If you’re struggling with your finances, the best budgeting apps can really help you stay on the financial straight and narrow.
Given smartphones and data plans aren’t exactly cheap, it may feel a bit counterintuitive to use your iPhone or Android handset for money planning. But the best budgeting apps can help you focus on your incomings, outgoings and how much you’re able to set aside for a rainy day.
The Chipolo One Spot, a direct competitor to the AirTag, is already thinner and less obtrusive than Apple’s offering. The Card Spot goes a step further, offering a rigid case that’s just thick enough to hold a variety of compact electronics, an embedded speaker, and the battery to power them for up to two years.
The Keychron Q1 is a mechanical keyboard built for the enthusiast who wants to customize everything down to the switches while avoiding the mess of soldering keys.
Knowing what are the best types of exercises or how the baby is inside the uterus, these are some relevant options found in apps to track pregnancy. In addition, they serve to remind you when to take that important medication or to adjust the appointment schedule.
Apple argued in a letter to the Dutch consumer watchdog obtained by Reuters on Monday that it has complied with an order to open its App Store to alternative payment providers for dating apps in the Netherlands.
Between service-price hikes and the overwhelming number of apps charging monthly fees, our digital lives are eating up larger slices of our budget. There’s my security camera, cloud photo-storage provider, password manager and the language learning app I haven’t opened in weeks, plus the endless streaming-service options to consider. Subscription burnout is real—and so are rising prices.
I've impulsed purchased quite a few apps on my iPhone and my Mac. I've never impulsed subscribed to anything ever.
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The idea behind Sound Off is pretty simple — you speak into the app and it records what you have to say. That's it, you've just journaled! Each entry is a self-contained memo to yourself that you can listen to whenever. Not sure what to say? Sound Off offers daily audio prompts to give you some pointers, too.
Hyper makes a wide array of USB-C hubs for Mac and iPad, but this one of the first we've tried that has physical media controls built-in alongside a plethora of ports.
Dashkit is a new iPad app that lets people create custom and personal dashboards for displaying on their iPad or the big screen via AirPlay.
The Spring is almost here, which means new iPhone 13 MagSafe cases. With the first Apple event rumored for nine days from now, leaked photos reveal the new MagSafe silicone cases for the iPhone 13 line.
But a phone call? The thing that used to make me want to tear my hair out has become a little blissful. I can pop in my Airpods and putter around the house. A little movement actually helps me pay more attention than I do on Zoom, when I’m distracted by my jowls or by constant Slack notifications. Some light dusting, window cleaning, sweeping, even (after apologizing in advance for any noise) emptying the dishwasher or chopping vegetables—these meditative movements help me stay focused on the person talking, instead of the digital distractions that abound. When the weather’s nice, it’s even better to do a walk and talk, to get a little exercise in while sharing ideas with colleagues.
Okay, invites to 'public' virtual events don't really make too much sense anymore, but if the rumors are correct about a March event, this coming week will be the week when invites are sent out. And maybe, just maybe, there will be real clues in the invite's artwork this time round?
Also this week: the finale of The Afterparty on Apple TV+ will be released this Friday, and we will finally find out the solution to the mystery. The only 'spoiler' I've encountered so far was an interview on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert where Apple and phones were discussed.
And I've just borrowed Finna from the library. These, then, are my distractions scheduled for the upcoming week.
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If you’re a casual listener who doesn’t obsess a lot about music, Apple Music Voice is a cost-efficient and energy-saving way to live and travel with tunes. You’ll enjoy and learn a lot from its well-curated playlists, and you’ll be able to summon all your top-of-mind faves without ever diverting your glance from other tasks.
Mimestream does a great job of combining these Gmail features with the experience of a native macOS application. It’s fast and responsive, optimized for Apple Silicon, features a familiar design language, and is always reliable.
The convenience with the mophie 3-in-1 travel charger stands out as its biggest perk. Instead of having to pack three cables or more, you’ve got one tidy carrying case that packs 15W MagSafe charging for iPhone, an Apple Watch charger that supports nightstand mode, and a place to juice up your AirPods.
The company has been informing developers about a change in its guidelines to remove app transfer prohibition for participation in the App Store Small Business Program. Section 3.4 now says that developers can transfer their apps from one account to another and still be allowed to join the program.
The new store is "elevated above steps of cascading water" and has views of the shoreline while located within the city's financial district.
It's almost March.
Once upon a time, we were all excited to find out how the designs of iPods and iMacs are going to change. These days, we wonder what new colors Apple will be using, and what is the name of the color black.
Surprise me, Apple.
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Simmone Taitt isn’t afraid of rabbit holes. As the founder and CEO of Poppy Seed Health — an on-demand health advocacy app for birthing people providing pregnancy and postpartum care — Taitt digs deep, no matter how dark or scary or in the weeds a topic may get.
“I’ve never been afraid of exploring,” Taitt says. “It’s the one thing that’s ingrained in my DNA: I don’t mind asking questions, and I don’t mind trying new things.”
Volvo has unleashed a big improvement in customer satisfaction after equipping its 1,500 service engineers with an Apple Watch to use during their day. What, on the face of it, seems a small change reflects extensive cultural change across the company, which is actively engaged in digital transformation across its business.
David Wilkins recovered three bikes just hours after they had been stolen. The AirTag fitted to one of the bikes gave him their location. The police told him the location wasn't specific enough to take action, but after driving to the housing estate where the AirTag was located he was able to give the police a specific address.
"To think that a tag found £15,000 worth of bikes... it's a pretty decent investment! They might not work all of the time, but for me they worked brilliantly," says Wilkins.
The keyboard has been faultless and does an admirable job given the space constraints. Minor complaints aside, it's a joy to type on, and combined with distraction-free writing, it will help professional and hobbyist writers craft more words than ever before.
But it's the convenience and undeniable magic offered by this accessory that makes it such a brilliant addition to your iPad. There are no Bluetooth shenanigans to be frustrated by, and the build quality makes it a joy to open, adjust, and carry around.
Apple News local news coverage is rolling out to Canada, starting with Toronto and Montreal. It follows a recent expansion of the service in the US.
Apple is finally catching up to demand for its latest 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, with wait times for both models in lower-end configurations substantially improving over the last month in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
It’s thin enough to fit inside of most wallets and it offers all of the Find My benefits of an AirTag without the bulk. Compared to in-wallet solutions that use an actual AirTag, the CARD Spot is the superior option.
The double-sided magnets allow the battery to sandwich itself between any compatible MagSafe charging case and a dock, allowing you to top off your phone and the battery pack simultaneously. The battery pack itself is compatible with any iPhone or iPhone case from either Apple or Otterbox with MagSafe charging.
The dock can deliver total sandwich of 40Gbps and supports USB-C Power Delivery of up to 90W for charging of connected devices. It can drive up to three external displays as well.
Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers will soon be able to repair Face ID on the iPhone XS and newer without having to replace the whole device, according to an internal memo obtained by MacRumors from a reliable source.
For where I sit, that's the really the crux of it. Tim Cook is beholden to shareholders, yes, but the company's success is only possible when employees trust their own leadership and engage fully in the company mission. Widen the chasm of compensation and you start making employees uncomfortable -- disenchanted, disengaged.
Were there any new rumors of the new Apple service that supposedly will be launched this year? Maybe audiobooks? Or are we more-or-less sure the new VR/AR thing is going to be a service, and not just a product?
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Apple’s new productivity tool for iPhones, Focus, is intended to limit distractions by letting you specify when you want to turn off notifications from certain apps and contacts. The problem is it’s not especially intuitive and takes a lot of work to set up right. As a result, since Apple began rolling out the feature to iPhone users in September, many people have missed work calls, home repair visits, and doctor appointments.
I understand the reasoning that lead to Focus having this paradigm, but I'd love to see an option in iOS 16 where a focus mode lets everything through, but I can choose what to block.
That means for the foreseeable future, the smart home remains fragmented and confusing for most people beyond the most basic setups. Until it improves and a standard like Matter solves the integration hole so that nobody needs to utter the words ‘Raspberry Pi’ to make things harmonious, I won’t be recommending my parents invest in smart lights just yet.
In addition to improving the “Image Rescue” feature introduced in 2020, the update also finally adds batch actions on photos to the app.
Out of the box, Magnet has 18 different window management options. The standards are there, but there are a few extras that I find particularly useful for taking screenshots or for sharing screens.
Your Mac’s standard screenshot tool includes the basic features most people need to capture images displayed on their screens, but it could be better. It doesn’t allow you to take scrolling screenshots (where you capture a long screenshot of an entire webpage), and other tools — including the two discussed below — are better at bypassing some websites’ attempts to block you from taking a screenshot.
I suspect the current Focus mode -- where you choose who and what can disturb you -- is more suitable for people who don't tailor their notifications from apps. If, on the other hand, you already mess around the notification settings to make sure you only get notifications you want, Focus modes where you get to, once again, choose which notifications you want, is not really that useful.
Yes, I too think that a reverse Focus mode, where you get to choose who and what cannot disturb you, will be useful to me. A simple scenario that will probably be useful to many of us: a mode where all work apps are silenced.
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Apple and Tile are likely uncomfortable with the trackers being used this way since they’re always thinking about the liability that could come their way. Apple has already made some changes to start to address AirTag stalking concerns. Good! I don’t care what Apple or Tile think, though, because despite the months of scary headlines—this one included—I’ve come to realize the AirTag and Tile are very powerful tools that can also be used for good, and not just abused for evil.
The company announced the changes this week to employees at eligible stores and has updated its website to reflect which locations are no longer requiring masks. Apple, however, will continue to recommend that customers wear masks and will provide them upon request. Apple retail workers will still be required to wear masks, employees say.
And bizarrely, the company is building towards that goal almost unopposed. Apple, whose built-in Podcasts app is still the market leader, has all but abandoned the medium it effectively created. Its desultory launch of paid-for podcasts in late 2021 was notable more for temporarily breaking its own podcast store than it is for the small number of shows that have taken it up on the offer. Amazon is building an impressive roster of audio exclusives at Audible, but its end goal is more clearly a Netflix-style model. And the roster of indie apps and networks that make up the long-tail of the podcasting industry lack the resources and coordination to put up much of a fight.
With the latest version of iOS, currently in testing, Apple is offering a Siri voice that is less explicitly male- or female-sounding, Axios can confirm.
It's part of an effort by Apple to offer a more diverse array of options for its virtual assistant. Last year it added two Siri options recorded by Black voice actors.
Apple on Tuesday released the fourth beta of iOS 15.4 to developers, which comes ahead of the rumored special event early next month. As promised by the company, today’s beta adds anti-stalking alerts to AirTags and other Find My accessories.
It’s best to not be dependent on apps when it comes to breathing exercises and meditation, but there’s where most of us begin. There are plenty of great guided meditation apps if you’re getting started, and once you get in the groove, you can try to keep going on your own.
Our computers are fast enough that we can run machine learning models in a browser in the background, maybe without even noticing.
If your aim is simply to stay healthy and reduce your chances of an untimely end, this study shows there's nothing magical about the number 10,000. If your fitness device says you managed less steps than that one day, don't feel obligated to trudge around the block in the dark until you hit your daily target. When it comes to maintaining health 7,000 steps will do just fine.
Debates over whether workers should be required to return to the office can be thorny because some employees say they have been happier and more productive at home. One way companies are trying to lure them back is by splurging on prime office space with great amenities.
Big Tech executives say that office expansions are to be expected and that modernized buildings will probably be spaces for people to collaborate rather than stare at screens.
In response to a now-resolved hostage situation at an Amsterdam store, Apple says that all employees and customers are safe “after this terrifying experience,” per a statement obtained by TechCrunch. There is still an on-going investigation, the company added.
“We want to thank local law enforcement for their exceptional work and ongoing investigation,” the statement, provided by an Apple spokesperson, continues. “Our teams and customers took swift action and showed incredible strength and resolve today, and we are so thankful for the support and care they’ve shown each other under such challenging circumstances.”
I am very excited about the upcoming iOS release, and I just figured out why. Face masks are not going away anytime soon -- at least here in Singapore -- so having FaceID finally works again everywhere (almost) is one 'normal' thing that I do crave for.
FaceID still doesn't work in the middle of the night when I was lying on the bed and cannot go back to sleep, and have to shove the iPhone right in my face to be able to see anything at all because I don't have my glasses on, and I am trying to get it to play some BBC Radio 4 to listen to, and hope that I can get back to sleep with some soothing voices in my ears.
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Experts I spoke with say it's incumbent on tech companies to come together and find better ways to prevent Bluetooth trackers from compromising personal privacy. That includes not just Apple, but also Samsung, Tile and other companies making similar products with fewer safeguards. They could start by providing information to each other and to the public about how Bluetooth trackers are being exploited. Sharing findings on how their respective products are being used maliciously is critical for creating privacy protections that work equally well across all smartphones. It would ensure that all companies are operating on the same data when developing tools for preventing or mitigating abuse.
The following section will discuss each anti-stalking feature and how it can be bypassed in theory. Thereafter I will describe how I implemented those ideas to build a stealth AirTag and successfully tracked an iPhone user (with their consent of course) for over 5 days without triggering a tracking notification.
The goal of this blog post is to raise awareness of these issues to hopefully also guide future changes. In particular, Apple needs to incorporate non-genuine AirTags into their threat model, thus implementing security and anti-stalking features into the Find My protocol and ecosystem instead of in the AirTag itself, which can run modified firmware or not be an AirTag at all (Apple devices currently have no way to distinguish genuine AirTags from clones via Bluetooth).
iPhone and Apple Watch include a wide range of valuable health features and a couple of them that don’t get much attention include measuring ambient and headphone noise levels. Read along for a look at how to protect from hearing loss by checking decibel levels on iPhone and Apple Watch.
It's easy to be more productive using a Mac — as long as you know how to navigate across multiple windows and apps. Here's a collection of a dozen ways you can get get work done more effectively.
If you’re looking for the best note taking apps for Mac, look no further. Note-taking is a mundane part of life; it can be easy to take-for-granted all the tools that make the task less painful. However, if the tools are chosen incorrectly, note-taking can be an aggravating experience.
Another day, another complaint about the App Store review process. This time, 2FA app Authenticator by 2Stable is facing copycats from multiple scammers. Not only the app is being copied, but scammers are charging subscriptions up to $335/year if you forget to cancel the weekly in-app purchases, raising questions about Apple’s long-flawed App Store review process.
Apple, please try harder to justify the thirty-percent.
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You can find posts on Apple and third-party forums dating back as long as a few years asking why it went away without explanation from their settings.
Apple has not made any formal announcement about ending My Photo Stream but it has effectively limited its use in ways that make it available only to a shrinking subset of iCloud users.
If you’re strong enough to resist the ‘ignore’ button urge and will actually stick to your own targets, limits on apps and Downtime are a great shout.
If not, they at least make you a little more conscious of what you’re doing, which has to be a good thing.
But for me, I’ve realised I need stronger methods to stem the tide of tweets and stories. I’ll keep my App Limits and Downtime schedule, but I’m going to start chucking my phone in a drawer when I hit the limits.
Popular Mac drag-and-drop app Yoink received a substantial update on Monday that brings back a much-improved Yoink clipboard history widget with several highly configurable features.
Ergonis has released KeyCue 10, a major new release for the keyboard shortcut and emoji cheat sheet utility that not only shows existing shortcuts but also now enables you to assign your own keyboard shortcuts on the fly.
The update adds a lens geometry effect (Panorama to Fish Eye) and an effect to remove drop shadows from screenshots.
The app offers a variety of features to help readers engage with the poem, including interactive notes, facsimile pages and readings synchronised to the text by Eliot himself, as well as Ted Hughes, Viggo Mortensen and others. It also hosts a filmed video performance of the entire poem by actor Fiona Shaw, directed by Adam Low.
That’s not to say the companies supporting Matter won’t try to lock you in somehow. Matter defines basic functionality, but advanced features will still be linked to companies—like how AirPods work better with Apple devices.
Fundamentally, Apple succeeds by keeping things simple. It uses the same key principles to launch its products every year with such consistency that its loyal consumer base knows what to expect and is never disappointed. Continuity and slavish adherence to its mission statement is communicated every time.
While famed for innovation, Apple is also not afraid to take others’ ideas and make them better. It is happy to build its brand in its own way, connecting its launches in subtle ways to the industry, but never falling in line. It has a vision and it believes in it – which is why others do too.
Were there any doubts that Apple will be release a boatload of Mac computers this year? Except for the MacBook Pro, there are still gaps in every Mac lines, and Apple will need to fill them in this year to meet the self-imposed two-year deadline.
Now, the more interesting question (at least, to me) is what Apple will do to the gaps between models? The 13-inch MacBook Pro is one of the major question. Do Apple continue to provide a low-cost not-really-worth-it laptop computer to plug the price difference between the most expensive MacBook Air and the least expensive 14-inch MacBook Pro, or will it add an even-higher-end MacBook Air this year? Or can it introduce a more meaningful less expensive MacBook Pro?
What about an even lower-cost Mac? Just like the iPad exists alongside with the iPad Air and iPad Mini, can there be something that can beat the MacBook Air and Mac Mini in the price department?
And, of course, everyone's favorite: will there finally be a mini-tower?
Now that Apple controls the chips inside Mac computers, it can definitely provide a wider range of computers that is not limited by what an Intel chip can and cannot do. Question is: will it?
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The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that children ages 8 to 10 spend an average of six hours per day in front of a screen. For my younger daughter, who is disabled, that time, and that technology, was a godsend. We began to worry about her last year when her school was fully remote. Without in-person schooling, her world had become very small. She was disengaged, depressed, and her muscles lost a lot of strength. She went from using her walker about 75 percent of the time to using her wheelchair almost all the time. She stopped wanting to leave the house, asking only for her iPad.
I relayed this to her therapist, a pediatric psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Have you thought about giving her a phone too?” she asked.
The Apple Watch gets a bit of flack for not being as capable a multisport watch as some higher-end Garmin and Coros watches, like the Fenix 6S Pro. And, while it’s true that the battery life isn’t comparable, many of the features it’s (supposedly) missing can be added through one thing the Apple Watch does have: an incredible app ecosystem.
Schooly provides tools for students to keep their school routine organized and synchronized across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even Apple Watch. With a clean and intuitive interface, the app lets you add your classes, set assignments and schoolwork, create a contact list of your teachers, and more.
The idea of measuring and improving happiness didn’t start with tech. Psychologist Ed Diener invented the concept of “subjective well-being” in 1984 to gauge where someone’s respective happiness ranks against others. The construct of subjective well-being also provides a point on a scale used to see if any particular happiness intervention has an effect. To rank and scale happiness using technology, a person usually answers questions through an app or web page, and then the data are used to spit out a quantified measure.
Although the new range of “happiness tech” likely benefits some, the category isn’t without problems. Here are a few things to consider if you are thinking of using technology to improve your happiness.
Technology that responds to people’s needs is technology that sees users as more than just passive recipients of a tool. It realizes the inherent ingenuity of users, respecting their ability to creatively navigate their constraints and dream up uses of technologies never envisioned by the designers themselves. The more we design for such agency, the more we harness this power—cultivating the richness of life, as opposed to flattening it.
There are still too many stuff that have middlemen right in the... well... middle. And everyone want their cut of money or attention or privacy. But, of course, servers cost money. Bandwidth cost money. The great P2P revolution of the late 90s did not materialize.
It is probably a little miracle that emails still work.
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You could just try to quit, cold turkey, but we both know that isn’t going to work. The ocean is constantly threatening to flood you, and no amount of sticking your finger into the dyke is going to hold it back—you need infrastructure.
Ideally, this would be a company culture that rejects working outside work hours or legislation that forbids working when you’re not getting paid for it (which happens to be legislation the Dutch are exploring.) Failing that, though, you can set up the software you use to better respect your time. Here’s how to do that.
A single activist helped turn the tide against NSO Group, one of the world’s most sophisticated spyware companies now facing a cascade of legal action and scrutiny in Washington over damaging new allegations that its software was used to hack government officials and dissidents around the world.
It all started with a software glitch on her iPhone.
Audiences will get another chance to watch CODA, the first Apple Original movie nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, in theaters. Apple is re-releasing the film, which is about a deaf family, in a limited run of free screenings with open captions.
Mellel has published version 5.1 of its eponymous word processor for the Mac, overhauling the Auto-title functionality with configurable hierarchy chains, an updated user interface, and a new style category. You can also freely add, remove and move around the Auto-title flows (now named Streams) to form any structure or hierarchy.
Duet Display, the software-based solution to expand your Mac or PC screen with an iPad, iPhone, Android device, or even another Mac/PC is out its latest releases. Notably, the Mac update brings “significant wireless performance improvements” and more.
Whenever I work out, I require some serious mental stimulation or, at the very least, something to take my mind off of the cramp in my side. Basically, if something keeps my mind busy, I tend to have an easier time working out. So whether you’re a seasoned runner or someone who’s just starting out, the options below are perfect for making exercise fun and easy—regardless of your fitness level.
Photographers and videographers who shoot large campaigns leave sets with a ton of data that needs to be ingested, backed up, and organized for editing. For successful businesses, one measly SD card slot on the back of a computer doesn’t cut it. For them, a multi-card ingestion device is a must, and right now the SanDisk Pro-Dock 4 is absolutely unbeatable in that department.
From all my reading, there are two overarching reasons: security and complexity.
I, too, turn off notifications -- especially from work-related apps -- outside of work hours.
But I want to get notified for really important notifications, and that's where Focus mode falls a bit short. It can't tell whether that one person from work is messaging me to tell me something that can wait ("can we have a chat on Monday to see if we should also build a car") or not. ("do you have the keys to the data center because all remote SSH are failing?")
Microsoft, Meta, whoever-else: can you start looking into this, maybe with some of your AI intelligence?
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If you have no clue what level of sleep your DNA requires you get, you can in theory find out just as easily with three of the cheapest, most low-tech tools imaginable: a watch, a notebook, and a writing implement. (You might consider using apps for those functions; you might also consider that using actual physical objects will help train your brain away from using screens at bedtime.) Each night, note down what time you went to bed. Each morning, note down what time you got up. And at some point during the day, make a note of how tired or awake you feel. After a few weeks, start looking through what you've written. You don't need to be a data scientist to start noticing correlations.
A new 20-minute "Shot on iPhone" film titled "Life is But a Dream" uses the iPhone 13 Pro to tell a fantastic story of an undertaker who wants to do right by his village's savior.
Of course, there are caveats. This is only going to work if you are absolutely sure you want a whole year of a particular app and service, if you have the money upfront, and if the option to pay annually is actually available.
The app is easy to use one-handed, it’s full of delightful animations and other small touches that make the experience of navigating through the app feel fluid and natural, and there’s a depth of features to explore that will satisfy any iPhone photographer.
Having a dedicated input for supplementing my workflow in the way that this accessory does has been super helpful in streamlining daily tasks. There really is something so novel, not to mention useful, about just how customizable the latest Stream Deck is.
Battery Monitor provides keen insights into your Mac laptop’s battery usage and health. If that’s something that troubles you, or you want to alleviate anxiety about not having enough information, install the app and keep it running all the time. The data you gather and review will help you understand your battery’s lifecycle—and when it’s time to be replaced.
With Kahoot! Multiplication, kids can learn math through 20 mini-games, each developed by learning design experts with engaging animation, memorable characters through storytelling, and captivating gameplay.
If you’re tired of constantly closing your Apple Watch rings but you don’t understand how workout sessions impact your body, Gentler Streak is an app that helps grow a fitness habit for life by telling users when they’re feeling their best selves.
The app, t:connect, can be used in conjunction with Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc's t:slim X2 insulin pump. The FDA-approved version allows a user to program and cancel bolus insulin requests through the convenience of their compatible smartphone.
Otterbox has launched a voluntary replacement program for their OtterSpot stackable wireless charging packs after discovering a flaw that could lead some early units to swell under certain circumstances.
I have been randomly assigned to work with Ben on a website I use every day called Focusmate, which uses a sense of accountability to help you focus. The homepage kind of looks like a Google calendar: you book in a 50-minute session and the site matches you with someone else who wants to work in that time slot (this is mostly done randomly although brand new users are matched with more experienced ones). When the time comes, you and your buddy get placed on a video call. You politely and briefly tell each other what you’re planning to use the time to do and then you get on with it.
Spurred by wages that have stagnated below the rate of inflation, and encouraged by successful efforts by Starbucks employees to form unions, retail workers say they hope they can push the world’s most valuable company to share more of its record-setting profits with the workers who sell, repair and troubleshoot the products it sells.
Google Drive was seen flagging '.DS_Store' files generated by macOS file systems as a violation of its copyright infringement policy.
'.DS_Store' is a metadata file commonly seen by Apple users when they transfer their folders and archives from a macOS to a non-Apple operating system, like Windows.
I know Netflix will say the data suggests that customers love binging. I’m sure that’s true. I certainly did! Just ask Jack Bauer. But the customer is not always right, as it turns out. And in the current war for talent, Netflix has to also consider what they might want. Both artistically, but also again, to be more culturally relevant for longer.
How to benchmark CEO pay is a worthwhile debate. Linking remuneration to employee salaries, trailing performance or future achievements are all imperfect solutions. But Cook has demonstrated his worth. This fight is not worth having.
It does seem to me that the comedies on Apple TV+ are much better than the dramas, on the whole. Ted Lasso is, obviously, everyone's favorite. But I've been enjoying The Afterparty too, and have enjoyed Dickinson, Schmigadoon!, and Trying. They are creatively fun and inventive. Except for Ted Lasso, Apple's marketing engine seems to be ignoring the comedies though, which is a shame.
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Apple told NBC News they take safety very seriously and are committed to AirTag privacy and security. AirTag is designed with a set of proactive features to discourage unwanted tracking that both inform users if an unknown AirTag might be with them and deter bad actors from using them for nefarious purposes.
These features are what led to Roessler’s arrest.
Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday issued a consumer alert to "protect New Yorkers from bad actors using Apple AirTags to track individuals' locations and their belongings for harmful purposes."
The process is still slower than usual, at a relatively sedate 15-ish passwords per second. In theory, this could still take thousands of years, but most people use relatively short passwords which are vulnerable to dictionary attacks. The average password length is just six characters, which can be cracked in around 10 hours.
Affinity Photo is pretty full-featured and sports an uncluttered appearance and super-fast rendering – it handles very large files with ease, especially since its 1.10 update. It also works very smoothly on a slightly older machine (late 2013 iMac) with no noticeable lag or hiccup whatsoever.
Having now used Mac Catalyst to build two successful and highly-rated medium-complexity Mac apps in Broadcasts and Pastel, and having spent the past year or so building sample code for developers, I wanted to take some time to lay out the areas of the framework that I've found just don't do enough to enable great Mac apps, and perhaps provide a checklist of things for Apple to solve in future versions of the OS.
Half of Cook’s 2021 award is time-based and doesn’t depend on satisfying performance criteria such as increases in Apple’s share price, Rockville, Maryland-based Institutional Shareholder Services said in a report. Moreover, even if Cook, 61, were to retire, the award would continue to vest, ISS said in urging shareholders to oppose the pay package at the company’s annual meeting on March 4.
We make privacy versus utility tradeoffs all the time with our tech. We know Facebook sells our data, but we still post baby pictures. We allow Google maps access to our location, even though we know it leaves an indelible digital trail. And even savvy, skeptical journalists who take robust efforts to protect sources have found themselves in the thrall of Otter, a transcription app powered by artificial intelligence, and which has virtually eliminated the once-painstaking task of writing up interview notes. That’s an overlooked vulnerability that puts data and sources at risk, say experts.
What happened to Nuance is not just a retelling of the old story of large firms out-investing startups. Across a wide range of industries, dominant firms are employing large-scale information systems to outflank their competitors, including innovative startups. They are using proprietary software to better manage complexity and thus differentiate themselves from rival firms. And this has allowed them to increase their market dominance and avoid being overtaken by rivals.
Remember when Apple worked with Google on the contact-tracing apps? I wonder if Apple has started talking to Google about detecting AirTags...
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”Creative people are interested in design,” Nikiforidis reflects. ”We design things, and we love design and so it makes sense that most of us would aim toward using Apple products.”
Apple isn’t just every creative director’s favorite brand. It’s also been one of the great patrons of above-the-line advertising, backing long-time agency partner TBWA\Chiat\Day and Media Arts Lab to create campaigns such as ’1984,’ ’Think Different’ and ’Shot on iPhone.’ Those relationships, and the work they’ve produced, are part of a strategy that has helped Apple pull off one of the greatest tricks in marketing: making one of the most valuable corporations in the history of capitalism seem like an underdog.
At the end of 2008, Firefox was flying high. Twenty percent of the 1.5 billion people online were using Mozilla’s browser to navigate the web. In Indonesia, Macedonia, and Slovenia, more than half of everyone going online was using Firefox. “Our market share in the regions above has been growing like crazy,” Ken Kovash, Mozilla’s president at the time, wrote in a blog post. Almost 15 years later, things aren’t so rosy.
The app’s Notes system has been improved to support multiple Notebooks. In previous versions of the app, notes were stored in a single Notebook, but now BBEdit users can separate their notes into different Notebooks, which is useful for those working on multiple projects.
As you could probably tell by the name, the app takes a big dose of inspiration from Apple’s stock app on macOS. That makes photo editing easy for Mac fans.
Glass is a popular photo sharing app and until now, it's been iPhone only. That's all changing however and a new iPad version of the app can be downloaded right now.
Today, Twelve South refreshed one of its more popular accessories, delivering an updated design for Apple’s new 24-inch M1 iMac. The new BackPack for iMac arrives to position everything from hard drives and USB-C hubs out of the way on your setup by resting right on the back of Apple’s latest deckstop Macs.
Apple acts as if today’s App Store is just curating the platform, but it’s not–it’s judge, jury, and executioner. If you can fall back on telling developers to release their apps on their own, it’s easier to be a curator.
If you are curious about how Singapore's doing with its pandemic rules, masks are still mostly needed whenever one steps outside of one's home. However, there's 'good' news today: so long as everyone is masked-up, we can now all stand side-by-side to pee.
:-)
(As reported by CNA: For example, so long as people are wearing masks, there is no need to cross out alternate seats in park benches, or the urinals in a men’s toilet. Or when people wear their masks and they stand together and take a photo, they don’t have to be a metre apart.)
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By letting go, you’ve cleared up space for new quests. No more dozens of tabs open forever; you saved them, then let them go back into the ether. No perpetual thinking on an idea; you wrote it down, let your second brain remember for you.
Then we’re free. We’ve stalked the prey, secured it for later nourishment. We can safely forget. We’ve insured against faulty memories. Now on to the next quest, finding something new to stash.
EatOkra connects users to Black-owned restaurants in their city. And the name of the app itself symbolizes connection.
"The okra seed was brought over from West Africa to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade," said Janique. "My family is from South Carolina, those are my roots, and Anthony's family is from Louisiana and Alabama. So the name really was just a way for us to give a nod to our culinary heritage and our family and our roots and the role that food has played in our lives and how we connect with each other and connect with our community."
But lots of people risk more than they need to, and end up storing quite a lot of personal information on a cloud storage service like Google Drive, iCloud, or OneDrive. If you do too, consider better protecting the data by encrypting it with a password. We’ll show you a few ways to encrypt sensitive files before you upload them online.
Apple has released macOS Big Sur 11.6.4 and Security Update 2022-002 for macOS 10.15 Catalina to patch security vulnerabilities in Big Sur and Catalina.
Apple today updated its Apple Support app designed for the iPhone and iPad, introducing a new feature that provides price estimates for common repairs in select locations.
Nobody can beat Apple for the richness of apps and hardware performance. But if all you’re looking for is straightforward streaming access, Roku might have the right features and price tag.
Apple Music has released a new feature focused on the Super Bowl's halftime show and other music performances, featuring Dr. Dre, Jhene Aiko, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and more.
Apple Music’s Spatial Audio push helps the company differentiate itself in a commoditized market. With every major music streaming service maintaining the same catalog of songs, an improved and easily noticeable audio experience would help the company separate itself from its competitors like Spotify. For the labels, remastering catalog music in Spatial Audio can reinvigorate streams around an album or artist and provide new artists with an additional promotional tool alongside the improved listening experience for fans.
I no longer trust my brain to remember things. Everything that I need to do goes into Todoist, and everything that I need to do at a specific time goes into Due.
Or at least, that's the plan. My brain also likes to procrastinate too, and I have no idea how to fix that yet.
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For me, it shows that the company is indeed improving its facial recognition method as the only way for iPhone users to securely unlock, pay, and store information on their devices.
From a handwritten iMessage to asking Siri if she has a boyfriend, here's three of the best iPhone Valentine's tricks.
As spotted by Consomac, Apple has registered three new Macs in the Eurasian regulatory database. The new model numbers are A2615, A2686, and A2681. One of these models is described as a laptop.
Asked to find some information from Wikipedia, Apple's voice assistant can be heard saying "I found an answer. It's displayed on your HomePod." Which is curious, seeing that the HomePod doesn't have a screen.
So if you want to be more effective while working from anywhere, you’re going to want a monitor, and not a heavy desktop one. New lighter-weight portable screens are hitting the market, and there are more ways now to turn old devices into extra displays, too. Here are your main options.
On the Mac, Ulysses 25 can now run Shortcuts actions directly from the Share menu in the app, ensures that adding Ulysses sheets to Quick Notes now also works when using the On My Mac section.
If long lists and multiple apps seems like too many commitments and you’re looking for one app to really streamline your productivity across the board, hands down I recommend Notion.
HomeKit just received a helping hand from a fairly new third-party app called Home Widget. Home Widget is essentially a dashboard for designing iPhone and iPad HomeKit widgets. So as long as you know how to add a widget to your iPhone's home screen, you could transform your device into an effective HomeKit controller with Home Widget.
Getting these questions down on paper essentially gave my mind the freedom to stop stressing about them, because I knew I was only shelving them temporarily and could come back to them later.
Mizrahi said it exercised its right to delay the delivery of the space because of events out of its control, such as the pandemic and the plumber’s strike. In December, 2020, it told Apple that it would push out the delivery of the space to Oct. 31, 2021. Apple responded by saying it would exercise its rights to terminate the lease and provided a list of items it thought Mizrahi could not deliver.
Apple’s “position flies in the face of the commercial and practical realities of the construction process for a project,” such as The One, Mizrahi’s court filing said.
While in technical parlance the “Cloud” might refer to the pooling of computing resources over a network, in popular culture, “Cloud” has come to signify and encompass the full gamut of infrastructures that make online activity possible, everything from Instagram to Hulu to Google Drive. Like a puffy cumulus drifting across a clear blue sky, refusing to maintain a solid shape or form, the Cloud of the digital is elusive, its inner workings largely mysterious to the wider public, an example of what MIT cybernetician Norbert Weiner once called a “black box.” But just as the clouds above us, however formless or ethereal they may appear to be, are in fact made of matter, the Cloud of the digital is also relentlessly material.
To get at the matter of the Cloud we must unravel the coils of coaxial cables, fiber optic tubes, cellular towers, air conditioners, power distribution units, transformers, water pipes, computer servers, and more. We must attend to its material flows of electricity, water, air, heat, metals, minerals, and rare earth elements that undergird our digital lives. In this way, the Cloud is not only material, but is also an ecological force. As it continues to expand, its environmental impact increases, even as the engineers, technicians, and executives behind its infrastructures strive to balance profitability with sustainability. Nowhere is this dilemma more visible than in the walls of the infrastructures where the content of the Cloud lives: the factory-libraries where data is stored and computational power is pooled to keep our cloud applications afloat.
Three new Macs, eh?
1) We've waited many many years for the Mac mini to really be mini, but given Apple's u-turn on the number of ports, I don't see this year's Mac mini to be significantly smaller than the last year's model.
Maybe we should hope for a Mac nano instead?
2) I don't see why iMac and iMac Pro cannot both come in two different sizes. And in fun colors for all too!
3) Purple MacBook Air!
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Here's wishing everyone a day filled with love -- and many many love-filled days ahead. Thanks for reading.
The old on/off analog binary has faded thanks to breakthroughs in energy management and efficiency, which at least in theory allow for devices to remain on call at a fraction of the energy required to keep them fully “on.” But the rationale for never turning things off will continue to shift toward an even loftier one. Those devices surrounding you will need to stay on even when not being used, in various states of repose, because they will always be learning. And this is mostly a good thing, improving our lives, though I also worry it adds to our sense of disquiet about how and whether we can ever turn ourselves off for stretches of time.
As I said, this is unscientific, but it seems that Apple is correct when it says that cases can cause iPhones to overheat by preventing them from cooling properly.
Is this contributing to battery wear? Quite possibly.
But as anyone who’s used Bluetooth speakers can attest, the technology can be spotty. Sam tried to follow the prompts on her phone to force the two AirTags following her to make a noise, but they were unable to connect to play the sound.
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Her phone later showed that the AirTags had stopped following her at around 4 a.m., capping a three-hour ordeal. She suspects the phone case but has no way of knowing for sure.
For the past few weeks, some users have been complaining about a “New iCloud Terms & Condition” bug that needs you to accept iCloud’s terms and conditions over and over again.
Whether you're a cog in a big corporate wheel or someone working on their own at home, we've assembled a list of apps, advice and adages to help keep work and life in order.
If you haven't started watching The Afterparty on Apple TV+, better start soon. This is one show that you don't want to wait until all episodes are out because there will be a tons of spoilers then. And this is one show you will want to avoid spoilers.
And, also, because it is great.
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But looking back at the numbers, one thing is clear: big tech is making big bucks even with things stacked against it, and unless things drastically change across the economy or the industry in 2022, it’s likely we’ll be looking back in 2023 at even bigger numbers than we are right now — at least, for whoever is left standing.
The app’s real strength, though, is that capacity to quickly create and access snippets of information as you need them. Then, when you’re done with a note’s information, you can toss it with a simple click when its no longer needed, just like the real thing.
For someone looking for design and publishing software for the first time then you should definitely invest. If you’re switching from Adobe then if the idea of being subscription-less hasn't already made up your mind – then the idea of having three apps, as an uncluttered and easily navigable package, all working quickly, and in unison, should do it.
There are two real problems: Measurement, and manufacturing, issues that the fashion industry is wrestling with right now. A Taiwanese company, TG3D, has at least discovered a way to solve the first part of the equation with little more than an iPhone. It has developed a method of using FaceID to scan the geography of your body to give you a suite of measurements in minutes.
If you’re seeing the microphone light active after updating to the latest version, we recommend simply quitting the Zoom app after your meeting has ended.
When we speak now, nearly eight years after the release of Threes, Vollmer and Wohlwend are surprisingly at ease with how it all played out. They each make it clear that they have no hard feelings against any of the independent developers who made their own things inspired by Threes.
I've lost my stats in Wordle... which means that today is a good day to stop playing Wordle.
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Following multiple reports of stalking, Apple says it plans to improve AirTag safeguards against unwanted tracking later this year. Specifically, Apple says users will be alerted sooner when an unknown AirTag is detected traveling with them. It also it’ll make unknown AirTags easier to find by “adjusting the tone sequence,” which might make them sound louder, and by guiding people directly to a mystery AirTag using the ultrawideband chip available on newer iPhones.
In response to growing concerns about AirTag and the Find My network being used for unwanted tracking and stalking, Apple has announced a handful of changes coming over the course of this year. The company reaffirms that AirTag “was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people,” and these forthcoming changes aim to make that clear.
The problem was that he couldn’t find it. The alert said he could make the AirTag play a sound, but when he attempted to do so, his phone wouldn’t connect to the device. This happened multiple times, and he started to get frustrated. “Is it in my shoe?” he asked me at one point, taking his blue Nike off and peering at it. “You have to tell me. I don’t want to destroy my shoe looking for it.” [...] The critics were right: Apple’s safeguards against nefarious use weren’t foolproof.
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“For all the bad press the AirTags have gotten, and as flaky as the detection mechanisms were, at least I was consistently getting notifications they were following me,” he said. “The privacy dangers of the other trackers were way worse.”
Even though Tile and other competitors to the AirTag exist, the vastness of Apple’s ecosystem sets the device apart. If you are concerned that a secret AirTag may be recording your location, these signs may help detect the tracker.
Apple has released focused bug and security updates for macOS Monterey, iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8.
The developers of Athlytic (and the developers of many other fitness apps) recommend starting a Mindfulness session as soon as you wake up in the morning before you get out of bed or look at your phone so no external factors skew the reading. Athlytic’s developers say that Mindfulness usually, but not always, triggers an HRV reading.
iNet Network Scanner provides a huge amount of information about the state of your network and what you can do with it all from the comfort of the Mac you’re working at.
If you’re fed up with the Files app, here are the best third-party alternatives.
Distractions are just a part of life, and they’re going to exist whether you’re working in an office or if you’re at home. The distractions will be different, but they’ll always be there. The tips above are things I do to help keep me on track, either by reminding myself to focus for a little while, to quickly get me into specific work modes, or by simply reminding myself exactly what steps I need to take to do something, but you should find what works for you!
Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock confirmed that, for years, Apple has changed the job titles of its former employees to “associate.” Rosenstock declined to say why Apple does this or precisely when the practice began.
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“Irrespective of the reasons why they are doing it, this is a very bad and possibly unlawful practice,” said Laurie Burgess, an employment law attorney who represents Parrish in her labor board case against Apple. “Seems to me that this action interferes with employees’ reasonable future economic interests.”
Apple has reported that in 2021, it ceased working with 12 smelters and refiners because of concerns about them mining in armed conflict areas.
In the midst of all these excitement about all the new devices Apple is releasing this year, there is one potential new product that the rumor mills haven't pinpoint the release date yet. Will there be a purple iPhone?
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If you haven’t embraced voice messages, I encourage you to give it a go sometime. Let someone hear you tell your story, or listen to you laugh, and you’ll begin to pick up on the nuances of their voice (if you haven’t already).
At the end of the day, we all just want to be heard.
Apple’s latest Apple Music beta app for Android may have revealed the name of the company’s forthcoming app dedicated to classical music, suggesting a release might not be too far away.
Oprah, Reese and now…Apple? The iPhone maker has just launched its own book club directly in its Apple Books app for readers in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia, where it will curate both fiction and non-fiction titles for readers. But unlike Apple’s other editorial efforts in apps like Apple Podcasts or the App Store, the club’s selections aren’t curated by a nameless team of editors. Instead, Apple’s book club picks are being curated by Canadian media personality and Apple Music Hits host, George “Strombo” Stroumboulopoulos.
Packages are just collections of shortcuts/snippets that other people have already put together. Some of the most common packages available are for writing the various accents that many languages use, mathematical notations, other scientific notations, and even emojis. One of the most useful packages is a list of commonly misspelled words to ensure you’re spelling game is always excellent.
Home Widget for HomeKit is probably one of the coolest apps for improving your experience with HomeKit-enabled accessories on iOS. It offers quick access to Home automation directly from your home screen. The app was updated on Wednesday with great new features, including sensor support, different panel sizes, and more.
This innovative folding case will prop up your iPad in every useful position and orientation. The SwitchEasy Origami Case also supports auto sleep/wake functionality, keeping things easy, as always.
Nomad launched the new Modern Leather Case and Folio today that feature the company’s premium full-grain leather with a slim design while remaining protective thanks to features like a raised TPE bumper and a polycarbonate layer.
The Thunderbolt Station 4 has a whopping 18 ports! That’s a lot of ports! And CalDigit didn’t just slap together a dock with a bunch of ports. The company put a lot of thought into which ones to include and where.
Jen Simmons, an Apple Evangelist and developer advocate on the Web Developer Experience team for Safari and WebKit, Tweeted that “Everyone in my mentions [is] saying Safari is the worst, it’s the new IE.” This led her to ask users for feedback, preferably highlighting specific bugs and instances of missing support that inhibits websites and apps.
It’s unlikely that any Android device will ever support OS upgrades as long as an iOS device, but that doesn’t matter if Samsung offers a guarantee that Apple doesn’t. Apple users expect their new iPhones to get at least and likely more than five years of updates, and Apple should capitalize on its advantage by meeting and exceeding Samsung’s guarantee.
We don't know what WWDC will bring, but between now and then, I am looking forward to the new Apple Classical app as well as the iOS update that will do FaceID unlock with masks on. (I don't foresee the compulsory wearing of masks outside of homes to be dropped before that.)
It will be a bonus if I also get to see what the new Mac mini and MacBook Air look like. I hope they are nothing like what we have currently. Smaller in size is what I am hoping for. (And I hope they will not cause a large hole in my wallet too.)
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There may be no going back. One of the original sins of the Internet era was the radical devaluation of musical labor that took place with the rise of Napster. A couple of generations have come of age with the expectation that music is not something you should have to pay for. The morality play of that era involved the misdeeds of record labels, who had a long history of exploiting musicians, and who responded to file sharing by suing college students. Goliath was slain; music was liberated. The major labels soon had their revenge, though. Napster was shut down, and more corporate-friendly regimes took its place. Apple’s iTunes, which came first, was more than fair in its payments to artists: if you owned your masters, you could get seventy cents on the dollar. But it ripped music out of context, reducing physical recordings to bundles of data. Spotify completed the cycle of devaluation, reducing payouts to almost nothing and obliterating artistic identity through the operation of its notorious algorithm.
Over the last year we’ve seen countless attempts – both by the government and the private sector – to ‘innovate’ our way out of this crisis. From the government-backed app which allows friends and family to track the user on their walk home and plans for increased CCTV to a dedicated phoneline and smartwatch software that uses artificial intelligence to ‘recognise distress’, technology has repeatedly been positioned as the solution to male violence.
Besides doing nothing to address the core issue at the heart of this problem – the violent behaviour of men – using technology to keep women safe isn’t always the win-win approach it’s cracked out to be.
Ever since the iPod, we’ve been operating without a baseline of support from product manufacturers. No parts, no information, and tinkerer-hostile designs. That is starting to change. As companies grudgingly start sharing and participating in the repair economy, it’s going to be up to all of us to guide them.
The company will provide the capability for partners like Stripe and Shopify, with more payment platforms coming later in the year. Customers will be able to tap a contactless payment method (like an iPhone, Apple Watch, or compatible credit card) to a merchant’s iPhone to make a payment over Apple Pay, using the NFC technology built into all recent iPhones. Like all Apple Pay transactions, the Tap to Pay transactions will be encrypted and processed by the iPhone’s Secure Element, and Apple won’t know what is being purchased or who is buying it.
Shortly after Apple's announcement, Stripe announced its closed beta, which users can sign up for here. Stripe says it'll contact interested beta testers with more details.
Apple found a bug in iOS 15 that enabled the setting for some users who had previously opted out. In other words, recordings were being kept for some users who had opted out of the setting instead of being deleted. Apple has since deleted the erroneous recordings.
Since the release of macOS Monterey 12.2 last month, multiple users have been complaining about an overnight battery drain on MacBooks that was related to Bluetooth. Now with macOS 12.3 beta 2, Apple seems to have fixed this bug.
We are now seeing more references to ‘realityOS’, the operating system that the headset will run, leak out in Apple open source code, as the hardware gets closer …. to being a reality.
Vivaldi for Mac received an update today that brings yet more new features to the highly customizable web browser, including a handy way of managing multiple tabs using horizontal scroll.
Not only does JustWatch serve recommendations and ideas based around recently released content, but it's the TV tracking app I've always wanted.
Apple has launched a new resource for developers with six weeks of live virtual sessions. Topics include help using in-app events, custom offer codes, product page optimization, customer acquisition, and more.
Apple Inc. plans to significantly increase its benefits for U.S. retail store workers as it grapples with a tightening labor market and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, according to people with knowledge of the matter. [...] An Apple spokesman confirmed the changes, saying they were in development for several months.
iPads run iPadOS. Apple Watches run watchOS. Mac computers run macOS. So, the Apple VR and/or AR headset that will run realityOS will be called... Apple Reality?
I call dibs on naming my new app: Distortion Field.
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If you own an Apple Watch but have been unsatisfied with Apple’s Activity rings, the good news is that you have numerous alternatives to try. Apple has built a flexible platform that lets third-party developers read and analyze Apple Watch data however they want, which may be more helpful for your fitness goals.
However, it’s important to not let a fitness tracker run your life. It’s easy to fall into the trap of obsessing over calorie counting or using a poor readiness score as an excuse to not work out. Likewise, I’m not going to stand up just because my Apple Watch tells me to. Especially if I’m driving.
Meghan Scanlon, CEO of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said tracking devices used by abusers have “been an issue for many, many years,” but the AirTag’s low cost — the devices retail for $29 — make them much more accessible.
But up until iOS 15.4, Apple had previously rendered the feature virtually unusable for common tasks by instituting mandatory notifications every single time the conditions were triggered. The new update fixes that, though, by adding a toggle that allows users to disable those notifications makes Apple’s Shortcut automations vastly more usable for day-to-day tasks by allowing you to remove the spammy notifications that used to appear every time you triggered one.
It’s obvious many developers wrongly assumed that Apple’s commissions were for payment processing alone. Were regulators like the Dutch ACM similarly wrong? Is the point of the ACM’s ruling merely that dating apps should have the option of processing payments however they choose, while paying the same effective commission to Apple? Or was their intention to provide dating apps the option to process payments on their own to avoid Apple’s commission? I know a lot of people reading this are going to think “Of course their intention was to allow developers to avoid Apple’s commission!” They feel so strongly against Apple’s App Store commission that even their thoughts have exclamation marks. But give the ACM’s ruling a close read — they don’t make that argument at all.
With Beats Fit Pro launching globally, Beats started promoting today a new campaign called Move How You Want with Naomi Osaka, Kaia Gerber, Vince Staples, and Quen Blackwell.
The app doesn’t save the videos themselves. Instead, it saves their URLs, along with metadata, making it easy to organize, sort, filter, and rediscover videos that might otherwise fall by the wayside.
It looks like the Belkin Boost Up Charge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad with MagSafe is the wireless charging setup to beat for Apple users. It’s pricey, but quickly charges your iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch in one spot.
Apple Inc. acquired a startup called AI Music that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, adding technology that could be used across its slate of audio offerings.
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The idea is to generate dynamic soundtracks that change based on user interaction. A song in a video game could change to fit the mood, for instance, or music during a workout could adapt to the user’s intensity.
A group of state treasurers is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Apple misled its investors and the agency about its use of nondisclosure agreements, which advocates say have long been used to silence mistreated workers.
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“Multiple news reports have stated that whistleblower documents demonstrate Apple uses the very concealment clauses it repeatedly claimed it does not use,” they wrote last week in the letter, shared exclusively with The Technology 202.
Nvidia’s planned $40bn (£29.6bn) acquisition of the Cambridge-based chip designer Arm from Japan’s Softbank has collapsed, the companies said on Tuesday, after regulatory hurdles proved insurmountable.
I, for one, certainly don't want my iPhone to be as 'open' as my Mac. That's why I have my Mac, so that my iPhone can be better at the iPhone's things without worrying about doing Mac's things.
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Something has changed for the tech giants. Even as they continue to hold tremendous influence in our daily lives, a growing accountability movement has begun to check their power. Led in large part by tech workers themselves, a movement seeking reform of how these companies do business, treat their employees, and conduct themselves as global citizens has taken on unprecedented momentum, particularly in the past year.
Concerns and anger over tech companies’ impact in the world is nothing new, of course. What’s changed is that workers are increasingly getting organized. Whether writing public letters, marching in protest, filing lawsuits, or unionizing, the labor force that makes the corporate tech world run is finding its voice, demanding a future in which companies do better and are held more responsible for their actions.
In the recently released iOS 15.4 beta, however, it’s clear that Apple is still trying to improve its system and make it more comparable to those other products. In that upcoming release, Apple is adding the ability for users to add notes to password items. That’s a big feature for those who use password managers to securely store items other than passwords—for example, I use Secure Notes in 1Password to keep track of backup recovery codes for accounts, as well as other secure information that doesn’t really fit the “password” template.
With update 25, Ulysses on iPad and iPhone now support third-party font apps like Creative Cloud or iFont. Whether users have these apps installed, they will be able to make use of the provided fonts in the Ulysses editor for writing, which means you can have that specific font you love in all our projects.
This free app makes it possible to open a shared music link you receive in whatever happens to be your favorite streaming app. So, someone could send you a link to a track on Spotify, but if you're one of the many people who has decided to move away from this particular streaming service, you can use MusicMatch to open the track in Tidal, Pandora, YouTube Music or several other alternative services.
Managing your tasks shouldn't be a distraction unto itself. These desk mates let your phone handle the hard stuff.
But I’m tech-savvy and write about gadgets for a living, so surely I have an army of box-toting robots at my behest, right? Not so much. I do, however, have a smartphone and believe it or not, there are several apps that most definitely make moving marginally less annoying and even – dare I say it – enjoyable.
As of February 7, 2022, though, all 20 Apple Stores in France have resumed normal hours. They continue to operate under restrictions intended to minimize the chance of spreading the coronavirus, however.
Now that I am working partially out of my office, here are the six apps that make my work-days a little better:
Todoist, Evernote: To allow my brain to work on things other than trying to remember stuff
Due: To make sure I don't miss any (still) online meetings
Apple Music, Miximum: To shut out distracting noises (either in office or outside my home window)
Audible: To make my (two-days-a-week for now) commute more tolerable
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I can see how, "back in the day," when stuff took ages to charge up, an overnight charge made sense, but things charge up so rapidly now that switching to "just in time" charging makes more sense.
[...]
Does it reduce on battery wear? While I'm still trying to come up with ways to test this more definitively, my belief is that it must do, because charging causes battery wear, and less charging means less battery wear.
There have been efforts by Apple to look at how we manage our time on our devices, from Focus in iOS 15 to the ScreenTime feature in iOS 13. We asked Tigas what specifically made Ochi different from these and third-party focus apps.
“Rather than motivating people to focus on completing a particular task, Ochi instead helps steer people away from distractions so they can maintain focus for longer periods of time.”
But the best feature in Notes, at least for me, is its built-in scanner, which automatically captures printed pages with your iDevice camera, then straightens and saves it as a searchable PDF.
iPhone 13 Pro is a big shift in iPhone photography. Not only are the cameras all upgraded in significant ways, but Apple’s adaptive, clever computational smarts have never been so powerful. Touching every aspect of the photographic experience, you might be surprised to at times become aware of its power and limitations alike.
On the other hand, Apple is now offering to replace batteries in many of the devices for a -- in my humble opinion -- reasonable fee. So, go ahead, I'd say. Find a good and convenient battery-charging process for your devices, and don't worry too much about accelerating or not accelerating the batteries' degradation.
If you are curious: I also charge my iPhone through the day. (Usually, once around mid-noon, and once before bed time.) I don't charge my iPhone overnight, because I may want to plug in my EarPods to listen to radio in the middle of the night. (That's when I wake up in the middle of the night and cannot get back to sleep.)
I do charge my iPad overnight.
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A problem with modern music apps like Spotify and Apple Music is that they’re already jumbled from the jump. The second you open one, you’re bombarded with promotional columns, “made for you” playlists you may not even use, new releases, and stuff you’ve recently listened to and may never want to hear again. It makes it that much harder to remember where you left off yesterday when you open the app.
Long ago, cloud storage meant Dropbox. With the rise of Apple’s iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Microsoft’s OneDrive, the enterprise-focused Box, and a host of competitors, it has become near-impossible to keep track of everything that affects regular users of cloud storage services. Here’s an attempt to bring those who don’t pay close attention to the field up to date.
Apple Inc. is targeting a date on or near March 8 to unveil a new low-cost iPhone and an updated iPad, according to people with knowledge of the matter, kicking off a potentially record-setting year for product launches.
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In addition to announcing new devices, the company is planning to release iOS 15.4 in the first half of March, the people said. The software update will add Face ID support for people wearing masks to iPhones and iPads, making it easier for users to unlock their devices.
The only legitimate question at the root of the whole debate is how much any platform, or any retailer, can reasonably charge for inclusion of third-party products on their platform.
That’s a fundamental business question with potential impact across multiple industries and across every nation, not a ‘good versus evil’ mystery play that needs some knee-jerk response. And don’t even get me started on sideloading.
“There’s no denying that Apple’s app review process—although not perfect—does a great job at filtering out scam/malicious apps, because every app is reviewed by at least one real person,” Testut says. “Allowing users to install apps directly from the web or third-party app stores makes it far too easy for regular consumers to shoot themselves in the foot.”
If forced into allowing unvetted apps onto the iPhone, Apple could also decide to play hardball, suggests longtime Apple pundit and Relay Ventures partner Horace Dediu. “Apple could just void warranties if anyone” installs apps outside of the App Store,” he notes, adding that there may be legal questions over whether the company could legally do that.
The three-month free trial helped set Apple Music apart from competitors like Spotify when it initially launched in 2015, but the service is now offering the industry-standard of one month free.
When it comes to taking photos for social media, you can never go wrong with a nice selfie or a quirky group portrait. But why not spice things up with some artistic phone photography from time to time?
While the flat-rate stock bonus could prove to be worth a fortune in the future, it comes at the expensive of feeling oddly cheap. It undermines its staff, divides its team, and leaves many to feel undervalued-or worse, unvalued.
I'm not sure if I want tabs in my Apple Music, but I think I get the sentiment. My solution -- if I may call it that -- is also to make Apple Music app more like a web browser by adding bookmarks. Currently, there are too much navigations needed to get to where I want.
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Consumers are still waiting up to nine weeks for delivery of new iPads as Apple struggles to clear a backlog that emerged last year amid the global chip and component crunch, according to Nikkei Asia's analysis of more than two months of shipping data.
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Wait times for new iPhones, meanwhile, have shrunk dramatically, from over a month late last year to around 10 days for some models.
Apple today shared a new support document outlining a warning symbol that can show up on the MacBook Pro with Liquid Retina XDR Display or the Pro Display XDR when the screen is running too hot, leading to brightness being diminished.
Soor for iPad features a fully-optimized three-column design that gives you quick access to your library, playlists, and more. There’s also a gorgeous full-screen Cover Flow option reminiscent of the old Cover Flow feature that used to be a tentpole of the Music app on iPod. Soor for iPad includes full support for Split View and Slide Over, meaning it’s easy to use the app in multi-tasking setups with other applications.
“Because the new experience is more integrated with macOS, it will have long-term support from Apple. The first version of Files On-Demand is built on several pieces of technology that are now deprecated. Moving to the new platform enables us to support this feature for years to come.”
By tracking bandwidth usage directly at the edge of your network—between you and the internet—you can often immediately pinpoint whether the internet connection is at fault. You can also track overall bandwidth consumption relatively precisely, useful with internet service providers who have caps on service or charge overage fees. PeakHour lets you set alerts so you’re warned as you approach limits or charges.
Apple says that the 27% cut is based on the price paid by the user, net of value-added tax. It says “this is a reduced rate that excludes value related to payment processing and related activities”.
Each month, developers will have to send a report to Apple that lists their sales. Apple will then send out invoices for its commission, that must be paid within 45 days.
Apple is not even matching the four percent reduction that Google is offering in South Korea. :-)
Is Apple daring regulators to set a ceiling on commissions? And will Apple raise the annual developer fees?
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Apple’s object-tracking AirTags have been rife with controversy since their launch, particularly around the unfortunate fact that they make good tools for thieves and stalkers. It is therefore my sad duty to inform you that one of the security measures Apple has implemented for the AirTags is already being circumvented. Long story short: people are modifying AirTags to have the internal speaker — which can serve as a warning for those being stalked — disabled.
I’ve been testing out the new iOS 15.4 beta for a few days, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well Face ID works with a mask — in addition to simply enjoying being able to use my iPhone the way it was originally intended to work, instead of mashing in a six-digit passcode a dozen times whenever I leave the house.
“We are deeply concerned that the legislation, unless amended, would make it easier for big social media platforms to avoid the pro-consumer practices of Apple’s App Store, and allow them to continue business as usual,” Tim Powderly, the company’s head of government affairs in the Americas, wrote in the letter.
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The legislation would permit sideloading, the process of installing apps from the web or alternative app stores. Such a change would jeopardize Apple’s 15%-to-30% commissions that it gets from developers. But it would also harm privacy, Powderly said in the letter.
Although the ordinance has not been finalised, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) believes that a compliance plan Apple submitted "still lacks concrete detail", a KCC official told Reuters.
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As for Google's plan, the official said the KCC was aware of concern over Google's planned policy of only reducing its service charge to developers by 4 percentage points when users choose an alternative billing system, and the regulator is waiting for additional information from Google.
CARROT Weather 5.5 is out with a focus on weather maps. The entire maps UI has been redesigned and expanded with the same sort of deep customization options found throughout the rest of the app.
Users can not only invite friends to edit a mixtape but also see who has added a song to it and even choose a reaction that can be seen by everyone.
When typing on the MX Keys Mini for Mac, the keys feel a bit softer than the Magic Keyboard, but the travel distance is about the same. The MX’s keys have an indented surface that cradles your fingertips when typing. The Magic Keyboard with Touch ID’s keys are a little flatter. I found the MX Keys to be more comfortable during long writing sessions.
There’s a difference between product settings that a product needs to get right by default and preferences that designers deliberately shouldn’t have a strong opinion on.
But in the nearly three months since I helped point this out at The Verge and brought it directly to Apple’s attention, the only thing that’s changed is Apple Podcasts’ rating has gone up from 4.7 to 4.9 — and each of its five little gray star marks is now completely filled in, for a five-star rating overall.
There are two things that I often do whenever I install a new macOS app. Firstly, to go through the list of menu items in the menu bar, and then to go through the preferences. They often give me a sense of what's possible with the new app.
Unfortunately, many new apps -- and many of the apps on iOS -- doesn't follow this same design. So many commands and settings are not in the those places, and they expect me to somehow, for example, decipher that little star thing in the window is clickable and is supposed to do something that I am supposed to intuit when clicked?
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Apple News is introducing its first daily local newsletter for the Bay Area and is actively exploring expanding the offering to other cities. The Bay Area daily local newsletter, which is reminiscent of a daily local paper, includes tops stories across local news, sports, politics, dining and more. The stories are compiled from numerous publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, SF Gate, Eater San Francisco, KQED, The Oaklandside and others.
Unwanted tracking isn’t unique to AirTags; other trackers could be used in a similar way. But AirTags’ pinpoint accuracy—and their high-profile maker—have put them in the spotlight.
The more insidious thing about these bugs is that they’re rarely reported by users or caught by automated testing tools because they’re too small to complain about or too obscure to write tests for. Great QA testers can find and file these types of bugs, but they usually flounder at the end of a long backlog of new features.
It’s unclear what exactly changes with the update, but the release notes say that watchOS 8.4.1 comes to fix bugs that only affect Apple Watch Series 4 and later.
Ochi is based on the premise of creating different filters to help you stay focused. For example, if you’re working on writing, you can create a filter named “Writing” that blocks access to certain websites, apps, and even categories of websites. You can also do the inverse and only allow access to certain websites, applications, or categories.
Adobe XD wins the UI/UX design tool tussle not only because of the boost it gets from integration with Creative Cloud apps, but also because of its responsive design tools.
I play quiet music if tinnitus is bothering me during the day (I recommend the Lofi Work playlist on Spotify, but your favorite music streaming service likely has a similar offering), and I use the Calm or Rainy Mood app at night (check out our Best Sleep Sounds guide for more recommendations).
Another universally recommended option is the Resound Relief app. It allows you to create soundscapes by layering different sounds and you can set the right and left ear balance to tune the audio per ear.
We are judging them by the wrong set of standards. Apple is deftly playing both sides of the game and based on this latest quarterly results, winning at both.
I'm going back to work, from home, tomorrow. This year is probably the quietest Chinese New Year in my life.
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As an experiment, I started sharing photos with individual people, privately, over iMessage. I wouldn’t send them a whole collection of photos, just one at a time here and there. And what I found is that when you send an individual person a photo privately, you actually spark a conversation. You end up relating the photo to something that you did when you were a child or reminiscing about when you and the other person traveled to that location years ago.
As modern life has grown more distanced through technological innovation, our opportunities for deep, intimate moments have dwindled. The pandemic has only exacerbated this trend, prohibiting or impeding many types of friendly and professional touch and sending many of us deeper into our online worlds.
This has left many of us starving. We’ve entered an intimacy famine.
An early analysis of more than 18 million workouts logged using Apple Watch during the pandemic revealed that older adults ages 65 and up were more likely than younger adults to meet their goal of at least 150 active minutes per week. Participants in the study, conducted in partnership with Brigham and Women's Hospital and the American Heart Association, clocked the most activity minutes through walking, cycling and running.
To mark Heart Month, the company is offering custom compilations across Apple Fitness+, the App Store, the Apple TV app, Apple Podcasts, and Apple Books.
But does this constant monitoring of our vital signs truly yield better health? There’s no clear answer yet. One study found that people trying to lose weight who used wearable technology to help actually lost less weight than their watch-free counterparts. A review in the American Journal of Medicine found “little indication that wearable devices provide a benefit for health outcomes.” Another issue is that the measuring abilities of wearables are imperfect for some metrics.
I also worry that the safety-net sales pitch ignores one major downside to all this quantification: It can interfere with our ability to know our own bodies. Once you outsource your well-being to a device and convert it into a number, it stops being yours. The data stands in for self-awareness. We let a gadget tell us when and how to move, when we’re tired, when we’re hungry.
Apple proposed in August 2020 that it would support “domain-bound codes” for logins. This kind of code requires sites make a slight addition to the text messages used for verification codes. The incoming message has to provide a destination domain and some other data. Apple said that this change would improve the integrity of its operating systems offering to autofill the code via a suggestion in the QuickType bar in iOS and iPadOS and a drop-down value in macOS Safari and other macOS apps that take advantage of this feature.
A lawsuit over App Store abuses has been given the green light to proceed, at least on some fronts. The case, filed in California’s Superior Court in Santa Clara County last March, hails from app developer and former Pinterest engineer Kosta Eleftheriou, who claims his keyboard app FlickType was initially unfairly rejected from Apple’s App Store, then later targeted by scammers once approved, leading to lost revenues.
The world’s largest technology companies are pouring money into the biggest foreign policy think-tanks in the US, as they seek to advance the argument that stricter competition rules will benefit China.
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The former officials argued against the competition bills going through Congress, saying they would put Chinese companies such as Huawei and Tencent “in a better position to assume global pre-eminence”. Their letter used very similar language to that in a white paper released by the Computer and Communications Industry Association at the same time, which warned about the risk of stricter regulation.
Users have found that turning off Bluetooth allows the Mac to stay in sleep mode and preserve battery life. This can be a stopgap solution until Apple fixes the problem with an update.
They sound good, have effective noise-cancelling and solid battery life. The spatial audio virtual surround sound system is really great with Apple gear and some of the smart features are available on Android, too.
They are small and don’t have stalks. The wing design keeps them locked in place but can take some fiddling to get comfortable. The charging case is a bit larger than I would like but still pocketable.
CleanShot X is one of our favorite Mac utilities, adding an array of powerful features for screen capture and recording on Mac. Following a major update to the app in December, CleanShot X has been updated to version 4.1, with improved recording features, a new blur option for private information, and more.
I couldn't draw even if my life depended on it — but that doesn't stop me from trying. So it's no surprise that my interest was piqued when I was told about an iPad app that lets you create digital flipbooks. And now I'm telling you about it, too.
Pinterest is adding a “Try On for Home Decor” feature to its app, letting you see furniture from stores like Crate & Barrel, CB2, Walmart, West Elm, and Wayfair in your house through the power of augmented reality.
Not only is this a MagSafe charger for your iPhone 12 or iPhone 13 device, but it is also an 8-in-1 power strip. That's right — you can charge your favorite iPhone and almost anything else, with this one product.
What Apple has created, in other words, is the kind of ecosystem stickiness that has eluded its rivals, and it did so by maintaining its original focus on music. From Apple’s point of view, the HomePod’s otherwise limited features and lack of third-party voice skills may be a benefit rather than a hinderance, especially if it leads to more Apple Music and Apple One subscriptions.
Three thousand miles away, a floppy-haired 20-year-old named David Karp—Zuckerberg’s non-evil twin—was building something different. Whereas Facebook aimed to bring everyone and their mother online, Tumblr was the opposite: an online underground, a place where your mother, in particular, would never see you. The platform was optimized for secrets and for pseudonyms, which meant it was for art and confession and porn. It had no public follower or friend counts, no comment sections, and no requirements that users provide real names. If you didn’t like what you’d put out there, or you weren’t sure of the connections you’d built, you could start over, try something else, no explanation needed.
Of course, Gates’s popular and well-shared TED talk — viewed millions of times — didn’t alter the course of history. Neither did any of the other “ideas worth spreading” (the organization’s tagline) presented at the TED conference that year — including Monica Lewinsky’s massively viral speech about how to stop online bullying through compassion and empathy, or a Google engineer’s talk about how driverless cars would make roads smarter and safer in the near future. In fact, seven years after TED 2015, it feels like we are living in a reality that is the exact opposite of the future envisioned that year. A president took office in part because of his talent for online bullying. Driverless cars are nowhere near as widespread as predicted, and those that do share our roads keep crashing. Covid has killed five million people and counting.
At the start of the pandemic, I noticed people sharing Gates’s 2015 talk. The general sentiment was one of remorse and lamentation: the tech-prophet had predicted the future for us! If only we had heeded his warning! I wasn’t so sure. It seems to me that Gates’s prediction and proposed solution are at least part of what landed us here. I don’t mean to suggest that Gates’s TED talk is somehow directly responsible for the lack of global preparedness for Covid. But it embodies a certain story about “the future” that TED talks have been telling for the past two decades — one that has contributed to our unending present crisis.
So, The New York Times purchased Wordle...
Maybe Apple should now go out and buy The New York Times to beef up Apple News+ and Apple Arcade. Two birds with one stone...
:-)
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