Deals: All 15-inch M5 MacBook Air models $150 off, Series 11 $99 off, Nomad leather iPhone 17 cases, more
Today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break is headlined by Apple’s most affordable 15-inch M5 MacBook Air at all-time lows, the 1TB model at $150 off, and more (all colors), alongside the up to $199 off 2026 MacBook Pro. While this Space Gray 46mm Apple Watch Series 11 is nearly $100 off, we also have some accessory deals including Nomad’s new Camino leather iPhone 17 Pro/Max cases with a FREE screen protector, alongside Apple Thunderbolt 5 and black USB-C cables. Head below for a closer look at the details. more…

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Apple closes 3 US stores, including its first to unionize
The three shuttered US Apple stores include the first to unionize -- prompting backlash from the union. A court case could loom. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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New iPhone Fold leaks cover ‘Ultra’ name, launch timing, more
It’s been a busy week for iPhone Fold-related rumors already. But today, new posts from notable leakers address the rumored ‘iPhone Ultra’ name, launch timing, and Apple’s supply plans. more…

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Odd power couples: Top 9 Mac-and-PC setups
Not everyone is a Mac or PC partisan. Behold the best Mac-and-PC setups making the most of both platforms in a variety of ways. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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Apple’s acclaimed titles land nominations for the 86th Annual Peabody Awards
Apple TV was recognized with five nominations for the 86th Annual Peabody Awards, with category nods for “Pluribus,” “Mr. Scorsese,” “Vietnam… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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∞ The Dalrymple Report: MacBook Neo dilemma, foldable iPhone, Apple Stores
Apple's MacBook Neo is selling much better than the company thought, which has caused a delimena it must now work through. IT would seem from the rumors that the foldable iPhone is a thing, but what should Apple name such a product? The Apple Stores are not the experience they used to be and Apple is closing a few of the retail stores. Follow this podcast Brought to you by: CleanMyMac: Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use my code DALRYMPLE for 20% off at clnmy.com/DALRYMPLE Show Notes: Future Sonics Ear Monitors Apple’s massive MacBook Neo dilemma New MacBook Neo With A19 Pro Chip and 12GB RAM Expected Next Year Mark Gurman on Apple’s foldable iPhone Three year Samsung agreement Is it iPhone Fold? Steve Jobs created the Apple Store. How Tim Cook changed it Mac Mini and Mac Studio Facing Extreme Shipping Delays Shows and movies we're watching Detective Hole, Netflix Untamed, Netflix

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See all your streaming bills and other subscriptions in one simple dashboard
Track every subscription, avoid surprise charges, and take control of recurring spending with SubscriptionNotebook for a one-time payment. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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Pluribus among 5 Apple TV titles up for prestigious Peabody Awards
No stranger to prestigious honors, Apple TV scores 5 Peabody Award nominations. They're like Pulitzers, but for TV, radio and online media. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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Car Keys in Apple Wallet coming soon to major new vehicle brand
Apple Wallet’s car key feature is building momentum, with several major vehicle brands recently launching support or about to. Now we can add another “coming soon” brand to that list: Lexus. more…

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Today in Apple history: Steve Jobs loses control of the Mac
On April 10, 1985, Steve Jobs was removed as general manager of the Macintosh division after a showdown with Apple CEO John Sculley. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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Amazon launches ‘Prime Video Ultra’ with new features, higher price
Last month Amazon announced that Prime Video Ultra would be launching soon in the US, and that day has officially arrived. Here are the details and how to sign up. more…

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Apple to permanently close three U.S. retail stores in June amid declining mall conditions
Apple has announced it will permanently shutter three of its U.S. retail locations this June, citing deteriorating conditions at the malls… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Top 7 CarPlay voice commands for every driver
Love Siri or hate it, get used to the best CarPlay voice commands for the sake of safety -- not to mention convenience. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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How the Mac changed the way I clear mental clutter
There’s a section on Apple’s macOS 26 Tahoe site that reads “Calm in the brainstorm.” The tagline introduces the revamped version of Spotlight, but there’s another Mac experience that it’s even more applicable to for me. more…

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YouTube Premium is getting a US price hike of up to $4/month
Google is implementing a price hike for YouTube Premium plans in the US, with prices going up by as much as $4 per month. more…

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iPhone Fold, MacBook Neo, and iPhones in Space, on the AppleInsider Podcast
There is a huge amount to say about the latest iPhone Fold rumors, and a lesson for Apple in how the MacBook Neo could even be too successful, on the AppleInsider Podcast.Even on Earth, iPhones are so light they feel as if they could floatAfter months or even really years of rumors and expectations over the iPhone Fold, it really does look as if one is coming. There's still the issue of when, as conflicting reports are arguing over a range of dates, but they all agree it's coming.Not all of them can agree on why, though. If only to save you unnecessarily buying the single most expensive iPhone ever conceived, we've got reasons why you should and shouldn't buy it. And we've got reasons why it will probably be worth waiting. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple Pay scams are rife, here's how to protect yourself and your money
Apple Pay is a quick and safe way to make purchases in person and online, but a new type of scam may use your faith in the system to steal thousands of dollars from you.Apple Pay is safe and secure, but scammers still target itThat's the warning from consumer advocacy outfit Consumer Affairs following a spate of Apple Pay-related scams. Fraudsters know that people trust Apple and the Apple Pay system, and they're using that trust as the basis for their scams.The goal, as ever, is to confuse people to such an extent that they can be convinced to hand over their money. How that happens can vary from scam to scam, but there's one constant: Apple Pay. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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14-inch MacBook Pro M5 vs Asus Zenbook A16: $2,000 shootout
The Asus Zenbook A16 is a thin and light Windows notebook aiming to take the portability crown from Apple. Here's how it compares against a similarly-priced MacBook Pro.M5 14-inch MacBook Pro vs Asus Zenbook A16For our spec-sheet brawl, we're going to put the $1,999 Asus Zenbook A16 against the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5. As much as we would compare the similarly-sized 16-inch MacBook Pro, the other upgrades to the base-spec version pushes it to $2,699, which is a bit too high.To make it a little bit closer in price, we will set the 14-inch MacBook Pro as having an enhanced memory allowance of 24GB or 32GB. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Tribit StormBox Micro 3: My favorite travel speaker just got better and cheaper
Tech can move on pretty quickly, but the Bluetooth speaker that still accompanies me on my travels was, until last week, the same one I’ve been using for four years. My Tribit StormBox Micro 2 was finally replaced by … the Tribit StormBox Micro 3. Admittedly, the changes are relatively modest and most of those who own the original likely won’t need to upgrade, but they may be worthwhile if you’re trying to choose between the older and latest versions – especially with early-bird pricing … more…

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'Pluribus,' 'Mr Scorsese,' and more Apple TV shows nominated for Peabody Awards
Apple TV has earned five nominations for the 86th Peabody Awards, honoring the streamer across entertainment, children's, and factual programming.Pluribus — image credit: AppleThe Peabody Awards exist to celebrate storytelling across different media, and across different forms from television to radio and podcasts. Apple TV won its first Peabody in 2021, getting it for "Ted Lasso" and specifically the show's radical optimism.For the 86th annual Peabody Awards, Apple TV has been nominated across three categories. The nominations announced by the Peabody Awards are: Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Ugreen Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Dock review: Mini dock or super hub?
Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Thunderbolt 5 100W Power Delivery to MacBook Cons Upstream TB5 is a non-detachable cable Weak power options and supply DisplayPort less flexible than missing third Thunderbolt port No audio port Our Verdict While it may offer everything you need and is a decent and nicely compact docking station if it fits your requirements, we find the Maxidok 10’s numerous oddities perplexing and sometimes off-putting: the built-in cable rather than a more flexible upstream port, the weak power supply and ports, its insistence on DisplayPort, a lack of spare USB-C or audio port, and not-quite-as-fast-as-they-could be card readers. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Price When Reviewed£299.99 Best Prices Today: Ugreen Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station Retailer Price $249.99 View Deal $299.99 View Deal Ugreen $299.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Following the release of its flagship 17-port Maxidok Docking Station, Ugreen has a more entry-level Thunderbolt 5 dock with fewer ports at a more user-friendly price. The more standard-looking Ugreen Revodok Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station lacks the 17-port dock’s built-in SSD slot and a bunch of ports but will fit the needs of most. Given its compact form and smaller number of ports, is the Maxidok 10 a mini dock or a super Thunderbolt 5 hub? Simon Jary Specs and features Ten ports is fewer than most Thunderbolt 5 docks—closer to the nine found on the CalDigit Thunderbolt 5 Element 5 Hub. One upstream Thunderbolt 5 port (80Gbps/120Gbps, 100W) Two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports (80Gbps, 15W) Three USB-A ports (10Gbps, 4.5W) DisplayPort 2.1 Ethernet (1Gb) UHS-II SD card reader (170MBps) MicroSD card reader (170MBps) 140W power supply Next to the two spare downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports—and where we’d expect to find the upstream Thunderbolt port—is a non-detachable TB5 cable, Simon Jary The upstream Thunderbolt 5 connection for your Mac is not an open port but an integrated TB5 cable measuring 2.6 feet (0.8m). This is unusual as it means you can’t swap it out for a longer cable if that’s what you require. The average TB5 cable length is 3.3 feet (1m), which is not much longer but still might make a difference in your setup. The CalDigit Active Thunderbolt 5 Pro Cable is available at a length of 6.56 feet (2m), but you simply can’t use a longer cable with the Maxidok 10 as its upstream port is not open. That said, the near-meter-long cable will likely be long enough for most desktop setups—unless your power socket is far from your desk, in which case you could add a longer power cable. Like the Maxidok 17, for the Maxidok 10 Ugreen sacrifices one of the possible downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports for a dedicated DisplayPort (2.1) video port. The decision to include a video-only port is one taken on many high-end Thunderbolt docking stations, but we think it’s a mistake on a dock with no other type-C ports. It’s great if your designated monitor has a DisplayPort (DP) connection, but if you want to connect via HDMI or USB-C/Thunderbolt the DisplayPort might end up unused (or attached to an adapter cable). Apple’s Studio Display, for example, has no DisplayPort so you’d be forced to either use one of the two downstream TB5 ports and leave the DP redundant or buy yourself a DisplayPort to USB-C adapter cable. We rate BenQ’s 4K MA270U and 5K MA270S as two of the best displays for Mac, and both lack a DisplayPort but happily connect via USB-C/Thunderbolt. If you want a touchscreen display like the Alogic Clarity Fold Touch it demands a type-C connection. The Maxidok can handle these monitors via either of its TB5 ports but leaves its DisplayPort unused where a third downstream TB5 port could have sat ready for action. A more flexible approach would be to forget a dedicated video port and include a third Thunderbolt port, giving you the option to either connect using that or add the adapter your monitor demands. The Maxidok 10 includes three fast USB-A ports at the front for legacy connections but, aside from the two downstream Thunderbolt ports, has no more modern USB-C ports. With most new devices bearing USB-C as a connection, three USB-A and no USB-C seems another oddity for the Maxidok 10. Where the Maxidok 17 offered three audio ports—two at the back at one at the front—the Maxidok 10 oddly has none, which is rare for a docking station but quite common on Thunderbolt hubs. The wired network port is Gigabit Ethernet, which remains the standard for office networks, although many recent docks include at a least backward-compatible 2.5Gb Ethernet port. Again, this shouldn’t be a problem for most users but it should put you off if your LAN is a fast one. Any non-laptop connected devices that require power must reply on the two downstream 15W Thunderbolt 5 ports.Simon Jary Power issues The Maxidok 10’s power supply supports up to 140W, but the maximum power to a connected laptop is 100W, which doesn’t rule out but does disadvantage users of the 16-inch MacBook Pro that requires 140W (PD 3.1) for fast-charging. The downstream TB5 ports can each output power at 15W. That’s not enough power to fast-charge an iPhone, and the 4.5W USB-A ports offer little power to connected devices. One 30W USB-C port at the front would have been preferred and most Thunderbolt docks provide that or higher. The Maxidok’s 140W power supply couldn’t support all its ports at full pelt (100W+15W+15W+4.5W+4.5W+4.5W) so the wattage going into the laptop could potentially fluctuate to accommodate other hungry connected devices. Given the dock’s power weaknesses, it’s not a great choice of you have demanding devices to connect. The CalDigit Element 5 Thunderbolt 5 Hub and OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub are no docks but both offer a more punchy 180W power supply. Ugreen Video options That leaves connecting multiple external displays as the Maxidok’s main function. These will most likely be self-powered so won’t trouble the dock’s 140W power supply. Depending on your Mac’s processor, the 10-port Maxidok can support a single 8K display at a 60Hz refresh rate or 4K at 240Hz. Multiple display configurations are also set on the limitations of the connected Mac than the docking station itself. Connected to a Mac with the latest M5 Max processor it can support two 8K displays at 60Hz. With the M5 Pro, two monitors are possible with one 8K/60Hz and one 5K/60Hz. Both M5 Pro and M5 Max support up to three 4K displays at 144Hz each. With the M5 Max you could daisy-chain a fourth display from the third. M2/M3/M4 Pro/Max support a single 8K/60Hz display, while the M1 Pro/Max is limited to a 6K/60Hz. Pro/Max models of the M1/M2/M3/M4 can handle dual 6K/60Hz. For a full matrix of Mac monitor configurations, see below. Windows users benefit from that operating system supporting Multi-Stream Transport (MST) for DisplayPort and Thunderbolt, and so more can connect to three displays using the Maxidok. The maximum resolution and refresh rate for a Windows triple-display setup is 4K at 144Hz. Ugreen Semi-fast storage The Maxidok 10 lacks M.2 NVme SSD found on the Ugreen Maxidok 17-in-1 Docking Station. At this price point we wouldn’t have expected such a feature. You could instead add an external SSD enclosure to one of the spare downstream TB5 ports. The dock does include both SD and microSD card readers at the front for you to add your own portable storage cards. These card readers have a possible 170MBps speed somewhere between the UHS-I (104MBps) and UHS-II (104MBps) card slots usually found on docking stations. That’s slower than the 250MBps SDXC card slot built into Apple’s current MacBook Pro. While 170MBps is better than 104MBps, it’s another—presumably cost-cutting—oddity that sets the Maxidok 10 apart from other Thunderbolt 5 docks. Simon Jary Compact design The Ugreen Maxidok 10 is a slim and quite compact horizontal dock, measuring 6.3 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches (160 x 110 x 32mm). Having fewer ports allows it to be around the same size as a Thunderbolt hub rather than a larger dock yet offer a wider range of ports. The CalDigit Element 5 Hub (pictured below) measures 4.5 x 2.8 x 1 inches (114 x 70 x 25mm) but lacks the Maxidok’s Ethernet port and card-reader slots. It does, however, boast one extra downstream TB5, two USB-C and the same number of USB-A ports (7.5W vs 4.5W) as the Maxidok 10. There is a power button on the front of the Maxidok 10, which we prefer to none (as found, or rather not found, on many docks) so it’s possible to manually stop power going to the laptop battery during periods of non-use. Ugreen Mini dock or super Thunderbolt 5 hub? With just ten ports could the Maxidok 10 be better classed as a Thunderbolt 5 hub, bearing in mind the CalDigit Element 5 Hub has nine? A dock usually has more different types of port than a hub, and no hub boasts the card readers and Ethernet port found on the Maxidok 10. If you want a card reader or wired network access on a hub, you’ll most likely need to add an adapter or two. With the Maxidok 10, there’s no need for such adapters, although you’ll have to use your Mac’s own headphone port as the Maxidok doesn’t have one. However, the Maxidok 10 has just two downstream type-C connections: its Thunderbolt 5 ports, one of which you’ll need to use if adding a second external display as it demands you connect to one monitor via its one-use DisplayPort. All the Thunderbolt 5 hubs we’ve tested have three downstream TB ports. Maybe you’d never use a headphone/mic jack—in which case it’s no loss. But that paucity of USB-C/Thunderbolt keeps getting to me. CalDigit If you don’t need the Ethernet or card readers, you should consider the $249 CalDigit Element Hub as previously described. It has five type-C connections and better type-A, boasts a 180W power supply and can match the Maxidok on its display configurations. See the Element 5’s ports above; if you need a card reader or Ethernet you can add an adapter to connect better options than those found on the Maxidok. If you desire more ports and/or faster network access, look to the Maxidok’s better endowed 17-in-1 sibling or one of the other best Thunderbolt 5 docks we’ve tested. There will be people for whom the Maxidok 10 is the perfect match, but we think there are alternative docks or hubs that might do the same with more power and more flexible connectivity options. Price Ugreen has clearly cut out some of the higher-end features found on other Thunderbolt 5 docking stations and has so kept the price of its Maxidok 10 lower at $299.99. At the time of writing this was generously discounted to $249.99. For the same list price, both the Plugable TBT-UDT3 dock and the Wavlink Thunderbolt 5 Dock have a generous collection of ports including three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports, 2.5Gb Ethernet and fast 312MBps card readers, an audio port, and at least the same number of USB ports. If you see it at the lower price, $249 seems a fairer price for a mini dock with few ports. Should you buy an Ugreen Maxidok 10-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station? The Maxidok 10-in-1 is a decent and nicely compact docking station if it fits your requirements: your monitor uses DisplayPort, the planned connected devices require little power, and your wired network is basic. However, we find the Maxidok 10’s numerous oddities perplexing and sometimes off-putting: the built-in cable rather than a more flexible upstream port, the weak power supply and ports, lack of spare USB-C or audio port, and not-quite-as-fast-as-they-could be card readers. If it had the third downstream Thunderbolt 5 port instead of DisplayPort I’d like the Maxidok 10 much more. I think its demand that you connect to a DisplayLink monitor or just lose use of one port, is an indulgence on a dock with just 10 ports in the first place. At the right price, it could be a rival for the Thunderbolt 5 hubs but as a dock it looks weak compared to rivals.

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Best Mac monitors 2026: The Mac compatible displays we recommend
Macworld The monitor might be the second-most important part of your Mac’s setup after the Mac, of course–after all, you can’t use any desktop computer without one and even the 16-inch screen on the MacBook Pro is going to feel cramped if you are having a particularly productive morning. Spread your work out by plugging in multiple monitors to your Mac and extending your desktop over a wider space. Because you’ll spend a lot of time looking at the display, you’ll want to invest wisely. Not only will you want a monitor that provides a pleasing experience, but the quality of the images on the screen can also affect your work. However, picking a new monitor can be daunting. Not only are there many manufacturers to choose from, but there are also lots of sizes, resolutions, and features to consider—and when we say lots, we mean lots. We’re here to help guide you while you shop, and we have some tips on what to look for in a monitor below Best Mac monitors 2026 These are the best desktop Mac monitors we have tested. We round up the best portable displays for Mac separately if you want to take a larger display out on the road or easily store one out of sight when you’re not using it. We’ve included Apple’s Pro Display XDR and the Apple Studio Display, not because they are necessarily the best choice, but for comparative purposes. BenQ MA270U or MA270UP – Best budget 4K display Pros Great image quality More affordable than Apple Studio Display Glossy option for more vivid image Matte Panel cuts down glare and reflections Height-adjustable stand Cons 60Hz refresh rate may discourage gamers No webcam Price When Reviewed: $549.99 Best Prices Today: Retailer   Price Check on Amazon Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Size: 27-inchResolution: 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels)Connections: USB-C (90W PD), 5Gbps USB-C (15W), 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x 5Gbps USB-A, audio mini-jackWebcam: NoStand: Height, Tilt, RotationOrientation: Landscape and portrait There are two screen options with this affordable 4K display: matte (MA270U) and glossy (MA270UP). If you want the most vivid radiant picture with deeper blacks and brighter whites, go for the Nano Gloss screen. If you want to banish glare and reflections more so than with the pricey Nano texture glass on the Apple Studio Display, got for Nano Matte. Some displays sell the stand separately so there’s an additional cost consideration, but that’s not the case here as the stand is included. It offers a great range of adjustment: -5 to 20 degrees of tilt, swivels 15 degrees left or right, and 115 mm of height. The display can also pivot 90 degrees to Portrait mode, a far greater range of motion than the Studio Display. The MA270U/P can connect to a Mac through HDMI or USB-C. The USB-C connection offers 90 watts of power so it can charge your MacBook at the same time. If you want to use the display as a connection hub, you need to connect to the Mac via USB-C. Its built-in spare USB-C port offers 15W of power output and the USB-A 7.5W. There are two HDMI ports so you can connect to another device for multitasking. The one thing that’s immediately noticeable with the MA270U/P is its impressive image quality. Colors are full of life and the detail is excellent. One standout aspect of the image quality is how sharp text appears. This is great for production and design work, but it can even make it more enjoyable to read and write. It offers image quality that could satisfy users in a production environment–that’s one way of saying that its quality is better than what general users usually get. You might be able to find a 27-inch 4K display that’s a little cheaper, but it won’t look this good.–Roman Loyola Read the full BenQ MA270UP Monitor review. The 27-inch BenQ MA270U/P provides a very affordable alternative to Apple’s expensive 5K Studio Display. The BenQ 32-inch MA320U is slightly more expensive, but as well as providing a larger screen it produces a brighter display with bolder, crisper colors, although also at 4K. Read our review of the 32-inch Ben-Q MA320U.

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How to keep an older iPad safe, reliable & useful over time
Older iPad tablets often remain in daily use years after purchase, making long-term maintenance increasingly important as hardware ages. Here's how to restore their usefulness and keep them running safely.The iPad rehab guideMany iPads become obsolete before they cease functioning due to the evolution of demanding workflows. Consequently, they are often repurposed for lighter tasks such as smart home control, media playback, or casual browsing.Despite steady pressure to upgrade, most iPads can remain useful for years with basic maintenance and realistic expectations. This guide covers how to clean and protect aging hardware, manage safety risks, and find new roles once performance starts to taper. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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I switched from Apple Watch to a Whoop band. Here’s what I learned
Macworld Since taking over the Health and Fitness areas last year with the departure of Jeff Williams, services chief Eddy Cue has apparently decided that Apple needs to “move faster and be more competitive,” pointing to devices like the Oura ring and Whoop band as popular rivals that do more exciting and useful health tracking. Earlier this year, we wrote about a rumor that Apple’s upcoming health services overhaul, dubbed Health+, was being scaled back. But in this case, “scaled back” could mean more features, sooner. Apple has also been rumored to be working on an AI-powered health and fitness coach for a long time, but that was still a long way off. It, too, has been allegedly scaled back to move faster with individual features that can ship as soon as this year. I don’t know what Apple’s current plans are, but I’ve now used a Whoop 5.0 band all day, every day for two months, and there are some great ideas here that Apple should definitely steal—and a few terrible ones they should absolutely avoid. A band you never take off Whoop is a very different product from what Apple users are used to wearing. It’s a pure health and fitness band that doesn’t tell the time or show notifications. It doesn’t run apps. It has no microphone, speaker, buttons, dials, or display. Rather, it gathers data through a variety of sensors that it sends via Bluetooth to the Whoop app, where it is processed via a cloud service. The main advantage of Whoop’s limited functionality is its extremely long battery life. Despite being smaller and lighter than the Apple Watch (26 grams including band, vs 30 grams for a 42mm Apple Watch without a band), the Whoop battery lasts for a good 10 days or so. It’s charged with a little clip-on battery pack that slides over the top, as there is no display to block. It’s awkward to wear while charging, but only for an hour or so once every 10 days. You charge your Whoop without ever taking it off.Foundry In other words, Whoop is designed to be worn all the time, day and night, even while being charged. That’s a challenge for the current Apple Watch for a number of reasons. But any future Apple Watch should be engineered around a few fundamental requirements: multi-day battery life, the ability to charge without taking it off, and superior comfort in touchy situations like sleeping. Strain and recovery Whoop’s health tracking is built around two fundamental metrics: strain and recovery. Both are metrics of Whoop’s own design, and perhaps not fully defensible from a scientific perspective, but as a user, it’s a nice, easy way to think about day-to-day fitness and health. Strain is a logarithmic score that tries to measure how much you’re putting your body through. Higher cardio rates or heavier muscular load make you build up strain faster. Each activity you track is given a “Strain” value, and it all adds up to a “Day Strain” number. Foundry Is it a medically accurate way to measure how hard you push yourself? It’s hard to say. But the concept is sound: give users a simple number that lets them see how much they put their body through during the day. This is a lot more useful than Apple’s activity rings, and it’s the natural companion to recovery, the other big Whoop metric. Like the Apple Watch, the Whoop band auto-detects sleep (and naps) while using your movement, heart rate, temperature, and other metrics to determine when you are in different sleep phases. It then takes your sleep duration in various sleep phases to determine how well you slept, similar to Apple’s Sleep Score. That, combined with your resting heart rate and heart rate variability, produces a “Recovery Score.” It’s a simple 0-100 percent number computed each morning that lets you know how much your body has recovered from the strain you put on it. That’s the ebb and flow of Whoop: work and rest. It’s obviously more complicated behind the scenes, but for users, it’s a very simple and effective way to make health decisions. If you have a great recovery day, Whoop will suggest a higher “Day Strain” target—you can push yourself at the gym or go for a longer run. If you had a terrible recovery, you’ll know to take it easy today. Apple Watch has all the technology it needs to do something similar, but it needs to compute and present health data in a more intuitive way. How hard am I working? Did all that yard work mean I should skip the gym? Should I relax today since the dog woke me up three times last night to bark at ghosts? Apple’s activity rings don’t tell me this. Whoop’s simple metrics do. An insightful Journal Perhaps my favorite feature of Whoop is the Journal. Every day, you answer a series of yes/no questions about your behavior that day. Did you consume alcohol? (How much, and when?) Drink caffeine? Get a migraine? Eat breakfast? Consume dairy? Wear earplugs to bed? Take melatonin? Use tobacco? Take a vacation day? There are hundreds of behaviors on the list from which you select whichever ones you want to be a part of your daily journal. Every day, you spend 30 seconds or so tapping yes or no or dragging a slider or two to fill out your custom journal. Foundry The magic comes in the way Whoop looks at your health metrics and recovery in relation to your answers to these questions. Once it gets enough data to build strong correlations, it can tell you how your behaviors affect your recovery. When I have a drink at night, my recovery suffers. When I read in bed (not on a screen), my recovery is better. Maybe late workouts are bad for you and early workouts are better. Maybe you sleep badly when you have caffeine after 3 pm. Maybe you have a bad night when you forget to take your allergy medication. Whoop will tell you. By keeping a journal, the app lets you know how your behaviors affect your recovery.Foundry More than anything else, I really want Apple to provide a feature like this. I’d love to keep a simple daily habits journal, all encrypted on-device in my Health app, and let Apple Intelligence find associations between the things I do and the health outcomes this suite of sensors on my wrist measures. This is the kind of thing Apple Intelligence would be perfect for—processing complex data sets and distilling them down to simple insights. Keeping personal details private is what Apple is good at, and providing quantifiable insights into how our daily choices and habits affect our health is the missing link from most fitness services. A terrible assistant Speaking of AI, Whoop is proud of its AI health coach, but it’s nothing more than an awful LLM chatbot. The Whoop AI assistant, still somehow in “beta” at version 5.3, has a bad case of LLM fever. You know, the basic structure of just about every LLM chatbot: Compliment or agree with the user. Show your expertise with a data dump, usually using bullet points. Offer a fairly obvious suggestion or hallucinate a wrong result. Finish with a question that prompts to user to choose a new thing for the LLM to do, in order to maximize engagement. The Whoop chatbot can do things like make workouts or give you “insights” based on all the data in the Whoop app, but it’s all kind of suspect, as if you just asked ChatGPT to do the same thing instead of a real fitness coach. And it’s all stuck in the chatbot interface, instead of making real graphics, graphs, or using the rest of the app. Whoop puts its AI fitness chatbot front-and-center, and it’s just as bad as every chatbot.Foundry AI-generated workouts are about the only place the AI really meshes with the rest of the app, and there’s nothing particularly special about it. You could ask any popular chatbot to make a workout with the same input (timeframe and favorite or avoided exercises or muscle groups) and get something just like what Whoop does. It’s time for the rings to go If I learned anything from my two months with Whoop, it’s this: Apple Watch activity rings have got to go. “Close your rings” is not a meaningful measure of anything that people really need to change their fitness. “Close your rings” just isn’t a good way to manage your health.Foundry Useful metrics are not a linear number that always goes up. Standing for a few minutes eight times a day is not such an important fitness metric that it should be measured alongside active minutes. An exercise ring based on time rather than intensity isn’t all that useful either, and it doesn’t account for whether or not a particular day is an intense exercise day or a recovery day. Sleep, Recovery, and Strain are much more useful than Stand, Move, and Exercise minutes.Foundry As Apple rethinks its Fitness+ service and Apple Watch as a whole, it needs to start from a foundation similar to what Whoop does: using intelligence to combine the data from the device and the data supplied by the user to understand what actions you should take. Take a sea of variables and make it simple: Are you well-rested, or do you need to take a break? Should today be a heavy day at the gym, or should you just go for a walk? Do you need a nap? Which of your habits are helpful or harmful, and why? Whoop doesn’t fully deliver on this promise, but at least it is built around these concepts. As Apple Watch and the services it feeds evolve into the AI era, it needs to be built around these ideas as well. A new way to sell Apple Watch? Perhaps one of the most interesting features of the Whoop is the way it is sold. You can’t use Whoop without a subscription, as all of its data processing is in the cloud. There are three subscription tiers: One for $149 a year ($199 renewal), Peak for $239 a year, and Lifetime for $359. The trick is that the hardware is included. So you could see it as paying $250 or so for the tracker and getting the first year of service for free, or getting the tracker for free when you sign up for a year of service. Either way, it’s the kind of thing Apple should explore (though with a single subscription tier). There have been rumors of Apple expanding Fitness+ and new AI-powered Health features into a single service called Health+. Imagine if this service is $15.99 a month, but they give you two free years if you buy a new Apple Watch (or give you a free Apple Watch when you sign up for two years of service). This is just the kind of creative way to tie the hardware and software together so that it looks like you get hundreds of dollars of value, while getting users invested in the ecosystem for a long enough period of time that they won’t quit.

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