MacRumors

In iOS 16, Apple has overhauled the iPhone Lock Screen to make it a lot more customizable, and one of the most welcome changes is the ability to add information-rich widgets to the Lock Screen for the first time.

lock screen widgets ios 16
Lock Screen Widgets have been the sole preserve of Android phones for a few years now, so it's good to see that they will finally come to iPhones later this year when iOS 16 is released in the fall.

As it stands, widgets provide updates from your apps that you can conveniently check at a glance, without having to unlock your ‌iPhone‌ to access the Home Screen, but they're minimally interactive insofar as tapping on a widget will likely only open its associated app.

Below is a list of all the available stock ‌Widgets‌ that Apple has included in the first iOS 16 beta, divided into those which can be added above or below the digital clock.

Widgets You Can Add Above the Time

lock screen top widget
You can insert a widget alongside the date above the digital clock on the Lock Screen. The list below includes the stock app widget options available to you. Many of these widgets display a single data point, using alphanumeric text and symbols.

  • Calendar - day of the week, date, month / next event
  • Clock - city time zone / next alarm
  • Fitness - activity stats (move calories, exercise minutes, stand hours)
  • Reminders - due today
  • Stocks - single stock with up/down symbol
  • Weather - moon events, sun events, conditions, location, rain, air quality, UV index, wind

Widgets You Can Add Below the Time

lock screen widgets bottom
Directly below the digital clock there is a larger oblong space where you can place widgets horizontally next to each other. You can insert up to four square symbol-based widgets, or up to two rectangular widgets with more information, or alternatively a combination of two square widgets and one rectangular widget.

Batteries

lock screen widgets
The Batteries widget comes in both square and rectangular versions showing the ‌iPhone‌'s battery status. Connect AirPods and their battery is shown instead.

Oddly, if you use two battery widgets they will display the battery level for the same device, rather than showing AirPods in one and ‌iPhone‌ in the other. Hopefully this is a kink that will be worked out in the beta testing phase.

Calendar

2lock screen widgets
The Calendar widget comes in three formats. You can track the current date as a square widget (although why you'd want to is unclear since the date is always displayed above the time). You can also track the next upcoming event's time or use a larger widget to show both the event name and its time.

Clock

3lock screen widgets
Three clock widgets let you view a clock for a city to check the time at that location, and these come in one rectangular and two square varieties. There's also a world clock to view the time in up to three cities around the world, and two versions that display the next alarm.

Fitness

4lock screen widgets
One Fitness widget displays the Activity rings graphic, while a larger readout shows your Activity ring stats (move, exercise, stand).

Home

5lock screen widgets
For the Home app, two widgets display any indoor climate sensors, one displays any lights and switches, and another informs you of any security issues. You can also monitor a specific security accessory, or view a home summary (security, climate, and lights).

News

6lock screen widgets
A single larger widget provides today's top news story.

Reminders

7lock screen widgets
A single larger widget offers quick access to one of your reminders lists, and displays the next due reminder.

Stocks

8lock screen widgets
One smaller and one larger widget let you view price quotes and track performance a symbol throughout the day. There's also a larger widget that displays three stocks.

Weather

9lock screen widgets
Eight optional weather widgets to see moon events, sun events, conditions, location, rain, air quality, UV index, and wind. Only the current weather conditions and moon events come in the larger widget format.

More Widgets to Come

This widgets list shouldn't be treated as comprehensive, as Apple may add more or tweak existing ones before the public release of iOS 16 in the fall. Also, developers will be able to create widgets for third-party apps using Apple's new WidgetKit API, so expect plenty more Lock Screen widgets to come.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Amazon is discounting Apple's AirTag lineup today, offering one of the first notable markdowns on the AirTag 1-Pack of 2022. This one is available for $24.00, down from $29.00 and it's in stock right now.

AirTag and Lavender iPhoneNote: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This is an all-time low price on the AirTag 1-Pack on Amazon, and it's a bit of a rare discount as we have traditionally tracked deals on the 4-Pack more often over the past few months. Amazon gives an estimated delivery date of June 11-13 for most places in the United States if ordered today.

If you do want the AirTag 4-Pack, it's still available at $89.00 on Amazon, down from $99.00. This is a second-best price on the accessory, and there's a slight shipping delay of around four days right now on Amazon.

Our full Deals Roundup has more information on the latest Apple-related sales and bargains.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals

In iOS 16, Apple has enhanced its Visual Look Up capability for photos by making it possible to isolate the subject of a picture from its background so that you can copy it to the clipboard for use elsewhere or share it in another app.


Apple says the feature relies on advanced machine learning, and in our time experimenting with it in iOS 16, its ability to recognize subjects in photos is pretty impressive.

Indeed, its ease of use is likely to make performing painstaking subject isolation actions in image editing apps a thing of the past. Here's how it works.

  1. Launch Photos and select an image from your library containing a well-defined subject.
  2. Press and hold on the subject until it ripples and a white glow flows around its outline.
  3. In the popup menu that appears, tap Copy to send the isolated subject to the clipboard for pasting elsewhere, or tap Share... to access the standard sharing options in the Action menu and send it on its way.
    photos

  4. Alternatively, press and hold the subject to lift it from the background. Now, without taking your finger off the screen, use another finger to exit the ‌Photos‌ app and launch Messages, Mail, Notes, or another app that accepts images.
  5. Now drag and let go of the subject to place it where you want in the input field.
    photos

That's all there is to it. You can even use it in paused frames in videos. The feature works not just in ‌Photos‌, but also in screenshots and the Quick Look feature in the Files app.

As mentioned, the feature uses advanced machine learning and image analysis, therefore it is only available on phones with the A12 Bionic or newer chip. The A12 Bionic processor debuted in 2018 in the iPhone XS, ‌iPhone‌ XS Max, and the ‌iPhone‌ XR, so you need to be using one of these iPhones or a later model for it to work. iOS 16 is expected to be released in the fall.

Related Forum: iOS 16

This week, Apple held a jam-packed WWDC keynote where it announced iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, watchOS 9, the next-generation of Apple silicon with M2, a new redesigned MacBook Air, and a revamped 13-inch MacBook Pro.

wwdc live stream
As is typical with all of Apple's events, there were rumors and leaks about what Apple would announce. While many of the rumors and reports did end up becoming true, a few didn't turn out to be accurate. Below we've rounded up which rumors and reports nailed it and which unfortunately didn't.

Wrong: Colorful MacBook Air With White Bezels

prosser macbook air keyboard
In May 2021, Apple leaker Jon Prosser shared renders showing a MacBook Air with white bezels, a white keyboard, and a lineup of bright, vibrant colors. Those renders also depicted one USB-C port on one side, which turned out to not be the case.

The new MacBook Air features a MagSafe 3 connector and two USB-C ports on the left side, with a headphone jack on the right. The new MacBook Air features a notch like the MacBook Pro but features black bezels and a black keyboard.

Unlike the rumors, which were debunked by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman before Monday's keynote, the new MacBook Air only comes in four muted colors. The new MacBook features the M2 chip and starts at $1199 with pre-orders next month.

Right: 13-inch MacBook Pro With No New Design

13 inch macbook pro m2 mock feature 2
The same leaker who accurately claimed the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros would feature a notch also accurately provided details on the revamped 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The source said the revamped low-end Macbook Pro would feature the same design as previous models, with the only change being the M2 Apple silicon chip. The source did, however, claim the laptop would launch in March.

Wrong: Improved Low Power Mode for watchOS 9

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Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that watchOS 9 would include an expanded version of Low Power Mode that lets users use the watch with reduced battery life usage.

The Apple Watch currently has a Power Reserve mode which restricts the Apple Watch functionality to only show the time. At least in the first watchOS 9 beta, a Low Power Mode reported by Gurman does not exist. Apple may add the feature to watchOS 9 later this fall, but exclusive to the upcoming Apple Watch Series 8.

Right: iOS 16 Lock Screen Changes, Apple Pay Later, and More

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman accurately reported that Apple would be planning major changes for the iOS lock screen, letting users add widgets, change the font and color, and new dynamic wallpapers.

Bloomberg also accurately reported on Apple Pay Later and its development last year, which will launch this fall.

Right: macOS Ventura and iPadOS 16 Changes

Ventura Macs Feature Red
While macOS "Ventura" was not on our list of possible options for macOS 13, there were several rumors that did turn out to be accurate about Apple's upcoming macOS release.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that System Preferences, now renamed System Settings, would be getting a redesign that's more in line with iOS. Gurman also reported that stock system apps such as Mail, Notes, Reminders, Safari, and Messages would be getting updates.

Perhaps the most accurate rumor pre-WWDC was Bloomberg reporting on Apple's plan to revamp multitasking on the iPad and make it more Mac-like. With the M1 iPad Air and M1 iPad Pro, Apple has introduced Stage Manager, which allows multiple apps to be open at once in windows.

Wrong: Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR 2 Preview

mac pro 2019 new
Not originating from any credible sources, there was initial speculation and chatter circulating online that Apple would announce its Apple silicon Mac Pro and an accompanying update to the Pro Display XDR at this year's WWDC.

Apple previewed the current Intel-based Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR at WWDC 2019, adding to the belief a repeat could happen this year. That did not happen, as Apple instead announced its next-generation "M2" Apple silicon chip and a new MacBook Air and low-end MacBook Pro.

Following the WWDC 2022 keynote this week, Apple has released a new beta firmware for several AirPods models, including the second-generation AirPods, third-generation AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max. Apple says the beta firmware includes improvements to Automatic Switching and various bug and stability fixes. The new beta firmware has a version number 5.0 and build number 5A5282d, up from 4.4 and 4E71.

AirPods Pro Beta Firmware
Apple says AirPods beta firmware enables development of AirPods-related features on iOS and macOS and allows Apple to debug issues. Apple did not provide any additional details about specific improvements being made to Automatic Switching in the latest beta.

Apple Developer Program members can access the beta firmware on the More Downloads page of Apple's developer website, complete with installation instructions. The beta firmware does not appear to be available for the first-generation AirPods.

To install the beta firmware, Apple says developers need an iPhone running the iOS 16 beta, a Mac running the macOS Ventura beta, Xcode 14 beta, and supported AirPods. Developers must pair the AirPods with an iPhone, connect the iPhone to a Mac with a Lightning cable, launch Xcode 14 beta on the Mac, navigate to Settings → Developer, and choose Pre-Release Beta Firmware under the AirPods Testing section.

Apple says it may take up to 24 hours for the beta firmware to be received and installed on AirPods. Once installed, Apple says the beta firmware will continue to run on the AirPods until an updated non-beta software version is released. Any additional beta software updates will be automatically received in the interim.

(Thanks, Robert Bentley!)

Related Roundups: AirPods 4, AirPods Max, AirPods Pro
Related Forum: AirPods

Back in August 2021, Apple agreed to pay $100 million and make changes to the App Store to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against it by developers. Judge Yvonne-Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the case, said yesterday that she plans to approve the settlement, but she raised concerns about the amount that attorneys are planning to charge.

iOS App Store General Feature Clorange
As outlined by Law360, Rogers said that she wants more data on the "math" behind the $27 million attorney fee requested, and how much that fee will reduce claims by small developers. She asked for a mathematical breakdown of how much less each class member would receive if she awarded $25 million in attorney fees instead of $27 million.

Rogers said that for some developers, the difference could be significant, which is why she wants to "see the numbers." Apple back in March pointed out that the $27 million fee is higher than the 25 percent benchmark set by the Ninth Circuit Court.

Apple is calling the settlement the Small Developer Assistance Fund, and it began accepting developer claims in January. Developers had until May 20 to submit a claim through the website, and Apple provided several reminders. Developers were able to claim between $250 and $30,000 based on their historic ‌App Store‌ participation.

There were approximately 67,000 eligible developers. Developers who earned less than $100 will receive the minimum payment of $250, while those who earned more than $1 million will be entitled to a higher-end payment. Minimum payments are subject to change based on the number of total claims.

The settlement stems from a 2019 lawsuit where group of iOS developers accused Apple of using its ‌App Store‌ monopoly to impose "profit-killing" commissions. The developers were unhappy with Apple's 30 percent cut of ‌App Store‌ sales, an issue that was addressed with the App Store Small Business Program that dropped the commission that small developers have to pay to 15 percent.

In addition to paying a $100 settlement fee, Apple agreed to allow developers to use communications like email to share information about payment methods available outside of the ‌App Store‌, plus Apple expanded the number of price points available to developers for subscriptions.

Apple also pledged to maintain the ‌‌App Store‌‌ Small Business Program and ‌‌App Store‌‌ search, making no changes for at least three years, with the company also creating an annual transparency report based on ‌‌App Store‌‌ data covering app rejections, apps removed from the ‌‌App Store‌‌, search information, and more.

The Small Developer Assistance Fund website says that it plans to distribute funds to developers who submitted a "timely and valid claim" as soon as possible.

(Thanks, Yashar!)

With iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura, it is going to be much easier to play iOS and Mac games with friends thanks to a new SharePlay integration feature that is coming to Game Center.

Game Center Feature0002
Introduced with iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, SharePlay is designed to let you make FaceTime calls with friends while doing other activities such as watching TV and using apps. With Game Center integration, all games that use Game Center's multiplayer support feature will automatically work with ‌FaceTime‌.

iOS and Mac users will be able to play multiplayer Game Center-compatible games while on a ‌FaceTime‌ call for a more interactive gaming experience. Unfortunately, the SharePlay Game Center feature is not going to be available right when the new software updates launch, and it is set to come in iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura updates later this year.

Apple is also adding Contacts integration to Game Center, allowing the Contacts app to show Game Center profiles for keeping a closer eye on what your friends are playing, but this too is coming at a later date.

ios 16 game center redesign
To go along with the SharePlay and Contacts updates for Game Center, Apple has overhauled the design of the Game Center dashboard, which is accessible through the App Store. The revamped dashboard aggregates achievements and play activity to allow for a simplified interface.

Related Forums: iOS 16, macOS Ventura

Alongside iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, Apple announced the upcoming launch of a new Apple Pay Later feature, which is designed to allow customers to split ‌Apple Pay‌ purchases into multiple payments.

Apple Pay Later Quick Green Feature
With ‌Apple Pay‌ Later, ‌Apple Pay‌ users can choose to make four payments spread over a six week period instead of paying up front. The ‌Apple Pay‌ Later feature includes no interest or fees so long as customers make the four payments within the allowed period.

Apple has partnered with Goldman Sachs and other companies for past financial ventures, but according to Bloomberg, Apple plans to take on the lending for the ‌Apple Pay‌ Later feature. Apple has launched a subsidiary, Apple Financing LLC, to handle credit checks and make decisions on loans for the service.

Apple Financing LLC operates separately from Apple, and as Bloomberg notes, this is the first time that Apple has opted to deal with financing itself. Goldman Sachs still has a role in the program, however, as it issues the Mastercard payment credential used to complete ‌Apple Pay‌ Later purchases as Apple Financing doesn't have a bank charter.

Bloomberg back in March said that Apple was working on a multiyear plan to bring its financial services in house, cutting out the need for partners like Goldman Sachs. Apple is working on payment processing technology and infrastructure such as lending risk assessment, fraud analysis, credit checks, and dispute handling, plus it is working on tools for calculating interest, rewards, approving transactions, reporting data to credit bureaus, increasing credit limits, and more. The ‌Apple Pay‌ Later feature is its first effort, but Apple may also use Apple Financial to handle other future services like the hardware subscription service that is in the works.

‌Apple Pay‌ Later has been in development for more than a year, and it is similar to PayPal's Buy Now, Pay Later feature that also allows for payments broken down into installments. At the current time, ‌Apple Pay‌ Later is limited to the United States.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

iPadOS 16 is now available to developer beta testers with improvements in Messages and Safari and the all-new Stage Manager, enabling multiple app windows and Mac-like multitasking on M1 iPads.

ipados 16
As has always been the case, many features are shared across iOS and iPadOS, and that's certainly true this year. iPadOS 16 gains several major new features from iOS 16, including the ability to edit and unsend Messages, improvements to Focus, and more.

There are, however, some features and changes exclusive to iPadOS 16 that take even more advantage of the iPad and its performance. We've highlighted a few iPadOS 16 tidbits below:

Files App Gets Quality of Life Improvements

ipados 16 files app changes
The Files app on iPadOS 16 is gaining some much-requested features from ‌iPad‌ users, including easier navigation buttons, easier access to common controls such as duplicate and rename, the ability to change file extensions, and more. The new changes are part of Apple's efforts to make iPadOS apps more "desktop-class."

System-Wide Undo and Redo and Find and Replace

ipados 19 find and replace
iPadOS is gaining system-wide undo and redo functionality, making it easer and more Mac-like for users to easily revert changes made in apps and across the system. iPadOS 16 also introduces system-wide find and replace that in the Notes app, works in-line.

Reference Mode Support on 12.9-inch iPad Pro

m1 ipad pro video editing
With the high-end 12.9-inch iPad Pro running iPadOS 16, users can take advantage of the Liquid Retina XDR Display and use the ‌iPad‌ as a reference monitor. This is aimed at artists and creators who need accurate colors and vivid detail when working on large projects.

Option to Turn on Lock to End Call

ipados 16 lock to end call
Under Settings, Accessibility, and Touch, users can now choose to toggle on "Lock to End Call," making it easer to end a current call by pressing the top button.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Apple is making notable improvements to the built-in Weather app in iOS 16, expanding the available data. You can now tap on any Weather module to get additional useful information that was not previously available in iOS 15.

weather app main ios 16
Tapping on the main hourly or 10-day forecast, for example, brings up a more detailed forecast that lets you see the temperature for each day in a graph view, making it easier to visualize the temperature range and the weather conditions on an hourly basis.

weather app ios 16 modules 1
Most of the modules provide additional information on an hourly basis. With the UV Index, users can see the UV estimates throughout the day, and get a visual of when UV exposure will be highest.

weather app ios 16 modules 2
There are similar hourly graphs for wind, precipitation, humidity, visibility, and pressure. The sunset/sunrise module provides information on first light, sunrise sunset, last light, and total daylight, along with monthly sunrise and sunset averages. When rain is predicted, there is a rain chart with 10 minute intervals.

weather app ios 16 modules 3
Apple offers the same precipitation, temperature, and air quality maps with no added function, but there have been some slight design updates to refine the look.

weather precipitation heat maps ios 16
The updated Weather app also now provides alerts for severe weather, though this is limited to select regions. Apple says that not all Weather features will be available in all countries.

To provide more information through the Weather modules, Apple is leveraging data from Dark Sky, the weather app that it purchased in 2020. Dark Sky on June 6 updated its blog post to clarify that the Dark Sky forecast technology is enhanced and integrated into the Weather forecast, powering the new Weather app.

Dark Sky technology is also behind WeatherKit, a new API for developers. WeatherKit is designed to allow users to incorporate Weather forecast data into their apps. According to Apple, WeatherKit allows apps to offer current weather conditions and 10-day hourly forecasts for temperature, precipitation, wind, UV index, and more, along with minute-by-minute precipitation for the next hour and severe weather alerts in select regions.

As we highlighted earlier this week, Apple with iPadOS 16 is bringing the Weather app to the iPad for the first time. It is identical to the iOS 16 Weather app, but more information is available on one screen thanks to the larger display.

ipad weather map ipados 16
There's also a dedicated Weather app on macOS Ventura, identical to the iOS and iPadOS Weather apps, bringing feature parity across Apple's device lineup.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Apple in iOS 16, iPadOS 16, tvOS 16, and macOS Ventura is introducing a new "Passkeys" feature that replaces traditional passwords when signing into a website or an app. Passkeys are more secure than passwords, and protect users from phishing, malware, and other attacks aimed at gaining account access.

passkeys ios 16 1
According to Apple, Passkeys are next-generation credentials that are safer and easier to use than standard passwords. As Apple explains in a support document on the feature, Passkeys are built on the WebAuthn standard and use a unique cryptographic key pair for each website or account.

One key is public and stored on the website server, while the second key is private and kept on-device. On the iPhone and other devices with biometric authentication, Face ID or Touch ID is used to authorize the passkey to authenticate the user to the website. The keys must match to allow for a log in, and because the second key is private and available only to the user, it cannot be stolen, leaked, or phished.

Passkeys rely on iCloud Keychain, which in turn requires two-factor authentication for further protection. Passkeys sync across all of a user's devices through ‌iCloud‌ Keychain, which is end-to-end encrypted with its own cryptographic keys.

Passkey synchronization across accounts provides redundancy in case an Apple device is lost, but should all of a person's Apple devices become lost and the passkeys along with them, Apple has implemented an iCloud keychain escrow function to recover passkey information. There is a multi-step authentication process to go through to recover an ‌iCloud‌ Keychain with passkeys, or users can set up an account recovery contact.

Though Passkeys sound complicated on paper, in practice, it will be as simple as using ‌Touch ID‌ or ‌Face ID‌ to create a passkey to go along with a login.

Apple has been working with members of the FIDO Alliance, including Google and Microsoft, to ensure that passkeys can also be used with non-Apple devices and across platforms. On non-Apple devices, Passkeys will work through QR codes that will authenticate using the ‌iPhone‌, but it will require support from other companies, so it's a standard that needs to be adopted across the tech world.

passkeys ios 16 2
There are unknowns about what happens to passkeys when transitioning away from Apple to another platform like Android, as Apple has not detailed what would happen in this situation.

Apple says that transitioning away from passwords is going to take some time, but it will be working with developers to create a passwordless future.

Related Forums: iOS 16, macOS Ventura

Starting with iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and watchOS 9, Apple Pay will allow users to pay multiple merchants in a single transaction within supported apps. Apple says this feature will let users make a bundled purchase, such as a travel package with flights, a rental car, and a hotel room, all in a single Apple Pay payment sheet.

apple pay bundled purchases
Apple Pay has also received a redesign on macOS Ventura, with the payment sheet now looking similar to the one on iOS 15 and later.

apple pay macos ventura
As we previously reported, Apple Pay on iOS 16 is also gaining detailed receipts and order tracking information for Apple Pay transactions in the Wallet app. In addition, a new Apple Pay Later option will let customers split a purchase into four equal payments over six weeks, with no interest or fees to pay, according to Apple.

iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and watchOS 9 are currently in beta for developers and will be released to all users in the fall.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

iOS 16 is chock-full of new features and changes, and earlier today we shared six interesting and unknown features Apple is bringing to the iPhone. Now, we're sharing six more iOS 16 tidbits.

ios 16 lock screen

Easily Manage Known WiFi Networks

ios 16 manage wifi connections
Alongside being able to see your WiFi's password in iOS 16, users can now easily manage known and managed WiFi networks. Within the WiFi page in Settings, tap edit and authenticate with Touch ID or Face ID. From there, you'll be able to delete known networks and see their details.

Cleaner iCloud Settings Page

ios 16 new icloud pages
Apple has rethought the layout and structure of iCloud settings within the Settings app on ‌iPhone‌. The page is now organized into different sections, including "Sync with ‌iCloud‌," "Device Backups," and "‌iCloud‌+."

Within the Photos, iCloud Drive, Notes, Messages, Health, and Passwords and Keychain subpages, Apple has added a new icon, a small paragraph explaining the feature, and the ability to manage per-app functionality and storage.

New AirPods Glyph in Control Center and Now Playing

ios 16 airpods glyp now playing
When connected to AirPods, a new corresponding glyph for your AirPods model will appear on the Now Playing section in Control Center and on the Lock Screen. This replaces the old AirPlay icon that remained static regardless of which device you're using.

New Battery Charging Being Held Alert

ios 16 battery hold notfication
As spotted on Twitter (1, 2), iOS 16 will now alert users when the system has stopped charging the ‌iPhone‌ due to overheating, which could damage the longevity of the battery. The new notification will be displayed on the Lock Screen, Notification Center, and within the Battery page in Settings.

Redesigned Text and Editing Menu

ios 16 menu text editing option
Apple has redesigned the text and editing menu option on iOS 16, making it cleaner and now offering it in both light and dark themes, depending on your ‌iPhone‌'s current mode. In instances where the menu is longer, Apple has also readjusted the behavior of scrolling through options.

Quick Note Comes to iPhone

ios 16 quick note
Introduced in iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey, Quick Note has come to the ‌iPhone‌ with iOS 16. Quick Note can be accessed via the Share Sheet across iOS, including for images, websites, and more.

Contacts Widget Now Indicates Unread Messages

ios 16 contacts widget unread messages
The Contacts widget will now indicate if you have unread messages from a specific contact. The unread messages banner is limited to just the medium and large sized widgets for the Contacts app.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Apple's public release of macOS Ventura is expected sometime in October, but given the number of features in macOS Monterey that were limited to Apple silicon Macs, will Intel Mac owners again feel left out in the cold this fall?

m1 v intel thumb
Fortunately, it doesn't look like that will be the case this time round, with many of the major features in macOS 13 offering full functionality on both Intel and Apple silicon machines.

In fact, as long as your model of Intel Mac matches the minimum requirements for macOS Ventura, there's relatively little in terms of new features that will be off-limits to you. That said, here are three exceptions that we've been able to identify as being exclusive to Apple silicon.

Live Captions

live captions ventura
macOS Ventura includes support for Live Captions across all audio content, and that includes FaceTime, allowing you to see automatically transcribed dialogue during calls. Live captions will be available in English and are limited to the iPhone 11 and later, ‌iPad‌ with A12 Bionic and later, and of course Macs with Apple silicon.

Reference Mode with Sidecar

reference mode
Reference Mode with Sidecar lets you use a 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display as a secondary display with your Mac. "Reference" refers to the accurate and consistent representation of colors in professional workflows that involve review and approval, color grading, and compositing.

In Apple's example, the primary interface from Da Vinci Resolve is shown on a connected Studio Display, with color grading scopes on a MacBook Pro screen, and the fullscreen output image on an M1 ‌iPad Pro‌ in ‌Sidecar‌ mode.

Emoji Support in Dictation Mode

2021 most popular emoji
In macOS Ventura, Dictation automatically punctuates text with commas, full stops and question marks as you speak. You can also insert emoji with just your voice, although Apple says this particular feature only works on Macs with ‌M1‌ and later processors.

Dictation is available in Cantonese (Hong Kong), English (Australia, Canada, India, UK, US), French (France), German (Germany), Japanese (Japan), Mandarin Chinese (China mainland, Taiwan) and Spanish (Mexico, Spain, US).

Summing Up

As this short list demonstrates, there are far fewer restrictions in macOS Ventura for Intel users to contend with than there are in macOS Monterey. That said, macOS 13 does drop support for some Intel Macs sold between 2013 and 2016, so you may find that your model simply didn't make the cut for official compatibility.

ventura macs supported
Apple has almost finalized its two-year transition from Intel processors to its custom Apple silicon chips in Macs, with the changeover to be completed when the Mac Pro gets the Apple silicon treatment sometime this year. Expect Apple to reduce software support for Intel machines at a faster rate from 2023 and beyond.

macOS 13 Ventura is available to developers from this week, with Apple planning to provide a public beta in July.

Related Forum: macOS Ventura

Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers are now able to complete same-unit repairs for the Studio Display, instead of having to replace the entire display, according to an internal memo obtained by MacRumors.

studio display 3
The change came into effect this week, with Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers now able to order parts to complete Studio Display repairs in store.

Introduced alongside the Mac Studio in March, the Studio Display is Apple's newest standalone monitor that is positioned as a lower-priced alternative to its Pro Display XDR. The display features a 27-inch screen with 5K resolution, a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide camera with Center Stage, a six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio, one Thunderbolt 3 port, and three USB-C ports. Pricing starts at $1,599 in the United States.

Studio Display supply remains heavily constrained. In the United States, Studio Display orders placed today on Apple's online store are estimated to ship in 6-10 weeks depending on the configuration. In-store availability is also tight.

Related Forum: Mac Accessories

Last month we tracked an all-time low price on Apple's M1 Mac mini, and that deal has now returned on Amazon. You can get the 256GB M1 Mac mini for $569.99, down from $699.00. You won't see this deal price until you add the Mac mini to your cart and an automatic coupon worth $99.01 is applied to the order.

m1 mac mini screenNote: 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.

This deal remains the best price we've ever tracked for the M1 Mac mini. The Mac mini is shipped and sold directly by Amazon, with delivery as soon as June 10 - 13 for most places in the United States.

Note: You won't see the deal price until checkout.

The M1 Mac mini was introduced in November 2020, and is the first Mac mini to include Apple's M1 chip. The M1 in the Mac mini has an 8-core CPU with four high-efficiency cores and four high-performance cores along with an integrated GPU that has 8 cores.

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iOS 16 introduces a useful new feature that allows an eSIM to be transferred between iPhones via Bluetooth while setting up cellular service.

eSIM Transfer Bluetooth iOS 16 Feature
In the Settings app on an iPhone running iOS 16, tapping on "Set up eSIM" brings up an option to transfer an eSIM and its associated phone number from another iPhone via Bluetooth. To transfer an eSIM from another iPhone, Apple says to make sure the other iPhone is nearby, unlocked, has Bluetooth turned on, and is running iOS 16 or later.

The feature appears to be available in multiple countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, but it is only possible to complete Bluetooth transfers of eSIMs issued by carriers that support the feature. Given that iOS 16 was only announced a few days ago and is currently in beta, carrier support may be limited right now.

Apple also continues to provide the more traditional option of setting up an eSIM by scanning a QR code provided by a carrier.

An eSIM is a digital SIM that allows you to activate a cellular plan from a carrier without having to use a physical nano-SIM card. A single eSIM is available on the iPhone XS and newer, while all four iPhone 13 models support dual eSIMs.

The first beta of iOS 16 was seeded to developers earlier this week, and a public beta will be available in July. Apple said iOS 16 will be released in the fall, at which point this new eSIM transfer feature will be available to all users.

(Thanks, Carson!)

Tag: eSIM
Related Forum: iOS 16

With the release of the first macOS Ventura beta in the hands of developers, early adopters continue to discover smaller changes in the new version of Apple's Mac operating system. Below are some of the more notable differences that have since come to light since Monday.

Ventura Macs Feature Blue

Share Sheet Popover

In the first developer beta of macOS 13, Apple no longer displays an item's sharing options in a standard menu.


The "Share..." option is still there in the right-click contextual menu, but selecting it now causes a standalone popover menu to appear over the item in Finder or on the Desktop, with Message contacts listed above other sharing options, similar to the Share Sheet in iOS. The same popover appears whenever you click the Share button in an app window.

Spotlight Search Improvements

In macOS 13, Apple has integrated Quick Look into Spotlight Search, allowing you to get a quick peek at a file that appears in your search results, without opening it wholesale in its associated app.

spotlight quick look
Quick Look also continues to support text-based clipboard actions, so you can now copy and paste content from documents after searching for them using Spotlight.

In other improvements, Spotlight now leverages the full search window to display information-rich web results, and it can also retrieve results from your photo library, with full Live Text support meaning you can even Spotlight search for text that appears in your images.

Rich Links in Mail

When you paste a web link into a Mail message in macOS 12, only the web address is shown in the message content, providing the recipient with no information about what's being linked to beyond what's included in the URL.

rich links mail
By contrast, macOS 13 inserts rich link previews in emails. Rich links display a preview of the website being linked to, giving recipients an idea of the content they can be expected to see if they click to open the webpage.

Stage Manager Works With Multiple Desktops

One of the big features of macOS 13, Stage Manager is Apple's latest attempt to solve the clutter that can occur on the desktop when you have multiple apps and app windows open at the same time.

stage manager
‌Stage Manager‌ works by moving all open background applications over to the left, leaving the most recently opened and active app front and center on the screen. Clicking another app in the side column switches it with the current centered app, and so on.

‌Stage Manager‌ also works with separate Desktop Spaces, so you can have multiple instances of ‌Stage Manager‌ organizing several groups of apps on different desktop screens. It's also possible to hide the ‌Stage Manager‌ column of apps by increasing the size of the active app window or moving the window over to the left of the screen. A submenu option in Control Center lets you do the same thing.

Continuity Camera in QuickTime Player

Continuity Camera gives Mac owners the ability to use their iPhone as a webcam in FaceTime, Zoom, Teams, and other third-party video conferencing apps. It also works natively in QuickTime player, allowing users to record movies and control several recording settings.

continuity camera quicktime
In QuickTime, users can opt to record from the ‌iPhone‌'s microphone or the Mac's microphone, making it possible to record the video from the ‌iPhone‌ and the audio from the Mac, for example.

In addition, Continuity Camera brings your ‌iPhone‌'s Center Stage functionality to your Mac even if it isn't natively supported. The same goes for Studio Light and Portrait Mode.

Other Features and Tidbits

  • Siri can start timers
  • Live Captions option in Accessibility settings
  • Playlist search in Music app
  • Color Gradient options for desktop wallpaper

macOS Ventura will be released to all users in the fall, likely around October. Apple said a public beta will be available starting in July.

Related Forum: macOS Ventura