iOS 16 - page 3

Get the latest OS updates to fix pesky iPhone and Apple Watch bugs

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Get the latest OS updates to fix pesky iPhone and Apple Watch bugs
Install iOS 16.0.3 now to remove some irritating bugs.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple released iOS 16.0.3 and watchOS 9.0.2 on Monday to remove a range of small bugs. Many of these affect the new iPhone 14 series and Apple Watch models.

Both updates are recommended for those with Apple’s latest handsets and wearables, as well as who’ve already installed iOS 16 and watchOS 9.

iOS 16 causes bugs in third-party apps posting pictures, logging in and more

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Updates is here for your iPhone bugs
iOS 16 brought new bugs to many third-party applications.
Photo: Cult of Mac/Egor Kamelev/Pexels

When a new iOS version launches, it’s easy to concentrate on its bugs and forget the problems it causes for third-party iPhone software. An analysis of user reviews made in the weeks since iOS 16 debuted found that social networking apps and dating apps are more likely to have issues on iPhones running Apple’s latest OS.

So if you’re suddenly having problems with a frequently used app, you might not be alone.

How to use Live Captions to get subtitles for absolutely anything in iOS 16

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Live Captions will let you read a podcast! …kinda.
Live Captions are great! You’ can watch videos wherever you are, in places where you can’t be loud and you don’t have headphones, like late at night in bed or on the train. At least, you will once it works.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Live Captions, in iOS 16, generate subtitles of any audio playing in any app on your iPhone. Powered by the Neural Engine in Apple’s custom silicon, the capability to turn words from music and/or videos into real-time text is a boon to many users, in many different situations.

If you’re hard of hearing, for instance, the ability to see instant captions on the screen is a game changer. Or, if you don’t have headphones when you’re sitting in bed late at night and your partner is asleep – or you’re in any situation where you don’t want to make noise, like on the bus or in an office – you can turn on Live Captions to get subtitles.

The applications are endless and exciting. Here’s how to use Live Captions in iOS 16.

iOS 16.1 beta 3: All the new features and changes

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iOS 16.1 beta begins testing new iPhone features
The first iOS 16.1 betas packed several new features and changes, and now beta 3 includes even more.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple continues its testing of iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16 with a new beta release. The new builds come a week after the latest beta.

The third iOS 16.1 beta and fourth iPadOS 16.1 beta bring some major changes, including opening up Stage Manager to 2018 and 2020 iPad Pros. Below is a look at everything new and changed in iOS 16.1 beta 3 and iPadOS 16.1 beta 4.

How to use iPhone’s Lockdown Mode in iOS 16

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Lockdown Mode is extremely useful for the select few who actually need it.
Lockdown Mode is extremely useful for the select few who actually need it and frivolous for ordinary people like me.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Lockdown Mode is a new option in iOS 16 that limits system features for maximum security. Apple designed it to protect its products from sophisticated spyware, like NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, which has been used to target journalists, politicians, dissidents and activists around the world.

Spyware like Pegasus may seem like an unlikely threat. But for some, Lockdown Mode could be life or death. U.S. citizens need not worry at the moment, but it doesn’t take a wild imagination to picture how such spyware might be embraced by slightly more fascist administrations.

Right now, Lockdown Mode is meant for high-profile activists and journalists. And I mean real journalists — the kind who expose state secrets — not bloggers like me. Read on to find out how to enable Lockdown Mode and how it affects your device’s functionality.

Apple takes another stab at perfecting iPhone battery icon

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iOS 16.1 Battery Icon
Check out the new hybrid iPhone battery icon in iOS 16.1.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The second iOS 16.1 beta released Tuesday gives users the option to show their iPhone’s remaining battery life in the status bar as a number and as a graphic at the same time.

This is a combination of the two previous options.

How to turn off iPhone 14 Pro’s Always-On display

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iPhone 14 Pro includes an always-on display.
Find the iPhone 14 Pro's Always-On display annoying? Time to turn it off!
Photo: Apple

Always-On display is a key new feature of the iPhone 14 Pro series. To ensure the feature does not consume a lot of battery power, Apple even added a dedicated co-processor to the A16 Bionic chip that powers the smartphone.

The Always-On display comes enabled by default on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, which many users might find annoying. It apparently looks a bit too bright for some folks. It makes your iPhone battery drain more quickly. And some folks just don’t like the new functionality because it makes them think they’ve got a new notification, even when they don’t.

If you find yourself in the same boat, here’s how you can disable Always-On display on your new iPhone 14 Pro.

iOS 16’s haptic keyboard is bloomin’ great: Here’s how to turn it on

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Turn on the clicky keyboard
Get keyboard clicks on your iPhone with iOS 16.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Studies show that haptic feedback improves touchscreen typing speed and input accuracy, and at last Apple has added it to iOS 16.

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 haptic textures — Apple created a perfectly convincing effect to enable the haptic keyboard 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 early this summer on the iOS 16 beta, and every time I held my wife’s phone on iOS 15, it felt broken. You can’t go back once you turn it on — it’s that great.

Read on to see where to enable it.

How to follow your favorite sports teams with My Sports in Apple News

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Follow the team in Apple News
Follow teams to get scores, schedules and news, all in Apple News.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

New in iOS 16 is the ability to follow your favorite sporting pastime with My Sports. It allows you to get the latest scores, read coverage from newspapers and magazines, see scheduled games and watch highlights.

It works across multiple apps, including Apple News, Apple TV and others. You can follow teams from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NWSL, WNBA and MLS. It also includes college football and basketball. Here’s how to set it up.

Hidden iOS 16 features make us love it even more [The CultCast]

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Hidden iOS 16 features make us love it even more - The CultCast Apple podcast
The iOS 16 upgrade makes even old iPhones feel brand new.
Image: Cult of Mac

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: iOS 16 makes our year-old iPhones feel fresh again. And the various “hidden” features flying under the radar make the iOS 16 experience even more impressive.

Also on The CultCast:

  • We can’t wait for our first trip to the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island.
  • Is the iPhone 14/iPhone 14 Plus really a failure? (Even Steve Jobs’ daughter is dissing this year’s “upgrade” to Apple’s midrange iPhones.)
  • What to expect at Apple’s October event.

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.

Our sponsor: CultCloth

Get the only cleaning cloth you need: CultCloth!

How to remove the Search button from your iPhone’s Home Screen

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Turn off that Search button on the Home Screen.
Clean up your Home Screen and turn off the Search button.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

iOS 16 brings a lot of exciting changes, but no one seems to like the new Search button on the Home Screen.

It can clutter your aesthetic theme, it’s easy to press accidentally, and it’s not any faster than using the swipe-down gesture for search. Luckily, it’s possible to turn it off — read on to see how.

Read this before installing the iOS 16.1 beta if you plan to get an iPhone 14 ASAP

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iOS 16.1
You might want to avoid the iOS 16.1 beta for a bit.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple seeded iOS 16.1 to developers on Wednesday and could give the general public access on Thursday. But you should think twice about installing it if you intend to get an iPhone 14 as soon as it’s released.

It’s likely the new handset will launch running an earlier version of iOS, which might cause you difficulties.

How to edit and unsend messages in iOS 16

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Edit messages, undo send and mark messages as unread in iOS 16.
Edit messages, undo send and mark messages as unread in iOS 16.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Have you ever wanted to edit and unsend messages in iOS? Like when you texted your mom “Finally got laid today” when you meant to say “paid.”

Thankfully, with iOS 16 and Apple’s other upcoming OS upgrades, you can edit and unsend iMessages. Let me show you how this feature works.

iOS 16.1 beta begins testing new iPhone features

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iOS 16.1 beta begins testing new iPhone features
iOS 16.1 beta 1 is out for developers to test.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple seeded the first beta of iOS 16.1 to developers on Wednesday. This signals the start of testing for some iPhone features Apple already announced but didn’t debut in iOS 16.

This includes Clean Energy Charging. And there’s good news for some iPhones that couldn’t display battery percentage in the Status Bar.

How to get the battery percentage back on iPhone

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Get your battery percentage numbers back in the status bar!
Get your battery percentage numbers back in the status bar!
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Being able to see your phone’s battery percentage right in the status bar is incredibly useful — but Apple killed it five years ago. Until today that is, with iOS 16.

You can, once again, get the battery percentage in the status bar for the first time since 2017.

You can soon charge your iPhone using clean energy

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Clean Energy Charging feature in iOS 16: You can soon charge your iPhone using clean energy
The new Clean Energy Charging feature in iOS 16 could help ease the strain on power grids.
Photo: Appolinary Kalashnikova/Unsplash License/Modified by Cult of Mac

iPhones will gain a new Clean Energy Charging option later this year as a part of an iOS 16 update, Apple said Monday.

The first-of-its-kind feature will strategically time when iPhones charge, using cleaner energy and thus reducing the devices’ carbon footprint.

How to plan multi-stop routes in Apple Maps

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Apple finally got there.
Get directions to three or four places at once — and get directions to dinner along the way in iOS 16.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple Maps had a rough start upon launch in 2012, but ten years of incremental improvements have changed the tides. Apple Maps is now a feature-rich service that is praised for its detail and accuracy. Not only is it a highly detailed portrayal of the world, its advanced navigation features make it easy to get around. Its public transit integration was a life saver when I was in California for WWDC just months ago.

Apple Maps gets an often-requested feature fulfilled this fall: true multi-stop routing and navigation features. You can plan three, four, fifteen stops of a journey if you want. Here’s how it works.

iOS 16 does not kill older iPhone performance or battery life

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iPhone 8 Wireless Charging
Don't listen to the doomsayers – tests show iOS 16 makes iPhone 8 run faster.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Benchmark tests show that models as old as iPhone 8 run nearly as fast on the just-released iOS 16 as they did on iOS 15. Some devices even see a performance increase after the upgrade, while others see very moderate slips.

These tests refute the mistaken claims that iOS updates turn older iPhones into slugs. And some Apple handsets even get a considerable increase in battery life from iOS 16.

No need to wait: How to install iOS 16 now

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No need to wait: How to install iOS 16 now
Here's how you can install the final version of iOS 16 on your iPhone today.
Image: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

iOS 16 will go out to iPhones everywhere on September 12, but you don’t have to wait. It’s possible to go ahead and install the final version this weekend when you have time to tinker with it.

And doing so doesn’t require doing anything dodgy or risky. You’ll be getting the upgrade straight from Apple… just a little earlier than scheduled.

Update: This suggestion is now moot because iOS 16 is out.

This is when you can get iOS 16 and watchOS 9

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Apple makes a multitude of changes with iOS 16.
After months of beta testing, iOS 16 is finally coming to your iPhone.
Photo: Apple

After months of beta testing, Apple on Wednesday confirmed September 12, 2022, as the final release date for iOS 16 and watchOS 9. The upcoming releases will add several new features to iPhone and Apple Watch.