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- Sunday April 05
- 11:16 amCrime blotter: A $2 million iPhone heist in Florida
A British political adviser's stolen iPhone leads to a scandal, pro athletes fall for an iCloud scam, and iCloud evidence is used against a man accused of stalking the FBI director's girlfriend, all in this week's Apple Crime Blotter.The Alderwood Apple Store in Washington. Image Credit: AppleWelcome to an occasional AppleInsider feature, looking at the world of Apple-related crime. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums08:00 amCut your workload and save time with this all-in-one AI assistant on sale for $29.99
Macworld TL;DR: This deal on a ChatOn AI Assistant Premium Plan helps you save time on writing, research, and content creation with multiple AI models and tools in one app for $29.99. Busywork has a way of eating up your day. One minute you’re drafting something, the next you’re hunting for sources, rewriting copy, or trying to generate visuals — and suddenly hours are gone. ChatOn cuts through that by putting everything you need into one streamlined workflow. With this 1-year subscription to ChatOn AI Assistant Premium Plan for $29.99 (MSRP $39.99), you can tap into GPT, Gemini, Claude, and more without breaking your focus. Write, brainstorm, research, and refine ideas in one place instead of bouncing between tools. It’s not just about text, either. You can generate images, create videos from photos, summarize documents, and even pull in real-time web results with sources — all without leaving the app. The built-in library of 100+ smart prompts helps you move faster, whether you’re planning, organizing, or creating content from scratch. Instead of stretching simple tasks into long, scattered sessions, ChatOn keeps everything moving so you can get in, get it done, and move on. Get one year of access to ChatOn AI Assistant Premium Plan for $29.99 and start turning hours of work into minutes. ChatOn AI Assistant Premium PlanSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.07:34 amApple's First 50 Years Celebrated – Including How Steve Jobs Finally Accepted an 'Open' App Store | SlashdotApple's First 50 Years Celebrated – Including How Steve Jobs Finally Accepted an 'Open' App Store
Apple's 50th anniversary got celebrated in weird and wild ways. CEO Tim Cook posted a special 30-second video rewinding backwards through the years of Apple's products until it reaches the Apple I. Podcaster Lex Fridman noticed if you play the sound in reverse, "It's the Think Different ad music, pitched up." TechRadar played seven 50-year-old Apple I games on an emulator, including Star Trek, Blackjack, Lunar Lander, and of course, Conway's Game of Life. And Macworld ranked Apple's 50 most influential people. (Their top five?) 5. Tony Fadell (iPhone co-creator/"father of the iPod") 4. Sir Jony Ive 3. Steve Wozniak 2. Tim Cook 1. Steve Jobs One of the most thoughtful celebraters was David Pogue, who's spent 42 years of writing about Apple (starting as a MacWorld columnist and the author of Mac for Dummies, one of the first "...For Dummies" books ever published in the early 1990s.) Now 63 years old, Pogue spent the last two years working on a 608-page hardcover book titled Apple: The First 50 Years. But on his Substack Pogue contemplated his own history with the company — including several interactions with Steve Jobs. Pogue remembers how Jobs "hated open systems. He wanted to make self-contained, beautiful machines. He didn't want them polluted by modifications." The tech blog Daring Fireball notes that Pogue actually interviewed Scott Forstall (who'd led the iPhone's software development team) for his new book, "and got this story, about just how far Steve Jobs thought Apple could go to expand the iPhone's software library while not opening it to third-party developers." "I want you to make a list of every app any customer would ever want to use," he told Forstall. "And then the two of us will prioritize that list. And then I'm going to write you a blank check, and you are going to build the largest development team in the history of the world, to build as many apps as you can as quickly as possible." Forstall, dubious, began composing a list. But on the side, he instructed his engineers to build the security foundations of an app store into the iPhone's software-"against Steve's knowledge and wishes," Forstall says. [...] Two weeks after the iPhone's release, someone figured out how to "jailbreak" the iPhone: to hack it so that they could install custom apps. Jobs burst into Forstall's office. "You have to shut this down!" But Forstall didn't see the harm of developers spending their efforts making the iPhone better. "If they add something malicious, we'll ship an update tomorrow to protect against that. But if all they're doing is adding apps that are useful, there's no reason to break that." Jobs, troubled, reluctantly agreed. Week by week, more cool apps arrived, available only to jailbroken phones. One day in October, Jobs read an article about some of the coolest ones. "You know what?" he said. "We should build an app store." Forstall, delighted, revealed his secret plan. He had followed in the footsteps of Burrell Smith (the Mac's memory-expansion circuit) and Bob Belleville (the Sony floppy-drive deal): He'd disobeyed Jobs and wound up saving the project. In fact, the book "includes new interviews with 150 key people who made the journey, including Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, Jony Ive, and many current designers, engineers, and executives" (according to its description on Amazon). Pogue's book even revisits the story of Steve Jobs proving an iPod prototype could be smaller by tossing it into an aquarium, shouting "If there's air bubbles in there, there's still room. Make it smaller!" But Pogue's book "added that there's a caveat to this compelling bit of Apple lore," reports NPR. "It never actually happened. It's just one more Apple myth." Read more of this story at Slashdot.Saturday April 0410:16 pmHere’s why M5 MacBook Pro is worth buying now, even with an impending redesign
The current 14-inch MacBook Pro design is nearing five years old. It’s also not at all a secret that Apple is working on a redesign for its MacBook Pro lineup. Despite those facts though, there’s still one compelling argument to be made about buying one today – even with bigger changes right around the horizon. more…07:56 pmExhibition at Apple Park lets employees get close to Apple's history
As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, Apple employees can check out a private exhibition of products and key moments from the company's history, all in Apple Park.The exhibition in Apple Park - Image Credit: @AlSultan_Meriam/XAfter weeks of public celebration in the run-up to the 50th anniversary, the festivities are now all internal for Apple now. In the latest event, it has been revealed that employees are now being able to look back at the products and hardware that helped build the company.Images shared by Meriam Al Sultan on X show a large room containing images and products in display cases. Described as a 50th anniversary exhibition, the shots are apparently in "Section 2" of Apple Park, but there are other exhibits on show in other HQ areas. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums07:30 pmIndie App Spotlight: ‘VariAlarm’ brings proper schedules to your alarm clock
Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact. Juggling loads of alarms in the Clock app can be annoying. VariAlarm aims to fix this, by dynamically adjusting your alarms based on your schedule, rather than having fixed times. more…07:20 pmHands-on: HyperDrive Next enclosure for Mac offers 80Gbps speeds for SSDs, more
Internal Mac storage upgrades are expensive, often causing users to resort to external media when possible. That also has its own problems of sometimes compromising on speed or reliability. HyperDrive Next aims to bridge that gap, by bringing incredible performance to external drives for your Mac. more…06:39 pmAMD or Nvidia eGPUs can work on Apple Silicon Macs, but not for graphic acceleration
Apple has signed a driver for AMD or Nvidia eGPUs connected to Apple Silicon but there are some big caveats, and it won't improve your graphics. Here's what they're for.An earlier time when you could use eGPUs with MacsWhen Apple announced the use of eGPUs with AMD Radeon cards in 2016, we were pretty excited. Full support shipped in early 2017 and for a few short years, Thunderbolt provided an excellent graphics-accelerating one-cable dock to our MacBook Pros.But even then, Apple has stubbornly prevented modern Nvidia GPUs from working with Macs. And, with the change to Apple Silicon, Apple effectively killed off any real use of an externally usable Nvidia GPU with its Mac lineup. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums06:02 pmApple debuts 50th anniversary exhibit at Apple Park with iconic products and photography | 9 to 5 MacApple debuts 50th anniversary exhibit at Apple Park with iconic products and photography
This story is part of 9to5Mac’s series celebrating Apple’s 50th anniversary. Apple often likes to say that it isn’t a nostalgic company, but they’ve gone all out to celebrate their 50th birthday. The company recently opened an exhibition on campus displaying some of their most iconic products from over the years alongside photographs of memorable moments. There’s even a large screen that plays iconic ads and keynote moments like the 1984 commercial and the opening of the Steve Jobs theater. Thanks to Meriam Al Sultan on X, we all can get a look at the exhibit. more…04:43 pmApple’s latest acquisition is telling sign of where the company is headed
Last month, Apple acquired a popular Final Cut Pro plugin maker: MotionVFX. It isn’t clear what this acquisition will turn into, but based on the fact that it quickly followed the launch of Apple Creator Studio, it’s highly plausible that Apple will integrate its templates, effects, and other offerings as a perk of Apple Creator Studio. While that on its own is interesting, I think the implication behind it is far more worth talking about. more…02:41 pmHow NASA approved the iPhone 17 Pro Max for the Artemis II space mission
Early images of the Artemis II launch showed an iPhone floating inside the spacecraft. Here's how Apple's smartphone got approved for spaceflight.iPhone 17 Pro Max is now in space following NASA's approval processNASA is very strict when it comes to what items are flown into space with astronauts. With the Artemis II trip around the Moon, it's marking the first time the agency is allowing the crew to carry iPhones in space.This is a big deal, as NASA has strict rules about what actually goes into space, and thorough testing to match. On Friday, the New York Times reported on what the iPhone 17 Pro Max had to go through to be allowed in the cabin. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums02:30 pmThese are my favorite MacBook Neo accessories after one month
I’ve had the MacBook Neo for a month, and it’s been an absolute pleasure to use. The Neo has been one of the more exciting new Apple products in a while. It gives you insane value, amazing build quality, and great performance, especially for the price. But to get the price down to $599, Apple had to make some compromises. To elevate my experience a bit, I added a few budget-friendly accessories that I think anyone can add to their MacBook Neo setup! more…02:25 pmElgato Stream Deck+ review: completely unnecessary but totally compelling
First, you can't see why you'd ever want a Stream Deck for your Mac, then you try one, and you will never give it back. Out of all the different models, though, the Stream Deck+ is best, and here's why.Get a Stream Deck+ and you'll never use a Mac without one againEvery Stream Deck is a Mac accessory that provides buttons to launch apps, perform entire sequences of tasks, or turn on your smart lights. You connect it through a USB-A or USB-C cable, and the difference in the models is chiefly in how many buttons you get and whether you also have dials.Get any of them. I've just set up a button that switches audio between my Mac and my headphones. I have one that opens all the folders for the books I'm writing. Another launches every app I need for AppleInsider, and positions them on the screen where I want. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums02:16 pmLimited-time Apple Card sign up bonus offers users boosted 5% cash back on groceries
Now through April 13th, new Apple Card users can receive a boosted 5% cash back on groceries for their first 6 months of card membership. This is considerably higher value than the typical 1-2% cash back you’d receive on groceries. more…01:30 pmDon’t dread your next meeting
Turn your meetings into clean notes, summaries, and action items automatically with MeetScribe—lifetime access for just $67. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)01:15 pmToday in Apple history: Apple frenemy Microsoft is born 51 years ago
On April 4, 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, a software company destined to become a tech behemoth (and key Apple frenemy). (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)01:10 pmHere’s how NASA cleared the iPhone 17 Pro Max for astronauts on Artemis II
Earlier this year, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman confirmed that astronauts on the Artemis II mission would be allowed to ”fly with the latest smartphones.” Now, The New York Times has reported what it took to make that happen. more…01:05 pmUK hospital uses Apple Vision Pro to help patients visualize surgeries
The Apple Vision Pro is being used to help patients in a UK hospital visualize upcoming surgeries, expanding the headset's use in medicine.A patient view from the Apple Vision Pro in a pre-surgery consultation - Image credit: Chelsea and Westminster HospitalOne of the problems with medical procedures is explaining what needs to be done to the patients, in a clear and understandable manner. To help some patients suspected of having endometriosis, the Apple Vision Pro is coming into play.An app developed by Medical iSight is being used in the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, UK, in preparation for surgery, reports BBC News. Patients wear an Apple Vision Pro, and are shown an AR model in pre-surgical consultations. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums01:00 pmAirPods Max 2 are gorgeous, dreamy headphones — for now [Review] ★★★★☆
You don’t need to be a big audiophile to love AirPods Max 2. But you must be a little bold to buy them yourself. An AirPods Max 2 review. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)01:00 pmApple @ Work: PocketMDM puts Apple device management in your pocket
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, and 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. My use of my iPhone has somewhat evolved over the years. I used to want to replicate everything that my Mac could do on my iPhone, but over time, I’ve looked to my Mac as the workhorse and my iPhone as a “cloud remote” to quickly do things on the go that take minimal effort and thought processing. Apple device management is one of those things. I don’t want to manage my entire database on my iPhone. I do, however, want to do a few things. That is where tools like PocketMDM come into play. more…