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.
We've been focusing on deals on physical products over the past few weeks, but Black Friday is also a great time of year to purchase a streaming membership. Some of the biggest services have great discounts for new and select returning members this week, including Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, and more.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a...
Sunday November 23, 2025 8:48 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 27 will reportedly have two major elements: quality improvements and new AI features.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that Apple is focused on improving "quality and underlying performance" over adding new features.
Gurman said there is one exception to this rule, though, as he expects...
We're only a few days away from Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When...
Thursday November 20, 2025 10:50 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26.2 is currently in beta testing. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics for Apple Music, and more.
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date.
Keep reading...
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we talk through all of the new features and improvements expected to come to next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models.
Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos
Apple's next-generation iPhones are less than ten months away and we already have a good idea about what to expect based on corroborated leaks, rumors,...
Tuesday November 25, 2025 7:09 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in fall 2026, and it's shaping up to include three standout features that could set it apart from the competition.
The book-style foldable will reportedly feature an industry-first 24-megapixel under-display camera built into the inner display, according to a recent JP Morgan equity research report. That...
American multinational news company CNN has abruptly pulled its content from Apple News, Semafor reports.
CNN quietly removed its stories from Apple News over the weekend and there is no longer a feed from the network to subscribe to in the app. This effectively ends its distribution agreement with Apple while the two sides negotiate new terms. Discussions are apparently ongoing and CNN's...
Black Friday deals have begun, and Amazon is one of the best places you can find steep discounts on numerous products this week. We've already collected all of the best Apple-related deals you'll find at Amazon (and other retailers) in our Apple Black Friday Deals post, so below you'll find other discounts on devices like Anker accessories, Beats headphones, video games, TVs, and more.
Note:...
Thursday November 20, 2025 6:28 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's annual four-day Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping event is returning on Friday, November 28 through Monday, December 1 in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, and others.
During the shopping event, customers can get an Apple gift card with...
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...
I just tried it for two days. At least on betas, it's not improving gaming performance and the games lags more. I expect it to improve on actual public release.
There would be YouTubers making in depth analysis as well
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)
