When you strip away home automation to its essence, it’s about taking something you normally would buy manually and automating it. That might be turning on based on motion, time of day, etc. It might be able automatically raising or lowering blinds based on smart blinds based on when the sun sets. It’s about streamlining how you interact with your home. There’s no more mundane task that should be integrated into HomeKit than smart vacuums, and it’s time for Apple to support it as a HomeKit device. Read on to learn about a few smart vacuums I’ve been testing this year, and how I’d love to take the experience further with HomeKit. more… The post HomeKit Weekly: It’s time for…

The 34th annual Worldwide Developers conference is less than a week away, and it's going to feature one of the most exciting keynote events that we've had in recent years. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Apple is expected to introduce its first new wearable since the launch of the Apple Watch, plus there are new Macs coming and notable features for iOS 17 and watchOS 10. This guide highlights everything rumored to be coming at WWDC 2023. Hardware We don't always get hardware at WWDC, and in fact, the event usually focuses on software. Every once in awhile, though, Apple has a new product to show off that's timed well for a June launch, and that's…

Macworld Each year Apple releases a major update for iOS, the operating system on your iPhone. The current version, released last year, is iOS 16, and it doesn’t take a genius to predict that 2023 will see the launch of iOS 17. This free software update will bring a raft of interface tweaks, bug fixes, and new features. It’s like getting a new iPhone without paying a penny. In this article, we discuss everything you need to know about iOS 17. We cover its release schedule and when you can expect the beta and final versions to come out; how to get it when it does; the models of iPhone that are likely to be able to run iOS; and…

Swedish automaker Polestar today announced that it is releasing a software update to all existing Polestar 2 vehicles to add new Apple CarPlay features, including full-screen Apple Maps in the driver display. Polestar appears to be the second automaker to support display of ‌Apple Maps‌ and navigation information projected from ‌CarPlay‌ in the drivers display. BMW was the first automaker to include the extended CarPlay feature in its Polestar 2 rival, the BMW i4, in 2021. Some vehicles with Apple ‌CarPlay‌ already feature limited turn-by-turn directional information fed from ‌Apple Maps‌ on the driver's display, but full integration of ‌Apple Maps‌ into the instrument cluster is still very uncommon. The P2.9 over-the-air update also brings additional phone and media information…

Macworld If you’ve bought a new iPhone within the past five years or so, you likely haven’t thought about My Photo Stream, Apple’s original photos syncing service that launched with iCloud back in 2011. But if you’ve been a My Photo Stream user and you’ve been dragging your feet on switching to iCloud Photos, Apple has started the countdown clock and it runs out on July 26. The main draw for My Photo Stream is that it’s completely free with no storage size limit unlike iCloud Photos, which uses your iCloud Drive and charges for storage after 5GB of total space has been used. However, My Photo Stream has several drawbacks, including the inability to stream videos or support Live…

Macworld If you’ve bought a new iPhone within the past five years or so, you likely haven’t thought about My Photo Stream, Apple’s original photos syncing service that launched with iCloud back in 2011. But if you’ve been a My Photo Stream user and you’ve been dragging your feet on switching to iCloud Photos, Apple has started the countdown clock and it runs out on July 26. The main draw for My Photo Stream is that it’s completely free with no storage size limit unlike iCloud Photos, which uses your iCloud Drive and charges for storage after 5GB of total space has been used. However, My Photo Stream has several drawbacks, including the inability to stream videos or support Live…