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)

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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…

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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…

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Apple’s iPad event was an AI appetizer
Apple's recently hatched plan to catch up to rivals in artificial intelligence, specifically in generative AI (GenAI), have begun to be… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Could John Ternus equal Tim Cook and Steve Jobs as Apple CEO?
John Ternus, Apple's SVP of Hardware Engineering, may be the top candidate to take on the role of Apple CEO once held by Steve Jobs. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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More doctors are embracing Apple Vision Pro for precision 'keyhole' surgeries
The Apple Vision Pro is continuing to get praise from the medical community, with it being used in even more surgical procedures requiring precision and detail.Apple Vision Pro and its batterySince its launch, the Apple Vision Pro has been adopted by surgeons to help perform operations on patients. The latest instance of surgical use comes from India, with the headset used to perform over 30 procedures so far.Surgeons in Chennai's GEM Hospital are using the headset to perform laparoscopic surgeries, also known as "Keyhole" surgeries. It has been used in treatments for gall bladder issues, stomach cancer, fistulas, and hernias, reports FirstPost. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Today in Apple history: iTunes experiments with video downloads
On May 9, 2005, Apple quietly began selling music videos in the iTunes Music Store, marking the beginning of a very profitable video business. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Sonos takes a cue from Apple, citing ‘courage’ as why its new app is disliked
Not loving the new Sonos app? Cut ’em some slack—it took courage. That’s what the company says in response to criticism from customers. more…

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Teen gamers say games have two positive impacts & two negative ones
There’s been much debate on whether playing video games has a positive or negative impact on kids – and now teen gamers themselves have weighed-in. A new large-scale survey of US teens found that around 40% of them played every day – with smartphones almost as popular a gaming device as consoles – and reported a mixed impact on their life … more…

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TikTok is about to start labeling your AI-generated content automatically
The accessibility of AI is on the rise, and with it, content platforms now have to grapple with how to handle the potential issues AI can introduce. A new report indicates that TikTok is about to ramp up its efforts in AI transparency. It will do this by automatically labeling all AI-generated content. Or at least, the content it knows about. more…

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Create your brand and automate your social media marketing with this AI tool
Stori lets you conceptualize and create branding, including an AI logo generator. Plus, you use AI to produce and schedule social media posts.  (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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t:connect iOS app for insulin pump could kill users, says FDA
Version 2.7 of the t:connect iOS app – which is used to control delivery of insulin by the t:slim X2 pump – has been urgently recalled by the FDA. The FDA issued a Class I recall, which is reserved for products likely to cause “serious adverse health consequences or death” … more…

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At a crossroads to the future of computing: choosing between Apple Vision Pro and iPad Pro
Spatial computing represents Apple's long-term goals while iPad Pro lives in the post-PC present, but choosing one over the other may not be easy for those seeking to live on the cutting edge.iPad Pro versus Apple Vision ProAfter iPad was introduced by Steve Jobs in 2010, he described the product as post-PC — a popular term of the era. The concept of post-PC has become a reality as more people use iPhones and iPads than Macs by multiple magnitudes.While iPad is one potential future of computing, Apple Vision Pro represents another. It is Apple's first spatial computer that runs visionOS and paves the way for future AR and VR platforms. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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A crushing backlash to Apple’s new iPad ad
Hydraulic press destroying "symbols of creativity" has folks hopping mad.

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Get Apple’s M2 MacBook Air for just $829 via Amazon, the lowest price ever
Amazon's new price drop on Apple's M2 MacBook Air delivers the lowest price on record, with a $170 discount bringing the laptop down to just… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Features we expected but didn’t get in M4 iPad Pro
The new iPad Pro adds an OLED screen and M4 processor but other features quietly disappeared. And some never appeared at all. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)

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Amazon's $829 M2 MacBook Air deal delivers the lowest price on record
Amazon's new price drop on Apple's M2 MacBook Air delivers the lowest price on record, with a $170 discount bringing the laptop down to $829.Grab the lowest price on record on this M2 MacBook Air.The $170 discount off MSRP, which is labeled a limited time deal at Amazon, offers the best price we've seen on Apple's M2 chip with an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU.Buy for $829 Continue Reading on AppleInsider

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Music streaming firms urge European Commission to reject Apple’s App Store proposal
A group that represents audio streaming firms including Spotify and France's Deezer in Europe has urged the European Commission to… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple maintains US market share as smartphone demand continues to weaken
New research claims that US smartphone shipments have declined 8% year over year, yet Apple's iPhone has stayed steady at 52% of the market.Delays over Apple's iPhone 14 saw its sales boost come late, which has now affected yearly comparisonsEven if 52% of the market really does not constitute a monopoly, figures from Counterpoint Research say the market is shrinking. As well as the 8% drop between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, the US smartphone market has now declined for six consecutive quarters.However, one reason for the latest quarter's decline is that there was a significant sales difference in the same period in 2023 because of a difficult 2022 holiday season, supply-wise. The iPhone 14 range that was launched in 2022 had been hit by COVID-related production delays, so it saw its main sales later than usual. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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How the iPad Pro’s M4 chip sets the iPhone and Mac on a new path
Macworld Well, that was fast. The M3 chip, introduced last October, is already yesterday’s news. We’re living in an M4 world, courtesy of the surprising announcement that the new iPad Pro is powered by Apple’s next generation of chips. Even if you don’t care about iPads, this announcement will affect the trajectory of the Mac and iPhone in quite a few ways. The first question to answer is: why so soon? The iPhone gets a new chip generation once a year, when the new iPhones arrive. Apple likely wants the M series on a similar cadence, since the two chips are really variations of one another. The rush to the M4 breaks this cycle. A new chip architecture The answer is complicated and has a lot to do with the vagaries of chip manufacturing. To simplify: TSMC, Apple’s chipmaker, introduced a new 3-nanometer process last year, which enabled Apple to ship the M3 (and A17 Pro) chips and boast about them being the first major chips to be on a 3nm process. The M3 was the first set of M-series chips made with the N3 process, a process that was quickly outdated. The M3 was the first set of M-series chips made with the N3 process, a process that was quickly outdated.Apple The M3 was the first set of M-series chips made with the N3 process, a process that was quickly outdated.Apple Apple The problem is that, even then, the manufacturing process that built those chips was a dead end. TSMC was recalibrating its chip manufacturing and moved from its old “N3” technology to the new (and very different) “N3E” version. The new version is not compatible with the previous method of designing chips, which mandated a wholesale redesign. When Apple says that the M4 is made using a second-generation 3nm chip technology, this is what it’s talking about. Basically, Apple used the M3 generation to get to 3nm before everyone else, but it knew that it would need a new design for the system TSMC was building toward. Hence the M4–and presumably the A18–were redesigns Apple absolutely had to do. Why launch the M4 on the iPad Pro rather than a more popular product, like a MacBook Air? Chances are pretty good that at the beginning of a chip cycle, the volume of chips coming out of the factory will be low. The iPad Pro doesn’t sell in remotely the same numbers as a MacBook Air, allowing Apple and TSMC to ramp up deliveries. The future of iPhone chips What does this mean for the future of the chips in the next-generation iPhones coming this fall? Last year, the iPhone 15 Pro featured a 3nm A17 Pro chip based on the older TSMC process. The non-pro models used the older A16 processor from the previous-generation process. It seems unlikely that Apple will want to keep any iPhone on the older chip process, so I’d be surprised if Apple shipped two different chips with the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16. Instead, I’d expect an A18 chip that powers all new iPhones. However, it’s important to note that the M4 chip that Apple announced on Tuesday comes in two varieties. iPad Pro models with less storage and RAM also have one fewer performance CPU core. It’s entirely possible that Apple will differentiate the iPhone and iPhone Pro with variations of CPU and GPU cores, and even RAM. But I can’t imagine the company building more than a single iPhone chip for this new cycle, given that everything needs to come over to the newer chip fabrication process. The future of Mac chips So, what happens next on the Mac? The M3 generation thus far extends only to the iPad, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has suggested that there’s one yet as-unreleased M3 chip (the M3 Ultra, presumably) still to be released. This means we might be in for a first-time Apple silicon experience: New Macs on an older generation chip released after the newer generation has been introduced. (Presumably a Mac Studio with M3 Max and Ultra options?) Will Apple release an M3-based Mac Studio, or skip it and go with M4? Will Apple release an M3-based Mac Studio, or skip it and go with M4?Foundry Will Apple release an M3-based Mac Studio, or skip it and go with M4?Foundry Foundry But when you look at it closer… I’m not sure if there’s a need for concern. First off, all that we’ve seen from the new M4 generation is the base M4 chip. There’s absolutely no doubt that an M3 Ultra (and for that matter, the current M3 Pro and Max) is far more powerful than the little M4, even if it is from the next generation of Apple Silicon. And then there’s the big question: how big a leap forward is the M4, anyway? In all of Apple’s promotion of the M4 on Tuesday, it kept comparing it to the M2–since that’s the chip in the previous model of iPad Pro. Which, fair enough–every device is different, and comparing the iPad Pro to a MacBook Air is a little weird. (But it’s also potentially a bit self-serving if Apple has reasons to not want anyone to compare the M3 and the M4.) While the M-whatever naming scheme makes us want to think of each Apple chip generation as a monolith, the truth is that Apple chips are a collection of different components, including CPU cores, GPU cores, Neural Engine cores, display and memory controllers, and a whole lot more. And not every component gets a major upgrade with every generation. For example, it seems pretty clear that the GPU cores in the M4 are pretty much the same ones as in the M3, and the CPU cores are only slightly updated (to add some additional AI speed-ups from the M3. Apple tweaked performance by increasing the overall maximum CPU core count of the M4 from eight to 10, by adding two more “efficiency” cores, which use less power than the four beefy “performance” cores. Given all of that, it’s possible that the base M4 won’t actually be a whole lot faster than the M3. It’s even possible that the two bonus CPU cores were added in order to prevent the M4 from running slower than the M3! TSMC’s new process may be more future-proof and the start of a whole new generation of manufacturing processes, but it may actually be a bit less dense than the previous process–and as a result, this new generation might be more of a sidestep than a big step forward. Regardless, it behooves Apple to get off of TSMC’s old process and onto the new one as soon as possible, which is why (as Bloomberg’s Gurman has reported) Apple intends to turn the entire Mac line-up over to M4 by the end of next year. Given that the M4 generation has started surprisingly early, I’m wondering if the end of the M3 era will come even sooner than expected. CPUs and Processors, iPad, Mac

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