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.

Asphalt 8: Airborne receives 3D Touch controls, Lamborghini Egoista, Area 51 track and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 16, 2015

Gameloft's super-popular arcade racing title, Asphalt 8: Airborne, has received a major holiday-themed update in the App Store today, bringing out tons of new content. For the first time ever, the Lamborghini Egoista makes an appearance, not just in Asphalt but in any video game for that matter. You can unlock this amazing car, as well as the exclusive McLaren 570, Mercedes SLK 5 and more, in the new racing events starting December 18.

iOS 9 now installed on 71 percent of devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 16, 2015

According to fresh new stats from Apple's App Store dashboard for developers, iOS 9 is now powering 71 percent of iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices in active use, a one-percentage point gain versus the 70 percent milestone recorded two weeks ago.

iOS 8 continues declining as a result, dropping from 22 percent two weeks ago to 21 percent of iOS hardware as of yesterday, indicating that much of iOS 9's growth in the 14-day period came from users upgrading to iOS 8 and new iPhone buyers.

How to purge iPhone memory without rebooting

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 14, 2017

As you use apps on your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, iOS dynamically manages system memory (don't confuse RAM with storage), allocating chunks of RAM to foreground and background tasks and suspending memory usage for apps that are not actively running in the background.

For the most part, iOS manages RAM efficiently to ensure that your frequently-used applications are ready for action as soon as you switch to them. But as so-called garbage collection is not available in iOS, a poorly written application might keep large portions of memory to itself and refuse to release it at iOS's request, resulting in slower performance.

You can get around this by rebooting your device, but there's a more elegant way to purge the memory taken up by apps without rebooting, as explained in this tutorial.

KGI: 3D Touch-less iPad Air 3 due in H1 2016

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 15, 2015

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared some interesting predictions for 2016 iPhones and iPads in a note sent to clients this morning, a copy of which was obtained by MacRumors.

For starters, Kuo is adamant that the third-generation iPad Air will be arriving in the first half of next year. The tablet won't be outfitted with a pressure-sensing screen due to alleged production issues related to building a 9.7-inch 3D Touch sensor array.

Procreate Pocket gains pressure painting with 3D Touch, native Apple Watch app and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 15, 2015

Procreate Pocket, an iPhone and iPod touch edition of the drawing and illustration app that started out as an iPad-exclusive, was updated this morning with a bunch of 3D Touch goodies and other enhancements.

Procreate Pocket 1.6 includes support for pressure-sensitive painting with 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The refreshed app claims double the frame rate across all supported devices and includes an all-new native Apple Watch app on watchOS 2 that improves the battery life and responsiveness.

New snoozing and attachment options go live in Readdle’s Spark email app

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 14, 2015

Just a few days after adding support for Microsoft Exchange accounts for work-related emails, Readdle's popular Spark email app for the iPhone received another major update in the App Store last evening.

Bumped to version 1.4, Spark now includes several new snoozing options and new ways to attach images and files. With customizable snooze times and related notifications, staying on top of your emails is now easier than before.

You also get a dedicated button for attaching images to an email message, the ability to chose image size to keep attachment size under control and switch between attaching actual files or sending links to files on your Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive.

WSJ: Galaxy S7 with pressure-sensing display, USB-C, iris scanner and more due in March 2016

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 14, 2015

Giving credence to prior rumors surrounding Samsung's next-generation Galaxy flagship smartphone, The Wall Street Journal on Monday said that the Galaxy S7 will launch in March of next year outfitted with a pressure-sensing screen akin to Apple's 3D Touch technology on the iPhone 6s.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the publication claims the Galaxy maker is also considering adding a retina scanner “to some versions of the flagship device,” though that feature could change.

Six 3D Touch shortcuts in iBooks for iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 2, 2017

Owners of the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus can now use Peek and Pop gestures in iBooks to speed up common tasks such as checking out their notes and bookmarks, previewing pages in search results and more.

This tutorial takes you on a quick tour of 3D Touch gestures in iBooks, including six ways applying pressure helps you interact with your fav reads.

2 ways to lower iPhone screen brightness beyond the minimum

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated October 23, 2025

Use two simple tricks to lower your iPhone’s screen brightness even further than what’s normally allowed using the brightness slider in iOS Control Center.

Poison Maps makes great use of 3D Touch gestures

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 11, 2015

Poison Maps, a cool map app in the App Store based on the OpenStreetMap database, takes a novel approach to 3D Touch gestures versus most other 3D Touch-enabled apps, which makes it uniquely useful for navigating.

On non-iPhone 6s devices, the app takes advantage of the patent-pending Context Pan gesture letting you pan large distances by using a single touch of a finger instead of the usual two-fingered pinch-zoom gesture.

On devices without 3D Touch, however, context zooming and context panning is implemented using a long touch to control how far the map zooms out, rather then using the force of the press, as shown in a video demonstration further below.

Apple pushes intrusive iPhone 6s ad to some users inside the App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 11, 2015

Twitter is on fire with reports from disgruntled users who were taken aback after witnessing a full-screen iPhone 6s ad taking over the App Store on their devices. The ad is, of course, from Apple itself and was conceived to persuade owners of pre-iPhone 6s models to upgrade to the ”ridiculously powerful” iPhone 6s.

The pop-up ad is full-screen and asks users to “Learn More,” which takes them to the iPhone 6s webpage on Apple's website, or “Upgrade Now.”

The latter option redirects users to the the Buy iPhone 6s page inside the official Apple Store app, if installed. Want to get back to what your were doing? That'll require tapping a dedicated button to dismiss the ad.

So, what's going on here?

Google Play Movies & TV gains HD and cellular streaming, AirPlay support, revamped UI & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 11, 2015

Just in time for the holiday season, Google has issued a major update to its official video streaming application in the App Store, Google Play Movies & TV, with several much-needed features and a fresh new design. For starters, you can now stream movies and TV shows rented or purchased on the Play store over your carrier's cellular data network. Moreover, the app has gained the ability to stream video in high-definition.

And if you own a third-generation Apple TV or higher, you can stream your Google Play entertainment right to the big screen with official support for Apple's AirPlay wireless media streaming technology.