In what is the most aggressive discount we've seen on Apple's new AirPods with Wireless Charging Case, Amazon is knocking $20 off instantly, with free Prime shipping and inventory in stock and ready to ship.

Google is officially abandoning its tablet efforts, including two unannounced devices, a spokesperson revealed on Thursday.

Charlotte Henry and John Martellaro join host Kelly Guimont to talk about how Disney+ has cornered TV+, and about Apple’s tariff stance.

Chris Lattner, creator of Apple’s Swift programming language, does a podcast interview with John Sundell.

Chris Lattner, creator of Swift, joins John on this 50th episode of the show — to discuss the current state of Swift and how it came to be, as well as to speculate about what the future of the language and its ecosystem might look like.

While Apple’s AirPort lineup has long been discontinued, the company is still supporting the devices with software updates. AirPort Express, Extreme, and Time Capsule Base Stations have received a new firmware security update today.

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Apple has issued a security update for the 802.11n AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule units, the first one in over a year and a half.

John Sundell has secured yet another notable guest for his informative “Swift by Sundell” podcast. This time around, Chris Lattner has joined the show. Lattner created Apple’s Swift programming language before briefly joining Tesla and eventually ending up at Google.

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Grado is a well-known brand in audiophile circles, and one of the few companies to specialize in open-back headphones. Believe it or not, the GW100 is only their first Bluetooth model.

Andrew recently stumbled upon this sweet password trick from Password Bits, and he’s geeking out over the sheer genius of it.

The page details how to check if your MacBook Pro is affected and what to do next.

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They are not yet in the developer betas but Federighi said they’ll be updated for the public beta.

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Apple announced a voluntary 15-inch MacBook Pro recall due to overheating batteries that pose a safety risk.

Later this year, organization GLSEN will award Tim Cook with the Champion Award for his efforts in fighting for LGBT rights and equality.

After weeks of beta testing in Australia and New Zealand, the next big “walk around in the real world, collecting and battling things” game from the makers of Pokémon Go finally got an official release date earlier this week. That date? June 21 in the U.S. and U.K., with additional countries to follow.

Surprise! Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is available now, a day early, in the App Store. It’s free with in-app purchases ranging from $0.99 to $99.99, because of course it is. You’ll need at least an iPhone 5s or later and iOS 10 or later to play.

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Apple today said that it is launching a voluntary recall and replacement program for the 15-inch MacBook Pro. The company says that select 15-inch MacBook Pro units sold between September 2015 and February 2017 contain a battery that may overheat and pose safety risks.

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Apple just published a new Press Release:

• Important notice for batteries in certain MacBook Pro units

Update: Now available on iOS for users in the US and UK.

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, an augmented reality game briefly teased by Pokémon Go creator back in November of last year, is now available in open beta – but only in two countries. It’s currently available only in Australia and New Zealand, but you can register to receive an alert once it’s available in your country …

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GLSEN, an organization promoting LBGTQ-friendly spaces in K-12 schools, announced on Thursday that Apple CEO Tim Cook is receiving a "Champion" award for his efforts in promoting likeminded causes.

Apple has formally requested that the U.S. not impose tariffs upon its imported products in a letter, saying that it would greatly impact Apple's business, and unfairly benefit competitors.

Amid trade tensions between the United States and China, Apple this week sent a letter to United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. In the letter, Apple says that proposed tariffs would hit all of its major products, including the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

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Gatorade is releasing its first-ever augmented reality Snapchat lens today with inspiration from soccer legends Mia Hamm and Mallory Pugh and a special tie-in from Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss.

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If you’ve ever wished you could have experienced the Apollo 11 Moon landing, two upcoming augmented reality apps will give you the next best thing.

USA Today, Florida Today, and The Smithsonian Institution are partnering on a real-time AR experience that will allow you to view each aspect of the mission, from lift-off to Moon landing. The experience has been created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic achievement …

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Eco-friendly battery maker Nimble is out with its latest product -- a line of iPhone cases made from entirely recycled plastic bottles.

Washington Post:

New research in biomechanics suggests that young people are developing hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls — bone spurs caused by the forward tilt of the head, which shifts weight from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head, causing bone growth in the connecting tendons and ligaments. The weight transfer that causes the buildup can be compared to the way the skin thickens into a callus as a response to pressure or abrasion.

The result is a hook or hornlike feature jutting out from the skull, just above the neck.

If you don’t have access to the article (and I find the Washington Post a no-brainer value, worth my subscription dollar), here’s a link to the original study, which shows X-rays of said horns. Crazy.

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Andy Greenberg, Wired:

…an escalating pattern of fraud based on so-called SIM swap attacks, where hackers trick or bribe a phone company employee into switching the SIM card associated with a victim’s phone number. The attackers then use that hijacked number to take over banking or other online accounts. According to Tenreiro, the bank had seen more than 17 SIM swap frauds every month. The problem was only getting worse.

And:

SIM swap hackers rely on intercepting a one-time password sent by text after stealing a victim’s banking credentials, or by using the phone number as a password reset fallback. So the phone company, Tenreiro says, offered a straightforward fix: The carrier would set up a system to let the bank query phone records for any recent SIM swaps associated with a bank account before they carried out a money transfer. If a SIM swap had occurred in, say, the last two or three days, the transfer would be blocked. Because SIM swap victims can...

If you’re planning to unfollow someone on Twitter, you might want to hold off for now in case you inadvertently cause offense…

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If you buy a used Nest Cam, the previous owner could have access to it. The Wirecutter discovered a way a previous owner can view the images, via the Wink hub. It is unclear if the issue applies to other products. Oh, and there is currently no way to fix it.

If you buy and set up a used Nest indoor camera that has been paired with a Wink hub, the previous owner may have unfettered access to images from that camera. And we currently don’t know of any cure for this problem. We are unsure what further implications there may be regarding Nest’s video service, including whether it may be vulnerable to other methods or through other smart-home device integrations.

Jamf, a company that helps businesses manage Apple integration in businesses, has shown that Mac's reliability is a top reason employees prefer using Mac in the workplace.

Planning on traveling abroad this year? Although most people around the world speak at least a wee bit of English, you can increase your enjoyment of your visits by speaking the language of the natives. How can you learn a new language and sound like a true native quickly? Mondly uses state-of-the-art speech recognition and proven methods to get you up to speed fast. We have an amazing deal for you today — get a lifetime subscription to Mondly for up to 5 languages for $59 — that’s an $1,199.75 value for less than $60!

• Choose 5 of 33 languages to learn in your own native tongue

Let the Apple Car rumors roll on. Apple has filed for a patent (number 20190190858) for an “operational safety mode” that would allow a smart car to inform others trying to call the driver on say, an iPhone or Apple Watch, that the person they’re trying to contact is behind the wheel.

In the patent filing, Apple notes that electronic devices can receive information, including, merely by way of example, communications from other users' electronic devices and/or applications. Such electronic devices can output notifications indicating the arrival of information. 

However, Apple says that some operational modes involving the output of notifications using electronic devices, are “generally cumbersome and inefficient.” For example, some existing techniques use a complex and time-consuming user interface, which may include multiple key presses or keystrokes. Existing techniques require more time than necessary, wasting user time and device energy...

Apple has filed for a patent (number 20190188915) for a “method and apparatus for representing a virtual object in a real environment.” It involves the company’s continued work in augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), as well as its almost-certainly-coming “Apple Glasses” head-mounted display (HMD).

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for representing a virtual object in a real environment, particularly for merging the virtual object with an image of the real environment generated by a recording device. This is one of many patents filed for and granted to Apple. “Apple Glasses” is the name used to refer to the augmented reality/virtual reality headset the company is expected to debut next year or 2021

Here’s the (very wordy)summary of the patent filing: “The invention relates to a method for representing a virtual object in a real environment, having the following steps: generating a two-dimensional representation of a real...

iPhone rumors—for 2020! Fresh new OS betas! Will your Aspyr games work in the future! And your hot takes! That’s all in this episode of the Macworld Podcast.

The is episode 656 with Michael Simon, Leif Johnson, and Roman Loyola.

Listen to episode 656

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Second-hand Google Nest Cam Indoor models can send images of your home to the Wink hub of the camera's previous owner, but Google has announced a fix.

Used Nest cams allow the original owner to spy on whoever buys them. The problem was discovered by a former owner of the popular Nest Cam Indoor.

Worryingly, the behavior survives the official reset procedure, and right now there appears to be no fix available for it …

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If you need tech help with your Apple product, Best Buy might be able to help out.

Apple has announced that it has partnered with Best Buy to offer certified repairs at every one of its nearly 1,000 locations in the United States. According to the release, Best Buy’s Geek Squad now has nearly 7,600 newly Apple-certified technicians that can make same-day iPhone repairs and service other products. Best Buy stores will use official Apple parts and their repair work will be backed by Apple.

Apple has been under pressure to reduce its backlogs, wait times, and reservations for repairs at its Apple Store locations. According to the company, the partnership will make for more than 1,800 third-party Apple Authorized Service Providers in the U.S., thereby amounting to three times the locations three years ago.

Apple has stated that eight out of ten Apple customers will now be within 20 minutes of an authorized service provider.

Stay tuned for additional details...

pacopico writes: There's a very weird trend going on in Silicon Valley right now where tech giants like Apple, Facebook and Twitter are raiding university neuroscience labs. They're hiring people who do pretty esoteric research on animal brains and putting them in their AI divisions. According to this Bloomberg Businessweek story, part of the reason is simply that the scientists tend to be good at dealing with large amounts of data. But the bigger deal is that these researchers specialize in things like auditory and visual function and even brain/machine interfaces and are being tapped to build new products based on the brain.

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Bryan Chaffin and Andrew Orr dig deep into the possibilities—for good and ill (mostly ill)—of Facebook’s new Libra cryptocurrency. They cover how it work, why Facebook went the cryptocurrency route, and what Facebook has to gain from the project. Spoiler, the answer is everything!

Code discovered in the latest macOS 10.15 Catalina beta suggests Apple is employing its Project Catalyst framework to develop new versions of Messages and Shortcuts, the latter of which is currently limited to iOS devices.

Mel Magazine writes:

A generation raised on mp3s and Spotify are collecting [CD] discs like vinyl — but for reasons that have almost nothing to do with the music.

Did you throw all yours away?

Disney+ won’t launch until November 12, but it’s already putting strategic pressure on Apple TV+. Apple has found itself in a bind.

According to an interview with Apple Senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi conducted by Cnet at WWDC, the first four Catalyst apps introduced to macOS last year are in for a design refresh.

Apple first demonstrated its technology to help bring iPad apps to the Mac—then called Marzipan—with macOS Mojave. When the OS shipped last fall, it included four new apps built using UIKit, the framework that developers use to build iPhone and iPad apps: News, Home, Voice Memos, and Stocks. They were not well-received by Mac fans.

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This is not unexpected and provides a good test bed for Apple. Minor point: Why does Bloomberg call it a “Goldman Credit Card” in the headline?

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The Apple Card testing program has now expanded to include Apple’s retail employees. Although they can’t talk about the card but they can use it publicly to make purchases.

Many of the rank-and-file employees have already applied. The digital version via Apple Pay on the iPhone is usable immediately, while workers are told to expect the arrival of physical versions within two to three weeks. The employees are being offered the same APR range that Apple advertised to consumers: 13.24% to 24.24%, the people said.

I look forward to getting the Apple Card.

Nebo from MyScript is an amazing app that takes advantage of an active stylus like the Apple Pencil or Pencil 2 to turn an iPad into a note-taking powerhouse. We first reviewed Nebo back in 2016, and were so impressed with it that it received a 5 out of 5 star rating and was one of our Top Picks of the year. The app instantly and accurately recognizes handwriting, provides the ability to add diagrams and editable/solvable equations, and more. Nebo just got even better with the addition in Version 2.2.1 of the ability (in beta) to add text with an onscreen or external keyboard for those situations where it may be faster to type in text than write it by hand. We’re so sure you’ll like the new version that we’re giving away 10 licenses, so be sure to enter our giveaway at the end of...

We don’t really know but this is a great synopsis of what authorities do know with a lot of valid supposition thrown in.

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While it’s not enabled by default, Apple has brought the long-awaited mouse support to iPad with iPadOS 13. Follow along on for how to pair and use a mouse with your iPad as well as set up buttons for custom shortcuts.

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Serif, the creators of Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, have today launched Affinity Publisher. It will let people create designs for magazines, books, brochures, posters, reports, stationary, and more.

Affinity is planning to release the new Publisher app for iPad in the future but for now, both Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo iOS users will have functionality with Affinity Publisher documents.

While Publisher itself will come to iPad later, owners of Affinity Designer and Photo on iPad will be able to open, edit and export Publisher documents, on the move, from today.

Apple is planning to upgrade News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home -- the first four apps converted from iOS to macOS under Marzipan, now known as Project Catalyst, software head Craig Federighi said on Wednesday.

This may seem like a silly story but it’s actually terrifying. All it would take is one specific disease and it could wipe out the entire dairy industry.

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