By news@appleinsider.com (William Gallagher) Popular Science has crowned Apple’s Apple Vision Pro as 2024’s greatest innovation, in a report that also honors everything from a transparent TV to AI-formulated vegan cheese.Apple Vision ProIt’s expensive to buy — and to build, too — and Apple hasn’t sold very many, plus developers are cautious about supporting it. But despite all of this, Popular Science has crowned the headset the innovation of year, topping its report of 50 greatest innovations of 2024.”In reality, 2024’s big breakthrough came from Apple in the form of its long-rumored Vision Pro headset,” says PopSci online. “The device has its own hurdles to clear, but after just a few minutes of using it, it was clear that it’s something different, important, and honestly pretty amazing.” Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
By news@appleinsider.com (Andrew Orr) A new app turns Apple Vision Pro into a virtual design studio where teams can collaborate across continents as if in the same room.Apple Vision ProAnalogue, explicitly crafted for Apple Vision Pro, enables design teams to collaborate in real-time immersive settings. It effectively tackles issues like workflow bottlenecks and compatibility problems, allowing teams to work together from any location and create prototypes without coding.The platform caters to various industries, including retail, architecture, automotive design, and product development. Key features of Analogue include: Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
By news@appleinsider.com (Mike Wuerthele) The Moxie robot that used cloud processing for a large language model was designed to be a companion and education tool for autistic children, and it’s being unceremoniously shut down by the owners. This absolutely insensitive and destructive move practically demonstrates that Apple’s on-device approach is right.Moxie Robot is now deadLaunched in 2020, Moxie was billed as an AI-based robotic companion for children. It offered hope to parents of autistic children with the possibility of helping social development. It showed great promise to help autistic kids in particular.I considered one for my children, but when I found it, we were in the teeth of early COVID and I had other concerns. I’m glad I didn’t get one, because a series of bad decisions by the operating company means that the robot is dying in the next few days. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
By news@appleinsider.com (William Gallagher) In its latest annual developer survey, Setapp reports that almost 50% of developers are uncertain about whether to support the Apple Vision Pro, but 60% are adding AI features.Apple’s visionOS menu system — image credit: AppleIn its 2023 survey, Setapp’s report by its parent company MacPaw claimed that nearly 50% of Mac developers were including AI in their apps. One year on, it says that 60% of developers surveyed are either actively working on AI — or have already implemented AI features.In comparison, the Apple Vision Pro has had a more muted reception amongst developers. As well as almost half of all developers surveyed expressing doubts about supporting Apple Vision Pro, 35% specifically said they have no plans to do so. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
By news@appleinsider.com (Andrew Orr) A now-patched iOS vulnerability could let malicious apps silently steal your iCloud data with no alerts, and no consent.The latest security flaw in iOSThe team at Jamf Threat Labs has discovered a big security issue in Apple’s Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) system. The flaw, tagged as CVE-2024-44131, can let apps access your private stuff like photos and location details without you even knowing.Apple has already fixed the vulnerability in iOS 18 and macOS 15, but it’s a wake-up call about mobile security and keeping our data private. The TCC system is supposed to alert you when apps want to access your private data, like your photos or location. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
By news@appleinsider.com (William Gallagher) Cloud service MacWeb has launched new options for developers to use its M4 Mac mini configurations, using the new device on demand for building and testing apps.Racks of M4 Mac mini devices — image credit: MacWebMacWeb allows developers to effectively rent a Mac in order to use the device’s performance, or test apps, without the capital expenditure of buying the Macs outright. Alongside its existing M2 Mac mini services, the company is now offering M4 and M4 Pro Mac mini options.”MacWeb’s New Mac mini cloud service empowers developers to build, test, and deploy tomorrow’s modern applications and Al models,” said Eric Bickford, CEO of MacWeb. “By offloading the burden of infrastructure management to MacWeb, developers can instantly increase their creativity, efficiency, and productivity, all while enjoying significant cost savings.” Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
By news@appleinsider.com (William Gallagher) Apple has launched its Tap to Pay on iPhone feature in the UAE, continuing the slow rollout that began in the US in 2022.Tap to Pay on iPhone — image credit: AppleTap to Pay on iPhone means that merchants can take payments without a separate contactless card reader. They and their customers can just hold their iPhones close to one another and initiate a payment.US Apple Stores were the first to support purchases using Tap to Pay in May 2022, before it rolled out across the States. The UK and France got it in 2023, while Apple launched it in Japan in May 2024. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
By news@appleinsider.com (Chip Loder) Property lists are essentially XML files with a .plist extension. Here’s how to edit them using the command line in the macOS Terminal app.macOS lets you edit property list files in Terminal.XML is an open data format which gained popularity in the mid-1990’s when the internet first became commercialized. It’s a text-based format which uses key/value pairs to store data. Keys provide data labels, and values store the data related to each key.Data types in XML include Booleans (true/false), numbers, dates, strings (text), arrays, dictionaries, and plain data. A dictionary is just a bundled table of values also with its own set of keys – one for each data item. Continue Reading on AppleInsider
By news@appleinsider.com (Christine McKee) Apple’s M4 iPad Pro is in high demand, and despite Christmas being more than two weeks away, ship times are slipping. We’ve rounded up the top markdowns, with savings up to $300 off.Save up to $300 on Apple’s M4 iPad Pro – Image credit: PeanutsApple’s latest M4 iPad Pro is heavily discounted as retailers compete for your business with last-minute deals knocking up to $300 off 11-inch and 13-inch models. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
By news@appleinsider.com (Malcolm Owen) Apple has issued its second release candidates of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, macOS Sequoia 15.2, visionOS 2.2, and tvOS 18.2 for testing, as the eventual public release gets closer.Examples of Apple Intelligence at work. The second RC round takes place after the first, which came out on December 5. This time around, the second RC versions are of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, macOS Sequoia 15.2, visionOS 2.2, and tvOS 18.2, but not watchOS 11.2.The second RC builds of iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 share build number 22c151. RC 2 of the macOS Sequoia 15.2 build is 24C100. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
