Making payments on your iPhone is easy with Apple Pay. But what about those occasions when you need to input credit card details on a website or in a form? Not so easy. Fortunately, iOS 26 has the fix I’ve always wanted thanks to new AutoFill support for credit cards.

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HBO Max has been a strong supporter of Apple Vision Pro from the start, offering a robust native app for visionOS with a Game of Thrones immersive environment.

Today, HBO has announced an update to the visionOS app with an all-new environment: Hogwarts Great Hall.

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Apple today announced that the monthly price of Apple TV+ is rising in the United States and some international markets. From today, the monthly subscription will cost $12.99, up from $9.99.

Existing subscribers will see the price change 30 days after the next renewal date. The pricing for yearly TV+ subscriptions and the Apple One services bundle remains unchanged.

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Apple’s Vision Pro is a very nice piece of kit, but the $3,400 price means that even CEO Tim Cook has acknowledged it’s a niche product, and the 600g plus weight also means many find it uncomfortable to wear for longer than an hour.

Chinese brand Vivo has attempted to address both issues in a design which looks remarkably like a direct copy of Apple’s spatial computer …

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The Apple Watch’s health features have once again played a part in flagging a potential health problem. A 57-year-old woman from Brighton, East Sussex says her Apple Watch alerted her to an issue that ultimately led doctors to uncover a brain tumor.

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The most annoying thing about X is, well, X – but the company has at least fixed an app behavior many of us found frustrating.

Just 18 years after users started complaining about it, X’s head of product said that a fix is now rolling out …

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Chinese smartphone maker Vivo on Thursday unveiled its first mixed reality headset, the "Vivo Vision," and the photocopiers in Dongguan appear to have been working overtime.


The device "launched" as an in-store experience across mainland China today, featuring design elements that clearly ape Apple's Vision Pro. It's got a curved glass front visor, downward-pointing cameras, removable fabric light seals in four sizes, eight foam padding options, a knitted rear strap, and an aluminum external battery pack connected via a braided cable. The Vivo Vision "Explorer Edition" even offers support for 1.5-degree eye tracking and 26 degrees depth of field for gesture-based navigation.

To its credit, Vivo's clone has some competitive specifications. The dual 8K micro-LED displays provide 3,840 × 3,552 pixels per eye – slightly higher than the Vision Pro's resolution – and offers 180-degree panoramic field of view. At 398 grams, it's significantly lighter than Apple's 650-gram device. Vivo also claims its headset is 26 percent smaller than the "industry average."

As for software, the headset runs on OriginOS Vision, Vivo's in-house mixed reality operating system, which is said to offer ultra-low latency of just 13ms. As you'd expect, it supports recording 3D videos, spatial photos, and spatial audio. Users can also immerse themselves in a 120-inch cinema screen.

Pricing is expected at around 10,000 yuan (roughly $1,395), which is well below Apple's Vision Pro $3,499 starting price. Pre-orders are now open for the device, although Vivo has yet to confirm availability details, giving Apple plenty of time to consider its legal options. Joking aside, this isn't the first Chinese Apple knock-off that we've seen by a long stretch, plus there's no indication that Vivo's headset is coming to international markets beyond China. The Vision Pro has sold poorly anyway, so the impact on Apple's bottom line is likely to be minimal.


Apple is currently working on a next-generation version of the Vision Pro with an M5 chip, based on code discovered by MacRumors. The refreshed Vision Pro isn't expected to feature any design changes or hardware updates aside from the new chip, but it could get a new strap that will make it more comfortable to wear for longer periods of time. The Vision Pro 2 with M5 chip could launch as soon as late 2025.
This article, "Vivo's $1,400 Apple Vision Pro Clone Launches Across China" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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A former Meta product manager has claimed that the social network circumvented Apple’s privacy protections, as well as cheating advertisers, and fired him when he repeatedly raised the issue internally.

Meta is said to have found ways to identify Apple users even after they refused consent for app tracking, in order to avoid an estimated $10 billion loss of revenue …

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The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) carried out a record number of phone searches of travelers arriving at, or returning to, the US in the last quarter.

The legal position on these searches is unclear when it comes to US citizens, but there are steps you can take to protect your privacy …

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Medical technology company Masimo on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection in which it challenged the agency's decision to allow Apple to restore blood oxygen monitoring to its Apple Watch models (via Bloomberg Law).


In a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Masimo said that Customs acted unlawfully when it ruled on August 1 that Apple can import watches with pulse oximetry technology – a reversal of the agency's decision from last year – without notifying Masimo. Masimo said it only discovered the ruling on August 14, when Apple publicly announced it would be reintroducing the pulse oximetry functionality through a software update.

The medical device maker claims Customs and Border Protection exceeded its authority when it issued the ruling permitting Apple's redesigned approach. Apple's workaround offloads blood oxygen calculations from the Apple Watch to a paired iPhone, where it performs similar functionality to what the ITC originally judged to have infringed Masimo's patents.

Masimo is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the Customs decision. "CBP's function is to enforce ITC exclusion orders, not to create loopholes that render them ineffective," Masimo said.

The dispute originates from an International Trade Commission ruling in December 2023 that found Apple's blood oxygen sensors infringed Masimo's patents, leading to an import ban on Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models that have the feature enabled.

Apple paused sales in the U.S. for several days before resuming them on January 18, 2024. The Series 9 and Ultra 2 models then went back on the market without blood oxygen monitoring, up until Apple's release of iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1 last week, which shifted the feature's calculations to paired iPhones.
This article, "Apple Blood Oxygen Feature Workaround Sparks Fresh Masimo Lawsuit" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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While political satire has always been a part of South Park across almost three decades, things have reached a whole new level during the new season, with plenty of jokes involving the Trump Presidency. Tonight, that involved Tim Cook, and his recent White House appearance. You can watch the clip below.

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Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser that was first introduced in March 2016. Apple designed ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ to allow users to test features that are planned for future release versions of the Safari browser.


‌Safari Technology Preview‌ 226 includes fixes and updates for CSS, Canvas, JavaScript, Media, Rendering, Deprecations, SVG, Storage, Web API, Web Extensions, and Web Inspector.

The current ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ release is compatible with machines running macOS Sequoia and macOS Tahoe, the newest version of macOS that's set to launch this later this year.

The ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences or System Settings to anyone who has downloaded the browser from Apple’s website. Complete release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple’s aim with ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while it is designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download and use.
This article, "Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 226 With Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Google introduced its next-generation Pixel 10 smartphones today, and while there are multiple hardware improvements, Google focused heavily on new AI features. The Pixel 10 devices offer quite a few new AI-powered capabilities, in addition to prior AI features that have come out over the last couple of years.


We've rounded up the new features, some of which the iPhone already supports, and some of which the ‌iPhone‌ can't do yet.

• Magic Cue - Magic Cue proactively surfaces relevant info and suggests actions, similar to how Apple's personalized Siri features were supposed to work. It can display flight information when you call an airline, or cue up a photo if a friend asks for an image.


• Daily Hub - Daily Hub uses Magic Cue to surface a personalized daily digest of upcoming calendar events, topics to explore, recommended playlists, and more.


• Call Transcripts - The Take a Message feature in the Phone app provides real-time transcripts for missed or declined calls. Apple already provides real-time transcripts for incoming voicemails.


• Pixel Journal - Pixel Journal provides AI writing prompts to help users process their thoughts, and it provides insights into patterns and progress over time. Apple has a similar Journal app that offers journaling suggestions.


• Voice Translate - Voice Translate translates calls in real-time in what sounds like each speaker's voice. It's similar to Apple's Live Translation features, but that doesn't mimic user voices. Voice Translate also supports more languages when translating to or from English, including Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Russian, and Indonesian.


• Camera Coach - Camera Coach can provide real-time guidance to help users capture better images. It suggests tips on lighting, composition, and more.


• Auto Best Take - Analyzes up to 150 frames in seconds to get the perfect group shot where everyone is looking at the camera.


• Add Me - The image feature that can add the photographer to a group shot using AI has been improved. It works with bigger groups and offers more creative composition options.


• AI Videos - The Pixel devices can generate a video based on short text descriptions.


• Visual Guidance for Gemini Live - Gemini Live allows for real-time conversations with Gemini AI. It's already able to converse and get context from the camera or screen sharing, but it now highlights things on the display to provide better visual guidance when responding to questions.


• More natural speech - Gemini Live is getting more human-like speech, with improvements to intonation, rhythm, and pitch for more expressive conversations. It will be able to speaker slower or faster when asked, and it can do accents.


• Gboard - The Google keyboard supports Writing Tools for spellchecking, plus it can rewrite in specific styles. Apple has a similar Writing Tools feature that supports grammar and spelling correction and rewrites in a specified style.


• Google Photos - Google Photos is getting conversation-based photo editing.


• NotebookLM - Google's AI research assistant integrates with Pixel Screenshots and Recorder. If Screenshots detects a picture that's useful for a notebook, it will suggest adding it for simpler tracking. Transcripts from Recorder can also be added.


• Gemini Nano - The Tensor G5 chip in the Pixel 10 smartphones runs the newest Gemini Nano model on-device.

Apple will be able to match some of these features when the updated version of ‌Siri‌ rolls out in 2026, but it is behind on image editing features and live AI capabilities since there is no dedicated Apple-designed LLM as of now.

Google's updated Pixel 10 devices are available for pre-order now, and will be launching later this month. Apple's iPhone 17 models will debut in September.
This article, "All the New AI Features Coming to Google's Pixel 10 Smartphones" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Nanoleaf this week announced the launch of the 4D V2, a product that's designed to provide ambient lighting that matches the colors on your TV set. The second version of the Screen Mirror and Lightstrip Kit offers more accurate screen mirroring for a more engaging viewing experience.


The Nanoleaf 4D V2 has a redesigned zigzag lightstrip that makes it easier to install on a TV set that's up to 65 inches. The lightstrip is able to wrap around the entire display, and there is no need for corner brackets due to the design. The lightstrip can be trimmed to fit any size screen.

The lightstrip pairs with a camera that analyzes the colors on the screen so the lightstrip can change colors to match instantly. Nanoleaf says that the 4D V2 offers improved color accuracy for vivid colors and bright whites that bring the screen to life with a glow. For music, there's a Rhythm feature that turns the 4D into a sound-reactive audio-visual experience where lights pulse to the beat of the music.

The 4D V2 kit is able to pair up with other Nanoleaf lamps for a unified lighting experience that mirrors what's on the TV, plus the product offers different levels of color variance. Nanoleaf's new product can be controlled with the Nanoleaf app, but it also integrates into HomeKit.

Nanoleaf's 4D V2 can be ordered from the Nanoleaf website for $100.
This article, "Nanoleaf's New 4D V2 Brings Zigzag Design and Better Colors to TV Backlighting" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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With the launch of the Pixel 10 smartphones, Google announced new AI functionality that's coming to its Google Photos app and service.


Users will be able to describe the edits that they want to make with text or voice in the Google ‌Photos‌ editing interface, and the changes will appear. Google says there will be no need to select tools or adjust sliders, with complex edits enabled through conversational AI.

Requests can be generic or specific, with Google suggesting the AI can understand even the most basic requests. Some of Google's examples:

• Restore this old photo


• Remove the cars in the background


• Remove the reflections and fix the washed out colors


• Make it better


• Remove the glare, brighten the photo, and add clouds to the sky


• Add fun items like a party hat or sunglasses


• Change the background

The AI supports multiple requests in a single prompt, along with follow-up requests.

The new Google ‌Photos‌ functionality will be available on the Pixel 10 to start with, but it will presumably expand to other devices in the future.

Google is also adding C2PA Content Credentials to Google ‌Photos‌, which will more clearly show how an image was captured or edited. C2PA Content Credentials will roll out to Google ‌Photos‌ on Android and iOS devices over the coming weeks.
This article, "Google Photos Gets Conversational Editing" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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In an update earlier today, the 2024 iPad App of the Year, Moises, released an impressive feature called AI Studio. It takes a recording of a single instrument and generates other instruments that match the original beat and style. Here’s how it works.

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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 Backblaze: Never lose a file again. Use code “9to5daily” at checkout for 10% off or try for free. 

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Last week, when Apple announced the release of a “redesigned Blood Oxygen feature” to the Apple Watch, many figured Masimo (who had been suing Apple over patents related to the feature), would look for a way to fight back. Today, the company did just that and filed a new lawsuit. But this time, it’s against the US Customs and Border Protection. Here’s why.

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Today’s Made By Google event was full of interesting announcements, ranging from the new Pixel 10 lineup and the Pixel Watch 4 to impressive AI demos.

During the event (which was bizarrely hosted by Jimmy Fallon), Google’s VP of marketing Adrienne Lofton also declared the green vs blue bubbles debate “over.”

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Apple is always adding new features to its software, but every now and then a change arrives that it’s hard to live without. One such killer feature lets you autofill two-factor authentication codes, and it’s getting even better in iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe this fall.

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Even if you’ve never wondered about how Apple manages to pack so much advanced tech inside its teeny tiny , do yourself a favor and set aside a few minutes to watch this awesome breakdown by the always fascinating folks at the Real Engineering YouTube Channel. Watch the video below.

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Sketch is out with a new update today featuring support for Liquid Glass-like effects, complete with blur, distortion, depth, and chromatic aberration controls. Here’s what it looks like.

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Apple Watch Ultra 3 is almost here, and rumors indicate it should be very much worth the two-year wait between upgrades. Here are two reasons I’m leaning toward making Apple Watch Ultra 3 my first ever Ultra model.

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In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps.


This week, Apple announced the 10th U.S. state that has implemented the feature: Montana.

Below, we have recapped key details about the feature.

Supported States

The following states offer driver's licenses in the Wallet app:

• Arizona (since March 2022)


• Maryland (since May 2022)


• Colorado (since November 2022)


• Georgia (since May 2023)


• Ohio (since July 2024)


• Hawaii (since August 2024)


• California (since September 2024)


• Iowa (since October 2024)


• New Mexico (since December 2024)
• Montana (since August 2025)

The feature is also available in Puerto Rico.

Future States

Apple and state governments have previously announced that the following U.S. states have signed on to adopt the feature in the future:

• West Virginia


• Connecticut


• Kentucky


• Mississippi


• Oklahoma


• Utah


• Illinois

Participating Airports

Apple Wallet app IDs can be used at select TSA checkpoints within select U.S. airports:

• Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)


• Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)


• Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)


• Denver International Airport (DEN)


• Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)


• Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport (CVG)


• John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH)


• San Francisco International Airport (SFO)


• San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC)


• Los Angeles International (LAX)


• Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)


• Des Moines International Airport (DSM)


• Eastern Iowa Airport (CID)


• Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)


• Lea County Regional Airport (HOB)


• Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)


• Billings Logan International Airport (BIL)


• Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN)


• Great Falls International Airport (GTF)


• Missoula International Airport (MSO)

Apple says travelers should refer to TSA checkpoint signage to confirm availability of the feature.

Apple Wallet IDs can also be used to show proof of age or identity at select businesses and venues in the U.S., but there is no list of locations.

Digital ID

In addition to driver's licenses and state IDs, iOS 26 is introducing a new Digital ID, which can be created based on a U.S. passport. Apple says iPhone users can present this Digital ID in person at select TSA checkpoints for identity verification purposes during domestic travel within the U.S., but it is not a replacement for a physical passport, and it cannot be used for international travel and border crossing in lieu of a U.S. passport.
This article, "iPhone Driver's Licenses in Apple Wallet Now Available in 10 U.S. States" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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