Apr 28
Wes Davis
The soothing sounds of iPhone 15 Pro storage upgrades.
Someone made an ASMR video out of expanding the latest iPhone’s storage. It’s very satisfying as long as you don’t think too much about how deeply frustrating the Herculean effort to do this is, from a right-to-repair perspective.
Jan 23
Wes Davis
Death Stranding comes to life on iPhone and Mac next week
Image: 505 Games / Kojima Productions
Some Mac, iPhone, and iPad gamers will finally be able to play as postapocalyptic Norman Reedus in Death Stranding Director’s Cut on January 30th. Only iPhone 15 Pro models and Macs or iPads equipped with Apple’s M-series chips can run the $39.99 game, though. At the moment, preorders are 50 percent off at $19.99, and pleasantly, it’s a universal purchase, so you only have to buy it once to play it on multiple platforms.
Hideo Kojima announced the release of this director’s cut for Macs at WWDC 2023 as part of a new push from Apple to highlight the potential of gaming on Apple Silicon devices, while Apple announced the iPhone 15 Pro port during its Wonderlust iPhone launch event in September. Like other versions of the game released in 2021, it comes with exclusive content like a “dangerous underground factory,” “expanded story missions,” and new “delivery assists like cargo catapults and a newly-added stabilizer function.” It also gets some items from Half-Life and Cyberpunk 2077.
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Dec 14, 2023
Umar Shakir
Here’s what it’s like to watch a personal spatial video in a Vision Pro headset.
Apple’s upcoming mixed reality headset can play back stereoscopic 3D video shot on iPhone 15 Pro, and CNET’s Scott Stein got to load up some of his own spatial videos on a Vision Pro and watch them:
[My mom] sort of raised her eyebrows a bit, and the way she looked at me in 3D — at a scale close to normal size, with her seeming to make eye contact — made me feel like I was almost there. It made me want to climb through that fuzzy-bordered window and join my family again on the other side.
Dec 14, 2023
Umar Shakir
So now I know I have too many iMessages backed up.
In the new iOS 17.2 update, you can easily see how many messages are backed up to iCloud alongside how much storage they’re taking up by going to Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Show All > Messages in iCloud.
I’m not sure if I truly need to hold on to these forever. What is your iMessage backup looking like?
Screenshot: Umar Shakir / The Verge
Oct 31, 2023
Jay Peters
Belkin’s new 2-in-1 charging dock might blend into your bedroom
Image: Belkin
Belkin has a new 2-in-1 charging dock that’s all about the looks. Yes, it offers the types of features you’d expect from a $129.95 charger, including letting you fast charge iPhones with MagSafe as well as Apple Watches. But if you do pay up for the new charging dock, you’re probably buying it because it looks great.
Offered in two neutral colors, sand or charcoal (basically white and black), “the dock achieves a stunning stone-like appearance, blending seamlessly into its environment whether it’s placed on a nightstand, kitchen counter or desk,” Belkin writes in its press release. Take Belkin’s marketing language there with a grain of salt, but I do think the charger has a really nice aesthetic.
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Oct 26, 2023
Mia Sato
Apple’s iOS 17.2 beta includes the new Journal app
Image: The Verge
Apple has released the developer beta of iOS 17.2, and it includes the Journal app, a digital daily diary for users to log their activities.
The Journal app was first announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the company frames it as a way for users to self-reflect and practice gratitude.
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Oct 25, 2023
Jon Porter
iOS 17.1 arrives with updates to AirDrop, Apple Music, and more
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Apple has officially released iOS 17.1, the latest version of its iPhone operating system. The update has been available in beta since late last month, during which time its biggest new feature has arguably been the ability to continue AirDrop transfers over a cellular connection if the two connected devices move out of Wi-Fi range after the sending process has started. Apple announced the feature back at its developer conference in June, but it didn’t arrive in time for the main iOS 17 release last month.
As shown in iOS 17.1’s beta releases, the update includes a handful of other minor tweaks and additions. There’s a new Favorites feature for Apple Music that lets you add songs, albums, playlists, and artists to your library and signal your music tastes to the app’s recommendation algorithms, and the settings menu for the StandBy feature has been tweaked to give you more control over when the phone’s display turns off when used in this smart display mode.
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Oct 4, 2023
Jay Peters
Halide now offers special Action Button features when you’re inside the app.
When you’re using Halide, the Action Button on the iPhone 15 Pro phones can now, according to the app’s patch notes for version 2.13:
Toggle manual or autofocus
Cycle through your lenses
Switch between auto and manual exposure modes
Switch between 12 and 48MP capture modes
Toggle RAW capture
and even capture a photo! (though, with a delay - we suggest using the volume button instead)
There are more details in the patch notes, so I encourage you to read them for yourself. Using a Shortcut, you can also use the Action Button to open up Halide, too.
Oct 4, 2023
Richard Lawler
Apple addresses iPhone 15 overheating with a new iOS 17 update
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Over the weekend, Apple blamed several factors for reports of iPhone 15s running hot, pointing to problems with specific apps like Instagram and Uber, post-transfer background processing, and unspecified bugs in iOS 17. Today, the company released a new software update with patch notes saying that iOS 17.0.3 “addresses an issue that may cause iPhone to run warmer than expected.”
In an update detailing the security fixes for this patch, Apple listed two fixes addressed on both iOS and iPadOS (via 9to5Mac). One is a kernel exploit for an attacker with local access to the device that Apple said “may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 16.6,” as well as a fix for a libvpx bug — which CISA issued a warning about — that could allow someone to take over a device remotely, that has also been patched recently in apps like Chrome and Firefox.
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Oct 3, 2023
Wes Davis
Apple’s sweaty iPhone fix might be coming in iOS 17.0.3.
Apple acknowledged over the weekend that the iPhone 15 Pro can run a little hot, but said it’s an iOS 17 software issue and it would be fixed soon.
Today, MacRumors reported that Apple is testing iOS 17.0.3 internally; perhaps, as the outlet speculates, that’s the software update that ends our hot iPhone 15 summer. Perhaps.
Sep 30, 2023
Wes Davis
Apple blames iOS 17 bugs and apps like Instagram for making iPhone 15s run hot
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Apple has acknowledged user complaints that iPhone 15 and 15 Pro phones are overheating, reports Forbes, but said that contrary to speculation, it has nothing to do with the phone’s hardware design. Forbes noted an update to Instagram has already rolled out with version 302, released September 27th, to address some of the issues.
Bloomberg notes an unnamed Apple spokesperson specifically mentioning Instagram, Uber, and the game Asphalt 9 as examples of apps that could cause the devices to “run warmer than normal.”
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Sep 26, 2023
Jay Peters
Make sure to update your iPhone 15 before transferring over data from your old phone
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
If you’ve just picked up a new iPhone 15 device, before you transfer over your data from an older phone, make sure to update that new phone to iOS 17.0.2 first. An Apple support document says that the update, which came out on Thursday, fixes an issue that “may prevent transferring data directly from another iPhone during setup” (via MacRumors).
Initially, iOS 17.0.2 was only available for the just-launched iPhone 15 phones; the most current software for older iPhones available last week was iOS 17.0.1, which also launched on Thursday and included some big security updates. On September 26th, 9to5Mac reported that Apple released a new build of 17.0.2 with the same release notes available for all iPhones capable of running the current software.
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Sep 26, 2023
Richard Lawler
Apple’s Studio Display gets manual controls for its webcam
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
Apple just released macOS Sonoma, and along with the new 14.0 version of its operating system, there’s an update for its standalone Studio Display monitor that addresses some of our issues with its much-derided webcam (via MacRumors). Now, the Studio Display’s camera offers manual control over framing and zoom, which you can adjust by moving the image back and forth or in and out within the video preview window.
From Apple’s update notes:
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Sep 25, 2023
Emma Roth
iFixit has good news and bad news about the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s repairability
While Apple may have made the iPhone 15 Pro Max easier to repair physically, a teardown from iFixit reveals it still comes with the same parts pairing constraints as its predecessors.
Like the iPhone 14, iFixit found that the iPhone 15 lineup has a redesigned midframe that you can access by removing the device’s screen or back glass. However, iFixit notes that the internals on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max live behind the screen, rather than the back glass, as is the case with the base iPhone 15 and 15 Plus as well as the iPhone 14 lineup.
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Sep 23, 2023
Allison Johnson
The iPhone 15 Pro is teaching me to embrace digital zoom
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
If you want to hear a love story, ask any photographer about their favorite lens.
They’ll probably get a little glimmer in their eye as they tell you about the fast 35mm they carry everywhere or the long portrait lens with the bokeh that hits just right. Camera bodies come and go, but your favorite lens is a lifelong relationship.
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Sep 22, 2023
Jay Peters
iFixit tears down… Apple’s FineWoven cases
Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge
“The new FineWoven iPhone cases are very bad,” according to my colleague Allison Johnson, so you probably shouldn’t buy one. Still, I’ve been curious to learn more about them, and iFixit’s new teardown just gave me even more information than I could have thought to ask for: it put one of the new cases under a microscope, tested how it stood up to things like hot sauce and coffee, and tore the thing apart — and, best of all, photographed every step of the way.
There are some incredible zoomed-in photos of the fabric, for example; that black thing in a post from iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens is a human hair included for scale! Another photo shows how the fibers are affected when cut by a knife — it’s not pretty.
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Sep 22, 2023
Allison Johnson
Apple iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max review: by the numbers
There are very few surprises from new smartphones these days. Breakthrough new features? Astounding new camera hardware? Get out of here. That’s the stuff of early 2010 mobile technology.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are no exception to recent trends: they’re not seismic shifts; they’re just a bit better than the things that came before them in a lot of small but meaningful ways.
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Sep 22, 2023
Dan Seifert
This retractable cable can help make the iPhone USB-C transition easier
Image: Asicen
Did you hear the iPhone 15 has USB-C now? That’s a great thing and long overdue, but it does mean that there will be a period of transition where some of us end up having to deal with both Lightning and USB-C iPhones in our lives, particularly if we live with someone who isn’t buying the new iPhone right away.
This is particularly cumbersome if you share a vehicle and want to use CarPlay in it — you’ll need a way to hook up your new USB-C iPhone and maintain a Lightning connection for the other person using the car. You could do this with multiple cables, of course, and switch it every time you get in the car, but who needs that hassle? For the past couple of years, I’ve used this three-headed cable to use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in the same vehicle, depending on who is driving, no cable swap necessary. (It also comes with a Micro USB port on one side, but I can’t say I’ve ever used it.)
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Sep 22, 2023
Jay Peters
If you just got an iPhone 15, make sure to update it before transferring data over from your old iPhone.
The iPhone 15’s latest update is iOS 17.0.2, and Apple says it fixes an issue that “may prevent transferring data directly from another iPhone during setup” (via MacRumors). Take a few minutes to update your new phone before setting up that transfer to avoid issues.
(By the way, the latest update for older iPhones iOS 17.0.1, so don’t look for iOS 17.0.2 on those devices.)
[Apple Support]
Sep 22, 2023
Chris Welch
Apple’s faster Haptic Touch is as close to a 3D Touch comeback as we’re gonna get
Screenshot by Chris Welch / The Verge
As excited as I am to pick up a new iPhone 15 Pro Max later today, every release day for Apple’s latest phones brings back a nagging feeling: I still miss 3D Touch. Introduced on the iPhone 6S and lasting through the XS and XS Max, this feature could determine how much pressure you were applying to the screen with each finger press, and software could respond differently based on the level of force.
I remember having my mind blown by the live wallpaper animations, which would play (and then rewind back in reverse) based on how hard or softly I was pressing down. 3D Touch also brought other useful tricks like “peek” and “pop,” which let you preview a link or other content with a light press and then fully open it with a firm one.
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Sep 22, 2023
Richard Lawler
Explaining the lossless, low-latency audio link between the USB-C AirPods Pro and Apple Vision Pro.
In an interview with Brian Tong on the Apple Blitz XL podcast, Apple VP of sensing and connectivity Ron Huang explains that while the second-gen AirPods Pro earbuds also have the H2 chip just like its new USB-C model, the new ones are capable of communicating at 5GHz instead of just 2GHz.
He says that’s why the new USB-C AirPods Pro earbuds have enough bandwidth to do lossless audio wirelessly when combined with the upcoming Vision Pro.
Apple:
The H2 chip in the latest AirPods Pro and Apple Vision Pro, combined with a groundbreaking wireless audio protocol, unlocks powerful 20-bit, 48 kHz Lossless Audio with a massive reduction in audio latency
Sep 22, 2023
Jay Peters
Tim Cook literally opened Apple’s Fifth Avenue store today.
Seriously, he had to unlock the door to greet customers. Amusing start to iPhone 15 launch day.
Sep 22, 2023
Dan Seifert
The iPhone 15 Pro’s killer new feature is a fart button.
Smelt it dealt it.
(The app to do it is call Thwip.)
Sep 22, 2023
Allison Johnson
Calling all Shortcuts sickos.
The iPhone 15 Pro is shipping today and I want to know what y’all are doing with the Action Button. Mine runs a shortcut that orders my favorite fall coffee beverage — but what will you do with your one, wild, and precious Action Button? Set it to dispense treats from your automatic pet feeder? Program it to unleash the robot vacuums?
Reply in the comments on this quickpost or hit me up on Threads, and I’ll round up Verge readers’ best, most unhinged Action Button shortcuts next week.
Sep 22, 2023
Allison Johnson
You asked, and we answered your burning iPhone 15 questions
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Ever since our reviews for the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro went up on Tuesday morning, you’ve had a ton of questions to ask about the phones — in comments, on The Vergecast, on Threads, an Instagram App, and .
So we thought we’d put all that information together in a nice little smorgasbord of nerdy tidbits and philosophical pondering and pick out a few favorites in the process.
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FAQs
What is the iPhone 15 lineup? ›
It consists of a base iPhone 15 and a larger iPhone 15 Plus, which have similar specs to one another. Then there's the higher-end iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the latter of which has a few features that make it stand out more than previous Max models.
What is so special about the iPhone 15? ›The iPhone 15 supports 5G connectivity and a much sharper and brighter OLED display (versus the iPhone 11's LCD). See below for everything else you gain. For iPhone Mini users, the standard iPhone 15 is your best bet if you still want a relatively compact form factor with all the iOS perks.
Does the iPhone 15 come with a charger? ›What Comes with the iPhone 15? Many users ask “Does the iPhone 15 come with a charger” when they plan their purchases. The short answer is no. Apple has decided not to include a wall charger with the iPhone 15.
Is the iPhone 15 worth waiting for? ›The bottom line: It's worth upgrading to the iPhone 15 if you have an iPhone 12. The updates go beyond new technologies like the Dynamic Island and USB-C; you also get a notable upgrade in everything from general performance to battery life and camera quality.
Does the iPhone 15 have a SIM card? ›iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus use eSIM technology and are not compatible with physical SIM cards.
Is the iPhone 16 out yet? ›Key Takeaways. The iPhone 16, with AI features, is expected in September 2024. The Action button 'will be available across all Apple iPhone 16 models.' A faster A-series chip and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity equal a new era for hardware.
What are the disadvantages of the iPhone 15? ›Here's a roundup of drawbacks that have been plaguing new iPhone 15 owners.
- iPhone 15 gets way too hot. ...
- A bug causes the iPhone to freeze during setup. ...
- Slow, laggy iOS. ...
- Fingerprint-attracting chassis. ...
- The new iPhone breaks too easily.
Sep 26, 2023
Despite multiple iOS 17 updates, some iPhone 15 users still reported overheating problems. Perhaps more interestingly, Apple has indirectly confirmed this.
Will iPhone 15 have big changes? ›Apple's brought some previously Pro-only features to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, such as Dynamic Island and a 48MP main camera. It's also seen improvements to its display, in-camera features and enhanced battery and computing performance.
Can the iPhone 15 use wired headphones? ›To play audio on your iPhone, you can use its built-in speakers, connect to AirPods or other Bluetooth devices, or use AirPlay. You can also use the USB-C connector to listen with wired headphones or other audio accessories, like the new EarPods (USB-C), sold separately.
Is the iPhone 15 waterproof? ›
iPhone 15 models are water resistant in that they can handle minor water exposure. Although they aren't made to withstand submersion for longer than 30 minutes or depths greater than six meters, their IP68 rating ensures they are dust, water and splash resistant.
Do I need a new plug for my iPhone 15? ›Apple stopped including charging bricks with the iPhone 12 in 2020, but the 15 and 15 Pro do at least come with a short C-to-C cable in the box. To get the fastest charging speeds on an iPhone 15, you'll want at least a 20W USB-C charger.
Will there be a big difference between iPhone 15 and 16? ›With a new vertical camera system, the iPhone 16 might look different, but apart from Spatial Video support, it could be a much less exciting upgrade than last year's iPhone 15.
How expensive will iPhone 15 be? ›iPhone 15: starting from $799 (unchanged) iPhone 15 Plus: starting from $899 (unchanged) iPhone 15 Pro: starting from $1,099 ($100 increase) iPhone 15 Pro Max: starting from $1,299 ($200 increase)
Is the iPhone 15 camera worth it? ›All the phone's standard cameras in low light were nearly impeccable, making capturing those neon lights and cityscapes with tricky coloring a breeze. And although Night Mode is reduced to the 12MP range, it still outperforms my iPhone 14 Pro with better RGB results and dynamic clarity.
What is the difference between 15 Pro and Pro Max? ›If you're someone who prefers a smaller device that is easier to use one-handed, then the iPhone 15 Pro is the best choice. If you want a larger screen, a bigger battery, and a better zoom lens, then the iPhone 15 Pro Max is the better option.
Will iPhone 15 be completely different? ›Surprisingly enough, the iPhone 15 is quite a meaningful upgrade over the iPhone 14. From its tweaked design and Dynamic Island to the new processor and USB-C port on the bottom, there's a lot to talk about. Of course, they aren't wildly different iPhones, and they share the same fundamental experience.
What is the difference between the iPhone 15 Pro and Plus? ›The iPhone 15 Pro costs more than the 15 Plus, but has better cameras, more power, a 120Hz refresh rate, and an Action button.
Is it worth buying an iPhone 15 Pro Max? ›But you should definitely consider upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro Max if you've been hanging on to an older edition of the iPhone, or if you're using the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, or iPhone 14 Pro and want to take advantage of the larger and more vibrant display of the Pro Max model, or its camera features.