If you’re waiting for lossless music streaming to come to Spotify, you aren’t alone. While Apple Music already offers its own lossless music, Spotify has so far been unable to get its act together. That could be about to change, and it might finally debut alongside a new add-on rather than as a new pricing tier.
Spotify has been talking about its Spotify HiFi or Supremium subscription offering for years now, and it’s so far been unable to ship it. The new tier was expected to sport lossless music streaming but so far, that hasn’t happened.
But now a new report suggests that changes are afoot, but lossless audio won’t be part of a new tier as originally expected. Instead, it’s thought that the high-quality streaming option will debut as part of the Music Pro add-on that will include support for DJ remixes and more.
Sounds good
This is all according to a report by The Verge based on code that was spotted over on Reddit. That code says that “lossless has arrived” with support for “up to 24-bit/44.1kHz” FLAC files.
There is also talk of a new feature that will enhance sound played via specific headphones, with the AirPods mentioned specifically. It remains to be seen what that will actually do, not to mention the fact that pricing and availability still remain something of a mystery. There’s no word on how much the new Music Pro add-on will cost, but it’ll be an option that is offered to Spotify Premium subscribers.
So far Spotify has not mentioned what all of this means, but it’s possible that there is something on the horizon given the new code discoveries.
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The launch of Humane’s hotly anticipated Ai Pin came, and went pretty quickly thanks to a slew of bad reviews. But there’s a new app in town that hopes to do what Humane couldn’t.
Limitless is an AI-powered app for the best Macs that wants to be your personal assistant. It listens in on your meetings makes notes, summarizes things, and lets you ask it questions about your previous meetings at any point. Everything gets securely saved to the cloud-based app, so you can look back at any time.
If you give Limitless access to your emails and your calendar, it gets even smarter. When asking about your previous meetings, you’ll be able to give it more context. For example, you could ask, “What did me and Lisa talk about in our meeting two weeks ago?” and it would feed back notes from the recorded transcription.
There’s a free plan for the app, but that limits you to 10 AI interactions per month. If you want more, you’ll need to spring for the $20/month subscription. But Limitless says this app is just the beginning of its plans.
Just the beginning
In the near future, Limitless wants to sync up with all your notes apps. The founder believes that it doesn’t matter where your notes or tasks are stored – you should be able to access them in one place. Limitless would combine everything into one, and let you ask the AI assistant to summarise your notes. At this point, it begins to become like a second brain.
But where Limitless really hopes to stand-out is with its wearable pendant device. This will work alongside the app to record your meetings. But soon, it wants to listen to everything. Yep, all your conversations. Why? To act like the most personal of personal assistants, and let you ask about anything in your recent past. But that might be a little way off yet.
This comes before Apple is set to announce new AI features at WWDC 2024. iOS 18 is already said to contain major AI upgrades that work entirely on the device. And we’d expect to see something similar in macOS. Whether or not it’ll be along the same lines as what Limitless is trying to do remains to be seen.
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Apple made changes to its App Store guidelines around game emulators and gaming streaming services last week, and emulators have begun to arrive on the platform.
As spotted by 9to5Mac, the Game Boy emulator iGBA is now available via the App Store and will let users install and play ROMs on their iPhone or iPad.
“Additionally, retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games” is what the amended guidelines said last week, and the developer of iGBA (and other apps) is leaning into that early.
9to5Mac notes that the app itself is a copy of GBA4iOS, a long-running open-source project that’s been around for years. Nonetheless, it’ll run your Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance ROMs.
Expect Pokemon ROMs to be particularly popular (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / iMore)
How does Sideloading ROMs work?
While developers can offer ROM downloads within their emulator apps, that can open a can of worms when it comes to piracy and the legality of ownership. As we reported last week, Apple said developers are “responsible for all such software offered in your app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.”
As 9to5Mac reports, though, users can seemingly download ROMs from the web and then open them in iGBA to start playing with a bevvy of improvements like controller remapping, haptics, save states and AirPlay support.
Will this be enough to get you digging for your Pokemon cartridges? I’m not entirely sure I ever fully played most of them, so it’s tempting.
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Apple’s latest MacBook Air, packing the M3 chip, has been a resounding success. We awarded it five stars in our review, but there’s a significant drawback for buyers.
That’s the fact that despite the relatively low base price (for an Apple laptop, that is), the default configurations come with just 8GB of RAM. Increasing it to the 16GB offered by many competitors at the same price range will cost you an extra $200.
While this felt like the year the discourse around 8GB reached a fever pitch across tech enthusiasts, reviewers and content creators alike, it appears Apple is ready to upgrade the base RAM just yet.
As spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple’s Mac marketing executive Evan Buyze, and VP of hardware engineering, Kate Bergeron, have been speaking with IT Home (in Chinese).
Buyze pointed to web browsing and media playback as examples of things 8GB of RAM is enough for most tasks, as well as casual gaming and some light editing of photos and videos.
(Image credit: Gerald Lynch / Future)
Is 8GB of RAM enough?
Bergeron explained that the 8GB of RAM works in tandem with Apple Silicon chips to offer unified memory architecture. This means all 8GB of RAM is used more efficiently.
Part of the issue is that Apple charges so heavily for the increased RAM options in its build-to-order options that it often feels like a hidden tax for anyone looking to push their Mac a little further than the tasks Buyze identified.
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The MacBook Air (M3) begins at $1099, but it’s $200 more to take it to 16GB, and then a further $200 for 24GB. That’s on top of upping the storage from a miserly 256GB which also feels low (and also costs $200 to double).
Would you buy a Mac with 8GB of RAM? If not, what’s your ideal number for a new machine?
Using a VPN is a great way to keep your data private, bypass region locks, and more. And there is no shortage of iPhone VPN options for people to choose from. But one that people might already have is going away, and it might come as no surprise to you that the company ending its VPN service is none other than Google — the company that just can’t stop ending support for services.
The service in this instance is the Google One VPN, one that Google only launched back in October 2020. The VPN feature was part of the wider Google ONe subscription and while prices originally started as high as $9.99 per month for the Gone Premium plan, just $1.99 per month is currently required to be able to use the VPN component. But that won’t be the case for long.
Google has started to warn customers that it will start to discontinue the VPN functionality later this year. While those who own a Google Pixel Android phone will continue to enjoy VPN access as part of that device’s list of features, everyone else who pays for Google One will lose out.
Nobody used it
The news was first shared by Android Authority with Google sending notifications that also detailed other changes, including the removal of free shipping on print orders via Google Photos.
“With a focus on providing the most in-demand features and benefits, we’re discontinuing free shipping for select print orders from Google Photos (in Canada, the UK, US, and EU) starting on May 15 and VPN by Google One later this year,” the alert reads. “As a Pixel user, you’ll continue to enjoy being able to access VPN from Google through Pixel settings if you have Pixel 7 or newer models.”
Google of course has a history of doing away with features and services that people seemed to really enjoy using. Google RSS is one example that many still refuse to forgive Google for taking away, but in this instance, it seems that the move might actually have merit.
According to 9to5Google, the reason that the One VPN feature is being removed is pretty simple — nobody ever actually used it. In a statement to the outlet Google reportedly said the company was “discontinuing the VPN feature as [it] found people simply weren’t using it.” As a result, the decision means that the team will be able to “refocus” and “support more in-demand features with Google One.”
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Notably, Google announced that Google One reached the 100 million-user milestone earlier this year, so it begs the question of just how many people really were using the VPN feature for this decision to have been made.
Regardless, iPhone and Mac owners who now need to find a new VPN shouldn’t have too many problems, the market is huge with some great alternatives. However, if you already pay for Google One each month and made use of the included VPN, you’ll now need to look at finding an alternative and adding a subscription to your collection as a result.
While Apple doesn’t offer a VPN itself, iCloud Private Relay can offer some of the same functionality. Part of the iCloud Plus subscription, the feature ensures that websites and services cannot see your actual IP address, reducing the chance for them to track you across the internet and between sessions.
OK, I’m going to preface this by saying I’m not a huge reader. I try to be, and when I find a book that I can’t put down, I don’t put it down. My taste in books is much like my taste in games, TV shows, and movies — I like sci-fi and sci-fi adjacent content. I’m a sucker for it. And that’s why I absolutely cannot wait for the upcoming Apple TV Plus show, Dark Matter.
Like so much of Apple TV Plus’ catalog of content, Dark Matter is based on a book. In this case, it’s the book of the book of the same name penned by New York Times bestselling author Blake Crouch. It’s going to be a nine-episode show and its first two episodes are going to be available on May 8 with a new episode then airing every Wednesday. But none of that really matters, because all you really need to know is this — for once, I actually read the book before watching something. I read Dark Matter.
Was it good? Yeah, I reckon so — in fact, it’s probably my favorite book ever. Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary is right up there (also being made into a movie, apparently) but Dark Matter? Yeah, it’s pretty amazing and if the folks that turned it into a TV show did it right, this is going to be an absolute smash hit. And you should definitely be as excited as I am.
Must-watch TV
The story of Dark Matter is a complicated one and frankly, I’m terrified of accidentally ruining it for you so I’m going to rely on the Apple TV Plus blurb to explain what you can expect. Oh, and when it calls this “one of the best sci-fi novels of the last decade,” you’ll see why I’m so excited.
“Hailed as one of the best sci-fi novels of the decade, ‘Dark Matter’ is a story about the road not taken.” Sounds boring so far, but stick with it.
“The series follows Jason Dessen (played by [Joel] Edgerton), a physicist, professor and family man who — one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago — is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the mind-bending landscape of lives he could have lived. In this labyrinth of realities, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from the most terrifying, unbeatable foe imaginable: himself.”
Sounds good, right? Now watch the trailer.
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I’d actually forgotten that there was a Dark Matter TV show on the way and ran downstairs to make my wife watch the trailer with me when I saw it drop on YouTube today — but I’ll say this; the trailer doesn’t do it justice. Apple’s description doesn’t do it justice. And I can’t do it justice without spoiling it all for you.
So with that, I’ll just say this — watch Dark Matter. Depending on the pacing, you might have to give it more than those two initial episodes, too, but stick with it. Because, again, if this has been done right, it’s going to be huge.
Severance was good. Slow Horses, is good. Some of the other stuff on Apple TV Plus, is good (Ted Lasso, I continue to say, was not (don’t @ me)) but Dark Matter? That’ll be even better.
As someone not prone to overexcitement or, if you ask my wife, excitement in general, I’ll just say that I’m actually giddy about the prospect of watching Dark Matter in a way I haven’t been since the first Transformers movie (OK, second if we count the 1986 one) landed in cinemas.
Most days, I read a headline about how we’re all spending too much time sitting down and not enough time moving. I make a big effort to walk, work out, and move throughout the day – often relying on my Apple Watch to bully me into standing up. But Wakeout combines similar reminders with many things you can do once you finally get up.
The Wakeout app (officially called Wakeout! Defeat Sedentary Life on the App Store, but that’s so clunky) uses information from Apple Health to work out how sedentary you are – I’m 14% sedentary, which is surprising as a freelance writer, but does show my exercise has paid off as I was expecting worse.
The app works by then asking you questions about your day so it can work out the best time to get you moving. Then it’ll serve up thousands of different movements, stretches, and exercises at intervals throughout the day, which is ideal if the advice to just stand and more never really does it for you. It works across your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, but I think it’s most effective on the Apple Watch as there’s no ignoring it – or at least that works best for me.
If you already wear one of the best fitness trackers or an Apple Watch, you may already have access to features that allow you to set alerts and alarms, which means an extra app might be too much hassle. But if you don’t, or you do want a dedicated app, then Wakeout is a good option. You can see if it works for you with a 7-day free trial, after that, it’s $11.49/£11.49 a month, which feels very pricey so if you want to keep it definitely opt for the $52.99/£52.99 a year option, which works out at $4.42/£4.42 a month instead.
What makes the Wakeout app better than your fitness tracker?
The best thing about Wakeout is a recently-added feature called AI Health Reminders. I know the term AI is everywhere at the moment, but what it means in this context is that the Wakeout app will learn more about your habits and schedule so it can make better timed recommendations.
For example, it’s not helpful to be in the middle of watching a film and then be told it’s time to get up and move, right? Yet that’s what many activity apps, fitness trackers and smartwatches do – we’re looking at you, Apple Watch.
The idea behind Wakeout’s AI Health Reminders is that the reminders to move will come at more convenient times, and so far, in my experience testing the app, that’s really rung true. It’s hard to emphasize just how important that is for an app that promotes behavior change. If I feel bullied by an app or like it’s just another inconvenience, I’m probably going to stop using it pretty quickly.
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Honestly, this was one of my initial concerns with Wakeout, considering it uses fear tactics when you first sign up, listing all of the health problems of not standing up regularly – valid, but I don’t personally think fear works as a motivator. Luckily, it didn’t keep it up and has become a positive app in my toolbox to move more and build healthier habits.
Apple’s AirPower wireless charger was shown off in 2017 alongside the iPhone X before essentially disappearing off the face of the planet. Then, two years later, it was finally officially canceled after radio silence and reported issues with regard to overheating problems. But with years of development involved before the project was finally canceled, there are a handful prototypes knocking around. Every so often one appears online.
That’s what has happened over on the X social network with collector @AppleDemoYT sharing a short video of a prototype AirPower device. But while we’ve seen prototype wireless chargers pop up before, what makes this one most notable is the fact that it actually works. And not just charging something boring like an iPhone, either — this AirPower can charge an Apple Watch.
The AirPower charger was famously supposed to wirelessly charge just about anything that you dropped onto it. The iPhone was of course one example, as was Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. But unlike so many wireless chargers, AirPower was also supposed to charge the Apple Watch as well. And it was going to charge all of these things at once, no matter where they were placed. The idea was impressive, almost magical in a typical Apple way. But it couldn’t be made to work, leaving this prototype as the closest we’ve come to seeing one function as designed.
Powered up
Posting with the video, @AppleDemoYT shared that while the AirPower charger does work, it isn’t all good news.
“Prototype Apple AirPower with 16 coils (PROTO1) charging a Prototype Apple Watch Series 4 (DVT),” the post says. “It’s amazing that Apple Watch charging works, given wireless chargers today generally can’t charge Apple Watches. However, the Apple Watch on AirPower gets quite warm.”
Heat was of course a real concern for the AirPower device and it’s thought that a lack of cooling was what ultimately caused the project to be canceled for good. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that charging the Apple Watch here does cause things to get a little too toasty.
Seven years after the AirPower charger was announced, the world is not short of a wireless charging option or five. The launch of the Qi2 wireless charging standard has helped there as well, although the AirPower still stands out in one important way. Apple designed the wireless charger to work with all of its devices, no matter where they were placed on its large charging pad.
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The ability to charge anything, anywhere was what made AirPower so interesting and it’s also why there were 16 inductive charging coils in this prototype. But that was thought to be a key reason the charger got so hot during use, and ultimately Apple was never keen to ship something that got too warm during use — especially something that was always likely to be used overnight with no supervision.
Today, there are tons of iPhone and Apple Watch chargers to choose from, but none of them quite live up to what Apple promised with AirPower.
Prototype Apple AirPower with 16 coils (PROTO1) charging a Prototype Apple Watch Series 4 (DVT). It’s amazing that Apple Watch charging works, given wireless chargers today generally can’t charge Apple Watches. However, the Apple Watch on AirPower gets quite warm. #appleinternal pic.twitter.com/GfywG3KZS9April 7, 2024
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Will Apple’s ambitions wireless charger ever make a triumphant return? It wouldn’t be all that surprising. We definitely think it’s more likely that Apple will revive the AirPower project than it will the Apple Car Project, that’s for sure.
Apple’s iPad mini is one of the company’s most iconic products, the tiny tablet becoming the choice of readers, young children, the elderly, and everyone else in between. Yet it’s also often the forgotten child of the iPad family, having only been updated three times since 2015. Apple routinely waits two or three years between new iterations, which means that the iPad mini 6 from 2021 is fast coming into focus as one of Apple’s products that’s ripe for a new version.
After an entire year’s drought that saw no iPads released in 2023, we’re expecting at least two brand-new iPads to debut in 2024, and possibly even more than that. We’re reportedly just weeks away from a brand new iPad Air 6 and an OLED iPad Pro, and we’ve got a pretty good idea of all the new features coming to both. A little further off, however, is the report that Apple will debut a new entry-level iPad and a new iPad mini 7 in the coming months, possibly before the end of the year.
The iPad mini 6 was a substantial upgrade to the previous model, with an exciting new design language, Touch ID, 5G, USB-C, a new chip, and more. While we aren’t expecting such a dramatic overhaul this time around, there are several new features we’d really like to see: And one vital fix Apple must deliver if the iPad mini 7 is going to be a success.
Five features we’d like to see in the new iPad mini 7
Thinner bezels
(Image credit: Adam Oram / iMore)
I’m not hopeful for any sweeping design changes to the iPad mini 7’s chassis. I think Apple’s iPad lineup is in a really good spot when it comes to design language, so I’m not desperate for another shakeup. There is one thing that leaves me wanting, however; the iPad mini 6’s massive bezels. There’s something about the size of the device and the front display configuration that really just makes those bezels ook comically large. I’m sure they’re broadly similar to the iPad 10, but that device’s display is so much larger that the bezels feel like less of an issue. It’s all about the proportions. The iPad mini 6’s bezels look way off, and I’d really like to see them trimmed down — maybe Apple could even borrow some of the fancy rumored bezel tech from the iPhone 16?
Face ID
Apple’s iPad mini 6 features Touch ID built into the device’s top button, so the next logical step would be a face ID sensor for iPad mini 7. Face ID makes a ton of sense for a small, lightweight tablet that does a lot of commuting and moving around. As you pick up your tablet and put it down, take it in and out of your bag or rucksack, and move from room to room in your house, you’re likely locking and unlocking it an awful lot. Face ID would simplify the process, and the tech has been around a sufficiently long time that it should be low cost enough to manage on the cheaper iPad mini.
Landscape camera
While I agree that the iPad mini lends itself much more to portrait use than any other iPad thanks to its size and form factor (that’s what makes it the best iPad for reading), a landscape-oriented camera for Face ID and video-conferencing seems like it would make more sense than a portrait camera here. It wouldn’t preclude Face ID, and given that I often find myself picking my iPad up and covering the camera in its normal position anyway, it might make for a more useful position in the long run. More importantly, it would make the iPad mini even better for FaceTime and videoconferencing, and could be a vital complement to the next feature on my wishlist…
A Magic Keyboard
(Image credit: Luke Filipowicz / iMore)
The fact that there are already so many good keyboards for iPad mini proves that there’s a good market for one of Apple’s coolest (and most expensive) accessories for iPads. It already makes its own superb Magic Keyboard Folio for the iPad 10, and the dazzling Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro M2 and the iPad Air. Heck, even a smart keyboard from an older model would be an improvement. I think a fully-fledged Magic Keyboard would probably be overkill, and certainly too expensive to justify buying. But a Magic Keyboard Folio for iPad mini could turn the 8.3-inch tablet into a tiny typing powerhouse for taking notes in class or just jotting down some ideas. Sure, the keys might be small, and the keyboard a little cramped for users with larger hands, but there are plenty of successful iPad mini keyboards on the market that prove this is a viable option.
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Apple, please fix this
(Image credit: iMore)
All of these wishlist features pale in comparison to the one upgrade the iPad mini desperately needs: A fix for jelly scrolling. Days after the iPad mini launched, a display quirk dubbed “jelly scrolling” quickly became a hot-button issue amongst iPad mini owners. The problem revolves around the iPad mini’s refresh rate. It seems that one side of the iPad mini’s display refreshes quicker than the other. When you scroll up and down on a page, this manifests itself as a wobbly-looking “jelly” phenomenon. It’s a real flaw of an otherwise fantastic tablet. Thankfully, there are rumblings that Apple is looking to address the issue by rotating the display internally. Apple says the issue is normal behavior for LCD displays, but it really soured the iPad mini 6 experience for many — including some on team iMore. The obvious fix would be a move away from LCD toward LED, but this might add too much weight, cost, and power consumption to the iPad mini. However Apple decides to tackle it, I just hope it gets fixed.
The recipe for success
So there we have it, five ways Apple could improve its iPad mini for 2024. There are other possible upgrades we’ve not mentioned here, the M1 chip being an obvious contender. However, the iPad mini is not slow, and more processing power for what is essentially an e-reader/Kindle alternative isn’t a high priority. Being small and portable, the iPad mini is also the iPad that would most benefit from a camera upgrade, because it’s actually small enough to be useful for taking photos, but this seems unlikely. The latest reports indicate the iPad mini 7 could possibly debut before the end of this year. In the meantime, Apple has a new iPad Pro, an iPad Air, and of course, iPadOS 18 at WWDC 2024 to keep us ticking over.
Apple updated its App Store guidelines yesterday, April 5, to make it much easier to access game emulators through its digital storefront.
It’s the latest concession to the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for the European Union. After Spotify and other parties criticized Apple’s steps to comply, an amendment to the App Store guidelines page opened the doors to video game emulators that allow for game downloads.
“Additionally, retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games,” the section in the guidelines for mini apps and game streaming, but the caveat is that developers are “responsible for all such software offered in your app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.”
That could mean emulators are only able to offer titles from the same developers, which could make things less appealing for retro gaming enthusiasts. Still, these changes also apply to Game Streaming, which may renew some hope for Xbox Game Pass subscribers hoping to play on their iPhone or iPad.
(Image credit: Source: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)
Streaming services and ‘Super Apps’
It’s not just emulators that are seeing a more relaxed certification process for the App Store, as music streaming services will now be able to send users to a website to sign up for subscriptions.
This applies to music streaming apps “in specific regions” that can be implemented by something like a buy button.
So-called “Super Apps”, like WeChat, are also benefitting from the change. Each section within a Super App must now use HTML 5. Apple locking out such apps was a major reason for the DOJ’s recent lawsuit, so it could end up being effective in facilitating change in more regions than just Europe.
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Just weeks after an entertainment expert claimed “no one is watching Apple TV”, it appears the company’s streaming service is growing.
According to research from JustWatch, Apple TV Plus now has 8% of the market share, which matches Paramount+. Apple TV is up from 7% from the previous period, suggesting that, despite suggestions to the contrary, it has grown by a single per cent.
For context, though, Apple still lags behind industry juggernauts Amazon Prime Video (with 22%), Netflix (21%), and Max (14%). Disney Plus sits at 11%, but JustWatch notes that it, Max, and Hulu dropped subscribers from the period before.
This follows on from another recent report that suggested Apple TV Plus has the highest-rated content of any streaming service.
(Image credit: JustWatch)
Apple TV Plus’ critical success
Since it arrived in 2019, Apple TV+ has grown over time but still offers significantly less content than rivals, with under 300 available at the time of writing.
Still, the company has seen big successes from a critical standpoint, if not always a commercial one. For All Mankind, Severance, The Morning Show, and Ted Lasso have all debuted on the platform, along with Silo, Slow Horses, and much more.
Given Apple’s huge resources, it’s perhaps not too surprising to see such an impressive calibre of content. The Telegraph reported that Apple’s big-budget movie Killers of the Flower Moon grossed $137 million but that fell short of its $200 million budget.
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Apple recently added more titles, including The Godfather, to the service.
Just weeks after Apple’s car project was scrapped triggering layoffs at the company, we now know that more than 700 of its employees are confirmed to be laid off, and the Apple Car wasn’t the only reason.
As originally reported by 9to5Mac, citing a WARN report from the California Employment Development Department, more than 700 employees were removed from a handful of central projects. The above report confirmed that “Apple is laying off 58 employees from one of its offices in Santa Clara”, which is associated with a team working on Micro-LED displays for the Apple Watch. This could suggest Apple is canceling the tech altogether with Bloomberg reporting something similar just last month.
Back in January, 121 layoffs were confirmed in San Diego, which are said to take effect on April 26. This is because the ‘Data Operations Annotations’ team is being shuttered and combined with the team in Austin. Previously, that team was responsible for logging Siri requests and slowly improving the service, as well as working on LLMs (large language models) for AI development.
As reported by Bloomberg, 371 employees were released at Apple’s main car-related office in Santa Clara, with even more said to be affected by the project closure.
What happens to those workers?
As is the case with the team in San Diego, workers were either told they could move to Austin to continue their role there or face redundancy. Those who opted to move were offered $7,000 for doing so. Apple has a good track record of offering other roles for those it lets go but this case is unique, as many were forced into moving a two-hour flight away.
The 9to5Mac report above claims that “Some of the engineers working on the Apple Car have been offered positions to work on AI-related features at Apple.” With over 2000 employees working on the Apple Car project before it was scrapped, it is unlikely Apple will have room for all those affected.
More from iMore
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The MyZone MZ-Switch is a heart rate monitor for the type of fitness fan who likes to mix up their workouts and also likes the idea of having more freedom to move that monitor around. All while still getting accurate heart rate data when working up a sweat. It does that using two sensor technologies and gives you the option to wear it on your wrist, arm, or chest with recommendations made on where to wear it based on the exercise type.
MyZone MZ-Switch: Price and availability
(Image credit: Mike Sawh)
The MyZone MZ-Switch was announced and launched back in March 2021 and costs $159.99/£139.50, so this is one of the most expensive heart rate monitors you can pick up. That’s more expensive than the Polar H10 and Garmin’s HRM Pro Plus heart rate monitor chest straps, which both sit above that $100/£100 price mark.
MyZone MZ-Switch: Specs and features
(Image credit: Mike Sawh)
As mentioned, the MZ-Switch uses two sensor technologies. There’s an ECG one commonly found in chest strap monitors and an optical sensor similar to what’s found inside of heart rate tracking watches. MyZone doesn’t put both sensors to use at the same time and instead uses them where it feels it can get the best results. So it will use the ECG tracking when it’s worn on the chest and the optical sensor setup when it’s strapped to your wrist or upper arm. The sensor itself is waterproof up to 10 metres making it safe for swimming, includes storage for up to 36 hours of workout time and offers both Bluetooth and ANT+ connectivity to pair it to your devices.
MyZone MZ-Switch: Build and Performance
(Image credit: Mike Sawh)
The design of the straps used to wear the Switch on your chest, wrist, or arm all slightly differ, but ultimately are well designed to ensure they sit snug, keep the sensor secure, and ensure you get the best accuracy. MyZone usefully makes wearing recommendations based on sports and exercises to make sure you get the most reliable data.
Stick to those recommendations and the performance is very good on the whole, but ultimately you’re going to want to wear it on your arm or chest for high-intensity workouts. If you’re wearing it on your wrist or arm, the LED light on the sensor is used to indicate the current heart rate zone based on a color code, which is a nice feature to have to gauge how hard you’re working. Connecting it to an Apple Watch was no problem at all and the promise of 3-6 months of battery life using a mix of both sensors seems to be a reliable figure based on our testing time.
MyZone MZ-Switch: Competition
(Image credit: Mike Sawh)
The MyZone MZ-Switch is pretty unique in the fact that there is no other heart rate monitor that gives you the same flexibility in terms of wearing options. There are other brands that offer both chest strap and armband monitors and you could feasibly spend slightly similar money on two devices to get a similar experience though, you’d still need to have two devices as opposed to the all-in-one solution that MyZone offers here.
MyZone MZ-Switch: Should you buy it?
You should buy it if…
You want to track your heart rate from different places
You like viewing your heart rate zones
You’re happy to look after multiple straps
You shouldn’t buy it if…
You don’t mind wearing a heart rate monitor chest strap for all workouts
You want a better value heart rate monitor
MyZone MZ-Switch: Verdict
The MyZone MZ-Switch does a really good job of catering to people who are happy to wear chest strap monitors for some classes but find it a nuisance for other workouts. It’s simple to switch to different wearing positions and the heart rate accuracy on the whole is very good, especially if you stick to MyZone’s recommendations on where to strap it on.
There are some nice extras here like the heart rate zone indicator and battery life is solid too. It does come at a price that puts it above most other monitors. If you can stomach the cost in exchange for that versatility, you’ll get a great monitor for a range of workouts.
The bottom line
It might be slightly more expensive than the competition, but you get a more accurate monitor with more features for the extra cost.
If you’re anything like me, you probably take dozens, if not hundreds, of screenshots on your iPhone every day. But did you know that there’s a faster way to share those screenshots with your friends, or AirDrop them to your Mac?
As someone who takes a frankly ridiculous amount of screenshots daily for my how-to tutorials as well as a bunch of funny things I see online to send to my friends, this one iPhone trick has saved me loads of time. Now I can focus on the witty messages to send with the screenshots rather than the screenshots themselves.
Here’s how to quickly share iPhone screenshots with others on iOS 17.
Speed up your screenshots
Until now, I’ve pressed the Volume Up button alongside the Power button on my iPhone 15 Pro Max to take a screenshot, tapped the preview in the bottom left corner, and then tapped the Share button. Sometimes I even forget to tap Share and opt for Done instead, go into my Photos app, find the screenshot, and then share it. All this to say, my screenshot sharing has never really been that efficient. Until now.
Now, I simply take a screenshot, and long press on the preview in the bottom left corner to quickly bring up the share options. You can even do this with multiple images because, remember, the preview never appears in your actual screenshots. This has changed how I share screenshots and how I do my work, as I can just take the screenshots I need and AirDrop them to my M2 Mac mini far quicker than before.
A simple time-saving iPhone trick
It’s a simple trick but one that will greatly improve the daily usage of your iPhone if you take a lot of screenshots. This is one of my favorite tips and I hope we see it improved upon in iOS 18 by adding extra options, like the ability to do this neat trick from your Lock Screen.
iMore offers spot-on advice and guidance from our team of experts, with decades of Apple device experience to lean on. Learn more with iMore!
If everything goes the way we think it will, Apple will announce the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 software updates at the WWDC event which has now been confirmed to kick off on June 10. The updates are hotly-anticipated, with some big new features thought to be on the horizon. But with Apple AI thought to be a big addition to the 2024 software updates across the board, it was always going to be a question of whether Apple would need to drop support for some older iPhones and iPads.
Now, a new leak claims to have the answer. That leak suggests that iPhone owners won’t have too much to worry about, but some iPad owners who were able to install iPadOS 17 last year might find that their tablets are a no-go this time out.
If Apple does announce the new software in June it won’t be available until September, and with a slew of new iPads expected over the coming months, this might be a good year to upgrade.
All the supported devices
According to the leaker, who posted to a protected X account that was spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple will be able to support all the same devices when iOS 18 ships as it did with iOS 17.
If that is indeed the case, the following iPhones will all be compatible with iOS 18. And you can of course add the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max to this list when they ship this fall.
iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max
iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max
iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max
iPhone XR
iPhone SE (2nd generation)
iPhone SE (3rd generation)
The news isn’t quite so good if you’re using one of a handful of iPads, however. According to the leak, Apple will drop support for the iPad (6th generation), iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (2nd generation), and iPad Pro (10.5-inch) when iPadOS 18 debuts. However, it isn’t clear why these tablets will not be supported given the fact that the iPad Pro models both use the A10X Fusion, a chip that is also in the iPad (7th-gen) which will be supported.
If that is indeed the case, the following iPads will all support iPadOS 18 — and we can of course add the upcoming OLED iPad Pro and new 6th-gen iPad Air, too.
iMore offers spot-on advice and guidance from our team of experts, with decades of Apple device experience to lean on. Learn more with iMore!
iPad: 2019 and later
iPad mini: 2019 and later
iPad Air: 2019 and later
iPad Pro 2018 and later
Apple is expected to preview these updates during WWDC alongside the new software for the Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. All of the releases will likely be made immediately available in beta form to developers before undergoing a months-long beta process. Finally, the software will likely be made available to the public this coming September, shortly before the arrival of the new iPhones as well as the rumored Apple Watch X and refreshed Apple Watch Ultra.
