Lots of folks who do live video streaming or video calls opt for purpose-built webcams rather than what comes in laptops or displays. That’s because the standalone cameras usually feature better-quality images and video plus more features in general. Today’s M4 Mac mini user fixes an Obsbot webcam atop his external Lenovo display. We rarely if ever see it, but it packs a lot of interesting features.

The United Kingdom could precipitate a significant iPhone revamp after a government report found that “Apple’s rules restrict other competitors from being able to deliver new, innovative features that could benefit consumers.”

The findings in the report are sure to inform government regulators as they enforce the U.K.’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, which goes into effect in January 2025.

Apple plans to further improve Siri with iOS 19 in 2025 by using advanced next-generation large language models (LLMs).

Thanks to the new LLMs powering Siri, the voice assistant should become much more conversational.

WhatsApp is taking a cue from iMessage and finally adding support for voice message transcripts. This will allow the app to show transcriptions of voice notes when you cannot listen to the audio itself.

Meta beta test voice message transcription in WhatsApp for over a year before rolling it out to the public.

I always use Apple’s privacy-focused Sign in with Apple and Hide My Email services whenever I get the option.

 The Sign in with Apple feature, which lets you log into third-party accounts using your Apple ID while keeping your personal info private, is so easy to use that I utilize it everywhere. But that also means my disguised logins pile up, accumulating in the digital junk drawer that is iCloud Settings. If you ever need to manage or transfer your Apple purchases history, Apple now offers an option to migrate digital purchases between accounts.

I’ll show you where you can find, manage or delete these accounts. Perhaps you’re jumping ship from iPhone to Android, and you want to make sure you still have another way of signing into your Chipotle account.

The Hide My Email service is similar. It creates a temporary email address that forwards to your real one — handy if you’re signing up for a shady website, or if you need a public contact email. I’ll show you where you can create new ones and delete the old ones.

Black Friday arrives on November 29, but many sales on tech gear kick off a week or more before that. Take Sonos, for example. You can find a range of great deals on headphones, speakers, soundbars and bundles of different products starting Thursday (November 21) in the Sonos Black Friday sale. Most of the bargains are at both Sonos and Amazon. Go to Sonos to see the whole sale on one page and grab the bundles. Follow links to either Amazon or Sonos below for various Labor Day deals on Sonos audio gear.

The just-announced Satechi Mac mini M4 Stand & Hub with SSD Enclosure adds an array of front-facing ports to Apple’s slimmed-down desktop. There’s also room inside for an NVMe SSD.

The multi-purpose accessory is designed to match the size and appearance of the Mac.

Apple Music named Billie Eilish Artist of the Year for 2024 on Thursday. That makes her the first artist to receive the honor twice. The 22-year-old singer-songwriter previously won the inaugural award in 2019.

“Since day one, Apple Music has supported my music and artistry, and I am both honored and humbled to receive this recognition as Artist of the Year this many years into my career,” Eilish said.

Keychron is pretty much synonymous with mechanical keyboards, having flooded the market with solid and affordable models for years. And when it comes to Black Friday mechanical keyboard deals, the maker is discounting keebs from its Keychron and Lemokey lines on Amazon, with 15% to 25% off deals on more than 100 keyboards. Below you’ll find a sampling of cool options.

And you can nab even better deals on Keychron mechanical keyboards at Amazon bargain site Woot! — up to 63% off — and more will be added Thanksgiving week, the company said.

What’s the plan for the weekend? If you want to bring music practically anywhere, stick a JBL Clip 5 portable Bluetooth speaker to your bag. These rugged Bluetooth speakers, which feature a cool carabiner clip that lets you attach them to almost anything, are on sale now for just $59.99 (regularly $79).

A group of Philadelphia friends pose as DEA agents in a small-time grift only to find themselves risking life and limb as they accidentally uncover the biggest narcotics operation on the East Coast, Apple TV+ revealed Wednesday in a “first look” at a new crime drama. The upcoming series is Dope Thief, and the streamer included plenty of photos from the show to give you a taste, as they say.

The eight-episode season debuts with the first two episodes March 25 on Apple TV+. A new episode follows each Friday through April 25.

You’re at a party and your friend takes a great picture. You ask them to AirDrop you a copy and the two iPhones won’t connect. So frustrating … what the %^#* is wrong? Why can’t you share iPhone photos the way you used to? You probably just need to tweak a setting to turn on AirDrop’s capability to work with any iPhone.

You see, Apple changed the way AirDrop works in iOS 16. If you haven’t updated your AirDrop settings, it might not work the way you want. Here’s how to set the easy wireless file-transfer system so you can get that picture from your friend.

Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip is on sale for its lowest price just days before Black Friday. The world’s slimmest laptop packs plenty of power, and a lower price tag makes it an even better buy.

If you take advantage of the Amazon deal, you can get the 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip, 16GB storage, and 256GB storage for $1,044—a whopping $255 cheaper than its MSRP.

Apple’s music recognition service Shazam surpassed 100 billion song recognitions since it launched in 2002. A person would need to use it on their iPhone, iPad or Mac to identify a song every second for 3,168 years to reach that number.

“This monumental milestone not only reflects how much people enjoy using Shazam, but also their appetite for new music,” said Oliver Schusser, VP of Apple Music and Beats. “Music discovery is at the core of everything we do, and we keep innovating to make sure music lovers around the world can tap the Shazam button no matter where they hear music playing!”

Recently, the phrase “Mac mini gaming” took on a whole new meaning. That’s because Apple released the M4 and M4 Pro Mac mini desktop computers in a much smaller form factor and with unprecedented performance. Today’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro user is over the moon about what his new M4 Pro Mac mini can do with World of Warcraft and other games.

Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and other members of legendary British/American rock band Fleetwood Mac tell their story in their own words for the first time in an upcoming “definitive documentary,” Apple said Tuesday.

Five-time Academy Award nominee and Irving G. Thalberg winner Frank Marshall directs the Apple Original Film.

“I am fascinated by how this incredible story of enormous musical achievement came about,” said Marshall. “Fleetwood Mac somehow managed to merge their often chaotic and almost operatic personal lives into their own tale in real-time, which then became legend. This will be a film about the music and the people who created it.”

If you’re tired of spending your mornings hunting down lost keys, try tracking them with an Ethos Smart Tracker. This AirTag alternative comes with a keychain and works with Apple’s Find My app. And you can get two of them for only $34.99 (regularly $69).

In a surprise move, the M4 Mac mini includes a removable, swappable SSD. Apple really should give customers the option to buy high-capacity versions of these as storage upgrades for the tiny desktop. It would be a win for both the Mac-maker and its customers.

The option would be welcome addition even if the SSDs only came from Apple at fairly high prices.

Apple released iOS 18.1.1, iPadOS 18.1.1, macOS Sequoia 15.1.1 and visionOS 2.1.1 on Tuesday. The updates deal with serious security threats that bad actors apparently already exploited on older Macs.

Apple recommends the updates for all users.

Sick of apps constantly asking you to rate them? There is a way you can block App Store rating requests completely on iPhone, iPad and Mac so that the pesky popups no longer appear. We’ll show you how.

The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly hoping to require Google to sell Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser — it’s even preferred by a majority of Mac users.

And this is just one of the possible consequences of a federal judge ruling this autumn that Google is a monopolist.

Apple’s new M4 iMac is available with a hefty $149 discount within weeks of its launch. The model with a beefier M4 processor — with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU — drops to just $1,349 on Amazon in this early Black Friday deal. You can save even more if you opt for the nano-texture glass upgrade available on this midrange model.

Other models receive similar discounts. Just be sure to check the coupon box.

After testing Creative Aurvana Ace 2 earbuds, I’ve found them to be a fascinating glimpse into the future of portable audio technology — albeit with some growing pains at this early stage. The $149.99 buds — often discounted — represent one of the first consumer implementations of xMEMS solid-state driver technology. But the impressive audio quality doesn’t make these earbuds as great as they could be because of other shortcomings.

Aurvana Ace 2 came out about a year ago, but this marks my first time experiencing xMEMS Labs micro speakers I’ve written about several times, so I was happy to try them out.

Stay charged on the go with the Naztech SpeedMax65, a high-powered car charger designed to keep you connected and ready wherever you are. This compact charger features 65W USB-C Power Delivery and Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Technology. More than just a laptop car charger, it can fast-charge two devices simultaneously.

Whether it’s for your daily commute, a road trip or holiday travel, the SpeedMax65 keeps your most power-hungry gear juiced up for the journey for just $27.99 (regularly $39.99).

Getting a bit bored with the podcasts you subscribe to? One of the best ways to discover new ones is by finding out what other people are listening to. Apple made that easy on Tuesday by tabulating the most popular podcasts of 2024.

There are charts localized for listeners in nearly 100 countries and regions.