| Cult of Mac

Extend your MacBook’s battery for years of use with Energiza Pro

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Energiza Pro battery health panel in the Mac menu bar
Energiza Pro gives you full control over your battery health.
Image: appgineers

How can you best save your MacBook battery life for many years of use? Your laptop’s battery is the most likely component to wear out, and one of the biggest problems is keeping it plugged in all the time. Apple offers some built-in controls, but they’re pretty basic and inflexible. Energiza Pro, on the other hand, gives you far more options, extending your MacBook’s battery life for years to come.

It’s the smart battery manager you need to keep your MacBook alive for longer.

How to get the battery percentage back on iPhone

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Get your battery percentage numbers back in the status bar!
Get your battery percentage numbers back in the status bar!
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Being able to see your phone’s battery percentage right in the status bar is incredibly useful — but Apple killed it five years ago. Until today that is, with iOS 16.

You can, once again, get the battery percentage in the status bar for the first time since 2017.

iPhone 12 Pro Max battery solidly beats all other premium phones

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iPhone 12 Pro Max
Apple’s premium iOS handset makes very efficient use of the power it stores in its battery.
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac

The iPhone 12 Pro Max whipped all other top-tier handsets in a rigorous battery test. Doxomark simulated using the handsets over several days, and also factored in how long they took to recharge. In the final score, Apple’s offering came out way ahead.

Users complain that Magic Keyboard drains iPad Pro battery unusually fast

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Magic Keyboard Trackpad
Draingate, anyone?
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Users are complaining that Apple’s Magic Keyboard drains the battery of their iPad Pro at a shockingly fast rate.

Some claim that their iPad Pro battery level drops by up to a quarter in just a couple of hours while using the Magic Keyboard for typing. Others say their tablet burns through battery life even when the iPad Pro is idle with the Magic Keyboard attached.

How to check AirPods battery life from your Apple Watch

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Apple Watch AirPods battery
The Apple Watch can tell you about the batteries in your AirPods.
Photo: Cult of Mac

There are several ways to check the remaining battery life on your AirPods and AirPods Pro. You can flip open the AirPods’ case, and wave it near your iPhone or iPad to see a pop up battery screen. Or, if the AirPods are currently connected to your iPhone, you can swipe to the batter widget in the Today widget screen. But did you also know that you can check your AirPods’ battery from your Apple Watch?

Apple accused of exploiting underage labor in the Congo

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Apple accused of exploiting underage labor in the Congo
Underage labor was used for mining in the Congo.
Photo: Jeff Keyzer/Flickr CC

A lawsuit from plaintiffs from the Democratic Republic of Congo claims that Apple is among the companies willfully exploiting the use of underage labor for cobalt mining for lithium-ion batteries.

It claims that “young children” are being forced to work full time dangerous mining jobs. They are “regularly maimed and killed” by hazards such as tunnel collapses.

Change these settings to make your Apple Watch battery last all day

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Keep your Apple Watch going all day long.
Keep your Apple Watch going all day long.
Photo: Alvaro Reyes/Unsplash

My Apple Watch Series 5 gets seriously good battery life. I can easily get 24 hours out of it, but I don’t really stress it by doing multiple daily workouts or by streaming audio directly to Bluetooth headphones. But what if your watch has trouble lasting the whole day? Or if you’re traveling, and not able to just stop and charge the watch whenever it needs a quick boost?

Today, we’ll check three settings that can prolong your Apple Watch battery life.

Apple Watch owners plagued by bad battery life under watchOS 6

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Apple Watch Series 5 California Face
It could be one of many new faces.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Apple’s recent watchOS 6 upgrade brought a host of new features and faces to Apple Watch. But it has also had a nasty impact on battery life for lots of upgraders.

Apple Watch Series 5 owners are reporting that their new wearable isn’t lasting as long as Apple promised it would in between charges. However, they’re not the only ones who are suffering.

Get free power anywhere with myCharge’s solar battery [Review]

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myCharge Solar PowerFold review
Put the Solar PowerFold in the Sun for a few hours to bring a useful charge to your iPhone.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

A solar-powered battery should be part of any disaster-preparedness kit, and the myCharge Solar PowerFold can keep an iPhone up and running just by sitting in the sun for a few hours.

We tested the ability of this very portable device to capture the thermonuclear power of our nearest star. Here’s how it went.

Apple claims scary iPhone battery warning is for customer safety

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iPhone batteries
Be careful on who you let replace your iPhone battery.
Photo: iFixIt

Apple confirmed it added a new “feature” to iPhones last year that displays an ominous warning when users get their battery replaced by an unauthorized service provider.

The iPhone-maker drew heavy criticism from right-to-repair advocates last week when the news of the new battery warnings surfaced. Facing claims that it is trying to funnel customers toward more expensive battery repairs, Apple has finally come out with a statement insisting that the change was made with the safety of customers in mind, but not everyone’s buying it.