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iOS Today 770: 2025 iPhones: Which Should You Buy?
00:54:30
iPhone 17 vs. Air vs. 17 Pro & Pro Max
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- [00:00]
Micah Sargent
Coming up on iOS today, Rosemary Orchard and I, Micah Sargent, help you figure out which iPhone is for you. Stay tuned.
- [00:10]
Travel Show Host
Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.
- [00:14]
Will (T-Mobile Customer)
Honestly Will, I didn't plan any trips, but I did switch to T Mobile with their new family freedom offer.
- [00:22]
Travel Show Host
That's not the itinerary we're following.
- [00:24]
Will (T-Mobile Customer)
Well, I'm departing from AT&T and embarking on a new journey with T Mobile. They paid off my family's four phones up to $3200 and gave us four new phones on the house.
- [00:38]
Ad Voice
Bon voyage.
- [00:39]
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- [02:38]
Travel Show Host
Podcasts you.
- [02:39]
Rosemary Orchard
Love from people you Trust.
- [02:42]
Micah Sargent
This is TWiT. This is iOS Today episode 770 with Rosemary Orchard and me, Micah Sargent recorded Tuesday, September 16, 2025 for Thursday, September 18, 2025. 2025 iPhones, which is for you. Hello and welcome to iOS Today, the show where we talk all things iOS, iPad, OS, WatchOS, HomePod OS and all the OSes that Apple has to offer you. Although today things will be a little different because we're talking about the iPhone. I am one of your hosts. My name is Micah Sargent.
- [03:22]
Rosemary Orchard
My name is Rosemary Orchard. And while it may not be seasonally appropriate, I'm ready to look at walking on air with the new iPhones.
- [03:30]
Micah Sargent
I'm looking at Walking on sunshine. So in this episode, look, we know by now, surely you as an iOS today listener have read a little bit about the iPhones or perhaps you watched the event or perhaps you watched, if you're a member of Club Twit, the coverage with Leah Laporte and yours truly where we had kind of live commentary for the event going on. So you know about the iPhone. You know Apple announced new iPhones at the awe dropping event. Now it's time to kind of understand what exactly Apple has announced. And that of course starts with understanding the models that are available. There's the iPhone 17, there's the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, and there's the iPhone Air. So when it comes to kind of understanding the difference between those, that's what we aim to do today and talk about the screen sizes, the sort of materials that it's made up with the chip inside, and then kind of think about what might be the right choice for you. Before we do that though, Rosemary, I would love to know what iPhone is going to be making its way to you and tell us about your pre order process. Did things go? How did they not go? Etc. Etc.
- [05:02]
Rosemary Orchard
Well, I have Pre ordered a 512GB iPhone Pro as a 17 Pro in dark blue. I am intrigued by the orange, but it did not really speak enough to me to also inflict it on my dad who will be the person to inherit the iPhone one year later because that's what my family do. We have a hand me down system where iPhones get at least a five year lifespan, if not longer. And my dad's probably not going to love the orange, but the dark blue he was excited by. So yeah, I set myself up with a pre order ready in advance of the Friday because after Apple announced the new iPhones, they pop up a little thing on the Apple store app. You know, give it an hour or so and then you can set up your pre order. And then about three minutes before I started checking to see whether or not the App Store is back up because occasionally it mysteriously pops back up a minute or so early. It did not.
- [05:57]
Micah Sargent
What time is it there the app?
- [05:59]
Rosemary Orchard
That was 1pm My time, which is pretty nice. So I got lucky over here. It was just lunchtime for me. That didn't work. So I forced quit the app a few times after the, the, you know, the bell tolled, which was an alarm on my iPhone. Yes. Because I'm that kind of nerd. And yeah, I managed to get in, pre ordered it and got a launch day delivery confirmed straight off the bat, which was great I think over here in the UK because if you buy directly from Apple, there are no carrier options. It's just all, you know, any carrier. So that makes it a little bit easier for them so they don't have to worry that they're running out of AT&T iPhones versus Verizon iPhones or whatever. So you're less likely to see launch dates slipping that quickly. But yeah, it went pretty well for me. But I know your experience wasn't quite the same as mine, but I believe you and I may be iPhone twins this year.
- [06:52]
Micah Sargent
Yeah. So certainly not as smooth. A couple of things I like Rosemary went through the same process and in fact, if you are a. Actually I always forget you don't have to be a member of Club Twit to get this. My last episode of Hands on Apple was all about how to pre order the iPhone and walked through and walks through the process that Rosemary talked a little bit about there. So if you are, you know, wanting to prepare for next year, if you had any issues, you can kind of study up with that video that shows you how to set the pre order within the app and everything that's involved. So I did that as well. I knew from the time that the phones were announced until it came time to do the pre order and the setup of the pre order that I wanted the deep blue. I think the orange is gorgeous, but I am not usually a fan of orange and so I just appreciated it as a striking, beautiful design. But as a person who loves green, I knew that the deep blue and the green were going to pair well together when it came to if my case is, if I'm getting a case and it's not a clear case, then I want it to be green and I wanted to try Apple's tech woven case. So oddly enough, more than anything else, it was actually the green tech woven case from Apple that sold me on the deep blue iPhone. So I went in and I set up a pre order for the 512 gigabyte iPhone 17 Pro in deep blue. Excuse me, iPhone 17 Pro Max in Deep Blue. And that is the one that I, you know, at the time to go through on Friday to do that pre order. Now, for those of us in Pacific time, pre orders begin at 5 in the morning. What's funny is I used to live in Central time and when I lived in Central time, Apple still had pre orders set with Pacific Time people in mind. And so it was very late in the night in Central time. And so when I moved to the coast, I thought, oh, finally my iPhone pre orders are going to be at a great time. And it just so happened that the year I moved was the year that Apple shifted its times away from being kind to Pacific Timers to everyone else. And so yes, for me, five in the morning, so I had an Alarm set for 4:55am I think I woke up a couple of minutes before my alarm went off and I sort of got ready and it was taking a minute, but stuff was happening where it would switch from. Like we're getting ready to bring you in to hold on, it's almost time. And so I didn't do any force quitting or anything like that. It seemed like everything was locked in. And one thing you don't know for sure, that's never been made clear to us as outsiders, is is it possible that if you sort of start up on a new device and so your IP pings their servers that it's going to reset your place in line this, that there are all of these little fears that you have as you're sitting there in my case, at nearly five in the morning, is it going to be what I expect it to be? And am I going to be able to get the phone that I'm expecting? Well, I, you know, 505 rolled around and that's when I finally got into the store and I went through did the, you know, because it's just a couple of steps since I already had preset everything and I was getting quoted for the 24th delivery on the. Or actually might have been the 25th delivery on the 24th or the 25th. For folks who don't know, Apple's iPhone launch day is this Friday the 19th. And so that's not great. As a person who does what we do for a living, you want to get it as soon as possible. Particularly because I was aiming to do an episode of Hands On Tech this coming Sunday about the new iPhone. Well, I went through and tried everything I tried. Instead of getting delivery, I tried having a pickup. No pickup. I said, okay, well, I'll change it to a different color. So I switched. I was like, oh, I could do orange. I tried orange. No, there aren't going to be any until the 25th. I tried silver. I did everything while still keeping with the iPhone 17 Pro, even changing all the way storage sizes. I was just curious, okay, well, what if I did 2 terabytes? I wouldn't do it, but just to see that was still quite quoting later than the 19th. So I said, well, if everything is going to be later, then that's fine because everyone who's not part of the actual review embargo, who gets them ahead of time, won't get them until I'm getting mine anyway. So I went through with my original deep blue 51217 Pro Max. And then I was speaking with Rosemary leading up to the show, and Rosemary said, or asked if Rosemary got, you know, launch day quoted. She did. Awesome. I did not boo. But you know, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. And she said, well, here's the thing. Some people I've heard, I've gotten an email saying that their launch day or that their. Their shipping date is actually the 19th instead of later on. So the next morning I got an email and it said, hey, your iPhone will arrive on the 19th. So yay. Sounds like, yes, we're going to be phone twins. And that is exciting. That is kind of the process this year with pre orders. It's, you know, you never know what you're going to get when it comes to pre orders and the app versus the website and how people kind of explore that. But what we're left with this year is again a lineup of four phones. The 17, the Air, the 17 Pro, and the 17 Pro Max. Now let's start with the iPhone 17, because Rosemary and I were both talking about kind of understanding the different phones and the lineup and coming to terms with the fact that this year there's not an iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 plus, there's simply an iPhone 17 with a 6.3-inch display that again, is a little different from what we've seen in years past because Apple offered a larger screen size in that 17 mode. And of course, there are several pretty colors for the 17. Sort of a light lavendery purple, a green sage and sort of smoky or cloudy blue, as well as just your standard white and black. The 6.3-inch iPhone 17 has an aluminum frame. Important to note, this is not the Same as the aluminum unibody we'll talk about with the pro, but it's just an aluminum frame. And all of Apple's new phones have that camera control button as one would expect, as well as the action button, which one might not expect. So all of the phones all have all the buttons again of Apple's new phones. Because Apple is offering the iPhone 16e, we won't be talking about that today. And the other thing to note is that the only phone that has these, the sort of simple A19 chip, just the A19 chip, is that iPhone 17 model. The other phones we'll talk about today have the pro chip. Now I would love to hear kind of your thoughts, Rosemary, and learning about the iPhone 17 and its two camera system. It's got a dual fusion camera system, the main camera, and then the ultra wide camera, plus that updated front camera that I was pretty excited about.
- [15:23]
Rosemary Orchard
Yeah, I'm excited about the front camera. And when the they updated the regular iPhone several years ago to come with more than one camera versus the pro, which comes with all the cameras, I started going, oh, maybe, maybe I should go for the regular model. Unfortunately, the lens that I would say I use most frequently is the telephoto lens for zooming in that five times optical zoom that gets me every single time. So that is why I always end up leaning onto the pro side of the iPhone rather than the, the, the, the regular model. However, it is, you know, it is pretty exciting. I think that center stage front camera is going to be really great for a lot of people because a lot of people do want landscape selfie photos, but they don't want to have to like flip their phone because then you end up, you know, holding it at a wonky angle. It's a little bit more difficult to control. You're more likely to drop your phone and everything. So this way, you know, you've got that, that, that's slightly easier option. And you know, the two cameras, they're good cameras. The fact that It's a full 48 megapixels with everything now, because previously it was 48 megapixels, but you did end up with a 12 megapixel photo and not 100. Certain if that's been completely updated, but I believe it's now 24 and 48 megapixels versus the 12 that you would end up with before. But it, it does also have, you know, that 2x zoom option in there. And you know, it's, it's pretty cool that the Tetra Prism lens that they were talking about that's in the profile. I think that's where it's going to get very exciting. But this is a great option for people who are looking for a smaller phone that fits in their pocket, perhaps, but they still want good cameras because that is, let's be honest, one of the key things that. That sells new iPhones every single year. People want great cameras to take photos of pets, kids, whatever they're doing. My dad has recently completely given up having any other camera, except for he does have a DJI OSMO pocket, which I gave him because I upgraded my DJI Osmo pocket. So he has that for video and panoramic photos and an iPhone, and that's it. And this is a man that used to carry multiple, and I literally mean two DSLRs with multiple lenses with him everywhere he went. He now just has an iPhone in his pocket. So, you know, some of that is just, you know, willingness to carry gear has significantly lessened as he's got a bit older. But a lot of it is just that the phone cameras have got that much better. And it's a camera, it's always in your pocket. And if you. If you're gonna use the camera, it's always with you. You want it to be a good one. And the iPhone 17 offers great cameras.
- [18:14]
Micah Sargent
It really does, I think, you know, bearing in mind that you can only get the smaller size, the 6.3-inch display of note, it is bigger than the iPhone 16e display, which is 6.1 inches. So it's still an expansive display. But I do think about people who have their phone set to that larger visual size, that sort of zoomed display size, and. And in that case, that could be what shifts you away from the 17 kind of climbing up the line more than anything else. Because outside of that, without making a huge jump to the Pro, if the air is sort of the in between, right, you are getting two cameras, which is fantastic, as opposed to just the one. And you're getting more battery life, likely more battery life, plus all of the other stuff, and more options for zoom by way of having that dual camera system. So in that way, the 17 is really quite a prime choice if you're looking at it, in comparison to the air, which we'll kind of talk about next. One thing again to note, though, is if you regularly have your display set to zoom, where it is sort of bigger icons, bigger text, bigger everything else, then maybe you do want a larger screen. And that could be the one thing that bumps you up from this device, you're getting that aluminum, which is lightweight. You're getting the everything else, like super retina XDR display, the promotion technology, which means that it can both raise and drop the screen refresh rate to accommodate what you're doing on the screen. You get the always on display, you get the dynamic island. All of that is part, part of it. So it's really the latest and greatest in so many ways. The only difference there then becomes if you need a larger screen. And that is where perhaps the iPhone air is something that could speak to you if you're not wanting to make the jump all the way to the pro. Because the iPhone air exists in the in between space in terms of cost. So let's talk about the iPhone air. The iPhone Air is 6.5 inches in. That's the screen size and it is, as Apple says, the thinnest iPhone ever. It's a little bit thicker than its current iPad pro. So not the thinnest device Apple has ever made, but the thinnest iPhone ever. It does have the pro chip in it, so you will get sort of fantastic performance. It has a titanium frame, which makes sense. You need something that's quite strong. If you're going to make a phone as thin as this phone is now with it, there are a few caveats, right? First and foremost, one camera on the back. It's called the 48 megapixel fusion camera system. And they call it that because of the way that it's able to kind of serve as a multiple lens situation by doing some, some digital cropping after the fact. It will let you have zoom options including 1. X and 2. X. So it doesn't have obviously the 0.5x which is that ultra wide option that you get with a dual or triple camera system. So that's something to bear in mind. You got one camera on the back, but it's a great camera. It's going to take 24 megapixel and 48 megapixel photos. It uses all of Apple's fusion magic to take the best photo that it can. And here the big thing is of course that it is as thin as it is, as light as it is. And that's something that you don't get with the other options that are available to you. So I think that what you mentioned earlier when we were kind of talking about all of us wondering what, like who is the iPhone air for? Perhaps it is that person who needs a larger screen size. But. And that is the main thing that they need More than anything else, they need a larger screen size and you can keep it at that. Larger. I think about people who may have some sort of, you know, movement issues or some fatigue that takes place. So having something that's very thin and light while also kind of being bigger, that's nice.
- [23:22]
Rosemary Orchard
Yeah. I could see my grandmother really liking this. She won't be getting it because the way that my family, hands down, iPhones means that she's going to be, you know, about five years away from the iPhone 17 Pro that I will be getting in a couple of days when we record this episode. Episode. As we record this episode. But I could see it being a good phone for her because she needs the larger screen size. But a 6.9-inch iPhone 17 Pro Max, you know, has to carry it while she's also, you know, struggling a little bit with her mobility. She's not completely stable on her feet. Her apple watch does say that her walking cadence is a little bit off. Surprise, surprise. She's just had her second knee replacement of the year, so nobody is surprised by that. But it does. Does mean that, you know, something as big as an iPhone 17 Pro Max, it's. It comes with a certain amount of weight to it, and if you compare the weights on the two of them, you know, it is quite a chunk. The iPhone Air is 165 grams, or 5.82 ounces, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max is 233 grams. That's almost 50% more or 8.22 ounces. So it's. It weighs about 50% more again. Um, and that is, you know, a chunk which, you know, especially when, you know, if you don't have huge hands, you know, I can comfortably hold this. I'm actually holding an iPhone 16 Pro, not a 17 Pro Max. I've got a case on it. I'm being a little sneaky, but I can comfortably hold this. I can. If I, you know, stretch, I could get a 17 pro max in my hands, but then I'm going to be struggling to reach and touch the things on the screen whilst also holding it comfortably as it is. I already add a magsafe pop socket to the back of my phone to make it a little easier for me to use because I'm not willing to go down a size horizontally or, you know, diagonally from this, this phone size. But, you know, for the people that need a little bit more space, the fact that it's also thinner, that does actually help with holding it. Not just the weight, but it means that, you know, that thickness that would be taken, you know, that would take up some, some space in your hand that would be less of an issue. It might be a little easier to grip equally, it might be a little more difficult to grip, but I'm sure somebody's gonna come out with a chunky otterbox case for it. I'm sure otterbox are working on it already. But the iPhone air does have one thing that none of the other iPhones this year have to offer and that is a shiny new Apple magsafe battery designed just for the iPhone Air. Now they do say it has all day battery life. I'm not sure it would have all day battery life for a user such as myself or perhaps you, Mica. I find myself charging my pro during the day a little bit. But it does have a shiny new magsafe battery that will only be compatible with the iPhone air because of the height that it takes up. So you'll be able to use it via USB C with other devices. But what is the point in purchasing the Apple magsafe battery the for the iPhone air if you can't mag safe it onto another device? I personally wouldn't. I'd go for one of the other options out there but yeah, it looks pretty nice to be honest. I want to go into an Apple store and have a play with one and see how it feels. But personally you can pry my three camera lenses out of my hands. You can't. That is the point. I need my three lenses. I need that telephoto. I literally used it earlier today. Admittedly it was to take a photo of my tent because I packed up my tent in my parents back garden after drying it out out overnight and this morning and I won versus the tent. It is a six man XL tent and I got it back into the bag by myself and the bag zipped shut and then I stood inside my parents back door. I went, I really should have taken a picture of that but I've just taken my shoes off and I was like ah, five times. Optical zoom perfect all the time. So you know you're not getting away with taking my, my telephoto lens away from me. I'm sorry, but it is. Honestly, most people probably don't care about the telephoto lens. They care about the ultra wide more. That's why Apple's done it to me. That's flipped. I would want the telephoto lens more. Maybe that's why they put it on the pro max and the pro to try and sell more of those. But yeah I think I'm good with my choice but I want to play with an iPhone air just to see what it's like though the color options look a little anemic to say the least. If you compare the sky blue to the mist blue, it's just just sad. It looks like white once met blue and then had significant memory loss and tried to remember what blue looked like and they don't even have a green which is just sad. Though to be fair it it would be the same as whatever that brand of sparkling flavored water that doesn't have flavor in that's really popular in the U.S. lA yeah that's the one. Yeah was one in the room with a strawberry and try to evoke the memory of that.
- [28:18]
Micah Sargent
Yeah the the colors are a little sad. Although as Apple would probably say, they're very airy.
- [28:26]
Travel Show Host
Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.
- [28:30]
Will (T-Mobile Customer)
Honestly Will, I didn't plan any trips, but I did switch to T Mobile with their new Family Freedom offer.
- [28:38]
Travel Show Host
That's not the itinerary we're following.
- [28:41]
Will (T-Mobile Customer)
Well, I'm departing from AT and T and embarking on a journey with T Mobile. They paid off my family's four phones up to $3200 and gave us four new phones on the house.
- [28:54]
Ad Voice
Bon voyage.
- [28:56]
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- [29:22]
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Rosemary Orchard
Risk.
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- [30:49]
Rosemary Orchard
Pizza.
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- [31:15]
Micah Sargent
About the Pro and the Pro Max, because this of course is at the high end of the pricing. So we've gone from the 17 starting at 799 to Air, which starts at $999 to the Pro which starts at 1099. The smaller Pro, the Pro, not the Pro Max is 6.3 inches, which is comparable to the iPhone 17. And then the Pro Max has a 6.9-inch screen size. Now bear in mind that is in comparison to the 6.5 inch of the iPhone Air, so quite a bit larger in the scheme of things than the iPhone Air. Unlike the air and the 17, the Air has again that titanium frame. The 17 has an aluminum frame, but unlike both of them, the 17 Pro has an aluminum unibody. So this is a little bit different from just having a frame. Apple sort of engineered this, this whole unibody enclosure so that the device is encased in this unibody that has.
- [32:35]
Rosemary Orchard
All.
- [32:35]
Micah Sargent
Of the stuff built in such a way. It's kind of complicated to explain, but essentially it's all about better dissipating heat and keeping things as safe as possible so yes, instead of doing it in titanium, which we've had in the past, aluminum was used. It's of course very light. But we think that a big part of that is because of that thermal conductivity. I've heard complaints from folks with their iPhone 16 Pros that that titanium can get a little warm. And so Apple on top of creating this unibody, also added a vapor chamber. There is water sealed inside of this chamber and it helps to move heat away from the A19 Pro chip. So like the Air, this also has the A19 Pro inside and gives you everything that you would expect outside of that. So once again you get your super retina XDR display like you do across the rest of the lineup. The promotion tech that you get across the rest of the lineup, always on display. Dynamic island. The only thing that changes here with the frame is that it's a unibody aluminum. The A19 Pro chip in the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max is a a little bit better. It's got a six core GPU as opposed to a five core GPU. And Apple quotes up to 39 hours of video playback. So quite a bit more battery. And that's the idea here is that look, what do we do if we go. It's the porque no los dos, right? It's the why not do both of. We can do thin and light because we're Apple. So here's an air for you. Thin and light. Here are the compromises that need to be made. Now let's not compromise, let's make a pro device that doesn't need to be thin and light because we've got that over there. Let's give it a great big battery and then also make sure that the camera system is what we would want it to be. So it's got a main and ultra wide and a telephoto lens, Rosemary's favorite. Each of them 48 megapixels. And what that means is you've got some different zoom options. 0.5x, which is the ultra wide, 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x are all of the options on this lens. So Rosemary could have been standing at the front door of her parents house instead of the the back door, right, leading to the garden. And have taken a photo of the tent at that 8x optical zoom. Apple does some clever stuff with its cameras with being with its lenses rather of being able to kind of take a photo and do an optical, optical like zoom. And so that's something to bear in mind. But it's been my experience that it does a pretty good job of pulling that off. So, yeah, I think when it comes to the Pro and Pro max, of course the first question is, can you afford this if you, if you're sort of like on the verge of okay, the Air or the Pro? The Air of the Pro. Yeah. Look at what you feel you can afford. And if you can afford to go up more and you don't need it to be this thin light option, then I think the Pro really starts to make sense for anybody who's existing kind of right in that space. Particularly because all those delicious camera lenses that you get, which is really nice.
- [36:35]
Rosemary Orchard
Yes. Yeah. It is worth mentioning that the battery life quoted at least on the US Apple comparison website applies to the ESIM only model phones which every iPhone in the US sold is ESIM only. The iPhone AIR is ESIM only everywhere in the world, so that one doesn't change. But the iPhone 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max in the UK at least, and probably most countries that are not the US still have a physical SIM card slot because many of our carriers are not yet able to support esim. Support for that is growing obviously everywhere around the world. But that in the case of the 17 Pro takes the battery life down from 33 hours to 31 hours. And for the 17 Pro Max, that takes it down from 39 to 37 hours. So you know, it's about a two hour difference taken up by that SIM card card slot. Personally, I do only have an eim so I would love to have an ESIM only option. However, as I mentioned, I passed the iPhone down to my parents and my parents are on a carrier that at this moment in time at least does not have support for eims. And I couldn't guarantee that they will buy next year if I'm being perfectly honest. So, you know, it's, it's worth keeping that in mind if you're looking at the comparison information just to see, you know, what is or is not going to be the case with yours. If you are looking at upgrading now, if you look, if you did buy a new iPhone last year, you know, do you need to upgrade? Depends on your personal situation, but I'm really looking forward to that. Eight times optical zoom. There's just so much that I could be, I could do with that. And also I have found this iPhone with the Titanium. It does get pretty toasty. I've been using my Razer MagSafe cooler on it quite a bit over the last year as I've been doing things and my dad with the 15 Pro is on holiday in Barbados and has had a number of times where the phone has got a bit too hot and just said, no, I can't take photos right now, which is not great when you are trying to use it as a camera. I have suggested he stops keeping it in his pocket next to his body, which is also quite, quite warm. That apparently putting it in my mum's handbag is actually, you know, significantly helping because it's not right next to a really warm body that is providing more heat back to the iPhone. But yeah, it will be good to have better thermals on that. So, yeah, that'll be good. It's also worth noting that the. The newest fast charging that was quoted and talked about in the keynote where you'll be able to recharge the iPhone, I can't remember how much it was.
- [39:16]
Micah Sargent
Was.
- [39:16]
Rosemary Orchard
Was it 50 in 20 minutes or so?
- [39:18]
Micah Sargent
I think it was 50.
- [39:20]
Rosemary Orchard
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's using the latest version of USBC power delivery, which a lot of chargers don't actually support. Even if they support USBC power delivery or PD as it's often abbreviated to, they probably don't support the newest hardware version of that yet. So the only charger that I know of that is going to be able to do that is sold by Apple. It's about $40. It's not actually extortionately expensive, but if you are looking forward to that because you are somebody that randomly, like my dad, discovers that you forgot to charge your iPhone for the last two days and you're about to leave the house and you need to charge your phone, you've got 20 minutes. I'm going to be getting in one of those chargers because we are going to need that in our household.
- [40:05]
Micah Sargent
Anything else for advice for people as they are setting out to choose their.
- [40:12]
Rosemary Orchard
New phone, I would start by actually having a digital declutter of your current iPhone. Go and have a look in the storage information under Settings sets under Settings General and storage and just see, first of all, how much space are you actually taking up on your current device? Could you maybe drop down a tier? And secondly, how much space is being taken up by apps that you do not use and you have not opened in a while. So if you swap the size, which is what the apps list automatically sorts by, if you swap that down to the last used date and you go, hey, okay, I'm gonna scroll to the bottom of this list and see, you know, the apps that I have never, ever, ever Ever, ever used during the time that I've had this phone, how much space could I save? Save? Because you'll probably find that there's a whole bunch of things where I'm looking at this going, what is this? And why do I have this installed? Definitely worth having a bit of a clear out and getting rid of some of those apps that you never use before you decide exactly which device you're upgrading to. Because if it turns out you've got 80 gigabytes of data taken up by an app that you've not used in six months, do you need that 80 gigabytes of data or, and, or do you maybe want to drop down a tier and maybe offload some music if you need that app again and just swap things in and out as needed? So yeah, worth having having a little clear out first and doing a frank evaluation with yourself. If you have last year's iPhone, do you need this year's iPhone or, you know, and if you're on the iPhone upgrade program, it's a lot easier to go, yeah, I'll just trade it in and get the new one. Cool. But yeah, maybe, maybe you don't have to upgrade every year or maybe you do want to. And yeah, the other thing to remember is are you going to be paying for AppleCare and are you buying a case? Because those are also things that you should remember to factor into the cost. You don't have to buy AppleCare immediately with the new iPhone phone, but you've got a short window for buying it after you've bought the phone. So it's, it's worth considering that as part of your, your cost for upgrading as to whether or not it's worth it. And also, don't forget to buy a new case unless you're somebody that goes caseless. You know, the, the cases for the 16 Pro do technically fit, but they're gonna cover the camera, the, the flash and the light sensor on the camera. So that would be a problem and vice versa. So you're going to need to upgrade your case. Apple has some nice options there for about $50, but there are other options too, as we will talk about in a moment.
- [42:54]
Micah Sargent
All right, I believe I can hear the music. It's time for Shortcuts Corner. This is Shortcuts Corner, the part of the show where you ride in with your shortcuts requests. And Rosemary Orchard, our shortcuts expert, provides a response. And in this week's Shortcuts Corner, Rosemary has an update for us with the introduction of iOS 26.
- [43:30]
Rosemary Orchard
Yes, I do and it's quite exciting and it's not strictly shortcuts related, but it's HomeKit related. Unfortunately I don't have any compatible hardware to show this off or test this. I've made some fake versions of it but it doesn't quite work correctly. It's a little bit wonky. So I'm gonna have to try and actually buy a new HomeKit compatible thermostat. I don't know what I'm gonna hook it up to because I don't have central heating in my home. I have individual radiators in every room. But I don't know, maybe I can upgrade my parents thermostat for the show. But there is a new in iOS 26 in the Home app which is the adaptive temperature and that is basically your thermostat will update automatically based on when you go to sleep, if you've gone on holiday, if you're away from home and you're on your way home. And it will allow you to adjust the temperature to save energy. So people may remember the nest thermostats are from Google which can see when you're like walking in front of it and go ah, there are people at home. Therefore I should have the, the heating on versus I have not seen anybody in hours, I should have the heating off and so on and so forth. And you know, they can figure out when you're coming home, what your regular schedule is and learn from that. Well, this is the HomeKit equivalent. It does also and what I really love about this does respond to the sleep schedule created on your iPhone to adjust the temperature for you based on when you're sleeping and waking up. So if usually you get up at say 7:30 in the morning that you adjust your schedule so that for to get up really early for a say, you know, 6:00am flight. So you need to leave home around 3:00am it will adjust the temperatures on the thermostats automatically for you based on that. And yeah, this is a feature that's existed in thermostats themselves previously just automatically as part of their hardware feature set or software feature set. But they've never integrated with the sleep schedule setup on the iPhone. And also on top of that, it's never been something that you could see in HomeKit so it's nice to see that this is coming and I would really like to give that a play at some point I just need the correct hardware. It will also require a home hub such as an Apple TV or HomePod and the thermostat is one that has to be matter compatible and also very important. You need to have location services enabled. I've had a small rise in people who have been messaging the show recently saying hey, my home kid stuff isn't turning on lights and so on when I get home. And they've had location services disabled on their iPhones. That I'm afraid is not going to work. If you want things to work based on your location, you need to turn on location services. I'm sorry to break the news to you folks, I privacy is a significant concern, but you, you need to if you want the benefits of the location information, you have to share the location information. That's unfortunately the trade off there. So yeah, it is. Yeah, it's, it's exciting to see this is coming. And it also ties in with the energy usage things that were added to HomeKit last year, which I believe is still only supported by one or two energy companies in America. I know California, they had one on the list. But yeah, there's nothing related to that over here in the uk. But it's good to see energy efficiency making its way into HomeKit even more. So don't forget to update your Apple TVs and your HomePods to the latest OS 26 for those which you can do through the home app.
- [47:16]
Travel Show Host
Today's show is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law not available in all states. Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.
- [47:45]
Will (T-Mobile Customer)
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- [47:53]
Travel Show Host
That's not the itinerary we're following.
- [47:56]
Will (T-Mobile Customer)
Well, I'm departing from AT&T and embarking on a new journey with T Mobile. They paid off my family's four phones up to $3200 and gave us four new phones on the house.
- [48:09]
Ad Voice
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- [48:11]
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- [48:37]
Micah Sargent
From unsolved mysteries to unexplained phenomena, from.
- [48:40]
Ad Voice
Comedy gold to relationship fails, Amazon Music's.
- [48:43]
Micah Sargent
Got the most ad free top podcast included with prime. Because the only thing that should interrupt your listening is, well, nothing. Download the Amazon Music app today. And now it is time for us to round out this episode with our app caps. The apps or gadgets we've been using that we want to share with all of you because we think they're awesome. Awesome. I know my app has come up before, particularly I think it was on an episode about Apple Design Awards. But I want to talk about it again because I just love it so much. It's an app called Art of Fauna. Cozy Puzzles. And Art of Fauna is sort of like a slide puzzle app that lets you make different. You're basically trying to put back together an illustration of animals. And so here it's looking like it's going to be cheetahs. And so I have some different options here. And I kind of slide them around and try to lock them in place. And as you tap and hold and slide to move them into place, what happens is they start to lock together as you are figuring out where the different pieces go. And once you get them in place, then they start to form the photo. But what's cool about this is it actually has two different modes because some people are maybe not as visually inclined and would instead want to make it into a word puzzle. And so what you can do is in the top right corner, you can tap on this little rotate icon and it switches to text. And this text is information about the animal that's on the front side. And instead of working with the photos, we can work with the text instead. So it's looking like this is probably going to say up here at the top, I've got Hern space, Africa, comma. I'm thinking that's either going to be southeastern or southern Africa. And so what I would do is look for S O U T H. And now we can see that that lines up. And then what I like to do is I like to switch back and forth between the two options because what ends up happening typically for me is I can see how some of these go together in visual ways and sometimes they go together better via the te. But as I start to build it out, then I can go back to the visual version and see more of what it is I'm trying to put together. I love this because it works with a part of my brain that is not incredibly sort of front of mind. And so I will typically listen to an audiobook or, you know, you might listen to a podcast while I am going through and attempting to solve these puzzles. And it's just this perfect. I don't know why, but it just, I lock in perfectly with it and it with me and I can kind of get into a flow as I'm attempting to put together this puzzle. Now, this is an Apple Arcade game, so you do need to have an Apple Arcade subscription to be able to play it. But if you have not yet done your free trial of Apple Arcade, this is a fun game that you might want to play and, you know, kick off your Apple Arcade subscription. Of course, if you are buying a new device, many of Apple's new devices come with a sort of extended trial. Right. Of Apple Arcade. And so that may be an opportunity as well for you to try out one of these. These games. And for me, yes, it is this game called once again, Art of Fauna Cozy Puzzles. And I do find them quite cozy. I honestly could just play like I'm gonna run out of of options. I've gone, I've done Welcome to Fauna. 10 out of 10. I think I'm on the Okavongo Delta right now. Then I've done all of Big Sur, all of eastern Australian forests, all of Echoes of Extinction. Of extinction. I mean, all of Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. And so I don't have too many left and I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out. But they're always come. Well, they're not always coming out with new ones, but they come out with new ones with some regularity and it's just so delightful. I love, love, love, love this app. Art of Fauna Cozy Puzzles. And yes, they won the Apple Design award for inclusivity this this year. So congratulations to the team for that and congratulations for making an app that I just adore. Rosemary, tell us about your app cap.
- [54:21]
Rosemary Orchard
Well, my app cap is sort of a prompt. If you're buying a new iPhone. Don't forget, order a new case. And secondly, I have picked this case up because I've been intrigued by jet tech for a while since. So it's J E T E C H Jetech, and they offer some really slim cases. It's kind of hard to see how slim exactly this is, but it barely adds any thickness to an iPhone. I've popped it on my 16 Pro since it arrived Just to, you know, give it a little try and see how it feels. But this case was $15. Okay? So we're not talking like moose or, or mouse or, you know, any of Otterbox or anything like that. The $50 cases, Apple's cases are 50 plus dollars. You know, this is a cheap case, but it's got a decent amount of, you know, sturdiness to it. I'm not saying that you could drop it off the side of a building and your iPhone would survive, but I feel like it would do pretty well if you just drop your iPhone out of your pocket or you miss trying to put it into your bag or whatever. You know, standard things. So there's a couple of things I like about the this case. First of all, it comes in colors to match the new iPhone, including a nice dark blue and an orange so you can see, you know, what the color is like. And secondly, and this one is perhaps me being a little bit picky, but I've had a couple of cases where the material above the camera control is really sort of squishy. That's the best way I could describe it. So this is a spigen case, which I. I've been using this for a while, while, and I quite like it. And to be fair suspicion, this is just like the material around the top of the case is, you know, the closest to the screen is just. It's designed to just be kind of squishy so that you can easily get your phone in and out. So I can bend this entire sidewall in and that's not a problem. But this bit here is just a little bit flimsy. I also had a mouse case and for some reason it kind of broke near one of the volume buttons. So it was kind of bulge out in under the phone. I used to contact mouse about that because I think that there's an issue with that particular case and they might replace it. But this one, like, you know, this is a thin piece of plastic, okay. So there is going to be some flex to it, but this does not bend anywhere near as much. Okay. I'm putting a reasonable amount of force onto that material above the camera control. And yeah, it's bending a little bit, but it's not bending that much. And I'm putting quite liking this case. I also like the way that there is a little loop there to pop a lanyard into one side. And the way that the buttons are designed, it's really hard to see this on camera, but they. The buttons are attached at the top and then there's a little open section underneath them to make it easy for them to press. So this feels like a decent case. You know, I'm gonna be giving it a go for a little while. It does have all the buttons on there. I appreciate the fact that on the, the volume button buttons, again, a little difficult to see on camera. They've marked plus and minus and there's a little power icon on the power button. Things like that help people who maybe don't update their iPhones as much and, you know, especially somebody who's coming from a much older iPhone that has the power button on the top of the phone and now suddenly it's on the side and there's other buttons on the other side. There's three buttons on this side, there's two buttons on this side. There's a lot of buttons. What's going on. Having like little images that you can look at to identify what something means is great. It's not in Braille, which, you know, would have been a nice option for accessibility. But I'm, from what I can gather, folks who use Braille are also pretty good at memorizing the feel of where buttons are. And the proximity of the volume up button to the action button should make that a little easier to pick up on. So, yeah, I'm really liking this case. I have just popped it on a 16 Pro for the time being, but at $15 or I believe it's $12.99 here in the UK for a slim MagSafe case, it doesn't add too much bulk to your phone, but does add a lanyard slot and some other bits. Pretty nice. It does not support Apple's fancy new lanyard, I should say, but it will support like a decent wrist strap or something. So you don't have to worry about dropping your phone off the side of a cliff as you're leaning out to take that perfect picture. But also you don't need to lean out on the new phone. Eight times optical zoom.
- [58:40]
Micah Sargent
Good point. All righty, folks, that is going to bring us to the end of this episode of iOS Today. Of course you can reach out to us. Iostodaywit TV is how you get in touch. I want to remind you all about Club TWiT. TWiT TV Club TWiT is where you go to sign up $10 a month, $120 a year. When you join the club, you gain access to some awesome benefits. All of our shows ad free, just the content. You also gain access to our special feeds that have loads of great stuff, including our coverage of news events, our bits and clips and other great things. And then also our Club Twit shows like Micah's Crafting Corner and Stacy's Book Club and some of those as well. Oh I forgot to mention too, you get access to the Discord and of course that is a fun place to go to chat with your fellow Club Twit members and those of us here at TWiT. So if that sounds good to you, head to Twit TV clubtwit to sign. And yeah, we kick things off with a two week free trial. So give it a go, see what you think. We look forward to it. Rosemary Orchard if people would like to follow you online and check out all the great work you're doing, where should they go to do so?
- [59:46]
Rosemary Orchard
Well, the best place is rosemaryorcher.com which got links to apps, books, podcasts and all the social media sites where you can find me with the exception of Discord because I like to hang out in the Club Discord and have a chat with our listeners during the show. Adam has just been asking some good questions about the camera control and one of the settings changed and so I was able to point him into the right direction and some other people are having a chat about how do you pronounce some of these brand names for different cases and things like that, which is very interesting. Micah where can folks find you if.
- [60:20]
Micah Sargent
You'Re looking for mail on I'm icasargent on many a social media network or you can head to Chihuahua Coffee that's C H I H O A H U a Coffee where I've got link to the places I'm most active online. Be sure to check out my other shows here on the network including Tech News Weekly, Hands on Apple, Hands on Tech and we'll see you again next week for another episode of iOS today.
- [60:46]
Travel Show Host
No matter how much spare time you have, TWiT TV has the perfect tech news format for your schedule. Stay up to date with every happening in tech and get tech news your way with TWiT TV. Start your week with this Week in Tech for an in depth, comprehensive dive into the top stories every week and for a midweek boost, Tech News Weekly brings you concise quick updates with the journalists breaking the news. Whether you need just the nuts and bolts or want the full analysis, stay informed with Twitt TV's perfect pairing of Tech News Programs SA.