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We mentioned last week that an Apple TV software update would allow owners to stream content from a friend’s Apple TV box elsewhere, and AllThingsD now has a little more info on how this will work. It’s yet another move by Apple to embracing the cloud, which is perhaps also why the rumored 128GB iPhone 5S didn’t make an appearance: local storage is rapidly becoming old-hat. The key part is that they will be able to tell an Apple TV box they don’t own to stream the media they do own, directly from the cloud....

Similar to iPhone X and Face ID, Apple Watch can also gain similar notification privacy settings by flipping a few switches. Instead of notifications appearing immediately on the Watch, enabling notification privacy will only show the source of the notification as well as the name, masking the content. Follow along to learn how to enable this feature… Apple Watch: How to enable notification privacy On iPhone, head to Watch app > Notifications....

Apple Watch for kids is something parents are embracing more and more. The New York Times ran a story in September 2022 about Apple Watch adoption among children as young as five. Parents are finding the Apple Watch more appropriate for kids wanting smartphones. The Apple Watch gives kids a way to stay in touch with parents, share location, and build responsibility without the full cost and risk of a smartphone....

Washington Post columnist Allan Sloan observes that Apple’s plan to buy back $60b of its own stock will reduce the company’s tax bill by more than the cost of the loans it will take out to fund the share repurchase program. If you’re wondering why a company with a cash balance of $145b would need to borrow $60b, it’s all about tax … Around two-thirds of that cash hoard is held by Apple subsidiaries outside the USA, and if Apple brought the cash back home it would have to pay 35% corporation tax....

Apple has made the decision to delay the launch of its new SharePlay feature in iOS 15. The new feature will be available in a later update to iOS 15, Apple says, and will not be included in the initial public release of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, tvOS 15, and macOS Monterey. Apple says that SharePlay has been disabled in developer beta 6 versions of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and tvOS 15, and will be disabled in the upcoming beta 6 release of macOS Monterey....

When this February Apple rolled out the new MacBook Pro family with Sandy Bridge chips and Thuderbolt I/O, the company surprised many with a SATA3 interface for the hard drive and disappointed at the same time by leaving the Superdrive in SATA2. SATA3 allows for theoretical data transfer speeds of 600 megabytes per second versus 300 megabytes per second for SATA2. Real-life numbers, as always, are lower and dependant on a number of factors, such as the speed of both your processor and the peripheral attached to the SATA interface....

After launching the first macOS Monterey 12.3 beta to developers and public testers with the exciting Universal Control feature enabled at the end of January, the third beta has arrived today. Update 2/16: Apple has made the latest macOS beta available to public testers. macOS 12.3 beta 3 doesn’t include many user-facing changes but it does come with a new UI for enabling Universal Control. macOS Monterey 12.3 beta 3 adjusts Universal Control options in System Preferences The third macOS Monterey 12....

Asymco’s Horace Dediu has put together a couple of charts showing that while the number of visitors to Apple’s retail stores continues to climb, the rate of growth is flattening off. The underlying reason appears to be a slow-down in the rate at which Apple is opening new stores, as the average number of visitors per store has remained stable for the past three years … Dediu also observes that the average spend-per-visitor has remained pretty constant at around $50 – Apple’s latest SEC filing shows that average revenue per store dipped marginally, from £51....

Apple Stores in China were closed on February 1st in response to the coronavirus, with the company stating that they would remain so through February 9. Store webpages say that they will re-open on Monday, but a memo to local staff from retail and people head Deidre O’Brien suggests this is now unlikely. The Chinese government had suggested February 10 as the date on which businesses would resume operations, but it appears Apple may take a two-stage approach…...

Apple today has rolled out an update to the Apple Support app on iOS. The update brings the app to version 2.3 and includes region and country expansions and more. Apple says the Apple Support app for iOS is now available in 20 new countries and regions. While the company has not specified the exact countries and regions in which the app is now available, it does note that new languages are also included in today’s update....

Apple appears to be putting its ducks in a row ahead of major Apple TV changes. Alongside last night’s changes to the Apple Online Store to promote Valentine’s Day specials, Apple added an entire Apple TV section. The Apple TV is now promoted as a full product line alongside Macs, iPads, iPods, and iPhones. Previously, the Apple TV did not have its own section, and it was simply tucked away as an accessory in the dwindling iPod department....

If you are on Aperture 3, you might want to hit the software update button. The laundry list of fixes and features is below. Aperture 3.1 Release Notes This update improves overall stability and performance, and addresses compatibility with iLife ’11. It also includes a number of specific fixes in the following areas: Library Improves performance when opening large libraries. Fixes an issue that could prevent thumbnails from being properly rendered when reprocessing masters....

Apple released an update to its iWork suite of applications today. No not that update. Today’s is ‘just’ for the current ’09 version which is starting to feel long in the tooth in 2011. With the Mac App Store opening in less than 24 hours and iWork applications shown on the mockups of the store, it would seem likely that a totally new version of iWork is in the cards....

The future of the internet will depend on the outcome of an Apple versus Meta headset battle, claims Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He told employees that the two companies had very different visions for the metaverse, and admitted that it’s not yet clear which will be better … Background The metaverse is a term first coined by Neal Stephenson in the 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. While there is no hard-and-fast definition of the term, it encompasses the idea of the internet existing as an immersive virtual world, accessed via some combination of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)....

The Apple Watch App Store dedicated to iPhone apps that include WatchKit apps is going live ahead of the new device’s launch tomorrow, BuzzFeed says. Apple first added the Apple Watch App Store in iOS 8.2 as part of the Apple Watch companion app, but until now the section has displayed a coming soon page. The Watch’s App Store is available now. Apple appears to have given BuzzFeed an early look at what the Apple Watch App Store will include on day one....

There’s certainly a benefit to Apple’s use of sapphire crystal on Apple Watch. It’s extremely scratch resistant (even though stainless steel may not be) and will hold up over time, but how does it compare to sapphire crystal used in traditional watches? In a new video published by Unbox Therapy, Apple Watch was put up against a Tissot watch to see if Apple’s standards for sapphire crystal match up with traditional watchmakers…....

After releasing 12D74 late last month, Apple released OS X 10.8.3 build 12D76 to developers today with no major changes. Apple isn’t listing any known issues, and the company once again asked developers to focus on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari. We’ll let you know if developers report any changes in today’s build. Full release notes below: Thanks, Anonymous! Update: As noted by MacRumors, build 12D76 appears to include support for NVIDIA’s Quadro K5000 graphics card that the company announced for the Mac Pro in September but is yet to ship....

Today, Apple seeded a new beta build of OS X 10.7.5 to developers, as noted by MacRumors. The new build number is 11G36 and it comes in both delta and combo-update configurations. Apple’s previous 10.7.5 beta came in at build 11G30 in late July. The small increase in builds from the last seed to today’s seed means that Apple is close to reaching the end of the development cycle. Apple says that no known issues are present in the build, and developers should focus on graphics and media....

Apple this evening has uploaded four new iPhone how-to videos on its YouTube channel. These videos cover choosing a Key Photo in Live Photos, Depth Control, searching in the Photos app, and more. Update 2/22: Apple has today shared four more iPhone photography tutorial videos including: How to shoot a Time-Lapse video on iPhone, How to shoot using the rule of thirds on iPhone, How to trim video on iPhone, and How to shoot with light and shadow on iPhone....

Some Mac users, specifically those with Macs that don’t support Bluetooth LE, weren’t too happy to find out that meant they would likely not get to use Apple’s new Handoff feature to seamlessly switch between apps across Macs and iOS devices. To be clear, Apple has not yet confirmed details of device compatibility for most Yosemite features, but some users have reported that only Mid 2011 MacBook Airs, Mid 2012 MacBook Pros, late 2012 iMacs, and 2013 Mac Pro or newer models– the Macs that include Bluetooth LE– appear to support the feature....