Apple has delayed the release of homeOS and the HomePod with display to the spring of 2026, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says.
The post Apple purportedly delays release of homeOS and the ‘HomePad’ to the spring of 2026 appeared first on Apple World Today.
| Read more »With approximately three months until the release of the devices, the rumors surrounding Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max handsets have been collected. Here’s what’s rumored as to the upcoming units, according to MacRumors: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro […]
| Read more »The SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive Luxe is a handy, reasonably-affordable tool for sharing data between Lightning and USB-C devices such as Macs, iPhones, and iPads. It can also be used to expand storage on an iPhone or iPad, but having a flash drive constantly dangling from the smartphone or tablet isn’t a great idea as […]
The post SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive Luxe is a great device for moving files between various devices appeared first on Apple World Today.
| Read more »Global smartphone manufacturing output is expected to slip 1% year-over-year (YoY) in 2025 due to tariff impacts and a broader industry slowdown.
The post Counterpoint Research: Global Smartphone Manufacturing to Weaken in 2025, India to Buck Trend appeared first on Apple World Today.
| Read more »Much as I enjoy writing serious articles for Macworld, it’s fun from time to time to be silly. Earlier this month, for example, I wrote a fake script for the WWDC25 keynote featuring, along with some relatively plausible launch predictions, an unplanned laser murder and Mike Rockwell being reborn as a cyborg. It’s nice to let loose once in a while.
So sure, I like a joke as much as the next man. Unless, that is, the next man happens to be Craig Federighi, who presumably now has the job title Vice President, Banter And Shenanigans. I won’t pretend to know the man in his day-to-day work routine; perhaps he sits in silence brooding on the sorrows of the world. All I know is that when showtime arrives, he turns into a force of dad-joke nature.
Which can be, well, a lot. Every June I...
| Read more »The MacOS is excellent, but sometimes you have no choice but to use Windows. Whether it’s for Windows-exclusive apps, PC gaming, or work software that won’t run on a Mac, having access to both operating systems can be a game-changer. Right now, you can get Windows 11 Pro for just $14.97 (reg. $199).
Here’s how you run this OS on Mac
Installing Windows 11 Pro on your Mac is easier than you might think. You can use Boot Camp to run Windows natively if you have an Intel-based Mac. Prefer to ...
| Read more »Meta and AWS have used Rust, and Netflix uses Go,reports the programming news site InfoQ. But using another language, Apple recently "migrated its global Password Monitoring service from Java to Swift, achieving a 40% increase in throughput, and significantly reducing memory usage."
This freed up nearly 50% of their previously allocated Kubernetes capacity, according to the article, and even "improved startup time, and simplified concurrency."
In a recent post, Apple engineers detailed how the rewrite helped the service scale to billions of requests per day while improving responsiveness and maintainability... "Swift allowed us to write smaller, less verbose, and more expressive codebases (close to 85% reduction in lines of code) that are highly readable while prioritizing safety and efficiency."
Apple's Password Monitoring service, part of the broader Password app's ecosystem, is responsible for securely checking whether a user's saved credentials have...
If you’re looking to make your PC feel like new without breaking the bank, this bundle featuring Microsoft Office 2021 and Windows 11 Pro is a deal you won’t want to miss. Priced at just $54.97 (reg. $418.99), it might just be the most affordable way to update your device without purchasing a brand-new one.
Microsoft Office Professional 2021 includes essential applications like ...
| Read more »Ads are everywhere. From gas pump screens to streaming services and social media, the average American is exposed to anywhere between 4,000 and 10,000 ads per day. Enough is enough. While some ads are just plain annoying (looking at you, Liberty Mutual), others can be straight-up harmful. Protect your kids from inappropriate content and protect your Mac from phishing with Adguard’s Family Plan, now just $15.97 with code FAMPLAN.
With ...
| Read more »Earlier this week looters who stole iPhones "got an unexpected message from Apple," reports the Economic Times.
"Please return to Apple Tower Theatre. This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted."
Stolen phones "were remotely locked and triggered alarms, effectively turning the devices into high-tech bait. Videos circulating online show the phones flashing the message while blaring loudly, making them impossible to ignore."
According to LAPD Officer Chris Miller, at least three suspects were apprehended in connection to the Apple Store burglary. One woman was arrested on the spot, while two others were detained for looting.
| Read more »Recorded in front of a live audience at The California Theatre in San Jose Tuesday evening, special guests Joanna Stern and Nilay Patel join me to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2025.
3D video with spatial audio: Coming soon, exclusively in Sandwich Vision’s Theater on Vision Pro, available on the App Store. This year’s on-demand version of the show in Theater isn’t ready yet, but it looks really good. Better than last year’s by a long shot, and also significantly better than the bandwidth-constrained livestream Tuesday night. The livestream Tuesday night looked good; the on-demand version coming in a few days looks pretty amazing.
Sponsored by:
iMazing: The world’s most trusted software to transfer and save your messages, music, files...
iCloud doesn’t seem expensive until you start doing the math. If you want 2TB with iCloud, you’ll have to pay $9.99 a month. That’s a little under $120 every year. If you want a cheaper alternative to get the same amount of cloud storage, FileJump has a 2TB Cloud Storage Lifetime Subscription that’s on sale for $69.97 (reg. $467).
The biggest difference between iCloud and FileJump is that the latter won’t seamlessly integrate with your iOS devices. But with $10 extra in your pocket every month… does it really matter? It’s still practically seamless to upload images, videos, and files under 15GB in size using the...
| Read more »If you have a Mac but still need to run Windows apps, Parallels Pro makes it surprisingly easy. Instead of switching computers or rebooting into a different system, Parallels lets you run Windows, Linux, or other operating systems right alongside macOS. Whether you are moving from PC to Mac or just need access to certain programs that do not have Mac versions, this tool creates a virtual machine that works like a second computer within your Mac. It’s usually $119.99 for a 1-year Parallels Desktop Subscription for Macs, but right now it’s only $74.99.
What can Parallels do?
Parallels Pro lets you run Windows...
| Read more »Apple unveiled iOS 26 (not iOS 19) at WWDC 2025, and it will (probably) arrive on iPhones in September 2025. But Apple’s beta program is here now, so you can try out the new software features in the developer beta if you’re feeling brave. Although maybe you should first read about why we advise against installing the iOS beta.
A little time later, those signed up for the (typically more stable) public beta will be able to start testing the new version of the iPhone operating system. This will arrive ahead of its full launch, which is expected in September with the...
| Read more »Apple's macOS 26 "Tahoe" introduces a new disk image format called ASIF, designed to dramatically improve performance over previous formats like UDRW and sparse bundles -- achieving near-native read/write speeds for virtual machines and general disk image use. The Eclectic Light Company reports: Apple provides few technical details, other than stating that the intrinsic structure of ASIF disk images doesn't depend on the host file system's capabilities, and their size on the host depends on the size of the data stored in the disk. In other words, they're a sparse file in APFS, and are flagged as such. [...]
Conclusions:
- Where possible, in macOS 26 Tahoe in particular, VMs should use ASIF disk images rather than RAW/UDRW.
- Unless a sparse bundle is required (for example when it's hosted on a different file system such as that in a NAS), ASIF should be first choice for general purpose disk images in Tahoe.
- It would be preferable for virtualizers to be...
Join Adam Engst for a free online presentation about practical uses of AI at the Naples MacFriends User Group meeting on 18 June 2025. Everyone is invited!
| Read more »Brings improvements for Outlook and several security updates. ($149.99 new for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update, macOS 12+)
| Read more »Improves handling of multi-desktop environments for the text expansion utility. ($29.99 new, free update, 9.2 MB, macOS 11+)
| Read more »Anker is recalling over 1.1 million PowerCore 10000 power banks due to fire and burn hazards following 19 reports of fires and explosions. If you own one, you can receive a free replacement or a $30 gift card, but proper disposal is necessary.
| Read more »As is tradition, Apple released beta versions of its new operating systems to developers on the first day of WWDC on June 9. Beta 1 is for developers only–the public beta will begin in July, probably after two or three developer-only betas.
The first beta release of iOS 26 has everything Apple demonstrated in its WWDC keynote: Liquid Glass, the new Phone app and features, the new Camera and Photos experience, and more.
Apple updated beta 1 for developers today, though the version number has only changed the last letter (from 23A5260n to 23A5260u). This is still “beta 1” and there are likely no new features, just a...
| Read more »At WWDC 2024, Apple showed off a dramatically improved Siri that could handle complex contextual queries like "when is my mom's flight landing?" The demo was heavily edited due to latency issues and couldn't be shown in a single take. Multiple Apple engineers reportedly learned about the feature by watching the keynote alongside everyone else. Those features never shipped.
Now, nearly a year later, Apple executives Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak are conducting press interviews claiming the 2024 demonstration wasn't "vaporware" because working code existed internally at the time. The company says the features will arrive "in the coming year" -- which Apple confirmed means sometime in 2026.
Apple is essentially arguing that internal development milestones matter more than actual product delivery. The executives have also been setting up strawman arguments, claiming critics expected Apple to build a ChatGPT competitor rather than addressing the core issue: announcing...
| Read more »Cybersecurity researchers SafetyDetectives reported on Friday about a data breach involving VirtualMacOSX.com, an online provider of cloud services targeted at Mac users. The breach involves data that “belongs to 10,000 of its customers.”
SafetyDetectives states that it found a post publicizing a VirtualMacOSX.com database in a forum known for data leaks, cracks, and more. Access to the data was given to those who replied to or liked the post. The data included sensitive information, including full names, financial data, contact info, and passwords. Analysis by SafetyDetectives led them to believe the data is genuine, but the researchers “refrained from testing the exposed credentials” to verify the data due to ethical concerns.
VirtualMacOSX.com describes itself as an “affordable, Mac-based home on the web. We offer Mac OS X server plans...
| Read more »Apple has planted its own flag in the streaming wars with Apple TV+, its in-house streaming service that focuses almost entirely on original programming rather than an extensive library of existing TV shows or movies.
This guide will list all the Apple TV+ content you can watch today, divided into episodic shows or series and movies. There’s also a ton of new content in the works for Apple’s $9.99-a-month service. If you want to know what’s on the way, check out our list of upcoming Apple TV+ shows and movies.
Updated June 13, 2025: Echo Valley, a thriller film, and...
| Read more »Apple’s annual WWDC was this week and there is a lot to unpack. We look at reactions from the keynote and dive into some of the announcements, like the new Liquid Glass interface, and of course, all of the new OS releases. There are some other featues that were announced as well, like AirPods translation that we’ll talk about, as well.
Show Notes:
| Read more »At its WWDC event on 9 June 2025, Apple showed off the next version of macOS that will be making its way to desktops near you later in 2025. macOS Tahoe comes with some impressive new features, with productivity and personalisation at the heart of the upgrade. So, how does it compare to macOS Sequoia that it replaces, and should you rush to make the transition?
Features in macOS Sequoia
Before we dig into the shiny new toys Apple is bringing with macOS Tahoe, we will quickly recap on what was introduced with macOS Sequoia. Here are the highlights:
Apple...
| Read more »There were some big new features for Mac owners to get excited about when Apple announced macOS Tahoe at the start of this week. But the little details of the company’s OS updates are sometimes even more impactful, and there’s one change that will be visible almost all the time you’re using your Mac: Apple has redesigned the cursors.
As beta testers on social media have spotted, the cutesy white gloved hand, complete with a visible cuff and vents on the back, has been replaced by a more generic white hand which could be gloved or bare; the arrow pointer has been replaced by a slightly more rounded arrow that’s otherwise the same; and the window width adjuster icon, which was previously a double...
| Read more »Last month, I revealed that Google I/O’s AI announcements made me question my loyalty towards the iPhone. Android users are getting all sorts of next-level, sci-fi-like features, while Apple Intelligence on iOS has generally been underwhelming. That kind of changed this week.
WWDC25’s main keynote, as expected, didn’t really focus on AI advancements; I can’t remember Siri being mentioned once outside of the opening mea culpa. Nevertheless, Apple previewed over a dozen AI features—some subtle, others less so—coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS 26. What stood out to me is that, while not as jaw-dropping as those we’ve seen elsewhere, these handy tools will fit into most users’...
| Read more »If you want to do an absolute techie/developer deep dive and see what Apple has en route for you this fall, you’re going to like this. Apple has posted its Platforms State of the Union presentation to YouTube, complete with explanations as to new features, APIs, Apple Intelligence, App Intents Toolbox, semantic index, and on-device […]
| Read more »For some Mac users, the Terminal app is a way of life. The powerful application, which offers full access to the system, hasn’t been updated in 24 years, but will be updated with macOS Tahoe 26’s Liquid Glass UI design. According too Macworld, Apple announced in its State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25 that […]
| Read more »During this week's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple unveiled a secure import/export feature for passkeys that addresses one of their biggest limitations: lack of interoperability across platforms and credential managers. The feature, built in collaboration with the FIDO Alliance, enables encrypted, user-initiated passkey transfers between apps and systems. Ars Technica's Dan Goodin says it "provides the strongest indication yet that passkey developers are making meaningful progress in improving usability." From the report: "People own their credentials and should have the flexibility to manage them where they choose," the narrator of the Apple video says. "This gives people more control over their data and the choice of which credential manager they use." The transfer feature, which will also work with passwords and verification codes, provides an industry-standard means for apps and OSes to more securely sync these credentials.
As the video explains: "This new process...
| Read more »Michael Tsai, “Apple’s Spin on AI and iPadOS Multitasking”:
I do want to call out that, in multiple interviews, they are kind
of setting up strawmen to knock down. They keep saying that people
say Apple is behind in AI because it doesn’t have its own
chatbot. To me, Apple has been clear that it has a different
strategy, and I think that strategy mostly makes sense. I have
never heard someone wish for an Apple chatbot. The issue is that
everyone can see that Apple seems behind in executing said
strategy, both that features didn’t ship on time and that the ones
that did ship don’t measure up to similar features from other
companies.
Secondly, they seem to be trying to debunk...
| Read more »For the most part, Apple has only dropped a few older models from its compatibility lists. However, that includes several Intel-based Macs, and the company has also clarified how much longer the remaining supported models will receive updates.
| Read more »A year after Apple Intelligence‘s introduction, we want to hear how these AI features have impacted your daily Apple experience. Share your thoughts in this week’s poll.
| Read more »BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: Apple has released a new developer tool on GitHub called Container, offering a fresh approach to running Linux containers directly on macOS. Unlike Docker or Podman, this tool is designed to feel at home in the Apple ecosystem and hooks into frameworks already built into the operating system. Container runs standard OCI images, but it doesn't use a single shared Linux VM. Instead, it creates a small Linux virtual machine for every container you spin up. That sounds heavy at first, but the VMs are lightweight and boot quickly. Each one is isolated, which Apple claims improves both security and privacy. Developers can run containerized workloads locally with native macOS support and without needing to install third-party container platforms.
...
| Read more »CUPERTINO, Calif.—When Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi introduced the new multitasking UI in iPadOS 26 at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference this week, he did it the same way he introduced the Calculator app for the iPad last year or timers in the iPad's Clock app the year before—with a hint of sarcasm.
"Wow," Federighi enthuses in a lightly exaggerated tone about an hour and 19 minutes into a 90-minute presentation. "More windows, a pointier pointer, and a menu bar? Who would've thought? We've truly pulled off a mind-blowing release!"
This elicits a sensible chuckle from...
| Read more »In early June, Apple researchers released a study suggesting that simulated reasoning (SR) models, such as OpenAI's o1 and o3, DeepSeek-R1, and Claude 3.7 Sonnet Thinking, produce outputs consistent with pattern-matching from training data when faced with novel problems requiring systematic thinking. The researchers found similar results to a...
| Read more »Apple executives defended the company's AI strategy this week after acknowledging that major Siri features announced at last year's Worldwide Developers Conference remain undelivered and were quietly pulled from development plans. Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, told the Wall Street Journal that the company is rebuilding Siri from the ground up, admitting that while Apple had working software for the promised features, "it didn't converge in the way quality-wise that we needed it to."
The missing capabilities included Siri's ability to search through apps and respond to on-screen activities, features that were demonstrated a year ago but never shipped to users. In the upcoming iOS 26, Apple has instead incorporated more OpenAI technology, allowing users to interact with ChatGPT through camera and screenshots and generate images using OpenAI's tools. Federighi defended the strategy by comparing Apple's position to the early internet...
| Read more »Apple's latest AI models continue to lag behind competitors, according to the company's own benchmark testing it disclosed this week. The tech giant's newest "Apple On-Device" model, which runs locally on iPhones and other devices, performed only "comparably" to similarly-sized models from Google and Alibaba in human evaluations of text generation quality -- not better, despite being Apple's most recent release.
The performance gap widens with Apple's more powerful "Apple Server" model, designed for data center deployment. Human testers rated it behind OpenAI's year-old GPT-4o in text generation tasks. In image analysis tests, evaluators preferred Meta's Llama 4 Scout model over Apple Server, a particularly notable result given that Llama 4 Scout itself underperforms leading models from Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI on various benchmarks.
...
| Read more »Fixes a bug that prevented the Windows 11 Start Menu from showing in Coherence mode. ($99.99 Standard Edition, free update, macOS 10.14.6+)
| Read more »Apple has once again overwhelmed us with a torrent of announcements during its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. Adam Engst highlights those he believes will have the most significant impact on our Apple experience when they launch later this year.
| Read more »Brings improvements and bug fixes to the personal information management apps. ($49.99 new for each, free update, various sizes, macOS 11.5+)
| Read more »Updates the ARK audio handling plugin to reduce CPU usage. ($39 new, free update, 44 MB, macOS 14.5+)
| Read more »Web browser makes address bar updates with a nod to Douglas Adams. (Free, 214.7 MB, macOS 11+)
| Read more »Updates the Swiss Army knife of graphics programs with a bevy of added features, improvements, and bug fixes. ($39.95 new, free update, 268.6 MB, macOS 10.13+)
| Read more »Brings new features, improvements, bug fixes to the keyboard-based launcher. ($29 new, free update, 14.6 MB, macOS 10.14.6+)
| Read more »Brings a revamped signature settings user interface to the Gmail-specific email app. ($49.99 annual subscription, free update, 11.8 MB, macOS 12+)
| Read more »Maintenance update focused on bug fixes for the file transfer app. ($45 new, free update, 37.5 MB, macOS 12+)
| Read more »A recent Backblaze update dramatically reduces the backup service’s storage footprint by shrinking log files made excessively large by eliminating errors associated with unreadable cloud-based files.
| Read more »Apple announced that macOS 26 "Tahoe" will be the final version to support Intel-based Macs, with future macOS releases running exclusively on Apple Silicon devices (that is, 2020 M1 models and newer). They will, however, continue to receive security updates for a few more years. 9to5Mac reports: In some ways, Apple has already stopped supporting some non-Apple Silicon models of its lineup. macOS Tahoe does not work with any Intel MacBook Air or Mac mini for instance. But Tahoe does still support some Intel Macs. That includes compatibility with the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, the 2020 Intel 13-inch MacBook Pro, 2020 iMac, and the 2019 Mac Pro.
Based on Apple's warning, you can expect that macOS 27 will drop support for all of these legacy machines, and therefore macOS 26 will be the last compatible version. These devices will continue to receive security updates for another three years, however. Going forward, the minimum support hardware generations will be from 2020 onwards...
| Read more »The support list for macOS Tahoe still includes Intel Macs, but it has been whittled down to just four models, all released in 2019 or 2020. We speculated that this meant that the end was near for Intel Macs, and now we can confirm just how near it is: macOS Tahoe will be the last new macOS release to support any Intel Macs. All new releases starting with macOS 27 will require an Apple Silicon Mac.
Apple will provide additional security updates for Tahoe until fall 2028, two years after it is replaced with macOS 27. That's a typical schedule for older macOS versions, which all get one year of major point updates that include security fixes and new features, followed by two years of security-only updates to keep them patched but without adding significant new features.
Apple is also planning changes to Rosetta 2, the Intel-to-Arm app translation technology created to ease the transition between the Intel and Apple Silicon eras. Rosetta will continue to work as...
| Read more »On Monday, Apple announced a series of incremental Apple Intelligence updates at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, focusing on practical features like live phone call translation and visual search rather than the ambitious race for AI breakthroughs that rivals have been promoting.
Notably absent was any concrete update on the much-needed "more personalized" Siri that Apple first announced at last year's WWDC but has yet to demo publicly or provide specifics about. (Siri still feels woefully outdated after using ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, for example.)
In our WWDC...
| Read more »An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Apple is launching what it calls the Foundation Models framework, which the company says will let developers tap into its AI models in an offline, on-device fashion. Onstage at WWDC 2025 on Monday, Apple VP of software engineering Craig Federighi said that the Foundation Models framework will let apps use on-device AI models created by Apple to drive experiences. These models ship as a part of Apple Intelligence, Apple's family of models that power a number of iOS features and capabilities.
"For example, if you're getting ready for an exam, an app like Kahoot can create a personalized quiz from your notes to make studying more engaging," Federighi said. "And because it happens using on-device models, this happens without cloud API costs [] We couldn't be more excited about how developers can build on Apple intelligence to bring you new experiences that are smart, available when you're offline, and that protect your privacy...
| Read more »At WWDC 2025, Apple announced a new dedicated Games app coming to Mac, iPhone, and iPad with features like leaderboards, matchmaking, and integration with Apple Arcade. Engadget's Jessica Conditt describes it as "a revamp of Game Center" that behaves "more like a modern gaming hub, a la Xbox or GOG Galaxy." From the report: You can see what your friends are playing and challenge them to specific feats in certain titles. The library tab will include every game you've ever downloaded from the App Store, allowing you to booth them up right there. On Mac, a Games app overlay makes communication tools, audio controls, Bluetooth connections and live battery levels accessible at any time.
| Read more »Every year, Apple releases new versions of iOS and iPadOS, and most years those updates also end support for a handful of devices that are too old or too slow or otherwise incapable of running the new software.
Though this year's macOS 26 Tahoe release was unkind to Intel Macs, the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 releases are more generous, dropping support for just two iPhone models and a single iPad. The iOS 26 update won't run on 2018's iPhone XR or XS, and iPadOS 26 won't run on 2019's 7th-generation iPad. Any other device that can currently run iOS or iPadOS 18 will be able to upgrade to the new versions and pick up the new Liquid Glass look, among other features.
Everything that runs iOS 26.
Credit:
Apple
Everything that runs iPadOS 26.
Credit:
Apple
Apple never provides explicit reasoning for why it drops the devices it drops, though they can usually be explained by some...
| Read more »Apple unveiled iPadOS 26 at its Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, introducing what appears to be the most significant productivity overhaul in the tablet operating system's history. The update brings dynamically resizable windows that users can drag by their corners, a menu bar accessible through swipe gestures or cursor movement, and Expose for viewing all open windows in a tiled array.
The new windowing system allows users to seamlessly close, minimize, resize, and tile app windows while maintaining the iPad's touch-first interface. When users reopen apps, windows return to their last position and size. The menu bar, a longtime Mac staple, provides access to familiar commands like File, Edit, and View through either touch or trackpad controls.
Apple is also enhancing the Files app with resizable columns and collapsible folders, while bringing the Preview app to iPad for the first time with PDF editing capabilities and Apple Pencil support. The update...
| Read more »Apple's new macOS Tahoe release isn't the end of the road for Intel Macs, but it sends Apple's clearest signal yet that it's nearly finished with the Intel Mac era. The macOS 26 update will support just four Intel Macs, all released in 2019 or 2020, and it entirely drops support for all Intel versions of the MacBook Air and Mac mini.
Other models that run the current macOS 15 Sequoia release that won't support macOS Tahoe include all 15-inch MacBook Pros, all 13-inch MacBook Pros with two Thunderbolt ports, and the 4K and 5K versions of the 2019 iMac.
The compatibility list for macOS 26 Tahoe.
Credit:
Apple
Apple has generally been pulling support for new...
| Read more »As part of a wider software rebranding effort, Apple's visionOS is jumping from version 2 to 26 with a new software update announced during the company's developer conference this week.
visionOS 26 will reach Vision Pro users later this year, and it focuses on refining the focus of the device based on how users are actually using it rather than whatever wild ideas the company had during its initial development—including addressing common complaints about how the Vision Pro doesn't support some features of popular competing mixed-reality headsets.
For example, the headset will soon support native playback of 3D video recorded by people other than Apple and downloaded from anywhere on the Internet—something you had to use a few, somewhat janky third-party apps to do until now, but which is an easier-to-access feature of some other mixed-reality headsets.
...
| Read more »Apple unveiled the next version of macOS today during the Worldwide Developers Conference. Codenamed Tahoe, macOS 26 gets a visual refresh with the same "Liquid Glass" look that Apple is introducing across all of its operating systems this year. Apple has also changed the version number, jumping directly from version 14 to version 26 as it shifts to unified year-based version numbering across all of its operating systems.
Liquid Glass goes all-in on translucency and transparency, changing the look of icons and windows across the operating system. Most significantly, the macOS menu bar has become entirely invisible, and the Control Center has adopted a new, glassy, translucent appearance. The same color-tinting customization features available on iOS and iPadOS are coming to the Mac this year, giving users multiple customization options on top of the standard light and dark modes and accent colors.
The invisible menu bar and glassy Control Center in macOS Tahoe....
| Read more »At the Worldwide Developers Conference today, Apple unveiled iOS 26, its next iPhone operating system (OS), which is centered on Apple's new Liquid Glass design for its software platform.
Available across Apple's other upcoming OSes, like macOS 26 Tahoe, Liquid Glass aims to make the software look and operate as if it has glass edges. You can see this approach throughout iOS 26 in things like the app icon's appearance, which includes softer edges and the option to be translucent.
...
| Read more »Apple today introduced Liquid Glass, a new design language that brings transparency and glass shine effects across macOS, iPadOS, iOS, and its other software platforms. Alan Dye, Apple's VP of human interface, described the update as the company's "broadest design update, ever" and "the first time we're introducing a universal design across our platforms."
The design overhaul adds glass-like elements throughout iOS 26, including glass edges that appear when users swipe up on the lock screen and similar transparent effects across system interfaces. The changes represent Apple's most significant departure from the iOS 7 design philosophy that has shaped the mobile operating system for over a decade since 2013, when Apple moved away from skeuomorphism. App developers will need to adjust their applications to accommodate the new visual language.
...
| Read more »With WWDC25 bringing the biggest design overhaul since iOS 7, you’ll want to prototype your new interfaces fast. DetailsPro lets you build real SwiftUI layouts directly on your iPhone — no Mac required, no code needed. Mock up your WWDC-inspired designs during coffee breaks. Export clean SwiftUI code straight to Xcode when you’re ready. While everyone else is still thinking, you’re already building. Free to use, with pro features if you need them. Perfect for the design renaissance.
| Read more »Apple researchers have found that state-of-the-art "reasoning" AI models like OpenAI's o3-mini, Gemini (with thinking mode-enabled), Claude 3.7, DeepSeek-R1 face complete performance collapse [PDF] beyond certain complexity thresholds when tested on controllable puzzle environments. The finding raises questions about the true reasoning capabilities of large language models.
The study, which examined models using Tower of Hanoi, checker jumping, river crossing, and blocks world puzzles rather than standard mathematical benchmarks, found three distinct performance regimes that contradict conventional assumptions about AI reasoning progress.
At low complexity levels, standard language models surprisingly outperformed their reasoning-enhanced counterparts while using fewer computational resources. At medium complexity, reasoning models demonstrated advantages, but both model types experienced complete accuracy collapse at high complexity levels. Most striking was the...
| Read more »On Thursday, pioneering computer engineer and Apple veteran William "Bill" Atkinson died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Portola Valley, California, surrounded by family. He was 74. "We regret to write that our beloved husband, father, and stepfather Bill Atkinson passed away," his family wrote on Facebook. "He was a remarkable person, and the world will be forever different because he lived in it."
As Apple employee No. 51, Atkinson transformed abstract computer science into intuitive visual experiences that millions would use daily: His QuickDraw graphics engine made the Macintosh interface possible; he introduced the wider world to bitmap editing with MacPaint; and...
| Read more »Imagine that you have a song file—drums, guitar, bass, vocals, piano—and you want to rebalance it, bringing the voice down just a touch in the mix.
Or you want to turn a Lyle Lovett country-rock jam into a slamming club banger, and all that's standing between you and the booty-shaking masses is a clean copy of Lovett's voice without all those instruments mucking things up.
Or you recorded a once-in-a-lifetime, Stevie Nicks-meets-Ann Wilson vocal performance into your voice notes app... but your dog was baying in the background, and your guitar was out of tune. Can you extract the magic and discard the rest?
| Read more »Mark Gurman, in his eve-of-WWDC Power On column at Bloomberg:
The Liquid Glass interface is going to be the most exciting part
of this year’s developer conference. It will also be a bit of a
distraction from the reality facing Apple: The company is behind
in artificial intelligence, and WWDC will do little to change
that. Instead, Apple is making its successful operating system
franchise more capable and sleek — even as others move on to more
groundbreaking AI-centric interfaces.
Perhaps the first major hint that Apple was moving toward fluidity in the UI was the Dynamic Island, which doesn’t merely expand and contract as it changes shape, but rather appears to flow,...
| Read more »Apple legend Bill Atkinson has passed away at 74 from pancreatic cancer. His development of QuickDraw, MacPaint, and HyperCard influenced everything from Photoshop to the World Wide Web and directly contributed to the creation of TidBITS.
| Read more »Sarah Perez, TechCrunch, “The Trump-Musk Feud Has Been Great for X, Which Jumped Up the App Store Charts”:
The feud between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump may be
bad for the MAGA camp, but it’s proven to be beneficial for X,
which has seen engagement soaring over the past 24 hours.
According to new data from Sensor Tower, the app formerly known as
Twitter skyrocketed up the U.S. App Store’s top charts, landing at
the 23rd overall spot on June 5 — up from an average rank of No.
68 over the last 30 days.
X also saw an average rank of No. 58 over the past six months.
I wouldn’t call jumping from the 60s to the 20s “skyrocketing”, but, up is up.
Trump’s own social network, Truth Social, benefited from...
| Read more »Brings enhanced support for the Orion Web browser and Fonts panel improvements. ($49.99 new, free update, 34.3 MB, macOS 10.13+)
| Read more »Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off on Monday with the company's standard keynote presentation—a combination of PR about how great Apple and its existing products are and a first look at the next-generation versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and the company's other operating systems.
Reporting before the keynote rarely captures everything that Apple has planned at its presentations, but the reliable information we've seen so far is that Apple will keep the focus on its software this year rather than using the keynote to demo splashy new hardware like the Vision Pro and Apple Silicon Mac Pro, which the company introduced at WWDC a couple years back.
If you haven't been keeping track, here are a few of the things that are most likely to happen when the pre-...
| Read more »The podcast takes a little twist this week as Dave and I talk about our love of popcorn and Dave’s new gadget to help him get the perfect batch every time. We also talk about some of the rumors surrounding WWDC and what we should expect from the keynote on Monday. One of the things that is supposedly changing is the numbering of all the OSes begining with this year’s releases.
Show Notes:
| Read more »Google's Android team has advised outside security researchers that it will no longer fix security bugs found in Jelly Bean or earlier releases, despite the fact that "pre-KitKat 4.4" software powers the majority of active users' devices currently accessing Google Play. Meanwhile, less than 0.1 percent of Android users have received Android 5.0, and those who have report an "unfinished/unpolished" experience.
| Read more »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...
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...
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.
| Read more »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....
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.
| Read more »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....
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....
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....
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....
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....
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.
| Read more »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 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....
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...
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....
This week, Viawear has launched pre-orders for a gold or rhodium-plated edition of the new Tyia "smart bracelet." The bracelet serves as a fitness tracker, with an RGB LED notification light embedded behind quartz and mother-of-pearl accent. As with fitness bands, the Tyia is marketing as letting users put away smartphones without missing an important call, text, or social-media notification -- and offers some basic fitness tracking compatible with Apple's HealthKit....
While the idea that Apple probably had another record-breaking holiday quarter (what the company calls fiscal 2015 Q1) is unsurprising to all but selected pundits, a spate of reports released on Monday may be painting a general portrait of not just significant improvement, but more importantly growth in key areas of importance both to investors and analysis as well as to the health of the company. Sales of Macs look to be way up, iOS devices are selling much better in a key foreign market, and Apple's suppliers are flourishing -- all signs that point to better-than-expected quarter....
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....
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....
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....
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....
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....
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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| Read more »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....
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 -...
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....
