Apple spent the entirety of its WWDC26 keynote responding to external pressures, including user complaints about Liquid Glass, community and regulatory worries regarding child safety, and the embarrassment of Siri delays and Apple Intelligence weaknesses.
Want to make your iPhone’s Phone app and contact cards more visually appealing? Adam Engst walks you through the often frustrating process of customizing contact avatars and posters.
T-Mobile’s new T-Satellite service brings Starlink-powered satellite communications to both iPhone and Android users, but Apple’s free satellite features likely already satisfy most iPhone users’ needs.
Our Do You Use It? poll reveals minimal engagement with most Apple Intelligence features, suggesting these AI-powered capabilities aren’t yet meeting user needs.
A peculiar iOS mystery has been cracked: why audio messages mentioning “Dave & Buster’s” disappear into the digital ether. Guilherme Rambo’s investigation reveals the ironic twist that Apple’s transcription system works so well that it breaks itself.
The ability to communicate while outside cellular coverage using Messages via satellite is so useful that Adam Engst recommends everyone with an iPhone 14 or later upgrade to iOS 18 for disaster preparedness—especially if you’re in Hurricane Alley.
Apple has quietly tightened the requirements for how children under 13 in a Family Sharing group can bypass its on-device detection system for nudity in images and videos.
Apple doesn’t skimp when it comes to adding features to its operating systems each year. Here are the 14 features that most caught our attention.
In an announcement that the tech press likely cares about more than everyday users, Apple said Messages will support the RCS messaging standard alongside SMS and MMS sometime next year.
Apple has released details about Contact Key Verification, an upcoming option in Messages that lets you manually verify an iMessage correspondent’s identity without relying on encryption data managed centrally by Apple. The feature also watches for anomalies, warning you when changes prevent it from guaranteeing a conversation is with the same person.
Many people find themselves helping older friends or family members with reduced physical or cognitive capabilities. Adam Engst distills advice from a pair of TidBITS Talk discussions that asked about the best iPhone and simplifying the iPhone experience for older people.
Glenn Fleishman explores iOS 17’s new Check In feature, which lets you specify someone as a temporary safety partner who can confirm you got where you intended to to go. It’s a welcome addition to Apple’s collection of features aimed at increasing personal safety.
Apple has released a list of enhancements coming to Apple services with the next versions of its operating systems.
In which Adam Engst drives to a nearby deep valley where there’s no cellular connectivity to test Find My via satellite and run through the Emergency SOS via satellite demo in a real-world situation. It seemingly worked but revealed a gap in Apple’s approach.
For many people, Messages gains some of the most welcome new features of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13 Ventura. You can now mark messages as unread, edit messages, unsend messages, and more.