Apple will bring lossless audio and ulta-low latency audio to AirPods Max in its upcoming iOS 18.4 software update arriving in April, according to the company.
Today Apple announced a forthcoming firmware update for AirPods Max with USB-C that will enable lossless audio. As part of that news, the company has now started selling a new cable to enable wired playback on its newest AirPods Max with a standard headphone jack.
In the last couple of weeks I’ve been asked to help recover data lost when files have been accidentally deleted, and an internal SSD has been wiped remotely using Find My Mac. What we perhaps haven’t fully appreciated is how improved security protection in our Macs has made it far harder, if not impossible, to recover such lost data. Allow me to explain in three scenarios.
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For Intel Macs with T2 chips, and Apple silicon Macs, the chances of being able to recover files from their internal SSDs have become diminishingly small. This makes it all the more important that you make and keep good and comprehensive backups of everything in your Mac’s Data volume.
17 years is a long time, though. And developers long ago stopped seeing the App Store as something that makes them happy, or that reduces friction and hassle from their lives. Instead they view it as a major source of friction and hassle. Apple should have focused on keeping the App Store as a thing that makes developers (mostly) happy all along, not (as things stand today) mostly miserable.
Apple is set to stave off a possible fine and an EU order over its browser options on iPhones after it made changes to comply with landmark EU rules aimed at reining in Big Tech, people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.
According to a statement from Apple, the feature has been disabled for users in the EU due to “regulatory uncertainties” caused by the Digital Markets Act antitrust legislation. The company claims that the DMA’s “interoperability requirements” could force the company to “compromise the integrity of our products” in a way that puts users at risk.
The company doesn’t say why Apple Intelligence will be launched in the EU, but not iPhone Mirroring. SharePlay Screen Sharing, a new way to let users share their screen on FaceTime, is also unavailable in the EU.
Beijing pledged to expand market access and attract greater foreign investment as top executives from Apple, Pfizer, FedEx and other global firms gathered for the China Development Forum, a high-profile event taking place amid escalating trade tensions with the United States.
Vice Premier He Lifeng told visiting business leaders Sunday that China "remains committed to expanding high-level opening-up of market, improving the business environment and welcoming more multinational companies to deepen their investment in China," according to a statement from the Ministry of Commerce. He added that China's economy is "resilient, full of potential and vitality."
China's commerce minister told Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday that the company is welcome to expand investment in the country, a ministry statement showed.
Cook said he sees the importance of preserving the history and culture in a country with 5,000 years of history, and "there's so much in the past that can be learned from and used to make our lives better in the present moment".
Speaking of the current trend of artificial intelligence, Cook said technology, at its best, is for enriching people's lives, and for making people not only more productive but more creative as well.
"But it does not and it should not replace (human beings). It's a complement rather than a replacement,"Cook said.
SwitchBot has quietly built a solid lineup of smart home products, including curtain motors, door locks, and robot vacuums. Last week, the company announced plans to expand support for Home Assistant, with more than 45 devices gaining support in the first half of 2025. For Home Assistant users, that’s big news. But for HomeKit fans, the real benefit continues to be Matter support, which helps bring SwitchBot gear into HomeKit in a reliable and easy-to-manage way.
Apple didn’t make a big announcement about the new API. Instead, it was quietly revealed on a new documentation page on the Apple Developer website. Named “CPNowPlayingModeSports,” Apple describes the API as a “sports mode” for CarPlay, which adapts the layout of the Now Playing screen to “sporting events.”
The U-shaped office campus, designed by Gensler, would include two copper-colored buildings with floor-to-ceiling glass divided by wrap-around balconies and topped by broad eaves, with terrace decks lining the upper floors.
The project, expected to host up to 2,400 employees, would include production studios for small-format multimedia content.
One day soon, at a research lab near Santa Barbara or Seattle or a secret facility in the Chinese mountains, it will begin: the sudden unlocking of the world’s secrets. Your secrets.
Cybersecurity analysts call this Q-Day—the day someone builds a quantum computer that can crack the most widely used forms of encryption. These math problems have kept humanity’s intimate data safe for decades, but on Q-Day, everything could become vulnerable, for everyone: emails, text messages, anonymous posts, location histories, bitcoin wallets, police reports, hospital records, power stations, the entire global financial system.
So, why was the wired-connection and lossless playback for the AirPods Max not released together with the switch to USB-C version?
Is this yet another situation where Apple's hardware is running so much faster than the software that the latter need to play catch-up?
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Thanks for reading.