The drone flights around Apple Park have not stopped following opening of the campus, with the latest footage showing still-progressing landscaping, and most of the facilities very near 100 percent completion.

Source:: Apple Insider

Further signaling Apple’s augmented reality plans, the company has joined LG and Valve in a $10 million investment into eMagin, a maker of “microdisplays” for both AR and VR technology.

Source:: Apple Insider

As it does with every Apple device, iFixit has torn apart the HomePod, finding a device that is a “labyrinth to open.” That means, like many other devices, it’s probably not a great candidate for user repairs.

Source:: Apple Insider

Rather than packing everything it can into an anticipated “iOS 12” later this year, Apple will reportedly spread out new features into future software updates, meaning “iOS 12.1” and beyond could bring big improvements to the iPhone and iPad.

Source:: Apple Insider

I love Apple’s HomePod, and I want one in every room of my house. But I also kind of hate HomePod for its reliance on Siri. Like any messy relationship, it’s complicated. If you can get over the personal assistant’s numerous shortcomings, you’ll find that HomePod is a fantastic sounding compact speaker, but also potentially the start of something much better.

Source:: Apple Insider

The more technically-minded you are, and the less dependent on paper, the more you’ll love Ulysses, the comprehensive writing tool for both Mac and iOS.

Source:: Apple Insider

While the Apple HomePod is the “best sounding” smartspeaker and has a “measurably better” user experience in many areas, its underlying AI assistant — Siri — failed dramatically in a query test versus Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana, according to Loup Ventures.

Source:: Apple Insider

Apple has posted a trio of “how to” videos for the HomePod, instructing users how to use Siri to play music, how the touch controls work, and how to adjust settings on the device.

Source:: Apple Insider

You’ll buy Loopback for one job, and then keep finding more uses for this sound routing app for your Mac.

Source:: Apple Insider

From multi-array microphones for far-field listening to beamforming tweeters and dynamic audio processing powered by a beefy A8 processor, HomePod is a compact marvel of technology. Despite its smarts, users are unable to access audio output settings as they would a traditional speaker or even Bluetooth devices marketed by companies like Sonos.

Source:: Apple Insider