Apple's Magic Mouse charging port design has never been a big deal
The newly updated Apple Magic Mouse now has a USB-C charging port, but it's still on the bottom — and that still doesn't matter.Since 2015, you've charged the Magic Mouse through a port on its baseIt's nine years since the Magic Mouse was first redesigned to be rechargeable instead of having removable batteries. And at the time, Apple's design and attention to detail were commended — for the sound of the mouse.From that day to this, though, the Magic Mouse design has been criticized and mocked for how apparently appalling it is that the charging port is on the bottom. It is seemingly an existential threat to mankind that you have to turn the mouse over for a minute. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Multifamily Residences Turn to Tech for Tenant Appeal, Efficiency: Report
Fast, secure, reliable connectivity is now an expectation at multifamily residences, according to a new report by market research and consulting company Parks Associates and Xfinity Communities. The post appeared first on TechNewsWorld.

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What is nano-texture glass and do I need it?
Macworld On some Apple products, including the M4 iMac, M4 iPad Pro, and Studio Display a feature called nano-texture glass is available. This is something that was first introduced on the incredibly expensive Pro Display XDR, before coming to other Apple products beginning with the now-discontinued 27-inch iMac. So, what is it, and should you spend hundreds more to have it adorn your screen? What is Nano-texture glass? Glare is often a problem in brightly lit offices and homes, which can render the large, glossy displays little more than hugely elaborate mirrors. One way to combat this is through matte displays. Opting for the new nano-texture glass will drastically reduce glare while avoiding the frostiness and washed-out colors that are often the compromise made when opting for a matte finish. It’s all thanks to some clever design and a meticulous process that results in displays that can happily cope with bright light sources, albeit at a rather costly addition to the price tag. How does nano-texture glass work? One of the main causes of glare is light from lamps, windows, and other sources reflecting back at you due to the smooth surfaces of modern displays. Matte finishes combat this by having some kind of coating on the display which diffuses or breaks down the light due to its more angular surface. Sadly, this works both ways, so the light emanating from the display itself is also altered, resulting in the murkier results that usually accompany the technique. Apple has taken things to the next level by foregoing a coating and instead physically altering the surface itself through tiny (nano) etchings. The pattern of the etchings means that light rays hitting the display are reflected off at a range of angles, eradicating most of the glare in the process. The very clever part is that this somehow doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on the onscreen display. Of course, making all those microscopic etches in the glass is a precision job, which is why it costs more. For example, to get nano-texture glass on the iMac, you’ll need to get a higher-end model and pay an additional $200, while the cost for the M4 iPad Pro is just $100 more than the standard glass (though you’ll need to get at least 1TB of storage). How can I clean nano-texture glass? One of the quirks of Apple’s new Nano-texture glass display is that the company insists it should only be cleaned using a specific Apple cloth. One is included with every display, but we’re not entirely sure what magic ingredients make it such a special piece of fabric. Needless to say, if you’ve just forked out a couple hundred bucks for a high-end display technology, it’s probably a good idea to follow Apple’s instructions and spend a little extra on a high-quality cloth. How durable is nano-texture glass? Nano-texture glass is as durable as standard glass. Since it doesn’t have a coating, there shouldn’t be any noticeable wear. Should I get nano-texture glass on my Apple device? The main reason for adding on the costly nano-texture glass feature is if you are struggling with glare, for example, if you use your iMac or Studio Display in a room with bright overhead lights or work outside on your iPad Pro.

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The first Apple Intelligence features are hit-and-miss
Macworld Apple Intelligence is finally here (sort of). With iOS 18.1, the first tranche set of AI features finally comes to our phones (albeit in beta and temporarily behind a waitlist). The iPhone 16 line was sold as made for Apple Intelligence. It was Apple’s big push at WWDC in the summer, and fancy AI-powered features are front-and-center in all the phone marketing. Camera Control button? Even that is just an AI-powered feature waiting for its true purpose. But the first set of Apple Intelligence features is kind of…feeble. I’ve been using iOS 18.1 throughout its extended beta test, and there are only two really good AI features, with the rest being a mix of annoyances and “use it a few times and forget about it” demonstrations. Apple Intelligence: The good There are two new AI features that I use daily and I think most people will make a part of their everyday iPhone use: Notification summaries and the Clean Up tool. The new notification summaries capability can take almost any notification with more than a couple of lines of text and shorten it to fit in the notification. Text messages, social media posts, news alerts, email alerts… It turns out, most notifications are basically useless. They let you know something happened, but I’ve become so accustomed to not really seeing the information I need that I just tap the notification and open the app to see what it says. With notification summaries, I get an idea of what an alert is actually about, and it lets me know which notifications actually need my attention and which ones can wait. It’s brilliant and fully intuitive. There’s no learning curve; your notifications just instantly become much more useful. The Clean Up tool in Photos, while not perfect, is a fun, fast, and easy way to play around with some light photo editing and can quickly improve a lot of impromptu shots. Unfortunately, Apple sort of hides it. You have to open a photo, tap the Edit button (which looks like a set of levers and is not entirely intuitive), and then press the Clean Up button. This is the kind of helpful feature that really deserves a top-level interface button! Notification summaries are one of those “didn’t know I needed it until I had it” features.Apple Apple Intelligence: The bad The suggested replies in Messages and Mail are routinely terrible. I can’t remember the last time I actually opted to use one, and their glowing presence has become a total nuisance I wish I could easily disable. The new Siri interface feels like a bad idea, too. I really love the new edge-lit glow and the way it washes over the screen (from the bottom if you say “Hey Siri” and from the right side if you use the side button). But this new look is selling a new Siri that just doesn’t exist. Siri is better about gracefully handling your “um”s and “ah”s and mid-sentence corrections, but it’s just as dumb as ever about answering requests. The real new Siri isn’t coming until early next year when they roll out the personal contextual awareness, screen awareness, and overhauled App Intent system to work within apps. I get the impression iPhone users are going to complain that “the new Siri still sucks” because they don’t realize that the new Siri isn’t here yet, just its facelift. Apple Intelligence: The rest Writing tools aren’t especially useful. I almost never found the need to select some text and change its tone or summarize it, and let’s face it, nobody’s going to proofread their emails or social media posts with this. It’s kind of a neat tech demo, the sort of thing you use a few times just to say “cool!” and then hardly ever touch again. When people think of AI and text, they think of asking a question or giving a short prompt and getting paragraphs of original text as a reply, and this isn’t that. Fortunately, it’s also hidden behind the text-selection interface so it’s easy enough to ignore entirely. It won’t get in your way. The new natural Photos search works great and is really useful, but hardly a game-changer. Same with the new focus mode and summaries of call recordings and transcripts. Apple Intelligence: Waiting for the good stuff When the general public thinks of “AI” today, they think of two things: long-form generative AI text, like having ChatGPT write your book report, and AI images. But Apple Intelligence doesn’t give you access to any of that yet. The generative image features (other than the Clean Up tool) have already made an appearance in the first iOS 18.2 beta and are expected to arrive later this year, including seamless integration with ChatGPT. The Camera Control button will also get its upgrade to summon “Visual Intelligence” in iOS 18.2 as well, making it more useful than the app launcher and shutter it is now. The ChatGPT integration is still months away.Apple And of course, there’s the long wait for the new Siri. Siri has been the poster child for AI since Apple bought the original Siri app and integrated it into the iPhone 4s 13 years ago. After years of not investing properly in advancing Siri’s capabilities, it seems like Apple Intelligence is finally poised to give it a big boost, but we still have five or six months from getting that on our iPhone 16s. In other words, our first taste of Apple Intelligence is a mixed bag at best, and it’s going to be months before our new iPhone 16s do all the neat things shown in Apple’s marketing.

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India's iPhone exports jump up to $6 billion in six months
The number of iPhones made in India rose by a third in the six months to the end of September 2024, as Apple's efforts to expand in the country continue.Mumbai, IndiaApple has been working to reduce its reliance on a single country, even as China has urged the company to continue investing in its factories. Despite also expanding in Vietnam, the major beneficiary of Apple's move has been India, with the country say it's their fastest growing firm there for 50 years.According to Bloomberg, unspecified sources in India say that the country has exported almost $6 billion worth of iPhones in the six months through September 2024. Foxconn accounted for around half of that figure, with Pegatron and the Tata Group making up the rest. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple announces M4-based iMac, boosts RAM and upgrades camera from M3 model
The new iMac has been unveiled and it seems nifty. On Monday, Apple unveiled its new M4-based iMac, which replaces the M3 that was introduced in the iMac a year ago. Apple has increased the base standard configuration of unified memory from 8GB to 16GB. The new iMac is available at $1,499, $1,699, and $1,899 […] Source

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Apple’s week of exciting Mac announcements got off to a rocky start
Macworld The Macalope shouldn’t have to list his Apple bonafides. His head is, after all, shaped like a Classic Mac. What else does a guy have to do? Get a tattoo? Because I’m not doing that. Sounds like it hurts. But let’s just take it as writ that the Macalope generally likes Apple products. The Macalope tends not to use the word “fan” anymore because it implies a level of blind adherence and, to be clear, there have been some bad Apple fans over the years. People who are just bad people and people who act like no one should buy any other company’s products ever, shoehorning Macs, iPhones, and iPads into whatever job requires being done. Clearly, the Macalope has his personal preferences, but he’s long said there are very good reasons to use other smartphones, other computers, and other spatial computing devices. He supposes it’s possible. Overall, he just likes Apple products better. That said, there are certainly still some things the company does that he finds absolutely baffling. Recently he’s noticed three that have inexplicably continued to get his goat for years now. Apple’s most frustrating decisions are often just the little things. And, maybe given the state of the world, sometimes it’s just fun to complain about little things. On Monday, Apple updated the Mac peripherals, at long last changing the Lightning port on the Magic Keyboards and Magic Mouse to USB-C. It changed the ports, but that’s it. [excitedly turns over new Magic Mouse, sees its new USB-C port] OH, COME ON! Again, this is clearly not the biggest deal in the world. Obviously. It’s below, for instance, having to figure out which fried chicken sandwich place best aligns with your social and political views. But your mouse needing a dedicated nap time like an irritable toddler seems like a less efficient system than just, oh, finding a way to put the charging port on the front. The Magic Trackpad, for example, has it on the front. The Macalope is not an engineer, nor does he play one on TV (once in community theater), but he’s pretty sure a clever company like Apple could find a way to do it. Sure, most people use laptops these days so the number of people who even have to deal with a mouse is pretty low. But it is the default mouse for one of Apple’s signature products: the iMac. The Macalope had several of the battery-powered Apple Magic Mice, but he has not bought one since the change for precisely this reason. Perfect to a T? Nope.Apple Another product he might like to get but won’t is the Magic Keyboard. What’s wrong with it? This one you don’t even have to turn over to see, just look in the lower right-hand corner. There are two types of people in this world: people who prefer arrow keys in the proper inverted “T” configuration and absolute monsters. Somehow this hellspawn of the 2016 MacBook Pro has not been sent back into the abyss from which it came to stare at nothingness for all of eternity as should be its fate in a just and fair universe. The Macalope will just keep sending Apple the bill for the repetitive stress of having to reach up to Touch ID on his MacBook Air because he’s not buying this keyboard. The company, of course, will keep shredding them but it’s a fun little game we like to play. Finally, let’s talk colors. Or the lack thereof. How on God’s green Earth does it make sense to charge iPhone Pro customers more and give them fewer choices in color? Even car companies don’t do that. Base models generally have fewer color options than the higher end. With iPhones, however, Apple’s most expensive models come in colors so restrained you’d think they were trying to disappear into an Ansel Adams scene. IDG “Ah, the Grand Tetons. So majestic. Beautiful snow-capped mountains over crystal clear lakes and is that a Natural Titanium iPhone 16 Pro in there?” On the scale of things that matter, these are not very high. At the same time, on the scale of things that would be relatively easy to fix, they’re quite high. That’s what makes it so frustrating.

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Apple @ Work Podcast: Password manager at the dinner table
Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple. In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Hans Raj Kumar from Dashlane about Apple’s new password application. more…

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Apple releases macOS Sequoia 15.1, iOS 18.1, and iPadOS 18.1 updates, begins to roll out Apple Intelligence features
The long-awaited major updates to Apple’s macOS, iOS, and iPadOS operating systems have arrived, as Apple released macOS Sequoia 15.1, iOS 18.1, and iPadOS 18.1 on Monday. The operating systems introduce the first of the Apple Intelligence features for Macs that are equipped with an M-series chip as well as the most recent iPhone and […] Source

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iPhone’s Tap to Pay launches in more European countries
Tap to Pay on iPhone is expanding to five European countries, allowing businesses to accept contactless payments through their iPhone. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Tap to Pay on iPhone expands to more countries
This morning, Apple announced that Tap to Pay on iPhone is rolling out to more markets, with five new countries across Europe. Tap to Pay on the iPhone is the feature where businesses can use an iPhone as a contactless terminal to accept payments. The customer simply holds their contactless card, or iPhone or Watch, near the merchant’s iPhone to complete the payment using NFC chip inside the iPhone. more…

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Tap to Pay on iPhone comes to more European countries
Apple has launched its Tap to Pay on iPhone feature in five more EU countries, the slow rollout that began wit the US in 2022.Tap to Pay on iPhoneIt was in May 2022 that US iPhone users gained the ability to pay other iPhone users without any extra hardware. Since then, it has slowly begun available outside the US, with the UK getting it in 2023, as did France, and Japan in May 2024.Now in a statement to AppleInsider, Apple has announced Tap to Pay on iPhone is now also available in five more countries: Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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M4 Mac mini leaked on Amazon, hours before potential launch
The new M4 Mac mini made a surprise appearance on Amazon, revealing its slimmer new design and key specs upgrade. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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M4 Mac mini leaks on Amazon, hours before expected launch
The new M4 Mac mini makes a surprise appearance on Amazon. The M4 Mac mini leak reveals a slimmer new design and key specs upgrade. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Save up to $100 on Apple's 2024 iMac M4 with Best Buy Plus
My Best Buy Plus members can snap up the first material discounts on Apple's brand-new M4 iMac 24-inch.Save on Apple's new M4 iMac - Image credit: AppleSave $50 to $100 on retail configurations of Apple's 2024 M4 iMac, which was announced on Oct. 28. Equipped with the M4 chip, you can save on both 8-core and 10-core CPU/GPU options. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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What's changed in runtime protection for macOS Sequoia
In previous versions of macOS Gatekeeper, Control-click could be used as a launch override for running downloaded apps. Apple has now changed that.macOS Gatekeeper is used to validate macOS apps.Under earlier versions of macOS, users could override Apple's Gatekeeper security to launch apps in the Finder by Control-clicking on them to launch them.The override was only needed on an app's first run, but it's still annoying nonetheless to some users. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Amazon leaks redesigned Mac mini with M4 Pro
An Amazon listing for the 24-inch iMac contained a now-removed comparison chart that included Apple's unannounced smaller Mac mini with M4 and M4 Pro.The new Mac mini will resemble a miniature Mac StudioApple's week of announcements does a great job keeping its new products in the news cycle for longer, but the strategy may have backfired. A comparison chart on Amazon showed the unreleased Mac mini and some of its specs, but has since been removed.The comparison chart was discovered by MacRumors on Amazon's 24-inch iMac listing. It shows a small thumbnail of what looks like a miniature Mac Studio and can be configured with the M4 and M4 Pro. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Redesigned Mac mini and M4 Pro leaks: up to 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 64GB RAM, front-facing ports like Mac Studio
We already know Apple is revealing the start of its M4 Mac line this week. The M4 iMac was the first M4 Mac announced, and M4 versions of the MacBook Pro are also expected this week alongside a redesigned Mac mini. However, we won’t have to wait for an official announcement to get our first look at the new Mac mini. We also now know top specs for the yet-to-be-announced M4 Pro chip. more…

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In Defense, I Swear, of the Magic Mouse’s Charging Port Placement
The Magic Mouse charging port placement is an opinionated design, not an absurd design.

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The things you may have missed from Monday's M4 iMac announcement
The 24-inch iMac has been upgraded with the M4, but more than a simple chip update was revealed on Monday. Here's what you might have missed.The iMac has received Apple's M4 chip.Apple revealed a straightforward spec upgrade to the 24-inch iMac, which has received the M4 chip previously used only in the iPad Pro.While the new iMac has no visible differences compared to its M3-powered predecessor, the computer did receive meaningful hardware enhancements. Some of Apple's accessories also received a minor update. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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