★★★★☆
The Alogic Roam 21000mAh Power Bank keeps your gadgets going on the go. Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
Anyone who constantly moves around with multiple devices knows finding a reliable power bank for laptop charging can be a challenge. After more than a week of using the new Alogic Roam 21,000mAh Power Bank, I’m ready to share my hands-on experience with the premium charger. Is it worth the investment? Yes. Let’s dive in, and I’ll tell you why.
A beautiful, well-framed picture will almost make a Prius look good. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
You should get comfortable with the world’s handiest camera so you can capture memories that will last a lifetime. After all, more and more people are leaving behind family point-and-shoot cameras for the smartphones in their pockets. With our iPhone photography tips, you won’t need the latest and greatest in your pocket.
If you know the ins and outs of photography, you can make the most out of a years-old camera. In fact, the winner of the 2020 iPhone Photography Awards took the prize-winning picture on an iPhone 4!
A folding iPhone might look something like this concept. AI concept: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac
To avoid mistakes made by rivals, Apple reportedly will do everything it can to create a crease-free folding iPhone with a durable hinge. According to a report released Friday, that includes producing the hinges using a liquid metal process.
The European Union just ordered Apple to make iPhone cooperate better with headphones and smartwatches made by other companies. AI image: Midjourney/Cult of Mac
The European Commission issued “guidance” Tuesday on changes it says Apple must make to comply with the interoperability requirements of the EU’s Digital Markets Act. The new mandates would open up the iPhone to work more closely with third-party smartwatches, headphones and TVs.
Apple says the new rules will undercut user privacy and slow innovation, and vows to make its case to the EU. It remains to be seen whether the changes will take effect only in Europe or globally.
This guide will tell you if it’s worth an upgrade. Image: Apple/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Is it worth it to buy the iPhone 16e? Apple’s latest entry-level iPhone brings a nice balance of modern features and capabilities at a reasonable price. It’s also possibly the nicest-looking iPhone in the current lineup.
If you’re still on an iPhone SE, now is a great time to upgrade. You’ll be getting a modern device with Face ID, Apple Intelligence, 5G, USB-C and more — in a handsome and lightweight design.
How to keep spam texts at bay… and how effective it might (not) be. Image: EEIM/Wikimedia Commons/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
How can you report a spam text you get on your iPhone, and what happens when you report it? Where does the report go? Does anyone look at these things?
Apple has useful tools like Hide My Email and Sign in with Apple for managing email spam, but text spam can be far more annoying. You don’t have a spam filter for your texts, and texts can be easier to fake.
If you’re getting spam texts, there are a few different steps you can take to can it, and I’ll walk you through all of them.
Sometimes these things just disappear on you. Image: Kristin Hardwick/Wikimedia Commons/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
You can visit the App Store to download Apple apps like Music, Podcasts, Weather, Maps and Find My missing from your iPhone or iPad. If you can’t find them. It’s possible you uninstalled them and your device needs to download them again. Or they might have simply disappeared from your Home Screen, and are now hiding in the App Library.
There are also a few iPhone apps that Apple hasn’t made available on iPad. This was the case with Calculator until very recently, so you may need to install an update to get it.
I’ll walk you through all the possibilities, showing you how to get Apple’s stock apps back on your iPhone or iPad.
★★★★☆
The iPhone 16e's design revisits beautiful minimalism. Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The iPhone 16e might lack some of the iPhone’s most premium features, but I can’t help but love it. While testing it for my iPhone 16e review, the phone’s light weight and clean rear design made me happy every time I picked it up, in a way I haven’t felt since my iPhone 5s. And its updated guts make it a perfectly serviceable daily driver that’ll stay fast and responsive for years to come.
It isn’t as cheap as the iPhone SE it replaces in Apple’s lineup. And while it largely resembles the iPhone 14 and 15, it’s missing MagSafe, one of the iPhone’s best features for many years now.
I downgraded from my personal iPhone 16 Pro to the iPhone 16e for the review, to put it through its paces — and came out impressed. Keep reading or watch the video below.
Here’s what to do without Advanced Data Protection. Image: Apple/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you want to keep your iCloud data completely private and secure, but you live in the United Kingdom — where Apple is rolling back Advanced Data Protection to comply with government demands — you’ll need an alternative to iCloud sync and backup features.
That’s because the only option is to not use iCloud. There’s no getting around it: without Advanced Data Protection, your iCloud backups can potentially be snooped on.
Turning off iCloud will have many negative ramifications. iCloud manages syncing services across all your devices. If you own an iPhone, Mac and/or iPad, iCloud makes sure all your messages, photos, app data, notes, passwords, bookmarks, etc., appear everywhere.
Without Advanced Data Protection, there are still a few of these backup services that are end-to-end encrypted. But a few critical services, like device backups, are not — and if you don’t disable them, you’ll have a big hole in your data security. Keep reading or watch our video.
iPhone 16e is a capable handset, but some reviewers question the price. Image: Apple/Cult of Mac
Early reviews of the iPhone 16e give the first real-world experience of the $599 phone that launches Friday. The takeaway: While it skimps on some features, the iPhone 16e offers excellent performance and is one of Apple’s best options for lengthy battery life.
Nevertheless, some reviews question whether the limited features justify the “budget” iPhone’s $599 price.
This is the best way to give everyone the Wi-Fi password. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
When guests come over, it’s common courtesy to share your Wi-Fi password — and your iPhone offers plenty of tricks up its sleeve to make it easy.
You don’t need to go through your photo library to look up the picture you took of the bottom of your router, then read the long string of numbers and letters. Instead, you can show them a convenient QR code to connect them instantly. Or, if they’re in your contacts, you can share the password with a single button tap. For your Android and Windows friends, you can look up any saved Wi-Fi password from either Settings, or, well … Passwords. If you often work with colors, a Nix Mini Color Sensor can make identifying and matching colors quick and effortless.
Add another level to your music. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The new Music Haptics accessibility feature in iOS 18 adds another dimension to audio: vibration. Taking advantage of the incredible precision of the iPhone’s Taptic Engine, the feature brings to life a specially recorded track of rhythmic vibrations and buzzing patterns timed to certain Apple Music songs.
Switch it on, and you can hold your iPhone in your hands and feel your music in a whole new way. Keep reading to see how the feature works (or watch our video that explains it all).
Lock your kids into a game (like Zookeeper) when they have your phone. Image: MIKI Yoshihito/Wikimedia Commons/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
You can use a feature called Guided Access to lock down your iPhone to a single app before you hand it to a kid or someone else. You might want to let your offspring play a game, or pass your phone around for controlling music, or hand it off to show someone a video … but you probably don’t want them going rogue and reading your texts or calling your mom.
In Accessibility settings, you can enable Guided Access to limit your iPhone to a single app before you hand it off. It’s a kind of quick and dirty “guest mode.”
This will help you keep your phone — and your privacy — safe. You can even disable features like the volume buttons and set up time limits.
Apple moves ahead with the long-awaited folding iPhone. AI concept: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac
Apple’s display supplier reportedly solved the biggest technical challenge slowing the acceptance of foldable phones: the ugly screen crease where the display bends.
With that hurdle cleared, production of components for the slim, folding iPhone supposedly will begin later this year.
Get ready for photo editing on the fly. Photo: Adobe
In a big development for mobile creativity, you can finally get Adobe Photoshop on iPhone. Adobe officially launched a new version of the powerful photo editing suite for iPhone Tuesday, bringing it to Apple’s most popular device.
The release comes five years after Photoshop debuted on iPad, giving iPhone photographers and digital artists access to professional-grade editing tools on the go. If you’re working on the go, having a usb c power adapter like this10-port USB-C charger can help keep your devices powered.
That’s a sizable camera hump, no doubt about it. Concept: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
A CAD drawing purportedly showing the entire iPhone 17 line leaked out Sunday, possibly giving the world its best look yet at Apple’s entire 2025 handset lineup. The standout in the image is the super-size camera humps on the two iPhone 17 Pro models.
If the drawings prove accurate, the iPhone 17 will receive less of a design change. The rumored iPhone 17 Air also puts in an appearance in the leaked drawing.
And if you’re wondering how to get better camera quality on iPhone, the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro’s video upgrades could redefine mobile photography and potentially make traditional cameras obsolete. Read more here.
Keep food cool and gadgets charged on outings. And the biggest model doubles as a freezer. Photo: Anker
The new Anker Solix EverFrost 2 Electric Cooler gives iPhone users a sophisticated way to manage their outdoor adventures, Anker said Friday. The smart cooler combines advanced cooling technology with iOS app integration, offering Apple users unprecedented control over their outdoor food and beverage storage, complete with Apple device charging.
There are a lot of ways to customize the Lock Screen in iOS 16. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
You can radically customize the Lock Screen of your iPhone with a bunch of widgets, aesthetics and styles. If you liked the themed custom Home Screens people were putting together using Shortcuts and Widgetsmith, you’ll love the level of creativity you can express with customized Lock Screens.
Visual Intelligance transforms real-world objects into digital data. Photo: Apple
Visual Intelligence, which previously was reserved for the iPhone 16 models, will reportedly reach the two iPhone 15 Pro variants in the near future.
Realistically, there was no reason why the artificial intelligence feature shouldn’t have been added to Apple’s 2023 models with the debut of iOS 18. In fact, with the growing demand for AI-powered productivity tools, many users are looking for ways toAI take notes efficiently to enhance their workflow.
Watch the announcement in just 3.9% of the time. Image: Apple/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Today, Apple introduced the iPhone 16e. It features many top features from the iPhone 16 series, but at a lower $599 price point. The iPhone 16e replaces the former iPhone SE in the lineup.
The Apple C1 chip is the company’s first in-house cellular modem. Image: Apple
The new Apple C1 modem that powers the cellular connectivity of the iPhone 16e is the company’s first cellular modem designed in-house.
The C1 offers “fast and reliable connectivity, and it’s the most power-efficient modem ever in an iPhone,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing, in a launch video released Wednesday. Thanks to its efficiency — and an optimized internal design that allows for a bigger battery — the iPhone 16e offers an “unprecedented level of battery life in a 6.1 inch iPhone,” she added.
The Apple C1 integrates 4G, 5G, satellite and GPS radios in one chip. The C1 represents a brand-new direction for Apple silicon, alongside the company’s processors and other wireless chips. Recent Ookla speed tests suggest that the C1 modem holds its own against the Qualcomm chip in the iPhone 16, as detailed in this comparison.
Match wits with The CultCast hosts in our traditional predictions game. Image: Midjourney/Cult of Mac
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Tim Cook’s cryptic tease about “the newest member of the [Apple] family” fuels speculation about what new products the company will announce. Let the predictions begin! While Apple’s future continues to spark debate, it’s interesting to look back at past predictions—such as when CNN speculated about Apple’s downfall. Ever wondered how much is CNN worth? Check out this historical perspective on Apple’s supposed decline.
We made our predictions live on the podcast. You can play along in our predictions game.
Also on The CultCast:
The new Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds offer cool features — and come in hot colors.
Erfon defends his decisions re: his recent MacBook Pro and iPad Pro purchases.
Apple’s venture into robotics sounds pretty serious. What might the first products look like?
And finally, the first folding iPhone might arrive next year. The latest rumor gives us hope.
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
Control your iPhone from afar. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Eye Tracking is a pretty remarkable and ambitious accessibility feature that lets you control your iPhone entirely with your eyes. You can use this feature in a pinch if you need to use your phone with soapy hands while doing the dishes or with grimy hands while working on a car or doing other dirty work. Alternatively, if you’re losing your fine motor skills, this feature could be an essential one to learn.
Likely borrowing some of the software from the advanced Vision Pro headset, this feature lets you control your iPhone hands-free. And once you set up Eye Tracking, you can use the iPhone’s Sound Actions feature. It lets you perform certain functions, like toggling your flashlight or taking a screenshot, just by making various mouth noises.
Make a fresh start with autocorrect. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
If autocorrect repeatedly serves up ridiculous options, you can reset your iPhone keyboard to eliminate weird additions to its dictionary. This comes in handy when you find that autocorrect suddenly starts changing words it doesn’t need to change, or offering up other strange glitches.
It just takes a second to reset the keyboard dictionary on iPhone or iPad. We’ll show you how.