Today marks 35 years since the launch of the original Macintosh computer, the product which most defined Apple until the iPod and iPhone came along years later. The Mac changed the course of personal computing history, and started a product line which Apple continues today. But which Macs along the way rank as the biggest game changers?
We went right back to the start to bring you our picks for the top 20 most important Macs of all time.
Updated AirPods are supposedly on their way in the first half of 2019, possibly bringing new health-monitoring functions to Apple’s wildly popular Bluetooth earbuds. The upgraded AirPods’ impressive new features are “expected to receive enthusiastic market responses,” according to the report.
With other companies, such as Google and Amazon, supposedly launching rival wireless earbuds this year, the move could keep Apple ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation.
You know how iOS’ accessibility features often prove handy for all users? Like Live Listen, which lets you turn your AirPods into remote listening devices? Or a combo of settings that resurrects an iPhone with a broken screen?
The same is true for Screen Time. This feature tracks how long you spend using apps every day, and can help you limit that time. But you can also use Screen Time to password-protect any app on your iPhone or iPad.
Turned the screen brightness on your iPad (or iPhone) all the way down? Still too much light for you? Reading in bed next to someone whose eyelids seem to amplify light the same way a magnifying glass turns the sun into a death ray for ants?
Then this tip is for you. With a simple triple-tap of the top button or Home button on your iPad, you can dim the screen way beyond its usual limit.
Although your whining, over-sensitive bed partner will likely just start complaining about the noise of those button taps instead.
iPhone sales may be hitting a road block, but there are plenty of stats that offer up reasons to be optimistic about Apple.
One of them? That the Apple Watch is now a much bigger business for Apple than the iPod ever was. While the iPod today may be pretty much nonexistent as a revenue stream for Apple, there was a time when it was far and away the company’s top earner.
Compared to the lawless wilderness that is certain other app stores, Apple’s App Store is a well-regulated place, free from dodgy fake apps masquerading as the real thing.
Clearly someone in Cupertino got a little too merry with the egg nog recently, however, since a phony version of the Amazon Alexa app was recently granted permission to enter the App Store. It even managed to hit the #6 spot in the App Store’s utilities section over the holidays.
Mark Rober already served the citizens of planet Earth by helping build the Curiosity rover currently roaming Mars. Now add holiday hero to his engineering credentials.
The ex-NASA engineer designed a series of revenge-bait packages that looked like HomePods — but showered unsuspecting thieves with glitter and deadly doses of fart spray.
Even the most committed iPad user still needs a Mac occasionally. You might need to add music to your iTunes music library, or get files off an SD card, or use BitTorrent, or keep local backups of your photo library. Or you might just like using a Mac, but you don’t want a huge iMac, and what’s the point in buying a MacBook if you have an iPad already?
The obvious choice is a Mac mini. And with this tip, you can use your iPad Pro as a display for the Mac. That means you won’t need an extra monitor, but it also means that you can quickly turn your iPad into a Mac when you need to.
Safari for iOS has a great feature: Quick Website Search. This lets you search the contents of a single website, using that site’s own built-in search. The clever part is that you don’t have to visit the site and tap into its search bar. Once Safari learns how to search that site, you can search it right from Safari’s own search bar.
In an early Christmas present to Apple fans with an Amazon Echo, Apple Music is coming to Amazon’s line of smart speakers next month. Apple Music will be available as an option on Echo devices starting December 17.
“Music is one of the most popular features on Alexa,” said Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon Devices. “We’re thrilled to bring Apple Music – one of the most popular music services in the U.S. – to Echo customers this holiday.”
Up until last year, if you plugged a pair of headphones into your Mac, the speakers were effectively disconnected. There was no way to send simultaneous audio stream to both headphones and speakers. Now, with modern T2-equipped Macs, you can double up on audio. For instance, you could have alerts sound through the built-in speakers, with music routed through the headphone jack, so you don’t get notifications interrupting your banging tunes.
The best part is that its really easy to set up. And, if you prefer the old behavior, you don’t have to do anything.
An 11-inch iPad Pro and Apple Pencil were the focus of what seemed like a routine unboxing video. That is until the host used his bare hands to destroy both devices.
If you’re among the 2.7 million viewers to JerryRigEverything on YouTube, you’ve come to expect the unusual durability tests host Zach Nelson puts to the latest tech gadgets.
The new iPad Pro is amazing. It’s lighter, faster, better looking, and all-around cooler than its dorky older brother. While the old 12.9-inch iPad Pro is ironing faux leather patches onto the elbows of its corduroy jacket, the new one is ripping holes into the knees of its vintage jeans.
But there are still some things that the 2018 iPad Pro can’t do. And these shortcomings aren’t down to hardware. They’re all down to software, and the limitations still built in to iOS 12. Let’s take a look.
Apple just had its best September quarter of all-time and CEO Tim Cook couldn’t have sounded happier when he got on the phone with investors today. The company is heading into the holiday season with its best lineup ever and expects to set more records next quarter.
Investors did not seem to be too impressed with the results though. Apple’s stock price dropped from $222.22 to as low as $206 in after-hours training. Despite Wall Street’s worries about Apple, there was plenty of achievements for Tim Cook and Luca Maestri to boast about on today’s call.
There were the biggest revelations from today’s call:
After unboxing the brand new iPhone XR, I can confidently say that this is a fantastic phone. Apple cut very few corners. The iPhone XR is beautifully designed, with a great big, edge-to-edge display. It’s incredibly fast, and camera performance is excellent. It looks awesome. The drawbacks are mostly minor.
Basically, it’s a $1,200 phone in a $750 package.
Check out the video to see our first impressions. Then read on to find out how you can enter to win the 128GB blue speed demon showcased in the video. Yep, it’s free to enter our iPhone XR giveaway. (Frankly, it’s going to be hard to part with this beautiful machine.)
After spending upward of $1 billion creating original TV shows, Apple apparently plans to give them away for free. That would certainly be a bold move as Apple muscles into original video production, but it might be the craziest idea ever.
Here are three reasons why it’s a smart strategy — and three more why it could backfire.
Facebook’s new Portal smart speaker, an Echo Show rival that’s designed for video chat, sounds like a privacy nightmare straight out of Black Mirror.
But you know who could benefit from concerns about Mark Zuckerberg’s smart camera? Apple — and specifically the HomePod. Here’s why.
Despite Apple’s denials, it’s “highly plausible” that secret spy chips could have been planted on the company’s servers, said a former Apple hardware engineer.
Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, who spent nearly six years at Apple helping build several generations of iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch, said spy chips could have been slipped into the design of servers used for Apple’s iCloud services, as alleged in a Bloomberg Businessweek story.
“With my knowledge of hardware design, it’s entirely plausible to me,” she said. “It’s very highly plausible to me, and that’s scary if you think about it.”
One of watchOS 5’s greatest features is the Walkie-Talkie app. If you know other Apple Watch owners, you can just talk into your wrist, like in a 1950s secret agent TV show, and chat to them. It’s way better than having to make a phone call, because the chat is pushed.
Imagine that you’re on vacation camping, or on a bike trip across country, or working in a large (but fairly quiet) job site. You can talk to people as if they are there next to you. And in one way, this is better than a real walkie-talkie: Because it doesn’t use radio, there’s no limit to distance. You can chat to people on the other end of town, or the other side of the world.
Let’s see how to use the Apple Watch Walkie-Talkie app.
The new camera sensors on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max could be worth a $1000 upgrade all their own.
Early reviews of the new cameras are overwhelmingly positive. Even though we already knew Apple made the pixels larger and the sensor bigger, we now have a better idea of the crazy engineering that went into making it the best iPhone camera ever.
iOS 12’s best new feature may be Do Not Disturb at Bedtime. That sounds boring, but ask anyone who has been using it and they’ll tell you that it rocks. Apart from being active overnight, the main difference between regular Do Not Disturb and the new “at Bedtime” flavor is that all notifications are hidden from the lock screen until you deliberately swipe up on the screen to reveal them.
Regular Do Not Disturb suppresses audio and vibrating alerts, but the notifications still appear on the lock screen. You’ll see them any time you pick up your iPhone or unlock your iPad. This can make the difference between enjoying your hooky afternoon at the beach in peace or worrying the whole time because you accidentally saw that Slack message from your boss.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could take the regular Do Not Disturb and make it hide your alerts all day long? The good news is that you totally can.
The Apple Watch received its biggest update yet this morning with the announcement of Apple Watch Series 4.
Not only does it pack a bigger display, but Apple is also adding new health sensors and new internal tech. All the updates make it the fastest, biggest, most beautiful wearable on the block.
Apple’s biggest keynote of the year is just days away and while the iPhone XS will be the main attraction of the event, Apple Watch Series 4 could steal the show with a bevy of new features.
Rumors about the Apple Watch Series 4 have been heating up leading up to next week’s event. Leaked images of the new wearable have already surfaced online, but there’s still a bit of mystery surrounding the new gadget.
Here’s everything we know about Apple Watch Series 4:
Siri is useless for a lot of things, but when it works, it can be a real timesaver. For instance, you can use Siri to search for photos in your iPhone or iPad photo library. Say something like, “Hey Siri, show me photos of clowns,” and it’ll do just that, opening the Photos app, switching to the search tab, and entering the search term “clowns” for you.
Even if you’re sitting looking at the search tab in the Photos app already, Siri is still way easier to use for search than manually tapping something into the search field, deleting the previous search, and typing a new one.
And that’s just the beginning.
The last time Apple gave any love to the Mac mini was way back in 2014. But a refresh is reportedly coming.
This inexpensive macOS desktop is apparently popular with developers and server farms. The 2018 mini is supposedly being created with these professionals in mind.