D. Griffin Jones - page 20

Add your COVID-19 vaccine card to Apple Wallet on your iPhone, and you can leave your physical card safe at home. Some places may require proof of vaccination to enter, like international airports, concert venues and cruise ships.

If your health care provider can share data with the Apple Health app, and if digital cards are considered valid proof of vaccination where you’re going, and if the stars are in the right place, too, you just might be able to go all-in on Apple Wallet. Let me show you how.

Shift Happens, a book about keyboards, is now 400% funded on Kickstarter. This makes it the second-most funded non-fiction book ever on the crowdfunding site. The book, by designer/writer Marcin Wichary, “tells the story of keyboards like no book ever before, covering 150 years from the early typewriters to the pixellated keyboards in our pockets,” according to the project website.

Shift Happens is available on Kickstarter until March 9. Donate $150 and you can get the two-volume hardcover set inside a slipcase.

Correction: This story was based on a misunderstanding of the facts. We published a correction to set the matter straight. Read that instead of the story below.

Linux has officially added support for Apple silicon in its latest release. Ubuntu and Fedora, two of the most popular distributions of Linux, will soon be integrating this feature.

While it’s still early for Apple silicon support, and not all computers with M-series chips will work, this is a significant milestone for Linux users. Computer scientists, programmers and hobbyists have not yet been able to fully take advantage of Apple’s powerful new hardware.

Apple issued an important software update recently — and we’re not talking for iPhone, Mac, iPad or Apple Watch. It’s 2023, so it’s for something way more esoteric: a power cable.

Yes, the USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable comes with a tiny computer inside of it that needs software updates, for some inscrutable reason.

In order to be approved for Apple Pay Later, the company’s own buy now, pay later service, individuals will need to be loyal Apple customers. The service has strict hoops you need to jump through: Apple will check your spending at Apple Stores, purchases and subscriptions on the App Store, Apple Cash payments, Apple Pay history and more.

Even if you work for Apple, you may only be approved for a $1,000 loan. The feature continues to undergo internal testing after being delayed since September, according to Bloomberg.

iPhone battery dying faster than you’d like? You can see exactly what’s using up your iPhone battery in the Settings app. It will show you which apps use more power than others, what services run in the background, and what drains your battery most over the course of the week.

If you suspect your phone doesn’t last as long as it used to, or notice that it’s charging very slowly, this will help you diagnose the problem.

Keep reading to find out whether you should quit all your iPhone apps when you’re done using them (you shouldn’t) and how you can keep apps and email from running in the background.

A lot of healthcare providers have terrible websites. Apple’s Health app, on the other hand, is very well organized and intuitive to use. You can add your medical records to the Apple Health app for easy access to all your health history, medications, test results and data. If your healthcare provider supports this feature, it’s incredibly convenient having all your information in one place. Once it’s in the Health app, you can easily add medication reminders and share your information with doctors, close family members and friends.

I’ve juggled between a few healthcare providers and I’ve never found one with a comprehensible, user-friendly website. If you have the right healthcare provider, and the stars are in the right place too, you should be able to connect them.

You can instantly translate text anywhere on your iPhone and Mac. You don’t need to futz around retyping or copying text into a Google Translate tab — you can select text and get translations from 11 languages wherever you are.

It’s extremely fast and it works everywhere: not just text on the web, in email and in apps; but also inside pictures, videos and directly from the camera, too. Let me show you how it works.

What pulled Apple away from Intel? In a new interview, Apple executives Tim Millet and Bob Borchers reveal why the company shifted to making its own Mac chips.

Plus, they shed light on what they’re doing to make the Mac a gaming platform once again, how the Apple silicon architecture can make it happen, and when the best time is to buy a new Mac.

How do you use BeReal, one of the top new social media apps? It’s simple: You and your friends get one (and only one) opportunity to post a picture a day, all at the same time. You can see what everyone’s up to in this small slice of the day.

It’s a social media app like no other. Let me walk you through what it’s like to create an account and use BeReal.

Apple’s installed base now exceeds 2 billion active devices, CEO Tim Cook said during Thursday’s earnings call. Although revenue in Apple’s first quarter fell $6.7 billion short of last year’s, the continued growth helped the company achieve what Cook called “a truly incredible milestone.”

When you pick up a classic Macintosh (or a vintage computer of any kind) that hasn’t been used in a while, you need to check it out before plugging it in and turning it on. Capacitors on old motherboards fail and leak over time; you DO NOT want to run power to a computer if this has happened; you could easily fry the motherboard.

Collecting old computers is a lot of fun. You can use old versions of Mac OS in emulators online, but it’s nothing compared to the experience of setting up a heavy machine on your desk, hearing the fans and disk drives whir to life and watching a fuzzy CRT display fade in from black. If you’re new to this (rather expensive) hobby, you can also check out my earlier piece on how to get started — what to look for, what to watch out for and where to shop.

So, you are the new custodian of a classic computer. What should you do before you power it on for the first time?

Claims that Apple is phoning home to analyze every image on your Mac have been proven false. Jeffrey Paul, security researcher and consultant, claimed early last week that his Mac was sending small bits of data to Apple every time he clicked on an image on his computer.

After Paul’s claims caused a bit of a stir, researchers got to the bottom of what was actually happening. Not only did they conclude the network activity was innocent — it was caused by a bug that’s already been patched in the latest macOS update.

The new Mac mini and the high-end MacBook Pro are the first Macs to receive Apple’s powerful new M2 Pro and Max chips. But should you upgrade to the new MacBook Pro (or Mac mini) or not?

That depends on what Mac you already have. Our charts and video will walk you through the decision-making process if you’re considering buying a new Mac. (Bonus: We also break down the pros and cons of the new HomePod versus the original and the HomePod mini.)

The Apple Watch borrows a lot from the iPhone, but the biggest difference between them is down to the extra buttons. They each do different things whether you click, double-click or hold them down. What do the Apple Watch buttons do?

This guide was written before watchOS 10 changed and moved a lot of these features. See our updated guide if you’re confused why your Watch suddenly works differently.

Apple has released a special new Apple Watch band, watch face and iPhone wallpaper celebrating Black History Month. Apple has done this every February in 2021 and 2022.

The Black Unity Sport Loop is available today in the online store and in “select Apple Store locations beginning January 24” Apple said in its press release. It will cost $49, the same price as other Sport Loop bands. The watch face and iPhone background will be released in a software update next week.

It’s annoying when a book you want to read doesn’t have an audiobook version — they’re great while you’re driving, doing dishes or folding laundry. Apple is now offering authors AI-generated audiobooks of their work. Novels you otherwise wouldn’t be able to hear, you can now find in the Apple Books app. Let me show you how you can find and listen to them if you’re curious.

Apple launched a new Mac mini Tuesday, an upgraded model that uses the M2 chip seen last summer in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. A higher-end version runs on the brand-new M2 Pro chip, which also powers the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, also introduced today.

“Bringing even more performance and a lower starting price, Mac mini with M2 is a tremendous value,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in a press release. “And for users who need powerful pro performance, Mac mini with M2 Pro is unlike any other desktop in its class.”

The computers are available to preorder today and will arrive January 24.

Update: This prediction came 100% true. Apple took the wraps off a pair of Macs on January 17. Don’t miss Cult of Mac‘s full coverage:

• New MacBook Pro models come supercharged with M2 Pro and Max chips
• Apple launches powerful new Mac mini at a lower cost
• Apple’s new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips raise the performance bar … again
• How the new M2 Pro and Max MacBook Pros compare to M1 models

Rumors suggest Apple is preparing for a quiet release of new Mac computers as early as Tuesday. These will include updates to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models in addition to the Mac mini. The updates reportedly will be minor, bringing the new M2 chips to the computers.

There won’t be an Apple event — the company will announce the new computers by press release, if the rumors prove correct.

I’ve been on a quest to discover the perfect Mac keyboard. I’m looking for a compact keyboard with modern Mac styling — and the best key switches money can buy.

That’s when I discovered Model F Labs, whose keyboards are truly one-of-a-kind. They offer plenty of normal designs — but I ordered one in silver with blank unprinted keys. Keep reading to find out why I ordered what I did, why I love it and why I’ll be keeping it on my desk.

Apple now has engineers “actively engaged in the project” of adding touchscreens to Mac computers, starting with the popular MacBook Pro. According to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, a consistent and reliable leaker, the first Mac with a touchscreen display could ship as soon as 2025.

The product is evidently still being tested internally, with no definitive plans for a product launch set in motion.

Most people don’t really use AM and FM radios anymore, but streaming live content is hardly dead. Lots of podcasts do live streams — and you can still tune into radio stations online. Broadcasts, an app by independent developer Steven Troughton-Smith, makes listening to live music and streaming radio on your iPhone very easy.

Let me show you how it works.

The Mac is hardly ever the focus of events like CES. But at this year’s massive tech conference in Las Vegas, two promising displays were announced by Samsung and Dell.

Any new Retina display options for the Mac are a welcome treat. Let’s see how these new monitors stack up.

Over the past 20 years, Apple’s Safari web browser grew from a speedy young upstart to a polished professional. Released on this day in 2003 as a free download, Safari has been bundled with every version of the Mac operating system since.

Take a trip down memory lane as we look at how Safari has evolved over the years.

After Apple killed Dark Sky on January 1, many fans found themselves lamenting the loss of the groundbreaking weather app that offered hyperlocal forecasts. Luckily, you can re-create Dark Sky’s main features using a competing app called Carrot Weather. Alternatively, you can quickly tweak Apple’s built-in Weather app so it acts more like Dark Sky.

Let me show you how to enjoy Dark Sky’s beautiful user interface, and its uncannily accurate weather alerts, using other weather apps.