All things Apple

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Apple embraces the AI craze with its newly unleashed iPhone 16 lineup

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple on Monday charged into the artificial intelligence craze with a new iPhone lineup that marks the company’s latest attempt to latch onto a technology trend and transform it into a cultural phenomenon.

https://apnews.com/article/apple-iphone-16-artificial-intelligence-google-samsung-4f30bf40ad89793d80f8ac3a20f9e79c?

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Sluggish sales

Apple was counting on new artificial intelligence features to make the iPhone 16 a big hit. But despite several splashy launch events, early sales figures have been lukewarm. The company is hoping for a boost during the holiday season.

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Trying AI: Apple's personalized images

Images: Axios The latest crop of Apple Intelligence features, included in the public beta of iOS 18.2, offer those new to AI image generation a safe — and, yes, a bit sterile — opportunity to try out the technology, Axios' Ina Fried writes in her first-person "Prompt" review series. Why it matters: Apple may be slower to market than its AI rivals, but its devices tend to be where new technologies move beyond the early adopter crowd into everyone else's lives. The free update to the iPhone operating system, due for broad release next month, brings a second wave of Apple Intelligence tools, including ChatGPT integration. After downloading the public beta version of iOS 18.2 and getting off a waitlist, I spent the last couple of days creating various images using Genmoji and Image Playground. As with other elements of Apple Intelligence, the strength of these features is that they draw on personal data — in this case, letting me easily incorporate my actual friends and family into the creations. Sending our cat into space or putting a party hat on my mother-in-law was as simple as opening Image Playground and dragging together a couple of icons. There's also a text option to describe what you'd like to see. However, Apple's results often suffer from some of the same flaws as other early AI image-creation tools: its output feels shallow and soulless. 🤖 It's hard to get very personal here. Genmoji did a good job of creating an owl playing basketball and a penguin playing soccer. But it struggled when I asked it to show me with a sad face. Between the lines: Apple has cleverly managed to sidestep many of the pitfalls of image generation. Image Playground only supports cartoon and illustration styles that eliminate the risk of creating authentic-looking deepfakes, making it less vulnerable to being misused. Also, the images are largely limited to people's faces. The narrower frame means fewer chances to produce images that reflect bias or that can raise safety concerns. The bottom line: For many, Apple Intelligence will be their first experience with AI-based image generation, and Apple's choice of the "playground" label is apt — this feels like a safe and safely bounded space to try out new things. Keep reading.

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M3 vs. M4: How Does Apple's Latest Silicon Stack Up?

In May, at its 2024 iPad event, Apple, for the first time, launched its next-generation processor on the iPad Pro instead of a Mac laptop or desktop. It was an unusual opportunity for the iPad Pro to lead the way with the new M4 platform. However, it was only a matter of time before this chip, as well as upper-tier M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, arrived inside new Mac systems.

https://www.pcmag.com/comparisons/apple-m4-and-m3-cpus-compared-whats-better-in-the-latest-apple-silicon?

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How to Right-Click on a Mac Without a Mouse

Right-clicking in Windows is simple, but what if you have a Mac? Here's how to Control-click.

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/no-mouse-how-to-right-click-on-a-mac?

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Apple on Track to Finally Launch Its Own Modems in 2025

Apple is finally going to start producing the modem chips inside its iPhones in-house, after years of delays, Bloomberg reports.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-to-produce-modem-chips-for-iphones-in-house?

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Apple lawsuit

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle a proposed class action lawsuit claiming that its voice-activated Siri assistant violated users' privacy. Mobile device owners complained that Apple routinely recorded their private conversations after they activated Siri unintentionally, and disclosed these conversations to third parties such as advertisers. Voice assistants typically react when people use "hot words" such as "Hey, Siri." Class members, estimated in the tens of millions, may receive up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, such as iPhones and Apple Watches. Apple denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.

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Apple Denies Sharing Siri Data With Advertisers After $95M Settlement

After agreeing to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed Siri recordings were shared with advertisers, Apple has now issued a statement on how it handles Siri data.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-denies-sharing-siri-data-with-advertisers-after-95m-settlement?

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Apple unveils a souped-up and more expensive version of its lowest priced iPhone

Apple has released a sleeker and more expensive version of its lowest priced iPhone in an attempt to widen the audience for a bundle of artificial intelligence technology that the company has been hoping will revive demand for its most profitable product lineup.

https://apnews.com/article/apple-low-cost-iphone-artificial-intelligence-1fc43f8b839d7995763fbe939f5de290?

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New iPhone

Apple launched its budget-friendly iPhone 16e for pre-sale in key markets today. The new smartphone, which costs $599 and is equipped with artificial intelligence, came in the same week that Chinese rival Huawei rolled out its flagship trifold phone in a rare launch event. Analysts say the mid-range pricing strategy aims to woo price-sensitive customers in countries like China and India and boost adoption in lower-end markets. But on a global scale, Apple still faces an uphill battle in luring new customers. Its smartphone sales have declined since peaking in 2022, and its global shipment share has fallen from 19.3% in 2023 to 18.2% last year, according to Counterpoint Research.

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Apple updates MacBook Air with faster chips, cuts price

Apple on Wednesday announced an M4-powered MacBook Air with a $100 price drop. It also refreshed the Mac Studio with faster chips.

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/05/apple-macbook-air-mac-studio-faster-cheaper?

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🍎 Delays for Apple's AI

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

Apple's acknowledgment that AI enhancements to Siri are taking longer than expected has increased concern that the iPhone maker is falling further behind in what is shaping up to be a tectonic shift for the tech industry, Axios AI+ author Ina Fried writes. Why it matters: When it announced Apple Intelligence last June, Apple was already trailing major competitors in outlining its AI strategy. Apple confirmed earlier this month that the enhanced Siri was taking longer than expected, with features that were due imminently now expected to arrive "in the coming year." 👓 Between the lines: While Apple has shipped the first pieces of Apple Intelligence, what has yet to arrive are the components that really made the strategy compelling — the notion of combining AI smarts with personal data in a secure and privacy-preserving way. The features that Apple has delivered — custom emoji, Image Playground, writing help and ChatGPT integration — fit more in the nice-to-have bucket. And in some cases, those features still lag behind what's available from others. The features that are delayed are the ones that generated the most excitement during last year's demo. For example, Apple showed Siri answering "When does my mom's flight land?" by drawing upon various pieces of knowledge across the system within multiple apps.

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🍎 Apple's new tricks

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

Apple is releasing a new iPhone 17 "Air" that will be about a fifth thinner than current devices, Bloomberg's Apple expert Mark Gurman writes (gift link). Why it matters: The new model amounts to "a new beginning for the iPhone." Gurman writes that Apple re-engineered the inner workings of the iPhone to avoid the worse battery life that would normally accompany a skinnier device. It will represent "the beginning of a sea change for Apple" that could eventually include an iPhone without a charging port. 🎧 Also from Apple: The company is "planning a new AirPods feature that allows the earbuds to live-translate an in-person conversation into another language," Gurman reports.

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Apple rolls out iOS 18.4 with new AI tools

Apple's latest iOS 18.4 update brings new Apple Intelligence features, an updated photo app, and a fresh batch of emoji.

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/31/iphone-update-apple-intelligence-emoji?

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📱 Apple said it plans to source more iPhones from India in response to Trump's tariffs on China, The Wall Street Journal reports (gift link).

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Apple Could Move All US iPhone Assembly to India in 2026

The iPhone maker is reportedly already in talks with some of the world’s largest manufacturers, like Foxconn and the Tata Group, about making the transition.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-could-move-all-us-iphone-assembly-to-india-in-2026?

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Want a U.S.-made iPhone? It'll cost ya

Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios President Trump's threat to Apple — build iPhones for Americans in America, or else pay a new 25% tariff — risks massive price increases, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes. 🙅‍♀️ Why it matters: No one wants to pay two or three times more for smartphones, and Apple experts doubt a quick transition to U.S. manufacturing is possible. There's no easy way to estimate what manufacturing an iPhone in America would cost, or what consumers would pay. 💵 But one oft-quoted analyst expects the price would have to be double or triple today's figure. "For U.S. consumers, the reality of a $1,000 iPhone being one of the best-made consumer products on the planet would disappear," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote earlier this year. 💰 He suggested making iPhones domestically would boost their price tag to $3,500. 🧑‍⚖️ Reality check: There are legal questions about whether a president can unilaterally tariff a single company's product if it doesn't make that product where he wants. And just because Trump makes a threat on Truth Social doesn't mean it'll happen. 📉 Yes, but: The mere suggestion of new tariffs was enough to scare investors into selling Apple shares, which fell 2% this morning and are down more than 21% this year amid Trump's jabs. Go deeper.

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One Tech Tip: These are the apps that can now avoid Apple’s in-app payment system

LONDON (AP) — Apple users are starting to get ways out of the iPhone maker’s so-called “walled garden.”

https://apnews.com/article/apple-iphone-spotify-kindle-fortnite-f707519234712dcccd418f72e6361674?

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I've Reviewed Mac OSes for Decades. These Are the 12 Features Apple Should Add to the Next MacOS

We don't know what it will be called, but at WWDC on June 9, Apple will reveal the latest version of macOS. Based on my long history with the operating system, here are a dozen features that would make it better than ever.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/mac-os-wishlist-wwdc-2025

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Apple to open its AI models to app builders

Apple on Monday announced that developers would be able to use Apple Intelligence models for their own apps, even as critics worry the company is falling further behind in AI.

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/09/apple-software-ai-rebrand?

🍎 Apple's missing mojo

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Apple's modest AI updates — announced yesterday at its developer conference — did little to shake the sense that the iPhone maker is still finding its footing in AI as rivals charge ahead, Axios' Ina Fried reports from Apple Park in Cupertino, Calif. Why it matters: AI is widely seen as the largest technology shift in decades, and could easily serve as an inflection point where existing leaders are dethroned and new ones crowned. One year after unveiling an expansive vision for personalized AI that it has largely failed to deliver, the iPhone maker focused on a smaller set of tweaks and enhancements to Apple Intelligence. Some of yesterday's announcements, such as live translation, are useful additions already offered on rival devices from Google, Samsung and Microsoft. In a handful of other areas, including image generation, Apple is improving its offering by drawing more heavily on partner OpenAI. Attendees watch a demo of iOS 26, the next version of the software that powers the iPhone, at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday in Cupertino, Calif. Photo: Jeff Chiu/AP 🔬 Between the lines: The things Apple didn't say loom larger than the improvements it did announce. Most glaringly, the company didn't offer a concrete timeline for the improved Siri that was originally promised last year.

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Apple Confirms End of Support for Intel Macs After macOS Tahoe

Apple's upcoming macOS Tahoe is only supported on four Intel Macs. Starting next year, macOS updates will only come to Apple Silicon Macs.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-confirms-end-of-support-for-intel-macs-after-macos-tahoe?

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🍎 Apple under pressure to deliver hit iPhone

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

Disappointment in Apple's AI progress could put pressure on the company to deliver more compelling hardware, Axios' Ina Fried writes. Why it matters: The iPhone is critical to Apple's business, but also crucial for component makers and wireless carriers. Apple previewed iOS 26, the software that will power the next iPhone at its June developer conference. The signature features will be mostly cosmetic and unlikely to drive most consumers to upgrade. Meanwhile, the Apple Intelligence features it did introduce were modest and the Siri overhaul promised last year has been delayed. Several analysts this year have cut their iPhone sales forecasts, citing the delay. The big picture: Apple also faces headwinds that include growing economic uncertainty, the potential of higher tariffs and the industrywide trend of people keeping their phones longer. Keep reading ...