Automating your shades is one of the easiest ways to feel like you’re living in the future, as the Jetsons predicted. If you already have existing shades, you might want to look at the , which lets you convert existing shades to HomeKit-compatible ones with minimal installation.

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Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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Though Apple revenues declined compared to the same quarter last year, the drop was less precipitous than many had feared, and Apple still announced profits of $23.6 billion. Revenue increases came from the Services and Mac segments.

Macworld

Gaming subscription services are all the rage now, but Apple Arcade isn’t quite like PlayStation Plus, EA Play, or Xbox Game Pass. So if you’ve got questions about it, we’ve got plenty of answers.

Updated 05/03/24: Three new games were added to Apple Arcade on May 2: A Slight Change of Sawblades+, Dicey Dungeons+, and...

The first Apple event of 2024 is almost here. Set for May 7, the “Let loose” event is expected to focus entirely on the iPad. This should come as no surprise, considering the device was Apple’s only major product line to not receive any hardware updates in the entirety of 2023. iPad sales, as a result, keep dropping. But Apple is prepared to reverse that trend with its May 7 lineup.

Here is a roundup of everything you can expect to see when the event arrives.

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In my final edition of 9to5Toys Lunch Break, you’ll find on Amazon. The latest AirPods 3 drop to $140, and is sitting at the Amazon low of $79. Hit the jump for all that and more.

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iOS 18 Will Intro AI Features To Siri and Spotlight Search with Apple’s Ajax LLM

The talks of Apple working on generative AI have been making waves for a long time. The rumors were confirmed when Tim Cook mentioned Generative AI during a quarterly earnings call this February and added that they are coming “later this year,” which happens to be when Apple takes the wraps off its next iPhone […]

This post iOS 18 Will Intro AI Features To Siri and Spotlight Search with Apple’s Ajax LLM appeared first on The Mac Observer

More than three years after Spotify lossless audio was first promised by the company, it still hasn’t launched. There have been multiple reports since, and the latest of these claims that the service is now very close to launching.

We’ve also heard three different brand names suggested. The company originally announced it as Spotify HiFi, then we heard Music Pro, and today’s report says it will be called Spotify Lossless …

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Macworld

With WWDC just about a month away, you’re going to read a lot of stories about how the newest features in iOS 18 are copies of something Google or Samsung already have in Android. But we’re willing to bet that the latest feature Google is rolling out to Android users will never ever show up after an iPhone update.

As spotted by 9to5Google, Google calls the new feature Audio Emoji and as...

Next week’s Let Loose event will see the unveiling of new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, alongside a new Apple Pencil and an updated Magic Keyboard which will give the iPad Pro a more MacBook-like look and feel.

But there is one key iPad which won’t get an update next week, and that’s the entry-level model. Apple is said to be working hard on an updated version of this …

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Macworld

You don’t have to pay full price to buy an iPhone; if you shop around you can find a bargain. Every month the Macworld team hunts down the best prices on iPhones at all major retailers and cellphone operators, saving you the hassle of finding the best iPhone deals.

In this article, we reveal the best iPhone deals, contracts and bundles available right now. We’ll help you find a discounted iPhone suitable for any budget, and cover all the currently available models, including the iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max that launched in September. We also have the best prices for the iPhone 14 range, including models that Apple has removed from sale, but you can still buy elsewhere. And with Apple discontinuing the iPhone 13 mini, third-party...

Macworld

The golden age of artificial intelligence has just begun, with AI tools now available that help people get more things done. But Apple’s presence in AI has been muted, to put it kindly. Apple needs to do something to make an impression and tell the world it’s keeping up with the times.

Apparently, Apple plans to use its upcoming AI-enhanced M4 chip to make that impression. While initial reports said that the M4 will appear in new Macs coming this fall, a new report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that the M4 could debut in a new iPad Pro at Tuesday’s ...

It’s taken a little while, but Microsoft has finally announced support for passkeys for its products. On Thursday, the company announced that passkey support is rolling out for all its consumer accounts across Apple platforms, Windows, and Google products. Users of Word, Excel, and other popular products requiring Microsoft sign-in will be able to authenticate […]

Source

Macworld

Photos can pop when one area is in sharp focus and the other blurry, providing the impression of depth in a two-dimensional image that matches how our eyes focus on objects, even though we don’t typically perceive this. This technique once required a lens of the sort found on an SLR or DSLR (analog or digital single-lens reflex) or mirrorless camera. You adjust the f-stop, traditionally noted with an ƒ, which changes the depth of field or the range from the camera lens to a further point that can be in focus.

Apple’s switch to an array of two or more back-facing camera lenses (starting with the iPhone 7 Plus) and a special Portrait mode built for it made this kind of sophisticated-looking feature available to hundreds of millions of people. More recent phones can also perceive depth on the front-facing camera by using infrared sensors, allowing depth processing.

The effect can be clear when you use it deliberately...

Following on from the announcement of Apple’s second quarter fiscal 2024 results, Apple CEO Tim Cook joined the company’s chief financial officer Luca Maestri on a call with investors. During this call, Cook again teased Apple’s upcoming generative AI and said that the company has advantages over its competitors.

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Enlarge / The Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California. (credit: Anadolu Agency | Getty)

Apple's earnings report for the second quarter of the company's 2024 fiscal year showed a slide in hardware sales, especially for the iPhone. Nonetheless, Apple beat analysts' estimates for the quarter thanks to the company's rapidly growing services revenue.

iPhone revenue dropped from $51.33 billion in the same quarter last year to $45.96 billion, a fall of about 10 percent. This was the second consecutive quarter with declining iPhone...

Apple on Thursday announced its earnings for the second fiscal quarter of 2024, slightly beating expectations with $90.75 billion in revenue. During an interview, Cook also took a moment to talk about the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust lawsuit against Apple, calling it “misguided.”

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[Fix] Errors Importing Android WhatsApp Chats to iPhone

Move to iOS makes it super-easy to transfer all the data on your old Android phone, including WhatsApp chats, to a new iPhone. It’s reliable for the most part. However, like some users, you might encounter an unknown error prompt saying “something went wrong,” especially if you’re transferring large volumes of data. Although tedious, this […]

This post [Fix] Errors Importing Android WhatsApp Chats to iPhone appeared first on The Mac Observer

Update: It turns out Tim Cook was misunderstood in the CNBC story. The full quote in context does not imply an AI software announcement at next week’s hardware event, although Apple does infuse its silicon with AI readiness. Here’s the full quote in context:



”Looking ahead, we’re getting ready for an exciting product announcement next week that we think our customers will love. And next month, we have our Worldwide Developers Conference, which has generated enormous enthusiasm from our developers. We can’t wait to reveal what we have in store.

”

Additionally, with a pause inserted to explain what happened:

“And we’re getting into a period of time here where we’re extremely excited like I’m in the edge of my seat literally because next week, we’ve got a product event that we’re excited about. And then just a few weeks thereafter, we’ve got the developers Worldwide Developers Conference coming up and we’ve got some big plans to announce in in...

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Supported by Setapp: Get access to 240+ apps on your Mac for just $9.99. Sign up today for a free 7-day trial. 

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Enlarge / John Schmidtlein, partner at Williams & Connolly LLP and lead litigator for Alphabet Inc.'s Google, arrives to federal court in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg)

Halfway through the first day of closing arguments in the Department of Justice's big antitrust trial against Google, US District Judge Amit Mehta posed the question that likely many Google users have pondered over years of DOJ claims that Google's market dominance has harmed users.

"What should Google have done to remain outside the crosshairs of the DOJ?" Mehta asked...

Incident began at 2024-05-02 15:53 and ended at 2024-05-02 19:02 (times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)).

The issue with Google Meet has been resolved for all affected users.

For new streams, there is no problem now. For broken streams, the stream host can stop and restart the stream to mitigate the issue.

We thank you for your patience while we worked on resolving the issue.

Affected products: Google Meet

Apple’s “Let Loose” event is almost here and we’re expecting the official launch of the new iPad Pro, iPad Air, and more. Here’s how to watch the iPad event (including below), plus a reminder that the start time is three hours earlier than most of the company’s events.

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Apple today has added nine new design templates to its collection of Figma resources, significantly increasing the number of resources available for Figma users.

Previously the available resources focused solely on key operating systems like iOS and iPadOS, visionOS, and macOS. Now, nine new cross-platform feature templates are available.

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Microsoft Finally Rolls Out Passkey Support for Apple Devices

On the occasion of World Password Day (which typically falls on the first Thursday of May i.e. May 2 this year), Microsoft wants to “eliminate passwords for good”. Redmond-based tech behemoth is finally rolling out support for passkey for all consumer accounts today. The company announced this update via a blog post earlier today, mentioning how Microsoft once dreamt of “a world free of […]

This post Microsoft Finally Rolls Out Passkey Support for Apple Devices appeared first on The Mac Observer

Apple is tweaking how it applies a new fee that can apply to iOS developers in the European Union as it continues to configure its approach to the bloc's Digital Markets Act (DMA): Developers of free apps will be able to avoid the fee entirely under changes it announced Thursday, which apply from today, while other developers earning under a certain revenue threshold will get longer before they have to pay Apple the fee. From a report: The so-called "core technology fee" remains opt in for iOS developers in the region, as Apple continues to offer its standard business terms, but those wanting to take up new entitlements the DMA has required Apple to offer -- such as allowing sideloading of apps, third party app stores, and support for alternative payment tech than Apple's own -- must agree to the set of business terms that include the CTF (as Apple calls it).

The fee remains under scrutiny in the region where the Commission, which enforces the DMA on Apple and other...

We’re getting closer every day to a password-free future. Less than two years after Apple launched passkeys with iOS 16 and macOS 13, more and more companies continue adding support. Following in the footsteps of Amazon and Nintendo, among others, today Microsoft announced that passkey support is rolling out for all its consumer accounts across Apple platforms, Windows, and Google products.

Users of Word, Excel, and the host of other popular products requiring Microsoft sign-in will be able to authenticate using simple biometric tools like Face ID or Touch ID.

...

Macworld

The Studio Display is more than a pretty monitor—it’s also loaded with high-end features you won’t find anywhere else, including a FaceTime camera, spatial audio, and three built-in USB-C ports. All that comes at a price, but today it’s cheaper than it’s ever been: Amazon is selling the 27-inch Apple Studio Display for $1,300, a savings of $299 and the best price we’ve ever seen.

The Studio Display is a fantastic monitor with a 5K Retina display sporting 600 nits of brightness, True Tone, and a P3 wide color gamut. Inside its thin bezels, you’ll find a built-in 12MP ultra-wide camera with Center Stage support, as well as a six-speaker...

Alphabet paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 for Google to be the default search engine in the Safari browser, according to newly unsealed court documents in the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Google. From a report: The deal between the two tech giants is at the heart of the landmark case, in which antitrust enforcers allege Google has illegally monopolized the market for online search and related advertising. The Justice Department and Google will offer closing arguments in the case Thursday and Friday, with a decision expected later this year.

Google and Apple had hoped to shield the payment amount from public disclosure. At the trial last fall, Apple executives testified that Google paid "billions," without specifying a number. A Google witness later accidentally disclosed that Google pays 36% of the revenue it earns from search ads to Apple. Court documents filed late Tuesday ahead of the closing arguments mark the first public confirmation of the figures by...

Today, Arc Search, the iOS app from the Browser Company that debuted earlier this year, has been updated with three key feature improvements: widgets for your Home screen, Voice Search that can be triggered from an iPhone’s Action button, and handy new tab controls for controlling page zoom and requesting a desktop site.

All of these added conveniences aim to take the AI-focused search and web browsing tool to a new place of frequent engagement for users.

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Earlier this week, the European Commission announced that iPadOS is now designated as a gatekeeper platform in the European Union, just like the iPhone and the App Store.

In a new developer announcement today, Apple acknowledged this change and confirmed it will bring features like alternative app marketplaces, third-party browser engines, and more to the iPad in the EU later this fall.

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In February this year, we learned that after more than a decade of work, Project Titan – the Apple Car effort was officially canceled. Naturally, details have been sparse around the topic as it was a secret project. But today an interesting detail has surfaced about how Apple is dismantling the project.

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Anyone following Apple supply chain reports knows that the company has been working toward adopting OLED displays on the iPad Pro for quite some time. Though the iPhone has featured an OLED display since the 2017 iPhone X, bringing the technology to the iPad lineup has proven difficult.

Delays seem to finally be reaching their end, however, as this new display technology should see its debut at the May 7 Apple event. A new report details how exactly the 2024 iPad Pro has produced fresh challenges for suppliers, and another highlights OLED supplier changes coming to the iPhone 16.

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Apple Watch AFib History Feature Gets FDA Nod as an MDDT

The Internet is flooded with instances wherein Apple Watch has helped save lives. Features such as Emergency SOS, Heart rate monitor, VO2Max, and ECG can be saviours. Now, the FDA has given the green signal to Apple Watch’s atrial fibrillation (AFib) history feature under MDDT (Medical Device Development Tool). Henceforth, medical professionals can rely on […]

This post Apple Watch AFib History Feature Gets FDA Nod as an MDDT appeared first on The Mac Observer

The Apple Watch AFib feature – which detects abnormal heartbeat patterns indicative of atrial fibrillation – has received a new tick of approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Doctors have already credited the health feature with saving lives.

While the FDA had previously granted clearance for AFib detection, that was a limited endorsement …

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A court is being asked to decide whether or not Meta has a legal obligation to allow the use of Unfollow Everything – a browser tool which effectively empties your Facebook feed.

The idea behind the tool is that instead of being sucked into an effectively endless feed of posts from every friend, group, and page you have ever followed, you get to proactively choose the posts you read …

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Songs from UMG artists are now again available to TikTok creators, after a dispute over royalty payments and AI policies was resolved.

This has seen the return of a lengthy list of artists, including Bad Bunny, Sting, The Weeknd, Alicia Keys, Drake, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Rosalía, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Adele, U2, Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, and Post Malone …

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If you were hoping for a new generation of the Apple Watch Ultra with a significant number of amazing new features you may be let down. Per Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple seems likely to release a next-gen Apple Watch Ultra this year, but the new model will have “almost no” hardware upgrades […]

Source

Search in the Notes App Doesn’t Work? Here’s How To Fix It

As someone who uses the Notes app to write down ideas, to-do lists, personal information, and journal entries, I understand how alarming search function glitches feel. Don’t worry—your files are still on iCloud. The problem is that your local and recent drafts likely failed to sync. To help you find your urgent notes fast, let’s […]

This post Search in the Notes App Doesn’t Work? Here’s How To Fix It appeared first on The Mac Observer

Anthropic has released its Claude AI chatbot on the App Store, bringing the company's ChatGPT competitor to the masses. Compared to OpenAI's chatbot, Claude is built with a focus on reducing harmful outputs and promoting safety, with a goal of making interactions more reliable and ethically aware. You can give it a try here. 9to5Mac reports: Anthropic highlights three launch features for Claude on iPhone:

Seamless syncing with web chats: Pick up where you left off across devices.
Vision capabilities: Use photos from your library, take new photos, or upload files so you can have real-time image analysis, contextual understanding, and mobile-centric use cases on the go.
Open access: Users across all plans, including Pro and Team, can download the app free of charge.

The app is also capable of analyzing things that you show it like objects, images, and your environment.

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Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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I’m someone who likes to replace my devices often, always getting the latest and greatest of what Apple produces. One glaring exception has been the iPad. I used to buy nearly every new generation, a trend that continued after I made the iPad my primary computer. But for nearly six years, I’ve been using the 2018 iPad Pro—a shockingly long time by my standards. And despite several new models releasing in recent years, I’ve never been enticed enough to upgrade.

Why? Because the 2018 model has worked remarkably well. Next week though, my new iPad drought will finally come to an end. Based on what’s widely expected in the 2024 iPad Pro—whether it includes an M4 chip or not—I’m eagerly ready to upgrade. And I suspect a lot of 2018 owners plan to do the same. Let me explain.

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Mac display aficionados know that pixel count must scale with screen size to maintain Apple’s standard for “Retina” resolution.

That’s why the 24-inch iMac is 4.5K, the 27-inch Studio Display is 5K, and the 32-inch Pro Display XDR is 6K. These resolutions and display sizes each amount to 218 pixels per inch. The result is a balance of sharpness and screen real estate for the price of $1499, $1599, and $4999, respectively.

The pursuit of pixels per inch is also why the Mac community endured the LG UltraFine 5K monitor for so long, and why of the Studio Display gets our attention.

With that being said, is a larger display with less resolution always a compromise? I’ve been reviewing a BenQ DesignVue Design Monitor for several weeks, and this 4K 32-inch setup has solved a real problem for me.

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Technology comes with its pros and cons, and among modern Apple devices that’s been especially true with . Like other Bluetooth trackers, since their debut AirTags have been used by stalkers and other bad actors to track others without their consent or knowledge. Authorities have begun taking action, with Pennsylvania the latest state to move toward criminalization of unauthorized trackers.

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This MIT Technology Review piece points out that relying too heavily on the term "user" exacts a cost in depersonalizing the relationships we have with the software that fills our lives. Let's work to use more precise terms.

In time for Mental Health Awareness Month, Apple Podcasts is shining light on a new category of podcasts to listen to.

The new Wellbeing category collects shows featuring health, fitness and wellness topics. As noted by AdWeek, listenership for shows in this genre has increased 40% in the last five years.

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We’re now halfway through the work week with a fresh batch of new deals – all headlined by Apple’s 10th Generation iPad at $470. It comes joined by iPhone 14 Pro at $705 if you don’t mind going with an Amazon refurbished model, while Apple Watch Series 9 remains at $100 off. Hit the jump for all that and more in the latest 9to5Toys Lunch Break.

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If you’ve been keeping up with generative AI and large language models on iPhone, then you may be aware that Anthropic’s Claude AI was notably absent from iOS.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has been updating ChatGPT on iPhone for a while now, and Google’s Gemini exists in its iOS app. Starting today, however, Claude for iPhone is joining the party.

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