iOS

Did you know that iOS makes it very, very easy to instantly remove the background from any image? This feature was first introduced with iOS 16 last year, and I’ve found it to be one of the best and most useful capabilities. Here’s how it works.

Update: A day later, public beta versions are now available. See all the new features, including spatial video capture from iPhone 15 Pro for viewing on Vision Pro, here.

iOS 17.2 developer beta 2 is now available. The first beta release introduced Apple’s Journal app, new features to Messages, Translate as an Action button feature, and more. We expect future betas to include refinements to the Journal app. We’ll update with any changes we discover.

We wrote last year about a developer who successfully emulated iPhone OS on a Mac using QEMU. At the time, the original firmware of the 1st generation iPod touch was used to demonstrate that emulating iPhone and iPod touch software is possible. Now Martijn de Vos, also known as devos50, has shown the progress he has made with this emulator, which now runs iPhone OS 2.1.

Apple has released iOS 17.1.1 for iPhone. The software update includes fixes for wireless charging and the recently discovered snow glitch. The update follows the iOS 17.1 update from October 25 which introduced new AirDrop and Apple Music features. Apple is also working on iOS 17.2 and the new Journal app for iPhone.

Apple has released iOS 17.1 for iPhone, bringing more features to AirDrop, StandBy, and Apple Music, as well as several prominent bug fixes. The software update is available to all users now on iPhones capable of running iOS 17.

Savvy iPhone users know what to do when they see a QR code in the wild. Open the Camera app, aim, and tap the link that gets revealed. But what about QR codes in images and PDFs that are already on your iPhone?

Extensions continue to play a key part in adding third-party functionality to Safari. They’re often great ways to boost productivity, security, and privacy to a rather barebones browsing experience. But with the hundreds of Safari extensions available across different devices, it can feel overwhelming. Here’s a list of my top picks.

In his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that Apple was caught by surprise at the sudden swell of generative AI tools this year. But they are working hard to catch up with Apple SVPs Craig Federighi, John Giannandrea, and Eddy Cue all in charge of integrating AI-powered functionality into Apple’s products and services.

That will include various new AI features in iOS 18, such as smarter reply suggestions in Messages. Cue is pushing to include features like AI-generated playlists in Apple Music, and exploring how generative AI can be utilized in Apple’s productivity apps like Pages and Keynote. Giannandrea’s team is working on a new, smarter, version of Siri that should be ready to debut next year.

The competition between iPhone and Android continues and the latest study from CIRP looks at how Apple’s share of US smartphones compares to the last four years. While some reports put the iPhone market share above 50%, CIRP’s latest data says otherwise.

You know something’s bad when you’re about to write a feature request and then realise you already did do, more than a year go. Some 18 months after I asked Apple to fix the awful iPhone jiggle mode, nothing has changed, so consider this my renewed plea.

It was travel which brought it to mind last time, while this time around it was just doing a small rejig of my Home screen to remove a couple of apps I use less frequently, replacing them with ones I now use more often …

It’s not just the cost of groceries that has gone up. The market price for WhatsApp exploits are also on the rise, but inflation may not be to blame.

Three days after launching iOS 17, Apple has issued iOS 17.0.1 with three important security patches. Notably, Apple says it’s aware all of the fixed vulnerabilities were reported as being actively exploited.

The flame war between smartphone enthusiasts over iPhone and Android and which is superior has gone on for far too long.

One of the more interesting features recently added to iPhone is something called Clean Energy Charging. Apple says that this feature aims to “reduce your carbon footprint” by charging when lower carbon-emission electricity is available. In a support document, Apple has more details on how this feature works…

iOS 17 beta 4 is now available through the developer beta program. The fourth beta versions of iPadOS 17, tvOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS Sonoma are also available for developer beta testers.

The Apple Card has been out since August 2019, meaning I have had this card for almost four years now. The Apple Card was one of the first credit cards that I was ever approved for. I remember really wanting it purely for the titanium and the cool Apple Wallet integration (which goes to show how much I knew about credit cards back then). But in those four years, I have used it in various settings for different categories and gotten some great value from it. But in 2023, the credit card scene has become extremely competitive, so how does the Apple Card hold up as a zero annual fee card compared to the competition? And is it still worth it to get?

After a rocky start, Apple has released a Rapid Security Response update to iOS 16.5.1 and macOS Ventura 13.4.1.

Apple released a critical security update to iPhone, iPad, and Mac on Monday that patches a known exploit. Unfortunately, the patch had a side effect of breaking how some websites load.