Apple has bought Primephonic, a classical music service. Apple will be shutting Primephonic down soon but promises to create a new app just for classical music fans.
Choosing Apple earbuds or headphones becomes more complicated when you factor in gear from Apple subsidiary Beats by Dre. To wrap his head around all the options, Julio Ojeda-Zapata constructed a huge comparison chart. This companion article separates the various Apple and Beats devices into categories to assist you in your decision.
We’d like to welcome our latest sponsor, Global Delight, makers of the Boom 3D audio enhancement utility for the Mac.
Apple has published a support article offering clarity on how lossless audio will work with your devices.
Apple Music will provide free upgrades to lossless audio, Dolby Atmos, and Spatial Audio starting next month.
The Standard Ebooks project is building on the work of Project Gutenberg to spruce up classic ebooks for modern devices. Find out how you can use it to expand your ebook collection.
Apple has quietly updated the firmware in the AirPods Pro and second-generation AirPods, which will hopefully fix their sound issues.
It wasn’t all big hardware news at Apple’s Spring Loaded event. As a warmup to the cavalcade of major rollouts, Apple CEO Tim Cook spun through announcements of a new Apple Card Family service, a revamped Podcasts app that includes premium subscriptions, and a snazzy new iPhone color that Prince would have loved—yes, it’s purple.
If the batteries in your first- or second-generation AirPods are suffering from massively reduced battery life, you don’t have to pay full price for a new set (and throw away the old ones). For half the cost, Podswap will exchange your expired ones for a set of refurbished, genuine Apple AirPods with new batteries.
The Apple Arcade subscription game service is struggling to catch on, so Apple is adding a slew of classic board games and App Store hits to lure in subscribers.
Apple has announced that it is discontinuing the original HomePod to focus on the HomePod mini. The company will continue to service and support the HomePod, and it will remain available while supplies last.
You would pay dearly for Apple’s AirPods Max headphones, which at $549 exceed the cost of rival products by $200 or more. But Julio Ojeda-Zapata came away impressed with their stylishness, ruggedness, audio quality, active noise cancellation, design flourishes, and integration with Apple’s ecosystem. They have flaws, but none are deal-breakers.
Looking for a way to work out at home during the pandemic? Adam Engst tried the Stealth Core Trainer, which enables you to do dynamic planks while using your body as a game controller for playing simple video games on your iPhone.
Apple announced the HomePod mini, a smaller, less expensive, and more rounded version of its two-year-old HomePod. The expanded speaker line has little in the way of groundbreaking features as it competes with speakers from Amazon and Google, but at least it’s now more affordable.
If you’re skittish about visiting a public library during a pandemic, ask about electronic borrowing you can do from home. Many US libraries provide digital versions of books, comics, and magazines, plus music downloads and streaming video options. Julio Ojeda-Zapata examines all the likely choices.