Zac Hall

There’s a pretty cool update for Messenger out today. Meta has introduced phone and video calling voicemail, similar to FaceTime. The Facebook calling service is also adding AI video backgrounds and integrating Siri.

Every great holiday gift guide deserves a punchy theme that captures your attention and inspires your gift giving season. My theme this year? Stuff I received to review but haven’t yet, and stuff I honestly use daily. What… the smart home gift guide idea was already taken. Seriously, though, I think this is my favorite list yet.

Vimeo recently launched its visionOS app that Apple announced during WWDC 2024. As part of bringing Vimeo to the Apple Vision Pro, filmmaker Jake Oleson has published a short film dubbed ‘currents’. If you can get your hands on an Apple Vision Pro, give the spatial short film a watch.

My favorite part? The cinematography style that resembles photographs coming to life to me. ‘currents’ is also an easy viewing with wonderful music and a thoughtful story. Do give it a watch on Vision Pro if you can.

Apple Pay is celebrating 10 years since launching, and a new video ad highlights something about Apple Pay that has been true since day one. Apple Pay makes it really easy to spend money on the internet.

Apple provides the App Store in every market possible, providing access to as much software as possible. However, part of that responsibility is abiding by local government rules. This means Apple regularly has to choose between delisting certain apps to avoid being forced to close the entire App Store in those markets.

We’re still awaiting that wacky pack of emoji characters previewed in May. And we probably won’t actually see the shovel and exhausted face appear next to the fingerprint and purple splat until iOS 18.4 next spring. But still, who doesn’t love a new glimpse at proposed emoji characters — even if they’re part of the 2025/2026 set?

Alright, let’s make some predictions. Aside from the iPhone, Services is Apple’s most successful product category. The company’s approach to modern artificial intelligence, combined with its acquisition history, hints at how Apple could unlock new revenue streams in 2025. Apple Intelligence has the potential to be the next major driver of Services revenue.

The team behind Halide is back with an update to their video capture app Kino. Version 1.2 introduces support for Camera Control on iPhone 16, high frame rate support tuned for iPhone 16 Pro, and a new app icon that’s less HAL 9000 and more film reel-inspired. The update also adds the ability to organize Grade presets — apparently a highly requested user feature.

For many, Apple’s new ultrawide Mac Virtual Display feature in visionOS 2.2 beta is the killer app on Apple Vision Pro. But you don’t need to be a Mac user to appreciate Apple Vision Pro and its role as an incredible mobile movie theater.

I’ve been splitting my time for the last two months between my home and my family’s place four hours away. At home, I have an Apple TV 4K attached to my wall-mounted 65-inch Micro LED 4K TV. At my family’s place, the largest TV is about 19-inches. It’s a charming place along a river in the woods and away from the city, but it’s not my living room.

Still, in both locations I’ve been using Apple Vision Pro and AirPods Pro 2 to watch movies and weekly TV shows that I’ve been following.

Move over, Siri. OpenAI is bringing its advanced voice feature for ChatGPT to the Mac and Windows starting today.

In a surprise move, Apple has doubled the base RAM configuration on M2 and M3 MacBook Air models. Both MacBook Air models will now include 16GB RAM out-of-the-box, up from 8GB. The RAM increase comes without a change in price.

Apple Intelligence, Apple’s set of generative artificial intelligence features, is only now becoming public, but its biggest initial impact may already be seen this week.

Good news for Fantastical customers who have to use a PC for work: Flexibits’ robust and versatile calendar is now available on Windows.

Update: Now official.

We already know Apple is revealing the start of its M4 Mac line this week. The M4 iMac was the first M4 Mac announced, and M4 versions of the MacBook Pro are also expected this week alongside a redesigned Mac mini. However, we won’t have to wait for an official announcement to get our first look at the new Mac mini. We also now know top specs for the yet-to-be-announced M4 Pro chip.

Today’s M4 iMac announcement shows just how serious Apple is about the all-in-one desktop line.

The M1 iMac made a huge splash. It brought the return of colors, featured a giant iPad-like design, and sported a larger display with more resolution than the 4K 21.5-inch Intel iMac it replaced. Then Apple introduced the M2 chip, put it inside a bunch of Macs, and left the M1 iMac untouched.

Apple Vision Pro is a surprisingly emotional computer. If Apple Watch is Apple’s most personal device, Apple Vision Pro is the company’s most intimate.

My take on Apple Vision Pro after a month of regular use is that it’s the ultimate nostalgia machine, a portable movie theater, and a Macintosh-caliber personal computer. In this piece, I want to focus on the nostalgia component and how profound it can be.

Apple is steadily adding more states to its list of compatible Apple Wallet digital ID partners. The latest to join is Iowa, joining seven other states that support driver’s licenses via iPhone and Apple Watch.

Apple Vision Pro is one of the best ways to watch video, and now there’s more ways to find great content to view. Vimeo has released a new visionOS app made specifically for Apple Vision Pro, beating YouTube to the platform. The killer feature? Spatial video sharing.

Tesla appears to be actively developing its first Apple Watch app. Decompiled app code suggests Tesla intends for the Apple Watch to serve as a car key like the iPhone app.

Since Apple discontinued the 27-inch 5K iMac, Mac users have had to look elsewhere for a comparable desktop experience. Apple, Samsung, and LG have been the only display makers with 27-inch 5K monitors on the market for a while. Fortunately, a fourth competitor is joining the 5K 27-inch party soon, and it’s one MacBook users will appreciate.

Starting later this month, Prime Video subscribers will be able to subscribe to Apple TV+ through Amazon. Specific details about the business arrangement between Apple and Amazon are not known. However, Apple presumably believes it can reach more subscribers by offering TV+ as an add-on subscription for Prime Video subscribers.