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Zac Hall

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Simply Piano now lets you learn to play through Apple Vision Pro — no keyboard required

Simply Piano has long been a hit app in my household. My daughter never really showed interest in learning to play our keyboard until she came across Simply Piano on her iPad. I think it’s the first annual subscription I ever bought for her based on how much she was getting from it.

Now Simply Piano has brought the experience from the iPhone and iPad to augmented reality on Apple Vision Pro. The best part? You can play using Simply Piano with a virtual piano in your real environment without a physical keyboard for the first time.

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Review: Miko Mini is a fun and affordable AI bot for kids

Large language model AI has been a leap forward for me in how I use technology. So naturally, ChatGPT is something that my 7 and 11 year old kids are already familiar with, but there isn’t an AI that they interact with regularly. Enter Miko Mini, a fun and affordable AI bot that’s designed to create a safe and engaging environment for kids. The AI component is LLM powered so the bot is naturally conversational, and Miko has a host of content partners including Disney, Nickelodeon, and iHeartRadio. Read on for our impressions.

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Discovering music with Apple Music: from Autoplay to on tour

Apple Music, for me, is about much more than renting access to my favorite songs. The best case scenario for Apple Music, in my experience, is when it guides me to discovering my next favorite album or musician. After School Radio still does it for me, and access through Apple Podcasts is helpful for easily keeping up with the show.

More recently, it was just letting Apple Music recommend music after playing an album from my library. Within a matter of months, I went from first hearing this song on Apple Music while driving around to driving hours away to see the song played live.

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Mixing vintage guitar tech with Apple devices to keep creativity alive

Last night got a little wild… technologically speaking. Since I was a kid, I’ve loved bringing together my hobbies of playing guitar and doing stuff with computers. Nothing professional, just expressional. So when I was doing just that around 10:30 p.m., the technology stars aligned and I had a gadget epiphany.

The TL;DR is I’m having fun with computers!

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Apple Vision Pro weekend viewing: ‘currents’ on Vimeo

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.

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Big Foot has officially been spotted … among other new emoji proposals

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?

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Apple in 2025: Apple Intelligence predictions

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.

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Kino 1.2 adds Camera Control features, Grade preset sorting, and more

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.

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Apple Vision Pro proves best home theater as 2024 top grossing films arrive in 3D

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.

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Redesigned Mac mini and M4 Pro leaks: up to 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 64GB RAM, front-facing ports like Mac Studio

M4 iMac vs M3 iMac specs

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.

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