Fit firefighter says Apple Watch saved him after heart attack
A 44-year-old Canadian firefighter got atrial fibrillation warnings on his Apple Watch. Turns out the heart attack could have killed him. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Today in Apple history: Steve Jobs’ daughter Lisa is born
On June 17, 1978, Steve Jobs’ first child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, was born. The father and daughter enjoyed a rocky relationship over the years. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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WWDC 2024 Apple Home news roundup on the HomeKit Insider podcast
On this episode of the HomeKit Insider Podcast, we highlight all the new smart home changes arriving this fall with iOS 18 that were announced at WWDC, and touch on some new gear from Meross.HomeKit Insider PodcastThere were two items in the news this week, preceding our WWDC coverage.Insta 360 launched its latest mini camera, the Insta 360 Go 3S. It is capable of recording 4K video while being the size of your thumb. What makes it of note to HomeKit Insider, is it supports Apple Find My. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Sometimes your Apple Watch fails, and per Steven Spielberg’s example you just have to throw it
We have all experienced those moments when our tech fails us, and we just want to throw it. It turns out that Steven Spielberg, the prestigious director behind Jurassic Park, Jaws, and West Side Story, is just like the rest of us, as that’s exactly what he did over the weekend when his Apple Watch mistakenly thought he had fallen. more…

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Apple details how the Apple Podcast transcripts came to be
Apple launched its Podcasts transcription feature in March as part of its massive iOS 17.4 update. Here's why Apple took six years to perfect it, and make it a reality.If you're one of the 15% of Americans who struggle with some form of hearing difficulty, you probably know how useful features like closed captions are when watching movies, TV, or even listening to music. But — until recently, at least — you may have felt left out of the podcast craze.Apple wanted to change that."Our goal is obviously to make podcasts more accessible, more immersive," Ben Cave, Apple's global head of podcasts, told The Guardian. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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M4 Macs, iPhone 16, and more: What Apple has planned for the rest of 2024
Apple's WWDC is only a prelude to the rest of the year., the rumor mill's attention turns to the rest of the year. Beyond the iPhone 16, there's a lot still coming in 2024 from Apple. Here's what to expect, and when.Many Apple product launches are expected by the end of 2024. Apple is a company that likes to keep things running to a schedule. The company's calendar often features events and product launches at the same times throughout the year.The conclusion of WWDC marks the mid-point of Apple's schedule for the year. As usual for Apple, the latter half is more fiscally important to the company, with the iPhone being a major factor to its finances. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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HP OfficeJet 8122e (Pro) review
Macworld At a glance ProsAdequate print speeds.Excellent print quality.ConsExpensive running costs.Monthly subscription fees for ink won’t suit low usage.Our VerdictThis is a conventional all-in-one printer, with a built-in scanner and copier functions. It offers decent print speeds and admirable print quality and should suit those who work from home and small offices. Best Prices Today: HP Officejet (Pro) 8122e Retailer Price $179 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket HP’s OfficeJet printers are normally aimed at business users who work in busy offices and need to print lots of documents every month. However, the OfficeJet 8122e is a more affordable option designed for small businesses and people who work from home. Oddly, though, there are different versions of the printer available in the U.S. and other regions. You can’t buy it directly from HP in the U.S., so customers there will need to head to Walmart to buy the OfficeJet 8122e for a price of $179. But, in the U.K., it’s available on the HP website – although it’s called the OfficeJet Pro 8122e, and costs a very reasonable £110. It’s a fairly conventional all-in-one printer, with a built-in scanner and copier functions. It provides 1,200×1,200dpi for mono printing, and uses interpolation to boost that to the equivalent of 1,200×4,800 for color printing. Another slight oddity is that the U.S. version of the printer is quoted with a speed of 18 pages per minute for mono printing while the U.K. version is quoted at 20ppm, although both models agree on 10ppm for color printing. We’re guessing that the difference is based on A4 versus the smaller letter format paper in the U.S.. Our tests actually recorded speeds of 18ppm for mono and 7ppm for color, which should be perfectly adequate for smaller offices or working from home. Connectivity is good too, including USB and WiFi, along with Ethernet and support for Apple’s AirPrint (which allowed my iPad Air to detect the printer automatically, with no need to install drivers or additional software). HP does offer the HP Smart App (which is available for Windows, Mac-OS, Android and iOS) for those times when you can’t use AirPrint. Print quality is excellent, with laser-quality text and smoothly graduated colors on graphics files. It can handle the occasional photograph too, with bright colors and good contrast on our test files, and it only took 45 seconds to print photos on high-quality 4”x6” glossy paper. The sting in the tail, as always, lies in the printer’s running costs. Buying the cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink cartridges individually is pretty expensive, but you can buy a multi-pack that contains all four cartridges for $78.99/£62.99, with the black ink providing 500 pages of text and the color inks lasting for 400 pages when printing mixed text and graphics. That works out at around 4¢/3.1p for mono printing, which isn’t too bad. However, color printing is less competitive, at around 14.7¢/11.7p per page. The other option is to sign up for one of HP’s Instant Ink subscription plans. HP does try to tempt you in with an offer of free ink for the first three months, but after that you’ll have to pay the monthly subscription fees – which start at a laughable $1.49/£1.49 per month for just 10 pages a month. To be fair, the subscriptions are less expensive for users who need to print higher volumes of documents, but if you do need to print hundreds of pages every month then you’d probably be better off considering an ink tank printer that can use high-capacity bottles of ink rather than conventional small cartridges. So while the OfficeJet 8122e does provides a high-quality all-in-one printer at a competitive price, HP’s expensive inks and subscription plans mean that it’s best suited for people who only have fairly light printing requirements. When it came to scanning and copying HPs software could be slow to perform, insisting on creating high-res scans, even if only a preview is required. Copying was done at average speeds of 17 seconds for a copy in grayscale and 23 seconds in color. A single cassette for a maximum of 225 sheets of paper is included, via which you can feed special media such as envelopes. Thanks to the integrated duplex unit, the HP Officejet Pro 8122e automatically prints the front and back of a sheet. For more recommendations about which printer to buy read our Best Mac printers roundup. Buying advice The OfficeJet 8122e (Pro) is a conventional all-in-one printer, with a built-in scanner and copier functions. It offers decent print speeds and admirable print quality and should suit those who work from home or in small offices. Mac, Printers

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Social media apps may gain tobacco-style warning labels, as US Surgeon General sounds alarm over youth impact
Tobacco products in the US contain very blatant, obvious warning labels that outline their health risks. If the US Surgeon General has his way, this same strategy will soon be employed to combat the harm caused by social media apps. more…

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Apple supplier TDK says battery breakthrough can deliver higher performance for wearables
Japanese electronic parts maker TDK on Monday said it had successfully developed a material for its solid-state batteries that can be… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Use your iPhone to scan and fax documents with this multipurpose scanning app
SwiftScan VIP turns your iPhone into a document-scanning multitool. It's on sale for 70% off, the best price online. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Thin is in! Apple plans to slim down all of its products to match the iPad Pro
Macworld In an alternate WWDC keynote that wasn’t dominated by Apple Intelligence, the new iPad Pro could have been launched as Apple’s slimmest device ever and captured all the attention. Indeed, back in the day, the company would often build an entire launch event around the message “last year’s device, only thinner.” That hasn’t been a common sell in recent years, however, as Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman points out in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter. The MacBook Pro, the Apple Watch, and, to an extent, the iPhone have all been given thicker models designed to accommodate either new features, improved battery life, or in the case of the Apple Watch Ultra, a more robust chassis for outdoor settings. But with the launch of the slim-and-light iPad Pro 2024 Gurman sees that trend reversing. Apple won’t stop here: the analyst’s sources tell him Apple is “focused on developing a significantly skinnier phone in time for the iPhone 17 line in 2025,” while simultaneously working on thinner editions of the MacBook Pro and Apple Watch. “The plan,” Gurman writes, “is for the latest iPad Pro to be the beginning of a new class of Apple devices that should be the thinnest and lightest products in their categories across the whole tech industry.” What’s interesting about this purported plan is the fact that Apple intends to focus (at least initially) on slimming down the MacBook Pro rather than Air, just as it slimmed down the iPad Pro rather than its traditionally slimmer sibling. In the past, Apple product lines tended to be organized as a powerful Pro model and a portable Air model, but that’s no longer the case, with the Air designation referring to comparative cheapness rather than being unusually slim. For this reason, it’s no surprise to note that the iPad Air (or for that matter the plain iPad and iPad mini) are not included on the list for a diet. It’s essential as part of Apple’s upsell policy that the cheaper models never compete with the more expensive ones and with the M4 processor chip scarcely likely to make much difference in everyday use compared with the Air’s M2, the more appealing form factor needs to remain the differentiating factor. Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, MacBook

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Apple AI logo is intended to look unthreatening, and non-anthropomorphic
An interesting piece suggests that Apple’s AI logo* – along with the new Siri icon – is intended to look friendly, unthreatening, and is deliberately non-anthropomorphic. *Yeah, that could be Apple Artificial Intelligence, or Apple Apple Intelligence. Thanks, Tim. Other companies appear to have set themselves the same goals with their AI offerings, hence all the simple, colorful graphics … more…

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Shortcuts are easier to make and more productive with iOS 18 redesign
Apple's new iOS 18 hasn't brought major changes to the Shortcuts app on iPhone, but it has added features, and most significantly has improved how you find them.Shortcuts has added more actions to control Apple appsIf you use Shortcuts on the iPhone then you tend to love it, you tend to want more features, and you tend to have the same gripes. In iOS 18, Apple has gone a little — but important — way towards adding what you want.Apple has gently redesigned Shortcuts by changing how actions are found, and by adding new actions to choose from. It appears, so far, to have also smoothed out problems that made it hard to drag an action to exactly where you want it. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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11 hidden iOS 18 features Apple did not tell you about
iOS 18 is not all Apple Intelligence. Discover other small but important changes and hidden improvements coming to your iPhone with iOS 18. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Don’t expect Apple’s Siri to get markedly better until 2025
Many "Apple Intelligence" features won’t be ready until 2025 - and in languages other than American English years later - including Siri…  The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple podcast transcription feature took six years from first launch
The Apple podcast transcription feature was officially launched in iOS 17.4, but the company says that it actually introduced a very limited version way back in 2018. Apple says that it took so long to launch as a fully-fledged accessibility feature because the company wanted to make it universal, and to incorporate learnings from Apple Music lyrics … more…

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How Apple Outperformed Google and Microsoft in AI Rollout
Over the last several weeks, we’ve had Google I/O, which highlighted the rollout of Google’s Gemini AI engine for smartphones; Microsoft Build, which focused on its Copilot+ rollout for PCs; and Apple’s WWDC24 video, which showcased the rollout of AI on both PCs and smartphones. Let’s explore these AI product rollouts this week. The post appeared first on TechNewsWorld.

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Dr. Fone review
Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating ProsA la carte pricing.Simple interface.Platform agnostic.ConsPricey with all features included.Pop-ups feel cheap.Crashes are unfortunate.Our VerdictA fantastic “one-stop-shop” for iPhone (and Android) device management, Dr. Fone is less a data recovery tool and more a Swiss army knife of potential – if you’re willing to pay for each feature. Price When ReviewedData Recovery from $59.95 per year (usually $68.95); Full Toolkit $99.95 a year (usually $139.95); Perpetual license $115.95 (usually $162.95). Best Prices Today: Dr. Fone Retailer Price Wondershare $59.95 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket If need to recover some lost data from your iPhone there are a number of apps in our of the best data recovery apps for iPhone, with Dr Fone being one, though, calling Dr Fone a “data recovery app” is a little of a misnomer. That’s because Dr. Fone is absolutely packed to the gills with features. Some are very useful, some are fairly useful, and some won’t be very useful at all, but the exact categories each of those find themselves in is largely down to user intent. Thankfully, you can just buy the things you want or need from Dr. Fone’s repertoire of tools, meaning that while it may set you back $100 for the whole kit and kaboodle, it’s well worth a look for each of its individual pieces, too. First Impressions Pop Up: Dr. Fone doesn’t make the best first impression. Pop Up: Dr. Fone doesn’t make the best first impression.Foundry Pop Up: Dr. Fone doesn’t make the best first impression.Foundry Foundry I’ll admit that Dr. Fone didn’t put its best foot forward when I was testing. For one, it took a couple of tries to get the Mac app to connect to my iPhone (hooked up to my Mac via USB-C), while it also displayed what appeared to be a broken pop-up window that I simply could not close. I did start to wonder if installing it may have been a mistake, but I persevered – and I’m glad I did. With a whole host of tools and a rundown of your connected devices on the left-hand side of the screen, it’s easy to get around the Dr. Fone interface. It’s pretty boilerplate in terms of modern apps, but I was impressed by the replication of app icons on the sidebar to make it easy to know where I needed to look. Dr Fone features Start Screen: Dr. Fone does pretty much anything. Start Screen: Dr. Fone does pretty much anything.Foundry Start Screen: Dr. Fone does pretty much anything.Foundry Foundry As I’ve already mentioned, there’s a whole host of features here. The “Toolbox” menu is essentially your starting point, and features the option to remove Apple ID and locks, spoof your GPS location for games like Pokemon Go, and transfer Whatsapp data to other devices. There’s also a way to copy data to a new phone, erase that data, or recover passwords from a phone. It’s worth remembering that whatever you do, you’ll need to plug your phone in, unlock it, and deem your computer trustworthy before you can do anything. Phone Status: Dr. Fone can find plenty of information about your device. Phone Status: Dr. Fone can find plenty of information about your device.Foundry Phone Status: Dr. Fone can find plenty of information about your device.Foundry Foundry Still, we’re here for data recovery, and I was impressed at how deep into my deleted files and data the app could get to. I saw WhatsApp images from chats going back years, messages I could recover, and much, much more. It’s impressive stuff, even with some performance concerns I’ll cover shortly. There are some offers right now, so the whole package will set you back $99.95/£78.86 a year (usually $139.95/£110.42) or $115.95/£91.48 on the perpetual plan (usually $162.95/£128.57). Note that tax is added at the point of sale as is a “download insurance service” which includes 24 months warranty ($4.95/£3.91), the latter can be removed. Without the insurance the perpetual license is $139.14/£109.78 currently. However, you can save money by just buying the data recovery access for $59.95/£47.30 per year (usually $68.95/£54.40), or $69.95/£55.19 (usually $63.08) as a one-off fee, and this works for up to five devices. Again, tax is added at point of sale as is the insurance, so the U.K. price is actually £66.23 for the perpetual license, £56.76 for the yearly license. Dr Fone annoyances Data Recovery Menu: There’s not a lot Dr. Fone can’t recover. Data Recovery Menu: There’s not a lot Dr. Fone can’t recover.Foundry Data Recovery Menu: There’s not a lot Dr. Fone can’t recover.Foundry Foundry I believe Dr. Fone to be a great piece of software, but one that feels a little like it’s creaking under the weight of its ambition at times. Once you install it, it’ll open up smaller apps to deal with your individual queries. The Data Recovery tool, for example, pops out into its own app, but these apps can be a little temperamental. On more than one occasion the data recovery tool flat-out crashed on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro during the initial scan, so I’d definitely recommend letting it do its thing. For me, the initial scan took around 80 minutes, but I was impressed with what it managed to dredge up. The Bottom Line Viewed purely as a data recovery device, Dr. Fone is an impressive piece of software with an array of extras you may not need. Viewed as an all-in-one toolbox, it’s impressive and expensive. Your mileage will vary, but for grabbing that lost file or deleted photo, you can buy each feature piecemeal. Cleaning and Data Recovery Software, iOS, MacOS

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Xgrid lives — a new project resurrects the promise of Apple's dead clustering software
Evoking the old Xgrid days, a new project connects Mac Studios together with Thunderbolt cables, and uses them in tandem for massively parallel computing tasks.If you have two Mac Studios, maybe you can cluster themA very long time ago, I was involved in cluster computing, and assisted with a few Mac-centric cluster builds in Virginia. Near the end of Xgrid availability from Apple, I also built an Xgrid cluster using beige G3 motherboards. You know, just because I could.While the corporate- and federally-funded Xgrids were pretty good, the self-build projects were pretty janky, and fragile hacks. Apple's Xgrid worked very well in extremely specific circumstances, but very poorly outside of those scenarios. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple Watch Series 10 could get larger but thinner
The upcoming Apple Watch Series 10 could get a size bump to 45mm and 49mm, with the overall watch itself getting thinner. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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