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Julio Ojeda-Zapata

Julio Ojeda-Zapata

Julio Ojeda-Zapata is a technology reporter and blogger at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has written books about Twitter, the iPad, and mobile productivity. Keep up with him at ojezap.com.

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Using Smart Speakers While Temporarily Blind

How smart are smart speakers, really? Julio Ojeda-Zapata put this to the test when temporarily sightless due to a medical condition.Leaning on his Amazon, Apple, and Google speakers more than usual proved an often-frustrating exercise because Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are still pretty dumb.

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Photos Workbench Helps You Organize, Rate, and Compare Photos

For those who want more organization flexibility and efficiency than Apple’s Photos app provides, Houdah Software’s Photos Workbench provides a handful of targeted features that make the process faster and easier, all while working with your existing Photos library.

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Continuity Camera Turns an iPhone Into a Mac Webcam

If you think the webcams built into the latest Macs and Apple’s Studio Display leave a bit to be desired, there’s an alternative: Continuity Camera. Harnessing an iPhone as a Mac webcam, Continuity Camera provides a high-quality virtual-camera system in the upcoming iOS 16 and macOS 13 Ventura.

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First Impressions: Stage Manager on the iPad and Mac

Apple has turbocharged iPad multitasking in the upcoming iPadOS 16 with Stage Manager, a new feature that introduces Mac-style windowing. It also provides external display support that does more than mirror the iPad screen. A version of Stage Manager is coming in macOS 13 Ventura, as well. Julio Ojeda-Zapata tried Stage Manager on both platforms.

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watchOS 9 Adds Health and Fitness Features

Apple’s unveiling of watchOS 9 at WWDC unsurprisingly emphasized health and fitness updates (along with four new watch faces) but offered a surprise or two, including a new medication-tracking app and a brilliant little Dock tweak.

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Revitalize an Elderly Mac with Google’s Chrome OS Flex

If you have an old Mac gathering dust, Google may be able to return it to active use. Its free Chrome OS Flex replaces macOS and puts pep back in the Mac’s step. It’s a decent option for families who might want to set up workstations for kids or who just want a dedicated Web machine somewhere in the house.

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5G Home Internet Is a Good Alternative To Wired Broadband

T-Mobile and Verizon provide home Internet service via devices that use the wireless carriers’ 5G data signal as backhaul for local Wi-Fi. Julio Ojeda-Zapata has been testing both services and found them to be affordable, fast, and dependable.

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Apple Unveils Fifth-Generation iPad Air with M1, 5G, and Center Stage

At its Peek Performance event, Apple unveiled a fifth-generation iPad Air that swaps out the aging A14 Bionic processor for the M1 chip found in the iPad Pro and lower-cost Macs.

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Bowflex’s C6 Bike Is a Less Costly, More Versatile Peloton

Peloton exercise bikes are expensive and lock users into the company’s exercise service. Julio Ojeda-Zapata tried a less expensive alternative, Bowflex’s C6 bike. It gives users the flexibility to use a range of fitness services with an iPhone or iPad, an Apple TV, or a Mac.

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AT&T and Verizon Debut Faster, More Widely Available 5G Service

AT&T and Verizon have started using C-band wireless spectrum that will speed up their 5G cellular service and make it available to more customers. This important step in 5G’s overall evolution brings AT&T and Verizon more in line with T-Mobile, which has had an edge in available spectrum until now.

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Apple Music Voice Plan Is a Bargain If You’re OK Using Siri

The new Apple Music Voice Plan is a bargain at $4.99 per month, but it mostly limits you to using Apple’s Siri voice assistant for searches and playback. The Voice Plan has been met with some skepticism, but Julio Ojeda-Zapata thinks it’s a good option for casual music listeners.

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Beats Fit Pro Are Good Alternatives to Third-Generation AirPods

A week after the release of the third-generation AirPods, Apple subsidiary Beats By Dre unveiled Fit Pro earbuds that offer a compelling alternative thanks to a more secure fit, H1 chip, and active noise cancellation.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata Josh Centers 5 comments

First Impressions of the Third-Generation AirPods

Josh Centers and Julio Ojeda-Zapata team up to give you their first impressions of Apple’s third-generation AirPods.

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Apple Unveils Third-Generation AirPods, Tweaks HomePod mini and Apple Music

Apple used its “Unleashed” event partly to focus on music. It revealed third-generation AirPods with a host of improvements, unveiled new colors for its HomePod mini speaker, and announced a new Apple Music Voice Plan for access to the music service via Siri voice commands.

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Center Stage Keeps You in the Video Chat Frame

Apple recently unveiled an iPad camera feature called Center Stage that keeps one or more people within the frame during video chats even when they move around. Julio Ojeda-Zapata gave Center Stage a try and compared it to smart displays from Amazon, Facebook, and Google.