The USB Implementers Forum introduced a version 2.1 update to the USB Type-C specification. We could see the standard support power levels of up to 240W.
Cables supporting 240 watts will have additional requirements to accommodate the new levels. And USB-IF will require the cables to bear specific icons “so that end users will be able to confirm visually that the cable supports up to…240W,” USB-IF said in the specification document.
Apple Watch music fans who use Spotify and/or Tidal can now download tracks and listen to them via the wearable. (The feature is already available with Apple Music.) iMore summed up the recent developments.
Tidal says the app will bring music streaming and playback control to Apple Watch independent of your iPhone, and you can even listen offline, downloading your favorite songs for playback anywhere. Spotify added the same feature to its app earlier this week. Spotify is today rolling out downloads to Apple Watch so that users can listen to content without their phone.
Apple is looking to make the glass used for the iPhone’s display thinner. That’s according to a patent spotted by AppleInsider.
In a patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday titled “Insert molding around glass members for portable electronic devices,” Apple says you can have the same glass cover that can stick out from the rest of the enclosure like curved glass, but while also maintaining the thinness of the main glass sections across the screen. Apple’s solution is to incorporate a glass structure around the edge of where the glass cover will sit. This glass section acts as an intermediary between the main enclosure and the thin glass cover.
We have a deal on the Hampshire iPad Pro (11″) and iPad Air (10.9″) sleeve. This sleeve is made from Merino Wool felt and leather, and it features a pocket and a loop for your Apple Pencil, too. It’s also designed to hold the Magic Keyboard with your iPad, and the front flap closes with a magnetic clasp. It’s $79.99 through our deal.
Dolphin is an emulator for two recent Nintendo video game consoles: the GameCube and the Wii. In a blog post the team talked about getting it to run on an M1 Mac.
Using the Rosetta 2 translation layer with Dolphin’s x86-64 JIT, the M1 easily ran most games at full speed and handily outran like-class Intel Macs. The experience wasn’t entirely smooth due to jitter from Jitting a JIT, yet the processor proved itself more than capable of handling Dolphin.
We have a great deal today! It’s for Setapp, MacPaw’s app subscription service that gives you access to more than 210 solid Mac apps. I’m a Setapp subscriber, and I love it. The video below gives you a good overview of the service. The deal is for a 1-year subscription for $69, 42% off the regular price. It’s for new users only, and if you aren’t already a Setapp subscriber, you should check it out.
There was much excitement when Apple announced a new Siri Remote with the updated Apple TV 4K. However, AppleInsider confirmed reports of issues with various gestures.
The update to the Apple TV introduced a new design of Siri Remote that uses a circular trackpad, as well as a new gesture that turns the trackpad into a large scroll wheel. By using a circular motion around the edge of the trackpad, users can scrub forward and back through content. However, posts to Twitter and Reddit show users trying out the gesture but getting unexpected results. Even using the tap and hold method, waiting for the proper user interface affirmation of the gesture, one complete circuit of the trackpad scrubs through a video timeline in one direction, then returns it back to where it was previously.
Our friends at Stack Commerce let us know that our deal for Scrivener 3 for Mac is coming to an end. Scrivener 3 is Latte & Literature’s excellent writing software, software I have personally used to complete a novel, write short stories, write and organize query letters, synopsis keep research notes and character details. I’ve also used it to output samples and manuscripts to ebook formats, Word docs, and a whole lot more. I love Scrivener. I mean, I totally adore this software and recommend it to anyone who is serious about writing. Scrivener 3 for Mac is just $29.99 through our deal. Snap it up while it lasts.
Snap, the firm behind Snapchat, announced a new iOS app called Story Studio that will launch later this year. It will provide editing tools, including AR Lenses that are designed specifically for mobile editing and vertical videos.
The app will pull data from Snapchat and its new Spotlight feature, more familiarly recognized as its TikTok competitor, to help people figure out how and what to make. They can look through Snapchat insights, like what’s trending on the app across sounds, hashtags, and lenses. Lenses will be built directly into Story Studio, as well as Snapchat Sounds and stickers, so editors can add those. Of course, like most other video editing apps, users can trim their videos and edit frame by frame. They can then share directly to Snapchat through a built-in button, or download their work to publish in other apps. Notably, content made in Story Studio won’t include a watermark, meaning if it’s published on other platforms, like Instagram’s Reels, it won’t be demoted by the algorithm.
Photographer Austin Mann recently published a review of the M1 iPad Pro, specifically in how it can be used in photography.
As any photographer knows, one of the most time-consuming parts of the photo creation process is culling through thousands of images, making selects, and editing the images. Thanks to the M1 chip, faster internal storage, and a few other improvements, the new iPad Pro with M1 is the fastest image sorting tool I’ve ever used.
The U.S. Treasury Department wants new rules [PDF] to make it easier to track how cryptocurrency moves around. Businesses would also be required to report cryptocurrency transactions above US$10,000 to the IRS.
According to the report, the IRS collects 99 percent of taxes due on wages, but that number is estimated to be as low as 45 percent on non-labor income, a discrepancy that hugely benefits high earners with “less visible” income sources. The Treasury calls virtual currency, which has some reporting requirements but still operates mostly out of sight in regulatory grey areas, a particular challenge.
Ultimately, I think this is good for cryptocurrency because it gains legitimacy with moves like this.
Google Chrome is to get a new ‘Follow’ feature. As TechCrunch noted, it’s not quite an RSS reader… but it’s pretty close.
In Chrome, users will soon see a ‘Follow’ feature for sites that support RSS and the browser’s New Tab page will get what is essentially a (very) basic RSS reader — I guess you could almost call it a “Google Reader.” Now we’re not talking about a full-blown RSS reader here. The New Tab page will show you updates from the sites you follow in chronological order, but it doesn’t look like you can easily switch between feeds, for example. It’s a start, though.
We have a deal on PhiGolf WGT Edition, a mobile and home smart golf simulator that comes with a Swing Stick. PhiGolf WGT Edition is an entertaining golf simulator where you control the gameplay with your real golf swing. It works with an iPhone or Android device, and comes with a Swing Stick and a Swings sensor. It’s $249, but coupon code GOLF10 brings it down to $190 at checkout.
Lux, the company that makes the Halide and Specter camera apps, announced on Tuesday Halide for iPad.
We did bring all of the powerful features from iPhone, though: You can shoot RAW with your iPad, apply Instant RAW, view images and extensive metadata in detail in the reviewer, access our powerful Depth mode, and much more. Tons of refinements, design details and tidbits were added and changed to be great on the big screen, and we can’t wait for you to discover them all.
LastPass by LogMeIn announced on Wednesday that it enhanced its mobile authenticator app and integrates with VPN providers Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, and OpenVPN for businesses. However, the authenticator app is available to all LastPass users.
With this update, the LastPass Authenticator will offer a refreshed user interface that now offers search functionality to reduce user complexity and streamline the authentication experience.
On Monday, the New York Times published an investigative piece about Apple’s relationship with the Chinese government, and how it has to comply with its laws there.
Internal Apple documents reviewed by The New York Times, interviews with 17 current and former Apple employees and four security experts, and new filings made in a court case in the United States last week provide rare insight into the compromises Mr. Cook has made to do business in China. They offer an extensive inside look — many aspects of which have never been reported before — at how Apple has given in to escalating demands from the Chinese authorities.
We have a deal on the Foldable Flat Metal Laptop Stand by Fescony. It comes with 6 adjustable handles and soft pads for finding the right viewing angle for you. It’s $21.99 through our deal, and as you can see in the photo, it works with laptops and iPads, too.
Endel is an app that is meant to help users focus, sleep, and relax. Apple published an interview with one of its co-founders, CEO Oleg Stavitsky, in which he described the importance of music and art to the company and its products.
The unexpected makeup of Endel’s founding team — which Stavitsky emphasizes is more of an artist collective than a traditional app development team — provided a certain synergy around the power of sound. The collective’s first foray into app development was BUBL, a suite of digital art apps for kids blending abstract design, sound, and a carefully crafted user interface, launched on the App Store in 2013. “They almost looked like Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings that sort of came to life,” he says. “I was always fascinated with the correlation of color, form, and sound,” Stavitsky says. “That has everything to do with Kandinsky, who is one of my favorite painters, and then at the same time, with the minimalist composers of the ’70s, like Brian Eno, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich. And so even for our BUBL apps, we built a lot of technology that would generate musical composition in real time, depending on what someone was doing in the app.”
It turns out that no AirPods will be able to play lossless audio when the feature arrives on Apple Music. This includes the US$549 AirPods Max, even when they are using a wired connection, The Verge reported.
“Lossless audio is not supported on AirPods, any model,” an Apple spokesperson said by email. “AirPods Max wired listening mode accepts analog output sources only. AirPods Max currently does not support digital audio formats in wired mode.” It makes complete sense that the AirPods and AirPods Pro have no way of playing lossless audio. They’re totally wireless, and Apple supports the AAC codec over Bluetooth. AAC sounds plenty good, but it’s nowhere near the bit rate of CD-quality or high-resolution tracks. To do any better, Apple would need to come up with some new wireless codec — its own version of Sony’s LDAC, sort of — or make these things play music over Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth. None of that is happening today or by June when Apple Music will start offering lossless. Things are a little more complicated with the AirPods Max, which can be plugged into audio sources with a cable. However, it turns out that even if you have Apple’s $35 Lightning-to-3.5mm cable plugged into a device that’s streaming lossless Apple Music tracks, you’re not going to hear the full audio fidelity of the source.
We have a deal on the 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad. With 3 wireless charging coils, you can can charge you Apple Watch, AirPods, and iPhone at the same time (or any Qi-enabled phone). It’s powered through USB-C, and it’s $32.99 through our deal.
The ‘Charlie Bit my Finger’ video joining the NFT action, The Verge reported. One of YouTube’s most famous and popular videos, it will be deleted after the auction. (The title of the clip has even changed to reflect this.)
At the end of the auction, which will begin on May 22nd, the original video will be deleted from YouTube forever, according to a press release, where it currently has over 880 million views. The auction will kick off on the video’s 14th anniversary. Since NFTs exploded onto the cultural landscape earlier this year, we’ve seen plenty of early-to-mid 2000s memes being sold on the blockchain, with many of them fetching higher prices than I would’ve ever have imagined… Seeing these numbers, some people (including myself) have snidely said something along the lines of “why would you pay that much for something that’s not actually scarce? I can see Nyan Cat on the internet whenever I like.” Deleting one of the most well-known videos from YouTube does at least somewhat solve that argument, since whoever ends up with the NFT will actually be able to lay claim to something scarce.
Cloudflare wants to kill CAPTCHAs and replace them with security keys like YubiKey.
Based on our data, it takes a user on average 32 seconds to complete a CAPTCHA challenge. There are 4.6 billion global Internet users. We assume a typical Internet user sees approximately one CAPTCHA every 10 days.
This very simple back of the envelope math equates to somewhere in the order of 500 human years wasted every single day — just for us to prove our humanity.
Since the introduction of the M1 chip to various iPad models, there has been lots of talk about replacing iPadOS with macOS. One person who is not a fan of this idea is Ed Hardy. He explained why at Cult of Mac.
No matter that Macs and iPads run on the same chip. macOS isn’t designed for a touchscreen. Apple would need to redesign the operating system to run on a tablet, and devs would need to alter third-party applications, too. And that would anger people using non-touchscreen laptops and desktops. Plus, people happy with the iPad now wouldn’t like the change either.
We have a deal on the Ultimate Charger, a 20,00mAh portable power bank that lets you charge up to three devices simultaneously, and that includes a MacBook. You can also charge the Ultimate Charger itself via USB-C, in addition to Lightning or micro USB. It also features an aluminum housing. It’s $149.99 through our deal.
