iOS & iPhone: Page 8

Google Lens has easily been one of the more useful AR apps and a tantalizing tease of life with smartglasses in the not-so-distant future. Now, Apple has its own version of Lens, dubbed Live Text, built right into iOS 15 and iPadOS 15.

Whenever you need to digitally share large bodies of real-world text, you'd likely show a photo of it or manually type everything into the document or chat. But iOS 15 has a much better way for your iPhone.

If you've never used the Home button shortcuts on your iPhone before, you've been missing out. And no, I'm not talking about opening up Siri. By clicking the Home button three times, you could quickly pull up tools such as Magnifier, VoiceOver, Zoom, and Assistive Touch, but that's all changed on the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, and XR, which don't have Home buttons to click.

After updating to iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, you'll notice a new "Shared with You" section in certain Apple apps that contains recent shares from conversations in Messages. If you don't like seeing shared content from specific contacts or groups, there's a way to block them from Shared with You on your iPhone or iPad.

After the dust settled from Apple's annual iPhone event, there's not a lot to get hyped up about the iPhone 13 lineup, particularly if you upgraded your smartphone last year.

Apple is known for its dedication to design, attention to detail, and for its apparent belief that its products are half device, half art. If you've ever felt similarly about that latter point, or had a desire to hang your iPhone on the wall, Grid Studio might just have the piece for you.

Apple released the iOS 14.7 RC (release candidate) today, Tuesday, July 13. The new update — and likely official 14.7 release — includes support for Apple's new MagSafe Battery Pack, adds two Apple Card Family options to combine credit limits and share one co-owned account, among other new features and changes.

In the dark, even the lowest brightness option on the iPhone can still feel a thousand burning suns. No matter whether you're in bed or at the movie theater, you don't want to create a distraction with your smartphone. That's why you might want a brightness that isn't readily available on your device — but luckily, there may be a way to go lower than the lowest brightness.

Notifications keep us connected to our apps and contacts, but sometimes, they just get out of hand. While you can make blanket adjustments to your notifications with iOS 15's new Focus modes, you don't have to go that extreme — if there's one app bugging you right now, you can temporarily disable its notifications.

Safari saw many new features and improvements with Apple's latest iOS update, including webpage translations, privacy reports, and picture-in-picture. While the updates were well-received, Apple's mobile browser is still lacking some very basic features. Thankfully, there are shortcuts to bridge the gap.

Apple's AirPods Pro offer three different audio modes for your convenience: "Transparency," which pumps in sound around you,"Noise Cancellation," which actively blocks out surrounding sounds, and "Off," which uses neither mode. Off saves battery, and does a decent job at passively cancelling noise on its own, but you can't seem to be able to use it with the AirPods Pro stem. Here's how.

You might think your photo is amazing, but in the midst of editing it and getting ready to post it on social media, you notice something in the background. Maybe it's an unwelcome stranger or a wide-open dumpster, or it's the entire backdrop, but suddenly you realize that it's bad. Although you look good in it, the background just doesn't work — which is why you can always get rid of it.

Apple released the second beta for iOS 15 on Thursday, June 24. The update includes FaceTime's "SharePlay" feature for the first time, a new Maps icon, updates to Focus mode, in addition to many other changes and bug fixes.

Your iPhone is full of apps that are all vying for your attention. Notifications from Facebook, Instagram, and even Apple Messages can get out of hand fast. With iOS 15, Apple gives you the tools to choose exactly who can contact you and when. Keep reading to see how to take control of your iPhone's notifications so that you only receive the most important alerts.

Apple introduces several new privacy settings with iOS 15, including the ability to better manage the metadata in your photos. With just a few taps, you can effectively spoof a photo's geolocation and change its creation date and time, providing a sort of disguise over your personal information. If you constantly take and share photos, it's a welcomed feature, but its results are not permanent and can be reversed.

Having thousands of photos and videos in your Photos gallery can make it difficult to find the best ones, but your iPhone does make it a bit easier. Memories, which have been around since iOS 10, automatically group your photos and videos into mini-movies by location, date, or person. It's a fun feature that does the work for you, and it's getting better with the release of iOS 15.

Apple released the third iOS 14.7 public beta for iPhone Tuesday, June 15. The update comes one day after Apple released the third 14.7 developer beta, and twelve days after the second iOS 14.7 beta, which was only released to registered developers.

Sound Recognition was introduced with iOS 14, and the accessibility feature uses on-device intelligence to detect 13 different sounds and then notify you whenever it hears one. Apple increases that number to 15 with the addition of two more detectable sounds in iOS 15 that it should have included from the get-go.

When you first open Safari after updating your iPhone to iOS 15, you might be a bit surprised by the design change. Apple attempted to make browsing the web on its smartphones more natural and cohesive, but it may leave you wondering just how to actually navigate your tabs.

Apple's exclusive chat services, iMessage and FaceTime, force many of us to stay locked into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS to communicate with other Apple users, so chatting with Android-using friends means SMS texts, third-party messaging apps, and third-party video chat services. However, Apple is breaking boundaries with iOS 15 so that we can FaceTime with Android, Linux, and Windows users.

FaceTime audio calling is a great alternative to regular phone calls on your iPhone because it usually has better audio quality and fewer dropped calls than regular calls over cellular or Wi-Fi calling. Plus, it's easier to start group chats, and you have the choice to turn on your camera. If you frequently use the "audio" button in Messages to start FaceTime audio calls, know that things work differently in iOS 15.

Your iPhone's search bar has so many great uses. For example, you can quickly find apps on your device, browse different Safari results to find the site that's right for your question, and even search across different iOS apps like Messages, Mail, Notes, and Photos. With iOS 15, Apple has introduced the fastest way yet to start searching with Spotlight on iPhone.

Siri Suggestions is one way Apple makes your iPhone work better for you. These recommendations offer helpful actions and shortcuts based on how you use iOS. Still, they can frequently get things wrong, suggesting irrelevant shortcuts to apps, contacts, and other items repeatedly. Here's how to stop them.

Apple's Tapback is a great way to react to iMessages you find funny, surprising, confusing, and anything in between. However, in group chats, keeping track of who reacted with which Tapback can be difficult; iOS often just shows you how many people reacted but excludes many of the names. Luckily, there is a way around this — it's just a bit hidden.

Apple seeded the second beta for iOS 14.7 today, Wednesday, June 2. The update (build number 18G5033e) comes two weeks after Apple released the first 14.7 beta, and nine days after the company released iOS 14.6 to the general public.

On June 7, Apple will reveal to developers what's in store for its upcoming operating systems, but anyone can watch the livestream to see all the new features coming this fall to iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, tvOS 15, and watchOS 8.

When Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, and other core Apple leaders take the stage for WWDC 2021 on June 7, we'll hear a lot about exciting new things to come. We're likely to see what's in store for watchOS 8 and macOS 12, but more importantly, we'll get a glimpse at what iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 will be like.

The Shortcuts app can help you play the next unlistened podcast from one of the shows, but getting the latest unplayed episodes from your whole queue of shows in the Podcasts app is a little trickier. There is an easy way to do it on your iPhone, though, and you can even automate it so that Podcasts plays your most recent untouched episode automatically.

Apple released the latest version of its iPhone OS, iOS 14.6, today, Monday, May 24. This latest update (build number 18F72) introduces new features like unlocking your iPhone with Voice Control after a restart, Apple Card Family support for up to five people, and subscription support for shows in Podcasts.

Apple pushed out the Release Candidate for iOS 14.6 on Monday, May 17. The 18F71 build includes new features and bug fixes, including an option to unlock your iPhone with Voice Control. It comes just hours after Apple announced Spacial Audio and Lossless Audio playback for Apple Music, new features that will require iOS 14.6 to run.

A good endoscope camera can be an incredible tool for a variety of jobs. Whether you have to look under something heavy before you move it, look down a pipe before you clean it, or just give yourself extendable, bendable vision, an endoscope camera can be a fantastic tool when it works.

On May 17, Apple announced that Lossless Audio playback for Apple Music was finally coming to subscribers in June. The long-awaited option will let users stream songs at a much higher quality than ever before. Still, in the fine print, Apple noted that you wouldn't be able to listen to the best sound quality — Hi-Resolution Lossless — on your iPhone without a DAC.

You know the drill: After booting up your iPhone, you need to swipe up or press the Home button, then punch in the passcode to unlock Face ID or Touch ID. It's the way things have always been — but it doesn't have to be. Instead, you can unlock your iPhone using just your voice, even after a restart.

Apple's iOS 14 introduced a new world of iPhone customization thanks to its updated widgets that can live on both the home screen and Today View. While they're incredibly useful, they're not very interactive, they restrict what's shown, and you can't resize them afterward. However, those issues pale in comparison to the annoying Photos widget in Today View's auto-generated Smart Stack.

One of the most underrated features that came out with iOS 14 was being able to add captions to images and videos in the Photos app. It's an amazing tool to take advantage of if you ever need to search for a specific picture and Apple's AI fails to recognize the query in your library. The only problem is that you can only edit captions, also called descriptions, one by one.

Apple's iCloud is a fantastic way to ensure that all of your photos, messages, notes, and other important data are backed up and appear on all of your connected devices. However, you may have information like reminders attached to accounts other than iCloud, which won't appear when signing into iCloud on a new device. Here's how to get the full picture of where your reminders are stored.

Apple released the third iOS 14.6 beta today, Monday, May 10. The update fixes a bug that could cause your iPhone to experience performance issues after startup.

Apple seeded public testers the second iOS 14.6 beta today, Friday, April 30. The update (build number 18F5055b) comes three hours after Apple released the second 14.6 developer beta, four days after the launch of iOS 14.5, which introduced over 60 new features and changes to iPhone, and eight days after the first 14.6 beta hit developers' iPhones.

Out of the more than 200 new features Apple included with iOS 13, perhaps none is more anticipated than system-wide dark mode. Finally, we no longer need to blind ourselves when responding to an iMessage late at night or checking Reminders to see the following day's tasks. But this benefit also applies to third-party apps, so long as they are updated accordingly.

Ah, the dreaded "green bubble" group chat. All it takes is one non-iPhone contact to turn an entire thread from iMessage paradise to SMS slog. Normally, it isn't that bad since the group chat still functions. However, sometimes, you end up getting messages individually instead of in a single group thread. Before you go blaming your Android friends, know that the issue is probably on your end.