The current iPhone SE, the third of its name, is very much starting to show its age. It has a 4.7-inch display which is miniscule by today's standards, and that isn't the worst part. Sitting below that postage stamp screen is a Home button, the likes of which Apple hasn't placed on a flagship phone since 2017 with the arrival of the iPhone 8. And even then, thanks to the launch of the iPhone X, it immediately looked outdated.

Priced at $429, the iPhone SE doesn't look like a modern iPhone but you can still walk into an Apple Store and pick one up today. Whether you should or not is up for debate, all the rumors point to Apple finally, finally updating it in 2025. That launch has been coming for what feels like forever though, so I'll believe it when I see it — in-house 5G modem or not, as has so often been rumored.

There's a lot to like about what we've heard so far, too. All the rumors point to an iPhone SE 4 that will essentially be an iPhone 14 Lite, of sorts, and that's no bad thing. The iPhone 14 sells for at least $699 today, so this is very much a modern design with a modern price to match. And while the iPhone SE isn't expected to cost quite so much, a new report suggests that it could cost significantly more than the $429 of the current model. In fat, it could cost as much as $499 although that seems unlikely. But even if it did, it would still be a strong option for a whole lot of people.

An iPhone 14 in disguise

This latest news comes via X leaker Revegnus who claims that Apple is aiming to try and keep the new iPhone SE price around the same $429 that buyers pay today. A 10% price hike is a possibility we're told, but Apple is keen to make sure that it doesn't breach the $500 barrier with its budget handset.

Even if Apple does choose to charge $499 for the 2025 iPhone SE, it will still be a great buy for people who want to get a (relatively) inexpensive iPhone. It's expected to come with high-end features like Face ID and an OLED display, both firsts for the lineup, while the display size will increase from the minuscule 4.7-inch to the much more airy 6.1-inch display of Apple's modern devices. A switch to USB-C is of course a given, while there is also the assumption that Apple will bring the Action button from the iPhone 15 Pro to the iPhone SE, too. Ultimately, all new iPhones will have the button from the iPhone 16 onwards, it appears.

The iPhone SE was last updated in 2022 and the $30 price increase over the previous model was unfortunate. But that price increase came with nothing more than a speed bump. This time around a whole new, bigger display is in play as is a new method of authentication for Apple Pay, unlocking the device itself,  and of course, apps. These are features that people want, but they don't necessarily want to pay premium iPhone prices to get them. And while a $499 price point isn't what most would call budget, it's fair to say that the iPhone SE 4 isn't made up of budget features.

At $499 the iPhone SE 4 would be a cheaper iPhone that looks like it belongs, and sometimes that's more than enough to make it a good buy.

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When Apple announced the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro in 2022 it also announced a new feature that would go on to save lives. Emergency SOS via Satellite is now also available on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, and now a new report claims that a similar feature is coming to Google's next flagship phone as well.

According to the report, Google's upcoming Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 phones will add support for satellite connectivity similar to Apple's, with text messaging supported. Like Apple's implementation, the new Pixels will not support satellite calling, however.

The system, which is thought to be based on SpaceX technologies, will reportedly allow Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro owners to use satellite connectivity to summon help when they need it, potentially helping to save even more lives in the future.

Satellite safety

According to an Android Authority report, citing a source, the new Pixel phones will sport a modem that supports satellite connectivity while the same part is also expected to be included in the next-gen Pixel Fold and an unknown 5G tablet.

Android Authority was also able to report that an Emergency SOS feature will be provided by a special Satellite Gateway app which will see users asked a series of questions to ascertain their needs.

"First, you will be asked a few basic questions, to narrow down the situation," the report explains. "You will also be given a choice to notify your emergency contacts, after which you will be able to message with emergency services to get the help you need. Many of the questions will also have predefined answers to choose from to make the process quicker."

None of this is likely to be available soon, though. The new Pixel phones aren't expected to be announced until later this year, most likely in or around October — weeks after the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are expected to go on sale.

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• iPhone's Emergency SOS via Satellite feature helps rescue a hiker who took a wrong turn and got lost
• How to use Apple's Emergency SOS with satellite on iPhone 14
• 'Lives were 100% saved' as iPhone and Apple Watch emergency features get the first responder seal of approval

When Apple announced the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro back in September of 2022 there was a lot to get excited about. One of the features that few people will actually use was arguably one of the most important, however. Emergency SOS via Satellite is a feature that would later also appear on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models and it's designed to help people get help when they otherwise might not be able to.

Making a phone call to emergency services is normally no problem for an iPhone or indeed any other phone, but for those instances when there is just no cell service to go around most phones find themselves in a sticky situation. That's where the Emergency SOS via Satellite feature comes into play — it's designed to allow people to contact emergency services even when they don't have cell service. It does that using low-orbiting satellites and it works well. And it's been proven to help save lives on more than one occasion.

Now, it's been at it again although thankfully this situation doesn't appear to have been quite as life-or-death as some others that we have seen reported. In this instance, a hiker found themselves lost after taking a turn in the Angeles National Forest only to find that they couldn't get help. That's when the hiker remembered they were carrying an iPhone 14 and had Emergency SOS via Satellite at their disposal.

Safe and sound

According to a KTLA5 news report, the hiker was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Switzer Falls when they took the wrong turn and wound up lost. "The man activated the emergency transponder feature on his iPhone 14, which contacted authorities," the report says, adding that "a volunteer rescue crew was notified about the hiker, who was lost near the Arroyo Seco Research Foundation next to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, just before 8 p.m."

It reportedly took a volunteer and trainee an hour and a half to locate the missing hiker, communicating with them via satellite messaging throughout. But even once they found them, it wasn't all plain sailing. "Once found, the rescue crew and hiker had another two-hour hike, at some points in water up to their knees, to get the man out of the forest to safety."

Using the Emergency SOS via Satellite feature is relatively simple, but iPhone owners must maintain a direct connection to the satellite in order to be able to send and receive messages. Those messages have to be text-based because of the low bandwidth nature of the connection but they're very much preferable to having no way to contact help at all.

The Emergency SOS via Satellite feature is free on all iPhone 14 and iPhone 15-generation models right now and it's helped save lives before. A user who broke her leg while hiking in Tujunga, California, was able to get help even after finding that they were unable to contact 911 using a traditional phone call. A man stranded in Alaska and a couple who were rescued via helicopter after using Emergency SOS via Satellite can also thank the feature, too.

More from iMore

• Apple confirms Emergency SOS via satellite is coming to more countries
• iPhone 14's Emergency SOS via satellite feature saves man stranded in Alaska
• The lifesaving iPhone 15 Emergency SOS via Satellite is coming to two new countries

If you've ever found yourself unable to place a call, access data, or even send a text message with your iPhone and wished that true global coverage was a thing, you're going to love the work that Starlink is doing. CEO Elon Musk shared details of six new satellites that are now in orbit and are designed to make cellular dead zones a thing of the past.

As great as cellular coverage has gotten in recent years there are still plenty of places where you simply can't get a signal. That's something Apple is all to aware of and it's launched features to help keep people safe when they're out of range. But Starlink's work could help ensure that those features become obsolete thanks to Direct to Cell technology that will "further global connectivity and help to eliminate dead zones."

With six new satellites now circling the planet Starlink has taken another step forward, but Musk points out that while its current technology "is a great solution for locations with no cellular connectivity," it's still some way off being "meaningfully competitive" with more traditional options due to the relatively slow speeds.

Emergency connectivity

The news comes after SpaceX Shared a post on the X social network detailing its latest launch.

Musk quoted the post to add additional context, saying that the current offering "only supports ~7Mb per beam and the beams are very big," leading to the note that existing terrestrial cellular networks will continue to have the edge in terms of performance — but in terms of coverage, it's a different story.

Starlink first announced the Direct to Cell service back in 2022, and SpaceX is getting ready to test its service with 4G phones on T-Mobile across the United States before expanding to other countries later this year, The Verge notes. Text messaging will be enabled initially, but voice and data connections are expected to come online in 2025 as more satellites are put into orbit.

With more connectivity options available it will allow people to get the help they need in an emergency more easily, no matter which phone they happen to have on them

Apple's answer

Apple's answer to a lack of cellular connectivity has so far been via Globalstar's own satellites. Emergency SOS via Satellite has been around since the 2022 launch of the iPhone 14 and is also available on the iPhone 15 family of devices. It's a feature that has already proven capable of saving lives and it's one that Apple currently offers for free.

In the future, it's possible that Emergency SOS via Satellite won't be required if Starlink and SpaceX are able to replace its functionality with Direct to Cell technology.

Apple recently announced an additional feature called Roadside Assistance via Satellite that is designed to help people get help when their car breaks down even when they are outside of cellular service range. The feature is an iOS 17 addition and is available on all iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 models — you don't need to rush out and buy the best iPhone to get it, thankfully.

Whether or not Starlink eventually makes Apple's features obsolete ultimately doesn't matter — anything that can help people get the help they need it, when they need it most, is a feature everyone should be able to use no matter what iPhone — or Android phone — they own.

More from iMore

• How to use Apple's Emergency SOS with satellite on iPhone 14
• iPhone 14's Emergency SOS via satellite feature saves man stranded in Alaska
• The iPhone's Emergency SOS via Satellite feature is free for another year

Apple’s Roadside Assistance via Satellite feature for iPhone now includes the Verizon Roadside Assistance program, the company has confirmed this week

Apple first added its satellite safety capability to the iPhone 14 with Emergency SOS, which lets users communicate with emergency services via satellites when they don't have cell service. In September, the company unveiled its brand new iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, and added the aforementioned Roadside Assistance feature, which leverages the same satellites to connect you to a breakdown service should you need it. The first company Apple partnered with was AAA, and now Verizon Roadside Assistance customers can also get in on the act. Apple confirmed the change in a support document, first spotted by MacRumors. 

The Verizon Roadside Assistance subscription is $4.99 per line per month. According to Verizon’s website, it includes the following as part of the service: 

• Towing up to 10 miles in a coverage area
• Tire change
• Battery jump-start and car lockout service
• Fuel delivery
• With Apple's Roadside Assistance via satellite, also get assistance when you are in a non-coverage area.

AAA, on the other hand, offers a ‘Basic’ plan with fuel delivery, flat tire service, towing, and more for around $6-$7 a month, a ‘Plus’ plan with passport photos, and better versions of the basic services for around $10-$11 a month, and a ‘Premier’ plan with all of the above, plus home lockout service, a rental car with tow, and more for around $12-$14 a month. 

Better assistance — iMore’s take

For a service like this, one that is an emergency, iPhone users only ever benefit from more available options. For Apple to offer the best roadside assistance to its customers, it needs to let customers access it through their own unique plans and subscriptions, and adding Verizon as a partner is a great sign for the future of the service. 

Up until now, anyone who was already on a Verizon plan and lost all connection would have to wait to get it back or for a stranger to pass by and help. This is ineffective and loses out on one of the great features of the best iPhones. Hopefully, we’ll see more roadside assistance plans come to the service in the future. 

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• Here's how your iPhone 14 & 15 can get you roadside assistance even when there's no cell service
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Back when Apple announced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro in September 2023 it also announced that the phones would be getting a new wireless charging capability. In reality, the new charging standard, dubbed Qi, is basically MagSafe by another name. But the key is in the word "standard," because it means that other phones and any accessory maker can create devices that adhere to that standard. And as a result, they don't have to pay Apple a MagSafe licensing fee to slap some magnets in their product or, importantly, offer 15W charging.

That's of course great news for those who pick up Apple's best iPhones, but with times hard for everyone not everyone will rush out to buy a new iPhone every year, especially if they already have a pretty great iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro. For those people, Apple has some excellent news — both the iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 series' of devices are going to support MagSafe's new friend, Qi2, and they'll do it soon.

In fact, those older iPhones could well support Qi2 as soon as next week. That's because the iOS 17.2 update that will add support for the Qi2 standard is expected to be released next week or, at the very latest, the week after that. So that's great news for everyone and we can all start rushing out to buy our fancy new Qi2 chargers, right? Well, not quite, because actually finding a Qi2-compatible charger is going to be a problem. They just don't seem to exist yet.

No Qi2 for you

While Apple is expected to try and get iOS 17.2 into the hands of the public before the Christmas holidays roll around, things haven't moved so quickly for companies promising to get their Qi2 act together. I've seen companies promise that they have Qi2 updates to their product lineup in the works with some pointing to a 2023 released timeframe. But with the days running away with us, the silence is deafening. Lots of companies were quick to say they intended to take the Qi2 bull by the horns, but where are the chargers?

It isn't as if these accessory makers aren't incentivized to pick up what Qi2 is laying down, either. Apple charges companies to put the canonical MagSafe into their products, something that inevitably makes their wares cost more for customers, too. There's a reason some of Belkin's MagSafe accessories cost hundreds of dollars but you can find similar ones on Amazon with a random band's name on that cost a fraction of that. Why? MagSafe, that's why. And the no-name model only has standard Qi charging so tops out at 7.5W. Which frankly, sucks.

15W charging is coming, probably

The key aspect of Qi2 is that it will bring 15W wireless charging to iPhones as standard, just like MagSafe. But so far Apple hasn't quite confirmed that to be the case. We know that Qi2 will be supported, but Apple hasn't confirmed the charge rate although it seems unlikely it would limit charging to just 7.5W — after all, Apple was one of the companies behind the Qi2 standard in the first place.

Thankfully, there's a hint that 15W is a go. The Verge reports that an Anker spokesperson told them that iPhones that use its new MagGo products will support 15W charging. Assuming those new MagGo products are Qi2-certified, we can assume that all Qi2 products will charge just as quickly, too.

That's once they go on sale, that is. And who knows when that will actually be.

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The iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 families of devices, including the Pro models, can call for roadside assistance when you need it, even if you don't have a traditional cellular connection. It's a feature that has the very real potential to help save lives, and now we know exactly how it works.

Apple's Emergency SOS via Satellite is a similar feature that's been around since November 2022 and has already very much helped to save lives on many occasions, giving people a way to summon emergency services when in parts of the world where they would otherwise be left with no help at all. However, the roadside assistance component has only been around for a little while and requires iOS 17 or later to be installed in order to work.

Now, a YouTube video has been shared in which Roadside Assistance via SMS has been put through its paces to show just what it can do and, more importantly, what iPhone users should expect the first time that they have to use it.

AAA to the rescue

In a YouTube video put together by Brian Tong we see the exactly what's required in order to use one of Apple's best iPhones to contact the AAA when a phone call just isn't possible. It's worth noting that the AAA is the partner Apple chose in the United States and that the U.S. is the only country where this feature is available right now. However, Apple is expected to bring the same feature to other countries in due course.

Don't worry if you aren't a AAA member, though. Those who are yet to sign up will be given the option to do so when using the Roadside Assistance via Satellite feature, ensuring that they still have the chance to be rescued.

In the video, we see the steps required to get assistance when it's required and they're far from complicated. In fact, I'd wager that anyone who has sent an iMessage before will be able to do it.

The steps are simple so long as you can get a solid satellite fix, of course, but Apple does guide users through making that happen which should ensure a solid success rate. Once a connection is established everything is handled via the Messages app with Apple's compression algorithm allowing the iPhone to send and receive text messages in a relatively speedy fashion considering there's a direct connection to a satellite in Earth's orbit.

Emergency SOS via Satellite and Roadside Assistance via Satellite are both free for two years after buying a new iPhone with Apple recently extending the timeframe by an extra year for those who already own an iPhone 14. Why it did that isn't yet clear, but I do wonder whether Apple is concerned about charging a fee for a feature that could potentially cost someone their life if they miss a payment.

More lifesaving features to come

Whatever the reason for Apple not charging yet, it's good news for people who could one day rely on their iPhone to help save their lives. Other features like Crash Detection and Fall Detection (on the Apple Watch) have already helped countless people get help when they are unable to summon it for themselves. And the more features that Apple can offer that help keep safe, the better.

As for what's next, Apple is routinely rumored to be working on blood pressure monitoring technology for an upcoming Apple Watch, something that could well make a huge difference for hypertension sufferers around the globe.

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When Apple announced the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models back in September of 2022 it also announced Emergency SOS via Satellite, a feature that would go on to very much save lives. But it wouldn't be available until November with iPhone buyers getting two years of access. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro both come with the same two-year offer, too.

With Apple offering the Emergency SOS via Satellite feature free for a limited time it was always assumed that it would start to charge money for it in the future. That could either be via a new subscription offering or as part of Apple One, but it was surely going to come one way or another.

But fast-forward a year and we get to November 2023 when, earlier this week, Apple announced that it is extending the feature's free two-year period for an extra 12 months for existing iPhone 14 owners to take them to November 2025. But why?

How cool is Emergency SOS via Satellite anyway?

First, we need to back up a bit and discuss what Emergency SOS via Satellite actually does, because it's pretty incredible. In its most simple form, the feature allows people to summon help from emergency services when they would otherwise not be able to due to a lack of cellular service. Think people at the top of a mountain or out in the wilderness where there just isn't hope of a connection to a carrier, let alone full bars. Using satellites in low orbit, iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 devices can send and receive short text-based messages. And it's those messages that help emergency services get help to those who need it.

When Apple announced that it was extending the lifesaving feature it was keen to point out that's very much what it is — a lifesaver.

“Emergency SOS via satellite has helped save lives around the world. From a man who was rescued after his car plummeted over a 400-foot cliff in Los Angeles, to lost hikers found in the Apennine Mountains in Italy, we continue to hear stories of our customers being able to connect with emergency responders when they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to,” Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing, said via that press release. And they're right. There have been plenty of heartwarming stories of people's iPhones helping them get help.

That's great, right? It sure is. But it might also be the reason Apple can't bring itself to charge for the service, too.

Putting a price on a life

We already know that Apple is sensitive to any kind of negative publicity, so with that in mind let me paint you a picture with words.

Imagine you're a hiker, and you're off on a trail that takes you well beyond anything that Verizon, AT&T, or any of your chosen carriers can reach. It's beautiful because it's so remote. And you're having a whale of a time.

With me so far?

Except, you stumble. You fall down a cliff, hitting branch after rock after seemingly anything else you can find on your way down. You come to rest and, thankfully, you're alive. But you've broken your leg and your breathing isn't as easy as it should be. You've no signal, obviously. But not to worry — you have the latest iPhone so you set about using Emergency SOS via Satellite to call for help.

Except, you got a new card last week and your Apple One subscription payment didn't go through. Your iPhone thinks you don't have the lifesaving feature and you're stuck. What now?

Now, yes, there are ways around this. The iPhone could make the call regardless and charge later — but if it does that, why pay for it in the first place? It'd become a pay-as-you-go service that nobody would pay a subscription for. And maybe that's the route Apple takes if and when it finally starts to charge people for this thing.

But I do know what it won't want to do — risk a headline that says someone unfortunately died because their iPhone wouldn't let them call for help when they needed it. And until Apple can be sure of how to get around that problem, I can see this particular feature being free forever. As it probably should be.

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Apple has today announced the free trial of its Emergency SOS via satellite feature for iPhone 14 is being extended for another year. 

The ground-breaking safety feature was introduced to the iPhone with iPhone 14 last year and has literally proved life-saving since its advent. Emergency SOS via satellite lets users contact emergency services even when they don't have cellular or Wi-Fi coverage. It requires users to point their device at a satellite overhead and uses message prompts to quickly relay information to emergency services. 

When it was released, Apple confirmed the feature would be free for two years, revealing that the company likely has plans to charge for it in the future. Anyone who bought an iPhone 14 since its release received a two-year free trial, and it's that free trial that has today been extended. 

"We are so happy iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 users can take advantage of this groundbreaking service for two more years for free," Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing said, confirming the feature "has helped save lives around the world." 

One more year of satellite safety

Emergency SOS via satellite is also available on Apple's best iPhones, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, building on the feature to add Roadside Assistance via satellite and AAA. Apple confirms in its release that the free trial "will be extended for iPhone 14 users who have activated their device in a country that supports Emergency SOS via satellite prior to 12 a.m. PT on November 15, 2023," which means that people who buy an iPhone 14 after today look set to miss out. 

First brought to the U.S. and Canada, Emergency SOS via satellite is now available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S.

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• iPhone 14's emergency satellite feature helps save hiker with no cell ...
• How to use Apple's Emergency SOS with satellite on iPhone 14

The iPhone 14 is now over a year old, and as such there are some great discounts to be had on what is still a very capable device. It might not have all the bells and whistles of the iPhone 14 Pro or the new iPhone 15 range, but it's a great smartphone for its current price. 

"What is that current price?" I hear you cry, well if you know where to look, $0. That's because two carriers we've found are offering the iPhone 14 with no upfront cost if you take out a line with them, making this one of the best early Black Friday iPhone deals we've seen so far, check them out!

Get a free iPhone 14

Of the two deals here, Verizon's has slightly fewer hoops to jump through, so stands out as the more convenient option of the two. In fact, if you go to Verizon you can actually get four Unlimited Welcome lines for $120, each with a free iPhone 14 Plus. That's four free iPhones. 

T-Mobile's offer essentially gives you a bill credit every month for 24 months up to the value of $730 if you trade in one of the following devices in good condition: 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, SE 2nd Gen, X, XR, XS, XS Max, 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max, 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max, 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max, SE (3rd Gen). they'll also take a ton of Samsung Galaxy, One Plus, and Google Pixel models so you can make the switch you've always wanted to. 

If you take out a heftier plan, like Go5G Plus, you'll get up to $830 off. With Go5G Next, you'll get $1,000. 

Apple's iPhone 14 sports an excellent Super Retina XDR Display, A15 chip, 12MP camera, and excellent battery life. It'll also be well-supported by iOS for years to come.  

Following the announcement of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lineups Apple has also confirmed that it is expanding an existing and lifesaving feature to more people than ever before.

The Emergency SOS via Satellite feature debuted with the launch of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro last year, and it's expanded its availability to more countries at various points through the last 12 months. But now it's confirmed that two more European countries will come online this month just in time for the new iPhones to go on sale.

Starting later this month owners of models in the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15, and iPhone 15 Pro lineups in Spain and Switzerland will be able to use Emergency SOS via Satellite for the first time.

16 countries and counting

Apple confirmed the move in a press release, noting that there are currently 14 countries and regions across three continents in which Emergency SOS via Satellite is now available. The addition of Spain and Switzerland will increase that number to 16 of course.

The new expansion comes as Apple gets ready to roll out Roadside Assistance via Satellite, a new feature exclusive to the United States that will allow people to use a similar interface to contact AAA when they need vehicle assistance outside of cellular coverage. There is no word yet on when the feature will roll out internationally, however. The feature will be available on existing iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models, at least.

We're covering all the Apple iPhone 15 event news and reactions now that Wonderlust is over. Don't miss all our iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, iOS 17and watchOS 10 coverage so far.

Apple's iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lineups are both now here and there is a lot to dig into, but you might have missed one of the coolest new features Apple announced during its "Wonderlust" event.

Apple has offered a potentially live-saving feature that helps people call for help even when they don't have a cellular connection ever since the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro arrived in 2022. Dubbed Emergency SOS via Satellite, the feature uses Globalstar satellites to contact first responders when no cellular or Wi-Fi connection is available. And now that feature is being expanded to roadside assistance, too.

Roadside Assistance via Satellite is rolling out as part of the new iPhone's launch this month, but you don't need Apple's best iPhones to get it — the feature will be available on existing iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models, too.

Limited availability

The feature will be limited at launch, as the new Roadside Assistance via Satellite is only rolling out in the United States at launch thanks to a partnership with the AAA. It's included free for two years starting from the time of purchase, although Apple does note that the AAA might charge for its services. Those who aren't already AAA members "can take advantage of Roadside Assistance via satellite on a pay-per-use basis for AAA’s roadside assistance services," Apple says.

Thankfully, actually using the feature looks easy. "An intuitive interface, including a short questionnaire to capture important details, will transmit the information via satellite so AAA can message with the user directly and dispatch help to their exact location," Apple said via press release.

As for the new iPhones, they'll be available for preorder this Friday, September 15. The iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max will all be available to buy from September 22.

We're covering all the Apple iPhone 15 event news and reactions now that Wonderlust is over. Don't miss all our iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, iOS 17and watchOS 10 coverage so far.

A woman in China has been arrested after she chewed through a security cable to steal an iPhone 14 Plus. The cables are designed to prevent people from taking devices from demonstration tables and are usually pretty good at doing just that.

But that wasn't enough to stop the woman from Fujian province in southeastern China from swiping the iPhone, with surveillance footage showing the woman chomping through the cable before placing it in a bag.

The manager of the store where the iPhone was stolen from says that an alarm was triggered during the theft but that employees didn't spot anything unusual.

Nobody noticed

The South China Morning Post reports that the woman was subsequently picked up by police 30 minutes after leaving the store.

The woman says that she intended to buy a new iPhone but was put off by the high prices. "Qiu told the police that she planned to buy a new device at the store after losing her phone, but when she saw the prices she decided to steal one. She has been detained pending further investigation," the report notes. It's said that the woman tried to hide the fact that she was chewing through the security cable by pretending to use it whenever other customers passed her by.

The iPhone 14 Plus the woman stole was worth 7,000 yuan (around $960) but that isn't considered to be the best iPhone in the lineup. That tag falls to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, a device that costs considerably more.

High prices are expected to become a bigger factor when the iPhone 15 Pro lineup arrives later this month, too. Rumors claim that the new models will cost significantly more than their 2022 counterparts, with prices likely to increase as much as $200.

The new iPhones are set to be unveiled during a September 12 event before likely going on sale on September 22.

An Apple device has once again been credited with helping to save a life, although this time it wasn't an Apple Watch as is so often the case. In this instance it was the iPhone 14 and its Crash Detection feature that has been lauded for its lifesaving abilities.

According to reports, a young musician's family has credited her iPhone with helping to save her life after she was involved in a car crash in Canada.

Thanks to Crash Detection, first responders were able to quickly locate the woman and the car she had been traveling in before taking her to the hospital.

iPhone to the rescue

A local news report says that the woman "sustained serious injuries including broken femurs and pelvis, cranial and cervical spine fractures, as well as multiple lacerations and substantial blood loss requiring transfusions." She was still in critical condition as of August 10, with the car damaged beyond repair.

"Hannah Ralph, 21, of Burlington, was instantly located after a serious car accident between Markdale and Flesherton thanks to Crash Detection, a feature of her iPhone 14," the report reads. "Using this technology, her iPhone automatically placed a call to first responders and her emergency contacts when it detected the collision last Saturday, August 5 on Road 130 southwest of Highway 10."

Apple's Crash Detection feature isn't only available on its best iPhones like the iPhone 14 Pro, thankfully. The lifesaving feature is available on the base iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models as well, while the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE 2, and Apple Watch Ultra also offer it.

Crash Detection can automatically call for help if an iPhone or Apple Watch detects an accident, and can hear multiple types of crashes involving different kinds of passenger vehicles. Accidents detected include front-impact, side-impact, and rear-end collisions, and rollovers.

It's possible Apple may build on this with more safety features with iPhone 15, expected in September. 

With Apple getting ready to announce the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lineups as soon as next month, people appear to be changing their buying decisions in terms of the current lineup.

According to newly-shared display revenue figures, the iPhone 14 has become the best-selling OLED phone as of Q2 2023. That spot went to the iPhone 14 Pro Max as recently as the first quarter of the year, but Apple's best iPhone now finds itself slipping down the list — even falling below the budget iPhone 13.

As for why that's happening, it's likely that customers of Apple's high-end iPhones are choosing to wait for the new models to arrive in September. Those who would normally shop towards the mid-range continue to buy, however.

All change

This is all based on figures shared by the analysts at Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) and picked up by WCCFTech, which show that the iPhone 14 represented 15.3% of the AMOLED revenue share during Q2 2023. The iPhone 13 sat at 11.1% and the iPhone 14 Pro Max came in third at 10.7%.

Compare that with the previous quarter, and things make for interesting reading.

In Q1 2023, the iPhone 14 Pro Max took 20.1% of the market, while the iPhone 14 Pro sat at 15.6%. The iPhone 13 was third with 7.8% and the iPhone 14 — the current heavy hitter — was right down in 7,7%.

If Pro iPhone buyers are waiting for the new handsets to arrive, that could help Apple post bumper sales towards the end of 2023. But things aren't as good for the competition. Samsung has the only non-Apple device in the top five in terms of OLED display panel revenue with its own flagship device, the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 lineups in the middle of September, likely alongside the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

Apple's iPhone 15 is here, and it boasts a huge array of new features to tempt users of the iPhone 14 to upgrade. But what's the difference? And just how much better is the iPhone 15 compared to its predecessor? Whether you're thinking about upgrading your iPhone 14, or you're looking to grab an older model and choosing between the two, we have everything you need to know about the differences (and similarities) of each. 

Apple's iPhone 14 is a capable handset and will be much cheaper now the iPhone 15 is here, but a new 48MP camera, USB-C, and Dynamic Island mean it might actually be better making the leap to the newer model. 

Looking to pick a winner? Here's our iPhone 15 vs. iPhone 14 rundown.

iPhone 14 vs 15: Features and specs

If you're already looking at your annual upgrade, then you've likely already made your mind up regarding which iPhone you want. However, if you're looking to see whether it's worth buying the iPhone 14 or the 15 now, it's going to be helpful to take a look at the specs and how they compare to each other. And now that we don't have to rely on rumors, we can give you a full picture of what the two phones look like side by side.

The iPhone 15's upgrades have completely outclassed the iPhone 14, with some incredible new features.

Between the Dynamic Island, a better camera setup, a faster chip, and even the new USB-C charging port for iPhone 15, it's almost a full overhaul, and we'd pick the iPhone 15 for future-proofing, too.

iPhone 15 vs 14: What's new? 

There are loads of new things on the iPhone 15, and all of them stand to make the iPhone 15 a better buy than the outgoing iPhone 14. It's almost like an iPhone 14 Pro in a new T-shirt — but don't let Apple hear you say that, or Tim will make a sad face.

Dynamic Island

Coming from the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max from last year, the Dynamic Island replaces the notch at the top of the iPhone with a kind of interactive pill — and now it's coming to the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. That means you'll be able to track more stuff with your iPhone while doing something else, like tracking a pizza delivery while you play a heated game of Doodle Jump. 

Alas, some display features from the Pro line remain exclusive to the iPhone Pro models. The wicked heights and speeds of the ProMotion Pro displays aren't here, and neither is the Always on display that the Pro models get. You do get a bright screen though, with a peak 2000 nits brightness for those ultra sunny days, and 1600 nits peak HDR brightness for some incredible media consumption.

Camera 

The camera has had a massive boost up to 48MP, with some wicked new tech that will make contrast and depth better across the board. There's a refreshed portrait mode as well, featuring brighter colors and more detail.

It will also autodetect people and even dogs and cats so that you can take portrait mode pictures with more ease than before — and thanks to machine learning, you can even make a non-portrait mode picture a portrait mode picture after it's already been taken, wich is pretty cool too.

USB-C

Finally, after years of the Lightning connector, Apple is going to use the USB-C in the iPhone 15. That means you can use the same charger you use for your iPad, MacBook, Nintendo Switch, and anything else with that reversible input.

The Lightning connector is also slower for data transfer than USB-C Thunderbolt alternatives — and while not quite the blistering USB 3 speed that the iPhone 15 Pro has received, it's still a boost from the lightning standard.

iPhone 15 vs 14: Processor and RAM

The iPhone 15 this year does not have a new chip, but one we've seen before — although this is a darn sight better than the one we got in the iPhone 14 that came last year. Where that phone got the same chip as the iPhone 13, we've got the chip from the iPhone 14 Pro this time around, with all the power benefits that come with it. That means a beefier GPU, more memory bandwidth, and greater efficiency for better battery life. 

iPhone 15 vs 14: Color choice

There are some different colors this time round: Instead of the Starlight, Midnight, Blue, Purple, and (PRODUCT)Red that the iPhone 14 came in, we've got some slightly different options.

There's a black, a white, a green, a yellow, and a pink color option. They're all pastel versions of the color, with a stunning new frosted glass back, and slimmer outer edges on the back. Where the iPhone 14 was an angular affair, this new iPhone 15 is a different-looking beast with a slightly different chassis to go with its new colors.

Personally, we prefer the color options on the new iPhone — although we will miss the (PRODUCT)RED.

iPhone 15 vs 14: Battery life

There wasn't much fanfare about battery life during the event, all truth be told! It did, however, come to light that the new phone would be getting 'all-day battery life', which considering the number of new features is impressive, especially when you take the iPhone 14's similarly named 'all-day battery life'. We now know the iPhone 15's battery is slightly larger than the 14, too. 

iPhone 15 vs 14: Which should you buy? 

Now that we've seen the iPhone 15 in the Apple event, we can finally make a full judgement on the iPhone 15 vs the iPhone 14. Let's face it; this update has been an impressive one, and one that will make it hard to justify any kind of saving that the iPhone 14 might provide you with.

The iPhone 15 has improved on nearly every aspect of the iPhone 14, from that incredible new design, Dynamic Island, and the inclusion of the new chip. This is the iPhone that we wanted last year, instead of just a reheated iPhone 13, and now that it's here, you'd expect it to cost way more than it might have done before.

But it doesn't — the iPhone 15 costs $799, the same price as the iPhone 14 cost last year at launch. combine that with the fact that with trade-in you might get the iPhone for free, it's a no-brainer as to which one you should go for — unless you hate Dynamic Island.

For future-proofing purposes, always go for the latest iPhone you can, barring any major faults with the device — you'll likely get longer software support from a brand-new phone, for starters. A year-old phone is still going to work plenty well, but in this case, unless it goes down to half price, the extra features are well worth the financial outlay.

The iPhone 15 is available to preorder now, and it will be shipped out on September 22.

As sure as death and taxes, a new iPhone lineup is expected in 2023, with the iPhone 15 expected in no fewer than four models - base, Plus, Pro, and Pro Max. Apple has confirmed that its next Apple event will take place on September 12, when the company is expected to unveil its new iPhone lineup. 

It’s a continuation of Apple’s traditional release cadence, and as with anyone pondering a summer upgrade, there’s a decision to make - to pick up the iPhone 14, or hold out until the iPhone 15.

It's a dilemma to many - some may want the latest and greatest, but the soon-to-be previous generation of iPhone could get a price drop.

Naturally, we don’t know the exact specs of the iPhone 15 just yet, but we certainly have plenty of leaks and strong rumors to work from. With this in mind, we've put together some points to consider when looking at the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 as we head into September.

The reasons for buying an iPhone 14 today

Naturally, your circumstances may dictate picking up an iPhone 14 right away, particularly if your phone has given up the ghost.

Still, the iPhone 14 still offers a huge number of reasons to be your 2023 purchase. For one, it’s still remarkably powerful - the A15 Bionic chip may be almost a year old, but there simply isn’t anything that comes close.

The A16 Bionic, expected to be found in the iPhone 15, is already found in the iPhone 14 Pro models and while, yes, it’s a powerhouse, there’s nothing it can do that the A15 Bionic can’t. There are no apps that’ll grind to a halt using last year’s iPhone 14, and multitasking is breezy.

The next big step in iPhone chip architecture is expected to be with the A17, which will reportedly move to a 3nm process for improved power consumption, but even today, the iPhone 14 is far ahead of Android alternatives.

Naturally, last year’s phone is likely to drop in price once the iPhone 15 arrives, but there are already deals to be found on the iPhone 14.

The reasons to wait for an iPhone 15

It’s easy to get swept up in Apple’s marketing hype, but there are certain reasons to be excited about the latest model.

For one, the processor bump may not be the most exciting technical update this time around - although perhaps more for the furor surrounding the USB-C port than anything else.

Yes, it seems Apple will finally embrace USB-C, meaning the iPhone 15 will be easier to charge with just about any charger (don’t expect MagSafe to go anywhere). Then there are the connection speeds, with USB-C likely to offer significantly faster speeds than the Lightning Port it’s replacing.

Display-wise, we’re expecting improved power efficiency in lieu of more pixels or a larger panel, but reports have suggested that the Dynamic Island, which debuted in last year’s iPhone 14 Pro models, will be democratized across the iPhone 15 lineup.

If it happens, this will mean a handy context-specific window into supported apps, with things like food deliveries to sports scores represented.

Naturally, a new year brings new photography possibilities for the iPhone camera, and it’s likely that the iPhone 15 Pro will be getting the biggest updates with a periscope camera system that allows for up to 10x optical zoom.

Still, iPhone 15’s camera is likely to include a new sensor (from Sony, believe it or not), and it’ll double the saturation signal in each pixel to improve under and overexposure.

Then there’s the design, which isn’t expected to spring any surprises but could bring back some classic colors – notably a green hue, and a darker, crimson-like red.

Naturally, there’s plenty to consider, but if you had to pick between the iPhone 15 in September or an iPhone 14 now, which would you pick? Let us know in the iMore Forums!

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro went on sale on September 16, 2022. That means that the earliest most people could have bought one was less than 11 months ago. Yet a ton of people report that their batteries are already starting to show serious signs of degradation.

A number of people have been taking to social media in recent weeks to note how bad their batteries have gotten. Not in terms of how long they last, necessarily, but how bad their iPhones report their battery health to be. After less than 11 months some are finding figures below 90%.

Whatever's going on, it doesn't seem to be affecting everyone. My iPhone 14 Pro Max reports a battery health of 95%. But there have been plenty of people with much lower figures, and they'll only get worse.

Going down fast

People complaining on Twitter about Apple is nothing new of course. But sometimes their complaints have merit. Like the one from AppleTrack's Sam Kohl whose iPhone 14 Pro is fast on its way to needing a new battery. He wasn't alone, with people in the replies noting figures that were just as bad, too. Some were worse — one commenter shared a screenshot with the 87% figure.

It isn't just on Twitter, either. I've seen people complain of similarly poor battery health on Mastodon as well. And again, these are iPhones that are less than 11 months old, surely they should be lasting longer than this?

As for why new iPhone battery health is proving so problematic, one guess points to the extremely hot summer in some parts of the world. Another option is that the batteries themselves just aren't up to the usual standard. Whatever the reason, there are going to be a lot of iPhones that need new batteries relatively soon.

Unless their owners upgrade to a new iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Pro, that is.

Late in the evening of July 21 July, a man drove his car into a four-hundred-foot ravine, totaling the vehicle and leaving him with a bleeding head wound. When the man didn't respond, his iPhone 14 detected the crash and contacted emergency services to alert them to the crash using satellite calling and GPS data to give search and rescue a good idea of where the car was.

Arriving on the scene, the Montrose rescue operations team found him shouting for help and were able to lift him out with a helicopter.

Life saver

Speaking to CBS Los Angeles, Mike Leum, one of the members of Montrose Search and Rescue, said, "I believe that if we didn't have that good location information in a timely manner, he probably would've bled out." The iPhone 14 was almost a part of the rescue team that saved the man's life; rescue team leader Steve Goldsworthy said, "Who knows when, or if, we would've located him," adding, "The location that we got from the iPhone activation was spot on, it was basically his phone on its own, calling for help on his behalf."

The iPhone and Apple Watch lines are full of life-saving tech. In this case, it was the iPhone's Crash Detection, satellite connectivity, and GPS mapping that allowed search and rescue to save the man's life. While Crash Detection has had its fair share of detractors thanks to accidental calls while iPhone users are in motion, It's also saved more lives thanks to its fast-moving emergency tech.

The Apple Watch has also saved lives, with its heart monitoring tech detecting heart diseases early in some users so that they can get medical aid that lets them lead fuller lives and ultimately live more easily with their conditions. The next iPhone, the iPhone 15, will likely have the same tech on board — and there might even be something new.

Festival-goers found that they were causing chaos for emergency responders after it turned out that their iPhones thought that they were dancing too much.

During this year’s Bonaroo Festival, it's reported that were about five times the number of false 911 calls than average, although Director of Coffee County 911 Communication Center Scott LeDuc did at least confirm that the calls don't seem to have impacted responders' ability to do their jobs.

It's thought that the iPhone's Crash Detection feature was to blame, with phones calling for emergency services because people's dancing was enough to make them think a collision had occurred.

False crash detection

WKRN reports that 911 calls were triggered at a rate previously unseen, with alerts sent to people in the area in an attempt to get them to turn off the Crash Detection feature. Doing so did appear to reduce the number of calls emergency workers received. “It probably reduced it 40 to 60%,” LeDuc told the news outlet.

“Our employees really stepped up, as first responders always do really step up in the line of duty and they did,” LeDuc said. “And we didn’t have any situation where we couldn’t help someone because of the amount of calls.”

Crash Detection is a feature that's baked into the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro as well as the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE, and Apple Watch Ultra. It's designed to call for emergency services when the owner is unable to, but it's been known to place false calls since it was introduced in late 2022. Apple has tweaked the system in an attempt to reduce unwanted calls, but it would appear that there is still a way to go.

Looking to upgrade to your own iPhone 14? Cast your eyes over our selection of the best Prime Day iPhone deals before you place your order.

We've seen plenty of stories about Apple Watches helping to save lives in recent years, but now it's the turn of the iPhone 14.

According to reports a woman who fell and broke her leg while hiking in Tujunga, California, found that she was unable to call for help because she didn't have an active cellular connection. However, she was still able to summon assistance thanks to her iPhone's Emergency SOS via Satellite feature.

"We tried to get a hold of 911 but there was no service on our phones," the woman said in an interview. "Thankfully, my phone has that SOS satellite feature that was able to connect to... I'm assuming satellites."

Emergency SOS

That feature is of course Emergency SOS via satellite, one that uses low-orbit satellites to transmit data even when there is no traditional cellular connection available.

ABC7 reports that the woman is now recovering at home after being found thanks to her iPhone 14. In fact, it's said that this was local emergency services' third "iPhone rescue" of the year so far.

Emergency SOS via Satellite is available on all of Apple's current best iPhones, including the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro. It's only available in select countries however, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Portugal.

We can also expect all of Apple's future iPhones to support the same feature, with the iPhone 15 lineup set to be announced later this year — likely in or around September.

This isn't the first time that Emergency SOS via Satellite has helped save someone, of course. A man stranded in Alaska used the feature in December 2022, for example. A couple was also rescued via helicopter in the same month.

Apple has today announced that starting June 21, its best iPhone, the iPhone 14, will be eligible for its Self Service Repair program along with more Macs. 

"Today Apple announced Self Service Repair will be available June 21 for the iPhone 14 lineup and additional Mac models, including the 13-inch MacBook Air powered by M2, and MacBook Pro models powered by M2 Pro and M2 Max," the company stated Tuesday. 

Alongside support for Apple's best MacBooks, Apple is also making its System Configuration process for iPhone repairs easier to use. The system ensures that repairs made by users have been completed correctly and that the parts are working properly. 

Expanding repairs

Apple also says that Self Service Repair is coming to more components, namely the True Depth camera and top speaker for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups, as well as the M1 iMac and Mac mini. The program is currently available in the U.S., Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K.

Apple says that Self Service Repair is designed for "individuals with the knowledge and experience to repair electronic devices" and people "experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices." 

It follows news earlier today revealing the EU plans to mandate that batteries in portable devices like phones and tablets should be easily removable and repairable for customers. 

Apple sells genuine repair parts online, but customers also need to rent a tool kit that weighs a staggering 80 pounds for some repairs. 

Today's news means that the iPhone 14 and Apple's most recent new MacBooks are now eligible for Self Service Repair. As noted, however, this is an option that is really only meant for people who truly know what they're doing. The best repair option for most people remains the Apple Store Genius Bar. 

Apple's iPhone 14 is the company's latest and greatest in all-things iPhone, and there’s no doubt that there’s a lot to love. However, those who have been looking forward to another ‘mini’ size phone are going to be disappointed, as Apple has eliminated the 5.4-inch iPhone from the lineup, though the iPhone 13 mini still remains for sale. 

The iPhone was unveiled during the "Far Out" event in September 2022, along with the Apple Watch Series 8, rugged Apple Watch Ultra, and revamped AirPods Pro 2 earbuds. While other phones in the lineup bring hot new features -- such as the Dynamic Island and the new Apple A16 chip -- the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are modest upgrades over the iPhone 13. That said, they're faster, offer greater storage, and bring a new degree of polish to a familiar friend.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new iPhone 14, which is set to be the best iPhone yet.

iPhone 14 latest news (updated June 20)

• As of June 21, the iPhone 14 is eligible for Apple's new Self Service Repair program (along with more Macs). The system ensures that repairs made by users have been completed correctly and that the parts are working properly.
• If you're using Apple's "My Photo Stream" service to sync photos between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, start making plans for what comes next: Apple is killing the My Photo Stream feature in July 2023.
• There's a brand new iPhone 14 color in the lineup: a lemon yellow iPhone as warm as pudding and just and as tasty to the eye.

iPhone 14 models and sizes

The iPhone 14 has a 6.1-inch display, while the iPhone 14 Plus measures 6.7-inches, and together they're the entry level iPhones perfect for most users. The big brother iPhone Pro and it's flagship friend, the iPhone Pro Max, offer additional bells and whistles for the bleeding edge crowd. Here's the complete lineup:  

iPhone 14 design, colors, and display

The iPhone 14's design hasn't changed compared to the previous model, with updates instead reserved for the internals. However, it comes in six colors; Midnight, Purple, Starlight, (PRODUCT)RED, Yellow, and Blue.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus both have an updated internal design that gives them better thermal performance, so they should not get as warm during use or charging as previous iPhones. 

The Super Retina XDR displays use OLED technology with up to 1200 nits of peak HDR brightness, a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and support for Dolby Vision graphics. the iPhone 14 has a display resolution of 2532‑by‑1170-pixels at 460 ppi, while the iPhone 14 Plus has a display resolution of 2778‑by‑1284-pixels at 458 ppi.

The Ceramic Shield front glass returns, which is exclusive to Apple's iPhone devices and won't be found on any other smartphone on the market. The Ceramic Shield keeps the display safe from common spills and accidents that involve water and dust. The iPhone 14 is also rated IP68, giving it a water resistance of up to 6 meters for 30 minutes. 

However, it's important to note that the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will continue to have the notch that has been present since the iPhone X.

iPhone 14 processor, storage, and RAM

iPhone 14 will continue to use the A15 Bionic chip that is in the iPhone 13 lineup. This means a 6-core CPU with two high-performance cores, and four efficiency cores, along with the 16-core Neural Engine. It also has a 5-core GPU for high-performance gaming and graphics, and it powers the new Photonic Engine. 

Both the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage options. 

The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus both feature upgraded RAM, with 6GB as opposed to 4GB in the iPhone 13. This will improve performance when it comes to multitasking and running multiple apps. 

iPhone 14 camera

While the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus still have a 12MP camera system, both have larger sensors and larger pixels than previous iPhones, so it is still an improvement (just not as big of one as the iPhone 14 Pro). It also has a new front-facing TrueDepth camera system and Ultra Wide lens and introduced the new Photonic Engine for vast improvements in low light performance.

The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus have two rear 12MP cameras:

12MP Main: 26 mm, ƒ/1.5 aperture, sensor‑shift optical image stabilization, seven‑element lens, 100% Focus Pixels

12MP Ultra Wide: 13 mm, ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view, five‑element lens

The front-facing camera is a 12MP camera with ƒ/1.9 aperture and autofocus. 

The new Photonic Engine is deeply integrated into the hardware and software, improving the overall quality of both mid to low-light photos across all cameras. This means up to 2x on the Ultra Wide camera, 2x on the TrueDepth camera, and 2.5x on the main Wide camera. Photonic Engine makes the improved quality possible by applying computational photographic features like Deep Fusion earlier in the imaging process. The end result should deliver incredible detail, preserve subtle textures, have better coloring, and preserve more overall data in a photo.

Some of the new specs of the dual-lens camera system on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus include a larger ƒ/1.5 aperture and 1.9 µm pixels on the main Wide camera. This improves lighting in all photos and has more detail, motion freezing, less noise, and faster exposure times. It also has optical image stabilization. The TrueDepth camera has a ƒ/1.9 aperture for improved low-light capture for both photos and video. There is also autofocus for the first time.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus also now have a new Action mode, allowing users to capture incredibly smooth video that will automatically adjust to shakes, motion, and vibrations. The Ultra Wide camera has low-light improvements, and the True Tone flash is 10% brighter with improved uniformity. Cinematic mode is now available in 4K at 30fps and 4K at 24fps, and there is also end-to-end Dolby Vision HDR. It can also record 4K video at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps, 1080p HD video at 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps, and 720p HD video at 30 fps.

iPhone 14 battery, charging, and MagSafe

The iPhone 14 features a 3,279 mAh battery, while the iPhone 14 Plus features a 4,325 mAh battery. The former is a slight improvement on the iPhone 13, there wasn't an iPhone 13 Plus to compare to the new model.

Apple says that the iPhone 14 (6.1-inch) has a battery that's good for up to 20 hours of video playback, 16 hours of streaming, or 80 hours of audio playback. It also has fast charge that can deliver 50% in around 30 minutes with a 20W adapter or higher (sold separately). 

The larger iPhone 14 Plus delivers a whopping 26 hours of video playback, 20 hours of streaming, or 100 hours of audio, and the same fast-charging capabilities. Of course, real-world use is likely to differ somewhat from Apple's official figures. 

Both support MagSafe charging up to 15W and standard wireless charging up to 7.5W. Like iPhone 13 the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus also support magnetic MagSafe accessories such as cases and battery packs from both Apple and third-party vendors. 

The iPhone 14 retains the Lightning connector from previous models. 

iPhone 14 Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via satellite

Apple is adding Crash Detection to the iPhone 14 as a new safety feature. Thanks to a new dual-core accelerometer, which can detect G-force measurements up to 256 Gs, as well as a high dynamic range gyroscope, Crash Detection is also included in the new Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch SE 2. With Crash Detection, the iPhone can detect a severe car crash as it happens, and automatically dial emergency services, which is especially helpful if the user is unconscious or unable to get to their iPhone. The new accelerometer and gyroscope are built on top of other existing components, like the barometer, which can now detect cabin pressure changes, GPS for speed changes, and the microphone, which can recognize loud noises that are associated with car crashes.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro now have satellite connectivity, but only for emergency services. With Emergency SOS via satellite, users can get through to emergency services even if they are out of range of cellular and Wi-Fi networks. With this feature, the iPhone will prompt the user with some questions, then guide them on where to point the iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro to in the sky in order to connect to the nearest satellite. The initial questions and follow-up messages are also relayed to a nearby emergency center staffed by Apple-trained specialists, who can then call for help on behalf of the user. The satellite connectivity can also be used for Find My when there is no cellular or Wi-Fi signal.

Emergency SOS via satellite launches in the U.S. and Canada in November 2022, though it will be a subscription-based service. However, with the purchase of an iPhone 14, the service will be available free for two years.

iPhone 14 5G and eSIM

The iPhone 14 continues to use 5G (sub‑6 GHz and mmWave), but it will also move to eSIM. This means no more SIM card trays on all U.S. models of iPhone as they move forward with eSIM only. Theoretically, this should make it easier to switch cellular plans and providers. Currently, it is used by carriers to lock your device to its network. The iPhone 14 has Dual eSIM support. 

iPhone 14 price and availability

The iPhone 14 was released on September 16, and the iPhone 14 Plus on October October 7. It is widely available.  

iOS 16

The operating system software that powers the iPhone 14 is called iOS 16, and it's one of the most significant software updates for the iPhone in recent years -- which explains why 81% of all iPhones are currently using it, and 90% of all iPhones  introduced within the last four years. Unveiled at Apple's WWDC last year and released Sept. 12, iOS 16 offers a slew of important new features for iPhone users. And although iOS 17 was announced and offered for developers at WWDC 2023, iOS 16 is software most of us should continue using.

iOS 17

Apple unveiled iOS 17 at WWDC 2023 in June, teasing some of the software updates coming to iPhone 15 and the rest of Apple's lineup later this year. iOS 17 is bringing some cool updates to the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps, as well as AirDrop, and autocorrect. There's a fab new StandBy mode for landscape charging, a new Journal app to help you appreciate life, and changes to Safari. 

The iPhone 13 may not be the newest iPhone on the block, but it's still one of the best-selling smartphones on the market – only beaten out by the iPhone 14 models. 

The Apple handsets outsell the next best-selling smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Ultra S23, by some margin, according to a Canalys study noted by Patently Apple.

For Apple, which has been struggling a little with the iPhone 14 line, this is likely good news and shows that other companies are struggling to shift units.

Samsung has more models available

Looking at the report, the iPhone holds seven of the top 15 best selling phone positions for the first quarter of 2023. But most importantly, it's got the top four positions too, with the surprising position of the iPhone 13 handset still beating out newer Android rivals. The iPhone seems to be outselling almost everything else out there, and in the case of the iPhone 14 versions, it's not even close.

The big surprise here is that the most expensive iPhone does the best. The $1100 iPhone 14 Pro Max is the best-selling smartphone that costs over $500, beating out the other iPhones as well as Samsung's offering.

Interestingly, Samsung does come out on top in one aspect, and that's in the 'worldwide shipments.' That means they ship more phones than any other company on the list, and Patently Apple says Samsung "does this by selling smartphones at almost every price point in the market, making little profit in the process."

So the iPhone 14 is a success, if you were in any doubt. Apple will now be looking to the iPhone 15 and how that can continue the iPhone's dominant streak. We know a little about the next iPhone already, such as its new curvier chassis, the potential for new 3nm produced chips, and its new periscope camera. Until it arrives, however, none can say if it will be an instant success.

Want to join the iPhone conversation? Head over to our forums and you can comment on our articles.

Apple's suite of safety features makes the iPhone a rather compelling buy. With the iPhone 14, Apple brought satellite connectivity to the iPhone lineup. The iPhone 14 series of phones are capable of emergency SOS via satellite. The feature launched a few months ago, along with the iPhone 14 series. 

The feature essentially lets users contact emergency services in the absence of data services and Wi-Fi. Months after the original launch, this feature is now available in Australia and New Zealand. Apple today announced the official launch of its satellite features in the two countries.

iPhone 14 satellite feature availability grows

Apple announced satellite connectivity under the Emergency SOS via Satellite label a few months ago, alongside the iPhone 14 series launch. The feature was available in six countries at launch — U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, and the U.K., with more countries promised. Following that, Apple recently revealed that the feature was coming to more countries in 2023.

While the company had not specified which countries would get the feature next, it seems like Australia and New Zealand are the first on the list. Apple announced today that the feature is now available in the two countries.

Satellite communications are very guarded, and it such it makes sense that Apple needs time to expand it to other countries. It likely has Apple having to deal with a bunch of government regulatory bodies and approvals, which would explain the slower rollout.

Apple published a statement from the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, Minister for Communications for the current Australian government. 

She said, "The Albanese government welcomes the launch of this innovative safety capability. Australians know full well the importance of remaining connected in regional, rural, and remote areas, particularly when they need emergency services. The ability to contact Triple Zero with Emergency SOS via satellite when there is no mobile coverage is a strong backup to keep Australians connected in an emergency.

This will go a long way in helping emergency services respond to, protect, and ultimately, keep individuals safe from harm. Australians are encouraged to familiarise themselves with this feature and whether their device supports it."

Stay tuned to see which countries get Apple's satellite feature across its best iPhones next.

As Mother’s Day rounds the corner and closes in on us, you might be wondering what you can get your Mom. Verizon has just the thing here, with an absolute corker of a deal that nets you an iPhone 14, an Apple Watch SE, and an iPad, leaving you with only the price of the data plan to pay. Just bare in mind that you're going to have to trade in an old iPhone or another smartphone to get the iPhone 14 for free – although even older and broken iPhones are getting good prices with this deal.

This time, it’s not even a specific iPad that you have to choose – it’s $459 off. That means that you can get an iPad 9th gen for free, or you can choose to get a very good discount on a more powerful model, leaving you to pay way less than you might have before. This is also the case for the Apple Watch in the deal.

An iPhone, an Apple Watch, AND an iPad?

This deal is super easy to use, but we’ll quickly talk you through it. First, head on over to the Verizon iPhone 14 product page, and add the ‘trade in’ deal box. Add the phone to your basket, and then on to the next step.

You’ll be taken to a page that lets you choose what extra devices you want to add to your plan - select your devices, and then continue on to the next stage of the process. You’ll need to choose your data plans, and at the end of the process, you’ll find the checkout, with all your deals added in.

The iPhone 14 remains a very solid option if you’re looking for a new iPhone, and the Apple SE is a very good smartwatch. The iPad 9th gen may now be getting a little long in the tooth, but it’s still an iPad that does everything you might need it to.

The iPhone 14 is the most disappointing iPhone in a decade for consumers, according to a new report from PerfectRec.

The report, which analyzes more than 669,000 user-generated reviews, has found that one of the best iPhones at the moment, the iPhone 14, has seen a huge decline in opinion versus its predecessor - for the first time since 2012.

"Economists and data scientists at the new product review website PerfectRec have analyzed 13 years of user-generated iPhone reviews, tracking consumers' changing perception of the world's most successful technology product over time. We found that from 2012 to 2021, starting with the iPhone 5, consumers rated every new generation of iPhones better than the preceding one."

"But with the iPhone 14, released in September 2022, that changed."

Apple loves to showcase consumer opinion in keynotes, but the iPhone 14 results in this report wouldn't be something worth writing home about.

Why is the iPhone 14 so disappointing?

There could be many reasons for the widespread lack of positive opinion on the iPhone 14. For starters, the average price of iPhones across the globe is on the rise, and with a cost of living crisis, consumers might find the upgrade a little too minimal to warrant the cost. 

Add to that the lack of stand-out improvements of the iPhone 14 versus last year's models like the iPhone 13 Pro (which I think is still a better buy), and there's no real excitement around the baseline 2022 iPhone model.

Additionally, we're at a point where annual upgrades to iPhones don't have the same weight they used to. For consumers upgrading every four or five years, there's huge incentive to get the latest and greatest, but for those that upgrade annually, the iPhone 14 leaves a lot to be desired. 

With September fast approaching, we don't have long to wait for the new iPhone 15  to be revealed, and we can't wait to see if the new iPhone pushes consumer opinion back toward the green. For now, there are iPhone 14 deals around if you simply can't wait.

The iPhone 14 Plus is a big device, with its 6.7-inch display. That puts it at the same size as the iPhone 14 Pro Max, although it's less expensive because it doesn't have all the fancy 'Pro' bits inside. Instead, this is for the user who wants a massive phone but doesn't want all of the raw power that the Pro Max provides. Now, you can get one for free in this incredible Verizon deal.

If you choose one of the Unlimited data plans to go with your new phone, Verizon will give you the iPhone 14 Plus for nothing – netting you one of the best deals ever on the larger flagship from Apple.

iPhone 14 Plus for free

It's a really easy deal to get this one: Head over to the iPhone 14 Plus product page on the Verizon website, where you'll find the deal has already been activated. That means all you have to do is hit continue, choose a data plan, and then get going for your free phone.

Remember that it's just the device that is free here – you're still going to need to pay for your data. Extra bonus, however: You can also get a free Apple Watch SE and a 9th gen iPad with the deal box sitting on the iPhone 14 Plus product page. Just press 'add', and the website will walk you through the rest of the steps. This is just one of some of the best iPhone 14 deals out there.

Buyers of Apple's iPhones are paying more than ever according to a new report that looks at the average selling price of models sold in the United States.

As Apple gets ready to replace the iPhone 14 lineup with what will be the best iPhone to date, the iPhone 15, it appears that nobody told customers that — the average selling price of iPhones during the last quarter reached an impressive $988.

To put that into perspective, the quarter in question is normally a challenging one for Apple with customers choosing to buy cheaper models this far into a model's life cycle.

Biggest number ever

CIRP reports that the $988 figure is also the biggest since it started collecting such information back in 2015, with the March 2023 quarter's showing being unprecedented.

"Both conventional wisdom and historic data shows that later buyers of new iPhones are more value oriented, shying away from the most expensive models," CIRP's report says. "The weighted average retail price of iPhones sold in the US (US-WARP) has declined in the March quarter every year since we started calculating it in 2015."

The report goes on to note that people might not actually be handing over that much cash when they pick up their new iPhone, however. While the sticker price is closer to $1,000 than ever before, people are getting deals on the back end.

"Of course, trade-ins and other promotions allow many iPhone buyers to spend considerably less than that, but they are taking home phones with an average sticker price of almost $1,000," the report points out.

Trade-ins are a great way to save some money on a new Apple product, not just iPhones. And it also ensures that the devices don't wind up in a drawer and unused or worse, in a landfill. Apple will also accept trade-ins of devices from other companies, although the values may vary.

In an announcement yesterday, Google joined other industry giants in its new support for the Passkey standard. Calling the move 'the beginning of the end of the password', Google goes on to talk about the benefits of the Passkey system.

It's now a year since Microsoft, Google, Apple, and the FIDO Alliance got together to announce they would work together to support Passkeys on their own platforms, in an effort to make an 'easier and more secure alternative to passwords.' Only days before world password day, Google looks to end the password once and for all – no more password123 for Grandma.

What is a Passkey?

A passkey is a 'new way to sign into websites.' They're designed to be easier to use and more secure than a normal, typed-out password, instead, using the same inputs that you might use to unlock your devices. That includes fingerprints, face scans, or lock screen pins and patterns. These are more resistant to 'online attacks like phishing, making them more secure than things like SMS one-time codes' says Google.

Passkey support has been on iOS for some time now, coming in iOS 16. It's also now baked into the latest version of iPadOS, as well as MacOS Ventura. Google has already brought the update to its Chrome and Android systems, but now it's bringing it to Google account users as well.

You'll need to set it up on the Google Passkeys website, where you'll be talked through the process. Passwords and 2-factor authentication will still work for now, as Google says 'the change to Passkeys will take time.' After all, the process is still very new for such a massive part of Google's business, and users may also need some time to get used to it. This is a massive step in making the internet a safer space to browse, and any efforts to make it such should be applauded.

Getting free stuff is always a massive bonus, especially when that free stuff would usually cost hundreds of dollars. If you’re after a new iPad, then this could be the deal for you, as it gives you a free one when you buy a new iPhone 14 model at Verizon. There are even some extra deals at the moment as well to sweeten the deal, giving you money off Apple Watches and iPhones over the next couple of weeks.

You’ll still have to pay for the data plan, mind you, but the free device will make it a lot cheaper than it otherwise would have been.

Free iPad with select iPhone purchases

The deal is super easy to get hold of. Just select the iPhone model you want, like the iPhone 14 Pro product page, and click add on the ‘Select tablets and smartwatches on us’ deal box. Hit continue at the end of the page, and then add the tablet you want on the next page. Here, you can add a free smartwatch as well – but remember you’ll still need to pay for the data plan.

On the next page, you’re going to need to choose the data plan you want; for the full amount off in the deal, choose one of the Unlimited data plans. This will give you loads of data every month, so you won’t have to worry about running out. At the end, you can see how much you’ve saved, and how much you’ll be paying monthly.

The iPad that you can get for free, the iPad 9th Gen, may not be the newest iPad on the block, but it's got plenty of power where it counts. Using it on the go will be super easy thanks to the unlimited data plan, and getting it for free with one of the best iPhones is always a bonus.

The Apple Watch SE is the cheapest of the Apple Watch family, but getting one for free makes it an even better deal. This deal over at Verizon nets you an Apple Watch SE for nothing when you buy one of the iPhone 14 family of devices, such as the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Bear in mind that you’ll still have to pay for your device data plan, although plans for Apple Watches tend to be super low cost so it's not going to be that much extra. If you were already thinking of getting an Apple Watch, then this is one of the best deals as yet – given that you pay nothing for the Watch itself.

How to get a free Apple Watch SE

First, you’re going to want to go to the product page of the iPhone that you want to buy, like the iPhone 14 Pro Max or the iPhone 14. Choose the color of the iPhone that you want, and then head on down to the deals tab of the product page.

Add the deal that says ‘Select tablets and smartwatches on us’ and then press continue. Here, you’ll be taken to a page that lets you choose your Apple Watch model, as well as a free iPad. Again, you’ll need to pay the data cost, so keep that in mind before you slip an iPad in your basket – the data plan will be more than your shiny new Apple Watches. Once you’re done there, choose the data plan for your iPhone. You’ll need to choose one of the unlimited options, otherwise, you won’t get the full amount off your new Apple Watch. Once you’ve chosen that, you’ll need to choose the data plan for the Apple Watch; and then, you’re all done.

The Apple Watch SE isn’t the most impressive Apple Watch in the range, but it does everything you need a smartwatch to do. It’s easily the best Apple Watch for everyone, especially if you don’t need the otherworldly construction and massive screen of the Apple Watch Ultra.

The iPhone 14 Plus is for the iPhone user that wants the bigger screen of the iPhone 14 Pro Max but doesn’t want to spend a fortune on a new phone. At the moment Verizon is chopping a massive chunk off the monthly price of the iPhone 14 Plus, making it only $5 per month.

This deal can be used in conjunction with the other Verizon deals, so you can also toss in a free iPad and Apple Watch SE. You will still have to pay for the data plans on all these devices, however, so bear that in mind before you take the plunge.

iPhone 14 Plus for $5 per month

If you want to save loads of money on your next iPhone but want something a little more impressive than the base model 14, then this is the deal for you. It’s super easy to get it too – just head over to the iPhone 14 Plus product page on the Verizon website, and choose the color you want. This is where you can choose to get a free Apple Watch and iPad, by adding the deal box under the deals tab. The $5 per month deal will be pre-selected, so you can just press the continue button further down the page.

Choose your data plan next – make sure it's one of the unlimited options, otherwise, you won’t get the full amount off the iPhone 14 Plus. Once it’s in the basket, you’ll see how much you’ve saved.

This deal makes the iPhone 14 Plus a lot more affordable, giving you the bigger screen for less. Don’t forget to check out more of the best iPhone 14 deals, so that you can make sure you’re getting the best price possible.

The iPhone 14 and its advanced Emergency SOS via Satellite feature have helped to save three more lives, this time in a water-filled canyon in Utah.

Local news reports that three male students were canyoneering in “The Squeeze” in Emery County this past weekend when they got into difficulties. They were able to use an iPhone to summon help while lighting a fire to try and stay warm.

The trio was later rescued by helicopter; all three made a full recovery from their ordeal. And they were saved by one of the iPhone's newest features.

A satellite connection every 20 minutes

KUTV and AppleInsider report that the three BYU students had done their homework about the area they were visiting but still found themselves unable to get to safety under their own steam. It’s thought that the wet weather had changed the canyon’s layout, rendering that homework useless.

That wasn’t enough to stop the iPhone 14 coming in clutch, however: Emergency SOS via Satellite works by lining up with a low-orbit satellite to relay a short text message to emergency responders. That message includes location data, and the students say that they managed to get a connection roughly every 20 minutes.

“The canyon was about 500 feet deep of sheer, rock walls but about every 20 minutes a satellite would line up where we were in the canyon, and by holding the phone up we could get a signal where we could text 911 to Emery County -- and that definitely saved our butts,” described one of the students in an interview with KUTV.

The report says that the students first tried to make a phone call but were unable to. Emergency SOS via Satellite comes into its own when no cellular or Wi-Fi service is available, as appears to have been the case here.

You don’t need to buy Apple’s best iPhone to get this feature but you do need an iPhone 14 or newer. Apple is likely to announce the iPhone 15 in September and we can expect that device to offer the same capabilities — if not upgraded ones.

There are some incredible iPhone 14 colors to choose from when you buy one. With its release, Apple offered shades it had never put forward before. There are six options in all with each suiting a different aesthetic. Different from what we saw with the iPhone 13 series, some colors moved from the Pro line down to the standard iPhone 14.

Predictably given how Apple does things, the sixth color came later than the others, arriving in March 2023. Apple announced the new yellow iPhone, a kind of pastel yellow with warm, lemony overtones. The company often seems to update its colors around the March mark. Previously, we saw the Alpine green shade on the iPhone 13 Pro in 2022.

Besides yellow, iPhone owners also have the choice of midnight (black), starlight (white), blue, purple, and Product RED. Midnight, Starlight, and RED all come back year after year with the iPhone lineup. Product RED devices always raise money and awareness for health emergencies. Apple states it has contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars across 16 years of partnership with the Bono-backed Red organization, helping provide life-saving treatments to people living with HIV.

Color can be a tricky part of the decision making process when upgrading, regardless of what you've settled on in terms of storage and specs. Given the dilemma, we're here to help by laying out the colors still available for the 14 series, and what could come later this year.

If you've decided to ascend to the Pro line, you'll find the iPhone 14 Pro colors decidedly less fun: black, gold, silver, and purple. (We think Deep Purple could be the one.) All of them are in a darker, muted shade, but it's the exclusive purple color that looks fantastic here.

Six pastels of iPhone 14 colors

What came before?

Looking back at the iPhone 13, the same lighter shade remained, but with some differences. There was a darker blue and pink color, while March 2022 saw a green shade arrive. Since then, iPhone 14 has replaced two of those with light purple and an even lighter blue. When March 2023 hit, we saw a stylishly vibrant yellow which was a lot different from the green of the year before.

Still, it seems like Apple wants to keep the color differences of the Pro line just enough different that you can tell which colors are for which models. 

For anyone upgrading from the iPhone 12 or before, you get six all-new colors that are much lighter.

The beauty of Drafts is implicit in its tagline of Where Text Starts: it's entirely agnostic about where your writing ends up. You can use it as a repository of notes, and you can equally send your work to other apps, blogging software, file systems, reminders, or just about anywhere else you can think of.

I've been using an iPad full-time for several years, and when I made the switch from macOS I had to find equivalent tools to help with many of the tasks I needed to accomplish. One of my most often-used apps was BBEdit on the Mac, and locating something broadly similar was a priority.

I've found that Drafts fits the bill in a multitude of ways, particularly with the flexibility offered by the huge number of third-party JavaScript Actions and other extensions available. I've even created a few myself, including my reusable MGCheckListPrompt library which creates picker dialogs for use in your own automations.

Because of its power, Drafts can be used for many tasks which might not immediately spring to mind when thinking about a notes app. With this in mind, here are a few features that I use most often.

Build a personal wiki

Drafts supports inter-document linking in wiki style, using [[bracketed text]] to implicitly link to existing or new documents. There are many Actions available to enhance the functionality, including listing backlinks, i.e. other documents which link to the current one. I use this feature to create reference material for my novel series, for example, to keep track of recurring characters and settings.

Another great use of local links is to make a repository of the various bits of household information we all need to locate or update from time to time. I keep notes about utility providers, home and motor insurance, packing lists, and lots of other things that families need to access once in a while and tend to be a pain to trawl for in email archives.

Inter-document linking lets me organize them hierarchically, and Drafts also allows tagging documents for easier searching. The workspaces feature even allows viewing just those documents which have certain tags, as if they're an entirely separate collection of files.

Assemble newsletters

The main task I use Drafts for is helping me to publish my writing online. For more than two years, I've sent out a free weekly newsletter with a new piece of micro-fiction every Monday, and while I usually write the raw text as Markdown in Ulysses, I assemble and format the newsletter entirely in Drafts, using several of its features together to make the process easier.

Drafts supports templating, both via its own built-in syntax and also the well-established and more powerful Mustache templating system if you prefer. Both systems allow for inline conversion of Markdown to HTML, and the insertion of calculated values such as dates and times in chosen formats. I have a newsletter HTML template as a document — also called a draft, of course — in Drafts, which is loaded by a custom Action. Alternatively, templates can be embedded within an Action itself if you're not using them elsewhere. Drafts often provides multiple ways to do things.

The JavaScript API for Actions can access the system pasteboard (or clipboard), easily taking the text I've exported from Ulysses, inserting it into the newsletter template and processing the Markdown into HTML, producing a finished newsletter ready for export into whatever sending service you might want to use.

Most services, including my preferred MailerLite, allow the use of custom HTML, which offers complete control over what the subscribers receive in their inboxes.

Publish to the web

I also publish the stories from my newsletter on my own site, and of course, I use Drafts for that too: I have templates for stories and for regular articles, each using Markdown with YAML front matter, and I even have an Action to generate the appropriate filename for my Jekyll blog by reading the front matter.

Being able to execute your own JavaScripts within a text editor, including native support for various cloud storage providers and productivity apps, drastically expands the scope of how Drafts can fit into workflows.

Drafts natively supports the WordPress API, too, so if you're one of the huge number of people who use it as your publishing platform, you'll have no trouble integrating Drafts into your setup. There are actions available showing how to publish posts, link-blog articles, and retrieve lists of recent articles for further manipulation.

Use Drafts as a bridge

Even if you don't want to write text in the app itself, Drafts has such extensive system integration and automation support that it can serve as the middleman between your data and wherever you need it to get to.

Besides its dozens of text manipulation tools, Drafts also offers lock screen widgets, focus mode filters, Apple Watch support, and of course, it syncs its own documents, settings, and automations between Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Documents can be tagged and then filtered on that basis, and Drafts also offers version histories, as well as third-party syntax-highlighting profiles and color themes. Actions can appear as toolbar buttons above the virtual keyboard and can be triggered via search, keyboard shortcuts of your choice, and Siri.

Post to social media

Drafts can post directly to Twitter and now also to Mastodon, so it's an excellent place to work on and revise content to meet character-count limits, tailor posts for each service, and let thoughts percolate for a while before publishing.

I often compose longer social media posts with Drafts, including the creation of threads. Mastodon integration was recently added, alongside its ability to post to Twitter and any arbitrary web service. Support for draft posts varies by service, but Drafts (the app) offers a place to manage them in a unified and portable way, while also keeping a local archive of your posts.

There's no shortage of note-taking apps on any of the Apple platforms, including the built-in offerings, but to include Drafts in that category is to do it a disservice. It positions itself as a starting point, but for me, it's also the next step, and the next again, in a wide variety of workflows that I use every single week on my iPad and iPhone, and even once in a while on a Mac too. It's a thousand apps in one, if you want it to be, and I bet you could find a place for it in your toolkit.

Apple has changed its stance on what people should do if their iPhone or Apple Watch calls emergency services when they aren't needed.

The iPhone 14, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra all support Crash Detection — a feature that can detect when someone has been in a car crash and then call for emergency services automatically. But it's a feature that's caused more than a few unrequited calls to go into call centers around the world and Apple has changed what it wants people to do if they find themselves initiating a call that they don't need.

Don't cancel the call, Apple says. Even if you're perfectly fine.

Faux crashes detected

Ever since Crash Detection launched there have been reports of rollercoasters and skiing falls causing it to trigger, calling emergency services as a result. Apple previously told users to "tap Cancel and confirm that you don't need emergency services" if they didn't need help. But it's now changed that wording.

The change, which was made to a support document and spotted by MacRumors, now tells people that they should let the call connect and explain the situation.

"If the call has been made, but you don't need emergency services, don't hang up," Apple says. "Wait until a responder answers, then explain that you don't need help."

It appears that Apple wants to ensure service responders are not left wondering if the call dropped by accident and whether someone is hurt. By canceling the call people were leaving things open-ended. By letting the call connect, they can explain that a false call was placed and that no assistance is required.

Apple has been tweaking its Crash Detection system to try and prevent false emergency calls, but some are sure to get through. The feature is only available on the best Apple Watches and iPhones to date, but as it trickles down to more handsets we can surely expect even more calls to be made to emergency services in error.

Apple has announced a new way for people to buy the iPhone 14 and other models, and they don't even need to leave their homes to do it.

The new 'Shop with a Specialist over Video' feature allows people to buy iPhones via a new video link to real-life Apple Specialists, although 'Shop with a Specialist over Video' is only available to those in the United States at launch. It'll only be offered between 7 am and 7 pm, too.

"With this new service, customers can browse the latest models, explore new features, and learn about Apple Trade In offers, carrier deals, switching to iOS, and various financing options," Apple said via press release.

More ways to buy

Apple says that customers will be able to compare features, sizes, and colors while also making sure that they get the best deal via the Apple Trade In program all from the comfort of their own homes.

"During the session, an Apple team member will be on camera sharing their screen, but they will not be able to see the customer," the press release notes. And if people need help outside of the advertised times they'll still be able to contact a specialist via phone or chat 24 hours per day.

While 'Shop with a Specialist over Video' is only going to be available on iPhones, it's possible that Apple will choose to expand beyond that and into Macs, iPads, and Apple Watches in the future. For now, though, the feature is designed to help get people into Apple's best iPhones as easily as possible and without the need to visit an Apple Store to get that personal touch.

People can visit apple.com/shop/buy-iphone and get help from an Apple Specialist starting today. If you're in the market for a new yellow iPhone 14, maybe take the new shopping experience for a spin for yourself.

The iPhone dominated smartphone sales in 2022.

According to new research by Counterpoint Research, a data analyst firm, the iPhone took eight of the top ten spots when it came to global smartphone sales last year. At the top of the list was the iPhone 13, which was released in September 2021. Interestingly, even while being the top-selling smartphone for the entire year, the non-pro iPhone 13 only took up about five percent of smartphone sales.

The iPhone 13 made up around 28% percent of iPhone sales for the year. The report says that "price cuts after the iPhone 14 series’ launch further drove the iPhone 13 volumes in developing markets" and that "iPhone 13 sales were two times more than that of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the second best-selling smartphone in 2022."

Right behind the iPhone 13 Pro Max was the iPhone 14 Pro Max. For the rest of the Apple part of the list, it went the iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 12, iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and the iPhone SE. The report also noted that, "for the first time, a Pro Max variant of an iPhone series drove more volume than its Pro and base models in 2022" and that it was actually the top-selling model altogether since its launch in September 2022.

Samsung was the only other company on the top ten list. The Galaxy A13 took 4th and the Galaxy A03 took 10th.

What will things look like for 2023? 

For 2023, Counterpoint Research predicts that the top 10 smartphones will continue to make up even more total market share, due to companies offering fewer models than in previous years. It notes that a decrease in available models is already happening, with "the number of active smartphone models in the global market has already fallen from over 4,200 in 2021 to around 3,600 in 2022."

Emergency SOS and Find My via satellite are rolling out to more iPhone 14 owners later this month.

In a press release for the new yellow iPhone 14, Apple revealed that the satellite features on its best iPhones will expand to Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Portugal later this month.

Emergency SOS and Find My via satellite allows iPhone 14 owners to reassure loved ones and reach out to emergency services when their device has no signal off-grid. The feature is currently available in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, and the U.K.

 “If you call or text emergency services and can't connect because you're outside the range of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage, your iPhone tries to connect you via satellite to the help that you need.”

Emergency SOS in more countries

Expanding satellite features to iPhone 14 users in more countries allows more people than ever to use the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro to their full capabilities. Apple went hard with its marketing for satellite features, showcasing the promise of an Apple Watch Ultra and iPhone 14 when adventuring outside of your usual walk around the park. 

The Emergency SOS with satellite service kicks in when you attempt to contact emergency services without a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. In this scenario, an interface appears on your iPhone that includes a short questionnaire you can answer with just a few simple taps. This information is sent to dispatchers via satellite, who use it to understand your situation and location. The Emergency SOS interface also helps point you in the direction to get the best satellite signal possible. 

Whilst most of us will never have to use these features, having satellite capabilities in more countries means that adventurers out there can explore far and wide with more safety and better connectivity to the outer world should they need it.

A brand new iPhone 14 color is coming to the lineup, Apple announced today: a lemon yellow as warm as pudding and just and as tasty to the eye. 

Pre-orders for the new color start at 5 am PT, 8 am ET on March 10, and will be available in-store on Tuesday, March 14. The company also unveiled new silicon cases for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus: canary yellow, olive, sky, and iris.

Surprisingly, there's no new shade for the Pro this year, with just the regular iPhone getting a fresh coat of paint. 

iPhone 14 - now in yellow

Apple unveiled its best iPhone, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro in September of last year. The regular iPhone 14 doesn't really offer much in the way of major upgrades. It features the same processor as the old iPhone 13 Pro, a slightly improved camera, and that's really about it. The iPhone 14 Pro, on the other hand, was a massive upgrade. It featured the all-new Dynamic Island instead of a notch, a fantastic new 48MP camera, and a new Always-On Display that can show notifications and wallpapers.

Apple's new mid-year color has become something of a tradition in recent years. On March 8, 2022, Apple introduced two new green finishes for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro. The Pro finish was a bit darker, but they were very similar in shade. 

In April of 2021, Apple introduced a new purple iPhone 12, however, last year was the first time we got a new shade for both the regular and Pro lineup. 

The mid-year release is always interesting given that we're expecting a new iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, and an iPhone 15 Pro Max in just six months. Apple is expected to unveil a hefty upgrade to iPhone in September featuring the A17 chip (in the Pro), big camera upgrades, a new design, and more. 

Hoping for an iPhone of a different color? According to a new rumor from a Weibo post shared by the Japanese blog Mac Otakara, we might be getting a yellow iPhone 14 and 14 Plus. While this source hasn't got a track record of being reliable with rumors or leaks, it wouldn't be surprising to see new colors in the next couple of weeks.

After all, around a year ago on March 8, 2022, Apple unveiled the iPhone 13 in green, which also matched up to around halfway through the phone's lifespan. This is almost exactly the same time of year, so a color refresh is almost certain. Whether it will be 'iMore yellow', however, is another case entirely.

A yellow iPhone?

There have been rumblings that Apple is planning PR briefings next week, with MacRumors citing anonymous sources as to the rumor. But yellow?

It wouldn't be the first time the iPhone has been yellow, with the iPhone 11 having a yellow option in 2019 and the iPhone XR the year before. It's a fetching shade and would match the yellow iPad 2022 you can currently get from Apple. The color will join the current color lineup of Midnight, Silver, Product RED, Blue, and Purple. Perhaps Apple will even give it a special name as they do for Black and Silver.

Until Apple releases any iPhone color news, we remain unsure as to whether this is happening. It would be the first refresh in this iPhone's lifetime, as the 14 series reaches six months old towards the end of March.

So if you've been holding off on buying an iPhone for the last couple of months, then you might want to hold on a little longer, especially if you've been holding out for a yellow shade.

If you can't be bothered to wait or aren't interested in a yellow iPhone however, then make sure you check out the best iPhone 14 deals.

The iPhone 14 line-up launched with great fanfare, and great spec sheets, making it a tough decision to work out which one is going to be best for you. Some even look exactly the same if you were to see them in a shop at first glance, but differences between the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max are there.

Let's put it simply. The iPhone 14 is the base model and comes in at the lowest price. If you don’t care about having the most powerful iPhone, then this is the model for you. The iPhone 14 Pro is the more powerful model with a similarly sized screen. If you want the specs but don’t want a massive phone, then this one is your goldilocks zone. The iPhone 14 Pro Max is the iPhone 14 Pro with a monster-sized screen. If you want the biggest and most impressive iPhone to show off to your friends, then this will give you the bragging rights you desire.

But how do they compare in more detail, and which one is the best iPhone for you? For while a phone may be the best handset on paper, it might not be the phone you’re looking for. We have all these phones reviewed, the iPhone 14 review, and the iPhone 14 Pro review (which is going to tell you everything you need to know about the iPhone 14 Pro Max as well). That will tell you what we think of the models individually - but let's see how they stack up head to head. We've also looked at the core differences between iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro to narrow things down further.

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Specs comparison

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Price comparison

Storage is what will drive up the price of each iPhone model the most, beyond the expected ‘less power’ < ‘more power’ < ‘more screen’ dynamic the range scales at. . Base models of all three handsets come with 128GB, and none of the colors cost more than the others. The iPhone 14 starts at $799, the iPhone 14 Pro goes up to $999, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max is $1099.

Those prices do go up if you want more storage. The iPhone 14 doubles its storage up to 512GB, with a first increase of $100, and then a $200 increase to its largest option. The top-end model will set you back $1099. That's where a sneaky good iPhone 14 deal could help matters.

The iPhone 14 Pro starts with 512GB and then doubles up its capacity up to 1TB. The first increase is $100, and ensuing upgrades will cost you $200. The biggest storage option will cost you $1499. The iPhone 14 Pro Max follows this same increase, from $1099 to $1599 for the 1TB version, the most expensive of all iPhone 14 models.

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Design differences

The iPhone 14 looks much like the iPhone 13 that came before it. There’s a notch at the top of the screen, a metal frame around the edge, a glass back panel, and a slim-ish camera bump on the back. It is, as sequels come, mostly defined by internal spec changes, which we’ll discuss a little later.

iPhone 14 color options are different here, though. There are fewer than found on the iPhone 13, although more than the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. There are Blue, Purple, Midnight, Starlight, and (PRODUCT)RED options. The latter is, as always, red.

The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max have many of the same design cues, with large screens and stainless steel frames, glass rears, and massive, three-lens camera bumps. There is one key difference, however – the notch is gone. Instead, there is the ‘Dynamic Island’, an animated pill-shaped cutout at the top of the screen that hides the Face ID camera and other sensors that aw works double duty by ‘dynamically’ showing different parts of the UI or an app’s features, depending on your usage. When listening to Apple Music and browsing Twitter, for example, it will show the currently playing track. It also shows the lock status of the screen.

The other big design decision is the always-on screen. This is the first thing you’ll notice if you spot it sitting on a table — the screen simply dims rather than turning off, giving you a constant view of the time and incoming notifications. This is a feature exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, rather than the iPhone 14.

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Display comparison

The main difference between the two Pro models is the size. The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a bigger, 6.7-inch display rather than the 6.1-inch of iPhone 14 Pro. The iPhone 14 has the same size screen as the iPhone 14 Pro, with 6.1 inches to its name.

The iPhone 14 features a 6.1-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display. That’s at  2532x1170 resolution. These displays both feature ‘True Tone’, which changes the color profiles to match the lighting that the phone is in, as well as HDR. It’s good for 800nits peak brightness. These are not high refresh rate displays, though.

Those on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, however, are. They feature what Apple calls ‘ProMotion’, which ups the refresh rate of the screens to 120Hz. That will make using your iPhone feel slicker, faster, and altogether a little more premium. It’s not until you go back from a ProMotion display to a non-display that you notice how much of a difference those extra hertz make. You’re also going to get a brighter screen, with a peak brightness of 1,600 with HDR turned on outdoors.

Resolution-wise, the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max have slightly differing numbers due to their screen sizes. The iPhone 14 Pro has a 2556x1179 screen resolution over its 6.1 inches, whereas the iPhone 14 Pro Max has 2796x1290 over its 6.7-inch display.

It’s fairly conclusive: the two iPhone Pro models have the better displays, with the massive panel of the iPhone 14 Pro Max coming out on top.

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Camera comparison

All the iPhone models feature camera bumps that sit proudly on their rear sides, although the camera bumps on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are significantly more pronounced. That’s because they have better cameras, with larger sensors capable of capturing more detailed images.

There are three lenses on the back of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. There’s a massive 48MP main lens, a 12MP ultrawide lens, and a combined 12MP 2x and 3x telephoto lens. There are all the usual image processing engines that Apple packs in, and it means that shots taken with the camera are stunning. Zoomed shots retain detail, and close-ups are clear and sharp. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max have some of the best smartphone cameras ever. Before even talking about the iPhone 14, these are the phones to go for.

That's not to say the iPhone 14 camera is any kind of slouch. The iPhone 14 has two camera lenses on the back, a 12MP main shooter, and a 12MP ultrawide. This camera will still take pretty impressive shots, with all that good Apple image processing on board. It might not be quite so good at capturing far-off detail and its close-ups won’t be quite so good, but for everyday shots and holiday snaps it's going to be perfect.

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Processors and performance

The iPhone 14 is equipped with nearly the same processor as the iPhone 13 that came before it. That’s the A15 Bionic chip, with a 6-core CPU, and 16-core neural engine. The GPU has been upped to 5-cores from the 4-core of the iPhone 13, however, so there will be more graphics performance than last year's model.

The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max feature the new A16 Bionic chips, with extra goodies on board. There’s a 6-core CPU with a 16-core Neural engine, and a 5-core GPU to get everything running nicely. On paper, that doesn’t seem like much but put the two against each other side by side and differences emerge.

Stress tests may not be the be-all and end-all of these things, but they are a useful performance metric. The A16 performs better in single and multicore tests, with increased efficiency to boot. Geekbench for example notes a +12% increase in Multi-core performance on the A16 and a +8% difference in single core.

If you go for the iPhone 14, however, you’re still getting a powerful phone. It won’t be as powerful as the iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max, but you may struggle to spot the difference in day-to-day use.

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Battery life

The iPhone 14 has a 3,279mAh battery, which Apple states is good for up to 16 hours of streamed video content and 80 hours of audio playback. In real life, you might not quite get that, but we’ve found battery life to be excellent in our testing.

Charging-wise it's going to be nice and fast. Invest in a 20W charger and you’ll get up to 50% charge in 30 minutes. There’s also MagSafe charging on board, a safer and easier-to-use version of wireless charging that uses magnets to stick a charging puck to the back of the iPhone. It’s good for 15W charging.

The battery in the iPhone 14 Pro is only going to last you any longer with streamed video content, giving you 20 hours. That extra efficiency in the processor is evidently used up by the always-on display, because the iPhone 14 remains otherwise unchanged battery-wise, even down to charging.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is going to give you the most battery life with its bigger frame that’s able to hold a bigger battery. You’ll get up to 25 hours of streamed video, and 95 hours of audio playback. Charging specs, however, remain the same.

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Additional features

If you’re after unique features then it's the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max you’ll want. There’s the aforementioned Dynamic Island in place of the notch, as well as the ProMotion displays. There’s also the extra camera clarity you’ll get with both, as well as a LiDAR sensor if you want to map out 3D models of rooms.

Beyond that, the iPhone feature set is common throughout all models. There’s crash detection that senses if you’ve been in a road collision and calls emergency services to your location in the event that you can’t. There’s also the Apple Home app which acts as a hub for your HomeKit-enabled smart home devices, and the Apple App Store, filled with thousands of apps (for better or worse).

All can access Apple's subscription services too, such as Apple TV Plus, Apple News Plus, and Apple Music. With the purchase of a new iPhone, you get three free months of each as well so that you can try them out.

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Which should you buy?

There are some key differences between the Pro line iPhones and the standard iPhone 14. Those screens are prettier and slicker, the cameras are better, and there are some additional features on board. If you opt to spend more there’s no doubt about it — you’re getting the better phone with a Pro-level iPhone.

The differences between the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are minimal. Effectively, you’ll get a bigger screen on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and some extra battery juice. For big-screen fans, the iPhone 14 Pro Max was already the phone you were going to go for, and the iPhone 14 Pro was likely not even on your radar. If you’re wondering if you’ll miss much with the iPhone 14 Pro? No, it’s the same phone with a smaller battery and screen. It does the same with the same features.

If those two seem too expensive for you, however, then the iPhone 14 is still an excellent choice. The screen is the same size as the 14 Pro, it’s still good and bright, and the less powerful processor doesn’t make much of a difference in real-world usage. You might notice the absence of Dynamic Island, but then you’ll look at your monthly device payments and remember you’re saving around $200 overall.

The iPhone 14 might be able to talk to satellites and call for help if you need it, but you might not have to rush out and buy Apple's best iPhone just to save your life.

That's because a new accessory from Motorola and Bullitt is designed to slip onto a keychain and connect to any iPhone (or Android phone, if you really must) and then act as a satellite intermediary. The result? You're always online, no matter where you are. Or at least, so long as there's a satellite above your head.

As Apple's iPhone 14 marketing is quick to point out, that can be very handy in situations where you don't have cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity yet need to call for help. But the Motorola Defy Satellite Link goes further. Unlike the iPhone satellite implementation, this one allows for two-way text messaging as well.

Reaching for the stars

In a press release for the new product, Bullitt says that the accessory is "especially relevant to all of us who have ever found ourselves outside of traditional messaging coverage." The system's two-way messaging feature works via a special app that's available for download on iOS and Android, and anyone who receives a message from it will get an SMS asking them to download the app themselves.

The hardware itself fits on a keychain and is designed to be as rugged as you'd expect for an accessory built to save lives in remote areas. That means that it's IP68-rated and has a 600mAh battery that's said to provide "sufficient battery life for multiple days of use." There's also a physical SOS and location check-in button, meaning you don't necessarily need your phone to call for help.

How does it work? "The device then connects directly to geostationary satellites 22,300 miles above the earth," Bullitt says. It isn't immediately clear how easy it is to actually connect to them, however — Apple's iPhones guide users through the Emergency SOS via Satellite connection process to ensure a solid link has been made.

None of this is going to come for free, though. The unit on its own costs $99 / €119 / £99 while a bundle that includes one year of subscription to the Essentials Messaging service will set daredevils back $149 / €169/ £149. That includes 30 two-way messages per month as well as the SOS Assist functionality. As for availability, expect to see this thing ready to go by April 2023, we're told. Apple also charges for its Emergency SOS feature, but offers two year's free with an iPhone 14 purchase, beyond that we don't know how much it will cost. 

New renders based on leaked CAD files might have just given us our first indication that the iPhone 15 will have a bigger screen than any non-Pro Max or Plus iPhone before it.

While the iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro Max will still remain the biggest iPhones of the lineup when they ship this September, a new leak suggests that the iPhone 15 will have a 6.2-inch display — a slight bump on the 6.1-inch display that the current iPhone 14 has to offer.

Beyond the display size, the new renders also show the rumored USB-C port as well as the Dynamic Island that looks set to make the move from the Pro lineup.

iPhone 15: Bigger and better

While that USB-C port and the gaining of a Dynamic Island are things that we have seen or heard of before now, this larger display rumor is a new one. 9to5Mac says that the increased display size came from the CAD files that they were given, rather than a secondary report or leak. That would suggest that we can have some confidence in this display growth, so long as the CAD files themselves are legitimate.

There's so far been no suggestion that the iPhone 15 Pro will also get this slight display increase, and a similar CAD leak happened last week. However, we've been hearing for some time that the iPhone 15 Pro would feature thinner bezels, perhaps hinting at a slight display size increase.

With the iPhone 15 lineup not expected to be announced for another six months we can surely expect there to be more leaks between now and then. But as things stand it looks possible that while the iPhone 15 Pro might be Apple's best iPhone ever, the iPhone 15 might just pip it in the display stakes.

You can see all of 9to5Mac's renders in the original post, too.

It's not just all about the Dynamic Island — the iPhone 14 Pro color selection is one of the most stylish range of shades Apple's offered alongside its new handsets in generations. 

With the iPhone 14 Pro colors shared with the iPhone 14 Pro Max too, picking out the hue for you is one of the first decisions you'll need to make when picking up a new iPhone. Sure, you may eventually want to protect it with an iPhone case, but underneath it all, you've still got to pick out a shade that suits your style.

Thankfully, the iPhone 14 Pro isn't just the best iPhone ever, with powerful internals (the new A16 Bionic chipset), a 48MP camera, and Dynamic Island for at-a-glance notification info. It's one of the best-looking, too.

Whether you're grabbing a Pro or Pro Max, there is a range of colors available, and now that we're passed the usual point where Apple might release a new color version, it seems like these are the only colors we're going to get. Here's a rundown of the iPhone 14 colors.

Four subtle and sleek colors for everyone

Find the right iPhone 14 Pro color

As is tradition, the iPhone Pro model colors are less in your face and more refined than that of the regular iPhone models, and the iPhone 14 Pro line is no different here. With the Space Black, Silver, Gold, and Deep Purple color options, there is one less color than the iPhone 14, but there is still an option for everyone.

Deep Purple is this generation's Pro-exclusive color — so if you want people to make no mistake you've got the year's best handset, that's the one to show off with. The Gold is a highlight as well, with a color option that not many others might consider. If you're looking for something a little more neutral, then go for the Space Black. The Silver is a classy, crisp number that goes well with the look of Apple's other products.

Do think about the kind of iPhone 14 Pro case that you might be putting on as well, however. If you're thinking of putting a case with a pattern on it for example, then something a little lighter like Silver or Gold might be the option to go with. The darker colors may not show the pattern quite so much, although there's nothing stopping you from color-coordinating the case with the color.

Want more color choices? Consider the iPhone 14 color array, with yellows, reds, blues, and purples ... along with silver and black, of course. And with the iPhone 15 color palette reveal just around the corner, you'll soon have a whole new rainbow of devices to consider.

In September 2022, Apple released the iPhone 14 line. It consisted of the basic iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max

Each of the phones brought improvements compared to the previous range. Notably, some features like an Always-On Display, ProMotion cameras, and the choice of 1TB storage were reserved for the larger Pro models. The Dynamic Island was also exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models. The interactive area on screen replaced the notch, allowing some apps to showcase information.

The iPhone 14 colors -- including the lemony deliciousness of the new yellow model -- are quite different from the more professional (and less fun) iPhone 14 Pro colors of black, gold, silver, and purple.

While the Pro models may offer the most features, that doesn't mean they're the best for everybody. If you're on a tighter budget or don't expect to get much use out of the Pro's advanced features, you may be better off with the still-excellent iPhone 14.

If you're looking to treat yourself or renew a contract, here's our short guide to help you decide between some of the best iPhones so far.

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 14 Pro: Specifications

The differences between the two iPhone 14 models are small, but significant. Here's a quick overview of the contrasts.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro are very similar in many ways. Their overall design looks the same at first, till you notice the Dynamic Island on the Pro model. There's a Ceramic Shield front, water resistance that goes as deep as six meters for up to 30 minutes, 128GB storage options, and MagSafe charging.

Both models also include the new SOS emergency and crash detection safety features. However, both the display and cameras do differ between the models.

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 14 Pro: Display

The displays found on the four newest iPhones are the same type, albeit not at the same size. Each one has a Super Retina XDR display that uses OLED technology. However, some differences exist between them to explain the different denominations and price tags.

The iPhone 14 comes with a 6.1-inch (diagonal) all-screen OLED display with a 2532-by-1170-pixel resolution of 460 PPI (Pixel Per Inch). In comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro's 6.1-inch (diagonal) all-screen OLED display has  2556-by-1179-pixel resolution at 460 PPI.

The 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Plus goes further still with a 2778-by-1284-pixel resolution at 458 PPI while the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max offers a 2796-by-1290-pixel resolution at 460 PPI.

Whichever one you choose, you're gaining a great screen thanks to the core elements being excellent.

The iPhone 14 Pro series is the only one that has an Always-On display along with Dynamic Island support. There's also ProMotion which ensures the display can run at a faster or slower framerate, depending on how you're using it at the time. A low frame rate is used when the Always-On display is active but you're not using the phone, while a higher one is implemented during use. It's all in a bid to keep battery life high.

The Dynamic Island is unique to the iPhone 14 Pro, where it's at the top of the display, replacing the notch. It's where the front-facing camera is housed. It combines hardware and software to create a place where you can see alerts from your favorite apps such as Music, News+, and many more. 

Such alerts are real-time and interactive. For instance, if you wish to skip a track on Apple Music, you can do so via the island.

This is only available on the Pro series for now, with the regular iPhone 14 and 14 Plus still using the notch.

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 14 Pro: Cameras

One of the most significant differences over the years between the regular iPhone and the iPhone Pro models has been the cameras. That remains the case with the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro.

On the iPhone 14, you get a dual camera system with 12MP Main and Ultra Wide lenses. On the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple has included a next-generation "Pro" camera system with a 48MP Main, 12MP Ultra Wide, and 12MP Telephoto lens. It also has second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization.

In order to take photos in 48MP, you have to switch the image type to the RAW format, otherwise you'll be getting the same 12MP shots as before.

The front-facing cameras on both series are  more similar though. You'll find a 12MP TrueDepth camera with a Retina Flash and an all-new Photonic Engine across all the models, which means you can take better selfies in low-light environments.

For video, not much has changed compared to the iPhone 13 line. Regular iPhone 14 models don't have ProRes video recording, which is only available on Pro devices.

iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 14 Pro: Which should you buy?

For most people, anything from the iPhone 14 line will be the best iPhone. An attractive choice, the iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Plus proves less expensive, comes in brighter colors, and has many of the same great features found on the Pro models.

However, if you want the latest and greatest in Apple's camera efforts, and you've long been hoping for the notch to disappear, you can't go wrong with the iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Apple's Crash Detection system, built into every iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro, has a bad reputation right now. It has the potential to save lives, but some emergency workers have already accused it of calling for help too readily. Now Apple appears to be trying to fix that via software updates.

The release notes for iOS 16.3.1 confirm that this update adds tweaks to how Apple's best iPhones handle crashes, potentially ensuring that fewer false positives result in calls to emergency services.

What's your emergency?

Whenever an iPhone detects a crash, it calls emergency services if it doesn't receive a response from a human within 20 seconds. But we've already heard reports of people's iPhones thinking people have been in a crash when they haven't.

Some calls have been triggered while people were skiing, for example. Others report that calls have been placed to emergency services simply because an iPhone fell off a car's dashboard. None of this is good news for emergency workers who are already busy with real emergencies. Now, it looks like Apple is working to try and reduce the workload.

"Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models," Apple's iOS 16.3.1 release notes rather starkly say. Unfortunately, there are no more details as to what that means. Still, it doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility that Apple is taking its Crash Detection systems to ensure fewer false positives. Hopefully, without introducing the opposite — iPhones that don't call for help even though it's needed.

The new iOS 16.3.1 update is available for download now, and we suggest installing it as soon as possible, especially if you enjoy activities that might otherwise make the iPhone think you've been in a crash when you thankfully haven't.

When Apple announced the iPhone 14 series in September 2022, it did something unusual. The company split the lineup, giving the high-end iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max a brand-new chip. The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, not so much.

With the iPhone 14 Pro models benefiting from the A16 Bionic, the less costly versions had to make do with the iPhone 14's A15 Bionic. Nobody would likely accuse the A15 Bionic of being a slow chip, but it was a decision that still irked some.

Now, a new report that looks at how much Apple's best iPhone costs to build could explain why Apple went that route in the first place.

Fast, but expensive

New data shared by Counterpoint Research and seen by 9to5Mac shows precisely how much it costs Apple to build the iPhone 14 Pro Max, with the handset being around 3.4% more expensive on Apple's side. In the United States, at least, the two phones initially retailed for the same amount.

However, while some of the components used in the iPhone 14 Pro Max got cheaper, the part that now costs more than the previous models is the A16 Bionic chip. Counterpoint Research says that there's an $11 delta between the two, perhaps explaining why Apple chose to save that money on the millions of non-Pro models it sells all around the globe.

To drive home the point, Counterpoint Research also says that the "processing" category, which includes the A16 Bionic, now makes up around 20% of the phone's entire cost of materials.

With that in mind, it makes plenty of sense for Apple to save the most costly part for its most expensive phones.

Other notable figures for the iPhone 14 Pro Max include that the mmWave 5G version of the phone costs $20 more to build.

The iPhone 14 Plus is the bigger of the two flagship iPhones, with a 6.7-inch display. It's usually more expensive than the iPhone 14 as well, although at the moment you can grab one for only $5 a month from Verizon. You'll have to go for one of Verizon's slightly more expensive 5G unlimited plans, but even then the savings are worth the little extra - and you'll get bucketloads of data.

If you're looking for another iPhone model, we know where to find all the best iPhone 14 deals and iPhone 14 Pro deals. There are plenty of deals to be found out there, although they are mostly on contracts.

iPhone 14 Plus for less than an iPhone 14

• iPhone deals: Verizon | AT&T | Mint Mobile

The iPhone 14 Plus is, in essence, a bigger iPhone 14. Much like the iPhone 13 mini it (strangely) replaces, it's the same internals in a differently-sized handset. In this case, for those who want a bigger screen. This deal makes it the cheapest it's ever been if you haven't got an older iPhone to trade in. Previously, there have been trade-in discounts, but at the moment it seems those have finished.

The big bonus here is that you can add a free Apple Watch SE to the deal. You'll still have to pay for the data contract on the little watch, but the device is free. Similarly, if you add the $200 off an iPad (2021) into the mix, then you'll save on the iPad itself, but still, have to pay for the iPad data contract. So that's a phone, an Apple Watch, and an iPad for a great deal.