Apple this week debuted iOS 13 with a ton of updates, including a new dark mode option, major performance improvements, faster Face ID, simpler photo editing tools and a new Photos interface, a Sign In With Apple Privacy feature, a swipe-based keyboard, and tons more.

In addition to these features that made it into Apple's keynote event, there are dozens if not hundreds of smaller new changes and tweaks that are included in iOS 13. Below, we've rounded up a comprehensive list of new and notable "hidden" features in iOS 13.

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- Wi-Fi Options in Control Center - You can change WiFi networks right from Control Center, but it's a bit annoying to get to. Long press in the middle of the WiFi/Bluetooth widget to bring up the extended options, and then Force Touch the WiFi icon to see a list of networks available.


- Bluetooth Options in Control Center - As with Wifi, you can access your list of available Bluetooth devices from the Control Center. Long press in the middle of the WiFi/Bluetooth widget to bring up the extended options and then Force Touch on the Bluetooth icon to see a list of Bluetooth devices you've connected to before.


- Location Settings - Apple mentioned during the keynote that location access is getting scaled back in iOS 13, and in the Settings app, there's a new option that requires an app to ask each time it wants to access your location.


- Block Senders in Mail - In iOS 13, your list of blocked phone numbers and contacts extends to the Mail app, which lets you block people from sending you mail. The Settings app has a feature for blocking contacts in Mail and ignoring blocked senders.


- Thread Muting in Mail - If you swipe on a message in the Mail app and then choose "More," there's a new option to mute a thread so you won't get notifications when a new email in that thread is received.


- Reading Goals in Books - In the Books app, there's a new Reading Goals feature that keeps track of how long you've read each day. The app encourages you to read every day, see your stats soar, and finish more books.


- Silence Unknown Callers - In the Phone section of the Settings app, there's a new toggle that will let you block all unknown callers, cutting down on spam calls that you're receiving.


- Low Data Mode - In the Settings app under Cellular, there's an option to enable Low Data Mode, which says it helps apps on your iPhone reduce their network data use. There's also a Low Data Mode option that can be enabled for specific WiFi networks.


- Improved Messages Search - In the Messages app, when you swipe down to search, you'll see a new interface with suggested contacts and links you've been sent. Searches bring up the most recent results, with an option to see more by tapping "See All."


- Notes Folder Management - In the Notes app in iOS 13, there are new tools for managing your folders. Tap the "..." button to get to options like Add People, Move This Folder, Rename, and View Attachments.


- PS4/Xbox Controller Support - Apple announced PS4/Xbox One S controller support for Apple TV, but these controllers will also be supported on iPhone and iPad.


- New Animoji - There are three new Animoji in iOS 13: a cow, an octopus, and a mouse. As mentioned on stage, there are also tons of new accessories for your Memojis, and there are new Memoji stickers you'll see available in the emoji portion of the iOS keyboard.


- Separate Emoji and Globe Keys - The emoji key on the iOS keyboard is no longer the same key as the globe key that lets you switch between languages. The emoji key lives next to the number key and the globe is now below. In iOS 12, a long press swapped between functions of the all-in-one key.


- Automatic Safari Tab Closing - In the Safari section of the Settings app, there's a new option to automatically close all of the tabs that you have open in Safari. You can set it to a day, a week, a month, or leave it on manual, which is how it currently works.


- Attachments in Calendar - You can now add attachments like documents to events you have scheduled in the calendar app.


- App Updates - To update apps in iOS 13, you need to open up the App Store, tap on your profile and choose apps from the Pending Updates section. There was an updates tab in iOS 12, but it's been removed in favor of an Apple Arcade tab in iOS 13.


- Safari Screenshots - When you take a screenshot in Safari, there's a new option to save it as a full page, which exports the entire webpage as a PDF that you can save or share. You can also use Markup to edit it before sending.


- Updated Mute Switch Interface - When you toggle on the mute switch on the iPhone in iOS 13, there's a new interface that lets you know whether Silent Mode is on or off. It's located at the top of the display, replacing the former notification that popped up in the middle of the display.


- Optimized Battery Charging - A new iOS 13 feature introduces Optimized Battery Charging. According to Apple, the iPhone learns from your daily charging routine and waits to finish charging past 80 percent until you need to use it, which is meant to cut down on battery aging.


- Home App Improvements - The control options for your HomeKit devices in the Home app have been revamped and streamlined. Available controls vary by device, but in general, the change makes options you check or use frequently (such as various light colors) easier to access. Controls are also now shown in a card-style view so you can swipe them away to get back to the main Home app screen.


- AirPlay 2 Devices in HomeKit Automations - You can now use AirPlay 2-enabled devices in HomeKit automations. So you can do things like set music to play when you arrive home.


- Photos Zoom - In the Photos app, there's a new +/- symbol at the top that, when tapped, lets you zoom in and out of your Photos tab. You can also zoom in and out using pinch gestures.


- Business Chat Suggestions - When calling a business that offers business chat, your iPhone will offer to start a business chat instead so you can interact with a business from a text message instead of through a phone call.

- Time Synced Lyrics in Apple Music - When accessing the lyrics for an Apple Music song, they're now presented synced to the music, so the lyrics will scroll along as the song progresses. Lyrics can be accessed by tapping the new lyrics icon at the bottom of any song interface.


- Up Next in Apple Music - There's a new toggle when playing any Apple Music song that lets you see exactly what's up next so there's no mystery as to what's going to play after the current song.


- Apple News+ in Stock App - The Stock app will now offer relevant business publications from Apple News+.

- Voice Memos - A new pinch to zoom gesture in the Voice Memos app lets you zoom in on the waveform to make editing easier.

- Do Not Disturb - Do Not Disturb While Driving will not activate in iOS 13 when you're using public transit.

- Peek Gestures - Peek gestures, that let you see previews of emails, links, messages, and more, are now available on any iPhone or iPad that runs iOS 13 or iPadOS. These were previously limited to devices with 3D Touch.

- Quick Actions - You can now press and hold on an app icon to quickly perform actions specific to the app on any device, iPhone or iPad. This too was previously limited to devices with 3D Touch.


- Dolby Atmos Playback - 2018 iPhones and iPads support Dolby Atmos video playback in iOS 13.

- Personal Hotspot Sharing - If you have Family Sharing enabled, your family members can automatically join your personal hotspot in iOS 13.

- Automatic Personal Hotspot - You can automatically connect to your iPhone's personal hotspot when no internet connection is available, and there's an option to remain connected even when your device is asleep so you can continue to receive messages and push notifications.

- Popular WiFi Networks - In iOS 13, your iPhone detects which WiFi networks are being used and lets you know if one is available.

- Delete Apps From Update Screen - In the App Store, you can now delete apps from the list of apps to be updated by swiping to the left on them.


- Timer - The Timer feature in the Clock app has been updated with a new interface in iOS 13. When a timer is counting down, there's a new circle that slowly depletes, along with the standard timed countdown.


- New Volume HUD - There's a new look for the volume interface in iOS, which is designed to be less obtrusive. It's a bar on the left side or top side of the display, which shrinks down as you continue to press the volume up or down buttons. What's neat is that you can also touch the bar with a finger to adjust sound with a swipe in addition to using the physical volume buttons.

- Haptic Feedback for Face ID - Haptic Feedback for Face ID will cause your phone to vibrate slightly when it unlocks in iOS 13. It can be enabled by going to Settings > Accessibility > Face ID & Attention.

Note that almost all of these features are also available in the iPad and are part of Apple's new iPadOS operating system.

For more on what's new in iOS 13, make sure to check out our full iOS 13 roundup. We'll be adding to the hidden tips and tricks list over the course of the coming months, keeping a catalog of the new features and changes added to iOS 13 during the beta testing process. Know of an iOS 13 feature we don't have in our guide or our roundup? Send us an email here.

Apple today introduced a new iCloud for Windows app designed for PCs, according to a blog post shared by Microsoft. The new app is designed to allow Apple users to access their iCloud content on their Windows 10 PCs.

The iCloud app for Windows includes iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, and more.

What you can do with iCloud for Windows

- Safely store your photos and videos in iCloud. With iCloud Photos, any new photos and videos that you take on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch automatically download to your PC. And you can upload new photos and videos from your PC so that you can access them from your other devices too.
- Use Shared Albums to share photos and videos with just the people you choose. Then invite friends to add their own photos, videos, and comments.
- Get your documents on every device you use with iCloud Drive. Simply drag your documents into the iCloud Drive folder on your PC and access them at any time, on any device.
- Keep your iCloud Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Reminders up to date automatically between your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.
- Keep your Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Google Chrome bookmarks on Windows the same as your Safari bookmarks.
- Update your iCloud preferences, see how much iCloud storage you're using, delete items to free up storage, and update your storage plan whenever you want.

According to Microsoft, the iCloud Drive feature on Windows is powered by the same Windows technology behind the OneDrive Files On-Demand Feature, which lets users be more productive offline on mobile devices and quickly share files on iOS.


Apple has a support document for getting started with iCloud for Windows, which basically requires having an existing iCloud setup on an Apple device.


Windows users can download iCloud for Windows from the Microsoft Store starting today.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming iOS 12.4 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the third iOS 12.4 beta, and a month after releasing iOS 12.3, a major update that introduced a revamped TV app.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 12.4 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.


There were no new features discovered in the first three iOS 12.4 betas, so it's not entirely clear what's coming in the update. As a more significant 12.x update, it's possible that the update is focusing on a feature that's not yet available -- the Apple Card.

Apple is planning to release the Apple Card in the summer, so iOS 12.4 could be the update that prepares the iOS operating system for that launch, adding hidden features that will be unlocked when the update becomes available to the public.

If we find new features in the fourth beta of iOS 12.4, we'll update this post.

iOS 12.4 may be one of the last updates to the iOS 12 operating system as Apple transitions to iOS 13, set to launch this September.

Apple surpassed Google but Amazon usurped both tech giants to become the world's most valuable brand in market research firm Kantar's annual BrandZ brand value report.


According to the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand ranking 2019 [PDF], the ecommerce giant saw its brand value rise to $315.5 billion, beating second-placed Apple's $309.5 billion evaluation and Google's $309 billion in third. Apple's brand value saw a 3 percent rise over last year, while Google saw a 2 percent rise, but Amazon outshone both with a whopping 52 percent gain.

Amazon's rise to the top spot ends a Google-Apple duopoly that began in 2007 when Google surpassed Microsoft to capture the No. 1 rank. Apple and Google had since jostled amongst each other for the position, but Google took the top spot from Apple in 2018.

Doreen Wang, Kantar’s global head of BrandZ, told CNBC that Amazon's jump was due to it selling a variety of services.

"Amazon’s phenomenal brand value growth of almost $108 billion in the last year demonstrates how brands are now less anchored to individual categories and regions. The boundaries are blurring as technology fluency allow brands, such as Amazon, Google and Alibaba, to offer a range of services across multiple consumer touchpoints."

The top ten most valuable global brands in the report is made up almost entirely of technology and telecom companies, with Microsoft, Visa, Facebook, Alibaba Group, Tencent, McDonald's, and AT&T; rounding off the top ten after Amazon, Apple, and Google.

To qualify for the ranking, brands must be publicly traded, or publish their financial results. BrandZ’s list uses measures of brand equity based on interviews with over 3 million consumers about thousands of brands, with analysis of each company and financial performance, using data from Kantar Worldpanel.

Brandz is one of several brand rankings released each year, with others including Forbes and Interbrand. Apple has consistently performed well in these studies over the past decade as its revenue has ballooned on the strength of iPhone sales, but the company is increasingly looking to subscription services, original content, and other untapped markets to prop up its business in the face of the recent downturn in the global smartphone market.

Apple Pay officially went live in The Netherlands today, with Dutch bank ING leading the charge to bring Apple's digital payment system to debit and credit card users in the country.


With Apple Pay on iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac, ING bank customers with Maestro debit cards in The Netherlands can make purchases with their digital wallet in stores, in apps and on websites.

ING customers can activate Apple Pay in the ING Mobile Banking App and add their debit card to the Wallet. Apple Pay works wherever it is possible to make contactless payments, in web shops and in apps.

According to Apple's regional Apple Pay web page, Apple Pay can be used in The Netherlands with several online and high street retailers including Adidas, ALDI, Amac, ARKET, BCC, Burger King, Capi, cool blue, COS, Decathlon, Douglas, H&M;, Jumbo, Lidl, McDonalds, Starbucks, and others.

Apple Pay has been gradually expanding across Europe and the Middle East, launching in Poland, Norway, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, Austria, and Iceland over the last year. Up until today, The Netherlands was one of the most populous countries in Europe that was still awaiting Apple Pay.

(Thanks, Melvin!)

Rumors about the iPhones coming in 2019 have been circulating since before the 2018 iPhones even launched, and at this point, we've heard quite a few details on what to expect.

For our most recent YouTube video, we got our hands on some cases created for the 2019 iPhones, with designs based on current rumors suggesting a triple-lens camera setup for the next-generation iPhone XS and XS Max, and a dual-lens camera for the next-generation iPhone XR.

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Cases for upcoming iPhones often appear months before the iPhones themselves, and that's because there's a lot of money to be made being the first company out with cases designed for newly released devices.

Many of the renderings and part leaks that we see for new iPhones, the 2019 iPhone lineup included, come from case makers who pay people in Apple's supply chain for design information in order to create early versions of cases. More often than not, these super early cases are spot on, but there have been some major misses in the past.


This year, Apple is said to be launching three iPhones: an iPhone XS successor, an iPhone XS Max successor, and an iPhone XR successor. These three phones will be available in the same sizes as current iPhones, 5.8 inches, 6.5 inches, and 6.1 inches, respectively.

The 5.8 and 6.5-inch models will continue to offer OLED displays and will be positioned as the higher-end iPhones in the lineup, while the 6.1-inch iPhone is expected to continue to offer an LCD display and a lower price tag.


As you can see in the 5.8 and 6.5-inch cases, the next-generation iPhone XS and XS Max are rumored to include a triple-lens camera setup arranged in a triangular shape with an adjacent flash. This design requires a large square-shaped camera cutout for the cases, which looks quite obtrusive when seen in case form.

Apple's going to do what it can to minimize the look of the rear camera, which will still protrude, with rumors suggesting the rear panel will be made from a single pane of glass. This should make the camera bump blend in a bit better, so we can expect Apple's version to look better than renderings we've seen.


The triple-lens camera setup could include a 12-megapixel telephoto lens, a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, and a 12-megapixel super wide-angle lens with a wider field of view for landscape shots.

It's not really clear what capabilities Apple will add into a triple-lens camera, but at a minimum, we can expect a wider zoom range, better low light performance, more pixels captured, and a larger field of view. Given some of the highly touted camera features from Android phones, like the Night Sight mode on the recent Pixel devices, we can likely expect some similar features from Apple.

There could perhaps be a mode for significantly brightening up darker scenes, and Bloomberg has suggested Apple is working on a feature that will use extra pixel data to offer up tools for doing things like fitting in a subject that may have been cut off from an initial shot.

All of these cases have a large square camera cutout, but the successor to the iPhone XR isn't expected to have the same triple-lens camera setup. Instead, it's rumored to have a dual-lens camera, which is still an upgrade from the single-lens camera in the current iPhone XR.

In our testing, these cases fit the current iPhones perfectly with the exception of the new camera cutouts, as beyond camera tweaks, we're not expecting any major design changes. The 2019 iPhone lineup will look quite a lot like the 2018 iPhone lineup, but in addition to camera changes, Apple may also be planning a new frosted glass design for its OLED devices and new colors for the iPhone XR successor.

Rumors have suggested the new iPhones could be a tad bit thicker than the current models, but that's not noticeable with the cases and is such a small change that it may be imperceptible in real life. There are also some adjustments to button placement, so the buttons could be moved a bit.

There have been rumors that Apple's 2019 iPhone lineup will use a round iPad-style mute switch in a pill-shaped cutout instead of a traditional bar mute switch, which could account for some of the button differences.

Other rumors have indicated the 2019 iPhones will feature bilateral wireless charging (so you can charge your AirPods or other wireless devices), larger batteries, Lightning connectors, WiFi 6 for faster WiFi speeds, and an 18W power adapter for faster charging right out of the box.

What do you think of the design of the 2019 iPhones? Let us know in the comments.

(Thanks to Sonny Dickson for helping us get our hands on these cases!)

Paciolan, a ticketing service provider for college athletics, today announced plans to allow customers to add contactless tickets for sporting events to their Apple Wallets.

The contactless tickets available in Apple Wallet will allow event attendees to enter stadiums with just their iPhone and Apple Watch using NFC. Apple Pay chief Jennifer Bailey said that students and fans will love having their tickets right on their Apple devices.

"iPhone and Apple Watch make going to college sports games easier than ever," said Jennifer Bailey, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. "We've said our goal is to replace the physical wallet and students and fans will love the convenience and security of having their tickets right on the Apple devices they carry with them every day."

iPhone and Apple Watch users will receive purchased tickets via the Messages app and can add them into the Wallet app by tapping on a link. When at a stadium, the tickets will pop up on the iPhone or Apple Watch's display.

Paciolan says that NFC-based tickets will help cut down on fraud at the gate and will allow colleges to better understand who is attending games.

Contactless tickets will be available starting in the fall 2019 football season for games at Baylor University, Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, University of Mississippi, Georgia Tech, and Rutgers University.

Establishing a billion dollar search engine deal with Google took Apple more than four months, according to new details shared today by former Apple lawyer Bruce Sewell.

Sewell recently did an interview with a Columbia law student, which was noticed this afternoon by CNBC, and in the interview, he shared details on his time at Apple and some of the negotiations he handled for the company.

According to Sewell, he attended near daily meetings with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google lawyer Kent Walker when hammering out a deal, working alongside Tim Cook or Eddy Cue.

And then with myself and either Tim [Cook] or Eddy Cue who was my counterpart on that deal. They'd be at Google or we'd be at Apple almost every day, it's just one example there are a lot of those kinds of negotiations or lawsuits that just completely suck up all your time.

Sewell did not go into detail about the amount of money that Google pays Apple to be the primary search engine on Apple devices, but in the past, Google has been rumored to be paying billions for the privilege.

Sewell says that in his time at Apple, he had 900 people working under him. 600 of those were in the law group and included lawyers and paralegals.

In just one of the Samsung lawsuits, Apple had 350 people billing time on that case at any given moment, most of which were outside counsel because it's impossible for Apple to handle cases of that magnitude with an internal team. "And this was just one of them. There were seven of them going on," said Sewell.

There were seven or eight billion documents to review, and collectively, law firms billed Apple 280,000 hours. Sewell says his budget was "just shy of a billion dollars a year."

Sewell says that he steered Apple in the wrong direction on its iBooks negotiations, leading to the iBooks snafu with the U.S. government that cost Apple a lot of money because he didn't know about deals publishers made among themselves. Cook, though, was forgiving and said he'd made the right choices.

But that was an example of sailing as close to the wind because it was so important to Apple. But in the end, I got it wrong and Apple ended up having to pay a large fine. The reaction from Tim was "That's the right choice. You made the best choice that you could with the information you had. You didn't know about these other things. Don't let that scare you. I don't want you to stop pushing the envelope because that's why legal is an important function at the company."

During the interview, Sewell also shared a few tidbits about Apple CEO Tim Cook, who he said would send him emails in the very early morning due to Cook's "crazy" work schedule.

From 4:00 a.m. to 5 a.m., there's a there's a lot of activity, so my first thing when I got up around 6:30 a.m. would be to check my email and see all the stuff that Tim had left for me, the little cookies he's left for me.

Sewell had other thoughts to share on working as a traditional lawyer vs. working for a major company as legal counsel, and his shift from Intel to Apple, which he likened to going to kindergarten from university given Apple's focus on creativity. The full interview can be watched in the video up above.

From 2009 to 2017, Bruce Sewell served as Apple's general counsel before retiring at the end of 2017. Sewell has since been replaced by Katherine Adams.

Apple this afternoon shared a new video in its ongoing "Shot on iPhone" series, this time showcasing the work of photojournalist Christopher Anderson, who Apple says is known for "magnetic portraiture."

In the video, which is in portrait orientation and meant to be watched on an iPhone, Anderson provides some tips on what he pays attention to when creating a portrait of a person.

Anderson says he takes into account lighting conditions and interesting backgrounds when setting up to take photographs, as well as anticipating the movements of his subjects and the look of the foreground and background to get the perfect shot.

To add color and intrigue, he plays with props or an object that can create shadows of reflections to define subjects and obscure parts of the image that might be distracting. He uses things like keys, glasses, bottles and mirrors to experiment with different looks.

Post processing is also important, and be says that he uses a lot of Apple's built-in tools for adjusting contrast and lighting.

Apple has shared multiple videos in its Shot on iPhone series, including several longer-form videos created by various artists, including the recent Maldives video and a series of nature scenes called "Don't Mess With Mother."

Apple today released iOS 12.3.2, a minor update to the iOS 12 operating system that runs on the iPhone and the iPad. iOS 12.3.2 comes a month after the release of iOS 12.3, the last major update, and two weeks after the release of iOS 12.3.1, another bug fix update.

The iOS 12.3.2 update is available on all eligible devices over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update. As with all iOS updates, iOS 12.3.2 is free to download, but it may take some time for iOS 12.3.2 to propagate to all iOS users. Today's update is limited to the iPhone 8 Plus and it is not available on other devices.


According to Apple's release notes, the iOS 12.3.2 update addresses an issue that caused the Camera app to capture Portrait mode photos without a depth effect on the iPhone 8 Plus.

Apple is also working on an iOS 12.4 update that's set to be released in the near future, as well as iOS 13, which will come out this September.

Apple's Beats brand today launched a collection of new Solo3 Wireless Headphones in a range of bright color combinations, including yellow and blue, white and red, red and blue, and navy and white.


The new headphones are priced at $199.95 like other Solo3 Wireless models, and with their launch, Beats has discontinued all other available Solo3 headphones with the exception of the special Mickey version.


Like most Beats headphones, the Solo3 models are equipped with a W1 wireless chip for quick and easy connections to Apple devices, alone with up to 40 hours of battery life.


Apple is running a promotion on some existing Beats headphones models as well, dropping the price of all Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones from $349.95 to $279.95, a $70 discount.


The price drop includes the standard Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones as well as the Skyline collection in special colors.


Apple is also discounting the Mickey-branded 90th anniversary edition Beats Solo3 Wireless headphones, dropping the price from $299.95 to $224.95.