TL;DR: Simplify bookkeeping with QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024 for Mac—available for $299.99 (reg. $536) for one year.

Running a business is rewarding. Keeping the books? Usually less so. If your financial records are spread across spreadsheets, email threads, and handwritten notes, it may be time for an upgrade.

Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024 for Mac is available for $299.99 (reg. $536) and brings your business finances together in one place. Built specifically for Mac users, it helps manage invoicing, expenses, customer information, inventory, payroll tracking, and financial reporting without the juggling act.

Need to see how profitable a project was? Job costing tools help break it down. Looking for a clearer picture of your business? Detailed reports make it easier to track income, expenses, and overall performance throughout the year.

QuickBooks also simplifies everyday tasks with bank feed support, time tracking, and easy data imports from Excel or older QuickBooks versions, making it easier to move away from manual bookkeeping.

Whether you’re a freelancer, consultant, or small business owner, having organized financial records can save time and reduce stress when tax season arrives. Instead of wondering where your numbers came from, you’ll know exactly where your business stands.

For $299.99, QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024 for Mac is a practical investment in staying organized, making informed decisions, and spending less time on bookkeeping—and more time running your business. Don’t miss out.

Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024 for Mac (1 User): 1-Year SubscriptionSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Today only: get Windows 11 Pro on sale for $11.23 with code AUG25.

If Mac users want to run Windows apps, it’s easier to just set up a Windows operating system with something like Parallels Pro, but that does mean you still have to pay for the OS you’re licensing. Instead of dropping the full $199 on Windows 11 Pro, you can get it right here for only $11.23, but this sale ends today.

Pro adds a range of useful upgrades over older versions of Windows. BitLocker encrypts the drive on your virtual machine, so anything sensitive stays locked down. Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox let you spin up more virtual machines and test risky apps in isolation, away from your main setup. Azure AD connects you to a company network when work calls for it.

You also get the full Windows 11 experience running next to macOS. Snap layouts arrange your windows, DirectX 12 Ultimate handles the games that skip the Mac, biometric login is backed by TPM 2.0, and Copilot sits in the taskbar for quick answers and page summaries. One license installs on a single machine and stays yours for good.

You don’t have to pay full price for Windows anymore.

Use code AUG25 to get Windows 11 Pro for $11.23.

Sale ends August 9 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Microsoft Windows 11 ProSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Die App „Schlüsselbund“ gibt es auf dem Mac seit jeher. Nach und nach hat Apple die Funktionsweise auch auf das iPhone übertragen und mit plattformspezifischen Funktionen ausgestattet. Die automatische Eingabe von Passwörtern auf bestimmten Seiten ist nach einer schnellen biometrischen Verifizierung eines meiner Lieblingsfeatures auf dem iPhone und spart mir sowie vielen anderen Nutzern viel Zeit.

Wenn man Apple für irgendetwas lobt, muss man das Unternehmen normalerweise im gleichen Atemzug tadeln, dass das System geschlossen ist und Komfortfunktionen nur den eigenen Apps bzw. Geräten vorbehalten sind.

Im Fall von Passwortmanagern und Browsern ist das nicht mehr der Fall: Seit iOS 12 (2018) erlaubt Apple, Passwortmanager von Drittanbietern als Standard zu setzen, Browser seit iOS 14 (2020) und Authentifizierungs-Apps seit iOS 16 (2022).

Wollen Sie beispielsweise Chrome statt Safari als Standardbrowser auf dem iPhone nutzen, können Sie das in den Einstellungen verändern. Danach müssen Sie jedoch nicht auf die Komfortfunktionen wie das automatische Ausfüllen der Passwörter verzichten. Sie können auch Browser von Drittanbietern mit der nativen Apple-App „Passwörter“ verbinden oder Passwortmanager von Drittanbietern mit Safari.

Die entsprechende Einstellung finden Sie an zwei Stellen: einmal in der Einstellungen-App unter Allgemein > Automatisch ausfüllen & Passwörter und einmal unter Apps > Standard-Apps > Passwörter & Codes. Unter Allgemein > Automatisch ausfüllen & Passwörter gibt es außerdem zwei weitere zusätzliche Einstellungen: „Starke Passwörter vorschlagen“ und „Nach Nutzung löschen“. Bei der zweiten Funktion löscht das System per SMS und E-Mail versandte einmalige Bestätigungs- oder Anmeldungscodes. Gelöscht wird jedoch nur in „Nachrichten“ und Mail. E-Mail-Apps von Drittanbietern, wie Gmail oder Outlook, sind nicht davon betroffen.

Bevor Sie einen neuen Standardbrowser oder -Passwortmanager festlegen, müssen Sie entsprechende Apps installieren. Bei Browsern erscheint die Option „Passwörter (nur zum Ausfüllen)“. Dies bedeutet, dass die native „Passwörter“-App die gespeicherten Passwörter auch in Chrome, Firefox oder Opera ausfüllen kann. Auch andere Authentifikator-Apps für Passkeys und generierte Einmal-Codes können Sie verwenden. Für Passkeys reicht der aktivierte Regler bei dem entsprechenden App-Eintrag. Für generierte Codes wählen Sie die gewünschte App im Drop-down-Menü bei der Einstellung „Codes konfigurieren in …“.

Aktuell bester Preis: iPhone 17

Aktuell bester Preis: Satechi USB-C Snap Hub

Der niedrige Preis des Apple Macbook Neo bedeutet, dass Sie gewisse Kompromisse in Kauf nehmen müssen. Wie wir jedoch in unserem Test des Macbook Neo hervorheben, handelt es sich hierbei um Abwägungen zwischen Ausstattung und Preis, die von der Zielgruppe oder sogar einigen professionellen Mac-Nutzern, die nach einem erschwinglichen Laptop suchen, kaum bemerkt werden.

Das offensichtlichste Zugeständnis an den Preis ist die begrenzte Anzahl an Anschlüssen des Neo. Es gibt nur zwei USB-C-Anschlüsse, und selbst diese sind nicht identisch. Der vordere bzw. rechte Anschluss ist mehr als 20-mal langsamer als der hintere/linke USB-C-Anschluss mit 10 Gbit/s, da er mit den USB-2.0-Geschwindigkeiten (480 Mbit/s) arbeitet. Er eignet sich zum Aufladen, und das war’s auch schon. Die Geschwindigkeit entspricht in etwa der eines USB-Sticks aus dem Jahr 2010.

Keiner der Anschlüsse unterstützt Thunderbolt, Apples Standard und den überlegenen Anschluss, der bei allen anderen Macs und sogar einigen iPads zum Einsatz kommt.

Die Lösung besteht darin, am hinteren/linken Anschluss einen Hub anzuschließen, der zusätzliche Ports bietet, die dann für den Neo verfügbar werden. Wir haben die besten USB-C-Hubs und -Adapter getestet, doch es gibt einen Aspekt, der Neo-Besitzer abschrecken dürfte: Sie sind alle entweder silberfarben oder in Space Grau gehalten, passend zu den teureren Macbooks. Während dies Besitzer des silbernen Neo vielleicht nicht stört, fühlen sich diejenigen, die sich bewusst für ein Neo in den Farben “Zitrus“, „Rosa“ oder „Indigo“ entschieden haben, ein wenig fehl am Platz.

Zur Macbook-Neo-Kollektion von Satechi gehören zwei zum Neo passende Hubs: der neue USB-C-Snap-Hub und farbige Varianten des Satechi OntheGo 5-in-1-Multiport-Adapters, den wir bereits in seiner ausschließlich schwarzen 7-Port-Ausführung getestet haben.

Der USB-C Snap Hub (49,99 Euro) wurde speziell für das asymmetrische USB-C-Anschlussdesign des Macbook Neo entwickelt. Er funktioniert auch mit anderen Macbooks mit zwei nebeneinander liegenden Thunderbolt-Anschlüssen und misst 100 × 29 × 10 mm bei einem geringen Gewicht von 32 Gramm.

Welche Anschlüsse stehen zur Verfügung?

Der farblich abgestimmte Aluminium-Hub verfügt über ein bündiges Design mit zwei Anschlüssen, das die beiden USB-C-Anschlüsse des Neo auf sechs praktische Anschlüsse erweitert:

• Zwei USB-C-Anschlüsse für die Verbindung zum Macbook
• Ein USB-C-Anschluss (5 Gbit/s)
• Ein USB-C-Anschluss (45 W Power Delivery)
• Ein USB-A-Anschluss (5 Gbit/s)
• Ein HDMI-Anschluss (4K/60 Hz)
• Ein SD-Kartenleser (UHS-I, 104 MB/s)
• Ein MicroSD-Kartenleser (UHS-I, 104 MB/s)

Der Snap Hub belegt zwar beide Anschlüsse des Neo, stellt Ihnen jedoch sechs Ports zur Verfügung.

Der USB-C-Anschluss ganz links übernimmt die Ladefunktion und liefert dem Neo potenziell 45 Watt Leistung – was völlig ausreicht, da der Laptop im Lieferumfang lediglich ein 20-Watt-Ladegerät enthält (oder gar keines, wenn Sie ihn in Großbritannien oder der EU kaufen). Apple erwähnt in den technischen Daten des Neo zwar kein Schnellladen, doch der Ladevorgang verläuft schneller, wenn Sie ein Ladegerät mit 30 Watt oder mehr anschließen, da das Gerät 30 Watt aufnimmt, sofern diese Leistung bereitgestellt wird – mit 30 Watt sollten Sie das Neo in 90 Minuten von 0 auf 100 Prozent aufladen können, verglichen mit 140 Minuten bei 20 Watt.

Der andere USB-C-Anschluss des Snap Hubs bietet eine Datenübertragungsrate von 5 Gbit/s – das ist halb so schnell wie der eigene Datenanschluss des Neo, aber eine Geschwindigkeit, die für die meisten akzeptabel sein dürfte. Ich würde ihn zwar nicht in einem professionellen Videostudio verwenden, aber für die meisten alltäglichen Aufgaben sollte er ausreichen. Die verbleibende Bandbreite von 5 Gbit/s könnte vom herkömmlichen USB-A-Anschluss oder vom HDMI-Anschluss genutzt werden.

Lässt sich ein externes Display anschließen?

Von Haus aus unterstützt das Macbook Neo nur einen externen Bildschirm. Dies liegt an den Anzeigeeinschränkungen von Apple, von denen auch die früheren Macbook-Modelle mit den Basis-Chips M1 und M2 betroffen sind. Sie benötigen ein DisplayLink-Dock oder einen Hub, wenn Sie mehr als einen Bildschirm an das Macbook Neo anschließen möchten.

Der Satechi Snap Hub ist zwar nicht DisplayLink-fähig, doch über seinen HDMI-Anschluss können Sie einen 4K-UHD-Monitor (3840 × 2160 Pixel) mit einer ordentlichen Bildwiederholfrequenz von 60 Hz anschließen – dem Standard für die meisten Hubs und Docks, sogar für einige der besten Thunderbolt-Dockingstationen. Der Monitor muss selbst über einen HDMI-Anschluss verfügen, doch es ist selten, dass ein Bildschirm keinen HDMI-Anschluss hat.

Lässt sich der Speicher des Macbook Neo erweitern?

SD- und MicroSD-Kartenleser sind nützlich, um kostengünstigen und äußerst tragbaren Speicher hinzuzufügen. Der maximale interne Speicher des Neo beträgt beim Touch-ID-Modell 512 GB. Das Neo-Einstiegsmodell verfügt lediglich über 256 GB internen Speicher.

Obwohl die Preise für Speichermedien derzeit Schwankungen unterliegen, können Sie eine SD- oder MicroSD-Karte erwerben, um die Kapazität Ihres Neo zu erhöhen, ohne Ihr Budget zu sprengen. Sie können den 256-GB-Speicher des Basis-Neo um das 1,5-Fache auf 374 GB erweitern, indem Sie eine 128-GB-MicroSD-Karte für 38 Euro von Amazon hinzufügen, oder ihn mit einer 256-GB-MicroSD-Karte (38 Euro) auf 512 GB verdoppeln.

Die Kartenslots des Snap Hub gehören nicht zu den schnellsten – ihre Lesegeschwindigkeit von 104 MB/s ist spürbar langsamer als bei schnelleren Slots mit 312 MB/s –, doch für Backups und alltägliche Aufgaben sollten sie für Neo-Nutzer akzeptabel sein.

Wie schneidet das Gerät im Vergleich zu den Alternativen ab?

Der Satechi Snap Hub ist in den Farben Zitrus, Rosa, Indigo und Silver erhältlich und kostet 49,99 Euro, entweder direkt bei Satechi oder bei Amazon.

Das ist etwas günstiger als der Anker 11-in-1 USB-C-Hub, der zwar über mehr Anschlüsse verfügt, aber nur bedingt zum silbernen Neo passt. Er wird über ein Kabel angeschlossen und ist daher nicht so kompakt wie der Snap Hub. Sie erhalten dieselben grundlegenden Anschlüsse, mit Ausnahme von drei USB-A-Anschlüssen, die Sie vermutlich nicht benötigen werden. Er bietet eine Passthrough-Ladefunktion mit 100 Watt, doch da der Neo nur 30 Watt aufnehmen kann, ist dies für Apples farbenfrohen Laptop überdimensioniert. Was ihn jedoch attraktiv machen könnte, ist ein Gigabit-Ethernet-Anschluss für den kabelgebundenen Netzwerkzugang.

Satechi hat zudem seinen OntheGo-Multiport-Adapter (44,99 $) farblich an die Neo-Reihe angepasst. Dieser Hub mit fünf Anschlüssen unterscheidet sich vom Standard-OntheGo-Multiport-Adapter für 59,99 Euro, der über sieben Anschlüsse verfügt. Beide werden über ein 10-Gbit/s-Host-Kabel an den Mac angeschlossen, doch die mögliche Durchleitungsleistung zum Laptop liegt beim 5-Port-Modell bei nur 60 Watt, verglichen mit 80 Watt beim 7-Port-Modell. Dies hat für Neo-Nutzer jedoch keine Auswirkungen, da das Macbook der Einstiegsklasse ohnehin maximal 30 Watt aufnehmen kann.

Beim 5-Port-Neo-Modell fehlen der Gigabit-Ethernet-Anschluss, der Micro-SD-Kartenleser und einer der USB-A-Anschlüsse. Dafür verfügt es über einen 5-Gbit/s-USB-C-Datenanschluss, der den vom Hub selbst belegten Anschluss ersetzt – was umso notwendiger ist, da das Neo nur über einen einzigen Datenanschluss verfügt.

Dank seiner runden Form und der magnetischen Soft-Touch-Basis lässt er sich mithilfe des mitgelieferten 3M-Kleberings bündig am Deckel des Neo befestigen. Sie können ihn auch an ein iPhone mit USB-C-Anschluss (ab Modell 15) andocken, falls Sie ihn sowohl an Ihrem Smartphone als auch an Ihrem Neo-Laptop benötigen.

Als Teil seiner Neo-Kollektion hat Satechi zudem eine farblich abgestimmte, flache und elegante „Slim EX Wireless Mouse“ (29,99 $) auf den Markt gebracht, die zwei Bluetooth-Kanäle sowie eine 2,4-GHz-Funkverbindung unterstützt und über leise Klick-Tasten sowie ein präzisionsgefertigtes Scrollrad verfügt.

Sollten Sie den Satechi USB-C Snap Hub kaufen?

Das schlanke Gehäuse des Satechi Snap Hubs aus eloxiertem Aluminium schließt bündig am Macbook Neo an, ohne dass Kabel herunterhängen – bis Sie die Kabel anschließen, die Sie für die Stromversorgung, Erweiterungen, Speicher und die Bildschirmunterstützung benötigen. Es gibt zwar ähnliche USB-C-Hubs mit zahlreichen Anschlüssen, doch nur wenige passen so perfekt zu den Farben „Zitrus“, „Rosa“, „Indigo“ und „Silber“ des Neo.

TL;DR: Get a 10TB Internxt Cloud Storage Lifetime Subscription for $360.

Renting cloud storage from Google or Dropbox means a monthly charge that never stops and files a company can scan whenever it likes. Internxt is a private, encrypted alternative, and a lifetime subscription to its 10TB plan is on sale for $359.99 (reg. $2,900).

Your files get end-to-end encrypted on your Mac before they ever leave the device, so only you can open them, and not even Internxt can read them. That encryption goes a step past the standard AES-256 most providers use, holding up against future quantum computing threats. Internxt is open-source with its code posted publicly on GitHub, and they’ve even been audited independently by Securitum.

You can reach your files from macOS, iOS, Windows, Linux, or a browser, across as many devices as you want. Files are split into smaller encrypted pieces during transfer, so intercepted data stays unreadable. Because the system is decentralized, your data isn’t locked to one server, and you can export everything whenever you like. This plan is open to new users only.

Stop renting your storage by the month and own it outright.

Get an Internxt 10TB Cloud Storage Lifetime Subscription on sale for $359.99.

Internxt Cloud Storage Lifetime Subscription: 10TB PlanSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Gaming subscription services are all the rage now, but Apple Arcade isn’t a little different from the likes of PlayStation Plus, EA Play, or Xbox Game Pass. If you’ve got questions about it, we’ve got plenty of answers.

Updated August 7, 2026: There are four new games on the service again this month: Everyday Puzzles: Mini Games+, Madden NFL 27 Arcade Edition, Retro Bowl College+, and Water Sort Puzzle: Get Color+.

What is Apple Arcade?

Apple Arcade is a gaming subscription service for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and AppleTV that features several hundred games. The games are a mix of genres and styles, and include original games you’ll only find on the service and others that can be found on the regular App Store or even other platforms. Apple Arcade isn’t a streaming service like Xbox Live Cloud Gaming or GeForce NOW. Games must be downloaded onto your device in order to be played.

What do I need to run it?

Apple Arcade was made available as part of iOS 13, iPad OS 13, tvOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. Some of the more visually-intensive games may only run well on newer hardware, though, and some Mac games require macOS 11 (Big Sur).

How much does Apple Arcade cost?

Apple Arcade costs $6.99/£6.99 per month, and you’ll also get a one-month free trial or you can get three months free if you purchase a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac. To claim your free trial click here.

You can get Apple Arcade for less than $6.99 a month if you subscribe for a year upfront. A year of Apple Arcade is $49.99/£49.99 (so $4.16 a month). If you’re currently on the $6.99 month-to-month plan and want to switch to the annual plan and save some money, you can do so on your iPhone or iPad. Open the App Store app, then tap your account icon in the upper right. Tap Subscriptions, then tap the entry for Apple Arcade. Here, you can switch to the annual plan.

Apple Arcade is also included in the Apple One subscription bundles, which range from $20 a month to $38 a month and include access to Apple Music and Apple TV and iCloud storage. There is also a month free trial of Apple One. To claim the trial, or sign up for Apple One, click here.

How do I sign up for Apple Arcade?

There isn’t an Apple Arcade app—it’s built into the App Store. On your iPhone, iPad, or Mac open the App Store and look for the Apple Arcade tab at the bottom of the screen (or in the left column on macOS). A sign-up screen with a Try It Free button will appear. After the trial you’ll be charged either the monthly or annual fee, depending on your selection. When subscribing, you’ll need to enter your Apple ID password or use Touch ID or Face ID to sign in, and you’ll have to confirm your subscription purchase a few times.

Once you’re done with the sign up, the Arcade section of the App Store shows what games are available to you. To access a game, tap on it in the App Store, then tap the Get button. When the game is done installing on your device, the Get button turns into a Play button, and you can tap it to launch the game. The game app icon will also appear on your device’s Home page.

On the Apple TV, there actually is an Arcade app. Open that to see the sign-up offer. You’ll also find an Arcade tab within the App Store.

Does my subscription include family sharing?

Yes. One $6.99 per month subscription can be shared between up to six people (including you).

How do I cancel Apple Arcade?

First off, keep in mind that if you cancel Apple Arcade (either before your free trial is up or after subscribing), you won’t be able to keep playing the games unless you re-subscribe. If you’re okay with that, you can use the same process you use to cancel any other subscription service. Here’s the easiest way to do it on the iPhone and iPad:

1. Open the App Store app and tap on your profile photo in the upper right.
2. In the screen that pops up, press Subscriptions near the top of the page.
3. You’ll then see a list of active subscriptions, and Apple Arcade should be listed there. Tap it.
4. You’ll either see Cancel Free Trial or Cancel Subscription toward the middle of the page that appears. Tap whatever option is available, then Confirm Cancellation.

And here’s how to cancel Apple Arcade on the Mac:

1. Open the App Store app and then press the icon with your profile photo in the lower left.
2. The Account window will appear, and you should then click View Information at the top of the window. Enter your password when/if prompted.
3. When your Account Information appears, scroll down to the Manage section and click the Manage link to the right of Subscriptions.
4. When the list of your active subscriptions appears, click Edit to the right of Apple Arcade.
5. Toward the middle of the page that appears, you’ll see a button that says either Cancel Free Trial or Cancel Subscription. Click it, then click Confirm Cancellation and Confirm.

Do Apple Arcade games have in-app purchases?

No. In Apple’s words, “since every game includes access to the full experience, including all game features, content, and future updates, no additional purchases will be required.” Even games that have in-app purchases on the App Store won’t have any in Apple Arcade.

Do Apple Arcade games have ads?

Also no. On a related note, Apple says Apple Arcade has no ad tracking.

Is Apple Arcade a game streaming service like GeForce NOW or Xbox Game Streaming?

No. All Apple Arcade are downloaded.

Are there demos for Apple Arcade games?

No, and they’re not really necessary. Like App Store apps, games download quickly and can easily be removed if you don’t want to keep it anymore.

Apple partly envisions Apple Arcade as a way of letting players try out games with more freedom than the App Store currently allows (which is basically none). In Apple’s words, “rather than pay upfront for each game, a subscription to Apple Arcade will give players the opportunity to try any game in the service without risk.”

The service has a free trial, though, as we’ve seen with other Apple subscription services.

Am I able to keep playing Apple Arcade games if I cancel my subscription?

No. As with most subscription services, you only have access while you’re a subscriber.

Can I use controllers with Apple Arcade games?

Yes. In additional to traditional MFi (Made for iOS) controllers, you can pair some specific Bluetooth controllers for either PlayStation or Xbox with either your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. Since many Apple Arcade games are playable on Mac and Apple TV (where controller support is more common), many games will support them. Some games, especially those that are also available in the broader App Store and only for iPhone or iPad, have no controller support.

How often are new games released?

Games are typically released on the first Friday of each month. There are some rare exceptions.

What games have been released so far?

There are over 200 games available for Apple Arcade, and the list grows all the time.

Title	Publisher	Release Date
A Slight Change of Sawblades+	Yong Kian Chin	05/02/24
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure	ustwo	12/11/20
Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City	Team Alto / Snowman	07/16/21
Alto’s Adventure—Remastered	Team Alto / Snowman	03/25/22
Arkanoid vs Space Invaders+	TAITO Corporation	11/07/24
Angry Birds Bounce	Rovio	09/03/25
Angry Birds Reloaded	Rovio	07/16/21
Asphalt 8: Airborne+	Gameloft	08/27/21
Badland Party	HypeHype Oy	05/06/22
Balatro+	Playstack	09/26/24
Ballistic Baseball	Gameloft	10/18/19
Barbie Color Creations+	StoryToys Limited	12/05/24
BEAST: Bio Exo Arena Suit Team	Oh BiBi	02/01/24
Beyond a Steel Sky	Revolution Software	06/26/20
Big Time Sports	Frosty Pop Games	09/19/19
Blackjack by MobilityWare+	MobilityWare	01/05/24
Bleak Sword	Devolver Digital	09/19/19
Bloons TD Battles 2+	Ninja Kiwi	03/07/24
Boggle: Arcade Edition	Zynga	12/05/24
Bold Moves+	Red Games Co.	06/09/23
Bridge Constructor+	Headup GmbH	02/04/22
Card of Darkness	Pendleton Ward	09/19/19
Castle Crumble	Orbital Knight	02/03/23
Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls	Konami	09/17/21
Charrua Soccer	Batovi Games	02/07/20
Chess Universe+	Tilting Point	05/04/23
Cityscapes: Sim Builder	Playstack	05/04/23
Clue: The Classic Mystery Game+	Marmalade Game Studio	03/24/23
Coffee Inc. 2+	Side Labs	06/04/26
Cooking Mama: Cuisine!	Office Create Corp.	06/17/22
Cornsweeper	Robert Morrison	01/05/24
Cozy Caravan	5 Lives Studios	01/08/26
Crayola Adventures	Red Games Co.	03/07/24
Crayola Create and Play+	Red Games Co.	10/29/21
Crayola Scribble Scrubbie+	Red Games Co.	09/03/25
Crazy Eights: Card Games+	MobilityWare	03/06/25
Creaks	Amanita Design	07/10/20
Creatures of the Deep+	Infinite Dreams	07/02/26
Cricket Through the Ages	Devolver Digital	09/19/19
Crossword Jam+	PlaySimple Games	10/20/23
Crossy Road+	Hipster Whale	10/08/21
Crossy Road Castle	Hipster Whale	02/28/20
Cult of the Lamb	Devolver	12/04/25
Cut the Rope 3	SeptoLab UK	10/13/23
Cut the Rope Remastered	Paladin Studios	04/02/21
Cypher 007	Tilting Point	09/29/23
Dandara: Trials of Fear+	Raw Fury	12/03/21
Dead Cells+	Playdigious	12/02/22
Dear Reader	Local No. 12	09/19/19
Delicious — Miracle of Life+	GameHouse	11/24/23
Dicey Dungeons+	Distractionware	05/02/24
Disney Coloring World+	StoryToys Entertainment	05/04/23
Disney Dreamlight Valley	Gameloft	12/05/23
Disney Getaway Blast+	Gameloft	05/04/23
Disney SpellStruck	Artist Arcade	05/04/23
Doctor Who: An Unlikely Heist	Tilting Point	04/07/23
Dominoes: Classic Tile Game+	MobilityWare	10/02/25
Doodle God Universe	JoyBits	07/16/21
Doodle Jump 2+	Lima Sky	02/06/25
Doraemon Dorayaki Shop Story+	Kairosoft Co.	03/05/26
Downwell+	Devolver	11/17/23
Draw It+	Kwalee	07/02/26
Dredge+	Black Salt Games	04/02/26
Drive Ahead! Carcade	Dodreams Fairytale Company	11/07/24
Dungeon Clawler+	Stray Fawn Studio	07/02/26
Easy Come Easy Golf	Claphanz	02/04/21
Episode XOXO	Episode Interactive	01/06/23
Everybody Shogi	AltPlus	08/07/25
Everyday Puzzles: Mini Games+	Fanatee	08/06/26
Fabulous – Wedding Disaster+	GameHouse	06/06/24
Family Feud Pocket	GameLoft	06/30/26
Fantasian	Mistwalker	04/01/21
Farming Simulator 20+	Giants Software	05/04/23
Farmside	The Label	02/17/23
Felicity’s Door	Area 35	02/05/26
FFIV: The After Years	Square Enix	12/09/24
Final Fantasy+	Square Enix	01/10/25
Final Fantasy IV (3D Remake)	Square Enix	12/09/24
Finity	Seabaa	08/25/23
Flow Free+	Big Duck Games	03/05/26
Food Truck Pup+	Game Start	10/03/24
Football Manager 2023 Touch	SEGA	11/08/22
Free Cell Solitaire: Card Game+	MobilityWare	06/04/26
Frogger in Toy Town	Konami	09/19/19
Furistas Cat Cafe+	Runaway	10/03/24
Galaga Wars+	Bandai Namco	11/12/21
Game Dev Story+	Kairosoft Co., Ltd	06/18/21
Game Room	Resolution Games	01/20/24
Garden Tails: Match and Grow	Playdots, Inc.	09/16/22
Gear.Club Stradale	Eden Games	04/08/22
Getting Over It+	Bennett Foddy	05/04/23
Gibbon: Beyond the Trees	Broken Rules	02/25/22
Gin Rummy Classic+	MobilityWare	10/07/22
Goat Simulator+	Coffee Stain Publishing	05/13/22
Good Pizza, Great Pizza+	Tapblaze	05/07/26
Grand Mountain Adventure+	Toppluva	04/28/23
Grindstone	Capybara Games	09/19/19
Hearts: Card Game+	MobilityWare	01/07/22
Helix Jump+	Voodoo	06/05/25
Hello Kitty Island Adventure	Sunblink	07/28/23
Hidden Folks+	Adriaan de Jongh	01/28/22
Hill Climb Racing+	Fingersoft	05/04/23
Horizon Chase 2	Aquiris Game Studio	09/09/22
Hot Lava	Klei Entertainment	09/19/19
Hot Wheels: Race Off+	Hutch Games	12/05/24
Human: Fall Flat+	505 Games	03/31/23
HYKE: Northern Light(s)	Akatsuki Games	04/02/26
I Love Hue Too+	Zut Games	02/05/26
INKS.+	State of Play Games	06/25/21
Iron Marines+	Ironhide Irl	05/04/23
It’s Literally Just Mowing	Protostar	01/10/25
Japanese Rural Life Adventure	Game Start	09/15/23
JellyCar Worlds	Walaber Entertainment	12/09/22
Jeopardy! Daily	Frosty Pop	09/04/25
Jeopardy! World Tour+	Uken	10/06/23
Jet Dragon	Grezzo Co.	06/16/23
Jetpack Joyride+	Halfbrick Studios	07/23/21
Jetpack Joyride 2	Halfbrick Studios	08/19/22
Jigsaw Puzzle by MobilityWare+	MobilityWare	06/10/22
Junkworld TD	Ironhide	09/22/23
Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE	Bandai Namco	04/03/25
Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD+	Ironhide Irl	09/03/25
Kingdom Rush Frontiers TD+	Ironhide Irl	11/12/21
Kingdom Rush Vengeance TD+	Ironhide Irl	07/29/22
Kingdom Two Crowns+	Raw Fury	05/04/23
Kingdoms: Merge & Build	Cherrypick Games	08/18/23
Knotwords+	Zach Gage	11/03/23
Legends of Kingdom Rush	Ironhide Game Studio	06/11/21
LEGO Brawls	The Lego Group	09/19/19
LEGO Builder’s Journey	The Lego Group	12/19/19
LEGO DUPLO World+	StoryToys	07/07/23
LEGO Friends Heartlake Rush+	StoryToys	05/01/25
LEGO Hill Climb Adventures+	Fingersoft	06/05/25
LEGO Star Wars Battles	TT Games	09/24/21
LEGO Star Wars: Castaways	Gameloft	11/19/21
Leo’s Fortune+	1337 & Senri LLC	06/25/21
Let’s Go Mightycat!	Ponos corporation	08/07/25
Limbo+	Playdead	05/04/23
Lost in Play+	Snapbreak Games	06/05/25
Lumen	Lykkegaard International	02/05/21
Madden NFL 27 Arcade Edition	Electronic Arts	08/06/26
MasterChef: Let’s Cook!	Tilting Point	09/03/21
Masterpieced	BorderLeap	12/01/23
Mini Football Legends	Miniclip.com	06/04/26
Mini Motorways	Dinosaur Polo Club	09/19/19
Millionaire Trivia: TV Game+	Uken	06/30/23
Monomals	Picomy	11/01/19
Monster Train+	Good Shepherd Entertainment	09/05/24
Monument Valley+	ustwo games	02/02/21
Monument Valley 2+	ustwo games	03/11/22
Moonshot – A Journey Home	Noodlecake	04/22/22
My Bowling 3D+	iWare Designs	07/01/22
My Dear Farm+	HyperBeard Inc.	02/06/25
My Little Pony: Mane Merge	Gameloft	12/16/22
My Talking Angela 2+	Outfit7 Limited	09/08/23
My Talking Tom+	Outfit7 Limited	08/12/22
My Talking Tom Friends+	Outfit7 Limited	09/04/25
My Talking Tom 2+	Outfit7 Limited	06/04/26
My Town Home – Family Games+	My Town Games	05/04/23
My Very Hungry Caterpillar	StoryToys	04/02/26
MySims	Electronic Arts	11/06/25
MySims Kingdom	Electronic Arts	11/06/25
NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja Storm+	Bandai Namco	12/04/25
NBA 2K24 Arcade Edition	2K Sports	10/24/23
NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition	2K Sports	10/03/24
NBA 2K26 Arcade Edition	2K Sports	10/16/25
Nekograms+	Hungry Sky	08/10/23
NFL Retro Bowl ’25	New Star R&D	09/04/24
Nick Jr. Replay!	Viacom	05/07/26
Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm	Cornfox & Bros.	09/19/19
Oceanhorn 3	Cornfox & Bros.	03/05/26
Octodad: Dadliest Catch+	Young Horses	05/04/23
Oddmar+	Mobje Ltd.	12/03/21
Old Man’s Journey	Broken Rules	11/18/22
Outlanders	Pomelo Games	09/19/19
Outlanders 2	Pomelo Games	07/03/24
Over the Alps	Stave Studios	09/19/19
Overland	Finji	09/19/19
PAC-MAN Party Royale	BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment	10/18/19
PAC-MAN 256+	BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment	12/05/24
Patterned	BorderLeap	09/19/19
Perchang World	Perchang	05/07/26
PGA Tour Pro Golf	HypGames	02/06/25
Piano Tiles 2+	Koapps	03/06/25
Piffle+	Hipster Whale	10/02/25
Play-Doh World	Scary Beasties	08/07/25
Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!	Game Freak	01/20/23
Pocket City 2+	Engaged Labs	07/02/26
Pocket Love!+	HyperBeard	03/05/26
Potion Punch 2+	Monstronauts Inc.	01/08/26
PowerWash Simulator	FuturLab	12/04/25
PPKP+	Shimada Toshiro	05/04/23
Pro Darts 2026+	iWare Designs	05/27/22
Pro Snooker & Pool 2026+	iWare Designs Ltd.	04/15/22
Prune+	Joel McDonald	04/29/22
Puffies.	Lykkegaard Europe	04/03/25
Punch Kick Duck+	Shaun Coleman	07/03/24
Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop	Sega	04/04/24
Puzzle & Dragons Story	GungHo Online Entertainment	12/05/23
Rabbids Multiverse	Ubisoft	06/06/24
Reigns+	Devolver Digital	07/01/21
Retro Bowl+	New Star R&D	06/23/23
Retro Bowl College+	New Star R&D	08/06/26
Retro Goal+	New Star R&D	06/23/23
Retrocade	Resolution Games	02/05/26
Return to Monkey Island+	Devolver	06/06/24
Ridiculous Fishing EX	Vlambeer	07/17/23
Rodeo Stampede+	Featherweight Games	01/10/25
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic+	Atari	04/03/25
Sago Mini Jinja’s Garden	Sago Mini	01/08/26
Sago Mini Trips+	Sago Mini	04/04/24
Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go	Sega	08/29/23
Sesame Street Mecha Builders+	StoryToys	04/03/25
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII	2K	02/05/26
Skate City	Snowman	09/19/19
Skate City: New York	Snowman	01/10/25
Slay the Spire+	Humble Bundle	07/07/23
Smash Hit+	Mediocre	10/03/24
Snake.io+	Kooapps	05/04/23
Sneaky Sasquatch	RAC7	09/19/19
Solitaire Stories	Red Games Co.	07/02/21
SongPop Party	Gameloft	04/02/21
Sonic Dash+	Sega	04/08/22
Sonic Dream Team	Sega	12/05/23
Sonic Racing	Sega	09/19/19
Sp!ng	SMG Studio	03/05/21
SpaceInvaders InfinityGene EVO	TAITO Corporation	04/03/25
Spades: Card Game+	MobilityWare	01/07/22
Spider Solitaire: Card Game+	MobilityWare	10/07/22
Spire Blast	Orbital Knight sp.	01/22/21
Spongebob SquarePants: Patty Pursuit	Nickelodeon	05/28/20
Spongebob: Patty Pursuit 2	Viacom International	12/04/25
Squiggle Drop	Noodlecake	01/27/23
Star Trek: Legends	Tilting Point LLC	04/02/21
Stardew Valley+	ConcernedApe	07/21/23
Stitch.	Lykkegaard Europe	10/28/22
Subway Surfers+	Sybo Games	12/04/25
Subway Surfers Tag	Sybo Games	07/15/22
Suika Game+	Xgimi Limited	09/03/25
SUMI SUMI: Matching Puzzle+	Imagineer Co.	05/01/25
Summer Pop!+	Ocean Games	05/02/24
Summon Quest	The Label	04/21/23
Super Leap Day	Nitrome	08/06/21
Super Mega Mini Party	Red Games Co, LLC	11/01/19
Super Monsters Ate My Condo+	PikPok	04/04/24
Super Stickman Golf 3+	Noodlecake	08/06/21
Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat	BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment	04/02/21
Talking Tom Blast Park	Outfit7 Limited	12/05/24
Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom	Bandai Namco	01/05/24
Temple Run+	Imangi Studios	05/04/23
Temple Run Legends	Imangi Stuidios	08/01/24
Temple Run: Puzzle Adventure	Scopely, Inc.	09/17/21
Texas Hold’em Poker: Pokerist+	KamaGames	11/07/24
The Battle of Polytopia+	Midjiwan	03/07/24
The Game of Life 2+	Marmalade Game Studio	04/03/25
The Last Campfire	Hello Games	08/27/20
The Oregon Trail	Gameloft	04/02/21
Thomas and Friends: Let’s Roll+	StoryToys	10/02/25
Three Kingdoms Heroes	Koei Tecmo Games	01/10/25
Time Locker+	Sotaro Otsuka	05/04/23
tint.	Lykkegaard International	09/19/19
Tiny Wings+	Andreas Illiger	10/15/21
TMNT Splintered Fate	Paramount Global	05/04/23
Trials of Mana+	Square Enix	01/10/25
True Skate+	True Axis	01/08/26
Toca Boca Jr. Classics	Sago Mini	11/06/25
Tomb of the Mask+	Playgendary	06/06/24
Turmoil+	Gamious	12/05/23
Ultimate 8 Ball Pool+	HypGames	05/07/26
UNO: Arcade Edition	Mattel	06/05/25
Unpacking+	Humble Bundle	04/02/26
Vampire Survivors+	Poncle	08/01/24
Very Little Nightmares+	Bandai Namco	05/04/23
Warped Kart Racers	Electric Square	05/20/22
Water Sort Puzzle: Get Color+	Tripledot Studios	08/06/26
What the Car?	Triband ApS	05/04/23
What the Clash?	Triband ApS	05/01/25
What the Golf?	Fig	09/19/19
Wheel of Fortune Daily	Frosty Pop	11/07/24
Where Cards Fall	Snowman	09/19/19
Winding Worlds	KO_OP	05/15/20
with My Buddy	Neilo inc.	05/01/25
Words in Progress	Gamious	02/01/24
Words of Wonders: Search+	Fugo Bilisim	05/01/25
Worms Across Worlds	Team 17	08/07/25
Wurdweb	Aran & Adriaan	08/13/21
Wylde Flowers	Studio Drydock	02/22/22
Zen Koi Pro+	LandShark Games	07/03/24
Zen Pinball Party	ZEN Studios	09/03/21
Zookeeper World	Kiteretsu Inc.	09/10/21

Apple offers the MacBook Pro with three different chip options. It starts with the entry-level M5 chip, which you can only get in the 14-inch MacBook Pro. Apple also offers higher end M5 Pro and M5 Max chips for the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, as it has since the M1 arrived in 2020.

The M5 MacBook Pro was released in October 2025. According to reports, Apple plans to upgrade the laptop to an M6 chip this fall, which isn’t a surprise. What is a surprise is that Apple will reportedly skip the Pro and Max M6 variants to focus on the M7 coming later in 2027. So the M6 MacBook Pro could be the only M6 option available.

This article keeps track of the reports about the upcoming M6 MacBook Pro. Keep an eye on this article for the latest news.

iOS 27 finally delivers Siri AI—a highly capable chatbot with access to world knowledge, personal data, and live web results. Its system-level agentic privileges, paired with its smarts, turn it into an unrivaled tool that can understand and interact with on-screen content across iPhone apps. This helps you execute complex everyday tasks by using just your voice.

Messaging is one of the most common smartphone use cases, and it can feel tiresome at times. Our iPhones buzz whenever we receive a text, which can include long rants, random 2 AM questions, super important updates, and more. To make my life a tad easier, I leveraged the overhauled chatbot’s power and used Shortcuts to make it respond to certain iMessages.

Siri AI has entered the chat.

Getting started

To replicate the experiences I’m breaking down below, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or a newer model running iOS 27 (currently in beta) with Siri AI enabled. The first, more practical method works on demand inside chats you’re viewing in real time. The automatic mode, on the other hand, can run in the background and autonomously respond to assigned contacts whenever they text you.

While the latter mode can be fun to play around with, I advise you not to keep it enabled at all times. As artificial intelligence and its generated slop take over social media and other digital spaces, maintaining the humanness of online interactions has become more challenging than ever. You probably wouldn’t want a robot to reply to you when texting your friends, and neither would most people.

Manual mode

Manually having Siri AI reply to specific conversations doesn’t require any setup beyond enabling the chatbot itself. The feature works across first- and third-party messaging apps, allowing you to generate contextual replies in any text box.

For example, a friend asked me for Apple Arcade game recommendations, but I haven’t been playing any lately. I clarified that, then proceeded to ask Siri to answer his question. The AI assistant automatically scoured the web and composed a message highlighting some of the popular titles. It even allows you to view its source(s) to ensure its credibility before hitting send. Through this basic, intuitive integration, I was able to help a friend out without leaving the chat.

Siri AI’s usefulness in chats can go even further. I sent a paragraph copied from an article highlighting an iCloud+ price hike in several countries. My friend inquired about the new pricing, so I asked Siri to answer his question. The chatbot took into account that my friend is based in Türkiye (visible in the chat through the Find My tile), and listed the pricing for this particular country. It understood—without my explicit instruction—that this is the particular information my friend is likely interested in and searched the web for results accordingly.

This deep understanding of the context and contacts’ available data, alongside its ability to browse the web, transforms Siri AI into a genuinely helpful assistant when conversing with others. In the past, such workflows would require jumping between multiple apps and manually hunting for results. That’s no longer necessary.

I now often find myself hitting the keyboard’s Write with Siri button (the successor to Writing Tools)—not because I need assistance with typing, but because it can provide the needed information from indexed on-device content and the web. I tend to extract the generated details and reword my responses afterwards to maintain my texting tone and style.

Auto answers

If a contact regularly spams you on iMessage while you’re busy tending to other life matters, Siri AI can fully take over the chat and respond on your behalf. Launch the built-in Apple Shortcuts app, which now supports generating shortcuts using natural language. Create a new shortcut by inserting this prompt: “When [contact name] texts me, analyze their message, generate a suitable reply, and send it to them automatically.” This will create an automation that fetches the contents of incoming texts, privately feeds it to Apple’s cloud-based AI models to come up with an appropriate response, and finally relays it to the selected recipient.

Unlike the manual mode, the Shortcuts automation works best in iMessage and may not be supported in most third-party instant-messaging apps. Whenever the automation runs, you’ll receive a notification alerting you about the automated reply, which, by default, you can’t review in advance. So, unless you actively visit and read the developing conversation, Siri could be sending the contact all sorts of nonsense AI hallucinations. Worry not, however; the automation, unlike the manual mode, bases its replies on world knowledge and public information. While stress-testing it, I was unable to force Siri AI to leak my sensitive details by having someone ask me personal questions.

The practical path

I had a lot of fun watching Siri AI automatically come up with all sorts of wacky replies and send them to one of my close friends—but once my tests concluded, I deleted the automation altogether. It’s certainly a cool way to demonstrate how far the virtual assistant has come and how iOS now caters to power users by supporting advanced automations and tools. You wouldn’t, however, want the AI chatbot to continuously send your contacts texts without confirmation.

Conversely, manually having Siri AI assist with responding when receiving particular questions has become an indispensable part of my workflow. It selectively uses AI to fetch the needed information—without turning the conversation into a monotonous wall of text full of em dashes. It also works in texting apps beyond Apple Messages, making it the more practical method. Once iOS 27 rolls out to the public, I see this integration revolutionizing how people text by sparing them from time-consuming tasks, like browsing the web and digging through local files to find answers.

Siri AI did not contribute to this story.

Jeden Sommer raten viele Technikbegeisterte ihren Freunden aus zwei Hauptgründen vom Kauf eines neuen iPhones ab: dem Preis und den Hardware-Neuerungen. Obwohl neue iPhones fortschrittlichere Technologien bieten, bleiben sie in der Regel preislich auf dem Niveau ihrer Vorgängermodelle – oder werden im schlimmsten Fall nur geringfügig teurer, was mit mehr Speicher einhergeht. Ein neues iPhone nur wenige Monate vor der Markteinführung der neuen Modelle im September zu kaufen, würde also bedeuten, den vollen Preis für ein Jahr alte Funktionen zu zahlen.

Dieses Mal ist das jedoch nicht der Fall.

Im Gegensatz zu den Vorjahren, in denen dies der ungünstigste Zeitpunkt für einen Umstieg gewesen wäre, könnte der Kauf eines iPhone 17 Pro vor der bevorstehenden Markteinführung im September Ihnen ein besseres Angebot sichern. Das iPhone 18 Pro wird zweifellos willkommene Neuerungen mit sich bringen, doch das Gesamtpaket rechtfertigt den Preis möglicherweise nicht.

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Noch ein Argument, gleich vor der Vorstellung des iPhones 18 Pro ein iPhone 17 Pro zu kaufen, sind die aktuellen Preise für das Flagschiff-iPhone. Amazon verkauft das Gerät in Cosmic Orange für 1.139 Euro, also ein Rabatt von 12 Prozent. Aus Erfahrung können wir sagen, dass die Ermäßigungen für die neuesten Pro-iPhones selten abseits der Zehn-Prozent-Grenze liegen. Es ist also ein gutes Angebot.

Zudem muss man beachten, dass die Preise für die Vorgängermodelle steigen können, sobald Apple neue Preise für das iPhone 18 Pro ankündigt.

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Zu welchem Preis?

Falls Sie es verpasst haben sollten: Apple hat gerade die Preise für iPads, Macs und andere Produkte um bis zu 300 Euro für die Basismodelle angehoben. Diese erhebliche Preiserhöhung, ausgelöst durch die jüngsten Engpässe bei Speicherchips und Speichermedien, hat die iPhone-Reihe seltsamerweise ausgenommen. Es ist jedoch weitestgehend sicher, dass die neuen iPhones im September neue Preisschilder tragen werden, mit größeren Zahlen.

Normalerweise erhöht Apple die Preise für die iPhone-Basismodelle alle paar Jahre um 50 oder 100 Euro und bietet dafür zusätzlichen Speicherplatz an, um die Auswirkungen abzumildern. Derzeit ist die Situation jedoch alles andere als typisch. Einigen Prognosen zufolge könnte das iPhone 18 Pro bei satten 1.299 US-Dollar starten. In Europreisen wird ein Einstiegspreis von 1.599 Euro gemunkelt.

Zum Vergleich: Das iPhone 17 Pro in der Basisversion bietet 256 GB Speicherplatz für 1.299 Euro. Selbst wenn Apple also die Einstiegskonfiguration auf 512 GB erhöht, müssen die Nutzer die zusätzlichen 300 Euro zahlen, ob sie einen halben Terabyte Speicher benötigen oder nicht. Für das iPhone 18 Pro Max sind Preise im Bereich von 1.799 Euro möglich.

Manche mögen argumentieren, dass die anderen Hardware-Upgrades den höheren Preis rechtfertigen. Schauen wir uns einige der Highlights des Geräts genauer an, und Sie können sich selbst ein Urteil bilden.

Gleiche KI-Funktionen

Wir beginnen mit der künstlichen Intelligenz, da sich sehr viele Verbraucher intensiv dafür interessieren. In der Apple-Produktpalette spielt der Arbeitsspeicher (RAM) eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Frage, welche KI-Funktionen unterstützt werden, da viele davon lokal ausgeführt werden. Das wurde erstmals beim Debüt von Apple Intelligence deutlich: Das iPhone 15 Pro mit 8 GB RAM führte die KI-Suite einwandfrei aus, während die Einsteiger-Modelle der 15er-Reihe mit 6 GB RAM gänzlich darauf verzichten mussten. Zwar unterstützt das iPhone 15 Pro weiterhin die neuesten Funktionen, einige davon wie die natürliche Siri-Stimme sind nur den iPhones mit dem A19 Pro vorbehalten.

Das iPhone Air, das 17 Pro und das 17 Pro Max sind die einzigen Smartphone-Modelle, die diese Funktionen unterstützen, da sie über die erforderlichen 12 GB RAM verfügen. Das iPhone 18 Pro wird Berichten zufolge mit demselben Arbeitsspeicher ausgestattet sein, was bedeutet, dass die erweiterten Apple-Intelligence-Funktionen gleichermaßen für das iPhone 17 Pro und 18 Pro zur Verfügung stehen.

Vergleichbare Kameras

iPhone-Kameras, insbesondere die Weitwinkel- und Ultraweitwinkelobjektive, sind für ihre Zuverlässigkeit bekannt und liefern gestochen scharfe Fotos und Videos. Dennoch schnitt das Teleobjektiv vor einigen Jahren in vielen Fällen noch schlecht ab, und die Selfie-Kamera wirkte zu unausgereift.

Das iPhone 17 Pro hat die Hauptmängel der Kamera endlich behoben, indem das Tetraprisma-Objektiv verfeinert und auf der Vorderseite ein quadratischer „Center Stage“-Sensor mit höherer Auflösung für den Ausrichtungswechsel hinzugefügt wurde. Auch wenn es immer Raum für Verbesserungen gibt, würden die meisten Nutzer wahrscheinlich zustimmen, dass sich das Kamerasystem des iPhones nun endlich vollständig anfühlt.

Es versteht sich von selbst, dass das iPhone 18 Pro die Kamera weiter verbessern wird. Gerüchten zufolge soll das Weitwinkelobjektiv erstmals über eine variable Blende verfügen. Die Auflösung der Frontkamera könnte zudem von 18 MP auf 24 MP erhöht werden. Diese Verbesserungen werden zwar zu schärferen Ergebnissen beitragen, sind jedoch wohl nicht so bahnbrechend wie der bedeutende Sprung nach vorn im letzten Jahr.

Robuste Displays

Als das Display mit Ceramic Shield 2 mit dem iPhone 17 (Pro) angekündigt wurde, verdrehte ich zunächst nur die Augen. Ich glaubte zunächst nicht, dass die angepriesene dreifach höhere Kratzfestigkeit tatsächlich spürbare Auswirkungen haben würde.

Das iPhone 17 Pro Max ist mein erstes Smartphone überhaupt, das auch nach monatelanger täglicher Nutzung ohne Displayschutzfolie keinen einzigen Mikrokratzer aufweist – es sieht buchstäblich makellos aus. Das Ceramic Shield 2 ersetzt praktisch die Schutzfolie. (In der Macwelt-Redaktion nutze ich das iPhone 17 (ohne Pro) ohne Hülle und ohne die Schutzfolie für den Bildschirm. In fast einem Jahr Nutzung gibt es auf dem Gerät einen Mikrokratzer von 3 mm direkt gegenüber dem Power-Button, ansonsten können wir die Erfahrungen des Macworld-Kollegen bestätigen. Werfen Sie nicht unbedingt Ihr iPhone 17 (Pro) um sich herum, benötigen Sie keine Schutzfolie. – Anm. d. Red).

Da das Display des iPhones nun so beeindruckend und widerstandsfähig ist, wie es die meisten Nutzer erwarten, sehe ich kaum einen Grund, warum man auf das neuere Display des 18 Pro warten sollte. Die wohl bemerkenswerteste Verbesserung könnte relativ nebensächlich sein: die Verkleinerung des „Dynamic Island“, um mehr Elemente auf dem Bildschirm unterzubringen. Das ist zwar eine gelungene Weiterentwicklung, wird aber nicht so bahnbrechend sein wie der Wechsel des iPhone 14 Pro von einer statischen Notch zum ursprünglichen „Dynamic Island“.

Gleiches Materialdesign

Neben den bahnbrechenden Verbesserungen bei RAM, Kamera und Display war das iPhone 17 Pro auch das Modell, bei dem das Gehäuse komplett überarbeitet wurde, wobei Titan zugunsten von Aluminium aufgegeben wurde.

Abgesehen von den neuen Oberflächenoptionen wird das iPhone 18 Pro daher ein ähnliches Gesamtdesign bieten und möglicherweise sogar etwas klobiger ausfallen. Wenn Sie heute ein iPhone 17 Pro kaufen, wird es später im Herbst nicht veraltet wirken. Das ist eine Prognose, die wir vor einem Jahr nicht getroffen hätten und die wir nächstes Jahr nicht wiederholen werden (angesichts der Gerüchte um das iPhone XX).

Ob es sich lohnt, rund 300 Euro mehr für eine optimierte Kamera und eine kleinere „Dynamic Island“ zu bezahlen, hängt ganz von Ihren Prioritäten ab. Meiner Ansicht nach wird das iPhone 18 Pro als überteuertes iPhone 17S Pro fungieren. Greifen Sie lieber zum Original, bevor es auch im Preis steigt.

Best Prices Today: TerraMaster F4-425 Pro

I’m always surprised how few people own a NAS (Network Attached Storage) box such as the highly capable F4-425 Pro reviewed here. NAS requires a bit more tech savvy than cloud services and storage, plus some upfront cost, but there’s one particular reason it’s worth it: complete and private control of the apps, services, and most importantly –the data you store on it.

Internet outage? Doesn’t affect your NAS. Online data breech? Doesn’t affect your NAS. Monthly payments? Only to your power company. Simply put, NAS is fantastic for data backup and streaming media about the house and can also serve as the engine for a home surveillance network.

We like NAS, and TerraMaster has quickly become one of our favorite consumer flavors thanks to excellent hardware and apps, a newly faster OS, and the lack of surcharges vendors such as QNAP and Synology hit you up with for things such as additional IP cam licenses.

That said, there was the occasional immaturity in the apps and operating system.

What are the F4-425 Pro’s features?

The F4-425 Pro is a silver and black hued, mostly metal, four-bay NAS box with quick swap, non-locking 3.5-inch drive trays. It measures approximately 7.1-inches wide by 8.6-inches deep, by 5.9-inches tall and weighs around 6.5 pounds bare. That will of course increase as you add drives.

If you remove the four screws on the bottom holding the aluminum body to the chassis, you’ll find three PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 slots that accept NVMe SSDs. There’s enough space for heat sinks, which would be a good idea to prolong SSD life. Note that you can use PCIe 4.0/5.0 SSDs but they’ll be limited to PCIe 3.0 speed.

The front of the unit provides access to the four drive bays, as well as the power button and a single 10Gbps USB Type-A port. The back is home to an additional pair of 10Gbps Type-A USB ports, twin 5Gbe Ethernet ports, and HDMI port (console use only), and a single Type-C port for diagnostics and the like. There’s also the power jack, a pinhole reset button, and a rather massive exhaust fan.

The processor inside of our test unit was a capable 8-core Intel N350 with a substantial 16GB of DDR5 onboard. That’s plenty of power for advanced tasks like virtual machines and Docker.

TerraMaster also provides several apps for backup up mobile devices, and even controlling the box.

TerraMaster provides 2-year warranty on the F4-425 Pro. And thankfully, the company now also provides a downloadable PDF user’s guide.

How is the F4-425 Pro’s setup?

Adding drives to the tool-less trays is largely painless: slide them out, pop out the side rails, slip in the 3.5-inch HDD and replace the side rails. Screws are provided for 2.5-inch hard drives or SATA SSDs. As described above, you’ll need to remove the outer shell to access the three PCIe 3.0 NVMe slots.

lWhen you first boot the F4-425 (and most TerraMaster NAS) it presents a dialog asking for your email address to receive a code. That’s of course after you find its IP address (E.g. 192/168.1.110) and visit with your browser. Below the email field, in very light lettering, is the ability to bypass this step.

Alas, you still have to enter your email. I don’t like sending info to a company until I’m very familiar with the hardware and said company. I wish TerraMaster would abandon this practice ad to be blunt–it’s none of their darn business.

To be fair, you can put the F4-425 Pro into “Security Isolation Mode” (Control Panel / Security/ Security Isolation Mode) after setup, to prevent any further traffic outside of your local network. The F4-425 also features a highly configurable firewall if that’s too drastic a measure for you.

What is the F4-425 Pro’s operating system and software like?

The F4-425 Pro delivered our first look at the latest version 7 of TOS (TerraMaster Operating System), a substantially feature-equivalent but far better-performing version of the operating system (version 6) than I tested with the F2-425. Especially in regards multitasking.

Beyond that, it appeared to me to be more evolutionary than revolutionary, despite heralding itself as the first AI-enabled NAS OS. It does allow you to install OpenCLAW which enables normal language access to various features.

TerraMaster says OpenCLAW makes things easier, but the real issue with most new NAS users is that they don’t know what to ask, let alone how to ask it. Actually, thinking about it, that’s the issue with just about any AI system. Note also that the minute I opened OpenCLAW, the F4-425 Pro’s fan kicked into high gear. It takes some juice.

That said, I quite like TOS, it’s as well laid out as the QNAP and Synology equivalents, and perhaps a bit more intuitive. However, I found version 7 a bit buggy. Rough around the edges, as it were.

I stuck with TOS 7 as it’s so much quicker at everything than version 6 but there were some annoyances such as the inability to include spaces in a backup job name, and not automatically resuming jobs that were not completed in the last session. I’d also be careful doing searches and deleting the results with the file manager.

There are also tons of apps for backup, surveillance, development, and multimedia streaming. Below is my favorite: Centralized Backup, which can back up from numerous sources (SMB, FTP, etc.) without the need to install clients on every machine. Simply share the folders or files you want across the network, locate them and create a job to back them up.

Centralized Backup, along with CloudSync (back up to a host of online services) are my favorite TOS backup apps, but there are quite a few others (Duple Vault, Elephant Drive, etc.) as well as TerraMaster’s own client-based, portal driven TerraSync. There’s also a handy folder mirroring utility (TFM) that you can use across volumes.

Want to keep tabs on your house? TerraMaster includes Surveillance Manager (shown below), which offers support for unlimited cameras. This is in distinct contrast to Synology and QNAP which limit you to one or two cameras so they can sell you more licenses. This is one of the best reasons to opt for a TerraMaster NAS box, however, note that you’ll have to configure your router to reach the app remotely.

While I use TOS’s DLNA Multimedia Server to stream movies to my TV, TerraMaster also includes the extremely popular Plex (shown below), as well as Jellyfin and Emby for fans of those systems.

TRAID is TerraMaster’s hybrid RAID solution (all NAS vendors have one these days) that combines mirroring (RAID 1) and parity (RAID 5). It allows you to combine drives of different sizes while using more of their capacity than standard RAID modes do.

Generally speaking, most RAID modes allow you to use only the capacity of each drive in the array equal to that of the smallest drive in the array. Combine a 4TB HDD and an 8TB HDD in RAID 0 (striping) or RAID 1 (mirroring), and only 4TB of the 8TB drive is used, while the rest just sits there. TRAID and similar solutions let you employ the otherwise wasted capacity as another volume, or part of one.

How much is the F4-425?

The F4-425 Pro with the Intel N350 retails for $799, but was on sale at TerraMaster’s site for $639 at the time of this writing. From TerraMaster’s Amazon store make that $699.

There’s a cheaper $569 Intel N305/8GB version of the F4-425 Pro available, as well as less endowed $599 F4-425 Plus (Intel N150 processor, 16GB), and $429 F4-425 (quad-core, 4GB) models if the Pro is too pricey for you, or you don’t need to run VMs, Docker, etc.

The Plus and plain versions were discounted to $480 and $344 respectively at the time of this writing. All use the same operating system and offer the same applications.

The F4-425 Pro’s price is roughly on par for a NAS box with this grade of processor, 16GB of memory and NVMe slots, but as always — shop around, though we’re fairly sure you’d be happiest with the TerraMaster.

How does the F4-425 perform?

The F4-425 Pro features dual 5Gbpe (Multi-gig) so it’s capable of nearly 600MBps when using that protocol, and around 1GBps if you aggregate the two 5Gbps Ethernet adapters. At 2.5Gbps, expect around 290MBps, and on gigabit, around 140Mbps.

There’s no Wi-Fi, but that’s not the best way to use a NAS box. You can with some (and an add-in card), but commonly NAS is connected via Ethernet directly to a router or switch.

I populated the F4-425 with a single 1.92GB Seagate IronWolf SATA SSD and two Crucial T710 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs (running at PCIe 3.0 speed) and formatted with the Btrfs file system. All those SSDs are massively faster than 5Gbpe or even 10Gbpe. The test network consisted of my M4 Max Studio, an EnGenius ECS2512FP 12-port switch (8 x 2.5Gbe/4 x 10Gbe), and PCWorld’s 10Gbe Intel testbed.

I tested with both a single 5Gbe Ethernet connection and both 5Gbe Ethernet ports bonded using TOS 7. However, there was so little improvement with the ports bonded, I’m showing only the 5Gbe results. As to that…

Disk Speed Test was quite complimentary of the F4-425’s throughput, and more so than AmorphousDiskMark.

AmorphousDiskMark writes more data at a time than Disk Speed Test, which may be the reason for the lower write number. That said, CrystalDiskMark on the PC showed even greater performance that Disk Speed Test — 587MBps reading and 580GBps writing.

ATTO was more in line with Disk Speed Test than AmorphousDiskMark.

As to sprightlyness, I banged on the interface and apps pretty hard. The F4-425 Pro was extremely responsive. Tasks completely quickly, including firmware updates and reboots. The latter were far faster than what I’m used to with my older NAS boxes. Multi-tasking, which I complained about with TOS 6 on the F2-425 was light years better. Thank you TOS 7! And of course, more memory and a faster processor.

TerraMaster’s advertising teases over 1GBps performance. However, that’s simply totaling two separate 500GBps connections working separately. Expect what you see above.

Note also that there is a list of compatible NVMe SSDs found here. I’ve had issues with the F8 SSD Plus with some that weren’t supported, though the F4-425 seems fine with the same SSDs. I also found that some software required re-enabling after reboots or shutdowns in TOS 7.

Should I buy the F4-425 Pro?

If you need a very fast 4-Bay NAS box, the TerraMaster F4-425 fits the bill. Though you should expect a couple of software glitches here and there with TOS 7 that QNAP and Synology don’t suffer. That said, for creating a surveillance system, the lack of additional fees makes it top dog in that department.

Nach fast 20 Jahren hat Apple an einem scheinbar zufälligen Donnerstag dem Mac Pro endgültig den Stecker gezogen. Apple bestätigte später, dass das Unternehmen seinen High-End-Mac-Tower nicht mehr verkaufen werde und „keine Pläne habe, künftig Mac-Pro-Hardware anzubieten“. Der Mac Pro, einst ein Symbol für Apples Dominanz im Bereich der Workstations, ist endgültig Geschichte.

Andererseits: Es gibt den Mac Studio, der genau auf viele der gleichen Nutzer abzielt, die einen Mac Pro gekauft hätten. Doch obwohl er in puncto Rechenleistung dem Mac Pro in nichts nachsteht oder diesen sogar übertrifft, fehlen dem Mac Studio jene Eigenschaften, die den Mac Pro einzigartig machten, nämlich die Erweiterungs- und Kühlungsmöglichkeiten eines Tower-Computers. Der Studio ist ein High-End-Leistungsrechner, aber kein echtes Profigerät und lediglich etwas mehr als nur ein Mac Mini mit demselben Chip.

Apple hat im März 2026 das Macbook Neo auf den Markt gebracht. Hier könnte ein Eindruck entstehen, Cupertino würde sich ausschließlich dem kostengünstigen Segment widmen – auf Kosten seiner professionellen Kunden. Ohne eine klare Profi-Option werden sich die anspruchsvollsten und forderndsten Nutzer von Apple entweder für den nicht modularen Mac Studio entscheiden oder außerhalb des Apple-Ökosystems nach Alternativen suchen müssen.

Pro oder nicht?

Mal ehrlich: Apples Profi-Anwender wurden vom Mac Pro schon seit einiger Zeit nicht mehr besonders gut bedient. Das letzte Update des Mac Pro erfolgte im Jahr 2023 mit dem M2-Ultra-Chip, der inzwischen vom M3-Ultra übertroffen wurde – dieser ist im Mac Studio verbaut, kam jedoch nie im Mac Pro zum Einsatz. Die Leistung war somit bei einem günstigeren Mac überlegen.

Insgesamt bedeutete dies, dass die Gründe für den Kauf eines Mac Pro immer weiter schwanden. Der einzige Grund, der einem wirklich noch blieb, um 8.299 Euro oder mehr zu bezahlen, war die Möglichkeit, den internen Speicher zu erweitern und zusätzliche Ein- und Ausgänge hinzuzufügen. Und nur wenige Nutzer konnten dies wirklich rechtfertigen.

Die Tatsache, dass Apple den Mac Pro so selten aktualisierte – nur dreimal in den letzten 14 Jahren –, zeigt, wie gering seine Priorität war. Das Produkt verkaufte sich mit ziemlicher Sicherheit in so geringen Stückzahlen, dass weitere Überarbeitungen kaum noch zu rechtfertigen waren. Dies führte dann zu einem Teufelskreis: Aufgrund fehlender Updates kauften immer weniger Menschen den Mac Pro, was wiederum Apple davon abhielt, weiter daran zu arbeiten.

Letztendlich war der Mac Pro ein zu nischiges Produkt, um seine weitere Existenz zu rechtfertigen. Apple stand vor der Wahl, ihn entweder weiterzuentwickeln (mit allen damit verbundenen Kosten) oder ihn stillschweigend einzustellen. Es dürfte nicht allzu sehr überraschen, dass man sich für Letzteres entschieden hat.

Verschiebung der Prioritäten

Natürlich reichen Apples High-End-Angebote weit über den Mac Pro hinaus. Es gibt zahlreiche hochwertige Alternativen. Wie sieht also die Situation für echte Profi-Mac-Nutzer aus, nun, da es den Mac Pro nicht mehr gibt?

Darauf gibt es keine eindeutige Antwort. So hat Apple beispielsweise im März das Studio Display XDR vorgestellt. Davor war das Pro Display XDR ein echtes Profi-Display, das ab 5.499 Euro erhältlich war und Spezifikationen nur für die anspruchsvollsten Nutzer bot. Trotz seines Preises wurde es allgemein gelobt, obwohl es seit 2019 nicht mehr aktualisiert worden war. 

Der Nachfolger mit einer Bildschirmdiagonale von 27 Zoll und mit einer 5K-Auflösung ist kleiner und bei weitem nicht so ausgebaut wie sein 32-Zoll-6K-Vorgänger. Der neue Monitor ist deutlich günstiger (ab 3.499 Euro) und bietet solche Profi-Features wie ProMotion und HDR. Es ist zweifellos ein Flaggschiff-Display, aber nicht mehr ganz so „Pro“ wie zuvor.

Ansonsten ist das Macbook Pro natürlich nach wie vor sehr erfolgreich. Es ist eines der beliebtesten Notebooks der Welt und sicherlich eines der leistungsstärksten. Power-User, die mobile Leistung benötigen, sind mit den Apple-Silicon-Chips, dem hellen Display, den leistungsvollen Lautsprechern und der langen Akkulaufzeit hervorragend bedient. Und es gibt keine Anzeichen dafür, dass Apple hier nachlässt.

Wenn Sie hohe Leistung benötigen, empfiehlt Apple den Mac Studio und das Studio Display oder das Studio Display XDR. Für einige langjährige Mac-Pro-Nutzer bedeutet der Wegfall des Tower-Modells jedoch, dass Apple ein wichtiges Marktsegment aufgibt. Doch dies ist ein Musterbeispiel dafür, wie Apple dorthin hingeht, wo die Kunden auch sind. Profi-Anwender wandeln sich, und Apple passt sein eigenes Produktportfolio entsprechend an.

Produktquadrant

Die Einstellung des Mac Pro sollte nicht als Rückzug von Apples Engagement für Premium-Produkte interpretiert werden. Vielmehr passt das Unternehmen lediglich sein Produktportfolio an, um den tatsächlichen Kaufinteressen seiner Kunden besser gerecht zu werden.

Steve Jobs hat vor rund dreißig Jahren seinen berühmten, prägnanten Produktquadranten vorstellt, das aktuelle Portfolio ist nicht mehr weit davon entfernt. Die Idee hinter dem Quadranten bestand darin, sich konsequent auf Desktops und Laptops für Profis und Privatkunden zu konzentrieren. In dieser Reihenfolge haben wir den Mac Studio, das Macbook Pro, den Mac Mini/iMac sowie das Macbook Air/Macbook Neo.

In einer solchen Aufstellung war der Mac Pro überflüssig. Als Steve Jobs 1997 zu Apple zurückkehrte und eine Reihe von Geräten einstellte, gab er diese Produktkategorien keineswegs auf. Vielmehr waren die gestrichenen Produkte einfach nicht gut genug, und in vielen Fällen kehrte das Unternehmen in späteren Jahren mit verbesserten Modellen zurück.

Apples aktuelles Angebot im Profi-Segment präsentiert sich nach wie vor als unglaublich starkes Portfolio: Da sind der Mac Studio, das Macbook Pro und das Studio Display XDR – allesamt Produkte, die in ihrer Kategorie zur Spitzenklasse gehören. Das ist eine reichhaltige Auswahl für einen Profi-Anwender. Doch die Zeiten von Ultra-High-End-Geräten, deren Ausstattung und Preis auf eine bestimmte Nutzergruppe zugeschnitten waren, scheinen vorbei zu sein.

„Ultra“ ist das neue „Pro“

Seit einigen Jahren verwendet Apple die Bezeichnung „Ultra“ dort, wo früher die Bezeichnung „Pro“ ausreichte. Bislang gibt es die Apple Watch Ultra, doch Gerüchten zufolge will Apple diese Produktreihe im Laufe dieses Jahres erheblich erweitern.

An erster Stelle steht das iPhone Ultra. Ein derart fortschrittliches Gerät, gepaart mit Apples berühmter Premium-Ausstattung, würde seinen Platz an der Spitze der iPhone-Hierarchie und einen entsprechenden Preis ohne Weiteres rechtfertigen. Anscheinend sind sogar Airpods Ultra mit Kameras und Sensoren geplant.

Natürlich hatten Apples Geräte wie das iPhone und die Airpods schon immer eine andere Definition dessen, was „Pro“ bedeutet. Doch „Ultra“ hält auch beim Mac Einzug. Da ist der Mac Studio, der bald mit dem schnellsten M5-Ultra-Prozessor ausgestattet wird. Und die „Ultra“-Markenbezeichnung wird voraussichtlich auch beim Macbook Einzug halten – und zwar mit dem lang erwarteten Macbook Pro mit einem OLED-Touchscreen. Doch ist ein Laptop mit Touchscreen wirklich ein Profigerät? Wollen Apples Profi-Nutzer tatsächlich einen Touchscreen auf ihrem Mac, oder würden sie lieber SSD-Steckplätze und nachrüstbare Grafikkarten haben?

Apples „Ultra“-Produktreihe wird zweifellos ein High-End-Segment bilden, mit hohen Preisen und hochmodernen Funktionen. Doch was bedeutet das für Apples Profi-Anwender? Wenn Apple die Definition von „Pro“ von extrem hochwertigen Nischenprodukten für anspruchsvolle Anwender hin zu hochpreisigen Produkten verschiebt, die das neueste Design und bahnbrechende Innovationen präsentieren – wo bleiben dann die professionellen Mac-Anwender? Denn sobald jeder ein Profi ist, ist es niemand mehr.

TL;DR: MacMagic unlocks the useful tools macOS hides, and a lifetime license is only $30 (reg. $99.99).

macOS hides a surprising number of useful tools behind menus most people never open, and it leaves out a few features you’d expect to find on any modern machine. MacMagic is a new tool that unlocks all those hidden features, and a lifetime license is on sale for $29.99 (reg. $99.99) right now.

MacMagic finds and purges oversized app caches and logs, force-deletes stubborn files, and clears recent activity to free up disk space. From there, you can batch-rename files by date or metadata, convert images across more than 100 formats, and merge or compress PDFs in a few clicks.

MacMagic also surfaces buried system utilities like Screen Sharing and Certificate Utility. It can even show or hide invisible Finder files, and lock whole folders with a single click. A lightweight text editor, a QR code generator, and a database browser are also included.

Stop hunting through menus and hidden settings to get more out of your Mac.

Get a MacMagic lifetime license on sale for $29.99.

MacMagic: Lifetime Upgrades LicenseSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: AdGuard blocks all ads on nine devices, and a lifetime subscription is on sale for $11 through August 23.

Ads, trackers, and pop-ups follow you across almost every site you visit, and most browser extensions only stop part of them. AdGuard stops ads at the root, and a lifetime subscription covering nine devices is on sale for $11 (reg. $169.99).

AdGuard blocks ads at a deeper level than a typical extension, clearing banners, video pre-rolls, and interstitials before a page finishes loading. Past the ads, AdGuard hides your activity from the trackers and analytics scripts that quietly log what you do. AdGuard also flags malware and phishing sites, so a bad link is far less likely to reach your Mac.

Parents get a full set of controls for filtering adult and inappropriate content, and that keeps younger users on safer ground. Apps run on macOS, iOS, Windows, and Android, so one plan protects the whole household at once.

Because this is a lifetime subscription, updates and new features keep arriving without another charge. This deal is available to new users only.

Skip the monthly ad-blocker subscriptions and clean up your browsing for good.

Get an AdGuard Family lifetime subscription on sale for $11.

Sale ends August 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

AdGuard Family Plan: Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Portable power banks that charge your phone are popular, but wireless battery packs using Apple’s magnetic MagSafe technology offer a simpler and smarter cable-free solution for iPhone 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and Air users.

Phone batteries are prone to run dry just when you’re heading away from a power source, so having a portable charging source is one of today’s necessities. Annoyingly, most power banks require you to carry around a cable, too. Wireless power banks do away with cables but come with their own major limitation—the inefficiency of wireless charging means you need a high-capacity power bank to fully charge a drained iPhone.

MagSafe is a technology that’s compatible with all iPhone 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and Air models, from the mini to the Pro Max, but strangely missing from the 16e model. It allows accessories to clamp magnetically to the back of the iPhone, making the charging connection more efficient.

We put the best portable chargers through a series of rigorous iPhone recharging tests, and have listed the winners by power, portability and functionality:

• Best high-capacity 10k MagSafe power banks
• Best small portable 5K magnetic power banks
• Best multi-device charging MagSafe power banks

Best capacity magnetic power bank for you

You should consider size when it comes to a power bank: physical size and battery capacity. The higher the battery capacity, the more recharging power you’ll get from the power bank—but you’ll also be carrying around a larger, heavier item. Lighter, slimmer power banks are easier to pocket even when clamped to your phone. Larger power banks might not fit in your trouser pocket and can slide off easier when pocketed even if clamped magnetically.

10K power banks (with a 10000mAh battery capacity) can charge a phone close to two times over, while 5K (5000mAh) battery packs usually stretch between 60-75%, which is often enough to get you to the next wall-socket powering opportunity. If you are relying on the power bank for long-haul travel or a camping trip, a 10K battery or higher will suit you better. Belkin even offers a mid-range 8K power bank.

Milliamp hours (mAh) is quite a blunt measurement of battery capacity. It’s great for quickly differentiating between power bank sizes but we also list the capacity in the more accurate watt hours (Wh).

Wireless power bank charging speed

Wireless charging speeds vary from 7.5W (MagSafe Compatible) to 15W (certified MagSafe and Qi2), all the way to the very fastest wireless charging at 25W (Qi2.2). While it’s not as efficient as using a cable to charge a phone, magnetic wireless charging is a step closer to doing away with cables altogether. Qi2 25W brings wireless charging close to wired speed but only iPhones 16 and later support that speed, and some power banks include a built-in USB-C cable for even faster charging up to 45W. The iPhone Air can manage 20W max on even a 25W charger. See Which wireless tech is best for your iPhone?.

We have listed the speeds at which each portable power bank can be charged itself (Input charger) and charge the iPhone (Output charger). The higher the wattage, the faster the charging should be.

Best high-capacity 10K MagSafe power banks

A 10000mAh (10K) battery is the sweet spot for both power and portability. 5000mAh (5K) power banks reviewed further down are slimmer, lighter and easier to pocket, but generally offer a maximum of 70-80% recharge potential versus a 10K power bank that should be able to recharge an iPhone at least one and a half times over.

Best small portable magnetic power banks

If you carry your power bank around with all day, in your bag or pocket, a slimmer, lighter magnetic/MagSafe power bank will suit you better than a larger, heavier 10K battery pack. They are also easier to pocket when clamped to your phone.

The Anker MagGo 10K Slim Power Bank, reviewed above, is just 0.58 inches thick and weighs only 200g but these 5K magnetic power banks will take up even less space in your bag or desk drawer, and are easier to pocket with iPhone attached.

Best multi-device charging MagSafe power banks

if you own AirPods and an Apple Watch as well as an iPhone, look for MagSafe power banks that charge multiple Apple devices at the same time. As power banks these should still be portable, but often convert into charging stands when in use. Most are two large to slip in your pocket with the phone attached but they are useful for when you are away from base and need to power up all your favorite Apple kit.

If you don’t need a portable power bank, check out the best MagSafe chargers that we have tested. Also check out our tests of the best iPhone chargers for wired charging solutions, and of course to refill your iPhone power bank.

How we tested

MagSafe charger testing was conducted using an iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro and 16 Pro, subscribed to a 5G network and WiFi, with screen off and all default settings.

Our test is a simple battery recharge shootout. We let our test-unit iPhone Pro (3095mAh battery capacity) drain to just 10% and then set the Battery Pack to work recharging the phone. We then assigned the charger a score of whatever percentage it managed to charge the iPhone to and subtract the 10%; we test each model at least twice.

It’s not a real-world test of day-to-day use where you’ll likely be using your phone for various tasks (of varying battery usage) and in different environmental conditions and network configurations. But it does give us a common score format that we can use to compare different battery-pack models.

Why is magnetic wireless better?

The MagSafe connection to Apple’s iPhone is precise enough to make wireless charging more efficient as around 20% of non-magnetic power loss is from poor placement of a phone and the wireless charging pad. Standard Qi wireless charging can lose as much as 50% of the portable battery’s power, but MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging loses ‘just’ 30%. Hot out of the gadget laboratory, the new Qi 2.2 (also known as Qi2 25W) brings even faster 25W wireless charging for the iPhone 16 and 17. 15% will be plenty fast enough for most of us but who doesn’t want the fastest possible charging when your iPhone’s battery icon is in the red?

Why comparing Watt Hours is better than Milliamp Hours

Phone batteries are generally rated in Milliamp Hours (mAh) but this is a measure of electrical charge, while a Watt Hour is equal to one watt of energy consumed for one hour of time.

When comparing battery capacities and how much a power pack will boost a phone’s internal battery, energy is more important than electrical charge.

And mAh ignores a battery voltage, which determines the wattage (power) of a battery.

If the mAh is the same, the higher the voltage, the greater the actual stored power.

For example, Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack is rated at just 1460mAh but it has a higher voltage potential (7.62V) than the iPhone (3.81V) or other battery packs, meaning that it can provide more power to an iPhone than its mAh suggests; in fact, it is actually 2920mAh.

To go into further depth about this read our feature iPhone battery capacities compared that also lists all iPhones battery life in mAh and Wh.

Anatomy of a magnetic power bank

A lot more than a battery goes into the making of a magnetic power bank.

Of course, the battery is the most important component, but the wireless charging coils and magnetic connection are vital for efficient and therefore fast and powerful charging. The transmitter coil transfers power by electromagnetic induction.

The magnets need to be set up to exactly connect the transmitting coils—here on the power bank— to the receiving coils, in this case inside the iPhone.

The example shown above is the Torras MagStall Wireless Power Bank, reviewed in our chart. You can see the various parts, including that power bank’s rotating stand/handle.

Which magnetic wireless tech is right for each iPhone?

iPhone 7 and earlier: Don’t support wireless charging.

iPhone 8 – iPhone X/XS/XR: Support wireless charging. iPhone 8 and later can charge wirelessly at 7.5W but on a less efficient non-magnetic Qi pad.

iPhone 11 and earlier: Don’t support MagSafe. iPhone 8 and later can charge wirelessly but on a less efficient non-magnetic Qi pad.

iPhone 12 – iPhone 15: Support MagSafe and Qi2. Can wirelessly charge at 7.5W with “MagSafe-Compatible” power banks and chargers, and at 15W with certified MagSafe or Qi2 power banks and chargers.

iPhone 16 – iPhone 17: Support MagSafe, Qi2 and Qi2.2. Can wirelessly charge at 7.5W with “MagSafe-Compatible” power banks and chargers, at 15W with certified MagSafe or Qi2 power banks and chargers, and at 25W with Qi2.2-certified power banks and chargers.

What about non-wireless power banks?

Wireless charging—especially magnetic wireless charging—is super convenient and does away with the need to carry around messy cables to connect your device to the battery pack.

But wired charging is nearly always faster and not much of an inconvenience if you are not out and about. Over on our sister site Tech Advisor I have reviewed the best power banks that includes standard non-wireless battery packs that might be a decent solution as well as the power banks reviewed above.

Do magnetic power banks work when the iPhone is in a case?

Yes, most quality iPhone cases are compatible with MagSafe having their own magnet ring to ensure a close connection between the power bank’s magnetic charging coils and the iPhone’s own. You can find exactly which are supported in our roundups of the best iPhone 17 cases, best iPhone 16 cases and best iPhone 15 cases.

We round up a selection of battery cases for iPhone here: Best iPhone Battery Cases.

After nearly 20 years, on a seemingly random Thursday, Apple finally pulled the plug on the Mac Pro. Apple later confirmed that it will no longer be selling its high-end Mac tower and has “no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware.” The Mac Pro, once a symbol of Apple’s dominance in the PC workstation space, is well and truly dead.

Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking: the Mac Studio exists and is aimed squarely at many of the same users that would have bought a Mac Pro. But while it matches or even exceeds the Mac Pro in processing power, the Mac Studio lacks the things that made the Mac Pro unique, namely the expansion and cooling capabilities of a tower computer. The Studio is a high-end performance machine, but not really a pro machine and more than a Mac mini with the same chip.

And with Apple releasing the MacBook Neo earlier this year, it might seem like the company is turning its attention towards the budget end of the market at the expense of its professional customers. Without a clear ultra-high-end option, Apple’s most discerning and demanding users will have to either opt for the non-modular Mac Studio or look outside Apple’s ecosystem.

Pro or no?

Let’s be honest, Apple’s pro users haven’t been particularly well-served by the Mac Pro for some time. The Mac Pro’s last update came in 2023 with the M2 Ultra chip, which has since been surpassed by the M3 Ultra – present in the Mac Studio but never in the Mac Pro. Performance was therefore superior in a more affordable Mac.

There were also memory and storage differences that were frankly embarrassing for the Mac Pro. While it peaked at 192GB of RAM and 8TB of storage, the Mac Studio surpassed that with 256GB of memory and 16TB of storage. You paid less and got more.

Put together, that meant the reasons to get a Mac Pro were ever dwindling. All you were really left with as a reason to cough up $6,999 or more was the ability to expand the internal storage and add some extra I/O. And few users could really rationalize that.

The fact that Apple updated the Mac Pro so infrequently, just three times in the last 14 years, tells you how low of a priority it was. The product almost certainly sold in such meager numbers as to make further revisions hard to support. This then fueled a vicious cycle: fewer people bought the Mac Pro due to its lack of updates, which then disincentivized Apple to continue working on it.

In the end, the Mac Pro was too niche to justify its continued existence. Apple had a choice to either continue developing it (with all the costs associated with that) or quietly kill it off. We shouldn’t be too surprised that it opted for the latter.

Shifting priorities

Of course, Apple’s high-end Mac offerings extend far beyond the Mac Pro. There are ample high-grade options around. So, where do true pro Mac users stand now that the Mac Pro is no more?

There’s not really a clear answer. For example, Apple refreshed its professional desktop monitor in March with the Studio Display XDR. Before the new model dropped, the Pro Display XDR was a true pro display, starting at $4,999 and offering specs that only the most demanding users needed. Despite its price, it was universally praised despite not having been updated since 2019. 

The 27-inch 5K model that replaced it is smaller and isn’t nearly as robust as its 32-inch 6K predecessor, but it’s a lot cheaper (starting at $2,899) and still has an array of high-end features, such as ProMotion and HDR. It’s a flagship display for sure, but not quite as pro as it was before.

Beyond that, the MacBook Pro is, of course, still going strong. It’s one of the most popular laptops in the world and certainly one of the strongest. Power users who need portable performance are incredibly well served by its Apple silicon chips, beautiful display, fantastic speakers, and incredible battery life. And there’s no sign that Apple is letting up there.

If you need power, Apple will insist that the Mac Studio and either the Studio Display or Studio Display XDR are what you need, but for some longtime Mac Pro users, the loss of a tower will mean Apple is giving up on an important segment of the market. But this is a textbook example of Apple skating to where the puck is going. Pro users are shifting, and Apple is adjusting its own lineup in response.

The rule of four

Dropping the Mac Pro should not be read as Apple scaling back its commitments to premium products. Rather, the company is merely adjusting its lineup to more closely reflect what its customers are actually interested in buying.

We’re not back to Steve Jobs’ famously concise product quadrant yet, but we’re getting closer. The idea of the quadrant was to fastidiously focus on desktops and laptops for professionals and consumers. In that order, we have the Mac Studio, the MacBook Pro, the Mac mini/iMac, and the MacBook Air/MacBook Neo.

In a list like that, the Mac Pro was surplus to requirements. After all, when Jobs ditched a bunch of devices on his return to Apple in 1997, it wasn’t because he was giving up on those product categories. Rather, the products he cut simply weren’t good enough, and in many cases, the company returned in later years with better efforts.

Apple’s current pro-grade offerings still present an incredibly strong roster: There’s the Mac Studio, the MacBook Pro, and the Studio Display XDR, all products at the top of their game. That’s a hearty meal for any high-end user to dive into. But the days of ultra-high-end machines specced and priced for a specific group of users appear to be over.

Ultra is the new Pro

For a few years now, Apple has used the Ultra tag where the Pro signifier once sufficed. So far, we’ve gotten the Apple Watch Ultra, but rumors report Apple is planning to greatly expand that range later this year.

First up, there will be the iPhone Ultra. Although the name might sound new, you know this product: for years it’s been talked about as the foldable iPhone. A device as advanced as that, coupled with Apple’s famous premium trappings, would easily justify its spot at the top of the iPhone hierarchy and a price tag to match. There’s even the possibility of an “Ultra” upgrade for the AirPods, complete with cameras and sensors that could feed directly into Siri.

Of course, Apple’s non-Mac devices such as the iPhone and AirPods have always had a different definition of what “pro” means. But Ultra is coming to the Mac too. There’s the Mac Studio, which will soon get an M5 Ultra processor to make it the fastest Mac ever made. And the Ultra branding is expected to come to the MacBook, too, with the long-anticipated MacBook Pro with a touchscreen OLED panel. But is a touchscreen laptop really a pro machine? Do Apple’s highest-end users really want a touchscreen on their Mac, or would they rather have SSD slots and aftermarket graphics upgrades?

Apple’s Ultra lineup is certainly going to be a high-end tier, with expensive price tags and cutting-edge features that live up to their flagship branding. But where does that leave Apple’s pro users? If Apple is shifting the definition of “Pro” from extreme high-end niche products built for demanding users to high-priced products that showcase the latest design and breakthroughs, where does that leave pro Mac users? Because once everyone is a pro, then no one will be.

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