Technologies

If Your iPhone Keeps Automatically Dimming, Here’s How to Stop It

All you need to do is disable these two settings.

As a battery saving measure, your iPhone automatically adjusts the brightness of your screen depending on the light in your environment. The less light there is around you, the dimmer your display gets — but that may not be what you want.

Even if it’s dark, you may want to keep your iPhone’s brightness up, because it helps you better see what’s on the screen, whether you’re reading an article or watching a movie. However, fixing this issue is not always as simple as toggling off an auto-brightness setting — although that’s a good start.

In this guide, we’ll show you two settings that you need to disable to help prevent your iPhone from automatically dimming. And how your iPhone might adjust its brightness even when those two settings are disabled, if you’re not careful.

While you’re here, you should also check out the most annoying things about your iPhone (and how you can fix them). And these 10 hidden iOS 16 features that will make your iPhone experience so much better.

First, disable auto-brightness

Yes, this may seem a bit obvious, but the first thing you want to do is to make sure that you have automatic brightness disabled in your settings. The feature is pretty self-explanatory — it automatically adjusts your brightness depending on the light in your environment. But if you want to prevent your display from always trying to adjust, you must disable this feature.

In the Settings application, go to Accessibility > Display & Text Size and toggle off Auto-Brightness at the bottom of the page. You would think that this setting would exist in Display & Brightness, so it’s not uncommon that auto-brightness would be enabled without you really knowing, since it’s tucked away in Accessibility.

If your brightness continues to automatically adjust, there’s another setting you need to disable.

You also need to turn off True Tone

If you have an iPhone SE (2nd generation) and later, the True Tone feature has the ability to measure the color temperature and brightness in your environment and then adjust its display to match it. True Tone is useful — it not only helps show more accurate colors across various lighting situations, it’s also easier on the eyes, which you need if you’re constantly reading on your phone.

Again, if you don’t care about the feature, don’t use it or are simply annoyed that your brightness continues to automatically adjust, you need to disable it. In Settings, go to Display & Brightness and toggle off True Tone under the Brightness header. As long as auto-brightness is also disabled, turning True Tone off should prevent your iPhone from automatically adjusting your brightness.

There is one exception though.

Don’t let your iPhone overheat

Your iPhone has several ways of protecting its internal components, and that includes automatically dimming your display. Even if you have both auto-brightness and True Tone turned off, if your iPhone is overheating it will automatically adjust the display intensity.

According to Apple, to help prevent this from happening, you should use your iPhone in temperatures between 32 to 95 degrees F (zero and 35 degrees C) and store it in temperates between 4 to 113 degrees F (between 20 below zero and 45 degrees C). If you leave your iPhone in your car or on the sidewalk on a hot day, there’s a good chance that it will overheat, thus causing your display to automatically dim.

However, overheating doesn’t occur only because of a sunny day. A faulty battery could cause your iPhone to overheat: Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging and check if your battery needs to be replaced. Another reason could be buggy software: Go to Settings > General > Software Update and more sure to always be on the latest update to deal with any software bugs and issues.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 10, #533

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 10, No. 533.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition features a lot of team names, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy one to solve. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Play ball!

Green group hint: Not front.

Blue group hint: Certain NFL player.

Purple group hint: They play at Smoothie King Center.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: An AL Central player.

Green group: Words appearing before «back,» in football.

Blue group: Associated with Derrick Henry.

Purple group: New Orleans Pelicans.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is an AL Central player. The four answers are Guardian, Royal, Tiger and Twin.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is words appearing before «back,» in football. The four answers are corner, defensive, full and running.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Derrick Henry. The four answers are Heisman, King, Ravens and Titans.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is New Orleans Pelicans. The four answers are Bey, Fears, Murphy and Queen.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, March 10

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 10.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? I’d just like to point out that the New York Times puzzle-makers love the 7-Across answer — they use it about every other week. Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Writing that lacks substance
Answer: FLUFF

6A clue: Pencil in a cosmetics bag
Answer: LINER

7A clue: ___ acid (building block of proteins)
Answer: AMINO

8A clue: Partner of services, in economics
Answer: GOODS

9A clue: Small criticism
Answer: NIT

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Warning sign in a relationship, metaphorically
Answer: FLAG

2D clue: Fancy prom ride
Answer: LIMO

3D clue: SAG-AFTRA, for one
Answer: UNION

4D clue: Luxury fashion house headquartered in Rome
Answer: FENDI

5D clue: Ground coating on a cold morning
Answer: FROST

Technologies

Australians Flock to VPNs in the Wake of Online Age-Restriction Laws

App downloads for VPN services increase sharply as websites in Australia go behind age-restriction walls.

A new set of laws in Australia requiring adult websites and app stores to age-restrict content for those under 18, and requiring AI companies to restrict chatbot offerings from displaying certain types of sensitive or adult content to minors, is apparently driving many to download Virtual Private Network apps there.

Major adult sites have closed their virtual doors to those who aren’t age-confirmed in Australia, and these changes follow a nationwide ban on social media use by teenagers and young children that went into effect in December.

According to reports from Reuters, The Guardian and others, in response to the bans, downloads of VPN-related apps, which people can use to circumvent location-based restrictions, are sharply on the rise. According to Reuters, three of the 15 most downloaded free iPhone apps in the country were VPN-related as the new laws went into effect on Monday.

Lawmakers in some regions, including the US, are well aware that people use VPNs in this way. In states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, laws are being proposed to limit or outright ban VPN use. Wisconsin’s proposed law would require adult sites to block VPN traffic, while Michigan’s proposal would ban VPN use entirely in the state.

There is also a proposal in England under consideration to ban VPN use by minors. That proposal is currently under review.