Apple today seeded the third betas of upcoming iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 updates to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to test out the software head of its official launch. The public betas come just a day after Apple provided the third betas to developers. Those who have signed up their accounts for Apple's free beta testing program can enable the beta by opening up the Settings app, going to General, selecting Software Update, tapping on Beta Updates, and selecting the iOS 16 Public Beta option. iOS 16.6 seems to be a relatively minor update, although Apple does appear to be laying the groundwork for the launch of the previously announced iMessage Contact Key Verification feature. Development on ‌iOS 16‌…

Apple today seeded the third beta of macOS Ventura 13.5 to developers for testing purposes, with the beta introduced two weeks after the release of the second beta. Registered developers can download the beta through the Apple Developer Center and after the appropriate profile is installed, with the betas available through the Software Update mechanism in System Settings. No notable features were found in the first beta of macOS 13.5, so it's not yet clear what's included in the update. iOS 16.6 lays the groundwork for iMessage Contact Key Verification, so if that feature ultimately launches in the iOS 16.6 update, iMessage Contact Key Verification will also be included in ‌macOS Ventura‌ 13.5 as it is a cross-platform setting. With…

With the power of Apple silicon, users experience incredible graphics performance on every Mac. And now, tens of millions of Macs with Apple silicon can run demanding games with great performance, long battery life, and breathtaking visuals. Developers continue to take advantage of Metal 3, bringing exciting new titles to Mac, including DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT, Stray, Fort Solis, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, HUMANKIND, Resident Evil Village: Winters’ Expansion, The Medium, ELEX II, Firmament, SnowRunner, Disney Dreamlight Valley, No Man’s Sky, Dragonheir: Silent Gods, and Layers of Fear. To make it easier to port games from other platforms to Mac, Metal introduces a new game porting toolkit, eliminating months of upfront work and enabling developers to see how well their…

Macworld Look, Mac gaming is not in good shape. Apple pitched the Mac mini with M2 Pro as a sort of showcase for how great Mac gaming can be, and I wrote about it earlier this year. It can indeed play games respectably, but a similarly-priced Windows PC is more than twice as fast for gaming, and the Mac vs. Windows game catalog is like comparing a cookie jar with a cookie factory. Sure, they both have good cookies, but these things are not the same. Apple doesn’t seem interested in offering good bang for the buck when it comes to gaming hardware, but at least there’s a real effort to get the software situation into better shape. When announcing…

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March 2016. Apple designed the ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari. ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ release 172 includes bug fixes and performance improvements for Web Inspector, CSS, Image Set, Rendering, Editing, JavaScript, Media, Popover, SVG, Accessibility, HTML, IndexedDB, and Web API. The current ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ release is version 16.4 and is compatible with machines running macOS Ventura. The ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences or System Settings to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari…

Macworld Hardware was by no means in short supply at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Not only did Apple launch three new Macs but there was also that little matter of a revolutionary spatial computer. But just as the company uses its annual gathering to show off what software features are coming down the road for its platforms, it turns out that it’s also the ideal occasion for Apple prognosticators to read between the lines and see what additional hardware devices might lie just beyond the horizon. This year, more than most, shed some light on a few places that Apple might be looking to expand its footprint–notably in the home. That’s a market where Apple has staked a few…