Apple refreshes MacBook Pro lineup with M4 chips, introduces the M4 Max
More memory and better display support make the $1,599 Pro more appealing.

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Apple’s M4 Mac mini sports all-new thermal design for maximum performance
Apple has unveiled a significantly redesigned Mac mini, featuring a compact form factor that's over two inches smaller than its… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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iPhone 16 struggles to catch fire while Pro models hold strong
Apple's iPhone 16 launch is off to a slow start, with early sales suggesting that buyers might be more interested in 2023's models than the latest upgrades.iPhone 15 and iPhone 16According to early data, the iPhone 16 models, released in September 2024, appear to be off to a slower start compared to last year's iPhone 15 lineup. Unlike recent years, the 2024 release aligns closely with Apple's typical pre-pandemic launch schedule, providing a comparable look at year-over-year performance.Reports, including one from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), reveal that the iPhone 16's initial sales haven't matched the swift uptake of the iPhone 15 lineup from the same period in 2023. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Mac mini smackdown: M4 vs. M2 vs. M1
The M4 Mac mini sports an all-new design and faster internals. But do these changes make it a worthy upgrade over the M2 or M1 Mac mini? (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Collect 'em all in Pokemon TCG Pocket, now available for iPad, iPhone
A brand new Pokemon Trading Card Game has made its way to iOS, allowing players to collect their favorite cards in a fun, new way.Image Credit: The Pokemon CompanyOn Wednesday, the Pokemon Company announced the release of Pokemon TCG Pocket, a digital trading card game available for mobile devices.According to the App Store page, the game will give players the chance to open two booster packs every day at no cost. Additional packs can purchased with in-game currency. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Proton VPN comes to Apple TV to help expand your streaming library
With the release of tvOS 17 last year, Apple added native support for VPNs to Apple TV. In the intervening months, we’ve seen a handful of popular VPN services come to the Apple TV. Now, Proton VPN is getting in on the fun and has officially launched its first Apple TV app. Proton VPN is also now available on Apple Vision Pro. more…

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Stuffed penguin rocks to Edifier powered speakers [Setups]
There's nothing like an affordable but well-made set of Edifier powered speakers when you want to rock your MacBook Air setup. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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M4 Pro Mac mini vs M1 Max Mac Studio compared: Smaller and better
The original Mac Studio still offers a lot of performance, but a comparatively-priced M4 Pro Mac mini offers a better deal. Here's what $1,200 could get you in either Mac flavor.M4 Pro Mac mini [left], M1 Max Mac Studio [right]Introduced in March 2022, the Mac Studio promised high performance in a compact casing. Effectively a Mac mini on steroids, the Mac Studio aimed high with its performance, while still sticking to the concept of a small block of computing power.The Apple Silicon chip generations have flown by, with the newest Mac models sporting an M4 chip. This may be a three-generation difference, but the original Mac Studio is still showing its worth to consumers. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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New Pokémon TCG app now available for iPhone
Nintendo has just launched a new Pokémon TCG Pocket app for iPhone. The app brings the experience of collecting and playing with Pokémon cards into the digital realm. Here’s what it can do. more…

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Today in Apple history: iPhone goes on sale in China for first time
On October 30, 2009, the iPhone finally launched in China, giving Apple access to world's largest market for the first time. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Today in Apple history: iPhone goes on sale in China for first time
On October 30, 2009, the iPhone finally launched in China, giving Apple access to world's largest market for the first time. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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How to make almost anything Bluetooth-compatible
The tiny and affordable BlueSnap Bluetooth adapter can transform nearly any device into a wireless-ready one. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Apple TV+ hosts world premiere for ‘Silo’ season two
Tuesday night in London, Apple TV+ celebrated the world premiere of the highly anticipated second season of “Silo,” the hit, world… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple products show lower outage risk and strong security appeal in Kandji survey
A new survey from Kandji highlights Apple’s rapid growth in enterprise settings and its reputation for strong security. The “Apple in the Enterprise” survey gives insights from over 300 IT professionals responsible for Apple device management at large organizations worldwide. Here’s a closer look at the findings and what they reveal about Apple’s role in modern business. more…

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HDR photos from Android and iPhone will now work better across platforms
Apple and Google have adopted the ISO 21496-1 standard for properly encoding and decoding gain map metadata of HDR photos. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Here we go again – Apple again rumored to buy Intel
Apple left Intel behind four years ago now, but a resurrected rumor says Apple is thinking about buying the long-running chipmaker. It's absolute nonsense, but if it ever happened, it would make a curious end to the Wintel story.It's not exactly likely, but there are solid reasons why Apple could now buy IntelApple did buy Intel's entire modem division back in 2019, but this rumor says it would just acquire the whole firm. The same rumor does say that perhaps Samsung would be more likely, and there are even others, but it's Apple who would be most interesting. Not to mention the most funny.For back in the day, Windows and Intel were this dominant partnership. They were so strong that the PC was regularly referred to as Wintel, and it was Wintel machines that kept the Mac struggling to even be a niche player. Rumor Score: 💩 B#$&(*it Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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The truth behind Apple’s most unpopular decisions: It’s not about you
Macworld Twelve years ago, my former Macworld colleague Lex Friedman and I were at an Apple-focused conference where we presented a talk called “Apple is Huge Now (And That Sucks For You).” The long and short of it was that the Apple of 2012 was not the same Apple of the 1980s, 1990s, or even the 2000s—now Apple was a giant company that could less afford time worrying about you as an individual. A decade-plus on, it’s hard to believe that Apple has gotten even bigger and that, fundamentally, each and every one of us matter that much less to it, but it’s unarguably true. Simply put, it’s a matter of scale—the company simply can’t afford to spend the same amount of time worrying about its customers that it could have 20 years ago because there are just that many more of them. In its role as one of the largest purveyors of technology in the world, Apple has no choice but to adopt a perspective of scale. This comes into play in all sorts of decisions the company makes, from the biggest of the big to the smallest of the small. Input-output Let’s take, for example, the matter of hardware changes—even those that may seem inconsequential. Apple this week released new versions of its input peripherals for Mac: the Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad. These new revisions were virtually identical to the old models, with the exception of swapping the Lightning port on the earlier versions for a USB-C port. That was a change long anticipated by most Apple watchers, for no other reason than the Lightning port has already been phased out on most of the company’s other devices. (Those that remain are older products still on sale, such as the iPhone 14, and those likely to be replaced in the near future, like the iPhone SE.) Apple updated its Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard with USB-C, but it didn’t take the opportunity to do anything else with them.Foundry But the big question on the minds of many is: Why is that the only thing that changed? It’s not as if these products were perfect. The Magic Mouse has long been derided for its inefficient charging port on the bottom; the Magic Keyboard has retained its strange arrow key layout, in defiance of the rest of Apple’s keyboards adopting the classic “inverted T” design. Why were neither of those “problems” fixed? While John Gruber gave a strident defense of the Magic Mouse that rings largely true, I think you can’t ignore the impact of scale. These devices are among the most niche of Apple’s products. Not only are they accessories primarily (though not exclusively) used with the Mac, a product line that routinely accounts for a single-digit percent of the company’s overall revenue, but they are also (again predominantly) aimed at customers of desktops, which are themselves the minority of Macs sold. Moreover, I’d hazard a guess that a high percentage of the peripherals Apple ships are those included with a computer, such as an iMac, rather than bought separately. Making changes to any of these devices would have required redesign and re-engineering efforts; changes that, to those of us on the outside, might seem minor, but when stacked up against the number of these devices actually sold simply may not pencil out: How much does it cost to make changes to the existing manufacturing process, how much does it cost to test these products to make sure they work correctly, and how many of these peripherals does Apple have to sell to pay for that upfront cost? In addition to all of that, there’s another cost that has to be considered: the cost of what you’re not doing. Cost-portunity In the last several years, Apple has taken a few different stabs at adding additional models to its iPhone line-up. That came first in the flavor of the iPhone 12/13 mini, followed by the iPhone 14/15/16 Plus. If rumors are to be believed, the Plus model may follow the mini into the darkness next year, while a new, slimmer iPhone 17 takes up a spot at the top of the lineup. I know more than a few folks who bemoan Apple’s abandoning of the mini form factor. It’s clear that the products were not blockbuster sellers—had they been, there’s no doubt that Apple would have continued to produce more. But I’ve also heard the argument that those sales shouldn’t be the be-all, end-all. To wit: “If Apple can keep around the iPad mini and the Mac mini, despite what are surely lower sales, why not the iPhone mini?” The iPhone mini has a devoted following but that wasn’t not enough to persuade Apple to keep it.Foundry The simple answer? Opportunity cost. The iPhone is Apple’s most valuable product line by far. It accounts for half the company’s revenue. Apple sells tens of millions every quarter. Neither the Mac nor the iPad lines come even close. The problem is that the iPhone mini didn’t exist in a vacuum. The name of the game is growth, and if the mini isn’t picking up more sales for the company, then it’s costing too much money. Apple can only make so many iPhones total; it doesn’t have the luxury of spending the time and effort investing in a product that doesn’t sell as well—especially when it could be making a different type of iPhone that might sell better. There is a cost to keeping around an underperforming product, especially in your best-selling product line: components, assembly, marketing, and so on all still have to be devoted to that product, even if it’s not keeping up its end. That’s why Apple shifted gears to the Plus phone: to see if it could succeed where the mini couldn’t, in sales. And if it too fails, as those rumors suggest, it will be next on the chopping block. Scale every mountain All too often, Apple’s decisions can feel personal. Believe me: I was all set to buy a new Magic Keyboard, but the lack of that inverted-T arrow key layout made me hesitate. Why would Apple do this to me? The problem is that ultimately, with the number of customers Apple has, each and every one of us is—at some time or another—an edge case. An exception to the rule. Ultimately, everything Apple does these days has to be viewed from a position of scale. Given the size of the company, the number of products it’s building, and its global reach, small decisions can quickly become big ones. A battleship turns slowly, as the old saying goes, and that means it’s even more critical for the person steering to be confident that they’re making the right turn—and that doesn’t always mean that each and every one of us gets to go along for the ride.

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The Mac mini finally lives up to its name
Macworld Apple’s Week of Press Releases continues, with Monday’s announcement of a new M4 iMac followed by Tuesday’s new M4 Mac mini. This caught the Macworld team slightly off guard because we thought the company would go to the M4 MacBook Pro first, and leave the mini for last. Why? Because this year’s mini got a major redesign, and Apple usually likes to finish on a high note. Maybe the schedule got rearranged at the last minute after that unfortunate Amazon leak. Redesigns are important. Not just because they enable customers to show off that they’ve got the latest model–although you can be sure that Apple knows the value of that–and not just because of cosmetic niceties. (If we cared about those we’d be complaining about the lack of a Space Black color finish… which we’re totally not mad about, honest.) The 2024 Mac mini certainly looks good, but design is about much more than just aesthetics; in this case, the benefits of the redesign are functional, with the device finally cashing the check written by that brand name all those years ago. It’s actually a mini Mac in a true and pragmatic sense. The M2Mac mini was small, but the M4 Mac mini is downright tiny.Apple The Mac mini started out at 6.5-inch square, which was impressively petite by the standards of 2005. But as computers have grown smaller, the mini hasn’t. In fact its desktop footprint has actually gotten bigger, with a bump to 7.7 inches in 2010. (For visualization purposes, in case you don’t own one, the 2022 mini’s footprint is roughly the same as four Apple TV 4K units arranged in a square. Which might not be a totally fair comparison, but the point is that it’s not exactly unobtrusive.) The depth decreased, admittedly, but I’m yet to be convinced that this matters as much. And the weight has remained largely constant. It became more of a Mac skinny than a Mac mini. Why does this matter? Because the Mac mini’s entire raison d’être is to be small. Its purpose is to take up as little space as possible on a modern minimalist desktop, to be carried easily from room to room, to slip easily into a remote worker’s rucksack as they shuttle between home and office. Having a small footprint is its whole thing, baby. The tech upgrades for the M4 Mac mini are definitely nice. I like the two-generation processor bump and the increase in CPU and GPU cores; I like the switch from rear USB-A ports to front-facing USB-C ports; I like having the option to get up to 64GB of RAM and support three displays even if I don’t go for the Pro model. These are all valid and pleasing upgrades. But let’s be honest here: we don’t love the Mac mini for its specs but for its form factor. The 2024 mini is a tidy 5-inch square and has dropped in weight by more than a pound, making it a real marvel of Apple engineering. It looks like a tiny Mac Studio and in photos, it’s almost too small to believe. It’s not just significantly smaller than its predecessor—as Apple said in its announcement video, it’s 1/20th the size of the top-selling PC desktop in its price range and more than six times faster. The Mac mini has always been deceptively powerful, but it hasn’t quite lived up to its descriptive surname. Until now. With the 2024 redesign, the Mac mini’s form factor is finally delivering the goods.

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Tap to Pay on iPhone expands to five additional European countries
If you’re traveling and eager to use Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone feature for shopping, it just expanded to five new countries across Europe. As mentioned before, Tap to Pay on iPhone is a feature where businesses can use an iPhone as a contactless terminal to accept payments. The customer simply holds their contactless […] Source

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Apple announces M4, M4 Pro-based Mac mini desktop
If you were hoping for the next-gen Mac mini, it’s been announced and features rather nifty M4 chips. Apple on Tuesday announced its fully redesigned Mac mini models, the desktops offering the M4 and M4 Pro chips in a considerably smaller casing, two front-facing USB-C ports, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, and more. The refresh marks the […] Source

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