How Tos

Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to be unveiled in September, and it is likely to be one of the hardest devices in years to actually get your hands on. Initial stocks of the "iPhone Ultra" are expected to be heavily constrained, the book-style foldable is rumored to arrive after the iPhone 18 Pro models rather than alongside them, and there are suggestions availability could be staggered ...

When Apple released iOS 26 in September 2025, it introduced the new Liquid Glass design overhaul, which adopts translucent elements throughout the system interface and in stock apps. On the Home Screen, the search bar, dock, and app folders are translucent. By default, app icons have a new layered glass look that gives them dimension, but there's also an option for "Clear" glass-like icons....

Apple has made available the fourth public beta of iOS 27, bringing a more stable version of the software to a wider audience following lengthy testing by developers. Keep reading to learn how to prepare your device for the beta software and how to install it. Signing up to get the ‌iOS 27 or ‌iPadOS 27 public beta is simple once you know how – it can be done by enrolling an iPhone or...

Apple has made the fourth macOS 27 Golden Gate public beta available for testing before the new Mac operating system's official release in the fall. Keep reading to learn whether you should install it on your Mac, and if so, how to go about it. Getting access to the macOS Golden Gate public beta is simple, and can be done by enrolling your Mac in Apple's free Apple Beta Software Program. The ...

In iOS 26, Apple let you stretch the Lock Screen clock down your iPhone's display until it dwarfed everything else. In iOS 27, Apple has a new clock option that does the opposite, with the introduction of a compact mode that shrinks the time to roughly the size of the date and tucks it into the row at the top of the screen. The result is a Lock Screen that genuinely shows off your wallpaper, ...

Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser owners have been able to adjust the audio frequency spectrum of their headphones for years, whereas AirPods owners have had to make do with Apple's default tuning. That's no longer the case in iOS 27, which adds a three-band equalizer to the AirPods settings screen. It's worth noting that iOS has had an EQ setting for years – it's buried in Settings ➝ Apps ➝ Music, ...

For the better part of two decades, an iPhone's alarm volume has matched its ringer. In other words, if you slide the ringtone volume down to silence your iPhone overnight, you're also turning your alarm's volume down with it. That's no longer the case in iOS 27. Settings now includes an "Alarms and Timers" section with its own Match Ringtone Volume toggle. If you toggle it off, a dedicated...

If you've never been a fan of Liquid Glass – Apple's glass-like interface effect introduced in iOS 26 – then there's some good news in iOS 27. Apple has added a setting that lets you finely adjust the level of translucency, giving you more control over the look and feel of your iPhone. Perhaps you find notifications too see-through, or you want to see more of your wallpaper through...

If you accidentally press the dictation or voice icon after sending a text in Messages, your music may pause while your iPhone starts listening. It's a small annoyance, but a frequent one, since the dictation/audio icon sits so close to the send arrow that stray taps are almost inevitable. In iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, Apple has finally given you a way to get rid of it. The issue is one that...

Since iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, Apple has included Messages-like reactions in FaceTime that lighten up your video with visual effects. But rather than triggering them with words, you can trigger them using physical hand gestures. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. When you're on a FaceTime video call on an iPhone running iOS 17 or later, or an iPad running iPadOS 17 or...

Your iPhone's Lock Screen has built-in media playback controls that appear whenever music, a podcast, or other audio is playing. What you might not realize is that those controls can also include a volume slider that lets you adjust the volume without you having to unlock your iPhone or fumble for the physical buttons. Originally, Apple included a volume slider in the Lock Screen media...

Since iOS 26, a malfunctioning iPhone has been able to boot itself into Recovery Assistant, with no Mac or PC required. However, you could only get there if your device failed to start up and dropped into recovery on its own. In iOS 27, currently in beta, Apple has removed that limitation, and you can now manually boot into a Mac-style recovery screen whenever you like. The new recovery ...

If you installed iOS 27 Beta or iPadOS 27 Beta through Apple's Developer Program, you may decide you want to downgrade because of usability or stability issues. Keep reading to learn how it's done. Apple's beta versions of its major software updates can be buggy, especially the early releases. While that isn't necessarily the case for the latest iOS 27 beta, you may still find apps not...

On July 8, Meta launched Muse Image, an AI image generator now built into Meta AI, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It can do the typical text-to-image generative trick, but one feature in particular is causing controversy: Anyone can mention (@) a public Instagram account inside the Meta AI app, and it will use that account's photos as the basis of an AI-generated image. If your Instagram account...

If you installed the macOS 27 Golden Gate developer beta and have signed up to the Siri AI waitlist but are still waiting to be accepted, there's a Terminal command workaround that enables the new virtual assistant on your Mac immediately. If you're still reading, since you're on the first macOS 27 developer beta, we're assuming you are running it on a test machine, and not on your primary...

The 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference will take place this week from June 8 through June 12, and like the last six years, it will be an online event, although select developers and students will be invited to Apple Park. To kick things off, Apple holds a keynote event on the Monday to announce new software, which is what makes it of interest to the general public. During the keynote event ...

If you're having problems getting one of your AirPods or AirPods Pro to charge, read on. This article outlines the solutions available to you. Whether you own original AirPods, AirPods 2, AirPods 3, AirPods 4, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Pro 2, all of these models can sometimes suffer from a problem where one AirPod refuses to charge in the Charging Case. One AirPod Not Working? How to Fix It ...

In iOS 26, Apple quietly added a neat new option that lets you send smaller-sized previews of images over Messages so that recipients get them right away, before the full-resolution images arrive. Thanks to the new setting, your recipient will receive a lower-quality preview almost instantly, followed by the full-resolution image. And if you're traveling with limited cellular data or using...

When ‌macOS Tahoe‌ and iPadOS 26 launched last September, Apple quietly removed Safari's Compact tab layout – the option that merged the address bar and the tab bar into a single, space-saving row. If you were a fan of it, you will have been out of luck for months. The good news is that Apple has brought it back. In macOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, the Compact tab bar is once again...

If your Mac's storage has been mysteriously shrinking recently and you use Google Chrome, you may have already identified the culprit. The browser has been downloading a 4GB AI model file onto computers without explicit user consent. Here's how to reclaim the space. The file in question is called "weights.bin," which powers Google's on-device Gemini Nano AI model – the engine behind Chrome ...