Did you ever wonder how a synthesizer works? It’s all just “electronic noise,” right? Well, yes, it totally is. But if you’d like to know a bit more than that, Berlin-based Ableton will teach you. The electronic music giant launched a website that puts a synthesizer inside your browser, and uses it to teach you exactly how a synth works.

The synth simulator works great in Mobile Safari, too, but if you use Google’s Chrome, you can hook up an actual keyboard to your Mac and use it to play. That’s thanks to Chrome’s support for Web MIDI, which Safari doesn’t offer.

Let’s have a quick look at this cool teaching tool.

One of the top CPU architects in the world has joined Apple’s chip team.

Mike Filippo, who created some of ARM’s most impressive CPUs over the last few years, was hired last month by Apple, signifying the company could be gearing up to switch to ARM CPUs on the Mac.

Apple’s stock buybacks in Q1 totaled more than any other S&P 500 company by a wide margin. The iPhone maker poured $23.8 billion into purchasing its own shares, more than it has ever done before. And that’s saying a lot, as Apple been spending billions on buybacks for many years.

Some of Google’s LGBTQ+ employees have petitioned the San Francisco Pride board of directors to kick the search engine giant out of the SF Pride parade slated for this weekend.

The Google employees posted an open letter this morning saying they’ve spent countless hours trying to get Google to improve policies and practices regarding the treatment of LGBTQ+ persons, but the company has done nothing. Even though they might get in trouble for writing the letter, nearly 100 employees signed it, urging the parade to reject Google’s failure to act.

Samsung is yet to iron out the teething troubles it has suffered with the Galaxy Fold. But that hasn’t stopped the South Korean company from diving head first into developing a sequel.

A new rumor claims Samsung’s second model will feature a larger screen and S Pen stylus. And it could arrive a lot sooner than fans anticipated.

Leading digital health company Livongo is working on developing new tools for Apple Watch and other wearables to help users live healthier lives.

The company’s new tools will help provide users with customized alerts regarding things like healthy eating, relaxation, and exercise.

We’ve seen magician Simon Pierro do things with an iPad that would amaze the smartest of Apple’s engineers.

Now he has a robot called Pepper in on the act.

We’ve always got great deals on gear, gadgets and apps. But sometimes they stack up, so we get to share them all at once. That’s what happened with these four Mac apps – Luminar 3, MacX DVD Ripper, PDF Reader Pro, and iMazing 2. These apps cover productivity, photo editing, iOS management, and more. Most are discounted by more than half off, read on for more details:

The burgeoning trade war with China has caused Apple no end of headaches. But an end could be in sight, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Speaking with CNBC, Mnuchin said that the U.S. and China have a “path to complete this.” He notes that both parties were “90% of the way there” during previous talks, before discussions broke down.

Oppo’s efforts to eliminate the notch have led to the world’s first selfie camera that sits under your smartphone’s screen.

The new technology, which was showcased to the public at MWC Shanghai this week, will be making its way to commercial handsets “in the near future.” And it promises to be just as good as existing selfie cameras.

Having gotten out of the 5G smartphone modem game, Intel is auctioning off its IP related to cellular wireless technology. In total, a massive 8,500 assets will be up for auction.

Intel made the call to get out of 5G modems after Apple made up with Qualcomm. At the time, Intel noted that there was no profitable route forward.

Apple has launched a special guide section for Apple News, featuring coverage of 20 Democratic candidates in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. Elections.

The section of the app curates content from a variety of news sources. It also includes basic information about the different candidates who will take place in the first debate. This includes their biography and current position on key issues.

Update: Apple Pay launched in a total of 13 markets today. The full list includes Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.

Apple Pay has debuted in four new countries. The mobile payment service is now live in Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Portugal.

Apple has said that Apple Pay will be supported in 40 countries by the end of 2019. This marks yet another step toward that goal.

Everybody’s quick to read through our many social feeds. But when it comes to reading more substantial things like articles or books plenty of us could use a speed boost.

Self-driving car startup Drive.ai is reportedly shutting down — and Apple is scooping up the talent.

Drive.ai, which made kits that turn regular cars into self-driving cars, notified the Employment Development Department of California that it was shutting down and laying off all 90 of its employees. Apple was reportedly looking into acquiring the company earlier this month. Instead, Cupertino decided to just hire some of its key employees.

OWC makes an eye-opening claim about the Envoy Pro Ex: the company claims its latest solid-state drive is faster than any rival with a USB-C connection.

In addition, the portable drive can stand up to dust and even immersion in water.

Moshi passed a critical first test as I opened up the box containing a review unit of its new roll-top backpack the company calls Captus.

My wife liked the looks of it.

Over the years, she has seen me review backpacks and messenger bags and while I reach nuanced conclusions for each, her evaluations are consistently blunt – most bags skew masculine.

Apple’s suite of iWork productivity apps received a big batch of updates today for both the Mac and iOS versions.

Keynote, Numbers and Pages for the two platforms added a bunch of new features. The biggest addition is some new outline styles. There are also a couple of new customization options for Apple Pencil and a face detection feature that intelligently positions people in placeholders and objects.

Some people were freaked out by the recent report that phone overuse causes spikes to grow on people’s skulls. Well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

A group of experts created a 3D model showing changes they see coming to humanity by 2100, including permanently hunched backs and claw hands. It seems each and every American will be ready to star in a horror flick.

The Pokémon Company will reveal new information about upcoming mobile game Pokémon Masters this week.

Its first presentation since the game was confirmed ahead of E3 is just a couple of days away. We know very little about it so far, but we have been promised battles against Pokémon Trainers from the main RPG series.

Two companies just unveiled portable batteries that include built-in wireless chargers.

The Mophie Powerstation Hub also includes built-in foldable AC power prongs. The Kenu BingeBank, on the other hand, sports a kickstand so it props up your iPhone while charging.

It seems inevitable that a camera will eventually find its way onto the Apple Watch, the only question is ‘how’? The USPTO awarded a new patent this week that reveals one pretty novel idea Apple has come up with that would allow the Apple Watch camera to be reversible.

It doesn’t look very sleek, but it could be pretty useful:

We’ve explained why it’s really not a great idea to update to the iOS 13 and iPadOS public betas right now — and the same goes for macOS Catalina. Not only is it unstable in its current form, but some things don’t work properly.

One of those is multiple iTunes libraries. As things stand, you will have access to only one. And if it’s not the right one when you first install Catalina, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Ever dreamed of penning a Hollywood blockbuster? Turns out there’s an app for that: social reading and writing app Wattpad.

With more than 70 million monthly users (and growing fast), Wattpad is a low-key App Store hit. The app is like Instagram, but for sharing stories instead of photos. It’s a great way to find fantastic new stories — and it’s flipping the script on how Hollywood makes movies.

Fortnite’s newest content update is out now.

Players can look forward to a long list of weapon changes for Battle Royale — including the return of the pump shotgun and the arrival of the new revolver.