9to5Mac

Yesterday morning, Hector Martin resigned from his position as project lead of Asahi Linux. This was a community effort that kicked off shortly after the Mac transition to Apple Silicon begun, in early 2021. After a ton of effort, the team finally released an alpha build of Asahi Linux for M1 and M2 Macs in early 2022. The project was going well.

However, because of burnout and an uphill battle with the Linux community, including Linus Torvalds himself, Hector Martin decided to resign. The project should ideally continue on without him.

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I became a Mac user towards the end of the PowerPC era. When the switch to Intel was made, virtualization became a key use case for people looking to bridge the gap with macOS and Windows native apps. Over the last two decades, the use cases for virtualization have changed and evolved, but it’s still a key part of many workflows. When Apple switched to its own chips (Apple Silicon) in 2020, virtualization moved right along with it, but it was challenging with x86 virtualization. Technology progress is undefeated, though, as x86 emulation is now available in beta for macOS.

In the category of disappointing but not surprising, Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg that the upgraded version of Siri may not be fully ready for iOS 18.4 when it arrives soon.

Gentler Streak, one of the most popular fitness and wellness apps for Apple devices, has just been updated again. This time, the latest version of the app adds multiple new widgets with different health metrics, so that users can get an overview of their health right from their Home Screen.

Imagine you’re on your way to dinner, walking down a decently busy street during the day. You’re using your new iPhone 16 Pro for directions before, out of nowhere, a masked individual on an e-bike whips around to your side and snatches your Desert Titanium baby and zooms off. All in seconds. This sounds like a one-off insane situation, but this is precisely what happened to Dimitar Stanimiroff last week in London, England. And he’s not alone…

The most recent statistics say a phone is stolen on average every 6 minutes in London, or about 64,000 annually. It’s so common that the City of London Police deployed special task forces to snuff out these gangs and even had to publish a blog post explaining how to protect your mobile device in public.

Over the years, Apple has made impressive strides in implementing anti-theft measures like Activation Lock and inadvertent “parts pairing” rules. These features and others are meant to deter thieves and minimize situations like Stanimiroff’s. Is it enough?

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Sophia Tung and Zac Hall discuss the evolution of tech news sources, the challenges of launching new tech verticals, and the need for an AI news platform. They explore the impact of professional audio equipment on podcasting, audience engagement, and diverse tech interests. The conversation touches on podcasting’s future, T-Mobile and Starlink’s collaboration, and innovative changes in connectivity. They discuss satellite internet, van life, Elon Musk’s bid for OpenAI, upcoming OpenAI models, AI user experience, personal stories, cultural reflections, self-driving cars, and pop culture predictions.

Netflix has taken a break from raising prices to confirm that it didn’t mean to support that Apple TV feature everyone has wanted for years.

Apple wrapped up its iOS 18.3 beta cycle weeks ago, and normally new betas would have arrived already. But we’re still waiting for iOS 18.4 beta 1. Fortunately, the wait should be over soon.

For years, the smart home conversation has revolved around making things easier and more convenient around the home. We’ve focused on products that let us turn on lights with our voice, unlock our door with our iPhone, or set the control temperature without getting up the couch. As awesome as those things are, I’d like to see a new generation of HomeKit focused on home maintenance. I recently picked up Ting, and while it doesn’t support HomeKit, it’s giving me so many ideas on how I’d like to see the smart home of the future evolve.

Apple is expected to replace the iPhone SE 3 next week with a new affordably-priced model that has several upgrades. Those upgrades, including Apple Intelligence support, are expected to make the next iPhone much more popular than previous entry-level iPhones.

Earlier this week, Apple made a lot of longtime App Store customers happy. After years of asking for a way to merge Apple accounts, Apple released a tool enabling the ability to move purchases from one Apple account to another Apple account. The only catch? There are a lot of requirements that each account must meet.

Apple’s Reminders app has steadily grown from a basic list tool into a versatile task manager, including with its recent iOS 18 feature upgrades. Here are seven power user features worth checking out.

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Update: Unfortunately, it seems someone jumped the gun and this rollout has been cancelled at this time.

Apple and Netflix have seemingly managed to find some common ground and strike a partnership for integration in the Apple TV app. Some users in the US are starting to be prompted to connect their Netflix account to the Apple TV app on their Apple TV 4K devices.

After doing so, Netflix originals are then able to be added to their Watchlist inside the TV app, and appear in Continue Watching. However, the integration does not seem to be complete just yet, so it’s probably still in the process of rolling out.

As reported earlier today, Apple has officially partnered with Alibaba to enable Apple Intelligence for iPhone users in China. The country has strict regulatory requirements on artificial intelligence, which has led Apple to partner with Chinese companies for AI processing. Now a new report from Bloomberg details how Apple Intelligence will work in China.

Apple today launches its next original film, The Gorge, streaming now exclusively on Apple TV+.

The Gorge stars Anya-Taylor Joy and Miles Teller as operatives tasked with guarding a vast chasm, protecting the world from the evil within. The pair communicate via message boards and strike up a bond. As this film is debuting on Valentines Day, it is probably not a spoiler to suggest there is a romantic relationship underpinning this action film.

The next generation iPhone is expected to arrive later this year, but there are already plenty of rumors about it – especially when it comes to design and cameras. Previous rumors have suggested that the iPhone 17 Pro models will have a new rear camera design with a different bump. Now 3D renders shared by Jon Prosser show what the final version of the new phones might look like.

Update: TikTok is back on the App Store.

Breaking news from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg: Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi has reportedly penned a letter to Apple that grants the company permission to restore TikTok in the App Store.

WhatsApp on Thursday announced another update coming for its users. Starting today, WhatsApp will provide multiple chat theme options for both iOS and Android users, so that they can make chats unique with “colorful chat bubbles and new wallpapers.”

We’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about an “iPhone 17 Air” recently as Apple seems to be working on an ultra-slim iPhone to be announced later this year. After seeing some low-resolution leaked images showing the back of this new iPhone, a realistic concept now gives us a better idea of what it will look like in real life.

From time to time, we see some rare items related to Apple’s early days going up for auction. If you’re one of the people who collect such items, RR Auction is now auctioning off a rare business card signed by Steve Jobs – if you have a few thousand dollars to spend.

Severance might just have had Apple’s best viewership performance for a drama, according to the just-released Nielsen streaming charts which covers the week commencing Jan 13th. This is the first time Nielsen has published data covering the period in which the second season of Severance started airing.

Despite only premiering on the Friday of the week covered by the stats, Severance managed to hit number four on the top 10 original series chart, with almost 600 million minutes viewed.