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.

Blurry video out of China compares claimed Rose Gold iPhone 7 rear shell to iPhone 6s

Earlier in the week, a video out of China gave us a nice look into iPhone 7 dummies in Gold, Rose Gold and rumored Space Black. It's time for another iPhone 7 video as we head out into the weekend.

Brand new footage, which surfaced last evening on Chinese social media, offers yet another comparison between a claimed iPhone 7 rear shell in rose gold finish and a Rose Gold iPhone 6s.

Apple’s free app of the week: Super Arc Light

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion with the game Super Arc Light.  This means that for the next 7 days you’ll be able to pick up the popular arcade shooter for free on both iPhone and iPad—a solid savings of $2.

For those who haven't played Super Arc Light, it's a minimalistic radial shooter, in which you must defend your base to the death against waves of challenging enemies. The developer describes it as Super Hexagon meets Geometry Wars.

Periscope introduces Replay Highlights, Live Autoplay and Tweet Embeds

Periscope, Twitter's live-broadcasting app, was updated in the App Store with a few new features, among them Replay Highlights, Live Autoplay and Tweet Embeds. Highlights automatically generates a short trailer for every Periscope broadcast of your home feed, making it easier to catch up on broadcasts you missed from the last day.

Periscope is a free download from the App Store.

BBC’s iPlayer Radio hits US App Store as new BBC+ app goes live in UK

The British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) iPlayer Radio mobile app, which used to be limited to customers in the United Kingdom, has expanded stateside today, TechCrunch just announced. Now customers in the United States can download iPlayer Radio from the US App Store and tune in to BBC's high-quality radio stations and content.

Earlier in the week, BBC announced launch of a brand new personalized content portal with a new BBC+ app on the UK App Store.

Facebook Messenger hits a major milestone—one billion monthly users

Facebook yesterday announced that its Messenger service has hit a major milestone: the software is now being used by more than one billion people every month to message their friends and family. Messenger saw a major surge in popularity after it was decoupled from the main Facebook mobile client, and especially since becoming a software platform in its own right with chat bots, apps, money payments, expanded emojis and other features.

Facebook Messenger is a free download from the App Store.

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

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

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

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.

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

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."

iOS 10 Public Beta 2 now available to testers

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

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.