Apple’s share of the global smart speaker market grew considerably as HomePod shipments increased by almost 30% year over year.
HomePod, which once had only a tiny sliver of this market, has gained considerably on Amazon and Google.
An unannounced Mac mini is now listed on the B&H website, though without full product details. The desktop’s most eye-catching feature is an Apple M2 processor, which also has not yet been announced.
In addition, the retailer lists a “Mac mini Tower” running an M1 Pro. Both products are labeled as “New Item – Coming Soon.”
Mix the classic Frogger arcade game with Raiders of the Lost Ark and you get Frogger and the Rumbling Ruins. Jump through puzzle-ridden ruins to unravel their mysteries.
The puzzle game from Konami debuted Friday on the Apple Arcade subscription service.
Satechi’s USB-C Slim Dock sits on the stand for the 24-inch iMac and adds six frequently-used ports. It also sports an enclosure for user-installed SSDs.
It launched Friday, and is available now for 20% off the usual price.
Apple U.S. retail store employees now get a minimum of 12 hours between shifts, up from 10 hours. And they won’t have to work more than five days in a row. These are just two of the changes Apple is reportedly making to how it schedules workers at its 270+ retail locations.
It’s likely these are intended to reduce employee interest in joining unions.
We’re less than a week away from WWDC22, but it’s not too late to take a look ahead to the unveiling of iOS 16, macOS 13, iPadOS 16 and watchOS 9. As always, these operating system upgrades are expected to be the highlights of Apple’s annual developer conference.
Some details about them already leaked out, though. Here’s a foretaste of WWDC22.
There are cases for MacBooks. And there are USB-C hubs. And external hard drives, too. Case X is all three of these. It clips to the top of the laptop, adding six extra ports and up to 4TB of additional storage.
Byrdbyte Creations’ product is still at the crowdfunding stage, though.
Apple TV+ revealed that the psychological thriller Surface from Veronica West will premiere on July 29. It stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, best known for appearing in Apple’s critically acclaimed The Morning Show.
The upcoming series asks, what if you woke up one day and didn’t know your own secrets?
Grab your sword and your iPad to battle the demonic forces of evil in Diablo Immortal. Blizzard Entertainment created the massively multiplayer online action role-playing game for iPhone, Android and Apple tablets.
It’s also out for PC, and players will be able enjoy the game across platforms.
Apple’s five-episode dinosaur documentary Prehistoric Planet pulled in plenty of viewers. Amazing archosaurs recreated with cutting-edge CGI effects helped the series hit number five on a list of most-watched TV shows on all the streaming services in the United States.
And Severance continues to draw a big audience almost two months after the season finale on Apple TV+.
Employees of an Apple store in Atlanta won’t be voting to form a union after all. They withdrew their request with the National Labor Relations Board, and said Apple had carried out “a systematic, sophisticated campaign to intimidate them.”
It remains unknown how this will affect employees trying to unionize at an Apple retail store in New York
There’s a new reason to think iPadOS 16 might include support for resizable floating app windows. A developer found evidence that this hoped-for feature is being added to Apple’s browser engine for iPad and iPhone.
If true, confirmation isn’t far away. Apple is expected to unveil iPadOS 16 at its Worldwide Developers Conference in early June.
Wait times for some Macs now stretch into August. Apple manufacturer Quanta Computer simply can’t assemble enough units to meet demand, as its workers revolt at lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns.
The delays caused by the lockdowns, enforced by the Chinese government in an attempt to control the spread of the highly transmissible disease, are not just irritating to customers, though. Apple predicts the problem will mean an $8 billion hit to its revenue.
The A16 processor going in this fall’s iPhone 14 Pro models will be made with a 5nm process, according to a tipster. That’s the same process used for years, not a better one, and it means the upcoming iPhones won’t get as big a speed boost as expected.
Still, the A16 is rumored to get improved processor cores and other enhancements.
A bill aimed at regulating Big Tech is reportedly losing support in the U.S. Senate. The fate of the American Choice and Innovation Online Act is now in question.
It is a Democratic proposal but some Senate Democrats are leery about voting for it in an election year.
“Here he comes. Here comes Speed Racer.” The theme song to the classic cartoon could be referring to a live-action Speed Racer series reportedly headed for Apple TV+.
It’ll supposedly have J.J. Abrams as executive producer.
Apple employees can to look forward to raises. The company sent an email to its workers informing them it’ll spend more on employee compensation this year. And starting pay for retail workers is going up 10%.
This is happening as Apple faces increasing competition for employees in a tight labor market, and its retail workers are starting to unionize.
Apple TV users should install a system software patch released Wednesday. tvOS 15.5.1 apparently fixes a small bug in the latest big update, which Apple released last week.
The patch comes out in unison with a small update to HomePod software.
You don’t have to wait months for Apple to finally show off the iPhone 14: A collection of renders based on the most reliable leaks gives the best look yet at the upcoming device. That includes the replacement for the screen notch, the expected changes to the camera hump and more.
As a bonus, the renders show the upcoming handset in purple, which supposedly will be an option.
Games played on iPhone and Android represents 61% of the overall gaming market, according to two market analysis firms. And mobile’s lead over PC and console gaming is growing.
The total gaming market is set to hit $222 billion in 2022. For comparison, global film revenue for 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year) was $42.5 billion.
App Store revenue for smaller developers increased by 113% over the past two years – more than double the growth of large developers, according to a study financed by Apple.
And the iPhone app economy supported more than 2.2 million jobs in the U.S. in 2021.
Google’s Waze navigation app makes driving a little more fun by building in support for Apple Music. This allows drivers to make changes to the music streaming through their iPhone or Android without leaving Waze.
The app already supports other music streaming services.
★★★★☆
The BluShark AlphaPremier Apple Watch Band skips over the usual materials – leather or metal – and goes for seatbelt webbing. I used it for weeks with my Watch and found a lot of reasons to like it.
Read to to see why a surprising choice of materials makes for a comfortable, durable band.
It’s dinosaur week on Apple TV+. There’s a new episode of Prehistoric Planet on every night, and critics are heaping praise on the docuseries.
It has a 100% positive score on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.
Anyone wanting a new Apple Studio Display needs to be patient. Order the high-end display now and you could be waiting until August for it. The accessory has apparently run into COVID-related production problems in China.
Unfortunately, there are several other Apple devices with very long wait times.