Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming watchOS 9.6 update to developers for testing purposes, with the software update coming two weeks after the release of the second beta. To install the watchOS 9.6 update, developers will need to download the configuration profile from the Apple Developer Center. Once installed, ‌watchOS 9.6 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General > Software update. To update to new software, an Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery life, it has to be placed on the charger, and it will need to be in range of the ‌‌iPhone‌‌ it is paired with. It is not yet known if there are new…

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’s new Mac Pro, now featuring M2 Ultra, combines the unprecedented performance of Apple’s most powerful chip with the versatility of PCIe expansion. Mac Pro is up to 3x faster than the previous-generation Intel-based model. Featuring up to 192GB of unified memory, the Mac Pro has far more memory than the most advanced workstation graphics cards, taking on demanding workloads other systems can’t even process. Apple’s M2 Ultra Mac Pro features seven PCIe slots The new Mac Pro completes the Mac transition to Apple silicon and, together with the rest of Apple’s pro systems, gives users the most powerful and capable lineup of pro products Apple has ever offered. The Mac Pro introduced in 2023 has seven PCIe slots: • Two…

Craig Federighi, VP of software engineering at Apple, that Apple is “working with the EU” to comply with EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) which takes effect on March 6, 2024 and requires Apple to provide a means for sideloading apps; in other words: allowing access to third-party app stores for iPhones, iPads, etc. Apple’s App Store on iPhone Filipe Espósito for 9to5Mac: Bloomberg reported last year that Apple was gearing up for a major change in how the iOS ecosystem works. More specific, the company would allow sideloading for the first time on iOS. The system would still establish some security requirements for software distributed outside of the App Store, similar to what already exists on the Mac. Bloomberg later…

In a pair of support documents, Apple has listed various external display combinations that can be used with the new Mac Studio and Mac Pro. For example, both Macs support up to eight 4K displays at 60Hz when configured with the M2 Ultra chip. The new Mac Studio has an HDMI 2.1 port, and the new Mac Pro has two. These ports each support an 8K display at 60Hz, or a 4K display at 240Hz. Apple says the M2 Ultra chip also supports up to six Pro Display XDRs. The previous Mac Studio supported up to five external displays when configured with the M1 Ultra chip, so the new model supporting up to eight is a considerable improvement. Apple silicon…

In a pair of support documents, Apple has listed various external display combinations that can be used with the new Mac Studio and Mac Pro. For example, both Macs support up to eight 4K displays at 60Hz when configured with the M2 Ultra chip. The new Mac Studio has an HDMI 2.1 port, and the new Mac Pro has two. These ports each support an 8K display at 60Hz, or a 4K display at 240Hz. Apple says the M2 Ultra chip also supports up to six Pro Display XDRs. The previous Mac Studio supported up to five external displays when configured with the M1 Ultra chip, so the new model supporting up to eight is a considerable improvement. Apple silicon…