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WhatsApp custom emoji reactions spotted in iOS beta

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A picture showing WhatsApp logo used in a story about new features coming to the app's iPhone version.
WhatsApp custom emoji reactions would let users replace the app’s six default icons with emojis of their choice.
Photo: Pixabay

WhatsApp is reportedly working on custom emoji reactions for iPhone. The feature would let users change the app’s six default reactions to emojis they like.

Right now, every iPhone owner sees the same six icons when they long-press a message. But the upcoming tool would let people build a reaction tray that actually matches how they text.

Apple patent hints at an iPhone that knows when to leave you alone

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Apple filed an AI interruption patent hoping to improve notifications.
Notifications are great... until they get irritating.
Image: Apple/Cult of Mac

Apple wants your iPhone to know when to bug you and when to back off. A newly published Apple AI interruption patent describes a system that keeps an eye on what you’re doing and nudges you only when your behavior calls for it.

The filing, published this month, pairs this very idea with another feature. It turns your recent activity into a quick summary that you can check later instead of interrupting whatever you’re doing on your iPhone. Together, the two pieces do read like a blueprint for smarter Reduce Interruptions and notification summaries.

7 mind-blowing Continuity features every Apple user should know

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Image showing iPhone, MacBook and Apple Watch, to describe Continuity Features across the devices
Your Apple devices can work together in more ways than you may expect.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Nothing illustrates the power of Apple’s ecosystem like the Continuity features that help your Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch work seamlessly together.

Thanks to Continuity, your iPhone can serve as your Mac’s webcam — and you can remotely control your iPhone from your Mac. You can start an email on one device and instantly pick it up on another. You can use the same keyboard and mouse with a Mac and iPad, copy and paste across devices and more.

These features flex the power of Apple’s hardware and software — and they would never be possible on a PC.
In this post (and the accompanying video), I will show you some of the time-saving, annoyance-busting Continuity features you can enjoy when you go all-in on the Apple ecosystem.

iOS 27 feature could prove an iPhone photo isn’t AI slop

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How Apple Reference Image will work
Apple Reference Image could give iPhone photos a stamp of authenticity in iOS 27.
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

Apple is building a new way to prove your iPhone photos are real. Called Apple Reference Image, it could become a highlight of iOS 27. The tool is designed to verify whether a photo was actually captured by the iPhone’s camera, not an AI generator.

It showed up in a privacy disclosure buried in iOS 27 beta 5.

iPhone 20 radical all-glass redesign remains on track for 2027

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iPhone Air held in hand.
The 2027 iPhone may ditch the aluminium back for an all-glass design.
Photo: Unsplash

Contrary to an analyst’s claim, Apple still plans to launch an all-glass iPhone on its 20th anniversary in 2027.

“The company expects to launch iPhone Pro models next year that will make use of a new glassy look,” wrote Mark Gurman in a Bloomberg report on Monday. Apple tested a version with even more glass but scrapped the plan early on due to design and manufacturing problems.

Apple reportedly tests Chinese memory chips for iPhone and MacBook

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A picture of RAM chips used in a story about Apple potentially talking to CXMT about buying memory chips.
Apple is looking for a workaround so it can keep building products despite worldwide memory shortages.
Photo: Pixabay

Apple is reportedly testing Chinese memory chips for possible use in future iPhones and MacBooks. The move comes as the company scrambles to secure memory supply during a global shortage.

The tests, which might span multiple product lineups, follows early talks with Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies about supplying components. Apple also seems to be seeking approval from the White House before moving forward with deals involving devices sold in China.

iOS 27 Lock Screen customizations finally put you in control of your iPhone

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What iOS 27 Lock Screen customization actually changes
iOS 27 Lock Screen customization adds four new ways to personalize your iPhone’s display.
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

The iPhone’s Lock Screen has always played by Apple’s rules. That changes with iOS 27, which hands far more design choices to iPhone users.

The upcoming update adds four new tools. You can generate AI wallpapers, stretch photos to fit properly, move the clock and hide the Now Playing widget. It’s the most flexible the iPhone Lock Screen has ever been.

Let Apple Mail organize your emails for you

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Sorting So You Don’t Have To
And with Writing Tools, it can reply to your emails for you, too.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

With automatic mail categorization in Apple Mail, you can organize your emails and keep your personal inbox less cluttered. It’ll intelligently put all your newsletters, receipts and promotions into separate folders.

If you struggle keeping up with your inbox, this feature is a great way to make your email easier to understand at a glance.

Keep reading below or watch our quick video.

Score more money as Apple boosts iPhone and Mac trade-in values

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Apple trade-in values for iPhone and Mac increase
Apple trade-in values for older iPhones increase ahead of the iPhone 18 launch.
Photo: Tessa Charles/Pexels CC

Thinking about upgrading to an iPhone 18 this fall? Apple just made the decision a little easier.

The company increased the max trade-in values for most iPhone, Mac, iPad and Apple Watch models in the United States, marking the latest value bump this year. The higher payouts let customers put more money toward a new device, whether they’re buying outright or through the new Apple Upgrade program.

Does charging your iPhone to 100% really hurt the battery?

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A picture of an iPhone used in a story about battery charging habits.
Charging your iPhone to 100% overnight might stress your battery more than you realize, but what actually matters is how long it stays at full charge.
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

Charging your iPhone to 100% won’t instantly fry your battery. But regularly keeping it at full charge for hours matters more than you might think.

The real culprit isn’t the charge itself — it’s how long your phone stays plugged in at maximum capacity. Apple’s built-in tools do help, but temperature and charging habits matter even more.

WebKit privacy leak leaves iPhone and Mac users exposed

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A Safari logo used in a story about WebKit privacy leaks.
A WebKit privacy leak can expose your iPhone or Mac’s real IP address even when using proxy browsers or iCloud Private Relay.
Image: Apple/Cult of Mac

Three recently discovered WebKit privacy leaks expose users’ real IP addresses on iPhone and Mac, even when they use a proxy browser or iCloud Private Relay, according to a new report.

This would mean Apple’s trusted privacy tools aren’t working as advertised. If you’ve relied on proxy browsers for anonymity or iCloud Private Relay for privacy, that protection apparently has some serious gaps.

iPhone 18e rumors: RAM, chip, design, price and more

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A picture of the iPhone 17e used in a story about iPhone 18e rumors.
iPhone 18e rumors point to a strange new RAM configuration, even as most other specs carry over unchanged from the iPhone 17e.
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

A handful of small but real changes are coming to Apple’s next budget iPhone, with iPhone 18e rumors pointing to a new chip and a RAM configuration nobody expected. None of it amounts to a redesign – this is still a budget phone, just slightly better.

The extra memory is the most interesting shift, but it comes with a catch. Most other specs, including the screen and camera, look set to carry over largely unchanged from the iPhone 17e. Here’s everything reported so far, and how solid each claim actually is.

Master AirDrop: Your ultimate guide to seamless file sharing on iPhone, iPad and Mac

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How to AirDrop: Drop It My Way
AirDrop is right up there with iMessage as a great Apple-exclusive feature. Learn how to use it.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

If you want to know the fastest and easiest way to send someone photos, videos, files and so, so much more, you should know how to AirDrop. There’s no need to send an iMessage — Apple’s slick AirDrop feature will immediately send and open the content on someone else’s iPhone (or other Apple device). There’s no middle step.

AirDrop works iPhone-to-iPhone, iPhone-to-Mac, iPhone-to-iPad, Vision Pro-to-Mac — any combination and permutation of two Apple devices. And, if your friend has a Google Pixel 10, you can AirDrop with them, too!

Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about how to take advantage of AirDrop.

iPhone and Mac supply crunch could mean long wait times for buyers

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A picture showing iPhones used in a story about iPhone 18 series availability.
Buying an iPhone 18 or new Mac this fall could come with weeks of wait times.
Photo: Unsplash

Availability of the iPhone 18 Pro series as well as new Macs and iPads could take a hit this fall. Apple admitted its supply chain is facing challenges.

The result could be lengthy wait times for this fall’s hottest new models. And an analyst warned that there could be price hikes for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, too.

12 eye-popping stats from Apple’s biggest June quarter ever

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AI-generated image of Wall Street buildings with numbers overlaid and an Apple logo, used to illustrate a post on eye-popping stats from Apple's Q3 2026 earnings call
Just try to wrap your head around these massive numbers.
AI image: Midjourney/Cult of Mac

Apple posted yet another round of astonishing numbers when it revealed its latest quarterly earnings Thursday. Many of the numbers are so massive as to be practically inconceivable, but they provide a fascinating insight into the size — and the unbridled success — of Apple’s business.

In what will be his last earnings call, outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook said the impressive numbers flow naturally from following Apple’s core values.

“Throughout all of it, we will remain guided by our North Star, building the best products and services to enable people to do magical things,” Cook said during Thursday’s call. “It’s a special privilege to be part of people’s lives in lasting and meaningful ways, helping them to create, connect, and experience the world around them.”

And it doesn’t hurt if you can generate enormous amounts of money as a result. Take a look at these Apple stats.

HBO Max Shorts brings vertical, AI-picked clips to iPhone

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A picture of HBO Max Shorts used in a story about the feature coming to select iOS users.
HBO Max Shorts serves up a vertical, scrollable feed of AI-selected clips from the streamer’s library.
Photo: HBO Max

HBO Max is testing a new video feed called HBO Max Shorts for select iPhone users in the United States. The feature uses an in-house AI tool to pick short clips from shows and movies, but the final call is still made by human editors.

The hook? The videos are vertical, not the usual horizontal orientation. 

HBO Max Shorts lives behind a new icon in the app’s bottom navigation bar. Similar to TikTok, it offers a scrollable feed of trailers, clips and bonus content pulled from the streamer’s library.

Apple says there’s no Apple Upgrade restricted mode for missed payments

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A picture of an iPhone used in a story about Apple Upgrade Program.
Apple says the Apple Upgrade restricted mode fear sparked by iOS 27 code won’t come true.
Photo: Apple

Missing a payment on your newly leased iPhone won’t nerf your device. Despite recent rumors, Apple confirmed that there’s no Apple Upgrade restricted mode.

The clarification caps a week of speculation over hidden iOS 27 code that described a system for restricting financed devices when payments went unpaid.

Apple Upgrade lets you subscribe to your next iPhone, Mac, iPad or Apple Watch

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Apple Upgrade turns hardware into a monthly subscription
Apple Upgrade is a subscription-style leasing program for the latest Apple devices.
Image: Apple/Cult of Mac

Apple just made it easier to stay on the latest hardware with the launch of Apple Upgrade, a new subscription-style leasing program that lets U.S. customers pay a monthly fee for an iPhone, Mac, iPad or Apple Watch.

The new service builds on the company’s old iPhone Upgrade Program by expanding to almost its entire product lineup, giving customers many more options when it’s time to move to a newer device.

“At Apple, we put the customer at the center of everything we do,” said Karen Rasmussen, Apple’s vice president of the Apple Store online in a press release Tuesday, “and we’re thrilled that Apple Upgrade offers our customers, both online and in-store, a more flexible way to pay for the products they love.”

iOS 27’s Call Context feature makes customer service calls less of a pain

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A picture of iOS 27 Call Context feature used in a story about how it works.
iOS 27 Call Context displays flight and reservation details right on the call screen.
Photo: Apple

iOS 27’s Call Context feature is shaping up to be one of the most useful additions in Apple’s fall software update. The Phone app will automatically show confirmation codes, reservation details and other relevant info whenever you call a business.

The feature works by pulling information straight from your Mail app, saving you the hassle of digging through your inbox in the middle of a customer service call. And Apple processes all of this locally, without sending anything to the cloud or a third party.

Convert your iPhone’s Live Photos to video in seconds

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Save Live Photos as a Video
Turn your many, many cat photos into a few great videos.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You can turn multiple Live Photos shot on your iPhone into a video. Simply select a group of Live Photos taken in a burst, and you can create a single, stitched-together video that you can save to your library and share on social media. It’s a much more accessible way to enjoy those little snippets of video. 

Here’s how it’s done.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 raves are great news for folding iPhone

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Photo of a person using a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 to take a photo.
The new Galaxy Z Fold8 gives a glimpse of the foldable iPhone's rumored form factor.
Photo: Samsung

Overwhelmingly positive first impressions of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 bode extremely well for Apple, which is prepping to launch a folding iPhone with a similar design.

People who went hands-on with the Z Fold8 after its Wednesday launch praise the device’s wide, compact form factor, which makes it easy to carry and improves the content consumption experience.

That’s great news for the upcoming folding iPhone, possibly called the iPhone Fold or the iPhone Ultra, which reportedly will arrive later this year.

Apple Upgrade leasing program could lock iPhone over late payments

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A photo of the iPhone used in a story about Apple said to be working on a new upgrade leasing program.
The Apple Upgrade leasing program could let you pay for an iPhone like a subscription, but there’s a catch.
Photo: Apple

Apple apparently wants you to stop buying iPhones outright, with the rumored Apple Upgrade leasing program the clearest sign of that shift. But code hidden in the iOS 27 beta hints at what happens if you fall behind on an Apple Upgrade payment — and it isn’t pretty.

According to information that leaked Tuesday, Apple Upgrade will enable consumers to pay monthly for an iPhone, Mac, iPad or Apple Watch. To go with that, Apple appears to be working on a system that could restrict a financed iPhone if payments lapse.