Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Incogni.

Hanging out with my brother recently, I watched in horror as he religiously closed each and every iPhone app after he used it.

Our discussion involved our iPhones and various apps, so I witnessed him do it multiple times.

“What are you doing!” I asked incredulously.

“I always quit apps,” he said. “Don’t you?”

No, I most certainly do not, unless an app is misbehaving.

But he’s got long-held habits, learned in the bad old days when memory was precious and quitting apps made a meaningful difference to a device’s performance.

But iOS — and its sibling operating systems — were designed so that users don’t have to take such actions manually.

In fact, quitting apps can actually be detrimental to your iPhone’s performance — here’s why.

Also in today’s newsletter:

  • For many years, Samsung’s been the world’s leading smartphone maker (despite ripping off Apple, etc.). But thanks to the runaway success of iPhone 17, that might be about to change.

  • Among the many Apple products hitting all-time low prices this Black Friday, Apple Watch Series 11 just made the list. See more Black Friday deals here.

  • Cult of Mac writer Ed Hardy found an adaptable and surprisingly capable TV soundbar for just $30. Yes, $30! But, obviously, is it any good?

  • I love a good dinosaur documentary. Apple’s critically praised Prehistoric Planet is back, this time without dinosaurs!

  • It’s time to trot off to Turkeyville. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and we’ll see you again on Friday, if we recover from the tryptophan haze. (Don’t miss today’s bonus Thanksgiving poll.)

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

P.S. After yesterday’s newsletter went out, I was kicking myself for failing to mention the real achievements of AI, like super-safe robot cars roaming the streets, the ability of LLMs to ace Ph.D.-level tests, and superhuman performance in fields like radiology. These are the things that really would have impressed my dad, not bloody Siri!

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A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team

A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team

Cult of Mac’s buyback program

A message from The Deep View

Become An AI Expert In Just 5 Minutes

If you’re a decision maker at your company, you need to be on the bleeding edge of, well, everything. But before you go signing up for seminars, conferences, lunch ‘n learns, and all that jazz, just know there’s a far better (and simpler) way: Subscribing to The Deep View.

This daily newsletter condenses everything you need to know about the latest and greatest AI developments into a 5-minute read. Squeeze it into your morning coffee break and before you know it, you’ll be an expert too.

Subscribe right here. It’s totally free, wildly informative, and trusted by 600,000+ readers at Google, Meta, Microsoft, and beyond.

Tweets of the day

Wallpaper of the day

One more thing ...

I’d rather sell dog s*** than PCs.

— Steve Jobs, 2012.

Today’s poll

And a bonus Thanksgiving poll!

Results from yesterday’s poll: Do you like Nano Banana and other AI image generators?

Best reader comments

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