date).
Look out for the changes next month. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple has finally increased the cellular download limit for iOS apps.
Following the release of iOS 11, you can now download titles up to 150 MB in size without a Wi-Fi connection. That’s still not enough for many apps and games, but it is a step in the right direction.
Apple TV 4K may look amazing, but its sound doesn't quite match. Yet. Photo: Apple
Apple’s new Apple TV 4K set-top box doesn’t currently support Dolby Atmos surround sound, an early review reveals. However, this is something Apple plans to add in a future update.
Atmos, along with competitor DTS:X, are next generation surround sound formats, referred to in the industry as “object-based surround.” In contrast to regular surround sound, which sends specific audio tracks to different speakers, Atmos lets sound engineers place their sound “objects” in 3D space, and then makes your sound system work out how to replicate this.
Qualcomm has been battling Apple since the start of the year. Photo: Qualcomm
Qualcomm has suffered a blow in its patent royalty battle with Apple after losing two hearings.
The first hearing means that Qualcomm cannot force Apple’s manufacturing partners to make royalty payments before the total quantity of royalties are settled. The second means that it cannot stop Apple from seeking antitrust cases against Qualcomm in other countries.
Building the iPhone X hasn't been without its challenges. Photo: Apple
The iPhone X may be Apple’s most exciting iPhone refresh in years, but it’s causing the company no end of production issues. According to a new report, the iPhone X has run into more late stage manufacturing problems, causing an additional “incremental” delay for shipping.
The result? Final production on the handset hasn’t even started yet.
The App Store has undergone major renovations. Photo: Apple
Big changes have been made to the App Store with the release of iOS 11 and Apple is ready to help users get acclimated in its latest series of ads.
The company published four new videos that showcase some of the new features. iOS 11 users will immediately notice the layout of the store is completely different thanks to the new Today section that makes finding new apps easier. Some of the UI changes have taken some cues from Apple News and Apple Music.
New features in iOS 11 make it easier to avoid the dreaded "Storage Almost Full" message. Screenshot: Cult of Mac
Running out of storage space on your iPhone or iPad is a total drag. It slows down your device and can make it impossible to download files or perform other essential tasks.
With iOS 11, Apple takes some serious steps to free up space on iOS devices. Here’s a quick look at how Apple will ease the pain when iOS 11 lands this fall, with instructions for taking advantage of the new features.
iMessage gets a bunch of new space-saving features in iOS 11 beta. Photo: Cult of Mac
Maybe, if you opt for one of the new 512GB iPads, you won’t have to worry about storage space. But for everyone else, iOS 11 has you covered. Now, under a new section in settings, you can whittle down the storage used by the iMessage app, weeding out old conversations, revealing oversized attachments, and even check to see which conversations are taking up the most space.
Drawing on pictures is easier in iOS 11 Notes. Photo: Cult of Mac/Leonardo Da Vinci
The new iOS 11 Notes app is already far better than the previous version, but this one new feature might tip you over the edge. Now you can draw on pictures with your Apple Pencil, just by tapping on them.
Previously, images and sketches lived side by side, but could never meet. Now, with the power to scrawl directly onto images, you can do all kinds of things. Example: I keep a blank sheet of guitar tab notation paper in the Files app, then drag it to a note and start writing on top of my template. That’s just one use. Another might be to draw mustaches on pictures of your workmates.
The Machines is the coolest AR game you'll find on the App Store. Photo: Directive Games
The first wave of ARKit-powered apps is crashing into the App Store this week to change the way you use your iPhone.
With iOS 11, Apple has turned the iPhone and iPad into the world’s biggest augmented reality platform and some of the first offerings from developers are pretty mindblowing. You’ll need an iPhone 6s or above to take advantage of ARKit’s incredible powers, but these apps might convince you it’s worth the upgrade.
Here are 7 ARKit apps you should download right now:
The more you use it, the more you realize just how great drag-and-drop is on the iPad. Photo: Cult of Mac
Drag and drop is the headline feature of iOS 11 on the iPad, and rightly so — it changes the whole iOS paradigm, integrating a decades-old desktop feature in a way that makes it feel like drag and drop was just waiting for touchscreens to come along.
It seems like all of Apple’s own apps have gotten a dose of drag and drop in iOS 11, including Maps. Let’s take a look at it.