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Here’s our holiday buying guide for iPhone, iPad and AirPods [Video]

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Holiday Buying Guide
Check out our guide for gifting Apple products this holiday season.
Image: Apple/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You’re running out of time to buy the Apple gifts your loved ones want for the holidays. If you need to buy an iPhone, iPad or AirPods, you need to make a well-informed decision quickly — but how do you know which model to get?

We have a helpful new video that will explain the differences between various iPhone, iPad and AirPods models. Plus, we published detailed written buying guides for your convenience.

Apple VP of iPhone and Apple Watch design is leaving the company

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iPhone 15 and 15 Plus review: Pro features for less
The head of iPhone's product design is leaving Apple.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Tang Tan, the vice president of product design for Apple’s iPhone and Apple Watch, is leaving in February 2024. He reportedly made “critical decisions about Apple’s most important products.”

Following his departure, Apple will reshuffle and split up the hardware design team to manage Tang’s responsibilities.

Last chance to win a 3-in-1 MagSafe travel charger from mophie [Cult of Mac Giveaway]

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This mophie 3-in-1 travel charger is perfect for travelers with multiple Apple gadgets.
This charger is perfect for travelers with multiple Apple gadgets.
Photo: mophie

This week’s Cult of Mac giveaway prize is a mophie 3-in-1 MagSafe travel charger that retails for $149.95. The compact charger is perfect for anyone with a busy schedule who’s on the go. You can charge multiple devices simultaneously at maximum speed with this great fold-up Apple accessory.

The 3-in-1 charger can juice up an iPhone, an Apple Watch and AirPods all at once. It comes with a handy travel pouch to keep everything securely together, plus a USB-C cable and a wall adapter. Enter below for your chance to win — we’re giving away three of these excellent travel chargers.

iOS 17.2 will bring NameDrop-like sharing for passes

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The new iOS 17 AirPlay feature called NameDrop will help you easily share your contact info and more.
Apple builds on NameDrop in iOS 17.2 to deliver an even better way to share passes.
Photo: Apple

iOS 17.2 will introduce a new way for sharing boarding passes, tickets and other passes stored in the Wallet app.

Like NameDrop, the iOS feature that lets owners easily share contact info, the new way to share passes will require bringing your iPhone close to the top of another iPhone with the Wallet app open.

iPhone 16’s superior microphones could help deliver better AI-powered Siri experience

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Apple’s AI-driven voice-controlled digital assistant Siri
But these improvements will come at a price.
Image: Apple

Apple reportedly plans to use upgraded microphones on the iPhone 16 series for a better Siri experience. The new mics might feature a better signal-to-noise ratio and improved water resistance.

The improved hardware likely would boost manufacturing costs for Apple. But a better Siri — fortified with artificial intelligence — could gives Apple’s reputation a boost when it comes to AI.

iOS 17.2 will add Qi2 support to iPhone 13 and iPhone 14

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iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max brought big-time camera-system upgrades.
Apple will bring Qi2 support to older iPhones with iOS 17.2.
Photo: Leander

The upcoming iOS 17.2 update will add Qi2 support to older iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 models. Based on MagSafe, Qi2 is the next-generation wireless charging standard.

Announced at CES 2023 by the Wireless Charging Consortium, Qi2 uses a Magnetic Power Profile with an Extended Power Profile for faster charging and better efficiency.

iOS 17 adoption grows strongly, passes 60%

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Downgrading iPhone from iOS 17 beta to iOS 16
Most iPhone users are now running iOS 17.
Image: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac

The number of iPhones running some version of iOS 17 passed a milestone. The total recently topped 60%, according to an analytics firm.

Users were initially slow to make the jump past iOS 16, but a solid majority have now done so.

Ingenious new 2-in-1 Butterfly fast-charges iPhone and Apple Watch

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Twelve South's Butterfly 2-in-1 MagSafe charger in hand
Twelve South's Butterfly 2-in-1 MagSafe charger couldn't be much more portable.
Photo: Twelve South

Twelve South’s new 2-in-1 Butterfly MagSafe Charger folds into a tiny footprint, fast-charges MagSafe iPhones and Apple Watches, and can serve as a kickstand for your handset, as well.

The cool gadget, which you can get directly from Twelve South or Apple, looks like a winner and is priced as such, at a steep $129.95.

3 reasons you shouldn’t close your open iPhone apps

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Should You Quit Your Apps?
Betteridge's law of headlines says no.
Image: CollegeDegrees360/Wikimedia Commons/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

It’s good to know how to close apps on iPhone for those times when an app is acting buggy or becomes unresponsive. It’s really easy — just swipe up to see your running apps and swipe up again to close them.

Does this mean you should you quit open apps? No, not at all. Despite what you may have heard, quitting apps on iOS makes things worse, not better. It’s a myth that quitting apps will save battery life, make your iPhone run faster or free up memory. Overall, it makes things worse.

Here are three reasons why.

Get up to 47% off compact magnetic chargers for all your Apple devices

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This magnetic wireless charging stand powers up four Apple devices at once.
This magnetic wireless charging stand powers up four Apple devices at once.
Photo: SwitchEasy

If you haven’t tried a multi-device charging stand, you’re missing out. There’s nothing like the convenience of plopping your Apple devices — iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods — in one place like a side table or night stand to top them off.

And right now you can get up to 47% off SwitchEasy’s 4-in-1 and 2-in-1 magnetic wireless charging stands in the Cult of Mac Store.