Parker Ortolani

Apple’s home strategy has been all over the place, but the company appears to finally have a hit with the HomePod mini. Rumors have been floated about Apple making a HomePod with a display, but word on the street is that the product being tested looks a lot like an iPad mounted to a speaker. Instead of making a Frankenstein product very similar to Google and Amazon’s products, Apple should take the blueprint it’s laid out with HomePod mini and use it as a basis for a unique ambient smart display.

Instagram is launching a new paid subscription feature for creators today within its iOS and Android apps. With this new functionality, Facebook is targeting potential competitors like OnlyFans that continue to see growth. Despite Facebook’s dissatisfaction with the App Store, they are using Apple’s in-app purchases system for these subscriptions. With that, Apple will gather 30% of all subscription fees. Facebook says that they are developing a way for creators to see “how much they pay to Apple.”

The iPhone’s lock screen has gone through a small handful of design changes over the years, but it’s never truly been supercharged. With iOS 5, Apple improved the way multiple notifications appear. In iOS 6, they introduced the persistent camera shortcut. In iOS 8, notifications gained quick reply. iOS 10 brought widgets with a quick swipe to the left. The last major change was with iOS 11, when Apple added two haptic shortcuts and merged the lock screen with the Notification Center giving way to the “cover sheet.” But here we are in 2022 and the Lock Screen still isn’t truly customizable. It’s also nowhere near as proactive as other areas of the operating system that have been upgraded over the years.

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We can officially add Uber to the long list of major brands that have abandoned their Apple Watch apps. The ride-sharing company has quietly discontinued its watchOS app, displaying a brief message to users who try to launch it. Uber joins Twitter, Instagram, Target, Trello, Slack, Hulu, Evernote, and many other companies that have sunset their Apple Watch apps.

Apple’s first fashion-forward gadget is making a comeback. The second generation iPod shuffle introduced a little over 15 years ago is seeing a resurgence in popularity on none other than TikTok. The second, third, and fourth generation iPod shuffles all had built-in clips and came in a wide variety of color options making them easily wearable. TikTok is known for being a launchpad for trends just like this so it doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise. As noted by The Information, the iPod shuffle isn’t alone in seeing such an uplift in popularity. Other retro gadgets are also making a comeback led by millennials.

I’ve been waiting anxiously for years to get a glimpse at what the folks over at Humane have been working on. The company, founded by Apple inventors Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, launched in 2019 and has kept its work completely under wraps. Humane’s website has said that the mission behind the company is to build “innovative technology that feels familiar, natural, and human.” They want to build “the best human experience, ever.” That’s a tall order, and it’s been unclear what that actually meant, until now.

We’re holding out hope that this will finally be the year when Apple decides to let users natively customize their Home Screen icons. While we wait for a sound solution, you can still use the Shortcuts app to create your own alternate app icons. We’ve been working on a new set of icons with lots of detail, depth, and vitality that you can use to make your iPhone more fun.

Apple hasn’t made an affordable high quality external display since 2016 when they retired the final iteration of the Thunderbolt Display. The company has a long history of offering the best possible mass market monitors for notebooks and desktops, dating back to the late 90s or the early days of the Studio Display. Apple’s made a lot of weird decisions over the past decade and this certainly falls under that category. Now that the company has started to reboot the Mac and meet the needs of clamoring customers, it’s time for them to step up and make the display we actually need.

Like they did to celebrate the Year of the Ox in 2021, Apple has released a new special edition pair of AirPods Pro exclusively available in select markets. 2022 is the Year of the Tiger and Apple has created an adorable tiger emoji that’s engraved on these AirPods Pro. The company has also debuted a special Apple logo to celebrate the new year, just as they did last year.

Apple has announced a new promotion to celebrate the Japanese New Year. The company will be offering special deals to customers in Japan on January 2 and 3. Apple will give customers a gift card with the purchase of select products, but the first 20,000 customers that buy an eligible iPhone will receive a limited edition AirTag.

AirPods Max are officially one year old. That means we’re probably getting close to the first revision, assuming Apple is planning to keep them around. There are lots of ways Apple could improve upon these excellent over-the-ear headphones. But, we wanted to think realistically. What might Apple actually do to upgrade AirPods Max?

Intrepid concept creator Ian Zelbo is back with a fantastically detailed rendering of Apple’s long-rumored mixed reality headset. The renderings are based on illustrations created with credible information published by The Information earlier this year. Zelbo calls the concept “Apple View”, but the real name is still completely unknown.

Apple has announced a new documentary called “The Sound of 007” focused on the “remarkable history of six decades of James Bond music.” The documentary is slated to be released in October 2022 to mark 60 years of James Bond. “The Sound of 007” will be exclusive to Apple TV+ and comes on the heels of their success in the documentary category.

Apple has just shared an adorable claymation holiday short for their hit show Ted Lasso on Apple TV+ and YouTube. The short is titled “Ted Lasso – The Missing Christmas Mustache” and is free for anyone to watch. It features voice work from the main cast including Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Jeremy Swift, Phil Dunster, Brett Goldstein, Nick Mohammed, Juno Temple, and Brendan Hunt.

There’s a new iPhone customization trend where users are using Apple’s new focus modes to put an icon of their choice in their status bar. One of the core features of focus is the ability to set a specific icon for identifying when you have a particular mode enabled. Focus modes can be complicated to set up, but if you just want to show a fun icon in your status bar, it’s fairly simple.

A longtime Apple fan has posted a story on Reddit alleging that they received a call from Apple CEO Tim Cook’s office over some Apple Music app feedback that they emailed to him. The user goes by the name of heyyoudvd on the platform and their story is quite intriguing. Normally, we’d raise our eyebrows and not think much of any sort of post like this. But the user goes into so much detail and provides an overview of all of the feedback that they sent to Cook via email.

macOS Monterey’s headline feature, Universal Control, was originally slated to launch nearly two months ago. Craig Federighi gave a mesmerizing demo of the feature at WWDC over the summer and to the viewer’s eye, it appeared nearly ready to go – it was seamless. But we quickly learned that behind the scenes, that wasn’t necessarily the case. Now here we are, six months after the formal introduction of macOS Monterey and Universal Control is still nowhere to be found. What’s going on?

The much-anticipated sixth entry in the mainline Halo series titled Halo Infinite on Xbox has finally landed, and you may be wondering if you can play it on your iPhone or iPad. Good news! You can, and it’s extremely easy to get set up. To play Halo Infinite on your iOS device, you’ll need an Xbox game pass subscription that costs $14.99/month and requires a decent internet connection.