The iPhone 17, iOS 26, and even the brand new AirPods Pro 3, are full of invaluable options and instruments, however it may be exhausting to know which of them are price your time and the place to search out them.
I overview telephones for a dwelling and have been utilizing the iPhone 17 Pro for over two months. As I’ve examined the brand new Apple telephone and equipment, I’ve amassed my share of hidden tips and tips to quell my buddies, members of the family (and strangers) who ask me, “What’s iPhone characteristic that I ought to attempt?” Or “how do you do this factor along with your AirPods that I noticed on TikTok?”
The following tips is probably not new to everybody or unique to the iPhone 17 line (most require iOS 26), however they’re the much less apparent ones that I exploit essentially the most.
1. Pictures app Wallpaper Ideas
Your iPhone’s lock display has been extra customizable since iOS 16.
Over time, Apple has given the lock display and residential display a serious visible overhaul. There are infinite choices to customise the look of your apps, the lock display clock, and add trippy spatial results to deliver your wallpaper to life.
Nonetheless, one among my favourite current discoveries is Wallpaper Ideas within the Pictures app, which selects wallpaper-worthy photographs out of your library and crops them to suit your display. There may be even a 3D animation impact that may be added to essentially give your wallpaper some pizzazz. Above is a photograph of my telephone with a wallpaper of one among my cats (from the Ideas), for instance. It delights me to no finish that it seems like her head is popping up from the nook of the display as if to say, “Are you unlocking your telephone?!”
When you do not see Wallpaper Suggestion within the Pictures app, go to Settings, then to Pictures, and verify that Present Featured Content material is enabled. Subsequently, should you do not need to see Wallpaper Ideas, you’ll be able to flip them off right here. However why would you?
2. Use uncooked photographs to make the moon pop
Listed here are three photographs of the moon taken inside seconds of one another. The left and heart photographs are JPEGs, with the left one uncovered for the moon and the middle one uncovered for the buildings. The picture on the proper was taken as a uncooked picture and edited later to stability the publicity for each.
This tip is for you, Professional iPhone house owners and is a straightforward manner to make sure you get an ideal picture of a high-contrast scene. Consider a shiny topic in a darkish atmosphere, equivalent to this one of many Mineral Level Opera Home marquee lit up at night time, or a darkish topic in a shiny atmosphere, just like the black cat wallpaper shot from my earlier tip.
Final week, there was a full moon over San Francisco, and I beloved the way in which Karl the Fog –- yep, San Francisco’s marine layer has a reputation — rolled via the moonlight. Nonetheless, after I tried to take a photograph of it, my telephone uncovered the picture for the intense moon, making every thing else look darkish. And after I tried to reveal the picture to brighten the buildings within the background, the moon simply blew out fully to white.
As a substitute, I turned on the uncooked picture setting within the Digicam app and acquired an ideal shot of the moon. Then, I used to be capable of edit it after the very fact throughout the default Pictures app to boost the shadow particulars at nighttime background and highlights within the moon. The end result: Each the moon and the buildings appeared precisely the way in which I wished them. You may additionally use a third-party app to edit uncooked photographs.
Uncooked recordsdata comprise extra picture knowledge than a JPEG or HEIC, permitting you to make extra intensive edits after you’re taking a picture. I do not take uncooked photographs on a regular basis as a result of the file sizes are large: the uncooked picture of the moon is 13.6MB in contrast with a JPEG I took that was 1.5MB.
To do that out, you first must activate the uncooked recordsdata grasp swap. Go to Settings, then the Digicam menu. Choose Codecs and activate ProRAW & Decision Management. I exploit JPEG Lossless for the ProRAW format.
As soon as enabled, open the Digicam app. When you’re working iOS 26, you must see a button that claims JPEG, HEIC or uncooked on the highest left facet. Faucet on it to see controls for Format and Decision. Uncooked photographs might be captured at 48MP on the iPhone 17 Professional.
3. The AirPods Professional 3 case is the button
The case for the AirPods Professional 3 is the button.
Apple lately launched the AirPods Pro 3. They arrive with a number of nifty options, together with the flexibility to verify your coronary heart fee and translate conversations in real-time. However after I first went to pair them with my telephone, I used to be stumped: The place is the pairing button?
Simply me? In all probability not.
To pair the AirPods Professional 3, you simply preserve them within the case and open the lid. They need to mechanically pair with no matter Apple gadget you may have available. However should you’re making an attempt to pair them to an Apple gadget that does not have the identical iCloud account or a non-Apple gadget, you may must open the lid and double-tap the case to enter pairing mode.
And that is not the one AirPods tip I’ve for you (pun unintended).
4. The AirPods mechanically flip off music whenever you fall asleep
The AirPods Professional 3 of their pure atmosphere: the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park, the corporate’s headquarters.
When you’re somebody who listens to music, a podcast, or white noise that will help you go to sleep, you’ll be able to arrange your AirPods to mechanically pause no matter you are listening to as quickly as you go to sleep. To show this on, have your AirPods of their case, deliver the case subsequent to your iPhone and open the lid. Now go to Settings and faucet on the title of your AirPods. Subsequent, scroll all the way down to Pause Media When Falling Asleep and switch that setting on. Now sit again, put your AirPods in and luxuriate in that 80-minute podcast about Mission Unattainable: Ghost Protocol whilst you’re lulled into a pleasant slumber.
This characteristic is a part of iOS 26 and works with:
- AirPods Professional 3
- AirPods Professional 2 with USB-C
- AirPods Professional 2 with Lightning
- AirPods 4 with ANC
- AirPods Max with USB-C
Additionally, if you have not explored your AirPods settings menu earlier than, you’ll be able to entry many nifty options like Head Gestures, Live Translation and Camera Remote.
5. The iPhone’s invisible button
Right here is the again of the iPhone 17 Professional. You may not see one, however the again might be became an “invisible” button to set off numerous actions.
Back Tap is not a brand new characteristic, nevertheless it’s one which lots of people do not find out about. Your iPhone has an “invisible” button that you simply activate by tapping on the again of the telephone. It is customizable and might do issues, like open apps, flip the flashlight on, or, as I exploit it, present/disguise the Management Heart.
To set it up, open the Settings, go to Accessibility, choose Contact after which scroll down and faucet Again Faucet. You’ll be able to arrange a number of actions, one triggered by a double-tap and one other by a triple-tap (I want I might do that with the iPhone’s Motion button). As you’ll be able to see from the actions menu, Again Faucet can carry out dozens of various actions and shortcuts.
Once I need to open the Management Heart — particularly if I am holding the telephone with one hand — I can double-tap the again of the telephone, and it seems. If I double-tap once more, it goes away. Moreover, whenever you use Again Faucet, a small Dynamic Island banner seems to elucidate what’s occurring. You’ll be able to flip this off within the Again Faucet settings menu should you do not need to see it.
6. Use the iPhone Crossbody Strap for cameras and passes
Apple sells a Crossbody strap for the iPhone 17 collection and Air. it prices $60 and would not include a case.
We have seen telephone straps from different telephone makers, equivalent to Motorola for its Razr and there are quite a few third-party choices accessible. Nonetheless, this yr Apple launched its personal crossbody strap for the iPhone. The strap prices $60, which appears steep for a skinny piece of cloth, nevertheless it truly has extra “tech” to it than meets the attention. Apple’s Crossbody Strap is lined with magnets to maintain the 2 “items” of the strap (the place it folds over itself) from separating or by chance adjusting the size as you put on it.
It additionally has use circumstances past simply being hooked up to a telephone. On TikTok, quite a few movies like this present individuals utilizing the cross-body strap as a digital camera strap. However why cease there? Use it to carry passes or IDs for amusement parks or conventions.
The strap is lengthy, which is good should you’re a bigger particular person like me and nonetheless has sufficient size to go throughout your physique and preserve your telephone or digital camera at your hip. Apple created one other accent that’s having its second proper now: the iPhone Pocket. Just like the crossbody strap, you’ll be able to put on it throughout your torso, however I am unsure it will maintain something however an iPhone that properly.
