I love this feature. Is it a little silly at times? Sure. But there are plenty of occasions where I can’t easily get to my phone or Apple Watch—say I’m carrying things in both hands, or wearing gloves—and I don’t necessarily want to talk to Siri. Nodding and shaking my head is second nature, and I like the audio feedback the AirPods provide to encourage the gesture.
Apple Music has announced that its 2024 Artist of the Year is Billie Eilish. And she’s the first artist to ever claim the top crown twice.
Belkin last month voluntarily recalled the BoostCharge Pro Fast Wireless Charger for Apple Watch + Power Bank 10K (model BPD005). The company said it will be offering a full refund to all customers who purchased the product.
Spotify playlists and podcasts are being abused to push pirated software, game cheat codes, spam links, and "warez" sites.
By injecting targeted keywords and links in playlist names and podcast descriptions, threat actors may benefit from boosting SEO for their dubious online properties, since Spotify's web player results appear in search engines like Google.
Apple Inc. is racing to develop a more conversational version of its Siri digital assistant, aiming to catch up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other voice services, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The new Siri, details of which haven’t been reported, uses more advanced large language models, or LLMs, to allow for back-and-forth conversations, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the effort hasn’t been announced. The system also can handle more sophisticated requests in a quicker fashion, they said.
San Francisco has provided a backdrop for: (A) the dawn of the ubiquitous self-driving taxi; and (B) at least one of the most iconic car chase scenes in movie history. So WIRED decided that the best way to juice some meaning and adrenaline out of the self-driving future would be to tail it in hot pursuit.
Our idea: We’ll pile a few of us into an old-fashioned, human-piloted hired car, then follow a single Waymo robotaxi wherever it goes for a whole workday. We’ll study its movements, its relationship to life on the streets, its whole self-driving gestalt. We’ll interview as many of its passengers as will speak to us, and observe it through the eyes of the kind of human driver it’s designed to replace. We’ll chase it for no fewer than six hours, or until we get into a fiery crash. Whichever comes first.
Between "I don't enjoy talking to humans, so I will like to have a nice conversation with my phone" and "I don't enjoy talking to humans, why would I even want to talk to my phone", I definitely belong to the latter camp.
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Apple has officially announced its Black Friday promotions for this year. Starting November 29, you can score an up to $200 gift card when you buy an eligible Apple product from Apple’s website, app, and retail stores.
I don’t have a good answer. It feels like every week for the next six or eight, I’m going to have a moment of weakness where I click around on Apple’s website, configuring stuff and looking at the final price and realizing it’s a bit high and then closing that browser window. Until the next moment of weakness.
This is what they call the tyranny of choice, right?
Whenever I write about this, some readers will comment that, to their minds, a paid subscription like Apple News+ should bestow a completely ad-free experience. That’s how streaming video and music subscriptions tend to work, but even there — as I just posted regarding Disney+ — many people are choosing lower-priced streaming subscriptions subsidized by ads. The economics for ad-free news just doesn’t work, and never has. News+ isn’t like TV+, where Apple owns or has paid for the rights to all of the content.
I really think Apple should get out of the ads business, starting with the App Store. I find it corrupting, ugly, distasteful, and most of all an anti-premium experience.
Apple China on Monday published an article on its official website that cited a report by a Shanghai University of Finance and Economics researcher, saying that the local App Store paid over 95 per cent of the 3.76 trillion yuan (US$519 billion) in revenue it generated last year to Chinese developers and various companies.
“We’re proud that the investments we make in the App Store have helped it become a powerful growth engine for local businesses of all sizes,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook wrote on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. He said that the company is committed to the success of entrepreneurs across China.
If Apple’s locked-down approach in the App Store era is our future, it’s a bleak one indeed. But there’s good news: Apple has also built a system that provides security, flexibility, and responsibility while letting device owners run the software they want to run.
It’s called the Mac. When we consider the future of computing devices, the Mac is the model we should aspire to, not the iPhone.
There are certainly plenty of people who believe Apple should be able to do with the iPhone what it wishes, and that — thanks to the power of the free market — people who do not like those changes will simply go buy something else. Perhaps. But perhaps, too, Apple’s influence over a billion users worldwide is something worth checking on. If Apple had responded more amenably to concerns raised over the past decade, maybe it would not find itself in this position today — but here we are.
“Despite Whip Media having complied with the DMCA and explaining that to Apple, the complainant notified Apple that its claim was ‘unresolved,’ and Apple decided to remove TV Time from the App Store,” he says. The company has since resolved the matter with the complainant. As of the time of writing, the TV Time app was in the process of returning to the App Store.
However, Inman warns this is another case where Apple had too much power over the companies doing business on its App Store platform.
Apple Music has kicked off its year-end celebration with a collection of playlists recognizing ‘The Best of 2024.’
Let’s look at some common security threats iPhone users face and how you can protect yourself. From sneaky shoulder surfers to tricky phishing attacks, it’s time to uncover the hidden risks lurking in your pocket.
From the music you buy and the apps you download, to the video you shoot and the messages you receive, all of that content has to live somewhere, either on your device or in cloud storage. When your iPhone or iPad storage is full, it's not like you can increase it. What you can do, however, is free up your existing storage. Here's how.
The app allows you to easily keep track of your reading list while also organizing your book collection. Getting started is easy as you can quickly search from more than 40 million books to add to your library in seconds.
I now feel I have some knowledge about plant care and a helpful digital assistant to assist me when needed, which makes a huge difference.
Silicon Valley tech giants and others who together process more than 13 billion financial transactions annually through digital wallets and payment apps will be subject to government supervision, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said.
The new rule finalized on Thursday will bring a burgeoning consumer service under the same scrutiny faced by banks while helping protect the privacy of vast amounts of consumer data and preventing fraud and the illegal closure of their accounts, the agency said.
Apple urged a federal judge to dismiss the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against it, saying the government’s complaint includes speculative arguments and the government doesn’t plausibly argue it has monopoly power.
“The court is allowed to use common sense,” countered DOJ counsel Jonathan Lasken at a hearing in New Jersey on Wednesday. “We’re here today based on the idea that it’s not plausible that [Apple] has monopoly power, but instead is at the mercy of supposed global behemoths who are a fraction of its size.”
Southeast Asia’s largest nation confirmed that it had received Apple’s latest investment offer, which entails building a manufacturing plant to produce accessories and components, the Ministry of Industry said in a statement on Wednesday evening. Its minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, who had blocked the permit allowing the sale of the iPhone 16 in October, is set to hold a meeting on Thursday to discuss the proposal.
The meeting “means that the industry minister welcomes Apple’s investment commitment,” ministry spokesperson Febri Hendri Antoni Arif said in the statement.
Tech analyst Benedict Evans captured the company’s decline in a July 2013 essay called “The Irrelevance of Microsoft.” “No one’s afraid of them,” he wrote. The next month, the board pushed out Ballmer. Contenders for his job included the CEO of Ford and the former president of Skype. But Nadella wrote a 10-page memo arguing that Microsoft’s revival would come from a growth mentality. As he later put it, he wanted to change the corporate personality from “know-it-all” to “learn-it-all.” The board—along with Gates and Ballmer, who were on the search committee—agreed that he was the one.
“Obviously, I’m a consummate insider,” Nadella says, talking to me in July after his speech and a lusty ovation. He saw firsthand how the company had lost its way. “You forget what made you successful in the first place. And hubris sets in.” Microsoft, he says, needed more than a great caretaker or efficient manager. “The metaphor I like is re-founding. Founders create magical things from nothing.”
I've finally downloaded the Chat GPT app onto my iPhone. And I asked three questions. The first question -- asking for a list of podcast recommendations -- returned with a list that are mostly made-up. The second question -- a follow-up by asking the list of podcasts published by a particular company -- returned with another list that are mostly made-up. The third question -- asking for the secondary school I've attended -- returned with two paragraphs, the first is accurate (by copying from Wikipedia), and the second paragraph is, yes, you guessed it, mostly made-up stuff.
And that's why I am not excited with the upcoming December installment of Apple Intelligence.
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Thanks for reading.
Apple has released a flurry of updates in response to a pair of security vulnerabilities that the company says “may have been actively exploited on Intel-based Mac systems.” That’s an unusual level of specificity for Apple, especially given that the vulnerabilities are in core code shared by other platforms.
The two vulnerabilities are highly problematic. The JavaScriptCore vulnerability allows for arbitrary code execution, and the WebKit vulnerability enables maliciously crafted Web content to lead to a cross-site scripting attack. Both vulnerabilities were identified by Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google’s Threat Analysis Group.
But even when they are technically right, the AI summaries still feel wrong. “Expresses love and encouragement,” one AI notification I recently received crudely announced, compressing a thoughtfully written paragraph from a loved one. What’s the point of a notification like that? Texting—whether on iMessage, WhatsApp, or Signal—is a deeply intimate medium, infused with personality and character. By strip-mining messages into bland, lifeless summaries, Apple seems to be misunderstanding what makes texting so special in the first place.
The lists kick off with the top shows of the year, but go on to list the most popular in a number of different categories, from new shows to those with the highest subscriber counts.
For the last few years in Hollywood, it’s kind of felt like that meme of the dog in a burning house and based on the teaser for their new Apple TV+ series, it seems Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have been picking up on that vibe as well.
They both serve as writers, directors, and executive producers on the half hour scripted comedy “The Studio,” which stars Rogen as an anxiety-ridden new studio chief dealing with a business landscape that’s crumbling at his feet.
After telling the stories of everyone from The Beach Boys to The Bee Gees, Carole King and James Taylor, Frank Marshall has set up another high-profile music documentary at Apple — the first fully authorized doc on Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Fleetwood Mac.
In a support document published this week, Apple said it will be dropping support for Safari bookmark syncing on iPhones and iPads running iOS 10 or earlier, and on Macs running macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or earlier, starting December 18. Apple said it made this decision in accordance with its minimum software requirements for iCloud.
Apple's free butterfly keyboard service program for select MacBooks models ended late last week, nearly six and a half years after it launched.
The RSS client Unread now lets you create custom article actions powered by the Shortcuts app.
Musi claimed Apple breached its contract by removing the app before investigating YouTube's claims. The music-streaming app is concerned that the longer the litigation drags on, the more likely that its users will move on. A mass exodus of users "risks extinction," Musi argued, telling the court the app fears a potentially substantial loss in revenue over allegedly unsubstantiated copyright claims.
But Apple filed its opposition to the injunction last Friday, urging the court to agree that because Musi fans who still have the app installed can continue streaming, Musi is not at risk of "extinction."
The new 'Shot on iPhone' campaign documents a uniquely Thai phenomenon where graduates transform traditional photography into an art form of joy and self-expression.
Showcasing the artistic creativity and achievements of university students, the campaign harnesses the capabilities of the iPhone 16 Pro. Developed by TBWA Media Arts Lab APAC, the campaign spans digital platforms, static out-of-home displays, and Apple’s Instagram account, offering a visually rich and culturally nuanced tribute to this key event.
The Graykey, a phone unlocking and forensics tool that is used by law enforcement around the world, is only able to retrieve partial data from all modern iPhones that run iOS 18 or iOS 18.0.1, which are two recently released versions of Apple’s mobile operating system, according to documents describing the tool’s capabilities in granular detail obtained by 404 Media. The documents do not appear to contain information about what Graykey can access from the public release of iOS 18.1, which was released on October 28.
Apple has started selling its own advertising inventory for Apple News, two sources familiar with the effort told Axios. It's pitching new ad units that it hopes will maximize revenue for itself and its publishing partners.
This past month, I've decided I need to change why I listen to podcasts: primarily, I want to be entertained, not informed. If a particular podcast both entertain and inform me, yes, so much the better. But if a podcast merely informs, but fails to entertain me, I unfollowed.
Among the 'casualties' this month are mostly news and current affairs podcasts. Gone. I no longer want to listen to stories about criminals and felons doing horrible things to this world when I am listening to podcasts.
Rather, when I am commuting, or when I am doing brain-dead admin stuff, or when I am washing dishes, I want to listen to people playing quizzes and games, I want to listen to scientists making new discoveries, I want to listen to nerds talking about apps with orange icons or music to listen to while working, and I want to listen to chefs showing kids how to cook yummy vegetables and ice cream.
If you are interested: "Good Job, Brain", "Just a Minute", "The Numberphile Podcast", "Comfort Zone", "Cortex", "The Kitchen Cabinet".
(I still have a folder of news in my RSS client, but I will only read them when I want to be informed, and only for a specific time period only.)
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Thanks for reading.
I could sand down my assessment and get to an extremely charitable “inconsistent” or “hit-and-miss.” But as it's currently implemented, I believe the feature is fundamentally flawed. The summaries it provides are so bizarre so frequently that sending friends the unintentionally hilarious summaries of their messages became a bit of a pastime for me for a few weeks.
In macOS Sequoia 15.1, however, Apple has added a new option that lets you download and install apps that require more than 1GB of storage to an external drive. Anyone working with large apps like Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro, or gamers with space-consuming titles, will surely welcome this ability to download and install large apps to a separate disk.
There is no complete fix, but duplicating a broken image with a "still photo" allows the edits to be saved, but it removes Live Photo and Photographic Styles. Apple is aware of the issue and is working on a fix.
Starting next month, making a device backup over iCloud will require iOS 9 or later, Apple has informed some customers via email. New backups for iPhones and iPads running iOS 8 or earlier will no longer be supported, and Apple will delete all existing iCloud backups of those devices as well.
One of the most striking elements of Kino is that it tries to keep the UI nearly as clean as the iPhone’s stock camera app. At the same time, it makes sure that you get as many core controls for fine-tuning as possible. It’s not exactly for beginners, but it serves up creative controls in a way that a novice would appreciate and be able to understand.
When a user scans a product that turns out to be marked with Yuka’s red label — which indicates health concerns — they will see an option to email the product’s manufacturer, pushing them to rethink the use of harmful additives. Yuka provides a default message but allows users to personalize it if they wish.
Corsair has announced Mac-compatible versions of its K65 Plus Wireless keyboard and M75 Wireless mouse, offering both peripherals in exclusive "Glacier Blue" and "Frost" color options designed to complement Apple devices.
“Shooting Season 1 wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped it to be,” Paul told IndieWire with a rueful laugh. “Pre-COVID, we were greenlit, and I was like, ‘It’ll be so fun, and we’ll hang out between takes.’ I had this image of it in my head, and it was not everybody double-masked, and nobody get near the actors. So, in that sense, it was not the theater kid dream experience I’d hoped it would be.”
Paul is quick to add that, of course, it still was, just in a different way. But now he’s getting that more communal experience with the second life of “Schmigadoon!”: A live stage adaptation is scheduled to premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in January 2025, directed and choreographed by the series’ Emmy-nominated choreographer Christopher Gattelli.
Invoking a rarely used loophole, and a first for a major streaming service, Apple utilized an “exceptional visa” to release Steve McQueen’s World War II drama “Blitz” in French cinemas for a limited two-day run on November 9-10. The maneuver bypassed France’s strict media chronology laws, which usually require a 17-month window between theatrical and streaming releases for most platforms.
Today, Apple TV+ announced it will expand its award-winning original series slate with a series order for “Cape Fear,” a new series that will be written and showrun by Nick Antosca (“The Act,” “Candy,” “A Friend of the Family”) and executive produced by Academy Award winners Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, with Academy Award winner Javier Bardem starring and executive producing.
Apple Inc. has increased its offer to invest in Indonesia by almost tenfold, according to people familiar with the matter, in the US tech giant’s latest bid to persuade the government to lift its sales ban on the iPhone 16.
The proposal would see Cupertino-based Apple invest almost $100 million in Southeast Asia’s largest economy over two years, the people said, asking not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Apple’s previous investment plan of close to $10 million would have involved the company investing in a factory making accessories and components in the city of Bandung, located southeast of Jakarta, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
I've had a bad experience the other day when watching an Apple TV+ show.
It was an episode of Shrinking, which I do enjoy. But, while the episode was winding down, as one of the main characters in the show walks across the road and the screen faded to black, the TV app abruptly started up the first episode of a different show. It wasn't a show I wanted to watch, but now the Up Next queue suddenly have another item stuck in it.
Yes, I know I could have just easily remove that unwanted show from the Up Next queue, but this episode definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. If I am kind to Apple, this is just another bug arising from all these streaming companies disrespecting creatives by quickly cutting away from end credits. If I am being unkind to Apple, this seems like another example of the company trying to juice up audience count.
Leave the end credits alone, Apple.
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Thanks for reading.
The time measurement and triggering of the reboot is in the SEP, which communicates with the SEPKeyStore kernel extension to perform the reboot. It is likely that using an external time source provided over the Internet or cellular networks to tamper with timekeeping will not influence the 3-day timer.
Security-wise, this is a very powerful mitigation. An attacker must have kernel code execution to prevent an inactivity reboot. This means that a forensic analyst might be able to delay the reboot for the actual data extraction, but the initial exploit must be run within the first three days.
I believe in the long-term value of open, accessible file formats like Markdown, HTML, and plain text. Just as plain text has outlived many technologies, these formats will likely outlive me. Being tied to an app creates potential issues in the long run.
It appears that Apple is discontinuing the Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter that it released alongside the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in 2016.
Roblox has announced it will block under-13s from messaging others on the online gaming platform as part of new efforts to safeguard children.
As we say our long goodbyes to Lightning, I look down at my desk, and find my keyboard, mouse, and trackpad, all using lightning connectors, and I wonder how much longer can I hold on to them.
The Magic Mouse is getting wonky, and it's right click is not great at all. So, yeah, that will be first to go. I am probably going to stay with the Magic Mouse; when I look at alternatives out there, I don't see any good mouses that allow me to scroll up, down, and left, right.
(The other two inputs are still working fine, and I do believe they will last much longer.)
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Thanks for reading.
In my lifetime we have gone from looking up, aspiring to a shared global village inspired by Nasa’s blue marble photograph, to looking down, glued to the blue dot on our phones as our hippocampi shrink and many of us withdraw from nature. It probably isn’t the end of civilisation. After all, maps and compasses are cognitive artefacts, like the internet, and we’ve been using them for millennia. But for our sense of wellbeing, and that of the world that sustains us, we can take steps not just to appreciate nature, but understand how we are part of it, acknowledging that it will always be bigger than us, in a positive, not phobic way. Many share basic principles of psychotherapy: grounding, breathing, being “in the moment”, imagining ourselves from outside or “above” our bodies. It seems that, more than ever, we need to explain who we are by understanding where we are. Here are a few tips on how to do so.
Apple has now indirectly acknowledged this issue in a new support document that outlines steps to follow if your iCloud notes are not appearing on your iPhone, iPad, or Vision Pro.
[...]
Notes disappearing has not been the only problem. In another new support document, Apple said iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro users who receive a "Cannot Complete Action" error message when trying to accept the updated iCloud terms and conditions should update to the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, or visionOS and try again.
There’s no doubt that Premiere Elements is an impressively powerful program for video-editing work, and it’s great value for more advanced amateurs and semi-professional users such as podcasters and vloggers. Even so, it’s still a pretty complex piece of software, even when using Quick mode, so newcomers will have to be prepared to roll up their sleeves and do a bit of work in order to really get to grips with the program’s undeniably powerful editing tools.
It offers a visually appealing way of keeping track of birthdays, calendar events, anniversaries, and more! It also includes a number of native-feeling design elements.
This weekend is Indie Charity Weekend – a new initiative started by notable app developer Will Bishop! Starting today, 100% of this weekends proceeds from the 23 participating apps will go to the charity of the developers choice.
“How did we know? I think we have to go back to 2017 when we introduced the Neural Engine in our iOS products. And really this was inspired by our recognition of the importance of computational photography,” explained Millet. “So we were seeing the amazing research that folks up in the University of Toronto were demonstrating… these new neural networks were capable of doing image recognition beyond the capacity of humans, or at least matching, and they were headed on a trajectory that was clear. And so we pounced on the opportunity to build that embedded capability into our camera processors for the phone,” he added.
[...]
He recalled how an “interesting paper” was published in 2017 that led to the invention of the transformer network, which then became the foundation for the LLMs that exploded in 2022. “It took about five years. Folks on my team recognised that these papers had the potential to be very interesting and might have a huge impact and made big architectural changes to the Neural Engine, just in case. We introduced the first transformer-capable SOCs in 2020 when we introduced the M1 and this all lined up perfectly,” he said.
Even if you don't use a Unix or Linux system on your desktop, you most likely have one in your pocket. Most modern smartphone OSes, including iOS and Android, are rooted in some form of Unix. So in the end, a Unix takeover predicted in the '80s really did come to pass.
Over the two days of the weekend, it rained and rained and rained. So I didn't get to any parks or did any walks. And now I am miserable.
Yes, I know of people who will walk indoors in shopping malls and such, but I am not that person. Shopping malls make me miserable too.
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While those Apple Intelligence features are garnering most of the attention, there are other notable features coming to the iPhone next month. Head below for a roundup of all the non-AI features coming to your iPhone as part of iOS 18.2.
Apple today shared a new Apple Pay ad ahead of the holidays, promoting the service's ease of use for online shopping. With Apple Pay, a stored card can be used for a purchase with just Face ID or Touch ID authentication, allowing for quick purchases.
Apple has now classified the iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone XS Max as "vintage" worldwide. Apple considers a device to be "vintage" once five years have passed since the company stopped distributing it for sale. Apple and Apple Authorized Service Providers sometimes offer repairs for vintage devices, but only if parts remain available.
When removing multiple overlapping or nearby selections, the order in which you remove them may make a difference. If you’re unhappy with the initial result, try removing objects in a different order.
In June 2024, Apple announced some much-anticipated options to further customize Home Screens. From placing app icons anywhere and personalizing Control Center, to setting up dark …and tinted app icons. Yeah. You know. I feel it too.
I’m not here to mourn, though. Instead, I want to share a few tips I learned while crafting a tinted variant for our iOS app. I barely see anyone else mentioning or making use of these: alternate brand marks and alpha gradients (done the right way).
It is great that it is not only Apple Intelligence that will be rolled out over the next few OS updates. There are also other useful non-AI features.
But, back in my mind, I do wonder: if Apple didn't 'have to' push out A.I. features in this year of OS releases, would all these other non-AI features be done in the dot-zero release?
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When it comes to Macs, the decision to buy a new one is rarely a quick and easy one, but with the release of the M4 Mac lineup, there’s less hedging than ever before. As I reviewed the new iMac and MacBook Pro and got the lowdown about the Mac mini, I was struck by just how compelling these new Macs are. This recent release makes for the most compelling set of Macs that Apple has had in quite some time.
And if you’re wondering whether it’s time to buy a Mac in a general sense, the answer is yes.
On Wednesday, Jiska Classen, a researcher at the Hasso Plattner Institute and one of the first security experts to spot this new feature, published a video demonstrating the “inactivity reboot” feature. The video shows that an iPhone left alone without being unlocked reboots itself after 72 hours.
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“Inactivity reboot” effectively puts iPhones in a more secure state by locking the user’s encryption keys in the iPhone’s secure enclave chip.
Without remote controls getting in the way, you have the freedom to sit back and experience the magic of 180 degree virtual reality.
Concert for One is expected to offer an experience very similar to the immersive Alicia Keys studio video that arrived with Vision Pro’s launch.
Apple Vision Pro launched in stores and began arriving to customers today in South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, customers can now schedule a free 30-minute appointment to demo the headset at Apple Store locations in both countries.
Apple today announced it will be opening an all-new store at the La Vaguada shopping center in Madrid, Spain on Thursday, November 28.
To celebrate the occasion, Apple has released a special wallpaper for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac with a creative illustration of Apple's logo.
Through its Active Wildfire and Wildfire Smoke layers, onX provides real-time updates to help users better understand the perimeters and boundaries of developing wildfires. Armed with that information, off-roading is a lot less likely to be marred by choking, toxic smoke that comes along with dangerous levels of combustion if users know which areas to avoid.
Creativity takes many forms, and it’s impossible to find a set of apps that encompasses every creative pursuit and hobby. That said, I’ve tried out a wide range of craft apps, from Hometalk, the go-to app for DIY home projects, to apps covering weaving, sketching, and origami. There’s even an app that will teach you how to make a lantern fairy garden! Whatever your creative style, these apps are meant to inspire you, help you master a specific craft, and hopefully, have a lot of fun along the way.
Wordle’s success has caused an explosion in newspaper-style puzzle games, and now Words With Friends is getting in on the action. The long-running word game is adding four solo modes that can be played daily, and they’ll sound familiar to those who use The New York Times’ gaming app.
Mythic Quest is one of the best and longest-running comedies Apple TV+ offers, and new episodes are coming very soon—followed by a new anthology series.
Perhaps Apple’s leadership thought to itself, if Adobe wasn’t going to put Apple users first, then Apple was going to do it.
Our lives as Apple users have been immeasurably enriched by Bill’s work. Without him, the Macintosh might not have caught on, and HyperCard certainly wouldn’t have existed. And without HyperCard, I wouldn’t have started TidBITS—the opportunity to do electronic publishing in HyperCard was integral to my decision to help with Tonya’s idea of writing a weekly tech newsletter to keep her colleagues up to date.
I’ll be thinking of Bill, and I invite you to join me.
I agree that you can't go wrong with any of the new Macs released this past month. In fact, you almost can't go wrong buying any Mac from Apple currently. The only exception: if you don't know why you are buying a Mac Pro, you are buying it wrong.
No, I don't need to buy a new Mac right now. But I am already planning how to migrate my existing Intel-based Mac mini to the new Mac mini one day.
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Mayer-Schönberger argues that forgetting is far from a passive act—it’s a very important skill. If we remembered absolutely everything that happened to us, we’d be overwhelmed with too much information. When it comes to grieving, or moving on from a breakup, forgetting can be a part of the healing process. Digital memory prompts, in their artificiality and unpredictability, might interfere with forgetting. “Our brain is designed to forget, and with good reason,” he says. “Forgetting helps us to focus on the here and now and on the decisions and the actions we need to take, rather than be tethered to the past.”
[...]
“If you really want to remember, then pour yourself a glass of wine and go through your diary or a photo album, or even scroll back on a device yourself,” Mayer-Schönberger said. “You should be able to choose to do that, rather than Apple or Facebook putting a version of the past right in front of us and making the choice for us.”
Final Cut Pro 11 for the Mac has added magnetic masks, extending the “magnetic” metaphor used for clips placed on your timeline. Apple says the new feature will allow you to quickly mask people and objects in a shot to color grade them or add effects separately from the rest of a scene.
The app can automatically generate closed captions now, too. The feature, which was briefly shown off in a video published alongside the announcement of the new Mac mini, uses artificial intelligence to convert dialogue into text.
Apple today released Logic Pro 11.1 for Mac and Logic Pro 2.1 for iPad, adding new features for songwriting, producing, and mixing. There's a new Quantec Room Simulator plug-in that uses the original algorithms and code from Quantec founder Wolfgang Buchleitner, allowing users to add naturalistic acoustic space to their music with Quantec QRS, or to select Quantec Yardstick for more accurate modeling of acoustic spaces.
The threat actor is hiding malicious code in custom file metadata and also uses decoy PDF documents to help evade detection.
The team behind Halide is back with an update to their video capture app Kino. Version 1.2 introduces support for Camera Control on iPhone 16, high frame rate support tuned for iPhone 16 Pro, and a new app icon that’s less HAL 9000 and more film reel-inspired.
Mellel has published version 6.1 of its eponymous word processor with a new Equations feature, which enables you to create equations using LaTeX math notation and insert them into your document.
Ian Page has issued Mactracker 7.13 with detailed information about recent Apple hardware releases, including the iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro, iPhone 16, iPad mini, AirPods 4, AirPods Max, and more.
The whole point of the Gemini app is to put the icon on your homescreen, and give you something to assign to the Action Button or one of the other quick-access spots on your phone. With one tap and half a second, you can be chatting with the bot.
The most popular games on the App Store aren’t necessarily the best, and the App Store doesn’t always make it easy to separate the wheat from the chaff. Here are some tips you can use to find your next favorite mobile game.
Developers have been able to submit promotional requests to Apple for quite some time, but the new Featuring Nomination process is now baked right into App Store Connect. Developers can submit nominations from App Store Connect where they will be asked for information about their app. Nominations can be made for events such as a new app launch or adding in-app content and features. When an app is chosen by the App Store editorial team for a feature, developers will be notified in App Store Connect, too.
The researchers demonstrated that they could bypass Apple’s geographic restrictions with a set of AirPods Pro 2 connected to a 10th generation Wi-Fi-only iPad. They note that it would be possible to do the workaround on an iPhone or iPad connected to a mobile carrier as well, but it would be more involved.
Why can’t you have three cellular network IDs on your iPhone or iPad active at once–two eSIMs and one SIM or three eSIMs? Or even more? You might think Apple is trying to frustrate you. But it’s a hardware limitation that’s designed around what Apple thinks represents the vast majority of its users’ needs.
Now you’ll be able to play one of the greatest zombie survival games of all time on your iPhone or iPad. Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 remake is headed to the Apple and Mac App Store on December 10.
Instead of looking at my own photos on iPhone's home screen, I use the Unsplash widget to look at pretty photos that are updated every few hours.
And some of these photos that are coming from other people do trigger my own happy memories.
The brain is strange, isn't it?
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It shouldn’t be a big story that a desktop computer has upgradeable internal storage, but with Apple’s cute new 2024 Mac mini, that’s exactly where we are. It’s possible to pop the SSD out after removing a screw, and then switch in a bigger one. We didn’t run into the software blocks we saw in the Mac Studio—we were able to calibrate a higher capacity SSD with Apple Configurator with no problems.
But of course, this being Apple, there’s a catch: the SSD’s proprietary format makes aftermarket upgrades tricky.
I like the way the summaries handle some of my Apple Home notifications — like when I read “Garage changed status multiple times; recently closed” in lieu of a stack of messages about my garage door. The wording changes, but without fail (so far), it’s been right about whether the last thing it did was open or close, so I don’t have to open Apple Home or my garage camera to verify it. (I still do sometimes because LLMs can be lying liars.)
The trouble comes when it’s trying to briefly convey things like text messages, emails, and Slack notifications. They’re usually vaguely in the ballpark, in the same way that saying Cormac McCarthy’s postapocalyptic novel The Road is about a father and son who take a walk together. I guess that’s not wrong, but boy does it miss the point.
Once you allow location access, it will automatically enable a geotagging feature that will tag songs with location data. So, going forward, when you discover songs through the Music Recognition tool, it’ll attach your location to the song history so you’ll be able to place the song in a specific place to remember where you were when you heard it.
The company is gearing up to announce the device as early as March and will position it as a command center for the home, according to people with knowledge of the effort. The product, code-named J490, also will spotlight the new Apple Intelligence AI platform, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is confidential.
[...]
The product will be marketed as a way to control home appliances, chat with Siri, and hold intercom sessions via Apple’s FaceTime software. It will also be loaded with Apple apps, including ones for web browsing, listening to news updates and playing music. Users will be able to access their notes and calendar information, and the device can turn into a slideshow display for their photos.
Apple Music Classical was updated today with CarPlay and Siri support, as well as stability and performance improvements, according to Apple.
Apple today released a new Gold Link Bracelet, which is available for $349. The band was first shown off when Apple introduced new Apple Watch Series 10 models, but it was not available for purchase in September.
In iOS 18, Apple has introduced a clever new way to identify if your iPhone charging setup is running at less than optimal speeds. The new feature appears directly in Settings, making it easy to spot when you're not getting the fastest possible charge.
VMware made its Fusion and Workstation software that creates and manages virtual machines free for personal use earlier this year. Now, the company announced that as of Monday, it’s free for everyone, including commercial customers. Also, the Fusion (for Macs) and Workstation (for Windows and Linux) Pro versions are no longer available for purchase.
The keys are larger and contoured, it supports MagSafe and CarPlay, and a new dedicated action button lets you trigger certain commands. (It's only available for the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max right now, but the company says it will have cases for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus by the end of the year.) The upgrades won't take away from the fact that patience is still a necessity in the beginning. But it's worth it—physical keys rule.
That may leave the technology you choose to use as a last line of defense, says Harlo Holmes, the director of digital security at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. “This is the last recourse of a lot of people in vulnerable positions,” says Holmes. “We’re just going to have to increase our efforts to make sure that people have the best tools in their hands and their pockets to maintain their privacy. And it's going to matter more and more.”
[...] WIRED asked security and privacy experts for their advice for hardening personal privacy protections and resisting surveillance. Here are their recommendations.
Since the early days of iPhones, there are two things that I consciously do not do on my device. I do not turn on push notifications for any apps -- unless I really need the notification. I also do not check emails on my iPhone, and I intentionally do not even set up any email accounts on the device.
So, I simply do not have a lot of notifications on my iPhone, and the notifications that I do receive, I want to read them every single time.
Which means that I really have no use for Apple Intelligence's notification summary and email summary.
Do I feel a little sad that Apple did all these and I don't get to use them? Well, sad, yes, but not because I don't get to use them. Sad because I don't see all the hilariously mistaken summarization of all my personal notifications.
Yes, A.I. fails are the new auto-correct fails, and I don't get to able to screenshots them and tw… er… I mean… toot them.
:-)
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But what I find disappointing is that, all these years after that Guardian piece broke, vestibular accessibility remains reactive rather than proactive. Nothing illustrates that better than Apple breaking Reduce Motion in Safari of all apps. When Reduce Motion is on, the zooms in the tab view should be replaced by crossfades. They were for a long time. But that went away in iOS 18. I dutifully mentioned this to Apple. It looks like this might be fixed in iOS 18.2. But the problem should never have come back in the first place – and it wouldn’t have if there was even the most rudimentary of testing by someone with Reduce Motion active.
If your iPhone 16’s display is off, the default behavior is that you press the Camera Control once to wake the screen and again to open the Camera app. This new toggle in iOS 18 gives you the ability to remove that first press.
The feature will be integrated into each airline's customer service process for locating mishandled or delayed baggage, according to Apple. This will make it easier for the airline to help find bags with an AirTag attached to them.
Apple Music picked its 100 Best Albums earlier this year. But it seems the digital celebration was only part of the story. Apple Music has announced that it’s publishing a new hardcover book to commemorate the album list. Here’s the kicker: it will set you back $450.
Apple today said an "immersive music experience" from singer The Weeknd will be available to watch on the Vision Pro headset this Thursday, November 15.
It is unknown what changes the latest firmware introduces, but it likely offers refinements and fixes to some of the new features introduced in the previous build.
Ulysses has issued version 36 of its eponymous writing app to add full support for Apple Intelligence Writing Tools, which can proofread, rewrite, and summarize your texts (available with macOS 15.1 Sequoia).
The new version of CoverSutra fixes the Music app's biggest flaws by being what Apple Music should be—fast and reliable. CoverSutra sits quietly in the menu bar, and clicking on it will immediately bring up the search bar. Here, you can quickly search for songs, albums, or artists from your library.
The browser is based on a new approach that completely does away with the traditional address bar and horizontal tab layout. Instead of tabs, navigation in Horse Browser is structured in hierarchical trees called ‘Trails.’ The resulting UI is unique, appealing, and clever. But how does it hold up in everyday use?
Channel 4’s new streaming app for visionOS lets you watch favorites like Taskmaster in a native Vision Pro experience.
Today, Apple TV+ announced an all-new 10-part docuseries, “The Secret Lives of Animals,” narrated by SAG Award winner Hugh Bonneville (“Paddington,” “Downton Abbey”). “The Secret Lives of Animals” highlights 77 unique species in 24 countries over three years, revealing stunning, never-before-seen animal behaviors and highlighting the remarkable intelligence of the natural world. Hailing from the acclaimed BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the series will debut globally on December 18 on Apple TV+.
Apple was told by the EU on Tuesday to stop geo-blocking, the practice of restricting content according to a user's geographical location, on services such as its App Store, Apple Arcade, Music, iTunes Store, Books and Podcasts.
The European Commission said it had identified several potentially prohibited geo-blocking practices on some Apple Media Services and threatened enforcement measures by national regulators if Apple failed to address its concerns.
Why would Apple want to promote the idea that Apple Intelligence can bail you out from failing to pay attention to the most important people in your life?
While I get Apple's desire to ditch text, I'm still used to the iOS 17 version of Photos, which had a button called Edit in the top-right corner, above each photo.
So far, I find it easier to take photos using the touchscreen than the Camera Control button.
Of course, Apple's work on that button is not done yet; it can definitely be improved upon. Someday, I may prefer this little button than the big touchscreen.
But every time I tried using this button, I am aware how big the swipe surface area of the touchscreen is compared to the tiny button.
(One thing I haven't tried is to disable all the swipy stuff and just use it as a pure click-button.)
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In recent years, standing has been touted as a remedy to a sedentary lifestyle, especially for desk workers who spend long hours seated at their screens.
But a new study from researchers in Australia and the Netherlands has found standing for long periods of time might not be much better than sitting after all – and actually comes with its own life-threatening risks.
Apple this week made parts and tools for the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max available to order through its self-service repair store in the U.S. and many European countries, seven weeks after the devices launched.
Apple still needs to find new sources of growth, of course. The iPhone isn’t going anywhere, but it’s also not fueling the sales gains that it used to. So, what’s the solution? To grow, the company can’t just wait for one big new opportunity — it needs several new device categories on the level of an iPad, Mac or Apple Watch.
She acknowledged that Mozilla doesn’t have the device distribution that benefits many of Firefox’s competitors, especially on mobile, but she did note that the Digital Marks Act (DMA) in Europe — which means Apple, for example, has to provide a browser choice screen on iOS — is working.
“With the DMA, even though the implementation hasn’t been outstanding, we’re seeing a real shift. When people have the choice to choose Firefox, they’re choosing Firefox,” she said. “So on mobile, there’s some good, promising things happening there, because we know, once people get to choose Firefox, they choose us. Because the features are great, the product is great.”
Walk. Move about. That's the key. Don't just sit or stand at your desk all day. When you run out of battery on your Vision Pro, don't just plug into a power supply. Take the googles off and go about in the real world.
:-)
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Thanksgiving is a time to reflect upon the prior year, be thankful for what we have, gorge ourselves until we’re near bursting, and then settle into our favorite chairs and watch the first half of a TV show before the tryptophan kicks in. If you usually spend your post-meal time falling asleep to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, you won’t find it on the usual broadcast or cable channels–it’s exclusively on Apple TV+.
Before you wave that turkey drumstick in the air and curse the state of television and all the darn streaming services you need subscriptions for—yes, I’m talking about you, Uncle Fred—you don’t need a subscription to Apple TV+ to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Apple is making the show available to anyone for a limited time. If you are an Apple TV+ subscriber, however, you can watch it anytime.
Living up to its name, the app is like a compassionate friend helping your to get healthier, no matter your fitness level.
Currency is a completely free currency conversion app for iPhone and Mac, with no ads, a clean design, and offline functionality. It has support for over 160 currencies, making it an easy to use tool for any international travel.
Twelve South PlugBug With Find Me is a great travel charger with a built-in locator to give you peace of mind that you should never lose your trusty charger again.
But it wasn’t fake, as Arthur established in a nice piece of detective work – tracking down a bar in the picture using Facebook, finding the street in Apple Maps and even “walking” down it using Street View. “It’s not obvious why these people thought that photo in particular wasn’t real”, he writes. “Perhaps it’s something about the sheen of the cars and the peculiar roundedness of the shapes, and maybe the lack of obvious damage”. Or is it that the proliferation of AI-generated fakes is already making people increasingly predisposed not to believe things that are real?
There are a lot of new shows on Apple TV+ that are great, but there are a few great old shows too. Besides Peanuts cartoons, you can also watch Fraggle Rock from Jim Henson.
(But then, that's it. No, Amazing Stories is new, and they were nowhere near as good as the original series.)
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Have windows on your Mac started to expand to fill the screen since you upgraded to macOS 15 Sequoia? That’s the idea behind one of Sequoia’s new window tiling dragging shortcuts, but it’s off-putting when you’re not expecting it. Apple understandably chose to turn these features on by default because no one would find them otherwise, but having windows change size underneath your pointer can be jarring. Luckily, new settings in Sequoia let you move windows around your Mac without having them jump around.
Apple has returned to using two 128GB storage chips in the new Mac mini with 256GB of storage, according to a partial teardown video shared on social media today. This means the base-model Mac mini with the M4 chip will not have significantly slower SSD speeds compared to higher-end configurations of the computer with 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage, as multiple NAND chips allows for faster SSD read and write speeds.
Apple’s key holiday extended return policy has officially started. Apple says that most products received between November 8, 2025 and December 25, 2024 may be returned through January 8, 2025.
Luckily, these days, there’s an app for just about everything, including quite a few aimed at helping people learn strategies for overcoming procrastination and executive dysfunction.
At least based on current understanding, there is no risk of permanent data loss. Notes remain available on other devices, and sync back to the iPhone after the bug is mitigated.
In a law enforcement and forensic expert only group chat, Christopher Vance, a forensic specialist at Magnet Forensics, said “We have identified code within iOS 18 and higher that is an inactivity timer. This timer will cause devices in an AFU state to reboot to a BFU state after a set period of time which we have also identified.” AFU refers to After First Unlock, which is when somebody, presumably the phone’s owner, has unlocked the device at least once since being powered on, and which generally can make it easier for law enforcement to unlock. BFU, or Before First Unlock, is when a user has not unlocked the phone since it was turned on, and is typically a harder state for forensic tools to crack.
[...]
“Remember that the real threat here is not police. It’s the kind of people who will steal your iPhone for malign purposes,” Matthew Green, a cryptographer and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, told 404 Media. “This feature means that if your phone gets stolen, the thieves can’t nurse it along for months until they develop the tech to crack it.”
Come to think of it, I have never even given Stage Manager a good proper try. The 'classical' way of managing apps and windows on a Mac is so second nature to me that I see no point in learning something different.
Thank goodness Apple didn't mess around with the basic elements of the Mac OS, and something that is so preserved in my brain can continue to be useful.
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Using his iPad, he navigated through the communication app to indicate he wanted to change out of his collared shirt – a request that would have been impossible for him to make just months earlier. After changing his clothes, Zaiden zoomed around the room, his entire demeanor transformed, finally comfortable and understood.
This interaction represents just one example of how technology is transforming the lives of students with autism at this small but mighty school in north Okaloosa County, where iPads and communication apps are breaking down barriers and giving non-verbal children a voice.
It's a trial that could transform cardiovascular healthcare, reduce the risks of complications associated with the medication, and save a whole lot of money in the process.
The iMac is so good that I wish we didn’t live in a world where most of our computers are laptops. Desktop computers can be great, but these days they’re a niche device. Fortunately, sometimes what you want is to plop down a Mac with a big screen in a particular place, and let it do its job. And if you want that Mac to be purple, or blue, or orange, or whatever, the M4 iMac will be up to the challenge.
Apple has turned to the Mac Studio and, increasingly, the Mac mini to fill that enthusiast/power user desktop niche. The 27-inch iMac is dead—apparently permanently, despite vague rumors that Apple has tested larger Apple Silicon iMacs internally—and the iMac is back to being the approachable, stylish Internet machine.
But the new $599 M4 Mac mini is easily the fastest and most capable Mac that Apple has sold for this price, and it's good enough that it doesn't just feel like a cheap way to buy into the Mac ecosystem. It's a capable mainstream PC with few notable compromises, and the M4 Pro version is a proper workstation that can fit in the palm of your hand. It sounds like hyperbole, but that's how good the M4, M4 Pro, and the 16GB RAM boost are.
Why wouldn’t you want the new Mac Mini? Over the last several days of testing Apple’s redesigned desktop Mac, I’ve been impressed by all the power and potential crammed into this very compact machine. For a starting price of $599 and with 16GB of RAM now standard, the M4 Mac Mini has immediately become the best value in Apple’s entire Mac lineup. It’s more than capable for most computing tasks today, and if my M1 MacBook Air is anything to go by, the Mini won’t feel slow (or anything close to it) for at least the next four or five years.
That the new design is small is great: with more than 40 percent less volume compared to the previous Mac mini, it fits in more places, takes up less room on your desk, and is less obtrusive than ever before. It ought to, for example, sit fairly well atop the foot of an Apple Studio Display (though the cables coming out the back might make that harder). Apple also hasn’t cheated by moving the power supply into an external brick: it’s the same standard two-prong power connector cord.
Anyway, here’s the good news: All the things that have made Apple silicon-based MacBook Pros great are still here, now powered by the impressively upgraded M4 chip. Apple has also sufficiently improved the base model to finally elevate it out of “Why does this exist?” territory, boosted the device’s world-class display, and seriously upgraded the built-in webcam. Not bad for a small update.
The biggest difference this time is that the entry-level MacBook Pro doesn’t really feel like a compromise. The base configuration has enough memory and storage to be actually worth considering, and it has all the ports and creature comforts of the higher-end Pros. Even the nano-texture screen upgrade feels worth it. For the first time in a long time, it actually feels like a Pro.
The version of Image Playground available in the iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 betas only offers animation and illustration as style options, leaving us wondering if sketch might be added a later time.
It looks like the answer might be no, as Apple has removed Sketch from the Image Playground app description. Image Playground used to list three styles as design options, but it was updated to two, and the line about Sketch was removed.
Apple's subscription gaming service Apple Arcade is being updated with four new games today, including Wheel of Fortune Daily, Drive Ahead! Carcade, Arkanoid vs Space Invaders+, and Texas Hold'em Poker: Pokerist+.
TikTok took another step to integrate itself deeper into the music streaming ecosystem on Thursday (Nov. 7), as Spotify and Apple Music users gained the ability to easily share songs on the short-form video app — posting them to their For You Page, for example, or sharing them via DM.
The Sol 5’s glowing puck is connected to its magnetic mount with a short arm that extends its reach and lets it swivel 180 degrees and angle as needed. That allows the Sol 5 to be used as an indirect light source as well, softening its effect by bouncing it off another nearby surface. But it doesn’t need to be stuck to an iPhone. It can also be used as a standalone light source, or even a flashlight that far outperforms what the iPhone’s LEDs are capable of.
Both of these products feel practical and sensible in a way that some of the decisions around the original Vision Pro launch didn’t.
The company has unveiled its new Belkin Travel Bag as a “compact and lightweight” alternative to Apple’s own Travel Case.
The exact reason for the reboots is unclear, but the document authors, who appear to be law enforcement officials in Detroit, Michigan, hypothesize that Apple may have introduced a new security feature in iOS 18 that tells nearby iPhones to reboot if they have been disconnected from a cellular network for some time. After being rebooted, iPhones are generally more secure against tools that aim to crack the password of and take data from the phone.
It’s been two long years since the launch of Matter — the one smart home standard designed to rule them all — and there’s been a fair amount of disappointment around a sometimes buggy rollout, slow adoption by companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google, and frustrating set-up experiences.
However, the launch of the Matter 1.4 specification this week shows some signs that the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA, the organization behind Matter) is using more sticks and fewer carrots to get the smart home industry coalition to cooperate.
The reviews are out, and it sure seem like all the new Mac computers are great. Remarkable. If you need a Mac, just find a form-factor that suits you, and you will not be wrong.
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Thunderbolt 5 expands on features introduced in previous releases and won’t make much of a difference until peripherals catch up. Even then, few people will truly need what Thunderbolt 5 offers, unlike the significant changes made several years ago with the move from Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3.
The good news is that, even after Apple got rid of its easy-to-use power schedule settings, you can still create the automations it enabled. The bad news is that you have to use Apple’s command line tool, Terminal, to do it. It’s a daunting task if you haven’t messed with command line interfaces, and Apple’s support instructions for setting up power scheduling this way aren’t very helpful. But don’t worry. I’ll describe how to do it below.
There are now options to show your entire screen, a specific window or app, or your extended display. Limiting AirPlay to a specific app allows a presentation or photos to be shared on the larger screen of a TV without allowing viewers to see all of the content on a Mac.
Now, a new Safari Live Activity has been discovered in the latest iOS 18.2 beta for tracking a file’s download progress.
Simply put, you can create a group of passwords, passkeys, and more that can be shared with anyone in your contacts.
Sometimes you want to share a photo with the public web but don't want to share the location in which it was taken, or any faces—if there's a child in the photo, say, or if you didn't get a chance to ask everyone permission to post the image online. Discretion is an indie app for Mac and iOS from developer David Kennedy that automatically hides faces and strips photos of all identifying metadata.
With the Logitech POP Icon Combo, you get a mouse and keyboard with a stylish look. Both offer excellent typing and clicking experiences, high-quality build and extremely long battery life. Smart functions complete the overall picture and make some processes easier in everyday working life.
Any millennial – and any parent – will be familiar with Pokémon cards, newsagent pester-power mainstays since the turn of the century. Contained within shiny metallic plastic packaging are critter-adorned trading cards of varying rarity, from a humble Squirtle to a special-edition illustrated Snorlax. There have been a few attempts to bring these lucrative illustrated cards (and the competitive battling game that you can play with them) to smartphones, but until now, they’ve all been poorly received. Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, released last week, is by some distance the best yet. It has truly gotten its hooks into me.
In Xcode 16, Apple quietly introduced the ability to format your Swift files using Swift Format. I’m a long-time user of SwiftLint, but having such a tool built into Xcode would be a great convenience, so I decided to give it a try. Here is my description of why I use such a tool, how well it works compared to the alternatives, and how I configured it for my own purposes.
“I am sorry for your loss,” the message lights up the room. After inching my post-surgery body up against the pregnancy-turned-mastectomy pillow, I pick up the phone and type, “Which loss, my breast, or my father?” I delete. “Thank you,” I write instead. “I just heard about your dad, I am so sorry,” another friend writes. “Thank you,” I reply without revealing my other debit. The language of loss itself an inexactness: I have not misplaced my breast nor my father; One is at a lab, the other at a funeral home, both are being prodded for different reasons. “On a happier note, how is everything with the book?” the friend continues. “So far, so good with the boob,” I hit send before realizing the autocorrect. “I mean boob,” I write again. “No! book, not boob.” But autocorrect knows, even if the friend does not.
I still don't understand why Apple took away the power schedule settings in the Settings app, and I do wish it can make a return someday soon.
Yes, I can deal with setting it via the command line. But to have something this useful only available via Terminal doesn't sound too Mac-like.
Or does Apple deem this useful automation feature no longer a Mac-like feature, and so deem it necessary to banish it to the comand line interface?
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Apple is warning investors that its new and future products might never be as profitable as the iPhone. The disclosure comes as the company is pursuing newer technologies like artificial intelligence and mixed-reality headsets.
Apple added the warning in its latest annual report under the “business risks” section, as first reported by the Financial Times.
Watchdogs are readying the penalty after the iPhone maker failed to allow app developers to steer users to cheaper deals and offers outside of the App Store, according to people familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A new framework called “BatteryIntelligence” will calculate the estimated time to recharge the phone, most likely based on the amount of energy being received by the device. Users will have the option of receiving a notification with an estimate of how long it will take for the charge to reach 80%, for example.
Again, although the feature was found in the codes of the most recent beta, it’s still disabled and unfinished – which suggests that Apple is still working on it. Perhaps it will appear in a future beta of iOS 18.2 or in another software update.
The code shows there will be four categories of screen savers added to the Apple TV, including Snoopy, TV and Movies, Music, and Soundscapes.
For Veterans Day this year, completing the challenge requires doing a workout for 11 minutes or more.
The app lets you connect to AirPods quickly, reliably shows their battery level, and even lets you set up keyboard shortcuts to switch listening modes, mute or unmute, and more. Plus, it's not limited to working with AirPods.
Deskpad [...] is a free Mac app that makes a virtual second monitor that lives in a window. The idea is that you move your presentation software to that display and share it, then use the rest of your actual display so you can see your notes and the stream's chat.
The future of Apple Intelligence is mostly unwritten. There’s a lot more for Apple to do just with the Big Three product lines. But it can’t leave its smaller devices and accessories behind. They will be important tools to feed data to Apple Intelligence and extend the intelligence of Apple’s platforms to the rest of our lives. I hope we’ll get a first sense of that future sometime next year after Apple’s built a stronger foundation with all of its forthcoming iOS 18 and macOS 15 releases.
As of late September, Apple had approximately 164,000 full-time employees worldwide, the company disclosed in a filing last week. That's up from the 161,000 full-time employees that Apple reported a year ago. These figures include corporate employees, such as software engineers, and retail employees at its stores.
Anyone expecting future Apple products to be more profitable than the iPhone shouldn't be making investing decisions.
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Let’s get this out of the way: Yes, Devin Davies is an excellent cook. “I’m not, like, a professional or anything,” he says, in the way that people say they’re not good at something when they are.
But in addition to knowing his way around the kitchen, Davies is also a seasoned developer whose app Crouton, a Swift-built cooking aid, won him the 2024 Apple Design Award for Interaction.
Apple in iOS 18.2 beta 2 added a new feature to the Find My app, which is designed to allow you to share a lost item's location with a trusted person. Apple says that the feature is meant to help you locate an item through a third-party, like an airline employee.
Apple today provided developers with the first beta of tvOS 18.2, and the update adds support for the 21:9 aspect ratio that projectors use.
Apple says that the Ultrawide setting is the equivalent of using two 4K monitors side by side. Like most visionOS windows, you can stretch the Mac Virtual Display to be as wide or narrow as you like.
In a recent document outlining the steps it has taken to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act, Apple revealed that it will allow iPhone and iPad users in the EU to set default navigation and translation apps starting in "spring 2025." That timeframe suggests these options will be added in iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, which should be released in April.
Apple Inc. has proposed investing almost $10 million to make additional goods in Indonesia, according to people familiar with the matter, as it seeks to have the country’s ban on sales of its latest iPhone removed.
The plan would involve Apple investing in a factory in Bandung, southeast of Jakarta, in partnership with its list of suppliers, the people said, asking not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. The facility would make products such as accessories and components for Apple gadgets, the people said.
House of Representatives member Mufti Anam criticized Apple for allegedly requesting a 50-year tax holiday and expressed his support for the continued ban on iPhone 16 sales in Indonesia.
“We are disclosing the government’s reason behind this ban, Apple is asking for a 50-year tax holiday. This is absurd. They deserve to be blocked from our country,” Mufti said during a meeting with State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir and Commission VI of the House of Representatives on Monday.
Apple does sell each accessory as standalone purchases, but importantly, not in the color-matched variants that the iMacs include.
An excellent suite of tools for local and internet backups, with a ton of online backup space for a good price.
With the latest wave of betas, Apple has a new API that lets developers make onscreen content in their apps available to Siri and Apple Intelligence.
Apple is exploring a push into smart glasses with an internal study of products currently on the market, setting the stage for the company to follow Meta Platforms into an increasingly popular category.
The initiative, code-named Atlas, got underway last week and involves gathering feedback from Apple employees on smart glasses, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Additional focus groups are planned for the near future, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the work is secret. The studies are being led by Apple’s Product Systems Quality team, part of the hardware engineering division.
Nicholas Quah is far from the only person to speed up his podcasts.
But, as a critic with New York Magazine and Vulture, he is one of the few to make a public plea to the world to not only speed up podcasts but also virtually every kind of media.
To some it's a crazy trend. (According to American sportswriter Bill Simmons, it's sociopathic.) But for those who agree with Quah, it's the new way of life.
I don't listen to podcasts at any speeds other than 1x. Yes, life is short, and podcasts are plentiful. But I'll rather listen to fewer podcasts.
(This is also why I value podcast players that have some smartness in managing podcast episodes.)
However, I do understand why, for certain podcasts and for certain listeners, listening at a higher speed may make some sense.
Now, for watching movies at higher speeds, intentionally -- this is the first time I am hearing of this, and I am completely baffled. I sure hope filmmakers, who already have to contemplate on people watching their precious films on a small hand-held screen in multiple sittings (that's me!), don't give up completely.
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Are these recent examples indicative of a longer-term trend? Is Apple ready to ease off with the upselling, and accept that a big chunk of customers are interested only in the budget models and deserve to be looked after properly? Well, it’s hard to say at this point. If next spring’s new iPhone SE lives up to the more optimistic predictions, perhaps we’ll be on to something.
But in the meantime, let’s just enjoy the fact that Apple’s cheapest products are good. It may not last.
People think the shape of the plug is the only thing that matters in a cable. It does matter: If you can’t plug the thing in, it’s useless. But the mere joining of a cable’s end with its matching socket is just the threshold challenge, and one that leads to other woes. In fact, a bunch of cables that look the same—with matching plugs that fit the same-size holes—may all do different things. This is the second circle of our cable hell: My USB-C may not be the same as yours. And the USB-C you bought two years ago may not be the same as the one you got today. And that means it might not do what you now assume it can.
[...]
But the dream of having a universal cable is always and forever doomed, because cables, like humankind itself, are subject to the curse of time, the most brutal standard of them all.
Key to all this is whether Apple has the will, enthusiasm and love for games at the highest levels to make gaming a priority, rather than a way to show off how powerful its silicon is during a keynote. The current evidence suggests … maybe? Apple courting AAA developers and talking about gaming more regularly are promising signs. However, the lack of addressing low-hanging fruit, AAA hype clashing with reality, and Apple failing to provide a complete gaming experience threaten to undermine the progress that’s been made.
The iOS 18.2 operating system update, which includes major improvements to Apple Intelligence — like ChatGPT chatbot integration, the Image Playground app and custom emoji known as Genmoji — is likely to arrive on the earlier side of December, I’m told. How early? The week of Dec. 2, barring any unexpected delays.
[...]
For now, pushing into China isn’t on the horizon. I’d guess that won’t happen until iOS 19 at the earliest.
The move by the EU executive, which acts as the bloc's competition enforcer, followed Apple's publication of a compliance report for its iPad OS, designated by the commission in April as an important gateway for businesses to reach their customers.
"The Commission will now carefully assess whether the measures adopted for iPad OS are effective in complying with the DMA obligations," the EU antitrust watchdog said in a statement.
Canon's new stereoscopic RF-S7.8mm F4 STM DUAL camera lens for spatial video recording recently became available for pre-order. In the U.S., pricing is set at $449.99, and orders are estimated to be delivered in mid-November.
Google and Apple have agreed to amend their audio prompts after a double fatal crash appeared to have been caused by incorrect directions from a sat-nav.
[...]
In November 2023, Ms Ahmed was "following audio directions" when she drove down the slip road near the Little Brickhill junction.
Modern hyper-convenience is a kind of deal with the devil. It is seductive because it appeals to our instincts, but it surreptitiously depletes us. It has made it easier to get by, but in many ways harder to truly succeed. Human flourishing and happiness is not just about subsistence, but also depends on growth, dynamic problem-solving, and solidarity through hardship.
Things that I am not expecting: games flourishing on Apple's ecosystem, Mac mini becoming a gaming console, and USB becoming a single standard that everyone follows.
Prove me wrong, Apple.
:-)
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During an hour-long test of the upgraded AirPods Pro 2 at The Straits Times, Madam Ang could even hear the low rumbling of the air-conditioner in the room she was in, and hold conversations with loud music playing in the background. Sounds and voices had become clearer, louder and sharper, she said.
Hearing someone call her from 5m away and music wafting from a laptop speaker 2m away was also a breeze for her with the Apple earbuds on.
Time2Pack is an all-in one app for your travel needs for iPhone and iPad, offering a robust packing list feature, guides to help you pack, flight tracking, and more. It’s an ultimate travel companion, alleviating a lot of the stress that can come with preparing for a trip.
Ultimately, Indonesia’s move to ban the iPhone 16 likely won’t make a big dent in Apple’s revenue. But it does reinforce the narrative that it can be a finicky and uncertain environment for foreign companies.
It’s time for the new administration to try a different approach.
May all your wises come true in the coming week.
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Apple has reached an agreement to acquire Pixelmator, the company behind popular photo and image editing apps Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval, according to an announcement made by the Pixelmator team on Friday.
Assuming that Apple’s purchase of Pixelmator, which includes the company’s numerous editing apps including Pixelmator Pro and Photomator, passes the requisite regulatory checks, Apple will own very powerful photo editing software. While the company’s Photos app offers some editing tools, including a new AI-powered Clean Up feature that gives Adobe a run for its money and then some, it doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what Pixelmator Pro can do.
The Pixelmator Team says it can’t wait to share what’s next, but companies acquired by Apple historically don’t say much after they’ve been assimilated into the mothership.
Apple today has launched a new service program for iPhone 14 Plus models, where a ‘very small percentage’ of devices may show no rear camera preview.
Old-school Apple fans probably remember a time, just before the iPhone became a massive gaming platform in its own right, when Apple released a wide range of games designed for late-model clickwheel iPods. While those clickwheel-controlled titles didn't exactly set the gaming world on fire, they represent an important historical stepping stone in Apple's long journey through the game industry.
Today, though, these clickwheel iPod games are on the verge of becoming lost media—impossible to buy or redownload from iTunes and protected on existing devices by incredibly strong Apple DRM. Now, the classic iPod community is engaged in a quest to preserve these games in a way that will let enthusiasts enjoy these titles on real hardware for years to come.
While the pregame revelry and Cajun cooking are longstanding traditions at Tiger Stadium, the iPad on the sidelines is entirely new: In April of this year, the NCAA approved a rule that allows college football teams to have up to 18 active tablets on hand for use on the sideline, in the coaching booth, and in the locker room during games. Taking advantage of this new rule, three conferences — the ACC, SEC, and Big Ten — chose iPad for their game day needs, including in-game video shot from the sidelines and end zone, as well as any broadcast feeds.
There are some odd things about the way Apple tracks your progress in the Health app. These oddities aren’t new with the recent OS updates. They’ve been a part of the app for as long as I can remember; I’ve just finally gotten around to talking about them.
Surprise, the week of Mac continues onto Friday, with potentially new enhancements of the Photos app or new Pro apps on the Mac (as well as iOS and iPadOS).
Will there be weekend surprises?
Hopefully, good news can continue onto next week.
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Apple reported its financial results on Thursday for its fourth fiscal quarter, which ended on September 28. Revenue was $94.9 billion, up six percent versus the year-ago quarter and an all-time fourth quarter record.
The one twist: Apple recognized a one-time charge of $14.8 billion related to Apple finally having lost a long-time tax case in the European Union. That’s a lot of cash—almost exactly half of the quarter’s total income, in fact.
At Apple, across everything we do, we manage for the long term because we’re always thinking about what comes next: the next great challenge, the next innovative idea, the next big breakthrough. As we close out the year, we have the best lineup we’ve ever had going into the holiday season, including Apple Intelligence, which marks the start of a new chapter for our products. This is just the beginning of what we believe generative AI can do, and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.
Apple is set to release iOS 18.2 in December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. There are a handful of new non-AI related feature controls incoming as well.
With the keyboard, Touch ID and function keys don't work, and with the Magic Mouse, the scrolling doesn't function. In some cases, the accessories are recognized as older devices, inhibiting proper functionality.
An AI-infused camera app for iOS that turns photos into different universe styles, such as Ghibli, Lego, and Minecraft, has been released.
So the Guardian set me a challenge: to try to give a sense of how much data an average person uses in a day, and what the carbon footprint of normal online activity might be. To do that, I tried to tot up the sorts of things I and millions of others do every day, and how that tracks back through the melange of messaging services, social networks, applications and tools, to the datacentres that keep our digital lives going.
Satellite services provider GlobalStar today disclosed an expansion of its deal with Apple. Apple will commit an additional $1.1 billion for upfront infrastructure prepayments, to increase the capacity of satellite services. Additionally, Apple will take 20% ownership of GlobalStar, in an equity deal worth about $400 million.
In a social media post today, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company will be making a donation of an unspecified amount towards relief efforts on the ground in Valencia, Spain, following deadly flash floods in the region caused by torrential rainfall on Tuesday.
You know what, I've never learnt to spell the world 'beleaguered'.
:-)
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