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We’ve long been admirers of CARROT Weather, the snarky forecast app packed with all the features and customizations you could ever want – including a full musical to celebrate its one-decade anniversary. Yes, really. One of the things we love most about CARROT is that it never stands still. No laurels getting any rest around here, thank you.

We already knew ads were coming to Apple Maps. Now the company has published the policy document advertisers will have to follow, and it’s a decent clue about how intrusive this is going to get. The big restrictions are cryptocurrency ATMs and bail bond services, which is no great surprise. But perhaps less expected is the fact that home services are banned too, with plumbing, electrical, locksmith, HVAC, pest control, roofing and general contracting are all banned outright.

Every year, the Unicode consortium makes one of the hardest decisions in world politics: which new emojis to add to the official list used around the world. This time the announcement is early – Unicode has revealed the next batch well before they’re due to actually show up on your phone, with the nine new icons likely to arrive in iOS 27.3 or 27.4 sometime next year if history is anything to go by.

Hey readers! I’ve been diving into the world of small-time app makers, reaching out to indie devs to find some diamonds in the rough that deserve coverage. That’s inspired our cover story this month – the first in a new series I’m calling the Indie Apps Showcase, where I dig through solo efforts to find the ones worth your time.. Elsewhere, another theme runs through this issue: money. Apple recently hiked the prices of its entire iPad and Mac range, and other devices are probably next.

We’ve just published the latest issue of our sister app, Swipe Magazine. It’s full of the same kind of tips and features you’ll find here, packaged neatly into fortnightly issues. There are dozens of back issues available and you can trial it completely free if you want a new way to get to know your iPhone! Hey readers! I’ve been diving into the world of small-time app makers, reaching out to indie devs to find some diamonds in the rough that deserve coverage.

COPY is a charming take on voice notes that wants you to remember the joys of the walkie-talkie. Add some friends, turn the dial to one of their channels, and hold the button to talk. It’s a gloriously simple proposition, and you can customize it with a series of themed skins that change the entire vibe of the app. Get COPY Those skins are where the app really earns its keep – wonderfully rendered gadget designs, each with its own sound and feel.

Pull any frame out of a video as a proper photo Keep the original date, time, and location intact Skip the screenshot-and-crop workflow entirely Have you ever captured a video, then screenshotted a freeze-frame your favorite moment to save it as a “photo”? It works, but it’s a faff. You’ve got to crop out the menus or letterbox bars, and you’re left with something at the wrong resolution and stripped of its original metadata.

I’ve long been an advocate for the iPhone’s accessibility features. Part of that stems from a long-standing belief that technology should work for as many people as possible, regardless of their circumstances. But also, I have skin in the game. When iOS 7 arrived in 2013, Apple’s new obsession with motion and parallax triggered a vestibular condition that left me feeling dizzy whenever I used my iPhone. I wasn’t alone.

An iPhone costs as much as a personal computer. That shouldn’t be surprising when you consider an iPhone basically is a personal computer. It just happens to fit in your pocket. But with even the most affordable iPhone in Apple’s current range – the iPhone 17e – starting at $599/£599, it’s fair to ask: when is the best time to buy an iPhone? And is there a clever way to get the best deal? The answer is: it depends. Apple rarely cuts the price of any product over the course of its life.

What it is: A mixed-reality puzzle game for Apple Vision Pro Who it’s for: Vision Pro owners after something novel to show off Cost: $3/£3 What makes it special: It mixes 10,000 year old art with cutting-edge tech Philipp Stollenmeyer is one of the developers we’ve written about the most over the years, perhaps rivalled only by Zach Gage. What they both have in common, beyond being prolific game designers, is that you can never guess what they’re going to do next.