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…

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 Near-field communications (NFC) allow very short-range transmission of data from a device that can be battery-free. The field generator by the NFC reader produces the tiny amount of power required to trigger a signal. Starting with AirTag support in the iPhone 6s in 2015, all iPhone models have had some kind of ability to activate and read NFC tags. (Starting with ever earlier iPhones, all Watch models, and many iPads, NFC transmission or encoding is used for Apple Pay.) You might have received certain kinds of NFC tag notifications. The most common are: AirTag: Tapping an AirTag after receiving an alert that one is near you. AirTags that aren’t registered to you will be identified by your iPhone. When brought…

Apple has shared a new action-packed film called "Huracán Ramírez vs. La Piñata Enchilada" on its YouTube channel as part of its Shot on iPhone series. The 13-minute video, filmed by acclaimed director couple Tania Verduzco and Adrián Pérez, also known as "Los Pérez," was shot entirely on the iPhone 14 Pro with the use of additional accessories and software. The film retells the fortunes of Lucha Libre legend Huracán Ramírez, who is forced to come out of wrestling retirement to defeat an evil piñata that is terrorizing all of Mexico. The monster is unwittingly created by a boy when he uses extra spicy chili powder as a replacement for sugar during the piñata-making process, bringing chaos to the country.…

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…

Twitter appears to be unhappy with the runaway success of Threads, Meta's Twitter alternative that launched last night. Threads has amassed more than 30 million users in under 24 hours, making it the biggest threat to Twitter to date. According to Semafor, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro yesterday sent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter [PDF] accusing Meta of "systemic, willful, and lawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property." Twitter claims that Meta hired "dozens" of former Twitter employees that "had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information." The company further says that the employees "improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices," and that Meta took advantage of this to have…