Tech Talk

It's been quite a week of Apple news and rumors, ranging from a concerning bug with deleted photos reappearing on users' devices to hot rumors about a new high-end iPhone model for 2025 and a MacBook with a foldable screen coming as soon as 2026. Other news and rumors this week included fresh expectations for iOS 18 features and new headphones from Sonos to compete head-to-head with AirPods Max, so read on below for all the details on these stories and more! Apple Releases iOS 17.5.1 With Fix for Concerning Photos Bug Apple released iOS 17.5.1 for the iPhone this week, and the software update includes a fix for a concerning bug that caused deleted photos to reappear in the Photos app for some users. iPadOS 17.5.1 and tvOS 17.5.1 were also released with the same fix for those devices. "This update provides important bug fixes and addresses a rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were dele

Apple is planning to refresh the 24-inch iMac as soon as 2024, so we could see a new model with an M4 chip before the end of the year. Apple is working to overhaul the entire Mac line with AI-focused M4 chips, ‌iMac‌ included. This guide includes everything we know about Apple's plans for an M4 ‌iMac‌. M4 Chip The next-generation 24-inch ‌iMac‌ is expected to get the M4 chip, which is the same chip that Apple used for the latest iPad Pro models. iMacs right now have the M3 chip, so the M4 will be a direct update. The M4 is built on the same 3-nanometer technology as the M3, but it is a second-generation chip with some speed and efficiency improvements. In a Geekbench benchmark test , the M4 proved to be up to 25 percent faster than the M3 chip, which is a notable jump in performance. The M3 had a single-core score of 3,087 and a multi-core score of 11,702, while the M4 had a single-core score of 3,695 and a multi-core score of 14,550. Apple's M4 chip has a 10-cor

Device repair company iFixit is ending its repair relationship with Samsung, iFixit announced in a blog post today. The partnership is being dissolved after a two-year period because iFixit and Samsung have been unable to negotiate a new deal. iFixit said that it wanted to build a repair-friendly ecosystem for independent businesses and consumers with its Samsung Repair Hub, something that it has not been able to do. The company says it ultimately doubts "Samsung's commitment to making repair more accessible." Samsung used iFixit to facilitate a self-repair program for its customers, with iFixit offering step-by-step repair guides for replacing display assemblies, back glass, charging ports, and other components. iFixit says that there were continual obstacles working with Samsung, including the high price of components. Repair parts "were so costly" that customers ended up replacing their devices rather than repairing them. Batteries and screens, for e

Popular photo editing app Pixelmator Pro was today updated with an overhauled set of AI-powered masking tools that make it easier than ever to make selective edits. Masking was "reengineered from the ground up" in the new 3.6 version of Pixelmator Pro, so it's quicker to create and refine masks. There is a new Hide Background option that uses AI to nondestructively remove the entire background from an image with a click. The tool detects the subject of the image and adds a background mask to hide the rest of what's in the photo. Masking a layer or creating a mask from a layer can now be done with a double click on the canvas with the Arrange tool, and then there are controls available for resizing and repositioning the mask. Pixelmator says this makes it easier to do things like round image corners or crop individual layers in multi-layer compositions. Tools for refining masks are now located at the bottom of the screen whenever a mask is selected or created, s

Arc Search from The Browser Company was today updated with a new "Call Arc" feature that's designed to let you conduct a search in a gesture that mimics a phone call. To use the feature, open up Arc Search, raise the iPhone to your ear, and ask a question. The gesture of raising the ‌iPhone‌ to your ear activates the search option, and answers are provided verbally, so the entire voice-based search experience makes it look as if you're simply talking on the phone. Arc Search now has voice-activated search, triggered by holding your phone to your ear and saying your query -- just like you're making a phone call. Upon using Call Arc, you'll instantly hear your search results, accompanied by an animated smiley face! You can also click "Read More" to access full Browse for Me results for each query. After asking a question, Arc Search will play hold music briefly before providing a verbal answer and standing by for another question. The interface

A significant Microsoft outage has affected several key services, including Bing.com, Copilot for web and mobile, Copilot in Windows, ChatGPT internet search, and DuckDuckGo. The disruption began around 3.00 a.m. Eastern Time, primarily impacting users in Asia and Europe. User reports and MacRumors ' tests indicate that attempts to access Bing.com result in either a blank page or a 429 HTTP code error. Notably, the Bing search functionality remains operational if accessed directly via a specific URL , though the homepage remains inaccessible. For users needing to perform searches on Bing, accessing the search engine directly through the alternative URL is a workaround. However, Copilot services are entirely offline across all platforms, including the website, app, and Windows integration. As noted by Bleeping Computer , ChatGPT internet search and DuckDuckGo are also experiencing disruptions due to their reliance on the Bing API. DuckDuckGo users encounter an error message

Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) will soon stop showing public "likes" on users' profile pages, the company has said. The plan was confirmed on Wedndesday by X engineers, after MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris uncovered a flag in X's iOS app revealing the coming change. Perris found that turning off the flag completely removes the "Likes" tab from all user profiles. His discovery was shared on X , which was then reposted and subsequently confirmed by X engineers. "Yeah, we are making likes private," responded X's director of engineering Haofei Wang. "Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior. For example, many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be 'edgy' in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image. "Soon you'll be able to like without worrying who might see it," Wang continued. "Also a reminder that the more posts you like, the better your