Meta says its future AI models could have ‘catastrophic outcomes’
A Meta policy document describes the company’s fears that it could accidentally develop an AI model which would lead to “catastrophic outcomes.” It describes its plans to prevent the release of such models, but admits that it may not be able to do so. Among the capabilities the company most fears are an AI system that could break through the security of even the best-protected corporate or government computer network without human assistance … more…

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How China saved Apple from bankruptcy but now holds the company hostage
An upcoming book Apple in China promises to tell the story of how a seemingly smart idea back in 1996 now leaves the company hostage to the whims of an authoritarian regime. Subtitled “the capture of the world’s greatest company,” the book features interviews with more than 200 former Apple execs and engineers, and says it acts as both a historical account and a cautionary tale … more…

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Apple killed the wrong Vision Pro project
Macworld After Apple kickstarted the spatial computing era with the high-priced Vision Pro mixed-reality headset last year, it seemed to be a first step toward a future all-day wearable device. However, it turns out that might not be the case. A report by Mark Gurman at Bloomberg claims that Apple is moving in the other direction after canceling its most promising augmented reality glasses project after hitting several roadblocks and focusing instead on the next-gen Vision Pro headset. Apple’s got it completely backward: Apple should kill Vision Pro 2 and pour more resources into its smart glasses project. More is less I’m not undermining the Vision Pro’s advanced technology and capabilities. It’s objectively one of the highest-end consumer headsets on the market, featuring sharp displays, a dozen sensors, a slew of well-designed apps, and seamless integrations with the Apple ecosystem. Its $3,499 price tag, however, acts as the first hurdle barring mass adoption. Beyond its outrageous price tag, the Vision Pro is the first in its product line, and, naturally, it’s filled with imperfections and limitations. Reviewers almost unanimously agree that it is too heavy and causes neck discomfort with extended use. That’s not to mention its relatively short battery life and lack of outdoor use. visionOS is essentially an immersive iPadOS/macOS hybrid that runs in users’ fields of view. But, what if we don’t want all of these overpriced complexities? A pair of smart glasses would be a fantastic addition to the Apple ecosystem.Foundry Ray of light While Meta has long catered to gamers and VR enthusiasts with its Quest headset (that costs one-tenth of a Vision Pro), its $299 Ray-Ban glasses are a different animal. For one, they’re not much more expensive than a Meta-less pair of Ray-Bans, but more importantly, they’re not catered to a niche tech-first category of customers. First, to make its device appealing to wear, Meta collaborated with Ray-Ban—one of the most popular sunglasses brands. Sometimes people are embarrassed to wear nerdy accessories in public. So, having the Ray-Ban branding instantly takes away that stigma. Also Meta didn’t shoot for the moon like Apple did. Instead, Meta built in just a few useful perks to keep its glasses simple and cheap. The temple tips house discreet open-ear speakers for music streaming on the go, so you don’t need a separate pair of earbuds. It has a set of AirPods-like controls built right into the arms.  But most importantly, the glasses feature a forward-facing camera instead of a screen, which offers a window into the world for Meta’s AI bot to analyze what it sees and report back. And it also lets wearers take quick photos and videos for direct posting to Instagram Stories. Unlike the Vision Pro, the IPX4-certified Ray-Ban Meta are meant to be used away from home. So, users can put them on like any regular pair of sunglasses, which is great for family picnics, concerts, and influencers. Help wanted It’s clear that Apple is currently focused on the flagship headset line, as the Vision Pro’s successor could launch as soon as next year. In my opinion, Apple shouldn’t kill the glasses project but should leverage its own ecosystem advantage to create lightweight spectacles that rely on other devices to do the heavy lifting. A pair of Apple smart glasses could take some cues from the AirPods.Foundry The AirPods, for example, can announce notifications. Similarly, the Apple Watch packs exclusive perks unavailable to rivaling smartwatch brands, such as auto Mac unlock. So, Apple is in a position to create the best smart glasses for iOS users, as no other manufacturer has access to the underlying ecosystem infrastructure. Plus there are plenty of people who just don’t trust Meta. A pair of Apple glasses doesn’t need to have a Vision Pro-like interface. Like the early Apple Watches, they could piggyback on a paired iPhone’s processor and internet connection to offer some handy shortcuts. Like the AirPods, they could handle Siri requests, announce notifications, and accept calls. And with an embedded camera, Apple’s new Visual Intelligence feature could come alive. The smart glasses would transmit what they see to the connected iPhone, which would then analyze the content with ChatGPT and send the response back to the shades. Other potential features could include snapping quick shots and clips that users can view in the iPhone’s Photos app. It could also integrate with FaceTime, letting the caller enjoy the scenic route you’re taking while you talk. The possibilities are endless even without incorporating any of the current Vision Pro features. Vision Pro is too advanced to shrink down to a pair of glasses.Thiago Trevisan/Foundry Short-sighted Vision By putting the Apple Glasses on the back burner, the company is missing the smart glasses train. Meta is actively developing more advanced iterations of the Ray-Bans, while Apple seemingly has no plans to announce a competitor anytime soon. By the time the Apple glasses potentially debut, they’re going to have tremendous competition, and with Apple insisting on high-end features, it could be years before anything comes to market. Even if the Vision Pro 2 addresses most of its predecessor’s shortcomings, which is unlikely, it’s clear that the general public isn’t interested in this form factor. So, maybe Apple should study what’s actually working instead of trying to repair what’s inherently broken.

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Apple rolls out mysterious iOS 18.3 update for iPhone 11 only
Macworld While iOS 18.3 was not as momentous as some of Apple’s previous x.3 iPhone updates, it brought a number of significant changes, mostly affecting Apple Intelligence. Now, however, the company has released another version of iOS 18.3 focused on a group of devices that don’t support its AI platform. As reported by MacRumors, an update with build number 22D64–as distinct from 22D63, which rolled out last week–has been released for iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max only. Those aren’t the oldest devices that can run iOS 18 (that title is held by the iPhone XS and XR) but they’re close to the bottom of the list and could miss out when iOS 19 is announced this summer. With their A13 chips they aren’t remotely close to meeting Apple Intelligence’s hardware requirements: an A17 or later found in the iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max and the iPhone 16 range. Apple hasn’t released a special version of iOS 18.3 for iPhone 12, 13, 14, or 15 handsets, or for that matter the XS and XR, suggesting that this update is addressing specific flaws in the iPhone 11. It seems counterintuitive that the iPhone 11 would need iOS 18.3 at all, but the update does contain some new features that aren’t related to Apple Intelligence. Of the five features we picked out as noteworthy, for example, there is one for the Calculator app, restoring a pre-iOS 18 ability to continually tap the equals sign in order to repeat the last operation. And the Home app gains support for HomeKit- and Matter-compatible robot vacuums. The focus of the update, however, is more likely to be bug fixes. We already know of two fixes in the general iOS 18.3 release: one tackles an Apple Music problem that caused songs to complete playback even if you closed the app, while another deals with the keyboard disappearing when typing a Siri request. But 22D64 is likely to contain a patch for a bug specific to the late-2019 handsets. To install the update, which we would recommend, you should open the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General > Software Update and follow the instructions. Read our iOS 18 superguide for more information about the latest iPhone software.

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Apple is doomed because it can’t see the future
Macworld More bad news for people who get attached to rumored Apple products as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the company has canceled one of its headset projects: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses. Quick side note: if you do find yourself becoming attached to a rumored Apple product, that’s probably a good time to close the laptop and go outside and stare at a tree or something for a while. Pet a dog. Do whatever it is people do with cats. Getting attached to rumored Apple product lines is not healthy. This now dead as a doornail one is, of course, not the Vision Pro but a potential new type of glasses that Gurman reported on last year. This project apparently went from “Maybe if we offload the processing to an iPhone.” to “Oof. That’s not gonna work. How about offloading it to a Mac?” to “AR glasses you can wear while sitting at a desk? Why are we doing this again?” to canceled. Hey, it happens. Just the other day the Macalope was thinking of going out for a nice lunch. Then time got away from him and he thought maybe he’d make a nice lunch at home. Then he ended up eating Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups at his desk. That’s pretty much the same thing. The Macalope will not be taking questions. Gizmodo’s take on this turn of events is the most pointing and LOL-ing the Macalope’s seen. Here’s their subhead: Apple is lacking vision for where to go following the Vision Pro tanking. Gizmodo, January 31, 2025 Get it? Because Vision. Yeah, you got it. Copy editors are such scamps. The first part seems fairly true, based on the available rumors at least. Apple’s current status with its Vision efforts seems positively Titan-esque, which ain’t great. But did the Vision Pro “tank”? Apple certainly didn’t sell a lot of them, that’s for sure, but it’s questionable whether or not it sold fewer than it really expected. And if you’re comparing it to other Apple product lines, it’s worth remembering that you’re comparing it to some of the most successful consumer electronics products ever. By ditching the augmented reality glasses, Apple is tacitly admitting that it just cannot crack the VR/AR space. Gizmodo, January 31, 2025 That, however, is not exactly what Mark Gurman’s piece said. Despite the project being shuttered, Apple is still working on underlying technologies that could be used in AR glasses down the road, including custom microLED-type screens, Bloomberg News reported this week. Bloomberg, January 31, 2025 So much of Apple’s analysis relies on reporting done by Mark Gurman. It seems to the Macalope that if you’re going to use Gurman’s work as the basis for your views, you should use all of it instead of just the parts that support your thesis. He knows it’s less fun that way. Also, while Apple is ditching the offloading glasses, it has not ditched the Vision Pro itself. It’s still in there swinging. Maybe not connecting a lot, but still swinging. IDG To Gizmodo’s point, it really isn’t at all clear that Apple has a viable development path for the Vision line. While you could probably have said that about the Apple Watch back in 2015, too, those two products aren’t exactly comparable. One is priced at a consumer level and the other is priced more at an “I have a backup yacht” level. Of course, you’re gonna wanna keep the Vision Pro on the main yacht, just in case you want to show it to another of your yacht friends. Who probably also have their own Vision Pros. So maybe do keep it on your backup yacht? Honestly, the Macalope doesn’t really know how yacht provisioning works. The Macalope’s been wrong before but he doesn’t believe for a minute that Apple is done with AR/VR headsets. While the Vision Pro isn’t a sales hit, there is definitely enough neat technology there that can be steered into a product that might one day be a hit. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to be real soon, however.

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Apple makes Swift Build available as open-source, posts developer files to GitHub
If you’re a Swift Playgrounds fan as well as an open-source aficionado, you’re going to like this. Over the weekend, Apple announced that the company is making Swift Build open-source. Swift Build functions as the engine used by both Xcode as well as Apple’s internal projects. Apple offered the following comment on Saturday: “As Swift […] Source

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Apple releases iPhone 11-specific iOS 18.3 build
If you have an iPhone 11 model, a specialized version of Apple’s iOS 18.3 was just released. The build, designated build number 22D64, was designed specifically for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max models, and is thought to work around a bug that was impacting iOS 18.3 on the iPhone […] Source

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Test your Mac’s performance using one of these benchmark and speed-test tools
Macworld Is your Mac’s performance not as good as it once was? Wondering if there might be a problem with your software or if one of the components has failed? Or perhaps it’s your web connection that’s bothering you, but you aren’t sure if it’s just that your broadband connection is really poor, or if there’s something else going on with your Mac. We share plenty of advice on how to update your Mac, and speed up a slow Mac, but how do you tell if there is really a problem with your Mac rather than you just being inpatient with it? One way to get an idea of how well your Mac is working is to run benchmarks and a set of performance tests on your MacBook or Mac desktop. Several benchmarking apps will help you find out how fast your Mac is, you can test your GPU and your CPU as well as your Wi-Fi internet speed and even ethernet speed. In this article we’ll run through the best Mac performance test apps, including some free options you can find online. If you are thinking of buying a new Mac, running benchmarks on your current machine and then comparing them to our benchmarks of the newer models we’ve reviewed will give you an idea of the kind of boost you can expect. (Check our Mac reviews section for the latest Mac benchmarks.) In this article, we’ll recommend the variety of (usually free) apps we use to evaluate a Mac’s performance (and more specifically, the performance of its components) in a range of scenarios. Carry on reading to find out how to benchmark the CPU, GPU, hard drive, and more, of your Mac desktop or laptop. How to run Mac speed tests Want to find out how fast your Mac is (and confirm your belief that it’s been slowing down)? You can run various tests to find out your processor speed, which would give you an insight into how powerful your Mac is. We also recommend checking the speed of your SSD–or hard drive, if you Mac is older. Before running any of the tests below, we recommend closing any apps on your Mac as they might affect how well the machine performs. Restarting to make sure that any RAM is freed up is also advisable. How to benchmark your Mac’s CPU To check your processor speed we recommend Geekbench from Primate Labs. Geekbench is free to use and you can get it on the Mac App Store here. You can also download it from Primate Labs website here.  Geekbench 6 (updated from Geekbench 5 in February 2023) is the most popular tool for gauging how powerful the latest processors are, and because it works for Macs and PCs, as well as iOS and Android you can get a good idea of how your processor compares to another. It is our go-to benchmark tool when reviewing the latest Macs, iPhones and iPads here at Macworld. Geekbench’s CPU test runs through various tests to stress the CPU and then calculates an overall score–the higher the better. Tests include file compression, rendering web pages and PDFs, running developer scripts, and doing machine-learning tasks like object detection and background blur. Running these tests could be useful if you think something is wrong with your Mac; you can compare the score to similar Macs and processors. You can view recent Geekbench scores for various Mac processors here. Foundry How to benchmark your CPU with Geekbench The main draw of Geekbench is that it’s incredibly easy to use and requires little technical knowledge. Here’s how to use it: Download the app from the Mac App Store here or Primate Labs website here.  We recommend that you restart your Mac before running the test. Close any other apps that are running on your Mac. Open Geekbench. You’ll see a Welcome to Geekbench message and a request to Upgrade or Enter License. You don’t need to do either of these things. Just click on Later. Click Run CPU benchmark. Foundry Geekbench will then measure the performance of your CPU when performing “everyday tasks designed to simulate real-world applications” and can take 10 minutes or more to complete, depending on the speed of your CPU. Once it’s done, the results will be displayed. You might initially be overwhelmed by all the information on offer, from the Processor ID to the Motherboard hardware, but the only two numbers you need to concentrate on are at the top: single-core score and multi-core score. The single-core score helps give a sense of how fast the Mac performs under certain situations when only a single processing core is handling everything. Many applications have their performance limited by a single main thread, so single-core CPU performance will determine how fast they run. Other applications are designed to be multi-threaded so that lots of processes can run at the same time. The multi-core results show you how well your Mac can perform when pushed to its absolute limits, as it’ll use multiple processing cores at once to handle the strain. Think of it as your Mac’s top-end performance. You can take these results and compare them to other benchmark tests on the Geekbench Browser, allowing you to see how your Mac compares to the latest generation of Macs, and even its competitors from other manufacturers. It should give you an idea of how well your computer is performing at the moment, and whether the upgrade you’re considering is worth it in terms of raw processing power. Foundry How to check your Mac’s disk speed One way we used to check how fast the storage inside our Mac was used to be to copy and paste a 4GB folder and then time how long it took to duplicate. That is no longer an effective measure because, since Apple introduced APFS (Apple File System) the folder is no longer duplicated, all you are really doing is creating an alias to the original file. Therefore the only way to really make a judgment about the speed of the storage inside your Mac is to use a tool such as the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test (free from the Mac App Store here), or the AJA System Test Lite (free from the Mac App Store here) to measure the read/write speeds of your hard drive or SSD. How to benchmark your SSD with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test The free Blackmagic Disk Speed Test was designed for video editors to help determine whether their hard drives can handle large files. If you’re not a video editor, don’t fret. the data is still very helpful to gauge performance. Download Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. We recommend that you restart your Mac before running the test. Open the app. For improved accuracy, and as with all other benchmark tests, it’s best to make sure that no other apps are running. Select your target drive if your Mac has more than one hard drive (this is done by clicking the gear cog) and click start to begin the benchmark. While there’s a bunch of data showcased in the Will it Work? and How Fast? charts, that’s mainly for video editors. The numbers you want to focus on are displayed in the big gauges at the top. The write speed is on the left and the read speed on the right, giving you an idea of how fast things will be written to the drive and how fast apps and files will load respectively. Blackmagic Disk Speed works by running a write test and the Write gauge will eventually stop with a result. Then, it will do the same with a Read test. Then, it starts the process over again with a test of a different file size and will continue to go back and forth between tests until you click the Stop button. You can record any results you see while the gauge is stopped. You’ll find that the results between test iterations are similar. How to check GPU performance on Mac Finally, let’s talk about graphical performance. For this, we usually opt for two main benchmark tools: Geekbench’s Compute tests and Maxon’s Cinebench. How to use Cinebench to benchmark your Mac’s GPU Cinebench 2024, which you can download here, is another free piece of software that, in addition to testing your Mac’s CPU (much like Geekbench without the ability to compare with other results online), will use an OpenGL and Metal test to benchmark your graphics card. Cinebench tests the CPU and/or GPU by creating a 3D engine with Maxon’s Redshift render engine. On M3 and later MAcs, Cinebench supports the GPU-accelerated Metal RT hardware ray tracing. After the tests have run you’ll see the frames per second (fps) result and a score, with the higher the result the better. You’ll see some of the best results following the test, but Maxon doesn’t have an easy-to-search database for different models like Geekbench does. Maxon To perform the test, install the app (It’s called Cinebench R24), open it, and click Start next to the GPU test in the top-left corner of the app. It’ll take you through the test, and your final result will be displayed next to the Start button. A test can take 10 minutes or longer. How to use Geekbench to benchmark your Mac’s GPU Geekbench doesn’t measure 3D graphics rendering performance like the Cinebench test above. Instead, it uses the GPU to handle computational tasks like edge detection on images, applying a gaussian blur to a 24-megapixel photo, or detecting faces in photos. That is how it measures GPU Compute tasks. For that reason we would suggest that if you want to measure 3D graphics performance you are better off using Cinebench (above). Geeknech Compute is a good general-purpose GPU benchmark. To measure the GPU using Geekbench download the app from the Mac App Store here or Primate Labs website here.  We recommend that you restart your Mac before running the test. Close any other apps that are running on your Mac. Open Geekbench. You’ll see a Welcome to Geekbench message and a request to Upgrade or Enter License. You don’t need to do either of these things. Just click on Later. Click on Compute in the sidebar on the left. Choose between OpenCL or Metal in the GPU API section. On a Mac, Metal is the most important score; on iPhones and iPads, the only supported API is Metal. Click Run GPU Benchmark. Having benchmarked your Mac you will have a better idea of whether it is performing as well as should be expected, or if there might be something wrong. Our first suggestion would be to update your software, but if your Mac is just suffering from old age and you decide to look for a new Mac, take a look at our Mac buying guide and be sure to check out the best prices for a new Mac in our various Mac deals round ups: Best Mac mini deals this month Best MacBook Air deals this month Best Mac Studio deals available now Best MacBook Pro deals this month Best iMac deals this month

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Burned through all the content on Apple TV? This documentary streamer is here to fill the void
Macworld Why does the ever-flowing content stream make us feel like we live in a desert? If you’ve watched everything on Max, Hulu, or whatever new streaming service popped up last week, MagellanTV is an established alternative to mindless binge-watching. And this week, a lifetime subscription is 30% off with code SAVE30. Not your average streaming service This award-winning documentary streamer offers thousands of hours of ad-free content across history, science, crime, nature, and more. Whether you’re looking for something more profound or need something interesting playing in the background, MagellanTV has you covered. Unlike traditional streaming services, MagellanTV offers a rich library of growing content that keeps you hooked. Explore shows like “Diving with Sharks”, “The Last Secrets of the Titanic”, and “JFK: Making of a President.” Or, dive into exclusive playlists like “Wild Weather,” “The Stay-at-Home Travel Guide,” and “Mysteries of the Universe,” Whether exploring ancient civilizations, unsolved crimes, or the wonders of the natural world, you’ll always find something new and fascinating. MagellanTV isn’t just for solo watching — stream across up to five devices and share your subscription with family and friends with no additional fees. Get your lifetime access to MagellanTV for just $139.97 (Reg. $199) and save 30% with code SAVE30 at checkout.   MagellanTV Documentary Streaming Service: Lifetime Subscription – $199.99 See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.

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Get six months of Apple Music for just under $3
Apple Music is running its "biggest offer ever," providing six months of subscription to new users for less than $3. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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How to create reminders in Calendar in iOS 18
A significant enhancement in the iOS 18 Calendar app is its integration with Reminders, allowing you to manage everything in one app. Here's how to get started.How to add reminders to the iOS 18 Calendar appManaging schedules and tasks can quickly become overwhelming when juggling apps. Apple's iOS 18 update addresses this issue by allowing you to create reminders directly within the Calendar app, streamlining the process and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.With this new feature, there's no need to constantly switch between apps to keep track of tasks. It's worth noting that this functionality isn't entirely new — similar integration has long been available when using third-party apps like Fantastical. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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WhatsApp will soon let users schedule events right from private chats
WhatsApp currently offers a feature that helps users plan events from group chats. Soon, this feature will be expanded to private chats as well, giving WhatsApp users more flexibility to create and manage their appointments. more…

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AltStore brings first porn app to iPhones in the EU, Apple doesn't 'approve'
The first native porn app for iPhone called "Hot Tub" may have passed notarization checks, but Apple wants everyone to know it certainly doesn't "approve" of such dangerous things on its devices.Hot Tub arrives on AltStoreApple's App Store Review Guidelines have almost always explicitly stated that apps featuring "overtly sexual or pornographic material" are not allowed, period. However, alternate app stores in the EU can publish anything that passes a notarization check, and that's happened with the first-ever native porn app for iPhone.When AltStore promoted the app, named Hot Tub, it used the phrase "the first Apple-approved porn app" in marketing. Apple was quick to deny that it "approved" of the app, and released a statement to MacRumors. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Last call: pick up Apple's M4 Pro Mac mini for $1,279
Time is running out to pick up Apple's M4 Pro Mac mini at the discounted price of $1,279.Get exclusive pricing on Apple's M4 Pro Mac mini.This Mac mini is a top seller due to its blend of affordability with the performance of the M4 Pro chip. Featuring a 12-core CPU and 16-core GPU, this retail model also has 24GB of unified memory and 512GB of storage. Normally $1,399, B&H is knocking $120 off the upgraded configuration (MCX44LL/A) exclusively for AppleInsider readers.Get the exclusive deal Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Judge Denies Apple's Attempt To Intervene In Google Search Antitrust Trial
A US District Court judge denied Apple's emergency request to halt the Google Search monopoly trial, ruling that Apple failed to show sufficient grounds for a stay. The Verge reports: Apple said last week that it needs to be involved in the Google trial because it does not want to lose "the ability to defend its right to reach other arrangements with Google that could benefit millions of users and Apple's entitlement to compensation for distributing Google search to its users." The remedies phase of the trial is set for April, and lawyers for the Department of Justice have argued that Google should be forced to sell Chrome, with a possibility of spinning off Android if necessary. While Google will still appeal the decision, the company's proposed remedies focus on undoing its licensing deals that bundle apps and services together. "Because Apple has not satisfied the 'stringent requirements' for obtaining the 'extraordinary relief' of a stay pending appeal, its motion is denied," states Judge Mehta's order. Mehta explains that Apple "has not established a likelihood of success on the merits" for the stay. That includes a lack of clear evidence on how Apple will suffer "certain and great" harm. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Apple stops signing iOS 18.2.1, blocking downgrade from iOS 18.3
A week after releasing iOS 18.3 to the public, Apple has now stopped signing iOS 18.2.1. For users, this means that they can no longer downgrade to this version of the operating system if their iPhone or iPad is already running a newer version. more…

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Apple explains how to stop your MacBook from booting up every time you open it
Ever wish your MacBook wouldn’t boot up every time you open the lid or connect to power? Apple has published an official support document detailing how to disable the feature. more…

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Court denies Apple’s request to be involved in Google Search antitrust case
Apple isn’t the only big tech facing antitrust investigations as Google has also come under scrutiny for its dominant position in the market. Even the deal between Google and Apple over Safari’s default search engine was considered a violation of antitrust laws, and a court has now ruled that Apple cannot intervene in the case. more…

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9to5Mac Daily: February 3, 2025 – AAPL earnings, AR projects
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. Sponsored by CardPointers: The best way to maximize your credit card rewards. 9to5Mac Daily listeners can exclusively save 30% and get a $100 Savings Card.  more…

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Run out of space? Free up your iPhone storage with these tips
Macworld Storage shortage is a reality for many iPhone owners: whether the culprit is apps, music, Messages or (most commonly) photos and videos, most of us have run out of space at a key moment. Perhaps just as you are trying to update the operating system, or as you were trying to install a hot new app. Unfortunately, you can’t upgrade an iPhone’s internal storage. But all is not lost. We have a few tips for managing and optimizing the storage available on your iPhone, getting the most out of every last gigabyte and freeing up space for new apps and photos. As an aside, please note that even though you can’t upgrade the internal storage, you can supplement an iPhone’s capacity with external storage accessories and you can use iCloud storage to extend your capacity to 2TB and beyond. PROMOTIONEaseUS MobiMover | Transfer iPhone data and free up space EaseUS MobiMover is a free iPhone transfer software to figure out what’s taking up the most space on your iPhone/iPad, backup and move iPhone data to a computer or new iPhone/iPad, clear the clutters to solve iPhone storage running low problems and get a less overloaded, more organized iPhone/iPad. Now 25% OFF Exclusive Code: MACWORLD25 MOBIMOVER FOR MACMobiMover for Windows 1. Find out what is taking up space and delete the biggest culprits Foundry The first thing to do is find out what is taking up the space on your iPhone. Luckily there is a simple way to do this. Open Settings. Go to General. Tap on iPhone Storage. This will take you to a screen where you can see what is taking up the space on your iPhone. You’ll need to be patient while it calculates how much storage is being used and by what. Eventually, you will see a bar chart divided up into Photos, Apps, Messages, iOS, System Data, and other types of files. System Data (which used to be called Other in older versions of iOS) can often run to tens of GB of storage, leaving many to wonder how to delete Other or System Data on an iPhone. Scroll down to see which of your apps are taking up the most space. In images above you can see Photos is using more than 49GB, Messages nearly 20GB. There are ways to manage these apps and how much they store that we will discuss below. If you scroll through the various apps taking up space (they are sorted so that the largest are at the top) you will be able to quickly locate the ones that are worth removing. The figures include any media stored in the app, so expect your Photos, Music, and Messaging apps to be near the top. This view also shows when you last used an app, so you can confidently delete an app you probably won’t use any time soon. Don’t worry, once you’ve bought something it’s tied to your Apple ID so Apple knows you own it and you’ll be able to download it again. Scroll through the list and be ruthless. If an app you rarely use is taking up 300MB of space then delete it. You can always download it again for free if you want to. Find an app you want to delete. Swipe from right to left on it. Choose Delete App. Alternatively, you could choose Offload App, which will delete the app but keep any documents and data so that if you download it again you can access the data you had in it. There’s another way to delete apps that we will discuss next. Once an app has been deleted you will see it in this list with a download icon beside it, so this is a good place to go if you ever want to re-download something. 2. Delete apps from the Home screen Foundry There is another way to delete apps that might be slightly quicker if you just want to free up some space in a hurry. You can delete an app from the Home screen, including the App Library. How this works depends on the version of iOS you are using. In the most recent iOS versions, press and hold on an icon until the menu comes up. Then tap Remove App. You’ll then see a window pop up to confirm you want to delete the app. Choose Delete App to remove it from your iPhone. On older versions of iOS you could tap and hold on its icon and wait for it (and the other icons too) to start jiggling about – this means you’re in Edit Mode. Then tap on the X in the left corner to delete the app. You can still hold your finger down until you’re in Edit model and tap the (-) in the corner of the app icon to delete it, if you wish. There is more advice about deleting apps here: How to delete apps on iPhone & iPad. 3. Work through Apple’s recommendations Foundry When you’re in Settings > General > iPhone Storage, you’ll see some recommendations for optimizing your storage. You will probably see two, as well as an option to Show All so you can see more recommendations. The reason why we didn’t start with this is that, although a great way to manage storage in the future, it’s not the quickest way to recover a bit of storage in a hurry. However, it will stand you in good stead if you take Apple’s advice and put the various storage management suggestions into play. One option you will see here (if you haven’t already set it up) is to use iCloud Photo Library. This will store your photos and videos in the cloud. iCloud Photo Library is a great solution if you want to have access to all your photos on all your devices, just make sure that Apple stores optimized versions of the photos on your device, rather than full res versions. Another option is to Auto Delete Old Conversations from the Messages app. We haven’t done this primarily because we don’t want to lose access to old messages from people long gone, but it’s a great way to reduce the amount of storage given to messages. Because of the images and videos stored in Messages, this can often free up several gigabytes. In a similar vein, the Review Large Attachments allows you to delete photos, videos and other media shared in attachments. So if you have a habit of sharing images via Messages expect to find lots of photos or videos here which you can delete if you know you have them in your Photos app. You could also choose to Review Downloaded Videos. If it’s an option for you tap on the arrow beside it and delete any downloads you see here that you don’t need to keep. Tap Edit > Tap the red circle beside the program you want to delete > Tap Delete. You may also see the to Offload Unused Apps. Here Apple volunteers to automatically offload apps that are rarely used when you start to run out of storage. ‘Offloading’ deletes the app itself, which is easy to replace by redownloading. But it keeps the documents and data, which are likely to be irreplaceable. You can also find the option to Offload Unused Apps under Settings > App Store. Make sure that Automatic app downloads is not selected here, so that apps don’e automatically download when you add them to other devices. iOS will tell you how much storage you stand to gain from enabling these suggestions. 4. Delete app data and cache Foundry Apple offers to remove the app while preserving the data, but perhaps it’s the data you want to delete. Maybe you have old videos and books you no longer plan to watch taking up space in an app you still want to use. Some apps will have a lot of data associated with them that you could delete without having to remove the app itself. To look deeper into the storage being taken up by apps, return to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and click on the arrow beside one of the apps listed there. This way you can see how much data is used by the app itself, and how much additional space is being used by documents and data. Video apps tend to be a big culprit here, but the Review Downloaded Videos above should have solved that for you. Another place to look is your video editing apps, and book reading apps like Kindle and Books. To delete the data you will need to go to the app itself. We’ll walk through how to delete data from a number of apps below, including Books, Notes, and Messages. Other places to look include: Google Maps: Tap your profile and select “Offline Maps” to see if there’s any map data you don’t need to store locally. Prime Video/Netflix/Disney+ etc: Open the app and view your downloads. You should be able to select the ones you wish to delete. Another way to free up space is to clear your browser cache. To delete Safari cache follow these steps: Open Settings. Scroll down and click on Safari. Click on Clear History and Website Data. If you use Chrome you have to remove the cache from inside Chrome. In that case, follow these steps: Open Chrome. Tap on Options. Tap Settings. Tap Privacy. Now tap on Clear Browser Data. Select what you want to delete. Tap Clear Browsing Data. 5. Delete text messages Foundry As we mentioned above, you could choose to auto-delete conversations from the Messages app, which would free up a lot of space. But you might not want to do that if you have messages you want to keep for sentimental reasons. You can still delete, en masse, a lot of the Messages on your phone while keeping the ones you don’t want to lose. Swipe from right to left on any message that you want to delete. Choose Delete. A better way to filter out messages that are safe to delete and then mass delete them is to filter your messages by Unknown Senders. Tap Filters in the upper left of the main Messages screen. Tap on Unknown Senders. Once in the Unknown Senders view tap on the three dots at the top. Choose Select Messages. Tap on Select all. Double-check that you aren’t deleting anything you might need. Deselect those messages. Tap Delete. If you don’t have any reason to keep messages you have two choices. You can delete messages over a year old or you can delete messages that are just 30 days old. To do this follow these steps: Open Settings. Scroll to Messages and tap. Scroll to Message History and tap on Keep Messages. Now choose between 30 days, 1 Year, and Forever. 6. Delete photos you don’t need Foundry If your photos are taking up a considerable amount of space on your iPhone you might want to consider deleting a few of the ones that you have no desire to keep. Perhaps, like us, you often take screenshots of train times when you are commuting. If you want to delete screenshots from your phone you can do so really easily by opening the Photos app and, under Media Types, look for Screenshots. In there, you can find the screenshots you no longer want to keep and delete them. Or you take a ton of photos just to get the perfect shot. There is no need to keep these shots. We try to get into the habit of deleting these extra shots close to the time we take them, or at least favoriting one of the collections so we can easily go back and delete lots at a later date. (If you’re not in this sensible habit, a free app may be able to help. See How to delete duplicate photos on iPhone.) We’ve tried a free option called Remo Duplicate Photos Remover, but there are plenty more you can try such as the paid-for Duplicate Photos Fixer. In the Utilities category there is a Duplicates folder. If you select it, you can see all your identical photos and choose which to merge into a single photo. Similarly, if you’ve been using Burst Mode you may have hundreds of near-identical images you really don’t need taking up space on your iPhone. To remove extra shots from Burst Mode find the Bursts folder under Media Types, and remove all the unwanted images. 7. Delete images from Messages Foundry Another way to save a ton of space on your iPhone is to delete images that have been shared via Messages. Again you might have images here you want to keep for sentimental reasons, so beware. This is a good option if you don’t want to mass delete a lot of images, as you can free up space by just deleting the space-hogging images or videos associated with iMessages. Open a conversation. Tap and hold an image within the thread. You’ll see a menu below the image. Tap More, and you’ll see little circles next to each message and image. (The one you tapped and held will have this pre-ticked.) You can now select as many images (or other files) as you wish, then tap the bin icon at the bottom left to delete them. If there are likely to be a few images you want to delete you might want to go straight to the images library associated with that message. To do this follow these steps: Click on the name or group at the top of the message. Now scroll down the page to the Photos section. Tap on See All. Now tap Select. You can tap on any images you want to delete now. Once they are deleted tap on Delete. You can also show just Screenshots, which might help you filter out the things you are most likely to want to delete. Unfortunately, you can’t select all here though. 8. Beware of iCloud Photos Foundry Signing up for iCloud Photos can save you a lot of space if you have gigabytes and gigabytes of photos, reducing the space they take up on your iPhone to something much less greedy, so it’s definitely worth turning this one on. However, a lot of people have a misunderstanding of what iCloud Photos will do for them. It’s a useful service that lets you automatically upload and store your entire photo library in iCloud so you can access photos and videos on all your devices. iCloud Photo is not a way to back up the images on your iPhone so you can delete them from your iPhone. If you were looking for a way to back up your photos so you could delete them iCloud Photos is not it. You cannot delete the images from your iPhone once they are in iCloud because deleting any image will delete it from all your devices. We have a separate article on backing up your Apple photo library and we recommend you read that for tips if that’s what you want to do. We also explain How to move photos to iCloud to save space on an iPhone in another article. If you do use iCloud Photos you also need to make sure you choose Optimize iPhone Storage to ensure that if you lack space your iPhone will only keep small versions of images on the device, thereby saving space. Alternatively, you could select Download and Keep Originals, but that would take a lot of space up! 9. The movie rental trick Foundry This tip can create space on your iPhone (from 1/2MB to over 1GB sometimes) using magic. Not really, but we’re not quite sure how it’s done, only that it works if your iPhone is almost at maximum capacity. And no, your iPhone doesn’t need to be jailbroken, nor does it void the warranty. Before we begin, head to Settings > General > About and make a note of how much storage you have. Then, head to the TV app and find a large title – we recommend The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers at a whopping 6.83GB. Once you’ve found a suitable movie, tap the Rent button twice (don’t worry, you won’t actually end up renting it) and dismiss the popup informing you that there’s not enough space to download the movie. Now, head back to the About section of the Settings menu and take a look at your available storage. If all has gone well, you should see a difference of a few hundred megabytes, possibly more. While it won’t work for everybody, users on Reddit report that following the steps several times allowed them to keep freeing up more storage. We’re not quite sure what Apple is deleting when it does this, as it’s not apps, photos or other important data. We assume it’ll be clearing out caches and other areas that make up the “Other” section on your iOS storage breakdown. 10. Sign up for iTunes Match or Apple Music Foundry You don’t have to store every Music track you could ever possibly need to listen to on your iPhone. If you sign up for iTunes Match (for $24.99/£21.99 a year) or Apple Music ($10.99/£10.99 a month) and you will then have every track you own available to you via the cloud. Therefore you can delete your music from your iPhone knowing that every song you may wish to listen to is but a download away. Here’s how to sign up for iTunes Match and here’s our guide to Apple Music. Once you have signed up for either of these Apple’s services, all your music on all your Apple devices will be uploaded to iCloud (even tracks you have imported from CD). This means you can download any track you fancy listening to on your iPhone whenever the mood takes you. You can download a track or a whole album, or a whole playlist. Just click on the iCloud download icon beside the title. If you then want to delete the track from your iPhone, just swipe left on it, to delete. It will still be available to download from iCloud another time. 11. Remove Books you’re not reading Foundry Have you got any iBooks downloaded on your iPhone? Do you need them to be there? If you delete them they will still be available in iCloud to download again, so why not save yourself a few MB by removing the novel you’re reading on your iPad from your iPhone. Our Books app is 35.5MB, but carries 1.65GB of data. Using the Books example, to delete the data you need to open the Books app. Open Books. Go to Library. Tap on Edit. Look through the books on your device – any that aren’t currently stored on the iPhone will have a cloud logo beside them. Now tap on any book you wish to remove from your device. Then tap on the Trash in the bottom left to delete it. Tap on Remove Downloads to remove it from your device. You can choose to Delete This Copy, rather than delete it from all your devices. Also, check Settings > Books and make sure you deselect Automatic Downloads so that when you buy a book on another device it doesn’t automatically download to your iPhone too. 12. Record video at a lower resolution Foundry Newer iPhones offer you the option to reduce the quality of the videos you record. As the screenshot shows, a minute of video can take up 400MB of space on your iPhone if you record it at 4K, so you probably won’t want to be doing that. The iPhone should default to 1080p HD at 60 fps, but you could economize further by recording at 720p HD and 30fps: just 40MB for a minute, rather than 90MB. You can change the settings in Settings > Camera > Record Video. 13. Check your other photo-editing apps Foundry There are photo-editing features in Photos, but you may use separate apps for photo editing. Those apps could have some old images lurking within that you could delete. Check apps like Instagram, Snapchat and the like for images stored in the app itself. 14. Spring-clean your Notes Foundry If you use your iPhone’s Notes app fairly heavily you may be wondering how much space you could save by deleting old notes. To see how much storage the app is taking up, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, then find and tap on the entry for Notes. This will show separate entries for the app itself (a paltry 12MB) and the documents and data it holds (a slightly less paltry 64.2MB, in our case). To be honest, this still isn’t a massive number, and it’s unlikely to make a huge difference. We deleted a fair few notes and didn’t notice any change at all in our phone memory; it doesn’t strike us as worth the effort. But if you’re desperate (and prepared to be drastic), or if you use Notes to store attachments and other media, then it may make a crucial difference. 15. Optimize storage using a third-party app Foundry If the free tips above aren’t for you, there are myriad third-party apps available that’ll make the process simpler and quicker. Here one of our top suggestions: iMyFone Umate This is an app for Mac and Windows that can free up a huge amount of space on your iPhone. Plug in your iPhone and run a scan. The app will tell you how much free space you could potentially gain by clearing out temporary and junk files, backing up photos, and deleting large files, then showcases your app collection for rapid (but selective) deletion. Interestingly, the app offers the ability to compress your photos instead of completely deleting them. It backs the original photos up to your Mac or PC, then will compress your entire library to free up extra space (up to 75 percent, according to the company). You can grab a trial of iMyFone Umate for free, or you can pay $19.95 (around £15) for the full app.

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