Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 1

There have been a ton of new rumors floating around in the last few weeks that suggest the upcoming iOS 18 iPhone software update will be a big one, bringing with it a slew of new AI-powered features. Now, a new report has shared more details about what IOS 18 will have to offer and for once, it isn't something to do with Apple's newfound focus on AI.

AppleInsider has been sharing various tidbits about the expected iOS 18 features of late and now a new report suggests that Apple is planning some new changes to the way the Music app works on iPhones.

The report, which cites unnamed people familiar with Apple's pre-release software, claims that a new audio passthrough feature is coming to Apple Music and QuickTime player. It will only be available on supported hardware and nobody knows what that hardware will be just yet, and details are also unclear as well. The report says that it appears to relate to spatial audio.

Apple has today released an updated version of its popular Shazam music identification app including support for a feature that has been around since the arrival of iOS 16 in September of 2022. The feature, Live Activities, allows apps to put information in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro's Dynamic Island, making it visible at all times and across apps.

The feature can be hugely useful when trying to identify a song running in another app, for example, while it can also just be handy for those times when the action of identification is taking longer and the user needs to access another app in the interim. Whatever the reason, the arrival of Live Activity support is most welcome.

Apple has been steadily improving the Shazam experience since it bought the company in 2018 and it's now baked into the iPhone experience not to mention the iPad and Mac. There is also support for widgets as well as launching the app via Control Center on the iPhone and iPad.

There has been an awful lot of talk about Apple's upcoming iOS 18 software update that will power the iPhone starting later this year and most of it has been about the new AI features that it will bring to the table. But it's also set to bring new emojis as well, and we now have a better idea of which we can start to look forward to making their debut.

The Unicode Consortium has shared details of a handful of new emojis that are set to be available this year, assuming that they gain final approval. If they do, Apple and other companies will start to release the new emojis via software updates this year and it's likely that iOS 18 will include them. However, it's possible that we will have to wait for a later 18.1 or similar release for them to break cover as has been the case in previous years.

The new emojis that have been previewed include a face with bags under its eyes, a fingerprint similar to the Touch ID logo, a leafless tree, a root vegetable, a harp, a shovel, and a splatter of something like ink or paint.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple more than fifty new patents and one may be a clue as to what the company is planning on implementing into its long-rumored foldable iPhone.

For quite some time, we have been hearing rumblings about a foldable iPhone, but rumors suggested Apple wasn't quite ready to jump into the emerging market due to limitations in display technology, particularly with the crease that is seen on other foldable devices. Additionally, rumors from supply chain insiders indicate Apple won't be releasing a foldable product until 2027, with the earliest being 2026. By then, engineers should have overcome the display hardware limitation.

Now, Apple is testing its revolutionary foldable panels, and one patent filed with the US trademark office reveals some key details about what could be in Apple's foldable device. The patent describes "self-healing material" that could be used across the entire display or just in the regions of the display that flex. Apple describes the technology as having healing capabilities when the material is dented or flexed. Additionally, this new material can also begin healing when heat, light or electrical current is applied.

Apple and Île-de-France Mobilités have today announced that Parisians can finally add the Navigo card to the Apple Wallet on their iPhone and Apple Watch, allowing them to ride the transit options around the pairs region.

Apple said via a press release that people can buy passes from the Île-de-France Mobilités iOS app or directly from Apple Wallet and then use them to "tap and ride." The announcement also noted that beginning this week, real-time transit information for Apple Maps is now available in pairs to make it easier for people to navigate their way around one of the most famous cities in the world.

Navigo cards can be used to quickly and easily access transit by double-pressing the iPhone's side button just as iPhone owners already do when making Apple Pay payments. Alternatively, those who have Express Mode enabled simply need to hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near a compatible reader without having to first unlock or authenticate the device. What's more, the iPhone will continue to work in this way even when it needs to be charged thanks to a reserve power mode.

Small businesses in Japan now have a new way to accept contactless payments from their customers using contactless cards or Apple Pay as well as other mobile wallets using nothing more than their iPhones. The Tap to Pay iPhone feature can now be used by businesses in Japan just as it can in other parts of the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and others.

Apple's press release notes that businesses in Japan can now access payments via three different financial services including Square, Recruit Co, and GMI Financial Gate Co while Ayden support will also come to Tap to Pay on iPhone users within the next few months. It's also to be noted that Tap to Pay on iPhone will also be used in Apple Stores across Japan, too.

Being able to take contactless payments using nothing more than an iPhone can be a huge boost for businesses that need to accept payments away from a shop or other physical location where a traditional point-of-sale system may be used. The system requires an iPhone XS or newer running the latest version of iOS available to it.

Apple is expected to announce as many as four new iPhones this coming fall, with the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max making up the lineup for 2024. We've been hearing various leaks over the last few months that give us an idea of what the new devices will have to offer but there is obviously no confirmation from Apple one way or the other. Now, a new leak appears to have given us more information about what the camera situation will be at the very top of that lineup.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max will be the best iPhone that money can buy later this year thanks to its huge 6.9-inch display, among other things. Now, Weibo leaker OvO Baby Sauce OvO has suggested that buyers can also look forward to a bigger main camera sensor. Both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will also feature a 48-megapixel ultrawide camera for the first time, we're told.

The leaker claims that the main iPhone 16 Pro Max camera will be an advanced version of the 48-megapixel Sony IMX903 sensor while the iPhone 16 Pro will use the same 48-megapixel custom Sony IMX803 sensor that is already used on the iPhone 15 Pro models. That doesn't mean that those who don't want to buy the huge iPhone 16 Pro Max shouldn't look forward to some camera improvements, however.

Apple's brand-new M4 iPad Pro is now on sale after months of guesses and delays in terms of its launch date. The tablet brought with it all of the high-end specs that we'd been told to expect including a powerful new M4 chip and a stunning OLED display. But according to a new report not everyone has been happy with that display since picking up their new tablets.

The iPad Pro comes with a stunning new OLED display, the likes of which Apple has never put in a tablet before. However, a MacRumors report cites buyers across Reddit and its own forums as having issues with that new OLED display. Some say that the display is grainy, for example, and the issue seems to be most pronounced on darker backgrounds.

Some users describe the issue as if it was a photo taken in the dark with a large level of noise, but it isn't yet clear just how widespread it is. It's also unclear whether this is actually an issue as such or simply a feature of the way these new displays work. The issues don't appear to be affecting everyone to be sure, and none of the reviewers who got their hands on the iPad Pro early reported any similar issues.

Apple's AirTag is a pretty solid item tracker as it is, but it hasn't been updated since its release back in April 2021. That means that the tracker is now more than three years old and a new report suggests that Apple is finally getting ready to release an updated model. But that isn't going to happen any time soon, it would seem, and we might have to wait another whole year.

That's according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman who was writing in the weekly Power On newsletter when he suggested that mid-2025 might be the timeframe we should be looking at.

According to Gurman, the next-generation AirTag is being developed under the codename B589 within Apple. It's currently undergoing manufacturing tests with supply chain partners and the tracker is currently aiming for the middle of next year, although that could change before the updated AirTag is officially unveiled.

Apple released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1 to the public just a week ago but the company has now also released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1. The unusually quick turnaround comes because Apple needed to fix a particularly troubling bug that has been reported for the last few days and has proven to be a real source of concern for some.

That bug saw iPhone and iPad owners report that they sometimes encountered the return of previously deleted photos in the Photos app. Users reported that photos, sometimes as old as 10 years old, had made an appearance despite having previously been deleted. The photos popped up as if they had only just been taken and could potentially have been problematic for a number of reasons depending on their content. The bug could also resurface photos of people that the user did not want to see for various obvious reasons, too.

Now, Apple has released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1 to address the issue, saying that the update provides important bug fixes to address a rare issue where photos could reappear in the Photos app. The release notes say that this happened when photos had experienced a database corruption, but it isn't clear why that might happen or indeed what it actually means.