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Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple is best known for making some of the world's most ubiquitous consumer devices, software, and services: the iPhone, iPad, iMac and MacBook computers, Apple TV, Apple Watch, iOS, iCloud, iTunes, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and many more. Led by CEO Tim Cook since 2011, Apple is one of the largest technology companies in the world alongside Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook.

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Is the iPhone 16 getting a redesigned camera module?

Leaker Majin Bu has shared an image of what they claim is the new camera module on the iPhone 16. This design appears to stack the camera sensors vertically, similar to the module on the iPhone 12. The leak lines up with some other recent rumors, too, which also indicate a shift away from the diagonal camera placement we’ve seen on the last few iPhones.


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Vision Pro decision time.

While many people are excitedly entering Apple’s spatial computing future, some Vision Pro early adopters have already packed the devices up and sent them back for a refund. Reasons we’ve heard include eye fatigue, few useful apps available so far, and a lack of window / workspace persistence.

If you bought one on day one, the return window is closing now, so let us know if you’re deciding to keep your headset and why.


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The Apple Vision Pro is getting two VR gaming staples.

Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator are both making their way to Apple’s headset, developers Owlchemy Labs announced. They don’t say when the games will arrive, but they should offer a welcome stress reliever for whenever you’re not filling out spreadsheets or attending Zoom calls.


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The Verge
Apple’s cloud gaming changes don’t “go far enough” for Xbox.

At one point, Xbox wanted to get its cloud gaming service on the App Store — but now that Apple will actually allow it, the gaming giant isn’t biting. Here’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer:

There’s not room for us to monetize Xbox Cloud Gaming on iOS. I think the proposal that Apple put forward... doesn’t go far enough to open up. In fact, you might even say they go the opposite direction in some way, but they definitely don’t go far enough to open up competition on the world’s largest gaming platform.


Ridley Scott’s Napoleon hits Apple TV Plus on March 1st.

Follow its theatrical release last fall, Apple TV Plus’ Napoleon feature from director Ridley Scott is finally coming to the streamer itself next month.


Still from the Apple TV Plus film Napoleon showing the cahracter on horseback in front of an army.
Napoleon
Image: Apple
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Twitter
Ponder this (shiny) orb on the Vision Pro.

XR designer Greg Madison has created this chrome ball as a fun way to visualize how Apple’s headset can reflect lighting in augmented reality based on your real environment.

Reflection mapping is hardly new or unique to the Vision Pro, but Madison’s experiment is commendably easy to play with — just open the file in this Google Drive link while you’re wearing the headset.


Apple recommends some Arcade games for Vision Pro owners.

Assuming you’re going to keep your Vision Pro headset for a while, Apple has highlighted some of the spatial games already available that are optimized for its headset’s eye, hand, and voice controls.

They include What the Golf, Super Fruit Ninja, Synth Riders, and Lego Builder’s Journey (shown below), as well as some upcoming titles, like Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City, Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, and Spire Blast.


Animated image showing the augmented reality Lego game on Vision Pro, with two Lego figurine characters building a bridge on a desk.
Lego Builder’s Journey
Image: Apple
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Totally unofficial Apple Vision Pro YouTube app makes it to version 1.1.

Call me pessimistic, but I was sure Google would immediately slam the breaks on Christian Selig’s third-party YouTube app (especially now the company plans to make a YouTube app of its own). But Juno is still going strong, and Selig has just released its 1.1 version update. Improvements include a playback quality selector, drag and drop support, bug fixes, and other performance and UI tweaks.


Juno 1.1

[christianselig.com]

Apple fans are starting to return their Vision Pros

Comfort, headache, and eye strain are among the top reasons people say they’re returning their Vision Pro headsets.

Meta’s big vision for face computers might be better than Apple’s

Meta’s more accessible approach to face computers is more about what you can do now. Apple’s is more about what you’ll be able to do later.

Another long-tenured Apple designer is leaving the company.

Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg that Bart Andre, Apple’s “longest-service industrial designer” who helped run the team after Evans Hankey exited, has announced he’s leaving too. Andre, like Hankey and several others who have departed from the team that now reports to Apple COO Jeff Williams, worked closely with chief design officer Jony Ive until he left, and started his Lovefrom design firm in 2019.


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The Vision Pro has Thunderbolt and Lightning (very, very frightening).

If you get the USB-C-having developer strap for the Apple Vision Pro, you get more than the swole Lightning-esque connectors the headset already has, according to 9to5Mac.

Developers report that all of the pieces are detectable for a Thunderbolt connection; it’s just that Apple is limiting it to the 480Mbps max of USB 2.0.


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The Verge
Apple has removed a streaming piracy app that was trending in the App Store.

The Kimi app, which had been lightly masquerading as an app for testing your vision for months, was holding the number eight spot in the trending free entertainment apps section earlier today.

It was pulled after The Verge reported that it had slipped past app store review.


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The Verge
Google’s not happy about Apple and Microsoft escaping some DMA rules.

Today the European Commission decided against designating Apple’s iMessage and three Microsoft products as core platform services under the Digital Markets Act. “Excluding these popular services from DMA rules means consumers and businesses won’t be offered the breadth of choice that already exists on other, more open platforms,” Google spokesperson Emily Clarke tells The Verge.

Google, of course, lobbied for iMessage’s designation.


Google Meet’s companion mode is now available on mobile.

If you’d like to use the same collaboration features as your remote colleagues while in a physical meeting room, Google is now rolling out its companion mode for Android and iOS devices — allowing Google account users to be identified by name, chat with other meeting participants, enable live subtitles, raise their “hand” to speak, and share emojis without disrupting the current speaker. It was previously restricted to laptops/desktops.


Two GIFs showing the different between Google Meet’s companion mode on desktop and the iOS and Android versions.
The iOS and Android companion mode should make it easier to participate in hybrid Google Meet sessions via mobile devices.
Image: Google
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The Vision Pro now lets you reset your passcode without a trip to the Apple store.

The latest visionOS 1.0.3 update adds the option to erase the data from the Vision Pro and reset the device if you forget your passcode, as spotted by MacRumors. You could previously only reset the device by bringing it to an Apple store, making it a bit inconvenient.

It’s worth noting that Activation Lock will still be enabled when the device is reset, so if a thief gets ahold of the headset, they’ll still need your Apple ID to set it up.


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Youtube
Jon Stewart seems just a bit resentful towards Apple for canceling his show.

Ahead of his return to The Daily Show tonight, Jon Stewart is doing the usual press rounds. And on CBS Mornings, he briefly touched on Apple’s abrupt cancellation of The Problem last year.

“I very much wanted to have some kind of place to unload thoughts as we get into this election season. And I thought I was going to do it over at, they call it Apple TV Plus,” he said before joking about the service’s popularity. “It’s a televison enclave. Very small. It’s like living in Malibu. But they decided that they felt that they didn’t want me to say things that might get me in trouble.”

In October, The New York Times reported that Apple’s decision partly stemmed from Stewart’s plans to cover topics including artificial intelligence and China in the show’s now-scrapped third season.


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Vision Pro app downloads are a mixed bag so far.

Immersive Wire spoke to Vision Pro developers and found that apps like JigSpace, which was included in Apple’s press materials, got over 14,000 installs in the span of a week. Other apps have struggled to get past a 1,000-download threshold.

It obviously helps to be featured by Apple, but Immersive Wire reports some developers attribute lower download numbers to a lack of discoverability on the App Store. Developers say search capabilities need improvement, and the top 10 app lists should be easier to find.


Vision Pro’s big software upgrades will be synced with the iPhone.

So Mark Gurman wrote in the subscriber version of his Bloomberg Power On newsletter today. Not that we should expect any different. The iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Apple Watch all get their big updates at about the same time.

Historically, that means a September visionOS 2.0 release. Also historically, Apple will crow about Vision Pro features it just can’t wait for you to experience at this year’s WWDC.


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It could be four generations before the Vision Pro is up to snuff.

Some members of the Vision Pro team inside Apple think that, like the iPhone and Apple Watch before it, the headset won’t hit its stride until its fourth iteration, according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg.

That makes sense — as impressive as the Vision Pro might be already, it’s still a first-generation product with first-generation problems.