Image: Apple Apple has spent years slowly making green bubbles feel like a worse kind of message — no typing indicators, tiny photos, no end-to-end encryption — but those constraints have always been limited to conversations in Messages; use any other app on your iPhone, and there’s generally parity with Android. But with iOS 17 later this year, Apple will expand those platform differences to phone calls, adding a big, splashy sign that your friend or family member bought the wrong phone. The biggest change is thanks to Apple’s new Contact Poster feature for phone calls, one of Apple’s banner improvements for iOS 17. When you set a Contact Poster, you choose a photo of yourself that fills an iPhone’s…

Since the release of iOS 15 in 2021, Apple Maps has been rolling out a more detailed map with custom-designed 3D landmarks in major cities around the world. This week, both the more detailed map and cycling directions went live in Paris. Landmarks app showing Apple's 3D models in Paris via André Baev Apple says the updated experience provides richer detail for road markings, buildings, commercial districts, land cover, trees, elevation, public transit routes, and more. Turn-by-turn navigation is also improved with augmented reality walking directions in Paris, as well as the addition of cycling directions along bike lanes and bike-friendly roads. Notably, this means the world-famous Eiffel Tower can now be viewed in 3D in Apple Maps, along with…

Since the release of iOS 15 in 2021, Apple Maps has been rolling out a more detailed map with custom-designed 3D landmarks in major cities around the world. This week, both the more detailed map and cycling directions went live in Paris. Image Credit: André Baev Apple says the updated experience provides richer detail for road markings, buildings, commercial districts, land cover, trees, elevation, public transit routes, and more. Turn-by-turn navigation is also improved with augmented reality walking directions in Paris, as well as the addition of cycling directions along bike lanes and bike-friendly roads. Notably, this means the world-famous Eiffel Tower can now be viewed in 3D in Apple Maps, along with the Louvre museum and other landmarks. More…

In all-hands meeting and email to employees, Meta CEO says that the Apple Vision Pro is “not the one that I want,” and “there’s no kind of magical solutionsmagical solutions… that our teams haven’t already explored and thought of.” Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer Jon Swartz for MarketWatch: In an all-hands meeting Thursday, Meta Platforms Inc.’s chief executive played down the significance of Apple’s play for the mixed-reality world, a market that prompted Facebook to change its corporate name and plunge into the field with its Quest goggles. “From what I’ve seen initially, I’d say the good news is that there’s no kind of magical solutions that they have to any of the constraints on laws and physics…

In all-hands meeting and email to employees, Meta CEO says that the Apple Vision Pro is “not the one that I want,” and “there’s no kind of magical solutions… that our teams haven’t already explored and thought of.” Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer Jon Swartz for MarketWatch: In an all-hands meeting Thursday, Meta Platforms Inc.’s chief executive played down the significance of Apple’s play for the mixed-reality world, a market that prompted Facebook to change its corporate name and plunge into the field with its Quest goggles. “From what I’ve seen initially, I’d say the good news is that there’s no kind of magical solutions that they have to any of the constraints on laws and physics that…

The inventor of the Oculus Rift VR headset and founder of Oculus VR (sold to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014), Palmer Luckey, calls the Apple Vision Pro spatial computer simply “the one,” as in Neo from The Matrix. Apple Vision Pro features a pair of advanced, custom micro‑OLED displays deliver more pixels than a 4K TV to each eye — for stunning clarity. My official thoughts on Apple Vision Pro head mounted display, all press outlets please use this as my comment: pic.twitter.com/tlY2ULWCwC — Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) June 6, 2023 Palmer Luckey via Twitter: There are quite a few people who think Vision Pro is just a stepping stone to optically transparent systems of the future, but I am…