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New lawsuit shows your phone is unsafe at American borders
A recent case filed in federal court, in which an American woman had her iPhone seized and cracked by Customs and Border Protection in a New Jersey airport puts a whole new spin on the things we now need to worry about when leaving the country. It appears that now everyone's phones, despite country of origin or cause, are subject to nonconsensual seizure and search -- even if we refuse to give up our passwords. If you're not caught up on the story, news hit this week that a Staten Island mom coming home from a February trip with her 9-year-old daughter from Switzerland had her iPhone snatched, kept for months and accessed for no given reason. Apple did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Apple's $29 iPhone battery replacements are available a month early
Apple was only poised to offer discounted iPhone battery replacements in late January, but they're already here. The company has issued a statement announcing that the $29/£25 replacements are available today (December 30th) in the US, UK and elsewhere for affected users with an iPhone 6 or later, whether or not they have an active AppleCare warranty. It didn't explain the move beyond saying that it "expected to need more time to be ready," but it was "happy" to provide the lower prices "right away." It warned that there might be initial shortages of batteries for some models.
AppleCare now costs more for larger iPhones
Are you eyeing a larger-screened iPhone, like the iPhone X or 8 Plus? Unfortunately, it'll cost you extra to extend the warranty. Apple has quietly raised the price of AppleCare+ coverage for bigger iPhones, with the price varying depending on what you're getting. If you want to protect any Plus model, it now costs $149/£149 instead of the $129/£129 you continue to pay for mid-size iPhones. And brace yourself if you're getting an iPhone X: it'll cost $199/£199 to get your device covered.
Apple starts selling refurb iPhones through its online store
If you've ever wanted to buy an iPhone straight from Apple but thought that brand new unlocked models were out of your reach, you're in luck. Apple has started selling refurbished iPhones in its US online store, with hefty discounts depending on what you want to buy. An unlocked 16GB iPhone 6s is selling for $449, or $80 off the usual price; splurge on a 64GB iPhone 6s Plus and you'll shell out $589, or $110 less than usual. The iPhone SE and iPhone 7 are absent, but that's not surprising given that owners have only had them for several months at best.
Facebook Messenger offers 3D Touch previews on your iPhone 6s
Add one more to the list of Facebook apps belatedly making use of recent iPhone features. Facebook has introduced 3D Touch support to Messenger on iOS, making your iPhone 6s or 6s Plus that much more useful when you're chatting up a storm. The update adds pressure-sensitive previews to seemingly everything -- you can peek at chats, contacts, locations, media, web links and even stickers. If you want to find out whether or not that conversation or photo is worth viewing, you'll want to get the new version right away.
Sprint knows some iPhone users in SoCal can't connect to LTE
iOS 9.3 didn't only make it tough for a lot of users to open web links, it also rendered some Sprint subscribers unable to connect to the carrier's LTE network. According to the social media posts by some of the carrier's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users in Southern California, they started grappling with the technical issue after updating their mobile OS. While Sprint hasn't issued a fix yet, it says its "network team is aggressively working to resolve the issue." The company adds that it "expects to have a solution in place as quickly as possible."
How does the SE stack up to the rest of the iPhone line?
The iPhone SE is the newest member of Apple's smartphone line, with a smaller size that makes it more pocket-friendly than either the 6s or 6s Plus. But, while the SE boasts a diminutive frame and familiar design, is that enough to make you choose it over its bigger siblings? Though you'll have to wait for our review for the ultimate verdict, we can at least compare the specs side by side to see how the SE stacks up on paper.
Google Photos now shows Live Photos from your iPhone 6s
If you frequently snap Live Photos with your iPhone 6s, you now have an easy way to preserve those photo/video hybrids for the ages. A fresh Google Photos update for iOS lets you both back up and view Live Photos, so you shouldn't have to choose another cloud storage service or (gasp) resort to taking still shots. And it's still a useful update even if you aren't in a rush to get a 6s -- there's better navigation (fewer times accessing that omnipresent hamburger menu) and lower cache use when you're tight on device space. Grab it now if you're determined to keep your Live Photos for posterity.
Apple reportedly shrinks iPhone orders
Don't look now, but Apple may be facing a rough patch. Wall Street Journal sources claim that Apple has cut its iPhone order forecasts to suppliers in the "past several months." Moreover, some Chinese factories making the handset have had idle capacity and let people go on holiday early -- this isn't the usual post-holiday dip. The city of Zhengzhou also gave Foxconn (Apple's main iPhone manufacturer) $12 million to help 'stabilize' the workforce, although it's unclear whether or not this is directly related to the apparent reduction.
New in our buyer's guide: The iPhone 6s, Surface Book and much more
Sorry we haven't updated the buyers's guide in a couple months -- we've been too busy pumping out reviews of all the new devices. Now that things have finally started to slow down (fingers crossed), let's take a step back and look at all the awesome stuff we've had a chance to test this fall. For starters, there's a bunch of excellent smartphones that we absolutely need to add to our guide. Namely: the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the Nexus 6P and 5X, and the Moto X Pure. On the tablet side, we're inducting both the iPad mini 4 and the Surface Pro 4. Microsoft makes another appearance in the laptop section, where we've added the Surface Book, along with Dell's Chromebook 13. Rounding out the list, we threw in a few miscellaneous items, including the new Xbox One Elite Wireless controller, the redesigned Sonos Play:5 wireless speaker and Google's $35 Chromecast Audio.
Here's what our readers think of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus aren't going to wow you with a new design -- that's not the point of Apple's 's' phones. Instead, they offer a lot of under-the-hood updates, including a faster processor, better cameras and the addition of a pressure-sensitive 3D Touch, leading our reviewer Chris Velazco to call the two phones "more than just a modest refresh." Now that many of our readers have gotten their mitts on one, we've taken a look at the user reviews to find out if the 6s and 6s Plus truly constitute a "worthy upgrade."
Flickr takes advantage of iOS 9 and your iPhone 6s
The pressure-sensitive touch on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus was practically tailor-made for quickly glancing at photos, so wouldn't it make sense that major photography apps let you do just that? Flickr sure thinks so. It's launching an updated iOS app that takes full advantage of iOS 9, including 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s line. You can peek at photos, people and notifications with a firm push. It'll even flip through your camera roll if you swipe at the same time, giving you a quick way to share the right snapshot. As you might've guessed, that extra dimension also gives you home screen icon shortcuts that help you post photos that much sooner.
Watch this iPhone screen protector heal scratches within a second
The folks who came up with the self-healing iPhone case is now back with something a lot more impressive. Innerexile's earlier technology could repair light scratches within about half a minute (given the right temperature, that is), but the latest version can do the same within just a second! Seriously, you'd have to study very hard to witness that brief magical moment, which proved to be tricky in our brass brush test video after the break. So what's the secret sauce behind this new coating? Well, it's dotted with microcapsules that contain an adhesive-like liquid, and when damaged, the liquid will fill the void so quickly that you probably won't even realize you've just scratched your case or screen protector.
Apple Stores show off iPhone 6s 3D Touch with fancy tables
Apple is doing a new trick at its flagship San Francisco and New York Stores to show off the benefits of 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. A video from Grate App (below) shows the phones rigged up to a table that's actually a very large display. When you press on the iPhone's swimming fish screen-saver, it creates ripples in the screen around the phone, which vary in size depending on how hard you press. (The table itself doesn't appear to be force-sensitive, but rather just takes 3D Touch input from the phones.) It's a clever way to tout a feature that's a bit hard to grok, but there's no word on whether you'll see it in any other stores.
Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are now available SIM-free
Apple is now selling unlocked versions of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, giving you options if you'd rather not be tied to a contract or want a handset that works in other countries. The downside, of course, is that you'll pay the full retail price without those carrier subsidies -- starting at $649 for the (controversial) 16GB iPhone 6s at Apple Stores or online. In addition, Apple has started rolling out its latest iPhones in 36 new countries, including Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and Spain. They're now available in 48 nations, and will hit about 80 more by the end of the year.
Tell us how you really feel about the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus
It's been a week since the release of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and while this is an "s" year -- meaning a lot of subtle changes instead of a big redesign -- there's still a lot to like about this year's models. We appreciated the speedier Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and the optical image stabilization in the 6s Plus proved handy with video recording. But our reviewer Chris Velazco came away most impressed with 3D Touch, a "tremendously useful tool" that he "wanted to use all the time." And now we'd like to know if our readers agree. Plenty of you have upgraded to one of Apple's new phones in the past week, and now we're giving you an opportunity to tell us what your experience has been so far. Write a review in our product database for the 6s or 6s Plus and we'll feature some of the best ones in a future post.
iPhone 6s and 6s Plus review: More than just a refresh
Some people look a little unkindly on the so-called "S" years -- those years when Apple updates the iPhone, but doesn't change how it looks, and then sells that while secretly working on something flashier that will debut 12 months later. I don't think that's exactly fair. Those "S" years are when Apple adds some of its most useful features. Siri? Touch ID? Both valuable additions to the iPhone platform that have since grown in importance. This year we get 3D Touch, a potentially awesome way to interact with iPhones. The thing is, a device's worth isn't just tied up in one feature: It's about how all those moving parts work together. That's why the new 6s and 6s Plus (starting at $649 and $749, respectively, for 16GB models) are such great phones. The combination of much-improved hardware and some polished software makes this year's release far more than just a modest refresh.
Where to buy Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus in the UK
If you hadn't made a note in you diary, then let us remind you: new iPhone day is upon us. Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus launch in 12 countries today, and one of those just happens to be the sunny UK. As the "s" qualifier denotes, the flagships are iterative improvements over last year's models, with more powerful innards, better cameras and pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" displays. But let's be frank, any new product bearing an Apple logo has an army of consumers waiting with bated breath. Some will have queued outside their nearest Apple Store for the past 24 hours, and others will have pre-ordered their devices from the comfort of their sofas, but if you've taken a more measured approach to iPhone procurement, then let us walk you through your options.
Hong Kong's iPhone grey market cashes in on the 6s
Whenever a new iPhone launches in Hong Kong, local folks would seize the opportunity to make a quick profit from the grey market. They would get their brand new phones from either Apple or local carriers, and then sell them off to specialists who would later offer bulk orders to mainland Chinese buyers. The quicker they act, the more cash they get. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are no exception. This morning, I was the first customer to pick up my 128GB rose gold 6s Plus from a carrier store (the shop assistants even took a photo to mark the occasion), but I quickly sold it for HK$10,000 or about US$1,290 at the Sincere Podium mobile phone mall just around the corner. That's roughly a US$250 profit based on the device's local price, which isn't bad at all.
Verizon will offer a yearly upgrade plan (but only for iPhones)
Verizon Wireless announced on Thursday that it will offer its customers annual iPhone upgrades should they purchase a new 6s or 6s Plus on Friday, September 25th. According to the company's press release, everybody that's already preordered one of the new iPhones is already enrolled in the Verizon Device Payment option. Customers that prefer to continue paying off their phones over two years are, of course, free to do so. This announcement follows a number of similar plans recently set forth by the wireless industry as well as Apple itself. Note that this program only applies to the latest iPhone models moving forward. If you've got an Android Nexus or an older iPhone 5, you're out of luck. [Image Credit: Getty Images]
