More evidence points to fast-charging having little detrimental effect on iPhone battery health. Photo: SwitchEasy
Users have long suspected fast-charging hastens iPhone battery drain more than low-power charging, but a new experiment supports Apple’s claim that it doesn’t. At least, not much.
Apple's battery replacement might be bad for upgrade rates. Photo: iFixit
Customers who purchased an iPhone battery replacement before the price was lowered to $29 might be in for a rebate from Apple.
In a letter sent today to U.S. Senator John Thune, the iPhone-maker revealed that it is exploring the possibility of offering rebates, but it’s unclear when that will happen.
ARKit is going to be massively important for Apple. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple’s got no shortage of big launches coming in the next few weeks, but the one with the biggest long-term potential for Apple is ARKit. This is going to be massively important for Apple.
In this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine, you’ll find that story and more. Get the latest iPhone 8 keynote event predictions. And learn how to stop your iCloud and Apple ID from getting hacked. Save big in our Watch Store this Labor Day weekend! Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.
The iPhone 6s has more junk in the trunk. Photo: Apple
Apple is offering iPhone 6s customers a free battery replacement for devices that unexpectedly shut down. The problem mostly affects iPhone 6s units made between September 2015 and October 2015.
If you’re not sure when your iPhone 6s was made, you can use a new tool created by Apple to find out if your device has a faulty battery.
A big battery could be a huge sell for iPhone 7. Photo: Martin Hajek/Flickr
Apple’s new iPhone lineup this fall may not contain the most exciting updates ever, but it may pack an under-rated feature fans have been begging for years: better battery life.
Give your phone a jump-start with the JumPack. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
JumPack Power Pack CPP 8000 by Cobra
If you’re anything like me, you carry a ton of gadgets. Keeping them all charged is a juggling act and, inevitably, there’s always one device I’ve neglected to keep juiced.
Coming to my rescue though, Cobra sent over a JumPack Power Pack to charge up all my devices. Plus, it comes with an extra trick up its sleeve.
Your iPhone will always need to be recharged everyday. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Every year Apple introduces a new iPhone, and every year I get my hopes up that this will finally be the model that can go two or three days without needing to be recharged. But according to a lithium-ion battery expert, the odds of Apple adding a power source capable of boosting iPhone battery life like that are practically zero.
Dee Strand, chief scientific officer at battery research firm Wildcat Discovery Technology, says the throughput on smartphone batteries is rapidly improving every year. The problem is, new features are bogging them down.
Charge this one with your MacBook Mag Safe power adapter in about 15 minutes. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Best List: Super Charge Powerbank by Quarter
Power banks and external batteries are everywhere these days, including airports, drug stores and (my favorite) at the Apple Store. I’ve used quite a few of them and, while many are kind of cheaply made, a few are pretty well-designed and useful.
Quarter’s Super Charge Powerbank is one of the latter. Just 15 minutes hooked to your MacBook MagSafe power adapter cord will give it enough juice to fully charge your iPhone. You can charge with a typical micro-USB cable, too, but you won’t get that fast a top-off.
There’s nothing more irritating than wanting to use your iPhone and seeing that the battery is either low or completely dead. While plugging in your iPhone normally can get you a pretty good charge, it seems to take a long time. In this episode of Cult of Mac’s how-to’s we show you how to charge your iPhone quicker than normally with our easy steps.
It’s taken nearly five months, but Mophie has finally announced its battery case for the iPhone 5. The Mophie Juice Pack Helium for iPhone 5 contains a 1500mAh battery in a case that’s 13% slimmer than its predecessor. The pack promises to give six to seven more hours of battery life to the iPhone 5 in normal use cases. The Juice Pack Helium costs $80 while supplies last, and shipments start going out on Valentine’s Day.
Cydia remains a vibrant marketplace for home-brewed hacks and jailbreak apps, but how will the storefront evolve as iOS matures?
There have been a ton of great tweaks released for jailbroken iOS devices in 2012. Innovation in the jailbreak community is far from dead, and ideas are continuing to evolve alongside iOS itself. What makes jailbreaking great is the sheer amount of customizability it unlocks. Sometimes a simple idea gives way to a crazy amount of potential.
That’s what this top 10 list of 2012 jailbreak tweaks is about: pushing the limits of what your iOS device can do. Here are the very best quality jailbreak tweaks from the past year:
Imagine the scene: You’re in the middle of a particularly intense iPhoneography session, and the photos you’re getting are gold. You snap one keeper after another and then shift over to SnapSeed or some such app to really spice things up. But you’re so engrossed in the process of editing that you don’t notice your iPhone’s battery is almost dead until you get the dreaded pop-up warning.
If you are equipped with Photojojo’s keychain backup charger, then you needn’t worry. Just flip the top, plug it in and continue working.
The iPhone is a phenomenal tool for a bit of tromping about in the bush; navigation, stargazing, photographing/filming and even staying alive can all be accomplished with the help of the little gadget. That is, if it’s got any juice left.
Solio’s Rocsta ($80) — a solar panel mated to a thin slab of a battery in a sleek, flat, user-friendly housing — seems to have been created with a nod to minimalist adventurous types who want a rugged, no-fuss solar charger aong on their next Iditarod or photo shoot for National Geographic.
Atif Shamin, a Phd student in electronics at Carlton University in Canada, has figured out a way of reducing iPhone battery drain.
He’s replaced all the internal wires and PCBs of his iPhone with an antenna.
The swap allows a wireless connection between a micro-antenna embedded within the circuits of the chip.
“This has not been tried before that the circuits are connected to the antenna wirelessly. They’ve been connected through wires and a bunch of other components. That’s where the power gets lost,” Shamim said in an article on the University website.
He estimates that his solution uses 12 times less power than the traditional, wired-transmitter module. That means more juice for the ever-expanding choice in apps.
“It’s a common problem. There are so many applications in the iPhone, it’s like a power-sucking machine,” said Shamim.
He’s filed for patents in the US and Canada, look out for details on his hack in an upcoming issue of Microwave Journal.