Tech Talk

With the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch approaching, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at an interesting bit of Apple Watch history. After the Apple Watch was announced in 2014, and before it became available in 2015, Apple sent out custom Apple Watch iPad demo kiosks to retail stores. The Apple Watch and ‌iPad‌ units used for these devices were specially designed, had custom software, and represent the first and only time that an Apple Watch was able to pair with an ‌iPad‌. AppleDemoYT , known for sourcing rare prototypes, shared images and detailed information about the demo units with MacRumors , offering up detailed insight on the lengths Apple went to for this custom experience. AppleDemoYT was able to acquire one of these now-rare demo units. Jony Ive and his design team came up with the Apple Watch ‌iPad‌ Kiosks as a way for customers to try out an Apple Watch without needing help from an employee. Apple used a modified iPad mini 2 running iOS 8.2 pai

Apple today dropped the price of the MLS Season Pass for the rest of the 2024 Major League Soccer season, which is about a third of the way through. MLS in the U.S. now costs $69, down from $99 when the season began in February. For Apple TV+ subscribers, the pass is now just $59. The MLS Season Pass offers access to every live Major League Soccer match, including Leagues Cup, and All-Star games. Apple offered a similar discount last year, but it came later in the season in September. The 2024 Major League Soccer season will run through October 19, and the MLS Season Pass also includes live coverage of the playoffs that are expected to start in mid-October. The MLS Season Pass is available in the TV app on Apple devices and on Apple TV 4K. Tag: Apple TV Plus This article, " Apple Discounts MLS Season Pass " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums Source: TechRadar

TikTok appears to be quietly showing some users an option to purchase "coins" on the web instead of through in-app purchases, circumventing the commission that Apple receives on digital purchases. As noted by David Tesler (via TechCrunch ) TikTok has been offering a limited number of TikTok app users an option to purchase coins on TikTok.com instead of in the app. "Try recharging on tiktok.com to avoid in-app service fees," reads the text. "You can save the service fee and get access to popular payment methods." TikTok might get banned from the app store next week Why? It looks like they’re circumventing apple fee by directing users to purchase coins via external payment methods pic.twitter.com/VG8ihvsRmv — David Tesler (@getdavenow) April 30, 2024 Following through and opting to purchase from TikTok.com brings up an interface for using payment options such as PayPal or a credit/debit card. "Save around 25% with a lower third-party servic

With iOS 17.5, Apple is adding a "Repair State" feature that is designed to allow an iPhone to be sent in for service without deactivating Find My and Activation Lock. The fourth iOS 17.5 beta that came out today adds a "Remove This Device" option for all devices in ‌Find My‌, and using it with an ‌iPhone‌ puts that ‌iPhone‌ into the new Repair State. Right now, sending an ‌iPhone‌ to Apple to be repaired requires turning off Find My , and Apple says that it "might not" be able to repair devices that have ‌Find My‌ activated. Turning off ‌Find My‌ disables Activation Lock, an important anti-theft security feature that prevents an ‌iPhone‌ from being used with another Apple ID . Apple currently uses ‌Find My‌ and Activation Lock as a way to ensure that a person sending a device in for repair actually owns that device, and that it's not stolen. An ‌iPhone‌ sent in for repair with ‌Find My‌ disabled cannot be tracked, and it is not protected from t

For the upcoming iPhone 16, Apple will adopt the same color-infused back glass that features on the standard iPhone 15 models, claims a new rumor out of China. Last year, Apple debuted a custom dual-ion exchange glass process on the non-premium iPhone 15 models that gives the rear glass layer a frosted effect that contrasts with the main frame color. Apple's description of the effect on the iPhone 15: "For the first time in a smartphone, colour is infused throughout the back glass, creating five beautiful colours. The back glass is strengthened with an optimised dual-ion exchange process before being polished with nanocrystalline particles and etched to create a luxurious, textured matte finish." According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed focus digital," who claims to have seen the iPhone 16 color scheme , Apple will use the same process for the back glass on the new models, which could come in as many as seven colors this year as opposed to five. iPho

Apple has poached dozens of artificial intelligence experts from Google and created a "secretive European laboratory" in Zurich to house a new team of staff tasked with building new AI models and products, according to a paywalled Financial Times report. Based on an analysis of LinkedIn profiles conducted by FT , Apple has recruited at least 36 specialists from Google since 2018, when it poached John Giannandrea to be its top AI executive. Apple's main AI team works out of California and Seattle, but the company has recently expanded offices dedicated to AI work in Zurich, Switzerland. Apple's acquisition of local AI startups FaceShift (VR) and Fashwell (image recognition) is believed to have influenced its decision to build a secretive research lab known as "Vision Lab" in the city. According to the report, employees based in the lab have been involved in Apple's research into the underlying technology that powers OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot

With Apple soon to be required to bring the same EU changes that it made on the iPhone to the iPad , Epic Games today confirmed that it will release Fortnite for the ‌iPad‌ in the future. ‌Epic Games‌ is already working to release an ‌iPhone‌ version of Fortnite in the EU, with the game set to be available from the forthcoming ‌Epic Games‌ Store, an alternative app marketplace. The ‌iPhone‌ version of Fortnite is coming "soon," and an ‌iPad‌ version will follow "this year." The European Commission said this morning that iPadOS, the operating system designed to run on the ‌iPad‌, is considered a digital gatekeeper under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). As a result, Apple has six months to comply with the requirements set by the DMA, and we've already seen those requirements implemented on ‌iPhone‌. Today, the European Commission said that iPads will also need to comply with the Digital Markets Act 🙌 We’re moving full steam ahead to bring For

The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today announced [ PDF ] that it has fined AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint/T-Mobile $196 million collectively for illegally selling access to customer location information without consent. Sprint and T-Mobile (now merged into T-Mobile) have been fined $12 million and $80 million, respectively. Verizon has been fined almost $47 million, and AT&T has been fined more than $57 million. The FCC first began investigating the four major U.S. carriers in 2019 after they were found selling real-time location information from customer devices to third-party data aggregators, which led to that location data being sold a second time to private investigators, bounty hunters, law enforcement agencies, credit card companies, and more. Following the investigation, the FCC confirmed that wireless carriers had violated federal law by sharing consumer location data. Fines were proposed back in 2020 , but carriers were given an opportuni

Game emulator Delta has made a splash on iPhone following Apple's recently announced App Store support for retro game emulators, and now the developer Riley Testut has confirmed that Delta is almost ready for its iPad debut. In a post shared on Threads over the weekend, Testut said the iPad version is "near completion," with just controller skins to finish and some bug fixes to iron out. Testut explained that Delta for iPad had not originally been a development priority because the plan was to limit the emulator's launch to the EU via alternative app marketplace AltStore PAL, which doesn't support iPad. However, in a reversal of a years-old policy, Apple earlier this month announced that it would allow retro game emulators on the ‌App Store‌. Delta was therefore made available on the App Store as a free download in the United States and other countries on April 17, with users supporting the developer via Patreon . Delta has been hugely popular since

Apple does not plan to launch a second-generation version of its Vision Pro headset until the end of 2026, Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman reports. Writing in the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter , Gurman said Apple's latest Vision Pro roadmap "doesn't currently call for a second-generation model until the end of 2026." In February 2024 , he said that the device was "at least 18 months away." According to Gurman's sources, Apple is still trying to figure out a way to bring a cheaper version to market before then, although the company remains "flummoxed" by how exactly to bring down the cost. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in February said he believes new Vision Pro models with significant changes to the specification may not enter mass production until 2027. At the time, Kuo said he did expect a modified Vision Pro to enter mass production in late 2025 to early 2026, with Apple focused on improving costs and production

Apple today announced that its HomePod mini and second-generation HomePod will go on sale in Thailand and Malaysia from next week. Apple is accepting pre-orders through its online stores in the two countries from today, with the speakers shipping and going on sale in Apple's regional retail stores on May 10. The ‌HomePod mini‌ was initially released by Apple in October 2020 across the U.S. and a handful of other countries. Since launch, the speaker has not seen significant hardware revisions, though Apple did introduce new colors in November 2021 and activated the devices' temperature and humidity sensors via software updates earlier this year. The introduction of the ‌HomePod mini‌ in two more countries makes the prospect of a second-generation model being released anytime soon pretty unlikely. In 2021, Apple phased out the original full-size ‌HomePod‌, but it launched a second-generation version in January. This new ‌HomePod‌ retains a design similar to its predece

Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman today said that iOS 18 will "overhaul" many of Apple's built-in apps, including Notes, Mail, Photos, and Fitness. Gurman did not reveal any specific new features planned for these apps. It was previously rumored that the Notes app will gain support for displaying more math equations, and a built-in option to record voice memos , but this is the first time we have heard about updates planned for the Mail, Photos, and Fitness apps. Gurman also corroborated our exclusive MacRumors report last week about Apple finally planning a Calculator app for iPadOS 18 . A recap of iOS 18 rumors: Smarter Siri: iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri, Spotlight, Shortcuts, Apple Music, Messages, Health, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and more. These features are expected to be powered by Apple's on-device large language model (LLM) , but Apple has reportedly also discussed partnerships with companies like Google, OpenAI, an

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman outlined some of the new products he expects Apple to announce at its "Let Loose" event on May 7 . First, Gurman now believes there is a "strong possibility" that the upcoming iPad Pro models will be equipped with Apple's next-generation M4 chip, rather than the M3 chip that debuted in the MacBook Pro and iMac six months ago. He said a key new feature of the M4 chip will be an upgraded Neural Engine that boosts performance for AI tasks, and he believes Apple will market the next iPad Pro as an AI-powered device. Second, he said that the new Apple Pencil that is expected to be announced at the event will feature haptic feedback for the first time. While he did not provide any details about how this will work, perhaps the Apple Pencil will provide provide haptic feedback when switching between drawing tools and using the rumored "squeeze" gesture that MacRumors previously discovere

Apple's upcoming "Let Loose" event "will be accompanied by an event in London," according to The Independent 's Andrew Griffin . The report does not provide any additional details about what will be happening in London, but it might simply be a briefing that allows journalists in the UK to receive hands-on time with the new iPads and other products that Apple is expected to announce next month. Apple has frequently invited the media to hands-on briefings in New York City , and it also held a briefing in Toronto, Canada for the new MacBook Air models last month. Apple's "Let Loose" event begins on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time, which will be 3 p.m. local time in London. New devices and accessories expected to be announced at the event include two new iPad Pro models, two new iPad Air models, an updated Apple Pencil, and a redesigned Magic Keyboard for iPads, and there is always a chance of a surprise or two. A video stream of the

With the rise of ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs), AI-dedicated devices have started coming out. The Humane AI pin was widely lambasted earlier this month when it launched, and now the Rabbit r1 AI assistant is out. With rumors that Apple is delving into AI in a big way, we thought we'd check out the Rabbit r1 to see what it can do and how it measures up to an iPhone . Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Priced at $200, the Rabbit is a square-shaped pocket assistant that can answer questions, look up information, interface with food delivery and ride sharing services, play music, translate languages, and more. It's a cute little device that looks right at home with the Playdate from Panic, but most of what it can do can already be done with an ‌iPhone‌. Unlike the Humane AI Pin, the Rabbit r1 has a screen that you can interact with, which makes it much more functional. It comes with an old school scroll wheel for navigating the UI, and

Most iPhone users know how to share a webpage link in Messages, but not everyone realizes that you can quote text from the webpage and include it in the message link. Keep reading to learn more. Incorporating quoted text when sharing a webpage link in Messages is a great way to get to the point and make it clear why the content you're sharing is relevant and interesting. It not only makes the link more engaging but also personalizes the message if it's sent in the midst of a conversation. By highlighting specific text, you can streamline your communication by directing the recipient's attention to the most pertinent information on the linked website. It saves time, and ensures that the key piece of information you want to share isn't missed. It can also serve as a conversation starter. Here's how it works. In Safari, navigate to the webpage containing the relevant information you want to share. Select the text that you want to quote in your shared link by p

Apple used to regularly increase the base memory of its Macs up until 2011, the same year Tim Cook was appointed CEO, charts posted on Mastodon by David Schaub show. Earlier this year, Schaub generated two charts: One showing the base memory capacities of Apple's all-in-one Macs from 1984 onwards, and a second depicting Apple's consumer laptop base RAM from 1999 onwards. Both charts were recently resurfaced by the Accidental Tech Podcast . The graphs show that Apple tended to increase the base memory every two years or so, but that this trend ended when Cook took over the company from Steve Jobs. Memory increased quickly until the Mac Plus was launched in 1986, notes Schaub. "1986 to 1990 were all about decreasing the entry Mac price," he says. "Then we get a pretty straight logarithmic line until Tim Cook became CEO and there has only been a single increase since." The correlation is interesting, but other variables such as market trends and chang

Analytics company Canalys has released its latest report on China's smartphone market for the first quarter of 2024, and Apple has come off worst among the top five brands jostling for supremacy in Asia's largest economy. Huawei returned to the top spot after 13 quarters with a 17% market share. The local vendor shipped 11.7 million smartphones, thanks to its popular Mate and nova series, while OPPO rose to second place on strong performance of its Reno 11 series, shipping 10.9 million units. Conversely, HONOR, vivo, and Apple all slowed their sell-ins in the quarter, ranking third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. HONOR shipped 10.6 million units with a 16% share, a year-on-year increase of 9%, while vivo shipped 10.3 million units with a 15% share, a year-on-year decrease of 9%. Apple declined the most among the top five, sinking to fifth from first place, with 10 million units and a 15% share, which is a year-on-year decrease of 25%. Huawei's performance is up 70

Apple last updated the Mac Pro in June 2023, adding an M2 Ultra chip and officially completing the transition away from Intel chips. The ‌Mac Pro‌ uses the same ‌M2‌ Ultra chip that's in the Mac Studio , leading to criticism about its lack of power. Apple has now gone back to the drawing board and is working on an updated version of the ‌Mac Pro‌ that's set to come out next year. This guide highlights everything we know about Apple's ‌Mac Pro‌ progress. M4 Chip The next ‌Mac Pro‌ will have a chip that's in the M4 family, as Apple is working to update its entire Mac lineup to the M4 series across 2024 and 2025. Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman believes that Apple wants to establish a more regular Apple silicon chip upgrade cycle that would perhaps see Mac chips refreshed on an annual basis much like chips designed for the iPhone . Gurman says that the ‌Mac Pro‌ will be equipped with the highest-end version of the M4 chip, which is codenamed "Hidra." H

DigiDNA today announced the launch of iMazing 3, an updated version of its iPhone and iPad management software designed for Macs and Windows machines. iMazing 3 features an updated user interface with a dedicated "Discover" section that makes it easier to find popular tools for doing things like transferring photos from an ‌iPhone‌, downloading Messages, transferring music, and making backups. A Device Overview section offers details about connected products like serial number, model number, device ID, date of latest backup, and more, for simple multi-device management, and there's also a Data section for accessing saved media, messages, contacts, and other content. For battery management, there is a battery section that provides details on current temperature, design max charge, effective max charge, and charge cycles, plus there are options for managing storage. The iMazing 3 software on Mac works with the Vision Pro in addition to the ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌iPad