APPLE has released an important security update and has urged all iPhone owners to install it now.

Earlier this week, the tech giant released a new iOS update for iPhones and iPads: iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.

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“This update provides important bug fixes and security updates and is recommended for all users,” Apple said.

Regarding the iPhone, the updates have been released for the iPhone XS and later.

iPads that could get the update include the “iPad Pro 12.9-inch 2nd generation and later, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 6th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later,” Apple said.

WHY DO I NEED TO UPDATE?

Updating your operating system ensures that your device has access to the latest security measures available.

“Keeping your software up to date is one of the most important things you can do to maintain the security of your Apple product,” Apple says on its website.

Security updates actually patch several vulnerabilities, saving you the need to spend money on antivirus software, experts say.

Conversely, if you don’t update, your iPhone is more susceptible to malware and bugs.

HOW TO UPDATE YOUR IOS

To manually update your iPhone, first go to Settings and then tap General.

Select Software Update and you should see if there is an update available for your device.

If you see an update, tap Update Now or Update Tonight.

If you choose to update tonight, the installation will only start when the device is locked and the battery has sufficient power.

It’s always best to set updates to automatic, so make sure you enable that option at the top as well.

To update your macOS, open the Apple menu > System Preferences > click Software Update.

If Software Update finds a new update, click the button to install it.

The process for updating iPadOS is similar: go to Settings > General > Software Update.

The screen will show which version of iPadOS is currently installed and whether an update is available.

THE LATEST VERSIONS

To make your life easier, we have shared the latest updates for all Apple products below.

The latest version of iOS and iPadOS is 17.4.1.

The latest version of macOS is 14.4.

The latest version of tvOS is 17.4.

The latest version of watchOS is 10.4.

The latest version of visionOS is 1.1.1.

MILLIONS of iPhone owners could be needlessly ruining their battery life due to common mistakes.

Almost everything you do with you iPhone affects battery life, so you should handle it with care.

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One new iPhone owner asked for advice in a Reddit thread: “Camera is great, software is incredible. I really enjoy using it, but I don’t know how to keep the battery health.”

They continued, “Can you give me some tips about the battery and other things?”

And fellow Apple fans quickly revealed some of the most common mistakes you make.

One glaring flaw is something that iPhone owners often think improves battery life, but actually does the opposite.

“Don’t close all apps in the app switcher. It’s a common habit among people who switched from Android,” replied an iPhone owner.

“On iOS, memory management is different, it doesn’t impact performance as much.

“According to one study, closing all apps every time can reduce daily battery life by up to 10% (as reopening the app requires additional CPU cycles).”

So it’s important to avoid closing your apps all the time. It’s better to leave them alone.

Even Apple officially recommends only force-closing apps in one situation: “You should only close an app if it has become unresponsive.”

HEALTH IS WEALTH

The app fan also gave two other tips.

First of all, try not to go below 10-20% battery every day.

And make sure Optimized battery charging is enabled in Settings.

These are important tips because they are aimed at not “taxing” the battery.

This is not to extend battery life day to day, but to keep your iPhone’s battery “healthy”.

All lithium-ion batteries – including those in Apple devices – degrade over time.

That means as you charge and discharge your iPhone, its maximum capacity decreases.

So after two or three years, your iPhone may only hold 80% of the charge it would have had when new.

When the feature is enabled, your iPhone will slow down charging

Apple

You can check this maximum capacity percentage by going to Settings > Battery > Battery Status.

Protecting your battery from stress is one of the best ways to keep your battery healthy.

For example, if you regularly let your iPhone get too hot, it can permanently affect the health of your battery.

But make sure you’ve done that functions such as enabling optimized battery charging can also make a big difference.

HOW DOES OPTIMIZED BATTERY CHARGING WORK?

Optimized Battery Charging is designed to keep your iPhone’s battery healthy by reducing the time it takes to fully charge.

Apple says turning it on will “reduce the wear and tear on your battery.”

“With the feature enabled, your iPhone will delay charging by more than 80% in certain situations,” Apple explains.

“Your iPhone uses on-device machine learning to learn your daily charging routine so that optimized battery charging only activates when your iPhone predicts it will be connected to a charger for an extended period of time.

“The algorithm aims to ensure that your iPhone is still fully charged when disconnected.”

For example, if you regularly charge your iPhone overnight, Apple’s iOS software will learn this habit.

Your iPhone should then delay charging overnight, but still be ready for when you wake up.

You can enable Optimized Battery Charging via Settings > Battery > Charging Optimization.

A notification will appear on your lock screen when the feature is active and charging will slow down.

This allows you to see when your iPhone has finished charging.

And you can press and hold this notification and then choose Charge Now if you want to unpause.

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IPHONE owners are excited about a little-known Apple Pay trick that could save your day in an emergency.

The smart feature can help you in two specific ways.

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First, you don’t need to unlock your account iPhone when using Apple Pay on certain public transport networks.

Apple has built something called Express Mode into iOS, which means you can use Apple Pay without Touch ID or Face ID in some situations.

It means you don’t have to struggle with unlocking your iPhone when using the London Underground or New York Underground, for example.

An Apple fan on Reddit wrote, “I’ve loved using Express Transit in San Francisco and New York. I go about twice a month.”

You can ensure that Express Mode is set to the correct card by going to your Apple Wallet settings.

DEAD GOOD!

But that is not everything.

Not only do you not need to unlock your iPhone, the battery may not even need to be charged.

“I recently accidentally discovered that it’s possible to still use your Transit card even if your phone breaks,” said one Reddit user in a thread about the feature.

“I was blown away, I already knew I could use it by essentially swiping the reader, but not this.”

Apple is more specific about how this actually works.

“You may even be able to use your card, pass, or key if your device needs to be charged,” Apple explains.

It continued: “With a compatible iPhone modelsthat you might be able to use current reserve with some cards, passes and keys that have Express Mode enabled for up to five hours when your iPhone needs to be charged.

“To see which cards, passes, and keys are available for use with power reserve, press the side or home button when your iPhone needs to charge.”

But there are two important things to note about this feature.

First, pressing the Side button or Home button can significantly reduce the power reserve on your iPhone.

Doing this enough may prevent the feature from working.

Secondly, if you manually turn off your iPhone, this feature will not work.

It is only available when your iPhone is visibly dead and put in backup mode.

APPLE has agreed to pay £385 million to an English council after a five-year iPhone feud.

The tech giant’s boss, Tim Crook, is embroiled in a lawsuit led by a local authority in East Anglia.

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The legal action alleged that Apple’s CEO defrauded shareholders by covering up demand for iPhones in China.

Norfolk Council claimed Mr Cook’s actions resulted in financial losses to a pension fund under his management.

In a statement, the local government said it was “very proud of this recovery for investors.”

The Norfolk Pension Fund said the decision was a triumph for investors as countless families depended on the pensions.

The statement said: ‘We are aware that we are trustees of the pensions upon which thousands of families and individuals rely.

“When and where warranted, we will take decisive action to recover losses when our participants’ investments are damaged by fraud.”

The lawsuit, called a class action, was on behalf of a group of plaintiffs affected by the company.

At the center of the legal battle were comments made by Apple’s CEO Tim Cook.

He assured investors in November 2018 that there was “selling pressure” in certain regions, but he “wouldn’t put China in that category.”

However, just two months later, Apple lowered its quarterly revenue guidance.

It cited escalating tensions between China and the US, which caused a dramatic drop in the company’s stock value.

At the time, reports suggested that Apple had ordered its top smartphone assemblers to “halt plans for additional production lines for the iPhone XR.”

Investors claimed they felt misled by Crook’s assurances and suffered financial losses.

They then filed a class action lawsuit initially filed against Apple by the US city of Roseville.

However, Norfolk Council took over the legal action as lead plaintiff in 2020.

Although Apple has contested the lawsuit, a trial was scheduled for later this year.

A preliminary settlement was filed last Friday in U.S. District Court in California, but still requires approval from a judge.

While the exact portion of the settlement to Norfolk County Council remains unknown, the payout amounts to less than two days’ profit for the wealthy company.

The Sun Online has contacted Apple for comment.

It comes as millions of UK iPhone owners could get a relief from an £853 million lawsuit claiming Apple deliberately slowed down devices to mask a battery fault.

Consumer champion Justin Gutmann, who is suing Apple, claims the company failed to inform users that software updates would harm their device’s performance.

APPLE’s iOS 17 update was rolled out to handsets last year and continues to bring sparkling new feature additions.

But there are two new Settings features that can quietly kill your battery.

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iOS 17.4 is the latest version of the update, which is packed with surprising new features – as it was expected to be a mid-range update between iOS 17 and the highly anticipated iOS 18.

Apple decided to wow customers mid-year with a host of new features, including a nifty new battery saving setting, lock screen widgets, and new vibrations when using the keyboard.

However, the last pair of features was mentioned by CNET as being the two most important ones to disable if you’re trying to save your iPhone’s battery.

Remove lock screen widgets

When widgets are on your lock screen, the apps they belong to automatically run in the background.

This means that they are constantly collecting data behind the scenes to update the display information.

If you want to protect your battery life, don’t put widgets on your lock screen.

And if you really want to extend battery life, delete the apps on your home screen as well.

To remove widgets from your lock screen, long press the screen and click To adjust > Lock screen > tap the widget box and press minus (-) icon to delete them.

To do this on your home screen, simply long-press on the widget and tap Remote Widget.

Disable keyboard vibration

The iPhone keyboard has never had the ability to vibrate, so you probably don’t need it now.

The vibration is known as haptic feedback and was introduced with iOS 17 late last year.

All it does is give a little buzz when you type.

According to an apple support pagehaptic feedback “can affect your iPhone’s battery life.”

That’s probably why Apple left it up to you to enable it yourself.

If you want to disable it, just go to Institutions > Sounds and haptics > Keyboard feedback and switch off Haptic.

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AN iPhone owner was left confused after noticing a mysterious ‘running icon’ symbol on his device.

The little symbol appeared next one to a telephone contact – and it is not exactly clear what it means.

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Your iPhone is chock full functions and knowing exactly how they all work can be difficult, if not impossible.

That’s why a confused iPhone fan Posted took to Reddit and asked, “What is the little running icon on my dad’s contact?”

They continued, “I’ve seen the car or the moon for Do Not Disturb, but I’ve never seen this one before (and my dad doesn’t have an Apple Watch.”

The symbol (with a small gray running person) appeared at the top right of the contact profile icon in the Apple Contacts widget on iPhone.

Apple fans were quick to solve the mystery: Workout Focus.

One wrote: “Yes it is, I see it on my wife when she goes for a run. It means you are currently logging a workout.”

FOCUS!

Apple introduced focus modes in September 2021 with the iOS 15 update.

“Focus is a feature that helps you reduce distractions and set boundaries,” Apple explains.

“If you want to focus on a specific activity, you can adjust one of the focus options offered, for example Work, Personal or Sleep.”

And you can also set it so that other people can see when you are in a Focus mode.

Apple noted: “You can use Focus to temporarily turn off all notifications, or allow only specific notifications (for example, notifications that apply to your task) and let other people and apps know that you’re busy .”

To set your focus modes, go to Settings > Focus and then adjust them.

You can also specify which apps and people can send you notifications while a focus mode is active.

And if you want other people to see your Focus, you can enable Focus sharing status in your Settings app.

A SIMPLE iPhone setup can make your battery last much longer.

It is designed to dramatically improve performance health of your iPhone battery.

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All lithium-ion batteries – including the batteries inside them iPhones – degrade over time.

They age chemically for many reasons: the way you charge your iPhone and even its temperature can cause a battery to degrade faster.

This means they hold less charge than when they were new, meaning you’ll need to charge more often.

Last year, Apple unveiled a new feature designed to protect your battery and keep it “healthy” for longer.

It’s called the “80% limit” and is designed to keep your iPhone’s battery healthy for longer.

When a battery is fully charged, it is put under pressure – and that is not good.

When this feature is enabled, your iPhone will not charge more than 80% (except in specific circumstances).

You can find it with three taps by going to Settings > Battery > Battery status & charging.

Apple explains: “If you choose the 80% limit, your iPhone will charge to approximately 80 percent and then stop charging.

“If the battery charge level drops to 75 percent, charging will resume until the battery charge level reaches approximately 80 percent again.”

Apple added: “When the 80% limit is enabled, your iPhone will occasionally charge to 100 percent to maintain accurate battery health estimates.”

But there’s a catch: this setting is only available on the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple notes that not using this feature “may increase battery wear and shorten its lifespan.”

And that means you’ll have worse battery life in the long run – and you may need to upgrade your battery or smartphone sooner.

iPhone fans raved about the trick in a Reddit thread, with one proverb“I love this feature!”

Another said: “I’m using this feature too. I hope it actually extends my battery life as I usually pass my phones on to family members!”

One added: “From an environmental point of view, it’s better to have a battery last longer than one that runs out sooner. Less replacements in general, you can’t deny that.”

And another commented: “I’ve always charged to 100%, but with iPhone 15 Pro I’m going to give the 80% feature a try. In some ways it makes a lot of sense, like you I have chargers everywhere, and it doesn’t take long to refill the battery.”

OPTIMIZED!

You may see the other mode under Battery Status in your iPhone settings app has optimized battery charging.

This is available on multiple iPhones models – not just the 2023 batch.

It is enabled by default when you set up your iPhone.

Apple explains: “With the feature enabled, your iPhone will delay charging beyond 80% in certain situations.

“Your iPhone uses on-device machine learning to learn your daily charging routine so that optimized battery charging only activates when your iPhone predicts it will be connected to a charger for an extended period of time.

“The algorithm aims to ensure that your iPhone is still fully charged when disconnected.”

You’ll know when optimized battery charging is active because a notification will appear on the lock screen.

This notification indicates when your iPhone needs to be fully charged.

If you want to fully charge it sooner, you can press and hold the notification and then press Charge now.

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APPLE fans were amazed by a clever menu trick that makes using your iPhone even faster.

It’s useful when surfing the web, but there are plenty of other uses.

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Normally when you want to move on iPhoneyou need to tap the back arrow.

But if you try to go back multiple times, there is a better way.

In a Reddit thread with dozens of upvotes, one Apple fan wrote: “Today I learned that you can press and hold the back button to jump back multiple times steps.

“I can’t believe I’ve never discovered this by accident.”

Try it: Go to Safari and press and hold the back button on an open tab.

You can choose from entries in your recent history.

iPhone owners were amazed by the discovery, with one commenting: “Bruhhh. Finally I don’t have to press back thousands of times.”

Another said: “That’s so helpful! Thanks for sharing.”

It’s not just Safari that this works on.

It works on multiple apps, including the default Settings app on your iPhone.

In regular apps (not Safari) you can return via recent submenus.

SWITCHOO

There’s also another hack for navigating your iPhone called the “white bar” trick.

This allows you to quickly switch between apps that you have been using lately.

Many people simply swipe closed one app and then tap another to switch to it.

That or they navigate to the App Switcher carousel to choose a recent app.

But with a simple swipe trick you can quickly switch between recent apps.

Simply swipe the white home bar at the bottom of the screen – it’s a small horizontal line that can also be black.

If you drag left and right on this, you can quickly navigate between apps without having to close them.

A LITTLE-KNOWN iPhone feature is being hailed as the main reason people have been reunited with their lost handsets.

Not only is it a lifesaver when it comes to a lost phone, but it can also make a real difference in life and death situations, users say.

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People rely too much on Apple’s FindMy feature, according to an airport worker with extensive experience dealing with lost phones.

“I work at a good sized local airport and I can’t tell you how many locked iPhones and Androids are turned in to lost and found without emergency contact details filled in,” they say. Posted on Reddit.

“And since they’re locked up most of the time, the only way to find their owners is through the emergency information.

“And I’ve never had anyone use FindMy and ask for their phone.”

iPhone owners are encouraged to set up Apple’s emergency contact feature, as this is truly the last resort to get your device back.

The feature, which has been around for several years, could also mean the “difference between life and death” for some iPhone owners, an X user. tweeted.

If your iPhone has Apple Smart Crash Detection enabled, the iPhone will automatically send a message to the owner’s emergency contact if the device detects that they have been in an accident.

Set up an emergency contact on iPhone

1. Open the Health app and tap your profile photo.
2. Tap Medical ID.
3. Tap Edit, then scroll to Emergency Contacts.
4. Tap the Add button to add an emergency contact.
5. Tap a contact and then add his or her relationship.
6. Tap Done to save your changes.

It is important to know that you cannot set the emergency services as an SOS contact.

For more information about setting up a Medical ID on your iPhone, Apple has an entire page dedicated to it here.

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APPLE fans are obsessed with a little-known (but extremely useful) iPhone trick.

It makes it much easier to switch between apps – and completely changes the way you use your iPhone.

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For many people, exercise is in between iPhone apps means swiping away from one and then tapping the other.

But you can switch between apps with a simple gesture that’s easy to miss.

It was shared in a Reddit thread created by someone asking for tips, and received dozens of upvotes.

An user wrote: “This one’s cool: Instead of swiping up to switch between apps in the main scrolling menu, you can swipe left and right on the white home bar and switch between apps from full screen.”

Try this: look for the white bar at the bottom of the screen when you’re in an app and swipe from left to right.

Please note that sometimes it may be a black bar instead of a white bar.

This way you can quickly switch back and forth between your recent apps.

And you can also do this directly from the home screen, but you will have to drag your finger along the bottom edge of the screen.

I FIND!

Many iPhone fans were completely shocked by the feature.

One wrote: “OMG. I HAVE BEEN USING IPHONE 5 SINCE. I didn’t know this.”

Another said: “This is legit going to change my life lol.”

One added: “Oh s***. iPhone for YEARRRRS and had no idea. Thanks!”

And one user who already knew the trick wrote: “I copy names and emails from screenshots back and forth and paste them into Google Sheets.

“And this has saved me so much time this past year, it’s so fast.”

The feature is much faster than going back to the home screen to get your next one app.

But it’s only really useful if you’re trying to access recently used apps – and can’t find apps you rarely open.

KEYBOARD MURDER

There’s also another neat typing trick shared in the thread.

Sometimes it can be difficult to place the cursor on text you typed on an iPhone.

This is especially true if you try to drop it in the middle of a word.

But you can actually transform your iPhone’s keyboard so it works like a laptop trackpad.

Just hold your finger on the space bar of the iPhone keyboard and the letters will disappear.

You can then drag your finger across the virtual trackpad to position the cursor with pinpoint precision.