Macworld When Apple unveiled its first-ever smartwatch back in 2014, it’s fair to say that the world wasn’t exactly sure what it was for… and neither was Apple. In those early days, along with the fitness elements which would remain an enduring part of the product’s appeal, the company talked enthusiastically about sharing taps, sketches, and heartbeats with friends, which would not. It took time for users and third-party developers to teach Apple what they wanted from a smartwatch, and for the company to take that on board. Today, the Apple Watch is a mature and versatile product. It’s so versatile, indeed, that you may not be aware of some of its most useful capabilities. In this article, we’re going…

Macworld For a product that isn’t debuting until 2024, Apple has said a lot about the Vision Pro, its mixed reality headset. Apple spent nearly an hour in the WWDC keynote discussing it. It has rolled out developer tools for visionOS, which has given us even more clarity about what visionOS can and can’t do. And yet I remain firmly convinced that Apple hasn’t told us the whole story. The WWDC keynote was the time to make a first impression–but there’s half a year to go before the final story is told. As a result, Apple emphasized the features of the device that it felt would best represent the device. It emphasized the fact that it’s an augmented-reality product that…

Apple today updated its Shazam music recognition app to allow it to recognize and identify songs that are playing in third-party apps like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. According to Apple, users can open up Shazam, tap the blue button, and switch back to the app that was in use to see what's playing. The Shazam app engages the iPhone's microphone to hear the song, and it is able to listen while the other app is in use. After a few seconds, the song will be identified and swapping back to Shazam will show the song name and information. It is simpler to use the built-in Song Recognition feature in the ‌iPhone‌'s Control Center to identify a song. With Song Recognition,…

Macworld We’re still many months away from being able to plunk down $3,500 for an Apple Vision Pro. But if you absolutely can’t wait and you happen to own a Meta Quest Pro, you can get an idea of what Apple’s mixed reality headset interface will be like. With its Nova UI framework, Supernova Technologies built a visionOS simulation that can run on the Quest Pro. It doesn’t do much, though. It uses eye tracking, which means it requires Meta’s Quest Pro, and you can swipe between screens with your fingers, but that’s all it really does. None of the app icons are real or functional. See the video below. During the demo, after moving through simulated visionOS screens, the…

You can use Secure Notes in Keychain Access to store confidential information. This information can be completely unrelated to your computer, such as combinations to locks, personal identification numbers (PINs) for bank accounts, credit card numbers, confidential notes, cryptographic keys, and any other information that you want to keep private. Create a Secure Note: In the Keychain Access app on your Mac, select a keychain in the Keychains list. If you’re not sure which keychain to pick, it’s recommended that you use iCloud Keychain to store secure notes. Notes that you create are available and updated across your devices (when you’re signed in with your Apple ID). Choose File > New Secure Note Item. Type a name for the note…

Apple today provided the third beta of the upcoming iOS 17 software release to developers for testing purposes, and as with all betas, there are small refinements and tweaks to various features and interface elements in the update. This guide highlights everything new in the third beta of ‌iOS 17‌. Deleted Photos In the Recently Deleted album, Apple has made tweaks to the interface. Rather than separate Delete and Recover buttons, there's now a small three-dot menu icon at the bottom of the display that can be tapped to bring up the recover and delete options. With no images selected, options include Delete All and Recover All, but with images selected, there is an option to recover or delete specific…