I love my Apple Vision Pro in part because it is great to use today but also because it is a fun preview of what many more people will be using in the future. Eventually, this type of device will get cheaper and even smaller, like a pair of glasses. This week, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta showed off to Alex Heath of The Verge a device called Orion, which is a pair of AR glasses. Meta isn't going to sell the device because it is too difficult and expensive to make—Zuckerberg said that they would have to charge over $10,000 for each device—but Meta is using them internally to test out ideas for the future. Seeing the Orion in action in the video on The Verge makes me wonder what eyeglass-like device Apple must be testing in its own labs. Of course, Apple, unlike Meta, doesn't show off devices unless it is going to sell them. Watching the Orion in action gives me hope that at some point in the future, not too many years from now, the Apple Vision Pro will evolve into something really special. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- As September—Childhood Cancer Awareness Month—draws to a close, we are days away from the end of the annual campaign to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Thank you to everyone who has donated. If you haven't done so yet, you have a few more days to do so—which will give you that good feeling inside that comes with doing something to help others who really need the help. So for the last time this year, here is the link to make a donation to the campaign. Thank you!
- Last week, I raised a glass to Touch Arcade, a website that started in 2008 (the same year as iPhone J.D.) and is now shutting down. This week, iMore, an Apple-focused website that also started in 2008, announced that it is shutting down too. There have been a ton of fantastic writers at iMore over the years who moved on to bigger and better things including Rene Ritchie (YouTube), Serenity Caldwell (Apple), Dieter Bohn (Google), Lory Gil (Apple), and others. I think the site was at its all-time best when Rene Ritchie was in charge, and I will always remember Serenity Caldwell's 2016 review of the Apple Pencil that was produced with the Apple Pencil (and is still fun to look at today). I have linked to iMore countless times in these In the News posts. Thanks to everyone who made iMore a special place for all these years.
- Harry McCracken of Fast Company says that thanks to the Camera Control, the iPhone 16 Pro is the first phone that feels like a camera.
- Tim Hardwick of MacRumors provides lots of details on the iPhone 16 Camera Control.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors recommends using the Action button on an iPhone 16 to trigger a shortcut, and he explains exactly how to do that.
- Are the iPhone 16 Pro's Spatial Videos any better than the iPhone 15 Pro's? David Stroud ran many tests, and unfortunately, the answer is no. That's a bummer because this is something that I had been expecting.
- Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reviews the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
- In 2002, the movie 28 Days Later came out, a Zombie movie directed by Danny Boyle that received excellent reviews. The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, came out in 2007. And filming just finished on the third movie, 28 Years Later, which will be released in Summer 2025. Carlton Reid of Wired reports that the upcoming movie, which stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes, was filmed entirely using the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is a first for a big-budget blockbuster movie.
- Should you enable the setting on an iPhone that limits the maximum charge to 80% to prolong battery life? Juli Clover of MacRumors enabled that setting for an entire year on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and then compared her results to others who had the feature turned off. As she explains in this article, the impact on her overall battery life was minimal, and suffering through an 80% battery limit for a year wasn't worth it. I'm so glad that she ran this experiment and shared the result so the rest of us know that this probably isn't worth doing. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball commented on her results: "for most people there’s no practical point to limiting your iPhone’s charging capacity. All you’re doing is preventing yourself from ever enjoying a 100-percent-capacity battery. Let the device manage its own battery. Apple has put a lot of engineering into making that really smart."
- Thank you for the kind words many of you shared about my review of the Apple Watch Series 10 that I posted earlier this week. I see that Amazon is already providing $30 discounts on many Series 10 models.
- Robert Leedham of GQ in the UK interviewed some Apple executives and wrote about how Apple designed the Apple Watch Series 10.
- Tim Hardwick of MacRumors published a great list of 25 features in watchOS 11 that you should know about.
- Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reviews the AirPods 4 and finds lots of great improvements.
- Billy Steele of Engadget provides the behind-the-scenes story of how the AirPods 4 were developed, starting back in 2020.
- HomeKit now supports Matter version 1.2, and as Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac reports, this means that it now suports more kinds of devices, such as air purifiers.
- Apple files for many patents on ideas that never see the light of day, but sometimes they do. William Gallaher of Apple Insider reports that Apple has filed a patent for using an Apple Pencil as an antenna to pick up a TV signal to watch TV on an iPad. That is not something that I ever imagined doing with my Apple Pencil.
- Speaking of patents, many people are upset that if you buy an Apple Watch in the United States, the blood oxygen monitoring feature is currently disabled because of a ruling in a lawsuit between Apple and Masimo. However, Masimo announced this week that its president is resigning after losing a proxy battle with a hedge fund investor, as reported by many including Filipe EspĂłsito of 9to5Mac. With this major change at Massimo and a trial between Apple and Masimo coming up next month, perhaps we will see an end to this dispute soon and then the blood oxygen feature can be turned back on.
- One of my favorite podcasts is the Upgrade podcast, released every Monday by Jason Snell and Myke Hurley. For this week's Episode 530, in addition to the traditional audio podcast, Jason recorded a 360Âş video version. While you can watch it in 2D on a computer and use a mouse to change the vantage point, watching this while wearing a Vision Pro is really incredible because you feel like you are just sitting quietly in a chair in the corner of the room as they record the podcast, with you having the ability to look anywhere around you, even behind you, as they talk. (Use the Juno app on the Vision Pro to watch a YouTube video in 360Âş. I also prefer using that app to watch any YouTube content.) Very cool, and another example of seeing a glimpse of the future by using an Apple Vision Pro.
- Balatro is a game somewhat similar to poker that is very popular on the PC, Nintendo Switch, and other platforms. Yesterday, it was released on the App Store. Balatro+ is free if you subscribe to Apple Arcade, or you can pay $9.99 for Balatro. As Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports, the game gets great reviews. It seems like the type of game that I would enjoy playing—play at your own pace, consider strategies, etc. I played it for a short time last night and I'm not seeing what all of the fuss is about, but maybe it will grow on me in the future. If you have Apple Arcade, it won't cost you anything to check it out to see what you think.
- And finally, Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show filmed a cute segment in which he and Apple CEO Tim Cook discuss the new iPhone 16 while walking through New York. Here is the video:
