Samsung’siPhone display business is under growing threat from Chinese competitor BOE, which is gearing up to match the production of the Korean supplier …
When Apple launched the iPhone X, Samsung was the only OLED supplier able to meet the Cupertino company’s exacting requirements for both sophistication and yield. Since then, Apple has added both LG and BOE as secondary iPhone display suppliers, but Samsung has retained the bulk of the orders.
A new report in The Elec suggests that could be about to change.
Chinese display giant BOE was in the process of converting its three factories __ B7, B11 and B12 __ to manufacture smartphone flexible OLED panels for Apple, analyst firm UBI Research has claimed.
Because of this, BOE will likely overtake LG Display as the larger OLED supplier for iPhones by 2023, UBI Research CEO Choong Hoon Yi said at an online seminar on Friday.
The Chinese display giant is aiming to become the second-largest supplier of OLED panels to Apple by converting its three factories, Yi said.
BOE’s total flexible OLED panel production capacity will expand from its current 96,000 substrates per month (Gen 6 substrates) to 144,000 substrates per month by the fourth quarter of next year, the CEO said.
This is level with that of Samsung Display’s current capacity of 140,000 substrates per month.
LG is also aiming to double its own production to 60,000 substrates per month.
Both increases will likely see Samsung’s own orders fall as Apple seeks to balance out supply to reduce dependence on a single company.
There will, however, be more Apple OLED business to come. Reports point to the possibility of OLED iPads in 2024, and OLED MacBooks in 2025, en route to the longer-term switch to microLED. (The latest flagship models of both iPads and MacBooks currently use IPS LCD displays with miniLED backlighting.)
Every year, new iOS releases arrive with headline-grabbing features like SharePlay and Focus. Likewise, every year, iOS includes under-the-radar improvements that aren’t likely to generate headlines. In this hands-on video I consider the top hidden iOS 15 features that I’ve stumbled upon.
While a few of these low-key features were demonstrated in my top iOS 15 features overview, the majority are enhancements that I haven’t yet showcased for the public version of iOS 15. Here’s a full list of all of the sleeper features covered in this video, along with a brief commentary on why I think each feature is beneficial.
Return of the editing loupe
The editing loupe was a staple feature of iOS for years, but was inexplicably removed. The loupe magnifies the immediate area around the cursor to help with precise movement. Needless to say, it’s an iOS 15 features that I welcome back with open arms.
Mute notifications for individual apps
You can now mute notifications via Notification Center on a per-app basis. Simply swipe on the notification, select Options, and mute for 1 hour or for the entire day.
Reorder Home Screen pages
You can now quickly reorder Home Screen pages by going into edit mode and tapping the page dots to enter the page editor.
Delete Home Screen pages
Within the page editor, it’s now possible to outright delete hidden Home Screen pages, sending all of its apps to the App Library.
Drag and drop support
iPadOS has enjoyed true drag and drop support for several years now, and iPhone users can now join in on the fun. Try dragging an image from the Photos app to a Messages app thread, or drag a URL directly from Safari into Notes.
Live Text shortcut
Live Text is one of the headline features in iOS 15, and if you tap in a text field to open the copy paste menu, you’ll see a new capture text shortcut to quickly insert live text from anywhere.
Reduce Bass on HomePod
If you’re an apartment dweller, this is a feature that you’ll surely appreciate. Open the Home app, invoke your HomePod, and flip the Reduce Bass switch.
Background sounds
I often listen to ambient sounds on Apple Music at night to help me sleep. With iOS 15, ambient background sounds are built right into iOS. Simply go to Accessibility → Audio/Visual → Background Sounds.
Voice memos skip silence and adjust playback speed
iOS 15 lets you speed through voice memos with the adoption of skip silence and playback speed adjustments.
Shazam history
Long-press on the Shazam shortcut in Control Center to access Shazam listening history.
Playback speed with default video player
Press the ellipsis button in the bottom right-hand corner of the default video player to access awesome new playback speed options.
Zoom in with Quick Take
When taking a video with Quick Take, slide up or down to zoom in and out.
New QR code UI
A new AR-centric QR code UI appears in the stock camera app when a QR code appears in the viewfinder.
Photo picker order
iOS 15 will now respect the order of your selections when picking photos via the Photo picker.
Markup immediately available when editing photos
No longer are the markup options hidden behind a menu when editing photos in the Photos app.
iCloud Backup Over Cellular
Users on fast cellular connections now have the option to perform backups even when not connected to Wi-Fi. This option is perfect for those connected to speedy 5G cellular service.
Prepare for new iPhone on reset
iOS 15 helps you get ready for the iPhone 13 with a new Prepare for New iPhone checklist.
iCloud Data Recovery service
This service can help you recover data that is not yet end-to-end encrypted, such as photos, notes, and reminders.
Account Recovery Contact
It’s a good idea to establish an account recovery contact just in case you forget your device passcode and Apple ID password.
Use Groups with Files app
You can now group files in the Files app by Kind, Date, and Size.
Hybrid Time Picker
iOS 15 lets you cycle through the time picker old school style, complete with haptic feedback, but it also allows for direct time input with just a tap.
Updated AirPrint interface
An updated AirPrint UI comes with a new presets panel and the ability to select media and quality.
Built-in OTP authenticator
Finally! iOS 15 now supports one-time-passcodes for two-factor authentication. It will also auto-fill your one-time-passcodes for a totally seamless login experience. To set up one-time-passcodes, go to Settings → Password.
Pull to refresh in Safari
Safari gets tons of new additions like Tab Groups, and a new bottom address bar with built-in swipe gestures. But Safari gets an additional swipe gesture by finally bringing support for pull-to-refresh to Apple’s default browser for the first time.
Safari extensions
Definitely don’t sleep on Safari’s new extensions capability, which lets users integrate apps and utilities such as Apollo or 1Password like never before. To activate available extensions, open Safari, tap the ‘Aa’ button, and click Manage Extensions.
Per-app accessibility settings
In the past, enabling an accessibility setting like Smart Invert would apply to iOS as a whole. In iOS 15, it’s now possible to apply accessibility settings on a per-app basis. Simply visit Settings → Accessibility → Per-App Settings.
Keyboard search
If you’re multi-lingual, you’ll no doubt enjoy being able to search through all available keyboards in Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard.
Download from Spotlight
A refreshed UI allows you to download apps from Spotlight directly without invoking the App Store.
Modified App Store search results for installed apps
If your App Store search results include apps that you already have installed, iOS 15 will present a minimized view of the app icon with no corresponding screenshots.
Spotlight web image search
You can now easily search the web for images via Spotlight.
Lock Screen access for Spotlight search
You can also access Spotlight search directly from the Lock Screen on an unlocked iPhone.
Uninstall apps via Spotlight
In iOS 15, it’s now possible to search for an app via Spotlight, long-press on the result, and delete the app right from Spotlight.
Continuous Siri dictation
iOS 15 affords users the ability to continually dictate text well beyond the limits of previous versions of iOS.
Share On Screen items with Siri (Screenshot)
You can ask Siri to share on-screen content with a friend.
Control Smart Home Devices at a Specific Time
You can also ask Siri to control Smart Home devices at a certain time, which will create an automation within the Home app.
Find My after power off
Finally, for devices logged in to the Find My network, you can now find your iPhone running iOS 15, even if the device has been powered off.
iOS 15 introduces Live Text using on-device intelligence, redesigned notifications, upgrades to Maps, and more.
iOS 15 introduces new ways to stay connected, powerful updates that help users focus and explore, and intelligent features to get more done with iPhone. FaceTime updates provide more natural video calls, Focus helps users reduce distraction, new features like Live Text use on-device intelligence to surface useful information, upgrades to Maps provide brand new ways to navigate the world, and much more. iOS 15 is available today as a free software update.
Enhancements for More Natural FaceTime Calls
FaceTime is more essential than ever, giving users a way to easily connect with the people who matter most. Powerful updates to FaceTime audio and video features make calls feel more natural and lifelike. With spatial audio, voices in a Group FaceTime call sound like they’re coming from the direction in which the person is positioned on the screen.1 Voice Isolation, a new microphone mode, uses machine learning to eliminate background noise and prioritize the user’s voice, while Wide Spectrum allows for every bit of background sound to come through. Inspired by the stunning portrait photos taken on iPhone, Portrait mode in FaceTime blurs a user’s background and puts them at the focus.2 Voice Isolation, Wide Spectrum, and Portrait mode can also be used with third-party apps, such as Webex, Zoom, and WhatsApp. Group FaceTime gives the option to display participants in same-size tiles in a new grid view.
With iOS 15, Group FaceTime displays participants in same-size tiles in a grid view.
FaceTime calls now extend beyond Apple devices, so people using an Android or Windows device can join from their web browser. FaceTime calls on the web remain end-to-end encrypted so privacy is not compromised. To initiate the call, iPhone, iPad, and Mac users simply create a FaceTime link and share it through Messages, Calendar, Mail, or third-party apps, making it easier than ever to connect with friends and family.
Later this fall, SharePlay will deliver a new way for users to share experiences with friends and family while on a FaceTime call, such as listening to songs together, watching a TV show or movie, completing a workout together, or sharing their screen to view apps. SharePlay will work with apps like Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Fitness+, as well as Disney+, ESPN+, HBO Max, Hulu, MasterClass, Paramount+, Pluto TV, SoundCloud, TikTok, Twitch, and many others. SharePlay can be accessed through iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and with shared playback controls, anyone in a SharePlay session can play, pause, or jump ahead. SharePlay even extends to Apple TV, so users can watch shows or movies on a big screen.
More Ways to Stay Connected with Messages
Shared with You is a new section that appears in Photos, Safari, Apple News, Music, Apple Podcasts, and the Apple TV app that displays the photos, articles, music, and other content shared by friends and family in Messages. Shared with You automatically displays shared photos in the Photos app, news stories in Apple News, and other relevant content in the corresponding app. The Shared with You section shows who sent the content, and makes it easy to view the associated message and restart the conversation.
In iOS 15, Memoji brings even more ways for users to express themselves with multicolored headwear, more glasses styles, and new accessibility options including cochlear implants, oxygen tubes, and a soft helmet. Memoji stickers can be customized with more than 40 outfit options and nine new sticker poses including a shaka, hand wave, and light bulb moment.
The Shared with You section in Photos displays the photos shared by friends and family in Messages.
Powerful Tools to Find Focus in the Day
iOS 15 introduces Focus, a new way to help users reduce distraction by filtering notifications based on what a user wants to focus on in that moment. For example, the Work Focus can be set during work hours to only allow notifications from coworkers and apps that are used for work, the Personal Focus can be used when taking a break with friends and family, or the Fitness Focus can help a user stay in the zone while completing a workout. Users can create a custom Focus or select a provided Focus, which uses on-device intelligence to suggest which notifications from people and apps are allowed. To further extend the ability to focus, users can create dedicated Home Screen pages with relevant apps and widgets to match a specific Focus.
While using Focus, a status is automatically displayed to contacts in Messages and supported third-party communication apps like Slack, so they know not to interrupt. Users will even receive suggestions to turn on a Focus based on factors like time of day or location, and when Focus is set on one Apple device, it automatically applies to all of a user’s Apple devices.
Focus helps users filter notifications to reduce distractions, using a custom Focus or a suggested Focus like Work or Fitness.
A Fresh New Look for Notifications
Notifications have been redesigned, adding contact photos for people and larger icons for apps that make them even easier to identify. The notification summary is a collection of notifications delivered each day at scheduled times determined by the user. Using on-device intelligence, the summary is arranged by priority, with the most relevant notifications rising to the top based on how a user interacts with apps. Time-sensitive notifications, messages, and phone calls will be delivered immediately, so users won’t miss timely alerts, and it’s easy to temporarily mute any app or messaging thread for an hour or for the day.
iOS 15 introduces the notification summary, a collection of notifications delivered each day at the times selected by the user.
On-Device Intelligence Delivers Live Text, Advanced Spotlight Search, and Memories
Live Text makes text in photos interactive. Using on-device intelligence, Live Text recognizes text in photos across the entire system including the web, and allows users to take action, such as copy and paste, look up information, and translate. Users can even tap the image of a phone number to make a call, or the image of a web address to open a page in Safari. With the power of the Neural Engine, the Camera app can also quickly recognize and copy text in the moment, such as the Wi-Fi password displayed at a local coffee shop. With Visual Look Up, users can learn more about popular art, landmarks, and books, plants and flowers found in nature, and breeds of pets.
Spotlight is the universal way to start searches on iPhone and now it can be accessed directly from the Lock Screen, and includes the ability to search photos by location, people, scenes, or objects. Using Live Text, Spotlight can find text and handwriting in photos.
iOS 15 delivers the biggest update ever to Memories. With a fresh new look, interactive interface, and integration with Apple Music that uses on-device intelligence to suggest music tracks, new cinematic Memories makes it easier to relive favorite or forgotten moments.
Live Text uses on-device intelligence to identify text and enhance the photos experience.
Spotlight now searches photos by location, people, scenes, and objects.
Redesigned Browsing with Safari
Safari introduces a newly designed browsing experience that makes controls easier to reach. By default, the new tab bar is positioned at the bottom of the screen, so users can easily swipe between tabs with one hand. Tab Groups allow users to organize tabs and easily access them at any time across iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and a customizable start page and web extensions on iOS make Safari more powerful and personal than ever.
Safari is redesigned with a new tab bar and Tab Groups for an even better browsing experience.
Navigate and Explore with Apple Maps
Maps in iOS 15 introduces a whole new way of looking at the world. A visually stunning map offers unprecedented levels of detail for neighborhoods, commercial districts, buildings, as well as custom-designed landmarks, and a new night-time mode with a moonlit glow. Navigation features a new three-dimensional driving view with road details that help users more easily identify turn lanes, medians, crosswalks, and sidewalks. The enhanced map is available in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, with more to come. A beautifully designed interactive globe provides rich detail for mountain ranges, deserts, rainforests, and bodies of water.
Transit riders can get one-tap access to all departures near them and pin their favorite lines. Maps automatically follows along with a selected transit route, notifying users when it’s nearly time to disembark, and riders can even keep track on Apple Watch. By simply holding up iPhone, users can receive detailed walking directions in augmented reality.
Maps automatically follows along a selected transit ride and now notifies users when they are nearing their desired stop.
A three-dimensional city navigation and exploration experience comes to Apple Maps with more realistic and colorful details.
With iOS 15, users can access even more places with just a tap of their iPhone with new home, hotel, office, and car keys in Wallet. Digital car keys get even better with support for Ultra Wideband technology, so users can securely lock, unlock, and start their supported vehicle without removing their iPhone from a pocket or bag. iPhone can also be used to unlock a user’s home, office, or even a hotel room — all through keys stored in Wallet. Additionally, users will be able to add eligible state IDs and driver’s licenses to Wallet on iPhone as this option becomes available in their state in the future.
House and hotel room keys as well as ID cards come to Wallet for a simple tap-to-unlock experience for everyday places.
Redesigned Weather Experience
Weather includes an all-new design with full-screen maps, graphical displays of weather data, and dynamic layouts that change based on conditions. Beautifully animated backgrounds more accurately reflect sun position, clouds, and precipitation, and notifications indicate when rain or snow is about to start or stop.
The Weather app has been redesigned to include full-screen maps and dynamic layouts that change based on weather conditions.
Organize and Collaborate in Notes
Notes adds user-created tags that make it easy to quickly categorize notes and mentions that allow members of shared notes to notify one another of important updates. An all-new Activity view shows the recent history of a shared note, and Highlights reveals details on who made the changes. Quick Notes created on Mac and iPad can be viewed and edited in Notes.
Notes adds user-created tags that make it easy to quickly categorize notes in line with relevant content.
More Privacy Controls
New privacy features provide even more transparency and control over the data users provide to apps. Mail Privacy Protection prevents senders from learning whether an email has been opened, and hides IP addresses so senders can’t learn a user’s location or use it to build a profile on them. Siri’s protection of user privacy goes even further with on-device speech recognition as users’ audio requests are now processed entirely on device by default, enabling more personalization, offline requests, and faster performance.6
Additional Features
Siri adds Announce Notifications on AirPods and the ability for users to share what’s on their screen just by asking. Siri can now be enabled in third-party HomeKit accessories, so HomePod and HomePod mini users can easily and securely ask Siri to send a message, set a reminder, or broadcast an Intercom message to the family from more devices in the home.7
iCloud+ combines everything users love about iCloud with new premium features, including Hide My Email, expanded HomeKit Secure Video support, and an innovative new internet privacy service, iCloud Private Relay.8 Current iCloud storage subscribers will be upgraded to iCloud+ automatically at no additional cost. All iCloud+ plans can be shared with people in the same Family Sharing group, so everyone can enjoy the new features, storage, and elevated experience that comes with the service.
The Health app gets a new sharing tab that lets users share their health data with family, caregivers, or a care team, trends give users a way to focus attention on meaningful changes in personal health metrics, and Walking Steadiness is a new metric that empowers people to proactively manage their fall risk. Users also have the ability to store verifiable COVID-19 vaccination or test result records directly in the Health app, so they can easily access them at any time.
Translate adds a new Auto Translate feature that automatically detects when a user begins speaking and translates speech without tapping the microphone button, allowing for conversation across languages to flow more naturally. Systemwide translation makes it possible to translate text anywhere on iPhone by selecting it and tapping Translate.
New iPhone setup makes it more seamless than ever to get started with iPhone. Existing iPhone users can temporarily back up data to iCloud — even without a subscription — to easily transfer their data to a new iPhone.9 For those moving to iPhone for the first time, an improved Move to iOS experience easily transfers photo albums, files, folders, and Accessibility settings, so iPhone feels personal right from the start.
Accessibility features include the ability to explore people, objects, text, and tables within images in more detail with VoiceOver, and new background sounds play continuously in the background to mask unwanted environmental or external noise. Sound actions customize Switch Control to work with mouth sounds, and users can customize display and text size settings on an app-by-app basis. Apple is also bringing support for recognizing imported audiograms — charts that show the results of a hearing test — to Headphone Accommodations.
Hide My Email lets users share unique, random email addresses that forward to their personal inbox any time they wish to keep their personal email address private.
Trends in the Health app enables users to easily see how a given health metric is progressing over time.
Translate goes systemwide, allowing users to translate text anywhere on iPhone.
Pricing and Availability
iOS 15 is a free software update that is available starting today for iPhone 6s and later. For more information, visit apple.com/ios/ios-15. Some features may not be available in all regions or all languages.
The all-new iPhone 13 lineup is officially here. As has become the norm, the lineup is split into the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro. On the surface, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro are very similar phones. They both feature a 6.1-inch display and the A15 Bionic processor inside, but look closer and you’ll notice some key differences.
If you’re trying to make a buying decision between the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, head below for everything you need to know about the iPhone 13 vs iPhone 13 Pro comparison.
In this comparison, we focus specifically on the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 and the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro. There are many similarities between the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13, and the iPhone 13 Pro Max, but there are also some key differences. Stay tuned to 9to5Mac over the coming days and weeks for additional comparisons between Apple’s iPhone lineup as it stands today.
iPhone 13 vs iPhone 13 Pro: Display
The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro feature 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR displays using OLED technology with a resolution of 2532 x 1170 pixels. This equals 460 pixels per inch. The iPhone 13 Pro, however, features a max brightness of 1000 nits, compared to the iPhone 13’s at 800 nits. For HDR content, however, both can reach a max brightness of 1200 nits.
There is one major difference between the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro displays: ProMotion technology. Exclusive to the iPhone 13 Pro, Apple’s ProMotion display technology brings adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz to the iPhone for the first time. This means the refresh rate of the iPhone 13 Pro’s screen can scale between 10Hz and 120Hz depending on what you’re doing on your device.
In real-world usage, this should mean things like scrolling and animations are significantly smoother. ProMotion also makes the display more efficient because it can scale all the way down to 10Hz when you’re doing something such as reading.
Other display features on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro include:
2,000,000:1 contrast ratio
True Tone display
Wide color gamut (P3)
Haptic Touch
HDR display
Design
In terms of design, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro are similar, with flat edges and nearly edge-to-edge displays. Both devices also feature slightly smaller notches at the top, which measure in at roughly 20% smaller in terms of width.
One major difference is that the iPhone 13 is made out of what Apple refers to as “aerospace-grade aluminum” while the iPhone 13 Pro is made from “surgical-grade stainless steel.” This means that the iPhone 13 has a brushed aluminum finish, while the iPhone 13 Pro features a shiny stainless finish.
The difference in materials makes the iPhone 13 Pro slightly heavier than the iPhone 13. The iPhone 13 weighs in at 6.14 ounces (174 grams), while the iPhone 13 Pro weighs in at 7.19 ounces (204 grams).
The dimensions are the same between the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 :
Height: 5.78 inches (146.7 mm)
Width: 2.82 inches (71.5 mm)
Thickness: 0.30 inches (7.65 mm)
The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro are both rated for IP68 splash, water, and dust resistance. Under this rating, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro can withstand submersion to a maximum depth of 6 meters for up to 30 minutes.
Performance and battery life
The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro are both powered by an A15 Bionic processor, packing a 6-core CPU with 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores. The A15 Bionic processor also features a new 16-core Neural Engine to power machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks.
One difference between the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro is that the former features a 4-core GPU, while the latter features a 5-core CPU. It remains to be seen what kind of difference this leads to in real-world performance, but it is a notable change for Apple to be segmenting the iPhone 13 lineup in this way for the first time.
Apple has not made any changes to the RAM configuration this year, with the iPhone 13 packing 4GB of RAM and the iPhone 13 Pro packing 6GB of RAM.
Both the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro feature notable improvements in battery life this year compared to their predecessors. The iPhone 13 Pro is able to edge out the iPhone 13 in some areas, according to Apple’s claims.
iPhone 13 battery estimates:
Audio playback: 75 hours
Video playback (streamed): Up to 15 hours
Video playback: Up to 19 hours
iPhone 13 Pro battery estimates:
Audio playback: 75 hours
Video playback (streamed): Up to 20 hours
Video playback: Up to 22 hours
Both devices support fast charging, for getting up to a 50% charge in 30 minutes with a 20W power adapter. There’s also support for 7.5W Qi wireless charging and 15W wireless charging when using a MagSafe wireless charger.
Connectivity
Have you heard the great news about 5G? Just like their predecessors, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro both feature support for 5G. Apple says this makes for “superfast downloads and high-quality streaming.” This includes support for mmWave 5G connectivity in the United States, as well as sub-6GHz 5G in the United States and other countries.
Camera
Where you really start to notice differences between the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, however, is the camera technology. The iPhone 13 features a dual 12MP camera system with Wide and Ultra Wide cameras on the back. On the front, you’ll find a 12MP f/2.2 aperture selfie camera.
Here are the full camera features for the iPhone 13:
Dual 12MP camera system: Wide and Ultra Wide cameras
Wide: ƒ/1.6 aperture
Ultra Wide: ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view
2x optical zoom out
Digital zoom up to 5x
Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
Meanwhile, the iPhone 13 Pro features a triple-lens camera system on the back plus a LiDAR Scanner. The triple-lens camera setup features Telephoto, Wide, and Ultra Wide cameras. On the front, you’ll find the same 12MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture.
Here are the full camera features for the iPhone 13 Pro:
Pro 12MP camera system: Telephoto, Wide, and Ultra Wide cameras
Telephoto: ƒ/2.8 aperture
Wide: ƒ/1.5 aperture
Ultra Wide: ƒ/1.8 aperture and 120° field of view
3x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 6x optical zoom range
Digital zoom up to 15x
Night mode portraits enabled by LiDAR Scanner
Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
Dual optical image stabilization (Telephoto and Wide)
Sensor‑shift optical image stabilization (Wide)
Six‑element lens (Telephoto and Ultra Wide); seven‑element lens (Wide)
True Tone flash with Slow Sync
Panorama (up to 63MP)
Sapphire crystal lens cover
100% Focus Pixels (Wide)
Night mode
Deep Fusion
Smart HDR 4
Photographic Styles
Macro photography
Apple ProRAW
Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos
Lens correction (Ultra Wide)
Advanced red‑eye correction
Photo geotagging
Auto image stabilization
Burst mode
Image formats captured: HEIF and JPEG
Video recording
In terms of video recording, both the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro support up to 4K video recording at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps as well as HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 4K at 60 fps. Both devices also feature Cinematic mode for recording videos with shallow depth of field at 1080p at 30 fps.
One notable difference, however, is that the iPhone 13 Pro packs support for Apple’s ProRes video recording standard at up to 4K at 30 fps (1080p at 30 fps for 128GB storage). This is a major feature for professional videographers looking to get the highest quality and lowest compression possible.
Colors, storage, and pricing
The iPhone 13 is available in five different colors: midnight, starlight, blue, red, and pink. The iPhone 13 Pro is available in four different colors: silver, graphite, gold, and sierra blue.
In terms of pricing, the iPhone 13 retails for:
$799 for 128GB of storage
$899 for 256GB of storage
$999 for 512GB of storage
Pricing for the iPhone 13 Pro is as follows:
$999 for 128GB of storage
$1099 for 256GB of storage
$1299 for 512GB of storage
$1499 for 1TB of storage
Included accessories
Citing environmental concerns, Apple is no longer including headphones or a charging brick in the iPhone 13 box this year. Here are some accessories you might consider picking up to help fill that gap and complement your new iPhone.
iPhone 13 vs iPhone 13 Pro features
iPhone 13
iPhone 13 Pro
Display
6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED
6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED
ProMotion Display
❌
✅
Finish
Aluminum
Stainless Steel
Processor
A15 Bionic
A15 Bionic
RAM
4GB
6GB
CPU cores
6 cores
6 cores
GPU cores
4 core
5 core
Durability
IP68
IP68
Battery life
Up to 19 hours video
Up to 22 hours video
Camera
Dual-lens 12MP
Triple-lens 12MP
Optical zoom range
2x
6x
Video
Dolby Vision HDR up to 4K at 60 fps
Dolby Vision HDR up to 4K at 60 fps
LiDAR
❌
✅
ProRes
❌
✅
ProRAW
❌
✅
Cinematic mode
✅
✅
5G
✅
✅
Weight
6.14 ounces (174 grams)
7.19 ounces (204 grams)
Storage
128GB, 256GB, 512GB
128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Pricing
From $799
From $999
Wrap up
As you can see, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro share many similarities in terms of size, form factor, and performance. With that being said, there are some notable differences this year in the camera category as well as in the display category.
Unlike last year when the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro featured the same display technology, the iPhone 13 Pro exclusively features the new ProMotion display technology. The iPhone 13 Pro also packs a more impressive camera setup with ProRes video recording, a triple-lens design, and more.
But ultimately, for most people, the iPhone 13 is enough: it can handle virtually any task you throw at it and it features a stunning design available in 5 different colors. The camera, while not as impressive as the iPhone 13 Pro, can still take stunning images and videos.
Those who should opt for the iPhone 13 Pro include people who take professional-level video and can take advantage of the ProRes video recording features. Those people should also opt for higher storage capacities as well.
Last week, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple would support LEO satellite communications with iPhone 13, then, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman gave more details about the feature and its implementation.
Now, in his Power On newsletter, the journalist goes a little bit further and says satellite features will be available only in select markets.
“Theemergency features will only work in areas without any cellular coverage and only in select markets. Apple envisions eventually deploying its own array of satellites to beam data to devices, but that plan is likely years away from taking off.”
He also says Apple won’t give the ability for iPhone users to make calls when without cellular coverage.
“Some have asked me if these new features mean that the iPhone can be used as a satellite phone and have the ability to make calls anywhere in the world without cellular coverage. The answer is a big no. That’s not happening now, next year, or anytime in the near future.”
Gurman explains that launching this feature would require hardware that’s not ready yet. Also, it would be “expensive and could cause a revolt from the phone carriers that Apple relies on.”
According to the Bloomberg report from last week, Apple is working on at least two approaches: transmitting short emergency texts and sending SOS distress signals for crises, like plane crashes, or sinking ships, in remote areas.
Apple will apparently integrate emergency satellite messaging into the Messages app, allowing users to contact emergency services and close friends without any cell signal. Bloomberg says emergency messages would appear as gray bubbles, joining the traditional iMessage blue and SMS green. Phone calls may eventually be supported as well.
Connecting to a satellite would require the user to be outside, according to the report. It may take up to one minute to get a signal.
Apple is expected to officially unveil the iPhone 13 at a media event in September. We don’t know yet if Apple will give customers an early sneak peek of the satellite features or not.
Apple today released iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 beta 5 to developers. These updates don’t include as many changes as the previous betas did, but they do include a handful of smaller tweaks. Head below as we roundup everything knew in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 beta 5.
With the fifth betas of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Apple is focusing more on refinement than major changes. There are no major changes to the controversial Safari redesign in this beta, unlike the previous releases.
iOS 15 beta 5 features the build number of 19A5318f. Developers can update from beta 4 via the Settings app. Open the Settings app, choose General, then choose Software Update.
iOS 15 is also available to public beta users, but no new beta has been released to those users this week. It’s possible that the next iOS 15 public beta build is released later today or tomorrow, but a release next week is not out of the question. Apple has also not released new betas of macOS Monterey or watchOS 8.
What’s new in iOS 15 beta 5?
The Weather app has a new icon that adds depth, making it similar to the Maps icon in iOS 15
New onboarding screens for the Maps, Home, and Photos applications
In iPadOS 15 beta 5, Apple has made a small change to the Safari interface, so the address bar is now outlined instead of filled in
Safari
iPadOS 15 beta 5 also brings a new “Use Large Icons” setting to the “Home Screen & Dock” area of the Settings app. This was previously located in the “Display & Brightness” settings area
In the Settings app under Safari then Accessibility, there is a new option for “Show Color in Top and Bottom Bars”
New tappable message for “iPhone Findable After Power Off”
Tweaks to the “Notifications while in Focus” design in Notification Center
According to Apple’s release notes: “Legacy Contacts has been removed from iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 5 and will return in a future release.”
New indicator in the App Store for when you have a TestFlight beta version of an app installed
You can ensure your data remains safe through erasure.
One of the most powerful features added years ago to macOS and iOS was Find My iPhone—and iPad and Mac. The iCloud-connected service lets you track an accidentally misplaced item and potentially recover a stolen one. With the service active on a device, you can use Find My for macOS, iOS, or iPadOS or via iCloud.com to erase your computer, phone, or tablet or to queue an erasure signal for the next time the device is on the Internet. iPhones and iPads with a Secure Enclave and Macs with FileVault enabled simply delete the encryption keys for storage. This renders the data irretrievable. (It doesn’t affect your local or iCloud backups, so don’t worry.) On a Mac with a T2 Security Chip or M1 Apple silicon, disk encryption is always enabled even if FileVault isn’t, allowing Secure Enclave to destroy the disk encryption keys instantly even with FileVault disabled. Pre-Secure Enclave iPhones and iPads and Macs that predate the T2 Security chip and have FileVault disabled take longer to delete files, as each byte of data has to be overwritten. If you’re not sure whether your iPhone, iPad, or Intel Mac has a Secure Enclave, consult the list Apple provides here. You can determine if FileVault is enabled by going to the Security & Privacy preference pane’s FileVault tab.
How to erase a device
Apple warns you about the consequences when you’re about to erase your Mac remotely.
Apple’s tweaked the process slightly for its native apps but left iCloud.com virtually untouched for years. In macOS, iOS, or iPadOS, launch the Find My app. Tap the Devices tab and then tap your hardware. (If you have Family Sharing enabled, you can also see the devices of family members.) On an iPhone or iPad, tap Erase This Device and follow the prompts. On a Mac, right-click the device and select Erase This Device.
With iCloud.com, log in to your account and click the Find iPhone link—no “My” in there. Enter your iCloud password again if prompted. Click the All Devices menu and select your hardware:
For a Mac, click Erase Mac and follow prompts; you’ll note the text says it “may take up to a day to complete,” the worst-case example for a hard-drive-equipped Mac without FileVault enabled and neither a T2 nor M1 chip.
For an iPhone or iPad, just click Erase iPhone or Erase iPad.
If the device is connected to the internet via whatever method it has at its disposal—Wi-Fi, cellular, tethering, a…dial-up modem—erasure begins immediately after the Mac receives the signal relayed via Apple’s servers. In the cases noted above, the drive or flash storage almost instantly becomes irretrievable.
The erase command is queued by Apple, so if the device ever is briefly back on the internet, it erases itself. Once your device starts wiping its data, finding its location via Find My is no longer possible.
For devices that ne’er-do-wells have taken offline or put in a metal box, they may never return online to receive an erase command. But for iPhones, iPads, and Macs with a Secure Enclave, the stored data can’t be interacted with unless someone also obtained the password. (For a running Mac, there might be cracks that work, but it’s unlikely; if powered down and FileVault is enabled, effectively impossible.)
Find My lets you see all your devices and select among them for several purposes—including erasure.
It can be wiped, which securely removes your data—and then Activation Lock kicks, a part of Find My. (Macs have a few additional requirements.) Activation Lock prevents an erased device from being set up again without knowing the iCloud password associated with the account that turned on Find My on it.
Criminal groups have apparently figured out ways to bypass Activation Lock in at least some cases, but those methods still require erasing the device, so your data remains inaccessible.
A future of remote erasure?
I can imagine a future in which the Find My Network could be used to trigger erasure, too. Right now, the system is used entirely as a passive relay: an AirTag tracker and most Apple devices can broadcast their position over Bluetooth in a carefully encrypted manner. Nearby Macs, iPhones, and iPads with Find My Network enabled relay this data via Apple so you can get updates about location without the party relaying it knowing who you are or which device is transmitting.
But AirTags point the way to a potential two-way process. If Apple determines an AirTag has been traveling with you and you’re not the owner of it, you’re presented with a dialog on an iPhone or iPad that lets you play a sound. That command is passed via Bluetooth.
An iPhone that spots an unknown AirTag traveling with it over time can send a signal to prompt an action on the AirTag.
that preserves privacy and yet could be turned to device erasure, too. In Apple and Google’s joint notification system, your smartphone recorded all specially formatted Bluetooth signals around you and retained for those a period of time; this is quite similar to the signals emitted for the Find My Network by Apple devices.
If someone who had been near you receives a COVID diagnosis and enters a code into their smartphone provided by their healthcare provider, the encrypted Bluetooth IDs associated would then be uploaded to a database that all devices in your region or country regularly downloaded and compared to stored IDs.
Now, consider this: what if you could report your device as stolen and that you wanted it erased. That signal would then be distributed in encrypted form across all Apple hardware in your area or an expanded region. If any of those devices picked up an encrypted Bluetooth signal that matched, they could transmit a similarly encrypted erasure instruction. Thieves try to disable all the wireless on a device, but Bluetooth is often harder to block than Wi-Fi or cellular.
The safeguards around this would have to be strong, but it’s not far-fetched—just far-reaching!
If you’re concerned about recent reports of the Pegasus spyware reportedly installed by the Israeli NSO Group to hack journalists and world leaders, there’s a tool to check if it’s hidden on your iPhone. But you probably have nothing to worry about.
According to a report in the Washington Post in conjunction with nonprofit groups Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International and several others, military-grade spyware developed by an Israeli firm was used to hack some 40 smartphones “belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
It’s extremely unlikely that your phone has been hacked using NSO software, but there is now a way to check your iPhone for Pegasus spyware – or, at least, some tell-tale signs.
However, if you are concerned, Amnesty International has released a tool designed to help you check.
The bad news, as TechCrunch explains, is that it’s not an entirely straightforward process.
The Mobile Verification Toolkit, or MVT, works on both iPhones and Android devices, but slightly differently. Amnesty said that more forensic traces were found on iPhones than Android devices, which makes it easier to detect on iPhones. MVT will let you take an entire iPhone backup (or a full system dump if you jailbreak your phone) and feed in for any indicators of compromise (IOCs) known to be used by NSO to deliver Pegasus, such as domain names used in NSO’s infrastructure that might be sent by text message or email. If you have an encrypted iPhone backup, you can also use MVT to decrypt your backup without having to make a whole new copy.
The toolkit works on the command line, so it’s not a refined and polished user experience and requires some basic knowledge of how to navigate the terminal. We got it working in about 10 minutes, plus the time to create a fresh backup of an iPhone, which you will want to do if you want to check up to the hour. To get the toolkit ready to scan your phone for signs of Pegasus, you’ll need to feed in Amnesty’s IOCs, which it has on its GitHub page. Any time the indicators of compromise file updates, download and use an up-to-date copy.
Once you set off the process, the toolkit scans your iPhone backup file for any evidence of compromise. The process took about a minute or two to run and spit out several files in a folder with the results of the scan. If the toolkit finds a possible compromise, it will say so in the outputted files.
There has been some misreporting of the spyware, suggesting that iPhones were somehow more vulnerable. The reality is that Amnesty focused its efforts on iPhones because the improved security they offer make it easier to detect when a phone has been compromised. It is possible to check Android phones, but with many more false negatives.
The phones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers, according to the Post. NSO has denied the allegations.
There’s a good chance your iPhone isn’t on that list. While the legality of the operation may be in question, reports say the NSO seemingly targeted high-level politicians, government officials, and journalists in the operation and were only successful less than half the time. For example, Amnesty International examined 67 phones and found that “23 were successfully infected and 14 showed signs of attempted penetration.” Of those, nearly all were iPhones, according to the investigation.
But if you’re concerned, there’s a way to test whether your iPhone has been targeted. It’s not an easy test, mind you, but if you’re using a Mac or Linux PC and have backed up your iPhone using it, Amnesty International’s the Mobile Verification Toolkit will be able to detect whether your phone has the Pegasus spyware installed on it. The tool, which TechCrunch tested, works using the macOS Terminal app and searches your latest iPhone backup on your Mac, “is not a refined and polished user experience and requires some basic knowledge of how to navigate the terminal.” You’ll need to install libusb as well as Python 3 using Homebrew. (You can learn more about the installationhere.) TechCrunch says the check only takes “about a minute or two to run” once it’s been set up.
An explosive report from Amnesty International interpreted device logs to reveal the scope of targeted malware attacks in active use targeting Android and iPhone devices, since July 2014 and as recently as July 2021. Exploited devices can secretly transmit messages and photos stored on the phone, as well as record phone calls and secretly record from the microphone. The attack is sold by Israeli firm NSO Group as ‘Pegasus’.
Whilst the company claims to only sell the spyware software for legit counterterrorism purposes, the report indicates it has actually been used to target human rights activists, lawyers and journalists around the world (as many have long suspected).
Perhaps most alarming for iPhone users, the findings show that there are active exploits against iPhones running the latest iOS 14.6 software, including ones that take advantage of a zero-click vulnerability in iMessage that can install the spyware without any user interaction.
Over the last few years, the Pegasus software has adapted as Apple fixed security bugs with iOS. However, each time, NSO Group has been able to find alternative security bugs to use instead. The lengthy report details several different variants of Pegasus that have been used in the wild.
The records indicate that, in 2019, a bug in Apple Photos allowed malicious actors to gain control of an iPhone perhaps via the iCloud Photo Stream service. After the exploit installs itself, crash reporting is disabled likely to prevent Apple from discovering the exploit too quickly by looking at submitted crash report logs.
Also in 2019, Amnesty says that an iMessage zero-click 0-day was widely used. It appears the hackers create special iCloud accounts to help deliver the infections. In 2020, Amnesty found evidence to suggest that the Apple Music app was now being used as an attack vector.
And fast forwarding to the present day, Amnesty believes Pegasus spyware is currently being delivered using a zero-click iMessage exploit that works against iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 14.6. The exploit also appeared to successfully work against iPhones running iOS 14.3 and iOS 14.4.
Apple significantly rewrote the internal framework that handles iMessage payloads as part of iOS 14, with a new BlastDoor subsystem, however clearly that has not fazed the intruders. It remains unknown whether iOS 14.7 — which will be released to the public this week — or iOS 15 — currently in developer beta — are susceptible to the same zero-click exploit. Perhaps what’s more scary is the fact that NSO Group seems more than able to find and deploy new exploits as soon as Apple patches the current holes, as shown by the five year history of evolving attack vectors reported by Amnesty.
Check out the Amnesty International post for a full detailed breakdown of all the evidence they have published.
The folks at Funn Media are out with a new iPhone and Apple Watch app today that gives you a new way to view and analyze health and fitness data. Dubbed FitnessView, the app takes data from from your Apple Watch and the Apple Health app and makes it easy to drill down into more detail about that data, including trends, goals, heart rate graphs, and much more.
FitnessView app integrates with the Apple Watch Activity and Apple Health apps – it allows you to see your health & fitness data in a different way, by allowing you to drill down to more details in an easy and insightful way.
FitnessView takes data from the Apple Health app and Apple Watch, including active calories, stand hours, calories, workout time, heart rate, and more. When you first launched Fitness View, you’ll see a breakdown of all of your data, including details on that day’s goals, your recent workouts, and your Activity Rings for the day.
You can configure goals for every stat in the Settings tab of the app, including steps, calories, caffeine, and more. Here is where you can also configure settings for workouts, the home screen layout, dark and light mode, and activity settings.
In the Stats tab of the app, you can view details for each of your tracked metrics over the last day, week, month, and year. You can tap on each metric to view averages, trends, and insights over time. One of my favorite features of FitnessView is the Workouts tab, which shows all of your recent Apple Health workouts including detailed heart rate data through warmup, fat burn, cardio, and peak stages of the workout.
FitnessView also includes home screen widgets for your iPhone as well as Apple Watch complications for your watch face. This makes it easy to visualize your Activity and Health data from your iPhone home screen and Apple Watch face. You can also configure custom widgets for each metric and goal.
You can download FitnessView on the App Store today for free. In-app subscriptions are available for monthly, yearly, and lifetime access: $1.49 per month, $9.99 per year, and $14.99 for lifetime access.
