Tausi Insider

Photo : nikkimeel ( Shutterstock ) Updating your iPhone is annoying. Yes, the updates are often full of new features and changes that make upgrading worthwhile , but it can be hard to find the time to install a brand new update on your iPhone. Taking your phone out of commission during the day isn’t always an option. Wouldn’t it be nice if Apple let you schedule these updates for when you actually had time? Well, ask and ye shall receive. As it turns out, Apple includes an option to schedule software updates on each and every iPhone. It’s just that f or some reason, the company hides it from us. I’m not sure why—i t’s certainly not due to a lack of screen space: Half of the Software Updates settings page is blank. The option also isn’t featured in the Automatic Updates settings menu either , so don’t go looking for it there. Speaking of which, when I refer to scheduling updates for later, I’m not talking about iOS’ Automatic Updates feature. Sure, this option will theoretical...

Photo : Tada Images ( Shutterstock ) Who remembers the games that shipped with classic iPods? You could have a pixel war in   Parachute , smash blocks in Brick , play cards in Solitaire , and test your knowledge of your own iPod’s library with Music Quiz . Of course, Apple has since discontinued the iPod, but they seem to have trouble letting go of the past.   Music Quiz lives on as a hidden iPhone game. The hidden music quiz hasn’t been around forever, but isn’t all that new either. Apple first added it to the iPhone not as a game but as a shortcut, back in 2020 with iOS 14 . The game w as part of a small series of “Starter Shortcuts”—the idea, I assume, was to offer users a quick look at what was possible with shortcuts (even though the app launch two years prior with iOS 12). Either way, it doesn’t seem to have been a wholly effective marketing campaign— I had no idea this music quiz existed. It’s just the kind of hidden feature that’s a pleasant surprise to discover ....

These hands are typing “Fuck this crappy keyboard.” Photo : Angelika Smile ( Shutterstock ) MacBooks have, for the most part, been known to some of the best keyboards in the biz. For the most part . From 2015 through 2019, though, Apple “revolutionized” its laptops with the butterfly keyboard, a low-travel keyboard prone (or doomed) to failure. Sticky keys and double-presses have plagued so many users, Apple eventually dropped the design altogether. But they’re not off the hook for their poor design choices. In fact, they might owe you money for your pain and suffering. What happened to Apple’s butterfly keyboard? Apple’s butterfly keyboard was a disaster from the jump, but the company never wanted to admit fault. Soon after Apple implemented the design across their entire line of MacBooks, MacBook Airs, and MacBook Pros, users started complaining, and with good reason: While the keyboard’s low travel was polarizing (personally, I’ve always liked it), the design made it all too ...

Elon Musk on Wednesday tweeted that the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from Apple Inc’s AAPL-Q App Store was resolved following his meeting with the iPhone maker’s Chief Executive Tim Cook. “Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so,” the billionaire CEO of Twitter and Tesla Inc said in a tweet. On Monday, Musk had accused Apple of threatening to block Twitter from its app store without saying why in a series of tweets that also said it had stopped advertising on the social media platform. He had later tagged Cook’s Twitter account in another tweet, asking “what’s going on here?” Twitter and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Musk’s latest tweet. Apple has not responded publicly to Musk’s earlier tweets. Among the list of grievances tweeted by Musk on Monday was the up to 30 per cent fee Apple charges software developers for in-app purchases, with Musk posting a meme suggesting he was willing to “go to war” with Apple rathe...

Your iPhone and Apple Watch want to keep you safe, but sometimes, they’re a bit overzealous about it. In an effort to save your life in the event of a car crash, they’ll reach out to emergency services on your behalf and let them know what’s going on. Only occasionally, they’ll mistake innocuous activities for horrible accidents. One minute, you’re enjoying skiing down the slopes; the next, you’re explaining to the police that no, you’re actually not in danger. The feature in at fault here is Crash Detection, a new addition to recent Apple devices, including the iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro, and 14 Pro Max, as well as the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, and the latest Apple Watch SE. Using the updated tech in these devices, Crash Detection analyzes your surroundings to determine if you’ve been in a severe crash. According to Apple , the devices are looking for “front-impact, side-impact, and rear-end collisions, and rollovers,” involving “sedans, minivans, SUVs, pickup truck...

Photo : wavebreakmedia ( Shutterstock ) Many of us have been using iPhones since the beginning, and its “hidden” or “secret” features are things we’ve know about for ages. But every once in a while, I learn something new about iOS. This time , it’s a feature that lets you instantly measure someone with just your iPhone’s camera. This feature isn’t new , but it is only available on a select group of iPhones, specifically “Pro” models. If you have an iPhone 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max, 14 Pro, or 14 Pro Max, you have an instant people-measuring tool in your pocket. However, even if you have the most recent iPhone 14 or 14 Plus, you don’t. ( Weird how a brand-new iPhone doesn’t have a feature the two-year-old iPhone 12 Pro does.) How Li DAR works on iPhones Even if Apple wanted to add this feature to non-Pro iPhones, it likely couldn’t— the measure feature is hardware-based, relying on the LiDAR sensor built-into the cameras of the Pro iPhones. If you have one, you’ve lik...

Image : Apple We all have the songs we have to sing along to— w hether they pop up on the radio, a streaming playlist , or the Sonos speaker in the office bathroom , when that track hits your ears, you’re grabbing the imaginary mic . And now, if you have Apple Music, you actually have a free karaoke machine in your pocket at all times , thanks to Apple Music Sing . Apple Music Sing is a new, free feature for Apple Music that works on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV 4K. With it, you can turn any compatible song into a karaoke moment. It builds off the popularity of the services’ real-time lyrics feature ( which competing platforms like Spotify have also taken on), and makes Apple Music feel like a sing-a-long app for you and your friends. Apple Music Sing turns your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV into a karaoke machine First, Apple has updated real-time lyrics to “dance to the rhythm of the vocals,” which is a fancy way of saying the app dynamically highlights each word as it’s sung....

Photo : SNAB ( Shutterstock ) Whether you love or hate Apple, we can all agree on one thing: Their products are expensive . Apple’s iPhones can easily cost over $1,000 , and MacBooks require a mortgage just to look at them. The thing is, you don’t need to buy these devices new in order to get the perks of buying new. The better way to shop Apple is to shop refurbished . If you haven’t heard of Apple’s Certified Refurbished store, that’s likely because Apple doesn’t advertise it much. After all, the company would prefer you to buy one of its latest products on the front page of its site. But if you’re not going to do that, it’d still like to sell you something, even if that something is previously used. With the Certified Refurbished store, Apple sells used devices at a discount. Depending on the device, the price cut can be modest or generous. As of this article, you can pick up a refurbished M1 MacBook Air for 15% off, leaving it $849 instead of $999. Apple lists this refurbi...

Photo : Emils Vanags ( Shutterstock ) If you’re buying Apple devices as last-minute gifts this holiday season, there’s an easy way to figure out if you still time to get them delivered before the big day. When ordering directly from Apple’s online store, you can quickly check if the iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and Apple Watches you’re looking for are indeed available to ship in time for you to wrap them. Head over to Apple’s holiday shipping page to check if the gadgets you want will be shipped on time. The “Order By” dates on the page reflect the last date you can place an order on Apple’s online store in order to get the gifts by Christmas. It’s too late for these items shipped from Apple At the time of writing, the following gadgets are listed as unavailable to ship in time for Christmas: iPhone 14 Pro iPhone 14 Pro Max AirPods Max (engraved) AirTag (engraved) Some other options, such as the iPad mini or non-engraved AirTags, are close to the cut-off dates for online orders on A...

Photo : Raxsoller Malayte ( Shutterstock ) Whether you have a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro, your charger likely has one fatal flaw: the plug. The power adapter needs to connect directly to an outlet, a design that works fine for smaller charging bricks. However, the bigger your MacBook, the bigger the brick, all without changing the design. As such, your massive power adapter needs to hang from the wall, or balance on top of a power strip, fighting against gravity for its life. Obviously, the weight is a major component here. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to prop my power strip up after my MacBook Pro’s charger knocked everything over. The other part of the problem, though, is the plug portion of the charger is removable. When you connect your 10-ton charger to the wall, its mass sometimes pulls the plug right out of the adapter (this has happened to me so many times). Have you ever wondered why the plug is removable? It doesn’t make much sense out of the bo...

Screenshot : Jake Peterson As a company, Apple prides itself on operating users’ privacy in mind. But for some time now, its security solutions surrounding iCloud have been milquetoast. While some data you back up to iCloud was end-to-end encrypted, like Health data, Apple held the decryption keys to other data, like iMessages, photos, and notes. The benefit there was Apple could help you retrieve much of your important data if you lost your Apple ID login, but Apple having the theoretical power to read our messages didn’t sit well with many people. Advanced Data Protection for iCloud fixes the issue (for the most part). With it, the number of data types end-to-end encrypted in iCloud backups jumps to 23. Mail, Contacts, and Calendar are the big three that aren’t E2EE, but at least now, Apple doesn’t have the keys to the rest of your data. You can learn more about Advanced Data Protection for iCloud from our post here . https://www.tausiinsider.com/11-of-the-best-new-ios-16-...

Photo : Kaspars Grinvalds ( Shutterstock ) The new Always-On Displays on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max provide a nifty way to keep tabs on your smartphone without needing to interact with it. However, Apple’s original design choice was odd: By default, the 14 Pros dim your wallpaper in addition to the clock and notifications, which is both confusing and a presumed battery drain. Apple “fixed” the problem with iOS 16.2 , offering users the option to disable their wallpaper on the AOD . Since the 14 Pro has an OLED display, it can turn off the pixels that aren’t in use. You’d think, then, disabling the wallpaper for AOD, and thus leaving a lot of the display black, would net big battery savings. Well, apparently not. PhoneBuff recently ran a test comparing battery performance of three iPhone 14 Pro Maxes: One with the default AOD with wallpaper enabled, one with only text enabled, and one with the AOD disabled. For added measure, PhoneBuff reset all the phones to be free...