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 : Kicking Studio ( Shutterstock ) Spotlight, once an essential tool in your iPhone productivity arsenal, has become nearly unusable on iOS 16. It sometimes displays search results almost instantly, but more often than not it takes a few seconds (or more) to find things. The latency is particularly noticeable on older iPhones, and the inconsistency of a once-reliable tool is pretty sad to see. The same feature has been facing similar issues on Mac, but at least there are alternatives—such as Alfred and Raycast — that make up for it. On your iPhone, you can’t replace Spotlight with an alternative, but you can try a couple of workarounds. Use your iPhone’s App Library If you keep swiping left on your iPhone’s home screen, you will find the App Library at the very end . Once there, swipe down to open the search bar and type the name of the app you want to find. You’ll see that this search box instantly loads the results you’re looking for. We’ve tried this on a three-year-o...

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...

Photo : Kicking Studio ( Shutterstock ) Just as you’d service your car to keep it running smoothly, an annual review of your iPhone can prevent a lot of issues in the long run. Phones accumulate a ton of digital cruft, and since a more organized device works better for longer, take the start of a new year as your opportunity to clear it all out. Your iPhone may feel brand new again by the time you’re done. Delete the apps you don’t use anymore We all download a host of apps that are almost never used. If you have a bunch, consider uninstalling them to save space and bandwidth. Unused apps can make your phone slow sometimes, and they keep downloading updates automatically, which can eat into your internet plan’s limited bandwidth. You can go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and select Enable next to Offload Unused Apps . This will free up a lot of space. Next, you can scroll down on the storage settings page, swipe towards the left on apps that you don’t use, and sele...

Photo : morrowlight ( Shutterstock ) On a computer, selecting multiple things at the same time is easy—y ou obviously click and drag to highlight whatever you want. On your iPhone, though , it’s a different story. Depending on the app, your obvious options are to hit “Select All” or choose the “Edit” button and tediously tap away at each item you want to select. But, as it happens, your iPhone has a hidden trick that lets you select items in bulk: Instead of tapping to select multiple items, you can use a simple swipe to breeze through your selection. As long as the app supports it, take two fingers and swipe over the items you want to select, and iOS will select those items . You can even drag down to the bottom of the screen to scroll and select, or lift off the screen and repeat the gesture to highlight another group of items. It’s a lot of fun. Once you’ve selected multiple items, you can tap and hold the screen to reveal bulk actions like delete, share, and copy. Right now...

Photo : mokjc ( Shutterstock ) These days, iPhones are huge . Aside from the minis (which Apple no longer makes), most iPhones are difficult to properly use with one hand— and some even with two. If you’ve recently switched to a larger iPhone and are struggling to adapt to its size, t here are some steps you can take to make your new phone easier to use. Change how you hold your iPhone Smaller iPhones are far better suited to one-handed use than their larger counterparts. If you’re used to gripping your iPhone with one hand, the sad fact is you’ll likely enjoy your phone more if you switch to a two-handed grip for more tasks. If you can’t kick the one-handed habit, though, here’s what to try next. Take advantage of Siri more often Rather than attempt to stretch your fingers for every task on your iPhone, delegate some of them to Siri. Siri can be frustrating to use, but it’s quite good for basic tasks like setting reminders, playing music, or creating alarms. You can even hang u...

Screenshot : Khamosh Pathak We spend a lot of time on our iPhones doing simple, repetitive tasks we shouldn’t have to do. In fact, those simple, repetitive tasks can and should be handed over to your iPhone, so you can get back to tasks you really want to do, like scroll Instagram and TikTok. If you’re willing to spend a couple of minutes on setup, you can use the Shortcuts app to automate many features and actions you use every day. What are iPhone automations? There’s a special tab in the Shortcuts app called Automation . Here, you can define actions that are automatically triggered when something happens. (And that “something” is quite a long list.) For example, your iPhone can trigger a shortcut automatically when you arrive in a specified area, when you connect your iPhone to a Bluetooth network, or simply when it’s 6 p.m.. That gives you a lot of room to play with. Let’s first set up an automation so you have an idea of what we’re talking about. We’ll set up a simple one in ...

Photo : Orapruek ( Shutterstock ) The camera is one of the iPhone’s best features. It takes great photos, and shoots some of the best video on any smartphone. That’s why, when my iPhone’s camera broke, I was pretty bummed, yet hopeful the Apple Store could fix me right up. Unfortunately, breaking your iPhone camera isn’t like breaking the screen, and the fix likely isn’t as simple as you’d think. Not all broken iPhone cameras are the same In my case, I was working with two broken cameras on my iPhone 12 Pro Max, both requiring different solutions. The first issue came when my iPhone flew out of my pocket and slammed into concrete, instantly cracking my wide angle lens (the default 1x zoom camera). Lucky for me, the crack didn’t affect photos and videos unless there was a bright, intense light source directly above me, which usually only happened on particularly sunny days or when in a room with a strong light in the ceiling. These circumstances are rare enough that I decided t...