MacRumors

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of the upcoming macOS 14 Sonoma update to developers for testing purposes. The beta comes a couple of weeks after the launch of the fourth beta.

Registered developers can download the beta through the Apple Developer Center and after the appropriate profile is installed, with the betas available through the Software Update mechanism in System Settings.

macOS Sonoma introduces new Apple TV-like screen savers that also serve as wallpapers after you log in, plus it moves widgets to the desktop. You can use the new widget gallery to choose from a range of widgets, and then drag them to your Mac's desktop.

Widgets can be arranged in any way that's useful, and when you're using an app, they are designed to fade into the background so they're less distracting. ‌Widgets‌ are more interactive than before, so you can use them to do things like play music, turn off the lights in your home, and more. Through Continuity, your iPhone's widgets can also show up on your Mac's desktop.

Video conferencing has improved with a new Presenter Overlay view that shows your desktop or project in new ways, plus Safari now supports web apps for the Dock and the option to create Profiles so you can separate personal browsing from work browsing.

Other new features include improved search that's faster and more responsive, password and passkey sharing, a revamped stickers interface for the Messages app, PDF integration in notes that makes it easier than ever to manage PDFs, and more.

macOS Sonoma will be in beta testing for several months, with a public release coming this fall.

Apple today seeded the fifth betas of upcoming iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming two weeks after the release of the fourth betas.

Registered developers are able to opt into the betas by opening up the Settings app, going to the Software Update section, tapping on the "Beta Updates" option, and toggling on the iOS 17 Developer Beta. Note that an Apple ID associated with a developer account is required to download and install the beta.

iOS 17 is a major update that introduces a customized look for each person that calls, with the person who places the call able to customize their look. Live voicemails let you see a transcript of a message someone is leaving in real time so you can choose to pick up the phone if you want, and voice messages people send in iMessage are now transcribed into text. You can also record a video or audio message when someone misses your FaceTime call, and ‌FaceTime‌ works on the Apple TV through Continuity functionality.

In Messages, apps have been moved to a new tucked-away interface for a cleaner look, and there is a new Check In feature that is designed to let your friends and family keep an eye on you when you're traveling. Check In automatically notifies friends or family members when you arrive at a destination, such as home. Locations can also now be shared directly from the Messages app.

In a group chat, there's a catch-up arrow so you can see the first message you haven't seen in a conversation, and with search filters, you can more easily find what you're looking for. Stickers have been overhauled, and all emoji are now stickers, living alongside sticker packs and Memoji. Using the remove from background feature in iOS 17, you can turn the subject from any image into a sticker.

With StandBy, an iPhone placed horizontally turns into a little home hub that displays information like the calendar, time, home controls, and more, and Live Activities can be displayed in full screen too.

Widgets on the Home Screen are interactive, so you can do things like check off an item on a to-do list or turn off the lights without having to open an app. AirDrop has been improved and there's a NameDrop function for sharing contacts quickly, plus you can hold two iPhones together to start a SharePlay session. SharePlay also now works with CarPlay so passengers can play their music in the car too.

Other new features include a journaling app coming later this year, AirPlay in select hotel rooms, improvements to AirPods Pro 2 thanks to a new Adaptive Audio feature, offline Maps, Siri that does not require the "Hey" activation, and improvements to search and spotlight.

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming watchOS 10 update to developers for testing purposes, with the software update coming two weeks after the fourth beta.

To install the watchOS 10 update, developers will need to open the Apple Watch app, go to the Software Update section under "General" in Settings, and toggle on the watchOS 10 Developer Beta. Note that an Apple ID linked to a developer account is required.

Once beta updates have been activated, watchOS 10 can be downloaded under the same Software Update section. To install software, an Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery life and it must be placed on an Apple Watch charger.

watchOS 10 adds a whole new widget-focused interface. You can access a widget stack from any watch face using the Digital Crown, swiping through them to get to relevant information. Control Center can be activated from any app by pressing the side button, and these new quick access controls are meant to let you use watch faces that support less information while still putting everything you need at your fingertips.

There are new Palette and Snoopy watch faces, updates to Cycling and Hiking workouts, and mental health integrations. Users can log their state of mind and mood using the Apple Watch, with the device providing insights into mental health over time.

Nomad today released a limited edition Glow in the Dark Sport Band that is designed for the Apple Watch. The band, priced at $60, is compatible with the 49mm, 45mm, 44mm, and 42mm Apple Watch models.

Like Nomad's other Sport Band options, the Glow in the Dark model is made from FKM fluoroelastomer rubber, and it is waterproof, so it can be worn when swimming, in the ocean, and during sweaty activities. The material is stiffer than Apple's version of the Sport Band, but it is comfortable on the wrist.

There's a pin-and-tuck mechanism to close the band for a secure closure, and interior ventilation channels add breathability to keep the watch band from getting too moist underneath, similar to Apple's Nike bands. In our testing, the Sport Band does indeed glow in the dark as advertised, though the glow is a bit more subtle than depicted in Nomad's photos. The band needs to have light exposure before it is able to glow in the dark, and the brightness will depend on the amount of light that it gets.

During the day, the band is an unassuming white color, but when the lights go out, it glows green.

Nomad has been releasing multiple limited edition versions of the Sport Band, so the new model joins Blaze, Atlantic Blue, Electric Blue, and High Volta.

The Glow in the Dark Sport Band can be purchased from the Nomad website for $60.

Woot today has Apple's 2021 M1 iPad Pro on sale for record low prices. All tablets in this sale are in new condition and come with a one year Apple warranty.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Woot. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Starting with the 11-inch iPad Pro, Woot is offering these tablets with the Apple Smart Folio in select colors. Prices start at $659.99 (22 percent off) for 128GB Wi-Fi and rise to $849.99 (50 percent off) for 2TB Wi-Fi.

Woot also has multiple 12.9-inch iPad Pro models, and these do not come with the Apple Smart Folio. Prices start at $859.99 (22 percent off) for 128GB Wi-Fi and rise to $999.99 (52 percent off) for 2TB Wi-Fi.

In addition to Wi-Fi models, Woot also has the cellular versions of the 11-inch and 12.9-inch M1 iPad Pro tablets on sale. Woot's sale will only last for the rest of this week, although it could end earlier if select tablets sell out, so be sure to browse soon if you're interested.

We haven't tracked discounts on the M1 iPad Pro in about a year, given that recent sales have shifted to focus on the M2 models that launched in 2022. These tablets are fairly similar to one another, with the biggest advantages in the 2022 model being the M2 chip's internal upgrades and Apple Pencil hover. You can find out more information on the tablets in our guide.

Keep up with all of this week's best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.

Foxconn will exclusively supply Apple with dedicated servers for training and testing artificial intelligence services, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News (via South China Morning Post).

The servers are to be made in Vietnam due to Apple's plan to diversify its supply chain away from China. Foxconn currently supplies servers to Amazon, OpenAI, and Nvidia for AI applications. Foxconn is already Apple's primary supplier of data center servers.

Last month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple was working on "Apple GPT" artificial intelligence projects that could rival OpenAI's ChatGPT. Apple does not yet have a "clear strategy" for creating a product for consumers, and while it could be planning to make a "significant" AI announcement in 2024, Gurman claims it has no concrete plans as of yet. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the progress of Apple's generative AI technology is significantly behind its competitors and there is no sign that the company plans to launch AI services next year.

During Apple's earnings call last week, CEO ‌Tim Cook‌ said that AI and machine learning are "core fundamental technologies integral to virtually every product" that Apple builds. AI is apparently "absolutely critical" to Apple, with Cook confirming that Apple has been investigating generative AI "for years."

A California judge has denied Google's request for summary judgement in a class action lawsuit alleging that it secretly tracked the online activity of Chrome users even when they were using the browser in its privacy-oriented Incognito mode (via The Verge).

The lawsuit was filed in June 2020 by users alleging that Google hoovers up user data in Incognito mode through Google Analytics, Google Ad Manager and other applications and website plug-ins, including smartphone apps, whether or not users click on Google-supported ads.

The plaintiffs claim that Google is therefore deceiving customers into believing that they have control over the information they share with the company when they use Chrome's private browsing mode, and in doing so, violates federal wiretap laws.

In denying Google's request, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers referred to statements in the Chrome privacy notice, Privacy Policy, Incognito Splash Screen, and Search & Browse Privately Help page suggesting that incognito mode limits the information stored or how people can control the information they share:

The Court is guided by the way that Google itself chose to represent its private browsing mode: Google told users that they could 'go Incognito' and 'browse privately.' By browsing privately, plaintiffs could be said to have asserted their expectation of privacy. Google is welcome to make the counterargument at trial.

Google has not shown, as a matter of law, that all parties consented to it recording the communications here and therefore summary judgment is not appropriate.

According to the plaintiffs, the lawsuit likely covers "millions" of Google users who since June 1, 2016 browsed the internet using Incognito mode. The proposed class action therefore seeks $5,000 in damages per user for violations of federal wiretapping and California privacy laws, amounting to at least $5 billion.

Google has said it will defend itself "vigorously' against the claims. The company has previously unsuccessfully attempted to have the case thrown out by arguing that the plaintiffs consented to its privacy policy, which the company said explicitly discloses its data protection practices. Google's denied request for summary judgement now moves the case closer toward settlement or a trial.

Apple plans to invest in British chip design company Arm when owner Softbank Group floats its shares in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq in September, reports Nikkei Asia.

The chip designer's market capitalization by that time is expected to be more than $60 billion, which would make it the world's biggest initial public offering so far this year.

SoftBank will officially apply to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the listing later this month. Then it must obtain approval from Nasdaq. Leading global chipmakers, including Apple, Samsung Electronics, Nvidia and Intel, will invest in Arm as soon as the company is listed on the market.

Arm plans to welcome the big chipmakers as medium- to long-term shareholders, selling them stakes of a few percent each. By holding Arm's shares, chipmakers will hope to have sway over Arm's management.

Japan-based SoftBank has been preparing for an IPO since its plan to sell Arm to Nvidia became subject to regulatory scrutiny. California-based Nvidia in January 2022 abandoned the purchase when it became clear that the deal would be blocked by the FTC.

Since its founding in 1990, Arm has developed integrated circuit design data, considered the "blueprint" for semiconductors. Arm licenses its chip designs to over 500 companies, including Apple, and its architecture is used in 95 percent of the world's smartphones.

Arm's hardware underpins all of Apple's custom silicon processors such as the A15 in the iPhone 14 and the M2 in the MacBook Pro, since Apple licenses the Arm instruction set.

Alleged images of iPhone 15 USB-C connector ports have today been leaked online, in yet another indication that Apple is this year preparing to make the switch from Lightning to the USB-C charging standard.

The consolidated images below, shared by leakers @lipilipsi and @John011235 on X (formerly Twitter), purportedly show the USB-C connector ports attached to the flexible PCB component parts that will be used in the standard iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

All 2023 iPhone 15 models are expected to feature USB-C instead of Lightning. Reliable sources that include Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, and others, have said that Apple is going to make the change.

The switch will allow Apple to comply with new regulations implemented in the European Union. These regulations require Apple to produce iPhones with USB-C ports in EU, so Apple had to either make a worldwide design swap or develop special iPhones for sale in the EU.

The iPhone 15 Pro models with USB-C ports are expected to support higher-speed data transfers, while the standard iPhone 15 models will continue to feature USB 2.0 speeds – the same as Lightning – giving the Pro models an edge.

Leaker ShrimpApplePro has said that iPhone 15 models will only officially support USB-C accessories certified by the Apple Made for iPhone (MFi) program. Apple supplier Foxconn is allegedly producing accessories like EarPods and cables with USB-C connectors that are MFi certified.

The MFi USB-C certification could be used to limit features like fast charging and high-speed data transfers to Apple-approved accessories. ShrimpApplePro says that cables with no MFi certification will be limited in data and charging speed. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also suggested that Apple will require Made for iPhone certification for USB-C chargers that are able to fast charge the iPhone.

Apple's annual iPhone event is expected to take place on either Tuesday, September 12, or Wednesday, September 13, this year, according to Gurman.

Apple is testing the next-generation M3 Max chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The Apple silicon chip will be a replacement for the M2 Max, and it is set to be used in new MacBook Pro models next year.

Signs of the chip were found by a third-party Mac developer in test logs, and it appears to feature a 40-core GPU and a 16-core CPU with 12 high performance cores and four efficiency cores. Comparatively, the current ‌M2‌ Max chip features a 12-core CPU and a 38-core GPU. The test machine also includes 48GB memory, but there will likely be higher upgrade options available as the current ‌MacBook Pro‌ supports up to 96GB memory.

Apple's M3 Max chip is expected to be built on a new 3-nanometer process, resulting in speed and efficiency improvements compared to the ‌M2‌ Max chip. Apple is testing the chip in an unreleased high-end ‌MacBook Pro‌ that's codenamed "J514."

The M3 Max will be the higher-end chip in a trio that also includes the M3 and the M3 Pro. The M3 chip will include an 8-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU, while the M3 Pro will feature a 12-core CPU and 18-core GPU.

Apple is expected to release the first M3 Macs in October, but will likely focus on machines that use the standard M3 chip, such as the 13-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ and the MacBook Air models. 14 and 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ models that include the M3 Max chip are expected to come out in 2024.

Apple Music today gained a new "Discovery Station," which is located under the "Listen Now" section under Top Picks in the ‌Apple Music‌ app. The customized radio station is paired with the personalized radio station featuring your name, and it has the "Made for You" label.

As noted by AppleInsider, the radio station appears to play songs of a similar style to songs that are in your personal library and that you have listened to and liked in the past, but it chooses songs you don't have in playlists or your library.

There is no documentation on the Discovery Station as of yet, so full details on how the algorithm works to suggest music are unknown. Apple may promote the Discovery Station at some point in the future, but from our testing, it looks like a good way to discover music that is suited to your individual taste.

Apple Pay today became available for use in Vietnam, which means Apple users with a debit or credit card from a participating bank can add those cards to the Wallet app for ‌Apple Pay‌ purchases.

Rumors about ‌Apple Pay‌ coming to Vietnam first surfaced in July, and several banks have been working on support for the payments service. With ‌Apple Pay‌, iPhone and Apple Watch owners in Vietnam can make contactless payments at retail locations where the functionality is supported. Techcombank plans to support ‌Apple Pay‌, based on a leaked support website.

‌Apple Pay‌ will be available at WinMart, Phuc Long, Starbucks, McDonald's, Highlands Coffee, CGV Cinemas, and more. Payment through QR code is popular in Vietnam, so it will be curious to see how ‌Apple Pay‌ ends up competing.

Apple has been working to expand the availability of ‌Apple Pay‌ since it first launched in 2014. ‌Apple Pay‌ can be used in more than 75 countries at the current time, and it is expected to continue to launch in new countries as Apple establishes new deals.

Chile is expected to get access to ‌Apple Pay‌ starting tomorrow after two years of discussion and negotiations.

Update: ‌Apple Pay‌ is now live in Chile, as spotted by Apple researcher Aaronp613.

In computing lore, an Easter egg typically refers to a secret message, image, or feature intentionally left in software, often (but not always) hidden in plain sight. Since the 1970s, programmers have used them to credit unheralded developers, reference pop culture, sneak games into productivity apps, and generally inject a little bit of humanity into their code.

When Apple was a fledgling company, Mac developers regularly left fun little Easter eggs in software, but not so much these days. While surprises can still be found, they are a lot more subtle and sober, and exist more as a nod and wink to Apple's origins rather than anything edgy or unauthorized. Here are some of our favorite remaining Easter eggs in macOS.

1. EP Record Profile Picture

Open System Settings -> Users & Groups, then click on your login profile picture. If you click Suggestions, you'll find a bunch of classic profile avatars, including a vinyl record.

It's not obvious at this scale, but the four listed music tracks in this EP are unequivocally a tribute to Steve Jobs's favorite expressions: 1. Magic, 2. Revolution, 3. Boom, and 4. Unbelievable.

2. Incomplete Download Creation Date

Try downloading a file (any file) from a trusted place on the internet, but pause the download midway through. Now right-click on the partially downloaded file and select Get Info.

Note the file's creation date, January 24, 1984. That's no error: It's the date Steve Jobs formally unveiled the first Macintosh. Let the download complete, and the file's true creation date will replace it.

3. Sosumi

In the late 1980s, Jim Reekes began working as a sound designer for Apple, creating some of the Mac's most iconic sounds like the "Sosumi" beep, startup chord, and camera/screenshot click. The reason for the name "Sosumi" was due to a lawsuit from The Beatles' record label, also named Apple. At the time, Steve Jobs promised that his company would stay focused on computers and not get involved with music, so that the two similarly named companies could coexist.

After Macs added support for audio recording and MIDI (a standard that connects musical instruments to computers), The Beatles sued and forced Reekes to rename any sound effect that had a "musical-sounding name." Reekes' frustration with the lawsuit eventually led him to the name "Sosumi," because it sounded like "so sue me." He told the lawyers it was a Japanese word that didn't mean anything musical.

In macOS Big Sur and later, the Sosumi alert sound appears in System Preferences/Settings -> Sound with an alternative name: "Sonumi." But look for the sound file in /System/Library/Sounds/ and you'll find that it's still named "Sosumi.aiff." Sneaky.

4. Blue Screen of Death

Apple and Microsoft have generally maintained a friendly relationship over the decades, but neither company is averse to an occasional dig directed at its biggest rival. If your Mac is on a shared network to which a Windows PC could also be connected, try opening Finder and click the Network option in the sidebar, under "Locations."

If a PC is indeed on the network, it will be represented by a vintage-looking computer icon with Microsoft's infamous and frustrating "Blue Screen of Death" (BSoD) displayed on the screen. The location of the icon's file "public.generic-pc.icns" is in /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources.

5. Here's to the crazy ones

Apple's iconic "Think Different" marketing campaign will be remembered by many, not least for its Steve Jobs quote, which goes like this:

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits, the rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

The quote is hidden in several places across macOS. In System Settings -> Displays, for example, the words can be seen in the resolution examples when choosing for Larger Text or More Space. Zoom in on the "open book" emoji, and you'll see the same text on its pages. There's also a silver "coin" emoji with the words "The Crazy Ones" emblazoned over an image of an eagle.

6. Clarus the Dogcow

Open your Mac's Emoji keyboard and enter the word "moof" into the search field. The filtered results should return a dog and a cow. Why would that be?

It's a reference to Clarus, a bitmap image of the dogcow that was used to demonstrate page layout in the classic Mac OS, indicating to users which orientation the paper would be in when it was printed. The original glyph it was based on was created by Susan Kare for the Cairo dingbat font that came with the original Mac in 1984, but it became the official mascot of Apple's Developer Technical Support.

According to Apple's Macintosh Technical Notes, "Dogcows, by their nature, are not all dog, nor are they all cow, but they are a special genetic hybrid." As a result, the sound they make is "Moof!", a portmanteau of "moo" and "woof."

At the height of her popularity in the early and mid 1990s, Clarus showed up in everything from early versions of QuickTime to mousepads and T-shirts. But the dogcow became harder and harder to spot in subsequent versions of Mac OS X, and for a while it seemed Clarus had gone the way of the dodo. But in macOS Ventura, a smooth version of the dogcow returned to the page setup window.

Be wary of the dogcow. According to Apple, they are capable of mind control, but rarely seen in the wild: "Since dogcows are two dimensional, they will stand facing a viewer 'on edge' to avoid being seen."

7. Voice Memos App Icon

Open the Voice Memos app and record yourself saying the word "Apple." Does the waveform look familiar? It should do.

Now go back and take a look at the Voice Memos app icon. That's right – it's been designed to look like the waveform of someone saying the company name.

8. Safari Reading List

When Apple released Safari 5.1 for OS X Lion in July 2011, it included a new Reading List feature. It let users add websites and articles for later perusal, and has since become a staple of Apple's ecosystem.

In 2013, Apple updated the Reading List icon, but look closer at it and you may find those spectacles look familiar somehow. It's highly likely they are modeled on the iconic round and rimless Robert Marc eyeglasses worn by the late Steve Jobs.

9. Terminal Historical Calendars

Back in the day when Mac OS shipped with GNU Emacs installed, Terminal was a haven for Easter eggs. With the right kind of command line knowledge, users could fire up hidden games like Tetris or Snake, access recipes, and even chat with the therapist inside their computer. Since the Emacs command-line interface was removed in macOS Catalina, those days are long gone. But there are still a couple of neat fun facts to be found in Terminal.

Enter "cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history" (minus quotes) for a list of historical facts for every single day of the year. Alternatively, if you're a fan of Middle Earth, enter "cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.lotr" for a dated list of major events from the Lord of the Rings canon.

10. Stocks App Icon

We left this Easter egg until last because, quite frankly, we weren't able to corroborate it, so the claim's accuracy is up for debate (call it a rumor). With that said, take a look at the design of the Stocks app icon. See the blue line pinpointing the peak in a stock's value? According to Mac Life, this is supposed to represent the moment when Apple's share value surpassed Dell in January 2006.

In 1997, when Steve Jobs returned to an ailing Apple, Dell CEO Michael Dell was asked what he would do if he was in charge of the company. Dell famously responded, "What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

According to one Apple employee at the time, on hearing this advice, Jobs' responded: "F*ck Michael Dell!" Jobs never forgot what he had said, and even shared an email with his employees at the expense of Dell on the day Apple's stock surged to push the company's market capitalization to $72.13 billion, passing Dell's value of $71.97 billion. So, who knows? Maybe the Stocks app icon was indeed designed at Jobs' behest to digitally memorialize the moment.

Chip supplier TSMC has taken the unusual step of not charging Apple for defective 3nm chips ahead of the introduction of the iPhone 15 Pro and the A17 Bionic chip, The Information reports.

The ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro is widely rumored to feature the A17 Bionic chip – Apple's first chip manufactured with a ‌3nm‌ fabrication process. The ‌3nm‌ node allows transistors to be even more densely packed, resulting in better performance and efficiency.

Introduction of upgraded chip technology like ‌3nm‌ involves the production of a high number of defective chips until the manufacturing process can be perfected. According to The Information, TSMC is only charging Apple for "known good dies," with no fee for defective chips. This is highly unconventional, since TSMC clients usually have to pay for the wafer and all of the dies it contains, including any defective ones.

• 3nm Apple Silicon: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?

Since Apple's orders from TSMC are so large, it can apparently justify absorbing the cost of defective chips. Apple's willingness to be the supplier's first customer for new manufacturing processes helps it pay for the research and development of new nodes, as well as the facilities to make them.

The size of Apple's orders also enable TSMC to more quickly learn how to improve and scale up a node during mass production. Once production and yield issues with manufacturing ‌3nm‌ chips improves and other customers seek the technology, TSMC can demand higher prices from those clients, as well as charge for defective dies.

Update: According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, The Information's report is not quite accurate. Kuo says that Apple's standard deal with TSMC does not ever include "defective" chips. Apple purchases "finished goods" that are of the expected quality rather than "wafer-buy," which can include defective chips.

Most chip buyers have a "wafer-buy" deal with TSMC and must eat the cost of defective chips, but in the case of TSMC and Apple, TSMC absorbs the cost through the price of the chips.

Apple has told Apple Watch accessory makers that they will have to switch to its fast-charging module, according to AppleInsider.

Apple Watch fast charging was introduced with the Apple Watch Series 7 in 2021, enabling devices to charge rapidly from 0 percent to 80 percent in about 45 minutes. Apple apparently had shortages of the newer charging module at first, forcing some MFi accessory makers to use the older, slower technology. Going forward, Apple is focusing on production of fast-charging modules only.

Companies can continue to submit plans for accessories that include the original, non-fast-charging variant of the Apple Watch charger module (C162) until August 31, 2023. The C162 module supplied by Apple will no longer be available via its MFi program from September 30, 2023. Only the fast-charging module (C962) will apparently be available thereafter. Apple is believed to charge manufacturers more for the C962 module than its predecessor, meaning that some existing accessories could see price rises.

Popular accessory brand Hyper has announced the launch of its new "HyperDrive Next" product lineup with a variety of connectivity solutions that embrace the latest standards while focusing on the use of recycled materials.

The largest portion of the lineup is a series of USB-C hubs that include USB 3.2 support, SD 4.0 card slots with up to 312 Mbps transfer speeds, and Power Delivery 3.1 support with up to 140 watts of passthrough power available on select models.

The hub likely of most interest to Mac users is the HyperDrive Next Dual 4K HDMI 7 Port USB-C Hub, which unsurprisingly includes dual 4K monitor support for M1 and M2 families of MacBooks via HDMI (one at 60Hz and one at 30Hz), as well as a pair of 10 Gbps USB ports, a 10 Gbps USB-A port, a 3.5mm combo audio jack, and 100 watts of passthrough power. It's priced at $149.99.

Another member of the HyperDrive Next family is the new USB4 NVMe SSD Enclosure, which offers support for M.2 NVMe SSDs up to 16TB with transfer speeds up to 40 Gbps. Built with 100% recycled aluminum, the enclosure carries an IP55 rating for water and dust resistance and is priced at $119.99. You'll of course need to supply your own SSD for the enclosure, but with a snap-in design, no tools are required.

Finally, users with more demanding needs may be interested in the HyperDrive Next 10 Port Business Class USB-C Dock. It includes support for dual 4K displays across PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks with two HDMI ports (1 60Hz, 1 30Hz), plus 10 Gbps USB ports (two USB-C and one USB-A), and an additional 100-watt USB-C charging port. There are also a Gigabit Ethernet port, a 3.5mm combo audio jack, an SD 4.0 card slot, a detachable USB-C cable that snaps into the side of the dock for travel, and slots for both Targus and Kensington locks, all in a slim design for $199.99.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Hyper. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Amazon is taking $200 off Apple's new 15.3-inch MacBook Air notebooks for back to school season, providing fresh all-time low discounts on these computers. You can get the 256GB 15.3-inch MacBook Air for $1,099.00, down from $1,299.00.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Amazon's deal beats the previous record low by $100. This sale is available in all four colors: Space Gray, Midnight, Starlight, and Silver. All models are in stock and have an estimated delivery date between August 9 and August 12.

Additionally, Amazon has the 512GB 15.3-inch MacBook Air on sale for $1,299.00, down from $1,499.00. This one is available in one color (Starlight), and has an estimated delivery date between August 9 and August 12.

Head to our full Deals Roundup to get caught up with all of the latest deals and discounts that we've been tracking over the past week.