Bad Bunny – aka Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – has been named Apple Music artist of the year for 2022, as the company highlighted some of the achievements of the Puerto Rican rapper and singer.

Apple said that Bad Bunny “truly owned the year” and “ushered in a seismic shift in global pop over the past few years” …

Update: This change was unfortunately reverted in the final shipping build of iOS 16.2.

Apple has made a useful little enhancement in the latest iOS 16.2 beta for iPhone 14 Pro users. In earlier versions, iPhone 14 Pro would only show two status icons (battery and either WiFi or single bars), as the activated Dynamic Island content was very wide.

However, this is no longer the case. Now when playing music, the island compresses down in width to allow all three status icons to be visible — complete with a sleek animation.

China’s COVID-19 outbreaks are getting worse rather than better, with another major manufacturing and export hub under lockdown.

Some 4 million people in Guangzhou have been told to stay home, in what government officials have described as the worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic …

Developer Serif teased a major overhaul for its Affinity creative suite last week and today V2 of the software is officially available. Arriving with a totally redesigned UI with “hundreds of performance enhancements and workflow improvements,” Affinity V2 aims to be “everything you want in a creative suite.”

It has been a while since Instagram introduced a website to let users access the social network from anywhere through a web browser. Over time, Instagram Web has been updated with many new features. This week, the Instagram website has been completely redesigned to take advantage of larger screens.

iOS 16.2 beta 2 and iPadOS 16.2 beta 2 have arrived and they include a few notable changes and new features. Apple is targeting a release date in mid-December for these updates, so head below for a roundup of what’s been added with today’s new beta releases.

Apple on Tuesday released iOS 16.2 beta 2 to developers as the company gets ready to make the update available to the public in December. Officially, it adds the new Freeform collaboration app and improvements to the Home app. Under the hood, 9to5Mac found out that Apple has been working on a new “Custom Accessibility Mode” that will provide a “streamlined” experience for iPhone and iPad.

Post updated with more screenshots showing the new interface.

Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta, which is responsible for the popular platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, may be next to lay off some of its employees. A new report from The Wall Street Journal reveals that Meta is planning a mass layoff as early as this Wednesday.

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.

Sponsored by Paperlike: Check out Paperlike 2.1, the iPad screen protector featuring improved visual clarity and same papery feel and stroke resistance from Paperlike 2. 

All signs point to Apple finally making the jump to USB-C with next year’s iPhone 15. The change is due in large part to new regulation in the European Union, but with the Lightning port celebrating its 10th birthday, it was time for a change regardless.

But while the iPhone 15 switching to USB-C will be celebrated, it’s going to be a messy transition … and Apple doesn’t seem to care.

Back in October, Signal released a beta version of its app with a Stories-like feature. After a month of beta testing, the encrypted messaging app has made Stories available to all its users on iOS and Android. And as you might imagine, Signal Stories works just like Instagram Stories.

Apple has settled privately with the guy who says he thought of AirPods first before they were invented. The declaration was made just as jury selection was set to begin.

Apple is rolling out a new version of firmware to AirPods Pro 2 this afternoon, bringing Apple’s latest AirPods Pro to version 5.1.58 with build number 5B58 (up from 5A377). The update comes as users continue to complain of issues surrounding audio drifting and audio syncing.

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting exclusive on how Netflix has been trying to score some points in the wide world of streaming sports, not unlike Apple. So far, we’ve seen Apple stream a full Major League Baseball season of Friday night games, and the company bought a decade of streaming soccer rights, which starts next year. Plus, Apple TV+ already competes with the former DVD rental service on original shows and movies.

November 8, 2022 Update: iOS 16.2 beta 2 is now available, and it includes the new Medications widget for the Lock Screen.

iOS 16.2 beta 1 launched yesterday to developers with a handful of new features and changes. As it turns out, the update includes a new Lock Screen widget option for Sleep data from the Health app. There’s also a new Medications widget coming soon as well.

The Mac mini form factor has been around for years without any major changes, and this frustrated YouTuber Luke Miani so much that he decided to take things to the extreme. In a new video today, Miani shows off his project to convert an old Nintendo Wii into a Mac mini, creating a device “perfect for retro gaming on a Mac.”

The de facto virtual meeting service Zoom is expanding its horizons for 2023. As part of its Zoomtopia (really, that’s the name) conference, the company announced a number of new ways to remotely work online.

Apple is rolling out the second betas for its next round of software updates. iOS 16.2 beta 2 is now available to developer testers alongside iPadOS 16.2 beta 2, tvOS 16.2 beta 2, and more. These updates include Apple’s new Freefrom collaboration app, updates to the Home app, and more. Head below for the details.

Landing AirPods Pro 2 for Christmas might become a whole lot harder soon. That’s because Apple appears to have lost one of its two suppliers responsible for AirPods Pro 2 over a possible production issue.