Thursday’s best deals: Magic Keyboard Folio $199, Bowers & Wilkins Px7 2Se headphones $319, more
Thursday’s best deals are now live and headlined by Apple’s Magic Keyboard Folio for 10th Gen iPad at $199. It comes joined by the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e Headphones at $319, which are our favorite AirPods Max alternatives at $80 off. Plus, Satechi’s new SM1 Slim Keyboard for Mac is seeing a rare discount to $85. Hit the jump for all that and more in the latest 9to5Toys Lunch Break. more…

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Apple cuts cost of 2024 MLS Season Pass by 30%
Soccer fans can now grab an MLS Season Pass for 30% less than what Apple typically charges. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Google's Payments To Apple Reached $20 Billion in 2022, Antitrust Court Documents Show
Alphabet paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 for Google to be the default search engine in the Safari browser, according to newly unsealed court documents in the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Google. From a report: The deal between the two tech giants is at the heart of the landmark case, in which antitrust enforcers allege Google has illegally monopolized the market for online search and related advertising. The Justice Department and Google will offer closing arguments in the case Thursday and Friday, with a decision expected later this year. Google and Apple had hoped to shield the payment amount from public disclosure. At the trial last fall, Apple executives testified that Google paid "billions," without specifying a number. A Google witness later accidentally disclosed that Google pays 36% of the revenue it earns from search ads to Apple. Court documents filed late Tuesday ahead of the closing arguments mark the first public confirmation of the figures by Apple's senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue. Such numbers aren't disclosed by either company in their securities filings. The documents also revealed the importance of the payments to Apple's bottom line. For instance, in 2020, Google's payments to Apple constituted 17.5% of the iPhone maker's operating income. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Arc Search brings new widgets, Action button-capable voice search, and more tab controls
Today, Arc Search, the iOS app from the Browser Company that debuted earlier this year, has been updated with three key feature improvements: widgets for your Home screen, Voice Search that can be triggered from an iPhone’s Action button, and handy new tab controls for controlling page zoom and requesting a desktop site. All of these added conveniences aim to take the AI-focused search and web browsing tool to a new place of frequent engagement for users. more…

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Can Apple begin to turn around this so far no good year?
With Apple stock down about 11 percent, this has so far been a year of bad news after bad news for Apple investors. Now, the company is set… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple won't fight EU over iPad gatekeeper status, third-party App Stores coming
Despite the EU claiming that the iPad qualifies under its Digital Markets Act as a gatekeeper when it does not yet, Apple has announced that it will comply regardless.The EU is treating the iPad as a gatekeeper platform under its Digital Markets ActEven the EU's own anti-competition regulator Margrethe Vestager says that the iPad does not meet the criteria to come under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Yet the EU is enforcing its DMA rules on the iPad as if it did."Today, we have brought Apple's iPadOS within the scope of the DMA obligations," announced Vestager. "Our market investigation showed that despite not meeting the thresholds, iPadOS constitutes an important gateway on which many companies rely to reach their customers." Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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EU Core Technology Fee for small & non-profit developers pared way back
Responding to criticism that its Core Technology Fee for EU developers could see small App Store developers owing Apple excessive fees, the company has revised its rules for eligibility.European Union flagsAs part of complying with the EU's mandate that it open up the iPhone to third-party app stores, Apple established a Core Technology Fee that would be levied on developers for the use of its services. Some developers would not have to pay at all, but others would see fees of half a Euro per install, after a certain threshold, and Apple released an online calculator to help companies work out those fees.Apple had already announced that the Core Technology Fee would not apply to education and government bodies. It also said that developers would not have to pay the Core Technology Fee until such time as they exceeded one million first-installs of an app in a year. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple will protect indie developers in Europe from the bankruptcy risk of DMA changes
While Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust law forced Apple to allow developers to sell apps outside the company’s own App Store, there were a number of potential problems with the company’s terms and conditions – not least of which is that an unexpected viral hit could have bankrupted an indie developer. Apple had already made a number of changes to its terms to reduce the risk, and has now added two more protections which should prevent that nightmare scenario … more…

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Sideloading, third-party browser engines, and more are coming to the iPad in the EU this year
Earlier this week, the European Commission announced that iPadOS is now designated as a gatekeeper platform in the European Union, just like the iPhone and the App Store. In a new developer announcement today, Apple acknowledged this change and confirmed it will bring features like alternative app marketplaces, third-party browser engines, and more to the iPad in the EU later this fall. more…

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Google pays Apple more than most companies make in a year for its prime iPhone slot
Macworld It’s no secret that the iPhone is a valuable device, not just to Apple but also to many of its biggest competitors. According to unsealed court documents revealed in the antitrust trial between the Justice Department and Google, we now know exactly how valuable. As reported by Bloomberg, Apple’s senior vice president of services Eddy Cue admitted that the deal with Google to be the default search engine in the Safari browser netter Apple $20 billion in 2022, a staggering increase of over the roughly $15 billion in 2021. Figures for last year weren’t disclosed in the trial but they’re likely higher than $20 billion. It was also revealed in documents and testimony that Microsoft tried to usurp Google’s position by offering a staggering 90 percent of its advertising revenue with Apple to make Bing the default in Safari as well as other concessions including “hiding the Bing brand.” Microsoft CEO said default status on Safari is a “game-changing” position. But the deal is also lucrative to Apple. The document claims that Google’s payments to Apple for default search accounted for nearly 20 percent of Apple’s operating income in 2020 when payments were likely about half of what they are now. The government is expected to wrap up its case against Google with closing arguments this week and a decision in the case will likely arrive later this year. iPhone

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In a first, Apple Watch AFib History gains special FDA qualification
The Apple Watch AFib History feature is the first digital tool ever to qualify for a stringent FDA program that evaluates medical tools. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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This is what dismantling the Apple Car project looks like
In February this year, we learned that after more than a decade of work, Project Titan – the Apple Car effort was officially canceled. Naturally, details have been sparse around the topic as it was a secret project. But today an interesting detail has surfaced about how Apple is dismantling the project. more…

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How to clear cache on a Mac
Macworld Maybe your Mac isn’t running as well as it used to. Maybe one or more of your apps are behaving strangely. Perhaps you are concerned about your privacy online or what companies and app developers know above you. All these are good reasons to clear the cache on your Mac. We are here to answer the question: How do I clear my cache on my Mac? So if you want to know how to clear cache on a Mac you’ve come to the right place! But before we run through how to do that we’ll explain what cache is, why you might benefit from deleting it, what cache you shouldn’t delete, and how you can delete your cache. What is cache? A cache is where data is stored to help your Mac speed up various processes. You have probably heard of the cache associated with web browsers. This cache contains the data that gets downloaded to your Mac and is saved so that the next time you visit the same website some of the data is already downloaded and it won’t take so long to load up the page. PROMOTIONCleanMyMac X | Clear your Mac’s disk Use CleanMyMac X to find hidden junk and free up the unseen cache files. Locatelarge old folders, background apps, and heavy memory consumers. Tune your Macfor maximum speed, and keep it malware-free and secure Download Free Edition Among other things, browser cache means you can browse the web faster, which sounds like a good thing, but there are quite a few disadvantages too. One disadvantage is the fact that you could find yourself browsing an old cached version of a webpage and another is that your browser cache–which includes cookies and trackers–can give websites and advertisers information about you as you browse the web. The latter may be a concern for privacy reasons. There are two other kinds of cache: system cache and application cache. Application cache, sometimes referred to as user cache, includes data associated with your apps that is saved so that it doesn’t have to be loaded up every time you use the application, this means your applications can work faster. Again, this sounds beneficial, but there are disadvantages. For example, if you work with high-resolution images, or large video files, your computer could be storing a lot of data related to the edits you make. Similarly, if you play games on your Mac you could find you are losing space to game saves. App data can take up a lot of space and if you are no longer using the app you are unlikely to require the cached data that could still lurk on your Mac. System cache, as you’d probably expect, is where the data created by macOS that helps your Mac run smoothly is stored. Because it’s connected to the operating system we would recommend against deleting anything from your system cache, unless you are using a specific tool to do so. Deleting data from any of your Mac’s caches is a risky business if you don’t know what you are doing, but even more so when it comes to system cache as you could accidentally erase files that ensure your Mac runs smoothly. There is another kind of cached data that is the result of sandboxing between apps, but this data is removed when you restart your Mac (which you should do regularly: see Should I shut down my Mac every night?). Should you clear cache on a Mac? There are a few reasons why you might want to delete or clear cached data. Most commonly Mac users want to delete data from a cache because they are running out of space on their Mac and assume that clearing their cache could recover a few gigabytes. Perhaps you’ve been looking at what’s taking up the space on your Mac (System Settings > General > Storage > Storage Settings in macOS Ventura and beyond, About This Mac > Storage in older macOS versions) and wondering what Other and System Data are and why so much of your space is given over to these categories of data. One thing to note in this case is that deleting data from the cache won’t necessarily free up space as your Mac will recreate many of these cached files. Another reason to clear your Mac’s cache is for troubleshooting purposes. Perhaps your Mac, or just a particular app, is running poorly and you want to see it deleting data from the cache fixes the issue. This is probably the last case scenario after restarting the troublesome app, restarting your Mac, and possibly deleting and reinstalling the app. You may also be concerned about your personal data and how an app or website might be using it, which is a good reason to clear your browser cache from time to time. Another reason to clear browser cache is if you are finding that a website you use isn’t up to date. If you don’t clear the cache you may find you are loading up the version of a webpage as it was the last time you visited. The cache you can, and can’t, delete Under no circumstances should you delete all of the data in your cache – if you are thinking of doing something that drastic you would probably be better off wiping your Mac and doing a clean install of macOS. The reason not to delete all your cached files is that some of these files are needed by your Mac to run normally. If you delete cache files willy-nilly you might break something. Deleting cache that’s related to an application can also be asking for trouble. Some apps keep important user information in cache folders and may not work without it. It can also be pretty inconvenient for you if you are in the middle of a big project in say Photoshop or Premiere Pro and you delete your cache associated with that. These are both good reasons to back up your Mac before you clear your cache, at least then you can recover your Mac to the state it was in before you started meddling, or at the least copy the cache files back to the folder you deleted them from. That’s what you shouldn’t delete – or at least you should be cautious about what you delete. How about what you can safely delete? We’d suggest that you can delete cache files that relate to apps you no longer use. In particular, if there is data in cache that relates to an app that you have removed from your Mac you should be able to confidently remove the associated files from the cache. In fact, a good app uninstaller, such as MacPaw’s CleanMyMac X, MacCleaner Pro from Nektony, or DaisyDisk from Software Ambience, will remove the associated data from your cache. For more of our Mac Cleaner recommendations see our round-up of the best Mac cleaner apps. Browser cache is a type of data you can be pretty confident about removing, but the advantages of keeping it may well be greater than any advantages of removing it. Deleting data from your browser cache can become an annoyance when afterwards you discover that you now have to re-enter your logins and other data that used to autofill. How to delete cache on a Mac We’ll look at each kind of cache separately since the process is different. We’ll cover how to delete data from your cache manually and we’ll also look at some of the third-party tools you can use if you are concerned about making a mistake. Before we start, you may be wondering whether Apple provides you with the necessary tool to quickly delete cached files. If you are using macOS Sonoma, Ventura or later you can access the information via About This Mac > More Info. This takes you to System Settings where you go to General > Storage > Storage Settings. In macOS Monterey and older you can click on the Apple in the menu at the top of your screen and go to About This Mac > Storage. Whichever way you get there you will see a breakdown of the kind of storage on your Mac that indicates where there are files that you might want to delete, or move to iCloud, in order to free up space. For example, if you click on the i beside the section (in Ventura or later) then you can see all the files or applications you might want to delete. Foundry Foundry Foundry You might also see a large section called Other, or System, or System Data, depending on the version of macOS you are running. The kind of cached files you want to delete may well lurk in this section of your storage, so you may wonder if you can easily delete it from here. Unfortunately, you can’t easily delete files from any of those sections from this view. But there are lots of other ways to free up space from these sections and elsewhere on your Mac. We discuss how to use this here: How to free up space on Mac and address the question of How to delete Other on the Mac and How to delete System on the Mac separately but read on for tips for clearing the cache on your Mac. How to clear browser cache The method here depends on which browser you use, be it Safari, Chrome, Firefox or something else. If you are a Safari user then the process is as follows: In Sonoma or Ventura Open Safari. Click on Safari > Settings in the menu. Click on the Advanced tab. You need to turn on the Developer view, so click on Show features for web developers (or Show Develop Menu). Now you will see a new Develop option in the menu at the top of your screen. Click on that. Click on Empty Caches. (You could also press on Option/Alt + Command + E.) In Monterey or older Open Safari. Click on Safari > Preferences in the menu. Click on Advanced. You need to turn on the Developer view, so click on Show Develop Menu. Now you will see a new Develop option in the menu. Click on that. Click on Empty Caches. You could also press on Option/Alt + Command + E. That method will delete your Safari cache. You may also want to clear your browsing history. To do that follow these steps: Click on History in the Safari menu. Click on Clear History. Finally, you can remove cookies by following these steps: In Sonoma or Ventura Click on Safari > Settings. Click on the Privacy tab. Click on Manage Website Data. Click Remove All (or go through the different sites and choose whether or not to allow them). Select Block all cookies to stop cookies in the future. In Monterey or older Click on Safari > Preferences. Click on Privacy. Click on Manage Website Data. Click Remove All (or go through the different sites and choose whether or not to allow them). Select Block all cookies to stop cookies in the future. Just note that removing this data can mean you are logged out of websites that you used to be able to automatically log on to so make sure you know your passwords. How to clear system cache Next up we’ll run through how to clear system cache: A word of warning before you start: Back up just in case something goes wrong! If you delete something that turns out to be important you can at least return to the way things were before. If the thought of making a mistake fills you with dread take a look at one of the options below that will do it for you – safely. Open the Finder. Click on Go > Go to Folder… Type in Library/Caches/ Enter or click on Go. Open each folder and choose what to delete. You could sort by Data Modified to see what hasn’t been added recently. Drag caches into the Trash/Bin. Don’t forget to delete your trash. This is a long and boring process that also happens to be really risky – so if you would rather reclaim your afternoon and not risk deleting something you shouldn’t, we recommend using one of the apps below. How to delete application cache files Along with gaining back some space, clearing files from application cache is something you might want to do if an app isn’t working properly, or if you want to speed a particular app up, but note it could have the opposite effect if you remove cached files that are required. For that reason, we again recommend that you back up your system before you start to delete. Open the Finder. Click on Go > Go to Folder… Type in ~/Library/Caches/ (note that you need a ~ this time, it’s next to the Z). Enter or click on Go. Open each folder and choose what to delete. Drag caches into the Trash/Bin. Delete your trash. Again, if you aren’t 100 percent sure you know what you are doing, we recommend that you use a dedicated app to remove you application cache. Best Apps for removing data from cache We have a round-up of the best Mac cleaner apps where we run through some of our favorite options for deleting files and memory hogs. Among them, you will find some excellent solutions for removing cache files from your Mac. Below are three options that we recommend. How to use CleanMyMac X to clear cache Get CleanMyMac X CleanMyMac X from MacPaw claims to clear your cache safely, it refers to a Safety Database to do so. CleanMyMac X can be downloaded from MacPaw’s website. It costs £34.95/$34.95 for a one-year subscription, although from time to time the company offers discounts. Alternatively, you can buy the software for £93.95/$89.95 if you don’t fancy forking out every year. You can download it for free, but if you want to delete anything you will need to pay up. Open CleanMyMac X and click on System Junk. Click on the Scan button. The app will start analyzing your system. Once the scan is complete you will see a message indicating how much space can be freed up. This includes User Cache Files, System Log Files, Language Files, Document Versions, User Log Files and System Cache Files. Click on Review Details to see more information. Here you get more details of the various cache files the software is offering to delete. So you could deselect anything you would rather not delete. (For example, you might prefer not to delete Document Versions, or you might want to keep some languages and not others. Plus you might prefer not to delete the cache associated with a particular app). If you are happy to go ahead just click Clean. You may need to enter your password and install a helper tool. Now wait while CleanMyMac X cleans your system. How to use MacCleaner Pro 2 to clear cache Get MacCleaner Pro MacCleaner Pro from Nektony is another option that is visually quite similar to CleanMyMac X. There is a free trial that is pretty much fully functional. To upgrade to the pro version costs £40.95/$44.95. Download it from Nektony. Open MacCleaner Pro. Click on Clean up Mac. Here you will see various types of files you can delete, including Caches, Installation Files, Language Files and Downloads. You can deselect any you don’t wish to delete. Click on Clean Up. You will be asked to confirm that you are happy for the files to be deleted. Click on Review. You can click on the down arrows to see more information about each. Deselect any you don’t want to delete. Click on Clean Up. 
Enter your password. The great thing about MacCleaner Pro is that it functions in trial mode, rather than just showing you what you can delete and then asking you to purchase the software. The trial is time-limited though. How to use CCleaner to clear cache CCleaner for Mac costs $29.95/£29.95 for the Professional version. There is also a free version of CCleaner which you can download from the CCleaner website. Get CCLeaner Open CCleaner. Click on the Applications tab. You’ll see which apps have files you can remove. Click on Analyze and wait for the software to examine what you can delete. It will then show you the files that can be removed. If you are happy to go ahead click on Run Cleaner. You will see a warning that the process will permanently delete files from your system. Confirm that you wish to proceed. You may need to install a helper tool, in which case: enter your password. Wait while the app removes the cache files. If you’re on a budget, DaisyDisk which has a one-off cost of $9.99/£9.99 is another solid choice for Mac cleaning, ranking #3 in our Best Mac Cleaners chart. For more advice read our tips for cleaning up your Mac to make it run faster. Cleaning and Data Recovery Software, Mac, MacOS, Personal Software

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Apple pushes suppliers with new iPad Pro OLED process as iPhone 16 picks up new display driver provider
Anyone following Apple supply chain reports knows that the company has been working toward adopting OLED displays on the iPad Pro for quite some time. Though the iPhone has featured an OLED display since the 2017 iPhone X, bringing the technology to the iPad lineup has proven difficult. Delays seem to finally be reaching their end, however, as this new display technology should see its debut at the May 7 Apple event. A new report details how exactly the 2024 iPad Pro has produced fresh challenges for suppliers, and another highlights OLED supplier changes coming to the iPhone 16. more…

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Stop using these stupid, stupid passwords immediately
If any of your accounts is secured with one of these horrible passwords, take World Password Day as an excuse to change it. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Google paid $20 billion to Apple in 2022 to be Safari’s default search engine
Google paid $20 billion to Apple in 2022 to be Safari's default search engine newly unsealed court documents in the U.S. DOJ's antitrust suit… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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AI summaries of YouTube videos and podcasts will save you tons of time
Use TubeOnAI to automatically generate summaries of YouTube videos and podcasts so you can save time and skip the boring stuff. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Apple has a low earnings bar to clear with big buyback hopes
Apple has low expectations from Wall Street analysts and investors for its second-quarter results due right after the close on Thursday… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Brush up on financial lingo for Apple’s quarterly earnings call
If it's your first time listening in, be sure to read our Apple earnings call glossary of terms before the conference with financial analysts. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Tim Cook to ‘hint’ at upcoming Apple AI features during iPad launch – WaPo
A new report says that Apple CEO Tim Cook will “hint” at upcoming AI features during next week’s Let Loose event. New iPads are the main focus of the event, but there are possible reasons for suggesting that Apple might also use it to outline new artificial intelligence features ahead of a detailed briefing at WWDC … more…

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