MagSafe Ice Packs
So here's a neat way to magically cut in half the time it takes to transfer to your new iPhone.
Back in 2019, I realized iPhone restores run much faster when the device is kept cold, because thermal throttling—not data transfer rate—is the real bottleneck. The thing is, a fridge isn't quite cold enough and a freezer was way too cold (phones don't work well at below zero temperatures, apparently). So the stopgap solution I initially arrived at was to sandwich the phone between a couple ice packs. Not only did it work great, I was tickled to see a few sites like Cult of Mac publish how-to guides on the technique.
Anyway, figuring out how to best cool my iPhones to expedite a direct transfer restore has become something of an annual tradition in the Searls household. This year, I had the foresight to buy small ice packs and then stick MagSafe-compatible receiver magnets onto them.
If you're interested, here's what you're looking at:
Those are affiliate links, which I feel like I should disclose because this website definitely counts as a journalism.