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While Apple has already released a surprising number of new products this year, including the M2 MacBook Pro and M2 Pro Mac mini, 2nd-gen HomePod and iPhone 14 in yellow (see page 29), the rest of the year might not be quite so jam-packed. A new report from Bloomberg claims Apple is pushing several planned new products into 2024 as part of a cost-cutting plan designed to avoid layoffs. In his latest Power On newsletter (fave.co/3z9w0sx), Mark Gurman reports that “some projects” planned for 2023 have been “pushed back until next year at the earliest”. Among the products delayed, according to the report, is the rumoured HomePod with a screen, as Apple looks to “allocate its research and development budget to more pressing projects”. Gurman claims the delayed projects are…

When you launch Apple Music to choose one of your playlists, you expect to see a familiar list. But over the past few weeks, many Apple Music users have been seeing other people’s playlists among their own due to an increasingly widespread Apple Music bug. As spotlighted by Redditor adh1003 (fave.co/40jlj2y), who said it “appears to be a truly horrific bug in the Apple Music servers themselves”; the Apple Music app has been arbitrarily deleting playlists in some users’ accounts and adding other users’ playlists into other accounts. The bugs are seemingly related – once Apple Music accidentally sends the wrong playlists into someone’s library, it’s deleted, which in turn syncs back to the original creator’s account and deletes the playlist from there, too. Depending on how the playlist was…

Google Glass is a failure. That isn’t exactly news, but it is now official: the company has finally discontinued the business version of the product, which itself replaced the deeply unpopular consumer devices whose wearers were subjected to mockery and occasional physical violence, and coined the term ‘Glass-hole’. An inglorious tale has come to an end, and not a moment too soon. Then again, the timing is notable and a little surprising because it comes mere months before Apple is expected to make its own entry into the world of face-mounted computing with a mixed-reality headset. (Sceptics may point out that we’ve been waiting for the headset for years and insist that they will believe it when they see it, but the chorus of leaks and rumours is becoming deafening.)…

Video games have changed in lots of positive ways since I was keen on them in the 1990s, from improved graphics to a broader outlook that caters, with only a small amount of acrimony, to hardcore and casual gamers alike. But one thing that’s got indisputably worse is the growing dominance of downloadable content (DLC) culture, where studios shamelessly launch half-finished games and then milk their most loyal fans with years of subscriptions and paid for extras. It makes me nostalgic for the days when you only had to pay once for an eternal masterpiece like Cannon Fodder or Sensible World of Soccer. Why are you thinking about DLC, David? Because Apple has repeated its annual trick of launching a new colour midway through an iPhone generation, wowing fans with…

Every year, Apple introduces a new A-series processor with its iPhone upgrades in the autumn. We don’t expect anything different this year. In fact, the jump to a new manufacturing process technology – TSMC’s 3nm process – gives the A17 an opportunity to be the most significant leap in performance and features in several years. By looking at the past decade of in-house Apple-designed A-series chips, together with what we know about the manufacturing technology available and the company’s direction and goals, we can piece together a pretty good educated guess about what to expect from the A17. JUST FOR iPHONE 15 PRO (OR ULTRA) Last year, the A16 was exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro, while the standard iPhone 14 used the A15. We expect a repeat of that…

One of the most common questions we get is: Is this a good time to buy an iPhone? Of course if you need one – your old one is irreparably broken and you can’t go without, for example – then just get the iPhone that’s right for you. But if you’re just craving an upgrade and don’t want to buy an iPhone right before the new model comes out, this article will tell you what you need to know. PRICING AND FEATURES The iPhone 14 comes in four varieties: iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The smallest ‘mini’ size seen previously has been replaced by a non-Pro 6.7‑inch ‘Plus’ model. The standard iPhone 14 models feature modest improvements over the iPhone 13, including…

A pple’s smallest iPad was given a substantial facelift at the end of 2021. The 6th-generation iPad mini sports a complete redesign with a bigger display, Touch ID on the power button, USB C instead of Lightning, and an upgraded front camera. This represented the first major change to the design since the iPad mini was first introduced back in 2012. The mini celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2022 without an update, but a new iPad mini 7th generation is rumoured to be in the works. Here’s what we know. RELEASE DATE Rumours of the iPad mini’s release date have been tricky to pin down, but we can get some insight from when the last few models made their debuts: iPad mini 6th gen: September 2021 iPad mini 5th gen:…

Judged by specifications alone, you’d think the Earfun Air S true wireless earbuds would cost substantially more than their list price. They use Bluetooth 5.2, support the aptX and AAC codecs for higher-resolution audio, promise active noise cancellation (ANC) to reduce ambient environmental noise, and are rated to last six hours on a charge. Wise shoppers, however, know not to buy a product based on specifications alone. The good news is that these affordable buds deliver the essentials: They’re handsomely designed and comfortable to wear. They’re also capable musical performers – at least when you’re indoors. In a relatively sedate setting, the Air S deliver well-articulated sound with whistle-clean highs, a warm and willing midrange, and a reasonably hefty, reasonably well-defined bottom end. Wear them outdoors, and their performance falls…

After several years of antitrust disputes and investigations across multiple sectors and nations, things are looking up for Apple in the US, where political factors may mean the company escapes further regulation for this year at least. CNBC reports (fave.co/40oQtFJ) that Apple, along with fellow tech giants Amazon and Google, is likely to get a “reprieve” because Republican leadership is losing its appetite for the fight to impose strict antitrust regulations. This is partly based on comments from Ken Buck (R-CO), a long-time critic of the big tech companies who was passed over for the position as chair of the Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust. “I don’t think Speaker McCarthy, Chairman Jordan or Chairman Massie are advocates for the antitrust, pro-competition solution to the Big Tech problem,” he said in an…

It seems as though everyone but Apple is jumping on the AI bandwagon, but according to a report, that might not be the case for very long. As uncovered by 9to5Mac (fave.co/3z8oPAH) in the tvOS 16.4 beta, Apple is testing new language generation AI capabilities for Siri. The technology, code-named ‘Bobcat’, is very limited in scope right now, but could eventually expand to greater capabilities and devices. A recent New York Times report (fave.co/3z717oy) explained how the original trio of AI assistants – Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa – are very limited in their capabilities and have been soundly surpassed by generative AI based on large language models like ChatGPT. ChatGPT’s capabilities have captured the imagination of the tech community and, together with generative AI like Midjourney, Dall-E, and Stable…

Of the big Apple events of the year, WWDC is the most reliable: In each of the past 16 Junes, like clockwork, Apple has held a big get-together for its developer partners and announced a raft of important software updates. The September iPhone launch and the March/April spring event seem almost unpredictable by comparison. Over the following pages we list the major announcements (and some of the smaller titbits) you can expect to hear about at WWDC 2023 this June. Some of these – updates to the five big Apple operating systems, most obviously – are as predictable as the timing of the event. But we reckon Apple will spring a few surprises too. We don’t yet know when WWDC 2023 will kick off, but 5 June is a strong…

Picking out an iPhone used to be easier – just get the newest one with all the storage you can afford. We still recommend buying as much storage as you can afford, but the choice of which iPhone to get it on isn’t quite so simple. Apple currently sells eight iPhone models, four of which launched last autumn, one in spring 2022, two from 2021 and one from 2020. Plus, you can still buy older refurbished models from the Apple Refurbished Store and elsewhere. Apple offers all this choice because, quite simply, different people have different priorities. Apple’s latest iPhone line-up includes the iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, which it sells alongside the iPhone 13, 13 mini, SE (3rd gen) and 12. The ‘best’ iPhone…

We’ve seen multiple rumours and supposed leaked CAD designs now that show Apple is about to change up the left side of your iPhone. Well, assuming you buy an iPhone 15 Pro. On the higher-end iPhones, the up and down buttons are being replaced by a single volume button, and the mute switch we’ve had on iPhones since the beginning will now also be a button. These are apparently going to be solid-state buttons that don’t actually depress. Just like the Touch ID modules on iPhone SE, the trackpads on MacBooks, or the virtual buttons on the stems of AirPods Pro, these buttons will actually just be touchsensitive areas connected to Taptic Engine haptics that imitate the feel of a click when pressed, even though nothing ever moves. It’s an…

Apple and the iPhone are always in the news, but lately, it seems like it’s been for all the wrong reasons. Over the past week or so, many stories have painted the iPhone as a security risk and Apple as sneakily throttling charging speeds. None of those things are happening. Here’s the truth: 1. iOS 16 ISN’T SLOWING DOWN CHARGING SPEEDS Apple introduced a new feature in iOS 16.1 called Clean Energy Charging that seeks to limit the impact of your iPhone on the environment by ‘selectively charging when lower carbon-emission electricity is available’. This feature has been enabled by default on all iOS 16 iPhones since October but a few people just noticed it last week and made a bunch of noise about it on Twitter. People lost their…

While everyone is expecting Apple to switch from Lightning to USB-C when it releases the iPhone 15 later this year, a new report suggests it might not be the only USB-C product to make an appearance in 2023. According to Ming-Chi Kuo (fave.co/3nrKYri), Apple will also launch a USB-C version of the second-gen AirPods Pro Charging Case. Kuo reports that the new case, which aligns with the model number that was spotted in the iOS 16.4 code, will ship in “2Q23-3Q23”, or between April and September. That means it could arrive alongside the iPhone 15 at the fall event and begin shipping in mid-September. Before the 2nd gen model arrived, Apple previously updated the AirPods Pro case with MagSafe charging in October 2021. The new case isn’t expected to bring…

When Campfire Audio designed its Orbit earbuds, the headphone company didn’t veer from the solitary path it has blazed in a crowded personal audio market. These in-ear monitors sound incredible, look weird, and aren’t engineered to tick all the boxes the competition’s marketing departments have deemed critical to success. What you get with the Orbit are earbuds that sound far more expensive than they are, but include none of the active noise cancellation, extensive customization, or high-quality phone call features you’d expect at their price. These are designed for listening to music, full stop. Campfire Audio makes some of the most highly regarded and expensive wired earphones on the market. They’re known for their aggressively funky design sense as well as a playful sense of themselves as a lifestyle brand.…

Apple’s mixed-reality headset, which following numerous delays is cautiously expected to launch later this year, would arrive considerably later than that if the company’s designers got their way. According to a new report, the Cupertino design team warned Tim Cook that the headset project was not ready for a launch in 2023, but was ignored. The Financial Times (fave.co/3Kb7ddW), citing two anonymous sources “familiar with Apple’s decision-making”, reports that conflicting ideas of how and when to launch the company’s first AR/VR product led to a schism at Apple: the operations team wanted to ship as soon as possible, but the design team preferred to wait and launch a lighter and sleeker version several years down the line. Tim Cook, according to the FT, sided with operations “and overruled the early…

Artificial intelligence continues to be the latest buzzworthy buzzword floating around the tech industry. (Sorry, blockchain and NFTs, your 15 minutes are up.) And though Apple has plenty of ways that it already leverages machine learning to power up its technologies, it’s hard to deny that there are some places where the company could still benefit from jumping on this latest bandwagon. So it’s interesting to hear a report in the New York Times (fave.co/3z717oy) that Apple engineers are actively looking into language-generating AI, similar to the systems that underlie chatbots like ChatGPT, for a number of applications. And a follow-up report by 9to5Mac that confirmed the tech, code-named ‘Bobcat’, is already being tested for tvOS 16.4 beta (see page 13). How could this technology be used in Apple’s products?…

It has been almost half a year since the release of the iPhone 14 Plus, and since Apple is refreshing the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus with a new yellow colour, and we didn’t test and review the iPhone 14 Plus upon release, this felt like a good time to check in on it. In general, what applies to the iPhone 14 applies to the 14 Plus. It’s the same phone, only larger. The larger battery makes it last longer, but it is otherwise just a choice about the phone/display size that’s best for you. This is a good phone and a decent upgrade (especially if you’re coming from a model at least two or three years old), but it’s sort of hard to recommend. Starting at £949, it’s £150…

As we’ve already seen, Apple has launched its latest ‘new’ iPhone – if by ‘new’, of course, one means ‘yellow’. But that’s not uncommon for the company, which has taken to adding a new shade to its phones about halfway through the model year. Still, if you’re waiting for a truly new iPhone to hit the market, you’ve got another six months to go. This means, naturally, that the rumours for the upcoming iPhone – the new, new iPhone, if you will – are starting to pick up. But is this year’s update likely to be a major change from its predecessor? Or is this just going to be on par with a yellow iPhone 14? Let’s take a run through what will likely be some of the more significant…

Apple is gearing up for the launch of the iPhone 15 later this year, and that includes the ecosystem of accessories that will accompany the new handsets. One of the most important of these will be the official 20-watt USB-C charger. An analyst has claimed Apple is anticipating a surge in demand because the iPhone 15 won’t be able to fast-charge without it. Ming-Chi Kuo, one of the most widely read Apple analysts, today posted a brief article on Medium (fave.co/42FCDAt) discussing Apple’s expected to transition from Lightning to USB-C ports on its late-2023 smartphones, and the effect on accessories sales. Apple, he says, is “optimistic about strong replacement demand for 20-watt USB-C chargers following the switch to USB-C for the iPhone 15 series”, and he expects 30 to 40…

Like so many of us, the iPhone SE peaked several years ago. The high point came in 2020, when its second-gen model secured the rare distinction, here and here, of being given gushing 4.5-star reviews by two separate iPad & iPhone User editors. It was a simple and compelling deal: compromise on an older design, and in return, you get superb performance at a bargain price. With its mildly retro looks the 2020 SE wasn’t for everyone, but for those on a budget, it was well worth a recommendation. “Not Apple’s best iPhone,” wrote my colleague Jason Cross, “but its best value by a mile”. As is often the case with later entries in popular series, the problem is that the maker forgot what made it popular. Customers liked the combination…

AirPods have been a huge success for Apple, but now the market has many earbuds that are just as good (or better), and Apple lead isn’t what it used to be. So Apple needs to evolve the AirPods, and according to a new report, health, not music, will be the next area for innovation. In the paid section of his latest Power On newsletter (fave.co/3ZhaQDu), Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman predicts that AirPods will be upgraded with the “ability to get hearing data of some sort” within the next two years. Gurman cites the Live Listen feature already in AirPods, which uses the iPhone’s microphone to capture audio that is then fed to the listener, but points out that this is not an FDA-approved feature. According to his report, that could change…