Apple’s traditional “Back to School” campaign is making a comeback this week for customers in the US and Canada, at least that’s what Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman said on Monday. The campaign typically offers either discounts or gifts for students and teachers buying a new Mac or iPad.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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The biggest star of WWDC this year was undoubtedly Apple Intelligence. Apple spent nearly half its presentation explaining the philosophy behind its own spin on AI, the features it would make possible, and the bright future ahead thanks to AI’s capabilities.

The Apple Intelligence story centered around three key products: the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Which has many wondering: what about Vision Pro? Apple Watch? HomePod?

I’m not too concerned about the Vision Pro and Apple Watch’s exclusions, as I suspect Apple has AI stories in the works there. But what about HomePod? Will the HomePod gain support for the new Siri? Might there be a new model in development?

With watchOS 11, Apple Watch users will get a bunch of new features, including health and fitness improvements, Live Activities, the Translate app, and new watch faces. But the watchOS 11 update also comes with another new feature that wasn’t mentioned by Apple at WWDC 2024 last week, and that’s the ability to change the default ringtone.

Apple has announced that it is no longer offering Apple Pay Later, the “buy now, pay later” service that launched in the United States last year. The change goes into effect starting today, Apple says. Existing users with open Apple Pay Later loans will still be able to manage them via the Wallet app.

In its place, Apple is focusing on new features coming globally to Apple Pay later this year, including the ability to access installment loan offerings from eligible credit or debit cards, as well as Affirm.

Car mounts for MagSafe are my favorite use case for wireless charging and Apple’s implementation. Thinking about going back to actually “docking” my iPhone in my car feels like going back to 2010. The ability to quickly snap your iPhone to a charger in your car for a quick top-off is a great use case for MagSafe. Today, I am looking at the new PITAKA MagEZ MagSafe car mount.

Last week Apple released the first beta for iOS 18, but it’s not done with iOS 17 just yet.

Today the first developer beta for iOS 17.6 was released, and it is available now for download. Also debuting are new betas for Apple’s other platforms: macOS 14.6, watchOS 10.6, iPadOS 17.6, and more.

USB-C/Thunderbolt display options have really expanded over the last couple of years. While Apple’s Pro Display XDR isn’t the best fit for most Mac users at $5,000+, it also offers the more affordable Studio Display. But there are also lots of solid choices from LG, Samsung, BenQ, and more. Here are the best USB-C/Thunderbolt displays with many available in the $400-$1,600 range.

Update 6/17/24: Samsung is running a limited-time promo with 38% off the 5K ViewFinity S9.

If you’re looking for a way to add 360-degree videos to your Apple Vision Pro, then the Insta360 X4 might be the easiest and most affordable way for you to do so. With this 8K action camera, you can easily shoot, convert, and send high-quality 360-degree video to Apple Vision Pro for watching with full immersion.

iOS 18 is one of the biggest software updates ever for the iPhone. Apple Intelligence is the headliner, but there are also powerful new customization tools and big changes to the apps you rely on every day, like Photos, Messages, and Notes.

A key productivity tool being improved this year is the Reminders app, which includes a variety of great new features coming in iOS 18 this fall.

Adobe is the latest target of the US Department of Justice’s recent wave of high-profile lawsuits. The company’s subscription cancellation practices are the specific target of the DOJ, which the government says is tantamount to ‘trapping’ users in subscriptions and has resulted in a formal lawsuit.

This week’s episode is all about WWDC 2024, with a primary focus on iOS 18. Fernando and Jeff discuss visionOS 2, their favorite iOS 18 features, and more.

9to5Mac Overtime is a weekly video-first podcast exploring fun and interesting observations in the Apple ecosystem, featuring 9to5Mac’s Fernando Silva & Jeff Benjamin. Subscribe to Overtime via Apple Podcasts. You can also watch this episode on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more.

Apple has big plans for the Apple Watch, ranging from new health features to a completely new design. Read on as we recap three things to expect from the upcoming Apple Watch as soon as later this year.

We learned that Apple Intelligence will require an A17 Pro chip or later at WWDC last week. And now that the iOS 18 beta is out in the wild, we’re seeing the first benchmarks for performance on the iPhone 15 Pro/Max. The new software significantly boosts Neural Engine performance with the iPhone 15 Pro Max being up to 25% faster for machine learning tasks.

Tobacco products in the US contain very blatant, obvious warning labels that outline their health risks. If the US Surgeon General has his way, this same strategy will soon be employed to combat the harm caused by social media apps.

An interesting piece suggests that Apple’s AI logo* – along with the new Siri icon – is intended to look friendly, unthreatening, and is deliberately non-anthropomorphic.

*Yeah, that could be Apple Artificial Intelligence, or Apple Apple Intelligence. Thanks, Tim.

Other companies appear to have set themselves the same goals with their AI offerings, hence all the simple, colorful graphics …

The Apple podcast transcription feature was officially launched in iOS 17.4, but the company says that it actually introduced a very limited version way back in 2018.

Apple says that it took so long to launch as a fully-fledged accessibility feature because the company wanted to make it universal, and to incorporate learnings from Apple Music lyrics …

Leaked images have revealed that a new Philips Hue Twilight bedside lamp is on the way. In addition to a standard angled lamp, there are separate LEDs at the rear which can be used to simulate sunrise and sunset.

Philips already released the Philips Hue Signe gradient lamp back in 2022, with bedside tables one of the suggested uses, but the Twilight appears to take a more focused approach to bedroom use …

The iOS 18 beta 1 has brought some of the promised new changes, but it doesn’t include Siri improvements, ChatGPT access, or many of the Apple Intelligence features (though there are a few exceptions).

Apple hasn’t revealed a precise timeline for each of the new features, likely wanting to avoid making promises it can’t keep, but there are some indications of what we can expect when …

In his latest note, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote that he believes the upcoming Apple Watch Series 10 will feature a thinner chassis and a larger display, compared to Apple Watch Series 9. What is perhaps most surprising is just how much bigger Kuo believes the screens are getting.

Kuo says the Watch will increase from the current 41mm and 45mm sizes to about 45mm and 49mm respectively. Remember, unlike other Apple devices, these sizes measure case height of the watch, not diagonal screen size. Naturally, a taller case also means a bigger display. For comparison, the current Apple Watch Ultra is also measured at 49mm case height.

In this initial hands-on walkthrough, I discuss 18 of my favorite new changes and features from the first iOS 18 beta for iPhone. I explain why you should be excited about new long-awaited updates to the iOS Calendar app, Reminders, Notes, Messages, and more. Watch our hands-on video, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more hands-on iOS 18 coverage.

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For years, Apple provided its built-in Keychain password management tool hidden within the Settings app. This tool allowed passwords to be automatically generated and saved in the Passwords section, but it could often be cumbersome when a user needs to quickly manage particular logins.

Now, in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, passwords have broken away into its own dedicated app called Passwords. Apple hopes this change will make managing credentials more convenient for its users, but one question is on everyone’s mind right now: Does it offer enough to replace paid password managers? Let’s talk about it.