How to turn on dark mode in iOS 13

Toggling dark mode on and off in iOS 13 is simple: Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the Control Center, long press/3D touch the brightness slider, and then toggle dark mode on in the new window that pops up.

Alternatively, you can add a dark mode toggle to the main screen of the Control Center if you think you’ll be switching back and forth regularly. That option can be found in Settings | Control Center | Customize Controls. 

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Reminders gets a major makeover

Reminders is the biggest transformation of any app in iOS 13. From the home view to the way reminders are organized, this new version may take some getting used to.

Among the Reminders app’s new features are these standouts: Siri will make reminder suggestions from chats, you can tag people in reminders that will pop up the next time you’re speaking to them, subtasks can be added to reminders, and attachments can be added. 

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

New Photos features

It wouldn’t be an iOS update without tweaks and adjustments to the Photos app, which seems to be one of Apple’s favorite pastimes. 

For starters, Apple has added a new curation feature to the main Photos tab of the Photos app, and it has to be one of the best additions in a long time. In the past, it was sometimes necessary to scroll through months, even years, of photos to find the right image, but curation can be set to filter images by day, month, and year to highlight some of the most important images. You can also use curation to jump to a particular time period to save having to scroll through hundreds of images to find the right one.

The Photos app will now also detect and hide duplicate/similar photos, put screen captures in a separate album, allow for multi-term photo searches, has improved auto-corrections, and more. 

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Video editing

Sure, it’s not Final Cut Pro, but the Photos app now has video editing and tuning options like those it previously added for photos. It’s possible to filter, adjust, and cut videos to make them look a lot better than raw footage without having to head to a computer to do so. Even better, the changes you save are non-permanent, so if you decide you want to undo the entire series of edits, you can do so at the touch of a button. 

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

The Camera app gets more control

Good news for those who like being able to take quality pictures on their iPhones: The camera app is getting a whole bunch of new options to tweak lighting effects. According to Apple, “Virtually adjust the position and intensity of your studio lighting. Increase the intensity of each Portrait Lighting effect–moving the light closer to your subject–to smooth skin, sharpen eyes, and brighten facial features. Or decrease the intensity of the light– moving it away from your subject–for a subtle, refined look.”

That all sounds fantastic, but there’s one major caveat: You need an iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, or iPhone XR in order to use any of those capabilities. 

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Sign In with Apple

iOS 13 signals the rollout of Apple’s new single sign-on (SSO) product, Sign In with Apple. The SSO option works across Apple devices and is designed for third-party apps as well as websites.  

When using a participating app or website, the Sign In with Apple option should appear automatically, making it a lot easier to create an account and sign in with the services you want to use.

Sign In with Apple also has email obscuring features that allow you to either not share an email address or to create one with Apple that will forward messages to you, thereby protecting your personal email address from potential bad actors. 

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

An all new Apple Maps experience

Apple Maps has been completely redesigned. The maps have greater detail, there’s a 3D option for street-level viewing, and Siri‘s directions have been improved to sound more natural.

My favorite new Apple Maps feature might be collections of bookmarks that show up on the map as small colored dots. It even found locations I visit frequently but haven’t bookmarked and added them to a default collection.

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

QuickPath: The iOS keyboard gets a much-requested feature

Swiping over a keyboard has been a much-loved feature of non-Apple smartphones and a much-requested feature of iOS devices. The wait is over: You can now swipe type to your heart’s content with the new QuickPath feature. 

In my testing, it was fairly accurate, though unsurprisingly not great at recognizing more obscure words. Thankfully, a single backspace tap will erase an entire word, making it quick to undo and keep moving. 

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Control your iPhone with your voice

A new accessibility feature could revolutionize the way you use your iPhone: It can now be controlled completely by voice. Basic commands, in-app control, web navigation, swipes, text input, adding a dictionary of specific words, and more can all be done through speech when the option is toggled on and set up. 

You can find voice commands in Settings | Accessibility | Voice Control. You’ll have to set it up and do a bit of training since all the speech recognition happens on the iOS device, not in the cloud. 

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)