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In what appears to be an ill-conceived prank, a teenager on a United Airlines flight out of San Francisco used Apple's AirDrop to send "inappropriate pictures" to fellow passengers, causing personnel to evacuate the plane.



As recounted by Christopher J. Beale, who claims his mother was on board the flight Thursday, an unnamed teen sent images of an airsoft gun to nearby iPhones via AirDrop, reports NBC's Bay Area affiliate.

Bound for Orlando, United Airlines Flight 2167 was preparing to leave the gate when passengers reported the incident, said airport spokesperson Doug Yakel. Everyone aboard was forced to disembark and go through a second screening process "out of an abundance of caution," Yakel said.

The teen also made threats, according to Beale's account, as relayed by Gizmodo.

It was determined the photos were taken at an earlier date and not at the airport, and the teen did not have the gun on his person. Passengers reboarded after officials carried out a security inspection of the plane, and the teen was banned from the flight. It is unclear if he is facing further legal ramifications for his actions.

How the teen was identified is unclear. As Gizmodo notes, iOS users can anonymously send pictures, video and other media through AirDrop simply by changing their device name in system settings. It is theorized that the culprit forgot this crucial step or simply had no concerns about being caught.

Recipients of AirDropped media are shown a preview of the image or video, which they can either accept or decline. This mechanic has caused problems in the past, as pranksters or unsavory characters can use the feature to present inappropriate content to victims.

Users can secure AirDrop and prevent receipt of unwanted photos by limiting AirDrop discoverability to known contacts. First, open Control Center by swiping down from the top right corner of the screen (iPhone X and newer) or up from the bottom of the screen (iPhone 8 and older), then press and hold the Bluetooth icon and tap on the AirDrop icon. Select Contacts Only or Receiving Off.

The same AirDrop settings can be found under General > AirDrop in the Settings app.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Christopher J. Beale claimed he was a passenger on the United flight.

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The Snapback Slim Air lets you have a minimalist wallet with the added security of an Apple AirTag -- and without the bulk.



Snapback is a small company with four successful Kickstarter campaigns under its belt. The Snapback Slim Air is the company's first foray into making an Apple accessory.

While other companies have made accessories to house the AirTag in plastic or hide it away in a sleeve, Snapback puts the AirTag on full display. This simple wallet holds a few cards, some cash, and an AirTag in a dedicated pouch.

We've enjoyed using the Snapback Slim Air these past few weeks, and the minimalist design has grown on us. However, this wallet isn't for everyone due to its size and shape.

Snapback Slim Air Design

Snapback didn't take one of its previous wallet designs and slap an AirTag pouch to the front. Instead, this simple sleeve appears to have been designed with the AirTag in mind.

There are two parts to the Snapback Slim Air -- the card sleeve and the AirTag pouch. At first glance, it would appear this wallet would hold two or three cards comfortably before becoming overstuffed, but this wallet actually holds up to six cards.



The soft leather shell has plenty of give when you need to add more cards or a couple of folded bills, but there isn't any rigid structure to keep the wallet from bulging. We found that we preferred carrying only three cards in this wallet, but your usage may vary.

The AirTag pouch is sized precisely to house the little tracker. It is designed so the Apple logo is facing outward, with the leather tightly gripping the AirTag shell.

The Snapback Slim Air is made of leather, so don't expect perfect fit and clean lines. For example, the AirTag's white case can be seen while it is in the pouch.

Using the Snapback Slim Air

When we began using the Snapback Slim Air, we had shifted over from Apple's MagSafe Wallet. This means we were already accustomed to using small wallets that hold few cards.



We opted to carry our Apple Card and driver's license only. When using only two cards, the wallet grips the cards tight and doesn't let them come out without you pulling them out.

However, while staying at a hotel, we stored the hotel key in the wallet as well. This caused the wallet to reform around these three cards and expand slightly. Now, without the hotel key, the two cards easily fall out when the wallet is turned upside down.

This isn't a slight against the wallet, just something to note for those who carry very few cards. However, the designers seemed to have expected people to carry three or more cards, so the expansion is normal. The cards are never in danger of flying out of the wallet unless you're carelessly holding it upside down without a grip.

The Snapback Air Slim lives up to its name as a slim wallet. It is easily stored in a front pocket, though the AirTag may bulge outwards from the fabric depending on how tightly you wear your pants.

The AirTag is visible and able to play its chirping sound without being muffled. Customers should not buy this device thinking that the AirTag is meant to do anything more than help find a misplaced wallet.

The AirTag is not an anti-theft device. A thief will steal the contents of a wallet and throw it away in most cases, so do not expect this wallet to help you track down a thief.

Should you buy the Snapback Slim Air?

Customers who have a love for slim wallets will likely have their eyes on two Apple-adjacent products -- the Snapback Slim Air and the Apple MagSafe Wallet. The MagSafe Wallet will be great for anyone seeking the absolute minimum in their everyday carry, while the Snapback Slim Air has a bit more wiggle room.

We believe the Snapback Slim Air is the best way to have AirTag in your wallet. Rather than use some hard plastic shell in your billfold, slip the AirTag into a small pouch on the outside of the wallet.

Customers who need a lot of space for cards and cash will need to look elsewhere. By design, this wallet is meant to carry very little while still having access to AirTag technology.

Pros

• Slim design
• AirTag isn't muffled or hidden away
• Holds plenty of cards despite its small size

Cons

• Soft leather loosely holds cards when not packed full
• AirTag protrusion too obvious in some pockets

Rating: 4 out of 5

We believe the Snapback Slim Air meets size and functionality right in the middle. Customers looking for a slim wallet with an AirTag pouch should look no further than the Snapback website.

The Snapback Slim Air is $55 and is available in brown or black. The Kickstarter concluded successfully, and additional orders begin shipping in August.

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With its $99 price tag, Apple's own MagSafe battery pack can be a tough sell compared to competitors at half or even a third of the price. But while the functionality may look strikingly similar on the surface, there are many, many reasons why Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack is a better buy than the rest.



As a quick low-down on Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack, it is a 1460 mAh battery pack that magnetically connects to the back of your iPhone 12 to help get you through the day. It is similar to an army of alternatives from Mophie, Anker, Zens, Hyper, and others.

At times, the others can look more capable than Apple's with 5,000 mAh capacities and far lower prices. But let's examine why it may not be such a good decision.

Real MagSafe

One of the most significant differences is that Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack is actually MagSafe. All other competitors are merely battery packs with a Qi charging coil and some magnets.

By using real MagSafe instead of Qi, Apple's battery gains improved efficiency. It also can transmit up to 15W of power. Qi batteries are most often limited to 5W. Apple is limited to 5W while on the go, but when plugged in, it jumps up to a maximum of 15W.

As a benefit of being MagSafe, when the battery is connected and you plug the battery into power, it will charge your phone and the battery. The reverse is also true, which is even more impressive.

When connected and you plug your phone into power, your phone can charge the battery. This is extremely helpful if you have to plug your phone into something else, such as your car for CarPlay. When connected to your CarPlay system, your car will charge your phone, and your phone will charge your battery.

Speaking of plugging in, this battery uses Lightning which means you can use the same cord to charge your phone as you can use to charge your battery-- only one type of cable is needed.

Tight iOS integration

Apple also is continuing its tight integration between hardware and software. For example, no other battery pack can match Apple's system-level features.

For example, when connected, the battery and iPhone's remaining capacity show on-screen. You can also see the battery capacity in the native Home Screen battery widget.

This integration also helps protect your batteries as well. High temperatures can harm lithium batteries while charging, and third-party batteries will charge away despite this. It can damage the battery pack's battery cells as well as your iPhone's.

The MagSafe Battery Pack will stop charging at 80 percent capacity if the temperature gets above a certain threshold. Otherwise, it will charge up your iPhone to 90 percent because beyond this requires more energy, is slower, and harder on the battery.

Together, all of that ensures your phone is safe, and your battery pack is safe, resulting in the longest possible lifespan for both devices.

Capacity

The biggest hurdle to overcome for most users, though, is capacity. We've seen umpteen comments saying how Apple offers almost a quarter of the battery as some of the competition but more than twice the price.

Many others are 5,000 mAh, while Apple sits at 1460 mAh. But it isn't as it seems. As we've already broken down into very explicit detail, these numbers can't easily be compared.

Here's a small snippet from the larger piece:

More important than milliamp-hours, though, is power and voltage. The milliamp-hour rating is often used to define how much a battery can charge a device, but this only works as a comparable metric if both the battery and the charged device have an identical voltage.

All iPhone 12 models use 3.81V batteries, so the MagSafe battery pack has a higher voltage potential, and therefore, a higher watt-hour rating than the iPhone it is charging. This means that the MagSafe Battery Pack can provide more power to an iPhone than its milliamp-hour rating implies.

We'll know real numbers once we get our hands on the MagSafe Battery Pack, but our estimates say you should get a full charge on the iPhone 12 mini and most of a charge on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

As we discussed, MagSafe is also more efficient. Qi is roughly 50 percent efficient, which means almost half of the power in the battery is wasted in the transmission. MagSafe is pegged at much higher than that.

Between the larger-then-assumed capacity and increased efficiency, Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack is much more in line with what the competition offers in terms of actual charge potential.

Shipping soon

It is real MagSafe, charges faster, integrates directly into iOS, requires no additional cable, is more efficient, and helps protect your phone and battery alike. Thanks to these features, it results in a better experience.

Even though Apple is charging a premium, to us, those are easily worth the extra investment.

Apple begins shipping its MagSafe Battery Pack on Monday, July 19 and it runs $99.

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Katy Huberty from Morgan Stanley has hiked the firm's Apple stork target price to $166, based on the June quarter results hitting $74.7 billion in revenue for Apple and continued future iPhone and Services strength.



In a note to investors seen by AppleInsider, Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty is not just increasing her stock price target on the strength of Apple's June quarter, but also for the power of Apple's 2022 product release cycle.

Huberty is seeing a 6% year-over-year climb in iPhone builds, resulting a a 44 million iPhone unit shipment for the quarter. In the same time period, the analyst is seeing a 28% increase year-over-year in iPad builds leading to a volume of 17.6 million shipments.

Mac sales are slightly below the firm's previous estimate, but still up year-over-year. According to IDC data cited by Huberty, Apple shipped 6.1 million Macs in the quarter, up 9% year-over-year. Morgan Stanley was previously predicting 6.4 million Macs sold.

June quarter App Store results are expected to be $16.7 billion in revenue, up 27.1% year over year.

In total, Huberty is predicting a $74.7 billion quarter, 2% ahead of consensus, and an increase of 25% year-over-year. Profit margin is expected to be 41.8%.

"We are buyers heading into the iPhone 13 launch in September," wrote Huberty. "We see the combination of mature replacement cycles, increasing 5G adoption, improving retail store traffic, longer battery life and camera quality, and share gains against Huawei as drivers of iPhone outperformance relative to past s-cycles."

As far as Apple's fourth fiscal quarter of the year goes, Huberty expects the "iPhone 13" assemblies to start in late August. At present, Morgan Stanley is forecasting $83.2 billion of revenue in the quarter ending in September, driven by 55% year-over-year iPhone revenue growth -- which she says is an "easy compare" given the late product launch in 2020.

Looking past the June quarter

Also in Thursday's report, Huberty is estimating that Apple will build up to 90 million "iPhone 13" models in the second half of calendar year 2021, up about 18% from 2020. In total, Morgan Stanley is predicting a total shipment forecast for the second half of calendar year 2021 to 139 million units.

In total, Huberty is expecting 238.5 million iPhone shipments in calendar year 2022, suggesting that the average replacement cycle is contracting a bit to 3.4 years, versus 3.6.

Morgan Stanley has increased its Apple price target to $166 on the strength of the analysis. It is a sum-of-the-parts driven target, with a a 5.8x EV/Sales multiple on Apple's hardware businesses, and an 11.7x EV/Sales multiple on Apple's Services business. Paired, this results in Morgan Stanley giving Apple a 7.0x target FY22 EV/Sales multiple and about a 31x target profit to earnings multiple.

The new price target is up from the previous $162, which was based on a 7x target EV/Sales multiple and a 31x target enterprise free cash flow (EV/FCF) multiple.

The company's base case expects a 5G iPhone cycle, more ecosystem strength, and a 24% Services growth. A bull case of $245 put forth by the company is possible if iPhone shipments reach an all-time high, and a product purchase shift to the higher-end "iPhone 13" model than previous.

Dangers to the $166 target are if iPhone strength "fails to materialize deeper into fiscal year 2021" paired with a work from home demand trailing off.

Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast -- and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.

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The MagSafe Battery Pack appears to have a tiny capacity when examining its milliamp-hour rating, but that isn't the whole story. Here are the battery ratings and what they mean to users.



Apple hasn't provided full specs for the MagSafe Battery Pack. Official photography shows a few numbers that give us insight into how much charging capacity it has.

At first glance, the numbers appear mildly disappointing, with a capacity one-third of the iPhone 12 Pro Max battery.

More important than milliamp-hours, though is power and voltage. The milliamp-hour rating is often used to define how much a battery can charge a device, but this only works as a comparable metric if both the battery and the charged device have an identical voltage.

Apple MagSafe Battery Pack specifications

• 1,460mAh
• 7.62V
• 11.13Wh

iPhone battery capacities

• iPhone 12 Pro Max - 3,687mAh
• iPhone 12 Pro - 2,815mAh
• iPhone 12 - 2,815mAh
• iPhone 12 mini - 2,227mAh

All iPhone 12 models use 3.81V batteries, so the MagSafe battery pack has a higher voltage potential, and therefore, a higher watt-hour rating than the iPhone it is charging. This means that the MagSafe Battery Pack can provide more power to an iPhone than its milliamp-hour rating implies.

Conversions

Understanding the effective power that the MagSafe Battery Pack can provide lies in a simple math equation.

Amps * Voltage = Power (in watts)

By utilizing this equation, we can figure out the effective milliamp-hours of the MagSafe Battery Pack for a given voltage. Or, more simply, we can figure out the Watt-hour ratings of each iPhone and use this as a direct comparison to the MagSafe rating.

In terms of milliamp-hours

If the MagSafe Battery Pack provides 1,460mAh at 7.62V, then the effective milliamp-hour rating at 3.81V would be 2,920mAh. This number is found by taking the battery's power rating and dividing it by the voltage of the iPhone.

At an effective 2,920mAh, if we assume 100% efficiency (which you can't in real life, but we'll get to that in a moment), the MagSafe Battery Pack would be able to fully charge an iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro without much issue. However, users shouldn't expect a perfect transfer of power between the devices due to heat loss and poor efficiency.

Wireless charging is about 50% efficient, meaning half of the power is lost to heat or other losses. That being said, it's hard to figure out MagSafe charging efficiency. Apple's "special sauce" may lead to better efficiency than "basic" Qi.

There will be some discussion surrounding wireless charging efficiency later. But, with this initial look at effective milliamp-hours given the iPhone's voltage, the MagSafe Battery Pack doesn't seem so underpowered.

In terms of Watt-hours

Mathematically, we can compare these ratings in many ways, but the amount of charge the battery provides will remain the same. While most battery packs use the milliamp-hour rating to represent capacity, Watt-hours would better explain the overall capacity without errors due to voltage differences.

The watt-hour value is a better indicator of overall device capacity because it takes voltage and amperage into account.

• MagSafe Battery Pack - 11.13Wh
• iPhone 12 Pro Max - 14.05Wh
• iPhone 12 Pro - 10.73Wh
• iPhone 12 - 10.73Wh
• iPhone 12 mini - 8.48Wh

Using this metric, we can see the MagSafe Battery Pack lies squarely between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Max in terms of total capacity. When we account for charging efficiency then the numbers aren't quite so impressive, but adequate given the battery pack's size. At 70% efficiency, the MagSafe Battery Pack would charge the iPhone 12 mini to about 90% capacity from zero.

Charging efficiency

There are a number of factors users should take into account when considering the battery capacity. While the numbers look good on paper for the MagSafe Battery Pack, once the ratings are properly examined, efficiency isn't 100%.

Apple acknowledges this by programming in some intelligence into the iPhone and MagSafe Battery Pack. To get the most out of using the MagSafe Battery Pack, Apple doesn't allow it to charge the iPhone at the same speed, given the conditions of the charge, including heat, and the charged iPhone's battery characteristics.

Apple's Intelligent charging features

• MagSafe Battery Pack will stop providing a charge if the iPhone reaches 90%
• If the iPhone becomes too hot, the MagSafe Battery Pack stops charging over 80%
• The MagSafe Battery Pack will ensure the iPhone reaches a full charge first before using connected power to charge itself
• The iPhone can charge the MagSafe Battery Pack through reverse charging if its internal battery is full and connected to power

Apple takes into account temperature considerations during any charging process. Introducing too much heat to a lithium-ion battery will cause it to degrade faster, so it isn't recommended to use wireless charging in overly hot environments.

Luckily, users do not need to consider charging efficiency or temperature when using their devices. Baked-in intelligence will handle all of this for them, so inefficient charging isn't taking place.



Regardless of charging intelligence features, wireless charging is still inherently inefficient. Heat loss and magnetic loss will cause some of the MagSafe Battery Pack's power to dissipate at a rate faster than over a cable.

AppleInsider will test the charging efficiency of the MagSafe Battery Pack to determine exactly how much power it will provide in a stable environment. As previously mentioned, Qi charging is about 50% efficient, but we expect MagSafe wireless charging to be between 60% and 70% with Apple's battery intelligence.

The MagSafe platform has shown it uses proprietary technology and intelligence to overcome some of the issues with wireless charging. The MagSafe Battery Pack can provide 15W of power to the attached iPhone until it reaches one of the requirements mentioned above.

Is the MagSafe Battery Pack underpowered?

Our initial examination of specs and data here has shown that Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack isn't as weak an offering as initially feared. Its power rating shows it will have enough capacity to come close to doubling the battery life of an iPhone 12 mini during use.

Efficiency aside, we believe using the MagSafe Battery Pack will be a good experience for those who want a little more power throughout the day. Small battery packs like Apple's aren't meant to replace a dedicated power supply or daily charging routine but provide a few hours of extra device use when needed.

Apple's offering appears to be rather small and thin while providing nearly 100% of an iPhone's battery charge at 15W. We expect it to be sufficient for users seeking this type of battery pack.

Many were quick to compare the MagSafe Battery Pack to one made by Anker but didn't have the full story. The Anker battery pack has a 5,000mAh capacity but only charges at 7.5W and doesn't have the same charging intelligence features as Apple's battery.

AppleInsider will test the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack and compare it to its rivals once it becomes available. Customers can purchase the MagSafe Battery Pack for $99 on Apple's website.