D. Griffin Jones - page 4

Apple’s new flagship desktop display, the Studio Display XDR, is what you get out of a blender when you combine a mini-LED with the high adaptive refresh rate of a MacBook Pro and the 27-inch 5K screen size of the regular Studio Display. 

It’s a brilliant combination. Starting at $3,299, it’s significantly cheaper — and unfortunately a little smaller — than the Pro Display XDR, the $5,000-plus monitor it replaces. However, it supersedes its high-end predecessor in all other specs. Apple made incredibly smart choices about what to include and what to cut.

Ironically, now the $1,599 regular Studio Display is the bunk product in Apple’s monitor lineup. It misses out on the Studio Display XDR’s top new feature — 120 Hz Adaptive Sync. And it’s about twice as expensive as competing monitors from Asus, BenQ and ViewSonic. 

Now, the Studio Display XDR stands in a class of its own. And for, like, half as much money as Apple’s previous top monitor. 

The MacBook Neo exceeds all expectations and defies all logic. It’s a $599 computer that’s not slow. The cheap laptop sports a light aluminum unibody with exceptional fit and finish, along with a gorgeous, bright Retina display. It runs on an iPhone chip, yet it’s incredibly fast with unbelievable battery life.

The name itself, Neo, reminds you that this is not a computer made out of spare parts. It’s a bespoke industrial design with a brand-new display and feature set. That feature set excludes things that longtime members of the cult consider quintessential Mac features — a backlit keyboard, an ambient light sensor and a MagSafe connection.

Nonetheless, the MacBook Neo will be a lot of people’s first exposure to the Mac. I wanted to know what their experience will be like — and I think they’ll be very happy.

In iOS 26, the awesome new Spatial Scenes feature lets you convert an ordinary 2D photo to a 3D scene that moves in your hand. It doesn’t have to be a recent picture or one taken with a special camera, either. You can try out Apple’s new 3D effect on any decent photo, even if it’s from 20 years ago.

You can play with Spatial Scenes in the Photos app, converting images and seeing how the effect works. But the best part is that you can set one as your iPhone’s Lock Screen wallpaper, and see it every time you unlock your phone. It even works with the excellent Photo Shuffle feature, so you’ll keep getting new ones to gawk at.

Check out the GIFs below that show how Spatial Scenes work, or watch our hands-on demo video.

Studies show that a haptic keyboard improves touchscreen typing speed and input accuracy, but very few people know you can enable it on your iPhone.

Android phones years ago had haptic keyboards, but without a precision vibration motor, the feedback was too slow to make the illusion really work. With the Taptic Engine — hardware in every iPhone since the iPhone 6s that can simulate all kinds of vibrating textures — Apple created a perfectly convincing effect to enable the haptic keyboard.

Read on to see where to enable it — or watch our quick video.

Apple: The First 50 Years by David Pogue is a comprehensive retelling of the most influential tech company in history and the people behind it. The book covers the early hobby projects of teenage Steve Wozniak to Apple Intelligence, and the lifetime’s worth of everything in between, in about 600 pages.

It’s just the right amount of detail and depth to tell the whole story of Apple’s rocketing rise to power, years of tumult and insanely great turnaround. It’s an easy and highly entertaining read. You don’t need a technical or nerdy background at all. And there are hundreds of full-color pictures. 

Apple: The First 50 Years is now the definitive all-encompassing book I would recommend for anyone interested in the company that changed the world … at least three separate times. 

The recently introduced high-end M5 MacBook Pro may be a spec bump update before the M6 models bring radical new changes. But before you commit to sitting this generation out, you should know the M6 models will likely come with some caveats.

An all-new design with new features (like a slimmer chassis and touch screen) usually brings with it an all-new price that’s higher than before. If you’re holding out for the M6 Pro or Max models, you may be waiting for longer than you expect. And if you’re just getting the base model, well, the rumored changes may not come at all. 

This isn’t pure speculation; Apple has a proven track record of pulling all these tricks. Here are three reasons why the M5 MacBook Pro may actually be the better choice for you.

The MacBook Neo is Apple’s newest low-end MacBook. Does that mean there’s no reason to buy a MacBook Air anymore? Would power users go straight for the MacBook Pro? I don’t think so. There are still plenty of reasons to buy Apple’s midrange MacBook Air vs. the MacBook Neo.

Apple did a good job differentiating the two computers — there’s no configuration of the Neo that overlaps with the Air. Picking between the two should be straightforward. If you want more than 512GB storage, 8GB of memory or support for multiple external displays, you should opt for the MacBook Air. If you don’t need that much power or high specs, the Neo will do just great for you.

Here are all the differences between the two laptops. 

Apple introduced the MacBook Neo on Wednesday, unveiling the company’s most affordable laptop ever. It comes in four gorgeous, vibrant colors — silver, blush, indigo and citrus — and costs just $599 (or $499 with Apple’s education discount).

“We’re incredibly excited to introduce MacBook Neo, which delivers the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in a press release. “MacBook Neo is a laptop only Apple could create. It features a durable aluminum design in four beautiful colors; Apple silicon-powered performance; all-day battery life. There is simply no other laptop like it.”

The MacBook Neo is available for preorder now and will be available on March 11.

If you’re tired of your kids’ or partner’s music polluting your music recommendations and history, there’s a solution. While Apple Music does not offer a built-in private mode, you can make your own using a Focus mode.

Turn on a special Focus mode, and Apple Music will ignore all the songs, artists and albums that play next.

It’s even possible to enable your private mode when you connect to a specific Bluetooth speaker, like a living room sound system. Or when you enter a specific location, like work. Here’s how to set it up — keep reading or watch our quick video.

Upcoming iOS 26 feature Apple Music Concerts solves one of music lovers’ biggest heartbreaks — finding out too late that your favorite artist already passed through your neighborhood on tour, unbeknownst to you.

The feature lets you see shows coming soon to your city, with convenient details on venues, ticketing, set lists and more. You can also look up an artist’s tour and see all their upcoming shows.

Supposedly, Apple Music Concerts will even notify you when a tour is coming nearby. The feature, available now in iOS 26.4 beta 2, hasn’t been out long enough for me to test. But if it works like the Apple Music notifications that alert you about new tracks, it could be a lifesaver.

Unfortunately, though, there’s one serious drawback. Here’s an overview of Apple Music Concerts. 

A hidden gesture on the iPhone and iPad lets you quickly select a bunch of items in a list — kind of like Command-A (⌘A) for Select All on a Mac. I use it all the time to select a bunch of emails to archive, a bunch of reminders to rearrange, a batch of files to sort, etc. 

Once you learn this two-finger swipe gesture, you’ll use it everywhere. It’s great for getting work done on the go with your phone. Watch our quick video or keep reading.

Apple Watch texting is not fun, no matter which way you slice it. But it can be made a lot easier if you spend a few minutes setting up canned messages for you to instantly reply with later. It makes texting much easier. Here’s how to set it up.

The Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Desktops and Displays, despite what its lengthy product name may imply, is a simple and straightforward product that does one thing remarkably well. It mounts your iPhone to a desktop display with MagSafe.

It’s straightforward to set up; it’s easy to plop your phone on and pull it off; it’s well made and feels nice in the hand. It’s great for Continuity Camera. The Belkin iPhone Mount with… no, I’m not writing all that out again. The Belkin iPhone display thing is an easy recommendation.

For the first time in 18 years, Apple redesigned the oft-overlooked Phone app. The overhaul in iOS 26 simplifies the Phone app’s layout, putting your favorites, call history and voicemails in one tab, and providing easier access to search.

Its fancy Liquid Glass-inspired layout goes hand-in-hand with the Phone app’s excellent call filtering features.

Here’s how you can learn to love the new design — and how to nope out of it if you don’t like it.

The GameSir X5s is a great and affordable way to upgrade your mobile gaming. Your phone, whichever model you have, slides right in the middle, and suddenly you have console-quality physical controls. It’s lightweight, ideal for traveling, and comes with a simple plastic travel case. 

It even works with the Nintendo Switch — its ergonomic grips are far more comfortable than the flat Joy-Cons. There’s also a matching accessory, the FX5 cooler, that adds active cooling to your iPhone. It’s great for high-performance pro gaming over long periods of time. 

All in all, the GameSir X5s is a great way to take mobile gaming to the next level, whether you’re playing full 3D games or 40-year-old ROMs in Delta. 

Accidentally texting the wrong person can bring disastrous consequences, and yet it’s incredibly simple to mix up threads. Luckily, iOS 26 offers a great way to keep things straight: You can add specific backgrounds to various Messages conversations on your iPhone so you can easily tell them apart.

For instance, if you set a shimmery blue background for your group chat with co-workers, you’ll never confuse that conversation for a sensitive one-on-one text with your closest colleague. You’ll never accidentally send a message to your boss meant for your partner if the chats look obviously different.

Setting up an iPhone Messages background is super-easy — here’s how it works.

Using a clipboard history manager on a Mac is a total game-changer. If you copy something important, then copy something else without thinking, the first item doesn’t disappear. You can go back and get it again. In fact, you can go back and paste things from hours and hours ago, like a link you copied earlier in the day. 

You can also copy a bunch of things in a row and quickly paste them elsewhere, without switching back and forth and back and forth. 

macOS 26 Tahoe added a built-in clipboard history that does all that for free. Here’s how it works.

Apple News gives you a streamlined way to keep up with current events. It’s a sane, if somewhat generic-looking, way to stay on top of the news that matters to you. If you want more, Apple News+ offers paywall-free access to major publications, local news and magazines. And to sweeten the deal, it has fun daily puzzles, excellent recipes and audio stories.

Admittedly, not a lot of people pay for Apple News+ on its own. It’s hardly a fan favorite. But if you have the Apple One Premier bundle, you can enjoy all of its hidden benefits — here’s how to make the most of it. Keep reading or watch our quick video. 

The Messages app gains flashy new features in iOS 26 that make group chats far more fun and efficient. It also filters out spam texts, translates conversations and more.

As the iPhone’s default messaging app, Messages is one of Apple’s darlings. The app gains new features with every major update, but iOS 26 stands out as one of the best in years. Here’s how all the new Messages features work — keep reading or watch our quick video.

You can charge your AirPods to 100% and get more battery life out of them by switching off the default setting, which limits them to 80%. The charge limit can help preserve your AirPods’ battery to extend their useful life. But that comes at the expense of more frequent charging every day. And if you find yourself in a situation where you need that extra battery life, this tip lets you unlock it — for one day or forever.

If you want to squeeze as much battery life out of your AirPods as possible, and you don’t mind upgrading every few years, here’s how to change the setting. Keep reading or watch our quick video.

All the tiny signs, symbols and icons on the Apple Music app’s Now Playing screen lack labels — and it’s not obvious at all what they do. Do you know what tapping the infinity symbol does? How about the two wavy lines? 

This quick guide runs through all the Apple Music buttons and controls, so you can get acclimated to its interface. Keep reading or watch our short video.

You can set up your Apple TV’s Siri Remote to control the volume levels of a separate sound system. It might not work out of the box. But with a little poking around in Settings, you can set it up so you can use the convenient volume buttons built into the Siri Remote to control sound bars, etc.

That means you won’t need to keep two or three remotes lying around — you can make it all work from just one. It just takes a little setup.

Developer Mode lets you run unsigned code on your iPhone or iPad. Enable it, and you can download and run apps that are not from the App Store (or alternative app marketplaces) or in TestFlight, Apple’s tool that lets developers invite users to beta-test new apps.
If you want to write your own apps in Xcode, you will need to enable Developer Mode on your iPhone or iPad before running your app.
Developer Mode is also essential if you want to sideload apps onto your device from a Mac, using an app like Sideloadly. This could include apps that aren’t allowed on the App Store (such as porn app Hot Tub) or apps that are no longer available from their original developers, like Apollo (the now-shuttered Reddit client). For sideloading to work, you will need to turn on Developer Mode. 
Read on to see how to enable Developer Mode on your iPhone or iPad, as well as the potential security implications.

The iPhone’s Live Captions feature generates subtitles of any media playing on your device or heard by its microphone. Powered by the Neural Engine in Apple’s custom silicon, the ability to convert words from music, videos and real-time conversations into text on the fly is a boon to many users in many situations.
If you’re hard of hearing, for instance, the ability to see instant captions on the screen is a game-changer. Or, if you don’t have headphones when you’re sitting in bed late at night and your partner is asleep — or you’re in any situation where you don’t want to make noise, like on the bus or in an office — you can turn on Live Captions to get subtitles.
The applications are endless and exciting. Here’s how to use Live Captions on your iPhone.

If you come across a live concert recording, a demo track or an indie song that’s not already in Apple Music, you can add it to your Apple Music library really easily. It’s simple to upload music to Apple Music and, in fact, you don’t even need an Apple Music subscription — just a computer and your iPhone.
Adding music to your library manually used to be the only way to listen to music on your computer, way back before the iTunes Music Store made paid downloads popular and Apple Music entered the streaming area. Even after 25-plus years, Apple still supports the feature — and thankfully so, because I use it all the time.
It’s the top reason why I don’t use Spotify. While Spotify technically supports custom music as well, it’s a convoluted and clunky process. On Apple Music, it’s dead simple to add your own tracks and only takes minutes. All you need is a Mac or a Windows 10 PC with iTunes.
Here’s how it works — keep reading or watch our quick video.