Today in Apple history: Apple becomes world’s most valuable tech company
On May 26, 2010, Apple passed Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable technology company. It was a significant milestone. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Security Bite: Here’s the iOS 17.5 bug that resurfaced deleted photos
After reports of deleted photos resurfacing years later following the installation of iOS 17.5, Apple released iOS 17.5.1 last week to address the issue. But what caused it in the first place? Thanks to some clever reverse engineering by researchers, we have a glimpse at the rare bug responsible. 9to5Mac Security Bite is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Making Apple devices work-ready and enterprise-safe is all we do. Our unique integrated approach to management and security combines state-of-the-art Apple-specific security solutions for fully automated Hardening & Compliance, Next Generation EDR, AI-powered Zero Trust, and exclusive Privilege Management with the most powerful and modern Apple MDM on the market. The result is a totally automated Apple Unified Platform currently trusted by over 45,000 organizations to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple. more…

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App icon customization, new emoji creation coming to iOS 18
A new report suggests that further enhancements to both the Home Screen and various Apple apps are coming in iOS 18, arriving in fall 2024.Replacement of standard app icons could finally be possible in iOS 18The forthcoming iOS 18, expected to be announced at June's WWDC event, will mix the usual round of new features alongside AI-based enhancements. Previous reports have proposed that Photos, Safari, Siri, Voice Memos, and Notes among other apps will gain AI-based abilities.Another potential use of AI technology will come to Messages, with the app gaining the ability to suggest new custom emojis, based on what the user is texting. This would be in addition to the ever-expanding library of standard emojis, which work across various platforms. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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iOS 18 could bring in new Home screen personalization options
Apple could reportedly allow iPhone users to change the app icon colors on the Home Screen and place them wherever they want with iOS 18 (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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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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