iPad & iPhone User 186

European lawmakers have voted by a margin of 602 to 13 in favour of a long-planned directive that will oblige makers of phones, tablets and cameras to use a common charging standard, USB-C, by the end of 2024. The news was announced recently in a European Parliament press release (fave.co/3CPgF1L). The law also applies to headsets and headphones, satnavs, e-readers, mice, keyboards, and portable game consoles and speakers. And to laptops, for that matter, although laptop manufacturers have more time to implement the change: for that category, the law doesn’t take effect until spring 2026. This has been coming for a while. Provisional approval was announced back in June, but the European Parliament was advocating for a common charger standard as long ago as 2014. It’s worth noting that technically this law applies…

Apple’s paid fitness service, Fitness+, is a pretty good collection of workout videos in a variety of styles, lengths and difficulties. From the beginning, it was conceived as a way to increase the value of the Apple Watch – specific workouts are automatically synced with Apple Watch, and live metrics from the watch are shown on your TV, iPad, or iPhone to keep you motivated. With the release of iOS 16.1, Apple has officially dropped the requirement to own an Apple Watch. ALL YOU NEED IS AN iPHONE When you upgrade to iOS 16.1 (available now), you’ll find Fitness+ in the centre of the bottom tabs in the Fitness app. From this tab, you’ll be able to subscribe to Fitness+ in any of the 21 countries where the service is available today,…

Last year, Google surprised us all with a new feature that improved the iMessage experience on iPhones. Instead of ugly text strings that cluttered iPhone-Android conversations with ‘Mike laughed at’ or ‘Karen loved’ messages, Google mapped its own emoji to Apple’s tapbacks so a pleasing icon showed up instead. The feature is so good, Apple took steps to make sure it works for everyone in iOS 16. Now Google is taking it a step further. Instead of limiting tapbacks to RCS/iMessage conversations, it will begin allowing emoji reactions for SMS texts from iPhone users as well. In a thinly veiled dig at Apple, Google writes: “While RCS is the ultimate solution, we’re doing what we can to help Android users have a way to consistently react to messages.” This will no doubt…

We’re used to Apple’s products holding their value for longer than other devices, but it’s not often that one appreciates in value by 5,000 percent. But that’s what happened here: an unopened original iPhone from 2007 sold at LCG Auctions (fave.co/3ggyjUm) for a cool $39,339.60, roughly 50 times its original $599 retail price. For those who don’t remember, Apple’s first iPhone had a 3.5-inch display, 8GB of storage, and 2.75G EDGE networking. Assuming this model works, it would be nigh unusable as has no App Store and can’t be updated beyond iOS 3. However, as a piece of Apple history and nostalgia, it’s priceless. The iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs at Macworld San Francisco in January 2007, and it instantly changed the landscape. Where previous smartphones had small keyboards and even…

Every year Apple sends several of its products to the great Genius Bar in the sky as they age out of repair and upgrades, but this one hit a little differently: the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which brought the iPhone into the world of large screens and was Apple’s biggest selling model of all time, is officially vintage. It seems like only yesterday when Apple unveiled the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, but it was actually eight years ago. And since Apple stopped selling the phone five years ago, it’s now been officially declared vintage, the first step before it becomes obsolete in two years. When Apple declares a product as vintage, parts and repair become more difficult but not impossible. Once a product reaches obsolete status…

Price: £849 from fave.co/3sg6Hla The iPhone 14 is basically an iPhone 13s. It features a very similar processor and has a very similar appearance as the previous generation, but like the S iPhones of old offers a bunch of new camera features that improve photography in impressive ways. Starting at £849, the iPhone 14 costs £70 more than the £779 iPhone 13. This bump in price means the standard iPhone is less affordable than it was, and when you consider you could save £100 by buying a new iPhone 13, the question is: do the new features justify the price? WHAT’S NEW (AND WHAT’S THE SAME) With the arrival of the iPhone 14, Apple has increased the gap between the standard and Pro iPhones. This year nearly all the headline features are absent. This…