lately – Latest Apple News

My AirPods keep telling me they’re lost … through my AirPods

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 18:22:27 +0000

AirPods are gaining conversation awareness soon, but there’s another kind of awareness that have been lacking lately: when they’re in your ears and not lost.

more…

The post My AirPods keep telling me they’re lost … through my AirPods appeared first on 9to5Mac.

How to delete your Twitter account on iOS & the web

tigaman webdesign — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 18:30:20 +0000

Given how things are going on Twitter, and the options that have cropped up lately, folks are looking for the exit. Here’s how to delete a Twitter account.

How to delete Twitter account

So far, Twitter remains a key player in the social media world. However, some users have been deleting their accounts or moving to other platforms due to changes to Twitter by owner Elon Musk.

The AirPods Max are getting left behind, so are new Apple headphones coming this year?

tigaman webdesign — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 18:00:00 +0000

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

It was inevitable that despite their hefty $549 price, Apple’s AirPods Max headphones would eventually start to miss out on the company’s latest software enhancements. Headphones are basically computers now and have evolved into their own platform, so just like with any iPhone or Mac, Apple’s ecosystem tricks and new features increasingly require more powerful silicon and revamped components.

We started to see the swan song for the two-and-a-half-years-old AirPods Max earlier this month at WWDC when Apple announced several new features coming this fall that, in nearly all cases, will exclusively apply to the second-generation AirPods Pro — and no other models. The headlining feature is called “Adaptive Audio,” a new sound mode that intelligently blends noise cancellation and transparency modes based on your surroundings. “You can stay present in your environment while distracting noises are automatically reduced,” Apple’s Ron Huang said during the keynote presentation. Adaptive Audio will generally muffle the outside world, but you’ll clearly hear certain sounds — bike bells, car horns, etc. — that are important for personal safety.

Adaptive Audio builds upon the Adaptive Transparency mode that launched with the second-gen AirPods Pro. On those earbuds, Apple’s passthrough mode can quickly soften ear-piercing sounds like sirens and construction work. The company said this on-device processing was made possible by its H2 chip, which (so far) is only available in the latest AirPods Pro. The AirPods Max have an H1 chip in each ear cup, but apparently, that’s still not enough to make Adaptive Audio happen.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The first-gen AirPods Max are set to miss out on Apple’s new Adaptive Audio, Personalized Volume, and Conversation Awareness features.

Adaptive Audio promises some unique functionality, and I’m looking forward to testing it. But some of Apple’s other new audio features — again, all exclusive to the newest AirPods Pro — seem inspired by what we’ve seen from the earbud competition.

Personalized Volume is another of those tricks announced at WWDC. Over time, the AirPods Pro will learn your volume preferences in different conditions and automatically try to keep the loudness right where you like it. This is an idea that Google pursued with past Pixel Buds, but the company ditched Adaptive Sound with the Pixel Buds Pro. Apple is very cognizant of hearing health, so I’d wager Personalized Volume will only crank your music up so far.

And then there’s Conversation Awareness, which is a feature I’d argue Sony pioneered before other earbuds adopted the same concept. That said, Apple’s implementation sounds slightly more sophisticated than simply turning down the volume and flipping on transparency mode as soon as you start talking. Conversation Awareness lowers the music, sure, but Apple has said that it can “enhance the voices in front of the user, all while reducing background noise.” There’s a focus on isolating voice frequencies that isn’t present in other approaches to this I’ve tried so far.

But again, the bad news for AirPods Max owners is that none of this new functionality is coming to Apple’s most premium headphones. They’re not being ignored completely; you’ll be able to quickly mute yourself on calls with the digital crown, and Apple has said the sometimes-unpredictable automatic device switching will be much more reliable after this fall’s round of software updates. But the most helpful upgrades aren’t coming. Even small conveniences like the shorter “Siri” activation word — no more “Hey” required — are only for the second-gen AirPods Pro. Ouch.

The AirPods Max have caught on in a big way

Anecdotally, I’ve been seeing the AirPods Max everywhere lately. There are two people wearing them at the coffee shop where I’m writing this. I’m sure much of that momentum is owed to frequent retailer discounts, as it’s very easy to find sales on them at this point. Still, even with a discount, they are typically more expensive than many competitors.

Either way, a lot of the time, they’re being used outdoors on busy city streets. Adaptive Audio would absolutely be a beneficial feature for this product. And why wouldn’t I want Conversation Awareness when wearing them at the office? You’re not going to see many complaints piling up during the summer beta cycle, but once these features roll out to everyone come September, I’d wager more than a few AirPods Max owners will be irked by what they’re missing out on — if they’re even aware of the new features at all.

Will Apple really keep the current model around for another year (or more) and leave them stranded with fewer features compared to the AirPods Pro? Even right now, after hearing the WWDC announcements, I’d feel a bit ripped off walking into an Apple Store and spending $549 on headphones that have nearly hit the wall on new features.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

That Lightning connector is gonna have to go at some point.

Rumors on the next AirPods Max have been few and far between. Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo doesn’t expect anything until the second half of 2024 or even later. That feels… very late. I’m hopeful we’ll see a new version of the company’s noise-canceling headphones this fall alongside the iPhone 15 lineup. The iPhone’s pending transition to USB-C opens the door to an “easy” AirPods Max refresh: Apple could swap out the Lightning port, upgrade the silicon to the more advanced H2 chip, and call it a day. I’d take that over nothing at all. The AirPods Pro are very likely to get a USB-C charging case, and that’ll probably be it until a third-gen set comes along.

But I hope we’ll see something more than that for the AirPods Max. There’s no denying that for all their careful design considerations, Apple’s headphones are heavy and can get fatiguing over time. Hell, we’ve got people getting anxious about denting their heads nowadays. If the company can shave off some of that load, it could result in meaningful improvements to extended comfort. And then there’s the pitiful “case” that offers little in the way of actual protection for the premium cans. That could desperately use a do-over at some point. And as an audio fidelity nerd, I’m still dreaming of the day we get some sort of wireless Apple Lossless support. Not holding my breath for that last one, though. Longer battery life would be nice, seeing as companies like Sennheiser have lapped the playback time of the AirPods Max.

It’s evident that Apple is calculated and deliberate when it comes to new AirPods hardware. The second-gen AirPods Pro look very similar to the originals — much to the chagrin of anyone who’d hoped to see new colors or a fresh design — but offer substantial improvements in sound quality, noise cancellation, transparency, and reliability. They haven’t suffered the crackling/static woes that often plagued the first pair. Noise cancellation quibbles aside, I’ve yet to see any common AirPods Max issues surface since the headphones were released.

Apple is working from a solid (albeit very pricey) foundation. But as with any iPhone that’s come and gone over the years, we’re starting to see that the company’s headphones can only keep up with the latest software enhancements for so long. The open question is how long Apple will wait before bringing the AirPods Max back up to par.

Does anyone actually enjoy working at Apple?

tigaman webdesign — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 10:30:00 +0000

Macworld

While Apple has always made great products, it has never struck the Macalope as a necessarily great place to work. Let’s take a look at how it’s going with Apple’s employees lately.

Retail? Well, have to say… could be better.

“Apple to Appeal Judge’s Ruling That It Violated Workers’ Rights”

Yes, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Apple had violated workers’ rights by “coercively interrogating employees” regarding their union sympathies and restricting the circulation of union flyers.

This comes at the same time an unnamed Apple TV+ executive said the company favors a hardline stance against the entertainment writers’ guild in its strike because a win for writers would “encourages industries in some countries to unionize in order to make more money.”

The nerve of them asking for more from the most valuable company in the world.

Apple’s anti-union stance continues to strike the Macalope as not befitting a company of Apple’s stature. For one thing, Microsoft has taken a better, more mature position. That’s just annoying. The gloating from the Winotaur is unbearable. If you want to make a practical argument about it, it’s bad press for a company that has long been the focus of harsh labor practices at its overseas subcontractors.

It’s also just the wrong thing to do.

Definitely unrelated to that, Apple is losing one employee. Ali Farhadi, who joined the company in 2020 when Apple acquired the AI company he founded, Xnor.ai, for $200 million, is leaving to be CEO of the non-profit his company was initially spun out of.

It’s possible Apple’s approach to machine learning–keeping it mostly on-device in order to retain user privacy–feels restrictive for executives who want a freer hand at development, regardless of someone’s outdated views that their personal data is theirs. It’s also possible it’s just more fun to work with your friends than a bunch of strangers who paid you $200 million.

The Macalope would not know. But it seems like a nice problem to have.

It also appears that some people who used to work for the company seem a little bitter about certain things.

IDG

In an interview with mobilegamer.biz, former head of App Store review Phillip Shoemaker had choice words to say about Phil Schiller.

Let’s just see what he says here…

Phil [Schiller] just needs to get his meaty paws off the App Store.

Whoa. Holding a grudge? More like hugging a grudge. Spooning a grudge.

If he thinks Schiller has meaty paws, one wonders what he thought of Bob Mansfield’s. They’re like honey-baked hams.

According to Shoemaker, Schiller stands in the way of automated app review, a reduced cut for Apple, allowing different kinds of apps on the Store, and peace between Ukraine and Russia. He contrasts Schiller to more “progressive” executives such as Greg Joswiak, Eddy Cue, Matt Fischer, and Howard Zinn.

The Macalope jokes, but there’s no denying that the App Store has been stuck in something of a rut for, well, 15 years. Still, this criticism also comes from the guy who, while working on the App Store, was selling his own fart apps on it. Yes, he made literal crap apps and sold them for a dollar. So, not exactly the best person to criticize someone else’s effect on the Store.

Apple’s employee relations don’t seem to be substantially worse than the industry average. It’s just that it and the industry could all do a lot better.

Apple Inc

The best iPhones

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 20:25:05 +0000

Navigate Apple’s lengthy iPhone product catalog like a pro. | Image: The Verge

Whether you want a battery that lasts for days, the best deal, or a small form factor, we’ve got some recommendations for an iPhone you’ll love.

Picking a new iPhone feels like it should be simple. But like so many other modern problems (have you tried simply choosing something to watch on TV lately — an impossible task) it’s a little more complicated than it seems. Counting previous models that are still hanging around, along with all the Pros and Pluses and Maxes, Apple currently sells eight different iPhone models on its website. Eight! It’s almost as confusing as trying to buy an iPad.

But fear not; there’s help. After plenty of thorough testing, day-to-day use, and many blue chat bubbles, I’m here to help you navigate Apple’s extensive product catalog. Whether you want an iPhone that will get through two days on a single battery charge, one that truly fits in your pocket, or the least expensive iPhone you can buy, we’ve got recommendations.

Apple recently announced iOS 17 with a lot of small but worthwhile updates, like improved autocorrect, live transcription for voicemail, and a new clock display for when your phone is charging. It’s all coming this fall, but you’ll need an iPhone XS or newer to download it. That means if you’re still holding onto an iPhone 8 or X, it might be time to think about upgrading. Just remember that we’re probably only a few months away from the iPhone 15 launch, and it’s rumored to be a more substantial update over the previous generation than the iPhone 14 was over the 13.

The best iPhone for most people

Screen: 6.1-inch 1170p resolution OLED, 60Hz refresh rate / Processor: A15 Bionic Cameras: 12-megapixel f/1.6 main with sensor-shift IS, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 12-megapixel selfie / Battery: not advertised / Charging: wired, 15W wireless MagSafe, 7.5W Qi / Weather-resistance rating: IP68

Yes, you read that right. If you’re buying an iPhone in early 2023, the smartest choice might just be 2021’s iPhone 13. This is especially true if you’re paying some or all of the cost out of pocket and not getting an “iPhone on us” carrier deal. If you want the very latest and greatest, then it’s worth skipping up to the 14 Pro or Pro Max — more on that below. But the regular iPhone 14 is such a minor update to the 13 that you might as well save an extra $100 and just go with the (still excellent) previous-gen model. Heck, that’s exactly what I did and I have zero regrets.

In the iPhone 13, you still get an Apple A15 Bionic chipset, a 6.1-inch OLED screen, wireless charging via MagSafe, and an IP68 rating. Opting for the iPhone 14 gets you a slightly upgraded camera and a version of the A15 with an extra GPU core plus a new satellite SOS feature that will let you message emergency services even when you’re out of cell range. Nice, but is that all an extra $100 nice? That’s up to you: on a 36-month payment plan, it doesn’t add up to much more on your monthly bill — only about $3. If you’re paying upfront, though, it might feel better to keep that extra cash in your wallet. You can use it to buy something nice, like a few dozen eggs.

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The iPhone 13 does almost everything the 14 does for $100 less.

As it is, the iPhone 13 is plenty fast for most people, takes generally great photos and video, and will keep receiving OS updates well into the foreseeable future thanks to Apple’s habit of supporting devices with new iOS versions for upward of five or six years.

Read our full Apple iPhone 13 review

Best high-end iPhone

Screen: 6.1-inch (Pro) or 6.7-inch (Pro Max) OLED, 120Hz refresh rate / Processor: A16 Bionic Cameras: 48-megapixel f/1.8 with sensor-shift IS, 12-megapixel 3x telephoto with OIS, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 12-megapixel selfie / Battery: not advertised / Charging: wired, 15W MagSafe wireless, 7.5W Qi / Weather-resistance rating: IP68

If cost isn’t a major concern or you’re able to snag a good carrier deal on a new iPhone, then this is a good year to spring for the top-tier model. The 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max get a new main camera sensor with some useful upgrades, an all-new A16 Bionic chipset, an always-on display, and a new UI element called Dynamic Island that puts certain timely system and app info at the top of your screen.

None of it is exactly life-changing, but they’re features that Apple is almost certainly going to incorporate in new models going forward, and third-party app makers will follow suit. It’s the iPhone to get if you suffer from technology FOMO.

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max offer substantial upgrades over the 13 series, but they don’t come cheap.

The 14 Pro and Pro Max back up those new features with all-around great performance. They differ in screen size — the 14 Pro offers a 6.1-inch display and the Pro Max goes big with a 6.7-inch screen — but they’re both ProMotion displays with up to 120Hz refresh rate for super-smooth scrolling. The Pro Max has a bigger battery, too, but aside from those differences, the two phones are largely the same. There’s a new 48-megapixel main camera sensor with a neat 2x lossless crop zoom mode in addition to a dedicated 3x telephoto camera. It all adds up to a very capable camera system with some of the best video quality you’ll find on any phone anywhere.

Read our full Apple iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max review

Best small iPhone

Screen: 5.4-inch 1080p OLED, 60Hz refresh rate / Processor: A15 Bionic Cameras: 12-megapixel f/1.6 main with sensor-shift IS, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 12-megapixel selfie / Battery: not advertised / Charging: wired, 15W MagSafe wireless, 7.5W Qi / Weather-resistance rating: IP68

Apple released the iPhone 12 and 13 in two sizes: one with a 6.1-inch screen and a Mini variant with a comparatively petite 5.4-inch screen. They kind of bombed, so there’s no iPhone 14 Mini. But like the iPhone 13, Apple still sells the 13 Mini new — and it might be your last chance to get this small-screen form factor before it disappears off the company’s retail shelves completely.

Aside from a smaller screen and battery, the 13 Mini includes everything we like about the 13 — good cameras, a speedy A15 Bionic processor, a robust IP68 rating for water and dust resistance, and MagSafe for accessories and wireless charging. Did we mention that it fits all the way into your pants pocket? Just try that with a Pro Max.

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The 13 Mini (left) might be the last truly small iPhone.

There is one major downside: the 13 Mini’s battery life isn’t great. It’s good enough to get through a day of moderate use, but if you do a lot of battery-intensive things on your phone like recording 4K video or gaming, then you’ll need to top it off during the day. Anyway, most people looking for a small phone probably don’t rank mobile gaming high on their list of priorities, so it’s likely not a concern for the Mini’s target demographic.

Read our full Apple iPhone 13 Mini review

Best cheap iPhone

Screen: 4.7-inch Retina LCD / Processor: A15 Bionic Cameras: 12-megapixel f/1.8 with OIS, 7-megapixel selfie / Battery: Not advertised / Charging: Wired, 7.5W Qi / Weather-resistance rating: IP67

The third-gen iPhone SE, released in 2022, is sort of the default winner in this category. It’s the least expensive iPhone you can buy, and for its $429 starting price, it includes some major feature upgrades most midrange phones don’t offer, like wireless charging, a flagship processor, and an IP67 rating for good water and dust resistance. For sheer ROI, the iPhone SE is a fantastic choice.

But this recommendation comes with some big caveats, starting with the screen. It’s small — at 4.7 inches, it’s significantly smaller than the iPhone 13 Mini’s display, even though the SE is slightly taller and wider than the Mini. That’s because the 2022 SE uses a very old iPhone design that dates back to the iPhone 6S. The screen feels cramped, and the LCD technology looks dated. It’s also the only iPhone left that retains the home button and its fingerprint scanner rather than Face ID, which might be preferable if you hate gesture navigation. Most of us are getting along just fine without a home button, so this one is really down to personal preference.

Image: Allison Johnson / The Verge

The iPhone SE uses an old design, but it’s a great value. It’s also probably your last chance to buy an iPhone with a home button, if that’s a thing you’re clinging to.

There are a couple of other low points: the camera system doesn’t have a night mode, and there’s only 64GB of storage on the base model. But if you’re accustomed to a bigger phone screen, that 4.7-inch LCD might be the thing that’s hardest to live with. There are also rumors of an iPhone SE in 2024 with a 6.1-inch OLED screen — big if true, literally. That’s an upgrade worth waiting another year for if you can hold off. But if a small screen doesn’t bother you, then there’s no better deal than the iPhone SE.

Read our full Apple iPhone SE (2022) review

The iPhone with the best battery life

Screen: 6.7-inch Super Retina OLED / Processor: A15 Bionic Cameras: 12-megapixel f/1.5 main with sensor-shift IS, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 12-megapixel selfie / Battery: Not advertised / Charging: Wired, 15W wireless MagSafe, 7.5W wireless Qi / Weather-resistance rating: IP68

When the iPhone 14 series went on sale in September 2023, there was one model missing: the 14 Plus. It was announced at the same time as the other three devices but wasn’t available until three weeks later when a lot of the new-phone fanfare had died down. That’s a shame, too, because the 14 Plus has one legitimately great upgrade over the 13: excellent battery life.

That’s sort of a byproduct of another feature: a big 6.7-inch screen, the same size as the Pro Max’s display. Makes sense: a bigger screen makes for a bigger phone, which means more room for a bigger battery. But the Plus’ battery stamina is particularly good because its screen, with its standard refresh rate and no always-on display, isn’t as power-hungry as that of the Pro Max. In any case, the 14 Plus can get through two full days of light use before you need to charge the battery. The Pro Max can’t touch that.

Image: Allison Johnson / The Verge

The 14 Plus (right) has a bigger screen and a bigger battery than the standard 14 (left).

The 14 Plus has the same minor upgrades as the regular 14, too, like the satellite emergency messaging and an upgraded main camera. But with the screen size and battery advantage, it feels like a phone that’s worth spending a little extra on, whereas the 14 doesn’t quite meet that bar.

Read our full Apple iPhone 14 Plus review

Poll: How would you rate Apple Weather accuracy lately?

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 18:28:05 +0000

I’m always surprised when I see people using weather apps packed with ads. The Apple Weather app has gone from good to great over the last decade.

It remains the best free weather app that has no chance of being acquired and turned off. Sure, Apple acquired and turned off Dark Sky, but precipitation alerts live on in Apple Weather.

more…

The post Poll: How would you rate Apple Weather accuracy lately? appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Apple’s first major new product launch in eight years looms

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 14:00:08 +0000

Apple is some 72 hours away from its first major new product launch in eight years. The company is expected to show off a mixed-reality (XR) headset at next week’s WWDC developer event, which would mark its first new product introduction since the Apple Watch remade the smartwatch and wrist watch markets in 2015.

Emily Bary for MarketWatch:

The company would be wading into a headset market that has failed to gain meaningful user traction, even as market leader Meta Platforms Inc. META, -0.37% changed its name in late 2021 to convey more of a focus on virtual worlds.

Mixed-reality headsets combine virtual reality, which is immersive, and augmented reality, which lets people engage virtually with real-life surroundings. Apple’s device, thought to be named Reality Pro, could emphasize immersive video, gaming and productivity applications, and feature hand- and eye-tracking technology so that users won’t need dedicated controllers, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year.

Expect Apple to take a different approach on pricing compared with Meta, which has multiple offerings and commanded nearly half of the market for augmented- and virtual-reality headsets in the first quarter, according to third-party data from IDC. While Meta has focused lately on making its devices more affordable to increase their mass-market appeal, Apple’s forthcoming headset could land with an eye-popping price tag of about $3,000.

MacDailyNews Take:

The original iPad was widely rumored to cost upwards of $1,000 at launch. Instead, it started just $499.

Apple seeded a much higher price into the rumor mill ahead of iPad in order to raise the bar and then delivered a “breakthrough price” at launch.https://t.co/58u9AORrNp

— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) June 2, 2023

Accordingly, investors should expect paltry sales early on, with BofA Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan predicting that the company could sell perhaps 200,000 units of the device in 2023.

Still, he agreed that the category could become more of a hit for Apple down the line. “[I]t’s important to recognize that the headset version three years from now will be cheaper, faster and have many more use cases (gaming, entertainment, augmented productivity, fitness, wellness, education, training, healthcare, shopping, e-commerce, social media, etc.),” Mohan wrote, and those applications would all bring opportunities for Apple to rack up software revenue at high margins.

MacDailyNews Take: 72 hours.

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The post Apple’s first major new product launch in eight years looms appeared first on MacDailyNews.

How to stop Safari’s smooth scrolling using the arrow keys

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 26 May 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Macworld

Jeff Johnson is the hero behind StopTheMadness, Link Unshortener, and other must-have browser and social-media utilities that let you override and defeat websites’ attempts to hijack control of your cursors, mouse, and Control-click. (I gave StopTheMadness 5 out of 5 stars in a Mac Gems review last year.)

But what has he done for us lately? He’s figured out how to disable smooth scrolling, a surprise feature added by Apple in Safari 16.4 for macOS. If you didn’t notice, with this version of Safari, pressing and releasing the down or up arrow on a Safari page scrolls the page continuously until you tap a key or use a mouse to regain control. The change is baffling. Who asked for this? Why introduce it in mid-stream? And, the biggest question of all: why is there no checkbox to disable it?

Johnson has documented a multi-step operation to fix this problem. You can read his quick post or this more detailed step-by-step here if you’re unfamiliar with Safari’s Debug mode and the Terminal.

Time to complete: 5 minutes
Tools required: macOS, the Terminal app
Materials required: Safari 16.4

System Settings/Preferences

Foundry

macOS Ventura: Open  > System Settings > Privacy & Security and go to the Privacy section (shown above).

macOS Monterey and older: Open  > System Preferences > Security & Privacy and click on the Privacy section to open it.

Full Disk Access

Foundry

macOS Ventura: Click Full Disk Access (shown above).

macOS Monterey and older: Select Full Disk Access in the left column. Click the lock icon at the bottom-left of the settings window and authenticate with Touch ID, your password, or a Watch.

Activate Terminal

Foundry

macOS Ventura: Look for Terminal in the main window and flip its switch on (shown above). You will have to enter an administrator username and password after flipping the switch.

macOS Monterey and older: In the main section of the window, you will see a list of apps. Click the “+” button and navigate to Applications > Utilities. You should find the Terminal app there; select the Terminal icon and then click the Open button.

Close System Settings/Preferences.

Foundry

In both macOS Ventura and Monterey:

Quit Safari if it is open.
Launch the Terminal app (it is located in Applications > Utilities).
Copy the precise text below as a single line, paste it into the Terminal at the prompt, and press Return:
- defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu -bool true

Safari Debug setting

Foundry

In both macOS Ventura and Monterey:

Quit the Terminal and launch Safari.
From the new Debug menu that appears, choose Debug > WebKit Internal Features > EventHandler driven smooth keyboard scrolling. It should be shown with a checkmark, so choosing it will remove the checkmark and deactivate the option.

When you activate the Safari Debug menu, it stays on even after you adjust the smooth keyboard scrolling setting. If you want to remove the Debug menu, repeat step 4, but copy and paste this command into the Terminal instead and hit Return:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu -bool false

Thanks to Johnson for uncovering a buried secret that should be a Safari checkbox!

Ask Mac 911

We’ve compiled a list of the questions we get asked most frequently, along with answers and links to columns: read our super FAQ to see if your question is covered. If not, we’re always looking for new problems to solve! Email yours to mac911@macworld.com, including screen captures as appropriate and whether you want your full name used. Not every question will be answered, we don’t reply to email, and we cannot provide direct troubleshooting advice.

MacOS, Personal Software

Paramount Plus and Showtime streaming is 50 percent off for three months to new subscribers

tigaman webdesign — Thu, 25 May 2023 16:08:45 +0000

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Paramount Plus may be getting a price increase at the end of next month, but before that happens, you can save 50 percent on a subscription and binge away for 90 days. New subscribers to Paramount Plus can get the streaming service in a bundle with Showtime for $5.99 ($6 off) per month for three months. The promo runs until June 4th, and you’ll probably want to cancel before the three months are up unless you’re okay with auto-renewal kicking in at full price.

If you’re wondering what to stream within that timeframe, there’s the recently released Dungeons & Dragons movie, Top Gun: Maverick, dramas like Showtime’s Billions, cartoons like Paw Patrol (for the kids), and SpongeBob SquarePants (for the kids at heart). And if you’re a sports fan, there’s a selection of NFL games as well as the UEFA Champions League final on June 10th.

An Apple AirTag can help give a little peace of mind in the event you ever misplace a bag or set of keys, and you can currently get a four-pack of them for $87 ($12 off) at Walmart and Amazon. While other trackers like Tile can be used on multiple platforms, AirTags are just for use with iPhones and iPads, but the tradeoff for that restriction is a tight integration into Apple’s OS — quickly alerting you when you’ve moved away from your AirTag and helping you track it down. These little things can feel like a lifesaver when flying to know where your checked luggage is if it doesn’t promptly arrive on the carousel.

The Xbox Wireless Controller – Remix Special Edition, which launched just last month, is on sale for the first time and is now available for $69.64 (about $15 off) at Amazon. It was released to commemorate Earth Day 2023, with Microsoft boasting about how it’s partly made from recycled plastics. While this isn’t the first time Microsoft has been a bit greenwash-y, the part you may care about most if you’re in the market for a controller is that it comes in a unique color scheme and includes a rechargeable battery pack. Otherwise, it’s a standard Xbox Wireless Controller just like the one that comes with an Xbox Series X / S console. But hey, that’s still one of the best Xbox controllers you can buy today — now with a rechargeable battery for a good deal.

Just don’t buy it if you don’t need it or you’re not going to use it, as that’s kind of counterintuitive to the whole point of Earth Day.

Thirsty Thursdeals:

Amazon’s Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2, our pick for the best wired doorbell, is $174.99 ($75 off) at Amazon. It has a 1:1 square aspect ratio to see as much of your porch as possible, including packages, and it features excellent motion detection. Though, keep in mind you need to subscribe monthly to take advantage of all of its features. Read our review.
The Razer Kiyo webcam is on sale for just $55 ($44 off), its lowest price, at Walmart. The 1080p-capable camera doesn’t have the highest specs or performance, but it’s got pretty good video quality, a small built-in ring light, and quite an excellent price on this sweet deal.
The second-gen Apple Pencil is back down to $85 ($44 off) at Amazon. The latest stylus from Apple works on all the current iPads except the entry-level ninth- and 10th-gen models. It’s great for note-taking and sketching, though it’s been discounted with such frequency lately that Apple maybe should have just made it this price from the start, eh?
If you got hyped by Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 trailers during yesterday’s PlayStation Showcase and you want to catch up on the story, you can get the Ultimate Edition of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5 for $40 ($30 off) at Amazon. It comes with the remastered version of the base Marvel’s Spider-Man game, offering a lot of excellent web-swinging action between the two titles.

Apple’s AI future could be a lot brighter than it seems

tigaman webdesign — Wed, 24 May 2023 09:15:00 +0000

Macworld

Everyone wants to talk about AI. Most of them don’t know what it is (artificial intelligence), but they still want to talk about it. Who’s got it and who doesn’t. What industries it’s ripe to disrupt. And the one company that’s not in the middle of that conversation is Apple.

Viral images generated by Stable Diffusion, and pathological chatbots from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google are the story of the day. Apple, meanwhile, has nothing. Or perhaps, considering the current state of Siri, less than nothing.

Apple’s nowhere when it comes to AI. That’s the narrative. The thing is, it’s not true. At least, not yet.

Presenting the Neural Engine

It’s hard to imagine that you could portray Apple as a company that’s been asleep at the AI switch when it built its first machine-learning-focused custom silicon, the Neural Engine, into the A11 chip that shipped in iPhones five years ago and has continued to upgrade it almost every year.

If you hadn’t noticed, Apple is pretty serious when it comes to its chip designs. And for the last five years–and who knows how many years of development before that–Apple has believed so much in empowering its devices to run machine-learning algorithms that it’s designed and included special processor cores dedicated specifically to the task. Apple clearly understood the power of this technology back before most of us had even heard of it.

And clearly, Apple’s been paying attention to the latest trends that have gotten the world’s attention. Last December, Apple released its own Apple Silicon optimizations for the Stable Diffusion image-generation engine. That’s Apple looking at the latest trends and pointing out ways that its hardware can be better used to take advantage of them.

Weaving AI webs

A few weeks ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook used an interesting word when describing Apple’s approach to AI: “weave.” Apple weaves AI algorithms into its products, he said.

And he’s absolutely right. Apple has been dropping purpose-built machine-learning algorithms into its software since at least 2016 when it added object, face, and scene identification to the Photos app. Since then, in addition to expanding its Photos algorithms, Apple has added machine-learning techniques to biometric security identification, ECG on the Apple Watch, fall and crash detection on both the iPhone and Apple Watch, and many aspects of the creation of the perfect iPhone camera image.

Apple has used machine learning in its features for years.

Petter Ahrnstedt

Unfortunately for Cook and Apple, none of those examples have ended up being the ones people have been talking about lately. But there’s no denying that it has been–carefully and tactically–weaving AI stuff into its products for years. As Cook said, “We’ll continue weaving [AI] in our products on a very thoughtful basis.”

Your chatbot lied to me

But thoughtful weaving is probably not going to set the world on fire. Chatbots and image algorithms, on the other hand, are flashy and tend to blow the minds of people who can’t believe computers are capable of such things. Apple is like a magician, one who prefers to keep their methodology a secret.

Apple’s care and conservatism when releasing products have both helped and hurt it here. Maybe there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but high-profile chatbot launches are immediately followed by days or weeks of coverage of bad chatbot behavior. The image algorithms immediately came under fire over questions of copyright infringement.

Can you imagine the firestorm that would’ve happened if Apple launched a “beta” version of Siri powered by an AI chatbot that couldn’t get facts right, tried to get a reporter to leave his wife for it, and accused a professor of sexual harassment? It would be Sirigate! Apple would be rushing out crisis-management PR and promising to fix the problem.

Siri has been surpassed by AI chatbots. It’s time Apple took risks with Siri.

Michael Simon/IDG

This is why Apple is careful and thoughtful. It holds itself to a higher standard–and it knows the world does, too.

So now what?

All that is well and good, but the fact remains that Siri isn’t very good, and when you talk to an AI chatbot, you start to get the sense that we’re very close to a world where semi-intelligent agents will be able to carry on contextual conversations and perform basic tasks.

Just the other day, a friend needed some help parsing a giant data file. I realized I could probably write a quick Python script to get him the output he wanted. But rather than do that, I asked ChatGPT to do it. It came up with a working script in less than a minute.

The way I see it, Apple’s greatest risk in AI is not failing to capture the attention of the world. It’s the company’s commitment to being careful and thoughtful–because, if taken to an extreme, it might cause Apple to turn its back on promising areas of research. Sure, a chatbot mishap would be very embarrassing for Apple, but so will sticking with Siri when the world is filled with far more capable intelligent assistants.

Or, to put it another way: Apple’s probably announcing a mixed-reality headset next month. By most accounts, the device will be very expensive and ship in extremely low quantities–but it’s a risk Apple’s willing to take because it’s playing the long game. Shouldn’t Apple be willing to do the same and take more risks with AI-powered technology if the rewards are potentially so great?

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Thirsty Thursdeals:

Apple’s AI future could be a lot brighter than it seems

Presenting the Neural Engine

Weaving AI webs

Your chatbot lied to me

So now what?