iPhone - page 29

An eSIM in your iPhone can keep you connected wherever you go internationally while avoiding expensive roaming charges. It’s super-easy to set up an eSIM. Plus, you can create different profiles for different countries or regions, so you never have to worry about getting hit with surprise charges.

To snooze a wake-up alarm on your iPhone, you can tap the screen or press any button. Or you might build an elaborate mechanism that spans most of your bedroom and sends the handset on a wild adventure. That’s what one inventor recently did.

The Rube Goldberg device is the creation of Joseph Herscher, who makes them for a living.

The Face ID sensors reportedly will be hidden from users in next year’s iPhone 16 Pro. That would free up space for more screen area.

If true, under-display Face ID might mean that the days of the Dynamic Island are numbered, even though the feature only recently debuted in the iPhone 14 Pro.

Apple’s drawn-out effort to make its own 5G modem will reportedly begin to bear fruit in 2024. This will replace ones now sourced from Qualcomm.

And the iPhone-maker is also working to produce other wireless chips it currently gets from Broadcom.

The iPhone 15 is reportedly in trial production, a fairly early stage in bringing the product to market. Still, it means the final feature set and design are essentially complete and Apple is thinking about assembling the device.

Trial production is going on at a Foxconn plant in China. The iPhone 15 will also be made in India.

Every year, Apple has some significant hardware upgrades planned for at least a few devices in its product lineup. 2023 could be an outlier, though.

This year, Apple’s major hardware launches will include its first AR/VR headset and the iPhone 15 series. While other products in the company’s lineup will receive a refresh, they will be relatively minor upgrades.

Calling it the “first hands-free connected home urine lab,” Withings raised the lid Wednesday on U-Scan at CES 2023.

You stick the device — which, frankly, looks a bit like a urinal cake — in the toilet. Then you get urine-scan results for many health factors via Withings’ app on your iPhone.

Notes and Reminders, two stock apps that come with every iPhone, iPad and Mac, can do so much more than write shopping lists and apologies on Twitter.

With tagging, you can quickly filter and search through a big folder of notes or a long to-do list. You can easily put together a bunch of filters by date, location and tag to create a smart list of everything that needs your attention in Reminders. You can even set up template Reminders lists that you can copy at any time.

Let me show you how to set it all up.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: We’re talking about all the Apple gear we’re certain will arrive in 2023 — and some we just hope will materialize.

Also on The CultCast:

• An Apple Watch Ultra clone for less than $50?!?
• More on Apple’s penny-penching strategy of skimping on cloud storage by serving up lower-resolution files.
• Our picks for best of 2022 — part two!

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.

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Every year, Apple launches a handful of products that stand out from the competition. 2023 is going to be no different, but next year will be special for Apple in many ways.

The company could enter a new product category with its AR/VR headset, and the iPhone could get some major hardware upgrades. Below is a roundup of five Apple product launches to look forward to in 2023.

Now is the “sweet spot” to get an iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max. Apple has almost caught up with demand, but a growing crisis in China might impact production of the top-tier iOS handsets.

So if you’ve been waiting for the right time to order one, this is probably it.

3 nanometer chip production is about to begin at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. This is important news for Apple, as TSMC makes the CPUs for Mac, iPhone, iPad, etc.

Apple is expected to use 3nm processors in products launching in 2023, making the devices faster and more efficient.

The iPhone setup process gets easier every year. So easy, in fact, that there are only a few things you need to do to move from your old iPhone to a new one. You can even directly transfer your data from an Android phone. Setting up a new iPhone from scratch isn’t much harder — you just have a few extra steps you need to go through.

There are still a few tricks that will help things run smoothly, though. Let’s see how to set up your new iPhone the right way.

Criminals around the world are surely celebrating news that Apple is being forced by the European Union to enable iPhone to install applications from outside the App Store. The move will allow hackers to release a fresh tidal wave of malware, hoping to slip it onto iOS handsets. iPhone users will be forced to fend off attempts to trick them into installing this malware virtually every day.

And well-known, unscrupulous companies will take advantage of the new security hole, too.

Looking for some sweet holiday gifts that won’t break the bank? The Cult of Mac Store has a massive collection of affordable stocking stuffers, sure to put a smile on the face of any Apple fan, for less than $20 each.

You’ll find cases, screen protectors, bands, stands and more from our most popular vendors. And every product has been used and approved by us, so you can be confident you’re spending your hard-earned cash on great products.

The European Parliament picked December 28, 2024 as date after which iPhone and all other handsets sold in the EU must have a USB-C port. That means the iPhone 17 in 2025 will definitely not include a Lightning port.

But unconfirmed reports say Apple will make the change earlier than that.

Apple Music Sing gives you the real-time lyrics you need to sing along to your favorite tracks. The upcoming feature will show the words to songs so you can easily join in. It will even adjust the volume of the original singer so you take the lead.

It’s coming in December to Apple Music subscribers worldwide. The feature will work with millions of songs in the streaming service’s catalog, Apple said Tuesday.

Following Black Friday, the Cult of Mac Store added massive discounts over the weekend for Cyber Monday. So not only can you get a whopping 40% off SwitchEasy iPhone 12 series cases and accessories, you can get 30% a whole lineup of other great SwitchEasy gear.

See below for more details on all the great deals on many brands you can still get in the Cult of Mac Store. But if you like what you see, don’t hesitate. This deal ends at 11:59 p.m. PDT on Friday, December 2.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The latest iPhone 15 rumors make it sound like we’re getting some major changes on the design front. And, while the switch from Lightning to USB-C sounds like a winner, Apple might pull one of its irritating tricks by making a handy feature exclusive to the iPhone Pro models next year.

Also on The CultCast:

• Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals on your favorite Apple gear.
• COVID-19 chaos in the Chinese factory complex known as “iPhone City” points to further supply-chain disruptions for Cupertino.
• Find My miracles!
• Mondo’s Severance collectibles look like a really cool way to dig deeper into the most creative show on Apple TV+.

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.

Our sponsor: CultCloth

This is absolutely your last chance to get forgetful Eron’s ridiculous CultCloth deal! These are the only cleaning cloths you need!

Protests over unpaid bonuses, anti-COVID-19 controls and even food quality led police to clash with hundreds of workers at the world’s largest iPhone factory in China, reports indicated Wednesday.

Social media videos and witnesses in Zhengzhou, where Foxconn operates a giant factory nicknamed “iPhone City,” said police beat and detained protesters.

There’s something especially convenient about having a multi-device charging station on your nightstand. Or you could place at the edge of your desk or on a table by the front door. It’s a place you can charge your iPhone, AirPods charging case and Apple Watch all at once if need be.

Ugreen sent me its version to test out, the 3-in-1 MagSafe Wireless Charging Station. It’s a good charger for most people — especially because it’s MFi-certified for MagSafe. That means you get a full 15 watts for MagSafe iPhones and 5W apiece for an AirPods charging case and Apple Watch.

But the device isn’t without minor drawbacks.

iPhone 14 models can now use Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite service. It allows users of the latest iOS handsets to exchange texts with emergency services while outside of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage.

The new feature debuted Tuesday in the United States. Apple says the satellite SOS service will become available in France, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom starting in December.

Apple is working on changing the “Hey Siri” hotword to just plain “Siri,” and the change could roll out as early as next year.

Introduced in 2015 with the iPhone 6s, the “Hey Siri” hotword remains unchanged to this day. You also can use the phrase to invoke Apple’s voice assistant on the Mac, iPad, HomePod and Apple Watch.

Apple is reportedly sticking with a two-year replacement cycle on its budget handset line. That means the iPhone SE 4 won’t be out until 2024, according to a reliable source.

The launch is apparently far enough away that Apple hasn’t settled on a final design.

An Apple executive confirmed that iPhone will drop the Lightning port in favor of USB-C. It’s a change being forced by the European Parliament, and Apple VP Greg Joswiak says the company won’t try to get around the new regulation.

Until now, it could only be assumed iPhone would give up Lightning.