iPad lineup could have more clarity with one change
With 48 individual iPad configurations available from Apple, there are more choices in the lineup than ever. When simplified, though, the iPad line is divided into four models: iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro. As Logan Spurgeon points out, however, there’s one thing Apple could do to really bring clarity to the iPad line. more…

Read more »

Apple to power some AI features with via data centers using Apple Silicon
This year, Apple will power some of its upcoming artificial intelligence features via data centers equipped with its own Apple Silicon chips… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Read more »

Apple’s plastic-free packaging means pack-in logo stickers are going away
Pack-in Apple stickers go back at least as far as 1977’s Apple II.

Read more »

New iPad Pro, iPad Air, and M4 chip Apple event reactions
Benjamin and Chance react to all the announcements out of the spring ‘Let Loose’ event, including the radically thin new iPad Pro, the new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air lineup, what to expect from the M4 chip, and how the event compared to their expectations going in overall. And in Happy Hour Plus, Benjamin and Chance reflect on how they feel the video event format is performing for Apple, and whether it makes sense for the company to return to the live keynote style, sometimes. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join. Sponsored by Shopify: Grow your business no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a $1 per month trial at shopify.com/happyhour. Sponsored by Zocdoc: Go to Zocdoc.com/happyhour and download the Zocdoc app to sign up for free and book a top-rated doctor. Many are available as soon as today. Sponsored by iMazing 3: The world’s most trusted tool to manage Apple devices and transfer data from a Mac or PC. Redesigned for the future.  more…

Read more »

Apple To Power AI Tools With In-House Server Chips This Year
Apple will deliver some of its upcoming AI features this year via data centers equipped with its own in-house processors, part of a sweeping effort to infuse its devices with AI capabilities. From a report: The company is placing high-end chips -- similar to ones it designed for the Mac -- in cloud-computing servers designed to process the most advanced AI tasks coming to Apple devices, according to people familiar with the matter. Simpler AI-related features will be processed directly on iPhones, iPads and Macs, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is still under wraps. The move is part of Apple's much-anticipated push into generative artificial intelligence -- the technology behind ChatGPT and other popular tools. The company is playing catch-up with Big Tech rivals in the area but is poised to lay out an ambitious AI strategy at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10. Apple's plan to use its own chips and process AI tasks in the cloud was hatched about three years ago, but the company accelerated the timeline after the AI craze -- fueled by OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini -- forced it to move more quickly. The first AI server chips will be the M2 Ultra, which was launched last year as part of the Mac Pro and Mac Studio computers, though the company is already eyeing future versions based on the M4 chip Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read more »

Comcast launches ‘NOW’ affordable home internet, mobile plans, and more [U]
Comcast is out with some new prepaid connectivity offerings today. The new internet plans are simple and affordable with speeds up to 200 Mbps for home internet and unlimited 5G data for the mobile plans. Meanwhile, NOW TV includes access to 40+ networks for live and on-demand content. more…

Read more »

The iPad has come so incredibly far since 2010, and fulfills Steve Jobs' vision perfectly
It's still a sheet of glass, has no serious competitors, and uses radically different technology as you'd expect for a product more than a decade old, but the 2024 iPad still conforms to Steve Jobs' original vision for the product.Steve Jobs demonstrating the original iPadThere is an argument that the new iPad Air and iPad Pro models are merely spec-bump ones, that they are the same as ever, just a bit faster. That does ignore the new screens, or at least the larger one that's been brought to the iPad Air for the first time.It's not an unreasonable criticism, though, until you look back. Comparing the new 13-inch iPad Pro to the iPad Steve Jobs so proudly showed off at the original launch is eye-opening. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Read more »

Bloomberg: iOS 18 AI features will be powered by Apple silicon-equipped data centers
Coming on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report that Apple was developing its own chips geared toward powering AI-focused data centers, today Mark Gurman at Bloomberg effectively confirmed the report while adding new details of his own. more…

Read more »

Apple drops three macOS release candidates in one day
Arriving two days after the rest of the operating systems, the release candidate of macOS 14.5 is now available alongside two older versions for testing ahead of full release.macOS on an iMac and MacBook ProOn Tuesday, Apple handed out the release candidates for iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, tvOS 17.5, and watchOS 10.5. Two days later, the RC for macOS Sonoma 14.5 has finally showed up.Developers participating in Apple's beta program can secure the latest builds from the Apple Developer Center or by updating hardware already running the betas, using the Settings app. Public beta versions are typically out shortly after the developer variants, and can be signed up to from the Apple Beta Software Program website. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Read more »

Ahead of new iPads, Apple took 35.2% share of worldwide tablet market in Q1
Apple faced a bit of a lull last year due to the poor economy and the absence of new iPad models and declined 8.5% year over year. The… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Read more »

Apple releases macOS Sonoma 14.5 RC with release notes
Following release candidate versions of iOS and other operating systems this week, Apple has seeded out macOS 14.5 RC to testers. This version could be what ships when the final version reaches customers. Here are the release notes: more…

Read more »

If you’ve always wanted a pair of AirPods, now’s the time to grab em
Macworld If it seems like everyone has a pair of AirPods except you, there’s never been a time to try them out: Amazon is selling the 2nd-generation AirPods for a penny under $80 today, a savings of $59 a the lowest price we’ve ever seen. These AirPods are the same model that came out in 2019, but they’re still a fantastic set of earbuds. They don’t have Apple’s newest design or features in the 3rd-gen model, but they’ve got everything you want in a pair of buds: fantastic battery life, seamless setup, hands-free Siri, on-device controls, and super-low latency thanks to Apple’s H1 chip. And of course, you’re getting the iconic AirPods design and crisp, clear audio. In our 4.5-star review of the 2nd-gen AirPods, we called them “the best true wireless earbuds around” and praised the long battery life and features. And that was when the price was $159. At this deal, they’re a downright steal. Headphones

Read more »

Benchmarks show the M4 iPad Pro is faster and smarter than an M3 Pro MacBook
Macworld The M4 chip is here, ushering in new state-of-the-art performance in AI with its fastest-ever Neural Engine, according to Apple. That’s fine and dandy, but what we’re really wondering is, how fast is the M4’s CPU versus the M3 chip it’s replacing? We now have some early benchmarks that give us an idea. Geekbench 6 results have appeared in the Geekbench Browser and @VadimYuryev of Max Tech spotted them and posted the results on X. The numbers show that the M4’s CPU offers a 22 percent improvement over the M3 in single-core performance and a 25 percent boost in multi-core speed. BREAKING: The FIRST M4 iPad Pro benchmarks have LEAKED!M4 chip:Single-core: 3,767Multi-core: 14,677M3 chip:Single-core: 3,087Multi-core: 11,702M4 is 22% faster in terms of single-core and 25% faster in multi-core.M4 is faster than the 11-core M3 Pro in the 14" MBP!! pic.twitter.com/Jkl929eTqd— Vadim Yuryev (@VadimYuryev) May 8, 2024 We usually see a 15 to 20 percent CPU improvement from one chip generation to the next, so these results are slightly better than the typical boost. @VadimYuryev also points out that the base M4 is faster than an M3 Pro, but since Apple started its M-series chips, we often see that the base chip of the new generation is as fast or a bit faster than the previous Pro chip. Early Geekbench ML results: Testing AI But back to the AI stuff. The Geekbench Browser is great because it hosts the results files of tested chips, which means you can find all kinds of results–including results for the Geekbench ML test, which is used to gauge machine learning performance. (Geekbench says its ML test, “Includes machine learning workloads that model real-world AI tasks and applications.”) If you look in the Browser, you’ll find ML test results for the M4 iPad Air, which is identified in the Browser as “iPad16.6.”. At the time of this writing, two Geekbench ML results have been filed for the M4’s Neural Engine. We then ran the Geekbench ML test on an M3 MacBook Air and an M3 Max MacBook Pro, and here’s how the numbers compare (our MacBook scores are an average of three test results): M4 iPad Pro (16GB RAM): 8867/9004 M3 MacBook Air (16GB RAM): 8013 M3 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro (48GB RAM): 10934 These early results show that the M4 is about 12 percent faster in Neural Engine performance than the base M3. It also seems to be impacted by the amount of RAM in the system. We need to do more testing and analysis to better understand the scores, which is what we plan to do when we review the new M4 iPad Pro. We don’t know when Apple plans to bring the M4 to the Mac, but one thing is true—if you recently bought an M3 MacBook, you’re feeling a little FOMO right now. CPUs and Processors, iPad, Mac

Read more »

Best Apple Vision Pro apps
What does Apple Vision Pro actually do? Thanks to these visionOS app developers, the answer is a lot. While it’s not a comprehensive list of every visionOS app, these are some of the many experiences possible on Apple Vision Pro! more…

Read more »

Apple TV+ shares first look at ‘Women in Blue’ (‘Las Azules’), new Spanish-language crime drama
Apple TV+ on Thursday unveiled the premiere date for and a first look at “Women in Blue” (“Las Azules”), its upcoming ten-episode… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Read more »

How to use the iPhone’s one-handed keyboard mode (and Reachability)
iPhone screen too big? Hands full? iPhone one-handed keyboard mode can help. Plus, Reachability makes the top of the screen easier to reach. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Read more »

AirPods Max now $100 off, 15-inch M2 1TB/16GB MacBook Air $400 off, and more in today’s deals
Today’s Apple deals have arrived with a $100 price drop on several AirPods Max colorways. And for folks not interested in paying a premium on the latest and greatest, we also have some big-time deals on the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air starting from $829 – the upgraded 15-inch with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD is on sale at $1,499 too. All of those, some accessories, and more await below in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break. more…

Read more »

New low price: Chop up to $170 off M2 MacBook Air
Want a great lightweight laptop that doesn't overload the wallet? You can now get the lowest price on M2 MacBook Air ($829). (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

Read more »

Apple Music now tracks what’s being played the most on broadcast radio stations
Apple Music today launched new Shazam-powered playlists that track what is being played the most across terrestrial broadcast radio stations. The Radio Spins charts are also available on the Shazam website. Using their music recognition technology, Shazam is now logging what songs are being played on tens of thousands of radio stations worldwide, to help users discover more insights about what music is trending globally. more…

Read more »

Unlock M4 iPad Pro power with these apps for creative professionals
It’s been a big week for the iPad. The M4 iPad Pro and iPad Air 6 will make their way into users’ hands in a matter of days. That makes now the perfect time to start making a list of all the best iPadOS apps to enjoy while using the latest and greatest iPad hardware. The question of getting things done on the iPad is evergreen. So we’ve assembled a collection of some of the best iPad apps specifically for creative professionals, spanning a variety of fields. Want to create great things using Apple’s tablet? Here are some of the top tools to get started. Many of them will push the power of the new M4 iPad Pro, but even those that don’t will still run smoother than ever on the new hardware. more…

Read more »