Apple Explores Push Into Smart Glasses With 'Atlas' User Study
Apple is exploring a push into smart glasses with an internal study of products currently on the market, setting the stage for the company to follow Meta into an increasingly popular category. From a report: The initiative, code-named Atlas, got underway last week and involves gathering feedback from Apple employees on smart glasses, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Additional focus groups are planned for the near future, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is secret. The studies are being led by Apple's Product Systems Quality team, part of the hardware engineering division. "Testing and developing products that all can come to love is very important to what we do at Apple," the group wrote in an email to select employees at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California. "This is why we are looking for participants to join us in an upcoming user study with current market smart glasses." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Election Day 2024: Follow results with Apple’s Live Activity on your iPhone
Today is Election Day in the United States, and the News app built into your iPhone can help you stay informed throughout the day. In the News app, you can find up-to-date information on how to vote in your state as well latest news and developments. Most notable, however, is that the News app has a built-in Live Activity to help you follow the election results in real-time today. more…

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Apple explores push into smart glasses with internal study
Apple is reportedly delving into the world of smart glasses. The tech giant is currently conducting an internal study of existing smart… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Left-field report claims Apple is working on a 90Hz display for iPad Air, iMac
Macworld Apple’s mid-market iPad Air tablet will get an upgrade from 60Hz to 90Hz next year if a new report is accurate. The feature will then be rolled out to the iMac and Apple’s Studio Display, potentially later in 2025. The tricky thing about the iPad Air, as far as Apple’s marketing department is concerned, is finding the sweet spot between the standard iPad and the iPad Pro. The company needs the Air to be significantly better specced than the budget model, or nobody will buy it, but it doesn’t want the Air to get too powerful, or it risks cannibalizing sales of the Pro. It’s a tightrope. Based on the latest report, however, Apple has come up with an inventive way to walk this tightrope between the iPad Air’s cheaper and more expensive siblings. It’s going to give the Air a screen refresh rate that is literally halfway between those of the standard and Pro models. Since its second generation back in 2017, the iPad Pro, alone among Apple’s products, has featured a dynamic refresh rate that can be raised as high as 120Hz when necessary. This enables it to deliver smoother animation, sharper responsiveness, and better performance when using the Apple Pencil. The other iPads (and all the iPhones), by contrast, have a refresh rate of 60Hz. But that’s set to change next year. An anonymous source (via 9to5Mac) contacted the Upgrade podcast (which is co-hosted by longtime Macworld contributor Jason Snell) with a tip about the 7th-gen iPad Air, expected to launch in 2025. “I have news on screen improvements for the next generation of the M3 iPad Air. Apple is working on a higher refresh rate LCD display with a new liquid motion panel fixed at around 90Hz. They’re also working on expanding it to other models or products like a 24-inch iMac and a next-gen studio display.” Note the word “fixed.” It doesn’t sound like the Air is going to get the dynamic element of the iPad Pro’s ProMotion display, which is so important to preserving battery life; it only runs at 120Hz when required. This, by contrast, appears to be fixed at 90Hz all the time like the current 60Hz screen. Still, it’s a welcome upgrade for the Air, and for the iMac and Studio Display afterward. For all the latest news and rumors, check out our guide to all the new Apple products launching in 2024 and 2025.

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Intego Washing Machine X9 Review
Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros While discounted, this is a good price point for what’s delivered. Helps you reclaim drive space and remove duplicate files. Good customization, filters, and settings. Cons Organize module feels like a band-aid fix for the larger issue of disastrously messy file folders. Annoying pop-up asking for user feedback. Installation more difficult than it should have been. Our Verdict It’s nice to be able to reclaim a few dozen gigabytes of drive space and have control over the duplicate files on your Mac, but there’s nothing groundbreaking here. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Price When Reviewed$49.99 for one Mac (currently discounted to $19.99) Best Prices Today: Intego Washing Machine X9 Retailer Price Intego $49.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Intego’s Washing Machine X9 functions as a handy cleaning utility for the Mac and focuses on reclaiming disk space via the Reclaim tool, removing duplicate files on your Mac’s hard drive with the Duplicates tool, and organizing folders using the Organize tool. See how Intego’s Washing Machine compares to other Mac Cleaners in our Best Mac Cleaner round-up. Washing Machine currently retails for $19.99/£19.99 for one Mac for one year, $26.99/£23.99 for three Macs for one year, or $33.95/£30.99 for five Macs for one year, their prices having been discounted from $49.99/£49.99, $66.99/£66.99, and $84.99/£84.99 per year, respectively. The software is also available for a trial period, with a 30-day money back guarantee, albeit you’ll initially pay for it with your debit or credit card, PayPal, or Apple Pay. Like most utilities on the current macOS architecture, the software (compatible with macOS 13 High Sierra or later) requires that you download it, install it, then grant it full access to your hard drive though your Mac’s Privacy and security settings. This is where things became a little trickier than expected, as you’ll have to locate the Intego Washing Machine X9 app in your Applications folder after installing it and drag it into the Full Disk Access element of your Privacy and Security settings to get it to function. Once installed, you can get to work, and there’s a good level of customization for each tool. Like similar applications, the Reclaim tool can chase after caches, downloads, language files, logs, and trash files to help clean up disk space. My initial run cleared approximately 24GB of drive space from my M2 MacBook Pro’s SSD. Washing Machine X9’s Organize tool.Foundry The Duplicates tool took about five hours to create an initial index for my 1TB SSD. It offered control over duplicates that can be selected and specific options and naming filters (such as allowing you to keep the local files on your hard drive and go after external/cloud files) which came in handy. You might want to carefully pick and choose which duplicate files to go after, instead of nuking everything outright with the “Clean” button just in case you need a local copy of a file on hand later. The Organize feature seems well-intended and can help organize messy folders into a Snapshot folder for reorganization later. This tool can work with specific folders such as the ever-messy Desktop folder, your Home folder, and macOS’ Smart Folders, and help pull things into order. While there are some interesting features and customizability within Intego’s Washing Machine X9, there’s also room for improvement. The Scheduling option only allows for a specific week or month to be chosen, and it would have been nice for users to be able to schedule a process for only a few minutes from now, as is common with similar software. The extra steps in installation and setup, as mentioned above, don’t add to the program’s ease of use, as it seems more common that an installer will add an easy icon that can be dragged into the macOS Full Disk Access pane to complete the installation (it is lazy of the developers to forget this). The options for the Scheduling tool and other preferences.Foundry Though well-intentioned, the Organize feature just feels like slapping a band-aid on the larger problem of a folder’s disorganization, and I can readily create a new folder on my Desktop called “Desktop Stuff,” drag everything into it, and now call it organized. By creating a Snapshot folder and dragging everything into that folder, I don’t see the problem as solved, and only putting in the geeky sweat and tears of carefully sifting through a folder will resolve the issue in the long run. Screenshot Foundry Should you buy Intego Washing Machine? Washing Machine does what several other Mac cleaner products on the market are currently doing, with nothing groundbreaking to offer. The Organize tool feels like a cheap band-aid has been slapped on a larger organizational problem with no great fix being offered. It feels as if the product itself has been abandoned, Intego’s website citing benchmarks and results from 2020 and macOS Big Sur, and the occasional pop-up on the application’s main screen asking for feedback doesn’t inspire one to offer the developer the feedback it’s requesting, but just irritates the user, who only wants to use their Mac and get some work done. The end result is that none of this is inspired, and while it’s nice to be able to reclaim a few dozen gigabytes of drive space and have control over the duplicate files on your Mac, the end results don’t match Intego’s self-laudatory marketing on its product website. The product can meet modest expectations, but not extraordinary ones. With the current discounts and its attractive user interface it’s worth a look. Alternatively, Intego’s Washing Machine X9 is bundled with Intego’s larger security suite so you could take advantage of that and get a Mac Cleaner with Intego’s Antivirus solution. The Mac Premium Bundle costs from $84.99/£84.99 (currently discounted to $39.99/£33.99) and includes VirusBarrier, NetBarrier, Content Barrier, and Personal Backup solutions.

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Sketchy rumor says iPad Air, iMac, and Studio Display could be updated to 90Hz
A rumor with no solid background claims that the current 60Hz displays on devices such as the iPad Air and iMac will be replaced by 90Hz ones on future releases.The current iPad AirIt's more than two years since the Apple Studio Display was first released, and it has not been updated since. Now it's rumored that it will get a refresh that sees its 60Hz display updated to 90Hz, alongside the same change in the iMac and iPad Air."I have news on screen improvements for the next generation of the M3 iPad Air," says the rumor from an anonymous source. "Apple is working on a higher refresh rate LCD display with a new liquid motion panel fixed at around 90Hz." Rumor Score: 🙄 Unlikely Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple offers Indonesia token investment to lift iPhone ban
Following Indonesia's ban of the iPhone 16 because Apple has not invested enough in the country, the company has reportedly offered $10 million.Jakarta - Image credit: Tom Fisk/PexelsThe threatened ban on the iPhone in Indonesia became real in late October 2024. The ban centers on Indonesia's drive to get firms to invest more in manufacturing in the country, and Apple had so far failed to reach the level it had promised.According to Bloomberg, Apple has proposed investing almost $10 million toward its local suppliers and a factory near Jakarta. The factory makes accessories and components for Apple devices, according to unspecified sources. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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iPad mini (A17 Pro) review: A little faster, a little ‘smarter’
Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Fast CPU and graphics Support for Apple Intelligence Cons Not much different from the 6th-gen iPad mini it replaces from 2021 Our Verdict The iPad mini is still a great tablet, perhaps the best at its size and better than larger, non-Apple tablets. But if you own a 6th-generation iPad mini, you don’t need to rush to upgrade to it unless you want Apple Intelligence. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Price When Reviewed$499 (128GB; Wi-Fi only) | $599 (256GB; Wi-Fi only) | $799 (512GB; Wi-Fi only) Best Prices Today: Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro) Retailer Price $484 View Deal $499 View Deal $499 View Deal $499 View Deal $499 View Deal $499.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide View more prices Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket On October 15, Apple announced an upgrade to the iPad mini. Remember the iPad mini? Did you forget about it? Can’t blame you if you did–after all, it seemed like Apple did, because the last iPad mini was released over three years ago. After waiting all this time, the upgrades Apple made to the iPad mini (A17 Pro)–Apple ditched the generational naming in favor of chip identification, like the other iPads–feel like they don’t amount to much, at least on the surface. What you will find is that the new iPad mini has been modernized with internal upgrades, which should keep it relevant for, say, another three years until the next refresh or redesign. The iPad mini is still a great tablet, perhaps the best at its size and better than larger, non-Apple tablets. But if you own a 6th-generation iPad mini, you don’t need to rush to upgrade to it, except for one thing: Apple Intelligence. iPad mini: Performance boost from the A17 Pro The iPad mini’s major upgrade is with its chip. The A15 Bionic that was in the previous iPad mini has been replaced by the A17 Pro, which was used in the discontinued iPhone 15 Pro. It’s not exactly the same chip, however. It still has six CPU cores (two performance cores and four efficiency cores), but it has five GPU cores instead of the six that were in the iPhone 15 Pro. Geekbench 6.2 CPU benchmarks

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Apple @ Work Podcast: Password security 101
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 Gerrit Garbereder from Nordpass about how hackers access passwords, tips to stay safe, and much more. more…

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How Apple learned to stop worrying and laugh at the Microsoft Zune
Macworld Apple released its quarterly results last week and tl;dr: numbers make my eyes glaze over, charts just make me want pie, it’s doing just fine. It occurs to the Macalope that younger readers may not remember the days when Apple was just one bad move from going out of business. Oh, not the mid-1990s when it was actually one bad move from going out of business. No, the Macalope’s talking about the first decade and a half of this century when it was continually, laughably, and against all evidence argued that Apple, now the most valuable company in the world depending on which day you look, was said to be teetering on a precipice that only very clever online pontificators could identify. Here in our Earth reality, however, once the iPod became a hit, Apple’s future was pretty secure. It was not guaranteed the success that it’s achieved since, but it was going to be fine. The iPod line was a viable company on its own, without the Mac, which continued to improve and drag itself out of the doldrums of the 1990s. Yet, this thought persisted. Apple couldn’t be successful. That’s not how things worked. When Microsoft announced the Zune (which you kids might know from a joke in a popular superhero movie) many pundits suggested it was game over for the iPod. After all, Microsoft had always beaten Apple before, right? The Macalope is going to tell a story that he can’t back up because finding old things on the internet is broken so you’ll just have to take his word for it. But he distinctly recalls that some even suggested that Microsoft would just give users a new license to any existing music they might have in their library–e.g. iTunes–in order to grease the skids for the Zune revolution, covering any associated costs itself because Microsoft was just that powerful and cool and Apple just that weak and its parents dressed it funny. Needless to say, this didn’t happen, whether for technical reasons or because Microsoft was not in the habit of giving things away for free. But what did happen was the Zune fizzled, the iPod won and Apple parlayed its success into the iPhone. The rest is history. Actually, that’s also history. Assuming the “Microsoft will pay for your music” wasn’t a Macalope fever dream. IDG Despite the iPod’s unrivaled success, pundits still spent years predicting Apple’s doom. At least seven more years. To the Macalope’s recollection, the last person to really lean into Apple Doomerism–lean so far into it that he crashed right through it into the adjacent room like the Kool-Aid Man, startling the poor family who was living next door–was Trip Chowdhry. You remember Trip, right? AI is the thing everyone has to be in right now, but back in 2014, it was smartwatches. And before Apple introduced the Apple Watch, Chowdhry opined: “They only have 60 days left to either come up with something or they will disappear,” Mr. Chowdhry told CNBC. That was 10 years ago. Since then, this kind of… rhetoric? Is that the right word? Gibberish implies it’s unintelligible and that is clearly easy to understand, if just cosmically wrong. Flatulent is directionally correct, but too closely associated with its scatological meaning. Fatuous is pretty good. So, how about “flatuous”? Pompous, silly, pointless and full of hot air. You don’t see this kind of flatuous commentary about Apple much anymore. With good reason. Apple is obviously just a really big company now and it has been for years. It still makes some mistakes, but it’s certainly not going out of business any time soon.

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Rumor: Apple to announce/launch of M4-based MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro units in early to mid-2025
Apple announced its nifty M4-based iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro models, complete with variants of the chip. As exciting as these are, the rumor mill has begun speculating as to when users can expect the M4 versions of the MacBook Air, the Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro towers. Where notebooks are concerned, Apple […] Source

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Apple, EU negotiate DMA terms, iOS users to be offered the option to use Google Maps and Google Translate as default apps
If you’re in Europe and looking to choose an alternate map/GPS and translation app, you’re going to like this. Apple continues to negotiate with the EU regarding its regulatory compliance. In a new document released by the company, Apple has announced plans to enable setting default apps for navigation and translation soon. This will allow […] Source

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Apple’s next iPad Air could get a 90Hz display
The next iPad Air refresh could introduce a 90Hz display. The iMac and Studio Display might follow suit in the future. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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B&H launches holiday deals on Apple with discounts up to $600 off
The official holiday 2024 sale at B&H provides bargain hunters with steep savings on MacBooks, desktop Macs, podcasting gear and more.Save hundreds on Apple & more - Image credit: AppleYou can view the full selection of over 100 Apple deals at B&H on the store's dedicated sale page. We've compiled our favorite discounts below, which comprise of last-gen Mac computers, podcasting gear, external storage and more — all of which are heavily discounted. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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How to edit PDFs on a Mac using Preview & third-party apps
Editing PDFs on a Mac is simple, thanks to the built-in tools in macOS and various third-party apps. Here's how to get started, whether you're making quick annotations or detailed modifications.macOS PDF editor, PreviewPDF is a universally accepted document format because it preserves layout and content across different devices and platforms. However, PDFs can be difficult to modify without the right tools. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Review: Hohem iSteady MT2 Camera/Smartphone Gimbal Kit
If you've ever used a smartphone gimbal before, the Hohem iSteady MT2 is a more solid — and professional-grade — handheld gimbal camera mount that enables smooth motion, AI tracking, and digital control for your iPhone, DSLR, or other cameras.The Hohem iSteady MT2 can be used with both smartphones and cameras. Image credit: HohemWhile both Apple and Android smartphones can take pretty impressive pictures and video, they are by no means a worthy substitute for DSLRs, Superzooms, action cams and other types of cameras. Smartphone gimbals like the DJI Osmo Mobile or the Hohem iSteady V3, which we've previously reviewed, are great for creating smooth videos using smartphones when you or the camera, or both, are in motion.The Hohem iSteady MT2 is likewise capable of using smartphones for video recording, but is built to handle traditional cameras — and thus is heavier, sturdier, and a more complicated device than a smartphone gimbal. It is a three-axis camera gimbal that can pan, roll, and tilt, all while keeping your expensive camera securely attached. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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visionOS 2.2 Beta Adds Wide and Ultrawide Modes To Mac Virtual Display
Apple released the first beta of visionOS 2.2, introducing new "Wide" and "Ultrawide" modes for the Mac Virtual Display feature on the Vision Pro headset. MacRumors reports: Apple has previously said the ultra-wide version of Mac Virtual Display is equivalent to having two physical 4K displays sitting side by side on a desk. Mac Virtual Display is now available in three sizes: Normal, Wide, and Ultrawide. visionOS 2.2 will likely be released to the public in December alongside iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, macOS Sequoia 15.2, watchOS 11.2, tvOS 18.2, and other updates. Further reading: Apple Delays Cut-price Vision Headset Until 2027, Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo Says Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Rumor: Apple developing 90Hz display tech for iPad Air, Studio Display, and iMac
A new rumor today suggests Apple is developing a 90Hz display that could be destined for the iPad Air, 24-inch iMac, and Studio Display. The rumor comes from an anonymous source who reached out to the Upgrade podcast hosted by Myke Hurley and Jason Snell. more…

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Apple is researching smart glasses with an internal study, report claims
Apple is reportedly using an internal study to gauge interest in smart glasses as the company continues to develop its own Apple Glass, an eventual successor to Apple Vision Pro.Apple is reportedly exploring Smart Glasses with an internal study.The aforementioned study was supposedly launched at the end of October and is known under the project codename Atlas, not to be confused with a scrapped iPhone 16 hardware project bearing the same codename. With its internal study, Apple seeks to gather employee feedback on smart glasses currently on the market.The study is reportedly being conducted by the company's Product Systems Quality team, which is part of Apple's hardware engineering division. There are also plans for additional focus groups in the near future. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple stops signing iOS 18.0.1, no longer allowing downgrades from 18.1
A week after releasing iOS 18.1 to the public, Apple has now stopped signing iOS 18.0.1. For iPhone and iPad users, this means that they can no longer downgrade to a previous version of the operating system. more…

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