tvOS 16.4.1 is out to deal with some bugs in Apple TV devices. This comes several days after new bug-fix updates for iPhone, Mac and iPad.
A fresh tvOS update means there’s new HomePod software, too.
The powerful image-editing application Pixelmator Photo is now Photomator. Beyond the name change, the app for iPad and iPhone has been redesigned, and also now lets users easily select and edit specific areas of a photo.
In addition, a public beta of Photomator for Mac is now available.
An Apple TV+ series that turns a murder mystery into a genre-mixing comedy will soon return. Season two of the The Afterparty premieres in July.
There’s a new mystery to solve with a fresh cast of suspects, though Tiffany Haddish and some of the other stars of season one will be back.
With Earth Day coming up, Apple says it’s doubling its total commitment to “nature-based carbon removal projects” with an additional $200 million investment. In less technical terms, it’s backing projects to plant trees.
And it’s not just trees for trees’ sake. Part of Apple’s Restore Fund goes to agricultural projects that generate income from sustainably managed tree farms.
★★★★☆
The just-released Plugable AMS-5IN1E is a USB-C hub that attaches to the side of a MacBook and adds ports that Apple won’t, including USB-A and Ethernet. And it does so without blocking one of the USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and MagSafe charging.
I tested the five ports in this affordable hub to see how well they perform in the real world.
Testing shows that the recently released iOS 16.4.1 does not fix an iPhone battery problem introduced by its predecessor.
This wasn’t the usual small change in battery life that’s usual with updates. Many iPhone models saw significant drops with iOS 16.4. And the latest version isn’t a fix.
YouTube will soon get support for SharePlay, as well as videos with higher bitrates. And queuing up videos and jumping between devices will get easier, too.
The enhancements are part of Google efforts to get more subscribers for YouTube Premium.
Mac shipments declined a jaw-dropping 41% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023, according to a market-analysis firm. It seems Apple finally joined other PC makers in seeing reduced shipments of traditional computers.
External screens for MacBook or iPad aren’t just convenient in the office — they’re also great to use on the go. There are a range of portable external displays on the market, including some with touchscreens.
Here are my recommendations for the best screens ready to go with you to a coffee shop or Paris.
The new Apple TV+ film about sneaking Tetris out of Communist Russia is pulling in plenty of viewers. It was actually more popular than Ted Lasso last week, according to one TV ratings company — though that Apple comedy is very popular, too.
And Shinking continues its long run in the top 10 most popular streaming shows, possibly because it’s now possible to binge the entire first season.
Is the car made of jelly? Or is the world? It’s both! It’s JellyCar Worlds. The game is a triumph of squishy physics, and a lot of fun to play.
If you enjoy driving games and puzzlers, you really owe it to yourself to try this. I have seven good reasons why it needs to be on your weekend agenda.
Doctor Who: An Unlikely Heist challenges players to solve mysteries by finding clues. The story-driven hidden-objects game debuted on Apple Arcade on Friday.
It’s the latest addition to Apple’s gaming service, which adds a new title almost every week.
iPhone, Mac and iPad users got fresh operating system updates on Friday. iOS 16.4.1, macOS 13.3.1 and iPadOS 16.4.1 fix a smattering of bugs on the devices — including some security vulnerabilities that Apple admits may have been exploited — but there are no new features.
At this time, there are no equivalent updates for Apple Watch or Apple TV.
Silo premieres in May, and Apple TV+ just released the full trailer for the upcoming drama series based on a bestselling trilogy of dystopian novels.
In the series, a few thousand people are left on earth hiding in a mile-deep silo. But what if everything they’ve ever been told about the outside world is a lie?
Thieves were apparently stymied by the security on an Apple store in Washington so they broke into an adjacent store and cut a hole in the wall. That reportedly enabled them to make off with $500 thousand in Apple gear.
The haul included hundreds of iPhones.
USB-C is finally coming to the iPhone, but there are rumors and speculation that only Apple-approved cables will be able to charge the device. Realistically, though, there’s no way Apple would be allowed to get away with that.
The European Union is forcing Apple to drop the Lightning port, and would surely squash attempts to make USB-C into anything but a universal standard. That’s if Apple is even trying to do that, which is questionable.
For some reason, the white paper that first proposed Bitcoin has been included in every version of macOS since Mojave.
Why this document has been on every Mac released in the past five years is a mystery.
High Desert will join the collection of comedies on Apple TV+ when it premieres in May. This won’t be light fare, as it follows an addict who decides to become a private investigator.
The upcoming series stars Patricia Arquette, winner of several Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy awards.
Don’t be jealous of Microsoft Bing’s new AI capabilities: A new Shortcut called S-GPT integrates OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot into Apple devices. It works as a conversational search engine but can do much more, including summarizing a webpage and creating an Apple Music playlist from a list of suggested songs.
It’s a Shortcut rather than an app, and it’s free to download. There’s a very small fee for using it.
The new Mac mini with M2 processor is a bargain at its regular price, and $100 off makes it an even better deal. That cuts the price of Apple’s newest desktop to less than $500.
That’s for the base model — and you can save even more on the version with double the storage.
Apple and 250 companies that supply components for its products are making progress in switching to renewable energy for all Apple production by 2030. The manufacturing partners support over 13 gigawatts of renewable electricity per year, a nearly 30% increase.
The company continues to distribute money from its $4.7 billion Green Bonds program to help finance the expansion of clean energy solutions around the world.
If the Weather widget on your iPhone says, “No weather available,” you’re in good company. Apple reports that its weather service has been having a problem since Monday.
It’s affecting some but not all users.
Update: Apple says the problems were resolved early Wednesday morning.
A week after the release of iOS 16.4, tests show that the new version significantly reduces the battery lives of a wide variety of iPhone models.
This has happened in the past for iOS releases and later updates have fixed the battery drain.
A whopping 87% of U.S. teens own an iPhone, according to a recent survey. This continues a long trend of iPhone reigning supreme in high schools.
The survey also shows that Apple Watch and Apple Pay prove quite popular with teens.
Ridley Scott’s epic starring Joaquin Phoenix as French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte as he conquers Europe will premiere in theaters this autumn. It will later appear on Apple’s streaming service.
The film will tell the story of Napoleon’s ruthless rise to power and his obsessive love for his wife, Empress Josephine.