Take control of your vehicle's infotainment system and go beyond simple stock Apple CarPlay with products from Ottocast, which add wireless CarPlay and new features like HDMI input.


Ottocast is a company that specializes in enhancing vehicle infotainment systems. All three accessories featured here bring new functionality to your factory CarPlay unit, while enabling wireless CarPlay.

There's the CarPlayClip, Car TV Mate Pro, and Play2Video Pro. Whichever model you choose, you'll find they are compatible with most CarPlay-enabled cars on the market.


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Apple TV+ is continuing to step back from high-profile theatrical releases of its movies, with the forthcoming "F1" racing drama seen as one more test after a series of flops.


Apple was the first streaming service to earn a Best Picture Oscar, with "CODA" in 2022, but otherwise its movies have not been hits on the big screen. Following low box office returns for films including "Killers of the Flower Moon," Apple curtailed plans for theatrical releases.

That decision began with "Wolfs," which instead got a foreshortened and limited distribution of a week in theaters, before streaming on Apple TV+ from September 27. Now according to Bloomberg, Apple plans to repeat this greatly reduced theatrical window for each of its next films — except one.


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Apple resellers are clamoring for your business, with month-end MacBook Air deals knocking up to $300 off 2024 M3 and blowout M2 models.


The MacBook Air is a popular laptop choice thanks to its 2024 update to the M3 chip, thin-and-light design and budget-friendly price. And with Apple resellers running month-end sales on the notebooks, you can save a large amount of money on new and closeout models.

Discounted prices start at just $799 for the M2 line and $899 for the M3 line, with every configuration marked down in our Mac Price Guide. Many of the markdowns at B&H end at 3:30 pm Pacific Time today (September 27).


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Apple's highest-end wearable is the Hermes version of the Apple Watch Series 10 in silver titanium. Here's what sets it apart.


You'd be forgiven for thinking that the Ultra 2 is the most expensive Apple Watch. Not a lot of time gets devoted to Apple's high fashion partnership with the French fashion brand, Hermes.

This partnership has lasted for years. In 2024 a custom Hermes version of the latest Apple Watch was again made available, paired with various Hermes bands.


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Across Facebook and Instagram, Meta has been storing more than half a billion users' passwords in plain text, with some easily readable for more than a decade.


The issue was first uncovered in 2019 when Facebook admitted to "hundreds of millions" of passwords being stored unencrypted. Facebook, now Meta, said that the passwords were not available outside of the company — but also admitted that around 2,000 engineers had made about 9 million queries on that user database.

Now Meta's operation in Ireland has finally been fined $101.5 million after a five-year investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). The fine is levied under Europe's stringent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).


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A teardown of the iPhone 16 Pro has given a closer look at its internals, resulting in the highest repairability score since the iPhone 7.


As is customary for an iPhone release, companies start to tear down the devices to check out the internals. While one initial teardown has shown off the new metal battery in the iPhone 16 Pro, another has looked at how easy it is to repair.

Published to YouTube on Friday, the iFixit teardown again covers the inclusion of a fully-encased battery. According to the firm, the new battery offers a benefit to repairers, in that "you can accidentally poke it to your heart's content and it won't pose a fire risk."


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While we enjoy our new iPhone 16, Apple is working to make a lower cost Apple Vision Pro, Meta Orion is pretending to be regular glasses, and Jony Ive's firm has a cute new logo, on the AppleInsider podcast.


AppleInsider is not into style over substance, it's always about going deeper. Still, the Desert Titanium color on the new iPhone 16 Pro range is glorious — and Jony Ive's new LoveFrom logo is the cutest thing you'll see this week.

Not that it has competition for that title from, say, Meta Orion. Billed as the future of mixed reality headsets, it's currently making a spectacle of itself — or rather spectacles, looking like 1950s-style glasses. Yet it is a step forward, at least for Meta, and Apple is reportedly also making some strides in its move to produce a lower cost Apple Vision Pro.


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Talking at a climate conference, Apple's environment executive Lisa Jackson said the company believes in regulation, and also in how sustainable design requires working directly with communities.


As vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, Jackson is one of several Apple executives who have been tipped to succeed Tim Cook. At Climate Week NYC, she's been talking to entrepreneur leaders across all industries, and according to Inc. magazine, advised them all to work with communities.

"If you design an answer in a vacuum away from the community that's impacted and away from the people who have to live with it and use it, it's not going to be a solution," she said. Specifically regarding Silicon Valley, she added that "we're so smart [there], but communities know what they need, as well."


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Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Apple Intelligence will be the chief selling point of an M5-based Apple Vision Pro, and also that little else will change from the current model.


While most recent rumors regarding the future of Apple's headset have concentrated on plans for a lower-cost Apple Vision version, it has also been obvious that there would be future versions of the Apple Vision Pro. It's also been obvious that such a future version would use a newer processor than the M2 in the current generation, but Ming-Chi Kuo now specifies that it will be the M5.



Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible


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CodeBuild is an Amazon Web Service tool for automating the building of software. Now you can use it to build macOS and iOS apps.


Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a comprehensive set of cloud computing services that allow you to ditch your on-premises hardware. With AWS you can shift much of your IT infrastructure to the cloud, leveraging the power of Amazon's vast resources for your compute workloads.

AWS offers a limited free tier for some cloud services, but most services require a monthly or hourly fee. In some cases, you pay only for what you use.


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The month-end deals at B&H are valid this week only, with Mac computers discounted to as low as $469.


Each of the offers below reflects the lowest price available, according to our M2 Mac mini Price Guide and 14-inch MacBook Pro Price Guide. B&H's Payboo store card also provides a way to further extend the savings, with a sales tax refund in qualifying states or special financing.

Grab the deals


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Apple's rumored Frankenstein-like Home Hub with the body of a HomePod, neck of a robot, and iPad head could have a more square display according to a new rumor.


From the ashes of the Apple Car project arose a new robotics division that is allegedly working on AI-powered arms and robot companions. One device is expected to be the long-awaited Apple Home Hub, a combination iPad HomePod.

This internally labeled "HomeAccessory," codenamed J490, will be powered by an A18 processor and have a square-ish display. The details come from an anonymous source speaking to 9to5Mac.


Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible


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Apple has released a firmware update for the AirPods Pro 2 to improve the performance and stability of the wireless earbuds.


The update includes build number 7A305. Apple's release notes simply state that it is a bug fixes and other improvements update only for AirPods Pro 2 with either Lightning or USB-C.

On September 18, Apple released the second firmware update for the AirPods Pro 2 in as many weeks, and Thursday's update marks a third in quick succession.


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'Balatro' and 'Balatro+' are now available on iPhone and iPad, with players able to choose between the paid edition from the App Store or the Apple Arcade Plus version.


Previously teased as arriving on iPhone and iPad late in September, Balatro from LocalThunk and Playstack is now available to download on mobile devices. The launch on Thursday brings the game to both the App Store and the Apple Arcade subscription.



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If you're experiencing issues with USB on your Mac after installing macOS Sequoia, you're not alone, with some users reporting drive connectivity issues.


Following the release of major operating system updates, there are often small issues that crop up that weren't picked up during the beta-testing process. As expected, this has happened to macOS 15 Sequoia, which was released on September 16.

There are a few reports on Reddit and on Apple's support forum claiming that some upgraders to macOS Sequoia are having USB port trouble. Drives and chargers plugged into the USB-C ports of a MacBook aren't being detected, or take a long time to become usable, one Reddit post claims. There are other similar reports on Reddit as well.


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The Camera Control button, or what we presumed was going to be called the Capture Button, is a new physical control on the side of the entire iPhone 16 lineup. Here's everything you need to know, and how to get the most out of it.


Apple's Camera Control buttin is both physical and touch sensitive. With a firm press it will click like a real button, but a light-press gives you Taptic feedback like with Apple's Mac trackpads.



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Amazon's eero mesh WiFi routers are heavily discounted as the countdown to fall Prime Day begins, with WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 options up to $400 off.


The limited-time deals at Amazon include numerous eero WiFi routers and mesh systems, with WiFi 6, 6E and 7 prices slashed by up to 36%. Check out the selection of devices that are on sale below.

Shop eero deals


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If Apple has its way, the very newest accessory for an iPad could be broadcast television as received through an Apple Pencil for some reason.


If you really wanted to, you could argue that Apple has a history of working with broadcast television, since it even had a Macintosh TV in 1993. Not the most successful Mac design ever made, it was painted black, came with a built-in TV tuner, and is said to have sold only around 10,000.

It also didn't include everything you needed to get the about-320x200 broadcast television of the day. You still had to plug a TV aerial or a cable connection into the back of the card before it could show you anything.


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Remote work is great for flexibility, but it can open up an avenue for bad actors, privacy invasions and more, unless you use a great VPN for iPhone like Surfshark.


You might think a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is only useful for protection during travel or staying private while using public Wi-Fi, but there are many more uses beyond those. If you work from home or away at an office, a VPN client can provide a new layer of protection via a secure connection you didn't even realize you need.

Whether you're working from a company-issued computer or your personal device, there are a lot of reasons to use a VPN for remote work. It can prevent oversharing with your boss or a potential bad actor that's snooping on your traffic.


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The EU's AI Pact has a lot of big-name tech companies pledging to develop AI in a safe way, but Apple and Meta are the two outliers who aren't getting involved.


The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it had secured over a hundred signatures from companies signing up to the EU Artificial Intelligence Pact. Made up of voluntary pledges, the pact asks companies to work to ensure that AI is safe and produced in a responsible way.

The list of companies taking part in the pact includes quite a few major names, including Adobe, Google, IBM, HP, Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Open Ai, the creator of ChatGPT. However, that list doesn't include two major names in AI: Apple and Meta.


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A letter has been sent from Congress to the Department of Defense claiming China's subsidizing of display producers is a security risk to the US, with an endgame that could result in forcing Apple to change its supply sources.


Apple's global supply chain relies on multiple companies to provide displays for its iPhones, iPads, and Macs. However, while Chinese producer BOE has had a troubled existence within the supply chain, its status may become a little tougher to maintain.

John Moolenaar (R-MI), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, has written to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about China's subsidization of display producers. The letter, released on Tuesday, takes specific aim at BOE Technology Group and Tianma Microelectronics, and the possibility they could become a national security threat.


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Ex-Apple chief designer Jony Ive's LoveFrom company has revealed a new animated logo featuring Montgomery the bear.


After working on everything from the iMac to the iPhone, Ive eventually left Apple in 2019 to form his own company, and he's been steadily recruiting many of his old colleagues from Apple Park. Now, months after looking for $1 billion to fund development of an AI device, Ive has refreshed his website with a new animated logo.

Good luck finding what it used to look like. Even the Internet Archive's snapshots of the LoveFrom website now either display the new animation, or lead to blank pages with errors. Although don't look too far back, as the domain used to be owned by a firm selling "adult love letters."


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