Articles about Apple

There are many power banks on the market these days, and for the most part, they are all very similar. These devices are essentially big batteries with USB ports designed to charge up your smartphone multiple times when on the go. When you can't find an outlet, these power banks can be a godsend, but also, they can be a critical tool during a power outage. If you live in an area that gets hit by hurricanes and/or tropical storms, you should absolutely own at least one of them -- a few if you have a family.

Today, Satechi unveils a new such product that is very Apple-focused. Called "Quatro Wireless Power Bank," it has a dedicated Apple Watch charger, Qi wireless charging (perfect for compatible AirPods), and both a USB-A and USB-C port. Not only is it designed with Apple devices in mind, but its overall aesthetics seem inspired by the iPhone-maker too. It features a matte black design, but the outer rim is surrounded by a beautiful shiny metal. It weighs 0.58 lbs and its dimensions are 6.4 x 2.9 x 0.7 inches.

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As of September 1st, all publicly trusted TLS certificates must have a lifespan of 398 days or less -- roughly half the previous life.

According to security experts from Venafi, a provider of machine identity management, this latest change is an indication that machine identity lifetimes will continue to shrink.

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President Theodore Roosevelt is largely responsible for kick-starting the national parks movement in America, and we should all be thankful for his thoughtfulness and focus on conservationism. Sadly, these parks are often under attack, most recently by the Trump Administration. Of course, it shouldn't be surprising that a real estate mogul would be a threat to protected land. Hell, if Trump had his way, the national parks would probably be filled with tacky condominiums!

If you want to help protect these parks, all you have to do is buy an Apple product! You see, starting on 8/24 (today) and running through 8/30, the iPhone-maker will donate $10 to the National Park Foundation for every purchase made using Apple Pay at a physical Apple Store, on Apple.com, or with the official Apple Store app. Yeah, depending on how you look at it, they are essentially donating your money and taking the credit. This is to celebrate the 104th birthday of the USA's national parks, which occurs on 8/25. Money aside, the company is also helping people learn more about these national treasures.

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Apple's Mac Pro (2019) desktop computer is beautiful, elegant, powerful... and very expensive. For the Apple faithful, overpaying for hardware is par for the course. After all, if you love macOS, you don't really have much of a choice beyond building a Hackintosh. But even some of the biggest Mac fans balked at the $700 asking price for the Apple Mac Pro Wheels Kit -- a set of four wheels to make the desktop more portable in an office setting. Seriously, folks, the company charges $175 per wheel!

Thankfully, popular Apple-focused third-party seller OWC has decided to roll out (pun intended) a more affordable set of wheels. Called "Rover Pro," it is currently just $199. That is only $50 per wheel, which is much more reasonable. Best of all, unlike the Apple Mac Pro Wheels Kit which requires a special flexible screwdriver (that you must buy separately), OWC's offering utilizes a toolless design.

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When all of your devices are Apple, you can live quite happily knowing that everything works well together. When I owned a MacBook Pro, for instance, it was wonderful to get my text messages and phone calls on my laptop -- I didn't need to run and find my iPhone. The same goes for iPad -- I can get my iPhone calls and texts on the Apple tablet too. When my friends and family are nearby, and they use iPhone, I can easily share things with them using AirDrop.

If you aren't familiar, AirDrop uses a mixture of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to allow you to wirelessly share things like files, photos, URLs, and more with other nearby Apple devices -- no need for an internet connection. This isn't just helpful for sharing with others, but with yourself too. When you want to transfer photos from your iPhone to your Mac, for example, you can use AirDrop instead of a USB to lightning cable. Many have wanted Google to copy AirDrop, and now, the search giant has thankfully done exactly that. Called "Nearby Share," it is coming to both Android devices and Chromebooks.

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The future of computing is ARM, not x86. Apple is once again a trailblazer, as it is eventually transitioning all of its Mac computers to its own ARM-based "Apple Silicon," ditching Intel entirely. True, Microsoft is also using ARM a bit with Windows, but that company's indecisive behaviors and previous failure with Windows RT has left consumers a bit nervous. Apple was correct to just pull off the band-aid and dive right into the ARM waters.

Well, mostly. Apple has a two-year plan to move Mac to ARM entirely, but in the interim, it will still sell Intel-based machines. In fact, today, Apple updates its popular 27-inch iMac, but it still uses old-school x86_64 Intel processors and not the new Apple Silicon. With that said, the 27-inch iMac can now be configured with a 10-core processor for the first time, and solid state drives are now standard -- you can even opt for an 8TB SSD. The webcam has been bumped up to 1080p, which is great for those working from home. It even gets the T2 Security Chip and improved speakers.

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Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were dubious that new Apple smartphones would hit stores this September like they often do. Then, more recently, there were several rumors that new iPhone 12 devices (which should have 5G compatibility) wouldn't hit stores until October.

Earlier today on a conference call, Apple CFO Luca Maestri confirmed these reports, saying "As you know, last year we started selling new iPhones in late September. This year, we project supply to be available a few weeks later." Many technology news websites were quick to say that Apple iPhone 12 was "delayed." Actually, that isn't true at all.

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Apple pays more attention to privacy protection issues than its competitors. Well-defined privacy policies and rather severe restrictions on what user information an app or extension can get make Apple products more secure for users.

However, from the perspective of transparency, everything was not so obvious for Apple. The latest announcement shows that the corporation is ready to take a few more steps towards increasing transparency in the field of privacy protection.

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Only once in my life did I own a Mac, and the damn thing broke. In 2016, I purchased a MacBook Pro (which I have since sold) and the display started having lines go across the bottom. Long story short, I brought the laptop to a local Apple Store for service and it was fixed. When I got there, they checked me in and walked me to a wooden box and told me to have a seat. Wait, what? I spent $2,000 on a laptop from one of the richest companies on Earth, and I couldn't get a proper chair? I chose to stand instead.

Fast forward to today, and Apple announces the opening of a new physical store in China. This new store replaces the company's original Apple Sanlitun and is twice the size. Apple boasts about how great the store is, but strangely, it shared the above photo of people once again sitting on wooden boxes. What the hell is going on here? Why does Apple hate chairs?

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Having reduced the performance of some iPhones with a new version of iOS, Apple agreed to pay compensation to those affected by the "batterygate" fiasco -- although the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing by the company.

There is a pot of up to $500,000,000 set aside for owners of qualifying devices affected by the throttling issue, and you'll have to file a claim if you want to get your hands on your share. Before you get too excited, individual payments are unlikely to be large, but here's how to claim what you're entitled to.

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We are in the middle of a pandemic, and lots of us are working from home these days. It is because of technological advances, such as the computer and internet, that so many can work remotely. Let us not forget the mighty webcam which allows our coworkers, friends, and family members to video chat with us. Hell, even doctors are seeing patients using video chat nowadays.

You know who else loves webcams? Hackers! Yes, it is possible for nefarious people to hack into your computer and access your webcam. Any hardware connected to the net can be hacked. And no, you cannot trust an activity light -- hackers can turn them off too. Look, no one wants to be watched by a stranger -- especially when naked or in some other embarrassing situation. Thankfully, something as simple as placing a piece of tape or a privacy shutter (such as this) over the webcam can thwart the bad guys in this regard (the microphone is another story). Unfortunately for those that own Apple laptops, the company is warning users against covering their webcam.

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There are many music streaming services these days, such as Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube Music. My favorite, however, is Apple Music. Why? Well, besides the excellent mobile interface, it has a very large library of music. Not to mention, the human-curated playlists are second to none. Plus, Apple Music finally has a web player now -- a much desired feature.

Another cool aspect of Apple Music is time-synced lyrics. When you are listening to some songs (not all), you can have the lyrics display on your device's screen -- timed to the music. It works great, and it is even an option on Apple TV, enabling you to have a karaoke-like sing-along with friends and family. Apple Music is no longer just an Apple-only affair though, as it is available on Android devices and some smart televisions too. Today, Samsung announces that the aforementioned Apple Music time-synced lyrics feature is finally available on its smart TVs.

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Want to know a little-discussed fact about Apple? Despite the company's historic excellence in design, it has never created a good mouse. It's true! Throughout the company's entire history, including today, all Apple mice have been terrible. With that said, its trackpads are absolutely brilliant, and they are still a class-leader. No Windows laptop has a better trackpad than a Mac.

If you like Mac computers but hate Apple mice, there is one excellent solution -- buy a third party mouse. You can never go wrong with a Logitech mouse, and today, the company launches an Apple variant of its popular MX Master 3. In addition, Logitech is launching two Apple-focused keyboards as well -- a Mac-optimized version of the MX Keys and the K380 for Mac Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard.

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The T2 chip included in more recent Macs helps to boost security in a number of ways. As well as preventing unsigned software from booting, the chip also secures the entire boot process and handles drive encryption.

But T2 chip can also cause headaches for owners of such machines. The security built into the chip forces users to perform some system repairs -- such as the Touch ID sensor -- with Apple rather than a third party. It can also cause huge problems when it comes to data recovery; that is, unless you're using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

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Readers have been asking me to comment on Apple’s decision, announced at last week’s World Wide Developers’ Conference, to start switching to Apple-designed ARM processors for its Macintosh computers. I usually don’t like to do second-day (or, in the case, second-week) stories unless I can add something new to the discussion. Oddly, I usually can and that’s the case here, where Apple’s move to ARM has a big-picture strategy component that is absolutely vital to the company’s continued success. It also doesn’t seem to be covered yet anywhere but here.

Forget all the talk about Apple moving to ARM because the chips are better than Intel’s or consume less power. You can even forget the idea that using its own chips allows Apple to be more secretive. While these points are all true, Apple would still be moving to ARM even if they weren’t. The switch is all about money, which comes down to Apple’s cost of goods on one hand and Apple’s market capitalization on the other.

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