Benjamin and Chance react to all the new features in iOS 18 beta 2, and the fact that most of those features won’t be available in the European Union as Apple worries about DMA compliance concerns. In other EU legal news, the commission threatens fines for Apple’s anti-steering policies, and is officially investigating the Core Technology Fee. Also, Chance reviews the new Beats Solo Buds and relaunched Beats Pill portable speaker. 

And in Happy Hour Plus, Chance’s Mac low storage bug returns, and Benjamin tries the Connected Cards feature in the Apple Wallet app. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join.

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iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are Apple’s latest high-end smartphones that come with a range of new capabilities. But are they worth the upgrade if you already have an iPhone 13 Pro? Read along for an in-depth look at the iPhone 13 Pro vs 15 Pro for everything new and different.

Update June 2024: During the announcement of Apple Intelligence, we learned the new AI features will only be available with iPhone 15 Pro/Max and later. That marks a major new distinction between Apple’s smartphones.

• What is Apple Intelligence? Here’s how iOS 18’s AI features will change the way you use your iPhone, Mac, and iPad

Popular podcast app Pocket Casts is out with a major update for its paid Mac and Windows users today. The new release brings “a more consistent and streamlined experience across platforms, complete with an updated rendering engine.”

As legislation in the European Union looms, Apple is reportedly developing a new technology that would make iPhone batteries more replaceable. As reported by The Information, Apple is investigating using a new “electrically induced adhesive debonding” technology for battery replacements.

Apple continues to deliver updates to its best wireless earbuds: AirPods Pro 2. Gen-two hardware (Lightning or USB-C) launched with impressive Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency, and more. A year later, Apple dropped a big update that added Adaptive Audio mode, Conversation Awareness, and more. Later this year, Apple will release another feature update that adds even more enhancements.

Apple has helped 50 students pursue their dreams of a career in the music industry, supporting them in recording and promoting a single.

The initiative is part of Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI), working through two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) …

If there’s one type of company you definitely don’t want to see left vulnerable to hackers it’s an identity verification service with access to photo ID documents like driver’s licenses – but that’s exactly what appears to have happened with AU10TIX.

The cybersecurity company’s past or present clients include PayPal, Coinbase, X, TikTok, Uber, LinkedIn, Upwork, and Fiverr …

A major international roaming outage is causing lost mobile connectivity for Americans around the world. The problem is affecting all three major US carriers – AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Some are speculating that the problem may have been caused by a mistake made during work to change the way that carriers support legacy data standards …

Since iOS 14, iPhone and iPad users can customize their experience with AirPods and Beats headphones using the Headphone Accommodations feature, which amplifies soft sounds and adjusts certain frequencies according to the user’s hearing needs. With macOS Sonoma, Apple is finally bringing this feature to the Mac.

It seems that Apple Pay users in Hungary are facing issues with the platform this Wednesday. Based on multiple reports, Apple Pay has been charging users’ cards unexpectedly and without authorization, while banks say there’s a problem on Apple’s side.

9to5Mac last year found evidence of a new “ComputeModule” device class hidden in the iOS 16.4 beta SDK. At the time, we speculated that it could be either a Raspberry Pi type device. It turns out that Apple’s recently announced Private Cloud Compute (PCC) for processing Apple Intelligence data in the cloud is the ComputeModule we reported on last year.

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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Sometimes you really have to hack around an Apple Watch face to make it feel like your own. For example, California. Using Shortcuts can also be helpful. In watchOS 11, my new fave is an off-label use of an updated face to create a watch face that otherwise wouldn’t exist.

iOS 18 offers more customization than ever and one of the new options is the ability to change Lock Screen controls on iPhone. There are over 50 options to replace the Flashlight and Camera buttons. But one trick gives you access to almost unlimited possibilities. Here’s how to change Lock Screen buttons plus some related tips and tricks.

This week’s episode 023 is about Apple Vision Pro and VisionOS 2, Mac and macOS Sequoia, classic Macintosh System 6 wallpaper, window tiling, and more. It also includes all sorts of other interesting observations from around the world of tech and beyond.

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.

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macOS 15 Sequoia will deliver a variety of new features to Notes, including the ability to make collapsible sections and use different highlighting styles. Here’s how the two features work to make your notes easier to parse and manage.

After doing some studies on Apple Music and Apple News, CIRP is out with a new report on smartphone sales in the US. For the last year, the study found that Samsung moved more smartphones than Apple, but the latter sold a much higher percentage of high-end devices.

I bought the original Apple Watch back in 2015, not expecting to keep it, but of course was wrong. Nine years later, I was still wearing one – though I had managed to limit myself to just two upgrades over the years.

Fast-forward another couple of months, however, and that has changed – all thanks to a couple of random events …

Alongside expanding its latest changes to the Self Service Repair program to Europe, Apple today has shared a new whitepaper, “Longevity, by Design.” The paper focuses on Apple’s approach to longevity, its principles on repairability, and “the truth about parts pairing.”

Apple Diagnostics for Self Service Repair is now available in 32 European countries, the company announced today.

It follows the US launch back in December of last year, as the iPhone maker continues its U-turn on DIY repairs …

A new market intelligence report says that US Mac market share grew by 22.4% in the first quarter of the year, dwarfing the 5% growth for the US PC market as a whole.

It’s likely that the launch of the new MacBook Air models back in March played a key role in this growth …