Apple today said that it is implementing new features that are designed to make children safer online, including an updated age rating system, a simpler way for parents to set up child accounts, changes to what kids see on the App Store, and a new API that will let developers confirm age range to deliver age appropriate experiences to kids.
The changes are outlined in a new Helping Protect Kids Online white paper that is available on Apple's developer site. Apple essentially wants to give parents more control over what their children see and do online in a privacy preserving way, while also heading off less tailored legislation calling for the App Store to be responsible for age verification.
Seriously, though, stop using read receipts — on any of your messaging apps. Turn them off. There is little upside to giving away this tiny clue about how you’re spending your time and attention. There is plenty of upside to reverting to a more primitive form of communication where you send a text and have no idea what happens to it next. You might even find solace in not knowing if the message was read. Maybe it just got lost in cyberspace, and maybe you should move on with your day rather than fretting.
When you pull up to the speaker box in the drive-thru at chains like Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Taco Bell, the first question you will likely hear is a distinctly modern one: “Will you be using our mobile app today?” If you respond yes to the friendly cashier, you’re asked to provide a code or other signifier, like your name, to help the worker identify your order. By the time you receive your steaming bag of burgers and fries, it’s possible that you haven’t actually spoken to any of the humans involved in preparing or serving the meal you’re about to consume.
While the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Plus have larger batteries due to their larger screens, the iPhone 16e has the largest battery Apple has ever put in a 6.1-inch iPhone.
DC's YouTube review reveals that despite being marketed as capable of pairing with gym equipment to display heart rate data at a glance, Powerbeats Pro 2 cannot simultaneously maintain a Bluetooth connection to a phone for music playback, a limitation Apple has since confirmed.
MacPaw has created a viable contender to Apple’s App Store with Setapp. The apps themselves are nifty and worth playing with, the subscription terms are good, and there’s something excellent, well-curated, and viable here that’s worth looking into, even if only for the seven-day trial period.
If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at being a barista but doubt that you actually have the skills to create latte art or, perhaps more importantly, deal with caffeine-deprived customers, the new mobile game Good Coffee, Great Coffee officially made its debut on the App Store and Google Play store last night. And I absolutely cannot get enough.
Did you know that Xcode can spell check your code and comments? Based on my experience working on large teams and large Xcode projects, this is a little-known feature. I routinely find spelling errors, not only in code comments but in symbol names. For the latter, this is particularly frustrating when a misspelled symbol is widely used because correcting that error — a rename that affects a substantial portion of the codebase — produces a large diff. Once you notice that your entire team has been passing around a “databaesQuery” for six months, it will drive you insane until fixed.
Apple is facing a likely antitrust fine as the French regulator prepares to rule next month on the company's privacy control tool, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
[...]
It is expected to issue its decision next month ordering Apple to halt its anti-competitive practice and will likely impose a fine too, the people said, making it the first regulatory veto against the ATT.
Researchers at George Mason University have discovered a way to track just about any Bluetooth device using Apple’s Find My network. The hack, dubbed nRootTag, can be used by hackers to make any Bluetooth device into “unwitting homing beacons.”
[...]
The researchers claim 90 percent success with their nRootTag hack, which can be performed remotely without administrator access to a device. It also doesn’t matter what platform the device is on; devices running Android, Windows, and Linux have been hacked, as well as smart TVs and VR headsets.
The weekend is here. Time to watch another episode of Severance.
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Thanks for reading.
It’s Apple’s cheapest phone, but it’s not cheap — probably for the aforementioned “lack of competition” reasons. It’s an iPhone that does iPhone things, but it’s probably missing at least one major feature for any given buyer, whether that’s an extra camera or the convenience of a MagSafe ring. If you’re clinging desperately to an older model and want a new iPhone for the least possible money, the 16E is the one to get.
That’s the job of the 16E: be the path of least resistance to blue bubbles. But for a more discerning customer the answer’s not as clear-cut.
The iPhone 16e is an iPhone for people who don’t want to think much about their phone. But they do want an iPhone, not just any “whatever” phone. A just plain iPhone, with a good screen, good enough (and simple) camera, and great battery life. I think Apple nailed that with the iPhone 16e.
A part of my brain won't stop thinking about whether this nearly once-in-a-decade upgrade for these folks wouldn't be better served if Apple had included its nice-to-have amenities, like MagSafe or the ultra-wideband chip for improved AirTags tracking. Even lacking these features, the price of the iPhone 16e feels $100 too high considering the many excellent competing phones in this bracket. It also makes the iPhone lineup confusing—it's $170 more than Apple's previous iPhone SE that's no longer available.
So yes, Apple doesn’t love Qualcomm. But this strategy isn’t about sticking it to a supplier-turned-competitor. It’s about making Apple’s devices fundamentally better in the long run. Apple’s ability to design its chips with a singular focus on its own ecosystem ensures that its hardware and software will work together in ways that no third-party supplier could match–not even the best one in the world.
Two new Mac exploits discovered recently are good reminders of best practices for staying safe, such as not letting strangers access your computer, staying up to date with software updates, and getting your software from known trusted sources.
Bono: Stories of Surrender will also arrive as the first-ever feature film catered to Apple Vision Pro and its Apple Immersive Video, “a remarkable media format recorded in 8K with Spatial Audio to produce a 180-degree video that places viewers onstage with Bono and in the center of his story,” Apple said, “the latest example of Bono’s enduring commitment to innovation.”
There is immense power in being in control of your own data. As ownership and governance of apps and online services consolidate, it’s understandable if you want to consider your options when it comes to where you store your private data and records of your everyday activities.
Fortunately, not every service out there is trying to monetize your personal data, and many offerings are just as good (if not often better) as their commercial or ad-supported rivals.
“We found that young adults who use diet and fitness apps have greater disordered eating symptoms, such as harmful or restrictive diets, and have negative thoughts about body image when compared to those that don’t use them,” lead researcher Isabella Anderberg said in a statement.
Tulsi Gabbard, the head of US National Intelligence, says she was not informed in advance about the UK government's demand to be able to access Apple customers' encrypted data from anywhere in the world.
In a letter, Ms Gabbard said she was seeking further information from the FBI and other US agencies.
She said if the reports were true, the UK government's actions amounted to an "egregious violation" of US citizens' privacy.
A year ago I tried using an M1 iMac for work duty but its 21" screen took up too much room on my desk. After seeing Sean's video on Action Retro about putting an M4 Mac Mini inside an iMac G4, I thought I'd give it a try.
If the iPod touch was the funnest iPod ever, the iMac G4 has got to be the funnest iMac ever. (Or perhaps, the funnest Macintosh ever?)
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Thanks for reading.
Your iCloud data will remain protected by standard encryption and, as before, can still be accessed by Apple.
But it does mean you now cannot apply to protect iCloud storage with end to end encryption, even if you want to.
Parallels Desktop apparently has some worrying flaws which could put Mac users at serious risk attack. The flaws were first spotted in mid-2024, and after not being properly fixed, a researcher decided to publish working exploits.
Adobe says it has built the app “from the ground up” with an interface that keeps the intensive layering and adjustments that are the core of the Photoshop experience while remaining useable on a small screen.
You’ll find a lot of the features you’re used to on the desktop or iPad: layering, compositing, blending, spot healing, tons of fonts and effects, powerful selection and masking tools, and even AI stuff like generative fill, generative expand, and Firefly image generation tools.
This new feature enables LumaFusion users to build elaborate stories using 12 tracks of video and 12 tracks of audio
The app aims to be the best way to add device frames to screenshots.
Is your Mac running low on local storage? Try this new app before you start sacrificing files.
As part of its efforts to further invest in the Chinese market, Apple announced this week that it’s bringing its Apple Developer service to China’s WeChat app. The service includes news, announcements, and other upcoming activities for members of the developer community, which have typically been offered via Apple’s website and its own Developer app.
Apple shareholders voted to keep the tech giant's diversity, equity and inclusion policies on Tuesday, a win for management which had opposed efforts by a conservative group to scrap the program.
[...]
Apple CEO Tim Cook said at Tuesday's meeting the company's "strength has always come from hiring the very best people and then providing a culture of collaboration, one where people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives come together to innovate." But Cook added that "as the legal landscape around these issues evolves, we may need to make some changes to comply, but our North Star of dignity and respect for everyone and our work to that end will never waver."
Apple will soon be able to sell its iPhone 16 phones in Indonesia after the two sides agreed on a number of deals, including a manufacturing plant and a research and development centre, the industry minister said on Wednesday.
This discussion came back to me as I walked around campus and found it difficult to get into some buildings—buildings that were almost always open to everyone who came along back when I was a student here. This isn’t new to me, and it isn’t true of most buildings, at least not during normal classroom hours. But you need credentials to get into some places during the day and most places in the evening. The shift in emphasis from campus openness to campus safety parallels what we see in the Mac. And as with the Mac, something has been lost with this shift. I’m not saying it isn’t the right choice. There’s no particular reason 64-year-old alumni should be able go wherever they like. But there’s definitely a different feel.
Honestly, I didn't realize Photoshop is not available on iPhone until now.
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Thanks for reading.
He said he was worried about how the App Store would have to go after developers who didn’t pay the commissions, making it “some kind of a collection agency” that had “rules around how we handle nonpayment and whether ultimately it means we’re going to have to do audits of developers.”
[...]
Despite the initial concerns Schiller raised, a pricing committee that included Apple CEO Tim Cook, former CFO Luca Maestri, and Apple’s legal team, alongside Schiller, ultimately decided to charge developers a commission on these outside purchases.
To create automations using Apple's Shortcuts app on your Mac, you're dependent on Apple's support for various actions. While Shortcuts supports an array of useful actions, some aren't in the app yet, such as clearing all notifications or quitting all apps. If you want to add a few more helpful actions to your Mac automations, consider Shortcutie, a powerful extension for Shortcuts that lets you execute actions Apple doesn't yet support.
Since Apple sunsetted macOS’s remote network connector, Back to My Mac, I have looked for a system that would provide full access to devices on my home LAN when I was outside the network. I found it in Tailscale, a corporate-grade virtual networking system with a free tier that is as easy to use as clicking a button.
If you’re the type of person who likes to carry around paper and pen but doesn’t want the bulkiness of a bigger notebook, this is the product for you. Because it snaps onto the back of your iPhone, you won’t feel like you’re carrying around something extra.
Listeners and fans of BBC podcasts outside of Britain will soon get to discover and access them via BBC.com and BBC app, while the BBC Sounds audio service will become exclusive to U.K. audiences. The change is set to take effect in the spring.
Indonesia and Apple have agreed on terms to lift the country's ban on iPhone 16s and could sign a deal as early as this week, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The shutdown means Russian developers can no longer use ADEP to create and distribute custom iOS apps for internal use without going through the App Store.
Pain, uncertainty, wonder—these aren’t technological problems, and AI, incapable of true interpretation, cannot give voice to the complexity of human life. Only human-made art can.
Mack Hagood, author of Hush: Media and Sonic Self-Control, said though he enjoys listening to podcasts and music on his headphones, they cut off the possibility of "sonic spontaneity."
"We've really become consumers of sound, rather than people who just simply experience the sounds around us," he said.
Thank goodness I wasn't tied to BBC Sounds for my podcasting listening entertainment, now that it is shutting down for me, who is outside of UK.
Not that this is a podcasting client in the first place. It is only meant for BBC (and it's partners) programmes.
But, there are great programmes from BBC. I am glad BBC has a very good list of (real) podcast programmes that I can subscribe to. I am also glad to hear that BBC Radio 4 (as well as World Service, obviously) continue to exist outside of UK.
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Thanks for reading.
These days far fewer people, I suspect, would describe themselves as total beginners when it comes to technology. My parents’ generation all have smartphones and most of them seem to own a tablet too; they’re comfortable with the gestures used to operate a touchscreen device. And some guy who used to be terrified of owning a mobile phone now writes about them for a living. We’re ready to manage without the crutch of a Home button, and a lot of the credit for that goes to Apple.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is “gearing up” to launch a new version of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air with the M4 chip. The company is preparing for a debut in March.
Apple today announced that its clinical-grade, over-the-counter Hearing Aid feature for AirPods Pro 2 is now available in the United Kingdom.
Serif has updated Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Publisher to version 2.6 with page management improvements for Affinity Publisher, Affinity’s first machine-learning features for Affinity Photo, and minor enhancements to Affinity Designer.
Mimestream released version 1.6 of its Gmail-specific email app with a new “In Inbox” option in the message list filter and better first name extraction for participant lists.
Last July, citizens of South Korea started a petition asking Apple to enable Find My support in the region. It was assumed that Find My was unavailable due to government restrictions, but that wasn’t actually the case according to the petition.
Apple later agreed to launch Find My support for the region in spring 2025, and that integration is finally starting to roll out.
Apple today announced its largest-ever spend commitment, with plans to spend and invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. This new pledge builds on Apple’s long history of investing in American innovation and advanced high-skilled manufacturing, and will support a wide range of initiatives that focus on artificial intelligence, silicon engineering, and skills development for students and workers across the country.
The fundamentals from 1984's Macintosh is still present today: windows, icons, menus, pointers. There will be a learning curve definitely, but if you can time-travel an iMac back to someone in 1984-ish who has just mastered this new-fangled computer called a Macintosh, I'm sure that someone will quickly able to start using this new iMac too.
But the home button -- one of the fundamentals of iPhone OS -- is already gone.
I'm sure there is something to be said about how newer things can change faster, or how older stuff are more difficult to be drastically different, but I am not that smart to say anything.
:-)
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Thanks for reading.
While gathering data about our lives might once have been a fringe pursuit for Silicon Valley tech nerds, now it’s just an everyday activity for many of us. We track our step counts, calories consumed, exercise completed, menstrual cycle or hours slept. We list books we’ve read on Goodreads, our top films on Letterboxd, or share our most-played music via the data presented by Spotify Wrapped.
[...]
Beneath all this is a promise: understand your life better with data, and you can improve it. The idea is seductive, especially when tech companies offer tools that they say will make it easy. But can a human life be reduced to a dataset? Can a body be tuned up like a machine? Or is this explosion of self‑tracking simply narcissism redesigned for the age of big data, by a society that has internalised the tech industry maxim that more data is always better?
Robot vacuums in the new iOS beta can also be added to automations and scenes.
Today, Apple has unsigned watchOS 11.4 beta 1 for all Apple Watch Series 6 models, meaning it is no longer possible for those users to test out the new beta. This news comes from Aaron Perris on X. They’ve also unsigned iOS 18.4 beta 1 for some iPhone 12 models.
Instead of having to enter everything manually, you can instead import data from your emails, including statements and transaction alerts. There’s also an option to upload statements if you don’t want to share your emails.
Of course, anything uploaded to the app is processed on device, and Finma doesn’t have access to your financial records.
Sir Jony Ive, the innovative designer of Apple’s iMac, iPhone and Apple Watch, and a close friend and collaborator of the late Steve Jobs, says he still often asks himself: “I wonder what Steve would do?”
[...]
Ive’s concern about the threat posed by AI is mixed with his excitement about its possibilities, he said. His main worry is the unchecked speed of development. “We need time to understand and react,” he said. He did not give details of the AI project he spoke about working on last autumn with OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, but is enthusiastic: “It’s probably the first time in my career that I’m inspired by capability in this way.”
There are some books that I do want to read, but somehow, have gotten stuck in the past.
I am re-starting Moby-Dick today.
Wish me luck.
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Thanks for reading.
Apple has taken the unprecedented step of removing its strongest data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded “backdoor” access to user data.
UK users will no longer have access to the advanced data protection (ADP) tool, which uses end-to-end encryption to allow only account holders to view items such as photos or documents they have stored online in the iCloud storage service.
UK users will now be more vulnerable to data breaches from bad actors, and other threats to customer privacy, Apple said. It will also mean that all data is accessible by Apple, which can share it with law enforcement if they have a warrant.
Prof Alan Woodward - a cyber-security expert at Surrey University - said it was a "very disappointing development" which amounted to "an act of self harm" by the government.
"All the UK government has achieved is to weaken online security and privacy for UK based users," he told the BBC.
"It was naïve of the UK government to think they could tell a US technology company what to do globally," he added.
Rebecca Vincent, interim director of the privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, criticised Apple’s decision, attributing it to the Home Office’s demand to breach encryption.
She said: “This decision by Apple is the regrettable consequence of the Home Office’s outrageous order attempting to force Apple to breach encryption. As a result, from today Apple’s UK customers are less safe and secure than they were yesterday.”
The company is retaining end-to-end encryption by default for health information, passwords, Screen Time data, information in the Maps apps, data in Safari, digital journal content, Apple Card transaction history and payment information, smart home data, and messages in iCloud. Core Apple services on the iPhone, including iMessage and FaceTime, also retain end-to-end encryption.
Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that delivers helpful and relevant intelligence, will soon be available in more languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) — as well as localized English for Singapore and India.
These new languages will be accessible in nearly all regions around the world with the release of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4 in April, and developers can start to test these releases today.
Today, Apple announced Apple Intelligence is coming to Apple Vision Pro in April. With Apple Intelligence for Vision Pro, users will be able to proofread, rewrite, and summarize text using Writing Tools; compose text from scratch using ChatGPT in Writing Tools; explore new ways to express themselves visually with Image Playground; create the perfect emoji for any conversation with Genmoji; and much more. Apple Intelligence will be available in beta on visionOS 2.4 with support for U.S. English. More features and support for additional languages will roll out throughout the year.
Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the world’s top food publishers, including Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats.
Basically, your iPhone uses on-device intelligence to analyze the importance of various notifications, and puts ones deemed especially important into a new section that sits atop your other notifications.
In iOS 18.4, there's a new Ambient Music option that can be added to Control Center. There are four different sound categories, including Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing.
For the last couple months, Mac and iPad users have missed out on those changes. But now as of macOS 15.4 and iPadOS 18.4 beta 1, the redesigned Mail app is available on both platforms.
Letting another person use your Vision Pro is a hassle, and something you can’t really do without first putting it on and going through some setup. Apple is addressing a lot of that friction by making Guest Mode easier to use. For starters, you no longer have to put on the headset first before anyone else can use it. When they put it on, you’ll get a prompt on your iPhone or iPad to approve placing it in guest mode. You can then choose whichever apps you want them to have access to, and decide if you want to AirPlay what they’re seeing on your device, just like Apple employees can for in-store demos. Baby steps.
As I write this, the most pleasing sound is washing over me—gentle waves ebbing and flowing onto the shore. Sadly, I’m not actually on some magnificent tropical beach. Instead, the sounds of the sea are being generated by my Mac.
Yet, more than just being pleasing to the ear, this sound, and others the Mac can generate, have helped boost my focus in recent months when I’m under deadline and trying to get work done. The feature is called “Background Sounds.” Here are some of the benefits I’ve gotten from it and how you can use it, too.
Apple Vision Pro users can watch a new six-minute Apple Immersive Video today via the Apple TV app. It's the second episode in the company's "Boundless" series.
Photographer and app developer Drew Mylrea released Range Camera, a new iPhone camera app that promises more natural-looking photos and streamlined RAW image editing.
Apple confirmed that the C1 has nothing to do with the omission of MagSafe on the iPhone 16e. New testing conducted by an iPhone case accessory manufacturer and shared with 9to5Mac adds more detail to the situation.
File this one under “precise words matter”.
"The entire iPhone 16 lineup, including iPhone 16e, is being assembled in India for Indian consumers and for export to select countries," Apple said in a response to a query on Thursday.
But millions of people who cannot afford a smartphone or have an older device that does not support some services are increasingly being locked out of deals, discounts and even some vital services, say digital exclusion and pro-cash campaigners.
They are missing out on everything from savings on their weekly shop, to some of the best interest rates for their cash. And not signing up to the app revolution is making activities including paying for parking and going to concerts increasingly challenging.
I took the day off to not do anything -- work or hobbies or otherwise -- to rest my brain and stuff. Made breakfast and dinner for myself. Watch some TV (Severance, Mystic Quest, Scrubs, Futurama) and one movie (Terminator Dark Fate). Played some backgammon.
I hope my brain is happy.
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Thanks for reading.
The C1 subsystem is the most complex technology Apple has ever built, with a baseband modem manufactured with advanced 4-nanometer chipmaking technology and a transceiver made with 7-nanometer technology, Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies, said in an interview at one of Apple's silicon labs in Sunnyvale, California.
[...]
One of the ways Apple hopes the C1 will set its iPhones apart is by tightly integrating it with its processor chips.
For example, if an iPhone encounters congested data networks, the phone's processor can signal to the modem which traffic is the most time sensitive and put it ahead of other data transfers, making the phone feel more responsive to the user's needs, said Arun Mathias, vice president for wireless software at Apple.
Apple probably should have fully dropped the home button a long time ago. (The company has now mostly moved on from Lightning, too.) And even if I haven’t wanted to push a home button for a while, I’ll remember it fondly now that it’s gone.
More simply, the Home button was a button, and buttons are great! Devices in general seem to be moving away from buttons in favor of touch or voice controls, and while those can certainly be effective, physical buttons are kind of the best. There's a satisfaction in clicking something and seeing an action as a result.
Apple said that more airlines would be coming online with this. American Airlines has just done so, but hasn’t yet announced it publicly.
Murderbot is a new Apple TV+ sci-fi comedic thriller based on the hit book series The Murderbot Diaries. It stars Alexander Skarsgård.
Apple TV+ just announced that Murderbot’s 10-episode season will premiere on Friday, May 16.
Yes, I can remember my first iPhone, the iPhone 3G, with its wonderful Home button that broke, and I had to press very very hard just to go home.
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I strongly recommend The Murderbot Diaries, a series of novels and short stories written by Martha Wells.
Unless you want to watch the television show before reading the books?
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Thanks for reading.
The iPhone 16e features a larger 6.1-inch OLED display, up from a 4.7-inch LCD on the iPhone SE. The display has a notch for Face ID, and this means that Apple no longer sells any iPhones with a Touch ID fingerprint button, marking the end of an era.
The iPhone 16e is powered by an A18 chip, enabling support for Apple Intelligence features, such as notification summaries and Genmoji for creating custom emoji.
After years of development, Apple has unveiled what it calls C1, its first-ever in-house cellular modem. Apple’s latest silicon replaces Qualcomm modem chips previously required for 5G connectivity in the iPhone.
The first Apple product to use the new C1 chip is the iPhone 16e, Apple’s latest entry-level model that replaces the iPhone SE line.
Of course, there are some iPhone 16 features it lacks. You don’t get an ultrawide camera, for example, or the Camera Control button. The 16E also lacks MagSafe compatibility and the sleeker Dynamic Island design.
That’s just a glimpse of some of the main differentiators. If you want to dive even deeper, we’ve rounded up all the major specs in the table below so you can see for yourself how exactly the models stack up.
Is Apple done partnering with Product Red now?
Globally, there's far more choice in the sub-$500 smartphone category than in the US, especially from Chinese companies. However, Klaehne says there's a premiumization trend, where consumers are opting to shell out for higher-end devices, whether it's as a status symbol—Apple is an aspirational brand after all—or for more premium features.
The tinyPod is a case for your Apple Watch that makes it look like a mini version of the classic iPod, but it’s more than just a cute case. By turning the watch into a pocketable device rather than a wearable, it can act as a substitute for your phone when you’d like to reduce your screen time.
A month after Severance‘s Jan. 17 Season 2 launch, the tech company, known for closely guarding its viewership data, is raising the curtain just a bit on the series’ performance.
According to the streamer, Severance has broken Apple TV+ records, launching as the platform’s #1 series in history based on number of unique viewers from Jan. 17 through Feb. 17, 2025.
If Apple is calling it the 16e, it gotta be updated annually, right? Right?
So, the 17e may be released early next year, so we may still don't know if Apple is committed to a yearly schedule when the regular 17 slate is released.
Or, just maybe, Apple will release the 17e together with the rest of the family this fall, while the 16e will drop to a lower price point so that it more resembles the iPhone SE it replaced?
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Thanks for reading.
I’ve used an iPad Pro as my primary computer for nearly 10 years. And over that time, iPadOS multitasking features have changed a lot. But there’s one such iPad tool I depend on that’s been around since the start, and only improved with time: Slide Over.
Apple Music has a wealth of features and capabilities. These tips and tricks should help you get the most out of your paid subscription.
Google has gained permission to sell its e-books and audiobooks directly to customers through its iOS app, Google Play Books. While iOS apps today can offer access to content previously purchased elsewhere, like e-books bought via a website, developers have to request a specific exception to link their iOS app’s users to the company’s own website to make purchases.
According to a brief post on Google’s blog, users will now be able to click on a new “Get book” button in the Google Play Books iOS app which will take them to the Google Play website to complete their e-book or audiobook purchase.
Aptoide is a free alternative app store that's available on iPhones and iPads for those who are located in the European Union. It is unique among app marketplaces because it adds support for App Versions, so users are able to install and play older versions of iOS games.
Apps that have not complied with the trader requirement in the European Union have been removed from the App Store, Apple informed developers today. The apps that have been removed will not be allowed back in the App Store until trader status is provided and verified by Apple.
Apple is permanently closing its retail store at the Northbrook Court shopping mall in the Chicago area. The company confirmed the upcoming closure today in a statement, but it has yet to provide a closing date for the location.
With respect to remedy options on providing feature access, Apple said it would "not be appropriate" to mandate that access to future WebKit or that iOS features in use by Safari be provided free of charge, adding that developing features is a time and resource-intensive process.
I find that I will occasionally created a new slide-over web page in Safari on my iPad, and every time I have to figure out how to close it.
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Thanks for reading.
Parents new to, well, parenting, (or to a new sports season or the first year at a new school) might notice the sheer quantity of apps is overwhelming. So what are all these apps for, anyway? Dana Kampman, a Baltimore, MD resident and parent of a teen, has observed her kids’ schools have separate apps for grades, attendance, behavior, announcements, lunch payments and extracurriculars.
“The sheer number of apps schools use is overwhelming,” she says. “It’s not just one app per school. One year, I was toggling between five different apps just to keep up with everything for my two kids. It’s exhausting to keep track of. I’ve had times where I completely missed important announcements because they came through an app I didn’t think to check that day.”
My stepfather died a few months ago, after a long decade dealing with Parkinson's disease. Doug was living in a care facility, and even though my mom visited all the time, for overall contact with the world — and just general fun — he relied on his phone and his iPad. But Parkinson's is a neuromuscular disorder; eventually, Doug's hands and fingers couldn't reliably navigate a touchscreen or a keyboard. As his dementia worsened, he couldn't really figure out how to buy stuff online anymore, much less how to manage a healthcare or banking website.
[...]
Getting older doesn't necessarily come with the kind of extreme disability Doug dealt with. But it inevitably brings to us all a bit of mental inflexibility and physical limitation. The ubiquitous gadgets and apps that are our windows onto the world aren't made for any of that — they're confusing, hard to use, ever-changing, and either too poorly or too well secured. And meanwhile, every sector of society is scrambling to trade storefronts for websites and human staff for AI chatbots.
The new Adaptive Profiles (which work best on raw images in HDR mode) use AI to evaluate the raw file and dynamically enhance tones and colors as a starting point for further editing.
I'm planning for the next hiatus for this little website. Will let you know soon.
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I think – I hope – my change has made me a better, more present mother. There are, after all, few things that seek quite as much attention as toddlers and WhatsApp groups. If I had to choose, I’d rather give that attention to the three-year-old trying to climb the curtains/put the dog in the washing machine/feed his baby brother a stick of chalk, than a phone that fizzes and bleats with alerts that masquerade as urgent but, really, are anything but.
Apple will begin selling new MacBook Air models featuring its latest M4 chip by March "at the latest," mirroring the time frame of the M3 MacBook Air launch last year, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Apple is "exploring" the idea of showing search ads in the Apple Maps app, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
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Ads in the Apple Maps app would not be the traditional banner ads that you see on websites, but rather paid search results.
Nadia Odunayo never planned to take on the mighty global juggernaut that is Amazon, but for many book lovers, she has become the hero they didn’t know they needed.
The purpose of a calculator app is to give you correct answers. Floating point numbers are imprecise - they cannot represent 0.3 or 10^100.
This means a calculator built on floating point numbers is like a house built on sand.
In this period of creative and financial crisis for the indie film industry, many are starting to see a different possibility — one where AI, if implemented with care, could be a catalyst for creativity rather than a threat to it.
Many artists worry about the encroachment of artificial intelligence on artistic creation. But Sougwen Chung, a nonbinary Canadian-Chinese artist, instead sees AI as an opportunity for artists to embrace uncertainty and challenge people to think about technology and creativity in unexpected ways.
I seldom turns on "Do not Disturb" on my iPhone… but I do intentionally pare down notifications from apps that I feel it is worthwhile to be disturbed by every notification that makes a sound.
There are notifications that, even though I allow, I turn off the sound. These basically fall under two categories: work apps, such as Teams, and banking apps that mixes their 2FA notifications with marketing notifications.
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Talk of backdoors in encrypted services is once again doing the rounds after reports emerged that the U.K. government is seeking to force Apple to open up iCloud’s end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) device backup offering. Officials were said to be leaning on Apple to create a “backdoor” in the service that would allow state actors to access data in the clear.
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While the U.K. government routinely refuses to confirm or deny reports of notices issued under the IPA, security experts have warned that such a secret order could have global ramifications if the iPhone maker is forced to weaken security protections it offers to all users, including those located outside the United Kingdom.
Due Tomorrow is a students ultimate homework companion. It helps you manage your assignments, keep track of everything with reminders and calendar integration, and includes a neat little AI chatbot that provides pointers for your assignments.
So I realized that I could use the powerful macOS Folder Actions. I decided to use them as a trigger for my needs—any need. Set it up once, and then reuse it with just a drag and drop. Drop the file in, and the folder action trigger does the job.
Apple is planning to add Apple Intelligence to its Vision Pro headset, along with an updated mode for guest users and a spatial content app as early as April, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.
There is no doubt in my mind that Apple want to get Apple Intelligence onto all its platforms, so it is not a surprise to see AI added to visionOS. (I am interested to see how AI can benefit tvOS.) But I also think it is clear in Apple's mind that AI is not going to make people go out and buy Vision Pro.
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Netflix spokesperson MoMo Zhou has told The Verge that this morning’s window where Netflix appeared as a “participating” service in Apple TV — including temporary support for the watchlist and “continue watching” features — was an error and has now been rolled back. That’s a shame. The jubilation in our comments on the original story was palpable.
Earlier this week, Apple made a lot of longtime App Store customers happy. After years of asking for a way to merge Apple accounts, Apple released a tool enabling the ability to move purchases from one Apple account to another Apple account. The only catch? There are a lot of requirements that each account must meet.
When Dr. David Rabin told me how Apollo Sessions worked, my exact first thought was, “poppycock.” This was an app, he said, that would turn my iPhone into a healing device using the vibrations of the phone’s haptic engine. By stimulating the vagus nerve—a core component of the parasympathetic nervous system responsible for the body’s recovery and relaxation mechanisms—using certain frequencies, this iOS app would make me feel different. It works, he assured me. With trauma patients in clinical settings, he claimed. As someone who is skeptical about wundermedicine by default, I didn’t believe it. But as someone who has lived through a few years of a traumatic experience, I was curious. I wanted to try it.
The brand has now introduced the Lux Grip for iPhone – a MagSafe device that's designed to "improve the ergonomics and functionality of smartphone photography" to give users a similar kind of feel to classic Leica cameras.
And I’m glad I did.
This time, the latest version of the app adds multiple new widgets with different health metrics, so that users can get an overview of their health right from their Home Screen.
Inside Apple, many employees testing the new Siri have found that these features do not yet work consistently. And it’s nearing crunch time for the software to be ready. Though iOS 18.4 will not be released publicly until April, the beta version for developers is expected to debut as early as next week.
Another option on the table is including the features in the April release but having them turned off by default. In that scenario, Apple could then enable them automatically in the iOS 18.5 update.
Firstly, while Apple defines tracking “in a way that only covers data processing for advertising purposes across companies,” per the FCO, the same “strict” ATTF rules “do not cover Apple’s own practice of combining user data across its ecosystem — from its App Store, Apple ID and connected devices — and using them for advertising purposes.”
Secondly, it highlights how third-party apps may show up to four consecutive consent dialogues under the ATTF, while Apple apps show a maximum of two. Nor do the pop-ups around Apple’s own apps refer to “Apple’s own processing of user data across services (known as first-party tracking) as such,” in the FCO’s assessment.
Working at the intersection of Apple's newest hardware and Linux kernel development, for the benefit of a free distribution, was never going to be easy. But it's been an especially hard couple of weeks for Hector Martin, project lead for Asahi Linux, capping off years of what he describes as burnout, user entitlement, and political battles within the Linux kernel community about Rust code.
I wonder how Netflix could have made the error of adding some support for Apple TV app, and has to roll back the mistake?
Did some programmers failed to understand how to use Apple's APIs, and just blindly copied-and-pasted some Apple sample code?
If so, I'll strongly urged Netflix management to forgive the progrmmaers. Apple is no longer famous for having good API documentation.
:-)
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Apple is getting ready to show its newest device during an event on Wednesday, February 19th. Tim Cook revealed the date in a post on X, saying “Get ready to meet the newest member of the family,” alongside a GIF of the Apple logo.
Apple and Netflix have seemingly managed to find some common ground and strike a partnership for integration in the Apple TV app. Some users in the US are starting to be prompted to connect their Netflix account to the Apple TV app on their Apple TV 4K devices.
After doing so, Netflix originals are then able to be added to their Watchlist inside the TV app, and appear in Continue Watching. However, the integration does not seem to be complete just yet, so it’s probably still in the process of rolling out.
Apple Maps has quietly expanded its support for cycling in the United Kingdom and Ireland this week. Users are discovering they can now route cycling journeys across the length and the breadth of the country.
The potential solutions listed include updating your Apple Watch to the latest watchOS version, restarting the Apple Watch, un-pairing and re-pairing the Apple Watch to an iPhone, checking whether Silent Mode or Do Not Disturb is turned on, cleaning the Apple Watch's microphone and speaker, and drying the Apple Watch with a microfiber cloth to ensure there is no water in the microphone and speaker areas.
As our lives get consumed by relentless hustle, digital overload, and mounting global uncertainty, it’s easier than ever to lose ourselves in work, often at the cost of our own well-being. Recognizing this challenge, the father-son duo of Jason and Nile Kelly from London’s Ochee Design have developed Ocheeflow, a desktop application designed to promote regular breaks and enhance self-care during the workday.
The streaming industry is still young, meaning companies are still determining the best way to turn streaming subscriptions into successful businesses. The obvious formula of providing great content so that streamers get more subscribers and make more money isn’t as direct as it seems. One need only look at Apple TV+'s critically acclaimed $20 billion library that only earned 0.3 percent of US TV screen viewing time in June 2024, per Nielsen, to understand the complexities of making money off of quality content.
In Case of Death Case is less about securing your digital livelihood than protecting your digital reputation: The case will brick your iPad moments after your heart stops, so your embarrassing secrets will go with you to the grave.
I hope there are clues -- or maybe straight-out declarations -- from Apple next week on the future of iPHone SE. Is it going to continue to be updated once every few years, or will Apple expand its annual iPhone line with a new lower-cost model every year?
I don't think Apple knows exactly how much of hardware to provide in upcoming revisions of Apple Intelligence, and not updating iPhone SE every year doesn't seem like a good thing to do if Apple is banging on Apple Intelligence.
Well, we shall soon see.
(Could next week's announcement be anything that doesn't include an iPhone SE?)
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Apple on Wednesday announced that its Apple TV app, including its Apple TV+ streaming service and MLS Season Pass, is arriving on Android devices. While the company previously offered a version of its app for Google TV, the newly released app will support a broader range of Android-based devices, including phones, tablets, and even foldables. In addition, Google customers on both living room and mobile platforms will now be able to subscribe to Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass through Google Play billing.
This new longitudinal, virtual study aims to understand how data from technology — including Apple and third-party devices — can be used to predict, detect, monitor, and manage changes in participants’ health. Additionally, researchers will explore connections across different areas of health. The study spans a number of health and disease areas, including activity, aging, cardiovascular health, circulatory health, cognition, hearing, menstrual health, mental health, metabolic health, mobility, neurologic health, respiratory health, sleep, and more.
As Apple itself points out in its press release, a lot of health and scientific studies are limited by the number of subjects they can track or the amount of time for which they can be tracked, but by using devices that millions of people carry with them all the time, the possibilities expand greatly.
While it’s tempting to wonder if Apple’s research robot hints at a revival of product personality, I’m not holding my breath. Apple’s target market is now literally everyone in the world, leading to designs that prioritize universal appeal over distinct personality. Here’s hoping I’m wrong and that an upcoming personable tabletop robot brings some character back to Apple’s product line.
The implementation of Image Playground gives me some hope that Apple still understands its biggest advantage when it comes to building AI: a focus on making users’ lives easier. But the rest of Apple Intelligence has me quite concerned that we’re in for a messy few years.
The heart emoji has clearly become a default way of subtly communicating with each other. The question is, communicating what? Its meaning seems to shift with the context to the point that it no longer has a fixed meaning at all—except when you use it wrongly.
Small steps can lead to big changes. Start with a glass of ice water.
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Apple's Beats brand is officially introducing the Powerbeats Pro 2 today, bringing significant updates to the wireless earphones aimed at active users. Among the upgrades for Powerbeats Pro 2 are Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) with Transparency mode, Personalized Spatial Audio, an H2 chip for improved power efficiency and Apple ecosystem integration, and for the first time in an Apple audio product, Heart Rate Monitoring.
Beats has partnered with seven apps: Nike Run Club, Runna, Ladder, Slopes, Open, Peloton, and YaoYao. If you have iOS and use those apps, you don’t have to do a single thing to enable heart rate monitoring. It just shows up in the app. Afterward, you can view the historical data within the Apple Health app. It’s a bit hard to find and unwieldy to view, as you can see in this screenshot.
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You’re limited to the partner apps available at launch, and a lot are missing. Apple spokesperson Erin Manago confirmed even Apple’s Fitness Plus isn’t compatible yet, though she said they’re working on building out compatible apps. Android users have more options. You should be able to use any app that can pair with a Bluetooth heart rate monitor.
The updated firmware can be installed on the Powerbeats Pro 2 by connecting them to power and ensuring that they are in Bluetooth range of an iPhone, iPad, or Mac that's connected to Wi-Fi.
If you have two Apple Accounts with multiple digital purchases between them, Apple now has a way for you to consolidate the accounts by migrating content from one account to another.
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Apps, music, books, TV shows, and movies that have been purchased on a secondary account can be migrated to a main account, which is useful for people who have separate accounts for iCloud and for making media purchases.
Affected users say that they will set their Apple Watch to max volume and can still barely hear what’s coming from the built-in speaker.
In some cases, the issue seems to have come on gradually—their Series 10 speaker started off fine, but degraded over time. Others, however, seem to have had issues right from the start.
Pixelmator last year announced that it was being acquired by Apple, and today the company confirmed that the acquisition has been completed after Apple received regulatory approval. The Pixelmator for iOS, Pixelmator Pro, and Photomator apps were today updated with a new splash screen announcing the deal.
Beyond its daily stories, DailyArt also functions as a comprehensive database. The app features more than 4,000 artworks, 1,200 artist biographies, and information about 600 museums, all accessible through an advanced search engine.
Qianer Liu and Jing Yang have published a new report for The Information that outlines Apple’s solution to bringing Apple Intelligence to China.
The US tech giant has partnered with a China-based giant, Alibaba, to bring Apple Intelligence features to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac in China.
If Beats can make good products for Android, is Apple leaving money on the table with AirPods only working on Apple devices?
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Apple has released iOS 18.3.1, iPadOS 18.3.1, and the older iPadOS 17.7.5 to address a “highly sophisticated attack” that disables USB Restricted Mode on a locked device. Apple credited Bill Marczak of The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto with reporting the vulnerability. The Citizen Lab has identified numerous high-profile attacks on Apple products over the years.
There’s no need to drop everything, but install these updates sooner rather than later.
If you want to relive Kendrick Lamar’s headline-making Super Bowl halftime show, Apple Music just dropped a replay of the performance in its surround sound-like Spatial Audio.
Apple today updated its Sports app for the iPhone with NASCAR support, ahead of the annual Daytona 500 race on Sunday, February 16.
You tell yourself you’ll write it down later, but later never comes. That’s because memory is unreliable, especially when life gets busy. A good capture habit starts with reminders—ones that prompt you at just the right time to save those fleeting thoughts.
It features a customizable interface with widgets like a digital tuner, metronomes, and audio recorder.
Some users are reporting that Apple's latest software updates are quietly re-enabling Apple Intelligence features, even after they had explicitly disabled them in the previous update.
It found 51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form.
Additionally, 19% of AI answers which cited BBC content introduced factual errors, such as incorrect factual statements, numbers and dates.
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She called on the tech companies to "pull back" their AI news summaries, as Apple did after complaints from the BBC that Apple Intelligence was misrepresenting news stories.
If I need to fact-check summaries, if I cannot always trust, what then, pray tell, is the point of the tool?
I am not convinced that AI can do anything that doesn't require manual checks. Image Playground and Writing Tools and Genmoji are fine on my iPhone, because I get to check and approve before using whatever is generated. Notification summaries are not okay, because I am the recipient, and no humans decide whether they are ready to be presented to me.
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Ultimately, the goal is just to keep us listening, locked into a constant flow of background jams from morning until bedtime. And the best way to do that is to feed us music we already know we like, or that we at least don’t actively object to.
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DJ X isn’t another person. He is more like a homunculus, a shadow puppet locking us into a musical rut of our own perverse creation. He knows us because he is us, and this makes him irresistible. Listening is easy; true discovery is nonnegotiably hard.
Apple today increased its estimated trade-in values for select Mac models in the United States.
The app centers around a set of exercises and workouts that are designed to provide maximum benefit in the shortest time possible.
Discovery is at least half the fun in reading and listening and watching. I already spend my time during my day job doing what other people tell me to do. I am not going to just listen to some algorithm or some company's marketing department on what to read and listen and watch.
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Browsing the web is a 3D tug-of-war between developers, companies, and users. These forces were never balanced, but we have reached quite a lowest point for users in the last decade. Our beloved web browsers feature roadmap has catered more for web developers and the companies behind each browser project than for the user themselves. We used to call those apps User Agents, but they have been less of an agent on behalf of users these days. Removal of beloved features, questionable specs, creating friction in the name of security, it is death by a thousand paper cuts for users with the browser turning into an appliance for running third-party apps. What about the user's wants and desires? Well, all that is left for the user is to rebel and take the web experience back into their own hands, one small step at a time. In this brief post, I will show you how I am slowly making my browser of choice more suitable for the experience I want by changing little things and making little interventions.
There is no technological compromise between strong encryption that protects the data and a mechanism to allow the government special access to this data. Any “backdoor” built for the government puts everyone at greater risk of hacking, identity theft, and fraud. There is no world where, once built, these backdoors would only be used by open and democratic governments. These systems can be, and quickly will be, used by more repressive governments around the world to read protesters’ and dissenters’ communications. We’ve seen and opposed these sorts of measures for years. Now is no different.
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Weakening encryption violates fundamental human rights and annihilates our right to private spaces. Apple has to continue fighting against this ruling to keep backdoors off users’ devices.
Bento|Craft is a great tool for easily making Apple-style bento box graphics in a matter of seconds. It provides dozens of templates and mockups, allows you to customize layouts, and export very quickly. It’s a high quality and simple-to-use design tool.
The magic dial of sparsity is profound because it not only improves economics for a small budget, as in the case of DeepSeek, it also works in the other direction: Spend more, and you'll get even better benefits via sparsity. As you turn up your computing power, the accuracy of the AI model improves, Abnar and team found.
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All that sparsity work means that DeepSeek is only one example of a broad area of research that many labs are already following, and that many more will now jump on in order to replicate DeepSeek's success.
Either I am not that experienced or that good in using Swift and SwiftUI, or that Apple really want you to follow the exact path to develop apps, and anything you sway away from that path, things start to go wonky.
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This is red alert, five-alarm-fire kind of stuff. Providing a backdoor would be worrying enough for reasons that should be obvious to anybody who knows the barest inkling about technology—to wit, that there exists no mechanism to keep such a tool out of the hands of malicious actors—but the fact that it would apply beyond the UK borders to other countries is a staggering breach of sovereignty.
People in the technology industry told Computer Weekly that the UK has shown antipathy towards encryption and that it would not be surprising if more technology companies were hit with similar demands from UK officials seeking the ability to access users’ encrypted data. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are potential targets.
Mac users running macOS Mojave (10.14) and earlier versions are reporting widespread issues accessing the Mac App Store, with many unable to sign in or download previously purchased apps.
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The timing suggests a possible connection to Apple's recent changes in Mac App Store receipt handling, but the exact cause remains unclear.
Objective Development has released Little Snitch 6.2, featuring several enhancements for displaying connections in the Network Monitor.
Influential proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended on Friday that Apple investors vote against a proposal to consider eliminating the iPhone maker's diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Apple's disclosures offer shareholders sufficient information about its DEI policies and there have been no controversies or signs of discrimination against employee groups, ISS said.
Last March, Apple filed a lawsuit against one of its former employees, an iOS Software Engineer who had leaked confidential information to The Wall Street Journal and The Information. Almost a year later, that lawsuit has just been dismissed and the engineer has issued an apology.
So many things that will impact so many people around the world, and most of these people have no say.
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Apple has reportedly been ordered by the UK government to create a backdoor that would give security officials access to users’ encrypted iCloud backups. If implemented, British security services would have access to the backups of any user worldwide, not just Brits, and Apple would not be permitted to alert users that their encryption was compromised.
The Washington Post reports that the secret order, issued last month, is based on rights given under the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, also known as the Snoopers’ Charter. Officials have apparently demanded blanket access to end-to-end encrypted files uploaded by any user worldwide, rather than access to a specific account.
Having my SuperDuper-cloned backup drive be bootable is nice to have, but I really can’t say I need it any more. 20, 15, even just 10 years ago, that wasn’t true — I really did want the ability to boot from my backup drive at a moment’s notice. But that’s really not true any more for me. It probably isn’t for you, either. It definitely isn’t true for most Mac users.
But it remains true for some people, who are using (or responsible for) Macs in high-pressure tight-deadline production environments. Live broadcast studios. Magazines or newspapers with a deadline for the printer that’s just hours (or minutes) away. Places with strict security/privacy rules that forbid cloud storage of certain critical files. If the startup drive on a production machine fails, they need to get up and running now. Plug in a backup drive, restart, and go. Anything longer than that is unacceptable.
“Audio erotica apps cannot have the word ‘desire’ in their names [if they want] to be visible on the store,” while developers of apps like those for controlling sex toys “have a hard time having the apps approved on the store, which puts their entire product in jeopardy,” said Ana Ornelas, erotic author, sex educator and advocacy officer for the Digital Intimacy Coalition.
According to Alessandro Polidoro, a lawyer and coordinator of the Digital Intimacy Coalition, “other apps that host adult content — like X and Reddit — are still allowed on the official App Store, so Apple’s moral argument seems quite contradictory.”
Apple Inc plans to unveil a long-anticipated overhaul of the iPhone SE in the coming days, a move that will modernise its lower-cost model in a bid to spur growth and entice consumers to switch from other brands.
The company expects to announce the device as early as next week, ahead of it going on sale later in the month, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Apple's inventory of iPad Air and MacBook Air models is running low at its retail stores, indicating that refreshes for the devices are likely just around the corner.
Information on new "SparkCat" malware infesting a small number of iOS apps was shared yesterday by Kaspersky, and shortly after the report came out, Apple pulled the apps from the App Store.
Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings this week rolled out support for the feature. Other airlines that already offered the feature include Delta, United, Air Canada, and Air New Zealand.
The iOS App Store is awash with apps using subscriptions and in-app payments, but our attention has been drawn to a brand new release that goes back to the old way of doing things — charging a one-off payment. It’s such a rare approach, the company has even drawn attention to it in the app’s top features list.
The app is Practice Pro, a release from developers Dynamic App Design, and it is made to help musicians practice and improve with use. The studio claims it’s suitable for professional and amateur musicians due to its clever modular design. Using different widgets, the app can be set up to only include the practice tools relevant to you, a better option than either using multiple apps, or having a cluttered, unfocused menu.
Thanks to a break in production for the 2023 Hollywood strikes, Stiller got to spend a lot of time tinkering with season two. While work was halted for writers and actors, Stiller, as a non-writing producer, was editing the first seven episodes and noticing things he wanted to change, particularly around building out the backstories of Scott and Arquette’s characters, notes that necessitated the rewrites and reshoots. “If you have the ability to look at the whole and go back and fix things that you think need to be fixed or address questions that bother you, that’s really important,” Stiller says. The show had undergone a similar retooling on season one thanks to a break imposed by COVID. Puck reported that this season of Severance approached the price tag of $20 million per episode. Stiller declines to state a budget for the show, saying: “Both seasons have been interrupted by these force majeure things that threw everything upside down, so it’s never had a regular season where you could just say, ‘Yeah, this is what it is.’ But we never have looked at it like, ‘Oh, whatever it takes.’ It’s really been figuring out how to make the show in the best and the most cost-efficient way.” Apple TV+ has reason to be forgiving of a costly show — season one of Severance generated more than $200 million for the service in new subscribers, especially internationally, according to Parrott Analytics.
A team of robotics researchers at Apple have designed and prototyped a lamp-like robot with lifelike movements, according to a blog post and accompanying video published last month on the Apple Machine Learning Research website. The lamp, which reminds us of the cute Pixar mascot Luxo Jr., may hint at Apple's future plans.
Just finished reading: Make Something Wonderful, edited by Leslie Berlin. (I read the e-book version.)
Oh boy.
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Although it may not seem that winter is drawing to a close, Spring isn’t that far away, and now is the best time to start planning your Spring cleaning. That’s an opportunity to give your Mac a good physical clean, and to catch up on software housekeeping as outlined in this article.
In another important way, though, how we listen has shrunk. Not in every instance, but often enough to be worthy of attention. The culprit is the single speaker—as opposed to a pair of them, like your ears—and once you start looking for it, you might see it everywhere, an invasive species of flower fringing the highway. Every recorded sound we encounter is made up of layers of artifice, of distance from the originating disturbance of air. So this isn’t an argument about some standard of acoustic integrity; rather, it’s about the space we make with music, and what (and who) will fit inside.
Apps distributed through both Apple and Google’s app stores are hiding malicious screenshot-reading code that’s being used to steal cryptocurrency, the cybersecurity software firm Kaspersky reported today. It’s the “first known case” of apps infected with malware that uses OCR tech to extract text from images making it into Apple’s App Store, according to a blog post detailing the company’s findings.
Apple this week added parts and tools for all M4 Macs to its self-service repair store in the U.S. and many European countries. This includes parts for MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini models with M4, M4 Pro, and/or M4 Max chips.
The problem is that I rarely find myself needing to use the Vision Pro. It’s not that I don’t enjoy using it… in fact, every time I put it on, I find myself wanting to give myself additional reasons to keep on using it because it’s so much fun in there! But the impetus to find a safe place to sit, take off my glasses, slip on a VR headset, and jack into cyberspace doesn’t come along that often. There’s enough of a barrier there that it only happens maybe once or twice a week, at most.
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This is the current challenge of Vision Pro: It needs to give users reasons to use it, and it needs to have enough of them to keep them using it. Right now, putting on the Vision Pro tends to lead to a short session in which I do the one thing I wanted to do in there, and then I cast about trying to find reasons to stay… and then I give up. I need more reasons to stay—more apps, more experiences, more use cases. And I need reasons to put it on.
Apple may be hitting home runs with new iPhone apps lately, but it’s striking out completely when it comes to iPad support.
The MP3’s journey from revolutionary to nearly forgotten reflects how technology evolves and reshapes user behavior. While it was once essential for making audio accessible in the early days of the internet, today it’s just one of many tools in the vast ecosystem of digital media.
"When you forage, you use all your senses," shares Muskat. "This is one reason an app can fall short. Sometimes two plants or two mushrooms, only one edible, look very similar but smell or taste different. Apps do not smell things. They also don't look at the environment. They don't look at what the mushroom was attached to. There are mushrooms that look similar but one will only grow on wood, the other only in soil." He stresses, "There are dozens of details to pay attention to." So, if apps aren't a reliable tool for plant identification, what should you do instead?
Apple: Just press a button, and you are almost there with a cross-(Apple)-platform app.
Apple: New app! iPhone only!
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Apple Invites helps you create event invitations, invite people, play music at the event, and collect photos. It’s focused on social events—you wouldn’t use it to organize a business meeting. Anyone can respond to an invitation regardless of whether they have the Apple Invites app, an Apple Account, or even an Apple device. However, event creation is limited to iCloud+ subscribers and joins other iCloud+ features like expanded iCloud storage, Private Relay, Hide My Email, HomeKit Secure Video, and custom email domains.
Also, Apple’s long-term track record with “fun” one-off apps is a little spotty; is this just Clips again? Maybe I’ll send you an invitation for 2028 and we can all meet up then to find out.
Copycat accusations and bugs aside, Apple Invites seems like a promising start, particularly if you’re in the Apple ecosystem and want to keep friends in the loop without using Facebook events, third-party apps, texts, or emails. But it’s also an app with a social purpose that Apple claims in its announcement “brings people together for life’s special moments.” That sounds pleasant but feels less so once you get the mediocre Android version of the experience.
Since there’s no Apple Invites app on Android, you’ll instead have the option to download the calendar event file and add it to the calendar app of your choice. [...] Another drawback is that you can’t use or even view photos without an iCloud account.
Tapestry makes it easier than ever to browse content from dozens or even hundreds of sources. Create custom timelines, seamlessly sync your reading position across devices, and keep track of feeds in an easy-to-read, color-coded stream of content.
But I suspect timeline apps are exactly the thing we need for the internet we have now. Maybe someday we’ll get fully interoperable everything and life will be magical. Until then, there’s something powerful in taking all your favorite stuff — and I really recommend picking only your favorite stuff — and putting it into one place. Build a timeline you can finish every day, maybe even every time you open the app. Scroll only what you’ve chosen to scroll. And then close the app, confident in the fact that you’ve seen the stuff you cared about, and go do something else. There’ll be more to catch up on next time.
I feel like thinking about this new generation of apps as social media clients would be wrong and shortsighted: it reduces the scope of what they’re trying to accomplish down to a mere copy of a social media timeline. Instead, I think Tapestry and Reeder are coming at this from two different angles (Tapestry with better developer tools; Reeder with superior user filters), but the same larger ambition nonetheless: to embrace the open nature of the Web and move past closed platforms that feel increasingly archaic today.
The good news is that this is a burgeoning category of apps. That makes me very excited. The material published on social media has been tied for too long to the platforms themselves. That is true in part because of advertising revenue, but also because platform owners do not trust users. Instead of being allowed control over our experiences, we are required to endure the changes du jour. A social web built on open protocols is an opportunity to change all of that. Bring it on.
Apple this week increased the prices for its monthly AppleCare+ subscription prices for the iPhone, raising the cost by 50 cents for all models in the United States.
Apple has just made some changes to its AppleCare+ program. As hinted over the weekend by Mark Gurman, Apple is discontinuing upfront payment options for AppleCare+ in stores and on devices, offering monthly or annual subscriptions only unless you buy online.
Journaling apps just don’t get much cuter: Through prompts like “Today isn’t over yet,” “I’m literally a new me,” and “Compliment someone,” the Swift-built app and its simple hand-drawn mascots encourage people to get in the habit of celebrating accomplishments, fostering introspection, and building gratitude. “And gratitude doesn’t have to be about big moments like birthdays or anniversaries,” says Wanasinghe. “It can be as simple as having a hot cup of coffee in the morning.”
A new app called Unpro Camera says it strips away all of the processing typically applied by an iPhone to produce unprocessed-looking photos that the developer says look “astonishingly natural.”
Nomad has announced a new USB-C cable designed to charge multiple devices simultaneously. [...] Nomad’s new Universal Cable for Apple Watch features an inline charging puck for Apple’s smartwatch on one end.
China's antitrust regulator is preparing for a possible investigation into Apple's policies and App Store fees, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
[...]
The country's State Administration for Market Regulation is reviewing Apple's policies, including its up to 30% commission on in-app purchases and restrictions on external payment services and App Stores, the report said.
In contemporary digital society, remembering is automated. Social media platforms and smartphones often offer features like iPhone’s and Facebook’s “Memories” that resurface users’ past posts and photographs.
For many people, these reminders of the past are a source of joyful reminiscence. For others — like survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) — they can be harmful.
These nostalgia-driven Memories features enact what I call “platform violence:” unintended but harmful consequences, caused by automated features, designed to profit tech companies without adequately considering users’ well-being.
I don't want other people's algorithm when reading feeds, whether they are articles or podcasts or television shows. But that doesn't mean that I don't want any algorithms at all.
What I want is my algorithm. I want to be able to prioritizes certain subscribed items over other subscribed items. I want to be able to surface up certain stuff based on, say, keywords or search matches in their descriptions. I want to be able to set up a killfile to filter out stuff that I don't want to see, even though I am the one who subscribed to the feed in the first place.
I want smartness that I control.
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Thanks for reading.
“I know some people wonder, ‘Why is a music institution teaching coding?’ For us, it’s all connected — it’s part of a digital tapestry,” says Lisa Dabney, the center’s executive director. “It’s about closing the digital divide by giving students access to technology and introducing them to different types of diverse, long-term career opportunities, including pathways in music technology and beyond. In a community where many homes lack access to iPads and computers, this partnership with Apple helps us put the power of technology directly in our students’ hands, opening doors to creative and professional futures they might have never imagined.”
Fans can get ready for the big event with a wide selection of music and exclusive content, from the first-look trailer Kendrick shared last month; to exclusive playlists curated by New Orleans musicians, NFL players, and teams; to over 100 hours of dedicated Apple Music Radio programming.
The press release was mostly promoting the upcoming Apple Music Halftime Show at the Super Bowl, featuring Kendrick Lamar.
You can find your new Replay playlist by scrolling to the bottom of the Home tab in the Apple Music app.
Prime Target is an amazing step toward full-on inclusivity in mainstream media and should be an example of representation. Featuring two queer leads is a big deal, but what makes it so special is how small of a deal it is in the show itself.
How do you solve a problem like the abrupt cancellation of a beloved TV show? In the case of the Apple TV+’s Schmigadoon!, rework it into a stage production and mount it at the Kennedy Center with an all-star Broadway cast.
The first “Apple approved” porn app for iPhone is rolling out in Europe, via AltStore PAL’s alternative iOS app marketplace. AltStore PAL developer Riley Testut says that Hot Tub, which describes itself as an ad-free “adult content browser,” has made it through Apple’s notarization review for fraud, security threats, and functionality, and will be available for AltStore PAL users in the EU to download starting today.
This is what Apple has been waiting for all along. It’s an opportunity to portray App Store policies (under assault in the EU and elsewhere) as benevolent and under attack by the forces of evil, including the European Commission, pornographers and child traffickers, and Epic Games. Now it can complain that the European Commission has opened the proverbial floodgates and that any number of disgusting apps will be available to those who choose to download alternative marketplace apps, seek those apps out, and install them.
Apple today released an updated version of iOS 18.3 that's designed specifically for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The update has a build number of 22D64.
This month, Mela was updated to version 2.5 with several improvements, including an option to search for recipes on the web using a new native recipe search engine and the ability to import recipes from video descriptions on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, all of which have become popular platforms for discovering and sharing cooking ideas.
Submissions for the Swift Student Challenge 2025 are now open through February 23. You have three more weeks to design, test, refine, and submit your app playground for consideration to be named one of 350 winners.
Avoid, at all costs, arriving at a scenario where the ground-up rewrite starts to look attractive.
So much of Apple’s analysis relies on reporting done by Mark Gurman. It seems to the Macalope that if you’re going to use Gurman’s work as the basis for your views, you should use all of it instead of just the parts that support your thesis.
US District Court Judge Amit Mehta denied Apple’s emergency request to halt the Google Search monopoly trial that could dismantle their lucrative search that’s reportedly worth as much as $18 billion a year. The order came in late Sunday, with Judge Mehta saying Apple hasn’t demonstrated satisfactory reasons for its emergency motion to stay that was filed on January 30th.
It is not hard to have predicted what Apple will say. It is not as easy, but still it is within the realm of expectation on what AltStore will say.
Now, let's see if the regulators have anything to say.
But if you are measuring success by the number of developers that make sexy apps that can now participate in the iPhone ecosystem, your bar is too low.
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Thanks for reading.
Recently I read about a massive geolocation data leak from Gravy Analytics, which exposed more than 2000 apps, both in AppStore and Google Play, that secretly collect geolocation data without user consent. Oftentimes, even without developers` knowledge.
I looked into the list and found at least 3 apps I have installed on my iPhone. Take a look for yourself!
This made me come up with an idea to track myself down externally, e.g. to buy my geolocation data leaked by some application.
For me, the major hurdle this product category has is that it just sucks to wear a big headset on your face. It’s heavy, it leaves red marks on my face after 20 minutes of use, it isolates me from the people around me, and it messes up my hair. [...] The Vision Pro is a technical marvel that I simply don’t find myself wanting to use for just about anything.
As we hit the one year mark for Apple Vision Pro, we’ll no longer be able to dismiss as many concerns because it’s a brand new platform. Apple Vision Pro’s $3500 price tag still shields it from the harsher scrutiny of mainstream adoption. But if the company wants to continue down the Apple Vision path, more of these early shortcomings will need to be solved before a more affordable version enters the chat.
The first time I came across the If This Then That (IFTTT) app was when my friend told me he’d found a way to win the thermostat wars he was having with his wife. Using the app, he’d managed to receive a notification every time the thermostat was set above his preferred temperature.
I’ll leave you to judge the merits of his decision to go behind his wife’s back and circumvent the controls of the thermostat but it did get me thinking, "I wonder what else I could automate in life using the app?” With that in mind, I jumped on the app’s website and found hundreds of pre-made automations for immediate use.
Sound Scouts, developed using gaming technology, offers an interactive and simple solution for hearing assessment via an iPad app.
Over the weekend, Apple announced that it is making Swift Build open source. This is the build engine used by both Xcode and for the company’s internal projects.
The problem isn't just Apple's dogged commitment to trying to make personalised emoji 'a thing'. It's also the sheer crudeness of the design.
Cut to the present. It’s June 2024, and Google Photos, in its daily onslaught of “Remember This Day?”, shows me memories of my summers as a teenager. Over on Instagram, “On This Day” archives show that five years ago, I was eating avocado toast in London. The moments that these photographs recall have no active hold in my memory. Still, upon seeing them—presenting themselves as the definite proof of truth, helpfully supplicated with captions from myself—my narrative of the present shifts to accommodate the information. The neologism that defined a generation, “pics or it didn’t happen,” resulted in a reality where every moment is micro-remembered. Nothing can be brought back decades later—with a sense of complete Proustian “ecstasy,” the fruit of the labor of spontaneous and intensive remembering—since nothing can peacefully fade away.
Does SwiftUI has a hidden agenda to force a certain look-and-feel onto all third-party apps, especially if the app is to be cross-(Apple)-platform?
Or is it just still buggy?
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Thanks for reading.
"The two apps that have really driven that are the Activity app and the Workout app. The Activity app was designed to help everybody sit less, move more, and get some exercise, whether they actually worked out or not. And the Workout app was designed to bring measurement as motivation during those session-based activities. They have remained among the most popular apps on Apple Watch, no surprise there", Blahnik said.
But he also added: "While we may have thought that Activity Rings were for people that maybe don't want to work out and are less sporty and the Workout app would be for people that are more sporty, what we've really seen is both of those apps have transcended both groups."
In yet another feat of ingenious marketing, Apple has now released an eight-chapter edition of “The You You Are,” the middling self-help book that regardless proves radical for the innies at Severance, inspiring them to lead a revolt against titan of industry Kier Eagan’s Lumon in Season 1.
With Wheels, you can start tracking a ride with just one tap, making it incredibly simple. Once you’re in a ride, Wheels will passively track your speed and distance, giving you an overview of your travels without needing to look at your phone mid-ride. The app has a sweet dashboard for monitoring your stats, and contains graphs to compare to previous rides.
India has removed import duties on some components key to producing mobile phones, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the annual budget on Saturday, in a boost for local production efforts and benefiting firms such as Apple and Xiaomi.
The following are what I've consumed in the month of January. And, thank you to my lucky stars?, I can recommend all of them for your reading pleasure if the subject matters interest you.
The Ministry of Time by Kallane Bradley. (I always like a good time-traveling story, and this novel has the bonus of good setup and world-building too.)
The Wedding People by Alison Espach. (Characters that makes you care; what more can one ask for?)
Hardcore Software by Steven Sinofsky. (Okay, the last few chapters are, it seems to me, mostly self-congratulatory, and you may skip them without missing anything.)
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Thanks for reading.
With AI-driven technology playing an increasing role in health and fitness, Blahnik sees even greater potential for Apple Watch and Fitness+ in the years to come. “We’re excited about AI and Apple Intelligence’s role in shaping fitness. Small, intelligent nudges – like realistic activity goals or personalised workout recommendations – can have a massive impact on motivation.”
Already, Apple’s AI is influencing features like adaptive goal setting, suggested workouts based on historical data, and even reminders to diversify training routines. The ability to fine-tune personal recommendations will continue to enhance the user experience, ensuring workouts feel both intuitive and rewarding.
Apple has reached a $20 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging that certain early Apple Watch models suffered from a battery defect that caused screens to detach or crack.
While Mark Zuckerberg and Meta press forward with augmented glasses projects buoyed by its million-selling set of smart Ray-Bans, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says that Apple just pulled the plug on an AR glasses project. Codenamed N107, they’re described as something that would’ve looked similar to regular glasses but with added displays in the lenses that could connect to a Mac.
If Mehta doesn’t grant the stay pending appeal, Apple requested at the very least that it gain access to discovery and depositions as a non-party while the Circuit Court considers its appeal. “Absent a stay,” the company writes, “Apple will suffer irreparable harm.”
When you have a note in your notes app to remind you on how you are giving different priorities to different podcasts in your podcast-listening app, so that you can listen to a bunch of podcast episodes in a certain order, maybe it's time to be less picky on you want to listen to podcasts?
And that's what I did this past week.
Let's see how long I can keep this up.
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Thanks for reading.