Apple may label iOS 18 artificial intelligence features as a beta preview, signaling Apple is still playing catch-up
In the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s newsletter for Bloomberg, he reports that Apple’s highly-anticipated AI features for iOS 18 and its other operating systems may be released with a ‘beta’ or ‘preview’ designation. This is perhaps another sign that Apple was caught off-guard by the AI revolution, and its planned features for this cycle aren’t yet reliable or good enough to launch unqualified, without a beta label. more…

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Rumor: iOS 18 will let users create custom emoji using generative AI
We’re just two weeks away from WWDC, where Apple will showcase iOS 18 with new AI features, home screen customization updates, and more. According to a new report today, one of the new “standout AI features” will allegedly be the ability to use artificial intelligence to “create custom emojis.” more…

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Report: iOS 18 will let users recolor app icons for personal home screen customization
As reported by Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter, iOS 18 will give users more customization of their iPhone’s home screen. As well as being able to place icons freely, rather than confined to the current fixed aligned grid, Apple will also be unlocking app icon customization as a first-party feature for the first time. Specifically, Gurman reports that iOS 18 will allow users to “change the color of app icons”. For instance, they could make all their social networking apps have a blue color, and all their finance apps have a blue color. more…

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This Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 3-month membership gives you access to 500+ games
Macworld It’s hard to imagine a better time for console gaming. Microsoft has pushed Xbox to heights never seen before in the console, and Xbox fans can now enhance their gaming sessions with this deal for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Purchasing every banner title for XBOX would be costly, but Xbox Game Pass Ultimate allows users to sample a wide variety and enjoy other gaming perks. A three-month subscription is now 50% off!  This deal is stackable, meaning Xbox fans can purchase up to six codes for this Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership and enjoy up to 18 months of access. Game Pass Ultimate is compatible with Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, macOS, Windows, and ChromeOS. More than 500 titles are already included in Game Pass Ultimate, and new ones are added monthly. Current titles include Starfield, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and more. In-game add-ons and partner offers are included in this Xbox membership. Game Pass Ultimate users also get membership to EA Play, which unlocks early access to games like Madden, NHL, and the upcoming EA Sports College Football, as well as exclusive member rewards and savings on EA digital purchases. With Game Pass Ultimate, you can even enjoy online multiplayer abilities and go on quests to earn extra Reward points. For a limited time, grab a stackable three-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $39.99.    Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: 3-Month Membership Only $39.99 at Macworld accStackSocial prices subject to change. Gaming

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A $20 subscription to Hushed can separate your personal phone number from a business one
Macworld Whether you’re a small business owner, a professional, or an online seller or buyer, you could benefit from a secondary phone number. Your personal line likely gets busy as is, and it could be more efficient (and less head-inducing!) to separate specific calls. For all those reasons and more, a lifetime subscription to a Hushed Private Phone Line is incredibly practical and could keep your personal phone number hidden from different threats. Ahead of Memorial Day, lifetime access is $19.99 (reg. $150) with code ENJOY20. With a Hushed second phone number, you can keep your business and personal life separate and enjoy a combination of 6,000 text or 1,000 call minutes per year. Use those minutes to keep calls or messages from Craigslist buyers, business associates, coworkers, and others separate from your personal phone. This secondary phone line could additionally help users fend off pesky telemarketers and avoid other phone-related scams. You can choose from hundreds of possible area codes for your Hushed number, all without committing to another expensive phone plan. Manage all texts and calls from one app, customize your Hushed number’s voicemail, set up call forwarding, and more to ensure privacy while maintaining connectivity. Keep your personal and business matters separate with a lifetime subscription to the Hushed Private Phone Line, now just $19.99 with code ENJOY20. Offer ends May 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT!   Hushed Private Phone Line: Lifetime Virtual Number Subscription Only $19.99 at Macworld StackSocial prices subject to change. Accessories

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Chrome for iPhone now lets you customize the menu bar & carousel
Chrome for iPhone and iPad has introduced a big quality-of-life improvement with the ability to customize the menu bar.  more…

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9to5Mac Overtime 019: Look at those bezels, man
Jeff and Fernando share their impressions of the new iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, and Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. Fully edited on iPad Pro! 9to5Mac Overtime is a weekly video-first podcast exploring fun and interesting observations in the Apple ecosystem, featuring 9to5Mac’s Fernando Silva & Jeff Benjamin. Subscribe to Overtime via Apple Podcasts. You can also watch this episode on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more. Hosts Fernando Silva Jeff Benjamin

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iPhones Pause MagSafe Charging During Continuity Camera
Don’t bother getting a Continuity Camera mount that incorporates a MagSafe Charger to prevent your iPhone’s battery from draining during meetings. It won’t charge wirelessly—and maybe not even over a USB cable—while using Continuity Camera.

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2-for-1 bundle: Get the Alpha Z Pro and Flying Fox drones for less than $130
Get the Alpha Z Pro 4K and Flying Fox 4K Wide-Angle Dual-Camera Drone Bundle for just $129.97 (regularly $398) in our drone sale. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Apple's best-selling 14-inch MacBook Pro M3 with 16GB RAM is back on sale for $1,599
The coupon special knocks $200 off Apple's latest 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 chip and bump up to 16GB unified memory. Plus, grab a $50 discount on three years of AppleCare.Save $200 on an upgraded M3 MacBook Pro.The upgraded 14-inch MacBook Pro in Space Gray is equipped with Apple's M3 chip with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. It also has a bump up to 16GB of unified memory, helping to increase performance and run additional apps compared to the base model with 8GB RAM.Use code APINSIDER Continue Reading on AppleInsider

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iPhone 16 rumors, M4 iPad Pro raves and … Siri+?!? [The CultCast]
This week on Cult of Mac's podcast: The M4 iPad Pro is fabulous. The iPhone 16 colors might prove underwhelming! And Siri might get smart. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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ICQ 1996-2024: The first universal messenger had a good run, and is leaving us soon
While you probably haven't thought about it in years, the first mainstream universal messenger app for the Mac and just about every other platform will finally be completely retired in June 2024.Owner Mail.ru's announcement that the messaging program is being discontinuedTwenty-eight years is a long time for an net-based app to survive. For many early internet adopters, ICQ — "I Seek You" — was their introduction to large-scale, real-time social and private chatting.Launched in November of 1996, it gave users a simpler and more graphical app in order to chat with friends outside of the previous Internet Relay Chat (IRC) system, and an AOL messenger that was still constrained to the eponymous service. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Satya Nadella Says Microsoft's AI-Focused Copilot+ Laptops Will Outperform Apple's MacBooks
"Apple's done a fantastic job of really innovating on the Mac," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the Wall Street Journal in a video interview this week. . Then he said "We are gonna outperform them" with the upcoming Copilot+ laptops from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung that have been completely reengineered for AI — and begin shipping in less than four weeks. Satya Nadella: Qualcomm's got a new [ARM Snapdragon X] processor, which we've optimized Windows for. The battery lab, I've been using it now — I mean, it's 22 hours of continuous video playback... [Apple also uses ARM chips in its MacBooks]. We finally feel we have a very competitive product between Surface Pro and the Surface laptops. We have essentially the best specs when it comes to ARM-based silicon and performance or the NPU performance. WSJ: Microsoft says the Surfaces are 58% faster than the MacBook Air with M3, and has 20% longer battery life. The video includes a demonstration of local live translation powered by "small language models" stored on the device. ("It can translate live video calls or in-person conversations from 44 different languages into English. And it's fast.") And in an accompanying article, the Journal's reporter also tested out the AI-powered image generator coming to Microsoft Paint. As a longtime MS Paint stick-figure and box-house artist, I was delighted by this new tool. I typed in a prompt: "A Windows XP wallpaper with a mountain and sky." Then, as I started drawing, an AI image appeared in a new canvas alongside mine. When I changed a color in my sketch, it changed a color in the generated image. Microsoft says it still sends the prompt to the cloud to ensure content safety. Privacy was also touched on. Discussing the AI-powered "Recall" search functionality, the Journal's reporter notes that users can stop it from taking screenshots of certain web sites or apps, or turn it off entirely... But they point out "There could be this reaction from some people that this is pretty creepy. Microsoft is taking screenshots of everything I do." Nadella reminds them that "it's all being done locally, right...? That's the promise... That's one of the reasons why Recall works as a magical thing: because I can trust it, that it is on my computer." Copilot will be powered by OpenAI's new GPT-4o, the Journal notes — before showing Satya Nadella saying "It's kind of like a new browser effectively." Satya Nadella: So, it's right there. It sees the screen, it sees the world, it hears you. And so, it's kind of like that personal agent that's always there that you want to talk to. You can interrupt it. It can interrupt you. Nadella says though the laptop is optimized for Copilot, that's just the beginning, and "I fully expect Copilot to be everywhere" — along with its innovatively individualized "personal agent" interface. "It's gonna be ambient.... It'll go on the phone, right? I'll use it on WhatsApp. I'll use it on any other messaging platform. It'll be on speakers everywhere." Nadella says combining GPT-40 with Copilot's interface is "the type of magic that we wanna bring — first to Windows and everywhere else... The future I see is a computer that understands me versus a computer that I have to understand. The interview ends when the reporter holds up the result — their own homegrown rendition of Windows XP's default background image "Bliss." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Today in Apple history: Apple probes Foxconn suicides
On May 25, 2010, Apple opened an investigation into a string of suicides at Foxconn, its Chinese partner for manufacturing iPhones. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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How to protect your parents, family (and yourself) from scam calls and fraud
In 2023, US residents over 60 lost $3.4 billion to fraudsters, and 87% of those losses were linked to personal information theft – here’s how to stop scam calls. more…

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What’s the best Mac for video editing?
Whether you run a video production studio or you’re starting a hobby YouTube channel, you’ll want to make sure you have the best Mac for video editing.  (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Memorial Day Apple deals: Here’s all of the best price drops on the new iPads, latest MacBooks, Apple Watch, and more
Memorial Day Apple deals are here folks. Memorial Day weekend is upon us and that means we are tracking more than just a few price drops across the entire arsenal of current-generation Apple gear. While there are still some hold-outs that might come around on Monday, the deals on Apple’s latest M4 iPad Pros and M2 iPad Airs have arrived alongside new all-time low pricing on iPad 10th Gen. From there, you’ll find hundreds of dollars in savings on the latest MacBook Pro (M3 and M3 Pro) as well as various configurations of the M3 MacBook Air, HomePod deals, Apple Pencil 2, other accessories, and more all waiting below in our collection of Memorial Day Apple deals.  more…

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Memorial Day savings! This multifunctional remote can make Apple TV navigation easier for $24
Macworld While the current world of streaming is vastly better than the past of TV in some respects (thank you, Apple TV!), classic remote controls remain pretty useful. The Function101 Button Remote offers a more user-friendly navigation experience on your Apple TV and other smart TV models. Now, you can get this Apple TV remote replacement for less than $25 during our limited-time Memorial Day sale. Ideal for older adults or young children unfamiliar with the typically sensitive Apple TV remote, the Function101 brings back a more intuitive user experience on your Apple TV and other 4K TVs. Since it has a working range of up to 12 meters (a little over 39 feet!), this button remote will control your Apple TV almost anywhere in your home, whether you’re lying on the couch nearby or are further in the kitchen. Its infrared tech (IR) makes it easy to sync this button remote to your Apple TV in mere seconds. No more fiddling around on the standard Apple TV remote, as the Function101 has clearly marked buttons that let users skip, rewind, pause, move the volume up and down, etc.   Enjoy a more intuitive Apple TV experience by swapping out the standard remote for the Function101 Button Remote, now just $23.97 until May 31 at 11:59 PM Pacific.    Function101 Button Remote Only $23.97 at Macworld StackSocial prices subject to change. Accessories

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Apple @ Work: Should businesses adopt third-party iOS app stores when available?
Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple. One of the news stories that has dominated the 2024 news cycle is Apple, the EU, and third-party app stores. We recently published a hands-on with Setapp Mobile, and it’s a trend that I see moving to the rest of the world in the coming years. How will businesses respond? About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers managed an enterprise IT network from 2009 to 2021. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise grade Wi-Fi, 1000s of Macs, and 1000s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments. Why the App Store model makes sense for business customers For businesses using iPhones and iPads, the App Store has been incredible. Many app developers complain about in-app purchases and the update model not being applicable to businesses. Most businesses are buying their app licenses as a SaaS model. The volume purchase program has never supported in-app purchases, so it’s not been a consideration either. If a business is going to purchase an app license, they’re going to contact the developer directly, pay directly, and then tie it to their identity provider or manually create logins. Even if in-app purchases came to the volume purchase program, it would be a logistical nightmare for deployment and management. It’s not scalable for enterprise deployments, and it’s not how businesses buy software. From a security perspective, it’s another layer of security for organizations deploying apps. They can load iOS apps in self-service that are vetted by the organization, but outside of that, the App Store is a trustworthy experience for businesses. Yes, rogue apps occasionally make it through App Review, but for the most part, I trust the App Store as a place to find apps. It’s also a seamless deployment experience as everything with volume licensing and app assignment to devices is tied in with your device management vendor and Apple Business Manager. Security concerns about third-party app stores My big concern with third-party app stores is that businesses have yet another attack vector for rogue apps on a device. App Review isn’t perfect, but we know that Apple is focused on making the App Store the safest place to get apps as it helps them sell devices. If I were an Apple IT manager, I would look at third-party app stores and see a lot of risk and little return on investment. Would app updates come faster? Possibly, but at what risk? Who’s reviewed the code? Will it crash a device with a bad update? Why do I need a third-party app store? How will I deploy it to all my devices? These are just a few of the questions I’ve come across so far. Apple hasn’t detailed how businesses might interact with third-party app stores on managed iPads and iPhones, but I suspect we will end up with a path forward on deployment. I also suspect there will be policy options to disable them as well so employees cannot side load their own apps, etc. Wrap up To sum up my thoughts here, third-party app stores are an interesting model for consumers, and I don’t have the option to have choice on how to pay for apps, but for business customers, until something changes, Apple’s App Store is the safest way to deploy apps for iPhone and iPad. Even if Apple builds out a mechanism for managed/supervised devices to use third-party app stores, I see little reason for businesses to consider it. Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.

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