iPhone

Stay up-to-date on the latest iPhone news and learn new tips and tricks with our comprehensive tutorials. From software updates to new features, we’ve got you covered.

Tip: use 3D Touch to export PDFs on your iPhone

iOS includes a Share sheet action for saving PDFs to iBooks. This is great for, say, turning a webpage or other document into a PDF form with one notable complaint—not everyone wants to read PDFs in the Books app.

As it turns out, you can export a PDF to any app on your device with 3D Touch right from iOS's Print Preview screen. This is an extremely convenient feature, but it's unfortunate that it requires 3D Touch so owners of previous-generation and older iPhones cannot take advantage of it.

iOS 9.3 lets your boss lock apps to the Home screen and impose other restrictions

Apple's upcoming iOS 9.3 software update will allow employers to lock apps to the Home screen of company-issued devices, preventing them from being moved around, as first discovered by Irish developer Steven Troughton-Smith.

Buried within Apple's documentation for developers, the Home Screen Layout Payload, which defines a layout of apps, folders and web clips for the Home screen, is supported on iOS 9.3 and later.

Rumor: iPhone 7 has a thinner Lightning port, flush camera and stereo speakers

The fairly reliable Japanese blog Mac Otakara today shared some new details pertaining to Apple's iPhone 7 refresh, which we're expecting around its usual September timeframe.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Mac Otakara says that the next iPhone will be 1mm thinner than the current iPhone 6s, which measures 7.1mm in depth, making the new phone the same 6.1mm thickness as the sixth-generation iPod touch.

Somewhat surprisingly, the iPhone 7 won't be waterproof after all and should also incorporate a thinner Lightning port. The camera bulge on the back will be gone because the phone's iSight camera is now flush with the chassis. Oh, and the new iPhone will come outfitted with stereo speakers—for the first time in iPhone history.

Get directions to home and work with 3D Touch and Google Maps

As part of yesterday's update to Google's iPhone and iPad mapping application in the App Store which brought pit stops to navigation mode, the refreshed software has replicated one of my favorite 3D Touch features found on Apple Maps: the ability to get directions to home and work right from the Home screen.

In the new Google Maps 4.16 for iOS, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners can press the app's Home screen icon to bring up the shortcut menu with two useful Quick Actions: Directions to Work and Directions to Home.

GoPro is buying powerful iPhone video-editing apps Replay and Splice

GoPro, an American manufacturer of action cameras that are popular in extreme-action videography, has acquired two mobile video editing apps, Replay and Splice.

In a media release yesterday, GoPro said that merging these apps into its mobile strategy will help them deliver powerful mobile editing solutions to GoPro customers “and billions of smartphone users,” indicating the apps will continue to be available in the App Store.

In fact, both apps will be coming to Android later this year, said GoPro.

Apple patents hybrid wireless/wired earbuds for iPhone that are magnetically detachable

The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) on Tuesday awarded Apple a patent for magnetically detachable earbuds for an iPhone that could work in both wired and wireless mode. The invention is of particular interest in light of the rumor that the next iPhone will ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of Lightning-enabled and wireless Bluetooth headphones.

The proposed device would use two cables, one to connect the headphones together in wireless mode (like the connecting cable found on the Beats Solo2 wireless headphones) and the other to connect the headphones to a host device in wired mode.

Dual-lens iPhone 7 to be called iPhone 7 Pro?

My Drivers, a Chinese website that covers IT industry, is reporting today that Apple's next smartphone refresh will come with a tweaked naming scheme. A high-end iPhone 7 Plus model with dual cameras will be reportedly getting a 'Pro' moniker in order to better distinguish itself from the regular iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models.

Apple's product naming scheme is currently all over the place.

The upcoming four-inch iPhone, for example, is said to be marketed as 'iPhone SE,' marking the first iPhone upgrade without a number in its name. And, of course, we now have the iPad Pro, in addition to the iPad Air and iPad mini lineups.

Purported iPhone 7 frame has leaked, but it’s 5.2 inches and has a hole for the headphone jack

A batch of images have been leaked on the web by an Apple supplier, potentially giving us a look at a purported chassis for Apple's upcoming iPhone 7.

Published by French blog NowhereElse.fr, which does due diligence before posting part leaks, the photos show what looks like a Unibody frame handled by a factory worker, resembling Apple's design style for the iPhone 6/6s series.

Reality checks, however, lead us to the conclusion that this likely is not a genuine iPhone 7 part, but a frame belonging to another handset.

Extensify soft launches, lets you install ‘tweaks’ without a jailbreak

Last August, we showed you a really cool project known as Extensify, which is a third-party extension store that allows you to install 'tweaks' for App Store apps on your device without a jailbreak.

Created by iOS developers Majd Alfhaily and Kevin Ko, who are both well-known in the jailbreak community, this extension store works on iOS 9 devices and is side-loaded through Safari.

As of Monday, you can now apply to be a part of the app's soft-launch program via the Extensify website.

How a journalist convinced Jobs to bring iTunes to PCs and other tidbits from Tony Fadell interview

It was The Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, one of Steve Jobs's favorite reviewers, of all people who has finally managed to persuade then Apple CEO to expand the addressable market for iPods by bringing iTunes to Windows PCs.

Jobs, Nest founder Tony Fadell and then Apple executive charged with iPod and iPhone development recalls, long insisted that the iPod be used as a vehicle to increase Mac sales. “Steve, the iPod is $399. But really it’s not. Because you have to buy a Mac!” We had to give people a taste,” Fadell recalls telling Jobs, to no avail.

He eventually relented and agreed that Apple should bring iTunes to Windows, under one condition: the software was to be tested by journalist Walt Mossberg. “We’re going to build these and run it by Mossberg,” Jobs reportedly said. “And if Mossberg says it’s good enough to ship, then we’ll ship it.”

Walt reportedly said, “Not bad. I’d ship it,” and the rest is history.

Here’s what Apple’s chief lawyer will tell Congress tomorrow regarding FBI’s controversial request

As you know, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has obtained a court order demanding that Apple produce a special version of iOS with decreased security to help government spooks brute-force their way into an iPhone 5c which belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook.

Following the interview that Apple CEO Tim Cook gave to ABC News, in which he said that the government is asking for “the software equivalent of cancer,” Apple's Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Bruce Sewell, will testify before the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow.

Here's his opening statement in which he challenges the government's request and argues that the FBI should have no say over the products American companies create.