Apple a big child smartphone safety proponent, while spending millions to lobby against mandates
Apple may be adding new ways to combat smartphone addiction, but it's also spending millions on lobbying regulators to limit what it's required to do with the iPhone and App Store.Apple Mall of LouisianaAccording to the Wall Street Journal, multiple states are looking to regulate teen smartphone use, and can all expect pressure from Apple. Detailing one effort in Louisiana earlier in 2024, the publication says Apple hired four additional lobbyists and who began contacting legislator Kim Carver."I'd describe them as panicked," Carver said. "[Apple's outreach was] all day, every day. At that point, I was like, 'OK, we're done talking.'" Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Will the M4 Mac mini finally have the courage to dump its USB-A ports?
Macworld In early August, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the upcoming M4 Mac mini will have a new, smaller design and stated that it’ll have at least three USB-C ports, a power connector, and an HDMI port. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman offered more details on the M4 Mac mini’s ports and a big change is in store. Gurman reports that the new M4 Mac mini will have five USB-C ports, three on the back, and for the first time, two on the front. However, most people will be more interested in why: According to Gurman, there will be no USB-A ports, a change from the current Mac mini, which has two. So, if you have USB-A devices, you need adapters. Of course, this isn’t the first time Apple dumped a popular port in the name of thinness and progress. Back in 1998, the iMac famously removed the floppy drive in favor of CD burning. The 2015 MacBook Air had a single USB-C port. And of course, Apple removed the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 back in 2017. Apple removed the USB-A ports from the iMac when the M1 model arrived in 2021, and it hasn’t made a laptop with USB-A for many years. Elsewhere, the Mac mini will have a similar array of ports, including ethernet and HDMI. Gurman doesn’t say if it’s gigabit or 10Gbit. The current Mac mini has a gigabit ethernet with a user option for 10Gbit for an extra $100, and it’s an option Apple could continue. Apple will likely continue to offer 10Gbit ethernet as a standard port for its high-end Macs, the Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Gurman also didn’t specify whether the HDMI port will be an HDMI 2.1 port. The current M2 Mac mini has HDMI 2.1, which was an upgrade from HDMI 2.0 in the M1 Mac mini, so, it seems likely that the M4 Mac mini will have HDMI 2.1. The only other port Gurman mentioned is the headphone jack, which is likely to stick around for another generation. With the M2 Mac mini, Apple implemented support for high-impedance headphones and that should continue with the M4 Mac mini. The M4 Mac mini will reportedly remove the USB-A ports. The M4 Mac mini will reportedly remove the USB-A ports.Foundry The M4 Mac mini will reportedly remove the USB-A ports.Foundry Foundry Gurman did not cover the wireless connectivity, but the Mac mini will probably offer Bluetooth 5.3. Rumors have it that the upcoming iPhone 16 may support the new Wi-Fi 7 standard, and if it does, that seems to be a good indicator that the M4 Macs will upgrade from the current Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) as well. As always, the Mac mini will have a power plug, but the power supply will be in the Mac itself. It will not have an external power brick. When will the M4 Mac mini ship? According to Gurman, the M4 Mac mini may arrive in Apple warehouses in early September, while the M4 Pro Mac mini won’t ship until October. “That probably means neither will be announced until about a month after the iPhone unveiling,” Gurman said, indicating an October Mac event. In an earlier report, Gurman said that Apple plans to release the M4 Mac mini, MacBook Pro, and iMac before the end of this year. The MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro will follow in 2025. You can learn more about the M4 Mac schedule. Keep track of what’s happening with the Mac mini in our M4 Mac mini superguide.

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Will the iPhone 16 be upstaged at its own event?
Macworld Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too. There must be more to life than this There’s exactly one week to go until the biggest event of Apple’s year, and the hype is almost unbearable. Most of that hype, inevitably, is directed at the iPhone 16, which is understandable because the iPhone makes more money than most companies’ entire product ranges. But will the new model actually live up to the billing? That’s debatable. It’s been a while since we got a truly exciting new iPhone. (I pondered this question in an Apple Breakfast column in 2023, and settled on the iPhone X as the last model people at the time agreed was a big deal.) And at this stage in the product’s evolution, it’s getting increasingly unlikely that we’ll see one again. Most of the critical developments were made in the first three generations (3G, the App Store, copy and paste and other interface basics), and Apple’s designers and engineers spent the next decade or so steadily stripping the tree bare of higher-hanging fruit. There simply isn’t much left to change about the iPhone, other than updating the processor vastly beyond the needs of current mobile apps and improving the camera vastly beyond the needs of real-world photography. The iPhone 16 will get more RAM, Apple Intelligence, and a bunch of new colors, but there probably won’t be much else to write home about. Fortunately, however, the Glowtime event isn’t just about showing us a new iPhone. And Apple has plenty of other announcements up its sleeve to make this an entertaining and informative presentation. The Apple Watch, for example, is used to sitting in the shadow of its more lucrative smartphone cousin at fall events but looks set for a more memorable showing in 2024. The very first Apple Watch was unveiled on September 9, 2014, so this month’s event will fall precisely on its 10th anniversary… and given how rarely Apple holds an event on a Monday, it’s hard to believe that’s a coincidence. Expect an Apple Watch X to celebrate the 10th anniversary (which thanks to a few delays in the early years coincides with the 10th generation of the product), and Apple will want the product to be just as compelling as the iPhone X in 2017. We expect a larger display and a slimmer profile as part of the product’s first significant design refresh; there could also be new health sensors. We should be able to agree that it’s a big deal. And the evening’s announcements may not stop there. We’re also expecting not one but two new sets of AirPods, including an entry-level “Lite” model which probably won’t be called that but could bring these iconic earbuds within the budget of far more customers. And suspicious stock shortages suggest the iPad mini is set for a long-overdue update too. Give it an M-class processor with 8GB of RAM, a FaceTime camera on the landscape edge, and a bit more storage, and we could have ourselves the perfect Apple Intelligence device. All in all, we’re expecting a fun event with plenty of highlights; it’s just that the highlights may not correspond to the established hierarchy of Apple’s marketing department. Then again, we already know that this is going to be an event that breaks all the rules; perhaps the company will surprise us all by announcing the iPhone 16 first, just to get it out of the way, and saving the new iPad mini for “One more thing” at the end. And if that wouldn’t be an exciting turn of events, I don’t know what would be. Foundry Foundry Foundry Trending: Top stories With a new model around the corner, we round up the 7 best iPhones of all time. The iPhone 16’s biggest competitor is the other version of itself. If it wasn’t for bad advice, Apple wouldn’t get any advice at all. Apple Intelligence forces Apple to finally give us what we want: More RAM. How the iPhone 16’s camera will change the game (again). Kevan Parekh to replace Luca Maestri as Apple CFO next year. Podcast of the week Apple sent out invites with the tagline “Glowtime” for its event on September 9. We talk about the event itself and what we expect. You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site. Reviews corner Think Tank Venturing Observer M2 review: Perfect MacBook transportation. Ugreen Revodok Pro 210 review: Hub offers decent speeds at a nice price. The rumor mill Apple’s ‘Glowtime’ event is coming on Sept. 9 to introduce iPhone 16 and more. iPhone 16, Apple Watch X, iOS 18, and everything coming in Apple’s biggest month. Noise cancelation in the next AirPods Pro might be getting even better. Hints of new iPad mini as stock of old model runs suspiciously dry. The iPhone 16 Pro is rumored to get a massive 48MP ultra-wide camera upgrade. Software updates, bugs, and problems Hackers are using fake banking apps on iPhones to steal your data. iOS 18.1 beta 3 is out now, adding ‘Clean Up’ AI tool in Photos. And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, or Twitter for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.

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Wombat Willow review: A solid typing tool with some quirks
Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating ProsSolid constructionNice mechanical feel when typingBacklit varietySupports multiple Bluetooth connectionsConsNon-standard layout for Function keys and number padNeed to read the manual to be able to adjust some settingsOur VerdictThe Willow is Wombat’s mechanical keyboard offering for the Mac market. Overall, it’s a solid keyboard, ideal for anyone who prefers the feel of mechanical keyboards over Apple’s Magic Keyboard, but the Willow does have some quirks that the user will have to adjust to. Price When Reviewed$144.99 Best Prices Today: Willow Retailer Price Wombat $145 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The Willow keyboard is Wombat’s mechanical keyboard offering for the Mac market. Overall, it’s a solid keyboard, ideal for anyone who prefers the feel of mechanical keyboards over Apple’s Magic Keyboard, but the Willow does have some quirks that the user will have to adjust to. Wombat Willow: Build, design, and feel The Willow is a hefty 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram), which helps anchor it in place on the desk. It might be too heavy for use as a mobile keyboard–though it’s not designed as one in the first place. While the weight does play a part in portraying the keyboard as a solid product, the construction overall is well done. It’s put together nicely and its parts meet a standard of quality. Measuring 14.45 x 6.33 x 1.73 inches (36.7 x 16.1 x 2.98 centimeters), the Willow is between the Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and the Magic Keyboard, width-wise. So if you’ve always found the former too wide and the latter too small and need a keypad, the Willow is a nice compromise. The Willow does require more depth area; if you don’t have much space between the keyboard and the display on your desk, the Willow’s depth could be an issue. The reason for the increased depth is the way Wombat decided to place the Function and other keys. They’re not laid out in a row above the number keys but instead are in three sets of two-row, eight-key blocks at the top of the keyboard. Wombat isn’t the only company to put these keys in a “non-standard” placement, and since these keys aren’t used when typing, it’s not a problem but if you’re used to using an Apple keyboard, you’ll go through a period of hunting and pecking as you learn where, say, the F3 key/Mission Control key is. The Willow has its Function keys in a cluster at the top of the keyboard. The Willow has its Function keys in a cluster at the top of the keyboard.Foundry The Willow has its Function keys in a cluster at the top of the keyboard.Foundry Foundry The quirkiness with the keyboard layout goes a little further. For example, the Enter (Return) key is a double-row key but the bottom half of the key has an indentation for the backslash () key, which is usually on top of the Enter/Return on most keyboards. As a result, I tended to press the backslash key when I wanted to press the Enter key. This isn’t a flaw per se, but it will likely require breaking a habit for some users, especially those who have been using Apple keyboards extensively. Furthermore, if you’re comfortable with the numeric keypad on other keyboards, the Willow’s keypad will be frustrating. The last row of keys isn’t the same as on a typical keypad, with a Delete key where an Enter key is often found–it has no dedicated Enter key. But if you sparingly use a keypad and don’t 10-key type, it’ll work just fine. Because the Willow can be used with both Windows PCs and Macs, it comes with Win and Alt keys installed, but Willow provides Option and Command keys that you can easily install using the provided tool. The tool is a bit clever, grabbing the key that needs to be removed and a slight tug pulls the key off. Fitting the Option or Command key into the socket requires a gentle push. Once the Option and Command keys are in place, you’ll need to flip a switch on the back of the keyboard from Win to Mac so it recognizes shortcuts and other controls on the Mac. I had a habit of pressing the backslash key () instead of Enter, and the numeric keypad is different from the Apple Numeric Keypad. I had a habit of pressing the backslash key () instead of Enter, and the numeric keypad is different from the Apple Numeric Keypad.Foundry I had a habit of pressing the backslash key () instead of Enter, and the numeric keypad is different from the Apple Numeric Keypad.Foundry Foundry Wombat Willow: Features The Willow can connect to the Mac via USB-C (this port also charges the keyboard), Bluetooth, or with a USB-A RF transmitter that’s included. With Bluetooth, up to three different devices can connect to the Willow; switching between them requires holding down the Fn key and pressing 7, 4, or 1 on the keypad (these keys are marked with Bluetooth icons). The Fn key is a valuable part of the Willow. As I mentioned, the keyboard can be used on both Windows and Mac, and the user can switch between Windows hotkeys and Mac Function keys by holding down Fn+Tab for three seconds. This needs to be done when first setting up the Willow because it’s set as Windows hotkeys by default. The RGB backlight can be changed to different colors and playback settings by holding down the Fn key and pressing one of the arrow keys. The Willow has a nice variety of backlight settings and gives the keyboard a bit of personality. Willow offers a software utility called WB Pouch that gives users the ability to set custom macros, adjust the backlight, and more. However, the software isn’t signed for macOS’s Gatekeeper and installation attempts were blocked when I tested with macOS Sonoma. Users need to go into System Settings  > Privacy & Security > Security and then click the Open Anyway button for the installer to install the software. The keyboard also needs to be connected to the Mac via USB-C to use the software. The Willow includes a tool for removing the Win and Alt keys. Command and Option keys are provided. The Willow includes a tool for removing the Win and Alt keys. Command and Option keys are provided.Foundry The Willow includes a tool for removing the Win and Alt keys. Command and Option keys are provided.Foundry Foundry The Willow has a built-in 1,000 mAh battery and includes a USB-C cable. The manual is available online, and you’ll want to have it handy because it needs to be referenced to operate some of the Willow’s features–they aren’t as intuitive as you might think. Should you buy the Wombat Willow? The Wombat Willow is a good option for anyone who uses a Mac and Windows computer equally and wants a mechanical keyboard. Its ability to switch between Windows hotkeys and Mac functions and its support for multiple Bluetooth connections are nice features for cross-platform compatibility. If you’re dedicated to the Mac and it’s the only platform you use, other mechanical keyboards that are more Mac-friendly are available. For example, the Satechi SM1 Slim Mechanical Backlit Bluetooth Keyboard has a design that’s more like the Magic Keyboard. If you like the traditional mechanical keyboard look, Keychron has a large selection of Mac-compatible keyboards. For more suggestions, check out our choices for the best Mac keyboards.

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Apple @ Work Podcast: The future of identity on macOS at work
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, we wrap up our 3-part series on identity management with Apple in the enterprise, featuring Tom Bridge, JumpCloud’s Director of Product Management. more…

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Labor Day Apple deals: MacBook Pro up to $700 off, MacBook Air $250 off, iPads, accessories, and more from $14
The best Apple Labor Day deals are now live and waiting for you down below. From some of the best prices of the year on the latest M3 Pro MacBook Pro machines right through to the M3 MacBook Air models with 16GB of RAM, folks not looking to pay full price on the M4 updates this fall are looking at massive savings for Labor Day this year. The Apple deals also carry over to iPad offers, both current- and previous-generation models, starting from $199 alongside Apple Watch Series 8 and 9 options with up to $450 in savings and even a host of official accessories kicking off at just $14 Prime shipped. All of the best Labor Day Apple deals are joined by a host of other price drops we have been tracking over at 9to5Toys across a range of product categories, from e-bikes and smart TVs, to MagSafe gear, home theater upgrades, and HomeKit smart home products. more…

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Happy Labor Day from O’Grady’s PowerPage!!!
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Labor Day here in the United States. That being said, the staff of O’Grady’s PowerPage will be taking the day off and spending time with friends and family. Have a safe and happy Labor Day, and we’ll be back tomorrow with more Mac and mobile news, rumors, features, and reports. Have […] Source

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Apple AirTags Track 'Recycled' Plastic to Unprocessed Piles in an Open-Air Lot
"Houston resident Brandy Deason put an Apple AirTag in her recycling to see where her plastic trash was going," writes Tom's Hardware. "While many might expect the city would drop the recyclables off at a recycling center, Deason instead found her trash sitting in an open-air lot alongside millions of other pieces of trash at Wright Waste Management." Wright Waste Management did not allow CBS News to enter and inspect its premises. Still, the news team's drone camera discovered that all the trash picked up from the Houston Recycling Collaboration (HRC) was apparently just sitting there on its premises, stacked more than 10 feet high. This came as a shock, as the HRC was meant to revolutionize the city's recycling program, allowing it to process all kinds of plastic. Instead, we see all the collected waste sitting idle in open-air lots waiting for the right technology to appear. That's because [Exxon-funded] Cyclix International, one of the partners in the HRC, has yet to open its massive factory to scale up its plastic recycling operation. The company said that it recycles all kinds of plastic and has even already set aside a sprawling space big enough to accommodate nine football fields. However, the current facility is just an empty husk without a single piece of machinery in sight. Deason included 12 airtags in bags of recycling — and nine of them ended up at the HRC facility (with another one going to the local dump). In a video report, CBS News asked Deason what they thought about household recycling ended up in massive piles of plastic. "I thought it was kind of strange, because if you store plastic outside in the heat, it's a fire problem." In fact, that facility has already failed three fire-safety inspections by the county, according to CBS News. And while the facility has "applied" for approval to store plastic waste, that application has not yet been approved. CBS asked a Cyclix project manager about the piles of unprocessed plastic sitting in the sun. "We need a huge supply of plastics to get ready for startup here," a spokesperson answered, "And we want to start that now in order to get ahead of it." CBS's interviewer also raised another issue: the facility's plan is to recycle some of the plastic products into fuel. "So if you turn plastic waste into fuel that is then burned and creates greenhouse gas emissions, that's just another environmental problem." Cyclix Project Manager: "Plastic waste is the challenge. So if we have the ability to take plastic waste and convert it to new products — that's what we're trying to do!" CBS News points out that urning plastics into burn-able fuel is considered "recycling" by 25 states... Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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M4 Mac mini: Everything you need to know
Macworld Apple’s M3 chip has been available since the end of October 2023. It features in the MacBook Pro M3 and iMac and was recently added to the MacBook Air, but it is still absent from the Mac mini. How long will we have to wait for Apple to roll out the M3 to the rest of the range? Or will Apple skip it and decide to release a new Mac mini with an M4 chip? This article is designed to help you figure out what’s happening with the M3 and M3 Pro versions of the Mac mini–or if Apple skips the M3 series and goes straight to M4. We’ve gathered all the information from rumors and reports in one spot and will provide insight as to what’s feasible and what’s not. We’ll update this article whenever new information becomes available. Update September 1, 2024: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the upcoming M4 Mac mini will have five USB-C ports and no USB-A ports. See our MacBook Pro M3 review and our MacBook Pro M3 Pro review. We also have an iMac M3 review and M3 MacBook Air review. New Mac mini: Skipping the M3, straight to M4? An April 11 report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that Apple plans to update the Mac mini with an AI-enhanced M4 chip in the second half of 2024. On Apple 21, Gurman stated that Apple will likely skip an M3 update for the Mac mini and go straight to M4 later this year. On August 4, Gurman reported that the M4 Mac mini will be released in 2024. New Mac mini: Release date M3 Mac mini: May 7 event M4 Mac mini: Late 2024 Apple released the M2 & M2 Pro Mac mini over a year ago in January 2023. Before that, the M1 Mac mini was released in November 2020. That’s over two years between the M1 and M2 Mac mini, but the Covid pandemic affected production. There should be no reason for the launch of the M3 and M3 Pro Mac mini to be delayed, especially since the M3 and M3 Pro chips are available in other models. If Apple does continue with an M3 Mac mini, we could see it at Apple’s spring event on May 7, or at WWDC in June. In early August 2023, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple was performing preliminary tests on a M3 Mac mini, suggesting a new M3 model is in the pipeline. In June, Mark Gurman reported that the Mac released schedule had not changed. The M4 Mac mini is not expected until the end of 2024 or early 2025. In August, Gurman reported that an M4 Mac mini will be released before the end of 2024. Apple will hold an iPhone 16/Apple Watch 10 launch event in September (see how to watch the Apple September event live stream), but new Apple products launch throughout the year – see when is the next Apple event to learn more about the company’s product launch plans. The M2 Pro Mac mini. The M2 Pro Mac mini.Jason Cross / Foundry The M2 Pro Mac mini.Jason Cross / Foundry Jason Cross / Foundry New Mac mini: Price Price drops outside the U.S. are somewhat likely. Rumors about the M3/M4 Mac mini have not addressed prices and the price is unlikely to change inside the U.S. However, we do hope that there will be price drops outside the U.S. to reverse price hikes a few years ago. Apple has been adjusting prices following previous price hikes. When Apple has updated Macs and iPhones since late 2023 it reduced some prices in locations outside the U.S. The U.K. prices of the M3 MacBook Air, for example, ‘match’ the U.S. prices. For example, the M2 MacBook Air now costs $999/£999. That’s a good sign for the M3 Mac mini–it could follow the same standard configuration prices of $599/£599 (currently £649) and $799/£799 (currently £849) when it is finally released. In 2020, the M1 Mac mini had prices of $699/£699 and $899/£899. New Mac mini: Processor and specs M3: 3nm chip with 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB unified memory (16GB and 24GB options) M3 Pro: 11 or 12 core CPU, 14 or 18 GPU cores, 18GB unified memory (36GB option) M4: AI enhancements We have a fair idea of what to expect from the Mac mini M3 and M3 Pro because we have already seen those chips in the MacBook Pro, iMac, and MacBook Air. Apple is said to put an AI emphasis on the M4 so that it could have similar CPU and GPU specs as the M3 but with a larger Neural Engine and more unified memory. The new 3nm process used for the M3 (and possibly for the M4) allows more transistors to fit on a chip, which should provide a performance boost. The M3 will also offer better power efficiency, so the temperature considerations required for the M1 or M2 Mac mini aren’t the same as the M3, which could allow it to run faster because it doesn’t get as hot. In addition, the M3 GPU is faster and more efficient and features Dynamic Caching, a new technology that brings features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading to the Mac. As for the amount of unified memory, Apple still offers the standard configuration of 8GB for the M3 and options for 16GB and 24GB, as with the M2. For the M3 Pr,o there is up to 36GB of unified memory available, but the standard configuration is now 18GB memory (up from 16GB). For more information read about how the different generations of Mac processors compare. New Mac mini: Ports/Connectivity Possibly five USB-C ports and no USB-A When Apple released the M1 Mac mini in 2020, the company reconfigured the ports so that it had two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports instead of the four that were on the Intel-based Mac mini. Apple. In September, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the M4 Mac mini will have five USB-C ports, two on the front and three on the back. It will not have USB-A ports. He also said it will have ethernet and HDMI. The M2 Mac mini already has Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, but Apple could opt for Wi-FI 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Apple will likely not change the port configuration on the M3 Mac mini. Apple will likely not change the port configuration on the M3 Mac mini.Apple Apple will likely not change the port configuration on the M3 Mac mini.Apple Apple New Mac mini: Design Hints of a possible Mac mini redesign with the M4 update. The current Mac mini features a 7.75-by-7.75-by-1.41 inch (19.7-by-19.7-by-3.6 centimeter) external design. In August, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that one of the Macs will get a “dramatic change” in its design along with its M4 update. Though Gurman didn’t specifically say that the Mac mini was going to be the Mac with the new design, the Mac mini has had its design for six years, leading to speculation that the M4 Mac mini could be the Mac being referenced.

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Compared: iPhone 15 Pro Max in an iPhone 16 Pro Max case
Ahead of Apple's It's Glowtime event, there are a few iPhone 16 cases. Here's what an iPhone 15 Pro Max looks like, inside one of the new accessories.Let's compare a dummy phone and an early case to the iPhone 15 Pro MaxAs is often the case, mock up dummy units trickle out of China-based factories based on leaked schematics. They're often used by accessory makers to check for compatibility and size prior to the device's announcement.We too are usually able to get our hands on them, giving us a great visual representation of the rumors we report on. Now, we have an iPhone 16 Pro Max case to compare it to, as well. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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No, an actual Apple Watch Ultra does not have a hidden camera
If you find a viral video claiming the Apple Watch Ultra has a hidden camera in it, what you're actually watching is a reminder that some unethical sites and companies will stop at nothing to fool the gullible.Counterfeiters are fooling YouTubers with fake Apple Watch Ultras with cameras in the crown.Videos claiming that the Apple Watch Ultra has a hidden camera in it have recently appeared on social media sites, particularly TikTok. Counterfeit Apple products are nothing new, but knock-off manufacturers generally try to get as close as possible to copying the hardware.One of the sure giveaways that you might have bought a counterfeit Apple Watch is the presence of a Google Play Store icon, a sign that the watch is actually running Android. The other giveaway, of course, is a camera — located in the digital crown. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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M4 Macs slated to launch in November
Apple’s upcoming Macs with the M4 chip are slated for a debut in November. The Cupertino-based company is planning to launch its Mac lineup in November, according to rumors. Traditionally, Mac models are usually announced at the end of the year, which means it’s a first for Apple to debut Macs with the M4 chip […] The post appeared first on iLounge.

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Apple TV+ releases ‘Napoleon: Director’s Cut’
Apple TV+ has recently released the ‘Napoleon: Director’s Cut’ version on the streaming service. ‘Napoleon’ an epic drama film had a theatrical release in 2023. The movie tells the story of Napoleon and his conquests, as well as the relationship he had with Josephine. Vanessa Kirby and Joaquin Phoenix are the main protagonists, with David […] The post appeared first on iLounge.

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macOS Sequoia developer beta supports app store external drive installs
The latest developer beta for macOS Sequoia now allows users to install apps on external hard drives. The third developer beta has a significant change in that apps can be downloaded and run on external hard drives. Apple no longer requires double the storage space to install an app and larger downloads will be sent […] The post appeared first on iLounge.

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Today in Apple history: Ping social network fails to strike a chord
On September 1, 2010, Apple launched its music-focused social network Ping as part of iTunes 10. Sadly, it never caught on. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Enjoy wireless CarPlay with this 9-inch touchscreen for just $95
Here's an easy way to enjoy Apple CarPlay or Android Auto even if your car is a little dated. Add an affordable aftermarket CarPlay display. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Apple reportedly planning to release new M4 Macs in November
According to a new report from MacRumors, Apple is planning to begin shipping the first M4 Macs in November. more…

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AirPods 4 rumors: Dramatic change coming next week
Rumors indicate AirPods 4 will borrow a feature from the Pro models: Active Noise Cancellation. And AirPods Max 2 are coming Sept. 9, too. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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M4 Mac mini likely to lose support for USB-A, keep internal power supply
According to the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s newsletter, Apple is planning to completely drop support for USB-A on the next Mac mini. more…

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Security Bite: Apple addresses privacy concerns around Notification Center database in macOS Sequoia (Update)
9to5Mac Security Bite is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Making Apple devices work-ready and enterprise-safe is all we do. Our unique integrated approach to management and security combines state-of-the-art Apple-specific security solutions for fully automated Hardening & Compliance, Next Generation EDR, AI-powered Zero Trust, and exclusive Privilege Management with the most powerful and modern Apple MDM on the market. The result is a totally automated Apple Unified Platform currently trusted by over 45,000 organizations 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. The privacy implications of Notification Center popups are well-known in the security forensics community. Whether a user likes it or not, macOS temporarily keeps a log of every notification received in a single plaintext database. This can include messages from applications like iMessage, Slack, Teams, and virtually anything else. However, it now appears Apple has moved the Notification Center database in macOS Sequoia to address concerns. more…

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