Apple today added the Thunderbolt Display and the first-generation iPad Air to its obsolete products list, meaning the devices are no longer eligible for repairs or other hardware service at Apple Stores or Apple Authorized Service Providers. Apple classifies a product as obsolete once more than seven years have passed since the company stopped distributing it for sale. Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, and service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products. Both the Thunderbolt Display and the original iPad Air were discontinued in 2016. Introduced in 2011, the Thunderbolt Display featured a 27-inch screen with 1440p resolution, a 720p camera, three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a Thunderbolt port.…

Macworld If you have a Mac laptop or iMac with a display that’s been damaged or no longer turns on, but you’re sure the computer is still functioning, a repair may not be required to extract all its data or continue using it. (In fact, without a paid AppleCare+ for Mac plan, repair costs for a display often far exceed a Mac’s value unless a repair shop can find a refurbished or salvaged display. It may be cheaper or not much more expensive to simply buy a used Mac of the same vintage with a working monitor.) Use an external monitor to keep it alive or extract data All Mac laptops and iMacs of the last many years support an…

Macworld There are flashlights, and then there are utility flashlights: The ultra-bright kind that you want when you’re doing repairs or making your way through the woods at night. Traditionally, these industrial-strength lights have been oversized rods as big as a billy club, but no more. The 8-in-1 MaxLight Mini puts this kind of power into a package you can fit on your keychain. In terms of power, we’re talking 800 lumens on the highest setting. That’s enough to outshine your average cellphone flashlight mode by 30 times, which makes it perfect for any kind of emergency. The design is what really sets it apart, though. It’s magnetic, which means you can attach it to car hoods or metal tabletops.…

People who owned MacBooks with butterfly keyboards will now get paid. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The $50 million settlement over Apple’s bad butterfly keyboard design got final approval by a federal court judge in California, Reuters reported yesterday. US District Court Judge Edward Davila denied an attempt to amend the agreement, writing in his ruling that 86,000 people filed claims. That finally puts a figure on the number of people affected who will get compensation for repairs they’d paid for. Or at least the number who heard about the lawsuit and followed it to the settlement agreement that was reached last July. The original suit came about because Apple laptops from 2015 to 2019 had a…

There are a few less obvious features for managing and manipulating your storage devices in the macOS Disk Utility. In the third part of our deep dive into Disk Utility, here's how to find and use them.In part 1 and part 2 of this series, we looked at how to manage and manipulate storage devices and volumes on your Mac using Apple's Disk Utility app built-in to macOS. There are a few extra features you might want to be aware of, so we'll cover those here.Resizing disk images Read more...

A U.S. judge on Thursday approved Apple’s $50 million class-action settlement resolving consumer claims over defective “butterfly” keyboards in MacBooks, in a ruling that prompted challenges to the settlement deal. Apple’s “butterfly” keyboard Mike Scarcella for Reuters: U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, federal court in his ruling called the settlement “fair, adequate and reasonable.” The plaintiffs’ lawyers announced the deal a year ago. Apple denied any wrongdoing. Class members will receive $50 up to $395 based on the number and nature of repairs made to a keyboard. More than 86,000 claims for class member payments were submitted as of early March, Davila’s order showed. One challenge to the settlement said $125 — the compensation for members…