We started to notice the brighter display. As the weather cools, we've been out doing a lot of yard work and it is significantly easier to read what is on the display without having to move our wrist. The inactive state is more legible — as it should have been a year ago.
It also made a difference while we were working out. The vivid fluorescent lights in our workout space washed out the dim face on the prior-gen, but now we could quickly glance our workout more easily. It isn't entirely perfect, glares and other times still required us to lift our wrist, but it was absolutely an improvement.
The missing features make the SE feel more outdated compared to the Series 6 than the iPhone SE does compared to the iPhone 11. The Apple Watch SE feels like more of a tool to sell Apple Watch Series 6 watches than a viable budget option.
There’s no question that the Series 6 is better than the Watch SE. It just is. But is it an extra $120 better? That depends.
iOS 14 may not be groundbreaking but, if you embrace the new widgets and reassess how you use apps, iOS 14 is refreshing. Then there’s the ability to shed Safari and the native email app if you want too — hopefully Apple expands on this and offers similar default app flexibility elsewhere, say Maps or Notes.
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What’s interesting is that you don’t even have to actually embrace a lot of these changes. They coexist with the old way of using iOS.
In iOS 14 and earlier versions of iOS, there’s a mention of reducing exposure to RF energy by using the “supplied headphones,” which is the same wording that Apple has used for years now.
In iOS 14.2, this wording has been tweaked to say just “headphones,” removing the “supplied” part of this statement.
The wait is nearly over for iOS users: bubble tea, a transgender flag, seal, feather and more emojis are included in the latest iOS beta.
Apple and Epic Games do not want to have a jury trial in their ongoing legal dispute over Fortnite and Apple’s App Store policies, according to a filing submitted to the Northern California court handling the case today.
There was never a September 11 deadline for their [Sign In With Apple] support to stop working, and in fact, Apple’s SIWA team performed work to make sure SIWA continued working for Fortnite users despite the fact that Epic Games’s developer account had been revoked.
The system, which enables for a user account to be provisioned to a device and authenticated throughout a corporate network, has been given some upgrades that take advantage of cloud computing and alternative authentication systems, including elements users are already familiar with using.
Apple has refreshed its App Store marketing tools for developers today with the ability to create custom assets and links including new QR codes and short links.
It is much easier to securely track lost devices using Apple's privacy-paramount technology in "Find My" than it is to trace COVID-19 exposures, particularly because "Find My" isn't encumbered by political boundaries or by agents who might not see the value of actually using it in the course of their tracing jobs because it doesn't simply provide them with a list of names to contact as they expect.
Apple has reportedly removed two RSS feed reader apps from China’s App Store to comply with Chinese law. Fiery Feeds and Reeder both tweeted that their iOS apps had been removed in China over content that is considered “illegal” in the country.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and his core leadership team this week received restricted stock unit awards designed to incentivize continued work at the company into 2025.
Handed out on Sunday, the awards include tenure- and performance-based RSUs scheduled to vest over the next five years, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday.
The iPhone SE, while lacking many features, has a clear advantage over the regular iPhone: it is the smallest and the lightest iPhone, besides being the cheapest.
The Apple Watch SE, on the other hand, lacks many features but has no clear advantages other than price.
(This equation may change after the introduction of iPhone 12 mini. Or will that be iPhone Mini 12?)
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Back in the iOS 13 days, I've had a rule for myself about which app icons get to be on the first page of my iPhone: I must need or want to open the app more than once a day. If an app doesn't satisfy that criteria, it goes into a folder.
This rule prevented me from always changing my mind about what app icons to put on the home screen.
Now that we are in iOS 14, I need to figure out a new rule about what widgets go into my iPhone's home screen. I need to stop spending many the many minutes every day trying out all the different widgets.
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I am still using my EarPods to listen to audiobooks at night just before bedtime. I don't want to use my AirPods because I am worried that they may fall off to who-knows-where if I fall asleep while listening.
It may be okay (for me) if Apple stopped bundling them with iPhones, but I wish Apple will continue to sell them.
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With iOS 14, Apple has brought some of the biggest comparative advantages of Android—home screen widgets, better app management, and default app customization for email and the browser—to iPhones. These features so heavily resemble those in Android, it’s hard to look at it any other way.
But in doing so, Apple has further shifted the debate about differentiators between these two platforms to privacy, services, and policies. It’s not my place as a reviewer to tell you which platform’s philosophy is better for you personally. There are good arguments for both. And it’s a good thing that the features of these two operating systems have gradually grown closer together, because it lets users more freely invest in the platform that represents their values and needs.
Given how well this works, I can see a world in which other developers beyond gaming take advantage of this technology to demo their apps. And, if I squint, I think I can even see a world of “micro-apps” that don’t need full apps to operate. Perhaps these are more ephemeral style apps. Apps where asking for a full download is a lot in this age of app saturation.
It’s been seven months since COVID-19 fundamentally changed the way Apple Stores operate. In that time, we’ve learned to accept the realities and limitations of a new store environment. We’ve seen new ideas that work remarkably well. And we’ve even discovered parts of the store experience that are nicer now than before the pandemic.
Apple Stores across the world have been caught in a loop of closing, reopening, and closing again since February, all while trying to juggle a stack of safety precautions and keeping customers satisfied. These challenges have forced Apple to pare back store functions to their essential elements. COVID-19 inadvertently offered an opportunity to re-evaluate the entire retail experience.
Even with the latest and greatest Apple Watch, users can expect little in the way of actionable insights, coupled with the inconvenience of mid-day smartwatch recharging, every day — a step beyond the prior “leave it on a nightstand dock” system people grudgingly began to accept years ago.
He said to have a heavy fall and then hear a voice from his watch asking if he needed assistance was “comforting”.
“It’s like, that’s clever, it’s nice to know that worked,” Mr Potts said.
“Eighteen months ago when I bought it I must have known something about triple-0 because I didn’t want to test it, what are you going to do to test it?
The great part of working with a great ecosystem of hardware and software is that it was relatively to tap on the full features of the Apple Watch. The seamless integration allows users to access numerous tools and apps to stay fit and take note of a user’s well being, such as the Activity Rings, ECG and oxygen level measurements, and even fall detection.
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“And so, with that in mind, looking around the world, it’s very evident with Singapore’s track record as a country has a world-leading healthcare system, but also importantly, a really progressive one,” said Myoung Cha, Head of Health Strategic Initiatives at Apple. “With all the investments the government’s made in promoting health, and not just health care, it’s really leaning in on prevention in a way that is really with intent towards a longer-term impact.”
Third-generation Apple TV users are now experiencing crashes when pausing YouTube videos, and others are having intermittent AirPlay problems that include freezing and audio-only over a blank screen.
The app is a simple one. Install it and then add it as a widget to your home screen. Just tap the note to edit the text on it.
The app lets you organize your entire week in an extremely easy way.
We’re starting to see more audio services take advantage of Apple’s wearable and today iHeartRadio is the latest to launch streaming support with an Apple Watch app. It also brings library syncing and more.
Yes, the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh was ridiculous. But at the same time, it was a preview of Apple’s decade of resurgence.
Towards the end of a virtual hearing on Monday morning at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told the legal teams of Epic and Apple that it would be worth considering having the trial with a jury to weigh in on the "Fortnite" saga.
Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messaging service, similar to WhatsApp or iMessage, but owned and operated by a non-profit foundation rather than a corporation, and with more wide-ranging security protections. One of the first things you see when you visit its website is a 2015 quote from the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: “I use Signal every day.” Now, it’s clear that increasing numbers of ordinary people are using it too.
Both the G4 Cube and the 20th Anniversary Mac were, to me, unaffordable luxuries. But, in my opinion, the Cube was so much more refined and polished, while the 20th Anniversary Mac was simply loud and look-at-me-ish.
The two computers were just five years apart. Sure, Jony Ive has five more years of experience, and that's not nothing. But the Cube probably also demonstrated the positive influence by Steve Jobs on product designs.
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The SE doesn't feel like much of a step down from my Series 5 at all. Usually I'd expect budget devices to feel cheap, or markedly less-than, but the SE is such a perfectly placed proposition that I think it would suit most users.
Fueled by industry-leading algorithms, Mauvio improves sound on iPhone or iPad videos without tweaking dozens of knobs or settings, making it easy for anyone to use.
"It was definitely very disheartening when all of these major milestone events got canceled," said Shah, a high school senior at the time. "Those are things kids dream of when they're growing up."
But one milestone that Shah had long dreamed of was finally realized -- receiving her first patent for a contraction monitoring device in March.
It seems to me that Apple has been 'standardizing' their naming conventions, with suffixes like Pro and SE meaning more-or-less the same thing across different product lines.
Now, if the rumors are true that the new smaller-sized almost-top-of-the-line iPhones will bear the Mini suffix, what does that mean to the iPad Mini?
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I doubt anyone feels good about “Widgetsmith - Ripoff Version”, including the hucksters who made it. And if only the App Store were run just as a storefront, this wouldn’t happen. I’m pretty sure that if you go to Apple’s online store and search for “Solo Loop”, or walk into one of their retail stores and ask for one, you’re not going to be presented with a fly-by-night piece-of-crap knockoff named “Solo Loop - Color Bands”, with Apple’s actual Solo Loops hidden behind them.
The App Store is not trustworthy if that includes trusting that the apps in its trending lists and search results are legitimate. If Apple ran a food court like they run the App Store they’d let a McDowell’s open up two stores down from McDonald’s.
Some Apple Watch Series 3 users, however, are reporting a variety issues since installing watchOS 7, including random reboots, poor performance, and more.
The Keychron K2 version 2 is the perfect keyboard for first-time mechanical keyboard buyers. The compact design is great for portability and doesn't crowd the desk.
Combined with the earlier comment from Phil Spencer of Microsoft and Amazon’s Luna news, it feels like Apple’s position on game streaming is still a moving target. Evidently they have even added controller support for Google Stadia to Safari on macOS, as well. Even though it looked like game streaming was a complete no-go for Apple a month ago, small things are happening all around their ecosystem at the moment. I think there’s still room for optimism that a bigger shift is still on the horizon.
As a thought experiment, Martin Hron, a researcher at security company Avast, reverse engineered one of the $250 devices to see what kinds of hacks he could do. After just a week of effort, the unqualified answer was: quite a lot. Specifically, he could trigger the coffee maker to turn on the burner, dispense water, spin the bean grinder, and display a ransom message, all while beeping repeatedly.
It's a shame that whoever approved the ripoff app didn't know (or didn't care?) it was a ripoff app. Especially for such a popular app with a non-generic name. Come on, Apple: make it worthwile for developers to give you their 30%.
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Federighi says that for Apple’s tech, static examples weren’t enough. They needed to see the strokes that formed each letter. “If you understand the strokes and how the strokes went down, that can be used to disambiguate what was being written.”
That dynamic understanding of how people write means Apple’s software can reliably know what you’re writing as you’re writing it, but combined with data on a language’s syntax, the iPad can also predict what stroke or character or word you’ll write next.
“I have always seen technology as an opportunity to push humankind forward…technology empowers people,” says Jackson. “I think we see somewhat indirectly exactly that in the moments of Black Lives Matter and in the moment the recent spate of murders…All of the sudden technology enabled that moment in a very real way for young Americans because it was on the phone right in front of them… It’s that moment of being confronted with your own racism that hopefully inspires change and whether that’s change on climate, whether that’s change on environmental justice, whether it’s change on accessibility for [disabled people]–all of those are opportunities for technology. And shame on us if we don’t take them.
Apple confirmed the news to The Verge and said that collecting a fee from apps offering services that take place outside the app itself is a long-held App Store policy. Since the pandemic hit and more businesses have started selling virtual events, the iPhone maker has had similar disagreements with other firms. Facebook is not the first company it’s waived fees for until the end of the year, and Apple says it’s also done the same with Airbnb and ClassPass.
While some developers are upset with the Apple Store rejections, profiteers have figured out that they can make a fortune while abiding by the existing rules. These rules allow behaviors that are in either poor taste, or explicitly manipulating the psyche of the user.
Taken as a whole, the Series 6 isn’t a huge leap forward over the Series 5 — and not really worth the upgrade for those who already own that recent vintage. But there are nice improvements throughout, augmented by good upgrades to watchOS that make the best-selling smartwatch that much better, while clearly laying the groundwork for Apple Watches of the future.
Digital coloring books, which you can use on your smartphone or tablet, have everything I wanted to love about the adult coloring book craze with none of the roadblocks: They’re mindless, they’re meditative, they’re pretty, they’re nostalgic.
Some help track your tossing and turning patterns while others promise to lull you out of insomnia via soothing sounds, but all maintain the same underlying goal: Better sleep.
Apparently, Facebook has been trying to convince Apple to let users swap the default messaging app to Messenger for years. Now that iOS 14 lets users select alternative web browser and email apps, Facebook is renewing its Messenger push.
Windows developers appear to have used the theme as a placeholder to build the theme engine for Windows XP. The theme itself is described as a “Whistler skin with eye candy,” and marked as “for internal use only.”
In Windows, the user-interface that I hate most is the Alt key. An accidental touch of the Alt key -- a modifier key, no less -- while typing means you lose focus on whatever text input you are on, and the keyboard focus shifts to the menu bar. Any further keystrokes will henceforth activate random menu items.
In iOS 14, the user-interface that I currently hate most: accidental invocation of jiggle mode, when my finger stayed too long on the empty space in the home screen.
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Apple released macOS 10.15.7 Catalina, which resolves a problem that prevented Macs from automatically connecting to Wi-Fi and another that stopped files from sync files through iCloud Drive.
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Apple has also released iOS 14.0.1 and iPadOS 14.0.1 to address the following bugs in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14: iPhones and iPads resetting default Web browsers and email clients back to Safari and Mail after restart [...]
Here’s where Back Tap shines, at least for those who can find or build the necessary shortcuts. Anything you can create in Shortcuts, you can invoke with a double or triple tap.
As for the always-on display, which was first introduced in the Series 5, the Series 6's outdoor brightness is bolstered to 2.5-times brighter when your wrist is down, which makes an appreciable difference for at-a-glance information, be it in workouts or just to see the time, compared to the Series 5.
Thankfully, Apple has achieved this while not only maintaining all-day battery, but also cutting down charge time and gaining 20-percent faster processing speeds over the Series 5. That improvement arrives thanks to better efficiency on Apple's latest S6 system-in-package (SiP). Faster processing speeds aren't going to be something you'll likely notice, but you will appreciate the quicker charging times of the Series 6.
Apple has reversed course and created an online band-only return method for customers who purchased an Apple Watch Series 6 or Apple Watch SE with the wrong size Solo Loop or Braided Solo Loop band.
I’m hearing from my sources in Apple Retail that rolling out these bands when few people can go into stores to try them on for size has really backfired. There are a lot of returns. And however much waste Apple is saving by not including a power adapter in the box, it’s being counteracted at least a bit by all the waste that comes from people getting a band, opening the package, finding that it doesn’t fit, and returning the band.
Apple states that the Blood Oxygen app is not available for use by people under 18 years old, and in fact the app will refuse to launch if it detects that the user’s birth date in the Health app is less than 18 years ago. But the Blood Oxygen app will also be automatically disabled if you set up an unpaired Apple Watch Series 6 using Family Setup, regardless of the intended user’s age.
Apple Arcade has room to improve -- especially in delivering long-promised marquee titles -- but its first year has shown plenty of promise. Any platform that gives a voice to indie developers and beautiful games that let you explore stories, solve puzzles and just relax is a worthy addition to any casual gamer's repertoire.
The meticulously designed app is filled with rich imagery and text descriptions of every band, down to specifics like release date, model number, and price. Bands are organized by style and color or curated into collections, like a grouping of every band just announced at Apple’s September 2020 Special Event. It’s the only tool I’ve found that makes browsing bands more fun than Apple’s own Apple Watch Studio website.
While podcast apps, including Apple’s, traditionally work by letting users pick an individual podcast to listen to, Scout FM created podcast stations on various topics. For example, if a person is interested in sports, the app would create a station that mixed together a curated selection of sports podcasts.
Apple has revamped its official site to include newly updated sections devoted to promoting the App Store and its developer program, following recent criticism and disputes concerning both. Both sections now detail statistics about how the store and the program operate, and both are aimed at emphasizing the trustworthy security Apple claims is central to both.
In a statement, Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner, noted that the Commission is making the move because it believes that offering tax breaks to one company and not its rivals “harms fair competition in the European Union in breach of State aid rules.”
Please continue to stay safe. And thanks for reading this little web site.
If there’s ever been a time to blow up your home screen and rethink the way information and apps are laid out on your phone, this is it. Try something new, and stick with it for a few days. If the experiment fails, you can always put everything back right where it was. But widgets and the App Library can make interacting with your iPhone feel considerably more efficient.
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Unlike iOS 13, which shipped in a buggy state, these latest updates are mostly stable and dependable for everyday use. The release came sooner than expected — without a new iPhone to showcase these new features on — but perhaps that’s for the best. More than most updates before it, iOS 14 shows how Apple’s software can breathe new life into the hardware you already own.
Over several days of comparing my second Apple Watch’s measurements to my FDA-approved finger oximeter, Apple’s readings most often differ by two or three percentage points — though they’ve also sometimes exactly matched, and sometimes been as much as seven percentage points lower.
Is it just me? Skin, fat and blood vessels do vary. Apple would not comment on the error rate of its sensor, but spokeswoman Amy Bessette said it “has been rigorously tested across a wide spectrum of users and across all skin tones.” (When I tested the Apple Watch on a colleague whose skin is darker than mine, the results were also off from the finger pulse oximeter, but less wildly so.)
Apple on Tuesday updated one of its support documents to emphasize that the new silicone rubber Solo Loop for the Apple Watch may increase in length over time, as mentioned in fine print at the bottom of the Solo Loop product page.
Apple has removed the 5W Power Adapter from the Apple Watch Edition and Apple Watch Hermès. Both Apple Watch models included the power adapter for just a week before it was removed.
This iPad is very good at the traditional “iPad Things.” But the list of things we’re asking of our iPads as we are stuck at home is getting bigger. iPad things include using Zoom.
The iPad isn’t the king of the hill it once was among Apple tablets, but it remains a fine device.
Surely it’s clear that iPhone users desperately want more tools to customize their home screens. If more customization features aren’t shooting up Apple’s priority list for iOS 15 (or before), something’s really wrong.
So party on, home screen designers. Don’t let the curmudgeons bring you down. You’re just the latest in a proud line of people who have wanted to do the natural thing and make their technology more personal.
While this may not be for you, complaining that people are going down this road is not a good look. We should welcome more customization and personalization of the technology we spend hours a day with.
The program has a series of requirements, that, if followed, allow vendors to pay 15% commission versus 30% on customers who sign up using Apple's in-app purchase systems.
A group of news, gaming and music app developers has banded together to form a coalition in protest against Apple’s alleged anti-competitive behaviour, as tensions between the tech giant and app makers over the terms of its App Store continue to escalate.
No other grocery app I’ve used makes it as easy to add and manage lists as Grocery, through a combination of smart design and dynamic sorting which is based on the order you check items off as you shop. On top of that, the app includes meal planning, recipes, inventory management, and list sharing, extending its usefulness well beyond the grocery store.
Users can change the appearance and select albums, playlists, or recently played songs to be featured on the widget.
Even without apps you can do a lot on an iPad. Simply scan your own music in on the Notes app bundled with the iPad, save it and annotate it with an Apple Pencil (model allowing). But if that’s so easy to do, why use an app at all? Tablets in performance have become a major player in the music industry and are becoming increasingly popular. Many musicians now use them to download and buy scores, to perform and to share – and for that you need apps…
Its classic look is unique and interesting, but also completely at home in a professional setting. It also provides that little bit of extra iPad Pro protection that the Magic Keyboard and Smart Keyboard Folio don’t.
Like everything we do on the Internet, streaming and downloading music requires a steady surge of energy. Devine writes, “The environmental cost of music is now greater than at any time during recorded music’s previous eras.” He supports that claim with a chart of his own devising, using data culled from various sources, which suggests that, in 2016, streaming and downloading music generated around a hundred and ninety-four million kilograms of greenhouse-gas emissions—some forty million more than the emissions associated with all music formats in 2000.
So far, iOS14 on my iPhone X hasn't really failed me yet. The bugs I've encountered were, mostly, cosmetic in nature. I am watching out for bugs, and didn't believe everything I see on the screen. :-)
The three bugs that I can recall:
a) The Clock widget showing the wrong time; this went away after a while.
b) The Shortcuts widget showing super-large buttons; this went away almost immediately.
c) The Weather app showing an out-of-date forcast; the screen refreshed itself only after about five seconds.
The alarm clock didn't fail me. The alarm went off right on time every day.
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All of these little changes are giving us greater control over what our digital lives look like, however superficially. (Privacy protections, for example, remain fully in the hands of the corporation.) It’s a delightful pivot toward the mid-2000s digital golden age of custom Buddy AIM profiles and designing your Myspace layout while accidentally learning to code in the process.
Widgets have only given iOS users a taste of the levels of customization that could await them — people want more, and they’re willing to go to absurd lengths to get it.
Do you value your sanity? Do you want to do literally anything else with 2-4 hours of your free time? Do you prioritize speed and function when it comes to using apps on your phone?
Is Apple’s a good one? It’s hard to say just yet. Besides the issues of adjusting to different skin colors, coping with motion, and other design challenges faced by all pulse oximeters, putting the sensors on top of the wrist raises the difficulty level. The devices used in hospitals as well as the standalone gadgets sold in drugstores typically clip onto a fingertip or, sometimes, an earlobe.
The battery is notably bigger, at 1.17Wh for the 44-millimeter model and 1.024Wh for the 40mm. That's a modest, single-point increase for both. There are fewer display cables to disconnect when disassembling the device, and there's a larger Taptic Engine in the Watch, too. And of course, iFixit found the pulse oximeter sensor inside.
Microsoft now tells me the goal is actually to have full parity between the iOS and Android apps, and that Apple is already reviewing the iOS version now.
Scribble is the new iPadOS 14 feature that allows you to use the Apple Pencil to handwrite text into a text field that the app then converts into text. The feature also allows you to do things like scratch out text with the Pencil to erase it.
Over the course of the summer betas, it’s completely changed my use of the app and done something I didn’t think would ever happen: Drafts is no longer in my dock. This isn’t because the app has lost its usefulness, rather it’s actually increased in versatility so much through the widget that I no longer need it elsewhere.
Weather Line doesn’t provide any options to choose which data a widget will display. You get the data it gives you: nothing more, nothing less. However, the app has gone all-out with personalization in an entirely different way: widget themes.
1Password today announced a new partnership with Privacy.com, allowing users to make safer payments online by creating virtual cards that are unique to each of your online accounts.
Of course, there’s another side to the whole iOS 14 launch story, and it’s one fraught with frustration, sadness, and disappointment.
Researchers said that a tip from a child led them to discover aggressive adware and exorbitant prices lurking in iOS and Android smartphone apps with a combined 2.4 million downloads from the App Store and Google Play.
For the first time in more than 20 years since Apple began its operations in India, the iPhone-maker has started selling its products directly to consumers in the world’s second largest smartphone market.
I'm still playing around with widgets. My current homescreen setup: one smart stack, with three widgets: Shortcuts, step count, and battery.
I do wish the buttons in the Shortcuts widget are smaller in size.
And, no, I am not changing all my app icons to Shortcut icons. I do use the long-press menu on some of these apps, which you will lose if they are Shortcut icons instead.
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I am wishing there will be a MacBook that looks like an iPad Pro: compact, light, and maybe even a detachable keyboard.
And if the price looks more like an iPad Air than an iPad Pro, so much the better.
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Compared to the home button’s nice, round sweet spot, the top button has “a super narrow aspect ratio that we never had before,” says Ternus. “And we had to do a tremendous amount of work at the sensor level, the silicon level, and also from an algorithm standpoint. Because when you think about it, the sensor is seeing a much narrower slice of the fingerprint. And so what we actually have to do is capture a broader area so that at any given time, if you shift a little bit to the right or a little bit to the left, we can still make that match.”
Apple Watch models that are not fitting properly must be returned in full, and Apple’s online support staff has been offering no alternative.
Customers need to get the sizing right. And Apple just created a whole new complication when it comes to getting that sizing right. And they did so in the middle of a pandemic which is keeping people out of stores. So… you better hope you have a printer and that the measure you print is accurate.
Today at Apple will host a week of virtual sessions this October to celebrate Day of the Girl, an international observance that recognizes the challenges girls face and promotes empowerment. The online creative sessions are a collaboration with Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization that equips young women with the technology skills they need to succeed.
QR codes and NFC tags for Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade have recently been added to the Avenue displays at some stores. The small tiles are Apple’s first use of NFC tags with a call to action in the retail environment. Customer iPhones are directed to pages in the TV app and App Store where they can learn more about Apple’s services.
So, as welcome as iOS 14’s App Library may be for many of us, particularly alongside being able to hide Home screens, here is a collection of tips that will help anyone rearrange their app icons more easily, regardless of iOS version or device.
While most widgets will come built in to the apps you already know and love, some developers have built brand new apps for the sole purpose of enabling users to create and customize widgets in a hyper-personalized way. The best widgets I’ve tried offer configuration settings so you can tailor them to your exact needs, and these new apps take that idea even further, offering widget creation tools relating to a variety of traditional app categories – like weather, photos, health and fitness, productivity, and more – but in a single centralized app.
Launcher is bringing its customizable widgets to iOS 14 with new functionality, including the ability to rotate a widget’s icons by date, time or even location. It also supports customizable widget backgrounds, icons of different sizes or those with no labels for a cleaner look.
The app supports multiple shelves for storing clippings, which work like folders for text, URLs, files, photos, and scanned documents. You can also add items from the clipboard, the system document picker, your photo library, the system markup tools, and a share extension.
MX Anywhere 3 addresses that by not just being compact, but working on nearly any surface. [...] Another benefit of working anywhere is the ability to quickly swap between devices. There is a small button on the bottom that keeps three devices in its memory. Press the button to quickly change to the next device in your list.
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said he’s been impressed by employees’ ability to operate remotely and predicted that some new work habits will remain after the pandemic.
The IIcx/IIci design stuck around for a long time. It was so well balanced that you could stick it up on its side to save some desk space, or lay it flat and pop a small monitor on top of it. [...] In the Power Mac era, Mac desktops devolved into larger towers or flatter “pizza box” style designs. But I’ll always consider the Mac IIcx and IIci as the pinnacle of early Mac desktop design.
I am surprised Apple doesn't already have an AR app that will measure your wrist size, and recommend which Apple Watch Solo Loop you should purchase.
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These welcome enhancements will surely enrich your experience, but my favorite tricks in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 are the ones you have to work to find. For instance, you can now fully ditch Apple Mail and Safari with a new default apps setting.
Below, I'll walk you through how to use nine of the best hidden features I've uncovered in iOS 14.
You see iOS 14 allows you to change the icons you’re so used to seeing and replace them with whatever you want from your camera roll.
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You’ll need to use Shortcuts because it’s not actually changing iPhone app icons for good.
Apple TV Plus won its first ever Emmy Sunday night, with Billy Crudup taking the award for best supporting actor in a drama series. Crudup won for his performance as TV executive Cory Ellison in the streamer’s flagship original drama “The Morning Show.”
On an Emmy night dominated by HBO and Schitt’s Creek, streaming services were largely marginalized, taking three supporting actor prizes and a fourth for best limited-series directing.
Once we opened it, we were surprised how flexible the band was. It was very soft and stretchy, reaching more than double its original size at full extension.
The back of the band has a slight channel that should aid airflow and prevent sweat buildup.
The most important addition for me is adding Feedly support. I can now use it with Feedly to keep my read items and subscriptions in sync to all my devices.
The customization and personalization options in Widgetsmith have proven to be incredibly popular, which is proof not only of the power of Widgetsmith but also of the pent-up demand additional iOS home screen customization options.
The Quip toothbrush is designed to run for two minutes each time you brush, but since my kids also have Quip toothbrushes, once I upgrade theirs to the Bluetooth model, it would sync, and I could monitor their brushing habits. It also shows the coverage of time spent on the top and the bottom of your mouth, the numbers of strokes, and your brush’s overall intensity. You can view your brushing history to see weekly activity.
Random thoughts on a rainy September day:
a) I can't wait for NetNewsWire to support the RSS service that I am currently subscribing to.
b) Dear Apple: How about allowing me to rearrange the App Library's folders?
c) Dear Me: Stop playing around with widgets, and get back to work.
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I've always framed the inability to 'live in the moment' as failing to give permission to myself to be happy. This past week, someone gave me a different perspective: this is a failure to prevent future-me from stealing happiness from today-me.
Still trying, but I am trying a different tact now. Rather than trying to convince myself to say yes to today-me, I'm saying no to future-me from stealing from today-me. Let future-me worry in future-time.
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Bundling everything together may be a way to get more people interested in the individual services. But iCloud storage could be the ingredient that really hooks people in, thanks to its large user base and the fact that it serves a need that anyone who's run out of storage on their iPhone can understand.
While there's many smaller changes, there's four areas of major change in the app: Listen Now, Searches, Library Filtering, and Autoplay.
The Out of Milk app helps me simplify my entire shopping experience, from taking stock of the pantry to checking out at the store.
You're often craning your neck when you work on a laptop, and that's not good for your back. Laptop stands can help, whether you're at home or in the office, especially if you want to upgrade from using a stack of old books. The best laptop stands raise your laptop's screen closer to eye level, bettering your posture, and some can even go from sitting to standing. We've tested a handful, and these are our favorites.
Apple Inc.’s July court triumph over a massive European Union back-tax order is forcing antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager to make a tough choice: Challenge a ruling that faulted the EU investigation or accept judges’ criticisms and re-examine a case started more than six years ago.
My effort to whittle away at Amazon's audiobook hegemony I believe will help show authors, publishers, and readers that there is a path to a more pluralistic and fair marketplace. And, in the process, fuel the growing support for more stringent antitrust enforcement.
I'm, as the cliché goes, cautiously optimistic that I will be saving money this fall with Apple One. Of the four advertised services (we don't get Apple News nor the upcoming Fitness+, not that I have an Apple Watch), I'm currently subscribed to three, with Apple Arcade something that I don't really need or want.
However, I am paying for the 2TB of iCloud Storage, when Apple One only offers 200GB. The total price of Apple One Family Plan with an upgrade of 2TB of iCloud Storage will determine whether I switch to Apple One and get Apple Arcade for free.
Of course, if I lose my job or something (touch wood!), I'll probably start to get rid of Apple TV+ and Apple Music subscriptions (in that order) and just keep iCloud Storage, and hope that my savings can last (or I can find a new job in these strange times) until I get my CPF money.
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There are no apps that make me enjoy grocery shopping.
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watchOS 7 might not be a revolutionary update, but I think it’s just what we needed this year: a clear, solid, and stable iteration. Health and fitness are the Apple Watch’s main selling points, and Apple is continuing to push forward in these important areas. I love seeing Apple pay attention to watch faces as well, and this year has brought some excellent new features there.
Sleep tracking isn’t for me right now, but I think it will work for most people who live on normal sleep schedules. I expect it will loosen up over time too, so I’m looking forward to future iterations.
Most of the other new features of the Apple Watch Series 6 are aimed at boosting people’s overall health.
While inventory and display selection may vary by location, most Apple Stores now offer a full range of Solo Loop and Braided Solo Loop bands to try on. With the pandemic changing the nature of in-store shopping, Apple has simplified Apple Watch Studio, displaying only bands without watch cases in a small number of trays.
New features include a new exclusive modular sport face that will offer multiple complications. These include the quick-start button, total monthly miles, and Guided Runs.
While HotSchedules is primarily used for setting work schedules, it also includes email-style messaging that owners, management and employees can use to talk. In many workplaces, this talk is limited to official business and haggling over shifts; in some, HotSchedules becomes a de facto social network.
Streaks’ widgets serve users well as reminders of their progress towards their goals, helping keep them on track.
The premise is as simple as it sounds. You tell Glimpse 2 which website you want to see and then select the area that you want to appear in a widget. You get to choose between large and small widgets, and that's all there is to it.
The interface started glassy and skeuomorphic, mimicking the materials used on Macs. Over the decades, it went through significant revisions.
One thing that seems to have remained relatively unchanged over the years is the System Preferences screen.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is currently engaged in an Apple Watch Activity Challenge with Golden State Warrior forward Draymond Green.
The arrangement of apps and widgets on iOS need more refinements, which I hope will continue to be made in subsequent iOS releases. Even if we continue the limitation of having apps always flow from top-left to bottom-right, there are still certain arrangements that cannot be had today in iOS 14.
And, I think even smaller widgets -- maybe even at the same size as app icons -- can be useful to have. For example, the Clock and Calendar apps have icons that behaved more like widgets in the pre-iOS 14 days, and that was useful. Yes, there may be a concern that users may be confused between apps and widgets if they can come in the same size. But that, it seems to me, is a solvable problem.
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What I expect will be my favorite new feature overall is the charging speed, though I haven’t tested that yet. Apple claims it’s much faster now — up to 40 percent faster than the Series 5 — which makes it easier to top up quickly in the morning or evening. You should be able to go from 0 to 80 percent in about an hour; all the way to 100 takes an hour and a half. That makes the Apple Watch more convenient to use for sleep tracking. For me, the Apple Watch is a much nicer and less disruptive alarm than my phone.
So far, the Series 6 isn’t a giant leap forward, but it’s nice to see Apple taking health more and more seriously — and again, it’s going to be great to revisit the hardware when Fitness+ drops.
Relatively healthy people can do some practical things with the data to improve wellness. If your workouts are falling apart and your blood oxygen reading happens to be lower, too, make some small adjustments to behaviors like your diet and see if that makes a difference.
But when it comes to medical advice and diagnosis, always defer to a doctor. If you notice a big dip in your blood oxygen level, it is not necessarily a reason to panic, and you should talk to your doctor to decide whether to investigate. And if you have symptoms of illness, such as fever or a cough, a normal blood oxygen reading shouldn’t be a reason to skip talking to a medical professional, Dr. Goldstein said.
In terms of getting them on and off the wrist, I’d say they’re both clearly in “just right” range on the Goldilocks scale. If they were stretchier, they might be a bit easier to get on and off, but I think they’d then be too loosey-goosey on the wrist. Once on your wrist, the Solo Loop bands are very securely on.
It doesn't offer everything I hoped for, but considering its price and the strength of what it does offer, the SE just might be the ideal entry point to Apple's wearables.
As a big fan of the always-on display, we believed this would be a deal breaker for the Watch SE. But during our brief time with it, we noticed that the SE's raise-to-wake feature works fast and smoothly enough that we hardly misses the always-on display.
It introduces a bevy of privacy features designed to give iPhone users more control over their personal information. The protections are intended to rein in app developers, online providers, and advertisers who all too often push the limits of acceptable data collection, assuming they don’t fully step over the line.
I spent a little more than an hour testing some of the features. Here’s a brief description of each, how to use them, and some first-blush impressions of how some work.
No, spatial audio isn't going to deliver the same kind of surround sound experience that my 7.1 home theater does with seven speakers and a sub placed appropriately around a room (I don't have an Atmos set up). But it is a decent facsimile made more remarkable because it's coming from such a tiny set of earbuds. You do get the sensation that bullets are flying around you in those dive-bomb scenes in Midway and the audio, in general, feels more spacious and directional.
One of the new features in iOS 14 is the ability to change the default email or browser app to a third-party alternative such as Chrome, Edge, or Outlook. A bug in the first public release of iOS 14, however, causes your default browser or mail app setting to reset to Mail or Safari when your iPhone or iPad reboots.
Apple today released iOS 14.2 beta to developers with Shazam integration in the Control Center, but we have now found some other new features and changes that were included in the update. iOS 14.2 also brings revamped media controls with content suggestions and also a new People Detection option.
But in most cases, Apple One only makes sense if you’re already subscribing to Apple’s most in-demand services: iCloud storage, which is essential for backing up most iPhones given Apple’s increasingly absurd (and stingy) 5GB allowance for new devices, and Apple Music. And at the end of the day, Apple One doesn’t make subscribing to those two key services dramatically cheaper — it just provides a discount for subscribing to Apple’s less popular services.
Widgets that surface data from one of the largest public information hubs in the world seems like a no-brainer use case, and the Wikipedia app has done a great job here.
The first thing you’ll notice when you update MusicHarbor is that Tanaka has put a lot of effort into the UI. Through a combination of Apple’s latest collection view APIs from last year, the iPad’s new sidebar design, and generous use of context menus, MusicHarbor has a thoroughly modern feel.
There is now a total of 42 supported cameras from Canon’s EOS interchangeable lens line as well as its PowerShot family, the latest additions being the EOS R5 and EOS R6. The utility now also boasts support for at least 13 video conferencing software, including YouTube Live, Discord, OBS, and even Facebook Messenger.
The Curve Riser is made out of metal and includes a fixed-height structure with a shelf for accessory storage. The stand can accomodate an iMac, iMac Pro, or external display.
Apple announced today that it plans to open its online store in India on September 23. The expansion will bring direct sales and an improved shopping experience to customers in the region for the first time.
I am using a (non-smart) stack widget to show all my shortcuts that are now neatly duplicated and assigned to different shortcuts folders. It does seem like a lot of work just to have some shortcuts on the home screen.
Oh, and the shortcuts widget occasionally will get buggy, and show huge buttons that are larger than the widget's surface area.
Other than that, I haven't encounter any bugs on iOS 14 yet. (No, I didn't change the default web browser.)
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iOS and iPadOS 14 bring a new assortment of widgets, which can now be added to the iPhone’s Home screen for the first time. iPhones now support Picture in Picture when watching videos or making FaceTime calls. Built-in apps are receiving a host of other upgrades too, including new sidebar designs on iPad.
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watchOS 7 introduces sleep tracking, a ton of new watch face options, the ability to share watch faces with others and download them directly from third-party apps, a Shortcuts app, and more.
Although developers have been able to test their software running under "beta" versions of the new operating systems for months, the final "golden master" versions have only just been released. Some developers have also reported problems trying to rush their products through Apple's app review process to meet the deadline.
Among other new additions, Safari 14 delivers customizable start pages, a new Privacy Report feature, and general performance enhancements. The update also squashes several bugs and security vulnerabilities in WebKit, including those related to cross-site scripting attacks and arbitrary code execution.
Normally, a “wellness”-focused feature that offers some information about your oxygen levels could still be useful information and a good party trick. But there are risks to relying on inaccurate blood oxygen metrics, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This disease is weird. Unlike many illnesses, health care workers can’t always trust that a patient’s symptoms will accurately indicate how sick they are. They need help from reliable devices that can help both patients and caregivers get an accurate read on the situation.
Small said he understands the stakes, that after a year and a half of promises, Evernote had better deliver. That's why, he said, the new apps are launching now. Not because people are clamoring for them, not because Evernote needs to start getting back some of the momentum it's lost in the last two years. Because it's ready.
With the debut of iOS 14, the highly popular Carrot Weather is out a major update that brings support for the all-new home screen widgets. There’s also support for multiple complications on Apple Watch with watchOS 7 and a gallery of weather focused watch faces that you can download.
If you’re interested in expanding your vocabulary, a word of the day widget seems like a perfect fit for the Home screen where you can glance at it throughout the day. That’s exactly what LookUp 7 provides, alongside widgets for running quizzes and opening your word collections.
Not only is there a cheaper, more powerful iPad with a bunch of features that were previously limited to the highest-end models, but it’s now clear that Apple will need to supply new high-end features to the iPad Pro in short order.
So, for now, what we know is that there’s a new iPad Air, it’s got an A14 processor, that A14 processor is better than the A12 in a bunch of ways and better than the A13 in ways we don’t really know yet. We’ll learn more when the new iPhones are announced, and we’ll presumably learn even more when new iPad Pro models appear with a scaled-up version of the A14.
And as for Macs with Apple silicon? Who knows.
I'm stuck at home. So why do I need a functioning iPhone? No reason at all. And that's why I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 14 in the middle of a work day.
Turns out, I've forgotten something: WhatsApp is not working at all on my Mac while the iPhone is upgrading. Fortunately, there are more than one way to contact others, and there are definitely more than one way to be distrubed by co-workers. :-)
Anyway, now that my phone is upgraded and my work day has ended, it's time to play around with Widgets.
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These two devices follow Apple’s strategy with the iPhone, where there’s a flagship line plus a more affordable option that uses a mix of old and new parts. The Apple Watch Series 6 includes a new blood oxygen sensor, improved always-on display, S6 processor, an always-on altimeter, and new finishes. The Apple Watch SE also features the always-on altimeter and a similar design, but without the new color finishes, it includes the S5 processor from last year, but it doesn’t get the blood oxygen sensor nor does it include an always-on display.
Apple launched new Apple Watch bands today that have no buckles or clasps, called the Solo Loop and the Braided Solo Loop. They look nice, but because you won’t be able to adjust the length of the band, you’ll have to measure your wrist in some way when you’re buying one to make sure you’re picking the right size. And that problem becomes trickier due to the fact that there are 12 total Loop sizes to pick from.
These sizing options omit the older Apple Watch case sizes of 38mm and 42mm. To keep things simple, Apple is noting that the bands are only compatible with modern models of the Apple Watch, essentially including Apple Watch Series 4 and later.
Apple Fitness+ brings studio-style workout experiences to your Apple devices in a way that uniquely integrates with the Apple Watch. As a workout video plays, live metrics from your Watch will display in the corner of the screen so you can easily keep track of things like the duration of your workout, heart rate, and calories burned.
The feature lets you adjust who each family member can call and message from their Apple Watch, and you can also set up location alerts so that you stay in the know of your family’s whereabouts.
One interesting feature of Family Setup is “Apple Cash Family,” which lets a parent securely load money onto their child’s Apple Watch and allows the child to then purchase items wherever Apple Pay is accepted.
The same day that Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, the company expanded its 0% Apple Card financing service to cover its line of smartwatches.
The company’s announcement today for the Apple Watch will help customers get used to the idea of having no bundled accessories in the box, and soften the blow when the same thing happens to the iPhone in October.
Apple Watch Series 6 materials include aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium, which was introduced last year, but no ceramic.
The two-year wellness program is built around the Apple Watch and an iPhone app called LumiHealth from where a personalized wellness program is administered. Residents will need access to both in order to participate in the national health initiative, which begins in October. Taking part is voluntary.
The LumiHealth initiative is the first of its kind, according to Apple, since a national government is offering its citizens financial rewards in exchange for adopting healthy habits over a two-year duration.
During an online-only event from the Steve Jobs Theater on its Cupertino, California campus, Apple introduced a new iPad Air that looks as though it will rival the iPad Pro in many respects. The company also took the wraps off its 8th generation base-model iPad, which features a faster SoC.
As with previous Logitech accessories, the new Folio Touch keyboard case connects to an iPad via Smart Connector and features a built-in trackpad for cursor support.
Although Apple One doesn’t carry an official release date yet besides simply ‘fall,’ Apple did detail the breakdown of pricing and included services across three different Apple One tiers.
Apple One Premier is the most expensive plan, priced at $29.95 per month, but it also offers the biggest savings. The Apple One Premier services sold individually sum to $54.94, so the Premier tier is almost half the price.
Apple insists that its customers will still be able to “discover and enjoy alternatives”.
Today Apple announced that the latest versions of most of its major OS platforms will be shipping tomorrow, September 16. [...] macOS Big Sur was not mentioned, and it’s expected to release later this year alongside Apple Silicon Macs.
According to Apple, developers can now submit apps compatible with iOS 14 and iPad 14 features, including widgets, App Clips, and ARKit enhancements. The same applies to watchOS 7 and tvOS 14 compatible apps.
Most notably, Pixelmator Photo 1.4 now includes ML Super Resolution, which increases the size and resolution of images automatically. The results vary considerably depending on your source image, but at its best it is able to enlarge an image to three times its original size while maintaining sharpness and detail.
Adobe Illustrator on iPad is now available to pre-order on the App Store. The teams at Adobe and a select group of artists have been busy refining the app’s tools and user experience since it was previewed in November 2019 at Adobe MAX. I asked one of those artists, Yiying Lu, about her experience with Illustrator on iPad so far and how it will shape the future of creativity.
New for Premiere Pro includes Scene Edit Detections, HDR for broadcasters, and new Quick Export option. Meanwhile, After Effects is gaining updated camera navigation tools and more in the public beta.
If I am buying an iPad today, the iPad Air will be the one I choose. Enough Pro features, at a not-so-Pro price. But I'll probably wait for reviews on the new Touch ID sensor to see how good (or how not so good) it is.
Of course, based on how I use my current iPad, the regular iPad is more than enough for my needs. And, of course, I am not planning to buy a new iPad anytime soon.
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The blue Apple Watch sure looks nice. So does the blue iPad. I like the color blue.
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How well is Apple doing? Answering that question is a bit like deciding whether to hand out a driver’s licence after the theory test: there is so much hard graft left to do. For now, Apple has made a historic promise and shown enough, by the way of results, to convince even the most scrupulous experts that it means to deliver. Still, it does have to deliver. As Tim Cook said in 2019, “The stakes are high and failure is not an option.”
Success for Apple will mean achieving several unprecedented and interconnected feats with very little time to spare. That is the challenge it has set itself, but there are no prizes here for good intentions. Hence environmentalists will continue to push for Apple to move even further away from fossil fuels and towards a closer embrace of the “Right to Repair” philosophy.
Customers with existing online orders can simply walk up to the counter and collect their purchase. Genius Bar appointments are served at a second counter. Only one customer per counter is allowed in the store’s entry, and walk-in shopping is not available at this time.
With spatial audio turned on, which you can do by long-pressing the volume slider in Control Center in the iOS or iPadOS 14 betas, the source of the sound seemed to come directly from my iPad that was sitting on my desk. Next, I switched to watching on my iPhone and moved it as I walked around my office. The entire time the sound seemed to be coming directly from the iPhone.
The Japanese government has approved the Apple Watch installed with its electrocardiogram app as a medical device, heralding an era of advanced wearables that will not just function as fitness trackers but also serve broader medical purposes.
If you haven’t yet taken advantage of these digital resources from your library, now would be a good time to try, for both convenience and safety. Virtually all US public library systems offer such lending options—the precise mix will vary from system to system. Libraries are able to offer such digital goodies by subscribing to third-party services that license such content for free distribution. Your tax dollars are at work here—you may as well benefit.
Fusion 12 includes a number of updates and improvements, such as eGPU compatibility, support for container-based applications built with Kubernetes, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 support, improved security for the sandbox rendering engine, improved accessibility controls, and more.
It hasn’t been a priority at Apple in more than a decade, but it has enough dedicated users, and unique use cases, that Apple hasn’t been able to quit it. I hope it never does.
Living in the land of UTC+8, I'll be, as usual, sleeping while Apple reveals its latest products.
(Speaking about sleeping, I've finally had a night of sleep without waking up in the middle the night. Yay. I am not optimistic that I can keep this up, though.)
While I am typing this, the online store is already closed, while webmasters are furiously updating products and prices. Happy Shopping!
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So, while macOS is more capable at having apps that work together, especially for the rare occasions when I need to use Skype and record audio from it at the same time for podcasting, I'm finding that the tricks and tools of the iPad Pro, along with its excellent screen, make it the primary device I move to when I leave my work computer at the end of the day.
Apple’s current position on this matter is indefensible. Simply, companies should be allowed to make an app that comprises a catalogue of games, and have those games be playable inside the same app. ‘100-in-1 minigames’ apps actually already exist on the App Store. The only difference with streaming services is where the game is physically being rendered.
If completed, the transaction would instantly transform Nvidia into one of the most influential players in smartphone technology, a market that had previously eluded it. Arm, which licenses designs that other companies turn into chips, has long defined the computing technology found in most mobile devices. And Arm designs are starting to play a bigger role in cloud data centers.
But the deal is likely to prompt close scrutiny by antitrust authorities around the world. Influential Arm customers potentially affected by the transaction include Apple, Samsung Electronics, Amazon.com, Qualcomm and Huawei.
I have no idea to make space on my iPhone so that I can download a rather-long audiobook onto the phone. After searching, in vain, of a button, somewhere, to tell the phone to remove 'temporary' files and phootos from the phone because there are perfectly good copies on the cloud, I've decided to just turn off iCloud Drive.
Not sure if there's a better way.
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These strings appear in the localization files used for the iPhone’s Manage Subscriptions screen. The text has been added recently, which may further suggest that Apple One is going to be announced at Apple’s special event on Tuesday.
While Apple will likely not end up using many of the domain names, it is typical for the company to secure numerous variations in order to ensure that others do not have control of them.
Today’s update brings crossposting support, which allows users to take an existing Reddit post and repost it to a similar subreddit. You can see the crossposts of other users and also make your own. Apollo app is now also compatible with Image Flairs, which is a tag that Reddit users can add to their usernames in subreddits.
The stylus may not be a good choice for artists, but anyone who wants basic note-taking or precision control in photo editing tools could benefit from it.
I hope Apple will not treat non-Apple One subscribers as 'second-class' members in the Apple ecosystem. Please, no such nonsenses as Apple One subscribers get priority treatment at Apple Stores, or Apple One subscribers get to watch the entire season of Ted Lasso first.
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There are other modifications to the App Review Guidelines including a few very narrow exceptions to the requirements that developers use In-App Purchases, but it’s clear from the changes that the primary goal of them is to clarify Apple’s stance on game streaming services. While not precluded outright, the requirement that they include a separate App Store app puts substantial requirements on service providers that many may not be able to comply with our for technical or practical reasons.
“This remains a bad experience for customers,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “Gamers want to jump directly into a game from their curated catalog within one app just like they do with movies or songs, and not be forced to download over 100 apps to play individual games from the cloud. We’re committed to putting gamers at the center of everything we do, and providing a great experience is core to that mission.”
From Apple’s point of view, it now has explicit rules to point to, but honestly, all this really means is that there won’t be game streaming services on the App Store. Neither Microsoft nor Epic is going to spend the time or money on what is not an insignificant amount of work and have to hand over the 30 percent cut to Apple on top of that. Just not going to happen.
Over a year after its U.S. launch, MacRumors has uncovered a range of evidence to suggest that Apple Card may soon be launching internationally.
Cook in a tweet said that Apple would be providing more money to firefighting and recovery, and that the fires are "an urgent reminder that we must act together to protect the plane we all share."
As Cook begins his 10th year at the helm, his management group is filled mostly with senior vice presidents who have worked at Apple for more than two decades, made tens of millions of dollars and are at or near the ages of 55 to 60 when many previous executives have stepped aside. That, along with typical corporate planning, has spurred the Cupertino, California-based company to cultivate its next class of top managers, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified talking about internal company discussions.
Apple really should rethink its whole approach to the App Store policies, to make it simplier and more predictable. Possibly at the expense of Apple collecting less money.
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I do not think it is always wrong for an app to have a back button; it is a mechanism that works just fine in a web browser and in file managers. But I think that this new breed of apps that try to bridge the gap between MacOS and iOS use this specific implementation of the back button as a crutch. It is an inelegant way of dealing with inelegant and unique design problems.
When reached for comment about yesterday’s news, Apple told The Verge that it was not doing anything to stop “Sign In with Apple” accounts from working with Epic Games. So there’s some kind of discrepancy in who is telling the truth, as Epic is maintaining that Apple was previously enforcing the shutoff (and the way Epic is talking about it, still possibly could).
With the latest release of Apple Music, version 3.4.0 beta, we find that Apple may have settled on the name “Apple One,” alongside an internal codename “aristotle.” These new strings in the app all but confirm that Apple Music will be included with Apple One when it launches.
Jamf, the Apple-focused mobile device management vendor, has announced a deeper collaboration with Microsoft Enterprise Mobility by adding iOS Device Compliance.
The feature will allow developers to test their in-app purchases for a wide range of scenarios, such as upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, introductory offers, and interrupted purchases.
The main purpose of the app is to enable anyone to create SwiftUI interfaces without writing any code. With DetailsPro, developers can imagine and create the main design of a new SwiftUI app using an iPhone or iPad.
The group has announced (in the first major update since the standard was revealed) that work on the project is still ongoing, and it’s targeting a 2021 release, along with the first clear idea of what devices the standard is aiming to work with.
This design is so clever and, once seen and experienced, so seemingly obvious. And yet it wasn’t obvious, until Marc Newson designed it and Apple popularized it.
So my advice to Apple would be the opposite of my advice to Netflix: release the full season of Ted Lasso all at once. Let people binge-mode it in a marathon, talk about it online as a whole and wholesome escape from our current reality, let it grow, and let the anticipation build for season two.
There are two back buttons in Safari on macOS: one is the regular web-browser back-button that we all learnt to use since the days of Mosaic and Netscape. And then, there is a different back-button that appears when I navigate into the bookmark folders in the web browser. More than once, I've clicked on the wrong button to back up from a bookmark folders to the root level of my Favorites booksmarks.
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The Apple Face Mask is made up of three layers to filter incoming and outgoing particles. It can be washed and reused as many as five times, the company told employees.
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The other model, the ClearMask, is the first FDA-cleared surgical mask that is completely transparent, Apple told employees. It shows the full face so people who are deaf or hard of hearing can better understand what the wearer is saying.
Readers from Singapore shared their photos of Apple’s grand opening on the waters of Marina Bay, where even this year’s necessary health and safety precautions couldn’t dim one of the most spectacular Apple Store designs ever revealed. The people of Singapore are passionate about photography, and the sweeping lines and panoramic views from the new store are sure to inspire creativity for years to come.
You still have complete control over where apps go. What it will do is help you create a more coherent, personalized view of your apps. Let’s review what the App Library is, how it works, and what it is not.
Apple’s aggressive tone and denial of monopoly power underscore the company's readiness to fight back hard against snowballing criticism from app developers. The company’s defensive stance offers a preview of what to expect as antitrust scrutiny of the company mounts in Washington.
Apple’s “Sign In with Apple” login system will no longer work with Epic Games accounts as soon as September 11th, Epic said today. The new restriction is another casualty of Apple and Epic’s ongoing spat.
If you're looking to do remotely serious art on your iPad, you want the Apple Pencil, there no question there. Pressure sensitivity is non-negotiable.
Beyond that, there's not that much to choose between them. They'll both work as well for each other at note taking or precision tool selection, though even then some apps can take advantage of the pressure sensitivity – it's just not as much of a dealbreaker.
The app is a refreshed version of the original watchOS platform, with a focus on step-by-step directions and estimated arrival times. Like Apple Maps, the Google navigation platform also takes advantages of Apple Watch haptics to provide guidance.
Does Apple's ClearMask work with FaceID? If so, can I buy some?
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The company also sent out email invitations to press with slightly more specific copy: "Please join us for a special Apple Event from Apple Park. Watch it online at apple.com." Additionally, it carries the tagline "Time Flies." The event time is 10am PDT on Tuesday, September 15—one week from today.
I’m in the camp who believes there often aren’t any noteworthy clues in the logos or event names for Apple events, but you don’t have be a genius to guess that “Time Flies” implies that Apple Watch is the headliner at next week’s event, which, in turn, means that there will be no iPhones announced.
When heading to Apple’s Events website you’ll see the date and time for the September “Time Flies” event along with an option to add it to your calendar. But on iPhone and iPad, you can tap on the September event logo to open a little hidden AR experience.
The banner behavior is in addition to a new feature in iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur that automatically redirects users to the Apple News app when they click on a News+ publisher link. Apple says the feature is designed for user convenience, since an Apple News+ subscription doesn't allow users to bypass publisher website paywalls.
Today marks the release of beta 5 and Apple has not implemented a way for standard users to enable screen recording. As a result they can’t share their screen with common video conferencing solutions like Webex, Zoom, Google Meet, and others. Imagine an online class where the teacher isn’t able to display a presentation or a student can’t show their work. During the largest shift to remote learning ever, that’s the future Apple delivered in beta 1, entirely missing the mark when it comes to how a large majority of their education customers use Macs.
Today, Apple and Winfrey extended coverage of Caste even further with an eight-episode podcast series hosted by Winfrey and Wilkerson that will “take listeners through the 8 Pillars of Caste.” A trailer and the first episode are available now. Episode one covers “what called [Wilkerson] to write Caste, how society needs a new way to talk about racism and why Oprah says Caste is one of the most profound books she’s ever read.”
Focused Work enables setting timers for different tasks that you can easily run to keep you on track with getting things done. Timers can be strung together in larger Focus Sessions wherein every timer represents a different stage of that work session.
Apple Canada's Develop in Swift curriculum has been redesigned to meet student learning styles thanks to educators' input. The new series includes four books— "Develop in Swift Explorations," "Develop in Swift AP CS Principles," and "Develop in Swift Fundamentals," which are all live today, and "Develop in Swift Data Collections," which will be available this fall.
[Apple] denied that its 30% commission was anti-competitive and said the fight was "a basic disagreement over money".
Apple also said Epic Games had violated its contract and asked for damages.
Will there be any flying watch faces this year? Maybe an actual fly that goes around and around?
(There is already a butterfly watch face, if I am not wrong.)
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It’s a nice idea, but in reality, there are numerous areas where Setup Assistant simply doesn’t—and probably can’t—save you from additional work. All of these relate to how the underlying identity of the Mac has changed, even if its name and the names of all the drives in play remain the same.
So if you’re planning to buy a new Mac, here are some of the tasks that may be left for you after migration.
As the fall is coming, we’re expecting the announcement of new Apple products at any time, including the iPhone 12 and Apple Watch Series 6. Today, most Apple Watch Series 5 models are currently unavailable on Apple’s website, which suggests the company is ready to launch the next generation of Apple Watch.
The store is called the Apple Marina Bay Sands, and is located in a luxury district of Singapore full of shops, restaurants, and the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino. The sphere is constructed from 114 individual pieces of glass held in place by 10 vertical mullions (the architectural term for supporting bars between panes of glass in a window), and Apple says the dome is a first-of-its kind construction: all-glass and fully self-supporting.
Four specific issues are being considered in Google, Dropbox, and iCloud terms and conditions, to see whether they may be unfair to consumers.
The consumer watchdog has said it will be examining the competition between Google Play and the App store, the use and sharing of data and whether more price transparency is required in the local app market.
The connected gym equipment market has heated up in the last couple of years, with Peloton as a leading brand in the space. Today, the company announced a new home exercise bike, called Peloton Bike+, which features GymKit support for seamless syncing of workouts to Apple Watch.
The car is modified with dozens of hardware parts, including a tower at the top of the vehicle with advanced high-resolution cameras and Zeiss lenses, LiDAR scanners, and a 2013 Mac Pro that processes all captured data in real-time. Everything is controlled by the EyeDrive unit, which is a modified iPad with the EyeDrive app that provides the assignments to be done and also allows operators to manage captured data.
Today, the chips that drive all of Apple’s products have multiple processing cores, able to do work in parallel. The iPhone 11 has six. My iMac Pro has eight.
But there was a time when the only Mac that supported multiprocessing wasn’t a Mac at all, but an extremely expensive workstation from a small town in northeastern Georgia. Don’t call it a clone. It was much, much more than that.
My mind is not at ease, because I don't know what tomorrow will bring. Actually, I don't think I mind too much what tomorrow will bring, but my mind is not at ease because I don't know whether I can handle what tomorrow will bring.
Strange times.
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On the other hand, I am not looking to start buying Apple Watches. And it is unlikely I will be 'first in-line' to buy this year's new iPhone, even though three years ago, I thought I will be.
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Rating an iPhone app takes just a second, maybe two. “Enjoying Skype?” a prompt will ask, and you click on a 1-5 star rating. Millions of people respond to these requests, giving little thought to their fleeting whim.
Behind the scenes, though, an entire industry has spent countless hours and lines of code to craft this moment. The prompt, seemingly random, can be orchestrated to hit your glowing screen only at times when you are most likely to leave a five star review.
If your eyes feel tired, it could be that they're strained from staring at bright glowing screens all day long. We're all indoors, spending more time than ever staring at computer screens, phones and tablets while we work from home. There are some settings built into the iPhone, Android, macOS and Windows 10 that can help you reduce eye strain and may make it easier to fall asleep by changing the color of your screen from white to orange-hued.
While such trackers are marketed as tools to demystify a user’s health needs, access to copious amounts of minute-by-minute health data may not be beneficial for the average user (read: ones without medical degrees).
Apple’s ECG app and irregular heart rhythm notifications on the Apple Watch Series 4 and 5 have received domestic approval and certification from Japan’s medical authorities, indicating that both features should go live in the country very soon.
Instead of having to load your books manually, you sign in to your Plex server, and all of your books are available to stream or download offline. Playback progress syncs over iCloud to listen on your iPhone and your iPad without losing your spot.
It's most definitely a niche market: a fancy sports car in a world full of sensible sedans. Sure, people may keep buying them, but very few people really need one, and eventually, for most people, practicality is going to trump luxury.
The way I try to reduce eye strain during the night is to look less at screens. Audiobooks and podcasts are my favorite activities the hour before bedtime.
The problem I may have, soon, is the inability to fall asleep without words streaming into my ears.
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When reached by TechCrunch, Apple did not say how many requests for user data it had received from Hong Kong authorities since the new national security law went into effect. But the company reiterated that it doesn’t receive requests for user content directly from Hong Kong. Instead, it relies on a long-established so-called mutual legal assistance treaty, allowing U.S. authorities to first review requests from foreign governments.
As for the option to share photos directly from iMessage, Mysk warned that “the user gets a minimalistic view of their photos. This method does not show any warning if a photo has location info in it. It also doesn’t provide an option to remove location info from the photo. In other words, the user picks a photo and sends it to a contact without knowing that the photo has location information in its EXIF properties.. Many of my friends actually use this method for sharing photos in iMessages.”
Does any of this mean that notarization is now useless, or has burned to death? If it were the sole means of protection against malware, of course it would. But macOS features a layered security system. Each layer, such as quarantine and first run checking, has its vulnerabilities and bypasses.
Sad things keep happneing at work. Yes, there are sadder things happening around the world. But still, it is difficult for me to give myself permission to be happy. (Especially from Mondays to Fridays.)
Howerver, as I am being reminded again and again (thanks!), there are things that are beyond my control nor influence. Focus on the other things, the advice goes.
This week, I am going to try harder to give myself permission to receive joy. There are still plenty surrounding me. Definitely at home, but also at work.
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Sweeney might not win this lawsuit, but he could get the ear of Congress and federal antitrust enforcement agencies, which could make life very difficult for Apple. They could bring a case to break up Apple, or they could pass laws to prohibit it from doing things that could hurt the little people.
Epic says it’s worried it “may never see these users again” (referring to the 60 percent decline); that its Fortnite community of players has been torn apart; and that some of its non-Fortnite customers have also been collateral damage.
After speaking with battery researchers and the reuse experts at iFixit, reviewing studies on phone replacement trends and analyzing some user data from Wirecutter staffers, we’ve found that although micromanaging your phone’s battery is likely to extend its life to a small degree, the results might not be worth the inconvenience in the long run.
For me, a much better option is to put my iPhone on its charger, and instead have notifications on my Apple Watch for important messages only. That way, when I need to get something done, I can ignore Slack, or email, or anything else that wants to steal my focus, and still know that if my wife needs to get ahold of me, I won't miss her text.
By going subscription, you are choosing to focus on fewer customers but your most dedicated customers. Given that this is a much smaller customer base, you need to charge a higher price.
In the book, Mermelstein, whose work is held by institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago and the New York Public Library, presents a series of iPhone photographs that he took over the course of two and a half years, capturing the quotidian dramas taking place on the phone screens of unsuspecting strangers. Mermelstein frames the screens tightly. We can sometimes observe hints of the person who is texting—a chipped manicure, a ring, an edge of a coat sleeve. But it is in the featured text, rather than in these minor details, that the pictures’ curiosity resides.
After about three years of using my iPhone X, the "Battery Health" section of iOS' Settings app is advising me to replace the battery. The maximum capacity is at 84%.
That was about 2.5 years of almost charging the phone all day. Okay, not really all day. But before these strange times, whenever I sat down at my desk in office, I always put my iPhone on a charging dock.
I did not bring the dock back home when the strange times began. And it is less convenient, for me, to plug in my lightning cable, so I now no longer charge the phone 'all day'.
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The feature, announced at Apple's annual developer conference in June, would require app developers to notify a user of an app's intent to track the user's IDFA (ID for Advertisers). IDFA is used to track the user's behavior across multiple apps and deliver targeted ads based on that behavior. The change would also require the user to opt in to that tracking.
Apple now says that, while developers will be able to implement this notification and request for permission, doing so will no longer be mandatory when iOS 14 launches sometime in the next couple of months. However, Apple was careful to clarify that it still intends to establish the requirement in the future, and that this is only a delay "to give developers time to make necessary changes."
The tracking industry is correct that iOS 14 users are going to overwhelmingly deny permission to track them. That’s not because Apple’s permission dialog is unnecessary scaring them — it’s because Apple’s permission dialog is accurately explaining what is going on in plain language, and it is repulsive.
Apple today shared a humorous new privacy-focused iPhone ad in which people awkwardly overshare their personal information with strangers, such as their credit card number, login details, and web browsing history.
Developers complain that titles waiting for App Store review sometimes take weeks to be cleared. One local games studio said it gave up hosting seasonal in-game events, which can be a big revenue accelerator, because Apple didn’t respond to their update review request for more than a month.
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Developers complain that titles waiting for App Store review sometimes take weeks to be cleared. One local games studio said it gave up hosting seasonal in-game events, which can be a big revenue accelerator, because Apple didn’t respond to their update review request for more than a month.
Apple has for the first time published a human rights policy that commits to respecting “freedom of information and expression”, following years of criticism that it bows to demands from Beijing and carries out censorship in China, Tibet, East Turkestan and Hong Kong.
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The four-page document, cited here for the first time, tries to walk a fine line between upholding human rights while conceding that Apple is “required to comply with local laws” in authoritarian countries.
I like that Apple is still taking the time to rethink old app designs, and I hope to see them continue being unafraid to rethink apps throughout the system. For Fitness in particular, it’s great to see Apple keeping their eye on the ball with improving Apple Watch activity tracking features.
Flyover is a built-in feature in Apple Maps that allows users to navigate around a city through 3D buildings instead of standard satellite images. Today the feature is being expanded to Amsterdam, Haarlem, Zandvoort, and other cities in the Netherlands.
This is an app that consumes audio files, generates text transcripts, and then lets you edit audio by editing the text transcriptions. Delete a sentence in the Descript text editor, and that sentence is edited out of the audio.
If the included Siri Remote is frustrating or you desire a remote with physical buttons, then the Button Remote is a perfect choice. Customers seeking an alternative remote for elderly family members or those with disabilities that make using a trackpad or tiny remote difficult, then the Button Remote is also a great choice.
I wonder if there are still any MP3 players that will work with macOS nowadays. No more iTunes. No more iSync.
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Jodie Deinhammer is a problem solver. This fall, the Coppell Middle School East science teacher and Apple Distinguished Educator based in Dallas, Texas, is teaching the school’s first gardening elective to eighth graders who will help tend the school’s community garden. Never mind the fact that the class is being taught remotely and students can’t visit the garden during school hours just yet. Deinhammer has long embraced technology in the classroom, equipping her students with both a practical hands-on learning experience and critical thinking skills since the district went one-to-one with iPad in 2014.
Apple is making it much easier for developers to get new or win back old subscribers with discounts or free offers. The tech giant has announced that it’ll give developers access to a feature called Offer Codes, which it describes as “unique, alphanumeric codes that provide free or discounted prices for auto-renewable subscriptions.” Developers will be able to distribute the one-time codes online or offline — they can give them out via email blasts, for instance, or hand them out at events.
Whereas 3D Touch for iPhone was tacked on years after the platform’s idioms were established, Force Touch was an inherent part of the Apple Watch’s design. The Watch’s small size meant that Apple needed a way to offer users access to additional app actions without taking up valuable screen space. So, the solution they came up with was that a firm press on the display would overlay a menu of buttons, relevant to the current context.
However, Apple is dropping pressure sensitivity from the Apple Watch this year and it is watchOS’s turn to adapt its software for a world without Force Touch. With watchOS 7, all of the old Force Touch menu stuff is deprecated. Instead, developers are expected to incorporate these buttons directly into their app UIs. In the WWDC sessions, Apple proposed a few approaches for how to achieve this.
Apple today updated its Apple Support app to version 4.1, introducing new language and Accessibility improvements to make the app more available to everyone, along with a new feature to make it easier to check in for appointments.
We spoke with education and privacy experts to glean some basic tips for things you can do now, before you end up with a $400 bill from the App Store, a digital footprint that will trail your children to college or just a stressed out and unhappy student.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this week ruled that Apple must pay retail workers for the time they spend waiting for their bags to be checked.
To help provide power for the center, Apple has announced that it will invest in the construction of two of the "worlds biggest" onshore wind turbines, to help fulfill the goal of becoming carbon neutral. The 200-meter wind turbines will be located near Esbjerg, and are expected to produce 62 gigawatt hours each year. If used solely on the grid, this would be enough to power almost 20,000 homes.
If the Apple Watch SE rumors are true, and SE is the new shuffle... I can't wait for a new Mac SE.
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Apple is releasing a point update to iOS just a week after the update’s first beta debuted. iOS 13.7 is rolling out now to iPhone users, bringing the COVID-19 Exposure Notifications system to users without the need to download a separate third-party app.
On Tuesday, Apple and Google said they would make it easier for states to use their new technology that detects phones that come close to one another and can notify people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
States that sign on will be able to send a notice directly to smartphones asking people to opt in to the technology. Previous versions of the technology had required people to seek out a state health agency’s app.
Apple today announced that the iOS app economy has created nearly 300,000 new jobs in the United States since April 2019, citing research shared by Dr. Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the non-profit Progressive Policy Institute.
European countries including France, the UK, and Italy have introduced "digital services taxes" which, unlike corporate income tax, target the tech giants by taking a slice of their gross revenue from that particular market. Turkey has introduced a similar tax. The broad thinking is that Big Tech should pay taxes where their consumers are located.
Apple on Tuesday announced a series of adjustments to its App Store fees in various countries as a result.
iA argues that Apple can’t have it both ways: on the one hand claiming that all apps and developers are treated equally, and on the other coming up with a complex set of rules which allow it to grant exceptions when it’s in the iPhone maker’s interest to do so.
Metro customers can now use their iPhones and other Apple devices to pay rail and bus fares. Customers also can reload their SmarTrip accounts with Apple Pay and a new Metro mobile app, the transit agency announced Tuesday.
Developed in Unity and dubbed Iviz, the open source app lets roboticists view a range of visualizations for ROS data, including point clouds and interactive markers.
While I’d love to see Apple come strong out of the gate with a pro laptop and an iMac running Apple silicon, I can see how releasing an Apple silicon MacBook this fall would be a relatively low-impact product that would allow Apple to buy time on the hardware development front, and also lower the pressure on developers who are recompiling their apps for Apple silicon.
MacRumors has learned that Apple later this month will add the seventh-generation iPod nano to its list of Vintage and Obsolete products, officially marking the final iPod in the iconic nano lineup as “vintage.”
Will all new Apple Silicon Mac include touchscreens? (Of course, the exceptions will be the Mac Pro and the Mac mini.) The answer may determine whether we will see the MacBook or the iMac first.
Or: is there a market for an even smaller iMac? Essentially, a relatively-portable move-around-the-house still-need-powerpoint iMac? This may not be for everyone, but some of the work-from-smaller-home folks may appreciate this over the laptop form-factor.
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The campaign is distributing the ubiquitous "Shlayer" adware, which by some counts has affected as many as one in 10 macOS devices in recent years. The malware exhibits standard adware behavior, like injecting ads into search results. It's not clear how Shlayer slipped past Apple's automated scans and checks to get notarized, especially given that it's virtually identical to past versions. But it's the first known example of malware being notarized for macOS.
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Wardle notified Apple about the rogue software on August 28 and the company revoked the Shlayer notarization certificates that same day, neutering the malware anywhere that it was installed and for future downloads. On August 30, though, Wardle noticed that the adware campaign was still active and distributing the same Shlayer downloads. They had simply been notarized using a different Apple Developer ID, just a few hours after the company began working on revoking the original certificates.
But despite all these efforts to simplify my cabling life, dongles rule everything around me. And around you, too. It comes with the territory.
Ultimately, the problem the dongle solves may never truly go away.
Apple is steadily removing even references to the old @mac.com and slightly less old @me.com addresses from its support documents. They may date all the way back to iTools and the iBook SE, but if you've got one of those addresses, you're probably hanging on to it no matter what Apple does.
Among a comprehensive product refresh in the fall, Apple is also preparing a new iPad Air with an edge-to-edge iPad Pro-like screen, two new Apple Watch versions and its first over-ear headphones outside the Beats brand. A smaller HomePod speaker is in the works, too.
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The four new phones will be split into two basic and two high-end models for the first time, and all will feature OLED displays with improved color and clarity.
The fastest technology, mmWave, will be used in dense areas like major cities. The longer-distance sub-6GHz networks will be available more broadly in urban, suburban and rural areas. Due to the impact of the global health crisis, however, shipments of Apple’s mmWave-enabled 5G iPhones could be weaker than expected this year and next year, according to reputable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Struggling with a backlog of episodes from your favorite shows? These tips will help you listen not just to more, but the best episodes.
Ginger Labs today announced an update to its popular productivity app Notability, introducing several new features designed to enhance creativity within the app.
In a note to developers today, Apple confirmed that those two changes have been implemented, encouraging developers to suggest changes to guidelines and Apple’s development platforms.
The ports and the plastic weren’t what really set the Blue and White G3 apart, though. It was its design—one driven in large part by ergonomics. This is the first professional Mac that came with handles and a hinged access door. It was revolutionary.
While beta testing is moving along nicely, and Apple recently switched from a biweekly schedule to a weekly schedule for releases, there is quite a bit of uncertainty about when Apple plans to release iOS 14 to everyone.
As a writer, a multi-faceted participant in the blog era, and a current artist manager myself, I often think of the blog days and how special they were. While generating revenue as an independent artist has in theory gotten easier as Spotify and Apple Music (along with Instagram, Twitter and TikTok) have taken center stage as the music distribution platforms, I still long for the days when consumers were more interested in the narrative. It was cyclical—artists were generally more focused on the bigger picture, seeing beyond the moment and identifying how their career could unfold—and fans, via blogs, could experience the journey alongside them. There’s no reason to sugarcoat it: blogging as a medium by which to cover music is nearly obsolete. Articles have been replaced with short-form video, blurbs have been replaced with playlists.
Why don't we also have rumors on the colors of the next iPhones?
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