To celebrate the U.S. National Park Service hitting its 108th birthday, Apple will donate $10 for purchases made in its retail stores or online store this week to the National Park Foundation.
This has become an annual tradition for the iPhone-maker.
The dual-camera system in the two basic iPhone models is an unnecessary complication. The iPhone’s secondary Ultra Wide camera simply doesn’t get used enough to justify building it into a handset.
Apple should focus entirely on the primary camera — the only one most people ever use. The iPhone’s Ultra Wide camera just adds unnecessary bulk and expense.
A new buddy action comedy starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck is more popular than any film on streaming, according to a rating analysis firm. And The Instigators is more popular than any streaming series, too.
Meanwhile, three Apple TV+ series pull in plenty of viewers too, including the newly launched Bad Monkey.
Apple TV+ committed on Friday to Dark Matter season two so fans of the popular sci-fi series won’t be left wondering what will happen with Ryan and Amanda.
The show now heads into uncharted territory — season one followed the events of a bestselling novel, but there’s no sequel for the book.
A sale on a four-pack of AirTags brings the Apple tracker close to its lowest price ever. Each AirTag costs less than $20 after a 19% discount from Amazon or Best Buy. If you’d prefer a single tracker, you can get a solo AirTag for up to 14% off the usual price.
AirTags are a great way to keep you from leaving important items behind, or to help you find them if you misplace them.
Among the casing color options for the two iPhone 16 Pro models will supposedly be bronze titanium. The first image apparently showing this colorway leaked Friday.
The picture reveals the other three upcoming color options, too.
The Epic Games Store launched Friday, allowing iPhone users to install the popular Fortnite for the first time since Apple kicked Epic out of the official App Store in 2020.
But there’s an important caveat: the new iOS app marketplace is available only in the European Union.
★★★★☆
ESR’s Rebound Magnetic Keyboard Case 360 includes a protective case for an iPad as well as a keyboard and trackpad. It offers typing with the tablet in portrait or landscape, a trick Apple’s own case/keyboard can’t match. You also can use the case when you leave the keyboard behind.
I tested it with my 13-inch iPad Pro. Here are my hands-on impressions.
Apple is reportedly ramping up work on a tabletop computer that’s essentially an iPad on a robot arm that can rotate and tilt the tablet to keep it facing the user.
This might be the source of previous rumors of a HomePod with a large screen.
I’ve read complaints online that Face ID on iPads is defective. I think what’s happening instead is that the biometric security system in Apple’s tablets has been set to be overly exacting. If it seems like Face ID is not working on your iPad, changing a single security setting can help.
I turned off the Require Attention setting on my iPad Pro and it made Face ID noticeably better. Presto, unlocking anything on my iPad became quick and easy. Previously, it felt like the computer was working to avoid giving me access.
Admittedly, changing this setting made my tablet a little bit less secure. But that’s a very small risk for a significant gain in usability. I recommend it to anyone who uses an iPad and thinks Face ID is not working properly.
Correctly determining when soccer players are offside turns out to be surprisingly difficult. And the English Premier League turned to an unusual source for a fix: an offside-detection system powered by dozens of iPhones.
The same system might someday be used to track players in other sports, too.
Leaks tell us Apple is prepping a super-slim version of next year’s iPhone 17 without all the features of the Pro models but with a price that’ll make it the most expensive in the lineup. These reports left many of us skeptical. Would anyone pay more for a slim-but-stripped-down iPhone?
But let’s change the rumor slightly — what if Apple is prepping a super-slim iOS handset that folds? If the recent leaks are actually about the iPhone 17 Fold, they make a lot more sense.
Western Digital has been showing off its upcoming SD card with a whopping 8TB of storage capacity. And if that weren’t enough, the company’s SanDisk subsidiary is also prepping a tiny microSD card that can hold 4TB.
The days when a bulky external hard drive was necessary to carry around a huge collection of files are almost over.
Patreon, a service that many authors, artists, etc. use to get funding from fans, has to switch its iPhone/iPad application to Apple’s in-app purchase system by November. The company criticized the requirement on Monday, and pointed out this will add Apple’s 30% App Store fee to all new memberships purchased through the iOS software.
But Patreon isn’t being singled out — Apple makes virtually all applications use its purchasing system. Not that’s everyone is happy about it.
A button being added to the iPhone 16 Pro models is designed to act like the shutter button on DSLR cameras, according to information leaking out of Apple. That includes doing much more than simply taking pictures when pushed.
After years of keeping the iPhone buttons to a minimum, the number continues to expand.
Rumors indicate the iPad 11 is nearly here, and an iPad mini 7 is in development, too. Neither tablet has been updated in years, but that could change this autumn. Finally! We can look forward to better performance and maybe Apple Intelligence.
Here’s what’s likely coming in late 2024 to Apple’s budget tablet, and what we’ve heard about an iPad mini 7 release date.
Some people were skeptical when Apple TV+ turned the 1981 cult classic movie Time Bandits into a comedic adventure series for all ages. But it’s hard to argue with success — for the second week, the show starring Lisa Kudrow is one of the most popular on any streaming service.
And Jake Gyllenhaal’s crime drama Presumed Innocent continues to pull in a huge audience.
A Mac or iPhone is a no longer needed to access Apple Maps — a web version reached public beta testing Wednesday. It allows users to get driving and walking directions from a web browser, including Chrome and Edge on Windows PCs.
Update: Several weeks after the initial release, Apple Maps on the web now works on a broader selection of web browsers.
Shrinking, the hit comedy starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford as therapists with problems of their own, returns to Apple TV+ on October 16. Friday’s’s announcement came with a tiny teaser video for season 2.
This is another entry in Apple’s collection of shows with a radical premise: People in sitcoms don’t have to be horrible to each other.
Update: Apple TV+ posted on social media about Shrinking season 2 on August 5, then pulled the post and video shortly afterward. The teaser trailer came back on Friday.
★★★★☆
Mageasy Lift Standing & Folding Folio iPad Case folds into a stand that raises your tablet screen up closer to eye level. It’s a trick that really helps it stand out from the competition (see what I did there?).
It can also be folded into other shapes to provide a range of viewing angles. And when on the go, the case wraps completely around the iPad to protect it.
I tested the Lift with my 2024 iPad Pro.
Apple is going to shrink the next Mac mini when it adds an M4 processor, according to an often-reliable source of insider information. The desktop could be the size of an Apple TV.
So, Mac micro?
An iPad Air with an OLED display rather than the current LCD seems a safe bet considering the number of leaks indicating one is in development. But sources can’t agree on when — the latest report says 2026.
That said, Apple already has an OLED tablet for those who want one now.
Apple released iOS 17.6.1, iPadOS 17.6.1 and macOS Sonoma 14.6.1 on Wednesday. These are patches to fix a problem with Advanced Data Protection, a collection of tools to keep data and communications safe in the cloud.
While there are no new features, the updates are nevertheless important.
The itty-bitty Samsung USB Type-C Flash Drive is now available with up to 512GB of storage capacity — twice as much as before. And the company’s miniature USB-A version also doubled in capacity.
Plus, the 256GB versions are on sale at some nice discounts.
The cost of streaming Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ goes up this autumn. The three streaming video services are ready to watch on Mac, iPad, iPhone or Apple TV. It’ll just cost a bit more in a few months.
The new prices could be important to those currently getting these services free or cheaply by sharing passwords. Disney CEO Bob Iger warned that a crackdown on the practice starts soon.