Technologies

Selling or Replacing Your Old iPhone? Make Sure to Factory Reset It First

Replacing your old iPhone is easier than ever, but it could be risky to sell your Apple phone if you don’t wipe all your personal data first.

If you’re buying the new iPhone 16E to replace your old iPhone, don’t just transfer data and sell your old device — you need to clear out all the personal data first. It’s important to know how to reset your Apple phone, whether you’re selling your old device or making it a hand-me-down for a relative, you need to make sure it’s wiped clean before you hand it off to a new owner. Here’s how to factory reset your iPhone.

No matter the reason you want to wipe your iPhone clean, it all boils down to making sure that all your personal data is gone. This can be sensitive and personal information, like family photos you definitely don’t want to hand off to a stranger. It also includes the litany of private details that your iPhone stores, from credit card information to contacts to everything in your apps.

Thankfully, it’s easy to factory reset your iPhone, although you’ll be asked several times to make sure you’re ready to clear it completely. You’ll also want to prepare before wiping your phone. Here’s how to do it.

Read more: Unresponsive iPhone? Here’s How to Force Restart Your Apple Device

Don’t go further without backing up your iPhone

The first step is to make sure all the data you want to keep is safely backed up. This can easily be done over iCloud, although you can also make a manual backup.

The same way you’d want to back up your iPhone before updating to iOS 18, head to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup and tap Back Up Now. This should take a little while, but you’ll be able to restore from this online backup if you need to.

You can also manually create a backup by connecting your iPhone to your computer, although the process differs between PC and Mac. You can still download iTunes to your Windows PC, through which you’ll sync your iPhone and create a backup through that software. With the end of iTunes on Mac in 2019, you’ll have to go through Finder to manage your iPhone, but otherwise, the process of backing up is relatively straightforward.

Note that iPhones are good at moving data wirelessly from one device to another in close proximity, making it easy to seamlessly transfer from your old device to a new one. After waking up your new iPhone, follow the on-screen instructions on your new iPhone to use its camera to scan your old device and let the process continue. It’s still smart to save a backup when you’re getting rid of your old iPhone.

Digitally sign out of every account you can

This is the most tedious step but a necessary part of the process, but it’s important to sign out of apps and services you’ve logged into. You should prioritize apps with more sensitive data, but it’s a good idea to ensure you’re fully logged out of anything with personally identifiable information.

You won’t want someone popping into email, contacts and calendar accounts, so head to Settings > Apps > Mail/Contacts/Calendar > Accounts to manually unlink those.

Bank and payment apps, external email and messaging apps, workplace software like Slack or authentication apps and even digital community apps like Discord are good to log out of. Lastly, if you’re selling your iPhone or giving it to someone else, make sure to disable Find My before erasing your phone. Go to Settings > [your name] > Find My.

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If you’re moving to a new iPhone, transfer your cell service

If you’re about to reset an older iPhone that used to be your daily driver linked to your carrier account, you’ll want to transfer service to your new iPhone before factory wiping your device. Why? Because you’ll probably use your older iPhone to call your carrier to switch that service over. Don’t get stuck without a phone like I did.

You used to be able to yank your SIM card out of your old phone and stick it in the new one to carry service over. Not so much these days, as the iPhone 14 and later models sold in the US don’t come with a physical SIM card — it’s eSIM all the way. You’ll need to call your carrier to transfer your data plan over to your new iPhone, but it’s a pretty effortless process. If worse comes to worst (like if you’ve already wiped your old iPhone), you can bring your new iPhone into any of your carrier’s retail stores and they can digitally transfer service over to it.

If you’re just clearing out an old iPhone or will still use this one after resetting it, proceed to the next step.

Finally, here’s how to factory reset your iPhone

If you’ve done the above and are ready to reset your iPhone, open up the Settings app. Then tap General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings and confirm. You’ll be asked to enter your iPhone’s PIN code, then enter your Apple ID password (to unlink the device from your account and turn off Find My capability if you haven’t already).

Once you’ve done that, the screen will turn black and you’ll get a black progress bar at the bottom (similar to if you were updating to a new version of iOS). In a few minutes, the word «Hello» will appear on the screen in different languages, just like it did the first time you activated your iPhone. Congratulations, it’s been successfully reset.

That done, you’re now free to hand it off or send it on its way to a new owner.

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know