One of the biggest surprises from Apple’s ‘Let loose’ event was the arrival of a new M4 chip in the iPad Pro. It may not have been quite as surprising as Apple originally hoped, but heading into the event there was still a lot of doubt and no real consensus on what chip would power the new iPad Pro.

Yet Apple made the bold move of shipping the very first M4 chip in the iPad. Leaving us all to wonder: why? And what exactly is wrong with the M3 line?

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Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating
Pros

• Internal battery
• Protective case
• More efficient than a wireless power bank
• Slimmer than rival battery cases

Cons

• Battery offers less power than rivals
• More expensive than rivals

Our Verdict

The Mophie Juice Pack battery case provides 50% back-up power and protection for the iPhone 15. The internal 2,400mAh battery is one of the lowest-capacity options but the benefit of this is a much-reduced hump at the back of the slim case, in comparison to bulkier 5000mAh capacity battery cases.

Price When Reviewed

$99.95

Best Prices Today: Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone 15

Retailer

Price

Zagg

$99.95

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While an expensive, bulky Vision Pro headset undoubtedly has its place for some, Apple’s longer-term goal is believed to be a product dubbed Apple Glasses: bringing AR capabilities into something with a similar form-factor and weight to conventional eyeglasses or sunglasses.

Squeezing that much tech into a much smaller device is, of course, a huge challenge – but researchers at Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab may have come up with at least part of the solution …

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Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating
Pros

• Excellent Apple & Android support
• Great battery life
• USB-C and 3.5mm audio support

Cons

• No ANC
• Design is dated
• No on-ear detection

Our Verdict

It’s been too long since Beats updated its more affordable on-ear Solo headphones, and while there are lots of improvements in this version it feels like a missed opportunity to really push the category forward. A dated design and “just okay” sound make this a good buy on sale, but not at full price.

Price When Reviewed

$199

Best Prices Today: Beats Solo 4

Retailer

Price

Beats

$199

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Macworld

Even the biggest companies have been caught up in social-media backlashes, from Adobe’s “tone-deaf” software smile correction to Google’s “embarrassing and wrong” AI tool. But I didn’t think much of a potential controversy when I watched Apple’s ad for the new iPad Pro at its Let Loose event this week. Boy, was I wrong about that.

The “Crush!” advert tries to...

It’s not the biggest iTunes update in the world, but it offers support for the forthcoming iPad Air and iPad Pro models on your Windows PC, and that’s helpful. Apple on Thursday released iTunes 12.13.2, its new update for its music software. The update follows a December release that added security fixes. iTunes has been […]

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During its “Let Loose” event on Tuesday, Apple introduced the . However, the product was unveiled with a rather intriguing and controversial ad, which shows things like musical instruments, camera lenses, and books being destroyed by a hydraulic press – which then turns it all into the new iPad.

But a lot of people didn’t like the iPad Pro ad, and it turns out that Apple may have been inspired by a very old LG ad.

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One of the biggest highlights of the is the OLED display for the first time on an iPad. Although the technology has been around for a while in the iPhone and Apple Watch, previous iPads were all equipped with LCD (or mini-LED) displays. However, despite having an OLED panel with a variable refresh rate, the M4 iPad Pro still lacks an always-on display like the latest iPhones.

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Macworld

During Apple’s “Let Loose” iPad event on Tuesday, the company unveiled a new ad for the iPad Pro, as it often does during these events. The ad, named “Crush!,” depicts a massive hydraulic press filled with creative implements: multiple musical instruments, paints, TVs, and old arcade game, music mixing equipment, and more. Accompanied by “All I Ever Need is You” by Sonny & Cher, the press crushes all these artistic and entertainment implements, then pulls up to reveal the iPad Pro.

The ad premiered on social media, and is still up on YouTube, which you can watch here:

It was meant to invoke the idea that all this creative and entertainment stuff now fits into a super-thin iPad Pro, but it was some received it very differently. Seeing all the tools of creative professionals literally destroyed and replaced by a gadget struck the wrong chord with Apple’s indispensable market of creatives.

Several...

Macworld

In May 2024, Apple unveiled the latest generation of its Pencil stylus for iPad—Apple Pencil Pro. It’s essentially a replacement for the 2nd-generation Apple Pencil, made to support only the newest iPad Air (M2) and iPad Pro (M4) models, and with similar design but several new features.

That means Apple now has four products all named “Apple Pencil,” but two of them are essentially only for products no longer sold as new, but rather only for legacy models.

Which Apple Pencil: Specs

Before we look at the differences between the three Apple Pencil models, here’s a brief breakdown of their technical specifications:

Apple Pencil (1st Gen)Apple Pencil (2nd Gen)Apple Pencil (USB-C)Apple Pencil ProPrice$99/£109/€119$129/£139/€149$79/£79/€95$129/£139/€149Low LatencyYesYesYesYesTilt SensitivityYesYesYesYesPressure...

Alongside the new ultra-thin iPad Pro this week, Apple debuted a new “Crush!” ad to promote the new hardware. The ad has been the subject of much criticism over the last two days, as we reported on Thursday morning.

Apple has now responded to this criticism, issuing a public apology to Ad Age saying it “missed the mark with this video.”

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Apple’s developer site has long been a massive hub of resources for prospective app developers, but previously there was never a clear path toward getting started.

Today the company launched Pathways, a collection of videos, documentation, and other resources that will walk you step by step through the journey of developing your first app.

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Citing a memo distributed to Apple Store employees, 9to5Mac reports that the new iPad Pro and iPad Air lineups will not include Apple stickers in the box -- "a key piece of memorabilia" that dates back as far as 1977's Apple II, notes Ars Technica. While the company says that this is part of its environmental goals to completely remove plastic from its packaging, it begs the question: is the era of stickers in Apple boxes coming to an end? 9to5Mac reports: The M3 MacBook Air that launched in March includes stickers in the box, but Apple Vision Pro (which launched in February) does not. Will the iPhone 16 include stickers in the box? Only time will tell. Ars' Andrew Cunningham writes about the origins of the Apple stickers: Apple has included stickers with its products at least as far back as the Apple II in 1977 when the stickers still said "Apple Computer" on them in the company's then-favored Motter Tektura typeface (I couldn't track down a vintage Apple II unboxing, but I did...

The M4 iPad Pro is capable of being used by many as their primary computer. Maybe you just want the best iPad for PDFs, spreadsheets, note-taking, and other simple tasks. Or perhaps you’re a creative professional who truly pushes the performance of the iPad with video editing work, AI-driven photo edits, and more.

If you rely on the iPad to get things done, you may be interested in building an iPad-centric desk setup for your primary workspace. Sure, the iPad’s portability and versatility make it a great computer for lounging outdoors or taking to a coffee shop. But if you can build a true workstation at home or in the office, you’ll need some key accessories to go with it.

Here are some of the best accessories to create the ultimate iPad Pro desk setup.

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Enlarge / Many different Apple stickers from many different products and eras. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

As a noted sticker enthusiast, I’m always on the lookout for news at the intersection of stickers and technology. Which is why this report from 9to5Mac caught my eye: Apple is apparently starting to wind down its decades-long practice of including Apple logo stickers in the box with all of its products.

If you buy a new iPad Air or iPad Pro, you’ll be able to get some stickers if you ask the people at the Apple Store to include them (stores will get a “...

Apple will deliver some of its upcoming AI features this year via data centers equipped with its own in-house processors, part of a sweeping effort to infuse its devices with AI capabilities. From a report: The company is placing high-end chips -- similar to ones it designed for the Mac -- in cloud-computing servers designed to process the most advanced AI tasks coming to Apple devices, according to people familiar with the matter. Simpler AI-related features will be processed directly on iPhones, iPads and Macs, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is still under wraps.

The move is part of Apple's much-anticipated push into generative artificial intelligence -- the technology behind ChatGPT and other popular tools. The company is playing catch-up with Big Tech rivals in the area but is poised to lay out an ambitious AI strategy at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10. Apple's plan to use its own chips and process AI tasks in the cloud...

Following release candidate versions of iOS and other operating systems this week, Apple has seeded out macOS 14.5 RC to testers. This version could be what ships when the final version reaches customers. Here are the release notes:

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Macworld

The M4 chip is here, ushering in new state-of-the-art performance in AI with its fastest-ever Neural Engine, according to Apple. That’s fine and dandy, but what we’re really wondering is, how fast is the M4’s CPU versus the M3 chip it’s replacing?

We now have some early benchmarks that give us an idea. Geekbench 6 results have appeared in the Geekbench Browser and @VadimYuryev of...

Today’s Apple deals have arrived with a $100 price drop on several AirPods Max colorways. And for folks not interested in paying a premium on the latest and greatest, we also have some big-time deals on the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air starting from $829 – the upgraded 15-inch with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD is on sale at $1,499 too. All of those, some accessories, and more await below in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break.

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It’s been a big week for the iPad. The M4 iPad Pro and iPad Air 6 will make their way into users’ hands in a matter of days. That makes now the perfect time to start making a list of all the best iPadOS apps to enjoy while using the latest and greatest iPad hardware.

The question of getting things done on the iPad is evergreen. So we’ve assembled a collection of some of the best iPad apps specifically for creative professionals, spanning a variety of fields.

Want to create great things using Apple’s tablet? Here are some of the top tools to get started. Many of them will push the power of the new M4 iPad Pro, but even those that don’t will still run...

There’s been much debate on whether playing video games has a positive or negative impact on kids – and now teen gamers themselves have weighed-in.

A new large-scale survey of US teens found that around 40% of them played every day – with smartphones almost as popular a gaming device as consoles – and reported a mixed impact on their life …

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Version 2.7 of the t:connect iOS app – which is used to control delivery of insulin by the t:slim X2 pump – has been urgently recalled by the FDA.

The FDA issued a Class I recall, which is reserved for products likely to cause “serious adverse health consequences or death” …

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Macworld

Well, that was fast.

The M3 chip, introduced last October, is already yesterday’s news. We’re living in an M4 world, courtesy of the surprising announcement that the new iPad Pro is powered by Apple’s next generation of chips.

Even if you don’t care about iPads, this announcement will affect the trajectory of the Mac and iPhone in quite a few ways.

The first question to answer is: why so soon? The iPhone gets a new chip generation once a year, when the new iPhones arrive. Apple likely wants...

Macworld

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996 one of the first things he did was drastically streamline the company’s product portfolio. Slashing over 70 percent of the company’s products, everything was focused on a simple 2×2 grid: pro/consumer on one axis, desktop/portable on the other. Among other things, he argued that if consumers don’t know which product to buy, there are too many products.

Obviously, Apple is in a very different place today. It’s many times larger and competes in many more markets (both product markets and territorial markets). While it’s arguable that Apple makes too many products today, one could scarcely argue that it has too many Apple Pencils. There are four. Four!

Apple Pencil (x4)

It wouldn’t be crazy to suggest that Apple doesn’t even need to be the one making styluses for its tablets—just build the frameworks and let the accessory makers take care of it. But it’s hard...

If you were dreaming of Baldur’s Gate 3 hitting the iPad following a rumor that this port was en route, it won’t be happening. While Apple has recently gone out of its way to attract AAA game developers to its Mac, iOS, and iPadOS platforms, going so far as to develop a game porting kit […]

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Macworld

The first thing an entrepreneur learns is the importance of social media for marketing. The second thing they learn is how time-consuming that can be, but UNUM Pro is an tool that lets you plan your posts and helps increase engagement with a fraction of the drudge work.

Social media managers are nothing new, but UNUM offers several advantages over comparable services like Planoly or Later. For one thing, there are no monthly fees for the Pro Plan — just a single $49.99 payment for a lifetime of...

A new lawsuit filed against gyroscope and accelerometer supplier for Apple, InvenSense, accuses the company of failing to tell investors about the concessions it made to secure a recent deal. InvenSense parts are used in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus; executives should have warned investors, the suit alleges, that Apple was given a "sweetheart deal" that would hurt profits. "Instead of revealing the true condition of the company and its prospects, defendants hid those facts from investors and chose to issue strong guidance and paint a picture of a bright future with a new mega-customer," the complai...

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A new port of AllCast, a popular Android app, has just been released for iOS. The title lets users stream personal photo, video, and music libraries to a variety of platforms, not just the Apple TV, the only format natively supported by Apple. Some compatible targets include Chrome, Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku, WDTV, Xbox One/Xbox 360, and various platforms compatible with DLNA....

Taiwan-based supplier Quanta Computer has entered into "volume" production of Apple's upcoming 12-inch MacBook Air, according to supply chain sources. The laptop is reportedly on track to ship in the first quarter of the year, despite other rumors pointing to the second quarter. The new sources say that Quanta has escalated recruitment efforts in order to speed up production....

Facebook will start to post into its users News Feed alerts about missing children in the future, in an effort to locate them. A partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will involve the social network showing Amber Alerts to Facebook users located in specific search areas, both on mobile devices and desktops....

Apple appears to have ended its Single of the Week promotion on iTunes, visitors note. No tracks have been offered in the first two weeks of 2015, and a person on Apple's support forums claims to have been told by iTunes Support that the company has officially dropped the initiative. It's missing from iTunes Stores across the globe....

It's a fact that Spanish is the world's fourth most spoken language, with over 350 million native speakers across 21 countries. It's also a fact that people who are bilingual tend to do better in both academic pursuits as well as their career. If you've ever been curious about learning another language, Learn Spanish by Brainscape offers a solution for those who are trying to learn Spanish on the go....

Flickr has updated statistics for 2014 in its "Most Popular Camera" and "Most Popular Mobile Camera" categories, with the combined models of iPhone taking second place in the general "camera" category -- beating out DSLR maker Nikon and popular point-and-shoot maker Sony for second place. While Canon remains the most popular overall camera, the built-in cameras on smartphones from Apple and Samsung have -- despite inherent limitations -- steadily risen in popularity....

New information has been revealed on the specifications Apple has in mind for its planned licensing of the female Lightning port for third-party accessories. Manufacturers have reportedly been briefed on details and objectives, which include spreading Lightning to as many different accessories as possible in place of micro-USB. Possibilities include not just things like docks and headphones, but battery cases, gamepads, and Bluetooth speakers....

Word games are fairly numerous at this point. You've got your Boggle-style games, your Scrabble-style games, your crosswords and word searches. There are a lot of duplicates out there -- so when we find a fresh, new game, we tend to get pretty excited. One such app is Word of the Rings, by James Porter, a game that quite literally puts an interesting twist on the genre....

Marsh Supermarkets and inMarket have announced a new iBeacon platform, the first to emphasize the Apple Watch. The plan is to use iBeacons at Marsh's 75 locations to push ads, shopping lists, and other content to both Watches and iPhones. Initially, the platform will support the official Marsh app and inMarket's List Ease, but other apps should follow as long as they support inMarket's Proximity SDK. All apps will have to update with Watch support, but the platform itself is Watch-ready....

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People wanting to control HomeKit-enabled devices remotely through Apple's Siri must have an Apple TV at home to serve as a hub, according to Verge sources, including two launch partners and a person said to be "close to HomeKit's development." Siri controls will always work while an iPhone or iPad is on the same network as a HomeKit device, but until now it wasn't fully clear how remote operation might work. The Apple TV must also be a third-generation model running at least v7.0 firmware or newer. Notably, remote operation without Siri -- using the vendor app for a HomeKit product directly -...

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You could just look out of your window, of course, but Weather Wall aims to set your wallpaper to an image that's right for the weather where you are. But if you ever had views like these from your office window, you would not stay sitting at your desk. These wallpaper shots are simply beautiful....