Amazon’s new ‘Buy for me’ feature is a wild AI innovation
Back in February, Amazon announced an interesting new test that would show you products from other retailers’ sites. Now, the company is taking things even further: Amazon’s new “Buy for me” feature can use agentic AI to actually make purchases elsewhere on your behalf—so you never have to leave Amazon. more…

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iOS 18.4 has Apple’s best solution yet for this Podcasts app flaw
Apple Podcasts isn’t the dominant force in podcasting that it once was. But if you still get your podcasts from Apple rather than YouTube or another third-party app, there are some nice Podcasts app additions in iOS 18.4—including a new widget that solves a key shortcoming. more…

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Apple reportedly testing OLED iPad mini display made by Samsung Display
Apple is reportedly testing a compact OLED display for its upcoming iPad mini, per a Chinese leaker citing supply chain insiders… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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iOS 18.4 features, AI Health service rumors, Apple Card drama
Benjamin and Chance start with a catch-up on changes to Friday Night Baseball, before diving into the software updates of the week, with the launch of iOS 18.4 and the first iOS 18.5 beta launching. Also, thoughts on Apple’s rumored AI Health service plans, and the latest on finding a new partner for the Apple Card. And in Happy Hour Plus, Benjamin embarks on a mission to convert baby videos from old camcorder tapes, to digital files. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join. : Get up to $600 off intelligent robotic cleaners and effortless wet/dry vacs in DREAME’s Spring Cleaning sale now. more…

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Intel Unison allowed Android and iOS to connect to Windows, now it’s shutting down
Intel Unison was a strong tool for Android and iOS users that wanted to share files, check messages, and more. Now, it seems like Intel is shutting that app down, leaving some users without a strong option for PC connection. more…

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iOS 18.4’s Photos app adds new features to craft your perfect setup
iOS 18.4 is available now, and among its many features are some easy-to-miss changes to Apple’s Photos app that give users more flexibility and options than before. Here are the details on iOS 18.4’s Photos enhancements. more…

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Nab a nice discount on Apple Pencil (USB-C)
You may not need all the bells and whistles of Apple Pencil Pro. So it's a good thing you can grab this great Apple Pencil USB-C deal. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Apple TV+ announces new comedic drama ‘The Husbands,’ starring Juno Temple
Apple TV+ this week announced the new eight-episode comedic drama “The Husbands,” starring SAG and BAFTA Award winner Juno Temple … The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Rumor Replay: New iPad Pro coming, Apple Health+, and iPhone Fold
This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: updates on the M5 and M6 iPad Pro models, an Apple Health+ service, iPhone Fold, and more. Here are this week’s Apple rumors. more…

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Apple's M2 MacBook Air is down to $749, but stock levels are low
An April MacBook Air sale is in effect, with Best Buy slashing the M2 model with 16GB RAM to $749. But supply is limited, and Amazon has already sold out of its stock.Grab a MacBook Air for $749 while supplies last.You can grab the $749 MacBook Air 13-inch deal at Best Buy, marking a return of the top-selling deal on the budget-friendly laptop. Equipped with the M2 chip with an 8-core GPU, this model also has 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage.Buy for $749 Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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These new Apple Arcade games with fill you with nostalgia
As someone who grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s, I played a ton of simulation games on my computer. Games like The Sims, Age of Mythology, and Roller Coaster Tycoon are synonymous with my childhood. So when I saw that Apple was bringing the original Roller Coaster Tycoon to Apple Arcade, I dropped everything and put it on my iPad Pro. I was immediately taken back! In that same light, Apple released five other brand-new games that are worth taking a look at! more…

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Apple’s new iOS 18.4 recipe feature is a big upgrade for cooking
iOS 18.4 packs a lot of new features, but one of my top picks is the addition of tens of thousands of recipes to Apple News alongside a special cooking mode. Here’s how it works. more…

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iPhone farms are sending out more 100,000 scam iMessages per day
Security researchers discovered that iPhone farms — arrays of phones using rotating temporary Apple IDs — are dispatching over 100,000… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple’s plan to ramp up US manufacturing starts this summer
A new Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit will open in summer 2025, with plans to train small- and medium-sized businesses nationwide. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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The iPhone 17 Pro’s improved telephoto camera detailed in new report
Macworld Leaker Majin Bu, who has accurately shared some details of upcoming iPhones in the past, has posted a new article with a little more information about the telephoto camera on the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro. As with the current iPhone lineup, only the Pro models are expected to feature the telephoto camera. According to his latest intel, the telephoto camera will feature a new 48MP sensor—that part has been reported before by several analysts. What is new is the detail about the focal length. Instead of a 5x zoom (120mm) as on the iPhone 16 Pro models, or the 3x zoom (77mm) of some previous models, the 48MP telephoto on the iPhone 17 Pro will feature a 3.5x zoom (85mm). This is a little more natural zoom for taking portrait shots, one of the benefits of the less-zoomy 3x telephoto lens on older iPhone Pro models. But, just as Apple does with the main 48MP sensor today, it will allow for a 2x crop zoom using just the center 12 megapixels of the sensor. So the iPhone 17 Pro will also be able to take 7x (160mm) 12MP shots with perfect optical clarity. Of course, digital zoom will extend the range beyond that. So that’s the new detail here: The telephoto camera on the next iPhone Pro model will jump from a 12MP 5x camera to a 48MP 3.5x camera with a 2x “optical crop zoom” capability as the current iPhones can do with their 48MP wide camera today. The iPhone 17 Pro is expected to arrive at an event in September alongside a new member of the iPhone lineup, the iPhone 17 Air. Stay tuned to all the latest rumors with our iPhone 17 superguide.

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Even Severance isn’t enough to give Apple TV+ a big boost in subscribers
Apple TV+ may hold just 8% of the US streaming market, but the number of subscribers keeps increasing. Find out more. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Here’s the 50-year-old Microsoft source code that inspired the first Apple computer
Macworld Maybe you didn’t realize this, but Microsoft is actually older than Apple. While Apple marked its 49th anniversary earlier this week on April 1, Microsoft will celebrate its 50th anniversary on April 4. To commemorate the event, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has posted the source code for Microsoft’s first-ever product, Altair BASIC. The story of the product begins with the computer credited with starting the personal computer revolution, the MITS Altair 8800. (Yeah yeah yeah, I know what you’re thinking, “What about the Apple II? I thought this was Macworld!” Even PCWorld said it’s the greatest PC of all time!) But the Altair 8800 has a unique place in history. When it was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, enthusiasts everywhere were excited about its potential, including Bill Gates and Paul Allen, then students at Harvard. The magazine cover that launched the PC revolution.Popular Electronics Gates and Allen thought that the Altair 8800 was a sign that the “PC revolution was imminent,” as Gates puts it. They decided to create a version of BASIC that can run on the Altair–BASIC, for you young whippersnappers who pay too much attention to those darn TokToks or whatever you call ’em, is a computer language designed for people with, in Gates’s words, “no computer experience.” BASIC on an Altair 8800 would widen the device’s market and bring personal computing one step closer to the masses. Gates details some of the things they had to do to make Altair BASIC a real product, including not having actual access to the Intel 8080 chip that was in the Altair 8800, how to handle memory limitations (you thought 8GB was diddly squat, try 256 bytes!), and rushing to make a tight deadline. Eventually, they entered a licensing agreement with MITS, and Micro-Soft (the name originally had a hyphen) was born. As the story goes, Steve Wozniak saw the Altair 8800 running Gates’ BASIC at a meeting of the Homebrew Electronics Club. However, the Intel chip was too expensive, so he wrote a new version of Gates’ Altair BASIC for the cheaper Motorola 6800 chip, which became the Apple I with the help of a guy named Steve Jobs. A few years later, they released the greatest PC of all time, the Apple II, and well, you probably know the rest. If you don’t, here’s a recap. But back to Microsoft. The Altair BASIC source code is available as a PDF download, covering 157 pages. Gates is “super proud of how it turned out,” and considering what Altair BASIC led to, he should be. If you are a developer or a computer geek, it’s worth a look. If you’re interested in learning more about Bill Gates before Microsoft, read his autobiography, Source Code: My Beginnings. Microsoft/Bill Gates

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Hyperspace now reclaims storage without deleting files from some of your largest data buckets
Hyperspace, the new utility from Macintosh veteran John Siracusa, has been updated a handful of times since we covered its launch in February. If you haven’t tried Hyperspace since it first launched, there are new capabilities that could reveal even more space to reclaim. more…

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Apple integrates Apple Intelligence-powered Writing Tools into new iWork updates
Apple has updated its iWork suite of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote to version 14.4, bringing more Apple Intelligence and other changes and improvements to its productivity software.Pages, Keynote, and Numbers have all received updates. On Thursday, Apple rolled out updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. This time around, many of the updates are identical for each app, as Apple tries to keep its productivity suite consistent across the three products.The most notable update is powered by Apple Intelligence. Users on Mac, iPad, and iPhone can now make text edits using Writing Tools directly in their documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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iPhone 17 Pro said to usher in revolution in mobile photography with advanced telephoto lens
The iPhone 17 Pro might pack yet another camera twist. Apple is set to equip the iPhone 17 Pro with a new 48-megapixel telephoto lens… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple & Michigan State University partner to boost US manufacturing skills
Apple and Michigan State University are opening a free manufacturing training academy in Detroit to help U.S. suppliers modernize their operations.Apple ParkOpening in summer 2025 in Detroit's First National Building, the Apple Manufacturing Academy will offer virtual and in-person training to small and mid-sized manufacturers. The program will focus on smarter manufacturing, AI integration, and supply chain optimization.It also builds on an existing relationship. Since 2021, MSU and Apple have operated the Apple Developer Academy in Detroit with support from the Gilbert Family Foundation. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Recharge your MacBook anywhere with half-off this sleek Baseus power bank
Macworld Yes, yes, we know that MacBooks usually have great battery life, but does it ever hurt to have a backup power bank in your backpack? This 20,000mAh Baseus Blade model is powerful, fast, and nearly half-off at Amazon today. That means that instead of paying $100 for this handy battery, you can get it for $53, its lowest price yet. I personally use the slightly thinner but less powerful Blade 2 model, which I absolutely adore, so you can be assured that the larger model performs just as well. Plus it has even better specs, with a much bigger capacity (20,000mAh as opposed to 12,000mAh) and more power (100W vs. Blade 2’s 65W). Since this power bank has enough oomph to charge your MacBook (or any other laptop), it can also juice up smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, earbuds, and even handheld consoles. There are two USB-C and two USB-A ports on this power bank, so you can charge multiple devices at once (though the power to each port will drop). The power bank’s display delivers information about the remaining battery, charging power for each port, and the estimated charging time left so you’ll know what you’re getting. And since it supports passthrough charging you can keep the Blade powered up while it juices up other devices. The Baseus Blade is a fantastic way to recharge your devices on the go, especially at its sale price of just $53. But it won’t stick around forever, so it’s best to hurry up and add it to your cart. Get the Baseus Blade power bank for hearly half offBuy now at Amazon

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Today in Apple history: ‘Magical’ first iPad debuts in stores
On April 3, 2010, Apple’s first tablet hit store shelves after months of anticipation. The first iPad quickly became a major success. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Haven’t upgraded to iOS 18.4? Here are 15 reasons to do it now
Macworld If there’s a marquee feature for iOS 18.4, it’s the expansion of Apple Intelligence into the EU, along with Vision Pro compatibility and new language support for French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. That’s tens of millions of iPhone 16 owners who can finally use the feature Apple says the newest iPhones were “built for.” (However, we should point out that this release does not enable Phone Mirroring on Macs in the EU due to issues over Digital Markets Act compliance.) For everyone else, there isn’t one standout feature. Rather, iOS 18.4 brings lots of little tweaks, improvements, and changes. Maybe one will stand out for you as the thing you’ve been waiting for, or maybe the sum of them taken together just makes your iPhone a little more pleasant to use. Here’s a by-no-means-complete list of the little things you may come to appreciate about this update. iOS 18.4: 15 minor improvements that make a major impact Visual Intelligence can be triggered in the Control Center or the Action Button. This makes it available on the iPhone 15 Pro, and it means you can add the control to your lock screen. If you’ve got AirPods Max, you’re getting an upgrade (via a firmware update) to allow audio over USB-C, which will include 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio and ultra-low-latency audio. If you’re a CarPlay user, you’ll appreciate the new third row of app icons on the home screen (if your display size is large enough) and a new API for sporting events will allow for custom experiences during live sporting broadcasts. Speaking of driving, Apple Maps will now include the location of NACS chargers (that’s the so-called “Tesla connector” appearing on many new EVs). Got a Vision Pro? Along with support for Apple Intelligence on the headset, there’s a new Vision Pro iPhone app that lets you discover spatial experiences, download apps and games, and get tips. If you’re a fan of making Shortcuts, you’ll love that there are now lots of Shortcut options to change app settings. So you can make apps behave differently based on location or time of day or whatever, if you’re good at making Shortcuts. You’ll notice that Safari now shows recent searches when you select the search/address bar, making it easy to repeat that search you just did earlier today. You can clear this at will, or prevent it from showing at all by going to Settings > Safari > Show recent searches. Foundry There are several tweaks to Control Center. Buttons that have more options when you select them show chevrons, the cellular data toggle shows real signal strength, and so on. There are new controls, too, including four options for Ambient Music: Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing. Each one has multiple playlist options or you can select one of your playlists. Because they’re Control Center controls, you can add them to the lock screen or trigger them with the Action Button, too. Foundry There’s an all-new Apple Intelligence feature: Prioritize Notifications. Go to Settings > Notifications > Prioritize Notifications to enable or disable it, and you can select which apps it works with. When enabled, AI will try to determine if a notification is especially important and show it to you in a separate group on top of all your other notifications. Foundry Tweaks to the Photos app include a new “Key Photo” view mode for your Albums, two new filters for viewing your Photos library (Shared With You and Not in an Album), and the ability to edit the order of the Media Types list. Finally, I can select Screenshots without swiping three pages over! Foundry Image Playground is still a pretty bad experience, but at least it now has the Sketch style that was demonstrated back at WWDC. For certain kinds of drawings, it’s the best choice. We all love emojis, and there are seven new ones in iOS 18.4: Face with bags under eyes, Fingerprint, Harp, Leafless tree, Root vegetable, Shovel, and Splatter. If you’re an Apple News+ subscriber you’ll want to check out the new Food section, which does an excellent job presenting recipes from popular food publications. Look under the Following tab to find the Food section. Note that this is not yet available in the Apple News app on Macs. You know how you can set up a new iPhone or iPad by bringing another iPhone or iPad near it? Well, now that works for setting up a new Mac, too! You’ll need to update the Mac to macOS 15.4 or later, of course. iOS 18.4: How to update To update your iPhone to iOS 18.4, head over to the Settings app, then tap General, Sofware Update, and follow the prompts.

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What’s new in Apple’s iOS 18.5 beta
Apple released the first beta of iOS 18.5 to developers for testing. With iOS 19 slated to debut in a few months, work on iOS 18 is… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Deals: AirPods 4 ANC, Ocean Band, Belkin 15W Car Charger, MagSafe 3 cable, smart plug, more
Joining some ongoing $100 price drops on iPad mini 7 and the new M4 MacBook Air, today we are turning our attention back to AirPods. Amazon has now brought back its best price of the year on the latest AirPods 4 with ANC down at $149 shipped, which is now joined by a solid $250 price drop on Apple’s 1TB 13-inch M4 iPad Pro. From there we move over to a 20% clearance price drop on the official blue Apple Ocean Band alongside a new all-time low Belkin’s 15W MagSafe Wireless Car Charger mount, a 25% price drop on Eve’s latest Energy (Matter) smart plug, Bose earbuds, and this 140W USB-C to MagSafe 3 nylon braided cable at just $20. All of that and more awaits below in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break. more…

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Hands-on: We got to play Nintendo Switch 2 for nearly six hours yesterday [Video]
After nearly a decade, Nintendo finally returned with a true successor to the original Switch. The Nintendo Switch 2, unveiled at Nintendo’s Direct event, brings long-awaited upgrades across the board – from display and performance to multiplayer features and accessories. I spent some hands-on time with the device at press-only Nintendo event yesterday, and as someone who has owned every Switch variant from the OG Switch to the Switch OLED, here are my thoughts. more…

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Apple updating iWork apps with new iOS 18.4 features
Apple is updating its iWork suite of productivity apps with new features that require iOS 18.4. This includes version 14.4 of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for iPhone and iPad. more…

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Apple's fight with Trump's tariffs will shift the cost to customers
Ming-Chi Kuo's Apple commentary is normally fairly insightful, but his latest batch on how Apple can shoulder President Trump's tariff burden is short-sighted, and doesn't make a great deal of sense.Apple CEO Tim CookAnalyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently outlined how the company could respond to a new wave of U.S. tariffs targeting hardware assembled in China, India, and Vietnam. The new policy imposes tariffs of 54%, 26%, and 46% on goods from China, India, and Vietnam, respectively.However, Kuo's analysis glosses over some incredibly major obstacles. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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How Each Pillar of the 1st Amendment is Under Attack
In an address to Congress this month, President Trump claimed he had "brought free speech back to America." But barely two months into his second term, the president has waged an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment rights of journalists, students, universities, government workers, lawyers and judges. This story explores a slew of recent actions by the Trump administration that threaten to undermine all five pillars of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedoms concerning speech, religion, the media, the right to assembly, and the right to petition the government and seek redress for wrongs.

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When Getting Phished Puts You in Mortal Danger
Many successful phishing attacks result in a financial loss or malware infection. But falling for some phishing scams, like those currently targeting Russians searching online for organizations that are fighting the Kremlin war machine, can cost you your freedom or your life.

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Arrests in Tap-to-Pay Scheme Powered by Phishing
Authorities in at least two U.S. states last week independently announced arrests of Chinese nationals accused of perpetrating a novel form of tap-to-pay fraud using mobile devices. Details released by authorities so far indicate the mobile wallets being used by the scammers were created through online phishing scams, and that the accused were relying on a custom Android app to relay tap-to-pay transactions from mobile devices located in China.

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DOGE to Fired CISA Staff: Email Us Your Personal Data
A message posted on Monday to the homepage of the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is the latest exhibit in the Trump administration's continued disregard for basic cybersecurity protections. The message instructed recently-fired CISA employees to get in touch so they can be rehired and then immediately placed on leave, asking employees to send their Social Security number or date of birth in a password-protected email attachment -- presumably with the password needed to view the file included in the body of the email.

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ClickFix: How to Infect Your PC in Three Easy Steps
A clever malware deployment scheme first spotted in targeted attacks last year has now gone mainstream. In this scam, dubbed "ClickFix," the visitor to a hacked or malicious website is asked to distinguish themselves from bots by pressing a combination of keyboard keys that causes Microsoft Windows to download password-stealing malware.

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Microsoft: 6 Zero-Days in March 2025 Patch Tuesday
Microsoft today issued more than 50 security updates for its various Windows operating systems, including fixes for a whopping six zero-day vulnerabilities that are already seeing active exploitation.

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Alleged Co-Founder of Garantex Arrested in India
Authorities in India today arrested the alleged co-founder of Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2022 for facilitating tens of billions of dollars in money laundering by transnational criminal and cybercriminal organizations. Sources close to the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity the Lithuanian national Aleksej Besciokov, 46, was apprehended while vacationing on the coast of India with his family.

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Feds Link $150M Cyberheist to 2022 LastPass Hacks
In September 2023, KrebsOnSecurity published findings from security researchers who concluded that a series of six-figure cyberheists across dozens of victims resulted from thieves cracking master passwords stolen from the password manager service LastPass in 2022. In a court filing this week, U.S. federal agents investigating a spectacular $150 million cryptocurrency heist said they had reached the same conclusion.

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Who is the DOGE and X Technician Branden Spikes?
At 49, Branden Spikes isn't just one of the oldest technologists who has been involved in Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). As the current director of information technology at X/Twitter and an early hire at PayPal, Zip2, Tesla and SpaceX, Spikes is also among Musk's most loyal employees. Here's a closer look at this trusted Musk lieutenant, whose Russian ex-wife was once married to Elon's cousin.

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Notorious Malware, Spam Host “Prospero” Moves to Kaspersky Lab
One of the most notorious providers of abuse-friendly "bulletproof" web hosting for cybercriminals has started routing its operations through networks run by the Russian antivirus and security firm Kaspersky Lab, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

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U.S. Soldier Charged in AT&T Hack Searched “Can Hacking Be Treason”
A U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty last week to leaking phone records for high-ranking U.S. government officials searched online for non-extradition countries and for an answer to the question "can hacking be treason?" prosecutors in the case said Wednesday. The government disclosed the details in a court motion to keep the defendant in custody until he is discharged from the military.

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