| Cult of Mac

How to unlock your iPhone’s secret emoticon powers

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Send your friends these adorable text-based emoticons.
Send your friends these adorable text-based emoticons.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Emoji has sort of taken over my iMessage conversations on the iPhone lately, and I’m willing to bet you use a lot of the cute little pictures too.

What if I told you there was a hidden treasure trove of text-based emoticons that you can access in addition to your favorite emoji?

Even better — it’s easy to enable these iPhone secret emoticons. Here’s how.

App Store app acting weird? Try this quick fix

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You'll want to find these.
You'll want to find these.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Twitter user and developer Peter Steinberger shouted out to the Twitterverse when his App Store app kept showing an app that needed an update, but would never actually update, even with an iPhone restart.

He got a reply from Zachary Drayer, a mobile developer himself, on how to get the App Store to force refresh.

It’s totally nonintuitive, but utterly cool, and you can do it on your Apple Watch and iTunes app as well. Here’s what to do if you’re in the same situation.

Pro Tip: Max out your iPhone battery life with this extreme trick

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battery
This reminds me a lot of the iPhone throttling controversy.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

My iPhone 6 Plus is a battery hog. I routinely get around 12 hours off of one full charge. I carry around external battery packs to make sure I’m not short when it matters.

I’d do pretty much anything to increase the amount of battery I have left at the end of the day, including the following fairly extreme trick.

Pro Tip: Make iOS 9 keyboard all caps again

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Do we really need lowercase? No.
Do we really need lowercase? No.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bugI can’t stand the new lowercase keyboard in iOS 9. It’s a fairly useless change to begin with, as it doesn’t make anything easier.

Sure, it shows whether you’ve pressed the Shift key or not, but the new Shift key is also improved, making the lower-case option aesthetic rather than functional.

So, if you’re like me, here’s how to put that keyboard back to the way it “should” be.

How to get ready for your iOS 9 upgrade the right way

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This action plan  will ensure your iOS 9 upgrade is buttery smooth.
This action plan will ensure your iOS 9 upgrade is buttery smooth.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Whether you’re getting a new iPhone 6s or not, you’re going to want to upgrade to iOS 9 to take advantage of everything Apple’s new mobile operating system has to offer.

iOS 9 is ready to revolutionize your mobile life, but there are a few things you should do before making the leap. Here’s how to get your iPhone (or iPad) ready for its iOS 9 upgrade — the right way.