Table of contents for Issue 128 in iPad & iPhone User

Apple has released a statement to TechCrunch to address accusations on the Internet that the company purposely throttles the performance of older iPhones in order to boost new iPhone sales. Here is the statement to TechCrunch: Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components. Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions.…

Earbud makers have been busy doing away with wires – a good thing whether or not your phone still has a headset jack. You no longer have to deal with cords if you don’t want to. True wireless earbuds connect to one another and your audio source via Bluetooth. No wires mean no inline microphones or controls, but truly wireless earbuds sound just as good as traditional Bluetooth counterparts (for better or worse). They also boast all of the features we’ve come to expect from earbuds designed to work with your smartphone, tablet, or PC. Since Apple’s AirPods became a runaway hit, an endless stream of companies have rolled out their own true wireless earbuds and earphones. As you might expect, not all of them are worth your time or…

2017 was a pretty great year for iOS. A whole lot of my wish-list items for iPhone and iPad got checked off. And yet, like a kid who got a bike under the tree and still immediately begins assembling a birthday wish list, it’s my job as a columnist to immediately ask Apple what it’s done for iOS lately. Ungrateful, I know, but life goes on: Here’s what I hope to see from Apple in the world of iOS in 2018. More iPhones The iPhone X was the banner product of 2017, but it’s still just a first take on a whole new generation of iPhone hardware. In 2018 I’d like to see an upgrade to the iPhone X, sure – ideally retaining the iPhone X name, because who wants…

By now you will have heard about the Spectre and Meltdown CPU flaws, but you might not fully understand what the issue is and how you can protect yourself against the risks. We’re here to help. Here’s how these vulnerabilities affect your Apple devices and what you can so to keep them safe. Meltdown and Spectre FAQ What is the issue here? There are three separate potential security issues at play here, one named Meltdown and two named Spectre. They all take advantage of something called speculative execution. Basically, modern CPUs try to speed things up by taking educated guesses to predict what the next operation will be, and will go so far as to execute them ahead of time. If the prediction is correct, the CPU has an answer…

It has become cliché to use the term ‘mixed bag’ to describe anything with both good and bad qualities, but there is no better term for the kind of year Apple has had in 2017. It was a year marked by some of Apple’s best product releases in years, and the company has the growing sales to match. At no point in Apple’s history has it has so many products that reach so many people, and it has never had a bigger impact on the world of consumer technology. These bright notes are soured by a whole host of screw-ups, delays, and stagnation. Perhaps Apple’s doing too much too fast, but it seems that the most valuable company in the world should probably have the resources to maintain quality as…

It has been another great year for iOS games, as 2017 delivered a heap of must-play iPhone and iPad picks. Some were designed first for touch while others were elegantly ported from other platforms, but at the end of the day, these are the games that impressed us the most and kept us coming back for more this year. 1. Monument Valley 2 Price: £4.99 from fave.co/2CYtE4l The original Monument Valley quickly established itself as one of the all-time essential iOS games, delivering an original puzzle-solving experience that felt perfectly tailored for a portable touch device. This year’s Monument Valley 2 didn’t reinvent the wheel, but it brought enough tweaks and expansion to completely avoid feeling like an uninspired sequel. As before, Monument Valley 2 is all about solving environmental…

Shazam was a true game-changer as one of the first apps to appear in the App Store back in July 2008. With just a tap, Shazam could identify nearly any song you heard without needing to know anything about it. Shazam was a magical app that I used to show off my iPhone, and unlike all those other apps whose novelty wore off in just a few weeks (anyone remember iBeer?), Shazam has only gotten better over the years. Apple has long had partnered with Shazam to power Siri’s song identification service, but now the Cupertino giant has confirmed that it is buying the company outright for a cool $400 million, a relative bargain in today’s tech dollars. On the surface, a Shazam purchase ensures that Siri will always be…

Ahead of the iPhone X’s announcement back in September, there had been plenty of rumours about it including biometric security based on facial recognition, as well as whether or not Apple was struggling to incorporate Touch ID into this new model. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of hand-wringing over this move, with plenty of pundits who insisted that Face ID was only a sop until Apple could figure out how to incorporate Touch ID into its new all-screen phone. Now that the iPhone X has finally made its way into the world, we’ve gotten a little more perspective on the matter. Not only have we seen how Face ID is a major departure from previous facial recognition systems, but we’ve also had Apple executives point out that the company had…

We’ve some fantastic new games this month. Some are ports of celebrated games from consoles and computers, while others are delightful debuts, but whatever their origins, they collectively pack a huge punch. Key releases include atmospheric indie adventure Inside, dreamily inventive puzzler Gorogoa, and a full-fledged iPad port of Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg: we have several more selections to keep you playing well into next month and beyond. 1. Life Is Strange Price: £2.99 from fave.co/2CTZ1d3 Episodic narrative adventures have proven popular on iPhone and iPad, as seen with Telltale’s Walking Dead and Batman series (among others), but Square Enix’s Life is Strange strikes a different tone. It’s a story about teenagers and some of the very real stresses and dilemmas they…