Illustration: The Verge Apple will expand its Self Service Repair program to cover recent products, including the iPhone 14 lineup and M2-based MacBooks, starting on June 21st. But perhaps more importantly, the company seems to be responding to feedback by eliminating needless friction from the process. The “System Configuration” validation step that’s required after repairs — and involves calling Apple on the phone — has been criticized as burdensome. With the new changes, you won’t have to call the company’s repair support team anymore. “Self Service Repair users can now initiate System Configuration by placing their devices into Diagnostics mode and following onscreen prompts,” Apple wrote in today’s press release. “Users no longer need to contact the Self Service Repair…

Macworld Thinking of buying a Mac or MacBook for school, college or university? Here, in our best Mac for students guide, we take a look at Apple’s current line-up to evaluate which Mac is best for students. We’ll compare the MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro for college and examine whether another Mac might actually be a better choice. Choosing the best Mac for college or university depends on what you are going to be studying as well as how much you have to spend. Luckily registered students can save money on a new Mac by shopping at Apple’s Education Store, or with one of Apple’s partners. We discuss How to get an Apple student discount at Apple’s Education Store separately,…

Macworld Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, announced at WWDC earlier this month, is still a long way from launch: the company has said only that it will become available in the U.S. at some point in 2024, with unnamed countries to follow later that year. But it looks like the first hardware element of the Vision Pro launch could appear as soon as this fall. According to the prolific and widely respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 15, expected to launch in fall 2023, is likely to feature an upgraded ultra wideband (UWB) chip designed to ensure seamless integration with Vision Pro. Apple introduced the U1 chip in 2019 with the iPhone 11 and has subsequently included it in all…

A common request from Apple Watch users over the years has been the ability to use third-party watch faces, but watchOS 10 still does not support this. In an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger published today, Apple's VP of Technology Kevin Lynch and product marketing employee Deidre Caldbeck explained why. The interview was spotted earlier by 9to5Mac's Benjamin Mayo, and the quotes below are machine translated from German. Lynch said Apple puts a "huge amount of effort" into every watch face to ensure they work "uniformly and simply," and said Apple needs to plan ahead to make sure watch faces continue to work "if we want to change something or add new possibilities." Caldbeck added that developers are able to…

Macworld Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, announced at WWDC earlier this month, is still a long way from launch: the company has said only that it will become available in the U.S. at some point in 2024, with unnamed countries to follow later that year. But it looks like the first hardware element of the Vision Pro launch could appear as soon as this fall. According to the prolific and widely respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 15, expected to launch in fall 2023, is likely to feature an upgraded Ultra Wideband (UWB) chip designed to ensure seamless integration with Vision Pro. “The ecosystem is one of the key success factors for Vision Pro, including the integration with other Apple…

Macworld Prices remain high despite the fact that inflation has eased. Looking for a new computer but need to stick to a budget? Then consider this refurbished Apple MacBook Air, offered with additional savings off our already discounted price. (Don’t worry, it’s significantly less expensive than the Vision Pro.) The MacBook Air is an ideal computer for students, freelancers, professionals, or anyone else who requires something that travels easily. It’s got a powerful Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. Plus its battery will last up to 12 hours on a single charge, which means it’ll last the whole workday. And since it’s refurbished, you can own a MacBook Air for way less than normal. It’s been…