Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 1

If everything goes the way that we expect it to Apple will announce a round of new iPhones this fall, likely in September. That'll bring the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max to the market and replace the outgoing iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max that were released in September of last year. We've been told to expect new features and faster chips, but it's the increase in display size of the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max that could catch some by surprise.

If the rumors are true the iPhone 16 Pro will have a 6.3-inch display rather than the familiar 6.1-inch one, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max will see its display grow from 6.7 inches to 6.9 inches. With those display size increases we also expect the overall size of the devices to increase, too. That might not make all that much difference on the iPhone 16 Pro, but when you're dealing with a phone as big as the existing iPhone 15 Pro Max, any extra size makes a difference, fast.

That's clear in the images shared to the X social network by ZONEofTECH which appear to show an iPhone 16 Pro Max dummy unit alongside an iPhone 15 Pro Max. The size difference between the two devices is clear and obvious, suggesting that people who own an iPhone 15 Pro Max but already find it to be a little on the large side might want to consider sticking to the standard iPhone 16 Pro this time around.

Apple's brand new M4 iPad Pro is now on sale in both 11-inch and 13-inch display sizes. They're both identical bar the size of the display and some measurements, one of which is the thickness. The 13-inch iPad Pro is the thinnest coming in at just 5.3mm and that, Apple says, makes it the thinnest device that it has ever shipped. But given the fact that previous iPad Pros have been shown to flex and bend because of their lack of girth, many obviously wondered what this new thinness would mean for rigidity.

That was something that Apple apparently set out to address. Apple executives confirmed that there is a new cowling used in the iPad Pro that covers the entire logic board and, as a result, makes the device more rigid than you might think given its lack of thickness. But does that cowing work, and if not, how easily does the iPad Pro bend? That's what two YouTubers set out to discover.

One was JerryRigEverything, a YouTuber with a history of taking new devices and then ripping them apart to see what makes them tick. So when we heard that the iPad Pro was incredibly thin we knew that there would be a video dedicated to it. And, sure enough, here it is.

When Apple announced its latest iPad Pro with the fancy OLED display and superfast M4 chip it did so by using a new ad. That ad showed musical instruments and art supplies, among other things, being destroyed by a giant industrial press. But while the ad was absolutely impressive, it definitely didn't seem to send the message that Apple thought it would. Instead, creatives the world over argued that it was disrespectful and that Apple had completely missed the mark. Apple subsequently agreed and apologized for the misstep, but that doesn't seem to have been the end of it.

As it has done before, Samsung has now picked up the baton and mocked Apple with a new ad of its own. It's based on Apple's ad and sees a woman using a Samsung tablet to read music while playing what appears to be a bruised and battered guitar. The scene is made up to look like the aftermath of Apple's own ad, giving the whole thing extra weight. It's a cool ad, and it carries the tagline "Creativity cannot be crushed."

Samsung definitely went for the jugular here and it seems to have hit the mark. The ad was posted to the X social network carrying the #UnCrush tag and you can check it out for yourself above.

Apple launched its new M4 processor and new iPad Pro last week, with the powerful new Arm-based M4 processor destroying the Geekebench 6 world record when the M4-powered iPad Pro was cooled with liquid nitrogen (LN2 cooling).

The new M4-powered iPad Pro was tweaked by reviewer Geekerwan and his team, and while the M4's performance cores already clock at a hefty 4.40GHz, the overclock using LN2 only pushed the performance cores on the M4 chip to 4.41GHz (an additional 10MHz), which was enough to break the 4000 points milestone in Geekbench 6, creating a new world record.

I don't know if using exotic LN2 cooling to chill down the M4-powered iPad Pro was required enjoy a 10MHz frequency bump, as Apple is probably keeping things tight -- in both hardware and software -- keeping that 4.40GHz frequency on the performance cores as high as it can. Normally we see LN2 cooling on a CPU or GPU, as they're thermally limited from operating at higher frequencies... but it seems the M4 is hitting its limits thermally, and Apple probably has stops in place to keep the 4.40GHz (or so, 10MHz is such a tiny increase on 4400MHz).

After a week-long preorder window, Apple has now made the new M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air available to buy both online and at its retail store locations around the globe. Select third-party retail partners also have stocks right now, too.

The new iPads were both announced at last week's Let Loose event alongside the new Apple Pencil Pro and iPad Pro Magic Keyboard. Both of the accessories are also available to buy and are reportedly big upgrades over previous iterations of the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard.

The new iPad Pro is undoubtedly the star of the show. Available in both 11-inch and 13-inch sizes and starting from $999, the new iPad Pro comes with the first OLED display ever used in an Apple tablet. That display allows for a peak HDR brightness of 1,600 nits as well as a peak SDR brightness of 1,000 nits. Apple calls the new display the Ultra Retina XDR and it offers improved colors and contrast alongside incredible brightness. For the first time, Apple is also offering a nano-texture display option for the new iPad Pro, albeit only available on the 1TB and 2TB storage configuration options. An additional $100 fee is required to upgrade to the nano-texture finish.

Apple only released the iOS 17.5 software update to the public yesterday but already some users are reporting that a somewhat strange bug is causing their old, deleted photos to reappear in the Photos app. The reports suggest that even deleting the photos again isn't enough to make sure that they stay deleted, too.

The problem has started to pop up across social media with MacRumors reporting on a Reddit post in which people have been detailing their experiences. One user says that four photos that were taken in 2010 have now popped back up and appear as if they were recently taken. Another user explained that a photo taken at a concert has recently shown up as if it was taken today.

There is currently no indication of why this is happening, but the age of some of these photos suggests that these aren't images that are being held in the Recently Deleted album within the Photos app. Photos normally wait there for 30 days after they were deleted before they are actually deleted properly, but given the age of some of the photos discussed in the Reddit thread, this issue appears to be more related to iCloud than anything local to the iPhone in question.

Apple CarPlay is a great way to enjoy some of your favorite iPhone apps and features while driving without taking your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road. It's an infinitely better approach than trying to use your phone in your hands or via something like an in-car phone holder because the car's entertainment system screen is always bigger and within reach. Now, Apple has previewed some new accessibility features that are going to make CarPlay even better and easier to use for everyone.

Apple has previewed a number of new accessibility features that are set to ship later this year, like as part of iOS 18 and other software updates that are expected to be announced next month. In the case of CarPlay, there are multiple new additions to look forward to including Voice Control, Color Filters, and Sound Recognition.

Sound Recognition will allow drivers or passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing to enable alerts and then be notified if car horns and sirens are heard by the iPhone. That could be a huge feature for people who worry that they will be in front of an ambulance without hearing its sirens, for example.

Suffering from motion sickness is nobody's idea of fun, especially if you have to travel in vehicles a lot for whatever reason. Thankfully, there are ways to help alleviate the symptoms of motion or travel sickness, and Apple has announced a new one specifically designed for iPhone and iPad users.

Rather than taking a tablet or using another approach, Apple has told users that it has a software fix for their very real-world problem. In a press release previewing new accessibility features coming to the iPhone and iPad later this year, Apple pointed out a new Vehicle Motion Cues feature that will help people deal with sickness while on the move.

Apple says that research has shown that motion sickness is commonly caused by a sensory conflict between what a person can see and what they can feel. For example, looking at a stationary object - like an iPhone or iPad - while feeling the motion of a vehicle can be enough to make some people feel unwell. To help with that, Apple's new Vehicle Motion Cues feature will use animated dots on the edges of the screen to represent the changes in motion. The idea is to remove that sensory conflict mentioned earlier.

If you're picking up a new M4 iPad Pro or a new M2 iPad Air, the chances are good that you intend to keep it for at least three years. That's what we're learning after a new report was published on the amount of time people like to keep their tablets.

The CIRP report looked at how often people choose to upgrade their iPad and the figures suggest that people are now keeping their tablets for longer than ever. The stats show that the largest group of people, around 40% of them, said that they hold on to their iPads for three years or more which is a notable increase over previous years. The group that keeps their iPad for between two and three years has also increased and is not 25%.

Finally, the future for those who keep an iPad for just one or two years is now also 25% while only 10% of people keep an iPad for less than a single year, as you might expect.

Apple and Google announced they are teaming up to prevent users of both iOS and Android devices from being unwantedly tracked.

The two companies announced a new industry specification called "Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers" for Bluetooth tracking devices. This new specification will make it possible to alert iOS and Android users when one of their devices is being tracked, which is an effort by the companies to mitigate the misuse of devices such as Apple AirTag's being used nefariously. The new capability will be rolled out to iOS devices as part of Apple's iOS 17.5 update, and Google will launch the same feature on Android 6.0+ devices.

As for what iOS and Android users can expect to see when they are being unknowingly tracked, the newsroom post on Apple's website states, "users will now get an"[Item] Found Moving With You"alert on their device if an unknown Bluetooth tracking device is seen moving with them over time, regardless of the platform the device is paired with."