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Time to power down for good.

One of the best mobile DACs I've reviewed, the iFi GO bar Kensei is a masterclass in build quality, and quality features, with audiophile-grade pricing

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Aqara gets a lot right with their Smart Video Doorbell G4, including pricing and features. However, if your porch is tight, its aspect ratio may leave you a bit in the blind.

Smart privacy features, Wi-Fi 6, f/2.0 lens, and wallet-friendly pricing make the Aqara Camera E1 tough to beat.

This mobile Bluetooth DAC has it all! Beautiful design, highly functional features, and excellent sound quality make this my top pick right now.

Who says your indoor security camera needs to be all business to be effective? The Aqara Camera Hub G3 is long on features and fun!

This smooth DAC from iFi is a solid performer for those wanting to level up their desktop audio experience.

Paying just $60 for this high-quality DAC means you can spend your money where it counts most, high-quality headphones.

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The former design lead at Apple has teamed up with Sam Altman’s artificial intelligence company.

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Anker has announced its updated MagGo range for 2024, which includes new power banks, stands, and more.

The Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Tenkeyless is a mechanical keyboard that you can make (almost) entirely your own, even without macOS support for its Synapse customisation app.

With my iPhone 16 Pro arriving on September 20, I'm already planning to buy these accessories for it.

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Geekbench results for iPhone 16 Pro suggest it'll be a powerhouse that could outperform your MacBook.

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Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies, Johny Srouji, has confirmed all new iPhone 16 models have 8GB of RAM.

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Apple, iPhone, iPad, Mac News and Rumors

Today we're tracking a pair of deals, one on the Apple Pencil 2 and one on the 2020 M1 MacBook Air. These sales include the current best price online for the Apple Pencil 2, and an all-time low price on the MacBook Air.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Apple Pencil 2
Firstly, Woot has the Apple Pencil 2 for $109.99, down from $129.00. This sale isn't the lowest price we've ever tracked on this accessory, as it's been down to $99.00 in previous sales earlier this year, but it's still a solid second-best deal if you're looking to purchase an Apple Pencil 2 this week.


$19 OFFApple Pencil 2 for $109.99

The Apple Pencil 2 is compatible with the new iPad mini 6, but not the new 10.2-inch iPad. For that tablet, only the original Apple Pencil is supported.

MacBook Air
Amazon today has the 512GB M1 MacBook Air for $1,099.99, down from $1,249.00. This is a match of the all-time low price on this model of the 2020 MacBook Air, and it's available in Space Gray and Silver.



You'll see this sale price reflected on the checkout screen, once an automatic coupon is applied to your order. While the Gold option won't be available until around October 1, you can still purchase a Gold MacBook Air today at this discounted price ahead of the delayed shipping date.

$149 OFFM1 MacBook Air (512GB) for $1,099.99

The 256GB model is on sale as well, available for $849.99, down from $999.00. All three colors are discounted for this model, but none are in stock today. This is still the lowest price we've ever tracked for the 256GB MacBook Air, so if you're willing to wait a few weeks, it's worth locking in this price while it's available.

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundup: Apple Deals
This article, "Deals: Get the Apple Pencil 2 for $109.99 ($19 Off) and 512GB M1 MacBook Air for $1,099.99 ($149 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon today is offering the 512GB M1 MacBook Air for $1,099.99, down from $1,249.00. This is a match of the all-time low price on this model of the 2020 MacBook Air, and it's available in Gold and Silver.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

You'll see this sale price reflected on the checkout screen, once an automatic coupon is applied to your order. Only the Gold color is available to ship today, while the Silver option won't be available until around September 21. You can still purchase a Silver MacBook Air today at this discounted price ahead of the delayed shipping date.

$149 OFFM1 MacBook Air (512GB) for $1,099.99

The 256GB model is on sale as well, available for $849.99, down from $999.00. All three colors are discounted for this model, but none are in stock today. This is still the lowest price we've ever tracked for the 256GB MacBook Air, so if you're willing to wait a few weeks, it's worth locking in this price while it's available.

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundup: Apple Deals
This article, "Deals: Amazon Takes $149 Off 2020 MacBook Air Models, Starting at $849.99 for 256GB" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon today introduced new low prices on the M1 MacBook Air for both 256GB and 512GB storage options. To start, you can get the 256GB model for $849.99, down from an original price of $999.00.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Only Silver and Gold are available at this price on Amazon. This sale marks a new all-time low price for Apple's 2020 M1 MacBook Air, providing the cheapest entry price into the lineup since it debuted last year.

$149 OFFM1 MacBook Air (256GB) for $849.99

Likewise, the 512GB version of the M1 MacBook Air is seeing a notable discount to $1,099.99, down from $1,249.00. This is a record low price for the notebook, and it's available in all colors.

$149 OFFM1 MacBook Air (512GB) for $1,099.99

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundup: Apple Deals
This article, "Deals: Amazon Drops Price of 256GB M1 MacBook Air to New Low of $849.99 ($149 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon this week has the M1 MacBook Pro on sale in both 256GB and 512GB configurations, including a return to record low prices for both models. Prices start at $1,099.99 for the 256GB MacBook Pro, down from $1,299.00. You'll see the discount after an automatic coupon worth $49.01 is applied at the checkout screen on Amazon.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This price is a match of the previous all-time low price on the 256GB M1 MacBook Pro. This model of Apple's notebook line includes the same aluminum body with large Force Touch trackpad as previous generations, speakers at the side of the keyboard, and a 13.3-inch display with slim black bezels. Both colors are on sale and available to ship out today.

$199 OFF256GB M1 MacBook Pro for $1,099.99

Secondly, Amazon has the 512GB MacBook Pro for $1,299.99, down from $1,499.00. This sale price is available in both Silver and Space Gray, and it's sold directly from Amazon.

$199 OFF512GB M1 MacBook Pro for $1,299.99

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundup: Apple DealsRelated Forum: MacBook Pro
This article, "Deals: All-Time Low Prices Return to Apple's M1 MacBook Pro, Starting at $1,099.99 for 256GB" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Best Buy and Amazon are both offering great deals on numerous models of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air today, including a handful of record low deals on the latest Apple notebooks.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

13-Inch M1 MacBook Air
Starting with the 2020 M1 13-inch MacBook Air, you'll find the 256GB notebook for $899.00 at Amazon and $899.99 at Best Buy, down from $999.00. Amazon stock has dwindled and will "ship soon," but Best Buy has plenty of stock in all three colors.

Additionally, both retailers have the 512GB M1 MacBook Air at $1,099.99, down from $1,249.00. While this is a record low price on the 512GB notebook, the 256GB model's discount is a second-best price.

• M1 MacBook Air, 256GB - $899.99, down from $999.00 at Best Buy / Amazon


• M1 MacBook Air, 512GB - $1,099.99, down from $1,249.00 at Best Buy / Amazon

13-Inch M1 MacBook Pro
For the newest MacBook Pro models, Best Buy and Amazon have lowest ever prices on the new 2020 M1 13-inch MacBook Pro. You can get the 256GB notebook for $1,099.99, down from $1,299.00, in both Silver and Space Gray.

For more storage, the 512GB M1 MacBook Pro is on sale for $1,299.99, down from $1,499.00. This model is also available in both Silver and Space Gray at this price.

• M1 MacBook Pro, 256GB - $1,099.99, down from $1,299.00 at Best Buy / Amazon


• M1 MacBook Pro, 512GB - $1,299.99, down from $1,499.00 at Best Buy / Amazon

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundup: Apple Deals
This article, "Deals: Take Up to $199 Off Apple's M1 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air at Best Buy and Amazon" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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A record low discount has returned to Apple's 512GB M1 Mac mini today on Amazon. You can get this model for $799.00, down from its original price of $899.00.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This sale matches the previous all-time low price on the 512GB M1 Mac mini seen on Amazon, and it's available to ship out today. You'll find a matching sale over at B&H Photo, which offers free expedited shipping for orders placed in the United States.

$100 OFFM1 Mac mini (512GB) for $799.99

At this time, the 256GB M1 Mac mini is not seeing a steep discount at any retailer, with Amazon offering the lowest price at $659.00, down from $699.00. The best price on this model has been $599.00, so we recommend waiting for a better deal.

Keep up with all of this week's best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, Mac miniBuyer's Guide: Mac Mini (Buy Now)Related Forum: Mac mini
This article, "Deals: Get Apple's 512GB M1 Mac Mini for Record Low of $799 on Amazon ($100 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lineup is seeing all-time low discounts across the board today, including the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, 2020 13-inch MacBook Air, and 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

13-Inch M1 MacBook Air
Starting with the 2020 M1 13-inch MacBook Air, Amazon has the 256GB notebook for $899.00, down from $999.00. This price is available in all three colors of Gold, Silver, and Space Gray, but stock is dwindling on the latter two options.

$100 OFF13-inch MacBook Air (256GB) for $899.00

Additionally, Amazon is also selling the 512GB M1 MacBook Air at $1,099.00, down from $1,249.00. Both of these discounts represent all-time low prices, and they're shipped and sold directly from Amazon.

$150 OFF13-inch MacBook Air (512GB) for $1,099.00

13-Inch M1 MacBook Pro
For the newest MacBook Pro models, Amazon has lowest ever prices on the new 2020 M1 13-inch MacBook Pro. You can get the 256GB notebook for $1,099.99, down from $1,299.00, in both Silver and Space Gray.

$199 OFF13-inch MacBook Pro (256GB) for $1,099.99

For more storage, the 512GB M1 MacBook Pro is on sale for $1,299.99, down from $1,499.00. This model is also available in both Silver and Space Gray at this price.

$199 OFF13-inch MacBook Pro (512GB) for $1,299.99

16-Inch MacBook Pro
Moving to the 16-inch MacBook Pro, we're tracking record low prices on both storage options for this 2019 notebook. You can get the 512GB model for $1,999.99, down from $2,399.00. This sale is available in both Silver and Space Gray color options.

$399 OFF16-inch MacBook Pro (512GB) for $1,999.99

The 1TB 16-inch MacBook Pro is on sale for $2,299.99, down from $2,799.00. Like the other model, this is an all-time low price, but it's only available in Silver. Both notebooks are sold by Amazon and are ready to ship today.

$499 OFF16-inch MacBook Pro (1TB) for $2,299.99

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, MacBook Pro, MacBook AirBuyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Neutral), 13" MacBook Air (Buy Now)Related Forums: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air
This article, "Deals: Shop Record Low Prices Across Apple's Full MacBook Pro and MacBook Air Lineup (Up to $499 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Today we're tracking a pair of deals on the M1 13-inch MacBook Pro from late 2020, with Amazon matching previous record low prices on both storage options for this model.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Starting with the 256GB 13-inch MacBook Pro, you can get this model for $1,099.99 in Space Gray on Amazon, down from $1,299.00. At the time of writing, the Silver model is out of stock for this sale.

$199 OFFM1 MacBook Pro (256GB) for $1,099.99

You can also get the 512GB 13-inch MacBook Pro on sale today, priced at $1,299.99, down from $1,499.00. Both Silver and Space Gray colors are available for this model, and they're shipped and sold by Amazon.

$199 OFFM1 MacBook Pro (512GB) for $1,299.99

Both of these discounts found today on Amazon match the previous all-time low prices on these M1 MacBook Pro models, making them the best sales online this week. You won't need any coupon code or have to wait for a discount at checkout, as both sales have been directly applied already by Amazon.

You can find the best monthly deals on all new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebooks in our "Best Deals" guide. Be sure to visit the guide and bookmark it if you're on the hunt for a new Apple notebook; we'll be updating it weekly as we discover new MacBook offers across the web.Related Roundup: Apple DealsRelated Forum: MacBook Pro
This article, "Deals: Find All-Time Low Prices on M1 MacBook Pro Models in Amazon's Newest Sales ($199 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon, B&H Photo, and Adorama today are discounting the M1 MacBook Air to match previous record low prices for both 256GB and 512GB storage options. To start, you can get the 256GB model for $899.00 today on Adorama, down from an original price of $999.00.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Only Silver and Space Gray are available at this price on Adorama. You can also find this sale on Amazon, with a $50 automatic coupon applied at checkout on the Gold and Silver colors. Gold is available to ship in one to two business days, and Silver will be in stock soon, according to Amazon.

$100 OFFM1 MacBook Air (256GB) for $899.00

Likewise, the 512GB version of the M1 MacBook Air is seeing a notable discount to $1,099.00, down from $1,249.00. This is a record low price for the notebook, and it's available in all colors. For Silver and Space Gray, you'll find an automatic coupon that will be applied to your order at the checkout screen. The same sale can be found at B&H Photo on the Gold model.

$150 OFFM1 MacBook Air (512GB) for $1,099.00

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, MacBook AirBuyer's Guide: 13" MacBook Air (Buy Now)Related Forum: MacBook Air
This article, "Deals: Get the M1 MacBook Air for Up to $150 Off, Starting at $899 for 256GB" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon today is offering the 512GB M1 MacBook Air for $1,099.00, down from $1,249.00. This is beating the previous sale price by about $50, and represents a new low price for this model of the 2020 MacBook Air.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

You can get the M1 MacBook Air at this price in both Gold and Silver. For the latter color option, you'll see the price reflected at the checkout screen once a $50 coupon is automatically applied.

$150 OFFM1 MacBook Air (512GB) for $1,099.00

The 256GB model is on sale as well, available for $899.00, down from $999.00. This is a sale price that we've been tracking for most of the summer, so it remains a solid deal if you are shopping for the entry level model of the MacBook Air.

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, MacBook AirBuyer's Guide: 13" MacBook Air (Buy Now)Related Forum: MacBook Air
This article, "Deals: Apple's 512GB M1 MacBook Air Hits New Low Price at $1,099 ($150 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon this week has a sale on Apple's new 24-inch M1 iMac in two configurations. Sales start with the 7-core GPU with 256GB, priced at $1,249.99, down from $1,299.00. This sale is available in Blue and Silver.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This sale is a match of the previous record low price on this version of the M1 iMac. No other retailers are matching the sale as of writing, so you'll only find this deal on Amazon.

$49 OFFM1 iMac (7-Core GPU, 256GB) for $1,249.99

In another new sale, Amazon is also offering $49 off the M1 iMac with the 8-core GPU and 256GB of storage, priced at $1,449.99, down from $1,499.00. These iMacs are sold directly from Amazon and both are available to ship today.

$49 OFFM1 iMac (8-Core GPU, 256GB) for $1,449.99

You can keep track of ongoing sales on Apple's iMac line by visiting our Best iMac Deals guide. There, we keep track of the best iMac offers from Amazon, Adorama, B&H Photo, and other retailers, so be sure to check back often if you're shopping for an iMac for the first time, or thinking of upgrading.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, iMacBuyer's Guide: iMac (Neutral)Related Forum: iMac
This article, "Deals: Get $49 Off Apple's New M1 iMacs, Starting at $1,249.99 for 7-Core 256GB" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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In the wake of Prime Day, Amazon is still discounting the M1 MacBook Air to record low prices in both 256GB and 512GB storage options. To start, you can get the 256GB model for $899.99 today on Amazon, down from an original price of $999.00.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

As of writing, all colors are in stock and ready to ship from Amazon. The sale has also been applied automatically so you won't need to wait until the checkout screen to see the discount price.

$99 OFFM1 MacBook Air (256GB) for $899.99

Likewise, the 512GB version of the M1 MacBook Air is seeing a notable discount to $1,099.99, down from $1,249.00. This is a record low price for the notebook, and you'll see this price at the checkout screen once a coupon worth $50 is applied.

$149 OFFM1 MacBook Air (512GB) for $1,099.99

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundup: Apple Deals
This article, "Deals: Amazon Continuing to Discount M1 MacBook Air Models to All-Time Low Prices (Save Up to $149)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple's 512GB M1 MacBook Air has returned to its all-time low price of $1,149.00, down from $1,249.00. This sale is available on Amazon, and only for the Gold color option. Stock appears to be low, although Amazon sometimes has more in stock than is reflected on the website.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Apple updated the MacBook Air in November 2020 with the new Apple M1 chip, which has an 8-core CPU, a 7- or 8-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine for machine learning. These updates brought about improved performance, better battery life, and more. There's also a 256GB model, but we aren't seeing any notable discounts this week.

$100 OFFM1 MacBook Air (512GB) for $1,149.00

You can find the best monthly deals on all new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebooks in our new "Best Deals" guide. Be sure to visit the guide and bookmark it if you're on the hunt for a new Apple notebook; we'll be updating it weekly as we discover new MacBook offers across the web.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, MacBook AirBuyer's Guide: 13" MacBook Air (Buy Now)Related Forum: MacBook Air
This article, "Deals: Amazon Discounts 512GB M1 MacBook Air to Match Record Low Price of $1,149 ($100 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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At Amazon today you can get Apple's 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro (512GB) for $1,299.99, down from $1,499.00 on Amazon. You'll see this price at the checkout screen after an automatic coupon worth $50 is applied.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This sale is available in both Silver and Space Gray color options, and it's in stock and ready to ship. At a total of $199 off the original price, this is a match of the previous low price on this model of the MacBook Pro.

$199 OFFM1 MacBook Pro (512GB) for $1,299.99

If anyone's on the hunt for the entry level version of the M1 MacBook Pro, Amazon does have the 256GB model at its typical sale price of $1,149.99, down from $1,299.00. There's no checkout coupon for this one, and it's also being discounted in both colors.

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundup: Apple DealsRelated Forum: MacBook Pro
This article, "Deals: Apple's 512GB M1 MacBook Pro Hits $1,299.99 on Amazon ($199 Off, Lowest Price)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon today is taking $49 off Apple's new 24-inch M1 iMac in two configurations. Sales start with the 7-core GPU with 256GB, priced at $1,249.99, down from $1,299.00. This sale is available in Blue and Silver.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Amazon previously was discounting this model down to around $1,258.99, making today's sale a new all-time low on this model of the M1 iMac. No other retailers are matching the sale as of writing, so you'll only find this deal on Amazon.

$49 OFFM1 iMac (7-Core GPU, 256GB) for $1,249.99

In another new sale, Amazon is also offering $49 off the M1 iMac with the 8-core GPU and 256GB of storage, priced at $1,449.99, down from $1,499.00. These iMacs are sold directly from Amazon and both are available to ship today.

$49 OFFM1 iMac (8-Core GPU, 256GB) for $1,449.99

You can keep track of ongoing sales on Apple's iMac line by visiting our Best iMac Deals guide. There, we keep track of the best iMac offers from Amazon, Adorama, B&H Photo, and other retailers, so be sure to check back often if you're shopping for an iMac for the first time, or thinking of upgrading.Related Roundup: Apple Deals
This article, "Deals: Take $49 Off Apple's M1 iMac With New All-Time Low Prices" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Record low discounts have returned to Apple's 2020 M1 Mac mini on Amazon today, in both 256GB and 512GB storage options. For the 256GB model, you won't see the sale price until you reach the checkout screen and receive an automatic coupon on your order.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Starting with the 256GB M1 Mac mini, you can get this version for $599.99, down from $699.00. This is beating the previous Amazon low price of $639.00, and it's in stock and ready to ship today.

$99 OFFM1 Mac mini (256GB) for $599.99

You can also save $100 on the 512GB M1 Mac mini, available for $799.00, down from $899.00. This is another all-time low price on the M1 Mac mini, beating the previous record low of $829.00 on Amazon and other retailers.

$100 OFFM1 Mac mini (512GB) for $799.99

Keep up with all of this week's best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, Mac miniBuyer's Guide: Mac Mini (Buy Now)Related Forum: Mac mini
This article, "Deals: Save $100 on Apple's 2020 M1 Mac Mini, Starting at $599.99 for 256GB" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon today has introduced another discount on Apple's 512GB 27-inch 5K iMac with 6-core CPU. We've been tracking a discount down to $1,699.99 over the past few weeks, and now you can get this 2020 model for $1,599.99, down from $1,999.00, after an automatic coupon worth $299.01 is applied at checkout.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This is now the best price we've ever tracked for this model of the 27-inch iMac across all retailers. The iMac is ready to ship today with Amazon's typical free shipping for all Prime members.

$399 OFF27-inch iMac (512GB SSD) for $1,599.99

Additionally, the 256GB 27-inch 5K iMac is on sale for $1,499.99, down from $1,699.00. This model hasn't seen a discount in a few weeks, and now Amazon has introduced a sale alongside the 512GB model. You'll see the markdown at checkout after a $199.01 discount is automatically applied.

$299 OFF27-inch iMac (256GB SSD) for $1,499.99

You can keep track of ongoing sales on Apple's iMac line by visiting our Best iMac Deals guide. There, we keep track of the best iMac offers from Amazon, Adorama, B&H Photo, and other retailers, so be sure to check back often if you're shopping for an iMac for the first time, or thinking of upgrading.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, iMacBuyer's Guide: iMac (Neutral)Related Forum: iMac
This article, "Deals: Amazon Introduces Pair of Record Low Prices on Apple's 27-Inch iMacs (Save Up to $399)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Today we're tracking an ongoing record low price on Apple's 512GB 27-inch 5K iMac with 6-core CPU from 2020. You can get this model for $1,699.99 on Amazon, down from $1,999.00, after an automatic coupon worth $199.01 is applied at checkout.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This sale was introduced last month on Amazon and it remains the best discount we've ever tracked for this model of the 27-inch Intel iMac. Amazon's discount is so steep it's pricing the 512GB model down to the same level as the 256GB 27-inch iMac.

$299 OFF27-inch iMac (512GB SSD) for $1,699.99

The iMac is in stock and sold by Amazon, ready to ship today with Amazon's typical free shipping for all Prime members. You can keep track of ongoing sales on Apple's iMac line by visiting our Best iMac Deals guide.

There, we keep track of the best iMac offers from Amazon, Adorama, B&H Photo, and other retailers, so be sure to check back often if you're shopping for an iMac for the first time, or thinking of upgrading.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, iMacBuyer's Guide: iMac (Neutral)Related Forum: iMac
This article, "Deals: Amazon Discounts 512GB 27-Inch iMac to Lowest Price of $1,699.99 ($299 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon this week is still hosting a record low deal on Apple's 512GB 27-inch 5K iMac with 6-core CPU. You can get this 2020 model for $1,699.99, down from $1,999.00, after an automatic coupon worth $199.01 is applied at checkout.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This sale is particularly notable because it knocks down the 512GB 27-inch iMac to the same price level as the 256GB model. It's also the best price we've ever tracked across all of the major Apple resellers online. The iMac is ready to ship today with Amazon's typical free shipping for all Prime members.

$299 OFF27-inch iMac (512GB SSD) for $1,699.99

You can keep track of ongoing sales on Apple's iMac line by visiting our Best iMac Deals guide. There, we keep track of the best iMac offers from Amazon, Adorama, B&H Photo, and other retailers, so be sure to check back often if you're shopping for an iMac for the first time, or thinking of upgrading.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, iMacBuyer's Guide: iMac (Neutral)Related Forum: iMac
This article, "Deals: Get Apple's 512GB 27-Inch iMac for Lowest Price of $1,699.99 ($299 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Apple's M1 MacBook Air with a 256GB SSD has returned to its all-time low price of $899.99 today on Amazon, down from an original price of $999.00. This sale will be seen after an automatic coupon worth $50 is applied at checkout.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

As of writing, only the Gold color option is in stock and ready to ship from Amazon. Silver is delayed by over a month, but Space Gray will be "in stock soon" according to Amazon's stock estimation.

$99 OFFM1 MacBook Air (256GB) for $899.99

Likewise, the 512GB version of the M1 MacBook Air is seeing a notable discount to $1,099.99, down from $1,249.00. This is a record low price for the notebook, and it's only available at this price in Gold.

$149 OFFM1 MacBook Air (512GB) for $1,099.99

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.Related Roundups: Apple Deals, MacBook AirBuyer's Guide: 13" MacBook Air (Buy Now)Related Forum: MacBook Air
This article, "Deals: Amazon Discounting M1 MacBook Air Models By Up to $149, Starting at $899.99 for 256GB" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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AppleInsider News Feed

Apple is bringing in Anthropic's Claude AI to help its engineers code faster, marking a quiet but telling shift in its approach to artificial intelligence.


Xcode
Apple has long resisted leaning on outside help for core technologies, preferring to build its tools in-house. But that wall is starting to crack. The company is now partnering with Anthropic to integrate its Claude Sonnet model into an upgraded version of Xcode, Apple's software development platform.


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While it'll probably look very familiar, the iPhone 17 is set to bring some performance increases and new features. Here's everything the rumor mill thinks is coming in the fall of 2025.


Apple's iPhone 17 will look almost identical to the current iPhone 16.
In September 2025, Apple is expected to introduce a radically redesigned iPhone lineup. The iPhone 17 Pro is widely believed to feature a new rear "camera bar" design, and rumors suggest an ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air will replace the Plus model for 2025.

The standard iPhone 17, however, won't benefit from the same visual treatment. Based on alleged leaked CAD files and dummy units, the base model iPhone 17 will be virtually indistinguishable from its predecessor, the iPhone 16. Apple has already made test units of the iPhone 17, and the device is reportedly moving toward mass production.


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Apple's 2025 15-inch MacBook Air equipped with the M4 chip has dropped to $1,049 as retailers compete for your business in a May price war.


Grab a 15-inch MacBook Air for $1,049 this weekend.
The 15-inch M4 MacBook Air (2025) features a 10-core GPU, with the standard model also equipped with 16GB of unified memory and a 256GB SSD. Apple resellers B&H and Amazon are both discounting the standard spec in all four colorways to $1,049, the lowest price in 30 days and a 13% markdown off MSRP.

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Both by getting an exemption, and by toiling for seven years to diversify its iPhone manufacturing efforts outside of China, the $900 million estimate of tariff impacts in the third quarter is paltry compared to what it could have been, and is for other companies.


Part of Apple's current iPhone 16 range
An unusual part of Apple's latest earnings call was when Cook broke off from recounting the quarter in question, and instead offered what he called color on the future. Really he was speaking about tariffs, which were introduced in Q2 but sufficiently anticipated in Q1 that it had an impact on Apple sales.

Cook had already said that Apple used a "build ahead" approach, to get more imports done before the tariff announcement for the third quarter. While he didn't comment on the unexpectedly higher severity of Trump's tariffs, he said that Apple estimates that "the tariffs will add $900 million to our costs for the third fiscal quarter."


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Apple's App Store has been around for 17 years, and there's a rich history and a wealth of apps to discover. Here's what you need to know, and how to get started with it.


Image Credit: Apple
While the iPhone first hit the market in June 2007, the iOS App Store was not released until July 10, 2008. At launch, it featured 500 applications, which included landmark titles for the time like Bejewled and social media apps like FaceBook and MySpace Mobile.

Apple would later launch the Mac App Store, with it first surfacing on January 6, 2011, as part of a free Mac OS X 10.6.6 update.


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Even if you're still relying on noisy gas generators, it isn't too late to start switching to solar and battery solutions from Bluetti, and save big thanks to federal tax credits and trade-in subsidy.


Go green with Bluetti's solar and portable power solutions
Switching to solar and battery-based energy in the U.S. can actually save you some money on taxes. And no, this isn't something for the distant future — it's happening right now.

Thanks to the U.S. Residential Clean Energy Credit, you can score a 30% federal tax credit on eligible solar systems and home batteries through 2032. So, with the right setup like the AC500 Home Battery Backup, you're not just saving on your electricity bill — you could also get a portion of your purchase back when tax season rolls around.


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As Apple again earns more in a quarter than predicted, it's also been hit by a punishing legal ruling. There are also new iPhone 17 dummies, and a "portable" Mac mini, all on the AppleInsider Podcast.


A current iPhone showing images of dummy models for the forthcoming iPhone 17 range
Apple did reveal that it's earned more in the last quarter than expected, though Tim Cook is a little inconsistent over whether there was any affect from how buyers then expected tariffs that were due to be a little steep. He also did not say directly that the tariffs turned out to be calamitously high, but he has predicted a $900 million cost to the company in the next quarter.

While that's more money than you earn in a dozen lifetimes, it's not going to put Apple out of business. Nor will the firm be finished after it took its near total victory over Epic Games and this week found a new way to lose anyway.


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Apple's Tim Cook attended President Trump's gathering of business CEOs via satellite, and committed the company to working with the administration.


Tim Cook speaking at a Trump press call via satellite — image credit: Fox
Cook has continued his political handling of Trump that's previously included conversations and meetings, which led to the president granting Apple a tariff exemption, despite then immediately denying that he had. This time, Cook appeared by satellite at a publicity meeting between Trump and around 20 business leaders, on April 30, 2025, according to Fox Business.

After apologizing that he couldn't be present in person, Cook repeated his regular remark that, "Apple could only have been created in the United States."


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After a judge ordered Apple to remove all barriers to links and external purchases, the company has updated its guidelines to reflect the ruling while it appeals.


Developers are ready to take advantage of external purchases
It's been a rough 24 hours for Apple, as earnings results were second-guessed by analysts and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple's external purchase rules were a willful violation of an injunction. Epic Games has also been doing rounds celebrating the ruling, coaching others on how to bypass Apple's commission.

The new guidelines were first discovered by 9to5Mac, highlighting the updated language around external payments and links. Apple promised it would comply with the order while it appeals.


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Despite calling Apple's Q2 earnings solid, which did beat Wall Street expectations, some analysts are suggesting customers rushing to beat tariffs helped keep numbers up in uncertain conditions.


iPhone pricing could change to help with tariff costs
Apple CEO Tim Cook got ahead of its earnings with a statement to CNBC suggesting that it didn't see a significant pull-forward in demand in Q2 2025. The company beat Wall Street estimates with $95.4 billion in revenue.

Some analysts, however, aren't buying that narrative from Apple. Each report viewed by AppleInsider insists that pull-forward demand caused by panic buying before the extreme tariffs in April buoyed the quarter.


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Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that half of iPhones are coming from India, everything else from Vietnam, and the bare minimum from China when shipping to the United States.


iPhone shipments will be split between India and China
There have been a lot of questions around how Apple will deal with the Trump administration's extreme tariffs, and there are finally some answers — at least for the short term. Since China has been hit with 125% tariffs, Apple will maneuver around this by minimizing products going from China to the United States.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, in response to an analyst question on the Q2 earnings call, devices delivered to the United States will originate primarily from Vietnam except for iPhones. Half of iPhone shipments will come from India, while the other half will continue to come from China.


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Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company avoided any early financial impact of the expected tariffs during Q1 2025 — but he predicts a $900 million hit in its next quarter.


Apple CEO Tim Cook — image credit: Apple
Apple's latest earnings call covered the quarter ending March 31, 2025, which was before Trump announced his tariff plan and sent technology stocks collapsing. The quarter was also one in which Apple launched multiple significant products, from the updated Mac Studio and MacBook Air, to the brand-new iPhone 16e.

Consequently, the results reported in the call show the benefits of the product launches, and none of the figures were affected by the tariffs. However, in reports ahead of the call, Cook did comment on the question of whether panic buying had set in among consumers, prior to the tariff announcement.


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With escalating U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports and mounting supply chain pressures, Tim Cook has made it clear that Apple is intensifying its manufacturing shift to India to sustain its iPhone supply.


iPhone 16e
Foxconn, Apple's largest assembly partner, plans to double iPhone production in India by the end of 2025, aiming to produce 25-30 million units, up from approximately 12 million in 2024. Tata Electronics has also commenced operations at new facilities, including one in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, supporting increased output of older iPhone models.

"If you look at the quarter that we're now inif you look at the US, over half of the U.S. sales of iPhone come from India," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a May 1 interview with CNBC, highlighting the scale of Apple's India manufacturing shift.


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It is a tumultuous time for Apple investors, but some good news came from Apple's earnings on Thursday as stock buybacks continue unabated at $100 billion, and dividends are rising to $0.26 per share.


Apple's $100 billion in buybacks arrive at a good time in the market
While these numbers may seem significant given the current uncertainty provided by extreme tariffs, they're in line with what Apple announced in May 2024. That year-ago buyback was set at $110 billion and also had a 4% raise in dividends.

An announcement made live on CNBC with information provided by Apple revealed the buyback program. It is set at $100 billion this time around.


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Apple has reported the fiscal results for the second quarter of 2025, with the financials revealing Apple may have benefited a little but perhaps not as much as expected from consumer tariff fears, earning $95.4 billion in the quarter.


Apple CEO Tim Cook [left], CFO Kevan Parekh [right]
Following the blockbuster Q1 quarter and the benefits of holiday sales to Apple's bottom line, Q2 is usually a fair bit lower in comparison. However, at Apple's scale, the figures are still very important to the company.

In the second quarter, Apple's revenue of $95.4 billion is up 5% year-on-year from the $90.75 billion reported in Q2 2024. This is also above the Wall Street Consensus, which believed Apple would haul in $94.42 billion as an average.


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AirPods, Apple Watch, Macs, iPads, and accessories are all on sale, with Mother's Day deals knocking up to 43% off popular gift ideas.


Save up to $600 on Apple products for Mother's Day.

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Following Apple's sanctioning for violating an injunction to remove anti-steering measures, Epic Games is launching Webshops to make it easier for third-party developers to handle out-of-app purchases for iOS apps.


The Epic Games Store is available in the EU.
Epic is seemingly having a very good Thursday, with Apple smarting from a ruling by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers that it didn't do enough to meet the terms of an injunction issued in 2021. Capitalizing on the ruling, Epic says it will help iOS developers introduce alternative purchase methods to apps, without needing to pay Apple's 27% commission fee.

In a post to the Epic Games Store, Epic Games says that it is making two changes that affects developers in June. The first is the introduction of Epic Games Store Webshops, a way for developers to launch their own webshops hosted by the Epic Games Stores.


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SanDisk's Extreme Pro SSD has been recently updated, adding USB4 connectivity. It's a good, but expensive, external option for Mac owners assuming you never need to connect it to Windows.


SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB 4
It's safe to say that content creators and others who work in video are very familiar with SanDisk's range of external drives. The SanDisk Extreme range is well known, in part for having its built-in lanyard attachment point in the corner for hooking to a carabiner or a keychain.

The range also includes a Pro line, which offered a very similar concept, but with considerably faster storage — just not really for Mac.


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B&H's world-class creative expo returns to New York City — and best of all, it's free to attend.


Image Credit: B&H Photo, Bild Expo
B&H has been committed to supporting audio and visual artists since 1973. In 2023, it held its first Bild Expo to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Now, Bild Expo returns for its second year, inviting creatives to connect across both skill levels and industries.


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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is once again accusing Apple of shutting out competition, framing open-source AI as the latest move in a long-running fight over who controls the future of mobile platforms.


Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Policies enacted by Apple for iPhone have long banned embedded app frameworks from third parties, affecting companies like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Apple says these restrictions are necessary to protect user privacy and system integrity.

In a new interview with Stratechery, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed those iOS policies stifled Facebook's early platform vision. He said Apple blocked the company's mobile platform plans over a decade ago, killing a key part of its business.


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The UK's Court of Appeal has declared Apple's payment to patent troll Optis Cellular for standard-essential 4G payment royalties is too low, with the iPhone maker now on the hook for $502 million.


4G patents have been expensive for Apple
In 2022, the UK's High Court determined that Apple had infringed on standard essential patents concerning 4G technology, and therefore had to pay Optis royalties. While there was the prospect of Apple paying out billions in royalties to Optis, the High Court decided on a much lower charge of $56.43 million, plus interest.

Based on a challenge on the amount from Optis, the Court of Appeal agreed that it was too low, and Apple should pay more. According to Reuters, Apple has to pay Optis $502 million for the use of the 4G patents in iPhones and other cellular devices.


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Following the ruling that Apple has willfully violated the anti-steering aspect of the Epic vs Apple trial, the company must make specific changes to the App Store. Here's what it must immediately do, and what this all means for Apple, developers, and users.


App Store icon on an iPhone
Apple won the trial against Epic Games, which was started by the games company intentionally violating its App Store agreements. But Apple did lose on one count regarding how developers can and can't direct users away from the App Store.

Epic Games pressed on this point and has now won a victory with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreeing that Apple violated an anti-steering injunction. Describing Apple's subsequent actions as "gross insubordination," Judge Rogers not only repeated the anti-steering injunction, but specified steps in particular detail to prevent Apple being able to do anything but comply.


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The Epic Games "Fortnite" versus Apple's AppStore antitrust trial has completed its last week. Here's what you need to know about the saga, with closing arguments left to go. Between Epic CEO Tim Sweeney's ongoing complaints, the trial, and Apple's lies, the Epic vs. Apple App Store lawsuit continues to roll on years later. Here's all you need to know about the long-running courtroom drama, updated on May 1, 2025.


Within the space of a few weeks in 2020, a disagreement between the ambitions of Epic Games and the intention to maintain the App Store status quo by Apple courted considerable controversy. The affair commenced with little warning to consumers but quickly led to international interest as the battle sought to change one of the fundamental elements of the App Store: how much Apple earns.

Apple's dominance has previously led to an antitrust probe by the U.S. Justice Department into the App Store's fees and policies. Still, the disagreement between Apple and Epic was being made more public and directly affected younger customers.



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Apple gained significant market share in early 2025, growing 13 percent while the global smartphone market remained essentially flat.


Pro iPhone models
Apple outpaced the broader smartphone market in Q1 2025, shipping 55 million iPhone units and increasing its global share to 19 percent, up from 16 percent a year earlier, according to Canalys Research's April report.

The overall smartphone market grew just 0.2 percent year over year, reaching 296.9 million units. Apple's 13 percent growth stood out, driven by strong demand for the budget-focused iPhone 16e and sales momentum in the United States and emerging Asia Pacific markets.


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Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has ruled that an Apple executive willfully lied to the court and attorneys did not correct those lies about Apple's 27% commission fee in the company's high-profile legal fight against Epic Games.


The Fortnite battle continues to roll on for Apple - Image Credit: Epic Games
Apple has taken a battering in the continuing legal battle with Epic Games over App Store rules. While Apple was found to have violated a 2021 injunction to remove anti-steering barriers, one of its executives has also been called out for lying under oath.

During the trial, Apple VP of Finance Alex Roman "outright lied" to the court, the filing from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers declared on Wednesday, reports CNBC. Rogers wrote that Roman had lied to maintain the belief that evidence of internal discussions about a 27% commission fee on some purchases linked to the App Store was real, when it was not.


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The Satechi Mac Mini M4 Hub & Stand is an elegant and compact way to expand a Mac mini's ports and storage, but there are three major problems with it.


Satechi Mac Mini M4 Hub & Stand
As far as connectivity options, the Mac mini has a decent amount available, but users can always add more. This is usually in the form of a hub that simply brings more ports and connections to the table.

Expanding a Mac's utility, be it by using a hub to add ports or an external drive for storage capacity, also means more desk space is used up. This is not great, especially if users don't want to see extra enclosures littering their desk's surface and spoiling an otherwise tidy or minimal workspace.


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Apple provided a brief statement following a ruling from a judge that Apple had violated the anti-steering injunction handed down after the Epic versus Apple trial.


Apple disagrees with ruling
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple willfully violated an injunction that required the company to throw out its anti-steering practices. The company did offer a new set of rules, but it required complicated linking solutions and a 27% commission.

Apple provided a statement about the matter late Wednesday, which says that it disagrees with the ruling.


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Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has made an offer to Apple — end external commissions globally and get "Fortnite" back on the App Store and a cease in litigation.


'Fortnite' could finally return to the App Store, for real this time. Image source: Epic Games
Apple just got slapped with an incredible ruling from Judge Gonzalez Rogers after the company failed to honor the spirit of the injunction that aimed to eliminate anti-steering practices. As a result, Apple must stop all commissions on purchases made outside the App Store, and it must end all controls over external linking too.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney sees this as a significant victory and offers to share in the spoils. He says all Apple has to do is extend the Judge's new ruling out of the United States to the rest of the world. Then, and only then, will Epic return Fortnite to the App Store "next week."


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The battle between Apple and Epic Games goes on as Judge Gonzalez Rogers finds Apple in violation of an injunction, which may result in Apple being charged with contempt by federal prosecutors.


Apple vs Epic continues. Image source: Epic Games
The Epic vs Apple trial began as a result of Epic Games deliberately violating App Store rules in order to create a marketing campaign against Apple. The results had Apple win on every aspect except one — anti-steering.

Apple was ordered via a 2021 injunction to remove anti-steering barriers for third-party businesses, but Apple's App Store changes didn't satisfy Epic Games. A complaint was filed in March, which resulted in a very critical ruling on April 30 from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.


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The AirBorne vulnerability disclosed on Tuesday affects millions of products, including Apple's discontinued and fan-favorite AirPort routers. A petition hopes to change that.


AirPort Express was discontinued in 2018
While the Oligo report didn't discuss AirPort routers directly, the discontinued products are affected by AirBorne. The vulnerability can lead to wormable, zero-click exploits that can infect any connected device on a network with malware.

According to a petition filed on change.org by IT professional and developer Gary Longsine, AirPort routers that are still in use today will be rendered immediately obsolete without updates. Apple discontinued the routers in 2018 and provided the last firmware update in June 2019.


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Apple has issued warnings to select iPhone users, whom the company believes may have been targeted by mercenary spyware.


Apple has warned some users of a mercenary spyware attack on iOS.
In 2021, Apple announced it would alert iOS users to state-sponsored spyware attacks that it detects. Since then, the iPhone maker has sent such notifications on multiple occasions, often notifying users in more than 90 countries.

Apple has now issued another alert, according to a TechCrunch report published on Wednesday. Specifically, warnings were received by Dutch political activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek and Italian journalist Ciro Pellegrino, among others. Apple reportedly alerted users across 100 countries, saying that they were the targets of mercenary spyware.


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Sonnet has maintained its excellent reputation for quality accessories for Mac users, with the new Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock offering tons of ports and even fast storage expansion too.


Sonnet's Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock
A staple of Mac desktops is the Thunderbolt dock, a device that can take advantage of the massive bandwidth of Thunderbolt connections and share it out to a ton of peripherals. With the advent of Thunderbolt 5, a new wave of docks are emerging, taking advantage of the extra available bandwidth.

Sonnets attempt at the product category, the Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock, is one that aims to provide a lot of utility to consumers using that bandwidth. Both in terms of what they could connect up to their Mac and in terms of storage capabilities.


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Razer's recent release of its own PC Remote Play app pits it against the incumbent PC game streaming king, Steam Link. Here's what to know about the two gaming heavyweights' remote gaming apps running on iPhone, iPad, and sometimes Mac.


Razer PC Remote Play [left], Steam Link [right]
Game peripherals maker Razer released its PC Remote Play app to the App Store in April. The app, an extension of its existing software work in gaming, provides a way for gamers to play Windows games on an iOS or iPadOS device.

Aside from being useful, it's also a helpful promotional tool for its accessory lineup, which includes the Razer Kishi game controller for iPhone.


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Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed in court testimony that the company hopes to strike a deal with Apple by mid-2025 to bring its Gemini AI technology to Apple Intelligence.


Apple Intelligence
During a federal antitrust trial on April 29, Pichai said Google is in discussions with Apple to integrate Gemini into Apple Intelligence, the AI system expected to power upcoming versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The testimony was first reported by Reuters.

Gemini is Google's family of AI models, developed by Alphabet's DeepMind unit. It includes Gemini Nano, optimized for mobile devices, and Gemini Ultra for high-performance computing. The system is capable of summarizing content, generating code, and performing complex language tasks.


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Fearing regulation and the need for costly new systems verifying the age of users, Meta and Spotify are among a group lobbying Washington to have Apple and Google deal with it for them.


App Store icon
In March 2025, Utah became the first state to require Apple and others to add age verification. That legal requirement is explicitly directed at Google and Apple, rather than any third-party app developers.

Plus Apple has already announced and begun implementing a series of age verification-related steps for iOS. This again sees the burden falling on Apple.


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We've got our hands on iPhone 17 mockups. Here's what the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Air will look like, and feel like once they ship in September 2025.


All four of the rumored iPhone 17 models
Most case manufacturers don't get any support from Apple. All of the companies involved have to get a let-up on competition to get an early piece of the iPhone case market, and launching cases that work with new iPhones every year is a billion-dollar industry.

To further that end, dummy units are produced in spring by case and accessory manufacturers. All of the firms source design files from sometimes sketchy sources for the new phones to get as early a start as possible on designing and manufacturing products.


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Amazon-owned Woot has launched a flash deal valid today only on a closeout 16-inch MacBook Pro that's equipped with an impressive 8TB of storage and 32GB of RAM.


Save $3,400 on an 8TB MacBook Pro.
If you're looking for a significant amount of storage, Woot's MacBook Pro flash sale has dropped the 16-inch M1 Max model to $1,899.99 on April 30 only.

Save $3,600


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The average price of iPhone models sold in the U.S. continues to rise as Apple adjusts its lineup, despite more buyers skipping the Pro models.


iPhone 16 lineup
In the first quarter of 2025, the U.S. Weighted Average Retail Price (US-WARP) for iPhones rose to $971, up from $953 in the fourth quarter of 2024. That $18 increase reflects shifting dynamics in Apple's lineup, according to new data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).

Apple stopped reporting iPhone Average Selling Price in late 2018, after its fourth-quarter earnings call. Since then, analysts have relied on third-party metrics like US-WARP to track how much customers are actually paying.


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Following CHIPS act funding, Apple's iPhone processor manufacturer TSMC has continued its Arizona investment with the company breaking ground on a third chip fabrication facility.


TSMC has broken ground on a third processor facility in Arizona
Five years after it first announced plans to build one processor plant in Arizona, TSMC has now begun work on its third, benefiting from funding it got from the CHIPS Act signed in 2022.

President Trump now vocally opposes the CHIPS Act, despite setting up a new monitoring framework for it. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick was nonetheless on hand to credit Trump with the new factory.


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Even though the saga started after the fiscal quarter ended, Apple's Q2 financial results are going to be profoundly different thanks to the Trump tariffs. Here's what to expect from the results on May 1.


Apple CEO Tim Cook
As regular as clockwork, Apple will be reporting its Q2 2025 earnings on May 1, with the results released ahead of the standard analyst and investor conference call at 5p.m. Eastern.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook will be on the call, along with newly-installed CFO Kevan Parekh, to discuss the results and to take on questions from analysts.


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Apple's performing another executive reshuffle, with the managerial teams of the Apple Music and Global Affairs divisions being moved around as the company continues to optimize its operations.


Apple Music
Apple regularly reshuffles its leadership to improve its development of future services, and the operation of existing ones too. Following after a reshuffle of robotics away from AI teams, Apple has turned its attention to Music and Global Affairs.

According to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the changes on Wednesday, Apple has moved around the management of both arms in a continuation of the process.


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Released on Wednesday, The GameSir X5 Lite is a low-priced iPhone game controller that can stretch to fit an iPad mini while still costing less than $40.


GameSir X5 Lite review: a low-priced USB-C grip controller
Wraparound controllers have been a thing for ages, but they were held back by Apple's reliance on the Lightning port and the costly MFi program. Since Apple's switch to USB-C in iPhone and iPad, there has been a slow trickle of new controllers from many manufacturers.

The latest entry is the GameSir X5 Lite, which brings all the functionality someone will need to play any controller-compatible game on iPhone or iPad. It strips out all the unnecessary cruft to offer bare minimum specs at a very low price.


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Tata has opened a new iPhone factory in India, while a new Foxconn operation is now just days away from being operational, but it's continuing Apple's years of moving away from China, rather than being a response to the "reciprocal" tariffs.


Apple's iPhone 16e is among the models to be built by a new Foxconn plant in India
Tata's new iPhone plant has been planned since 2024, when it bought Pegatron's facility in Hosur in Tamil Nadu. That sale happened after a fire closed the factory, but Tata already owned an ex-Wistron iPhone plant and announced it would next build one itself.

Now according to Reuters, the new Tata facility in Hosur is operational. It has reportedly begun manufacturing within the last few days, and is producing older iPhone models.


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Keeping your kids safe online might seem scary, but it's simple with Mac. Learn how to set up parental controls for your child's Mac in macOS Sequoia.


How to enable parental controls on macOS Sequoia
Raising kids today can be tough, especially when you realize you need to protect them just as much online as you do in the real world. After all, you want to ensure your child is familiar with technology that they'll be expected to use for school, for future jobs, and to participate in society.

However, it's hardly a secret that the internet is often unkind and unsafe, especially for children.


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The Icemag 2 Power Bank is a bold and innovative battery perfect for mobile gamers.


Icemag 2 Power Bank review
A good magnetic charger can save your phone from certain death, but sometimes leaving it attached in your pocket results in a heat warning. The Icemag offers a solution by attaching a heatsink and fan to the bottom, complete with RGB lighting.

Sharge was founded in 2020, specializing in consumer electronics like batteries, wires, and SSD enclosures.


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The iPhone 17 range is only a few months away, and now, yet another video showcases the planned design changes through dummy units.


Dummy units indicate that the iPhone 17 range will introduce major design changes. Image Credit: AppleTrack on YouTube
Over the past several weeks, we've seen plenty of iPhone 17 dummy units, and they all suggest that Apple's 2025 iPhone range will be noticeably different from the current iPhone 16. The iPhone 17 Pro is expected to feature a new rear "camera bar" design. An all-new ultra-thin model, known as the iPhone 17 Slim or iPhone 17 Air, is expected to get the same visual treatment.

Videos of dummy units keep popping up, and while they all feature variations of the same design, sometimes they offer unique or interesting details about Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 line. On Tuesday, AppleTrack published a video that compares the rumored iPhone 17 designs to the iPhone 16 range, and it gives a sense of how the new devices will feel in the hand.


Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible


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The third-generation Apple Watch SE might be just a hair larger than the current model, as a new leak details two possible display sizes for the device.


The next-generation Apple Watch SE might feature larger displays.
Introduced in 2020, the Apple Watch SE is the budget-friendly member of Apple's smartwatch lineup, primarily geared toward first-time buyers. With the SE, Apple delivers older technology in a relatively modern form factor, which allows for a lower price point.

In 2022, the Apple Watch SE gained the S8 chip and received a 30% larger display compared to its predecessor. Rumors suggest a new version of the SE will debut in 2025, and it looks like we'll see larger screens on the SE once again.


Rumor Score: 🤯 Likely


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Apple will eventually make the iPhone in the United States, as soon as it has the "robotic arms" to do so, CEO Tim Cook allegedly told U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.


A robot arm used to recycle iPhones, not manufacture them - Image Credit: Apple
The Trump Administration has long held the narrative that Apple will be bringing production of the iPhone to the United States. While the prospect of that happening is still far off, it apparently seems like there's one little obstacle in the way, if U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is to be believed.



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In a new Thunderbolt 5 world, the Minisforum TB4-1 12-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Dock is a reasonably inexpensive way to add legacy ports plus 2.5 gigabit Ethernet to any Mac made since 2016.


Minisforum TB4-1 12-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Dock review: The front port panel.
It's seemingly not hard for a company to create a dock for a Mac or PC user to add to their setup. But, with the market getting saturated with very similar hardware and a few top-tier options, you have to offer something a bit different to catch a potential buyer's attention.

Sometimes, that can be by creating an interesting exterior design. Others tweak the specifications to offer a bit more benefit than the generic models.


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Apple has released a new website called Snapshot, which looks like it's a guide to find out more about the stars of Apple Music, Apple TV+, and sports, although it's initially rather limited.


A selection of the 36 artists, athletes, and actors profiled on the new Snapshot
Apple has occasionally tried spotlighting particular celebrities, whether that's musicians through its failed Ping service, or the more successful Apple Music list of the Best 100 Albums. Now it has launched a more broad but a little shallow celebration of "the artists, actors, and athletes you love across Apple."

The new Snapshot website at snapshot.apple.com presents 36 celebrities who feature in Apple Music, Apple TV+, or Apple sports coverage. They're presented as a name and photo in a pair of lists that slowly scroll horizontally.


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I’m Marco Arment, creator of Overcast, technology podcaster and writer, and coffee enthusiast.

Today, on the tenth anniversary of Overcast 1.0, I’m happy to launch a complete rewrite and redesign of most of the iOS app, built to carry Overcast into the next decade — and hopefully beyond.

Like podcasts better than blog posts? Listen to ATP #596 for more!

What’s new

• Much faster, more responsive, more reliable, and more accessible.
• Modern design, optimized for easily-reached controls on today’s phone sizes.
• Improvements throughout, such as undoing large seeks, new playlist-priority options, easier navigation, and more.

What’s not

• Most features. Overcast is still Overcast!
• The audio engine. It’s the best part of Overcast, and still leads the industry in sound quality, silence skipping, and volume normalization. (More soon!)
• The business. I’m still a one-person operation, with no funding or external ownership, serving only my customers.
• My principles. I always want to make the best podcast app, and I’ll never disrespect your time, attention, or privacy.

What’s gone

Streaming. Most big podcasts now use dynamic ad insertion, which causes bugs and problems for streaming playback.¹ Downloading episodes completely before they begin playback is much more reliable.

Tapping a non-downloaded episode will now open the playback screen, download it, then start playback. It works similarly to the way streaming did before, but playback begins after the download completes, not after a portion of it is buffered.

On today’s fast networks, this usually only takes a few extra seconds.

And in the near future, I’ll be adding smarter options and more control over selective downloading of episodes to further improve the experience for people who don’t automatically download every episode.

What’s next

• The last few missing features from the old app, such as Shortcuts support, storage management, and OPML. These are absent now, but will return soon.
• More options for downloading and deleting episodes.
• Upgrading the Apple Watch app to the new, faster sync engine. (The Watch app is currently unchanged from the previous one.)

And, of course, more features, including some of your most-requested features over the last decade.

Getting this rewrite out the door was a monumental task. Thank you for your patience as I work through this list!

Why?

Most of Overcast’s core code was 10 years old, which made it cumbersome or impossible to easily move with the times, adopt new iOS functionality, or add new features, especially as one person.

That’s why there haven’t been many new features or changes in years.

You saw it, and I saw it. I wasn’t able to serve my customers as well as I wanted.

For Overcast to have a future, it needed a modern foundation for its second decade. I’ve spent the past 18 months rebuilding most of the app with Swift, SwiftUI, Blackbird, and modern Swift concurrency.

Now, development is rapidly accelerating. I’m more responsive, iterating more quickly, and ultimately making the app much better.

Thank you all so much for the first decade of Overcast.

Here’s to the next one.

1. Dynamic ad insertion (DAI) splices ads into each download, and no two downloads are guaranteed to have the same number or duration of ads. So, for example, if the first half of an episode downloads, then the download fails, and it downloads the second half with another request, the combined audio may jump forward or back at the halfway mark, losing or repeating content. ↩︎

Overcast’s latest update (2022.2) brings the largest redesign in its nearly-eight-year history, plus many of the most frequently requested features and lots of under-the-hood improvements. I’m pretty proud of this one.

For this first and largest phase of the redesign, I focused on the home screen, playlist screen, typography, and spacing. (I plan to revamp the now-playing and individual-podcast screens in a later update.)

The home screen is radically different:

Home screen, before (left) and after (right).

• Playlists now have strong visual identities for nicer and easier navigation. Each playlist has a customizable color, and a custom icon can be selected from over 3,000 SF Symbols to match modern iOS design and the other icons within Overcast.

  And playlists can be manually reordered with drag-and-drop.

• Recently played and newly published episodes can now be displayed on the home screen for quick access, much like the widget and CarPlay experience.

• Podcasts can now be pinned to the top of the home-screen list.

  Pinned podcasts can also be manually reordered with drag-and-drop.

I’ve also rethought the old stacked “Podcasts” and “Played Podcasts” sections to better match people’s needs and expectations. Now, the toggle atop the podcast list switches between three modes: podcasts with current episodes, all followed podcasts, and inactive podcasts (those that you don’t follow and therefore won’t get any more episodes from, or haven’t posted a new episode in a long time).

The playlist screen’s structure remains mostly the same, while refining the design for the modern era:

Playlist screen, before (left) and after (right).

Here, it’s more apparent that I’ve replaced the system San Francisco font with an alternate variant, San Francisco Rounded, to increase legibility and better match the personality of the app.

I’ve also added highly demanded features:

• By far, Overcast’s most-requested feature is a Mark as Played feature. That’s now available as a checkmark button on episode rows, as well as a left-side swipe action.
• The second-most-requested feature is a way to view all starred episodes. Special playlists for Starred, Downloaded, and In Progress can now be created.

The light and dark themes now each have a customizable tint color from the modern iOS UI-color palette, including these favorites from beta testers:

And throughout the app, I’ve made tons of tweaks and bug fixes, including:

• Notifications and background downloads are now much more reliable.
• Episode downloads can now be individually deleted or re-downloaded.
• Links can now be opened in Safari. (under Nitpicky Details)
• Performance is now significantly better with very large playlists and collections.
• Fixed bugs with episode-duration detection, CarPlay lists, Mac-app sharing, and much more. So much is better in this update that I can’t even remember it all.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me beta-test this massive update.

As always, Overcast is free in the App Store. Go get it!

Losing Steve affected me more than it probably should have, given that I never met him or had any correspondence with him.

But losing him was devastating — not just to my world, but the world.

He was a sort of virtual father figure: I was always hoping that maybe Steve would notice something I did.

We all wanted his attention and approval, and that drove us to do better work — even those of us who never worked at Apple.

Nobody replaced him in this role. Nobody can.

But as an outsider who had no personal relationship with him to mourn, it has been most depressing to consider how much of his work the world missed out on.

He wasn’t taken from us after a long, complete life — he was taken in his prime.

He had so much more to offer the world.

After the dust settles from the developer class-action settlement, the South Korean law, the JFTC announcement, and the Apple v. Epic decision, I think the most likely long-term outcome isn’t very different from the status quo — and that’s a good thing.

Allowing external purchases

Here’s what I think we’ll end up with:

• Apple will still require apps to use their IAP system for any qualifying purchases that occur in the apps themselves.
• All app types will be allowed to link out to a browser for other purchase methods.

• Most apps will be required to also offer IAP side-by-side with any external methods.¹

  Only “Reader apps” will be exempt from this requirement.²

• Apple will have many rules regarding the display, descriptions, and behavior of external purchases, many of which will be unpublished and ever-changing. App Review will be extremely harsh, inconsistent, capricious, petty, and punitive with their enforcement.³
• Apple won’t require price-matching between IAP and external purchases.

These few but important corrections reduce Apple’s worst behavior and should relieve most regulatory pressure.

The result won’t look much different than the status quo:

Most big media apps (qualifying as “reader” apps) won’t offer IAP, but will finally be allowed to link to their websites from their apps and offer purchases there.

Many games will offer both IAP and external purchases, with the external choice offering a discount, bonus gems, extra loot boxes, or other manipulative tricks to optimize the profitability of casino games for children (commissions from which have been the largest portion of Apple’s “services revenue” to date).

Most importantly, many products, services, and business models will become possible that previously weren’t, leading to more apps, more competition, and more money going to more places.

External purchase methods will evolve to be almost as convenient as IAP (especially if Apple Pay is permitted in this context), and payment processors will reduce the burden of manual credit-card entry with shared credentials available across multiple apps.

The payment-fraud doomsday scenarios argued by Apple and many fans mostly won’t happen, in part because App Review will prevent most obvious cases, but also because parents don’t typically offer their credit cards to untrustworthy children; and for buyers of all ages, most credit cards themselves provide stronger fraud prevention and easier recourse from unwanted charges than the App Store ever has.

No side-loading

I don’t expect side-loading or alternative app stores to become possible, and I’m relieved, because that is not a future I want for iOS.

When evaluating such ideas, I merely ask myself:

“What would Facebook do?”

Facebook owns four of the top ten apps in the world. If side-loading became possible, Facebook could remove Instagram, WhatsApp, the Facebook app, and Messenger from Apple’s App Store, requiring customers to install these extremely popular apps directly from Facebook via side-loading.

And everyone would.

Most people use a Facebook-owned app not because it’s a good app, but because it’s a means to an important end in their life. Social pressure, family pressure, and network lock-in prevent most users from seeking meaningful alternatives. People would jump through a few hoops if they had to.

Facebook would soon have apps that bypassed App Review installed on the majority of iPhones in the world.

Technical limitations of the OS would prevent the most egregious abuses, but there’s a lot they could still do. We don’t need to do much imagining — they already have attempted multiple hacks, workarounds, privacy invasions, and other unscrupulous and technically invasive behavior with their apps over time to surveil user behavior outside of their app and stay running longer in the background than users intend or expect.

The OS could evolve over time to reduce some of these vulnerabilities, but technical measures alone cannot address all of them.

Without the threat of App Review to keep them in check, Facebook’s apps would become even more monstrous than they already are.

As a user and a fan of iOS, I don’t want any part of that.

No alternative app stores

Alternative app stores would be even worse. Rather than offering individual apps via side-loading, Facebook could offer just one:

The Facebook App Store.

Instagram, WhatsApp, the Facebook app, and Messenger could all be available exclusively there.

The majority of iOS users in the world would soon install it, and Facebook would start using leverage in other areas — apps’ social accounts, stats packages, app-install ads, ad-attribution requirements — to heavily incentivize (and likely strong-arm) a huge number of developers to offer their apps in the Facebook App Store, likely in addition to Apple’s.

Maybe I’d be required to add the Facebook SDK to my app in order to be in their store, which they would then use to surveil my users.

Maybe I’d need to buy app-install ads to show up in search there at all.

Maybe I’d need to pay Facebook to “promote” each app update to reach more than a tiny percentage of my existing customers.

And Facebook wouldn’t even be the only app store likely to become a large player on iOS.

Amazon would almost certainly bring their garbage “Appstore” to iOS, but at least that one probably wouldn’t go anywhere.

Maybe Google would bring the Play Store to iOS and offer a unified SDK to develop a single codebase for iOS and Android, effectively making every app feel like an Android app and further marginalizing native apps when they’re already hurting.

Media conglomerates that own many big-name properties, like Disney, might each have their own app stores for their high-profile apps. Running your own store means you can promote all of your own apps as much as you want. What giant corporation would resist?

Don’t forget games! Epic and Steam would come to iOS with their own game stores. Maybe Microsoft and Nintendo, too.

Maybe you’d need to install seven different app stores on your iPhone just to get the apps and games you already use — and all without App Review to keep them in check.

Most developers would probably need to start submitting our apps to multiple app stores, each with its own rules, metadata, technical requirements, capabilities, approval delays, payment processing, stats, crash reports, ads, promotion methods, and user reviews.

As a user, a multiple-app-store world sounds like an annoying mess; as a developer, it terrifies me.

Apple’s App Store is the devil we know. The most viable alternatives that would crop up would be far worse.

Course correction

The way Apple runs its business isn’t perfect, but it’s also not a democracy.

I loved this part of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ decision in Apple v. Epic, as quoted by Ben Thompson’s excellent article that you should read:

Apple has not offered any justification for the actions other than to argue entitlement. Where its actions harm competition and result in supracompetitive pricing and profits, Apple is wrong.

I interpret “entitlement” without a negative connotation here — Apple is entitled to run their platform mostly as they wish, with governmental interference only warranted to fix market-scale issues that harm large segments of commerce or society.

As a developer, I’d love to see more changes to Apple’s control over iOS. But it’s hard to make larger changes without potentially harming much of what makes iOS great for both users and developers.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers got it right: we needed a minor course correction to address the most egregiously anticompetitive behavior, but most of the way Apple runs iOS is best left to Apple.

1. If the South Korean law holds, IAP may not be required — but only in South Korea. With this exception, I expect the rest of these rules to be enforced the same way globally. ↩︎

2. Apple defines “reader” apps as “[allowing] a user to access previously purchased content or content subscriptions (specifically: magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video).”

   This includes many apps that Apple’s services compete with, such as Netflix, Spotify, and Kindle, that raise anticompetitive concerns among regulators and legislators when forced to give Apple 30%. ↩︎

3. App Review has higher-level queues for managerial review of controversial rules or edge cases, typically identifiable from the outside by an app stuck with “In Review” status for days or weeks, and often ending in a phone call from “Bill”.

   I’d expect any app offering external purchases to have a very high chance of being escalated to a slower, more pain-in-the-ass review process, possibly causing it not to be worthwhile for most small developers to deal with.

   I have no plans to add external purchases to Overcast for multiple reasons, including this — but mostly because, for my purposes, I’m satisfied with Apple’s IAP system. ↩︎

Apple’s leaders continue to deny developers of two obvious truths:

• That our apps provide substantial value to iOS beyond the purchase commissions collected by Apple.
• That any portion of our customers came to our apps from our own marketing or reputation, rather than the App Store.

For Apple to continue to deny these is dishonest, factually wrong, and extremely insulting — not only to our efforts, but to the intelligence of all Apple developers and customers.

This isn’t about the 30%, or the 15%, or the prohibition of other payment systems, or the rules against telling our customers about our websites, or Apple’s many other restrictions. (Not today, at least.)

It’s about what Apple’s leadership thinks of us and our work.

*     *     *

It isn’t the App Store’s responsibility to the rest of Apple to “pay its way” by leveraging hefty fees on certain types of transactions. Modern society has come to rely so heavily on mobile apps that any phone manufacturer must ensure that such a healthy ecosystem exists as table stakes for anyone to buy their phones.

Without our apps, the iPhone has little value to most of its customers today.

If Apple wishes to continue advancing bizarre corporate-accounting arguments, the massive profits from the hardware business are what therefore truly “pay the way” of the App Store, public APIs, developer tools, and other app-development resources, just as the hardware profits must fund the development of Apple’s own hardware, software, and services that make the iPhone appeal to customers.

The forced App Store commissions, annual developer fees, and App Store Search Ads income are all just gravy. The “way” is already paid by the hardware — but Apple uses their position of power to double-dip.

And that’s just business. Apple’s a lot of things, and “generous” isn’t one.

But to bully and gaslight developers into thinking that we need to be kissing Apple’s feet for permitting us to add billions of dollars of value to their platform is not only greedy, stingy, and morally reprehensible, but deeply insulting.

*     *     *

Apple further extends the value argument, and defends their justification for forced commissions, by claiming responsibility for and ownership of the customer relationship between all iOS users and each app they choose to use.

This argument only makes sense — and even then, only somewhat — when apps are installed by a customer browsing the App Store, finding an app they hadn’t previously heard of, and choosing to install it based on App Store influence alone.

But in the common case — and for most app installations, the much more common case — of searching for a specific app by name or following a link or ad based on its developer’s own marketing or reputation, Apple has served no meaningful role in the customer acquisition and “deserves” nothing more from the transaction than what a CDN and commodity credit-card processor would charge.

The idea that the App Store is responsible for most customers of any reasonably well-known app is a fantasy.

It isn’t the App Store that has enabled all of the commerce on iOS — it’s the entire world of computing and modern society, created by a symbiotic ecosystem in which Apple played one part alongside many others. The world was already moving in this direction, and had Apple not played its part, someone else would’ve. The App Store is merely one platform’s forced distribution gateway, “facilitating” the commerce no more and no less than a web browser, an ISP or cellular carrier, a server-hosting company, or a credit-card processor.

For Apple to continue to claim otherwise is beyond insulting, and borders on delusion.

*     *     *

At WWDC next week, these same people are going to try to tell us a different story.

They’re going to tell us how amazing we are, how important our work is, and how much they value us. And for thousands of Apple employees who’ve made the great products and platforms that we love, including the hundreds of engineers presenting the sessions and working the labs, it’ll be genuine and true.

But the leaders have already shown us who they really are, what they really think of us, and how much they value our work.

Please forgive some sloppiness in my metaphors or phrasing — my writing skills are pretty rusty — and I’ll return the favor to anyone who responds.

A summary of today’s changes to 3.1.3 Other Purchase Methods:

Your app must use Apple’s in-app-purchase (IAP) system for all purchases made in the app.

Unless they’re purchases for goods or services that are consumed outside the app, in which case you are prohibited from using IAP.

Unless those goods or services consumed outside the app are magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, or video, in which case, you are required to use IAP.

But if your app only “reads” previously purchased magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, or video, and doesn’t mention the possibility of purchases anywhere in the app, you don’t need to use IAP.

Unless you offer account creation, in which case, you are required to use IAP.

Unless you only offer free account creation, in which case, you don’t need to use IAP.

But if you offer paid upgrades from free accounts within the app, you are required to use IAP.

Except for accounts that were created outside the app, which can offer paid account upgrades and don’t need to use IAP.

If you’re selling “experiences” between people, you don’t need to use IAP.

Unless those “experiences” include three or more people, or aren’t consumed live, in which case, you are required to use only IAP.

If your purchase is for services, features, or game items, you are required to use only IAP.

Unless you operate on multiple platforms, in which case, you can also offer purchasing outside the app. But you can’t tell anyone about it.

Unless you get their contact info somewhere else, in which case, you can tell them about it, but not in the app.

You are required to use IAP even if you sell your app or service directly to other people.

Unless you only sell it to businesses or groups for their employees or students to use, in which case, you still must use IAP, but you can include your own payment method as well.

Unless those groups are families, or unless those employees or students are somehow “consumers”, in which case, you must only use IAP.

Do I have that right?

*     *     *

How about an alternative that’s clear, fair, reasonable, and consistently enforceable?

Apps may offer other payment mechanisms in their app, as long as terms are clear and customers aren’t misled, and may or may not choose to implement in-app purchase based on its merits.

In one stroke, antitrust and regulatory pressure disappear, developer relations are significantly repaired, and Apple can go back to spending its time, resources, PR, and political capital on making their products better and customers happier.

The latest update to Overcast includes a feature that I’m especially proud of that took over a year to build.

Voice Boost 2 is an all-new audio engine that includes professional-grade, mastering-quality loudness normalization.

When I first introduced Overcast in 2014, Voice Boost was one of its headlining features:

Voice Boost is a combination of dynamic compression and equalization that can make many shows more listenable and normalize volume across all shows. This makes amateur-produced podcasts (including many of my favorites) more listenable in loud environments, like cars, where you’d otherwise need to crank the volume so loudly to hear the quiet parts that you’d blow your ears out when the loudest person spoke.

Voice Boost 2 achieves the same goal as the original Voice Boost, but with dramatically more sophisticated methods, leading to more consistent results and much better sound quality.

Goals

When I wrote the original Voice Boost with only a rudimentary understanding of audio processing, it was a single configuration of Apple’s AudioUnits that applied a fixed set of parameters to all podcasts, regardless of their audio characteristics. It was an effective but blunt tool, relying on aggressive level compression and a strong EQ to make the compression less noticeable.

Since then, I’ve edited over 500 podcasts, learned a lot more about how to master them properly, and developed a much better understanding of audio signal processing.

I set out to develop a better, smarter, and more refined Voice Boost that took advantage of everything I’d learned, with these audio goals:

• The effect should be much more subtle: mostly just consistent volume, plus slightly smoother tone.
• It should analyze the input audio and apply just enough processing to achieve a consistent volume level, modifying already-good audio as little as possible.
• It should sound good, and consistent, regardless of the volume dynamics of its input.
• Quality should be so good that I can even play high-quality music through it¹ and not notice any artifacts.

And these technical goals:

• Like Smart Speed and the original Voice Boost, it had to work as a streaming process, easily toggled on and off at will, without needing to scan the entire file first or look very far ahead.
• The code had to be pure C, with highly optimized and vectorized code, so it wouldn’t be a major power drain on older phones and could potentially run on much lower-power devices as well.
• I had to write every component from scratch, without using AudioUnits, because I wanted to understand and control everything, ensure the highest performance and sound quality, and avoid Apple’s platform-specific API limits.²
• It had to be modular and easily customizable, like a channel strip in an audio editor, so I could adjust the processing during development and testing, offer user customization down the road, and use the same engine to build myself a modular podcast-preproduction tool to save time in my weekly workflow (which I’ve been using for over a year).³

Live LUFS normalization

Since Voice Boost is mostly about high-quality volume analysis and loudness normalization, I went straight to the top, implementing the ITU BS.1770–4 standard that gives us the LUFS measurement seen in high-end audio editors.

Overcast now measures and adjusts podcast levels using this broadcast-standard perceptual loudness algorithm, at full quality, with no preprocessing.

Voice Boost 2 normalizes all podcasts to –14 LUFS — a level I chose because it closely matches the volume of Siri and most iOS turn-by-turn navigation voices, so when you’re listening to a podcast while driving, navigation interruptions are less jarring.

Most professionally produced podcasts are already mastered to similar volume levels, so Voice Boost 2 won’t overcompress them with aggressive processing — it’ll only apply as much correction as necessary to make them all the same volume.

A brief tutorial on clipping and distortion

This is about to get nerdier, but bear with me. (Yes, nerdier than ITU broadcast-loudness standards.)

Given a loudness measurement for the incoming audio, quieter podcasts need to be amplified to reach the target. But perceived loudness isn’t the peak of the incoming audio stream — it’s more of an average. Quiet-sounding audio can still have brief moments of loud peaks.

When increasing the volume of digital audio, the biggest challenge is not “clipping” during the peaks — not having any part of the signal pass above the volume ceiling of 0 dB. (It’s a negative scale. This is also why the LUFS value above, which is closely related to the decibel scale used here, is negative.)

Here’s the highest the signal should go, showing the individual audio samples (green dots) that can be processed by a podcast app before the DAC transforms them into audio (smooth green line):

It’ll sound right as long as the audio doesn’t cross above that top line (0 dB). Increase the volume even slightly too far, and some of the samples just slam into it and stay there, losing the tops of their smooth curves:

And that sounds terrible.

But I can’t just cap all the samples right below the limit and call it a day — that’s called a brickwall limiter — because then the shape of the audio line will actually represent different frequencies, telling the DAC to add noise that wasn’t really there.

Here, the bottom of each image shows the frequency breakdown:

The unclipped signal (left) shows only its original frequency of about 2100 Hz, but a basic brickwall limiter (right) results in the unwanted introduction of a bunch of extra frequencies.

That’s distortion. (If this is interesting to you, learn more about audio sampling theory here.)

Lookahead limiter

Avoiding audible distortion requires a lookahead limiter, which looks… ahead (😎) at the audio coming down the pipeline, and smoothly ramps the volume amplification down as a loud peak is approaching, then back up again afterward, just enough to avoid clipping and audible distortion, but so quickly that you don’t notice.⁴

After Voice Boost 2’s complete 32-bit audio processing pipeline, the last stage is a lookahead limiter, configured such that it can’t clip, no matter what audio comes through.

This gives vast flexibility in volume processing without sacrificing quality.

Voice Boost 2 also incorporates a dynamics compressor, but over time, I’ve kept reducing its strength as I’ve found it less necessary. Proper LUFS processing with a great lookahead limiter provides excellent volume normalization with almost no compression needed afterward.

True-peak detection

There’s one more way to introduce clipping that needs to be guarded against.

Digital audio is represented by samples that represent a point in time (green dots, again) on a sound wave (green line). But the sampled points don’t always land at the exact peaks of those waves:

The most common way to measure the peak of a waveform is to find the greatest absolute sample value. By this method, the top waveform peaks here would measure about –6 dB and –1.5 dB, respectively.

But the actual peak amplitudes of these waves is –1 dB! A simple limiter could still output clipped audio because it’s not seeing the true peaks.

Voice Boost 2’s limiter performs true-peak detection, rather than simply measuring sample peaks, to avoid this type of clipping and further reduce distortion.

Mastering-quality processing for everyone

Voice Boost 2 is a mastering-quality audio-processing pipeline that applies broadcast-standard loudness normalization, light compression and EQ, and a true-peak lookahead limiter to your podcasts, in real time, without sacrificing quality or battery life.

And it runs at less than 1% CPU usage on an iPhone SE.⁵

I intend to expose some of its customizability to customers in future updates, but I wanted to develop and ship the best default settings first to keep the app simple and usable to everyone. Now that it’s available to everyone, I may still subtly tweak the defaults in response to feedback. But as I’ve refined the settings during the beta period to be more universal, less customization has been necessary.⁶

Having achieved its goals of being more consistent and less aggressive, Voice Boost 2 is intentionally transparent. It’s not promoted more in the app or even labeled “Voice Boost 2”. It’s still Voice Boost — just better now.

If I did my job well, you’ll hardly notice it at all. You’ll have no idea that your podcasts are being remastered in your pocket.

But I’ll know. And the handful of you who really care will know. And that’s enough for me.

Voice Boost 2 is in today’s update (2020.1), along with these new features:

• AirPlay 2: Overcast can now play to HomePods and other AirPlay 2 devices much more responsively, with full-blown Smart Speed and Voice Boost, on iOS 13.1 and above.⁷
• Skip intros/outros: There’s a new per-podcast setting to skip a given number of seconds from the start and/or end of its episodes.
• Clip-sharing from private feeds. In retrospect, this restriction was unnecessary, so I lifted it.
• Restored iOS 12 compatibility. Going 13-only so soon was a mistake. Hear why on Under The Radar 181 and 183.

As usual, all of this is free for everyone in Overcast.

1. Those awesome Trey Anastasio acoustic shows are pretty quiet. ↩︎

2. Apple doesn’t make all of their audio APIs available on all platforms: some are Mac-only and never came to iOS, and watchOS has an even smaller subset than iOS. The more I can accomplish in my own code, the less I depend on Apple’s choices for which APIs they make available to developers. ↩︎

3. It’s just a command-line tool for now. You don’t want it. (But if you do… someday, maybe.) ↩︎

4. This all happens in milliseconds. ↩︎

5. At 1X, with Smart Speed enabled.

   Smart Speed was actually entirely rewritten as part of Voice Boost 2, but it’s less interesting. It performs the same job as before, but much more efficiently, and taking advantage of the measured loudness when Voice Boost is also enabled. ↩︎

6. For instance, I also built a de-esser into Voice Boost 2, but it slowly became unnecessary as I improved the other processing, so it’s not currently enabled. ↩︎

7. Smart Speed is a big deal here, I think — I’m not aware of any other podcast apps with silence-skipping over AirPlay 2.

   (Or LUFS normalization, or true-peak lookahead limiters.) ↩︎

In light of today’s rumor that a Pro Mode may be coming that seems to offer benefits in the opposite direction,¹ I wanted to re-make the case for a Low Power Mode on macOS — and explain why now is the time.

Modern hardware constantly pushes thermal and power limits, trying to strike a balance that minimizes noise and heat while maximizing performance and battery life.

Software also plays a role, trying to keep everything background-updated, content-indexed, and photo-analyzed so it’s ready for us when we want it, but not so aggressively that we notice any cost to performance or battery life.

Apple’s customers don’t usually have control over these balances, and they’re usually fixed at design time with little opportunity to adapt to changing circumstances or customer priorities.

The sole exception, Low Power Mode on iOS, seems to be a huge hit: by offering a single toggle that chooses a different balance, people are able to greatly extend their battery life when they know they’ll need it.²

Mac laptops need Low Power Mode, too. I believe so strongly in its potential because I’ve been using it on my laptops (in a way) for years, and it’s fantastic.

I’ve been disabling Intel Turbo Boost on my laptops with Turbo Boost Switcher Pro most of the time since 2015.

In 2018, I first argued for Low Power Mode on macOS with a list of possible tweaks, concluding that disabling Turbo Boost was still the best bang-for-the-buck tweak to improve battery life without a noticeable performance cost in most tasks.³

Recently, as Intel has crammed more cores and higher clocks into smaller form factors and pushed thermal limits to new extremes, the gains have become even more significant. Here’s some thermal testing from my 8-core 16-inch MacBook Pro:

16-inch MacBook Pro (Late 2019, 2.4 GHz 8-core i9)   Power Temp. Geekbench 5 single/multi xcodebuild Normal 82W 90°C 1260/7386 39 sec. No Turbo 31W−62% 65°C 669/5206−46/29% 62 sec.+59%

With Turbo Boost disabled, peak CPU power consumption drops by 62%, with a correspondingly huge reduction in temperature. This has two massive benefits:

• The fans never audibly spin up. When Turbo Boost is enabled, the fans annoyingly spin up every time the system is under a heavy sustained load. Disable it, and it’s almost impossible to get them to be audible.
• It runs significantly cooler. Turbo Boost lets laptops get too hot to comfortably hold in your lap, and so much heat radiates out that it can make hands sweaty. Disable it, and the laptop only gets moderately warm, not hot, and hands stay comfortably dry.

I haven’t done formal battery testing on the 16-inch, since it’s so difficult and time-consuming to do in a controlled way that’s actually useful to people, but anecdotally, I’m seeing similar battery gains by disabling Turbo Boost that I’ve seen with previous laptops: significantly longer battery life that I’d estimate to be between 30–50%.

This comes at a cost to performance, but:

• It’s not noticeable on most workloads.
• Parallel workloads are affected far less than single-threaded tasks, and most modern heavy workloads are parallelized.

• This is an 8-core laptop that’s competitive with my iMac Pro! It’s much faster than most people need (myself included) most of the time, so I can spare some performance to get other benefits.

  A fast laptop isn’t very useful if your hands are too sweaty to type, the battery dies in the middle of a flight, or the loud fans ruin your audio recording.

• When I really want to maximize performance, Turbo Boost Switcher Pro lets me quickly toggle it in the menu bar, so switching between modes is easy.

The vast majority of the time I’m using it, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is a much better laptop with Turbo Boost disabled.

It’s still fast enough to do everything I need (including significant development with Xcode), while remaining silent and cool, with incredible battery life.

But soon, I bet I won’t be able to do this anymore.

Turbo Boost Switcher Pro relies on a kernel extension that’s grandfathered into Apple’s latest security requirements, but it can never be updated — and when macOS Catalina loads it for the first time, it warns that it’ll be “incompatible with a future version of macOS.” I suspect that this is the last year I’ll get to run the latest OS and be able to turn off Turbo Boost at will, making all of my future laptop usage significantly worse.

Please, Apple, make this feature official: give us a Low Power Mode for macOS that disables Turbo Boost to keep our laptops cool, quiet, and long-lasting at times when those are more important to us than speed.

1. My guess is that “Pro Mode” doesn’t raise the peak performance, but instead raises the fan speeds to allow longer sustained operation at high Turbo Boost speeds. ↩︎

2. Low Power Mode has been so successful on iOS that Apple also thought it worthwhile to add a Low Data Mode to iOS 13, offering similar control over data usage. (Mac owners can get similar functionality with the excellent TripMode.) ↩︎

3. As I wrote back then, disabling discrete GPUs and Photos analysis are other obvious contributors to a good Mac Low Power Mode. ↩︎

After my first day with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, I’m very optimistic about it.

🎧  Hear more on today’s Accidental Tech Podcast!

Two years ago, I wrote a wishlist to fix the MacBook Pro, and the 16-inch doesn’t actually deliver most of it. But time and technological progress are slowly getting Apple off the hook:

• The ports are unchanged. We’ll still need dongles. But USB-C is gradually becoming more common, and dongles are slowly — very slowly — getting less shitty.
• The Touch Bar isn’t optional. But a new hardware Esc key removes one of its biggest drawbacks, and accidental input should be reduced by the increased spacing between the Touch Bar and the top row of keys.
• The power brick still lacks its previous conveniences. There’s still no cable management, safety breakaway, or charging LED. But third parties are slowly filling some of these gaps.
• The headphone jack is still on the right (wrong) side, despite most single-sided headphone cables entering the left earcup. But the need for wired headphones is decreasing over time.

Addressing those would be nice, but as I wrote then, they paled in comparison to one huge issue: the butterfly keyboard.

The MacBook Pro must return to scissor keyswitches. If Apple only changes one thing about the next MacBook Pro, it should be this. It’s far more important than anything else on this list. […]

The Magic Keyboard’s scissor switches feel similar, but with a bit more travel, and all of the reliability and resilience of previous keyboard generations. […]

The Magic Keyboard only needs one change to be perfect for the MacBook Pro: returning to the “inverted-T” arrow-key arrangement by making the left- and right-arrow keys half-height again. This arrangement is much more natural and less error-prone because we can align our fingers by feeling the “T” shape, a crucial affordance for such frequently used keys that are so far from the home row.

That’s exactly what they’ve done, and I couldn’t be happier.

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro is a great computer in most other ways, but so were the MacBook Pros from the last few years. They were fast, powerful, capable workstations… but the butterfly keyboard took away from it all.

Not anymore.

I’m on cloud nine. Look at this glorious keyboard! An Esc key! Inverted-T arrow keys! A millimeter of key travel! Enough spacing between the keys for our fingers to accurately orient themselves! And keystrokes will probably work, 100% of the time, for years!

Five years ago, nobody would’ve considered any of these noteworthy, and readers would’ve suspected you weren’t of sound mind if you included them in a review.

Five years ago, laptop keyboards were fine. Everyone was pretty much satisfied with the ones they had, they worked, and we never had to talk or think about them.

Today, finally, we begin heading back to that world.

The butterfly keyboard was an anomaly — it was a huge departure from everything else we’d ever used, mostly not in good ways.

The new keyboard is very similar to the recent desktop Magic Keyboard, and I expect it to have a wide appeal, just as the Magic Keyboard does. It has slightly less travel and spacing, but the overall feeling is very similar — and it’s nothing at all like the butterfly keyboard.

I absolutely love it — not because it’s the most amazing keyboard in the world, but because it’s completely forgettable in the best possible way. It just feels normal again.

There’s a lot more to love about the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The screen and battery are bigger, but the size and weight barely increased. It’s almost as fast as my iMac Pro, and the new thermals can sustain higher performance. The speakers and microphone got huge, unexpected improvements.

And I didn’t get everything I wanted. But many of my wishlist items fall outside of what Apple is likely to ever do, and all of them are much less important than making the computer’s primary input device functional, acceptable, and reliable. Now we have the luxury of being able to complain about less-urgent wishes.

The biggest change is that I finally don’t feel like it’s constantly fighting me. Its design doesn’t feel spiteful. It’s a computer that doesn’t seem to hate being a computer. I’m not afraid to use it in the world, and I’m not avoiding using it because it’s unpleasant. The butterfly keyboard was the opposite, it never got better, I never got used to it, and good riddance to it.

Following in the footsteps of the fantastic iMac Pro, updated Mac Mini, and upcoming Mac Pro, the release of the 16-inch MacBook Pro ends a painful chapter of neglect and hubristic design of the Mac. Apple has finally turned the ship around.

We haven’t had long enough to fully test it yet. There may be flaws or shortcomings discovered over time — there usually are (and always have been). But frankly, it could catch fire twice a week and it would still be my favorite laptop Apple has made since 2015. Fortunately, upon initial usage, nothing bad really jumps out.

The new MacBook Pro has no massive asterisks or qualifications. It’s a great computer, period, and it feels so good to be able to say that again.

For the first time in years, without any major exceptions, we can see that Apple loves computers as much as we do.

🎧  Much more detail and discussion in the podcast!

Today’s Overcast update (2019.6) brings some great new features.

But first, I need to set low expectations for iOS 13, watchOS 6, and macOS Catalina updates this fall. Halfway through the summer, I’ve made much less progress than expected, having been overwhelmed by the required OS changes, my own technical and design debts, and unusually rough betas.

Rather than shipping a big iOS update, a standalone Watch app, and a Mac app on day one, these will probably come incrementally over the next year.

Fortunately, I haven’t stopped improving the app in the meantime.

Per-podcast customization, longer clips

You can now set download-vs.-stream and auto-delete behavior per podcast, one of the most frequently requested features over the last few years. (Sorry it took so long — it required a lot of server-side work for uninteresting reasons.)

I’ve also raised the clip-sharing length limit to 90 seconds. When I debuted this feature, I had to guess how it would be used and received, and 60 seconds seemed like a good limit. In practice, that’s sometimes a bit too short to capture a complete thought. 90 seconds should be better — most clips won’t need to be that long, but it’ll be nice to have the headroom when you need it.

“Suggestions for You” replacing Twitter

Overcast has had a Twitter-powered social-recommendations feature since version 1.0 in 2014, which made sense at the time: I didn’t have any popularity data to generate recommendations from, and social networks were nicer places to be than they are today.

But after five years, only 10% of active users have connected a Twitter account in Overcast, and only 0.2% of new podcast subscriptions have actually been added via Twitter recommendations.

Not only was the feature not providing much value to the 10% of people who enabled it, but the other 90% of Overcast’s customers haven’t been getting personalized recommendations at all.

In the meantime, I’ve accumulated five years of popularity data, so I tried writing my own recommendation engine. It worked — and it’s better.

Overcast now offers its own data-driven recommendation engine, and I’ve removed Twitter integration entirely.

Podcasts in the new “Suggestions for You” section of the Add Podcast screen are based on the shows you subscribe to, and what else their subscribers subscribe to, which gives much better recommendations without involving any social networks.

Most importantly, it works for all of Overcast’s customers.

*     *     *

As always, Overcast is free in the App Store. Give it a try.

Something big changed at Apple around the beginning of 2017.

They had encountered significant turbulence in the product line over the preceding years, especially Macs. It was a rough time to be a pro Mac user.

The “trash can” 2013 Mac Pro addressed only a fraction of the needs solved by the previous “cheese grater” towers, aged quickly without critical upgrade paths, and suffered from high GPU-failure rates from its cooling solution — all because its design prioritized size and appearance over performance and versatility in the one Mac model that should never make that tradeoff.

Over the next few years, it became clear that the Mac Pro was an embarrassing, outdated flop that Apple seemed to have little intention of ever updating, leaving its customers feeling unheard and abandoned. I think Apple learned a small lesson from it, but they learned a much bigger one a few years later.

The current MacBook Pro generation launched in late 2016, and I think Apple was truly caught completely by surprise when the new Touch Bar, sparse USB-C-only port offerings, high prices, and highly polarizing butterfly keyboard were met with harsh criticism, mixed reviews, and high failure rates. This one really hurt: while the Mac Pro is a niche machine for the highest-end and most-specialized needs, the popular MacBook Pro is the lifeblood of the Mac.

By the end of 2016, in addition to the generally buggy, neglected state macOS seemed to be perpetually stuck in, Apple had replaced its entire “pro” Mac lineup with controversial, limiting products that seemed optimized to flex Apple’s industrial-design muscles rather than actually addressing their customers’ needs.

The only company that can make computers for our OS seemed incapable of making good computers anymore. Each update threatened to remove or break things we needed or loved. Their newest designs felt punitive, rather than feeling like a celebration of computing.

Then, in April 2017, out of nowhere, Apple held a Mac Pro roundtable discussion with the press to announce that they were in the early stages of completely redesigning the Mac Pro.¹

The follow-up briefing a year later promised that the new Mac Pro would be released in 2019, and publicized the existence of a “Pro Workflow Team” of real pro users working inside Apple to inform the direction of their pro hardware and software.

It sounded like they’d gone from not listening to their customers at all to an institutionalized process of listening. And the newly designed Macs released since then have been great.²

The late-2017 iMac Pro, which I’m using to write this, is the best Mac I’ve ever owned by far. It’s versatile, incredibly powerful, beautiful, and silent. It’s so good that I’ll probably never really need a Mac Pro again,³ and if this was the only new “Mac Pro”, I’d be mostly fine with that.

The late-2018 Mac Mini replaced a pitiful, punitive, neglected relic with a practical, powerful mini-Mac-Pro. Apple could’ve let it die, or replaced it with a tiny, no-port marvel of uselessness, but instead, they made a computer so good that I started and ended a YouTube mini-career just to review it.

And the 2019 Mac Pro, finally unveiled last week, looks to be absolutely killer — it’s the first true successor to the tower Mac Pro, which saw its last real update almost a decade ago in 2010.⁴ It’s big, bulky, ludicrously fast, and almost obscenely upgradeable — exactly what a Mac Pro needs to be, and far better than any of us expected.

The new Mac Pro is, truly, a celebration of computing.

Even more importantly than any hardware releases, macOS itself has also seen massive engineering effort recently. For the first time in a decade, the Mac was a major focus of WWDC, with great new APIs poised to usher in a huge wave of fresh software.

To be fair, this story hasn’t ended yet. The Mac Pro isn’t actually out yet (and will be very expensive), they still need to resolve the problematic MacBook Pro with its next generation (rumors are promising), and the lack of standalone Apple displays under six thousand dollars really hurts the Mac Pro story.⁵

But I’m optimistic for the first time in years.

It’s hard to tell when Apple is listening. They speak concisely, infrequently, and only when they’re ready, saying absolutely nothing in the meantime, even when we’re all screaming about a product line as if it’s on fire. They make great progress, but often with courageous losses that never get reversed, so an extended silence because we’re stuck with a change forever is indistinguishable from an extended silence because the fix isn’t ready yet.

But there has clearly been a major shift in direction for the better since early 2017, and they couldn’t be more clear now:

Apple is listening again, they’ve still got it, and the Mac is back.

1. Based on what we’ve learned since, they had likely started the project a very short time before holding the roundtable. ↩︎

2. I’m excluding the 2018 MacBook Air because it feels like a stopgap that wasn’t originally planned to exist — the no-Touch-Bar 13” MacBook “Escape” seemed intended to replace it — that was rushed into the 2016-era generation mid-cycle, rather than being the first of a new design. Even so, with the large exception of the butterfly keyboard, it’s quite good. ↩︎

3. This doesn’t necessarily mean I won’t buy one. ↩︎

4. The 2010/“2012” Mac Pro was so good, and so upgradeable, that it’s still in surprisingly widespread use today for needs that weren’t possible or compelling on the “trashcan” successor. ↩︎

5. And the MacBook Pro. A very common setup for developers — Apple’s largest identified segment of pro users — is a 15” MacBook Pro connected to an external monitor, for which a good solution no longer exists. Developers would be much better served by a $1,500-ish standalone version of the iMac’s 5K display than a $6,000 XDR reference monitor for professional video colorists. ↩︎

Sharing podcasts has never been easy, but I’ve always tried to lead the way with Overcast, with publicly shareable episode links and optional recommendations from your Twitter friends since version 1.0 in 2014.

Podcast sharing has been limited to audio and links, but today’s social networks are more reliant on images and video, especially Instagram. Podcasts need video clips to be shared more easily today.

I’ve seen some video clips from tools specific to certain podcast networks or hosts, but they were never available to everyone, or for every show. So people mostly just haven’t shared podcast clips, understandably, because it has been too hard.

Not anymore.

▶️ ↩️

This remark on Unco by Stephen Hackett inspired me to finally solve this problem in a way that worked easily, for all podcasts, for both podcasters and listeners to use.

With today’s 2019.4 update¹, you can now share audio or video clips, up to a minute each, from any public podcast. Simply tap the share button in the upper-right corner.

You can generate an audio clip, or portrait, landscape, or square video, using your current Overcast theme setting.

In order to help spread podcasts further, I didn’t want to be heavy-handed in the Overcast branding — not everyone wants to advertise for one specific podcast app when promoting their shows. So the “Shared with Overcast” badge is optional, and if you’d like, you can also add an Apple Podcasts badge.

Finally, I wanted to extend the same app-agnosticism to Overcast’s share links. While this design still needs a lot of modernization, I’ve done a small refresh:

Now, for non-logged-in visitors, Overcast’s public sharing pages display badges for other podcast apps and the RSS feed for any podcast listed in Apple Podcasts.

It’s important for me to promote other apps like this, and to make it easy even for other people’s customers to benefit from Overcast’s sharing features, because there are much bigger threats than letting other open-ecosystem podcast apps get a few more users.

For podcasting to remain open and free, we must not leave major shortcomings for proprietary, locked-down services to exploit.² Conversely, the more we strengthen the open podcast ecosystem with content, functionality, and ease of use, the larger the barrier becomes that any walled garden must overcome to be compelling.

One of the most common shortcomings we hear is that podcasts are hard to share. Hopefully, Overcast’s new clip-sharing feature changes that, and other apps build similar features soon.

So go get Overcast and start sharing your favorite moments. It’ll help me, of course, but more importantly, it’ll help your favorite shows gain listeners, and it’ll strengthen the amazing, open, standards-based world of podcasting.

1. Like Slopes and Castro, I’ve changed to a date-based version-numbering scheme — 2019.4 is the fourth update released in 2019, the next version will be 2019.5, and so on — partly because version numbers don’t really matter anymore, but mostly because I no longer wanted to delay completed features until a major-version change or worry that I didn’t do enough to justify a certain number. ↩︎

2. YouTube was able to dominate video because it made everything easy in a medium that (at the time) was very hard to do elsewhere. If a proprietary service takes a very hard aspect of podcasting and makes it very easy, it may rapidly rise to prominence.

   Other major shortcomings I’m concerned about: the difficulty of getting sponsorships for small shows (“AdSense for podcasts”), and the complexity of creation and publishing (“Tumblr for podcasts”). This is probably why Spotify bought Anchor. ↩︎

▶️

The first thing someone does in a podcast app is add some podcasts, and most active Overcast users add at least two new podcasts each month.

Over 80% of podcasts are added to Overcast by searching, with the vast majority as searches for a specific podcast by name (rather than searching for generic keywords, such as “business”).

Good search is a critical, differentiating feature of any podcast app.

I’m not satisfied if the podcast you’re looking for is somewhere in the middle of a long list — I want it to be the first one, displayed quickly, after typing the fewest characters possible. I’ve been building toward this by analyzing years of popularity statistics and anonymous search data.

Instant Search is the next step in Overcast’s search evolution. It combines a small local cache with a highly optimized search service to give the most relevant results immediately as you type, even after only a single letter.¹

It’s a dramatic, delightful improvement to a critical, frequently used feature. This was a lot of fun to build, and I’m proud of it.

See for yourself! Overcast is free on the App Store.

1. If Instant Search isn’t instant right after you update, the cache hasn’t fully downloaded yet. It’s downloaded weekly, only on Wi-Fi, and is less than 5 MB. ↩︎

Watch my video review of the new iPad Pro in both sizes.

Rather than try to be comprehensive, I focused on what matters most to me: size choice between the 11” and 12.9”, the Smart Keyboard Folio from my perspective as a frequent 10.5” Smart Keyboard user, the new Pencil, and why “getting work done” isn’t important to me.

Watch the video review

I hardly ever think about my Mac Mini, but it serves a vital role for my family as our home-theater mixer, Plex server, ScanSnap server, Apple Photos backup, and Backblaze host for our NAS.¹ Almost every port on the back is in use, and it runs 24/7, reliably, in total silence.

Until last week, I thought it would be the last Mac Mini that Apple ever made.

And when rumors started swirling about an imminent Mac Mini update, I assumed the worst: if it came at all, it would be a tiny box with a slow, ultra-low-power processor and almost zero ports, optimizing for small size instead of versatility.

I don’t think this was an unreasonable fear after the 2014 Mac Mini update, which made many key aspects much worse without making anything much better. It seemed clear then, and for the following four years that it went without an update, that Apple held the Mac Mini and its customers in very low regard.

Not anymore.

The 2018 Mac Mini is real, and it’s spectacular.

It makes almost nothing worse and almost everything better, finally bringing the Mac Mini into the modern age.

Ports! Glorious ports!

Number one — and this is a big one these days, especially for this product — is that it’s not any less useful or versatile than the outgoing Mac Mini, including the generous assortment of ports. If the previous one served a role for you, the new one can probably do it just as well, and probably better and faster, with minimal donglage.²

It’s the same size as the old one, which is the right tradeoff. I know zero Mac Mini owners who really need it to get smaller, and many who don’t want it to get fewer ports or worse performance.

The point of the Mac Mini is to be as versatile as possible, addressing lots of diverse and edge-case needs that the other Macs can’t with their vastly different form factors and more opinionated designs. The Mac Mini needs to be a utility product, not a design statement. (Although, even as someone tired of space-gray everything, I have to admit that the Mini looks fantastic in its new color.)

The base price has increased to $800, and that’s not great. It’s partly justifiable because it’s much higher-end than before — the processors are much better, the architecture is higher-end and includes big advances like the T2, and all-SSD is standard — but it’s still an expensive product in absolute terms.

Apple lent me a high-end configuration for review — 6-core i7, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD — which would cost $2499 (much of which is the SSD). This would’ve sounded crazy to spend on a Mac Mini a few years ago, but when it’s specced up like this, it’s targeting a much higher-end market than the previous model could. Compared to similarly specced iMacs and MacBook Pros, the pricing is generally reasonable.

And this can truly be a pro desktop, with just one exception.

Benchmarks

The big story to me is how incredibly fast this thing is. Granted, I’m testing the fastest CPU offered, but damn.

Geekbench results are very strong. The i7 Mac Mini scored better on single-core performance than every other Mac today (!) at 5912, and its multi-core score of nearly 24,740 beats every Mac to date except the iMac Pro and the old 12-core 2013 Mac Pro.

“Performance-competitive with pro Macs” was not high on my prediction list for a Mac Mini update, but here we are.

As the rate of CPU advancement has slowed dramatically over the last few years, Apple has found other ways to improve performance. The T2 is great for lots of security reasons — I wouldn’t buy a new Mac these days without it — but what you’re seeing here is its strength as a ridiculously fast SSD controller.

This Mac Mini builds my app, Overcast, much faster than my maxed-out 13-inch MacBook Pro, and about as quickly as my 10-core iMac Pro! Obviously, to achieve this result with only 6 cores, it’s not maxing out the CPU 100% of the time — it hits it in bursts while juggling a lot between the SSD and memory — but the result is that it’s incredibly fast as a development machine.

The Blackmagick Disk Speed Test shows that the raw SSD performance is effectively identical to the other T2 Macs shipped to date, and a huge improvement over the four-year-old Mac Mini.

A lot of people use Mac Minis as media or Plex servers, so I ran an H.265 transcoding test with ffmpeg. This maxes out all CPU cores, so the results predictably scale with the core count: the 6-core Mac Mini was much faster than the 4-core MacBook Pro, but the 10-core iMac Pro beat them both.

But if an app supports the T2’s hardware HEVC encoder,³ it can go much faster. And since every T2 so far performs identically, all T2 machines — from the 2018 MacBook Air to the iMac Pro — encode HEVC this way at the same speed, and all in complete silence because they’re barely touching the CPU.

I wasn’t able to notice any quality differences between the videos encoded with x265 and the T2’s hardware acceleration.

The only spec that lets it down is the Intel GPU. It’s fast enough for common tasks, but if your workload benefits from a strong GPU, you’re better off going for an iMac or a 15-inch MacBook Pro, or considering an eGPU setup.

Many Mac lines rely on Intel’s integrated GPUs to fit their physical and thermal needs, and Intel has been incredibly inconsistent over the last few years in delivering updated CPU-GPU combinations that would be suitable for many Macs.

We often blame Intel’s CPU roadmap (or Apple’s seeming indifference) for the lack of updates to certain Mac lines, but Intel’s GPU offerings are often the bigger issue. This is Intel’s fault, but it’s Apple’s problem — and Apple passes that problem right along to its customers.

But that’s it — aside from price, that’s the only downside. The GPU sucks. Everything else is awesome.

If you don’t need a strong GPU — and honestly, most Mac Mini use-cases don’t — this is a solid pick for a general-purpose Mac, even at the base-level configuration. Spec it up, and it’s more like a mini-Mac Pro.

A few assorted notes, with apologies for stealing Gruber’s format:

• It’s silent at idle. The i7’s fan noise does become clearly audible when it’s under heavy load: it’s in the ballpark of a modern MacBook Pro, but quieter.

  Interestingly, I disabled Turbo Boost to simulate the base i3 model’s thermals, and couldn’t get the fan to spin up audibly, no matter what I did. Those who prioritize silence under heavy loads should probably stick with the i3.

• This is the first non-iMac desktop Mac that lets you plug in a 5K display, at full quality, without dual cables or other unreliable hacks. We finally have 5K Retina Mac options beyond the iMac! Unfortunately, we still don’t have any great standalone 5K displays. (The LG UltraFine isn’t.)

• You can upgrade the RAM again! I never would’ve guessed this was coming, and I believe it’s the first time in a long time that an Apple product’s direct successor became more upgradeable and serviceable.

  I still recommend getting it with the right amount of RAM from Apple if possible, since third-party RAM has historically been a mess of unreliability and finger-pointing, but if you need that, it’s back. (The security screws inside — TR6? — still need some iFixit tools to get past.)

I Can’t Believe The Mac Mini Is This Awesome, I Can’t Even Say “Again” Because It Never Was

A new Mac Mini could’ve been so much worse. At many times in its past, it has seemed unloved, neglected, and downright punitive — a similar pattern to Apple’s other headless desktop, the Mac Pro. It seemed for a while that Apple lacked any interest in making Macs anymore, especially desktops.

Last year, with the introduction of the absolutely stellar iMac Pro, Apple showed us a glimpse of a potential new direction. It was downright perfect — a love letter to the Mac and its pro desktop users, and a clear turnaround in the way the company views the Mac for the better.

We didn’t know until now whether the iMac Pro’s greatness was a fluke. But now we have another data point: the last two desktops out of Apple have been incredible. After this, I have faith that they’re going to do the new Mac Pro justice when it finally ships next year.

The new Mac Mini is a great update, out of nowhere, to a product we thought would never be updated again.

Of course, with Apple’s track record on the Mac Mini, it may never be updated after this. This is either the first in a series of regular updates with which Apple proves that they care about the Mac Mini again, or it’s the last Mac Mini that will ever exist and we’ll all be hoarding them in a few years. We can’t know yet.

But today, this is a great update, a wonderful all-arounder for lots of potential needs, and just a fantastic little computer.

1. I do this via iSCSI, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It breaks and requires a new $200+ iSCSI initiator with almost every macOS update — which is why my Mac Mini still runs Sierra. In the near future, I’ll just directly attach some giant external hard drives to the Mac Mini and stop using the NAS. ↩︎

2. Unless you used optical audio, audio input, or the SD-card reader. (Shit, I use optical in and out.) ↩︎

3. ffmpeg can do it by specifying -c:v hevc_videotoolbox instead of -c:v x265. I also needed -vtag hvc1 for the output MP4s with either codec to be playable on macOS.

   Compressor uses the T2’s HEVC acceleration when encoding 8-bit HEVC, but not 10-bit. ↩︎

Quick, what time is it?

If that took you a bit longer than usual to tell the time on the Apple Watch’s new default Infograph face, you’re not alone:

• John Gruber finds it “far too busy”
• Jason Snell finds it “pretty and packed with features”, but misses hour numerals
• Zac Hall removes almost everything to improve legibility
• David Smith wrote his own complications (!) to improve contrast

I’ve configured mine acceptably, but Utility is still far more legible for telling the time at a quick glance:

Infograph, Utility

Infograph suffers from two major issues:

• The center complications reduce the contrast between the dial and hands, often making the hands hard to locate. This is avoidable with customization, although the defaults should be much more conservative.
• It takes too much cognitive effort (and therefore time) to distinguish the current hour. This is simply a flawed design.

It’s faster and easier to read analog time with the 1–12 numerals displayed on a watch, but many people prefer the cleaner look of a watch that uses lines, dots, or other shapes as hour markers instead. (Watch people call these “indices”.)

And it’s absolutely possible to design a highly legible dial with hour indices in many different styles. Here are some classics and modern takes:¹

Across a wide variety of brands, styles, and price points, a few key design principles are clear:

• The hour markers for 12 (and often 3/6/9) are more prominent.
• The hour indices are much larger than the minute markings.
• The hour hands nearly touch the hour indices.

These all improve legibility by making it as fast and easy as possible to know which hour is being indicated (and minimize the chance of an off-by-one error), first by orienting your eyes to the current rotation with the 12 marker, then by minimizing the distance between the hour hand and the indices it’s between.

Apple Watch’s analog faces all fail to achieve these principles:²

Color, Simple, Explorer

Color, Simple, and Explorer have easily distinguished hour markers, but Explorer’s are a bit too far from its hour hand.

None of them have distinguished 12 markers to aid in orientation.

While Explorer omits minute markings altogether, Simple bafflingly uses 30-second markings in place of its minute track, making time-telling even harder. I’ve never seen another watch with sub-minute markings identical to its minute markings.

Activity Analog, Utility, and Infograph without most complications

Activity Analog’s hour markers are faint and far from its hour hand, and the central activity rings quickly eliminate the hands’ contrast against the dial as they progress.

Utility (when configured without numbers) improves legibility slightly with its bold hour indices, but they’re still too small and too far from its hour hand, and there’s no differentiation for the 12 index.

Infograph is similar, but even worse: its hour indices are more faint, it uses 30-second markings instead of minute markings, and its default Calendar display wipes out the top three indices. (At least you can tell which way is up.)

Even with almost no complications, the basic essence of the Infograph dial has poor time legibility.

When it’s being used as Apple seems to intend, time-telling at a glance is so difficult that many people have actually suggested setting the digital time as the center complication, at which point the hands are just a nuisance and we should stop pretending it’s an analog face.

It’s great for Apple to offer a wide variety of Apple Watch faces, but most of them are short-lived novelties at best. We’re three years and four generations into the Apple Watch, and almost every Watch owner I know still uses the same handful of “good” faces.

If you want digital time with a good deal of complications, Modular is your only good choice (or Infograph Modular on the Series 4).³ If you want analog time with numerals, Utility is the only good option. If you want indices instead of numerals — probably the most popular analog watch style in the world — I don’t think there is a good option.

By now, we’ve seen Apple’s design range that they’re willing to ship as Watch faces, and while it seems broad at first glance, it’s actually pretty narrow.

And we’re restricted to the handful of good watch faces that Apple makes, because other developers aren’t allowed to make custom Watch faces.

The Apple Watch is an amazing feat of technology. It’s a computer. It can display anything. With no mechanical or physical limitations to hold us back, any watch-face design from anyone could plausibly be built, enabling a range of creativity, style, and usefulness that no single company could ever design on its own.

But they won’t let us. In a time when personal expression and innovation in watch fashion should be booming, they’re instead being eroded, as everyone in the room is increasingly wearing the same watch with the same two faces.

Open this door, Apple.

1. You can even see which model the Apple Watch’s hand shape comes from, which is not a coincidence. ↩︎

2. For Apple Watch faces offering multiple hour/minute styles, I selected the best one that didn’t have hour numerals, and most complications were disabled. ↩︎

3. Special shout-out to my favorite digital face, Solar. ↩︎

I apologize for the low battery level. Busy day.

It all started with the watchOS volume widget.

You see, Overcast’s previous Apple Watch app really sucked. I did my best with the capabilities of watchOS 1–4, but I couldn’t give people what they really wanted:

1. Standalone podcast playback on the Apple Watch without an iPhone. I briefly offered it through some bad hacks, but had to remove it.
2. Volume control on the Watch, which is increasingly important with the popularity of AirPods.

That’s why I nearly jumped for joy during the watchOS 5 announcement in June, when Apple unveiled most of my list of watchOS changes needed to make good podcast apps.

After a very busy summer, standalone Apple Watch playback is back in Overcast, and it’s actually good this time!

It’s not perfect:

• No cellular. Apple hasn’t released a good way to do cellular audio streaming in watchOS, and the bad ways wouldn’t be very useful.
• Sending podcasts to the Watch is slow. Overcast shrinks them to reduce the transfer time, but when (and how quickly) podcasts transfer is tightly controlled by watchOS to preserve battery life. Transfers still sometimes wait forever or silently fail.

Programmers like me can’t accept that something is just slow, so I’ve decided to make transfer speed irrelevant. Nobody cares how slowly podcasts transfer if it happens while they’re asleep!

Auto-Sync to Watch automatically tries to send your most recent podcasts to your Apple Watch whenever it gets a chance.¹ You can still send episodes manually from the queue button on an episode (≡⁺), but in my testing, I never needed to. Just pick up your Watch and go, and it’ll already have plenty of podcasts for your outing, all without having to manually sync anything or wait for slow transfers.

The Overcast 5.0.1 update, due out in a few days, makes Watch transfers even more reliable. (Sorry. Found a better way after 5.0 was approved.)

And Watch-crown volume control! Finally, the best way to use Overcast from your Apple Watch isn’t to delete it, letting the Now Playing app show up instead.

That’s where the other half of my summer workload began.

The watchOS volume widget offers minimal customization: just the color of the circle. I couldn’t make the line width a little narrower to match the rest of Overcast’s thin-line aesthetic. But that iOS 7-era thin-line aesthetic looked dated, and I’d wanted a design refresh for a while.

I decided to start modernizing the app’s design, screen by screen. I couldn’t do it all in one summer, so I started with the screen that needed the most help: Now Playing.

The previous Now Playing screen in Overcast 4.

The biggest problem of the previous design was the center artwork area, a scrollable set of “pages” that had speed and effects controls offscreen to the left, and the episode notes offscreen to the right.

Nobody ever found them. I’ve been getting emails almost every day from people asking where the speed controls were because they set them once and couldn’t find them again, or saying how they’d really like my app more if it offered speed controls. The only indication in the interface was three “page dots” below the scrollable area, but that wasn’t enough.

The new design maintains the same scrollable pages, but now as obvious, tactile cards. In my testing, everyone figured these out immediately.

Put differently, it’s like you’re navigating this through a phone-shaped window in the middle:

This design is not only more discoverable, but it allows me to fit more controls on screen, and in more reachable areas. Unlike the previous design, I can also fit the same controls on all devices, from the iPhone SE to the iPad Pro.

Designing a good Now Playing screen for a music or podcast app that’s nice, clean, and highly discoverable is incredibly difficult. I think I’ve finally found a good balance.

I’ve given chapters (when present) their own card with durations and inline progress bars. I’ve also finally revamped the sleep timer to ditch the ugly alert sheet, give it a proper UI for fast input, and show the remaining time in more useful ways:

There are lots of other improvements throughout the app as well. Some of the highlights:

• Search your podcasts and current episodes from the main screen, or go into a podcast’s screen to search its entire archive.
• Refreshed the podcast screen a little. (More to come.)
• Siri Shortcuts support, of course.

Plus smaller fixes and improvements:

• CarPlay performance is much better, especially for people with large collections.
• Podcasts now display their estimated release frequency (daily, weekly, etc.) if it can be inferred.
• Tap-to-load on images now loads all images from the same domain at once.
• Tons of bug fixes and performance improvements.

Overcast 5 requires iOS 12 and watchOS 5, and as always, it’s free.

Update your devices, then go get Overcast!

1. Up to 20 episodes are auto-synced today. This number will change as I refine the balance of resource usage. Auto-Sync to Watch is on by default and can be turned off in Nitpicky Details. ↩︎

Laptop battery life is decreasingly relevant to me as more airplanes offer power outlets. But sometimes you lose that lottery, as I did on my latest 8-hour daytime flight.

Apple’s “Up to 10 hours” claim doesn’t apply to my work,¹ which is usually a mix of Xcode, web browsing, and social time-wasting, so I knew I’d have to seriously conserve power.

Sometimes, you just need Low Power Mode: the switch added to iOS a few years ago to conserve battery life when you need it, at the expense of full performance and background tasks.

There’s no such feature on Mac laptops, but there should be. It could:

• Disable the discrete GPU on 15-inch models unless required for hardware reasons²
• Pause Photos syncing and analysis
• Pause Spotlight indexing
• Reduce the frequency of Time Machine backups
• Don’t download or install software updates
• Don’t download new content in iTunes
• Auto-dim the screen after a shorter time
• Let third-party apps detect Low Power Mode and reduce their background operations to only essential work

And the big one:

• Reduce the processor’s maximum wattage or disable Turbo Boost

Back in 2015, I experimented with disabling Turbo Boost and discovered that it reduced performance by about a third, but also boosted battery life by almost as much. Since then, I’ve been running Turbo Boost Switcher Pro to automatically disable Turbo Boost when I’m running on battery power, and it has been wonderful: I made it through that 8-hour flight only because Turbo Boost was off.

Over the last few days, I’ve run battery tests on my 2018 13-inch MacBook Pro with the (awesome) 2.7 GHz i7 and my 2015 2.2 GHz 15-inch³ to see how far I could push the battery life using Volta, which can disable Turbo Boost and/or set wattage limits on the CPU.

My test was based on the “Heavy” script from last time, but using xcodebuild every few minutes with Overcast’s current codebase (which is larger and includes some Swift). Improvements are in green and performance reductions are in red:

15-inch 2015 MacBook Pro (2.2 GHz quad-core i7)   Battery life Geekbench single/multi xcodebuild Normal 3:36 3963/13864 43.9s No Turbo 5:06+42% 2796/9917−29/28% 63.4s+44% 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro (2.7 GHz quad-core i7)   Battery life Geekbench single/multi xcodebuild Normal 3:09 5412/18983 34.3s 28W 3:28+10% 5401/16326−0/14% 37.4s+9% 18W 4:05+29% 5248/14133−3/26% 43.5s+27% 12W 4:44+50% 4818/11835−11/38% 48.2s+41% No Turbo 5:05+61% 3624/13324−33/30% 48.9s+43% 6W 6:24+103% 4065/7596−25/60% 76.1s+121%

It’s impressive how much faster this new 13-inch model is than the best laptop ever made due to significant CPU and SSD improvements.

Dropping the wattage to 6W, the thermal limit of the fanless 12-inch MacBook, interestingly (but not surprisingly) makes it perform effectively identically to the best 12-inch MacBook in Geekbench. This is an extreme option, but one I’d occasionally take if offered. It roughly doubles compilation times, but also doubles the battery life.

This ratio holds for most other configurations: the gain in battery life is about as large as the loss in heavy-workload performance. That’s a trade-off I’d gladly make when I need to maximize runtime.

The best bang-for-the-buck option is still to just disable Turbo Boost. Single-threaded performance hurts more than with wattage-limiting, but it’s able to maintain better multi-threaded performance and more consistent thermals, and gets a larger battery gain relative to its performance loss.

And Volta, which offers both wattage limits and Turbo disabling, requires disabling System Integrity Protection to install an unsigned kernel extension, which I really don’t recommend. Turbo Boost Switcher, which doesn’t offer wattage control, works with SIP using a signed extension and its Pro version has more convenient features for automatic toggling.

For now, I’m going to continue to happily run Turbo Boost Switcher Pro to selectively give myself better battery life, and I recommend it for anyone else with the same need.

But what I ultimately want is for a true Low Power Mode built into macOS that could provide this sort of CPU throttling and software changes, which would ultimately achieve even greater gains.

1. Whose work does get 10 hours out of a MacBook Pro? None of the use-cases on the marketing page — Photography, Coding, Video Editing, 3D Graphics, and Gaming — are likely to achieve even half of that in practice. ↩︎

2. I’ve heard that 15-inch models are wired such that the discrete GPU is required when external displays are connected. Otherwise, whether it’s used or not is a software decision, and gfxCardStatus can override it in certain conditions. ↩︎

3. It’s not brand new, so it’s not a perfect comparison, but the battery only had 90 cycles before this test. ↩︎

Overcast 4.2 is out now. It enhances privacy in two major areas:

Anonymous sync by default

Overcast has offered anonymous sync accounts since 2014. They’re fully functional, but they lack email addresses or passwords, so they can’t log into the website. A login token is stored in iCloud so the account can be accessed after a restore or upgrade, or from other devices you own.

Previously, the login screen pushed email logins. But with four years of perspective, feedback, and usage data, I now think that’s the wrong move. Only a single-digit percentage of customers use the website, and the iCloud token-sync method solves cross-device logins for almost everyone.

Your personal data isn’t my business — it’s a liability. I want as little as possible. I don’t even log IP addresses anymore.

If I don’t need your email address, I really don’t want it.

68% of Overcast accounts have email addresses today. To reduce that as much as possible, I’ve made major changes to account handling:

The previous login screen (left) and the new one.

In Overcast 4.2, the login screen now prominently encourages anonymous accounts by default.

If you already have an account in iCloud, it’ll pop up a dialog box over this screen asking if you want to use it.

And the first time you launch 4.2, people with email-based accounts will be encouraged to migrate them to anonymous accounts:

The migration prompt that shows on the first run.

Finally, you can now change your account between email-based and anonymous whenever you want.

Blocking ad-tracking images

In most podcast apps, podcasts are downloaded automatically in the background. The only data sent to a podcast’s publisher about you or your behavior is your IP address and the app’s name. The IP address lets them derive your approximate region, but not much else.

They don’t know exactly who you are, whether you listened, when you listened, how far you listened, or whether you skipped certain parts.

Some large podcast producers are trying very hard to change that.

I’m not.

Big data ruined the web, and I’m not going to help bring it to podcasts. Publishers already get enough from Apple to inform ad rates and make content decisions — they don’t need more data from my customers. Podcasting has thrived, grown, and made tons of money for tons of people under the current model for over a decade. We already have all the data we need.

One of the ways publishers try to get around the limitations of the current model is by embedding remote images or invisible “tracking pixels” in each episode’s HTML show notes. When displayed in most apps, the images are automatically loaded from an analytics server, which can then record and track more information about you.

In Overcast 4.2, much like Mail (and for the same reason), remote images don’t load by default. A tappable placeholder shows you where each image will load from, and you can decide whether to load it or not.

I believe I’ve done this in the most secure way possible — I’m actually displaying the show notes using a strict Content Security Policy — and I would love to hear from anyone who finds a way to inject auto-loading remote images or execute arbitrary JavaScript in show notes.

Bug fixes

Overcast 4.2 also includes a bunch of minor fixes, and two big ones:

• Fixed the major slowdowns and high battery usage that resulted from extremely large podcast artwork.
• Password-protected episodes are now supported on password-protected feeds.

Get it now in the App Store!

Overcast 4.1 is now in the App Store with some small but nice new features.

Smart Resume is actually two features:

1. It jumps back by up to a few seconds after having been paused to help remind you of the conversation.
2. It slightly adjusts resumes and seeks to fall in the silences between spoken words when reasonably possible.

Both are subtle but noticeable benefits (my favorite kind), especially when you’re being interrupted a lot, such as while following turn-by-turn navigation directions.

Smart Resume is on by default, and can be turned off in Nitpicky Details.

Delete episodes 24 hours after completion: Before, episodes could either be auto-deleted immediately upon completion, or not at all. There’s now a third option, auto-deleting 24 hours after completion, which will soon be the default for new accounts.

The 24-hour threshold is only enforced after a successful sync, so it won’t auto-delete anything in the middle of an extended offline period, such as a long flight.

Auto-deletion, either immediate or after 24 hours, also no longer applies to Premium subscribers’ Uploads.

Password-protected podcasts: Some private podcast feeds, including many paid and members-only podcasts, require a username and password via HTTP Basic Auth. You can now add these in the Add URL screen.

Password-protected podcasts, and other private feeds such as Patreon bonus feeds and anything using the <itunes:block> tag, do not show up in search or recommendations.

Noteworthy bug fixes:

• Resuming playback after quitting in the background, especially on very long podcasts and/or when using AirPods, no longer occasionally results in glitchy noises and incorrect durations.
• Playback under certain conditions no longer stalls, requiring pausing and playing again.
• Downloads now fail less often.
• Playback controls no longer disappear occasionally.
• Smart Speed total savings now appear at the bottom of the Settings screen for locales that use commas as their decimal separator.¹
• Extremely large playlists now only show the most/least-recent 500 episodes to improve app performance for users with very high subscription counts.

There’s also one removal: rotation support on iPhone. (The iPad app still rotates.) iPhone rotation has always been disabled by default, and had been buried in Nitpicky Details for a long time, so very few people have ever used it. Meanwhile, it has become increasingly difficult to support and maintain, especially with the modern complexities of rotation and the dramatically increased workload of supporting the iPhone X in landscape.

iPhone rotation has simply proven far too costly to maintain for its extremely low usage, and it had to go to free up more of my time for more highly demanded features. I apologize to the few people who did use it, and I hope this isn’t too disruptive for you.

The rest is all good news. Go get Overcast now!

In the next update, I’ll be addressing the biggest design failure of Overcast 4: the non-discoverability of the Effects and Notes pages in the Now Playing screen. Expect the return of an ancient user-interface tool known as “buttons”.

1. This was Overcast’s oldest known bug, which had been there since 1.0: some users, mostly in central Europe, wouldn’t see Smart Speed totals. It turned out to be one of the most interesting and obscure bugs I’ve seen.

   The total-time-saved value is stored on-device as it accumulates, then gets sent to the server to be combined with any listening you do on other devices. The overall total is read back from the server, and the local total is reset, on each sync.

   I was using an NSNumberFormatter to read the total value from Overcast’s server as a double. My server always sends values with U.S.-style number formatting, using a period as the decimal separator (e.g. “1234.5”). But by default, NSNumberFormatter uses the device’s locale, so in countries that use a comma as the decimal separator (e.g. “1234,5”), it was interpreting the server’s numbers with periods as invalid and returning zero. So the Settings screen thought they hadn’t saved any time, and hid the time-saved label.

   Fortunately, it was an easy fix: setting that NSNumberFormatter locale to en_US to match what the server was sending. And since the accumulated local totals were still being sent and added properly, the correct historical data is there — it just wasn’t being displayed correctly. ↩︎

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2025 second quarter ended March 29, 2025.

Apple today announced that the company has surpassed a 60 percent reduction in its global greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2015 levels.

From a horror-comedy in Tamil to a magical romance in Malayalam, MAMI Select filmmakers are redefining cinema with iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Apple Watch users can earn a Global Close Your Rings Day award on April 24.

Five fun games join Apple Arcade on May 1, including WHAT THE CLASH?, a quirky, fast-paced multiplayer game launching exclusively on Apple Arcade.

Apple Intelligence is expanding to even more people around the world.

visionOS 2.4 is available today, bringing the first set of powerful Apple Intelligence features to Apple Vision Pro.

How Geoff Richman, lead editor on the Apple Original, “Severance,” created the frenetic world of the hit show’s season two finale.

Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) online from June 9 to 13, 2025.

Apple is bringing lossless audio with ultra-low latency to AirPods Max, delivering the ultimate listening experience and even greater performance.

A new Apple Immersive concert experience, "Metallica," is coming to Apple Vision Pro this Friday, March 14.

Six fun games and exciting updates launch on Apple Arcade over the next month, joining the service’s award-winning catalog.

Apple announced the new MacBook Air, featuring the M4 chip, up to 18 hours of battery life, a 12MP Center Stage camera, and a lower starting price.

Apple today announced the new Mac Studio, the most powerful Mac ever made, featuring M4 Max and the new M3 Ultra chip.

Apple today announced M3 Ultra, offering the most powerful CPU and GPU in a Mac.

Apple today introduced the new iPad Air, powered by the M3 chip and built for Apple Intelligence.

Apple and MLB announced that “Friday Night Baseball,” a weekly doubleheader available on Apple TV+, will return for the 2025 regular season.

The powerful iPhone 16e is now available online and at Apple Store locations worldwide.

Apple today announced plans to spend and invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.

Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to the new Apple News+ Food feed.

Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos

This 8-in-1 EDC gadget is designed for anyone who needs fast charging. Save on a keychain charging cable with USB-C and Lightning.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

There are good reasons to directly transfer video from iPhone to iPad over a cable. It’s often faster than wireless, for one. Here’s how.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

You can create custom emoji for all those times where you can’t find the right one. Genmoji generates emoji on the fly.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

On May 2, 1995, Apple launched its first Apple watch -- a giveaway gadget for anyone paying to upgrade to System 7.5 on the Mac.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Apple updates its iPhone App Store rules so devs can send customers to their websites for purchases without scary warnings.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Use your iPhone, iPad or Mac to transcribe and summarize lectures, meetings and more with AI note taker app My Notes AI.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Spotify newest app update, if approved by Apple, will enable users to purchase subscriptions directly through external payment methods.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Get turn-by-turn navigation, listen to YouTube and watch movies with this wireless CarPlay adapter and in-car streaming device.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The Trump tariffs will bite into Apple, with a projected $900 million hit this quarter. But the iPhone-maker has a plan.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Apple financial results include revenue and profit increases that beat analysts’ expectations. And there’s growth in most product categories.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Passkeys are a new system that automatically signs you into services using your iPhone's Face ID or Touch ID.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Don't get stuck using an old version of Windows. Upgrade your PC to Windows 11 Pro with this limited-time discount from Cult of Mac Deals.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

On May 1, 2008, the iTunes Store made a major move. iTunes movie releases began coming out the same day as on DVD.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

If any of your accounts is secured with one of these horrible passwords, take World Password Day as an excuse to change it.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

A new Apple Passwords app makes it easier than ever to save login details for your apps, switch to passkeys, create shared groups and more.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

A beefier design, long battery life and advanced features make Apple Watch Ultra 2 a great deal for all (not just endurance athletes).

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

If it's your first time listening in, be sure to read our Apple earnings call glossary of terms before Apple's call with financial analysts.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

After four years, Epic will relist "Fortnite" on the U.S. App Store, as CEO Tim Sweeney proposed a peace deal with Apple.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Apple and Google could strike a deal to bring Gemini to iPhones by mid-2025 — or so Google's CEO Sundar Pichai hopes.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Apple violated a court order limiting anticompetitive App Store practices and then lied about its actions, a federal judge says.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Make your travel abroad more affordable with an international eSIM from aloSIM. You get $50 worth of travel data for just $24.97.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Get ready for the Apple financial results announcement: Wall Street anticipates a revenue increase despite trade challenges.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

A new AI feature in iOS 18.2, Visual Intelligence gives iPhone 16 users a quick, easy way to find information on an object in the real world.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Documentary "Bono: Stories of Surrender" recreates the U2 frontman's stage show on Apple TV+ and as the first full-length Vision Pro video.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Meta, Match and Spotify join forces against Apple and Google over app store practices, including who should be saddled with age verification.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

One Apple fan's dream setup may not be another's. This MacBook Pro, Mac mini and Studio Display user found that out on social media.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

On April 30, 2010, the first Wi-Fi + 3G iPads arrived in the hands of U.S. customers. The tablet became Apple's fastest-selling new product.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The GameSir X5 Lite is the game controller for those who’ve hoped for a truly affordable way to add physical buttons and sticks to their iPhone. It costs a fraction of the price of its chief rival. But don’t call it cheap. The accessory includes Hall Effect sticks plus a full set of the buttons […]

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Land a pair of great noise-canceling headphones at a phenomenal price with this excellent Beats Studio Pro deal.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Joyspace AI Captions is an easy, powerful solution that lets creators of all levels add stunning, brand-ready captions to videos and podcasts.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

A new Meta AI app for iPhone provides easy access to Meta's Llama 4 AI model and an enhanced voice mode for personalized responses.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Easily digitize old slides and film negatives (color or black-and-white) to preserve them with the Kodak Scan N Save slide film scanner.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Put a Satechi OntheGo 3-in-1 Charger on a hotel nightstand and it’s ready to juice up your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods all at once. When it’s time to go, it folds up into a travel-friendly shape. There’s also a 2-in-1 version, and both hit store shelves on Tuesday. Take Satechi OntheGo 3-in-1 Charger on […]

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The Camera Control is a new button on the iPhone 16 lineup that opens the camera, takes pictures and adjusts camera settings on the fly.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The new Photos app in iOS 18 is the biggest change ever to how you browse your pictures, videos and memories. Here’s how to use it.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The new Apple Snapshot celebrity website popped up Tuesday, showing fans celebs' work across Apple services. But it's weirdly limited so far.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

On April 29, 2010, Steve Jobs penned "Thoughts on Flash," an open letter that explained why, basically, Adobe Flash kind of sucked.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Save $100 on the new M3 iPad Air with a deal on both 13-inch and 11-inch versions in a range of specs and colors.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The new Maono DM40 Pro Wireless Gaming Microphone features 10 distinct voice modes at the touch of a button.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Satechi's Stand & Hub for the M4 Mac mini brings essential front-facing ports and cleverly hides an SSD enclosure for storage expansion.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Ideal for busy commutes, gym sessions or working from home, Treblab X-Open earbuds deliver premium audio and an open ear design for less.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

How about a nice Anker charger deal on GaN adapters, power banks and more? You can get up to 10% a variety of gear through June.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

You can manually add a workout to Apple Fitness+ if you need to log an exercise you did while you weren’t wearing your Apple Watch.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Due to scaling challenges, the iPhone 17 Pro lineup will not get an anti-reflective display coating as initially rumored.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The Casa Hub 360 is an iPad and MacBook dock stand with a USB-C hub in the sturdy arm. Turn your device into a sunflower iMac G4!

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Adding a wired Ethernet adapter to your iPhone is very easy, and a wired connection brings speed, security and reliability.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Lego models and an extensive camera collection grace today's setup, which also features dual MacBooks on stands flanking a 4K display.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The AirTag isn't designed to track wallets or your office swipe card. KeySmart SmartCard, a credit-card-size wallet tracker, is.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Apple TV+ shows scored BAFTA awards -- darkly comedic faves "Slow Horses" and "Bad Sisters," plus kids special "The Velveteen Rabbit."

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

On April 28, 2003, Apple opened the iTunes Music Store, revolutionizing the music industry and digital distribution of content.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Prepare for adventure in “Fountain of Youth,” coming in May with John Krasinski and Natalie Portman. Watch the thrilling 2nd trailer now.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Get a deal on a pair of Apple AirPods 4 wireless earbuds. Here's where to find the best price — while it lasts!

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

The M4 MacBook Air launched in March but a deal already lowers the cost by a sweet $150. Plus there are bargains on older versions, too.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Get an AI tool that brings top AI models like ChatGPT, Mistral AI and more together in one interface. Enter 1minAI, the all-in-one AI tool.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

On April 27, 2008, the first Psystar Macintosh clone, the Open Computer, shipped to customers. The era of clone Macs didn't last long.

(via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

An unofficial community about Apple and all of its devices and software.

Welcome to the Daily Advice Thread for /r/Apple. This thread can be used to ask for technical advice regarding Apple software and hardware, to ask questions regarding the buying or selling of Apple products or to post other short questions. Have a question you need answered? Ask away! Please remember to adhere to our rules, which can be found in the sidebar. Join our Discord and IRC chat rooms for support: Discord IRC Note: Comments are sorted by /new for your convenience. Here is an archive of all previous Daily Advice Threads. This is best viewed on a browser. If on mobile, type in the search bar [author:"AutoModerator" title:"Daily Advice Thread" or title:"Daily Tech Support Thread"] (without the brackets, and including the quotation marks around the titles and author.) The Daily Advice Thread is posted each day at 06:00 AM EST (Click HERE for other timezones) and then the old one is archived. It is advised to wait for the new thread to post your question if this time is nearing for quickest answer time. submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

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Reddit’s little corner for iPhone lovers (and some people who just mildly enjoy it…)

Welcome to the weekly stickied WSIB thread. Have any questions about buying, selling, trading, or giveaways? Ask away! Please remember to adhere to our rules, which can be found in the sidebar. As usual, if you have a serious issue with the subreddit, please contact the moderators directly. This thread is also for questions about preorders and shipments of devices Note: Comments are sorted by /new for your convenience. Here is an archive of all previous "What Should I Buy" threads. This is best viewed on a browser. If on mobile, type on the searchbar [title:"What Should I Buy" author:"AutoModerator"] (without the brackets, and including the quotation marks around the title and author.) submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

General advice for those concerned about their battery from the Support FAQ Wiki: Battery health Battery health depends on usage and a variety of other factors. It is normal to see a decrease in battery health by 7-10% per year, resulting in a battery health of 80-85% after 2 years. This number can fluctuate, remain the same, or decrease quickly over a small period and should not cause undue concern. Apple recommend battery replacement when your device falls below 80% battery health if you notice reduced battery life. If it falls below 80% within the first year you may be eligable for a free battery replacement. It fails after your warranty, it's a $69-$89 USD replacement cost for a battery. Contact Apple Support here. You can find more information about battery health and performance from Apple here. You can check the cycles count with Coconut Battery for Mac or iCopyBot for Windows. Battery life Issues relating to battery life can be categorised in three ways: Normal battery life that is to be expected due to use Reduced battery life caused by a recent update, iOS indexing, an iOS bug, or a third-party application Reduced battery life, or other abnormalities such as overheating or sudden power-off, caused by device or battery aging If you experience issues with your battery: Check your battery health. If it is below 80% or you are experiencing issues you suspect are related to device or battery age, see Apple Support. If you have a new or recently updated/restored device, wait a number of days for background process to complete. If you continue to have issues, wait for a further iOS update. If you are on iOS Beta, you can expect to have a decreased battery life. Review the advice below on maximising battery life Consider restoring your device. If issues persist, contact Apple Support. Maximising battery life - the amount of time your device runs before it needs to be recharged. Use low power mode (This reduces mail fetch, turns off background app refresh and increases the auto lock timer) Remove apps from background app refresh Ensure auto lock is on Turn off auto brightness and manually reduce brightness Use dark mode if your device has an OLED display Clearing background apps from the app switcher does not improve battery life Maximising battery lifespan - the amount of time your battery lasts until it needs to be replaced. Avoid extreme temperatures If you notice that your iPhone gets hot when charging, remove it from its case Store your iPhone in a cool place, switched off, and half-charged if not using it for long periods - and charge it every 6 months when in storage submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

Not on an actual app, almost like an amber alert. I don’t understand what it is? I don’t live anywhere near a “Newton” submitted by /u/These_Department2071 [link] [comments]

Will it be bad? I had an s23 ultra but that broke and i dont have another phone so will this one do well?? submitted by /u/BookkeeperOk9677 [link] [comments]

So for a little bit I’ve had a thermal monocular to experiment with and see animals at night , I decided to find the hot spots when charging and to my surprise i seem to be peering into the device itself ! I guess the ceramic shields properties allow for 8-14um thermal wavelengths to pass through. Am I really seeing the battery and main board plus Taptic Engine here? I know the circle thing is for wireless charging for sure submitted by /u/Aerions_ [link] [comments]

Hello y’all, I noticed every time when I turn on my iPhone this iMessage thing pops up , I press “turn on” but still pops up everyday, and when checked it in settings I always find phone number loading, how to deal with that please. submitted by /u/Kp4u_ [link] [comments]

Anybody else suddenly seeing this error? According to Apple all services are up. “Error while SRP initial authentication : Unexpected response from IDMS Server” submitted by /u/ChiefBroady [link] [comments]

Does anyone else have this issue at least once a month? I always have to restart it 3 times and then it’ll finally let me turn my iMessages back on. This is the second phone this has happened with so it’s not the phone itself. I don’t understand why I’m constantly being signed out, maybe someone else is trying to sign into my account? submitted by /u/Accomplished_Toe6532 [link] [comments]

anybody has any idea about this previously it used to come up with the faces of people in photos now it is not any idea ? submitted by /u/JiraiyaSensei_106 [link] [comments]

S submitted by /u/Sandrinioz [link] [comments]

I'd love to see what's on my phone from 15 years ago without waiting 6,917,764 minutes. Does anyone know a workaround to get into the phone? Any help is much appreciated! submitted by /u/AntiqueDesert [link] [comments]

so i use an iphone 12 and for no reason all the photos are disabled on all of my apps, like on every texting app it now needs to be allowed access to photos, and when i go to settings to turn it on there’s no option to allow photos, so i literally can’t send anything submitted by /u/TacitusCallahan_ [link] [comments]

To be clear I greatly enjoy that he’s randomly there, just curious what he’s up to on my keyboard submitted by /u/ccstewy [link] [comments]

So a little while ago I bought a new iPhone, and never bothered with resetting my old one as I didn’t really see the point. I’ve just yesterday pulled it out again and charged it. Today I went to try and erase it, but for some reason it is asking me for a screen time passcode that has never been set. Before you ask, yes, I am in a family, and not the organiser, but I’ve spoken to the person who IS the organiser and they have not set it either. There is no evidence of a screen time passcode or limit on my other Apple devices. AFAIK I can’t reset the phone without this passcode. I’m hoping someone will have some advice to help me but I doubt it. The phone in question is an iPhone SE 2nd Generation (2020, I think), running iOS 18.0.1. submitted by /u/GalacticDragon7 [link] [comments]

Some of my group chat messages won’t mute. They need to be, but it won’t let me for some reason. As in, even though I’ve muted the chats, they still pop up in my notifications as soon as I receive them. submitted by /u/Training-Radish9122 [link] [comments]

No VPN or weird stuff. I tried to download apps on safari but it told me that i‘m not eligible. So I tried every single thing i found on the internet but still didnt work. So i went on privacy - analasys - analytics… (latest one) and there it says that device in iraq. Let me tell you guys. I am no war veteran and i have no idea why it says that. Not desperate for support, just thought its cool to share it here. submitted by /u/username_3-20_ [link] [comments]

My iPhones back glass was cracked before I got to changing it my iPhone began to go from 10% to 60% back to 10% eventually having constant shutting off to shutting off completely. A nail polish smell began to come out from the back as well so I decided to change the battery due to these events. I said might as well get a new back glass. after installing the battery I turned the iPhone on to make sure it was working good (before installing back glass), once on the battery was on and stable but began to notice the phone getting super hot from the component as shown in the picture hot enough to burn your hand the battery was draining quick as well could this be caused due to the fact I did not connect the back glass all together or is this because I have a deeper issue going on with hardware now? please help and thank you submitted by /u/xXAlexanderxX7 [link] [comments]

I’m sitting in my car connected to CarPlay wirelessly. I created a shortcut to turn set WiFi off. I tap on shortcut, it runs, and yet I’m still connected to CarPlay. What gives? If I turn WiFi off I should automatically disconnect from CarPlay. Am I missing something here? Thanks submitted by /u/pecck1 [link] [comments]

hello everyone, i restarted the iPhone, changed languages to english and idk why the find my remains in that language ion even know what is it. can you please help me? thanksss love y’all submitted by /u/Worldly_Chemistry_81 [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Greedy-Lie-4192 [link] [comments]

I need to recover data/text exchange from May 4th 2024. I'm willing to pay 5k if resolved. submitted by /u/Bzisme3 [link] [comments]

I’ve reset my phone and changed my photo settings to download. Is there anyway to get a photo back that has this error? Or is it toast? iPhone 12. iOS 16.6.1 submitted by /u/Old_Dance_3554 [link] [comments]

I just had to by a new phone because my iPhone SE broke and didn’t care enough to just fix that. I’ve had it for 4+ years. I never really cared much for any crazy features. But now I’m just curious as to what’s so special about these newer phones? submitted by /u/RealSkylitPanda [link] [comments]

Hi guys I am having constant problems with iPhone messages... Yesterday I tried to send a regular message and it just didn't want to deliver... was sending it to samsung s23 and then tested on 14 pro max and didn't work as well... Is there a way that iMessages can detect when I don't have internet connection and send a regular text message? Even though, yesterday when I tried to send message to s23 and 14 pro max I was on wifi and still didn't want to deliver... Also when My mother send me a regular message (I guess imessage) I do not receive it before I come home and connect to wifi. Is there way that her iPhone can detect when I am offline that I can' receive internet required message and send regular text message, or I have to turn off iMessages completely in settings so I can have communication with my mom? submitted by /u/Sure_Concert6963 [link] [comments]

Given that “built from the ground up” and “built for Apple intelligence” was plastered literally everywhere on their advertisement campaigns, will there be any compensation coming for buyers of the products? We have since learned that mostly everything demonstrated before release either didn’t actually work or exist. Siri is as dumb as ever. The only things that actually work in their “intelligence” system overhaul are Memoji’s and its ChatGPT integration. What Apple has done in this past year is illegal and of bad faith towards its consumers. I have little faith that Siri will be able to function as advertised during the current cycle of 16 series iPhones. How many of you bought the new phones because of Apple Intelligence? submitted by /u/ohnoimrunningoutofle [link] [comments]

Lately since upgrading to 18.4.1 my iPhone 16 is lagging when highlighting text. If I double tap a word to highlight it, I have to wait a whole 1-2 seconds for it to highlight. If I triple tap to highlight a paragraph it can take even longer, like 5 seconds. It’s worse if you do it with longer paragraphs or after doing it more than once. Is this happening to anyone else? submitted by /u/LifeHasLeft [link] [comments]

I have an iphone 13 and am upgrading now, when i transfer my data - which is done by scanning the blue dot galaxy image thing, does the old iphone data stays and a copy of data goes to new one or does the old one become empty like formatted. And do hidden albums/apps get transferred too even if they aren’t backed up on cloud or do you need to do those manually? submitted by /u/DivZyzz [link] [comments]

Get to know Apple Intelligence, a powerful set of features built into your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, to help you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly. Available on: – iPhone 16 models – iPhone 15 Pro – iPhone 15 Pro Max – iPad mini (A17 Pro) – iPad and Mac models with M1 and later Learn more about Apple Intelligence at: https://apple.co/AppleIntelligence Audio Descriptions: https://youtu.be/jqM7yUJkMic In this film, we’ll walk you through how to: 00:00 - Introduction 00:26 - Remove distractions with Photo Clean Up 00:57 - Create emojis from your imagination with Genmoji 01:32 - Generate custom images in seconds with Image Playground 02:16 - Get the gist of long emails with Mail Summarize 02:55 - Rewrite your messages with the perfect tone using Writing Tools 03:33 - Turn a quick thought into a real plan with Writing Tools composed with ChatGPT 04:14 - Use your camera to learn more about the places, objects and text around you with Visual intelligence 04:50 - Unlock instant answers and ideas with Visual intelligence: ask ChatGPT Music: "Feelin’ Fuzzy” by Chinese American Bear https://apple.co/Feelin-Fuzzy “Suspens” by La Sécurité https://apple.co/Suspens "All Your Love” by T Soomian https://apple.co/All-Your-Love "Bang Bang Boom” by Brijean https://apple.co/Bang-Bang-Boom #AppleIntelligence Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

iPhone 16 features the latest-generation Ceramic Shield material which is two times tougher than any smartphone glass. Relax, it’s iPhone 16. Learn more about iPhone 16 at https://www.apple.com/iphone-16/ Audio Descriptions: https://youtu.be/IfYdM0GPiRA “I trusted you” by Gustaf - https://apple.co/Gustaf-I-Trusted-You #iPhone16 #CeramicShield #RelaxItsiPhone Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

With Apple Intelligence, you can now remove distracting objects from your photos with the Clean Up tool. Learn more about iPhone 16: https://www.apple.com/iphone/ Learn more about Apple Intelligence: https://www.apple.com/apple-intelligence/ Audio Descriptions: https://youtu.be/XzfE-uTI5oU “Workout” by Giraffage: https://apple.co/workout-edit #AppleIntelligence #iPhone16 #iphone16pro Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

When you use Mac and iPhone together, you can do incredible things. Audio Descriptions: https://youtube.com/shorts/vsMBTH6OWXY Learn more: https://apple.co/MacDoesThat “and now all the dreams are told” by Vorhees https://apple.co/Dreams-Vorhees #Mac #MacBookAir #MacDoesThat

Lost charger? That’s a tomorrow problem when you have up to 24 hours of battery life. Learn more at https://apple.co/MacDoesThat Audio Descriptions: https://youtu.be/2TuGJk28aOs “Tttttime” by Faye Webster https://apple.co/Tttttime #Mac #MacBookPro #MacDoesThat Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Bright days? Bring it on. The nano-texture display option for MacBook Pro scatters light to minimize glare and reflections in bright spaces, whether inside or out. Learn more at https://apple.co/MacDoesThat Audio Descriptions: https://youtu.be/0F-__xt8Lig “Good Sun” by Eddie Chacon https://apple.co/Good-Sun-Eddie-Chacon #Mac #MacBookPro #MacDoesThat Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Warning: This film contains spoilers of Season 2 of the Apple Original show Severance. Director Ben Stiller and lead editor Geoffrey Richman break down the important relationship between editing and storytelling as they dive into how the thrilling season finale of Severance was edited on Mac mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro. Learn more: https://apple.com/mac Season 2 of Severance is now streaming on Apple TV+ Audio Descriptions: https://youtu.be/lTO8fa_GL2s 00:00 Introduction 00:29 Behind the Mac: Editing 01:05 Example 1: The Marching Band 03:55 Example 2: The Crib 05:19 Example 3: The Love Story 07:04 Example 4: The Music 09:37 Example 5: The Ending Original score by Teddy Shapiro #Severance #BenStiller #Macmini #iMac #MacBookPro Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Go behind-the-scenes with director Spike Jonze and Pedro Pascal to see how the new AirPods 4 film ‘Someday’ was brought to life. Learn more: https://www.apple.com/airpods-4/ Audio Descriptions: https://youtu.be/RbX3CGoB_f0 “Conticinio“ by Guitarricadelafuente: https://apple.co/Conticinio “Perfect” by Sam i & Tropkillaz (feat. Bia & MC Pikachu): https://apple.co/perfect #AirPods4 #Apple #PedroPascal #SpikeJonze #BehindtheScenes Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Experience the magic of AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation in a new film by Spike Jonze, starring Pedro Pascal. Learn more: https://www.apple.com/airpods-4/ Audio Descriptions: https://youtu.be/vdl-_xRwHmw “Conticinio“ by Guitarricadelafuente: https://apple.co/Conticinio “Perfect” by Sam i & Tropkillaz (feat. Bia & MC Pikachu): https://apple.co/perfect #AirPods4 #AirPods #Apple #PedroPascal #SpikeJonze #ActiveNoiseCancellation Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Watch Metallica’s first immersive concert film, only on Apple Vision Pro starting March 14th. Link to schedule Apple Vision Pro demo: https://apple.co/MetallicaVP Audio Descriptions: https://youtu.be/-SjIgElk3s0 #Metallica #AppleImmersiveVideo #AppleVisionPro #SpatialComputing Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Shoot cinematic slow motion in 4K 120 fps Dolby Vision on iPhone 16 Pro. Learn more about iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max: https://www.apple.com/iphone-16-pro Audio Description: https://youtu.be/3XoSsrJBCRw Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it. #iPhone16Pro #slowmotion #iPhone16ProMax

A bunch of ways to text with the new iPhone 16e: 💫 Text effects 🎈Message effects ⛓️‍💥 Undo Send 🌀 Genmoji 🎙️ Audio message Check out https://apple.co/3Xwiufl for all the details. Latest iPhone. Greatest price. Audio Descriptions: https://youtube.com/shorts/-lALcDbWzWc #Apple #iPhone #iPhone16e #16e #newiPhone #Texting #iMessage #Genmoji

Some key features for getting into nature with the new iPhone 16e: 📡 Messages via satellite 📷 48MP Fusion camera 🎨 Color filters Messages via Satellite is available in the United States and Canada on any iPhone 14 or later model and requires a carrier plan. SMS is available on supported carriers. Rates may apply. See https://apple.co/4k8GpLd for more info. Check out https://apple.co/431SX15 for all the details. Latest iPhone. Greatest price. Audio Descriptions: https://youtube.com/shorts/L_KcZLKfEGI #Apple #iPhone #iPhone16e #16e #newiPhone #Camping #Hiking #OffGrid #Nature

Must-have features for your next trip with the new iPhone 16e: 🌊 Background Sounds 🚗 Vehicle Motion Cues 💱 Currency conversion 🔋USB-C charging 📍Check In Check out https://apple.co/4gQz1l1 for all the details. Latest iPhone. Greatest price. Audio Descriptions: https://youtube.com/shorts/YFocd9MwjHE #Apple #iPhone #iPhone16e #16e #newiPhone #Travel

Get the latest iPhone at the greatest price. The new iPhone 16e is built for Apple Intelligence and powered by A18, the latest-generation chip. It comes with supersized battery life, a 48MP Fusion camera, and a durable design, all at a price you can’t ignore. Learn more: https://apple.com/iphone-16e/ Audio Description video: https://youtu.be/jywOUdJi6xM “Talk” by Selena Gomez & benny blanco #iPhone16e #SelenaGomez #bennyblanco #iPhone Welcome to the official Apple YouTube channel. Here you’ll find news about product launches, tutorials, and other great content. Our more than 160,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

A common complaint about the iPad Pro is that the iPadOS software platform fails to fully take advantage of the device's powerful hardware. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that iPadOS 19 will be "more like macOS." "I'm told that this year's upgrade will focus on productivity, multitasking and app window management — with an eye on the device operating more like a Mac," said Gurman, in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter. "It's been a long time coming, with iPad power users pleading with Apple to make the tablet more powerful." 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

Apple plans to release an all-new super thin iPhone this year, debuting it alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ Max. We've seen pictures of dummy models, cases, and renders with the design, but Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy today showed off newer dummy models that give us a better idea of just how thin the "iPhone 17 Air" will be. Unbox Therapy's Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84fbgEhayoQ 📲 Read more: iPhone 17 Air's Extreme Thinness Demoed in New Video https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/22/iphone-17-air-thinness-video/ 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

Apple hasn't introduced a major update for the AirPods Max since the headphones came out in 2020, but last year there was a minor refresh with new color options and an upgrade to USB-C charging. With no additional new features on the horizon, we thought we'd take a look at whether the ‌AirPods Max‌ are worth picking up in 2025. 📲 Read more: [WEBSITE LINKS HERE] 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

The iPhone 17 Pro should be launching in September, and there are already TONS of rumors circulating around this device. Here are some new features and changes that we were expecting to see on the iPhone 17 Pro models later this year. 📲 Read more: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/13/iphone-17-pro-rumored-new-features/ 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

Google recently came out with the Pixel 9a, a mid-tier Android smartphone that rivals the iPhone 16e that Apple released earlier this year. We picked up a Pixel 9a to see how Google's lower-cost option compares to Apple's more affordable iPhone. The Pixel 9a joins the flagship Pixel 9 and 9 Pro smartphones that Google released last year, much like Apple added the ‌iPhone 16e‌ to the iPhone 16 lineup. The Pixel 9a is priced starting at $499, so it's $100 cheaper than the $599 starting price of the ‌iPhone 16e‌. Buy Pixel 9a - https://amzn.to/4cwiGBc Buy iPhone 16e - https://amzn.to/3G6DjIm 📲 Read more: [WEBSITE LINKS HERE] 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - Price 00:42 - Design & Hardware Features 01:09 - Cameras 02:30 - Displays 04:04 - Face ID vs Face Unlock 04:32 - Performance (Tensor G4 vs A18) 05:25 - Google AI vs Apple Intelligence (Gemini vs Siri) 07:56 - Battery Life 08:36 - The Winner??? The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

New M3 iPad Air or M4 iPad Pro? What are the differences and which should you buy? I’ll actually answer that last question right now, but just know that it’s not entirely a black-and-white situation, and so I hope you stick around and see all of the major differences because some of these features might matter to you more than others. M3 iPad Air - https://amzn.to/4lsc5Mm M4 iPad Pro - https://amzn.to/3YvxESj Magic Keyboard for Air - https://amzn.to/4jqyLL1 Magic Keyboard for Pro - https://amzn.to/3Rds9DP Apple Pencil Pro - https://amzn.to/3G6dFDp Apple Pencil (USB-C) - https://amzn.to/3XUNkhU 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Which Should You Buy? 00:46 - Displays 02:13 - More Design Differences 03:23 - M3 vs M4 Chip 04:50 - Apple Pencil Compatibility 05:34 - Magic Keyboard for Air vs Magic Keyboard for Pro 06:20 - Optional Nano-Texture Glass 07:03 - Colors and Storage Options 07:25 - Final Thoughts The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

YouTube channel Front Page Tech is back today with another video that provides a closer look at iOS 19's alleged design changes. The video contains re-created renders of iOS 19, which are allegedly based on real footage of the software update, provided by sources within Apple. Overall, iOS 19 is expected to have a more glass-like, visionOS-inspired design, with added translucency for user interface elements like buttons, menus, notifications, and more. Watch Front Page Tech's video here: https://youtu.be/YGI8sZqWEl0 📲 Read more: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/07/ios-19-rounder-app-icons-video/ 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

If you've recently got one of Apple's new M4 Macs, or if you're simply looking to upgrade your desk setup, we have a selection of useful Mac accessories that you might want to take a look at. This video is sponsored by Setapp. Try Setapp with an extended 30-day trial here - https://stpp.co/macrumors 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Intro 00:29 - Anker 165W Laptop Power Bank (https://amzn.to/3R77mlq) 02:00 - RayCon Magic Laptop Battery Bank (https://bit.ly/3FUnrIT) Cheaper Amazon Alternative - https://amzn.to/4lmPi4r 02:55 - Satechi 200W 6 Port USB-C GaN Charger (https://amzn.to/3EmUm8h) 03:53 - Sonnet Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock (https://bit.ly/4lrykSO) 05:08 - Satechi Mac Mini Hub (https://amzn.to/3RCJaHF) 05:40 - ASUS ProArt 5K Display (https://amzn.to/4jkKeM9) 06:22 - Keychron Q5 HE Mechanical Keyboard (https://amzn.to/3XR5gtH) 07:07 - Sonos Era 100 (https://amzn.to/4ll4Ohl) 08:19 - WaterField Designs Shinjuku Backpack and Sling (https://bit.ly/3RC5XDp) The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

If you're new to Macs, or haven't upgraded for some time, it can be difficult to decide just what to get. Is the MacBook Air the best option? Do you need the power of the MacBook Pro? What about desktop options? In our latest video, we walk through the current Mac lineup and provide some tips on things to consider when you're trying to decide on a new machine. Trying to figure out if you need more RAM or a storage upgrade? Our video just might help. This video is sponsored by Setapp. Try Setapp with an extended 30-day trial here - https://stpp.co/macrumors 📲 Read more: Mac Buyers Guide - https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook_Air 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Intro 00:22 - My #1 recommendation!!! 01:24 - What macs can you buy in 2025? 02:26 - M4 MacBook Air 04:02 - M4 Mac Mini 04:58 - M4 iMac 06:04 - M4 Max & M4 Pro MacBook Pro 07:42 - M4 Max & M3 Ultra Mac Studio 08:47 - M2 Ultra Mac Pro 10:28 - Sponsor: Setapp The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. 📲 Read more: Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/31/apple-releases-ios-18-4/ This video is sponsored by Setapp. Try Setapp with an extended 30-day trial here - https://stpp.co/macrumors 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

Apple is expected to launch a new foldable iPhone next year, based on multiple rumors and credible sources. The long-awaited device has been rumored for years now, but signs increasingly suggest that 2026 could indeed be the year that Apple releases its first foldable device. 📲 Read more: Foldable iPhone Expected Next Year: All the Rumored Features So Far https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/24/foldable-iphone-expected-2026-rumored-features/ 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

Apple today announced that its 36th annual Worldwide Developers Conference will begin on Monday, June 9, and end on Friday, June 13. As with WWDC events since 2020, WWDC 2025 will primarily be an online event that is open to all developers, with no associated cost. Every WWDC begins with a keynote that happens on the first day of the event, and this year's keynote will take place on June 9. Apple will unveil iOS 19, iPadOS 19, macOS 16, tvOS 19, watchOS 12, and visionOS 3. 📲 Read more: Apple Announces WWDC 2025 Event for June 9 to 13 https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/25/apple-wwdc-2025/ 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

Apple issued a statement announcing that it is delaying certain Apple Intelligence features around Siri personalization that had originally been planned for an update to iOS 18, now noting that the features will arrive "in the coming year," which suggests they may not debut until iOS 19 or an even later update in the iOS 19 cycle. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell will be taking over the Siri team at Apple, which until now was led by Apple's artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea. Apple CEO Tim Cook has apparently "lost confidence" in Giannandrea's ability to "execute on product development," but he will remain at the company for now to oversee artificial intelligence research and development in general. Apple has also been accused of false advertising and unfair competition for delaying the Siri Apple Intelligence features that it promoted when launching iOS 18 and the iPhone 16 models. 🌐 Connect with Dan: 𝕏: https://twitter.com/danbarbera Instagram: https://instagram.com/danbarbera1 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@macrumors Dan's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/danbarbera1 🎙️ Follow The MacRumors Show Podcast: https://youtube.com/@TheMacRumorsShow The most popular Apple News & Rumors site on the Internet. Welcome to MacRumors, your ultimate destination for in-depth and insightful Mac reviews, where we go beyond the surface to bring you a comprehensive look at everything Apple & Mac! 🍎✨ 🖥️💻Thorough Reviews: We meticulously test and evaluate each product, exploring the features, performance, and understanding its capabilities. 🔍 In-Depth Analysis: Dive deep into the intricacies of Apple's latest technologies and innovations. 🌐 Mac News & Rumors: Stay up-to-date with our coverage of the latest tech news, and be the first to know about upcoming new Apple product releases, updates, and developments. 🔧 Apple Accessories: Enhance your Mac experience with our reviews and recommendations for must-have accessories. 💡 Tips & Tricks: Unlock the full potential of your Mac with our tips and tricks that make your user experience easy. Subscribe now and join our community of Mac enthusiasts!

Apple, iPhone, iPad, Mac News and Rumors

We've still got months to go before the new iPhone 17 models come out, but a combination of dummy models and leaks have given us some insight into what we can expect in terms of camera changes.


Apple is adding new camera features, and changing the design of the camera bump for some models. You might be skeptical of dummy models, but over the years, they've proven to be a highly accurate reflection of Apple's design changes. It's case makers who suss out the info used for these dummy models, because there's big money in being the first to market with a case for a new device.

We've rounded up everything that we've heard so far about Apple's upcoming camera tweaks.

All iPhones
All four of the iPhones coming in 2025 are expected to have an upgraded 24-megapixel front-facing camera, which marks a major improvement over the current 12-megapixel front camera.

You'll be able to crop in further on selfies without a loss of quality with that size increase, plus we can also expect better low light performance and more detail in images.

iPhone 17 Pro
For the first time, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will have a trio of 48-megapixel lenses, with a 48-megapixel Fusion lens, a 48-megapixel Ultra Wide lens, and a new 48-megapixel Tetraprism Telephoto lens. The new Ultra Wide lens was introduced in the iPhone 16 Pro, and the upgraded Telephoto lens will be 2025's standout camera feature.

With 48 megapixels, it will be possible to crop in further on Telephoto images without losing detail, for even closer shots.


Apple plans to focus camera marketing on video this year, and the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ models could support 8K video recording, up from 4K in the ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌ models. There might also be support for dual video recording, which would let users record video with both the front and rear cameras at the same time for sharing on social media.

There have been rumors suggesting the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ models might have a mechanical aperture that will let users adjust the amount of light reaching the lens. Apple has only used fixed apertures to date, but a variable aperture would allow for more customizable images with a shallower depth-of-field.

Along with all of these camera improvements, it looks like there's going to be a major camera redesign. Instead of a square camera bump, Apple's going to turn it into a rectangle. There will be a horizontal camera bar across the back of the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ Max, and it'll house the cameras.

The lenses are still going to be in the same general orientation, apparently, with a triangular setup that packs them close together. The flash, microphone, and the LiDAR sensor will be moved further to the right at the other end of the rectangle. It's not clear why Apple is making this design change.

iPhone 17 Air
Because of interior space constraints, the iPhone 17 Air will have just one 48-megapixel Fusion camera. It won't have the room for an Ultra Wide lens or a Telephoto lens, because Apple is making the ‌iPhone 17 Air‌ super thin. Rumors suggest it'll be just 5.5mm thick.


The ‌iPhone 17 Air‌ is getting the same horizontal rear camera bar as the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌, but it won't be as tall since it only needs to accommodate one lens. The camera lens will be on the left, and the flash and microphone will be on the right.

With just one camera, the ‌iPhone 17 Air‌ won't be able to capture spatial video or spatial photos, unless Apple has a new method for using a single-lens camera to capture that kind of footage.

iPhone 17
Aside from that 24-megapixel front-facing camera improvement, we haven't heard anything about the ‌iPhone 17‌. The ‌iPhone 17‌'s rear camera seems to look the same as the iPhone 16's rear camera, with two lenses in a vertical arrangement at the left side of the device.


It doesn't look like the standard ‌iPhone 17‌ will get the same horizontal camera bar that Apple is introducing for the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 17 Air‌ models.

We also haven't heard anything about sensor improvements, but that doesn't mean it's not a possibility. The ‌iPhone 17‌ is expected to continue to feature a 48-megapixel Fusion lens and a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide lens.

Read More
For more on all of the features that are coming to the 2025 iPhone lineup, we have dedicated iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, and iPhone 17 Pro roundups.
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During yesterday's earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company's March quarter hadn't been impacted by Trump's tariffs because it was able to build up supply, but it will take a hit in the current quarter that ends in June. While Cook said that Apple had no updates to make on pricing at the current time, it's not clear how long Apple will be able to absorb tariff costs, especially if there are policy changes.


Apple's Current Tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump has levied tariffs on almost every country, but there have been so many pauses and so much back and forth on tariff policy that it's tough to keep track of.

Right now, there is a 145 percent total tariff on goods imported from China into the United States. 20 percent of that was put into place earlier this year (the fentanyl tariff), and the other 125 percent is a direct result from "Liberation Day" and retaliatory tariffs put in place in the ongoing trade war with China.

Apple has been paying the 20 percent tariff on all products that it imports from China since that tariff was put in place, but Apple has been exempted from the 125 percent additional tariff. In April, the Trump administration exempted most of Apple's devices, along with computer components, displays, TVs, and more.

There are some Apple products, such as accessories, that are not exempt from the extra 125 percent tariff in China, and Apple is paying the full 145 percent for those.

For all other countries except for China, Trump put a 10 percent tariff in place, with higher "reciprocal" tariffs on multiple countries where Apple sources device components. Those tariffs ranged from 20 percent to 46 percent, but have been subject to a 90-day pause since April 9. The pause does not apply to the baseline 10 percent tariff, so Apple would be paying a 10 percent tariff on goods imported from countries like India, Thailand, Vietnam, and the EU were it not exempt. Apple is exempt from the 10 percent tariff, and it is not paying the reciprocal tariff rates at the current time.

In a nutshell: Apple is paying a 20 percent tariff for most of the products that it imports from China. For others, like accessories, Apple is paying 145 percent.

Apple's exemption is not a permanent status and the 90-day pause is temporary, so it's unclear how policies might change in the future.

How Apple Has Mitigated Tariffs So Far
For the March quarter, Cook said that Apple saw a limited impact from tariffs because the company was able to optimize its supply chain and inventory.

Basically, Apple knew the tariffs were coming, and stockpiled devices in the United States.

Cook said Apple already sources approximately half of the iPhones sold in the United States from India, and the company expects the majority of the iPhones sold in the U.S. in the coming months to have India as their country of origin. Almost all iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and AirPods sold in the U.S. will be sourced from Vietnam. Sourcing devices from India and Vietnam means Apple doesn't currently have to pay the 20 percent tariff for goods from China, minimizing tariff impact.

June Quarter Impact
Apple isn't able to precisely estimate the impact from tariffs in the current quarter because it is "uncertain of potential future actions prior to the end of the quarter" in June.

Cook said that if the current global tariff rates do not change, policies remain the same, and no new tariffs are added, the tariffs will add $900 million to the company's costs. Cook cautioned that this was not an estimate that could be used for future quarters because of "unique factors" benefitting the June quarter, which suggests the impact could be more severe going forward.

If there are policy changes and additional tariffs introduced, it could cost Apple more than $900 million. Cook said that much of the $900 million estimate is from the 20 percent tariff that Apple is paying for goods coming from China. $900 million is less than one percent of Apple's quarterly revenue and under two percent of Apple's iPhone sales, which is why Apple is able to absorb the current costs.

Cook said that Apple didn't know what would happen with tariffs, and he wasn't able to provide insight beyond June. He did say that Apple would continue to source U.S. devices outside of China, and that Apple's operations team has done "an incredible job around optimizing the supply chain and the inventory," which Apple will continue to do.

Starting today, the U.S. has removed the de minimus exemption that meant goods with a value under $800 were not subject to tariffs. That will impact the refurbished components that Apple receives from China for AppleCare repairs, and Apple will need to tweak its supply chain and procedures to avoid it.

The Section 232 Investigation
In mid-April, the Trump administration initiated a Section 232 investigation that will focus on recommendations to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers, and it covers rare earth metals, magnets, semiconductors, and other products that Apple uses.

Depending on the outcome of the Section 232 investigation, Trump could levy additional fees on semiconductors and equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, along with critical minerals. New tariffs on semiconductors would impact Apple.

The Section 232 investigation spans several months and we may not see any outcome from it until December 2025, after which Trump will need to decide on a solution. So we could be looking at 2026 for any kind of dedicated semiconductor tariff.

The 90-day tariff pause is shorter term, and Apple's exemption could end at any point.

Manufacturers Already Raising Prices
Other tech companies and electronic manufacturers that have not been exempted from the current tariffs give us some insight into what might happen if Apple is hit with new tariffs. Several companies have already raised prices, and there's undoubtedly more to come.

• Xbox - The Xbox Series X is 20 percent more expensive, and it costs $600 instead of $500. Microsoft has also raised prices on other devices.


• PlayStation - The PlayStation 5 Pro is priced at $700, up from $590.


• MSI Claw 8 - MSI's handheld PC is $1,000, up from $900. Other products have also gone up in price.


• DJI - DJI's Osmo Pocket 3 camera is now $799, up from $519.


• Legion Go S - Lenovo's Legion Go S is $549, up from $500.


• Segway - Segway upped the price of the Ninebot F3 to $1,000. It was $850 before the tariffs.


• Bambu - The X1 Carbon 3D printer is $1,500, up from $1,200. The new H2D printer, announced right around when tariffs hit, is $2,400, up from $1,900 when it was introduced.


• Anycubic Kobra S - Now $700, up from $550.


• Temu and Shein - Chinese retailers are adding tariff fees to purchases. These companies will be hit hard with the end of the de minimis exemption.

How Much Could Prices Go Up?
When tariffs were first announced, there were a slew of stories suggesting the ‌iPhone‌ could cost hundreds to thousands of dollars more, but it's doubtful prices would actually increase that much. Consumers wouldn't be willing to pay those kinds of fees, plus Apple has plans to mitigate some of the tariff impact.

Apple is sourcing some components in the United States, including chips from a TSMC factory in Arizona, and it has diversified enough that if Trump lowers tariffs in India, Vietnam, Thailand, and other countries, prices won't increase as much. Apple is also sizable enough that it can negotiate some of its costs down.

Apple can certainly absorb some of the tariff impact as it is doing now, but that's not sustainable long term. With no relief, Apple will need to raise prices, and the question isn't if, but when. It's not likely that we'll see price increases mid-cycle on existing devices, but it is possible we could see a jump in cost with the debut of the iPhone 17 models.
This article, "Apple Absorbs Tariff Costs While Electronics Prices Surge, But How Long Will It Last?" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today shared a "Hands-On with Apple Intelligence" video that walks through all of the current ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features and how to use them.


The video shies away from the unavailable ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features like personalized Siri replies, and instead focuses on what's available now.

• Clean Up in Photos


• Genmoji


• Image Playground


• Mail Summaries


• Writing Tools


• Visual Intelligence


• ChatGPT integration

After delaying the personalized ‌Apple Intelligence‌ ‌Siri‌ features, Apple took down its ‌Apple Intelligence‌ ads that had highlighted the functionality. Apple originally published ads with unavailable ‌Siri‌ features when the iPhone 16 launched, and now it's facing lawsuits as a result from customers who expected the ‌Siri‌ features on their new ‌iPhone 16‌ devices.Tags: Apple Ads, Apple Intelligence
This article, "Available Apple Intelligence Features Highlighted in New Ad" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple is working with Anthropic on an updated version of Xcode that will support AI code writing, editing, and testing, reports Bloomberg. Anthropic is best known for its "Claude" large language model and chatbot that competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Claude is well-known for its coding capabilities, beating out other LLMs on programming tasks.


The new version of Xcode integrates the Claude Sonnet model, and Apple is slowly rolling it out internally for employees to use. Many companies have started adopting AI coding tools to speed up product development, and Apple can't afford to be behind. Bloomberg says that Apple was initially hesitant to use AI to create software for Apple customers, but advancements in LLMs have made the company more comfortable with expanded AI tools.

Apple's internal version of Xcode has a chat interface for programmers to request code or help with coding, and it is able to test user interfaces and help engineers locate and address bugs.

There's no word yet on whether Apple will eventually launch the software publicly, but if the company's internal testing is successful, it's possible the tool could be provided to third-party developers. Last year, Apple announced Swift Assist, an AI-powered coding companion for Xcode. Swift Assist was supposed to come out in 2024, but like the personalized Apple Intelligence Siri features, it never materialized.

As it turns out, Apple engineers testing Swift Assist found that it was making up information and could slow down app development in some situations. Apple's work with Anthropic could help with Swift Assist and future tools.

Apple has inked deals with several AI companies. OpenAI's ChatGPT is already integrated into iOS 18, it is working with Google to add support for Gemini, and now there is a partnership with Anthropic. In China, Apple is also working with Baidu and Alibaba on AI.Tag: Anthropic
This article, "Apple Partners With Anthropic for Claude-Powered AI Coding Platform" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we look at what to expect from the 2025 Apple Watch lineup when new models launch in the fall.

Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos
The Apple Watch Series 11 is anticipated to offer hypertension detection as the device's next major health monitoring advancement, potentially with AI-powered health-coaching features. It is also rumored to offer a new chip and, on cellular models, 5G RedCap connectivity.

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to receive these new capabilities, as well as features that came to last year's Series 10 model such as a brighter display with a faster refresh rate and a redesigned metal back to facilitate faster charging. However, iPhone-like satellite connectivity features are rumored to be the biggest upgrade for this year's new Apple Watch Ultra.

The third-generation Apple Watch SE is rumored to feature a "new look," perhaps with an all-new plastic casing to bring down the device's cost. It is also likely to feature different size options, either by reducing the bezels around the display or enlarging the screens similar to the Apple Watch Series 7. It should also feature a new chip and a lower price point.

We also look at the latest rumors about iPadOS 19, where a macOS-style menu bar is expected to appear on-screen when the iPad is connected to a Magic Keyboard. The iPhone could also be getting a Stage Manager-like feature when connected to an external display.

The MacRumors Show also has its own YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed to keep up with new episodes and clips.

Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel!

You can also listen to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or your preferred podcasts app. You can also copy our RSS feed directly into your podcast player.


If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up to hear our discussion about the rumored look of the iPhone 17 "Air" and iPadOS 19's major productivity update.

Subscribe to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by interesting guests such as John Gruber, Mark Gurman, Kevin Nether, Jon Prosser, Luke Miani, Matthew Cassinelli, Brian Tong, Quinn Nelson, Jared Nelson, Eli Hodapp, Mike Bell, Sara Dietschy, iJustine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Arnold Kim, Ben Sullins, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Tyler Stalman, Sam Kohl, Federico Viticci, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie.

‌The MacRumors Show‌ is on X @MacRumorsShow, so be sure to give us a follow to keep up with the podcast. You can also head over to The MacRumors Show forum thread to engage with us directly. Remember to rate and review the podcast, and let us know what subjects and guests you would like to see in the future.Tag: The MacRumors Show
This article, "The MacRumors Show: Apple Watch Series 11, Ultra 3, and SE 3 Rumors" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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As planned, Spotify has updated its iPhone app in the U.S. with out-of-app pricing and subscription options for its Premium plans. The latest version of the app is now available in the App Store, and the added pricing information is rolling out.


Spotify users in the U.S. can now view pricing information for its Individual, Duo, Family, and Student plans directly in the iPhone app, and there are buttons that lead to Spotify's website, where users can complete the payment process.

For many years, Spotify has not allowed users to subscribe to Premium plans directly in its iPhone app, as the company does not want to pay Apple's 30% commission on in-app purchases. That remains the case as of today, but Spotify is now permitted to show buttons and links pertaining to out-of-app payment options, without any limitations.

Spotify shared the following statement today:

In a victory for consumers, artists, creators, and authors, Apple has approved Spotify's U.S. app update. After nearly a decade, this will finally allow us to freely show clear pricing information and links to purchase, fostering transparency and choice for U.S. consumers. We can now give consumers lower prices, more control, and easier access to the Spotify experience. There is more work to do, but today represents a significant milestone for developers and entrepreneurs everywhere who want to build and compete on a more level playing field. It's the opening act of a new era, and we could not be more ready for the show.

This monumental change comes after a U.S. judge ordered Apple to immediately allow apps to show this sort of information, as part of a lawsuit filed by Fortnite maker Epic Games. Apple is also no longer permitted to collect a 27% commission on those out-of-app purchases that are initiated through the App Store. Apple has complied with the order, but the company said it disagrees with the decision and plans to appeal.

The judge enforced these requirements after finding Apple violated a 2021 injunction by imposing too many barriers on out-of-app payment options.

Many other popular iPhone apps will likely be updated with out-of-app subscription buttons and information in the U.S. over the coming days.Tags: App Store, Spotify
This article, "Spotify Updates iPhone App With Out-of-App Payment Options in U.S." first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Amazon this week had a huge sale across a number of Apple products, offering the best prices of the year so far on AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4, 11th generation iPad, M3 iPad Air, Apple Watch Series 10, and M4 MacBook Air. All of these record low prices are still live today.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

AirPods

• What's the deal? Take up to $80 off AirPods


• Where can I get it? Amazon


• Where can I find the original deal? Right here

$80 OFFAirPods Pro 2 for $169.00
$30 OFFAirPods 4 for $99.00
$30 OFFAirPods 4 (ANC) for $148.99

One of the best deals of the week is on the AirPods Pro 2, which have hit $169.00 on Amazon, down from $249.00, the best price we've tracked so far in 2025. You can also find low prices on AirPods 4 right now on Amazon.

Apple Watch

• What's the deal? Take up to $100 off Apple Watch Series 10 and SE


• Where can I get it? Amazon


• Where can I find the original deal? Right here

$100 OFFApple Watch Series 10 (42mm GPS) for $299.00
$100 OFFApple Watch Series 10 (46mm GPS) for $329.00
$80 OFFApple Watch SE (40mm GPS) for $169.00
$80 OFFApple Watch SE (44mm GPS) for $199.00

The Apple Watch Series 10 is available for $100 off this week on Amazon, while the Apple Watch SE is on sale for $80 off. These are both record low prices for each model of the Apple Watch.

11th Gen iPad

• What's the deal? Take $50 off 11th generation iPad


• Where can I get it? Amazon


• Where can I find the original deal? Right here

$50 OFF128GB Wi-Fi iPad for $299.00
$50 OFF256GB Wi-Fi iPad for $399.00
$50 OFF512GB Wi-Fi iPad for $599.00

Amazon introduced $50 discounts on nearly every 11th generation iPad this week, all hitting new all-time low prices in the process. Prices start at $299.00 for the 128GB Wi-Fi model.

M3 iPad Air

• What's the deal? Take $100 off M3 iPad Air


• Where can I get it? Amazon


• Where can I find the original deal? Right here

$100 OFF11-inch M3 iPad Air (128GB Wi-Fi) for $499.00
$100 OFF13-inch M3 iPad Air (128GB Wi-Fi) for $699.00

You'll also find new all-time low prices on nearly every M3 iPad Air this week on Amazon, with $100 off these tablets.

M4 MacBook Air

• What's the deal? Take $150 off M4 MacBook Air


• Where can I get it? Amazon


• Where can I find the original deal? Right here

$150 OFF13-inch M4 MacBook Air (256GB) for $849.00
$150 OFF13-inch M4 MacBook Air (16GB/512GB) for $1,049.00
$150 OFF13-inch M4 MacBook Air (24GB/512GB) for $1,249.00

If you're shopping for a new notebook, Amazon has the M4 MacBook Air available from $849.00 for the 256GB 13-inch model. All of these computers are hitting $150 off across the board, and like the rest of the deals from Amazon this week, they're new all-time low prices.

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.



Deals Newsletter
Interested in hearing more about the best deals you can find in 2025? Sign up for our Deals Newsletter and we'll keep you updated so you don't miss the biggest deals of the season!




Related Roundup: Apple Deals
This article, "Best Apple Deals of the Week: Amazon's Biggest Sale of the Year so Far Has Low Prices on AirPods, iPads, and More" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Since watchOS 7 in 2020, parents have been able to pair their iPhone to their child's Apple Watch. Formerly known as Apple Watch Family Setup, and now marketed as Apple Watch For Your Kids, this option allows kids to use an Apple Watch with a cellular plan for texting, calling, and location sharing, even if they do not own an iPhone.


For children, a cellular Apple Watch can be a stepping stone towards an iPhone, and Apple has now marketed that idea in a series of new ads.

On its YouTube channel in Canada, Apple has shared three short videos advertising the benefits of the Apple Watch For Your Kids feature. In each video, a child uses their cellular Apple Watch to text their parents. And in one of the videos, a parent reminds their child who is secretly at a shopping mall that they can see their child's location.

Three key benefits of a cellular Apple Watch for kids: texting, calling, and location sharing.

"Apple Watch with cellular lets your kids text, call and location share, all without their own phone," says each video's description.






Apple Watch For Your Kids requires a child to have an Apple Watch Series 4 or newer with watchOS 7 and later, while the parent must have an iPhone XS or later. A cellular Apple Watch is recommended for full functionality, but a limited set of features are available on Apple Watch models with Wi-Fi only.

More details are available on the Apple Watch For Your Kids page, and in a support document.Related Roundup: Apple Watch 10Tag: Apple AdsBuyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Apple's is continually working with suppliers on successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a picture forming of what to expect from Apple's 2026 smartphone lineup.


If you're skipping this year's upcoming iPhone 17 series, or just plain curious about Apple's plans further out, here are the rumored features that we are expecting to see in the iPhone 18 lineup next year.

Variable Aperture
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro models may feature a main camera with a variable aperture, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. This would be a first for the iPhone lineup and could give users more control over how their photos look. Current iPhones – including the iPhone 14 Pro, 15 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro – use a fixed aperture of ƒ/1.78 for the 48-megapixel main camera, meaning the lens opening doesn't change and is always fully open when capturing photos.

A variable aperture would allow users to manually adjust how much light enters the lens, similar to how traditional cameras work. This could help in bright lighting conditions, reduce overexposure, and offer more flexibility with depth of field – allowing backgrounds to appear more or less blurred depending on the aperture setting.

That said, iPhones use relatively small image sensors, so the practical impact on depth of field may be limited compared to larger-sensor cameras. Still, the feature could give advanced users more creative control, especially in challenging lighting environments.

C2 Modem
Apple plans to include its next-generation C2 modem in the iPhone 18 Pro models, according to supply chain analyst Jeff Pu. The chip will succeed the C1 modem, which debuted in the lower-cost iPhone 16e as Apple's first in-house cellular modem. The C2 is expected to bring faster speeds, improved power efficiency, and support for mmWave 5G in the United States – a feature missing from the C1.

Apple's modem roadmap is part of a long-term strategy to reduce reliance on Qualcomm, which currently supplies 5G modems for the rest of the iPhone lineup. The company has been working on developing its own cellular chips for years, aiming for deeper integration and greater control over power management and performance.

A20 Chip
Apple's upcoming A20 Pro chip, set to power the iPhone 18 Pro models, will reportedly be built using TSMC's third-generation 3nm process – the same node expected for the A19 Pro chip in this year's iPhone 17 Pro, according to analyst Jeff Pu. This suggests that year-over-year performance gains between the A19 Pro and A20 Pro may be modest, at least in terms of raw CPU and GPU improvements.

However, Pu notes that the A20 Pro will feature a more advanced packaging method known as CoWoS (Chip on Wafer on Substrate). This technology enables tighter integration between the processor, unified memory, and the Neural Engine, which could potentially enhance performance in AI-related tasks. The shift could be part of Apple's broader push to support on-device Apple Intelligence features in future iPhones, as the company ramps up its machine learning capabilities.

New Camera Image Sensor
Samsung is working on a new three-layer stacked image sensor, reportedly intended for the iPhone 18. The sensor, referred to as PD-TR-Logic, integrates three layers of circuitry, which would improve camera responsiveness, reduce noise, and increase dynamic range. The leak comes from a source known as "Jukanlosreve," who claims the sensor is being developed specifically for Apple's 2026 iPhone lineup.

Sony has long been Apple's sole image sensor supplier, so Samsung's entry would be a big shift in the iPhone’s camera supply chain. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in 2024 said he expected Samsung to begin shipping 48-megapixel Ultra Wide camera sensors to Apple for iPhones as early as 2026, which is when the iPhone 18 Pro models are expected to be released.

Under-Screen Face ID
Apple may finally introduce under-display Face ID with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in 2026, according to updated information from display analyst Ross Young. Young originally said in April 2023 that the feature would arrive with the iPhone 17 Pro lineup, but revised that timeline in May 2024, pushing the expected debut back by a year.

Even with Face ID sensors hidden beneath the display, the Dynamic Island is still expected to remain – though it could shrink in size. Another possibility is that Apple will move to a single punch-hole cutout for the front-facing camera, similar to designs seen on Android flagships like the Pixel 9 or Galaxy S25. The exact implementation remains unclear, and plans could shift again as development continues.
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In the wake of yesterday's court ruling in the dispute between Apple and Epic Games over Apple's policies restricting developers' ability to inform users about alternatives to making purchases through Apple's in-app purchasing system, Apple has updated its App Review Guidelines to comply with the ruling.


Apple summarized the changes in an email to developers today:

3.1.1: Apps on the United States storefront are not prohibited from including buttons, external links, or other calls to action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned by others.

3.1.1(a): On the United States storefront, there is no prohibition on an app including buttons, external links, or other calls to action, and no entitlement is required to do so.

3.1.3: The prohibition on encouraging users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase does not apply on the United States storefront.

3.1.3(a): The External Link Account entitlement is not required for apps on the United States storefront to include buttons, external links, or other calls to action.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple must immediately comply with the ruling even as the company moves to appeal.

The changes are currently limited to the United States given the scope of the court case, but Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney offered a "peace proposal" pledging to drop all remaining litigation against Apple over the issue if Apple were to implement the required U.S. changes on a worldwide basis. Apple has so far given no indication that it is interested in accepting that proposal.

Following the court ruling and with Apple's policy changes, major app developers are already moving to make it easier for users to purchase or subscribe to content outside of the App Store, with Spotify already submitting an app update, Patreon indicating that it will do so, and ‌Epic Games‌ saying that it will bring Fortnite back to the U.S. ‌App Store‌.Tags: App Store, App Store Review Guidelines, Epic Games, Epic Games vs. Apple
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Spotify today submitted an app update to Apple that will include information on Spotify plan costs and options to subscribe through weblinks without using the in-app purchase system. Spotify will not need to pay a fee to Apple when customers subscribe to the service using alternate payment methods in the Spotify app.


In a blog post announcing the changes, Spotify said that yesterday's ruling "delivers the benefits that all consumers deserve around the world," calling it a great day for Spotify users in the United States. Here's what Spotify says consumers will be able to do in the updated Spotify app:

• Can finally see how much something costs in our app, including pricing details on subscriptions and information about promotions that will save money;


• Can click a link to purchase the subscription of choice, upgrading from a Free account to one of our Premium plans;


• Can seamlessly click the link and easily change Premium subscriptions from Individual to a Student, Duo, or Family plan;


• Can use other payment options beyond just Apple's payment system--we provide a wider range of options on our website; and


• Going forward, this opens the door to other seamless buying opportunities that will directly benefit creators (think easy-to-purchase audiobooks)

Spotify said that it's "absurd" that it hasn't been able to offer these "basic services" to customers prior to now, and that "meaningful parts of Apple's anticompetitive barriers" have now been addressed, a change that is "long overdue."

According to Spotify, the decision could "unlock real opportunities for creators building their business and sharing their art with fans through Spotify." Publishers will soon be able to sell their audiobooks through the Spotify platform, for example.

Spotify, Epic Games, Patreon, and other app developers are submitting updates to the App Store with external purchase options. Apple has been ordered to allow developers to add links to external purchase options with no fee, "effective immediately."Tag: Spotify
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Apple held its earnings call for the second fiscal quarter of 2025 today (second calendar quarter), announcing revenue of $95.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $24.8 billion. During the call, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about tariffs, the App Store changes Apple is facing, device sales, and more.



We've rounded up the most interesting tidbits from the Q2 2025 earnings call below.

U.S. App Store Changes
Cook was asked about some of the high-profile legal cases that Apple is facing right now, including the U.S. ‌App Store‌ changes that Apple was ordered to make yesterday, and how those legal cases might impact Apple's services business.

Cook repeated Apple's statement about complying and appealing, and didn't add much more beyond saying that the outcome is unclear.

The case yesterday, we strongly disagree with it. We've complied with the court's order, and we're going to appeal. In the DoJ case you referenced with Google, that case is ongoing, and I don't really have anything to add beyond that.

We're monitoring these closely. But as you point out, there's risk associated with them. And the outcome is unclear.

Tariffs
Cook said that tariffs had a limited impact on the March quarter because Apple was able to optimize its supply chain and inventory. Apple is unable to entirely estimate the impact of tariffs on the June quarter because policies could change, but if everything stays as it is now, the tariffs will add $900 million to Apple's costs.

Cook declined to speak on pricing or whether elevated costs will be passed along to consumers.

US Investment
Cook said that Apple is sourcing glass and Face ID modules from the United States, along with purchasing 19 billion chips from 12 states.

Apple Intelligence Siri Features
Cook said that Apple is "making progress" on the personal Siri features that the company announced at WWDC 2024. "We are making progress, and we look forward to getting these features into customers' hands," said Cook.

"It's just taking a bit longer than we thought," Cook added.

Apple Intelligence Impacting iPhone Sales
Cook said that during the March quarter, Apple saw year over year performance in countries with Apple Intelligence that was stronger than those countries where ‌Apple Intelligence‌ was not available.

Mac
Mac revenue grew 6.7 percent year over year, thanks to the new M4 MacBook Air and Mac Studio that came out during the quarter. The Mac install base grew to an all-time high, and Apple saw growth for upgraders and customers new to the Mac.

iPad
iPad revenue grew 15.2 percent year over year, with growth in every geographic segment. More than half of customers who purchased an ‌iPad‌ were new to the product. Apple debuted the M3 iPad Air and the ‌iPad‌ 11 during the quarter.

Wearables, Home and Accessories
Wearables revenue dropped 4.9 percent year over year due to a difficult compare against the launch of the Apple Vision Pro in the year-ago quarter.

Services
Apple's services revenue was up 11.6 percent year over year, an all-time revenue record, with strong performance across all categories. Apple TV+ set a new record for viewership during the quarter, and paid accounts and paid subscriptions grew double digits year over year. Apple now has more than 1 billion total paid subscriptions.Tags: AAPL, Earnings
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Apple CEO Tim Cook today provided some insight into how the tariffs levied by U.S. president Donald Trump have affected its business, and the future impacts that Apple is expecting should tariffs continue.


Cook said that tariffs had a limited impact on the March quarter as Apple was able to optimize its supply chain and inventory. Apple can't entirely estimate the impact of tariffs on the June quarter due to uncertainties, but with no changes, the tariffs will add $900 million to Apple's costs. From Apple's earnings call:

Now let me walk you through the impacts of tariffs in the March quarter, and give you some color on what we expect for the June quarter. For the March quarter, we had a limited impact from tariffs as we were able to optimize our supply chain and inventory.

For the June quarter, currently, we are not able to precisely estimate the impact of tariffs, as we are uncertain of potential future actions prior to the end of the quarter. However, for some color, assuming the current global tariff rates, policies and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter, and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs. This estimate should not be used to make projections for future quarters, as there are certain unique factors that benefit the June quarter.

Apple is already sourcing more than half of iPhones sold in the United States from India, while Macs, iPads, AirPods, and the Apple Watch come from Vietnam. For the June quarter, Cook said that Apple expects the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. to have India as a country of origin, while Apple will continue sourcing other products from Vietnam. Apple will source devices from China for the rest of the world.

Cook said that Apple's operational team has "done an incredible job around optimizing the supply chain and the inventory," and that Apple plans to continue to do those things to the degree that it is able to.

The 20 percent tariffs that Trump put in place earlier this year are the tariffs that are primarily impacting Apple, as many Apple products have been exempted from the 125 percent reciprocal tariffs. Some products, though, such as accessories, are subject to the total 145 percent tariffs.

Cook said that he doesn't know what will happen with the Section 232 investigation that will eventually see tariffs applied to semiconductors, a change that will impact Apple.
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During today's earnings call covering the second fiscal quarter of 2025, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the Apple Intelligence Siri features that have been delayed. Cook said that Apple needs more time to ensure ‌Siri‌ meets its quality bar, but progress is being made.

With regard to the more personal Siri features we announced, we need more time to complete our work on these features, so they meet our high quality bar. We are making progress, and we look forward to getting these features into customers' hands.

Apple first unveiled the more personalized ‌Siri‌ features at WWDC 2024, and rumors suggested that the plan was to introduce them with an update to iOS 18. That didn't happen, and Apple earlier this year said that there would be a delay because more time was needed for development.

At this point, the new ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features will be held for iOS 19, and it is not yet clear if they will be in the first ‌iOS 19‌ release or held for a later update. Apple's delay wording suggested that we could be waiting until 2026 for the functionality.

Behind the scenes, Apple made a number of changes to ‌Siri‌ leadership, moving AI chief John Giannandrea off of the project and instead turning to Mike Rockwell, who handled Vision Pro development.Tags: AAPL, Earnings, Siri
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Apple today announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2025, which corresponds to the first calendar quarter of the year.


For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $95.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $24.8 billion, or $1.65 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $90.8 billion and net quarterly profit of $23.6 billion, or $1.53 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Services revenue reached an all-time high during the quarter, while earnings per share set a March quarter record.

Gross margin for the quarter was 47.1 percent, compared to 46.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. Apple's board of directors also authorized an additional $100 billion for share repurchases and declared an increased dividend payment of $0.26 per share, up from $0.25 per share. The dividend is payable May 15 to shareholders of record as of May 12.

"Today Apple is reporting strong quarterly results, including double-digit growth in Services," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We were happy to welcome iPhone 16e to our lineup, and to introduce powerful new Macs and iPads that take advantage of the extraordinary capabilities of Apple silicon. And we were proud to announce that we've cut our carbon emissions by 60 percent over the past decade."

As has been the case for over five years now, Apple is once again not issuing guidance for the current quarter ending in June.


Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q2 2025 financial results conference call at 2:00 pm Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference call recap ahead...

1:37 pm: "Our March quarter business performance drove EPS growth of 8 percent and $24 billion in operating cash flow, allowing us to return $29 billion to shareholders," said Kevan Parekh, Apple's CFO. "And thanks to our high levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction, our installed base of active devices once again reached a new all-time high across all product categories and geographic segments."

1:38 pm: Apple's share price is down around 2.5% in after-hours trading following the earnings release, after rising about 0.4% in regular trading earlier today.

1:41 pm: iPad revenue was up 15.2% year-over-year while Services revenue was up 11.6%, Mac revenue was up 6.7%, and iPhone revenue was up 1.9%. Wearables, Home, and Accessories was the only product category to see a year-over-year revenue decline, dropping 4.9%.

1:44 pm: On a geographic basis, Japan led the way in revenue increase at 16.5% year-over-year, the rest of Asia Pacific excluding Greater China saw an 8.4% increase, the Americas saw an 8.2% increase, and Europe saw a 1.4% increase. Greater China was the only geographic segment to see a decline at –2.3%.

2:00 pm: Apple's earnings call should be begining momentarily. On the call should be Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh.

2:01 pm: The call is opening with an introduction from Suhasini Chandramouli, Apple's head of investor relations, giving the standard notices about forward-looking statements.

2:02 pm: Tim is taking over for introductory remarks.

2:03 pm: "We are reporting $95.4 billion in revenue, up 5% from a year ago and at the high end of the range we provided last quarter. Diluted earnings per share were $1.65, up 8% year over year and a March quarter record. Services achieved an all-time revenue record, growing 12% over the prior year. Quarterly records were also set in the UK, Spain, Finland, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, Poland, India and the Philippines.

2:04 pm: He is also touting the impact Apple is making in the United States, including plans to spend $500 billion over the next four years and expanding facilities in a number of states. A new factory for advanced server manufacturing in Texas will open later this year.

2:05 pm: ‌iPhone‌ revenue was $46.8 billion, up 2% year over year. During the quarter, iPhone 16e was launched, including Apple's newest in-house designed modem. iPhone 16 and 16 Pro "continue to be a hit with our users."

2:06 pm: Mac revenue was $7.9 billion, up 7% year over year. New updates during the quarter included M4 MacBook Air. Mac Studio is "the most powerful Mac we've ever shipped."

2:06 pm: For ‌iPad‌, revenue was $6.4 billion, up 15% from a year ago. ‌iPad‌ lineup "continues to help users learn, work, play and go wherever their imaginations take them. The new iPad Air with M3 combines powerful performance and exceptional portability." Tim is touting Apple Intelligence across all the devices.

2:08 pm: Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue was $7.5 billion, down 5% from a year ago. Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, as well as AirPods Pro 2 with the new hearing health features are some of the flagship items of the category, with Apple Vision Pro getting a shoutout as well, with that product now a year old.

2:08 pm: Two retail stores were opened in the quarter, with a new store in the UAE and India coming during this quarter, plus the online store in Saudi Arabia.

2:08 pm: Services reached an all-time revenue record of $26.6 billion, up 12% and reflecting strong performance across all categories.

2:09 pm: Apple TV+ set a record for viewership in the quarter, and the new F1 movie starring Brad Pitt hits theaters this summer. ‌Apple TV‌+ has earned more than 2,500 award nominations and 560 wins.

2:10 pm: He mentions sports with Friday Night Baseball, MLS Season Pass and Formula 1 on the Apple Sports app.

2:10 pm: iOS 18.4 brings ‌Apple Intelligence‌ to more languages including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese, as well as localized English in Singapore and India.

2:11 pm: "AI and machine learning are core to so many profound features we've rolled out over the years to help our users live a better day. It's why we designed Apple silicon with a neural engine that powers so many AI features across our products and third-party apps. It's also what makes Apple products the best devices for generative AI."

2:12 pm: He's touting ‌Apple Intelligence‌ extensively, but he's also noting that the "more personal Siri features" need more time to complete "so they meet our high quality bar. We are making progress and we look forward to getting these features into customers' hands."

2:12 pm: Apple continues to make progress on achieving carbon neutrality across the supply chain.

2:13 pm: Now he's addressing tariffs. "We had a limited impact in the March quarter, due to optimizations of our supply chain and inventory."

2:14 pm: For the June quarter, currently, we are not able to precisely estimate the impact of tariffs, as we are uncertain of potential future actions prior to the end of the quarter.

However, for some color, assuming the current global tariff rates, policies, and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter, and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs. This estimate should not be used to make projections for future quarters, as there are certain unique factors that benefit the June quarter.

2:14 pm: "As we look ahead, we remain confident, confident that we will continue to build the world's best products and services, confident in our ability to innovate and enrich our users' lives, and confident that we can continue to run our business in a way that has always set Apple apart."

2:15 pm: CFO Kevan Parekh is taking over, noting that there was a headwind of 2.5 percentage points from FX challenges, growing in the majority of markets.

2:16 pm: Gross margin was 47.1%, up 20 basis points sequentially, primarily driven by favorable mix. Product gross margin was 35.9%, while services gross margin was 75.7%.

2:16 pm: Net income was $24.8 billion, diluted earnings per share was $1.64, up 8% year over year and a March quarter record.

2:17 pm: ‌iPhone‌ active install base grew to an all-time high in total and across every geographic segment. ‌iPhone‌ was the top-selling model in the US, urban China, UK, Germany, Australia and Japan. 97% customer satisfaction.

2:17 pm: Mac revenue was $7.9 billion, up 7% year over year, with every geographic segment growing year over year. Mac install base grew to an all-time high, with growth for both upgraders and customers new to the Mac. Customer satisfaction was 95% in the US.

2:17 pm: ‌iPad‌ revenue was $6.4 billion, up 15% year over year, with a new all-time high in user base and more than half of customers purchasing an ‌iPad‌ new to the product. Customer satisfaction was 97% in the US.

2:18 pm: Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue was $7.5 billion, down 5%, against a difficult compare last year with the launch of the ‌Apple Vision Pro‌ and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

2:19 pm: Services revenue was $26.6 billion, up 12% year over year, comparable to the December quarter's growth rate when negative impact from FX is removed. Paid accounts grew double digits year over year, as did paid subscriptions. More than 1 billion total paid subscriptions.

2:19 pm: Apple Pay active users reached an all-time record, up double digits year over year.

2:20 pm: In the enterprise, KPMG rolled out ‌iPhone 16‌ for all US employees. Strong Mac performance in enterprise. ‌MacBook Air‌ is standard computer for Nubank's thousands of employees.

2:21 pm: Regarding cash position, Apple ended the quarter with $133 billion in cash and marketable securities. $98 billion in total debt, with a net cash position of $35 billion. Returned $29 billion to shareholders, including $3.8 billion in dividends and equivalents, and $25 billion through open market repurchases of 108 million Apple shares. $100 billion in share repurchases have been authorized, with dividend increasing to 4% to 26 cents per share, with plans for annual increases in the dividend going forward.

2:22 pm: The color provided assumes that global tariff rates remain in effect as of this call, and that the global macro outlook doesn't worsen from today. Color at the total company level is still being provided. June quarter will grow low to mid single digits year over year. Gross margin between 45.5% and 46.5%, which includes estimated $900 million in tariff-related costs. OpEx to be between $15.3 and $15.5 billion. Tax rate around 16%.

2:22 pm: The Q&A session with analysts is beginning.

2:26 pm: Q: Re ‌iPhone‌ sourcing, you said 50% of US iPhones are currently sourced from India. Is your goal to expand that to 100%? How should we expect that to trend?

A: The existing tariffs that apply to Apple are based on the product's country of origin. For the June quarter, we expect the majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin, and Vietnam to be the country of origin for almost all ‌iPad‌, Mac, Apple Watch and AirPods sold in the US. China would continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of total product sales outside the US.

For the June quarter, most of the tariffs that apply to us, relate to the February IEEPA related tariffs at 20%, for imports to the US of products with China as their country of origin. For 120% tariff, that covers certain categories including AppleCare and some accessories. That brings the total rate in China for those products to 145%.

The vast majority of our products including ‌iPhone‌, Mac, ‌iPad‌, Apple Watch and Vision Pro, are currently not subject to the global reciprocal tariffs from April. The Commerce Department has initiated a Section 232 investigation into imports of semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment and downstream products that contain semiconductors.

For June, we estimate the impact, assuming that the current global tariff rates, policies and applications don't change, to be $900 million. I don't want to predict the mix of production, but wanted to give you clarity for the June quarter on country of origin so you can use that for your modeling.

2:27 pm: Q: There were reports that Apple had pulled forward sales into the channel to get ahead of tariffs. Were sell-in and sell-through in the March quarter? Should they be aligned in the March quarter, and do you see any acceleration in hardware purchases or was behavior normal?

A: In terms of pull-forward in demand, if you look at the March quarter, we don't believe that we saw obvious evidence of a significant pull forward in demand in March due to tariffs. If you look at channel inventory from the beginning of the quarter to the end, unit channel inventory was similar, not only for ‌iPhone‌ but for the balance of our products. You will see that we did build ahead inventory and that's reflected in manufacturing purchase obligations that you'll see on the quarterly filing. I hope that answers all your questions.

2:29 pm: Q: If you'd told me on April 2 that your impact of tariffs was only $900 million, that'd be a pretty good outcome given the panic that ensued. I'm surprised it's that low, and I know that you gave a comment about the impact after the June quarter — can you give us an idea, is that a multiple? Can you give any guidance on if it's bigger or smaller or what.

A: I tried to give some information on country of origin which is currently the key factor in determining the tariffs that we're paying. I don't want to predict the future because I'm not sure what will happen with the tariffs, and there is this Section 232 investigation going on. June has the assumptions in it that I mentioned earlier.

2:32 pm: Q: With regards to China down 2%, you intuitively would have thought that there would have been an increased nationalism and perhaps it would have been worse than that. The trajectory there improving with subsidies benefited your competitors too. Can it keep improving given the geopolitical tensions?

A: Down 2% in the March quarter, we were roughly flat when you remove headwinds from foreign exchange. Channel inventory at the end of March was similar to where we started the quarter. The subsidies played a favorable impact on the results, it's difficult to estimate the precision as to how much but I think it was positive. Some products are included, some are not. Generally on ‌iPhone‌, if something is priced above 6,000 RMB, it's not eligible and other products have different rules. I do think it helped, and it's helping others as well I'm sure.

‌iPhone‌ was the key driver of the improvement sequentially. Hopefully that provides some color. The Mac, ‌iPad‌ and Watch are attracting a majority of customers new to that product. That continues to look quite good in China and ‌iPhone‌ was the top two models in urban China, and ‌iPad‌ was the top two tablets in urban China. Some positive nuggets there.

2:33 pm: Q: Appreciated the transparency around building ahead with inventory, will you continue to do that until we get clarity on the Section 232 investigation, and what's your philosophy on pricing and elevated costs that come through, whether to resellers or end consumers?

A: We are engaged on tariff discussions. We believe in engagement and we will continue to engage. On pricing, we have nothing to announce today, and the operational team has done an incredible job around optimizing the supply chain and the inventory, and we'll continue to do those things to the degree that we can.

2:34 pm: Q: On product gross margin, can you provide some color on factors that might have impacted product GM in the quarter, down sequentially on seasonal factors, but year over year decline as well. Any additional color would be helpful.

A: On sequential, we had decrease by 340 basis points sequentially driven by mix, seasonal loss of leverage, and foreign exchange, partially offset by cost savings. Year over year, down 70 BP, driven by a different mix and FX.

2:35 pm: Q: Talked about $900 million hit to product sales, what are the benefits to the June quarter and what would the impact be without them?

A: Wouldn't want to go through all of them, but the build-ahead in the manufacturing purchase obligations were helpful.

2:36 pm: Q: Do you expect Services growth to remain in the double digit range thorugh the back half of the year and how does Services stack up in the June quarter?

A: Low to mid single-digit improvement year over year, with FX to improve sequentially, but a slight headwind to revenue year over year, but we aren't providing category-levels of color today.

2:39 pm: Q: How should investors think about the gross margin trajectory as you source more from the US or other supply chain changes, including in India, how should those go into the cost structure?

A: We're excited about bringing more production to the US, as you know we've been very key in the TSMC project in Arizona and are the largest and first customer getting product out of that. That's the SoC that's coming out of there. We also have glass coming out of the US and the Face ID module. And loads of chips, some 19 billion coming out across 12 states, down to the resistor and capacitor level. Some of that is already built into the margins that Kevan has quoted and we don't forecast beyond the current quarter.

Re margin going forward, every product cycle is different. We've managed gross margin well, we've made good decisions. As we launch new products, they tend to have a higher cost structure than the products they replace. As we introduce new features and technologies, we have a track record of reducing cost structures over the life of the product.

2:40 pm: Q: Could you share color around what you have seen in developer behavior in Europe where there has been emergency of alternate app stores for a little more time, anecdotally or in your data, in terms of dev behavior large or small? Any color on what has actually happened?

A: It's embedded in our results. Embedded in the overall company color that was provided. As you know, the digital markets act went into effect in March of last year, so the DMA has been enacted for a bit over a year and there's been alternate app stores for some period of time of that. At this point, in Europe, it's embedded in the actuals. There may be more to come and so forth, but I don't want to predict beyond the current quarter.

2:43 pm: Q: Can you update us on your thoughts about your resiliency and redundancy following the changes you've talked about on the supply chain? Where's the supply chain 2-3 years from now and is there risk of export control issues? You quantified a $900 million hit from tariffs, but is there a hit from how you're thinking about demand backdrop holistically?

A: In terms of resiliency and risk, we have a complex supply chain, there's always risk in the supply chain and I wouldn't tell you anything different from that. What we learned some time ago, having everything in one location had too much risk with it. We have, over time, with certain parts of the supply chain, opened up new sources of supply. You could see that kind of thing continuing in the future.

Our best thinking is captured in the outlook we've provided. But the assumptions we made, assume that the global tariff rates and policies remain the same, and that the global macro outlook doesn't worsen from today.

Q: No quantifiable impact on demand to date, where we are over the last month?

A: Our best thinking is reflected in the range we provided.

2:44 pm: Q: You made a comment on ‌Apple Intelligence‌ making an impact on ‌iPhone‌ sales in the countries where it was available. Has that continued to play out in the broader number of countries as you've rolled that out?

A: During the March quarter, we saw year over year performance in countries with ‌Apple Intelligence‌, it was stronger than those countries where ‌Apple Intelligence‌ was not available. Many of the upgrades you're referring to rolled out in April, which is Q3.

2:45 pm: Q: You've had opinions of consumers reacting to overall macro, and prefaced your guidance with macro remaining consistent... what's the reaction in how consumers are reacting to the macro at this point?

A: I'm not an economist so I start by saying that. From a total company point of view, our results accelerated sequentially to the 5% level and the US is the vast majority of the Americas segment and you can see how the Americas performed during the quarter. I don't want to try to predict what happens in the months from now but I'm quite pleased with the results from Q2.

2:47 pm: Q: How should we think about how much CapEx is in R&D, how much is in TSMC, Texas server, any color on the $500 billion in investment?

A: There's lots in all of it, but we're not giving out the exact split. As we expand facilities in different states, Michigan, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, Washington, there will be CapEx and OpEx involved in all of it. Standing up our server manufacturing in Texas will be through a partner, as we do with manufacturing, putting a fair amount in cost of goods sold to do that, some OpEx, some CapEx, so it's a bit of all of it.

2:48 pm: Q: A longer term philosophical question, you've spoken about AI on the edge, from ‌iPhone‌ and Mac angle, looking at AI on the edge, are the current smartphone and silicon specs good enough to reach LLM inference, how should we think about the evolution of edge devices here?

A: As you know, we're shipping an LLM on the ‌iPhone 16‌ today. There are some of the queries used by our customers are on-device, and others are going to the private cloud where we mimic the security and privacy in the device into the cloud. Others, for world knowledge, use the integration with ChatGPT. We continue to be very excited about the opportunities here, we're very excited about the roadmap, and we are pleased with the progress that we're making.

2:51 pm: Q: I won't ask about tariffs. Given that you said new ‌Siri‌ is taking longer than you thought to deliver, what are some of the learnings you had from those delays, are they related to legacy software stack, organizational factors, or a matter of R&D spending? What are factors investors should look for at WWDC or beyond that Apple can deliver on the promises that it's made?

A: At WWDC, we've talked about a number of different features that would launch with iOS 18, we've released a slew of those from writing tools to seamlessly connecting to ChatGPT to image playground, image wand, visual intelligence, making movies of your memories with a prompt, AI-powered photo search, smart replies, priority notifications, the list goes on. Recently, we expanded it into different languages including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese... but with regard to more personal ‌Siri‌, we just need more time to complete the work so it meets our quality bar. There's not a lot of other reason for it, it's just taking a bit longer than we thought. We are making progress and are extremely excited to get the more personal features out there.

We make significant investments in our R&D, and we are making all the investments we think we need to enable our roadmap.

2:52 pm: Q: Hard to ignore some of the very high profile legal cases that touch on Apple, Google antitrust, Epic injunction, do you have ample ways to mitigate some of the negative impacts on Apple Services business that might come about in legal rather than commercial pressures?

A: The case yesterday, we strongly disagree with it. We've complied with the court's order and we're going to appeal. In the Google case, that's ongoing so I don't have anything to add. But as you point out, there is risk associated with them and the outcome is unclear.

2:55 pm: Q: I want to go back to the AI strategy a little bit. You talked about building your own foundational models, how important do you think it is for Apple to have its own models and dovetailed with that, how do you think about your data center footprint with Apple spending $3 billion a quarter relative to companies spending multiples of that? How does the strategy play out in your opinion?

A: On the data center side, we have a hybrid strategy. We utilitize third parties in addition to the data center investments that we're making. As I mentioned, in the $500 billion, there's a number of states that we're expanding in, some of those are data center investments. We do plan on making investments in that area and we're not gating it. We invest in the business first. We want to have certain models and we'll partner as well, so I don't view it as an all of one or all of the other, what's on device or what's in the Private Cloud Compute.

2:56 pm: Q: With the ‌iPhone 16‌ e, internalizing your C1 modem, how do you see that modem strategy playing out?

A: We're excited to ship the first one and get it out there, we love to ship better products from a point of view of focusing on battery life and other things customers want. We've just started on that journey is how I would put it.

2:56 pm: The call is concluded!Tag: Earnings
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Patreon plans to update its iOS app with new functionality that will allow creators to accept payments from followers without having to pay Apple's in-app purchase fees, a Patreon spokesperson told The Verge.

This is a huge moment for creators and their businesses. The iOS app is the number one platform for fan engagement on Patreon, and we believe this ruling allows creators to get paid without giving Apple 30 percent. As a first step, we will submit an app update for review by Apple to enable payments outside of IAP so creators keep more from iOS based fan payments.

In 2024, Apple forced Patreon to adopt support for the in-app purchase system, which meant that Apple started taking a 30 percent cut of all payments made to creators. Patreon gave creators the option of increasing their prices in just the iOS app, or absorbing the fee to keep prices the same across all platforms. Creators had to raise prices in the iOS app, lose money to pay Apple's cut, or encourage customers to subscribe on the web.

As of right now, Apple is still collecting a 30 percent App Store fee for all memberships purchased via Patreon for iOS, and for other digital goods purchased from Patreon shops.

Patreon does not have a timeline for when it plans to submit its app update with out-of-app payment options, and Apple also hasn't outlined exactly when it will change its ‌App Store‌ rules.

Apple has been ordered to stop restricting developers from informing customers about purchase options outside of an app in the U.S., and from collecting fees for out-of-app purchases.

The court said that it "will not tolerate further delays" and that the ruling, which was issued yesterday, was effective immediately.Tag: Patreon
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Google today announced that it is starting to roll out a dedicated AI Mode tab for Google Search. A "small percentage" of people in the United States will start seeing the AI Mode option "in the coming weeks."


AI Mode is a feature that Google has been testing with its Labs feature. It is a dedicated search option like News, Images, and Shopping, providing AI answers to queries directly in the search interface. AI Mode uses Gemini 2.0, Google's core AI model.

In addition to starting to roll out AI Mode as a standard search feature, Google is bringing the AI Mode option to all U.S. users who want to try it through Google Labs.

The new AI Mode experiment in Search uses advanced reasoning, thinking and multimodal capabilities from Gemini to help with even your toughest questions. You can ask whatever's on your mind and get an AI-powered response with the ability to explore further with follow-up questions and helpful web links. AI Mode does the heavy lifting for you, intelligently organizing information and gives you easy-to-digest breakdowns.

AI Mode is similar to the AI summaries that Google provides for standard searches, but it cuts out typical search results entirely, providing only an AI-based answer that's pulled from different websites and data on the web.

Google is bolstering AI Mode with visual place and product cards that offer an option to tap to get more information. For restaurants, salons, and stores, these cards will provide information like ratings, reviews, hours, and store inventory.

There's also now a dedicated left-side panel that includes an AI history for returning to past searches for follow-up questions.

Separately, Google has also started testing ads for some third-party AI assistants. According to Bloomberg, Google's AdSense network is running ads in some chatbot conversations, and Google confirmed that AdSense for Search is available for websites that want to show ads in their conversational AI experiences.Tag: Google
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Epic Games today announced plans for ‌Epic Games‌ Store Webshops, a feature that will allow developers to launch digital storefronts that are hosted by the ‌Epic Games‌ Store. With Apple's mandated App Store rule changes in the United States, developers will soon be able to direct customers to web shops to make out-of-app purchases, bypassing the in-app purchase flow.


The ‌Epic Games‌ Store will charge developers a 0 percent fee for the first $1,000,000 in revenue they collect per app per year, and after that, developers will need to pay Epic a 12 percent cut. The fees are applicable to all payments that are processed by the ‌Epic Games‌ Store. ‌Epic Games‌ also says that players that spend in Epic Webshops will be able to accrue 5 percent Epic Rewards on all purchases.

Many smaller games do not exceed $1 million in revenue per year, so the ‌Epic Games‌ Store Webshop could be a viable option for small and independent developers. Developers that earn more will likely want to set up their own payment options using online payment platforms like Stripe or Shopify for even lower fees.

Epic's announcement follows a ruling yesterday that will see Apple forced to make major updates to its U.S. App Store policies as part of an ongoing ‌App Store‌ dispute with ‌Epic Games‌. Apple cannot prevent developers from directing customers to better deals outside of the ‌App Store‌, nor can the company collect fees for these purchases, among other changes.

Apple was ordered to comply with the order immediately, and the court said that it "will not tolerate further delays." Apple said that it plans to implement the changes as ordered, though it will appeal the decision.Tags: App Store, Epic Games, Epic Games vs. Apple
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Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday, May 11, and you can save on a bouquet from the website 1-800-Flowers when you pay with Apple Pay.


Now through May 9, you can get $20 off a bouquet and select other merchandise when you spend at least $49.99 at 1-800-Flowers.com, or in the 1-800-Flowers app, in the United States. To qualify for the discount, the purchase must be completed with Apple Pay, and you must enter the promo code APPLEPAY at checkout.

"Brighten Mom's day with beautiful flowers and more," says Apple, in an email about the offer.Related Roundup: Apple PayRelated Forum: Apple Music, Apple Pay/Card, iCloud, Fitness+
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A subset of Apple's software engineers started internal development of iOS 19.4 last month, according to the MacRumors visitor logs.


iOS 19.4 is expected to be released in March or April next year, so the software update is still nearly a year away. However, Apple develops both "Fall" and "Spring" versions of iOS each year, with our website's analytics logs indicating that both iOS 19.0 and iOS 19.4 are in active development within the company.

The start of iOS 19.4 development comes after Apple delayed its personalized Siri features until some point "in the coming year."

Apple first previewed the personalized Siri features during its WWDC 2024 keynote last June. The enhancements were initially expected to launch with iOS 18.4 a month ago, but they are now expected to arrive at some point during the iOS 19 cycle. Many well-connected Apple reporters and observers believe the features will not be available until 2026, so it is quite possible that they will launch as part of iOS 19.4 next year.

On the other hand, The New York Times last month said that Apple plans to roll out the revamped Siri this fall, but this report is an outlier for now. In this case, the features could debut as part of iOS 19 in September, or in iOS 19.1 in October.

All in all, the personalized Siri features should be available by iOS 19.4 at the latest, and the company is now working on that version.

Whenever they launch, the Siri upgrades will include understanding of a user's personal context, on-screen awareness, and deeper per-app controls. For example, during its WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple showed an iPhone user asking Siri about their mother's flight and lunch reservation plans based on info from the Mail and Messages apps.

The promised Siri upgrades will be powered by Apple Intelligence, which has faced a rocky rollout. Apple was hit with class action lawsuits in the U.S. and Canada over its delayed personalized Siri features, and the company recently complied with the National Advertising Division's recommendation to remove "available now" wording from the Apple Intelligence web page. Apple also had to disable notification summaries for news apps after some of the summaries generated false information, and it has yet to re-enable the feature.Related Roundup: iOS 19Tag: Apple Intelligence
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