iOS 14

We hardly need to "buy" anything these days since games, music, books, news, movies, and TV are all available on the iPhone with various monthly subscriptions. Just set it and forget it so that your wallet does all the work for you. But if you're on a free trial or two and don't want to commit, you might get an unexpected charge if you forgot or don't know where to cancel. Here's how to avoid that.

Apple just released iOS 14 public beta 7 for iPhone today, Thursday, Sept. 3, and features new dark mode wallpaper options. Choose from any of the rainbow wallpaper's color backgrounds, and iOS will automatically shift the background to black when you enable dark mode.

Apple just released iOS 14 developer beta 7 for iPhone today, Thursday, Sept. 3. The new update (18A5369b) features new wallpaper options. Now, you can choose any color background for the rainbow wallpaper, and iOS will turn the background black when you enable dark mode.

Your iPhone's almost out of battery power, there's no wired or wireless charger in sight, and you left your portable power bank at home. You don't want your battery to die, but you still need to use your iPhone. This is when Low Power Mode comes in handy, but you could be wasting valuable time and power if you're activating it the wrong way.

You might be giving out your name to every stranger you see, and you don't even know it. That iPhone of yours has a name — generally a combination of your first name and device model — and it broadcasts it to others via AirDrop, Personal Hotspot, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and other connections. Sure, it's useful to keep your device name simple and to the point, but there are upsides to changing it.

At first, Apple's six developer beta for iOS 14 isn't much to look at, but there wouldn't have been an update if there weren't some important issues to address. Most of the serious updates in build number 18A5357e revolve around SwiftUI, which even has a few new features, and there's a fix to Shortcuts automation that will likely please you if you use those.

Battery management is a never-ending struggle. To be on the safe side, you likely won't want to leave your home with less than 100% battery, but continually checking your charging iPhone is a hassle. Instead of continuously monitoring your battery's power level, have your iPhone tell you when it's reached a full charge.

Since iOS 6, "Respond with Text" has allowed us to quickly respond to a call we can't (or don't want to) answer. But Apple only gives you three options to choose from, and if you don't have time to type out your own response, those three might not cut it. Luckily, you can customize these three replies to whatever you want.

Apple's AirPods are convenient because you can easily switch which Apple device is connected to your AirPods with just a few taps. But unless you're using Shortcuts to make the connection, you aren't using the fastest method possible.

Using your iPhone for a smart home remote just keeps getting better and better. Apple has consistently improved its HomeKit platform since the Home app came out, adding new features, tweaks, and refinements to the system with each update. And iOS 14 continues this trend with a few changes to help make your home even smarter and easier to use.

You should know the birthday for a parent, sibling, child, or significant other, but there are just too many people in your family and contacts to remember everybody's yearly birth anniversary. Still, everyone expects you to remember their birthday. To stop looking like a jerk, go a step further than putting birthdays in your calendar and make your iPhone help you send birthday wishes when their big day pops up.

It's almost impossible to use Apple News at night without having to mess with the white point and zoom filters. That might sound a bit dramatic, but it's really not when you consider that iOS 13 has a perfectly good Dark Mode that should work for News. So why are we stuck reading most news stories in Light Mode? We're not, but you have to put a little work into it going dark in News.

Apple just released the fifth developer beta for iOS 14 today, Tuesday, Aug. 18. This update comes two weeks after Apple released iOS 14 developer beta 4, and 12 days after the release of iOS 14 public beta 4.

If you're in an active Messages chat, writing a large email, or have a lot of notes to jot down, you might be acutely aware of just how loud your iPhone's keyboard can sound — especially with AirPods or other headphones on. "Click, click, click, click, click, click." If the fake keyboard sounds are driving your crazy as you type, there's something you can do about it.

Everyone knows that app updates on iOS are found in the App Store. What you might not have known, however, is that you don't need to manually open the App Store app to manage your updates and downloads. In fact, that work can be started or completed directly from the first place you interact with on your iPhone — the home screen.

The "Hidden" album on your iPhone has always had one problem — it was never truly hidden. Since iOS 10, when the feature was introduced in the Photos app, any image or video that you conceal in the private folder could be seen by anyone with access to your unlocked device. Finally, that has changed.

Apple just released the fourth public beta for iOS 14 today, Thursday, Aug. 6. This update comes two days after the company released iOS 14 developer beta 4, 15 days after Apple seeded developers the third dev beta, and two weeks after the release of public beta 3.

When you're in a new city or even your own neighborhood, you might not know where the best places to visit are. The number of parks, restaurants, shopping centers, and other attractions could be overwhelming, so how do you narrow down your choices? The new iOS 14 update has introduced curated city "Guides" in Apple Maps, created by trusted brands to help you find excellent places to explore.

Apple just released the fourth developer beta for iOS 14 today, Tuesday, Aug. 4. This update comes 13 days after Apple seeded developers the third dev beta, and 12 days after public testers got their hands on public beta 3.

Apple might not have been the first to add a night camera mode to its suite of smartphones, but it's pretty impressive nonetheless. With "Night" mode, your iPhone can shoot photos with incredible detail in some horrendously dark lighting conditions. But when you open up your new iPhone to try it out, you might be wondering how you turn it on.

Why are you still waking up to an annoying alarm clock sound on your iPhone? It's 2020, not 2011. That's almost a decade since you were limited to a strict set of default tones. Yes, your iPhone has a ton of tones by now to choose from, but you could be waking up gently to your favorite slow song, or jolting awake by the harsh sounds of metal ringing in your ears to get pumped for the rest of the day.

Don't like how Apple's default Radar ringtone — or any other tone — wakes you up in the morning? Then don't use them as your alarm sound. Instead, use your favorite song to get you out of bed. Whether you enjoy an acoustic tune or a heavy, energetic jam, you can choose any Apple Music song you want, or any track in your personal Music library, to get you going each day.

Apple introduced third-party keyboards back in iOS 8, and swipe-input options like Gboard, SwiftKey, and Swype made typing on an iPhone one-handed much easier. Even better, apps like Word Flow moved the keyboard to the side of the iPhone, so there was less thumb-stretching. Well, ever since iOS 11, Apple has had its own option for better one-handed typing in the stock keyboard.

If you use iCloud Photos, Apple's iCloud link feature is meant to make sharing multiple photos and videos faster and easier, but it's not as great as you might think. Luckily, there's a way to stop your iPhone from creating them automatically, as long as you're running iOS 13 or later.

When it comes to washing clothes, the laundry symbols on your tags might as well be hieroglyphics. They're difficult to interpret, easy to forget, and even easier to ignore. But if you don't want to ruin expensive designer clothes, blankets, and other fiber-based materials, you need to figure out the meaning behind those tiny icons. Thankfully, your iPhone can help out.

Your iPhone comes with a feature that allows you to share your name and photo with anyone you iMessage in Messages. It's a useful feature if you want people to see a customized name or fun image that you pick, but seeing all those "Share your name and photo" alerts in conversations can get real annoying quickly. There's a way to stop that from happening, thankfully.

Apple just released the third public beta for iOS 14 today, Thursday, July 23. This update comes one day after the company released iOS 14 developer beta 3, and two weeks after the release of iOS 14 public beta 2.

In iOS 14, your iPhone can have home screen widgets, but you can also keep using widgets in the Today View if that's more comfortable for you. You could actually use both if you wanted. But when it comes to the Today View, the process for adding, removing, and editing widgets has changed.

Sharing your iPhone's real-time location can be very useful when you want family and friends to know where you're at or your estimated time of arrival. By doing so, they can track you when you can't or don't want to update them manually. Depending on how you shared your location, however, they might still be able to track your exact coordinates after the initial share.

Many apps on your iPhone want to use your location, most of which are for valid reasons. But some apps can function perfectly fine without location permissions, while others have no business even requesting it. If you want to be more selective about which apps and services you give away your coordinates to, the best thing you could do is start from scratch.

Apple just released iOS 14 developer beta 3 for iPhone today, Wednesday, July 22. The update comes 15 days after Apple released the second developer beta for iOS 14, and 13 days after the release of iOS 14 public beta 2.

Live Photos are a great way to relive moments beyond a simple still image since you get up to 1.5 seconds of video before and after the shot. Of course, your iPhone doesn't just capture motion during a Live Photo — it also records audio. And that audio portion may not be something you want to share.

Apple's Dark Mode in iOS 13 and later offers a cool, comfortable viewing experience on your iPhone. You may prefer the dark theme all day long, but if you like to use it only at night, it's not very convenient to switch it on and off daily. But there's a setting that lets you set it and forget it, so you never have to do it manually again.

Apple's big iOS 14 update includes Memoji improvements such as new hairstyles and headwear to choose from for your personalized Animoji character. Even better, there are now face coverings, so you no longer have to resort to that one masked emoji to get the point across in these times of COVID-19.

Apple just released public beta 2 for iOS 14 today, Thursday, July 9. The good news comes two days after Apple released the second iOS 14 developer beta, and 17 days after the release of the first developer beta. While this is the first public beta for iOS 14, it's called "public beta 2" to keep in line with developer beta numbering.

Apple just released the second developer beta for iOS 14 today, Tuesday, July 7. The update comes 15 days after Apple seeded developers the first iOS 14 beta, which introduced home screen widgets, picture-in-picture, and 4K YouTube support, among more than 200 other features.

If you've been an iPhone user for quite some time, you probably have quite a bit of photos and videos in iCloud or on your device. Unless you know the date, location, or event, it can be pretty hard to find a specific memory. Even with intelligent search suggestions, AI-created categories, and multi-keyword filters, you still may not be able to find what you want. The new iOS 14 update changes that.

Starting in iOS 13, Apple introduced a robust suite of video-editing tools to its Photos app. The majority of editing tools were only available for images in iOS 12 and older, but iOS 13 leveled the playing field to allow even a novice to tweak videos like a pro before sharing.

Since its introduction on the iPhone 5S, Touch ID has made unlocking Home button iPhones quick and secure. The second-generation iPhone SE brought back the beloved feature in 2020 but didn't take any steps to improve on the technology. So if you're rocking Touch ID and having trouble getting it to read your fingerprints, there are some things you can do to fix it.

Out of all the myths about the iPhone's battery, one that's very true is that charging your phone overnight is bad news. Keeping the charge level at 100% puts the battery under strain, which can permanently damage it. Apple took steps to address the issue in iOS 13, where your battery stops charging when it hits 80% in some scenarios, but that's not always enough.