If you’re a super lucky duck, then Santa may have left you a pair of AirPods. They are truly one of the best products Apple ever made, because they really do offer a huge upgrade on all previous headphones. Here’s how to set up your new AirPods.
The iPhone setup process gets easier every year. So easy, in fact, that there are only a few things you need to do to move from your old iPhone to a new one. You can even directly transfer your data from an Android phone. Setting up a new iPhone from scratch isn’t much harder — you just have a few extra steps you need to go through.
There are still a few tricks that will help things run smoothly, though. Let’s see how to set up your new iPhone the right way.
If your iPhone or iPad locks up, iOS 16/iPadOS 16 will let get out of the jam by rebooting the device with a simple Siri command. It’s the easiest method I’ve found to get the handset or tablet going again when there’s a problem with the touchscreen, or the device is just misbehaving.
Here’s all you have to do.
Apple Support premiered on Wednesday a video with helpful iPhone tips. Sit back, take a few minutes and learn something new you can do with your handset.
With ten tips — plus bonus ones — there’s sure to be something here you didn’t know.
You just got a shiny new iPhone 12 and of course you want your Apple Watch to play nicely with it. You could reset the Watch to start out fresh, but there’s an easier way switch your Apple Watch to your new iPhone.
Here’s what you do.
For many people, iPhone 12 will be radically different from previous iPhone models. Despite this, the iPhone setup process hasn’t changed much. However, while you might find yourself on familiar ground, there are still plenty of little things you really ought to do before you fire up your new phone for the first time (or pretty soon thereafter).
Let’s take a look at all the things you can do to get your iPhone set up exactly how you want it.
Phone calls are so 20th century. Apart from a knock at the door, when else can another person decide to bug you, and then bug you right away, at their own convenience, without getting your permission first?
In the 21st century, we have a name for these people: entitled. Fortunately, it’s easy to bump their presumptuous invasions, and let them know who’s the boss1.
Here’s how to decline iPhone calls (or mute them if you’re feeling particularly passive-aggressive).
Apple’s record-breaking revenues weren’t the biggest surprise in this week’s earnings call. Usually tight-lipped Apple execs Tim Cook and Luca Maestri actually uncorked a few shocking revelations!
Read all about it in this week’s totally free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Grab the iOS version now to enjoy it on your iPad, or hit the links below to read in your browser.
You’ll also find plenty of other Apple news, analysis and opinion, including a call for transparency in the wake of Siri’s eavesdropping problem. Plus, we’ve got product reviews and how-tos — like one on cleaning the lint from your filthy iPhone.
You’re going to L-O-V-E this tip. You know how sometimes you see a folder on your iPhone’s home screen, and there’s a red notification badge on the folder itself? That badge is a summary of all the unread notifications of the apps inside the folder. Of course, at this point you just ignore it, because you don’t want to swipe through the pages of never-used apps inside the folder, just to see which apps have unread alerts.
But what if there was a way to quickly see which apps in that folder have outstanding notifications. Well, there is! And you’re going to kick yourself when you see how easy it is.
Even if you keep your iPhone in a nice case and regularly polish the screen, it is probably a filthy cesspit of germs, fluff and abrasive dust. Fortunately, if you can be bothered to actually do something about it, cleaning your iPhone is easy and rewarding.
Rewarding in the sense that you’ll be rewarded with a pristine slab of glass and steel, instead of having to finger a filth-bomb every time you take your pocket computer out to use it.
Did you ever update a bunch of apps over a slow connection? Maybe you’re on vacation, saving your cellular data, and you’re running your app updates on the free Wi-Fi in a cool beachside bar? Can you cancel that huge update you don’t need?
Or maybe you just restored your iCloud backup to a brand-new iPhone, and now you’re waiting for all the apps to re-download. Isn’t there a way to make your favorite apps jump to the beginning of the queue?
Well, the answer is yes to both! You just need 3D Touch.
Before you read the rest of this article about how to find your iPhone, check down the back of the sofa. No? OK, what about the pocket in the jacket you wore today? Still no? OK. Read on.
It might sound crazy to write about how to find your iPhone. After all, everyone knows about Find My iPhone, right? Well, perhaps. You know that it can be used to track a stolen iPhone on a map, if the perp hasn’t switched it off (which they almost certainly have).
But at least one writer here at Cult of Mac didn’t know that Find My iPhone is also great for finding your iPhone in your own home. That writer — let’s call him Luke Dormehl to avoid embarrassment — spent more than an hour trying to track down his muted iPhone before resorting to Apple’s tracking app.
iPhones typically keep going strong for years, but a few smooth moves on your part can make them last even longer. These tips will show you how to squeeze as much life as possible out of your aging Apple handset.
Get this handy info and much more in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Grab it now from iTunes, or keep reading for the week’s best Apple news, reviews and how-tos.
In recent years, the iPhone setup process has changed as dramatically as the iPhones themselves. Apple just keeps making it easier to do. So easy, in fact, that there are just a few things you need to do to move from your old iPhone to a new one. And setting up a new iPhone XR from scratch isn’t much harder — gone are the days of manually copying passwords just to get to the home screen.
There are still a few tricks, though, that will help things run smoothly. Here’s how to set up your new iPhone XR the right way.
In recent years, the iPhone setup process has changed as dramatically as the iPhones themselves. Apple just keeps making it easier to do. So easy, in fact, that there are just a few things you need to do to move from your old iPhone to a new one. And setting up a new iPhone XS from scratch isn’t much harder — gone are the days of manually copying passwords just to get to the home screen.
There are still a few tricks, though, that will help things to run smoothly. Let’s see how to upgrade to the iPhone XS.
Linea Go is the little sister of Linea, perhaps the best pick-up-and-go drawing app on the iPad. And unlike the iPad, where there are a ton of really top-end drawing and painting apps, the iPhone has far fewer, especially if you just want a great way to lay down a quick sketch.
If nothing else, Linea Go shows just how great it would be if the Apple Pencil worked with the iPhone.
Users of 3-D Touch-capable iPhones, and of iPads in general, have long been able to use the devices’ fantastic trackpad mode. It’s a great way to quickly move the keyboard’s insert point (aka cursor) precisely where you want it — and it just got even better.
In iOS 12, this neat trick comes to all iPhones, even those without 3-D Touch. Bonus tip: The update also makes it even easier to use trackpad mode on your iPad.
You’ve just pre-ordered your new iPhone, and you’re wondering what to do with the old one. Selling it is a pain, and the trade-in prices on your two-year-old model are too low to bother with. So how about handing that old iPhone off to a family member, or a friend? But before you just switch it off and drop it into a bag, there are a few things you should prepare. Here’s how.
This week, a friend visited me, and the screen of her iPhone is cracked so badly that it barely registers a touch. I saw her struggle to even take a photo, and realized she didn’t know the volume-button trick.
Then we saw a little girl drop an iPhone onto the cobbled street outside a restaurant, while the owner (and uncle or family friend) looked on. The screen shattered, and the poor girl was distraught. That’s when I decided to write this guide to using your iPhone with a cracked screen.
White balance is one of the most important settings on any camera. It can make the difference between vibrant, accurate colors, and a muddy, flat mess. It is also the setting least likely to be tweaked manually by casual photographers. There’s not even a good way to adjust white balance in the iPhone’s own Photos app.
But don’t despair. Today we’ll learn everything you need to now about how white balance works, and what to do with it.
A few days ago, we learned about the iPhone’s shutter, the part of the camera that “opens and closes” to let light onto the sensor. Today, we’re taking an in-depth look at the aperture, aka hole. The aperture is an opening in the lens that can be made bigger or smaller. Like shutter speed, its primary purpose is to control how much light reacts with camera the sensor (or film).
Also like shutter speed, aperture has some extra effects on how the image looks. Specifically, it can control how much of the image, front to back, looks sharp.
It’s pretty easy to type the Apple logo on any of your Apple devices, although it’s easier on some (like the Mac) than on others (like Apple TV). Below is a quick list that lays out exactly how to type the Apple logo on any Apple device.
Did you know that, if you have your iPhone set to share incoming calls with your Mac, your iPad, and/or Apple Watch, then the iPhone won’t let you reject incoming calls? The red telephone icon isn’t there. You have to either answer the call, or scramble to another device in order to bump the call without picking up first.
But there’s a great hidden trick that lets you reject any call from your iPhone, without even touching the screen.
iOS 11 added screen recording to the iPhone and iPad, letting you make movies from whatever is running on then screen. I use it to make video clips for how-tos, or to capture video and then create animated GIFs. But did you know that you can also use screen recording to copy a YouTube video? Or to make a screencast complete with a live voiceover? Here’s how.
There’s a security setting in iOS that will erase everything on your iPhone, resetting it back to a blank, factory-state slate if you tap in the wrong passcode 10 times. It’s called Data Protection, and I never wrote a how to on this because I figured everyone would have it switched on. After all, who wouldn’t want that kind of excellent security if ever they lost their iPhone?