Category: Apple

December 25 has come and gone, and the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 are still not for sale in the United States. As Ariel Shapiro reports, things are moving on to the next step:

Apple has filed an appeal to the International Trade Commission’s decision to ban U.S. sales of Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models, court records show. Additionally, the company is requesting an emergency stay on the ban for at least two weeks until a decision is made on redesigned versions of the banned models.

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Some sad Apple Retail news broke this afternoon. Here’s Joe Rossignol:

“After many years of serving customers at our stores in the Bay Area, we plan to close our store at Infinite Loop,” an Apple spokesperson said, in a statement shared with MacRumors. “All of our valued team members will have the opportunity to continue their roles with Apple. We look forward to welcoming our customers at our nearby Apple Park Visitor Center and other locations, on Apple.com, and the Apple Store app.”

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As foretold, customers can not currently order these two Watch models directly from apple.com:

The White House has until Christmas Day to veto the import ban, and if it doesn’t, Apple will either need to settle with patent-holder Masimo or find a work around, as noted in the company’s statement to 9to5Mac earlier this week:

Apple’s teams work tirelessly to create products and services that empower users with industry-leading health, wellness, and safety features. Apple strongly disagrees with the order and is pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers.

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Eric Migicovsky, writing on the Beeper blog:

Each time that Beeper Mini goes ‘down’ or is made to be unreliable due to interference by Apple, Beeper’s credibility takes a hit. It’s unsustainable. As much as we want to fight for what we believe is a fantastic product that really should exist, the truth is that we can’t win a cat-and-mouse game with the largest company on earth.

With our latest software release, we believe we’ve created something that Apple can tolerate existing. We do not have any current plans to respond if this solution is knocked offline. The iMessage connection software that powers Beeper Mini and Beeper Cloud is now 100% open source ( github.com/beeper/imessage). Anyone who wants can use it or continue development.

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Josh Rubin has some big CarPlay news:

The next generation of Apple‘s CarPlay is a leap forward in the integration of the iPhone with your car, offering seamless integration with the vehicle’s multiple displays and providing a holistic and intuitive user interface that’s unique to each car brand. This evolved version of CarPlay extends beyond the central infotainment system to include the driver’s information cluster and all other screens in the car, providing all vehicle information and interaction through a singular interface paradigm that also supports the user’s ability to select widgets to appear in predetermined areas on the screen—much like customizing the iPhone lock screen today. This version of CarPlay appears the moment the car is turned on and combines locally rendered content with features powered by the iPhone’s wireless connection to the car. Today Apple announced the first two partners on board to integrate this new generation, Aston Martin and Porsche, and showed us preliminary screens.

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The newest version of Shelly Brisbin’s excellent book about the accessibility features of iOS and iPadOS is out now. I learn something new every year.

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Well, the dogcow images are perfect.

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If getting Lightning out of your life is worth $99, I have good news for you.

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Apple Newsroom:

Self Service Repair is now available for the iPhone 15 lineup and Mac models powered by the M2 lineup, including the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, the 15-inch MacBook Air, Mac mini, Mac Pro, and Mac Studio. Self Service Repair is also now available for Apple users in 24 additional European countries, including Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland. With this latest expansion, Self Service Repair now supports 35 Apple products in 33 countries and 24 languages.

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Earlier this year, Joanna Stern and Nicole Nguyen did some excellent reporting about how easy it is for someone to own your Apple ID if they steal your iPhone.

Apple has responded with a new feature that has popped up in today’s beta of iOS 17.3. Michael Potuck has details at 9to5Mac:

Apple has thoughtfully created a two-tier system of how Stolen Device Protection works that offers a balance of user-friendliness while enhancing security.

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Dan Bashur at LowEndMac has a look at where Mac OS 9 is today.

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Apple Newsroom:

Journal, a new iPhone app available today, helps users reflect and practice gratitude through journaling, which has been shown to improve wellbeing. With Journal, users can capture and write about everyday moments and special events in their lives, and include photos, videos, audio recordings, locations, and more to create rich memories. On-device machine learning provides private, personalized suggestions to inspire journal entries, and customizable notifications help users develop their writing habits. With the new Journaling Suggestions API, third-party journaling apps can also suggest moments for users to write about. Journal and the Journaling Suggestions API are available with the release of iOS 17.2.

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