Apple adds original iPhone SE model to obsolete products list
You may love the original iPhone SE, but it can’t be listed as a current piece of hardware, and thereby supported, forever. Apple on Monday added the first-generation iPhone SE to its obsolete products list. With this change, the handset is no longer eligible for repairs, battery replacements, or any other service at Apple Stores […] Source

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10 simple steps to speed up your iPhone
Macworld Have you ever wondered if your iPhone is getting slower, or if it’s just your imagination? Have you ever wished there was some way to speed it up? If the answer to either question is yes, then you’re not alone. iPhones absolutely do get slower with age. The issue is often caused by a lot of junk files and not enough free space, as well as outdated software and unnecessary processes running in the background. So before splashing out on an expensive new device, it’s worth doing your best to solve those issues. Can you make your iPhone run faster? Yes. Whatever has made your phone slow down, there’s a solution. And in this article we show how to get it back up to speed. Step 1: Update iOS At time of writing Apple’s current operating system for the iPhone is iOS 26. From time to time there will be small ‘point’ updates (iOS 26.0.1, iOS 26.1 and so on) while the next major new version (iOS 27) will be here in September 2026. If you haven’t got the latest version of iOS, whatever that is when you read this, you may want to update. You can check by opening the Settings app on your iPhone and going to General > Software Update. This screen will let you know if there’s an update waiting for you to install, and guide you through the process of installing it. For more details, check out our complete guide to updating iOS. Updating to the latest version of iOS will often fix issues with your iPhone, because it will give you access to the latest patches and fixes for known problems. It’s almost always a good idea to install the latest point update for this reason. If you’re on iOS 26.1 and iOS 26.1.1 becomes available, grab it. It might make your iPhone a little faster, and it’s extremely unlikely to make it any slower. Larger updates (iOS 27, iOS 28, and so on) are a more complicated case. They don’t just add patches; they also add visual tweaks and new features, all of which are designed for the latest hardware and can be overwhelming for older models. They may also take up more space on your device, which is a whole other problem we discuss later in this article. Apple is supposed to address this by only allowing iPhones which are capable of handling an update to install it: you’ll find the list of supported devices for each version of iOS in this article. The ultra-cautious approach would be to only install a yearly update if your iPhone is comfortably inside the compatible zone. iOS 26, for instance, is supported by the iPhone 11 and later, but that doesn’t mean the iPhone 11 will deliver optimal performance. The safe bet would be to stay on the previous version (iOS 18; there was a change to the numbering system!) unless you’ve got an iPhone 12 or later. iOS 26 looks amazing, but it may be too demanding for older iPhones.Foundry Step 2: Restart your iPhone A common first piece of advice is to close down unused apps–and if it comforts you to do so, swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or double-press the Home button, if you’re using an older device that still has one) and swipe upwards on non-essential apps to close them. But this strategy has long been debunked, by Daring Fireball, Apple itself, and many others. Instead, let’s restart the iPhone completely. Press volume up, then volume down, then press and hold the power button on the righthand side. (If there are two buttons on the right of your iPhone, press the upper one. The lower one will be Camera Control.) You’ll then see the Power Off slider; swipe across this to restart your iPhone. (Again, if you’ve got an older model with a Home button, the method is a little different. You simply have to press and hold the power button on the top or righthand edge until the Power Off slider appears.) Once your iPhone has finished shutting down, which will take 10 seconds or so, start it up again by pressing and holding the power/sleep button for about 5 seconds. You’ll see the Apple icon, then the iPhone will restart. You shouldn’t have to do this very often, but when you do it’ll clear out the memory and can often fix unruly apps. The occasional power cycle helps keep iOS ticking over. Step 3: Kill automatic background processes The next step is to turn on Low Data Mode. This means apps won’t use data in the background, there won’t be any automatic app downloads, and emails won’t be automatically retrieved. As well as saving you data, this can also speed up your iPhone and improve battery life. To turn on Low Data Mode, open the Settings app and select Cellular > Cellular Data Options and tap the toggle labeled Low Data Mode. (You may also have to tap Data Mode before you get to the toggle, depending on your data plan. And readers in the U.K. will instead follow the Settings path Mobile Service > Mobile Data Options > [Data Mode] > Low Data Mode.) You can also turn off these data-hogging processes in Wi-Fi. Open Settings and select Wi-Fi. Tap the i next to the network you wish to limit, and choose Low Data Mode. Step 4: Turn down the graphics Dialling down the fancy visual effects can help to improve performance. Start by turning off Motion. Open Settings and go to Accessibility > Motion and tap the toggle next to Reduce Motion. This turns off the parallax effect on icons. Some people have complained that this effect makes them feel seasick, so you might even find the phone easier to use in this setting (although it will probably take some time to get used to). And of course, it will also use less power. iOS feels different with Reduce Motion enabled, but it may be worth it. David Price / Foundry Next you can reduce the see-through background effects which can also slow things down. In Settings, select Accessibility > Display & Text Size and then turn on Reduce Transparency. Similarly, if you’re running iOS 26 or later, you may want to tone down Liquid Glass, whose visual effects can make the interface confusing as well as increasing the drain on your phone’s processor and memory. Open Settings and go to Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass and change the toggle from Clear to Tinted. Keep an eye on this page; more Liquid Glass toggles may appear here in the future. Step 5: Clear cookies and data in Safari Next you should try emptying Safari’s cookies and data to free up some memory. Open the Settings app and select Apps, then use the alphabetic selector to find Safari. Scroll down to the section headed History and Website Data, then tap Clear History and Website Data. iOS will ask how much history you’d like to delete; the most effective option is All history. Bear in mind that this action may make browsing the web slightly less convenient for a while. Safari will forget the URLs you’ve been visiting so won’t suggest them as you type, unless they’re bookmarked (although it will start remembering new ones from now on). And clearing data may mean some websites forget your preferences. Step 6: Free up space on your iPhone If you’re running out of space on your iPhone, this could account for the sluggishness. Your device will tend to run better if it has at least 10GB free, or around 10% of the available storage. To find out just how much storage you’re wasting, open the Settings app and go to General > iPhone Storage. You’ll see how much space is left on your iPhone and what apps and files are using the most. There are various ways to free up space, such as deleting photos and music, or offloading data to iCloud. But we’ll start with deleting apps. Delete unwanted apps Identify apps worth deleting by going to the iPhone Storage page mentioned above; by default your apps will be listed in order of the space they take up, although you can tap the dropdown menu to filter them by name or date last used instead. Hunt out apps that are big, or you don’t use very often, or both. And remember that once you own an app you can download it again for free at a later date. Once you’ve decided what needs to go, tap on the app in the list, then choose Offload App (if you want to hang on to any documents and data) or Delete App (if you just want to get rid of it). You can also delete apps from your Home Screen by pressing and holding the app icon and selecting Remove App, but it’s probably simpler to do it from Settings. David Price / Foundry iOS will also offer specific recommendations. In the screenshot above, for example, you can see the option to save 26.86GB by deleting photos and videos, or 83.4GB by offloading unused apps. Delete messages Messages can take up a considerable amount of space, especially if you send and receive a lot of images. One option is to sync Messages to iCloud. Open Settings and tap on your Apple ID at the top, then select iCloud > Messages, and tap the slider next to Use on this iPhone so it turns green. With this setting turned on your Messages will be stored in iCloud rather than on your phone. You’ll need to pay for iCloud storage to reap the benefits of this option. If you don’t want to pay to store your Messages in iCloud, you can delete them from your iPhone quite easily. Start by opening Messages and scrolling down to find any message threads that you can manage without. Swipe to the left and tap the red trashcan icon, then hit Delete (or Delete and Block/Delete and Report Spam if either is relevant). Or, if you swipe all the way left until the trashcan icon expands, you can do this with fewer taps. Pro tip! David Price / Foundry Deleting threads with only text-based messages won’t free up much space, so it’s worth concentrating on those that include images, videos and voice notes. If you have a friend who sends you a lot of pictures, but you don’t want to delete the whole conversation, there’s an easy way to quickly and selectively delete a few images. Open their message, tap their name at the top of the screen, then select Photos. You’ll see all the images exchanged between you in a convenient list. You can then either press and hold on individual images and hit Delete, or select Edit at the top right, followed by Select Photos. Tap the photos you don’t want, then hit the trashcan icon at the bottom right. Finally, if you’re sent a lot of audio messages, make sure iOS knows to delete them after you’ve listened to them. Open the Settings app, navigate to Apps > Messages, scroll down to the section headed Audio Messages, and tap Expire. Check this is set to After 2 Minutes rather than Never. That’s two minutes after they’re opened, not after they’re sent, so don’t worry about rushing to listen before they vanish forever. Delete music These days many of us stream music using a service such as Spotify or Apple Music. (Apple Music costs $10.99/£10.99 a month, and gives you access to a library of more than 100 million songs wherever you have internet access.) But if you’ve got a lot of tracks stored on your phone, whether they’re temporarily borrowed from a streaming service or sourced from elsewhere, that could be contributing to a lack of free space, and therefore a lack of speed. Open the Settings app and go to Apps > Music, swipe down to the section headed Downloads and tap Downloaded Music. You’ll see all your tunes arranged by artist, together with the number of albums and the storage allocation taken up by each. To delete an entire artist’s worth of music, swipe left across their name and hit Delete; or tap their name to go in and delete individual albums or tracks. Delete photos Again, the temptation is to throw money at the problem. The simplest way to free up space on your phone is to pay for a decent chunk of iCloud storage and turn on the iCloud Photos feature: open Settings and go to Apps > Photos and tap the toggle labelled iCloud Photos. This means all the photos from all your Apple devices will be stored together in the cloud, and you’ll be able to see thumbnails on all your devices. The full-res version won’t be stored on your iPhone, unless you choose to download it, which means you’ll save lots of space. However, if you don’t want to pay, you could back up your photos on your Mac and then delete them from your iPhone. The easiest way to do this is to plug your iPhone into your Mac, open Photos, and then import your iPhone photos. To delete photos on the phone, open the Photos app, hit Select and then tap on the images you want to delete. Then tap the trashcan icon and confirm. If you want to enjoy the extra space right away, you’ll need to go to the Recently Deleted folder (go to Collections, scroll down to the section headed Utilities, then tap Recently Deleted) to actually delete the images, as Apple will otherwise keep them on your phone for 30 days just in case you change your mind. Here’s one last tip: if you take a lot of screenshots on your iPhone, find the screenshots album (you’ll find it under Collections > Media Types) and delete them there. Screenshots are unlikely to be wanted in the long term. It’s also worth targeting any Burst photos you’ve taken: you may have ended up with 14 pictures because you kept the shutter pressed too long. Delete these for easy space gains. Step 7: Check for throttling Back in 2017, Apple added a controversial iOS function to automatically throttle the performance of iPhones with ageing batteries in order to prolong their life and “prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down.” The company later made it possible to turn this off, and if your phone is slow (and particularly if it’s on the older side) it’s worth checking to see if this is an option. Just bear in mind that any speed increases may come at the cost of reliability. If you’re running iOS 18 or earlier, open the Settings app and go to Battery > Battery Health & Charging and look for a reference to performance. If it says Peak Performance Capability, everything is running normally. If it says Below Peak Performance, throttling is being applied to slow down your phone: tap the Disable button to turn this off. Those on iOS 26 or later will see different options because the function was changed and rebranded as Adaptive Power. Open Settings and go to Battery > Power Mode. Tap the toggle labelled Adaptive Power so it turns gray. This should ensure any system throttling is switched off. Adaptive Power may slow down performance slightly.David Price / Foundry Again, bear in mind that these functions are supposed to be there for your protection. A better solution would therefore be to ensure your battery is in optimal health so throttling isn’t necessary; that way you’ll get both performance and reliability. We have a separate article that shows you how to check your iPhone battery and find out if it needs to be replaced. Step 8: Restore to factory settings We’re getting into drastic solutions now. We’re going to perform a full restore, which deletes all the data on the iPhone and returns it, in effect, to the state it was in when you bought it. (Except that the hardware components will still have suffered a number of years of wear and tear, of course.) Since we’re deleting all the data, you should back up the iPhone first. Then you can restore the iPhone to its factory settings by opening Settings and going to General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. You’ll then have to enter your passcode and confirm. After a few minutes, you’ll be presented with the welcome screen you saw when you first started up the iPhone. You can now restore from the backup you made and see if the speed problems have gone away. If they persist, it’s possible the issue was caused by something on you phone that you’ve now reintroduced, so as a last resort try erasing everything once more and this time set up from scratch, rather than using the backup. Step 9: Ask Apple for help If none of the above techniques work, you can ask Apple for help. Just bear in mind that there may not be an easy (or cheap) solution. As we mentioned earlier, slowness can be a matter of perception. But if you’re sure something’s up, and you’ve tried all our tricks, you may wish to ask Apple to check for a faulty component or other hardware issue. (This may be covered by your Apple warranty if you’ve got one.) Read our article on booking an appointment with Apple for the details. Step 10: Buy a new iPhone If Apple can’t help, or the company’s help is too expensive to be worth it, we reach the final option: give up on your older iPhone and buy something new(er). If you’ve reached that point, check out our iPhone buying guide to help figure out the right model for you. Then read about the best iPhone deals to make sure you’re paying the lowest price. Or, if you’re determined to buy direct from Apple, jump straight to the Apple store and pick a replacement.

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10 simple steps to speed up your iPhone
Macworld Have you ever wondered if your iPhone is getting slower, or if it’s just your imagination? Have you ever wished there was some way to speed it up? If the answer to either question is yes, then you’re not alone. iPhones absolutely do get slower with age. The issue is often caused by a lot of junk files and not enough free space, as well as outdated software and unnecessary processes running in the background. So before splashing out on an expensive new device, it’s worth doing your best to solve those issues. Can you make your iPhone run faster? Yes. Whatever has made your phone slow down, there’s a solution. And in this article we show how to get it back up to speed. Step 1: Update iOS At time of writing Apple’s current operating system for the iPhone is iOS 26. From time to time there will be small ‘point’ updates (iOS 26.0.1, iOS 26.1 and so on) while the next major new version (iOS 27) will be here in September 2026. If you haven’t got the latest version of iOS, whatever that is when you read this, you may want to update. You can check by opening the Settings app on your iPhone and going to General > Software Update. This screen will let you know if there’s an update waiting for you to install, and guide you through the process of installing it. For more details, check out our complete guide to updating iOS. You may find you can’t run the latest version of iOS, but at least install the latest version of iOS for your iPhone. Updating to the latest version of iOS will often fix issues with your iPhone, because it will give you access to the latest patches and fixes for known problems. It’s almost always a good idea to install the latest point update for this reason. If you’re on iOS 26.1 and iOS 26.1.1 becomes available, grab it. It might make your iPhone a little faster, and it’s extremely unlikely to make it any slower. Larger updates (iOS 27, iOS 28, and so on) are a more complicated case. They don’t just add patches; they also add visual tweaks and new features, all of which are designed for the latest hardware and can be overwhelming for older models. They may also take up more space on your device, which is a whole other problem we discuss later in this article. You can also experience slow downs for the first few days after a larger update because Spotlight reindexes your iPhone, so if that matches your experience right now, that’s probably the reason. Apple is supposed to address this by only allowing iPhones which are capable of handling an update to install it: you’ll find the list of supported devices for each version of iOS in our iOS compatibility checker. The ultra-cautious approach would be to only install a yearly update if your iPhone is comfortably inside the compatible zone. iOS 26, for instance, is supported by the iPhone 11 and later, but that doesn’t mean the iPhone 11 will deliver optimal performance. The safe bet would be to stay on the previous version (iOS 18; there was a change to the numbering system!) unless you’ve got an iPhone 12 or later. iOS 26 looks amazing, but it may be too demanding for older iPhones.Foundry Step 2: Restart your iPhone A common first piece of advice is to close down unused apps–and if it comforts you to do so, swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or double-press the Home button, if you’re using an older device that still has one) and swipe upwards on non-essential apps to close them. But this strategy has long been debunked, by Daring Fireball, Apple itself, and many others. Instead, let’s restart the iPhone completely. Press volume up, then volume down, then press and hold the power button on the righthand side. (If there are two buttons on the right of your iPhone, press the upper one. The lower one will be Camera Control.) You’ll then see the Power Off slider; swipe across this to restart your iPhone. (Again, if you’ve got an older model with a Home button, the method is a little different. You simply have to press and hold the power button on the top or righthand edge until the Power Off slider appears.) Once your iPhone has finished shutting down, which will take 10 seconds or so, start it up again by pressing and holding the power/sleep button for about 5 seconds. You’ll see the Apple icon, then the iPhone will restart. You shouldn’t have to do this very often, but when you do it’ll clear out the memory and can often fix unruly apps. The occasional power cycle helps keep iOS ticking over. Step 3: Kill automatic background processes The next step is to turn on Low Data Mode. This means apps won’t use data in the background, there won’t be any automatic app downloads, and emails won’t be automatically retrieved. As well as saving you data, this can also speed up your iPhone and improve battery life. To turn on Low Data Mode, open the Settings app and select Cellular > Cellular Data Options and tap the toggle labeled Low Data Mode. (You may also have to tap Data Mode before you get to the toggle, depending on your data plan. And readers in the U.K. will instead follow the Settings path Mobile Service > Mobile Data Options > [Data Mode] > Low Data Mode.) You can also turn off these data-hogging processes in Wi-Fi. Open Settings and select Wi-Fi. Tap the i next to the network you wish to limit, and choose Low Data Mode. Step 4: Turn down the graphics and visual effects Dialling down the fancy visual effects can help to improve performance. Start by turning off Motion. Open Settings and go to Accessibility > Motion and tap the toggle next to Reduce Motion. This turns off the parallax effect on icons. Some people have complained that this effect makes them feel seasick, so you might even find the phone easier to use in this setting (although it will probably take some time to get used to). And of course, it will also use less power. iOS feels different with Reduce Motion enabled, but it may be worth it. David Price / Foundry Next you can reduce the see-through background effects which can also slow things down. In Settings, select Accessibility > Display & Text Size and then turn on Reduce Transparency. Similarly, if you’re running iOS 26 or later, you may want to tone down Liquid Glass, whose visual effects can make the interface confusing as well as increasing the drain on your phone’s processor and memory. Open Settings and go to Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass and change the toggle from Clear to Tinted. Keep an eye on this page; more Liquid Glass toggles may appear here in the future. Step 5: Clear cookies and data in Safari Next you should try emptying Safari’s cookies and data to free up some memory. Open the Settings app and select Apps, then use the alphabetic selector to find Safari. Scroll down to the section headed History and Website Data, then tap Clear History and Website Data. iOS will ask how much history you’d like to delete; the most effective option is All history. Bear in mind that this action may make browsing the web slightly less convenient for a while. Safari will forget the URLs you’ve been visiting so won’t suggest them as you type, unless they’re bookmarked (although it will start remembering new ones from now on). And clearing data may mean some websites forget your preferences. Step 6: Free up space on your iPhone If you’re running out of space on your iPhone, this could account for the sluggishness. Your device will tend to run better if it has at least 10GB free, or around 10% of the available storage. To find out just how much storage you’re wasting, open the Settings app and go to General > iPhone Storage. You’ll see how much space is left on your iPhone and what apps and files are using the most. There are various ways to free up space, such as deleting photos and music, or offloading data to iCloud. But we’ll start with deleting apps. Delete unwanted apps Identify apps worth deleting by going to the iPhone Storage page mentioned above; by default your apps will be listed in order of the space they take up, although you can tap the dropdown menu to filter them by name or date last used instead. Hunt out apps that are big, or you don’t use very often, or both. And remember that once you own an app you can download it again for free at a later date. Once you’ve decided what needs to go, tap on the app in the list, then choose Offload App (if you want to hang on to any documents and data) or Delete App (if you just want to get rid of it). You can also delete apps from your Home Screen by pressing and holding the app icon and selecting Remove App, but it’s probably simpler to do it from Settings. David Price / Foundry iOS will also offer specific recommendations. In the screenshot above, for example, you can see the option to save 26.86GB by deleting photos and videos, or 83.4GB by offloading unused apps. Delete messages Messages can take up a considerable amount of space, especially if you send and receive a lot of images. One option is to sync Messages to iCloud. Open Settings and tap on your Apple ID at the top, then select iCloud > Messages, and tap the slider next to Use on this iPhone so it turns green. With this setting turned on your Messages will be stored in iCloud rather than on your phone. You’ll need to pay for iCloud storage to reap the benefits of this option. If you don’t want to pay to store your Messages in iCloud, you can delete them from your iPhone quite easily. Start by opening Messages and scrolling down to find any message threads that you can manage without. Swipe to the left and tap the red trashcan icon, then hit Delete (or Delete and Block/Delete and Report Spam if either is relevant). Or, if you swipe all the way left until the trashcan icon expands, you can do this with fewer taps. Pro tip! David Price / Foundry Deleting threads with only text-based messages won’t free up much space, so it’s worth concentrating on those that include images, videos and voice notes. If you have a friend who sends you a lot of pictures, but you don’t want to delete the whole conversation, there’s an easy way to quickly and selectively delete a few images. Open their message, tap their name at the top of the screen, then select Photos. You’ll see all the images exchanged between you in a convenient list. You can then either press and hold on individual images and hit Delete, or select Edit at the top right, followed by Select Photos. Tap the photos you don’t want, then hit the trashcan icon at the bottom right. Finally, if you’re sent a lot of audio messages, make sure iOS knows to delete them after you’ve listened to them. Open the Settings app, navigate to Apps > Messages, scroll down to the section headed Audio Messages, and tap Expire. Check this is set to After 2 Minutes rather than Never. That’s two minutes after they’re opened, not after they’re sent, so don’t worry about rushing to listen before they vanish forever. Delete music These days many of us stream music using a service such as Spotify or Apple Music. (Apple Music costs $10.99/£10.99 a month, and gives you access to a library of more than 100 million songs wherever you have internet access.) But if you’ve got a lot of tracks stored on your phone, whether they’re temporarily borrowed from a streaming service or sourced from elsewhere, that could be contributing to a lack of free space, and therefore a lack of speed. Open the Settings app and go to Apps > Music, swipe down to the section headed Downloads and tap Downloaded Music. You’ll see all your tunes arranged by artist, together with the number of albums and the storage allocation taken up by each. To delete an entire artist’s worth of music, swipe left across their name and hit Delete; or tap their name to go in and delete individual albums or tracks. Delete photos Again, the temptation is to throw money at the problem. The simplest way to free up space on your phone is to pay for a decent chunk of iCloud storage and turn on the iCloud Photos feature: open Settings and go to Apps > Photos and tap the toggle labelled iCloud Photos. This means all the photos from all your Apple devices will be stored together in the cloud, and you’ll be able to see thumbnails on all your devices. The full-res version won’t be stored on your iPhone, unless you choose to download it, which means you’ll save lots of space. The size of your photo library on your iPhone will be significantly smaller if you store the high res images in the cloud, but expect that it will still take up a lot of space on your device if you have a lot of photos. If you want to reduce the space given to your photos you will still need to delete some. However, if you don’t want to pay to store your photos in iCloud, you could back up your photos on your Mac and then delete them from your iPhone. The easiest way to do this is to plug your iPhone into your Mac, open Photos, and then import your iPhone photos. To delete photos on the phone, open the Photos app, hit Select and then tap on the images you want to delete. Then tap the trashcan icon and confirm. If you want to enjoy the extra space right away, you’ll need to go to the Recently Deleted folder (go to Collections, scroll down to the section headed Utilities, then tap Recently Deleted) to actually delete the images, as Apple will otherwise keep them on your phone for 30 days just in case you change your mind. Here’s one last tip: if you take a lot of screenshots on your iPhone, find the screenshots album (you’ll find it under Collections > Media Types) and delete them there. Screenshots are unlikely to be wanted in the long term. It’s also worth targeting any Burst photos you’ve taken: you may have ended up with 14 pictures because you kept the shutter pressed too long. Delete these for easy space gains. Video also takes up a lot of space, so look at your album of videos and delete those you don’t want. Step 7: Check for throttling Back in 2017, Apple added a controversial iOS function to automatically throttle the performance of iPhones with ageing batteries in order to prolong their life and “prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down.” The company later made it possible to turn this off, and if your phone is slow (and particularly if it’s on the older side) it’s worth checking to see if this is an option. Just bear in mind that any speed increases may come at the cost of reliability. If you’re running iOS 18 or earlier, open the Settings app and go to Battery > Battery Health & Charging and look for a reference to performance. If it says Peak Performance Capability, everything is running normally. If it says Below Peak Performance, throttling is being applied to slow down your phone: tap the Disable button to turn this off. Those on iOS 26 or later will see different options because the function was changed and rebranded as Adaptive Power. Open Settings and go to Battery > Power Mode. Tap the toggle labelled Adaptive Power so it turns gray. This should ensure any system throttling is switched off. Adaptive Power may slow down performance slightly.David Price / Foundry Again, bear in mind that these functions are supposed to be there for your protection. A better solution would therefore be to ensure your battery is in optimal health so throttling isn’t necessary; that way you’ll get both performance and reliability. We have a separate article that shows you how to check your iPhone battery and find out if it needs to be replaced. Step 8: Restore to factory settings We’re getting into drastic solutions now. We’re going to perform a full restore, which deletes all the data on the iPhone and returns it, in effect, to the state it was in when you bought it. (Except that the hardware components will still have suffered a number of years of wear and tear, of course.) Since we’re deleting all the data, you should back up the iPhone first. Then you can restore the iPhone to its factory settings by opening Settings and going to General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. You’ll then have to enter your passcode and confirm. After a few minutes, you’ll be presented with the welcome screen you saw when you first started up the iPhone. You can now restore from the backup you made and see if the speed problems have gone away. If they persist, it’s possible the issue was caused by something on you phone that you’ve now reintroduced, so as a last resort try erasing everything once more and this time set up from scratch, rather than using the backup. Step 9: Ask Apple for help If none of the above techniques work, you can ask Apple for help. Just bear in mind that there may not be an easy (or cheap) solution. As we mentioned earlier, slowness can be a matter of perception. But if you’re sure something’s up, and you’ve tried all our tricks, you may wish to ask Apple to check for a faulty component or other hardware issue. (This may be covered by your Apple warranty if you’ve got one.) Read our article on booking an appointment with Apple for the details. Step 10: Buy a new iPhone If Apple can’t help, or the company’s help is too expensive to be worth it, we reach the final option: give up on your older iPhone and buy something new(er). If you’ve reached that point, check out our iPhone buying guide to help figure out the best iPhone for you. Then read about the best iPhone deals to make sure you’re paying the lowest price.

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For stargazers, birders & curious humans—a smartphone-based telescope for 49% off
Macworld TL;DR: The Viztalab smartphone telescope turns your smartphone into a high-precision viewing tool for crystal-clear stargazing and birdwatching—no PhD required—for just $199.99 (MSRP $399). Stargazing, birdwatching, and wildlife spotting just got a whole lot smarter. The Viztalab Smartphone-Based AI Telescope brings next-level clarity and intelligent guidance straight to your phone, all for $199.99 while this limited-time offer lasts. Whether you’re scanning the skies or tracking rare birds, this gadget makes discovery feel easy and incredibly cool. Powered by advanced ED lenses and AI technology, Viztalab delivers 24x true optical zoom with zero quality loss, ensuring every view is sharp, vibrant, and glare-free. The real magic? The Vizta App. It identifies over 10,000 bird species, offers an interactive sky map, and guides you to constellations, planets, and celestial events with simple, tap-to-follow instructions. Designed for both beginners and seasoned explorers, this telescope stacks multiple exposures to reveal jaw-dropping detail and stores your best shots safely in the cloud. Setup is refreshingly simple — attach your phone and launch the app. From spontaneous backyard stargazing sessions to planned wildlife adventures, Viztalab turns curiosity into crystal-clear knowledge. It’s smart, portable, and ready for wherever your sense of wonder takes you. Get the Viztalab Smartphone-Based AI Telescope while it’s just $199.99 during this holiday sale. Viztalab Smartphone-Based AI TelescopeSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.

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Apple AI chief John Giannandrea is stepping down
Macworld Apple has formally announced that John Giannandrea, its Senior VP of Machine Learning and AI, is stepping down from his position. He will serve as an advisor to the company before retiring in the spring of 2026. Giannandrea will not be directly replaced by a Senior VP role, but by a Vice President: Amar Subramanya. Subramanya was at Google for 16 years and made a name for himself as a prominent AI researcher. Just this summer, he joined Microsoft as Corporate VP of AI. Now, after just six months, he’s joining Apple. Subramanya was a principal member of the team that created Gemini (released in 2023) and Imagen 3 at Google. In other words, after OpenAI caught the industry off guard with ChatGPT, he appears to have been instrumental in helping Google catch up. Now, he’s at Apple, where the same work is desperately needed. Subramanya will report to Senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Frederighi. He will be responsible for leading Apple’s efforts in Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation. Most of those who worked under Giannandrea’s group will now report to Eddy Cue, the Senior VP of Services. Giannandrea was brought into Apple from Google back in 2018, when Apple’s biggest AI effort was the ill-fated Apple Car project. He and his team have been responsible for many of the advancements Apple has made in the field of AI and ML, but he is perhaps also to blame for Siri–Apple’s most visible and important AI product–falling far behind the state of the art. Apple’s press release reads as though Giannandrea will step back from his role right away, staying on to advise during the transition, and will fully retire in the spring of 2026, which is when we expect Apple’s next-gen Siri to be released. That gives Apple several months to get this new AI organization in place and its leadership running well by the time it introduces the new Siri to over a billion users.

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Apple replaces AI chief, taps ex-Googler to fix Apple Intelligence
Apple's AI chief is out after a string of failures. Learn about the new leadership for the company's critical AI development efforts. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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Here are the main challenges that Apple’s new AI lead will face from day one
Amar Subramanya will likely become one of the most closely watched hires Apple has made in years. Here’s what he needs to do first. more…

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Apple AI Chief Retiring After Siri Failure
Apple's longtime AI chief John Giannandrea is retiring, with former Microsoft and Google AI leader Amar Subramanya stepping in to take over. MacRumors notes the retirement comes after the company's repeated delays in delivering its revamped Siri and internal turmoil that led to an AI team exodus. From the report: Giannandrea will serve as an advisor between now and 2026, with former Microsoft AI researcher Amar Subramanya set to take over as vice president of AI. Subramanya will report to Apple engineering chief Craig Federighi, and will lead Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation. Subramanya was previously corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, and before that, he spent 16 years at Google. He was head of engineering for Google's Gemini Assistant, and Apple says that he has "deep expertise" in both AI and ML research that will be important to "Apple's ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features." Some of the teams that Giannandrea oversaw will move to Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue, such as AI Infrastructure and Search and Knowledge. Khan is Apple's new Chief Operating Officer who took over for Jeff Williams earlier this year. Cue has long overseen Apple services. [...] Apple said that it is "poised to accelerate its work in delivering intelligent, trusted, and profoundly personal experiences" with the new AI team. "We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement. "AI has long been central to Apple's strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig's leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple. In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar's joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Huge discounts hit iPad, iPad Air, and more for Cyber Monday (from $274)
The Cyber Monday deals for Apple’s entire lineup of iPads have arrived. Whether you’re looking for the ultimate Netflix machine or something with an obscene amount of power, we’ve got you covered. We’re tracking low prices on the base iPad, iPad Air, adorable iPad mini, and powerful iPad Pro. These are the best Cyber Monday prices on iPads that you’ll find. Keep up with all the best Apple Cyber Monday deals in our dedicated roundup right here! more…

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B&H's Cyber Monday sale slashes up to $500 off MacBook Pro, Air, Mac Studio, Mac mini
Time is running out to grab B&H's Cyber Monday deals on Apple computers, with inventory still available at some of the lowest prices on record.Cyber Monday Mac deals end tonight.With some of the steepest discounts available on MacBook Pros, including new M5 models, B&H is a prime destination for Cyber Monday deals on Apple.Shop B&H Cyber Monday deals Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple's head of AI John Giannandrea is retiring
Apple has announced that senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, John Giannandrea, is retiring and being replaced by Amar Subramanya, formerly a Microsoft AI executive.Apple Intelligence has a new executive in chargeAfter months of internal reorganizing and speculation around Giannandrea's fate at Apple, the news has finally broken about Apple's plans for its AI group. First, John Giannandrea will step down from his position and serve in an advisory role until the spring of 2026.He will then retire fully from Apple, leaving Amar Subramanya in his place, though the role is changing slightly. Subramanya will be under Craig Federighi as vice president of AI. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Price drop: This app can identify more than 33,000 plant species
iOS plant identifier app Plantum also serves up tips for plant care. Get a lifetime premium sub for just $14.97 (regularly $59.99). (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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This last-minute Cyber Monday MacBook Pro deal will make you happy you waited to buy one
Macworld What Black Friday? The best deal we’ve ever seen for the fully-loadede M4 Max MacBook Pro is happening right now, as the decked-out configuration with 36GB of RAM and 1TB of storage drops to $2.699, a massive $500 discount and an incredible deal for a fantastic machine. We gave the M4 Pro version of this MacBook Pro a 4.5-star rating, appreciating the excellent performance of the laptop, including its new 12MP CenterStage camera. The 14-inch Liquid Retina display is as stunning as ever, boasting sharp images and gorgeously vivid colors. Plus, with three Thunderbolt 5 ports, connectivity is a breeze, whether you’re hooking up a drive or a monitor. And with an M4 Max and 36GB of RAM, you won’t even need to think about getting a new machine for years to come. We wouldn’t wait too long to get our hands on this deal because discounts are shifting fast these days, so hurry up and add the MacBook Pro M4 for $2,699 to your cart at Amazon. That's a 20% discount for the MacBook Pro M4Buy now at Amazon

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Signal Secure Backups Are Now Available on iOS
A user-hostile “lose your phone, lose your account history” architecture may well be “secure” in a technical sense, but it’s the sort of brittleness that’s kept Signal from achieving more mainstream use.

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MagSafe Monday: This new hub is basically a Swiss Army knife for your iPhone or Mac
There has always been this tension with Apple’s devices. Some people want no ports, and some people want them all. I can argue both sides, but the trend is clearly moving toward fewer ports. Satechi’s new MagSafe 7-in-1 hub is one of the first accessories I have used that actually fills that gap in a smart way. It gives the iPhone some of the flexibility of a Mac without adding much clutter or complexity, but can also serve as a portable hub for your Mac as well. more…

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Apple’s AI chief John Giannandrea to retire
Apple today announced John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, is stepping down from his… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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John Giannandrea leaving Apple following AI strategy miss
Apple has announced that John Giannandrea, the company’s Machine Learning and AI Strategy boss, is retiring from the company. The move may not come as a surprise for anyone closely following Apple and its AI missteps over the last few years. more…

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Maclock is an adorable desk clock for 1984 Macintosh lovers
Featuring three display modes, including one with Susan Kare’s original Happy Macintosh icon, this limited-edition scale recreation of the 1984 Mac is too cute to ignore. more…

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9to5Mac Daily: December 1, 2025 – OLED iPad mini, new Macs coming soon
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. Sponsored by Roborock: Save up to 50% on Roborock’s flagship vacuums during their Black Friday event — but hurry, these deals won’t last long! more…

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How to make Apple Watch tick like a quartz watch
We mentioned last week that in iOS 26.1, Apple changed how the Clock app icon’s seconds hand moves in low power mode. Instead of continuously moving, the seconds hand ticks with each second like a quartz clock. Analog faces on new Apple Watches have a similar behavior, using a sweeping seconds hand in active mode and a ticking seconds hand in always on mode. If you’re like me and prefer the quartz-like movement, there’s a workaround that can help. more…

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Cyber Monday: Save on Apple Watch Series 11, Ultra 3, and more (from $129)
From tracking your fitness to keeping you connected wherever you go, Apple Watch is a must-have this holiday season. For Cyber Monday, we’re tracking huge savings on the entire Apple Watch lineup. This includes the cheapest Apple Watch SE 3 and the flagship Apple Watch Series 11. Plus, last year’s Apple Watch Series 10 is still on the market as an excellent middle ground option. We’re also tracking a $100 savings on the rugged Apple Watch Ultra 3, with its multi-day battery life in tow. Whether you’re a newcomer to the Apple Watch ecosystem or looking to upgrade your aging wearable, there’s a deal in here for you. Keep up with all the best Apple Cyber Monday deals in our dedicated roundup right here! more…

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Apple shares hit new all-time intraday and closing highs
In Nasdaq trading today, shares of Apple Inc. rose to hit a new all-time closing high. Apple’s all-time intraday high was also set today… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Opera rolls out Gemini-powered AI features across its Neon, One, and GX browsers
Following the launch of Opera Neon, the company is now expanding some of its AI features to other browsers, including Opera GX and Opera One. Here’s what’s new. more…

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PSA: Apple’s official 2025 Black Friday Shopping Event ends today
Apple’s annual Black Friday Shopping Event kicked off on Friday, and time is running out to take advantage. The deals officially end tonight at midnight. You can score an up to $250 gift card with purchase of an eligible product, including select iPhones, Macs, Apple Watches, AirPods, and more. Head below for the full details. As always, however, you can save far more in cash by shopping at other retailers. Our friends over at 9to5Toys are meticulously rounding up all of the best Cyber Monday deals. more…

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Apple tops Warren Buffett’s biggest stock holdings; accounts for 21.2% of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported 46 holdings, but its portfolio is quite top heavy with 238,212,764 shares of Apple accounting… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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MKBHD is shutting down his iPhone wallpaper app
Marques Brownlee launched his first iPhone app last year, but it’s now being sunset. Here are the details on MKBHD’s Panels app getting shut down. more…

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iOS 26’s Messages app adds five great new group chat features
iOS 26 is packed full of changes for iPhone users, including five great new group chat features in the Messages app. Here’s what’s new. more…

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Don’t miss out on these 800+ app discounts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday [Updated]
As it’s tradition, many indie (and major) app developers take Black Friday and Cyber Monday to offer steep and rare discounts for their apps. Here’s a list of great deals you should check out. more…

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Amazon, Google’s new ‘interconnect’ might prevent major web outages
Outages at major web hosts can have huge impacts across society, as we see often such as with the recent Cloudflare outage. But a new collaboration between Amazon and Google might just be the start of putting major outages in the past. more…

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Apple fans really want a red iPhone 17 for World AIDS Day
Apple fans want a red iPhone 17 Pro, according to many responses to a recent X.com post from Apple marketing honcho Greg Joswiak. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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