Apple research is focusing on how to further crack the surprisingly tricky business of turning the spoken word into emojis — and then adjusting that emoji to suit what a user's message means.Apparently there are times when words won't do, yet a little round icon with what might be a smile, might be a frown, turns out to be exactly what you want to convey. This would be why there are so many classic songs written in the key of emoji.But when you are going to use emoji, you're at least partly doing so because it's quicker than thinking up the right phrase. And having to pause speaking to hunt and peck through an icon picker rather disrupts the flow.…

Apple’s MacBooks remain the primary driver of its computer sales, according to a new report from CIRP. The research firm found that MacBook Air and MacBook Pro made up 77% of the company’s computer sales in the 12 months ending March 2023. This is an increase of 3% from last fall. The report also found that the most popular Mac is the MacBook Air, which accounted for 46% of sales. The MacBook Pro was the second most popular Mac, with 29% of sales. The desktop models, including the iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro, accounted for the remaining 23% of sales. Michael Potuck for 9to5Mac: CIRP’s results showed 43% of respondents saying they had a MacBook Pro with 34% reporting…

CIRP has released its latest report today on the Mac lineup. Looking at the mix of models owned by customers, the research found some interesting results for the most popular Mac, the mix of ownership between entry-level to pro models, and more. more… The post What is Apple’s most popular Mac? Here’s the latest data appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Macworld There was a roughly two-year gap between the second and third iPhone SE models, launched in April 2020 and March 2022 respectively, so it would be reasonable to hope that a fourth model might make an appearance in spring next year. But the latest word from the analyst grapevine is that it won’t appear until 2025 at the earliest. In a research note shared with MacRumors, Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O’Malley this week said that, based on multiple conversations with Apple’s supply-chain partners, the company is unlikely to release a new iPhone SE in 2024. The news will be a disappointment for some (although perhaps not as much of a disappointment as the third-gen SE) but there…

If you open up Spotify's desktop app on a Mac or PC today, things should look a lot more "mobile." That's because the company has redesigned the "Your Library" and "Now Playing" interfaces to make them more aligned with Spotify's smartphone app. "Your Library" is now located in the sidebar to let you access saved music and podcasts. Spotify says its research has shown that the new library helps users save time by providing a better overview, while making it easier to switch between playlists. Users can also now move and pin the playlists in the Library, as well as drop songs into the editable listed playlists. Elsewhere, the "Now Playing" view takes up the right-hand side of the app,…

Macworld There’s a lot of hype around AI, but not many ways to put it to use in our daily lives. Taskio changes all that with a simple, accessible AI-powered assistant to handle all the chores and problems of daily life. Taskio can do the expected tasks of writing first drafts of content and creating custom images, yet it can also go above and beyond. Use it to rewrite and summarize content you’ve already written, or to optimize your copy for SEO or sales impact. Use it as a chatbot to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of and to help you research new markets and approaches. Deploy its native translation feature to smoothly communicate across language barriers, or have it…