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.

Review: reclaim iPhone storage lost to Live Photos with this free app

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2015

Live Photos, one of the hallmark features of the new iPhone, is prominently featured in Apple's commercials and even jailbreakers can get it on older devices via a recently released jailbreak tweak.

The only problem with Live Photos is that they take up about two times the space of normal images. While iOS's Photos app lets you turn a Live Photo into a still photo with a few taps, the process quickly becomes cumbersome when processing multiple Live Photos.

Besides, the method doesn't really remove anything as you can revert back anytime.

A new iPhone app called Lean from developer Tiny Whale, available for free in the App Store, automates the process of cleaning up one or more unwanted Live Photos, so you end up with their normal representation which helps save storage space on your iPhone.

Read More

Astropad Mini goes free, now with pressure-sensitive drawing on iPhone 6s via 3D Touch

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2015

Astropad Mini, a cool application by former Apple engineers which turns your iPhone into a graphics tablet for the Mac, has been refreshed on the App Store today with support for 3D Touch.

The new version lets iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners apply varying degrees of pressure when drawing on the handset screen with their finger.

In addition, the app has gone free, lowering barrier to entry to zero bucks. Astropad Mini has been especially popular with artists and photographers.

Since its February 2015 debut, customers have bought more than 200,000 copies of the iPhone app. “We expect this new version with 3D Touch to be even more popular,“ developers told me via email.

Read More

Facebook bringing order to notification hell with revamped Notifications tab in mobile app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

After seemingly neglecting its outdated notification system for years, Facebook today announced a revamp and new features for the Notifications tab in its mobile application.

Hopefully, this'll help us cope with a firehouse of alerts from Facebook that we're being inundated with on any given day.

A more useful, Google Now-like Notifications tab now distinguishes clearly between Facebook's most important notification types.

Specifically, you'll see timely alerts for friends’ milestones, birthdays and life events, upcoming events that you’ve joined and sports scores and TV reminders, the latter two based on Pages you’ve liked.

Read More

New television commercials highlight iPhone 6s camera upgrades and hands-free Siri

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 25, 2015

Less than two weeks following its iPhone 6s commercial that focused on 3D Touch, Apple's begun rolling some new ads for the handset.

Adopting the dynamic and to-the-point format inaugurated by the previous ad, a trio of new commercials—titled “Crush,” “The Camera” and “Flip a Coin” and all starring actor and singer Jamie Foxx—showcase other iPhone 6s capabilities, like hands-free 'Hey Siri' and a variety of camera features.

Read More

Review: track how well you sleep at night with Sleep++ for Apple Watch

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 4, 2018

I was having high hopes ahead of the Apple Watch unveiling that detailed sleep analytics would be part of the headline feature set, based in no small part on the company's hiring efforts in that field.

As a blogger, my sleep is basically in disarray so I was keeping my fingers crossed that Apple's wearable would benefit my rest. Much to my surprise, the device arrived without specialized sleep-tracking functions.

But thanks to developer David Smith's nifty little app called Sleep++, I can now measure the duration and quality of my sleep thanks to the power of software.

Read More

How to disable Location History on Facebook to extend iPhone battery life

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Yesterday, Facebook issued an update to its main iOS client to help extend your iPhone's battery life by preventing it from playing audio silently in the background.

File the move under the 'too little, too late' drawer: if history is anything to go by, waiting for Facebook engineers to deliver a fully battery-friendly iOS app might be a fool's errand.

The biggest contributor to Facebook's infamous battery drain has got to be the app's continuous monitoring of your location, which continues after leaving the app. In this tutorial, we'll teach you how to prevent this by disabling a feature called Location History, thereby helping reclaim some of the juice lost to the battery-hogging app.

Read More

Decoding iPhone 7 chip architecture…

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 2, 2017

Apple is thought to become the first customer that will take advantage of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) InFO chip manufacturing process in building in-house designed A10 chips for 2016 iOS devices, potentially allowing it to trim some fat off the next iPhone model.

Taking a step back to take a look at the bigger picture, we analyze Apple's chip efforts thus far and make educated guesses as to what advances in terms of silicon design and integration the next iPhone might allow.

We'll also reflect on how having the foresight to take its chip destiny into its own hands more than five years ago has helped Apple differentiate itself from competition.

Read More

App Store starts experimenting with landscape screenshots and videos

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 4, 2017

Apple has seemingly begun experimenting with landscape screenshots and video in the App Store. A handful of App Store apps now offer landscape screenshots, video posters in landscape or both.

Twitter users and SplitMetrics have also noticed the change recently, which impacts the iPhone and is also showing on iTunes. Before the change, landscape App Store screenshots would show in portrait mode, requiring users to turn their head.

Read More

iPhone 6s conserves power by disabling untethered ‘Hey Siri’ when face down or in your pocket

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 23, 2015

Apple's iPhone 6s has introduced an untethered 'Hey Siri' feature which allows for always-listening functionality even when the device isn't charging, by utilizing the power-efficient M9 motion coprocessor to always listen for voice commands.

But as AppleInsider finds out, the handset automatically switches off untethered 'Hey Siri' when it's in your pocket or face down on a table.

This is another trick in Apple's arsenal of technologies to extend battery life.

Read More

Did latest Facebook update fix battery drainage?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

After publicly acknowledging that it was aware of reports which slammed its mobile application over excessive battery drain, Facebook yesterday issued an update to its App Store app which has apparently fixed the long-standing issue.

Facebook engineering manager Ari Grant took to Facebook to detail the issue and what they've done to prevent the mobile app from eating up your iPhone's battery.

Read More

iOS 9.1 enables quick-replying from notifications in WhatsApp for iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 22, 2015

At long last, iOS is allowing app makers to implement text replies in notifications, a feature Apple used to reserve exclusively for its Messages app.

Twitter was the first App Store app to gain this great time-saver of a feature. On iOS 9.1, WhatsApp for iPhone now supports a handy text field for quickly replying to incoming messages without leaving the app you're currently using.

This feature requires an iPhone with iOS 9.1 or later.

Read More