Enlarge / Emojipedia sample images of the new Unicode 16.0 emoji. (credit: Emojipedia)

The Unicode Consortium has finalized and released version 16.0 of the Unicode standard, the elaborate character set that ensures that our phones, tablets, PCs, and other devices can all communicate and interoperate with each other. The update adds 5,185 new characters to the standard, bringing the total up to a whopping 154,998.

Of those 5,185 characters, the ones that will get the most attention are the eight new emoji...

Apple announced today that it's adding sleep apnea detection to the Apple Watch, including the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Verge reports: Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes you to stop breathing as you sleep. Sleep apnea is a feature that wearables makers have been working on for some time, with Samsung getting cleared by the FDA for sleep apnea tracking with the Galaxy Watch earlier this year. Apple says it's using the accelerometer on its watches to monitor a new metric that it calls "breathing disturbances." You'll be able to see your nightly breathing disturbance values in the Health app.

The company expects to get FDA clearance for its sleep apnea detection feature soon, and it plans to launch the feature in more than 150 countries and regions. The company says its sleep detection was validated in a study that was "unprecedented" in size for sleep apnea technology.

...

Apple says AirPods Pro 2 will receive a software feature "soon" that will turn the wireless earbuds into "clinical-grade" hearing aids. "This includes a hearing protection mode being enabled by default, offering passive noise cancellation in loud environments," adds 9to5Mac. From the report: Firstly, users can take a clinically-validated hearing test. The hearing test uses your AirPods and iPhone, and can be conducted by a user in under five times. The result of your hearing test can be viewed securely in the Health app. If hearing loss is detected, the hearing aid mode is then available to use. The AirPods will make it easier to hear sounds from the world around you. A custom hearing profile is automatically applied when listening to audio, like music or podcasts.

The hearing aid feature is currently making its way through the FDA and other regulatory bodies. Apple said the functionality will be available in more than 100 countries. The feature will be enabled through a...

Apple has revealed that the initial versions of its 2024 operating systems—macOS 15 Sequoia, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, visionOS 2, tvOS 18, and HomePod Software 18—will ship on 16 September 2024.

Apple announced the iPhone 16 Pro lineup at Monday's product event. The company's new flagship smartphones have slightly bigger screens across both models: 6.3 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro Max (up from 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches, respectively, on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max). The Verge: The bodies of the phones are once again made from titanium. It comes in four colors: black, white, natural, and a new "desert titanium." Apple also claims that the iPhone 16 Pro Max has "the best iPhone battery life ever." The iPhone 16 Pro lineup comes with the A18 Pro chip, with a 16-core Neural Engine that it says will offer "amazing performance" for Apple Intelligence features, including 15 percent faster performance than the iPhone 15 Pro. It also has improved graphics performance thanks to a 6-core GPU that's 20 percent faster than the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro. The iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999, whereas the iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199.

...

• These are the new colors and finishes for the iPhone 16 Pro.

As expected, Apple announced the new iPhone Pro models today during a livestream: the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. The iPhone 16 Pro has a 6.3-inch display, and the Max has a 6.9-inch display. That's primarily thanks to thinner borders around the displays.

Like the iPhone 15 Pro, the 16 Pro is made of titanium but with a new texture. Apple claims the phone has improved heat management with its new chassis, which could address some of our complaints about the iPhone 15 Pro—that means up to 20 percent faster sustained performance, too.

Larger batteries and efficiency improvements have led to a promise of battery life improvements, though Apple didn't say exactly how much longer they'll last during the livestream.

...

• The AirPods 4. [credit:
  Apple ]

Apple announced the fourth-generation AirPods today during its It's Glowtime event. As you can tell from the gallery above, the AirPods 4 look different from their predecessor. They also have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) if you're willing to pay extra.

Apple said that it mapped and analyzed "thousands" of ear shapes with 3D photogrammetry, laser topography, and other modeling tools to design the AirPods 4's new form. Apple claims the new shape will make for a better fit. The new earbuds appear to have shorter stems. They look more similar to the AirPods Pro now but without the silicone tips. The stems also...

Tiptop is a completely new way to pay that makes everything you buy more affordable with trade-in at checkout. Tiptop lets you select any item you own from our catalog of over 50,000 choices and receive instant credit towards your purchase. Merchants can enable Tiptop easily with no up front costs and we’re currently offering $10,000 in Tiptop Promotional Credit that you can use to help customers learn about Tiptop without discounting. Get started now as a merchant or experience Tiptop as a shopper at partners like Nothing Tech, Daylight, Cradlewise and King of Christmas.

 ★ 

Maintenance update with several bug fixes and crash resolvers. (Various prices new, free update, various sizes, macOS 10.15+)

At the end of August, Apple announced several more DMA compliance changes. They are worth examining in detail.

Changes to the Mandatory Browser Choice Screen

Developers of browsers offered in the browser choice screen in the
EU will have additional information about their browser shown to
users who view the choice screen, and will get access to more data
about the performance of the choice screen. The updated choice
screen will be shown to all EU users who have Safari set as their
default browser. For details about the changes coming to the
browser choice screen, view About the Browser Choice Screen in the EU.

Some of the choice details of the new changes:

• All users with Safari as their default browser, including users
  who have already seen the choice screen prior to the...

Imagine squeezing your retina iMac screen down onto an iPhone 5. You can do it. It might look a bit silly and initially you might wonder why you'd bother, but it has long been possible to see and remotely control your Macs and PCs on even your iPhone. Now Google has released Chrome Remote Desktop for iOS and you can do it for free. You'll do it, too: try this once and you will forever keep finding other reasons why it's incredibly useful. It's fantastic when you forget a file, for instance, and can now just find and email it to yourself from afar. And it will save your soul, your sanity and yo...

...

With over half a year remaining before Apple is expected to unveil its next-generation iPhone, a fresh rumor out of Taiwan suggests that the company may be considering a new dual-lens camera system and the addition of "Force Touch," the pressure-sensitive touch technology set to be introduced in the Apple Watch.

Ten years after giving away its first song, Apple has reportedly wound down the "Single of the Week" program that offered iTunes users a chance to download a free track from up-and-coming artists.

Makeover apps tend to be somewhat serious, and are generally geared toward adults. Instead of being a fun game, they tend to be more akin to photo-editing software, which is generally pretty complex and low on the amusement scale. Toca Boca, however, has stepped forth with Toca Hair Salon 2, a makeover game that offers a lot to younger gamers or future beauticians....

Google has expanded its Chrome Remote Desktop app to include iOS compatibility. Now available for download on iTunes, iOS users can now orchestrate accessing their desktop computer for free by downloading the accompanying Chrome browser app. Chrome Remote Access has been available for Android users since last year....

South Korean electronics giant Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy A7, the latest entry in the company's premium all-metal Galaxy A series that brings a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display, 2 gigabytes of RAM and an 8-core application processor.

The Los Angeles Unified School District's failed iPad deployment was botched early on, according to a review by the US Education Department. The federal agency says that it first of all put too hard an emphasis on using Apple hardware and software, ignoring cheaper options that could have saved money for the District and taxpayers. In July the USD said it was shifting to a strategy involving Chromebooks and Windows devices, such as the Microsoft Surface....

It's a different world. You might be the sort who would never take photo from a website and use it in your own book, but today if an image is online, it's as if the world sees it as fair game. Maybe that's a peek into our base immorality and the ultimate cataclysmic self-destruction of humanity, or maybe it's just that cut and paste is easy. Whatever it is, though, it's happening and you cannot stop it – not even with an application like this: but if PhotoWatermark can't prevent the copying of images, it can help photographers and artists considerably by adding identifying text to your image...

...

A good magic trick, even in the 21st century, will still get people to stop and watch and try to figure out how it is done. Over the weekend, Apple retail stores around the US debuted a new window display showcasing the company's iPad line and Smart Cover accessory on a thin tabletop that features a line of the products, with the Smart Cover opening and closing itself to demonstrate the magnetic latch feature that wakes or sleeps the machine automatically....

Apple is now seeding a fourth beta of iOS 8.2 via the company's developer portal, and as an over-the-air update for existing beta users. The build is listed as 12D5461b, and follows a little less than a month after beta 3, which was issued December 18. That build was 12D5452a. Accompanying the beta is a new version of WatchKit, the SDK and framework needed to build Apple Watch support into iOS apps....

Spotify is continuing to enjoy rising user numbers, with the popular music streaming service announcing it has reached a total of 15 million subscribers. At the same time, reports claim that the majority of Spotify streams stem from mobile listeners, with 52 percent of listening taking place on smartphones and tablets rather than desktops....

The 2016 model of the Chevy Volt will support Apple's CarPlay, at least if an early demonstration version is accurate. The car is on display at this week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and its dash system shows options for both CarPlay and MirrorLink connections. Google's Android Auto is notably absent, but since the 2016 Volt isn't due to go on sale until mid-2015, there may be time to implement it....

Spotify will not include support for Google Cast any time in the near future, the company has revealed. Rather than allow for its apps to connect to the audio streaming technology Google Cast, Spotify will instead reportedly continue to work on its own competing Spotify Connect audio system, one which allows users to stream music to a number of networked speakers and audio equipment....