Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge Our iPhones continue to get faster, bigger, and better at taking photos and videos — but although battery life has improved over the years, so have our demands on those batteries. As a result, many phones still last about a day (or a bit more) with regular use. That’s fine if you can charge your phone every night, but what if you forget to do it? Or what if you’re away for a night or two? Or what if your battery starts to drain alarmingly quickly for no apparent reason? There are lots of scenarios where you might need to get your iPhone’s battery to last a little (or a lot) longer than normal.…

Macworld We’ve all lost pens and pencils before. It’s annoying when it happens, but they’re easily replaceable, so you don’t give it much thought. But losing an Apple Pencil? That’s a real pain. Not only is it a specialized, unique utensil—it’s costly, too. A recent patent application by Apple hopes to save users from that aggravation. Patently Apple reports on U.S. patent 20230161545, which describes how acoustic resonators can be used in the Apple Pencil so it can alert a user as to its location. Finding a lost Pencil could work in the same way a user can use Find My to locate a misplaced iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The user launches the Find My app and goes to the…

Locating a lost Apple Pencil may be possible in the future thanks to recent Apple research on incorporating acoustic resonators within the stylus — but it would have to be very close to the owner to work.Apple PencilOn Thursday, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published an Apple patent application that illustrates a system with the potential to incorporate Apple's stylus into the Find My network for tracking purposes. While many Apple devices have tracking features for Find My, the Apple Pencil hasn't yet had the capability. Read more...

Drivers may soon have another brand to consider when shopping for cars that support Apple’s Car Key feature as Mercedes-Benz appears to be ready to launch support. You can use your car key on your iPhone or Apple Watch to lock, unlock, and start your car. The way that you use your key and the features available depend on the model of your car. Contact the manufacturer or your dealership to find out what features your key supports. When you add your car key to the Wallet app, Express Mode is turned on automatically. Express Mode allows you to use your car key without unlocking your device, or authenticating with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode. Zac Hall for…

U.S. state Montana on Wednesday banned the CCP-controlled TikTok app, with the state’s lawmakers saying they aimed to protect residents from alleged intelligence gathering by the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok is already banned on government-issued devices in some 30 U.S. states and for employees of America’s federal agencies. Reuters: While blocking apps by geography is not unheard of, the Montana law is notable for doing so at the state level, upending a single-market approach Apple and Alphabet’s Google have long been able to use for their U.S. app stores. Tech companies are now well-practiced in blocking apps at the country level, mostly to comply with U.S. sanctions or for business purposes, like Apple’s blocking of messaging and privacy apps in…

U.S. state Montana on Wednesday banned the CCP-controlled TikTok app, with the state’s lawmakers saying they aimed to protect residents from alleged intelligence gathering by the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok is already banned on government-issued devices in some 30 U.S. states and for employees of America’s federal agencies. Reuters: While blocking apps by geography is not unheard of, the Montana law is notable for doing so at the state level, upending a single-market approach Apple and Alphabet’s Google have long been able to use for their U.S. app stores. Tech companies are now well-practiced in blocking apps at the country level, mostly to comply with U.S. sanctions or for business purposes, like Apple’s blocking of messaging and privacy apps in…