MacRumors

Instagram today launched a new 2024 year in review feature, allowing Instagram users to create 2024 collages from images they've shared throughout the year.

As noted by The Verge, the 2024 collage option comes up in the Instagram story interface. It works after an image has been added to a story and resized, with users able to select more images and rearrange them on the screen.

Instagram has also added new year-end themed templates for the "Add Yours" feature, along with New Year and Countdown text effects, holiday chat themes for DMs, and secret phrases like Happy New Year that trigger special effects.

Collages and the other temporary features will be available through the first week of January.

The dedicated ChatGPT search engine that OpenAI developed is rolling out to all users starting today, OpenAI announced as part of its 12 days of OpenAI event.

SearchGPT was added to ChatGPT in late October, providing improved AI-based searches right from the ChatGPT app and web interface. According to OpenAI, SearchGPT is able to search the web in a "much better way than before," providing links to relevant web sources along with contextual information and support for follow-up questions.

When it first debuted, SearchGPT was limited to those who subscribed to ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Teams, but it will now also be coming to free users.

During today's announcement, OpenAI said that its AI search has been improved over the last few months, making it faster and better on mobile. There's also a new option to search as you converse with ChatGPT, and to make ChatGPT Search the default engine for browsers like Chrome.

OpenAI is bringing search to logged in ChatGPT users, so it will be available globally on all platforms that support ChatGPT.

Social network TikTok today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily halt an imminent ban as TikTok waits for the appeal process to play out. TikTok is set to be banned from U.S. app stores starting on January 19 because parent company ByteDance did not sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company as mandated by a bill in April.

TikTok is calling on the Supreme Court to hear its appeal, and it is sticking with the free speech argument that the lower appeals court denied. The petition that TikTok submitted to the Supreme Court claims that Congress has "enacted a massive and unprecedented speech restriction," and that TikTok is one of the "most popular and important venues for communication" in the U.S.

U.S. lawmakers gave ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok to a company not located in China, but ByteDance has maintained that doing so would be impossible. ByteDance says that it is not able to give the TikTok source code to a new owner because it would take years for engineers to become familiar enough with it to perform routine maintenance, and ByteDance also does not plan to allow a third-party company to access its TikTok algorithm.

Further, China has said that it will firmly oppose any sale of the TikTok app, and any sale would need to be approved by the Chinese government. Per the terms of the bill, if TikTok is not sold off, app store owners Google, Apple, and others will be required to stop distributing the app in January. If TikTok is ultimately banned, users who have downloaded the app already would be able to continue to use it so long as it stayed functional, but there would be no distribution method for getting the app in the United States.

U.S. lawmakers want TikTok sold to a company outside of China over concerns that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over information from users in the United States, plus there have been suggestions that China could use TikTok to spread political propaganda.

It is possible that the ban on TikTok could be lifted or delayed by President-elect Donald Trump. According to CNBC, Trump told reporters on Monday that his administration will "take a look at TikTok." Trump tried to ban TikTok when he was in office, but said this year that he opposes the law that Congress passed.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

The macOS Sequoia 15.3 beta brings Genmoji to the Mac, allowing Mac users to use the custom made emoji characters for the first time. ‌Genmoji‌ were included in iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2, but the feature was not available in the macOS 15.2 update.

With ‌Genmoji‌, Mac users can input a text prompt to create a custom character that behaves just like an emoji on devices running iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, ‌macOS Sequoia‌ 15.1 and later. On earlier versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and on Android devices, ‌Genmoji‌ show up as an image.

‌Genmoji‌ can be added from the emoji palette on the keyboard, which can be activated with the Control + Command + Space keyboard shortcut in an app like Notes or by clicking on the emoji icon in Messages.

‌Genmoji‌ is an Apple Intelligence feature that is available on all Macs that have an Apple silicon chip. All ‌Genmoji‌ generation is done directly on-device.

Amazon is discounting Apple's 13-inch M2 MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD storage down to $799.00 in every color. This is a $200 discount on the M2 MacBook Air, and Amazon is currently guaranteeing delivery before Christmas for the computer.

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 has Midnight, Space Gray, Silver, and Starlight on sale at this price. Although this is a previous generation device, it'll work great for anyone who doesn't need the performance gains introduced with the M3 chip, especially at this discounted price.

There are a few deals on the M3 MacBook Air, but many of them have a delivery estimate for after Christmas. If you don't mind waiting, you can get the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD storage for $899.00 on Amazon, down from $1,099.00.

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.

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Apple today provided developers with the first beta of an upcoming macOS Sequoia 15.3 update, with the new update coming a week after Apple released ‌macOS Sequoia‌ 15.2. Apple has also seeded new betas of watchOS 11.3, tvOS 18.3, and visionOS 2.3.

The betas are available to registered developers at this time, and can be downloaded from the settings app on each device.

We don't yet know what's included in the ‌macOS Sequoia‌ 15.3 update or the other updates, but we'll update this article should anything new be found after we download and install the new software.

Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2.

iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software update.

There's no word yet on what's included in iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3, but Apple is still working to roll out Apple Intelligence features. iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 include Image Playground, Genmoji, and Siri ChatGPT integration, but there are still new ‌Siri‌ functions that are slated for release next year.

We could see updates to ‌Siri‌ with iOS 18.3, and the features Apple has in development include personal context, on-screen awareness, and the ability to do more in and between apps.

While iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 testing is starting in December, these updates will likely be released sometime in late January.

Apple is working to expand OLED display technology to several additional iPads, including a future foldable iPad, according to analyst firm Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC).

An 8.5-inch OLED iPad mini is planned for a 2026 launch, while 11-inch and 13-inch OLED iPad Air models are expected to follow in 2027. With the ‌iPad Air‌ and ‌iPad mini‌ set to gain OLED display technology, most of Apple's lineup with the exception of the low-cost ‌iPad‌ is expected to feature OLED displays by 2027.

DSCC also expects an 18.8-inch foldable iPad Pro with an OLED display to launch in 2027. There have been several rumors suggesting that a foldable ‌iPad‌ or MacBook will be one of Apple's first foldable devices, including a report from The Wall Street Journal over the weekend. The WSJ said that Apple is working on a larger foldable device that's "intended to serve as a laptop" and that would unfold to be about 19 inches in size. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman also highlighted a foldable ‌iPad‌ this weekend, suggesting that the "giant" tablet would launch in 2028. According to Gurman, Apple does not want the upcoming foldable device to have a crease, instead appearing as a single piece of glass.

Rumors have been unclear on whether the upcoming foldable device will be an ‌iPad‌ or a Mac, but either is feasible depending on what operating system Apple opts to go with.

While iPhones and the Apple Watch have used OLED displays for years, it has taken time for larger OLED displays to be affordable enough for use in Macs and iPads. Apple debuted its first OLED iPads this year, introducing the 11-inch and 13-inch OLED ‌iPad Pro‌ models.

In iOS 18.2, Apple has introduced a thoughtful new feature for the Camera Control button on iPhone 16 models that helps prevent accidental camera launches by requiring the screen to be on before the button will register clicks. Keep reading to gain more control over when the Camera app opens.

Apple located the Camera Control button to make it conveniently placed for quick access, but it can sometimes be too responsive – especially during those moments when you're not actually trying to take a photo.

Recognizing the potential for this, Apple in iOS 18.2 has added a new Require Screen On feature for Camera Control. It's particularly useful if you often find your iPhone accidentally opening the Camera app while it's in your pocket or bag. By requiring the screen to be on first, you can significantly reduce those unwanted camera launches while still maintaining quick access when you need it.

Require Screen On for Camera Control

Here's how to enable the new option to prevent accidental Camera Control presses:

1. Open the Settings app on your ‌iPhone 16‌.
2. Scroll down and tap Display & Brightness.
3. Look for the Camera Control section.
4. Toggle on Require Screen On.

Once enabled, you'll need to wake your ‌iPhone‌'s screen before the Camera Control button will respond. This extra step adds just enough friction to prevent accidental activation while keeping the camera readily accessible when you need it.

iPhone users have largely avoided the Apple Intelligence features released prior to iOS 18.2, a new survey suggests.

A survey conducted by SellCell, a tech trade-in platform, has revealed that while nearly half of ‌iPhone‌ users—47.6%—consider AI an important factor when purchasing a smartphone, 73% of those who have used Apple's AI offerings feel that the features add little to no value to their experience. This sentiment is not unique to Apple; the study also found that 87% of Samsung users expressed similar dissatisfaction with the AI tools available on Galaxy devices.

Apple introduced many of its AI features in October 2024 with the release of iOS 18.1. Among the most used tools were Writing Tools, which help with text editing and summarization, and Notification Summaries, which condense key information from multiple notifications into a single view. These were used by 72% and 54% of respondents, respectively. Other features, such as Priority Messages, Clean Up in Photos, and Smart Reply, saw lower adoption, ranging from 44.5% to 20.9%. Features such as natural language search in ‌Photos‌ and transcription summaries were even less popular, with fewer than 15% of users trying them.

One major finding of the study was that despite the general lack of use of the current features, Apple users were more likely than their Samsung counterparts to view AI as a significant deciding factor when purchasing a phone. While nearly half of ‌iPhone‌ users expressed that AI is a very or somewhat important consideration, only 23.7% of Samsung users felt the same. Nonetheless, many Apple users have not updated their devices to iOS 18.1 to access these features, with 57.6% citing this as their primary reason for not using ‌Apple Intelligence‌. Others mentioned they found the features unhelpful or were concerned about accuracy and privacy.

Despite AI advancements, brand loyalty among Apple users has weakened in recent years, with the survey indicating that 16.8% of ‌iPhone‌ owners would consider switching to Samsung if Galaxy AI features proved significantly better. This represents a marked decline in loyalty, with only 78.9% of respondents now identifying as firmly committed to the Apple ecosystem, down from 92% in 2021. Conversely, just 9.7% of Samsung users expressed a willingness to switch to Apple for better AI features, suggesting that Apple faces stiffer competition in retaining its user base.

The survey also revealed that a majority of smartphone users are unwilling to pay for AI services. Only 11.6% of Apple users said they would consider subscribing to such features, compared to a mere 4% of Samsung users. It is yet to be seen if the arrival of iOS 18.2, which introduces features like Genmoji and ChatGPT integration, could shift perceptions.

The survey was carried out in late 2024 and included over 2,000 participants aged 18 and older in the United States. The pool consisted of ‌iPhone‌ and Samsung Galaxy users whose devices supported AI features.

Apple today updated its free Sports app for the iPhone with several new features and changes, including a new Key Plays section within the Play-By-Play tab and pregame lineups for soccer and baseball games when available.

Other new features include enhanced league standings that track which teams have qualified for the postseason and which have been eliminated, while you can now easily schedule a Live Activity for any game on the Today tab.

What's New in Version 2.3:

• League standings now include ways to track which teams have qualified for the postseason and which have been eliminated.
• Quickly catch up on scoring plays and big moments in a game with Key Plays—a new Play-By-Play tab.
• When available, soccer and baseball game pages now include pregame lineups.
• Schedule a Live Activity for any game on the Today tab to automatically get a real-time scorecard on your Lock Screen when the action starts.

Apple Sports is a free app available in the App Store.

Starting this week, the U.S. and Canadian airlines United, Delta, and Air Canada are rolling out support for iOS 18.2's new item location sharing feature to help track lost or delayed baggage, according to Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak.

The feature allows you to temporarily share the location of an AirTag with others, including employees at select airlines. This way, if you have put an AirTag inside your bags, the airline can better help you find them if they are lost or delayed.

Apple previously announced other airlines that will support the feature "in the coming months," including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, Aer Lingus, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Iberia, SWISS, Turkish Airlines, and Vueling. More airlines are "coming soon."

iPhone, iPad, and Mac users running iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 can generate a "Share Item Location" link in the Find My app. Anyone they share the link with can then view a website with a location of the item on a map. The website will automatically update with the item's latest known location.

Apple said it worked directly with airlines to put systems in place to "privately and securely" accept the "Share Item Location" links. Access to each link is "limited to a small number of people," and recipients are required to "authenticate" to view the link through either their Apple Account or partner email address. The item's location stops being shared "as soon as a user is reunited with their item," or at any time the item's owner decides. An item's shared location automatically expires after seven days.

iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS 15.2 were released last week following beta testing.

Best Buy this week has the entire 10th generation iPad lineup on sale with guaranteed Christmas delivery for most models. These deals are available to all customers and do not require a My Best Buy membership.

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

Prices start at $279.00 for the 64GB Wi-Fi iPad, down from $349.00. You can also get the 256GB Wi-Fi tablet for $429.00, down from $499.00. These $70 discounts are solid second-best prices on the iPad and likely the best prices we'll see before the end of the year.

If you're shopping for cellular models, Best Buy has the 64GB cellular iPad for $429.00 and the 256GB cellular iPad for $579.00. These are also $70 discounts, but this time they're all-time low prices on the iPad, and Best Buy has them in every color at these prices.

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.

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Apple today shared the most downloaded iPhone and iPad apps and games of the year, localized for more than 30 countries and regions around the world.

The annual charts include the top free and paid apps and games, as well as the top Apple Arcade games, for the ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ in the United States:

Top Free iPhone Apps

• Temu: Shop Like a Billionaire
• Threads
• TikTok
• ChatGPT
• Google
• Instagram
• WhatsApp Messenger
• CapCut - Video Editor
• YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream
• Gmail - Email by Google

Top Paid iPhone Apps

• Shadowrocket
• HotSchedules
• Procreate Pocket
• 75 Hard
• AnkiMobile Flashcards
• AutoSleep Track Sleep on Watch
• Paprika Recipe Manager 3
• TonalEnergy Tuner & Metronome
• Goblin Tools
• Forest: Focus for Productivity

Top Free iPhone Games

• Block Blast！
• MONOPOLY GO!
• Roblox
• Call of Duty®: Warzone™ Mobile
• Township
• Last War: Survival
• Royal Match
• Brawl Stars
• Subway Surfers
• My Perfect Hotel

Top Paid iPhone Games

• Minecraft: Play with Friends
• Heads Up!
• Geometry Dash
• Papa's Freezeria To Go!
• Bloons TD 6
• Five Nights at Freddy's
• Plague Inc.
• MONOPOLY: The Board Game
• Stardew Valley
• Red's First Flight

Top Free iPad Apps

• YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream
• Netflix
• Max: Stream HBO, TV, & Movies
• Calculator - Pad Edition
• Disney+
• Google Chrome
• Peacock TV: Stream TV & Movies
• Amazon Prime Video
• TikTok
• Goodnotes 6

Top Paid iPad Apps

• Procreate
• Procreate Dreams
• Shadowrocket
• forScore
• Nomad Sculpt
• ToonSquid
• Bluebeam Revu for ‌iPad‌
• AnkiMobile Flashcards
• Teach Your Monster to Read
• Endless Paper

Top Free iPad Games

• Roblox
• Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game
• MONOPOLY GO!
• Subway Surfers
• Brawl Stars
• Geometry Dash Lite
• Block Blast！
• Among Us!
• My Perfect Hotel
• Royal Match

Top Paid iPad Games

• Minecraft: Play with Friends
• Geometry Dash
• Five Nights at Freddy's
• Stardew Valley
• Bloons TD 6
• Papa's Paleteria To Go!
• Five Nights at Freddy's 2
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 1
• MONOPOLY: The Board Game
• Ultimate Custom Night

Top Apple Arcade Games

• NBA 2K24 Arcade Edition
• Snake.io+
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure
• Sneaky Sasquatch
• Bloons TD 6+
• Sonic Dream Team
• NFL Retro Bowl '25
• Disney Dreamlight Valley
• Cooking Mama: Cuisine!
• Solitaire by MobilityWare+

Check out this year's most downloaded ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ apps, games, and Apple Arcade charts of 2024 for your region in the App Store's Today tab. Apple last week announced its 2024 ‌App Store‌ Award winners, including pro video camera app Kino, which was named ‌iPhone‌ App of the Year.

Anker brand Eufy has launched a new Apple Home-compatible 4K indoor pan-and-tilt camera, bettering its 2K offering launched back in 2020.

The Eufy Indoor Cam E30 features a 4K resolution for crisp, sharp video, and it is compatible with HomeKit. However, since Apple's Home app only supports the viewing of streams up to 1080p, users will need to use the official Eufy app to see the inside of their property in all its 4K glory.

The E30 connects via the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band, and the PTZ camera provides a 360-degree view in the horizontal plane, as well as controls within the Eufy app to manually adjust the angle. The camera can also be fixed to ceilings with a mounting plate (included).

The E30 also includes a built-in spotlight enabling standard night vision and color night vision. Users have the option to install an SD card for local on-device recording, minus the associated monthly fees incurred by cloud-based recording plans, but Eufy does still offer a cloud-based option.

As HomeKitNews notes, Eufy has not provided information on whether the Indoor Cam E30 supports HomeKit Secure Video, so buyer beware. But given that most other Eufy models support it, there is a good chance this one does, too.

HomeKit Secure Video is encrypted and stored in iCloud and footage is viewed in the Home app. All detection is also done on-device for privacy purposes, with no data sent to Eufy. This would likely be the preferable option for users who remember Eufy's camera security controversy.

Thanks to improvements in AI, Eufy says that the camera can now distinguish between humans and pets, as well as different types of audio, making it better able to detect, identify, and track movement. The camera also has an integrated speaker, suggesting this model supports two-way audio like other Eufy models.

The Eufy Indoor Cam E30 is available directly from the Eufy website costing $69.99, and the company is currently running a $10 promotional discount using the code WSPEV2ASHVSZ.

Apple is working on a "giant" foldable iPad that unfolds into the size of two iPad Pros side-by-side, which the company aims to release around 2028, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says that Apple has been developing the foldable for a couple of years now, and is aiming for a ~20-inch display to appeal to customers who want the biggest possible display in a portable device.

Gurman says Apple's main goal is to avoid the crease that runs through the middle of the screen above the hinge when the device is in the open position. The crease has remained evident in even the current crop of foldable phones from Samsung, which has tried and failed to get rid of it since its breakout Galaxy Fold device, released in 2019.

In contrast, Apple wants its foldable iPad to look like "a single, uninterrupted piece of glass." Whether this is achievable remains unclear, though the company is said to have made progress: Gurman reports that prototypes of this new product within Apple's industrial design group have a nearly invisible crease. "It's too early to tell if Apple will be able to get rid of it altogether," notes the reporter.

As for which operating system the foldable iPad will run, Gurman admits that it's not yet clear, but he did have this to say:

My guess is that it will be iPadOS or a variant of it. I don't believe it will be a true iPad-Mac hybrid, but the device will have elements of both. By the time 2028 rolls around, iPadOS should be advanced enough to run macOS apps, but it also makes sense to support iPad accessories like the Apple Pencil.

Gurman says the majority of Apple's work on foldables is focused on the "higher-end" 20-inch device, but he maintains that Apple continues to explore the long-rumored foldable iPhone concept. Despite Apple's status as the only major smartphone maker without a foldable, Gurman does not foresee a foldable iPhone arriving before 2026 at the earliest.

Last week, MacRumors reported on a document shared on X that allegedly reveals Apple's display plans. The roadmap shows that Apple aims to use an 18.8-inch foldable screen between 2028 and 2030, and Gurman says that this "generally lines up with what I've heard about an Apple foldable computer."

Notably, a report over the weekend by The Wall Street Journal claimed that Apple is planning two foldable devices, one of which is "intended to serve as a laptop" and "has a screen that unfolds to be nearly as large as some desktop monitors, at about 19 inches." It is not immediately clear if this and the foldable iPad reported by Gurman are one and the same, but it's a possibility.

Meanwhile, the smaller device is said to be essentially an iPhone with an inward-folding design that unfolds to a display size that would be larger than an iPhone 16 Pro Max. The WSJ report said Apple executives are pushing for a 2026 release, but the company may need another year to address technical challenges, one of which is presumably related to the crease.

Apple in iOS 18.2 has reinstated a Lock Screen feature that was unceremoniously nixed from its iPhone OS two years ago, leaving many users wondering why it was taken away in the first place.

The feature in question is the on-screen volume control slider in the Lock Screen media player interface. Prior to 2022, the volume slider was a familiar presence on the Lock Screen whenever media was playing. When Apple released iOS 16, however, it removed the control without explaining the reason.

Thankfully, Apple has brought back the control as an option in iOS 18.2. If you've updated your device, you'll find a toggle in Settings ➝ Accessibility ➝ Audio & Visual, labeled Always Show Volume Control. Enable the switch, and you'll be able to adjust volume from the Lock Screen without having to unlock your iPhone or use the physical volume buttons.

Elsewhere in iOS 18.2, provided you have a compatible device, you will find several Apple Intelligence features, including Image Playground and Genmoji. Be sure to check out our complete guide for full details on what's included.