Apple’s Live Activities and always-on display are a showcase for what our phones could be. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge The always-on display, Live Activities, and Dynamic Island tease a frictionless future where we spend less time in apps. Listening to a baseball game on the radio while following the score on your phone can make you feel a little bit like a psychic. I watch the score tick to 10-8 on the iPhone 14 Pro’s display several pitches before Dave Sims goes wild on the broadcast calling Cal Raleigh’s home run. This is a lot less fun when you see the score go the other direction, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday when the Mariners…

Macworld When I bought my first iPad at the Apple Store on Regent Street, when it hadn’t yet been released in my home country of Sweden, it seemed an almost magical device. The screen, which at that point offered neither ProMotion nor even a high resolution, nevertheless felt like a window into a digital world. But best of all was the battery life and especially the amazing standby time, which was superior to just about all the alternatives. Today? Not so much. What the heck happened? If I pick up my iPad Pro after leaving it unused for a few days, chances are the battery will be somewhere around 30% at best, or zero at worst. After the same amount…

The Verge Making sense of Apple’s messy MagSafe charging ecosystem, where the first-party options are far from the best ones. Wireless charging is inefficient in many ways. It charges your phone more slowly than using a cable, uses more energy, and requires near-perfect alignment on a charging pad to even work. But inefficiencies aside, it’s just so dang convenient. So when Apple added a ring of magnets to the iPhone 12 and dubbed it “MagSafe,” things got much more interesting. Not only do the magnets guarantee perfect alignment every time but also, with a MagSafe-certified charger, your iPhone can charge at up to 15W — double the 7.5W they get with other wireless chargers. And the magnets also allow for…