Apple today opened its new store in Battersea, South West London – the second to feature the company's overhauled retail store design after the Tysons Corner revamp last month. Apple Battersea is the 40th Apple Store in the UK and it is located inside the redeveloped Battersea Power Station on the Ground Floor in Turbine Hall A. The building is a decommissioned coal-fired power station, regarded as an iconic landmark owing to its Art Deco fittings and status as one of the world's largest brick constructions. The store is positioned around four original brick piers from the 1930s, with exposed steel supports on the ceiling. The walls feature an overlaid oak framework of shelving and a revamped fixture set, defining…

Apple today seeded the third betas of upcoming iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming two weeks after the release of the second betas. Registered developers can opt in to the betas by opening up the Settings app, going to Software Update, tapping on the “Beta Updates” option and toggling on the iOS 16 Developer Beta. Note that an Apple ID associated with a developer account is required to download and install the beta. iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 lay the groundwork for iMessage Contact Key Verification. It is meant to let Apple device owners verify that they are messaging with the people they intend to message rather than a malicious entity…

In a support document published today, Apple said certain SATA hard drives might unexpectedly disconnect from the 2023 Mac Pro after the computer wakes from sleep. Apple said it is "aware of this issue" and will fix it in a "future macOS update." While the Mac Pro is configured with SSD storage, it has SATA ports for connecting internal hard drives, and some can disconnect due to a bug. "Certain models of internal SATA drives might unexpectedly disconnect from your computer after your Mac wakes from sleep," said Apple. "This can occur if your Mac automatically goes to sleep or if you manually put your Mac to sleep. If you see a message that your disk was not ejected properly,…

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge My smart home journey began, like so many others, with a poorly placed light switch. My partner and I had just bought our first house, and the switch that illuminated the kitchen was in the laundry room all the way on the other side, meaning we had to wander through darkness to get to it. I hated that light switch. So what to do? Well, I could spend a bunch of money I didn’t have to hire someone to move it, try to do it myself and accidentally burn my house down with a bad wiring job, or take the plunge on a smart home. I took the path of least resistance (that’s…

In macOS Sonoma, currently in beta, you can create individual web apps for any website that you frequent in Safari, and have them sit beside other apps in your Dock. Let's take a closer look at how it all works by turning MacRumors.com into a virtual Mac app as an example. In macOS Sonoma, any website viewed in Safari can be turned into a web app, thanks to a new "Add to Dock" option in the File menu. In other words, no work is required on the part of web developers to make a site web app compatible, although there are some elements of web apps that developers can have control over (see below). How to Turn MacRumors into a…

ScreenTimes‘ Sigmund Judge reports this week that the live-action Godzilla series currently filming is being shot with 3D cameras in Apple’s Spatial Video for the Apple Vision Pro. Apple TV+ in January 2022 announced a series order for a new original live-action series from Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise. Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real, the series explores one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch. The Monsterverse series will be produced by Legendary Television and executive produced by co-creators Chris Black (“Star Trek: Enterprise,” “Outcast”), who will also serve as showrunner, and Matt…