I’ve played guitar as a hobby since I was in junior high. While the instrument hasn’t changed, the tools I use to make it possible have — sort of. In addition to the built-in GarageBand app, these are the two must-have iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps I use for for fun.

TikTok’s deactivation for US users may have been short-lived, but the app is still missing from the iPhone’s App Store. Here’s why one lawyer says Apple can’t bring it back yet.

The screen recording utility in iOS is a great way to share quick screencasts of what’s on your iPhone’s display. I use it all the time for tutorials, or as a way to simply explain what I’m talking about in the most straightforward way possible. As I touched on in the last episode of iOS Decoded, in a future iOS update, the built-in screen recording utility will gain three new features that will increase its usefulness.

iOS 18.3 is only days away from a public launch, bringing new Camera Control features, AI changes, and bug fixes. It will also be the rare update that actually removes a current iPhone feature—but just temporarily.

Samsung made a slew of announcements today at its Unpacked 2025 event today, headlined by the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra.

At the end of the event, however, Samsung also dropped a surprise teaser for its forthcoming ultra-thin Galaxy S25 Edge. Samsung’s teaser comes ahead of Apple’s rumored release of its ultra-thin smartphone, the iPhone 17 Air, later this year.

With its One UI 7 update, Samsung is adding support for “Live Notifications” and the “Now Bar,” the company’s take on the “Live Activities” functionality Apple has been building out on iPhone for a while. With the Galaxy S25 now official, Samsung is confirming additional support for apps including Google Maps.

Apple is expected to launch the M4 MacBook Air very soon, likely as its first new product of the year. When it arrives, there will be one new feature that could motivate users of the M2 and even M3 models to upgrade: more robust external display support.

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I got an early, hands-on look at the new Samsung S25 lineup, most importantly the S25 Ultra. I was curious to see what the best of the best from Samsung was like compared to the Apple counterpart, the iPhone. What really stood out to me about these phones is that we have seemed to reach a peak when it comes to form factor. The rectangular, candy bar design breathes a lot of similarities across both devices and so do the internal specs. So the only thing left here to truly compare is going to be the software, user experience, and, of course, their AI. Let’s get into.

Apple Intelligence ‘officially’ is only supported on compatible iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but the Apple Watch also gains select features when paired with a modern iPhone. Here are two key AI features available on your Watch.

Deals on the 1TB M4 MacBook Pro at $200 off are indeed still live, but today we are moving back over to the M3 MacBook Air – the most affordable 13- and 15-inch models are now also $200 off while open-box listings are as much as $470 off the original prices before the RAM upgrade. For today only, we are also tracking some rare deals on brand new unlocked iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus units from $680, or $119 off the launch prices, joined by return lows on the official Alpine and Trail Loops for Apple Watch Ultra. All of that joins some Sonos home theater deals, charging gear, and more down below. 

Apple will report its quarterly earnings next week, providing an official look into iPhone 16 sales in the holiday quarter. For now, though, a new report helps inform what we should expect from the sales mix for different iPhone 16 models.

It’s not the dream of a full bundle, but some Google One subscribers will soon get a discount on YouTube Premium in the US. Meanwhile, YouTube is starting to test a handful of new features that subscribers can opt-in to.

We yesterday got a look at what is claimed to be the iPhone 17 Air camera bump, and the reaction hasn’t been … overly favorable.

While we don’t know for sure that the photo shows the real thing, our own sources indicate that the design depicted is probably accurate …

We’ve today been given a preview of the gorgeous new Apple Miami Worldcenter store ahead of its opening on Friday morning.

The company has highlighted the store’s “biophilic” design, environmental credentials, accessibility features, and multicultural Latin American influence …

Apple is wrapping up its iOS 18.3 beta cycle, and that means one important thing: iOS 18.4 beta 1 is coming soon. Here’s when to expect it to arrive.

Plex, the popular media server and streaming app, has a handful of announcements today. The service is adding new discovery and community features for all users and upgraded video streaming quality for Plex Pass users.

Perhaps most notable for Apple users, however, is that Plex is expanding its preview of the all-new Plex experience to Apple TV.

Philips Hue and other smart bulbs based on the Zigbee standard could soon act as motion sensors without the need for any additional hardware. This would mean they could automatically switch on when someone enters a room without using a separate motion sensor.

Even better, the new functionality looks set to be added to existing Hue bulbs through an update to the Hue Bridge …

If Ray-Ban Meta glasses are not your style, the company is expected to launch a pair of Oakley smart glasses later this year. These will likely mirror the functionality of Meta’s existing AI glasses, but with very different styling.

The Oakley glasses are reportedly based on the Sphaera model, which is primarily aimed at cyclists and other athletes …

The Truecaller app has long been able to flag some incoming spam and scam phone calls, enabling you to reject them, but Apple privacy rules prevented the iOS version from working as effectively as the Android one. This means the iPhone would fail to identify many callers that would be flagged on Android phones.

A new Apple API in iOS 18.2 solves the privacy problem, and additionally now allows Truecaller to automatically block known spammers …

The Indonesian government has said that it expects its iPhone 16 ban to be lifted “within one or two weeks,” but has not explained the basis for this.

The country’s investment minister issued only a rather strangely-worded and somewhat contradictory comment which implied that a deal was close …

Today Apple pushed out the release candidate for iOS 18.3, this comes on the heels of last Thursday’s release of iOS 18.3 developer beta 3. In its release notes, Apple states that the update brings improvements to Visual Intelligence, along with the boilerplate “other enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates.”

But there’s much more than meets the eye when it comes to this iOS 18.3 release candidate. Beneath the surface, there’s new evidence of the upcoming iOS 18.4 Siri updates, future changes with screen recording/streaming, and new animations for Shortcuts and Messages. In this hands-on video, we take a look at what’s new in iOS 18.3 RC. Be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube for more iOS Decoded.

A new survey of game developers shows significant interest in the Vision Pro for gaming, with big growth expected from soon-to-be made visionOS games. Here are the details.

Netflix is hiking its prices once again. Starting today, the cheapest Netflix plan will cost $7.99 per month, while the top-of-the-line plan with 4K streaming will cost you a cool $24.99 monthly.