iPad

In iOS 18, you can hide and lock apps on your iPhone. You can hide apps so they’re completely invisible, and you can lock all kinds of apps so they require Face ID to open.

Why would you want to? Maybe you have sensitive content you don’t want anyone to see, or you don’t want anyone to know you’re using dating or hookup apps. Hiding apps is also good for staying off social media or away from addictive games. Plus, it’s a great way to declutter your Home Screen. You can really clean things up without deleting apps you may want to keep.

There are, however, a few essential apps on your phone that can’t be hidden. Here’s how it all works.

If you love your iPad, there’s no reason to buy a second computer. Add a few accessories and you can quickly transform an iPad into an iMac mini — a small desktop computer easily up to personal use.

I use an iPad as my primary computer, so I have some recommendations for items to take your tablet to the next level.

The European Commission intends to require iPhone and iPad to be more open to working with third-party smartwatches, headphones, virtual reality headsets and other accessories. On Thursday, the EC began proceedings to “specify how Apple will provide effective interoperability with functionalities such as notifications, device pairing and connectivity.”

Apple devices already work with a broad variety of accessories, but the company also says it has to balance connectivity with protecting user privacy.

You can set notifications from specific apps to stick to the top of your iPhone screen. With persistent notifications in iOS, when your phone is unlocked and an important alert comes in, it will stay visible at the top of the screen until you act upon it. It’s an easy way to make sure you don’t miss (or forget about) critical notifications on your iPhone.

This proves super-handy for things like medication reminders. It also works wonders if you’re the sort of person that ignores notifications once they disappear from your iPhone screen. I’ll show you how to make your notifications sticky.

When it comers to satisfaction, Apple sits at the top of the heap among computer makers. It beats HP, Samsung and others, according to the latest survey from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

And satisfaction with tablets improved to the point they’re essentially on par with desktops and laptops.

Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event wrapped up Monday with several upcoming products not even having been mentioned, much less launched. Some of these were not expected to debut, like new Macs and iPads, but others were supposed to be on the agenda, like a new Apple Watch SE.

Here’s what to look forward to at an October Apple event, plus the products that’ll likely come even later.

With Monday’s impending iPhone 16 reveal, excitement abounds! However, one downside of the “It’s Glowtime” event is the impending drop in value of your iPhone trade-in.

Every year, newer models push older iPhones, Apple Watches and MacBooks further and further down the path to obsolescence. But there’s good news: Cult of Mac will still buy your old devices. And we’ll help you maximize the money you get for your iPhone trade-in, too.

Want a soup-to-nuts iPad setup that won’t obliterate your bank account? This refurbished iPad 9 and Beats Flex earbuds bundle hits the mark, offering a smart mix of performance, style and value at just $299.99.

In addition to the tablet and the wireless earbuds, you get all the accessories you need to protect and make the most of your new-to-you iPad.

Labor Day weekend is a great time to kick back, take a rest from work — and be thankful for the paycheck that lets you buy tons of Apple Labor Day sale items. The Cult of Mac Store marks the holiday this year by taking 20% off everything from SwitchEasy.

That’s 100 products to choose from! The company makes a wide variety of cool accessories for Apple Watch, AirPods, AirTag, iPhone, iPad, MacBook and more, like various chargers. So whatever Apple gear you have, check out these Labor Day deals on SwitchEasy Apple accessories.

Market analysts expect Apple to reach a new milestone in 2024, with global revenues exceeding $400 billion for the first time, according to a new report Wednesday. It anticipates growth in Apple’s hardware and services businesses to drive that record-breaking revenue growth.

Not a fan of Safari? You can change the default web browser on your iPhone or iPad quite easily. If you prefer Google’s Chrome, you can ditch Safari when tapping links on your phone or tablet. And that’s not the only option.

Making the switch is easy, though the setting is somewhat hidden. Here’s what you do.

August 23, 2011: United Airlines says it will hand out 11,000 iPads to its pilots as part of its “paperless flight deck” filled with essential data. It’s the largest rollout yet of Apple tablets as a replacement for the weighty flight bags previously carried by aircrews.

Going paperless saves around 16 million sheets of paper each year, the equivalent of 1,900 trees not cut down. Even better, the weight difference between the 1.5-pound iPad and the 40-pound flight bag saves 326,000 gallons of jet fuel per year!

European iPhone and iPad users will be able to kick Apple’s Phone and Messages apps to the curb if they wish. The same goes for an array of other applications that iOS currently makes the default options.

These join a long list of other changes being forced on Apple by the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

Apple introduced audio sharing to Beats Studio Pro over-ear headphones in a firmware update Tuesday, a feature already known to AirPods Max and AirPods users. So once your Beats Studio Pro update over the air to firmware version 2C301, up from version 2B68 installed at launch, you can easily share what you listen to with family and friends via a connected iPhone or iPad.

xMEMS Labs, creators of all-silicon micro speakers for earbuds and headphones, plan to roll out the xMEMS XMC-2400 µCooling chip, the company said Tuesday. It noted the 1mm xMEMS fan on a chip is the first all-silicon, active micro-cooling fan for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

“Our revolutionary µCooling ‘fan-on-a-chip’ design comes at a critical time in mobile computing,” said Joseph Jiang, xMEMS CEO and co-founder. “Thermal management in ultra-mobile devices, which are beginning to run even more processor-intensive AI applications, is a massive challenge for manufacturers and consumers. Until XMC-2400, there’s been no active-cooling solution because the devices are so small and thin.”

The company declined to comment on whether it’s in talks with Apple as a client or partner with the new innovation. See our Q&A with xMEMS Labs below.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Who cranked up production in the Apple rumor mill? We talk through the latest ones on this week’s show, and some of them sound pretty wild. Fresh details about the iPhone 16 Pro’s new camera button make it sound very cool. A rumored bigger iMac sounds very exciting. And an Apple skunkworks project — a $1,000-plus device that puts an iPad on a rotating robotic arm — sounds absolutely bizarre.

Also on The CultCast:

• What’s new in the latest iOS 18 beta.
• What to expect from upcoming iPads.
• Apple gets greedy with Patreon, and creators aren’t happy.
• And Erfon gives us a surprising update on his inexplicably water-damaged iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

Apple added several nifty new features to Safari in iOS 18. The iPhone’s redesigned web browser boasts an all-new Page Menu. Plus, two big new features help surface what you’re looking for on the web.

The last big Safari redesign for iPhone, which arrived three years ago, moved the address bar to the bottom of the screen by default. It also shoved several useful features into a menu in the address bar, which made it difficult to discover them. Apple tries to reverse that second problem in the new Safari.

Here’s what’s new in iOS 18 in Safari on iPhone — keep reading or watch our video.

Apple is reportedly ramping up work on a tabletop computer that’s essentially an iPad on a robot arm that can rotate and tilt the tablet to keep it facing the user.

This might be the source of previous rumors of a HomePod with a large screen.

I’ve read complaints online that Face ID on iPads is defective. I think what’s happening instead is that the biometric security system in Apple’s tablets has been set to be overly exacting. If it seems like Face ID is not working on your iPad, changing a single security setting can help.

I turned off the Require Attention setting on my iPad Pro and it made Face ID noticeably better. Presto, unlocking anything on my iPad became quick and easy. Previously, it felt like the computer was working to avoid giving me access.

Admittedly, changing this setting made my tablet a little bit less secure. But that’s a very small risk for a significant gain in usability. I recommend it to anyone who uses an iPad and thinks Face ID is not working properly.

Rumors indicate the iPad 11 is nearly here, and an iPad mini 7 is in development, too. Neither tablet has been updated in years, but that could change this autumn. Finally! We can look forward to better performance and maybe Apple Intelligence.

Here’s what’s likely coming in late 2024 to Apple’s budget tablet, and what we’ve heard about an iPad mini 7 release date.

An iPad Air with an OLED display rather than the current LCD seems a safe bet considering the number of leaks indicating one is in development. But sources can’t agree on when — the latest report says 2026.

That said, Apple already has an OLED tablet for those who want one now.

The number of iPads shipped during Q2 2024 grew sharply when compared to the same quarter of last year, according to market analysts. It’s the first year-over-year increase in Apple’s tablet shipments since 2022.

The long-awaited launch of powerful new iPad models is credited for the improvement.

It’s that time of year again — back to school time. So the person who spends all your money — you and/or your beloved child — needs expensive new gadgets. Good thing Amazon offers its typical iPad 10 back-to-school deal — $299 ($50 off). And you can pick any model of Apple’s basic tablet, actually, with or without cellular coverage and up to 256GB of storage. They’re all $50 off. Click on the links below to snag these deals.

Apple broke a string a weak quarters by announcing a 5% year-over-year increase in revenue for the June quarter Thursday, setting a new record for the quarter. iPad sales experienced an especially strong quarter, up 24%, and the company’s services sector also grew by double digits.

Apple surpassed Wall Street analysts’ revenue expectations, though iPhone sales dropped slightly when compared to the same quarter a year ago.

July 31, 2012: The Daily, the world’s first iPad-only newspaper, lays off almost a third of its staff, signaling the demise of a bold publishing experiment.

The deep cuts — The Daily fires 50 of its 170 employees — affect mainly sports and editorial page staffers, although some production and design employees get the ax, too. The ominous move comes as News Corp places the iPad app “on watch” due to disappointing readership numbers.