Apple today announced 20 new titles launching on Apple Arcade, Apple’s game subscription service that offers unlimited access to over 200 incredibly fun games. The new titles include WHAT THE CAR?, TMNT Splintered Fate, Disney SpellStruck, and Cityscapes: Sim Builder, all of which are only available on Apple Arcade. The expansion also adds popular games from the App Store to the service, including Temple Run+, Playdead’s LIMBO+, PPKP+, and more.
“Apple Arcade brings together hundreds of fun titles in one gaming destination for our users to discover and enjoy,” said Alex Rofman, Apple’s senior director of Apple Arcade. “Today’s launch boosts our award-winning catalog with 20 new games people will love playing and sharing with their friends and families.”
Updates to earbuds certainly aren’t as important as those for an iPhone, Mac, or Watch, but they shouldn’t be a black hole either. AirPods updates aren’t all bug fixes and other improvements—occasionally there are new features, such as Spatial Audio and Conversation Boost, that need to be added after purchase. I wonder how many AirPods Pro users never even realized they got those new features because Apple didn’t tell them.
Google’s next step into a passwordless future is here with the announcement that passkeys — a new cryptographic keys solution that requires a preauthenticated device — are coming to Google accounts on all major platforms. Starting today, Google users can switch to passkeys and ditch their passwords and two-step verification codes entirely when signing in.
Passkeys are a safer, more convenient alternative to passwords being pushed by Google, Apple, Microsoft, and other tech companies aligned with the FIDO Alliance. They can replace traditional passwords and other sign-in systems like 2FA or SMS verification with a local PIN or a device’s own biometric authentication — such as a fingerprint or Face ID. This biometric data isn’t shared with Google (or any other third party), and passkeys only exist on your devices, which provides greater security and protection since there’s no password that could be stolen in a phishing attack.
1Password has also joined the FIDO Alliance and has been working to implement passkey support. According to the company’s CEO, the most significant benefit of this technology is its simplicity. “Passwords are difficult for people to remember. Passkeys will benefit the end user in both security and convenience,” says Shiner.
But, of course, storing a passkey requires a password manager. While Apple has already implemented passkey support in iCloud Keychain with iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, some users may prefer to use a third-party password manager. For those people, 1Password will soon be ready for passkeys.
Apple today posted a new support document outlining the security content of AirPods and Beats firmware updates, disclosing that the 5B66 firmware released yesterday for Beats Fit Pro and Powerbeats Pro addresses a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to gain access to your headphones.
The issue also affected all AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max models with the exception of the first-generation AirPods, but Apple fixed the issue for those products with the 5E133 firmware update released last month.
Apple trade-in values certainly don’t match what you’ll get from selling privately, but they do offer a safe and painless way to upgrade to a new device. The company has today updated the amounts offered, with a mix of increases and decreases (and some unchanged sums).
The workers’ negotiators also want Apple to adopt a tipping system, letting patrons offer gratuities in increments of 3%, 5% or a custom amount for in-store credit-card transactions.
“This will allow thankful patrons the ability to express gratitude for a job well done without any obligations,” the union wrote Apple. “All monies collected through this manner would be dispersed to members of the bargaining unit biweekly based on any hours worked.”
Audio commentaries have been included in physical media since 1984, starting with the Criterion Collection’s release of 1933’s King Kong on laserdisc, with commentary by film historian Ronald Haver detailing anecdotes on the production of the American classic. Commentaries from directors, actors, and production crew were subsequently included in physical packages of thousands of movies, television shows, and even video games for decades since. However, once the industry shifted to streaming, most of those bonus features were left on the discs.
How tone-deaf is this union is to even propose allowing Apple retail staff to ask for tips, I wonder if even know who Apple is. The mere act of asking for a tip -- even if the default selection is "No tips", even if No Obligations text is rendered in big bold fonts at the top of the screen -- is a total one-eighty away from the image of Apple, and everything Apple stands for.
What a stupid stunt this union has just pulled.
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Yes, all workers should be fairly compensated. Through wages, not tips.
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Thanks for reading.