With iOS 18, Apple is adding Game Mode to iPhone. A similar Game Mode was added to macOS Sonoma last year, and the same performance-enhancing features apply, according to Apple.
When enabled, Game Mode optimizes the gaming experience by giving the game the highest priority access to your iPhone's processor, while lowering usage for background tasks.
Apple says Game Mode also improves the responsiveness of connected AirPods and game controllers by reducing input latency and audio latency.
There's nothing to set up with Game Mode – it turns on automatically when you launch a game or an app associated with a game, as indicated by a brief notification.
The feature is designed for AAA titles like Assassin's Creed Mirage and Resident Evil Village. Capcom announced on Monday that Resident Evil 7 is coming to iPhone, iPad, and Macs on July 2, providing another opportunity to see how the new Game Mode performs in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.
Thursday August 20, 2026 8:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple has yet to reveal when the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra will be announced and released, but the dates usually follow a familiar pattern.
As usual, the iPhone event is expected to take place in the first half of September.
Labor Day falls on September 7 this year. The last time the holiday was on that day was in 2020, but the iPhone event that year was delayed until October due to...
Thursday August 20, 2026 2:19 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
macOS 27 Golden Gate is not compatible with any Macs with Intel processors, marking the end of an era. The update, which is currently in beta ahead of a release later this year, is limited to Apple silicon Macs with an M1 chip or newer.
Last year, Apple said that macOS 26 Tahoe would be the final macOS release compatible with Intel-based Macs, so this was an expected development.
Intel...
Wednesday August 19, 2026 12:53 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. More than a year later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change in the foreseeable future.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
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I would love to be able to trigger it manually to make other apps faster
Exactly.
Why not make everything faster?
It reminds me of an old Seinfeld joke about airplane speed:
"So I'm on the plane, we left late. Pilot says we're going to be making up some time in the air. I thought, well isn't that interesting? We'll just make up time. Of course, when they say they're making up time, obviously they're increasing the speed of the aircraft. Now, my question is if you can go faster, why don't you just go as fast as you can all the time? C'mon, there's no cops up here. Nail it. Give it some gas! We're flying."
Gaming on Apple is just weird. There is clearly a focus on performance, but the games aren’t there, it’s done half heartedly and the devices are just not designed for AAA gaming. They are designed for bursty processors usage. That’s where mobile Apple silicon excels most. It’s super efficient for normal consumer use.
Gaming is a whole other beast. It requires bigger batteries, better cooling and a 100 percent solid backing from the platform.
As if performance was the problem in first place...
No, Apple... it was your stupid requirements for games to pass App-Store approval. There is a reason why there are 99% casual games on the app-store...
With SteamDeck and similar gaming handhelds now on the market I'm afraid the ship sailed for anything beyond casual...
That's a shame. I feel like AAA gaming on the iPhone 15 Pro has largely been a PR excercise. From all the YouTube analyses I've seen (Digital Foundry, Andrew Tsai, MrMacRight) games like Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and Death Stranding really struggle to reach 30 fps on the iPhone Pro and even on the iPad it seems like M2 is needed to get consistent 30 fps out of these games (the minimum that is really needed).
Perhaps the A18 chip will be the M2 iPad equivalent so a consistent 30 fps becomes possible on iPhone.
A bigger problem with AAA on iPhone/iPad, imo, is the control. The devs don't put a lot of thoughts on adapting the UI and controls to a mobile game, it's just not worth it for them.
If I am buying a PS5 controller, why not just buy a PS5 as well? It's 1/3 of the cost of an iPhone Pro, that's now required to run the new AAA games.
On some sense, a lot of Gacha mobile games are better designed for mobile (not the business model, but the actual controls)
Apple's first foldable iPhone, with a book-style design featuring a ~5.5-inch outer display and a ~7.8-inch inner display with a minimal crease down the middle.
