Matter officially arrived last fall to improve the smart home device experience across platforms. Now the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) – which includes Apple – has launched the first Matter update. The release comes with changes and improvements to make it easier for developers to get started with Matter and complete certification while end-users should have a better experience with battery-powered devices. more… The post Matter gets its first update with minor user and dev improvements appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Apple has introduced security keys as an additional step to help users protect their Apple ID accounts. Keep reading to learn why the alternative authentication method is the most secure method available and what you need to do to set it up. What Are Security Keys? With the release of iOS 16.3, iPadOS 16.3, and macOS Ventura 13.2, Apple introduced support for security keys, or physical devices that can verify your ‌Apple ID‌ instead of a passcode. Apple designed the feature for people who require additional protection from targeted attacks, such as phishing or social engineering scams. The extra protection that security keys provide means that if someone had your ‌Apple ID‌ and your password, they still would not be…

Severance. | Image: Apple The Writers Guild of America’s current strike is shaping up to be a shining example of just how much power workers have when working collectively. Take, for example, the way production has been halted on Apple’s Severance and HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight due to picketing WGA members and allies refusing to cross the line. Deadline reports that, in direct response to the organized demonstrations of striking writers, production on Severance’s second season in New York City and on The Hedge Knight — which is still being written — has stopped, with no clear date as to when things might ramp back up. In addition to…

Talks between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down, leading to a writers strike starting on Tuesday, an action that will likely disrupt Apple TV+ and other streaming services’ productions. Still, streaming-focused firms like Apple TV+ and Netflix may have an edge. Connor Smith for MarketWatch: Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter told Barron’s that the strike’s biggest impact will be on late night shows and soap operas, followed by network channels that are strict with their prime-time show release cadences in September. “Streaming is far less affected, because there is no real regular cadence (see Westworld gap of more than a year, Game of Thrones the same, Succession the same)…

Google today announced that it is introducing support for passkeys, providing an easier and more secure login method for Google accounts. Apple integrated passkeys into iOS with the launch of iOS 16, and it is also available in iPadOS 16.1 and later as well as macOS Ventura. Passkeys are an industry standard developed by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium, so Google's passkey integration will work on Apple devices as well as on other devices that support the feature. As Google notes: Last year — alongside FIDO Alliance, Apple and Microsoft — we announced we would begin work to support passkeys on our platform as an easier and more secure alternative to passwords. And today, ahead of…

Talks between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down, leading to a strike starting on Tuesday, an action that will likely disrupt Apple TV+ and other streaming services’ productions. Peter White, Dominic Patten, David Robb for Deadline: The WGA said its proposals would have benefited its members by $429M per year and claimed that the AMPTP’s offer was approximately $86M per year, 48% of which is from an increase in minimums. The AMPTP countered that these numbers are hypothetical as it’s unclear how many shows would be ordered over the three years and how many subscribers the streamers would have. They also made it clear to the WGA that…