Macworld We’ve all lost pens and pencils before. It’s annoying when it happens, but they’re easily replaceable, so you don’t give it much thought. But losing an Apple Pencil? That’s a real pain. Not only is it a specialized, unique utensil—it’s costly, too. A recent patent application by Apple hopes to save users from that aggravation. Patently Apple reports on U.S. patent 20230161545, which describes how acoustic resonators can be used in the Apple Pencil so it can alert a user as to its location. Finding a lost Pencil could work in the same way a user can use Find My to locate a misplaced iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The user launches the Find My app and goes to the…

Macworld iPads are one of the most user-friendly devices you can buy. Kids take to them like ducks to water and they are a great way to let them take their first steps with technology. Also, they can be fantastic tools for learning as well as having fun. Whether it’s educational games, entertainment apps, using them to create art with an Apple Pencil or just something to stop them getting bored on car journeys, iPads can be a godsend. Choosing the right one is a challenge at the moment though, as there are plenty of models in the current catalog, all with their unique charms. Fear not, we’re here to help make things clearer with a quick guide on the…

Macworld Apple’s higher-end iPads have used the universal USB-C connector port rather than Apple’s own Lightning connector since 2018. Now the iPad Air, iPad mini and even the 10th generation iPad feature the USB-C port instead of Lightning. In fact, the only iPad Apple sells without USB-C is the 9th generation iPad. The M1 iPad Pro uses the even more capable but identical-looking (and compatible to USB-C) Thunderbolt connection. What many people don’t realise is that the USB-C port is good for more than charging or plugging in wired earbuds. Apple’s tablets can also be used with other peripherals that transform it into a versatile computer. As such, iPad owners have a wide range of USB-C accessories available to them…

Macworld If you don’t want to wait to install the next version of macOS, for which Apple will be revealing the details of at WWDC in June, you can join the beta program and try it out on your Mac before it is released to the public in September or October. The developer beta of macOS 14 will be available to download, if you are a registered developer, shortly after the Apple Keynote on June 5. The public beta version will then be available for anyone to signs up for the Public Beta program around the beginning of July. While you wait for the beta of macOS 14 to drop you can test the next update to macOS 13 Ventura.…

Macworld Say, did you hear the rumor about iOS 17 from, oh, perhaps five minutes ago? Your news feed probably has a recent report about what’s coming soon for the iPhone –if not from five minutes ago, then maybe from the past few hours, or at the most, a day or two. Even without any major new features, Apple Reading about iOS 17 is nice and all, but as a Mac editor, what I look for in my news feed are juicy macOS rumors, something that tells us what we could see in the next version, macOS 14. And if my news feed could produce special effects based on its contents, it’d play chirping crickets. Our macOS 14 news hub…

Macworld WWDC 2023 is creeping up, and with Apple fans starved of event hype since the iPhone 14 launch well over eight months ago, expectations are high. Of course the Reality Pro headset, if the company has managed to get it finished in time, will be the flagship announcement. But one of Apple’s less heralded products might be the sleeper hit of the show. Last month, the respected leaker-analyst Mark Gurman claimed watchOS 10 will be so good that no one will care about the (reportedly rather underwhelming) new Apple Watch hardware coming later in the year. What that means in practice seems to be an updated interface, and while the use of the word “updated” rather than “new” implies…