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 WaterMinder: WaterMinder is the ultimate water tracking tool that will help you stay hydrated during the day, with dedicated apps for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac. 

The Apple versus Qualcomm battle was fought fiercely for years, before circumstances forced the iPhone maker to agree a last-minute settlement.

But some Qualcomm shareholders were as unhappy as Apple about the chipmaker’s business practices, and they’ve finally managed to persuade the company to pay compensation …

How Apple Intelligence will work in China remains unclear, as the company has to navigate the country’s generative AI regulations.

A new report says that Apple concluded it was unlikely to get approval to use a system developed outside of China, suggesting that more of the off-device AI will be powered by Chinese companies …

The Apple Store has today launched its Back to School promotion in the United States for 2024. Eligible students and staff can get a free gift card with the purchase of a new Mac or iPad. The gift card is in addition to the usual education discount in items sold through the Apple Store for Education.

You can get a $150 gift card when buying a new iMac, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro. A $100 gift card is on offer for purchases of Mac mini, and the new iPad models: iPad Pro (M4) and iPad Air (M2). As usual, for the best value for money, you should probably shop elsewhere — Amazon has the new MacBook Air for $200 off for instance.

We got a partial look at the outside of the Apple Store TRX in Kuala Lumpur a few weeks ago, and the tiered pyramid design looked pretty spectacular.

Apple has now shared photos of the inside of the store, ahead of Saturday’s opening, and it doesn’t disappoint …

When Apple announced the new M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Pro last month, the company also teased updates coming to Final Cut Pro and a new iPhone app called Final Cut Camera, which enables pro camera controls for shooting videos. At the time, Apple said that Final Cut Camera would be available “later this spring” – but nothing more has been said about the app since.

After all, when will Apple release Final Cut Camera?

Apple this year announced a series of changes when it comes to the App Store in the EU, as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation came into force in March. However, the European Commission doesn’t seem satisfied with the changes Apple has made. For the EU, Apple has some “very serious” issues with not being fully compliant with the new legislation.

Audio messages can be very useful sometimes when you want to better express your feelings or simply don’t want to type a long text. However, not everyone likes listening to long audio messages. As an iMessage user, I’ve always missed an option to adjust the playback speed for audio messages – but it turns out that there is a way to do this.

Upgrading your HomeKit lifestyle with a smart garage door is one of the best changes you can make. For a long time, MyQ was an easy recommendation for people looking to easily turn their existing garage door into a HomeKit garage door. Chamberlin, the company behind the MyQ platform, discontinued its HomeKit accessory last year and recently even further cracked down on access to the MyQ platform.

Thankfully, there are other ways to bring HomeKit capability to your garage door without too much work. Here are some of my favorites…

iOS 18 provides far more customization tools than ever before. Among them, you can swap out the Lock Screen’s flashlight and camera buttons for any other controls of your choice.

But as nice as this new Lock Screen freedom may be, lots of users may face a dilemma: they want custom controls, but don’t want to sacrifice quick access to the Camera app.

Good news: you can still quickly open Camera, even after removing the Lock Screen button. Here’s how.

When unveiling its upcoming AI features at WWDC, Apple demoed a number of ways it will be useful and powerful. But what use cases will Apple Intelligence be most helpful? A new report from CIRP looks to answer that question.

The year is reaching its halfway point, and Apple TV+ has released a variety of new series, movies, and returning shows. There are plenty of summer debuts hitting soon, but before we head into the second half of 2024, let’s take stock of what the service has produced so far.

What has been your favorite TV+ release of 2024 so far?

As we covered last week, iOS 18 includes a few notable changes for the Home app and HomeKit in general. One of those changes is hands-free support for unlocking smart locks thanks to Ultra Wideband technology. Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, there are no locks on the market that actually offer UWB support.

Along with letting users customize app colors, organize them anywhere, and more natively, iOS 18 brings a subtle new feature that cleans up the Home Screen. Here’s how to hide app names on iPhone in iOS 18.

Apple has a brand new Passwords app coming in iOS 18. Once users upgrade this fall to the latest OS versions across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even Vision Pro, they’ll find the new Passwords app installed.

But while Passwords will offer lots of the functionality found in third-party options like 1Password (at least for personal use), there are two specific 1Password features you won’t find in Apple’s Passwords app.

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 WaterMinder: WaterMinder is the ultimate water tracking tool that will help you stay hydrated during the day, with dedicated apps for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac. 

A standout feature of the Vision Pro is its immersive environments, where you can fully enjoy the device’s VR powers and find yourself in an entirely different place. One of Apple’s most demoed environments is Mount Hood, and now thanks to Basic Apple Guy, you can enjoy this peaceful location as a wallpaper on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac too.

Notorious threat actor IntelBroker, who previously claimed responsibility for other high-profile data breaches, including those of U.S. government systems in April, allegedly leaked the source code of several internal tools used at Apple via a post on a dark web forum.

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro are Apple’s latest and greatest devices. While the iPhone 15 Pro is naturally more feature-rich and powerful, it may be overkill for many. And the iPhone 15 has gained pro features of its own this year like the Dynamic Island, 48MP main camera, and more. Follow along for a deep dive into the iPhone 15 vs 15 Pro for all the differences and advice on which to buy for yourself or someone else.

Update June 2024: During the announcement of Apple Intelligence, we learned the new AI features will only be available with iPhone 15 Pro/Max and later. That marks a major new distinction between Apple’s smartphones.

• What is Apple Intelligence? Here’s how iOS 18’s AI features will change the way you use your iPhone, Mac, and iPad

Nobody likes a port transition. When Apple moved the iPhone and iPad to Lightning, and the Mac from USB-A to USB-C, it was painful. Most recently, the iPhone 15 line dropped Lightning for USB-C. Each transition makes your old peripherals more or less useless, unless you want to resort to endless adapters.

But port transitions are made much easier once every device supports the new connector.

Apple has gotten us most of the way toward the dream of an all-USB-C life. But there are still a handful of products lagging behind. Here are the products still in need of a USB-C update.

Not too long ago, Apple was on a mission to make all of its devices thinner and lighter. This ambition resulted in iPhones that bent, and MacBook Pros that removed pro ports and had a terrible keyboard.

In the past few years, Apple has shifted gears, prioritizing battery life, ports, and other important features over thinness. But the tides are set to turn again.

According to a new report, Apple’s thinning agenda is back and it’s coming for the iPhone, MacBook Pro, and Apple Watch soon. But the recent iPad Pro shows that Apple may just succeed this time around.

The possibility of a smartphone ban in schools in Apple’s home state of California looks increasingly likely after Governor Gavin Newsom added his support.

The move follows an opinion piece by the US Surgeon General proposing a warning label on social media apps, given the mental health risks they pose to adolescents …