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Parker Ortolani

parkerortolani

Parker Ortolani is a marketing strategist and product designer based in New York. In addition to contributing to 9to5mac, he also oversees product development and marketing for BuzzFeed. A longtime reader, Parker is excited to share his product concepts and thoughts with the 9to5mac audience.

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Concept: What if the notch were to eventually make its way to the Apple Watch?

It could be any day now. The notch is inescapable. It’s making its way to any and every device is can. The new MacBook Pro didn’t need a notch, it’s there primarily for aesthetics. Last night, Bloomberg published images of Meta’s upcoming smartwatch that happens to have a notch with a camera. It is entirely possible that Apple is considering putting a notch and a camera on the Apple Watch eventually.

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Hands-on: Pikmin Bloom is a delightful way to get your steps in, even if you’re not a Nintendo fan

When Nintendo announced that their next collaboration with Niantic Labs was going to be Pikmin-branded, I was surprised. The Pikmin brand isn’t well-known outside of deeply passionate circles of Nintendo fans. But I think that’s about to change with Pikmin Bloom, the latest Nintendo mobile game that hit the App Store today in the United States.

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Opinion: The new AirPods are exactly the wireless earbuds that I wanted Apple to make

When Apple introduced AirPods Pro in late 2019, they instantly made the regular AirPods “uncool.” The stems were shorter, the sound was better, there were actual buttons, and the case had a landscape design that was undeniably new. But AirPods Pro have always had a fundamental flaw for me. They just don’t fit my ears. None of the included interchangeable tips have ever worked for me. I know this is unusual since people tend to say that AirPods Pro fit their ears better than standard AirPods, but the original AirPods design was infinitely more comfortable for me. The third-generation AirPods take the best of both and combine them into one pair of nearly perfect wireless earbuds.

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Review: The new $329 iPad is an incredible value for anyone who wants a good mobile computer

I’ve been using Apple’s “pro” iPads since the first one was introduced. It was an obvious play for someone like me who used the iPad in a professional context before it was cool to do so. Apple’s also given the iPad Pro cool new features exclusively over the past six years, leaving the regular iPad in the dust. But recently, Apple has started to show a willingness to share its best new features with the iPad, iPad Air, and iPad mini. Over the past several days I’ve been rocking Apple’s new 9th generation iPad and I’m stunned to say, it’s fantastic and it’s the first one that has everything I need.

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Panic shares first look at extremely rare first-generation iPod prototype

Cabel Sasser from Panic has shared an exclusive look at an extremely early iPod prototype that I’d reckon you’ve never seen before. The rare prototype is yellow and fairly large compared to the shipping version of the original iPod, despite it being from late in the product’s development cycle. Cabel says that this iPod prototype is dated September 3, 2001.

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20 years ago today iPod changed the world, here’s what it means to us

The iPod is a funny product. It fundamentally changed Apple and yet it has been slowly and unceremoniously murdered by its successors, the iPhone and the iPad. iPod has a long and storied history, from how it came to be to the sheer number of models that the company worked on for two decades. The original iPod was the very first handheld consumer electronic that Apple made post Steve Jobs’ return to the company and it kickstarted a revolution in virtually every major industry around the world. But the iPod also means something special to me. The first Apple product that was brand new and really mine was an iPod shuffle given to me for my 7th birthday.

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Concept: How a new MacBook Air could adopt the best parts of the iMac and MacBook Pro

As soon as Apple unveiled the new iMac earlier this year, it hit me that the company needed to give the same design treatment to its mobile counterpart, the MacBook Air. Soon after, the rumors started flowing in, and now that Apple has officially revealed its newest notebook designs with the MacBook Pro, it’s time to look ahead to how the MacBook Air could be redesigned.

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PSA: If you’re trading in for a new MacBook Pro, upgrade to Monterey for the new system restore feature

If you’re planning on trading in an existing Mac toward the new MacBook Pro next week, you’ll want to install macOS Monterey when it’s released on Monday. Monterey comes with an all-new “erase all contents and settings” feature that makes it easier than ever to prepare a Mac for a trade-in or if you’re planning to sell it.

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Opinion: I wasn’t planning to buy a MacBook Pro, but today’s event exceeded my wildest expectations

MacBook Air vs Pro - display

We had known that Apple was working on an all-new MacBook Pro based on Apple Silicon for quite a long time. I hadn’t been particularly interested in the rumored machine because of the tremendously good M1 Macs that the company has been spinning out for about a year now. The new iMac is an incredible machine that’s matched by a gorgeous design. Even the first M1 machines introduced last November are still very good and very fast computers. So I had no intention of buying a MacBook Pro today.

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Apple.com revamped with new dedicated AirPods, TV & Home, and services tabs

Following the special event, Apple has updated the navigation on apple.com with several new dedicated tabs. There are now dedicated tabs for AirPods, TV & Home, Apple services, and Accessories. The new AirPods page better shows off the revised family of headphones, while the new TV & Home tab merges the HomePod and TV sections previously seen on the site.

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As Apple prepares to revamp the MacBook Pro, this coming week also marks the 30th anniversary of the original PowerBook

Apple is hosting a major Mac event on Monday morning where they are widely expected to unveil a completely redesigned MacBook Pro. Power users have been waiting for Apple to revamp the MacBook Pro since they introduced the 2016 model with the much disliked Touch Bar and notoriously bad butterfly keyboard. But this coming week also marks a special anniversary for Apple notebooks. As pointed out by Steven Sinofsky, this Thursday is the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the original PowerBook.

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Concept: Here’s what the new MacBook Pro could look like if even the wildest rumors pan out

There are lots of wild rumors floating around the internet ahead of Apple’s big Mac-focused on Monday. New leaks have appeared that say the MacBook Pro is going to get a notch and an edge to edge display. There’s also much debate about the color options Apple is going to offer. We wanted to see what the new MacBook Pro might look like with all of the rumors combined.

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Opinion: It won’t matter what Apple calls the rumored ‘M1X’ chip in the new MacBook Pros

With the upcoming Apple event approaching quickly, speculation is getting out of hand in regards to the chip Apple plans to put in the next-generation MacBook Pro. The most likely name is “M1X,” and others believe the chip will be called “M2.” Some folks have tossed around other names as well with different modifiers. Guess what? It doesn’t matter what it’s called. What matters is that it’s faster than last year’s chip, but not so much faster that it steps on the M1’s parade.

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Here’s how the new green Apple Watch Series 7 color looks in the real world

We’ve only just got our hands on the new Apple Watch Series 7, and we happen to have the new green model. Much has been made about what the new watch colors actually look like in person, especially the green, since it’s the one Apple is choosing to market most prominently. Now that we’ve seen it, we can confidently say it’s one of the best aluminum finishes Apple has ever shipped.

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Apple moves Safari favorites bar back where it’s supposed to be in Monterey beta 10

Today Apple released a whole host of new beta operating systems, one of them being macOS Monterey beta 10. One of Monterey’s biggest features is the redesigned Safari web browser. The new look has garnered much attention, and frankly, lots of people hate it. One of the biggest gripes was the placement of the favorite bar below the redesigned tabs. Now with Monterey beta 10, they’re back where they belong.

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Unleash your iPhone with these new wallpapers celebrating next week’s Apple event

Apple has just announced its October event where we expect to see the long-awaited redesigned Apple Silicon MacBook Pros. The event, which takes place on Monday, October 18 is accompanied by a gorgeous invitation graphic. We’ve turned the graphic into some fantastic wallpapers for your iPhone to get hyped for next week’s event.

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Concept: Here’s how Apple could supercharge CarPlay with deeper integrations and more

Apple Car CarPlay

CarPlay has always been a temporary way for Apple to get its software into existing cars while they work on something far more innovative. Everyone under the sun knows that Apple is building its own car. When we will see the rumored “Project Titan” though, nobody knows. In the meantime, Apple appears to be expanding its efforts to integrate into more aspects of existing cars from other manufacturers. Bloomberg has reported on Apple’s plans to connect CarPlay with things like air conditioning, batteries, seats, and more. Here’s what we think CarPlay could look like with deeper car integration.

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