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- Tuesday September 24
- 10:50 amTim Cook says iPhone launches are an 'out-of-body experience'
Apple CEO Tim Cook joined late night host Jimmy Fallon for a walk and talk on the day the iPhone 16 range came out.Jimmy Fallon (left) with Tim Cook in New York City"The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" host is a long-time Apple user, and for the iPhone 16 launch, was at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. He was presented with the iPhone by Tim Cook, and then the two walked a mile together to the Apple Upper East Side store."Every launch, I try to come to Fifth Avenue because its sort of the center of the world," Cook told Fallon, "and the enthusiasm is so incredible there [and] I love walking around New York." Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums10:39 amCalifornia law requires schools to limit or prohibit the use of phones by students [U]
More schools are banning students from using smartphones in classes, with calls for a federal ban rather than the current mix of state laws. Apple’s home state of California is expected to be the next state to introduce a ban. Update: California has now signed The Phone-Free Schools Act into law. School districts have until July 1, 2026, to “adopt a policy to limit or prohibit the use by its pupils of smartphones while the pupils are at a school site” … more…10:30 amWe’re on the iPhone 16 and Apple still doesn’t understand apps
Macworld It is the year of our Lord 2024. Chappell Roan is taking the world by storm, everyone is trying to make that omelette from “The Bear,” and the App Store approval process is still a Rube Goldberg machine that produces random, often craptacular results. Halide cofounder Ben Sandofsky posted on Mastodon: The latest Halide update was rejected because, after seven years, a random reviewer decided our permission prompt wasn’t descriptive enough. I don’t know how to explain why a camera app needs camera permissions. The current prompt says: The camera will be used to take photographs Hmm. Interesting. Interesting. Tell me more about that. What are these “photographs,” exactly? Explain it to me like I’m a 14th-century stablehand who just arrived in this century thanks to a time travel mishap involving a bog witch and then immediately got a job as an App Store reviewer. Because that’s actually what happened. The Macalope has to agree with Sandofsky here, it seems pretty straightforward. You downloaded a camera app. It needs access to the camera. To take the photographs. Photographs are much less fun without the lenses and such. Sandofsky could, of course, add more verbiage to the prompt — “The camera will be used to take photographs for the app that you just downloaded to take photographs for. Photographs are images created and stored by interpreting light waves digitally. Also, they steal your soul. A lot of people think that’s just a superstition expressed by stereotypical backward tribal cultures in movies but, yeah, they actually steal people’s souls. Sorry you have to find out this way, in a prompt. Are you still reading this? Just tap ‘OK’ for crying out loud.” — but the Macalope’s not sure how that actually makes the prompt or the user experience any better. The very odd thing here is that Halide was featured in Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” keynote. And is an Apple Design Award winner. And is just incredibly popular and well-known. And, finally, what are you doing, App Store review? Is this what you wanted to be when you grew up? This is not to say that other, less well-known developers should have to wade through this fetid swamp full of bear traps. It shouldn’t happen to anyone. Yes, this will probably get sorted out one way or another and, sure, we can just chalk it up to Halide being assigned an overly zealous reviewer who just really wanted to impress their bosses by being the most obtuse troll on the bridge over Services Revenue River, but it should not work this way. Or not not work this way, as the case may be. IDG IDG IDG Sadly, the situation is not going to change because Apple’s platform is where all the money is. This is Apple’s real monopoly, a monopoly on developers. If you’re a developer and you want to get paid for your work, you kind of have to be on iOS (sure, there are exceptions, but this is more true than not). The E.U. has made a lot of steps to address this. We can argue about whether or not they’re the best moves, but they are moves that attempt to address the actual problem. The U.S. Department of Justice suit against Apple, however, doesn’t address this problem at all. Despite Apple’s contentions, however, making these flaws public does actually work, at least sometimes. So, there’s that. Still, if the rejections must continue until morale improves, can they at least be consistent?10:22 amCellular Apple Watch buyers call out Verizon's maddening activation block
Apple Watch owners can't activate their cell plans through Verizon — unless they bought the device from the carrier, or complain at length.Apple Watch Series 10Verizon has frustrated Apple Watch users before, but now it is preventing some from connecting to the cell network at all. AppleInsider has been contacted by users reporting having to spend hours on the phone to Verizon support for what appears to be a common issue.According to one user's summary that others are saying fits their experiences, the issue is specifically over whether an Apple Watch is bought through Verizon itself, or not. An Apple Watch sold by the carrier will activate correctly and without difficulty. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums10:00 amApple @ Work Podcast: Surviving System Extensions
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, Aaron Webb from Jamf joins the show to talk about Apple’s changes to System Extension management. more…09:15 amApple adds several Macs to its vintage and obsolete product lists
Your beloved Mac can’t be top of the line forever, and Apple on Monday added three Mac models to its vintage products list as well as nine additional Mac models from its vintage list to its obsolete products list. The company classified the following Mac as vintage: The following Macs are now classified as obsolete: […] Source09:00 amSome iPhone 16 Pro users complain of “dead spots” with the touchscreen interface
As nifty as your brand-new iPhone 16 Pro may be, there may be a few bugs to iron out on the software end. Per Macworld and Reddit, a number of iPhone 16 Pro owners are complaining that the handsets are failing to respond correctly to touchscreen gestures. Certain actions appear to be setting off the […] Source07:30 amiPhone 16 Pro users facing intermittent touchscreen issues
Several iPhone 16 users are facing touchscreen issues on their units, leading to missed touches and swipes. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)06:13 amiPhone 16 Pro’s tougher Ceramic Glass pitted against iPhone 15 Pro in drop test
A YouTuber subjected the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max to multiple drop tests in comparison to the iPhone 15 Pro to test their durability. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)03:05 amHow to use Disk Jockey for retro emulation on your Mac
Disk Jockey is an app that allows you to create disk image files for a variety of retro computers and emulators. Here's how to use it.Disk Jockey is a retro disk image formatter.Retro computing is popular these days, and one aspect of vintage computing is managing the various disk and file formats one has to deal with when using these machines.Jean-Michel Durand of Belgium has created a disk image formatter called Disk Jockey for retro computers. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums01:06 amApple is making it easier for Mac users to enable Low Power Mode with macOS 15.1
Low Power Mode is a feature that has been on the iPhone for years and lets users save battery life with the press of a button. This option was expanded to the Mac with macOS Monterey, but Apple has always kept it hidden in the System Settings. But with macOS 15.1, the company is making it easier to turn on Low Power Mode on the Mac. more…12:41 amiOS 18: Three new features you probably don’t know about
iOS 18 was officially released to the public last week, but we’re still learning more about all of the new features and changes. Here are a few additional tidbits on improvements to FaceTime, changes to the Wallet app, and more. more…12:23 amApple is redesigning the Mac mini: Here’s everything we know
Apple will kick off the Mac’s transition to the M4 chips next month, and one of the headlining updates will be the Mac mini. With an all-new design, two different M4 variations, and more, here’s everything we know so far about the new Mac mini coming soon. more…Monday September 2311:37 pmiOS 18.1 developer beta 5: New Control Center toggles, options, and more
The fifth developer beta of iOS 18.1 is now available for all with updates to the Control Center customization and Camera Control.The fifth developer beta of iOS 18.1 introduces minor changes to Control Center.On Monday, Apple released the fifth developer beta of iOS 18.1. While the previous release, the fourth developer beta, finally made iOS 18.1 available to older iPhones compatible with iOS 18.0.The fifth beta update contains a variety of improvements and new options for the Camera Control button on the iPhone 16, new toggles for the Control Center, a hidden hearing aid feature for AirPods Pro 2, and more. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums11:10 pmApple stops signing iOS 17.6.1, making it impossible to downgrade from iOS 18
Apple last week released iOS 18 to the public. The update comes with a bunch of new features, including customizable Home Screen and Control Center, a redesigned Photos app and improvements to the Messages app. However, those who have updated to iOS 18 can no longer downgrade to iOS 17, as Apple has just stopped signing iOS 17.6.1. more…09:57 pmZoom Workplace 6.2
Maintenance release with a number of improvements and bug fixes for the videoconferencing app. (Free, 129.1 MB, macOS 10.13+)09:57 pmAmazon issues first-ever AirPods 4 price cut
The AirPods 4 price drop is the first double-digit discount on the 2024 earbuds release.Apple's new AirPods 4 are on sale at Amazon.Despite having been announced on Sept. 9, Amazon is discounting Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, delivering the first material markdown on the earbuds alone. Pick up a pair for $169 while supplies last.Buy for $169 Continue Reading on AppleInsider09:52 pmAlfred 5.5.1
Brings support for macOS 15 Sequoia and a variety of improvements to the keyboard-driven launcher. (£34 new, free update, 5.5 MB, macOS 10.14+)09:50 pmVMware Fusion 13.6
Introduces a new command-line tool called vmcli. ($149.99/$199.99 new, free update, macOS 13+)09:40 pmFantastical 3.9 and Cardhop 2.3
Brings a variety of improvements and bug fixes to the Fantastical calendar app. ($56.99 annual subscription new, free update, 67.2/29.9 MB, macOS 12+)