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iPhone

iPhone: Cult of Mac Superguide
The iPhone is the world’s most popular smartphone.

The iPhone is Apple’s smartphone. Launched in 2007, it is Apple’s best-selling product, representing around half of the company’s revenue for more than a decade.

The slim device’s innovative touchscreen interface revolutionized the way users interact with smartphones. Apple continually updates the iPhone, releasing new models with new features every year.

The iPhone runs on a proprietary operating system known as iOS, which shares many features with iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and visionOS. iOS 26 is the current version.

In 2025, the iPhone lineup currently includes five models — the budget iPhone 16e, the regular iPhone 17, the iPhone Air, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Apple announces most models every year in early September, while replacements for the 16e are expected around February. Apple also continues to offer older models for sale at a reduced price after they’ve been replaced.

Table of contents: Everything you need to know about the iPhone

  1. iPhone history
    1. Original iPhone
    2. iPhone 3G and 3GS
    3. iPhone 4
    4. iPhone 4s
    5. iPhone 5
    6. iPhone 5s and 5c
    7. iPhone 6, 6 Plus and 6s
    8. iPhone 7 and iPhone 8
    9. iPhone X
    10. iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, 11 and 11 Pro
    11. iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineup
    12. iPhone 14, 15 and 16 lineup
  2. iPhone features
    1. iPhone Camera
    2. Camera Control
    3. Dynamic Island
    4. iPhone screen
    5. StandBy
    6. iPhone storage
    7. iPhone Photos
    8. iMessage on iPhone
    9. iPhone Backup
    10. Find My iPhone
  3. iPhone Accessories
    1. MagSafe
    2. MagSafe chargers
    3. MagSafe cases
    4. MagSafe wallets
  4. Latest news

iPhone history

Original iPhone

Promotional image of the original iPhone.
The original iPhone that changed it all.

Apple unveiled the original iPhone on January 9, 2007, at Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

It was the first smartphone with an all-screen design, capacitive touchscreen and advanced modern software with full web browsing capabilities. Phones before the iPhone came with physical keyboards, required you to click around with arrow keys for navigation instead of tapping the screen, and ran limited proprietary software.

The iPhone’s 3.5-inch touchscreen display and powerful software (based on Mac OS X) set it apart from the competition. These two technologies enabled all kinds of innovation in the interface that we still use today: the Home screen of apps, inertial scrolling, slide to unlock, pinch to zoom and a software keyboard.

The original iPhone lacked many major features, though. There were no third-party apps or App Store, because the software was still being developed. That would not arrive until the following year. The camera didn’t take video, only very low-resolution pictures. Cellphone cameras in 2007 were not expected to be good. There was no copy and paste feature — the design team hadn’t figured out a good interface for it yet. iMessage wouldn’t launch for another few years — the iPhone only supported SMS/MMS texting.

iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS

iPhone 3G
The iPhone 3G was a big step forward.

The iPhone 3G in 2008 brought a much improved wireless connection. The original was limited to the 2G Edge network, with typical download speeds a measly 0.1 Mb/s. Without Wi-Fi, downloading emails or browsing the web was nigh unusably slow. The 3G radio significantly helped.

It also added GPS, offering precise location tracking in Google Maps.

The iPhone 3G switched out the two-tone design for a plastic shell, in either black or white. The headphone jack was no longer recessed, allowing for more kinds of headphones to be plugged in.

The iPhone 3GS in 2009 was the first model to get a faster processor, making it twice as fast. It also had a higher resolution 3 MP camera capable of recording video.

iPhone 4

iPhone 4 from the front, rear and side.
The iPhone 4 had a timeless and beautiful design.

The iPhone 4 in 2010 was a huge leap forward when it debuted in 2010. Its design, with glass on the front and back sandwiched around a silver stainless steel band, is one of the most iconic. It still feels very premium and nice in the hand to this day.

The Retina display doubled the resolution of the screen, so text is easier to read and images and video look crisper and higher-resolution. It maintained the same 3.5-inch size, but with pixels doubled from 480 × 320 to 960 × 640 resolution. Apple rolled out Retina displays across the rest of its product lineup, onto the iPad in 2011, the MacBook Pro in 2012 and the iMac in 2014.

It introduced the first front-facing “selfie” camera on an iPhone, and brought with it FaceTime video calling. (Although, at first, you could only FaceTime other people who had an iPhone 4.)

It also had the first Apple silicon chip, called the A4. Apple had acquired PA Semiconductor two years prior in 2008. Apple would continue to develop all of its own processors for the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch in-house, until eventually switching the Mac to Apple silicon in 2020.

This iPhone is famous for leaking before its official introduction. A prototype iPhone 4 was accidentally left in a bar by an Apple engineer. It ended up in the hands of Gizmodo, which bought it for $5,000 and published all kinds of details about its design and features.

In the United States, the iPhone 4 was the first model to be offered on Verizon, ending its exclusivity with AT&T. Interestingly, the Verizon iPhone 4 had a different physical design, with antennas repositioned around the outside. This design would be used on the iPhone 4s.

Those antenna lines on the outside were famous for causing the iPhone to lose some of its signal strength if they were covered up by your hand. Steve Jobs was called back home from his Hawaii vacation in order to hold a press conference addressing the issue. In the end, Apple offered customers a free bumper case that would cover up the lines, and future models were designed with the antenna lines in different spots that are harder to cover up.

Yet another snag would hit the iPhone 4, as the white model was delayed by ten months. Evidently, the brighter color led to light leaking into the camera sensor.

iPhone 4s

iPhone 4s
The iPhone 4s introduced us to Siri, clad in gray linen.

The iPhone 4s in 2011 was a significant internal upgrade. It again had a significantly faster chip inside, the A5. It was the first iPhone to get 4G LTE connectivity. The rear camera was also now capable of recording 1080p video, with some image stabilization.

The iPhone 4s was most famous for introducing Siri. The first generation voice assistant, then in beta, could set timers, read and send texts, play music from your library, perform math calculations via Wolfram Alpha, give information on movies and actors from Wikipedia, and more. (Not much has changed on that front.)

It was also the first iPhone not to be introduced by Steve Jobs. The keynote was hosted by CEO Tim Cook; the iPhone 4s was introduced by Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall. The iPhone 4s was announced on September 4, 2011; Jobs died the following day.

From this point onwards, new iPhones were introduced in September, with few exceptions.

iPhone 5

iPhone 5s in three colors: gold, silver and space gray.
The iPhone 5 and 5s raised the size of the screen for the first time.

The iPhone 5 in 2012 was the first model to come with a bigger screen, raising it from 3.5 inches to 4. It increased the height of the display without changing the width, making it a standard 16:9 aspect ratio. Apple marketing claimed that the new display was still easy to use with one hand, as one thumb could easily reach over to the opposite edge or up to the very top. The taller screen allowed for an extra row of icons on the Home Screen, or an extra email to display in your inbox.

The iPhone 5 came in a very dark black finish, that had a tendency to chip away as it aged.

iPhone 5s and 5c

The iPhone 5s in 2013 brought two major innovations.

Touch ID let you authenticate your iPhone using a fingerprint sensor built into its Home Button. With one simple click of the button, you could wake up your iPhone and instantly unlock it. Prior to Touch ID, many people didn’t set up their phone with a passcode. This significantly increased the security of iPhone users everywhere.

The A7 chip inside the iPhone 5s was also the first 64-bit chip in a smartphone. This gave the iPhone 5s a much longer lease on life than previous models. The iPhone 5s launched with iOS 7, but can be updated to iOS 12.5.7 — that’s five major updates. Previous models had only received three or four.

It also came in three colors: Silver, Space Gray and a new Gold.

iPhone 5c
The iPhone 5c was Apple’s most colorful iPhone yet.

After the debut of the iPhone 5s, instead of continuing the sale of the iPhone 5 at a lower cost, Apple replaced it with the iPhone 5c. It was essentially an iPhone 5, but with a colorful plastic shell instead of the similar-looking metal body.

iPhone 6, 6 Plus and 6s

iPhone 6s
The iPhone 6 had a more simple design that stayed for many years.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014 dramatically increased the size of the screen, now to 4.7 and 5.5 inches. (This was also the first time Apple debuted two models in one generation.) The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were a huge hit, as “phablets” had taken off as a category among Android phones.

The iPhone 6 was the first iPhone to have a protruding camera. While this change was wildly controversial at the time, it now seems quaint. Its single lens looks like a tiny blemish on the back compared to today’s iPhones, with gigantic multi-camera arrays.

It also adopted a more basic design, with a rounded aluminum body, that would stay for many years.

The iPhone 6s in 2015 was a large internal upgrade. The A9 chip significantly boosted performance by 70%. A second-generation Touch ID sensor was much faster. The display introduced 3D Touch — a pressure-sensitive layer that added an extra dimension to interaction. In addition to a tap, you could press. This would let you preview an email without opening it, or you could press the edge of the screen to quickly switch apps. The camera also introduced Live Photos for the first time.

iPhone 7 and 8

iPhone 7 Plus jet black
The iPhone 7 came in a brilliant Jet Black finish.

The iPhone 7 in 2016 brought with it a haptic Home Button. The button no longer physically clicked, but instead used a precisely controlled motor to simulate a button click. The iPhone 7 Plus was the first iPhone to introduce a dual-lens camera system, offering a telephoto optical 2× zoom. Portrait Mode combined the image from both lenses to simulate a shallow depth of field effect, also known as ‘bokeh.’

It also came in a special Jet Black color, with a highly polished black aluminum finish.

The oft-forgotten iPhone 8 was introduced in 2017 at the same time as the iPhone X, with many of the same internal components, but without the radical new all-screen design. It featured a similar design to the prior iPhone 7, with a rectangular screen and a Home Button, except with a glass back to support wireless charging.

iPhone X

iPhone X promotional image
The iPhone X is still a sharp, modern-looking phone.

The iPhone X in 2017 was the most dramatic redesign of the iPhone since its introduction. (Apple still pronounces the X as “ten.”)

The all-screen design abandoned the Home Button that had been present since the very beginning, along with the chunky bezels on the top and bottom. The screen reached all the way to the edge, allowing for a significantly larger screen in a phone was largely the same physical size.

Shrinking the proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, speaker and camera — along with the new Face ID sensors — led to a large notch in the top of the screen. The iPhone 13 Pro would reposition the speaker even higher, allowing the notch to shrink; the iPhone 14 Pro would replace the notch with the Dynamic Island.

The A11 chip inside the iPhone X was the first to include a Neural Engine, for better performance with machine learning-based tasks and features. The Neural Engine would later become an integral part of Apple silicon, powering Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 15 Pro and later.

iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, 11 and 11 Pro

The new iPhones X go on sale tomorrow. Are you ready?
The iPhone XS marked the return of gold.

The iPhone XS debuted on September 12, 2018. The A12 chip inside was a monumental leap forward, with a 50% faster GPU and 8× faster Neural Engine. The modern all-screen design now came in two sizes — the iPhone XS Max was the same phone, in a much larger 6.5-inch size.

The iPhone XR debuted at the same event, as a lower-cost model with a similar design. It featured a lower-resolution LCD display rather than an OLED panel, with a screen size squarely in the middle at 6.1 inches.

The iPhone 11 lineup replaced all three models on September 10, 2019. Last year’s iPhone XR was revised to become the iPhone 11, with a much-upgraded camera. The iPhone XS and XS Max became the new iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, featuring much brighter displays, a new triple-camera layout and far greater battery life.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineup

iPhone 12
The iPhone 12 was the first with 5G.

Three became four with the new iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, featuring a fresh redesign with flat edges all around. These models were the first iPhones with 5G connectivity, and introduced the MagSafe line of chargers and accessories. The entry-level models were finally bumped from an LCD display to OLED, like the Pro models.

The quadruplets carried over the following year as well, with the iPhone 13 lineup. The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max now featured always-on displays, letting you keep an eye on your notifications and the time while your phone is locked.

iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 lineup

iPhone 16 Pro colors
The iPhone 15 and 16 Pro (pictured) switched from polished stainless steel to a matte titanium frame.

The iPhone 14 lineup dropped the mini. It now consisted of the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max and an iPhone 14 Plus — a budget phone with the same screen size as the Pro Max. The iPhone 14 introduced Emergency SOS via Satellite, for contacting emergency services in remote locations. On the pro models, the notch was replaced by a new Dynamic Island — a floating black cutout in the display, that can show background tasks like timers and navigation up in the status area. The main rear camera could take 48 MP photos for the first time.

The iPhone 15 lineup switched all models away from Lightning to the industry-standard USB-C connector. The lower-end models now featured the Dynamic Island. On the iPhone 15 Pro, the traditional ring/mute switch was replaced by a customizable Action button. The pro models support Apple Intelligence.

The iPhone 16 lineup introduced a new Camera Control button for quickly opening and operating the camera. It is also pressure-sensitive for detecting half-presses and touch-sensitive for swiping along the surface. The lower-end models also received the Action button. All models support Apple Intelligence. The Pro models can now seamlessly shoot 4K 120 fps video.

An addition to the 16 lineup was released the following February, the iPhone 16e. This replaced the aging SE model. It modernizes the budget model with an edge-to-edge screen, Face ID and a single 48 MP rear camera. Reviews praised its lightweight and gorgeous design, though it was criticized for lacking MagSafe — a standard feature since 2020.

iPhone 17 lineup

iPhone Air profile
The iPhone Air is shakes up the lineup.

Apple changed things up in 2025 once again. The Plus model was discontinued in favor of an all-new model, the iPhone Air. Thin is in like it’s 2014 again. It made sacrifices on speakers, rear cameras and battery life for the sake of being just 5.6 mm thin through its body — although the camera and plateau protrude a little farther. Reviews were glowing about its stunning design.

The entry-level model got a ProMotion and always-on display, a top feature formerly exclusive to the Pro models. The Pro models themselves include a new aluminum unibody design with a larger plateau, making space for even more battery life. Reviews praised the value of the regular 17 and the unapologetic utility of the high-end model.

All 17 models received a much-needed update to the selfie camera, with a square sensor that can take both vertical and horizontal selfies, no matter how you hold the phone. The Pro models were updated with a 48 MP sensor in the telephoto lens, allowing for smooth zooming between 4–8× levels at full quality. All models were also bumped up to 256 GB of storage.

iPhone Features

iPhone camera

Desert Titanium iPhone 16 Pro
The camera dominates the back of the iPhone.

The camera is one of the iPhone’s most prominent features, with a large multi-camera system dominating the back of the phone on the pro models. Here’s a quick guide to the features of the iPhone’s camera:

Photo modes

  • Photo takes a picture. With Live Photo enabled, your phone will record a short snippet of video around the picture. You can turn Live Photos into cool animated effects.
  • Portrait mode will artificially blur the background, like a DSLR camera. This works best if there’s a lot of clear separation between your subject and the background. I also recommend using this feature outside during the day, or indoors with a lot of even light, for the best results. You can also pick a few color effects; the zoom control is moved to the corner.
  • If your phone has multiple lenses, you can tap .51, 2, 3, 4 or 5 to switch between them. You can also pinch to freely zoom in and out. Tap the Reverse button in the bottom right to switch to the front-facing camera.
  • Pano will take a panorama. Hold your phone steady (or put it on a tripod) and tap the button to start. Slowly and steadily spin your phone around in a circle to capture your surroundings.

Video modes

  • Swipe right or tap Video to record instead. In the upper right corner, you can tap to change the video resolution or frame rate. As you’re recording, hit the white button to take a picture.
  • Tap the icon of a person running to turn on Action mode. This will stabilize the video if you’re filming handheld with a lot of motion. This feature requires an iPhone 14 or newer.
  • Cinematic mode is like Portrait mode for video. It’ll intelligently determine the focus of the shot and blur the background. You can even adjust the focus after the video’s been taken. This is available on the iPhone 13 or newer.
  • Slo-Mo will record video at a much higher frame rate, played back in slow motion. In the upper right corner, you can set the speed. 120 is 4 times slower; 240 is eight times slower.
  • Time-Lapse is the opposite; it’ll speed up your video. Set your phone steady on a ledge, shelf or tripod and start recording. However long you record for, it’ll shorten the result to about twenty seconds or so.

Camera Control

Camera Control Button iPhone 16 Pro
The Camera Control button on iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro gives you instant access to your camera AND camera settings.

The Camera Control is a new button on the side of the iPhone 16 lineup. It makes opening the camera and taking a picture faster than ever before:

  • Click the button to open the Camera app.
  • Click the button again to take a picture.
  • Hold the button down to take a video.

It also has some advanced functionality, for operating the camera, that you can enable in Settings:

  • Half-click the button to bring up a control slider to zoom in and out. Swipe your finger along the button to control the zoom level.
  • Double-half-click the button to switch between other camera controls.
  • Half-click and hold the button down to lock the focus and exposure.

Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island morphs into different sorts of notifications.
The Dynamic Island morphs into different sorts of interactive widgets at the top of the screen.

The Dynamic Island is a status area at the top of the screen on the iPhone 15, iPhone 14 Pro and later models. Music or podcasts playing in the background, active phone calls, running timers, Apple Maps navigation and more will add little widgets to the Dynamic Island so you can quickly switch back to them.

  • Tap on an item to switch to that app.
  • Tap and hold on it to bring up quick interactive controls.

iPhone screen

Modern iPhones have an OLED screen, where each pixel can be individually lit. That means you get true, deep blacks and higher contrast. iPhone screens can also show HDR (High Dynamic Range) content. This brightens parts of the image for more vibrant colors.

Newer iPhones can hit a maximum typical brightness of 1,000 nits, considered bright enough to be legible outdoors, with a higher peak brightness for HDR content. The iPhone 15 and newer models can reach up to 2,000 nits outdoors, making them ideal for those bright sunny days.

The iPhone 13 Pro, later pro models and the iPhone 17 have a ProMotion display. Whereas a typical display refreshes at 60 Hz, a ProMotion display can refresh up to 120 Hz for smoother animations. It can also match the refresh rate of the content onscreen, if you’re watching a 30 FPS video or a 24 FPS movie. When nothing is moving on the screen, it can drop down to 10 FPS for preserving battery life.

The iPhone 14 Pro, subsequent pro phones and the iPhone 17 come with an always-on screen. When the phone isn’t being used, it dims the brightness of your Lock Screen, while keeping your notifications and wallpaper visible. Apple says the always-on screen only takes approximately 1% of battery life per hour.

StandBy

Standby mode in iOS 17
It turns your phone into a little smart display when you’re not using it.

StandBy is a special mode you can put your phone in while it’s sitting on your desk, nightstand or counter. To enter StandBy, your phone has to be charging and held horizontally. This works great if you have a MagSafe charging stand, but also works if your phone is plugged in and propped up.

In StandBy mode, your phone can show you the time, rotate through photos, or show a variety of widgets.

StandBy was introduced in iOS 17 on models with MagSafe.

iPhone storage

Every iPhone, just like a computer, has internal storage for saving photos, apps, messages and more. The latest iPhones come with 256 GB of storage on the base model, but can be ordered in higher capacities of 512 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB.

iPhone Photos

The new Photos app library in iOS 18
The new Photos library in iOS 18 has a floating toolbar at the bottom.

Apple Photos is the photo management app on your iPhone. Images you take on the camera, or save from the web, are added to your photo library here.

The Photos app is divided into two sections.

  • When you launch the app, you can scroll up to browse through your library. Tap the Sort & Filter button in the bottom left to view pictures sorted by date added instead of date taken, or to show screenshots in with the rest of your photos.
  • Scroll down to browse through collections and albums. You’ll see your albums, named people and pets, pinned collections, intelligently chosen collections of trips and memories and different media types and utilities. You can customize the order of these items by tapping Customize & Reorder at the bottom.

You can assign names to the people and pets in your photo library to make them easier to find. You can tap the Search button at the top to find images based on the name of the people, the location, the date and even objects inside the photo.

Photos automatically sync every night to iCloud when your iPhone is charging and connected to Wi-Fi. New photos and edits will sync across all your devices.

You can create a shared photo library with those close to you. You can each continue to have photos private to yourselves, but photos you take together can be added to the shared library automatically.

iMessage on iPhone

iMessage is a special feature that kicks in when you’re texting another person with an iPhone. Instead of texting by SMS (or RCS) using your cell carrier, it’ll send your text over iMessage.

iMessage allows for higher-quality photos and videos, text formatting, larger file attachments, stickers, SharePlay and built-in apps and games.

You can use iMessage from any iPhone, but also on a Mac, iPad, Apple Watch and Vision Pro.

iPhone Backup

iCloud+ Storage Capacity
You can sync huge amounts of data to the web with iCloud.

iCloud can seamlessly back up your iPhone every night when it’s charging and connected to Wi-Fi. This means that if you ever lose or upgrade your device, you can pick up exactly where you left off.

Turn it on in Settings, tap on your name at the top, tap iCloud and tap iCloud Backup. Make sure you enable Back Up This iPhone.

Find My iPhone

Find My lets you find a lost device. Whether it was misplaced around the house, left at a friend’s place or stolen, Find My will help you get it back.

You can launch the Find My app from any of your other Apple devices, like an iPad, Mac or Apple Watch. You can also use Find My from a Windows PC or Android device via icloud.com.

iPhone Accessories

MagSafe

MagSafe is the name for accessories, cases, stands, chargers, wallets and more that attach to your iPhone magnetically. The feature was introduced on the iPhone 12 and is compatible with all subsequent models (except the iPhone 16e).

MagSafe chargers

A MagSafe charger can charge at speeds up to 25W on the iPhone 16 and later. Most officially certified MagSafe devices charge at 15W, while other third-party “MagSafe-compatible” devices only charge at 7.5W.

MagSafe chargers typically either snap onto the back of your phone with wired cables or attach your phone to solid charging stands. You can also find MagSafe battery packs, if you want to top up your battery without dealing with a messy cable in your pocket. MagSafe car chargers let you quickly prop up your phone with navigation, while charging it up as well.

Check out our full guide on MagSafe chargers here.

MagSafe cases

A thicker case will prevent your iPhone from connecting to MagSafe, as the magnets will not be able to make a strong connection. But a MagSafe case will include the same pattern of magnets built in, so that you can keep using the same accessories.

MagSafe wallets

If you want to carry around a small handful of cards, you can carry them in a magnetically attaching MagSafe wallet.

Check out our full guide on MagSafe wallets here.

Latest news

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on iPhone:

4 daily games I love to play in Apple News+ (and one I despise)

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Graphic showing Apple News+ Puzzles with a photo of a man playing a newspaper crossword, captioned “Daily Word Games”
Get your puzzle fix right from the News app.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

The daily games hiding inside the News app are my favorite puzzles to play. Some are digital versions of classic games like crossword puzzles and sudoku. Others are entirely new.

All five games are available to all Apple News+ and Apple One Premier subscribers. Here’s how to play each of the daily word games in Apple News+ on iPhone. Check them out in this quick video.

4 ways to make your texts less boring with iMessage effects

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Image of an iMessage being sent with fireworks and a photo of a woman smiling at an iPhone, captioned “iMessage Effects”
Spruce up your texting with iMessage effects.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

iMessage effects can add extra meaning, emotion and fun to your texting. In Apple’s Messages app, you can add bolditalicsunderline and strikethrough text, just like in a formatted document. You can even choose from a bunch of cool, animated effects, including full-screen blasts of lasers, confetti and fireworks.

Apple’s text message effects can make quite an impression. You can make congratulations more bombastic (to rejoice in someone’s finest moments). Or, you can use formatting and effects to convey sarcasm, stress and sorrow more clearly.

These text effects are fun and incredibly useful. Keep reading below or watch our video.

Get started with Apple Music Classical: A simple how-to guide

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Apple Music Classical graphic, showing the browse features and a photo of The Cleveland Orchestra.
Apple Music Classical is an elegant streaming service for a more civilized age.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple Music Classical is an iPhone app specifically designed to deliver a great experience browsing and listening to instrumental music. Apple carefully curated its catalog of millions of tracks, tagging them by composer, work, movement, instrument, orchestra, artist and more.

Why does there need to be a separate app for classical music? Apple says it succinctly on its support page: Classical music “has longer and more detailed titles, multiple artists for each work, and hundreds of recordings of well-known pieces.” This app “is designed to support the complex data structure of classical music.”

This is how to discover, find, add and listen to music in Apple Music Classical.

Apple releases iOS 26.4.2, which ensures deleted messages actually disappear [Updated]

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Apple releases iOS 26.4.2 with focus on stability and security
Update your iPhone today to get rid of bugs.
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Apple on Wednesday released iOS 26.4.2 to fix a bug that allowed messages deleted by a user to remain on the iPhone.

“Notifications marked for deletion could be unexpectedly retained on the device,” Apple said in its security notes about the update. “A logging issue was addressed with improved data redaction.”

Beyond that, it seems like a minor update that focuses on various bug fixes and incremental performance improvements rather than new features. Tablet users got iPadOS 26.4.2 at the same time.

Plus, those not yet willing to make the jump to iOS 26 got their own update — iOS 18.7.8 also appeared on Wednesday, along with iPadOS 18.7.8.

How to schedule texts and send messages later on iPhone

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Image showing how to schedule a text message on iPhone with a photo of a birthday party
Never miss the customary “Happy birthday” text again.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

If you know how to schedule texts on iPhone, you can make sure you never forget to send a reminder, birthday greeting or early morning message for someone in a different time zone. You can schedule a whole slew of texts up to a week in advance, with links, photos, attachments and more, using the iPhone’s Send Later feature.

This can save your bacon if you’re the type of person who forgets to text someone later. And it’s really easy to do, once you figure out how to use the somewhat hidden feature. Watch our quick video.

Why did Apple suddenly remove a top fitness app?

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why App Store pulled Cal AI app
The popular Cal AI app violated a handful of App Store guidelines, according to Apple. It's still keeping a close eye, apparently.
Photo: Cal AI

Apple briefly removed the popular calorie-counting app Cal AI from the App Store last week. The episode offers a clear message to developers everywhere, according to a new report: The company is still very much in charge of how apps handle payments — even in the wake of a landmark court ruling that loosened some of its long-standing rules.

How to invite Android and Windows users to a FaceTime call

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FaceTime Android and Windows graphic, showing the FaceTime app on iPhone and two people on a FaceTime call with their laptop
FaceTime everyone, not just your best iPhone friends.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You can FaceTime with Android and Windows friends, too — you don’t need to leave them out of the loop. You need to jump through some extra hoops, naturally, but you can video chat with your whole family and friend group. 

While there’s no FaceTime app for Android or Windows, if you have an iPhone, you can initiate a group call by creating a link. Others can join the call from their web browser. It will be end-to-end encrypted, just like regular FaceTime calls, for maximum privacy. 

Here’s how it works. 

Save your iPhone by unlocking with an old passcode

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Forgot iPhone Passcode graphic, showing the Forgot Passcode screen and an image of a man looking at his phone confused
Apple offers an easy path forward if you forget your iPhone's new passcode.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

If you forgot your new iPhone passcode, you can reset it with your old one up to three days later. This can save you hours of trying to remember the new passcode, or worse, resetting your phone from a backup.

You just have to tap Forgot Passcode? on the Lock Screen after you enter it several incorrect times.

Keep reading for a detailed walkthrough. And don’t worry — if you change your passcode intentionally to keep someone out, you can instantly expire your old one.

Folding iPhone could include feature many assumed was off the table

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The folding iPhone Ultra could include a feature many though it would lack
The folding iPhone Ultra could include a feature many though it would lack.
AI image: Gemini/Cult of Mac

Potential folding iPhone buyers can breathe a sigh of relief. New images of cases for the device — supposedly dubbed the iPhone Ultra — show it including MagSafe. Previously, we saw no sign of this feature in leaks about the much-anticipated handset.

This could have been a deal-breaker for some buyers.

iOS 27 will finally fix a frustrating iPhone Home Screen problem

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AI-generated image of an iPhone with an iOS Home Screen with undo/redo buttons
Undo and redo buttons could simplify iPhone Home Screen edits.
AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac

Apple will bring a minor but important upgrade to the iPhone’s Home Screen customization experience in iOS 27. It will reportedly allow you to “undo” and “redo” changes to your Home Screen.

This small tweak should make rearranging apps and widgets far less frustrating, especially when you accidentally move or delete something.

Make your iPhone completely hacker-proof — with a huge downside

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iPhone Lockdown mode: Apple’s most powerful iPhone security tool
You can be confident that Lockdown Mode will keep your iPhone safe from spyware.
AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac

There’s a setting called Lockdown Mode you can activate on your iPhone that will make it virtually impossible to hack. Just by flipping a switch, you can make your iPhone incredibly secure. So secure, in fact, that Apple says no phone using Lockdown Mode has ever been hacked.

Sure sounds great. Surprise — here’s why you don’t want to use it.

How to use the iPhone’s Camera Control

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Camera Control Button graphic
The Camera Control packs in a lot of features, and they’re a little fiddly.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

The Camera Control button on the iPhone opens the Camera app, takes pictures and can even adjust camera settings on the fly. It offers a quick shortcut to using one of the most popular and important iPhone features.

By default, it’s a simple button to quickly take pictures, but there’s so much more you can do with it — if you choose. The physically clicking button also accepts touch input when you swipe your finger along it. And it utilizes pressure sensitivity and haptic feedback for you to adjust different camera settings. 

Learn how to master the iPhone’s Camera Control button in our guide below, or watch our quick video.

iPhone Game Mode explained: What it is (and how to turn it off)

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iPhone Game Mode graphic, showing a screenshot of
Game Mode comes on automatically anytime you play a game. Sometimes you don't want that to happen!
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

iPhone Game Mode enhances graphics and reduces controller latency automatically when you launch a game. This optimizes performance to make your iPhone gaming as fantastic as possible.

Game Mode also reduces the background activities and services running on your phone. Luckily, if you don’t want that to happen, you can turn off Game Mode from your iPhone’s Control Center.

Here’s everything you need to know about how Game Mode works.

iPhone users are more loyal to Apple than ever

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iPhone loyalty hits a new high
Love your iPhone? You are not alone. Very few iPhone users have any interest in switching.
AI image: Gemini/Cult of Mac

Phone users are sticking with Apple at unprecedented levels, according to a new nationwide survey, underscoring the growing strength of the company’s ecosystem and the challenges facing rivals trying to win them over.

And while Android users’ loyalty to their smartphone maker is noticeably weaker, that doesn’t mean huge numbers are switching to Apple.

5 reasons Apple’s ecosystem is almost impossible to leave

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AI-generated image of MacBook, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and AirPods, with an Apple logo and lines connecting all the devices, used to illustrate a story about why Apple's ecosystem is difficult to leave.
Can you leave Apple's ecosystem?
AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac

What makes the Apple ecosystem so alluring? Individually, the iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch might not be the best devices in their respective categories. Yet, when combined, they form one of the best ecosystems in the world.

It’s this Apple ecosystem — the so-called walled garden — that makes it almost impossible to ditch Apple devices. But what makes it so good?

Listen to gentle rain and ocean sounds while you work

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Background Sounds graphic, showing various sound options, with a photo of rain hitting a sidewalk
Chill out and silence the sounds of your environment with the sounds of rain, the ocean, a fireplace and more.
Photo: W.carter/Wikimedia Commons/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

If you’re working in an office or in the city, you’re probably inundated with noise from people chattering, cars running and nearby music. Your iPhone has a built-in feature called Background Sounds for playing rain noises or white noise to tune it all out.

Or, if you work at home and want some of that office or coffee shop ambiance, you can add some of those chatter sounds back in. You can even simulate a commute, with sounds of a bus, train, airplane or even boat.

You don’t need to download any apps or pay a cent. Background Sounds is a free feature on your iPhone, iPad and Mac. Let me show you how it works.

3 ways to give your old iPhone a performance boost

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Cartoon image of three iPhones with white beards and tennis shoes running down a track, used to illustrate a story on how to speed up again iPhones.
Simple steps can give your older iPhone better performance.
AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac

Stop me if this sounds familiar: Your old iPhone just doesn’t have the same pep it used to and you’re desperate to speed it up. Ignore the nasty iPhone conspiracy theory — the real reason for the slowdown is rooted in battery chemistry, diminishing amounts of available memory, and the evolving demands of modern iOS apps.

Fortunately, you can take steps to improve the speed of your older iPhone. Here’s what to do.

Apple-Amazon deal keeps iPhone and Apple Watch satellite features alive

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Apple-Amazon deal keeps satellite features going
As Amazon acquires Globalstar, the Amazon Leo network will meet Apple's satellite needs.
Photo: Amazon

Apple secured a new agreement with Amazon ensuring the satellite features millions of iPhone and Apple Watch users depend on — including Emergency SOS — continue to work, even as the company that currently powers them is set to be acquired, the companies said Tuesday.

“This ensures our users will continue to have access to the vital satellite features they have come to rely on, including Emergency SOS, Messages, Find My, and Roadside Assistance via satellite, so they can stay safe and connected while off the grid,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, in an Amazon press release Tuesday.

Swap your iPhone’s standard Lock Screen buttons for something more useful

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iPhone Lock Screen Buttons graphic, showing button options with a photo of a big sound switchboard
Switch the buttons for whatever you want.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You can change out your iPhone Lock Screen buttons from the standard flashlight and camera icons to whatever you want. There’s a huge selection of buttons you can swap in their place. Just about any button you can put in Control Center is a button you can put on your iPhone’s Lock Screen.

Plus, you can assign different shortcut buttons on different Lock Screens, making them context-dependent (and tied to a Focus Mode if you like). Apple offers a standard selection, but your options will vary depending on what apps you’ve installed.

Here’s how to swap out the iPhone Lock Screen buttons to put whatever you want at your beck and call.

More carmakers race to adopt iPhone car keys [Updated: Lexus is in!]

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automakers adopt iPhone car keys
Apple wants to make your iPhone into your car key, if it can keep getting automakers to cooperate.
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

Update: And just like that, now Lexus enters the fray. Reports indicate the Toyota-owned luxury brand will add support for iPhone car keys in the coming months, according to references found in Apple’s backend code. It joins many others.

From a single BMW model in 2020 to dozens of brands today, Apple Wallet’s digital car key keeps gaining momentum. Could it soon become as standard as a seat belt? It looks to be headed that way, at least — and for good reason. 

Apple’s folding iPhone might ditch expected branding

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AI-generated image of a folding iPhone concept. The rumored device might be called the
Not the iPhone Fold at all. You could be looking at the iPhone Ultra.
AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac

Surprise! Apple might not release an iPhone Fold this fall.

Wait, it’s a joke. Sort of. It’s still virtually certain that Apple will introduce a folding handset in a few months. However, it reportedly won’t be named what everyone expects. A reliable source says the real name is (drum roll) … iPhone Ultra.

Apple’s folding iPhone redesign looks stunning in new images

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Latest folding iPhone images look amazing.
The next iPhone might really nail the design of a foldable.
Image: Majin Bu

A new set of leaked images purporting to show Apple’s long-rumored folding iPhone surfaced online Sunday, offering what a tipster claims is a closer look at the device’s final design.

The camera hump has supposedly shrunk considerably. Take a look:

How to use Focus modes to wrangle all your notifications

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Graphic showing Focus Mode settings, with a photo of a woman working on a MacBook, captioned, “Focus Modes”
Keep your distractions at bay with Focus modes — easier to set up than ever now.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Focus modes are a powerful way to change how your iPhone, iPad and Mac look and feel whether you’re driving, sleeping, relaxing or working. It’s all about fully immersing yourself in whatever you’re doing.

You can change all kinds of things: from who can reach you and which apps send notifications to custom Lock Screens, Home Screens and more. The tools can totally transform how your phone looks and works based on context. You don’t need all the same apps and widgets on your Home Screen while you’re at work or yoga as you do at home. 

Setting up a Focus with rich customization makes your phone more personal. Keep reading to find out how.

Apple iPhone USB security: What that ‘Allow Accessory’ alert really means

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what iPhone 'allow accessory' alert really means
"Juice jacking" may not be much of a threat, but it's easy to avoid just in case.
Photo: Kaboompics, Pexels.com

You’re at the airport, phone battery at 8%, and a USB charging port is right there. You plug in — and your iPhone flashes an alert asking whether to allow an accessory to connect. Should you panic? Are you at risk of “juice jacking?” Probably not. But you should know what that allow-accessory message means, and how to make sure you’re charging safely.

Update your iPhone today to avoid a nasty online hack

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DarkSword targets iPhones with outdated iOS versions
DarkSword looms over iPhones that haven't been updated.
AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac

Your iPhone is at serious risk of getting hacked if you haven’t updated it recently. Apple and security researchers warn that a sophisticated hacking tool known as DarkSword can compromise iPhones through malicious websites.

The fix is easy and available for every iOS device since 2015. Plus, it doesn’t require you to install iOS 26 or put Liquid Glass on your handset.

Go do it now!