What can you do with the iPhone 15 Pro’s new Action button? Lots of things, if you customize it: You can make a fart sound, or get ChatGPT to help you write an email.

Apple lets you assign the iPhone’s Action button to one of eight preassigned things — or, if you set it to Shortcuts, you can do a lot more. Shortcuts are a way for you to reach inside an app and automatically run a feature without opening it. With the Action button, you have a physical button you can press no matter where you are, adding an extra layer of convenience.

Let me show you what some power users are doing with Apple’s latest hardware innovation — and how you can trick your phone into assigning two or more Shortcuts to the single Action button.

We teamed up with Laut this week to give three lucky winners a great accessory bundle featuring new products designed to protect the iPhone 15 series.

This bundle includes an iPhone 15 case and a screen protector to ensure all-around protection for your precious new phone. It’s free and easy to enter!

Continue reading

Rather than holding over iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro chip for iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, the full upcoming iPhone 16 lineup will carry A18 and A18 Pro chips running on an updated TSMC 3-nanometer production process, according to an analyst.

Apple designed the internal iPhone 15 Pro series to be much easier to work on than previous models, but iFixit did a teardown and found that replacing several broken components is a hassle.

In the end, the latest iOS handset got a fairly low repairablity score from iFixit.

Those who were jealous of the Dynamic Island and 48MP camera in the iPhone 14 Pro can relax — the just-launched iPhone 15 and 15 Plus include the best features of last year’s Pro models. This makes them significant upgrades for anyone with an older handset … even one from 2022.

And dumping the old Lightning port in favor of USB-C is icing on the cake.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The first reviews of iPhone 15 Pro rave about everything from the phenomenal titanium finish to the fantastic 5x zoom. Sounds like Tim Cook has another winner on his hands.

Also on The CultCast:

• Loads of great new iOS 17 and iPhone 15 features fly below the radar. We discuss some of our faves.
• Apple’s new FineWoven cases, on the other hand, sound like a huge, synthetic miss.
• Some haters are trying to get “Printgate” started, but we can’t believe iPhone 15 Pro’s sweet titanium frame is gonna be a fingerprint magnet.
• With tvOS 17, the Apple TV finally gets a no-brainer capability: FaceTime calls.

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.

The much-anticipated iPhone 15 is here! If you’re one of the lucky owners, you’ll want to ensure it’s fully protected. In collaboration with Zagg, Cult of Mac is thrilled to present this week’s giveaway, offering three fortunate individuals the opportunity to keep their screens immaculate with the new Glass XTR3 Screen Protector.

It’s Zagg’s toughest screen protector yet!

There’s no better way to charge your new iPhone 15 than with MagSafe. Sure, it might not be the fastest charging method, but it’s certainly the simplest and most convenient. And, let’s face it, plugging in a cable is nowhere near as satisfying as that snap you hear when slapping a MagSafe accessory onto the back of your iPhone.

If you’ll be experiencing MagSafe for the first time with iPhone 15, it’s time to stock up on cables, charging stations and battery packs. Here are the best available right now.

One of the best things about iPhone 15 is arguably its USB-C port, which makes connectivity a whole lot simpler. It means you can finally charge your iPhone with the same cables and chargers you might use for other devices, like iPad Pro, MacBook Air, Nintendo Switch and lots more.

If you don’t own any of those and you need to stock up on USB-C accessories, fear not. We rounded up the best USB-C cables and chargers you can buy right now for iPhone 15.

Apple advised iPhone 15 buyers Friday that they need to install the latest software update, iOS 17.0.2, before transferring data during the device setup process. The update fixes a problem that could prevent the data transfer and freeze up the new iPhone.