The long-running legal dispute between Apple and Epic Games finally reached a verdict two years ago. But the battle, which began when Epic bypassed Apple’s 30 percent cut for in-app purchases and Apple responded by booting Fortnite out of the App Store, is far from over. And now it’s headed to the highest court in the land.

Given that Apple hailed Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ 2021 ruling as “a huge win,” it was no surprise when Epic filed an appeal. Less predictably, Apple appealed too. In a filing this week, Apple attorneys argued that the court overreached in issuing a broad nationwide injunction applying to all developers, rather than just Epic. Maybe it wasn’t such a huge win after all.

While the judge ruled in Apple’s favor on nine counts, the Cupertino company was unhappy about the 10th: this one went in Epic’s favor, with the result that Apple was “permanently restrained and enjoined from prohibiting developers from including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms.” This means iOS app developers can link to their own payment systems, and Apple has to put up with it. In other words, Epic gets its own way on the issue at the very heart of the original dispute.

Both Apple and Epic appealed (different parts of) the ruling to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but were unsuccessful. The companies then appealed against the appeal court’s upholding of the ruling and were unsuccessful again. So now Apple is taking its case all the way to the Supreme Court.

“The district court issued a sweeping injunction prohibiting Apple from enforcing its anti-steering rules against all developers of iOS apps offered for distribution in the United States, even though the sole named plaintiff (Epic Games, Inc.) did not seek or obtain class certification, and did not prove that an injunction running in favor of non-parties was necessary to make it whole,” the filing reads.

“The panel’s decision affirming the injunction departs from Supreme Court and Circuit precedent holding that an injunction cannot be any broader than necessary to make the plaintiff whole, and that relief cannot otherwise extend beyond the named plaintiff without class certification.”

Slightly less convincingly, the filing argues that “there would be no prejudice to Epic from a stay: Epic is not an iOS app developer and does not stand to benefit from the injunction.” Epic is not an iOS app developer because Apple terminated its account.

Apple has been rumored to be opening iOS 17 to third-party app stores and sideloading in the European Union following the Digital Markets Act’s strict terms regarding third-party app stores and payments. However, Apple has not yet announced any such changes in the operating system, which launches this fall.

Apple Inc, iOS

If you’ve been holding off on getting Microsoft Office, your summer just got a lot more productive. Deal Days discounts have arrived at Macworld, and with them come lifetime licenses to MS Office for $20 off the previous sale price.

This is the software suite that Microsoft fans know and love, with all the reliable workhorses like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. With those alone, anyone can set up a home office, but you’ll also get access to Teams, which is worth the price alone if you’re doing any kind of remote work.

Take your pick of MS Office Pro for Windows or MS Office Home & Business for Mac, both priced at $29.97 through July 14.

 

Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License – $29.97

See Deal

Prices subject to change.

Computer Components

If you’ve been holding off on getting Microsoft Office, your summer just got a lot more productive. Deal Days discounts have arrived at Macworld, and with them come lifetime licenses to MS Office for $20 off the previous sale price.

This is the software suite that Microsoft fans know and love, with all the reliable workhorses like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. With those alone, anyone can set up a home office, but you’ll also get access to Teams, which is worth the price alone if you’re doing any kind of remote work.

Take your pick of MS Office Pro for Windows or MS Office Home & Business for Mac, both priced at $29.97 through July 14.

 

Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License – $29.97

See Deal

Prices subject to change.

Computer Components

June was a very good month for the Mac. Not only did we get to see the next version of macOS in Sonoma, but we also got a new 15-inch MacBook Air that’ll be a hit, a Mac Studio update, the M2 Ultra chip, and to top it all off, we finally got a new Apple silicon Mac Pro.

That’s a whole lot of Mac goodness, which is great because they might need to hold us over for a while. Based on projected chip production schedules and the current state of the Mac lineup, it’s very possible that the only Mac news we’re going to get between now and the first few months of 2024 is the release of macOS Sonoma.

That means no more Mac hardware, likely for the next six to eight months and possible even longer. But there’s a lot to look forward to, a change that could start another great wave of Mac releases.

The M3 cometh

Apple’s Ultra chip in its M-series is the company’s top-of-the-line processor, and the latest Ultra was just released as the M2 Ultra in the Mac Studio and Mac Pro. The M2 lineup is now set as Apple isn’t expected to release an M2 chip better than the Ultra.

The next generation of M-series chips starts with the M3, and reports have said that the M3 could have a big impact on the Mac. The M3 will be made using the 3-nanometer manufacturing process, which is a change from the current enhanced 5nm process used with the M2 series and the standard 5nm process in the M1. The 3nm process allows for a higher transistor density in the chip and that means a boost in performance and efficiency.

In 2020, we were all blown away by the speed increases that we saw when Apple first released the M1 in the 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. In some benchmarks, we saw improvements between 50 and 90 percent over the Intel processors they replaced. And on the laptops, the battery life improved not just by several minutes, but by several hours.

We almost certainly won’t see performance boosts that are as big as they were in 2020, but they could be more than the 25 percent we often see in generational turns. It can also mean better power efficiency, which means even better battery life.

How long do we have to wait?

TSMC, the company that manufactures Apple’s chips, reportedly was unable to meet Apple’s production demands for the M3 and won’t be able to provide it until 2024. Production priority goes to the A17 Bionic, which is rumored to be Apple’s very first 3nm chip and will be used in the iPhone 15 Pro this fall. With that in mind, plus some recent reporting by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, we can figure out when Apple will release the M3 series of Macs.

The current iMac is one of two Macs that still have the M1, and it will be nearly three years old by the first quarter of 2024. It’s overdue for an update. According to Gurman, Apple is planning to do more than just update the iMac with an M3. Apple is working on an iMac with a screen larger than 30 inches–other specs for this machine aren’t provided. If Apple updates the 24-inch iMac with an M3, the company could use an M3 Pro in the larger model and call it the new iMac Pro. Gurman says Apple will update the iMac lineup in late 2023 or early 2024 with an M3 chip, thus making it the only Mac to skip the M2 entirely.

The MacBook Air could get updated in early 2024, as well. The 13-inch model will be nearly two years old by then, and while the 15-inch model was just released, it’s not unheard of for Apple to upgrade a Mac less than a year after its launch. Apple will want to put its marketing emphasis on the extended battery life of the M3. Apple also currently offers a $999 M1 MacBook Air, but since it fills the role as the sub-$1,000 model in the Mac lineup it’ll either remain or be replaced with the M2 model, which currently costs $1,099.

Then there’s the 13-inch MacBook Pro. We assumed it would go away now that the 15-inch MacBook Pro is here, but Gurman reports that Apple has an M3 upgrade in the works. If Apple does decide to go through with this laptop, it will likely ship at the same this as the M3 MacBook Air.

When it comes to figuring out what Apple will do with its remaining M2 Macs, a little more guesswork is involved, especially with the M2 Mac mini, which was released last year. It would seem appropriate to upgrade it to the M3 in the early part of 2024, but then there’s the M2 Pro Mac mini that Apple released this past January. An M3 Pro won’t be ready until the second half of 2024, so Apple could wait to upgrade both Mac mini models until then–desktop Macs don’t sell as much as laptops do, so Apple would be fine with holding off the M2 Mac mini upgrade. Gurman doesn’t mention the Mac mini in his most recent newsletter, which could indicate that it won’t be updated soon.

After the M3 is introduced, we’ll fall into the upgrade cycle again, with M3 Pro/Max updates to the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro following in the second half of 2024. Perhaps the Mac Studio update to the M3 Max and Ultra and an M3 Ultra Mac Pro update won’t happen until early 2025.

Whatever Apple does, we’re in for a lull before another wave of Mac developments. So if you’re sitting there in the latter part of this year, toddling around with macOS Sonoma and wondering what’s the deal with Mac hardware, just remember that good times are ahead.

Mac, MacOS

June was a very good month for the Mac. Not only did we get to see the next version of macOS in Sonoma, but we also got a new 15-inch MacBook Air that’ll be a hit, a Mac Studio update, the M2 Ultra chip, and to top it all off, we finally got a new Apple silicon Mac Pro.

That’s a whole lot of Mac goodness, which is great because they might need to hold us over for a while. Based on projected chip production schedules and the current state of the Mac lineup, it’s very possible that the only Mac news we’re going to get between now and the first few months of 2024 is the release of macOS Sonoma.

That means no more Mac hardware, likely for the next six to eight months and possible even longer. But there’s a lot to look forward to, a change that could start another great wave of Mac releases.

The M3 cometh

Apple’s Ultra chip in its M-series is the company’s top-of-the-line processor, and the latest Ultra was just released as the M2 Ultra in the Mac Studio and Mac Pro. The M2 lineup is now set as Apple isn’t expected to release an M2 chip better than the Ultra.

The next generation of M-series chips starts with the M3, and reports have said that the M3 could have a big impact on the Mac. The M3 will be made using the 3-nanometer manufacturing process, which is a change from the current enhanced 5nm process used with the M2 series and the standard 5nm process in the M1. The 3nm process allows for a higher transistor density in the chip and that means a boost in performance and efficiency.

In 2020, we were all blown away by the speed increases that we saw when Apple first released the M1 in the 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. In some benchmarks, we saw improvements between 50 and 90 percent over the Intel processors they replaced. And on the laptops, the battery life improved not just by several minutes, but by several hours.

We almost certainly won’t see performance boosts that are as big as they were in 2020, but they could be more than the 25 percent we often see in generational turns. It can also mean better power efficiency, which means even better battery life.

How long do we have to wait?

TSMC, the company that manufactures Apple’s chips, reportedly was unable to meet Apple’s production demands for the M3 and won’t be able to provide it until 2024. Production priority goes to the A17 Bionic, which is rumored to be Apple’s very first 3nm chip and will be used in the iPhone 15 Pro this fall. With that in mind, plus some recent reporting by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, we can figure out when Apple will release the M3 series of Macs.

The current iMac is one of two Macs that still have the M1, and it will be nearly three years old by the first quarter of 2024. It’s overdue for an update. According to Gurman, Apple is planning to do more than just update the iMac with an M3. Apple is working on an iMac with a screen larger than 30 inches–other specs for this machine aren’t provided. If Apple updates the 24-inch iMac with an M3, the company could use an M3 Pro in the larger model and call it the new iMac Pro. Gurman says Apple will update the iMac lineup in late 2023 or early 2024 with an M3 chip, thus making it the only Mac to skip the M2 entirely.

The MacBook Air could get updated in early 2024, as well. The 13-inch model will be nearly two years old by then, and while the 15-inch model was just released, it’s not unheard of for Apple to upgrade a Mac less than a year after its launch. Apple will want to put its marketing emphasis on the extended battery life of the M3. Apple also currently offers a $999 M1 MacBook Air, but since it fills the role as the sub-$1,000 model in the Mac lineup it’ll either remain or be replaced with the M2 model, which currently costs $1,099.

Then there’s the 13-inch MacBook Pro. We assumed it would go away now that the 15-inch MacBook Pro is here, but Gurman reports that Apple has an M3 upgrade in the works. If Apple does decide to go through with this laptop, it will likely ship at the same this as the M3 MacBook Air.

When it comes to figuring out what Apple will do with its remaining M2 Macs, a little more guesswork is involved, especially with the M2 Mac mini, which was released last year. It would seem appropriate to upgrade it to the M3 in the early part of 2024, but then there’s the M2 Pro Mac mini that Apple released this past January. An M3 Pro won’t be ready until the second half of 2024, so Apple could wait to upgrade both Mac mini models until then–desktop Macs don’t sell as much as laptops do, so Apple would be fine with holding off the M2 Mac mini upgrade. Gurman doesn’t mention the Mac mini in his most recent newsletter, which could indicate that it won’t be updated soon.

After the M3 is introduced, we’ll fall into the upgrade cycle again, with M3 Pro/Max updates to the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro following in the second half of 2024. Perhaps the Mac Studio update to the M3 Max and Ultra and an M3 Ultra Mac Pro update won’t happen until early 2025.

Whatever Apple does, we’re in for a lull before another wave of Mac developments. So if you’re sitting there in the latter part of this year, toddling around with macOS Sonoma and wondering what’s the deal with Mac hardware, just remember that good times are ahead.

Mac, MacOS

When you move to a new iPhone you don’t want to spend ages setting everything up from scratch to get the apps, data and settings just the way you like them. That’s why restoring from a backup is so convenient: one quick tap, a bit of a wait, and you’re good to go.

The same is true if a phone malfunctions badly, or is bricked. Knowing you can wipe the iPhone and recover your photos, documents and data easily from an iCloud or a computer backup is reassuring.

A backup is also an insurance that, should your iPhone be lost or stolen, you won’t lose everything on it. It’s easier to replace the device than the memories and other data stored on it.

Yes, backups are an essential part of the modern digital life, which is why we put together our How to back up an iPhone or iPad guide. But knowing how to restore an iPhone from that backup is just as important. Read on for our complete guide.

Step 1: Find your iPhone backup

First things first: make sure you’ve got a backup that you can restore from. Crucially, this backup needs to be recent enough to include the apps and data you want to keep, and/or sufficiently old that it happened before the technical problem if you are trying to fix a faulty iPhone.

There are two places you may find a backup, as long as you are making backups. One is iCloud, to which you may need to subscribe to get enough space. The other method depends on whether you are using a Mac or a PC: on a Mac iPhone backups are made via the Finder (in macOS Catalina and later) and on a PC (and older versions of macOS) they are made via iTunes.

To see iCloud backups follow these steps:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap your name/face at the top.
3. Now tap iCloud.
4. Tap Manage Account Storage.
5. Tap Backups.
6. Tap a backup to see when it happened.
7. Computer backups

To see backups made on a Mac follow these steps:

1. Plug in your iPhone.
2. Open the Finder.
3. Click on your device in the sidebar.
4. In the General tab click Manage Backups.
5. If there are any backups you will see them here. (You’ll also see if iCloud backups are being made).

The process is similar in iTunes:

1. Open iTunes.
2. Click iTunes in the top bar and select Preferences.
3. Select the tab labelled Devices. The date and time of each backup is listed.

Should I back up first?

If you are wanting to make a backup that you can recover to a new iPhone, and you’re not sure you’ve got a sufficiently recent backup, play it safe by doing another backup of the old device right now.

If you are hoping to solve an issue with your iPhone that started recently and you have an old iPhone backup you can recover don’t back up your iPhone, the old backup may be your best bet in getting your iPhone working again. This applies if you want to recover your iPhone to a time before you installed a beta version of iOS or even if you want to recover an older version of iOS after experiencing problems with the latest version.

Step 2: Wipe your iPhone

If you are just recovering the backup to a brand-new iPhone, or one that has already been wiped you can skip this step.

However, if you are trying to troubleshoot an issue with your iPhone, want to remove a beta, or if you want to wipe the iPhone you have to pass it on to a new owner, you’ll need to wipe it first. YOu can’t restore an iCloud backup to an iPhone without erasing the contents first.

This process is easier if you are recovering an old back to an iPhone that is running the same version of iOS that you intend to run. It gets a lot harder if you are trying to restore an older version of iOS, especially if you are running a beta version of iOS–in which case you may need to plug it into a Mac, force the iPhone into recovery mode and restore it that way. We discuss cover this here: How to remove an iOS beta from your iPhone.

Normally resetting your iPhone so that you can recover a recent backup is a simple process and hopefully one of these two options will work:

On an iPhone:

1. Open Settings.
2. General.
3. Transfer or Reset iPhone. Erase All Content and Settings.
4. Erase and then work through the various steps.
5. Your iPhone should restart with the Welcome screen if this process has worked.

On a Mac:

A second option is to plug your iPhone into your Mac and restore it from the Finder.

1. Open the Finder.
2. Click on your iPhone in the left-hand column.
3. Click on Restore iPhone.
4. Click on Don’t Back Up.
5. Click on Restore.
6. Your iPhone should restart with the Welcome screen if this process has worked.

On a Mac using Recovery Mode:

Here’s how to put your iPhone into recovery mode so you can wipe it (if the above options don’t work):

1. Plug your iPhone into your Mac.
2. Open the Finder.
3. You may see a message that indicates you need to download an update to access the iPhone, in our experience the said software was unavailable from the software update server, so don’t worry about this.
4. Shut down your iPhone by pressing volume up, volume down, and then press and hold the side button. Unlike a usual restart keep pressing and holding the side button while the phone shuts down and starts up again. If you are successful eventually you will see an image of a Mac and a lightning connector on your iPhone that indicates it is in recovery mode.
5. On your Mac you should now see a message indicating that there is a problem with the iPhone that requires it to be updated or restored. Click on Restore.
6. You will see a warning: “Are you sure you want to restore the iPhone…” Click on Restore and Update.
7. Click Agree on the next screen that details the license agreement.
8. Just note that there’s only about 15 minutes before your iPhone will exit recovery mode, at which point you will have to enter recovery mode again.
9. Your iPhone should restart with the Welcome screen if this process has worked.

If this didn’t work for you the next option is DFU mode. We cover how to put an iPhone into DFU mode separately.

Step 3: Restore your iPhone from a backup

Now you have wiped your iPhone you can get on with the process of recovering it from your backup. Or, if you have a brand new iPhone, you can follow these steps to set it up as a clone of your old iPhone with all your data just as you left it.

How to recover from an iCloud backup

We’ll start off with how to recover from an iCloud backup:

1. Swipe up from the Welcome screen.
2. Tap on English (or your language) and select your country or region.
3. Click on Set Up Manually.
4. Work through the various steps until you get to the Transfer Your Apps & Data screen and tap on From iCloud Backup. Check the date to make sure it’s the backup you want.
5. Log into your Apple ID and wait while your device signs in.
6. Now choose an iCloud backup from before you downloaded the beta. Click on Show more backups to find an older one if you don’t see it.
7. Wait while the Restore from iCloud takes place, which could take a while.

The device will need to be connected to Wi-Fi throughout the process, and it can take a while, depending on how much data needs to be restored. It’s also likely that you’ll be asked to log in again so that any purchased items from the App Store or iTunes Music can be downloaded.

When the core elements of the backup are finished you’ll be able to use the handset again, but you might notice that apps and other data continue to install in the background. This is perfectly normal.

How to recover from a Finder/iTunes backup

Whether you are using the Finder on a Mac running macOS Catalina or later, or iTunes on an older macOS or PC, the process for recovering the iPhone backup is similar.

1. You need to plug it into a Mac or PC.
2. If you’ve not connected the device to this particular computer before, you’ll see the ‘Welcome to Your New iPhone’ page.
3. Click continue and then agree to sync your iPhone.
4. With this completed, you’ll be taken to the device summary page in the Finder/iTunes, which includes various options for backing up and restoring your device.
5. In the Backups section you’ll see a button marked Restore Backup (as long as you have one). Click this.
6. If Find My is switched on then you’ll see a message telling you that it needs to be turned off before you can proceed. To do this, open Settings on your iPhone and tap your name/face at the top of the screen, then tap iCloud. Scroll down until you see Find My, tap it, move the toggle switch to off, enter your password to confirm, then return to iTunes on your Mac or PC.
7. After clicking Restore Backup a popup should appear with the current iterations available. Select the one you want, then click the Restore button.
8. Now your iPhone will run through its automated restoration process. iTunes will let you know when the update is complete, then you can disconnect the iPhone and go about your business with your data safely on board.

iOS, iPad, iPhone