speed

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on speed:

Newest 13-inch MacBook Pro brings unbelievable speed boost

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2019 MacBook Pro Fortnite
It's not clear what is causing the problem.
Photo: Apple

Apple promised its newest 13-inch MacBook Pro would deliver faster performance than the previous model. But we weren’t expecting to be up to 83% faster!

That’s the kind of speed increase you’re getting with the latest model, according to early benchmarks. It gives existing owners a massive reason to upgrade — even if they have no interest in the Touch Bar.

How to make YouTube load up to 5x faster in Safari

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YouTube in Safari on iMac Pro
It’s easy to give YouTube a kick up the backside.
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

Have you ever wondered why YouTube is so much slower than all the other websites you visit in Safari? Did you know that you could make it up to five times faster with very little effort?

YouTube’s new design doesn’t play nicely with browsers that aren’t Google Chrome, but with some simple tweaks, you can switch back to its previous design and enjoy much faster speeds.

Here’s how.

Galaxy Note 7 gets embarrassed by iPhone 6s in speed test

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Specs aren't everything!
Photo: PhoneBuff

Compare their specifications on paper and the Galaxy Note 7 looks like it would be leagues ahead of the iPhone 6s in performance, but real-world speed tests prove that the reality is very different.

Despite being almost a year older, Apple’s latest smartphone well and truly embarrasses the Galaxy Note 7 in app loading times.

How Intel’s Skylake processors will supercharge your MacBook

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Intel-Kaby-Lake
Intel's Skylake chips are coming to your MacBook.
Photo: Intel

This year’s MacBook and MacBook Pro upgrades are expected to bring Intel’s latest Skylake processors. Delivering more than just speed improvements, the new chips will bring far greater performance, graphics and battery life to Apple’s notebook lineup for 2016.

Here’s what makes those Skylake processors so special — and how they’ll supercharge that new Mac you’ll soon be drooling over.

Pro Tip: How to speed up your Apple Watch

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Apple Watch
Get your Apple Watch ready for your new iPhone.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Pro_Tip_Cult_of_Mac Apple Watch is becoming second nature to me after several months of owning it. It’s gotten to the point where I feel like something’s missing when I don’t strap it to my wrist in the morning before starting my workday.

Thing is, the Apple Watch has so many animations on it that I sometimes feel like getting things done takes too long. I just want to find and use apps, with a minimum of fuss and bother.

Luckily, you can turn off those animations on Apple Watch to make it all feel a bit snappier.

Crazy swiss rocket bike travels a quarter mile in 7 seconds

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This guy's about to go really fast on a skinny bike. Photo: François Gissy
This guy's about to go really fast on a skinny bike. Photo: François Gissy

Seriously, outside of an airplane, I don’t think I’ve ever traveled at 207 miles per hour (or 333 kilometers per hour, if you’re metric).

Swiss cyclist François Gissy, however, just set a speed record on a rocket-propelled bicycle designed by his buddy Arnold Neracher.

How’s that for fast? Check out the video of the record-breaking attempt below, but be sure to turn down your sound. Nothing sounds as silly as a rocket bike.

Evernote Sync Now 4X Faster

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Evernote’s elephant logo is curiously appropriate. Not because it never forgets your notes, but because the service is slow, lumbering and hard to control. Now, thanks to a complete redesign of the backend servers, one aspect has improved. Sync is now, according to Evernote CEO Phil Libin, four times faster.

How Fast Is That External Drive? Find Out With Disk Speed Test [OS X Tips]

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Disk Speed Test

I’ve just picked up one of those fancy USB 3 drives to use with my Macbook Air as a sort of secondary backup when I travel, as it was so inexpensive for a 120 Gb drive. I wanted to know how much faster it might be, even on my non-USB 3 Air, than the run of the mill USB drive that you can pick up for a few bucks at the local electronics store, or get as a giveaway at a tech conference, for example. I also wanted to see how fast the new SSD drive that I installed in my Macbook Air was, just for kicks.

I wasn’t sure how to measure the relative speed of these drives, though, until I found out about Disk Speed Test from the fine folks over at OS X Daily. I was able to check the speed of my fast USB drive, my internal SSD drive, and an external USB-powered drive, and compare them all, which is pretty peachy.

Here’s how it works.

Using An SD Card In The Canon 5DMkIII Brings The Camera’s Speed To Its Knees

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Relax -- don't do it. Photo illustration Jeff Cable

Got a super-fast Canon 5D MkIII? Love that you can just pop out the SD card and slide it straight into your Retina iPad via the camera connection kit? Not so fast – literally. Photographer Jeff Cable has done the math and found that the camera’s SD slot is slow, slow slow compared the the CF slot, and then it actually gets worse.

Bike Speed And Cadence Sensor Talks To iPhone Via Bluetooth 4

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Wahoo's low-power sensor should last as long as a regular cyclocomputer.

There are probably hundreds of apps that will turn your iPhone into a mobile fitness device, using the phone’s GPS to track your speed and from there derive calories burned, route taken and so on. Some of them even connect wirelessly through a dongle to heart-rate monitors and the like. It’s like having a coach in your pocket, only he doesn’t wake you up in the morning by shouting at you.

Now, though, things are going to the next level. Wahoo’s new Blue SC speed and cadence sensor talks direct to the iPhone via low-powered Bluetooth 4, letting it communicate directly with your bike.

IOS Completely Embarrasses Android In HTML5 Speed Tests

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Given the numbers, LG might be better sticking to physical displays of 3-D like this one at the Mobile World Congress last week. Photos Charlie Sorrel (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
Given the numbers, LG might be better sticking to physical displays of 3-D like this one at the Mobile World Congress last week. Photos Charlie Sorrel (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

IOS runs HTML5 games a crazy three times faster than Android, according to a study by Spaceport.io. The tests were run on various hardware and software combinations, both for Android and iOS, and the results are pretty startling. And there’s an even more amusing data point: The Blackberry Playbook beat every Android device.

Sprint Tweaks Network Amid iPhone 4S Speed Issues

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Photo by edavid3001 - http://flic.kr/p/aDBFB2
Photo by edavid3001 - http://flic.kr/p/aDBFB2

If Sprint’s new “network enhancements” were designed to quiet complaints by iPhone 4S users, the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier may need to return to the drawing board. Following tweaks for peppier 3G downloads, many Sprint customers still complain of turtle-like connections while lusting after Verizon’s faster network.

Get Your iPhone 4S On Verizon For Better Calls, AT&T For Faster Data

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iPhone-4S-AT&T-vs-Verizon-vs-Sprint

Want the iPhone 4S but still unsure which carrier to commit to? It was easier when there was just one, right? Well maybe this will help you decide: A test performed by Metrico Wireless highlights the strengths and weaknesses of all three iPhone 4S providers — AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon — with Verizon coming out on top when it comes to reliable calls, and AT&T beating the others to faster data.

The Kindle Fire Keeps Up With the iPad 2 When Web Browsing, Beats It Hands Down At Netflix Video Streaming [Video]

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After months of anticipation, Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire started shipping yesterday, but even since its unveiling critics have been labeling it a worthy iPad competitor. Its pocket-pleasing price tag coupled with its terrific user interface could make it the first tablet to really give the iPad something to worry about.

But how does it stack up to Apple’s device in terms of performance? Well, at less than $200, none of us expected the Kindle Fire to really match the iPad 2’s speed, but as you’ll see in this video comparison, it does a fantastic job of keeping up while browsing the web, and it’s significantly quicker and streaming Netflix videos.