Benjamin Mayo

iOS 18 brings a big change to Control Center on your iPhone. With iOS 18, Control Center has a bunch of new controls and now flows over multiple pages. This includes changes to the Connectivity widget, which puts the Bluetooth toggle behind a second tap.

By default, to access Bluetooth settings, you must first tap on the corner of the 2×2 widget to open a full-screen group of toggles. You can then change Bluetooth. However, if you want a Bluetooth toggle available at the top level, toggleable with a single tap just like iOS 17, you can add it back yourself. Here’s how.

A long-requested feature for Android users switching to iPhone is the addition of T9 dialling. This is a shortcut to dialling phone numbers from your address book, by typing in letters on the keypad.

For instance, to call John you’d press 5 6 4 (for J O H). On many Samsung and other Android phones, this would search for the closest alphabetical match to a person’s name in your contacts. iPhone has not had this feature … until now with iOS 18.

Apple has just released tvOS 18 for the public, the latest software update for the Apple TV set-top box. You can get the new operating system version on Apple TV HD (2015) and all Apple TV 4K devices.

There’s also a new version 18 update for HomePod and HomePod mini, also available now. Here’s what’s new …

With iOS 18, Apple lets you customize the app icons on your iPhone and iPad. You can choose between light mode, dark mode, or tinted style appearance for your icons.

However, when you choose dark mode icons, you may notice that not all of your icons change. Here’s why that happens …

The Apple Store is down, ahead of iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max preorders going live. (Apple Watch Series 10, and AirPods 4 are already available to order.)

If you are looking to buy Apple’s shiny new gadgets, start refreshing the Apple Store at 5 AM PT, or in about six hours time. All the new iPhones, Watches and AirPods ship to customers beginning September 20.

Apart from some marketing materials, we have not yet seen Apple Intelligence image generation features in action. Image Playgrounds and Genmoji are not currently available in the iOS 18.1 Apple Intelligence betas; they are rumored to launch as part of the iOS 18.2 cycle later this year.

However, Apple has today shared a real-world example with WIRED magazine. Pictured above, adorned with a AI watermark applied by WIRED, it depicts Apple SVP Craig Federighi’s dog.

So, Apple just updated its base model AirPods for the first time in years. There’s now two new models, one with Active Noise Cancellation, and one without – starting at $129.

ANC was the hero exclusive feature of AirPods Pro … until today. So how do the new AirPods (not Pro) stack up? Here’s all the differences.

Apple today announced that Apple Intelligence will begin in beta starting in October, with iOS 18.1. The first features of the Apple Intelligence suite will be exclusive to US English language users.

Apple will roll out Apple Intelligence to more languages over time. In December, the company will add support for English dialects in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. New languages will roll out in 2025 …

Apple today announced the new A18 chip, featuring a six-core CPU, five-core GPU, and sixteen-core Neural Engine for faster artificial intelligence performance. Apple also said the A18 has a new memory subsystem to traffic data as quickly as possible.

Compared to iPhone 15 with the A16 Bionic chip, Apple says the A18 chip is up to 30% in single-core CPU performance.

Apple today announced the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, which Apple said “is built from the ground up” for Apple Intelligence.

The iPhone 16 features a new capacitive button on the side of the device to make it easier to capture photos and videos; Apple calls this the ‘Camera Control’. The action button, previously exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro, is also included on iPhone 16, replacing the mute switch.

Apple has announced some new hearing health related features, coming as a software update for AirPods Pro 2.

This includes a hearing protection mode being enabled by default, offering passive noise cancellation in loud environments. Apple is also launching a “clinical grade” hearing aid mode, as part of a software update coming later this year.

Following usual tradition when Apple is launching new hardware, the Apple Online Store is down ahead of the ‘Glowtime’ Apple event which kicks off at 10 AM Pacific Time today.

The company is expected to announce a new iPhone lineup; iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Apple Watch Series 10 will also be announced featuring a design change and new larger screen sizes, along with a new generation of AirPods, and potentially some other surprises.

Supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo this morning posted his latest estimates for iPhone 16 shipments, ahead of Apple’s event later today where the new iPhone 16 lineup will be finally unveiled.

Kuo expects iPhone 16 shipments for 2024 to be about 89 million units, down slightly from the 91 million units of the iPhone 15 shipped in the same period last year. As Apple tries to order what it will sell, this indicates that the company is not anticipating a huge jump in customer demand for the new phones.

On the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, Apple finally got rid of the Lightning port and replaced it with USB-C. This opens up a whole new world of convenience of connecting accessories and peripherals. The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max go one step further, as the USB-C port on the pro models supports USB-3 speeds, enabling up to 10 Gbps data transfer speeds.

USB-C makes it easy to connect displays, external storage, cameras, and charge using the same cable as all your other devices. Here’s what you can do with your new iPhone and its shiny new port …

As part of its September ‘Glowtime’ event taking place on Monday, Apple will update all of its Apple Watch models, including the low-end Apple Watch SE, the mainstream Apple Watch Series 10 and the high-end Apple Watch Ultra 3.

While much attention will be on the Series 10’s redesigned thinner chassis and larger display, Bloomberg reports the other major new feature for the watches will be sleep apnea detection.

The first episode of Slow Horses season four is now available to watch on Apple TV+. The spy series, headed by Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, began in April 2022 and has been rolling out new season at a rapid clip.

It has risen in popularity ever since its premiere, and the British show is now outperforming worldwide on the service. Season four is based on the fourth book in the Mick Herron franchise, called Spook Street.

With the Major League Soccer ending in October, Apple has dropped the price of the season pass one last time to reflect the remaining time. For the rest of 2024, MLS Season Pass is now $9.99, its lowest price ever.

And for Apple TV+ members, you can now subscribe to MLS Season Pass completely for free. The only catch is to remember to cancel before the next season starts and the subscription returns to its normal pricing.

Best known for their network attached solutions (like my beloved DS920+), Synology have recently launched a new product in their lineup, called the Synology BeeStation.

The BeeStation aims to simplify the idea of a home NAS, offering a local network backup option as an alternative to cloud solutions like iCloud and Dropbox. Here’s how it works. 

The Apple original film by Ridley Scott has been re-released, with Napoleon: The Director’s Cut adding an additional 48 minutes of footage compared to the theatrical version. Watch with an Apple TV+ subscription.

Napoleon debuted in cinemas last November, taking in $221 million at the box office, and started streaming on Apple TV+ in March. The new director’s cut marks the first time Apple has released an alternate version of one of its original films.

Starting with iOS 18, the Apple Sports app will provide Live Activities for games, surfacing real-time and updating sports scores directly on your iPhone lock screen, and Apple Watch Smart Stack.

This functionality will replace the similar “Follow Game” feature currently available in the TV app. Users will be able to choose which teams in Sports they want to receive Live Activities for, and scores will be sent to the user’s lock screen automatically when matches start.