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.

Dropbox gains document scanner, secure file sharing and other productivity improvements

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2016

Dropbox today announced a major update to its mobile and desktop clients across platforms, including the ability to scan documents in the mobile app, create Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files on the go, share files securely with others using access privileges and much more.

On the downside, Dropbox's existing Camera Sync feature has been removed from the mobile app so you now must manage photos using the desktop client. Dropbox for iOS is available at no charge via the App Store. The Mac client must be downloaded directly from the Dropbox website.

Unicode 9.0 goes official with 72 new emojis

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2016

The Unicode Consortium, the organization which develops the Unicode standard that specifies the representation of text in all modern software, officially announced Unicode 9.0, the next major revision to the Unicode standard.

The Unicode 9.0 specification is now available to vendors with 7,500 new characters for a total of 128,172 characters, including six new scripts and 72 new emoji characters.

Food for thought: is 3.5mm audio plug the new floppy drive?

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2016

Responding to Nilay Patel's controversial article on The Verge, titled “Taking the Headphone Jack Off Phones Is User-Hostile and Stupid”, Daring Fireball's John Gruber pulls out the floppy drive analogy.

As you know, the next iPhone is rumored to ditch the industry-standard 3.5mm jack in favor of Bluetooth and Lightning-based headphones.

Gruber goes on to compare Nilay's arguments against removing the century-old analog jack from mobile devices to the similar arguments that had been made in response to Apple's decision to ditch the good ol' floppy drive from the iMac in 1998 for USB.

iOS 10 beta kernel is unencrypted, but why?

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2016

MIT Technology Review has discovered that the kernel in iOS 10 beta is unencrypted, making it a lot easier for technology-minded users, jailbreak developers and the like to take a peek under iOS's hood and pinpoint any potential vulnerabilities.

For those wondering, kernels in all prior iOS betas used to be encrypted. Is this a bold move meant to help strengthen security in iOS 10 or will this decision actually introduce further security risks and open new attack vectors for hackers to exploit?

Quick review: traveling smart with Radar, Yahoo’s new iPhone app for planning trips

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 6, 2018

Yahoo today released a brand new mobile application for planning trips, Radar for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The app is available at no charge in the App Store and includes a smart chat bot that you can interact with. Using data from a number of popular third-party services, like Yelp and TripAdvisor, Radar delivers personalized recommendations of sights to see, activities and restaurants in an attractively designed mobile user interface.

After using it briefly, I can safely say that Radar is one of the best mobile apps Yahoo has published in a while.

Judge tosses ‘Error 53’ lawsuit against Apple out of the window

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 21, 2016

A United States district court judge has tossed so-called 'Error 53' lawsuit against Apple out of the window on grounds that the plaintiffs “lack standing to pursue injunctive relief”. The plaintiffs argued that the iOS 9 software update causing certain devices with a faulty Touch ID or Home button, like the iPhone 6, to be bricked has resulted in permanent data loss.

They were unable, however, to frame the argument in court a legal loss.

WSJ: iPhone 7 to feature similar design, bigger changes coming next year

Cody Lee ∙ June 21, 2016

Another report is out on Tuesday claiming that the iPhone 7 will closely resemble its 6 and 6s predecessors. Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal says that the company plans to break with its recent patten of overhauling the iPhone design every two years.

Thus, Apple's new handset this year will only feature subtle changes. They'll maintain the current 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays, as well as the overall design. The biggest planned change for the iPhone 7, the Journal says, will be the removal of the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

Apple seeds beta 3 of iOS 9.3.3, OS X 10.11.6 and tvOS 9.2.2

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Tuesday seeded the third beta for iOS 9.3.3 to both developers and public testers. The beta can be installed via the over-the-air update mechanism in iOS, or it can be downloaded from either Apple's dev center or the Beta Software Program website.

The update comes two weeks after the second iOS 9.3.3 beta was released, and it’s mostly bug fixes. Apple is obviously trying to iron out a few remaining bugs in iOS 9.3 so it can turn its attention to iOS 10, which arrived in beta form last week during WWDC.

Vine starts an experiment with longer video, too

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Twitter today said its users will soon be able to tweet out 140-second videos, a major increase in video duration compared to the current 30-second limit. The company also announced that its shortform video-sharing app, Vine, will start an experiment with longer video as well.

Twitter now accepts 140-second video uploads, rolls out new full-screen viewing experience

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 6, 2018

Micro-blogging startup Twitter on Tuesday announced a major expansion of native video length, with users able to upload videos to the service which can now be up to 140 seconds long, or two minutes and twenty seconds. Before today, Twitter video uploads were capped at thirty seconds. This change is scheduled to go into effect soon and will require an updated mobile app.

Instagram now has 500 million monthly users

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 21, 2016

Facebook-owned Instagram today announced a major milestone as the service just passed 500 million monthly users, more than 80 percent of whom are living outside of the United States. The announcement came a little more than a month following Instagram's major redesign of its mobile app. The only metric that matters is daily active users and Instagram said that out of the 500+ million monthly users, 300 million use the service every single day.

iPhone 7 may ship with 3.5mm EarPods and Lightning adapter

Cody Lee ∙ June 20, 2016

Apple's next flagship handset, dubbed by many to be the iPhone 7, will ship with standard 3.5mm EarPods and an adapter for the Lightning port, reports Mac Otakara. Of course, the device is widely rumored to be shipping without a headphone jack.

Should the rumors materialize, a 3.5mm-to-Lightning adapter would allow users to connect any standard-jack headphones to the new iPhone. Such a move may help appease customers who are expected to be disappointed about the hardware change.