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Rajesh Pandey - page 22

iPhone Tap to Pay comes to the UAE

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Apple's Tap to Pay functionality is fast becoming the easy way to pay.
Businesses in the UAE can use an iPhone to accept contactless payments.
Photo: Apple

Apple continues its slow Tap to Pay expansion, launching it in the United Arab Emirates. This enables merchants in the region to accept contactless payments through their iPhones.

Apple launched Tap to Pay in 2022 in the US, slowly expanding its availability to more regions since then.

Apple gears up for retail expansion in Saudi Arabia

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Apple store logo
Apple's online store is coming to Saudi Arabia in 2025.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple is expanding its retail presence in Saudi Arabia. In the summer of 2025, the company will launch its online Apple Store in the country, followed in 2026 with its first physical stores there.

iOS 18.2 enhances Apple TV and Apple Music with natural language search

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iOS 18.2 mockup
iOS 18.2 brings a range of new AI features.
AI image: ChatGPT

iOS 18.2 will make searching on Apple Music and Apple TV much easier with natural language support. This means you can use natural language to describe and search for TV shows or music you are looking for.

The revamped Photos app gained support for similar search capabilities with the iOS 18.1 update.

Apple outshines Samsung in India with surging iPhone shipments

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Apple Saket opened Thursday in the heart of India’s thriving capital of New Delhi.
Indians are buying more iPhones than ever before.
Photo: Apple

Apple continued its impressive run in its next big growth market, India, shipping more than 9 million iPhones from January to September 2024. This represents 35% year-over-year growth for iPhone shipments in the country.

The company also increased its lead over Samsung, the previous leader in India’s smartphone market.

Apple’s iCloud Passwords extension arrives for Firefox fans

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iCloud Passwords Firefox extension
You can now access your iCloud Keychain passwords in Firefox.

Apple is making accessing login credentials saved in iCloud Keychain in Firefox easier with a new iCloud Passwords add-on.

The extension will help autofill your saved login details and automatically save new passwords to iCloud Keychain.

Apple’s next iPad Pro upgrade to arrive in second half of 2025

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Apple Magic Keyboard for M4 iPad Pro
M5 iPad Pro is still more than a few months away.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The next big iPad Pro refresh will arrive in the second half of 2025 at the earliest, according to a new report. The upgraded M5 iPad Pro reportedly will be the first product to use the next-gen Apple silicon chip.

Apple surprised everyone by launching this year’s iPad Pro refresh with an M4 chip.

Apple tests Amazon’s AI chips to pretrain Apple Intelligence models

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Screenshot of Apple introducing Apple Intelligence during the WWDC24 keynote.
Apple wants to use Amazon's chips for training its AI models
Photo: Apple

Apple uses Amazon Web Services’ custom artificial intelligence chips to power its search services. The company is also evaluating if it can use Amazon’s latest AI chips to pretrain Apple Intelligence models.

Apple’s Benoit Dupin, senior director of machine learning and AI, made these revelations Tuesday in a surprise appearance at Amazon’s annual AWS re:Reinvent conference in Las Vegas.

Apple Vision Pro makes its Taiwan debut on December 17

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Tim Cook on Apple Intelligence
You can soon buy the Vision Pro in Taiwan.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Vision Pro will go on sale in Taiwan on December 17. Pre-orders for the spatial computing headset will start on Thursday, December 5.

Prices for the headset start from NT$119,900, with higher storage models costing extra.

My favorite Bose headphones hit their lifetime low price for Cyber Monday

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Bose QuietComfort headphones
The Bose QuietComfort are the best headphones you can find for $199.
Photo: Rajesh Pandey/CultOfMac

Apple’s AirPods Max are a great pair of wireless headphones. But they are too expensive for what they offer. Plus, they don’t work as well with non-Apple devices. Due to these limitations, I got the Bose QuietComfort headphones earlier this year.

For Cyber Monday, these fantastic Bose headphones are down to their lowest price ever. And you should buy them over any other option you might have in mind. Here’s why.

Price alert: Get AirPods Pro 2 for just $170 [Updated]

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AirPods Pro in an open case ... an early Black Friday deal drops price
With this sale, you get AirPods Pro 2 with the coveted USB-C case at a very low price.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Amazon has dropped the price of the latest AirPods Pro 2 to just $170, a killer deal for the best wireless earbuds out there. This fantastic early Cyber Monday deal knocks a hefty $79 (32%) off the AirPods Pro 2 (regularly $249).

The deal is currently available at Amazon.

Now that AirPods Pro 2 can act as hearing aids, it’s hard to recommend any other earbuds for your iPhone, Mac or iPad. And yes, this is for the latest model with the USB-C charging case.

Best Cyber Monday deals on Beats headphones and earbuds [Updated]

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Beats Solo 4 headphones
Get Beats headphones and earbuds with big discounts this Cyber Monday.
Photo: Beats

The best Cyber Monday deals on Beats headphones and earbuds are now live. You can get many Beats headphones and earbuds at their lowest prices ever. A fresh price drop on Beats’ flagship headphones — the Beats Studio Pro — brings a whopping $190 discount. At just $159.99, they make a great alternative to other premium headphones.

Belkin recalls fast-charging Apple Watch power bank over fire risk

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Belkin BoostCharge Pro Fast Wireless Charger for Apple Watch + Power Bank 10K in use
Stop using the Belkin BoostCharge Pro Fast Wireless Charger for Apple Watch immediatley.
Photo: Belkin

Belkin is recalling its BoostCharge Pro Fast Wireless Charger for Apple Watch + Power Bank 10K due to a potential fire hazard. It is one of the few power banks on the market that can wirelessly fast charge an Apple Watch.

The company will issue a full refund to affected customers, though they must fill out a recall form first.

My favorite iPad is down to its lowest price this Black Friday

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Apple Magic Keyboard for M4 iPad Pro
Every M4 iPad Pro buyer should at least consider getting the Apple Magic Keyboard.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

There’s no better tablet to buy than an iPad. Apple overhauled the iPad Pro lineup this year with a slimmer new design, brighter displays, and a faster M4 chip.

I upgraded to the 11-inch iPad Pro from the M1 version earlier this year and could not be happier. This Black Friday, you should buy one, too, especially since the tablet is available with a big $150 discount.

iPhone 17 Pro could feature major design changes

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iPhone 17 Pro concept image
2025 iPhone 17 series could comer with a redesign.
Image: Apple Hub/X

 Apple could make big design changes to the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max next year. One such change would be the surprising decision to ditch the Pro models’ titanium edges for aluminum.

A new report also suggests the Pro models will switch to an aluminum camera bump, replacing the current 3D glass design. If you’re curious about when will iPhone 17 be released, early reports indicate Apple’s design choices will make this generation stand out.

iPhone 17 Air’s slim design could prioritize thinness over features

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iPhone 17 Air concept image
iPhone 17 Air could be insanely thin.
Image: Apple Hub/X

 Apple’s upcoming iPhone 17 Air could be even thinner than initially rumored. A new report on Monday details many of the slim iPhone’s features, revealing several design compromises Apple would make for thinness.

This includes ditching the SIM slot and switching to eSIM, even in units sold outside the US.

Apple reportedly delays key iOS 19 features until spring 2026

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iOS 19 render logo
iOS 19 might not launch with all big features initially.
Photo: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac

Apple reportedly will delay many of iOS 19’s bigger features until spring 2026. They will arrive eventually as part of iOS 19.4 instead of becoming available when the iPhone’s new operating system first drops in September 2025.

Apparently, the delay will affect “a larger-than-usual number of features.”

Apple unlikely to launch AirPods Max 2 anytime soon

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AirPods Max on desk
A major upgrade to AirPods Max is still a long way away.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Apple is not planning any major upgrades to AirPods Max anytime soon. The company plans to keep the headphones around in its current iteration for the “foreseeable future.”

M4 MacBook Pro teardown reveals larger heatsink but few other changes

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M4 Pro MacBook Pro teardown by iFixit
iFixit's teardown gives us a look at the M4 MacBook Pro's internals.
Photo: iFixit

Apple’s latest M4 MacBook Pro offers no improvements in repairability. This is unlike other devices that Apple launched this year, which focused on making repairs easier.

iFixit’s teardown of the M4 MacBook Pro also reveals that there are no internal design changes at all.

Save big on refurbished iPad 10 from Apple

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iPad 10 back to school deal
Buy a refurbished iPad 10 from Apple and save up to $80.
Photo: Apple

Apple is now selling refurbished iPad 10 through its online store in the US.

Buying a refurbished iPad will help you save an additional 15% off the device’s MSRP.

iOS 19 could debut a more conversational LLM Siri

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Siri with AI artificial intelligence
A more talkative Siri might arrive as part of iOS 19 next year.
Photo: Cult of Mac/Nadezhda Moryak

Apple plans to further improve Siri with iOS 19 in 2025 by using advanced next-generation large language models (LLMs).

Thanks to the new LLMs powering Siri, the voice assistant should become much more conversational.

WhatsApp finally supports voice message transcription

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Voice message transcription in WhatsApp
WhatsApp finally gets voice message transcription
Photo: WhatsApp

WhatsApp is taking a cue from iMessage and finally adding support for voice message transcripts. This will allow the app to show transcriptions of voice notes when you cannot listen to the audio itself.

Meta beta test voice message transcription in WhatsApp for over a year before rolling it out to the public.

15-inch MacBook Air hits its best price yet after massive 20% discount

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M4 MacBook Air coming
15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip has never been this affordable.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip is on sale for its lowest price just days before Black Friday. The world’s slimmest laptop packs plenty of power, and a lower price tag makes it an even better buy.

If you take advantage of the Amazon deal, you can get the 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip, 16GB storage, and 256GB storage for $1,044—a whopping $255 cheaper than its MSRP.

Snag M4 iMac at killer price in this early Black Friday deal

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A line of five M4 iMacs in an Apple Store. From left to right, Yellow, Pink, Purple, Green and Blue.
M4 iMac gets a flat $149 discount in this early Black Friday deal.
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple’s new M4 iMac is available with a hefty $149 discount within weeks of its launch. The model with a beefier M4 processor — with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU — drops to just $1,349 on Amazon in this early Black Friday deal. You can save even more if you opt for the nano-texture glass upgrade available on this midrange model.

Other models receive similar discounts. Just be sure to check the coupon box.

iPhone 17 Air could be Apple’s slimmest iPhone ever

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iPhone 17 leaks, specs and price
iPhone 17 Air might blow you away with its thinness.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The rumored iPhone 17 Air might measure just 6mm thick, making it the slimmest iPhone ever. The device reportedly will use an A19 chip fabricated on TSMC’s newer 3nm node.

The new process node should allow for higher transistor density, leading to better performance and efficiency.