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.
For years, the only way you would’ve had a haptic keyboard on your iPhone is if you jailbroke your device. Fortunately, it seems as through the days of yore are over.
A new third-party keyboard just launched in the App Store that appears to be capable of providing satisfying haptic feedback as you type on your iPhone.
This week's edition of our Apps of the Week roundup includes a not-so-smart food identifying app, a personal shopper that is an expert at helping you pick out gifts, and a journaling app aimed at helping you improve your mood. And as usual, we have two great new games for you to check out this weekend.
Not HotdogIf you're a fan of HBO's TV series Silicon Valley, you probably already know what this is. In last week's episode, budding entrepreneur Jian-Yang demonstrated an app called Seefood, which was supposed to be able to identify different foods using your phone's camera. Instead, all it was able to do was differentiate between hot dogs and non-hotdog items—thus, Not Hotdog was born. That's literally all the app does, but I got a little kick out of taking pictures of random things and sharing them with friends using the 'Not hotdog' caption. And you could too. Not Hotdog is available for free.
GiftHeadHere's a not-so-new app that you may not have known about. It's called GiftHead and it just received a huge update with a major redesign and support for 500 new stores. The app works like this: tell it who you're shopping for, what the occasion is and your preferred price range. Then pick a gift from the curated list of suggestions, and the app will point you to the right store. Rather shop online? The app can do that too. Other features include sale alerts, wish lists and gift reminders, so you'll never miss a birthday or anniversary again. GiftHead is available for free.
StigmaStigma is another not-so-new app that could be useful for folks that don't know about it. It's described as a "mental health" app, with a built-in journal, mood calendar, reminders and a word cloud that allows you to see the types of words you're using most in your journal entries. There's also a support network aspect, with PenPals (supportive peers), Support Groups, and a community you can share your journal entries with. Now the app itself is free, but there is a Pro service that starts at $2.99 per month with premium features like advanced analytics and longer journal entries. Stigma is available for free.
Old Man's JourneyOld Man’s Journey is a soul-searching puzzle adventure game about life’s precious moments, broken dreams, and changed plans. Immerse yourself in a visual narrative as you uncover stories of the old man’s life told through beautiful vignettes of his memories. Interact with the serene, whimsical environment as you solve playful puzzles and shape the landscape around you, growing the hills to create the old man’s path forward. Note that this game has won a ton of awards for its visuals and storytelling, but some of the iTunes reviews complain that the puzzles are too easy and the game is too short. We still think this is worth checking out. Old Man's Journey is available for $4.99.
Timber TennisFrom the makers of the hit Timberman comes Timber Tennis, essentially a unique take on the game Pong with a lumberjack twist. Take part in the annual Timber Tennis World Championship—beat all your old rivals by upgrading your skills, using super-shots and staying clear of other players' specials. Unlock a slew of characters and balls, and compete in local multiplayer against your friends. Note that this is a freemium title, with an in-app purchase to remove ads, and some of the early reviews complain that the ads are super intrusive. Even so, if this game is half as addictive as Timberman, it's worth checking out. Timber Tennis is available for free.
More apps to check out Microsoft refreshes OneNote apps with new design and accessibility features Apple’s free app of the week: Eggggg – The Platform Puker Things 3 is out with overhauled interface and multiple new features Hey Siri, make some room for Google Assistant on my iPhone Gmail for iOS now uses machine learning to provide smart replies Todoist gains 2-way Google Calendar integration, Dynamic Type support & more Instagram rolls out selfie filters, rewind option for videos, hashtag sticker & eraser brush
One of the pet peeves I’ve always had as an iOS user is that when I clear notifications from Notification Center, the badges remain on the Home screen app icons, requiring me to manually dismiss the badges after I already went through the process to dismiss the notification in Notification Center.
A new free jailbreak tweak dubbed Pigeon by iOS developer ridn eliminates this tedious problem by automatically updating the icon badge number after you cleared notifications via Notification Center.
If you like adding personalization on your jailbroken device, then sometimes it’s the simple things that stand out the most. Subtly changing UI colors so they don’t overpower the whole interface or user experience is just one example of this concept.
A new free jailbreak tweak called Tinc by iOS developer ridn lets you tint the interfaces of Notification Center and/or Control Center in iOS any color you like, and is a testament too subtle customization.
If you ever listen to radio apps or random playlists that you didn’t create, then you’re probably familiar with how it feels when you can’t quite figure out what’s playing; a real buzzkill when you like the beat and want to save the song for later.
A new free jailbreak tweak dubbed Hypeman by iOS developer ridn can help in this regard, as it keeps you in the loop with song information every time the Now Playing track changes.
Banner notifications throughout iOS 10 are bland, lacking any visual appeal whatsoever. On the other hand, a new free jailbreak tweak dubbed Cheader by iOS developer ridn aims to fix that.
Once installed, Cheader automatically colorizes your notification banners based on the dominant color found in the icon of the app that delivered the notification.
Apple on Friday added four new video tutorials to the “How to shoot on iPhone 7” series on its YouTube channel. The four new videos were designed to teach customers how to shoot with zoom on their iPhone 7 Plus, convert their photographs to black & white, as well as take a one-handed selfie and edit it on the phone.
How to shoot with zoom on iPhone 7 Plus“Get closer with 2x optical zoom. Or use digital zoom to get up to 10x closer,” says Apple.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsaA1s7oCKA
If you tend to use the zoom feature while shooting video on your iPhone 7 Plus, it may be a good idea to disable the automatic lens switching feature in camera settings to avoid any glitches that may occur when zooming in and out during video capture.
How to convert to black & white on iPhone 7https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQoEsUJpy_Q “The right filter and a bit of experimenting with light levels give you a dramatic black-and-white image,” says Apple.
How to shoot a one-handed selfie on iPhone 7https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4miX5CNATEI
“The quick-draw selfie in three easy steps.”
How to edit a selfie on iPhone 7https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUxahFzjGS4
“Use cropping and auto-enhance to create an even better selfie for sharing,” says Apple.
If you'd like, feel free to explore additional photography tips and techniques at Apple's website.
The clips join Apple's seven video tutorials on using iPhone 7's camera, published last week.
Our own iPhone Photography series is a valuable resource of free tips, tricks and advanced photography techniques, whether you are an experienced photographer or a beginner.
iPhones have come equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology since the iPhone 6 launched in 2014. NFC's primary use in the iPhone is for Apple Pay and allows contactless payments via supported merchants at the point of sale.
On the other hand, well-known jailbreak developer Elias Limneos was tinkering with iPhone NFC on his spare time and managed to hack it to work in ways that are typically locked off by Apple out of the box.
Software maker Microsoft on Friday rolled out new versions of its note-taking apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, Android, Windows 10 and the web. OneNote's interface has been tidied up and navigation improved in the latest release.
The app now includes new assistive features to help users with disabilities.
OneNote's revamped interface makes organizing your notes easier than before with an improved layout. You'll notice that the reworked interface puts your content front and center, with all of the notebooks, sections and pages moved to columns on the left side of the app.
This allows for efficient organization of your notebooks.
The company celebrated the redesigned OneNote launch with the following video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmGVp76WyIU
The newly implemented accessibility features, available across iOS and macOS, let people with various disabilities efficiently navigate the app with screen readers, improved keyboard shortcuts and other assistive technologies.
And with the left-hand navigation controls, screen readers can easily navigate through the app.
OneNote is now available with a consistent experience across devices: with this update, says Microsoft, your experience will be the same regardless of what device you happen to be using.
The new redesign for OneNote is rolling out for Windows 10, Mac, iOS, Android and on the web over the coming weeks so check back later if it's not live yet.
OneNote for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch is available free on App Store.
OneNote for Mac is available free on Mac App Store.
Apple is paying between $7 and $9 per unit for iPhone 7's 3D Touch components, but that price is expected to triple for the firm's rumored OLED-based iPhone 8 model to between $18 and $22.
The 150 percent price increase, according to a report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News cited by DigiTimes, stems from the fact that pressure sensors for OLED displays require a separate protective glass bonding on both the front and rear of the display panel.
“Due to the additional bonding of glass covers, overall processing cost for OLED-based 3D Touch solution is about 50 percent higher than that for the LCD-based one but the quotes for the client is about 150 percent higher,” reads the report.
Taiwanese touch panel makers TPK Holdings and General Interface Solution act as suppliers of 3D Touch parts for existing LCD-based iPhones. Both TPK and General Interface Solution should be the sole suppliers of iPhone 8's enhanced 3D Touch components as well.
Apple has accepted the price increase, according to Economic Daily News.
iPhone 7's 3D Touch module, as mentioned before, directly bonds pressure sensors on the LCD display panel. For OLED display technology, TPK's 3D Touch solution entails bonding of a glass cover on the front and back side of an OLED panel each “to reinforce the fragile panel.”
TPK has reportedly passed certification for its OLED-based 3D Touch solution for iPhone 8. The company now expects to obtain significant orders from Apple.
Control Center is one of the most useful interfaces you can use in iOS, as it provides you with quick access to toggles, shortcuts, and music playback options from anywhere.
If you ever find yourself using a specific Control Center card more frequently than the other and prefer the interface wouldn't remember the card you used last, then you’d probably like a new free jailbreak tweak called PresentPage by iOS developer Cole Cabral.
German developer Cultured Code on Thursday released Things 3, a major new iteration of its powerful personal task manager for iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac. Things 3 brings out a beautiful timeless new design with delightful interactions and animations. Aside from the new look and feel, the refreshed app is packed to the gills with a host of new features.
Released as three separate apps (they've kept the current pricing), Things 3 is Cultured Code's first paid update for existing users since versions 1.0.
Here's what developers had to say about the app's gorgeous new UI:
The all-new Things comes with an all-new design. It's not just how it looks—but also how it works, and how it feels. The interactions are delightful. The animations are smooth. The content is more structured. The concepts are clearer.
Open a to-do and you'll immediately get a sense of how the new apps feel.
Nicely animated transitions expand the selected to-do into an empty white piece of paper. You can add additional details to your to-do, neatly tucked away in the corner until you need them.
“There are no distractions here, it’s just you and your thoughts,” said developers.
The choice is yours: you can create either a simple to-do that looks like text on a piece of paper or opt for a richer to-do which may include additional details such as tags, checklists (a new feature for to-dos in Things 3), a start date, a deadline and so forth.
Speaking of to-dos, Things 3 introduces an all-new Magic Plus Button.
Found in the corner of the screen, you can tap it to quickly add a new to-do or actually drag the button to a particular list in order to generate a to-do in a specific location. Plus, managing to-dos is now way easier than before with expanded support for gestures, like dragging and dropping, swiping, tapping to expand and more.
Seasoned Things users will be delighted to know that developers have implemented one of the most-requested features: time-based reminders. For those to-dos you absolutely cannot miss, adding a reminder will give you peace of mind.
While scheduling a to-do in Jump Start, click Add Reminder and set the time. There are three ways to set the time: manually, using the app's natural language parser (just type “Wed 8pm” or some such, and you're all set) or you can speak to Siri (“Remind me to call Seb at 5am.”)
Watch the promotional video for Things 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R6o5t0VK_A
Things 3 now supports headings to break up complex projects into sections.
And with the app's Magic Plus Button, you can create and place headings in new projects like a pro. The app's cleaner design extends to your Today and Upcoming sections which now combine calendar events and to-dos into one unified view with a timeline at the top, giving an outline of your schedule.
A new This Evening section is your at-a-glance overview of any to-dos that you won’t get to until later in the day, like things you can only do when you get home. The This Evening section is a handy way to keep these to-dos separate from the rest, in their own discrete list.
And to help you find a needle in the haystack, Things 3 now includes a Quick Find feature.
Just pull down on any list to reveal search, which can now find content across the entire app. Quick Find also includes handy shortcuts to your to-dos, lists, tags and more.
Type Travel, another new feature in Things 3, lets you navigation to any project, area or to-do in the app. On iPad, you can now swipe away the sidebar and focus on just the current list you’re working on, both in portrait and landscape orientations.
On your Mac, Things now has a Slim Mode which cuts out distractions so you can focus on the task at hand. To enter this mode, collapse the sidebar with a two-finger swipe. Slim Mode is especially great when you’re working in macOS's Split View multitasking mode.
You can even open multiple windows in Slim Mode and drag and drop items between them.
https://culturedcode.cachefly.net/things/videos/2017-05-03-allnewthings-when/video.mp4
Developers have completely rewritten core layers of the apps, which are now shared between macOS and iOS for increased reliability. The Apple Watch app has been updated as well (it now shows checklists and headings), there's a new structure for Areas in the iOS app and you can now import data from Wunderlist or OmniFocus into Things 3.
And with TouchBar support, owners of the new MacBook Pro can take advantage of convenient access to the app's most-used commands.
Things is fully integrated with all the latest iOS technologies: Apple Watch, Calendars, Siri, Reminders, Today Widget, Quick Actions, Action Extension, Handoff and Notifications.
The apps all stay updated via Things Cloud, which is the push sync service that Cultured Code custom-built for the app. Unfortunately, iCloud syncing is not supported in Things.
For the complete overview of what's new in the app, visit the official Things website.
Things 3 for iPhone and Apple Watch is $9.99 on App Store.
Things 3 for iPad is $19.99 on App Store.
Things 3 for Mac is $49.99 on Mac App Store.
To celebrate the launch of Things 3, all apps are 20 percent off until next Thursday, May 25.
A 14-day trial of Things for Mac is available via the Cultured Code website.