This week’s feature article comes from Julio Ojeda-Zapata, who reviews the new Studio Pro headphones and Studio Buds+ earbuds from Apple subsidiary Beats. Michael Cohen rejoins us to examine Apple’s Q3 2023 earnings, which dropped 1% from the previous year due to currency exchange rates and slowing smartphone sales. Adam Engst reports on the results of our first Do You Use It? polls about Stage Manager on the Mac and iPad before launching a new poll asking about Spotlight usage. Notable Mac app releases this week include Zoom 5.15.5, Firefox 116, Alfred 5.1.2, Ulysses 31, and URL Manager Pro 6.3.
The results from our first pair of Do You Use It? polls are in, and if TidBITS readers are representative, Stage Manager hasn’t been a big win for Apple.
Citing “foreign exchange headwinds” and “difficult compares” for its Mac and iPad results from the year-ago quarter, Apple reported a total revenue decline of about 1%. On the other hand, Services revenues continued to expand, and product sales to emerging markets were up. In short, Cupertino isn’t worried.
No search for Apple earbuds or headphones is complete without weighing what’s on offer from Apple subsidiary Beats By Dre. Releases include flagship Studio Pro headphones and a modest update to its 2021 Studio Buds.
Watchlist
Maintenance update with improvements and bug fixes. (Free, 101.8 MB, macOS 10.10+)
Brings several new features and improvements to the venerable Web browser. (Free, 127.1 MB, macOS 10.15+)
Fixes the opening of Web pages saved as Web Apps in macOS 14 Sonoma. (Free for basic functionality, £34 for Powerpack, free update, 5.3 MB, macOS 10.14+)
Adds support for entering equations using LaTeX. ($5.99/$49.99 monthly/yearly subscription, free update, 38.9 MB, macOS 11+)
Adds support for the Arc Web browser. ($34.99 new, free update, 23.1 MB, macOS 10.13+)
