You know how Dad is always telling you stories about the good old days? If you’re tired of hearing about them, maybe the best thing you can get him for Father’s Day is a whole new batch of great memories.
The best way to do that is with travel. And that’s what makes the 2023 Travel Hacker Bundle so appealing — especially now that it’s down to less than $159.99 through June 11 for our special Father’s Day Sale.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+’s farcical neo-noir High Desert gets tied up this week as Peggy accidentally finds herself at the business end of some dangerous people’s guns. Guru Bob is kidnapped and tormented for his role in selling art forgeries to bad people, while Peggy’s quest to find Bob’s wife lands her in hot water with the Gatchi family.
The episode, entitled “A Nod Is Not a Hello,” is a raucous and funny time, even as the stakes climb higher by the minute
The $3,499 price of Vision Pro, the long-awaited AR/VR headset Apple rolled out at WWDC23, startles some people. You can find audience reaction videos out there with audible gasps when the price was announced (including among Apple employees, some posts claim). And mainstream headlines are joining in, too.
And of course social media hasn’t let up on the jokey memes. See below for a few choice examples.
A stealth announcement at WWDC23 is that Apple has significantly lowered the barrier of entry to port PC games to the Mac. A new Game Porting Toolkit “provides an emulation environment to run your existing, unmodified Windows game,” says Aiswariya Sreenivassan — a GPU, graphics and displays software engineer at Apple.
It’s a big gap to clear, which is why the Mac has been left behind in recent years. PC games are compiled for the Intel x86 architecture that the Mac just finished moving away from. The unified Apple silicon architecture bears little resemblance to the standard gaming PC with discrete graphics cards and memory. Apple’s Metal 3 library is very different from DirectX, Unity, Unreal and Vulkan — the usual suspects across the computing pond.
Apple’s new tools could open the floodgates for Mac ports of popular PC games. According to a game engine programmer I spoke with, the Game Porting Toolkit demo is “really impressive.” If the tools work as well in practice as in Apple’s demo, they “would be incredibly useful,” said the developer, who works for a major game developer and asked to remain anonymous.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ comedy Platonic finds Will and Charlie stepping outside of their comfort zones this week, at a greater cost than either imagined.
The show, about two adult friends who try to reclaim their nonsexual friendship at the start of their middle age, finds them Charlie’s wife Sylvia all keeping secrets from each other — a sure sign that everything’s going according to plan, right?
Entitled “My Wife’s Boyfriend,” it’s a surprisingly effective episode, despite all the comic games that come out of left field.
A dozen “best-in-class” apps and games took honors in the Apple Design Awards Monday at WWDC23. Winning development teams hailed from around the world, delivering innovative apps with great design, Apple said.
“Apps and games are integral to how we live, work, and play. At Apple, we love to recognize outstanding developers whose apps reflect incredible creativity and design excellence,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations.
Apple is souping up the systems for entering text into iPhone with iOS 17. Autocorrect is getting enhanced with AI for fewer typos, as part of multiple improvements to what Apple calls “intelligent input.” And Dictation is getting a boost that promises more-accurate voice recognition, too.
I tested the changes in the first iOS 17 beta. Here’s how well they work … so far.
Just a day after Apple unveiled its Vision Pro AR/VR headset at WWDC23, news came along Tuesday that the company acquired Los Angeles-based AR headset startup Mira.
Mira makes headsets for other companies — notably Super Nintendo World theme parks — and holds contracts with the U.S. military.
Father’s Day is fast approaching, and if you’re still searching for a way to treat your dad, dining out is always an appreciated gesture. Fortunately, even if you can’t be there to join him in person, there’s an easy way to pick up the check for his meal this holiday and beyond.
For a limited time, you can take advantage of a digital deal that drops the cost of a $100 Restaurant.com gift card to only $14, with no coupon required. Depending on where he dines, that means Dad can enjoy up to four or five meals — with no expense to him, and essentially the cost of a sandwich to you.
However, this special Father’s Day Sale only runs through June 11. So act fast!
How does Apple’s new “spatial computing” platform visionOS work exactly?
At WWDC23 this week, Apple detailed a bunch of interesting tidbits about how the new Vision Pro headset works. Apple detailed how buttons look and behave in the spatial computer, how they are pressed without any physical controls, and how apps work in 3D.
Here’s how Apple’s spatial interface works.
Does your dad enjoy spending time outdoors and sipping his favorite beverage while socializing with friends? Then your search for the perfect Father’s Day gift has led you to right place, as a simple yet innovative yard game is currently available at a big discount.
Pick up the PutterBall backyard golf game, complete with a travel bag, turf board, balls and mini putters, for only $159.97 (regularly $229), with no coupon necessary. This Father’s Day deal results in the best pricing you’ll find online. But to guarantee delivery by the holiday, you must place your order by June 5.
Sharing your contact information and more with people will get easier with new AirDrop functionality in iOS 17. A new feature called NameDrop makes it about as simple as knocking iPhones together.
“Today, you either hand your phone to them, or one of you dictates your information while the other types it. Now there’s a better way,” said Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi during Monday’s WWDC23 keynote. “Now you can just bring your phones close together.”
How can you install the watchOS 10 Developer Beta? While the release is months away, you might want to take it for a test drive or see how your apps work in the new release. Right now, you need to make sure you’re signed into your developer Apple ID and that you have developer betas turned on in the Settings app.
These days, the process is far easier. You no longer need to install a beta profile and reboot your watch a bunch of times to get it working.
WWDC23’s keynote wasn’t just about big OS and hardware releases. It also brought some fun stuff — like new sticker functionality coming to the Messages app and beyond.
Using Messages on your iPhone (and perhaps elsewhere), you should be able to liven up your texting by turning any emoji, photo subject or even Live Photo (short video) into a sticker you can drag into any text bubble — or anywhere you use emoji.
How can you install the macOS 14 Sonoma Developer Beta? While the release is months away, you might want to take it for a test drive or see how your apps work in the new release. Right now, you need to make sure you’re signed into your developer Apple ID and that you have developer betas turned on in the Settings app.
These days, the process is far easier. You no longer need to install a beta profile and reboot your Mac a bunch of times to get it working.
How can you install the iPadOS 17 Developer Beta? While the release is months away, you might want to take it for a test drive or see how your apps work in the new release. Right now, you need to make sure you’re signed into your developer Apple ID and that you have developer betas turned on in the Settings app.
These days, the process is far easier. You no longer need to install a beta profile and reboot your tablet a bunch of times to get it working.
How can you install the iOS 17 Developer Beta? While the release is months away, you might want to take it for a test drive or see how your apps work in the new release. Right now, you need to make sure you’re signed into your developer Apple ID and that you have developer betas turned on in the Settings app.
These days, the process is far easier. You no longer need to install a beta profile and reboot your phone a bunch of times to get it working.
If your dad doesn’t have a favorite kitchen knife — he soon will. This fantastic Kitchen Master 8-inch chef knife from Kiru could definitely take the title — just in time for Father’s Day.
First impressions of the Vision Pro headset make it sound like Apple absolutely nailed both the industrial design and the overall “experience” of wearing a mixed-reality headset.
Apple didn’t let most reporters go hands-on (or rather “heads-on”) with the new device following the Vision Pro’s unveiling at Monday’s WWDC23 keynote. However, the company’s handlers let some members of the media into a private area to gawk at the Vision Pro — and a handful of people actually got to strap one on.
The very first glimpses reveal hardware that looks far better than the competition, paired with a compelling visual experience, and triggers only a few negative reactions.
Personal drones have become increasingly popular for users of all ages. Whether you need one for professional or recreational purposes, or as a gift, don’t get priced out — pick up an HD camera-equipped drone for a surprisingly low price.
You can currently purchase the Global Drone 4K Platinum Version for only $79.97 (regularly $119) with no coupon required. This versatile and easily portable flying device is primed to provide new perspectives with 720P, 1080P and 4K HD camera options.
People might be squawking about the $3,499 price tag of Apple’s new Vision Pro headset, but let’s put things in perspective. When Apple introduced the Macintosh — the first computer with a graphical user interface — it cost an eye-watering $7,400 in today’s dollars.
The Apple II — the first truly “personal computer’ — proved even more expensive. In 1977, an Apple II with maxed-out memory (a whopping 48KB of RAM, yes kilobytes) cost the equivalent of $14,400.
All that makes the $3,499 price tag of Apple’s new Vision Pro VR headset seem like a relative bargain. It packs insane 4K OLED screens to mesmerize your eyes, an outside screen that shows your face while wearing it, and an array of sensors to capture your hand movements, facial expressions and more.
If Apple is right, and the headset represents the dawn of a new era of 3D spatial computing, then 3,500 bucks isn’t so much to be at the cutting edge. New technology is always pricey … and it could have been even worse. Given the amount of new tech involved, and the high price of nearly a decade of development, the Vision Pro could have been even more expensive. It’s no $10,000 Apple Watch Edition!
The Keynote from WWDC23 was unusually jam-packed with huge announcements. Naturally, the first official details of new iOS, macOS, iPadOS and watchOS versions came to light, as is traditional. But Apple also used its annual developer conference to take the wraps off quite a bit of hardware.
And CEO Tim Cook used Apple’s classic “One more thing” line to unveil Vision Pro, the augmented-reality headset that was the absolute star of Monday’s Keynote.
Apple said Monday in the WWDC23 Keynote that tvOS 17 brings FaceTime to Apple TV 4K for the first time. So you can put your calls with family, friends and colleagues on the biggest screen you have.
“tvOS 17 transforms the biggest screen in the home with FaceTime and new video conferencing capabilities, giving Apple TV 4K users the ability to easily connect with anyone right from their living room,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
“New features and enhancements make Apple TV simpler to use and even more enjoyable, reinforcing it as the absolute best option in the living room for Apple customers,” he added.
At today’s Platforms State of the Union, Apple went into more depth on the updates coming to their software: interactive widgets for iOS, iPadOS and now on the macOS desktop; big updates to watchOS; and the introduction of visionOS, the operating system that runs on Apple’s new Vision Pro.
There are loads of new features that developers will be able to take advantage of that Apple didn’t highlight in the main Keynote. Thus far, they’ve covered improvements to the in-app camera, a standard tips balloon, and an easier way to make animations in SwiftUI.
For many of us these days, the office isn’t even at home. It’s a handy seat during your commute or wherever the Wi-Fi is reliable. That means people need to get a little more creative when it comes to charging up their devices.
It doesn’t get more versatile than the Bellboy 5-in-1 portable wireless charging station and power bank. It’s a dock that makes room for all your handhelds, on a charging stand you can take anywhere, with a built-in battery that holds plenty of juice.