Year: 2016

Video: iPhone 7 mockups in Gold, Rose Gold and rumored Space Black

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 21, 2016

Many rumors surrounding Apple's upcoming iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus suggest a refined iPhone 6s industrial design with subdued antennal lines on the backside and the usual Gold, Rose Gold and Silver finishes, with at least one source pointing at a possible Apple Watch-like Space Black variant.

Ran Avni of YouTube channel ConceptsiPhone posted an interesting video yesterday, depicting iPhone 7 mockups in Gold, Rose Gold and Space Black to give us an idea what the handset might look like when it launches this fall.

ThinCharge for iPhone review: an extremely slim battery case with a few big caveats

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 11, 2018

A lot of manufacturers like to claim they make “thin” iPhone battery cases, but it’s really just a marketing gimmick. I’ve tried dozens of iPhone cases with built-in battery packs over the years, and despite having words like “ultra-slim” and “air” in their branding, most of them were still far too bulky to carry on a daily basis.

Enter the ThinCharge case by ChargeTech. The company sells the case as the “thinnest iPhone 6/6s battery case on the market,” and I have to say they might be right. I’ve been using the case on and off for the past several weeks, and I can confidently say that this is—by far—the thinnest iPhone battery case I’ve ever tried.

How thin are we talking? Well the case itself measures just 11mm thick. So if you consider that the iPhone 6s is 7.1mm thick, then the ThinCharge is only adding around 3.9mm of thickness, which is super impressive. Additionally, there’s no ugly chin to be found down around the Lightning port, like on most other cases.

Having said all of this, the ThinCharge is no where near perfect. I ran into multiple issues during my testing, including slow charging rates for both the case and my iPhone, as well as a finicky cover over the charging port and other annoyances. So is the thinness of the case worth these caveats? Read on for my full review.

How to check your iPhone’s numeric cellular signal strength

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated February 24, 2022

When you have an iPhone, your carrier’s signal strength can be one of the most important things that helps you decide which carrier to go with. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to enter Field Test mode on your iPhone and view the dBm (decibels per milliwatt) value rather than just the basic signal bar indicators.

How to split PDF files with the Preview app on Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated September 17, 2018

PDF files are among one of the most widely-used forms of sharing documents with others across the internet; especially considering that the idea behind this file type is to have something that is universally readable on any platform.

If you do a lot of PDF handling on your Mac, then it might not be a bad idea to become familiar with how to split a PDF file, so we'll show you how you can do that in this tutorial.

New feature in iOS 10 warns you if liquid is detected in Lightning port

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 11, 2018

It appears that Apple has added a feature in iOS 10 that can detect if there is liquid in your device's Lightning connector. As seen in the above images, posted to Reddit by u/lucioghosty, if liquid is detected, iOS 10 warns you to keep the port clear until it dries.

The alert takes up the full screen, and apparently stays until you either disconnect whatever Lightning is plugged into the port, or you tap the Ignore button. Note that tapping Ignore pops up another warning saying, "this may damage your iPhone."

This tweak fixes a big security hole in your jailbroken device’s TIFF image handling

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 20, 2016

An exploit recently uncovered in iOS versions 9.3.2 and earlier could allow a hacker to compromise the security of a device by having the user open an unsuspecting TIFF image file.

A new free jailbreak tweak called TIFF Disabler is available in Cydia right now, and in this piece, we'll discuss why all jailbreakers should install this tweak pronto.

macOS Sierra Public Beta 2 released to testers

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 20, 2016

In addition to releasing a second public beta of iOS 10, macOS Sierra Public Beta 2 is now also available to those signed on the Apple Beta Software Program.

The third beta of Sierra was seeded to Apple's registered developers two days ago, and now public beta testers can take it for a spin (public beta 2 and developer beta 3 offer the same features).

The update should appear as an over-the-air download via the Software Update mechanism through the Mac App Store's Updates tab on Macs that run the first public beta and are enrolled in Apple's program.

iOS 10 Public Beta 2 now available to testers

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 20, 2016

Two days following the developer-only release of iOS 10 beta 3, Apple today released iOS 10 Public Beta 2 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The software is now available to public beta testers who are signed on the Apple Beta Software Program.

For those wondering, iOS 10 Public Beta 2 and developer beta 3 offer the same features.

Folks on the first public beta with an appropriate configuration profile installed on their device should see an over-the-air download in Settings → General → Software Update.

Meet Swiftmoji, SwiftKey’s new emoji-predicting keyboard

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

A new emoji-predicting keyboard from Microsoft-owned SwiftKey, called Swiftmoji, launched on the App Store.

Available at no charge on the App Store, it boosts your emoji game by predicting a wall of suggested emojis based on crowdsourced data, the user's own preferences and the actual text written in any of the user's keyboards.

This ability to get perfect emoji predictions based on what you’ve just typed is similar to Apple's much-improved QuickType keyboard on iOS 10.

Popular writing app Scrivener is now available on iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 21, 2018

If you write books, manuals or lengthy manuscripts for a living, chances are you rely on Scrivener for Mac for your work. If so, you'll be delighted to learn that the app's creator, British developer Literature & Latte Ltd., has released Scrivener for iOS following a long period of thorough beta testing. The iPhone, iPad and iPod touch app costs $19.99 and provides the full range of features writers need to create, edit and update their work on the go with full-screen mode on the iPad and other perks.

Deezer music-streaming service is now available to everyone in the United States

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 20, 2016

Music-streaming service Deezer yesterday launched to everyone in the United States. The service, which has 40 million licensed tracks in its library, used to be available in the US via partnerships with Bose and Cricket Wireless, as well as Sonos. Sonos customers who paid $20 a month for Deezer Elite were able to wirelessly stream music from Deezer, but now everyone in the country can sign up for the Deezer Premium+ service on the web ($9.99 per month) or through the mobile app ($12.99 per month).