★★★★☆
In the tragicomic new Apple TV+ series High Desert, Patricia Arquette plays Peggy Newman, a drug addict and serial liar/improviser who’s trying to remake her life after her husband goes to jail and ruins her social standing.
The perpetually broke and broken Peggy is a marvelous creation. The first three episodes of High Desert arrived on Apple TV+ today, and the show is mighty good company.
Keeping bad applications out of the App Store is a monumental task — Apple says it denied 1.7 million apps submitted for approval in 2022. That’s out of 6.1 million, and it’s an increase from the previous year.
And Apple also blocked nearly 3.9 million stolen credit cards from being used to make fraudulent purchases on the App Store. Plus, the iPhone-maker blocked millions of fake reviews.
Everybody knows it’s dangerous to use your iPhone while driving. In order to do so safely and hands-free, you need a car mount. And what could be better than a wireless charger mount that senses and grabs onto your phone for you? No need to take your eyes off the road to carefully place it just so.
Elago now offers just such an auto-clamping car charger in the Cult of Mac Store.
Good news for live-music lovers rang out Tuesday. Apple said new concert-discovery features it just added to Apple Maps and Apple Music will help music fans and artists connect in major cultural hubs worldwide.
Just can’t wait for WWDC23? Apparently, Apple can’t either because it’s already starting announcing new features that will almost certainly be in iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and macOS 14.
These are aimed at those with disabilities, and include Live Speech and Personal Voice. These will allow those with speech disabilities to participate in conversations in a synthesized voice that sounds like the user.
Windows users can now send and receive messages and calls via an iPhone. The new capability — which many thought would never happen — comes courtesy of Microsoft’s Phone Link for iOS, which is rolling out now.
This is the latest software release from Microsoft to make it easier for Windows users to own an iPhone.
Microsoft started rolling the feature out in April, and announced on Monday it’s available to all Windows 11 users.
Multiple sources predict Apple will launch its first VR/AR headset three weeks from today at WWDC23. As the company’s first major new product category to launch since Apple Watch, there’s a lot riding on the headset. And yet not everyone’s buzzing with anticipation.
For those who aren’t yet feeling excited, here are five reasons you should look forward to the big reveal next month.
Apple is now offering a free, month-long trial of MLS Season Pass, its subscription service that shows all the matches from the top professional soccer league in the United States.
The deal is available for both new and returning customers.
Apple is expanding Emergency SOS via satellite to two new countries: Australia and New Zealand. If you use an iPhone 14, you can enjoy this life-saving feature for free for the next two years.
The feature allows your iPhone to contact emergency services through text messages when you are out of mobile network range.
Apple reportedly began internal testing of Macs powered by next-generation M3 chips. At least one of the variants could feature a 12-core CPU, an 18-core GPU and 36GB of system memory.
The next-generation Apple silicon remains a few months away from release, however. Rumors suggest it could debut at the end of this year or early 2024.