Category: Apple Insider

In March, Apple informed developers that it would allow “reader” apps to offer a link to an external website so users can create and manage accounts outside of the App Store.

Reader apps are defined as software that displays outside content on iOS, including previously purchased videos, music, magazines, newspapers, and books.

When tapped, the button warns that the transaction is no longer Apple’s responsibility and that users will not be able to manage their subscriptions or request refunds through Apple.

Generally, Apple bans outside links — particularly to alternate payment platforms — as part of its anti-steering policies on the App Store. Following an investigation from the Japanese Fair Trade Commission, Apple was forced to make a change to its in-app link policy to comply with new rules in Japan.

Although the change was Japan-focused, Apple said in September that the updated guidelines would apply worldwide.

Apple has been under fire for its anti-steering policies globally. For example, while it won a resounding victory in the Epic Games v. Apple legal battle, one of the few rulings made against Apple would ban the company’s anti-steering policies. The Cupertino tech giant has appealed that ruling.

The flash deals are valid today only through 9 p.m. Pacific and offer the cheapest M2 MacBook Pro prices available on the retail models with the optional 2-year AppleCare protection plan.

To snap up the savings, shop through this cost-saving activation link at Apple Authorized Reseller Adorama and enter promo code APINSIDER during checkout. Optional AppleCare can be added to the systems in your Adorama shopping cart.

The deals end soon, so don’t delay if you’re looking for a stellar bargain on Apple’s 2022 devices.

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• M2 Chip with 8-Core CPU and 10-Core GPU, 8GB Memory, 512GB SSD, Space Gray: $1,415 ($84 off) + $149 off AppleCare*
• M2 Chip with 8-Core CPU and 10-Core GPU, 8GB Memory, 512GB SSD, Silver: $1,415 ($84 off) + $149 off AppleCare*

The APINSIDER promo code is valid on every MacBook Pro, plus Mac Studios and iMacs. You can redeem the exclusive discount in two easy steps.

1. Shop through this activation link.
2. Add the qualifying M2 MacBook Pro (and optional AppleCare if desired) to your cart. Then look for a link to reveal the coupon code field in the Payments section and enter promo code APINSIDER to activate the exclusive discount in the same browsing session.

Need help with the coupon? Step-by-step activation instructions can be found here.

AppleInsider and Apple Authorized Resellers are also running specials on MacBook and iPad hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus savings on accessories, software and more. Here are just a few of the deals running this week:

Apple today announced that it would add a new movie, “Causeway,” to its catalog. The A24 film is written by Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel, and Elizabeth Sanders.

Filmed in New Orleans, “Causeway” will star Jenifer Lawrence (“Don’t Look Up,” “Silver Linings Playlist.”) Brian Tyree Henry (“Atlanta,” “Bullet Train”) will co-star.

The film is set to get a theater release and air on Apple TV+ in late 2022.

Lawrence is also tapped to star in “Bad Blood,” a yet-unreleased film that chronicles the rise and fall of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.

While the cast and crew began filming the third, and presumed final, season of “Ted Lasso” on March 6, it seems as though many aren’t ready to say goodbye.

Hannah Waddingham spoke to Deadline at the FYC event in Los Angeles (spotted by 9to5Mac) about the series wrap up.

“We are halfway through shooting Season 3 and I would like to pause things because I’m not ready to say goodbye to her in three episodes,” she said. “… It’s like a long, slow mourning.”

Toheeb Jimoh, who plays Sam, is also not ready to part ways with his character.

“I feel Sam Obisanya in every fiber of my being,” he told Deadline. “Across this three-season journey, I’ve gotten to understand him as a person. I could play him in my sleep now. It will be extremely difficult to say goodbye to him.”

Apple has not confirmed that the series will end after the third season but has not renewed it for a fourth, either.

Bill Lawrence, the shows creator, had stated that “Ted Lasso” was always meant to be three seasons.

“Ted Lasso” is one of Apple’s biggest hits, consistently making a strong showing at yearly award shows.

In January, “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis was named Best Television Actor in a musical or comedy at the Golden Globes.

In March, the series secured four awards at the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards ceremony, including Best Comedy Series.

The tab, which was first spotted by TouchArcade, is located at the bottom of the Arcade tab in the App Store.

TouchArcade notes that this isn’t the first time that the company has pulled games from Apple Arcade, but it is the first time that it has advertised it. The section does not list when exactly the games will be removed.

A full list of games leaving Apple Arcade is available below.

• Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree
• BattleSky Brigade: Harpooner
• Cardpocalypse
• Dead End Job
• Don’t Bug Me!
• Dread Nautical
• EarthNight
• Explottens
• Lifeslide
• Over the Alps
• Projection: First Light
• Spelldrifter
• Spidersaurs
• Towaga: Among Shadows
• Various Daylife

At first, it wasn’t clear why the titles were being removed. However, a source that spoke with MacRumors indicated that it’s a result of contracts with developers expiring. Apple has reportedly chose not to renew these specific contracts.

The publication adds that developers are free to add the games back to the App Store — they just won’t be part of the Apple Arcade service.

Apple Music, by default, will curate recommendations based on a variety of factors, including likes and dislikes and the content already in your Library.

The intent is that you’ll help Apple Music curate your taste over time, but you can also tailor your recommendations with these steps.

One of the simplest ways to tailor your Apple Music recommendations is to like a song within the app.

This lets the platform know that you enjoy a particular track. Given enough time, your catalog of likes will lead to curation that better suits your tastes.

Here’s how to like a song.

• Open mobile, find a song you like in Apple Music
• Tap the three-dot button next to a track
• Tap on Love

You can Like or Dislike tracks to curate your recommendations.

You can also Love songs in Apple Music on macOS.

• On your Mac, find a song you like in the Music app
• Click the three-dot button next to a track
• Click on Love

On the flip side of the spectrum, you can also dislike a song or ask Apple Music to suggest fewer songs like it.

Combined with Loving songs, disliking specific tracks is a great way to cater Apple Music’s recommendations to your tastes.

• Open the app, find a song you don’t like in Apple Music
• Tap the three-dot button next to a track
• Tap on Suggest Less Like This

• On your Mac, find a song you don’t like in the Music app
• Click the three-dot button next to a track
• Click on Dislike

Apple Music also takes your own Library into consideration when recommending new artists, albums, and tracks.

Adding to Library looks different depending on whether you want to add a playlist or album, or a track.

Adding an album, playlist, or track to your library also makes it easy to find them in the future. You won’t have to search them out — they’ll appear in your Library for easy access.

• On iOS, navigate to a playlist or album that you like.
• In the upper right corner, you’ll see a Plus icon. Tap that
• The album or playlist should now be in your Apple Music Library

You can also add individual songs to your Library, either by adding them to a playlist or clicking the three-dot menu in the Now Playing pane and selecting Add to Library or Add to a Playlist.

The instructions are a bit different on macOS, but essentially the same.

• On macOS, navigate to a playlist or album that you like
• You’ll see a small icon with the word “Add” and a plus sign. Click on it
• The album or playlist should now be in your Apple Music Library

Apple Music also just analyzes your general listening habits to curate new tracks and artists, even if you don’t use the like/dislike feature or add any of those songs or artists to your Library.

You also have the option of turning off your listening habits when it comes to recommendations. This can come in handy if you’re letting a friend or family member “borrow” your Apple Music account for a while.

Go to Settings > Music and hit the checkbox next to Use Listening History.

It appears that Apple is trying to bury its star ratings in Apple Music. While a mainstay of iTunes, star ratings were difficult to find and set up in the current versions of Apple Music on iOS 15 and macOS Monterey.

Apple says that star ratings only become available on iOS when you have ratings on a synced library. In our testing, the option to “Show Star Ratings” didn’t even appear in iOS — even with a synced library.

Additionally, on macOS, Apple Music only allowed star ratings for playlists or albums in a user’s Library — and not in the For You page.

Apple even noted that star ratings “do not affect For You recommendations,” suggesting that they have no bearing on your curation.

Filed at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on July 15, the lawsuit by Sonrai Memory Limited against Apple accuses the Cupertino tech giant of infringing on two patents in its possession.

One patent, 6,874,014, is titled “Chip multiprocessor with multiple operating systems, dating back to 2005. The other, 6,724,241, is called a “Variable charge pump circuit with dynamic load,” first granted in 2004.

According to the filing, spotted by Patently Apple, the infringements involve a long list of Apple products, going as far back as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the fifth-generation iPad, all iPad Pro generations, and various MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models.

Apple infringes the 014 patent with technology used in the A-series, M-series, and T-series chipsets, the filing claims. Meanwhile, the 241 involve the SK Hynix NAND Flash die, a chip used for handling storage.

The filing demands damages, costs, expenses, interest, a judgment for ongoing licensing fees, and “reasonable attorneys’ fees.” A trial by jury is also requested.

Apple is regularly the target for patent-related lawsuits, and in some cases, the suits are made by non-practicing entities (NPEs), which are also known by the term “patent trolls.”

In the case of Sonrai Memory, it seems to be exhibiting many behaviors that make it seem like it is an NPE. The company isn’t known for making actual products or offering services, outside of lawsuits, but did acquire the patents in the suit from Hewlett-Packard and semiconductor company Atmel.

Sonrai Memory has also filed similar patent infringement suits against Western Digital, Google, Samsung, LG, Lenovo, and others since July 2021.

It also seems that the registration of the company itself is very NPE-like in nature. According to the Irish Times, Sonrai Memory Limited and several NPEs share the same address in Dublin, as well as directors, with the firms all holding patents for technologies and have been involved in litigation.

The Sonos Ray comes in at less than $300, making it one of the more affordable speakers from the company. With the popularity of soundbars on the rise, it’s a great way to get into the Sonos ecosystem.

Comparatively, the Sonos Beam is near $500 and the Arc tips the scales at around $900. While that makes Ray the seemingly easy choice if you want to save some cash, there are a few caveats to consider.

The Ray itself is just slightly smaller than the Sonos Beam. However, it’s a bit narrower and shouldn’t have any issue fitting in front of your TV.

It comes in black or white colorways, though we chose the former.

The soundbar has a wholly plastic design, including the front-facing grille. They each look great though we will say the black tends to take on fingerprints.

Physical controls on the top of the Sonos Ray

On top of the speaker are your basic controls. They’re the same touch-sensitive buttons you see on all other Sonos speakers. In addition, a multi-control button in the center controls playback and volume down and up buttons on either side.

Ports on the back of the Sonos Ray

Around back, you’ll find the power input, an Ethernet jack, and an optical audio input. Sonos includes the power cable and an ultra-thin optical cable in the box.

Sonos has a knack for speaker setup that is emblematic of Apple. For example, with the Sonos app open, the speaker will automatically be discovered and appear in a pop-up modal just like a set of AirPods.

Since we have other Sonos speakers, the app remembered our credentials and Wi-Fi passcode, so it was able to add it to our account and add it to the home network.

With the speaker added, we could instantly start using it with our television. One last thing you need to do, though, is set up your remote.

Using our Apple TV remote with the Sonos Ray

Unlike the Sonos Beam and Sonos Arc, the Ray accepts audio via optical. The other two rely on the audio return channel (ARC) for audio. With HDMI ARC, volume commands are passed via HDMI CEC.

Without ARC, the Ray is forced to rely on infrared commands. This is an issue because many modern TVs have Bluetooth or RF remotes.

If this is your TV, you won’t be able to control the Ray’s volume. Instead, you’ll need to use the controls on top of the soundbar, the Sonos app, or pick up a cheap no-name infrared remote on Amazon.

Fortunately for Apple users, the Apple TV Siri Remote can work just fine. It can send audio commands and control volume with minimal hassle.

You can add speakers to the Sonos Ray

Unlike many other budget soundbars, the Sonos Ray doesn’t include a subwoofer. But there is both good and bad news.

Sonos is a very modular system. You can add on a set of additional Sonos speakers to go from stereo to surround audio. We’d recommend a set of Sonos One SLs or the IKEA Symfonisk picture frame speakers.

There’s even a subwoofer option. That subwoofer carries a price tag of $750. You could buy nearly three Sonos Rays for the price of the Sonos Sub (Gen 3).

Recent rumors have pointed to a new, lower-cost Sonos Mini Sub. This is by no means official, but it could be an excellent option for Sonos Ray owners who want a bit more oomph to the bass.

We listened to a lot of audio on our Sonos Ray over the past few weeks, including TV shows, movies, and music.

Our takeaway was that — especially at the price point — the Sonos Ray sounds great. It offers an excellent sound experience.

In it are four drivers — two tweeters alongside two mid-woofers. In addition, physical wave channels help route the audio to the sides to increase the perceived soundstage.

Watching TV on the Sonos Ray

We were especially impressed by the dialogue clarity while watching movies and TV. When listening to your TV speakers, dialogue can often be muddied and hard to parse.

There’s no dedicated center channel, yet Sonos was able to design the Ray to help boost audio while letting the rest of the audio come through. This was a significant distinction from the previous $300 Soundbar from Vizio, JBL, and others.

Sonos Ray in our living room

The bass was only okay, though, and left some to be desired. It isn’t bad for the size, but while watching movies like Jurassic Park, we wanted to feel those roars in our chest, and we just didn’t.

Apple iPhone users are also able to use TruePlay to tune the audio. So, for example, you walk around the room, and the phone’s microphone adjusts the audio to your home’s acoustics.

Sonos speakers have supported Apple’s AirPlay 2 for ages and the Ray is no different. This is yet another feature that separates the Ray from other budget soundbars.

Most others in this price range will offer Bluetooth audio but not over Wi-Fi — let alone AirPlay.

Casting audio to the Sonos Ray with AirPlay 2

Once added to the Sonos app, it will immediately be available as an AirPlay destination from any of your Apple devices in your home. Cast to it from your Mac, iPad, Apple TV, or iPhone.

In our home, we can cast to the Sonos Ray, our HomePod mini, and our First Alert Safe and Sound all at once for easy multi-room audio.

If you don’t use AirPlay, you can set up multi-room audio from the Sonos app too. The Sonos app also has multiple direct audio sources, including Sonos Radio and many more.

Sonos Ray in the Home app

For power smart home users, the Sonos Ray can be added to HomeKit. If you launch the Home app and tap on the Add Accessory button, the Ray will automatically appear.

With it in HomeKit, you can control the speaker from the Home app and include it in various scenes or automations.

For example, you could create a workout scene that will play your pump up playlist on the Ray at the same time it closes your living room blinds and adjusts your lights. Or create an automation routine to stop playing anytime the last person leaves the house.

You could even tie the Sonos Ray to your morning alarm to awaken to your favorite energizing songs.

In our time-testing soundbars, the Ray stands above the rest. It’s incredibly capable, with a great array of source options, Wi-Fi connectivity, and excellent sound quality.

Unfortunately, it’s held back by the limited remote support and optical audio. As a result, your TV setup may take the Ray out of the running immediately, regardless of how good the rest of its features are.

Sonos Ray on the Sonos Beam

In our case, the remote worked just fine from our Apple TV, so it wasn’t as a setback as it will be for others. Now, if Sonos would only hurry up and release a more affordable subwoofer.

• Compact design
• Great audio quality
• Clear dialogue
• Ethernet port for connectivity
• AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support
• Expand system with other Sonos devices

• Optical is only connection option
• Optional subwoofer is prohibitively expensive

If Sonos does, in fact, launch a more affordable soundbar, our rating would increase to a 4.

The deals below reflect instant savings of up to $650 off a variety of gadgets and gear for Apple fans. Plus, check out our Apple Price Guide for hundreds of additional exclusive offers. Here are the discounts still going strong after Prime Day:

• Lifetime Microsoft Office For Mac Home & Business 2021 license: $39.99 (88% off)

• 14″ MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 8-core CPU, 14C GPU, 16GB, 512GB): $1,799 ($200 off)
• 14″ MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 10-core CPU, 16C GPU, 16GB, 1TB): $2,299 ($200 off)
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• 16″ MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 16-core GPU, 16GB, 1TB): $2,449 ($250 off)
• 13″ MacBook Pro (M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) Space Gray: $1,099.99 ($200 off)

• iPad 9th Gen (64GB, Wi-Fi) Silver: $299 ($30 off)
• iPad Air 5 (64GB, Wi-Fi) Pink: $559 ($40 off)
• 11″ iPad Pro (M1, 128GB, Wi-Fi) Space Gray: $699 ($100 off)
• 11″ iPad Pro (M1, 2TB, Wi-Fi): $1,649.99 ($250 off)
• 11″ iPad Pro (M1, 2TB, Wi-Fi): $1,649.99 ($250 off) with bonus savings at checkout
• 12.9″ iPad Pro (2TB, Wi-Fi): $1,999 ($200 off)

• 27″ iMac (3.1GHz Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage): $1,449.99 ($350 off)

AppleInsider and Apple Authorized Resellers are also running specials on Mac and iPad hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus savings on accessories, software and more. Here are just a few of the deals going on ahead of Prime Day:

Storage capacity is a significant issue for mobile device users, with the available space on an iPhone, iPad, and even a Mac a sensitive concern for everyone. While users with expansive storage capacities have less trouble with it than most, those saving money with more modest storage may be more hard pressed.

Managing what apps are on your device by offloading or deleting them, maintaining stored videos and other files, relying on cloud storage capacity, and other techniques are usually used to tame storage usage.

Sure, deleting files and wiping the cache of apps can help, but it won’t help an occasional problem involving System Data. Sometimes, System Data can grow to a massive size, and there’s very little you can do to fix it.

Here’s what you can do to get back to a more usable amount of free storage.

By checking your iPhone’s storage usage, you will find that iOS handily sorts out its data usage into several categories, including Apps, Photos, Media, iOS, and System Data.

These are all self-explanatory, with Photos and Media consisting of images, videos, and other typical media-style files. Apps refer to apps downloaded from the App Store and caches of data for each, while iOS is the storage consumed by the operating system itself.

• Open Settings.
• Tap General, then iPhone Storage.
• The bar at the top will graphically show you what storage is being used.
• The list of apps below shows individual app storage usage. Tap each to see the app size and consumption of related files and options to offload the app and delete the data.
• At the bottom of the list are listings for iOS and System Data.

System Data, and what the Settings app refers to as “Other System Data,” includes many files not covered by other categories.

System Data doesn’t usually take tens of gigabytes of storage, but problems happen.

The definition within iOS is that System Data “includes caches, logs, and other resources currently in use by the system.” This doesn’t state what the data is, but it can consist of various logs, temporary data stores, and other elements that aren’t strictly considered part of any of the listed apps.

Then some elements are used by iOS but aren’t owned by a particular app. For example, downloading different Siri voices or installing fonts can expand this section, but they aren’t defined as being used by just one app or the operating system itself.

This data will also “fluctuate according to the system needs.” This means that temporary data can be written to the storage as System Data, removed when iOS doesn’t need it anymore.

However, the problem is that you can’t see what the types of data used in this category consist of, nor can you delete it.

Generally speaking, Other System Data can be a few gigabytes in size at first and depending on how you use the iPhone, it can grow and shrink by several gigabytes over time.

The bloating problem comes into play if that change in the size of Other System Data continues on an upward trajectory. Over time, some users may see that their iPhone’s System Data takes up a lot of space, possibly tens of gigabytes.

In the case of one AppleInsider writer, Other System Data grew to almost 85 gigabytes, consuming virtually all of the available remaining storage and causing device problems.

It is unknown exactly why this occurs, but it is likely from one or more caches or logs being continually added to over time, but crucially not deleting at a pace to keep up with writes. Left for too long, this can be all-consuming.

Since there’s no way to see what caused it directly or selectively delete problematic System Data elements, users may be left with very few options available.

You can do a few things to cut down the amount of System Data being used, and they vary in severity of what you have to do to your iPhone and its data. This guide will start with the least intensive option.

Remember that these are intended to be taken after other reasonable measures, such as deleting unwanted videos or other files to free up space.

Also, remember to back up your iPhone before continuing. The last thing you want to do is delete precious data when trying to recover space.

The first way is to try and cut down on cache usage by a select number of Apple-produced apps. This can include caches by Safari and Messages, which can sometimes take up the System Data category.

You can manage Messages and Safari’s cache to try and cut down System Data usage.

For Messages, this could be as simple as opening Settings, then tapping Messages, scrolling down to Message History, and changing how long you “Keep Messages” for from “Forever” to a lower figure such as one year or 30 days.

Clearing the Safari Cache is a little bit more involving but still useful.

• Open Settings.
• Tap Safari.
• Scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data.
• On the warning pop-up, tap Clear History and Data to confirm.

On the off chance it is a particular app causing the problem, you could try to delete the app if you have a clue as to what app is being wasteful with space. For example, apps that use a lot of videos can potentially use such caching, but without necessarily deleting the caches afterward.

Offloading and deleting apps may wipe some errant caches.

There’s no guarantee that doing so will delete the problematic cache capacity you want to be removed, but it should still reduce how much of it is in active use. It is advisable to try offloading the app before a full delete, namely removing the app but retaining your related documents and data.

• Open Settings.
• Tap General.
• Tap iPhone Storage.
• Scroll and tap the relevant app.
• Tap Offload App, then Offload App to confirm.
• Alternately, tap Delete App, then Delete App to confirm.

The nuclear option is to restore your iPhone from a backup. This entails backing up all data on the iPhone, factory resetting the iPhone, then restoring from the backup.

While you will get back all of your user data and continue to use apps, you may have issues involving two-factor authentication apps and other related problems following a device setup.

Backing up and resetting the iPhone is the last real option available.

In the AppleInsider editorial staffer’s case, restoring from a backup did solve the problem, so it is worth taking the time to do this if you can.

• To backup the data, connect the iPhone to your Mac or PC, and open either Finder or iTunes.
• Select the iPhone, then select the General tab.
• Select “Back up all the data on your iPhone to this Mac.”
• Tick “Encrypt local backup” to preserve account passwords and any Health data.
• Select Back Up Now and wait for it to complete.
• Disconnect the iPhone.
• Open Settings and select General then Transfer or Reset iPhone.
• Tap Erase All Content and Settings. Tap Continue and follow the prompts to complete.
• After it is wiped, connect the iPhone back to the Mac or PC, open Finder or iTunes, and select the iPhone.
• Under General, click Restore Backup.
• Select the most recent backup you just created, then click Restore. Follow the on-screen prompts.