Instead of using Apple’s $129 stylus with the iPad Mini for notetaking, you can now use an alternative for about $25. It looks nearly identical, works nearly as well, and even snaps onto and charges from your iPad. And while this $25 stylus doesn’t quite match all of the Apple Pencil’s features, it comes awfully close to providing a similar experience for a fraction of the price. The stylus is from a brand called StylusHome. It apes the styling of Apple’s second-generation Pencil exactly. It has a flat side that magnetically snaps to the edge of iPad Mini, where it also charges its battery. It even comes with a replacement tip in the box if the original ever wears out. The StylusHome also, unsurprisingly, doesn’t have as tight integration with iPadOS as Apple’s Pencil. You don’t get a little pop-up notification telling you battery life when you stick it to the side of the iPad, for example. But it does support displaying the battery life in Apple’s battery widget, which you can place on your iPad’s homescreen or in the widget tray to the left of the homescreen.

REALME SHAMELESSLY CLONES APPLE’S DYNAMIC ISLAND WITH NEWLY LAUNCHED C55

Less than six months after it debuted on the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple’s Dynamic Island has made it to an Android phone as a native feature. The Realme C55, which just launched in Indonesia (via GSMArena), includes a feature the company is calling the “Mini Capsule,” a pill-shaped black bar that expands out of the phone’s selfie camera. An animation on Realme’s website shows the Mini Capsule extending out of the left and right of the phone’s selfie camera hole-punch notch. Its capabilities include displaying the phone’s charges status, data usage, and your step count. And if rumours about Huawei’s upcoming Nova 11 are accurate, the Realme C55 might not be the last Android phone to adopt Apple’s pioneering feature. Apart from the Mini Capsule, the Realme C55 is a typical Android phone that’s also affordable. It’s powered by a Helio G88 processor, comes with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and a 6.72-inch 1080p 90Hz display. It has a 5,000mAh battery, and can be fast charged at up to 33W.