Remember when Apple discontinued the original HomePod and still sold the HomePod mini? The question at the time was “mini compared to what?” Apple later revived the HomePod with a second-gen model, restoring balance to the universe.

Now the iPad lineup is in a similar situation. Apple blasted the M4 iPad Pro with its Super Galactic Thinnifier 3000 Ray Gun, leaving the M2 iPad Air thicker than its pricier companion. In a world where Air means thin, the question is then “thin compared to what?” 

The answer exists in the annals of etymology.

Developer Michael Tigas, maker of Focused Work, has launched a new app for Mac, iPhone, and iPad called focusOS. This new app is designed to elevate your focus and productivity by eliminating distractions through a variety of different tools. The one I’m most excited about helps your Mac imitate the iPad’s one-app-at-a-time design.

In addition to revealing the latest customer satisfaction for smartphones, the 2024 ASCI study reveals how Americans feel about their wireless carrier. In an interesting twist, AT&T beat out T-Mobile and Verizon to claim the top spot again for major carriers. However, a value MVNO carrier handily beat them all.

When I tried Ray-Ban Meta glasses last week, I described the AI features as largely a gimmick at this point, but still making me feel excited for a future Apple Glasses product.

Several commenters noted that the glasses do somewhat better when given follow-up questions, and I tried out this feature on another walk, to reveal a mix of hits and misses. But what’s really missing at present is integration …

Last week at its iPad event, Apple demoed the future of Logic Pro when it previewed Logic Pro 2 for iPad. The new update leans heavily into AI-driven features, including powerful automatic stem-splitting and the ability to record a fully AI-built band.

These Logic Pro updates are now available on both iPad and Mac. Here are the details.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released its latest report on how consumers feel about their smartphones. After just edging out the competition last year, Apple’s iPhone has lost its title as the sole winner of the study.

Setapp Mobile launches as an invitation-only beta in the EU today, offering European iPhone owners a far easier way to get access to multiple apps for a single monthly subscription than the clunky US experience.

Even better, for the lucky ones given access to the early beta, it’s free for now …

The White House has announced steep increases in a number of Chinese import tariffs, raising the prospect of another trade war between the two countries.

The last time this happened, China directly threatened to use Apple as a bargaining chip in response to new tariffs imposed by the previous administration …

The trio of Apple TV+, Netflix and Peacock are to be packaged in a new streaming TV bundle option, as teased by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts at a conference today.

More details about the bundle offering will be revealed later this month, but Roberts promised a “vastly reduced” price compared to buying the three services separately.

The OLED screen is the headline feature of the shiny new iPad Pro, but it seems that a little more software tweaking may be needed. Testing by one reviewer found that the device struggles to display certain shades of blue.

Specifically, HDR highlights are blown out, appearing almost white, in a problem the report says is replicable on the 13-inch iPad Pro …

Both the new M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Pro, which were announced last week, come with a bunch of upgrades. They also come with exclusive new wallpapers that aren’t available for previous iPad models – but you can download them for any device right here.

If you haven’t yet watched yesterday’s OpenAI event, I highly recommend doing so. The headline news was that the latest GPT-4o model works seamlessly with any combination of text, audio, and video.

That includes the ability to ‘show’ the GPT-4o app a screen recording you are taking of another app – and it’s this capability the company showed off with a pretty incredible iPad AI tutor demo …

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In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Mike McNeil from Fleet about their new maintenance windows feature.

Update: The 11-inch iPad Pro’s new Magic Keyboard weighs 580 grams, according to a user who received theirs early. This is down from 601 grams for the previous model.

When Apple announced the new iPad Pro lineup last week, it also unveiled a new Magic Keyboard accessory that it touted as being “thinner and lighter” than its predecessor.

While Apple doesn’t share official weight specifications for iPad accessories, the first reviews of the M4 iPad Pro today confirm that the new Magic Keyboard is noticeably lighter.

The first iPad Pro reviews are here, and as we rounded up earlier today, they focus a lot on the new OLED displays, the M4 chip, and the limitations of iPadOS as a platform. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple marketing executive Tom Boger explained how the iPad compares to the Mac, and touched on whether Apple might ever release a touchscreen Mac.

Following the announcement of new iPads last week, the press has just published the first reviews for the M4 iPad Pro. We also now have reviews for the M2 iPad Air, and they praise the balance between having enough powerful hardware for a reasonable price.

Apple last week announced a new generation iPad Pro with the M4 chip, which is now available for pre-order. While the company says the new iPads will be officially launched on Wednesday, May 15, the press has already got their hands on the new iPad – and the first reviews praise the new OLED display but at the same time criticize things like price and software.

One of the updates with iOS 17.5 is a new, original word game from Apple called “Quartiles.” However, it’s not part of Apple Arcade and is actually found in the News app. Here’s how to find and play Quartiles in iOS 17.5.

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Apple has officially released iOS 17.5 with developers to the general public. The update brings a handful of new features and changes for iPhone users. Head below for everything we know right now.

Apple on Monday released iOS 17.5 to iPhone users. The update brings some new features to Apple News+ and also introduces Cross-Platform Tracking Detection – an anti-stalking feature announced last year in partnership with Google. Read on as we detail what this means and what changes now.

When it comes to smart assistant availability, Apple has taken a vastly different approach with Siri than Amazon has with Alexa. Whereas the latter assistant can come baked into a variety of non-Amazon smart devices, Apple has largely restricted Siri to its own first-party products. One exception came in late 2021 when ecobee added support for Siri in its SmartThermostat. Now, three years later, a second product has received Siri integration.

Update: Three weeks later, Meta has announced the feature alongside a new partnership with an airline. Original coverage from April 18 below…

Today I learned two things. First, apparently Meta Quest headsets don’t work on planes? I guess Apple knew to prioritize that feature for Vision Pro. And second, support is reportedly on the way. Add this to the list of ways competition from Vision Pro is making Meta Quest 3 a better product.