Category: Apple Insider

Gallaudet University in Washington, DC is the country’s leading university for the deaf. Apple has partnered with the school to provide assistive technology and scholarships to students.

During his speech, Cook highlighted that partnership, and said that the cooperation has allowed Apple to create accessibility-focused features within its own products — such as Apple Maps.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have such innovative and committed partners,” Cook said.

The Apple chief executive also reiterated the company’s stated purpose of making technology that enriches the lives of its customers. He also doubled-down on Apple’s core values, such as its focus on accessibility, privacy, and environmental responsibility.

Cook also gave the students some advice on staying true to their values as they embarked on their post-graduate journeys.

“What does it take to build a life that provides meaning and fulfillment?” said Cook. “No one can answer that question for you, and that includes me. There is no iPhone feature that can come to the rescue. AI is good, but it’s not that good. Still, I have one important piece of advice I want to share — so important, that it’s the only piece of advice I’m going to share today. And that is this: whatever you do, lead with your values.”

As unionization efforts ramp up at Apple Stores across the U.S, Apple has begun providing managers with ways to dissuade organizing employees from attempting to form unions.

In a leaked document obtained by Motherboard, Apple has instructed store leaders to warn employees that they could lose career growth opportunities, personal time off, and merit-based promotions.

The document reads, “There are a lot of things to consider. One is how a union could fundamentally change the way we work.”

Apple is pushing the narrative that a union prevents teamwork.

“What makes a store great is having a team that works together well,” the document says. “Like so much about relationships. If we’re going to work well, we’ve got to help each other, know if someone’s under stress, know when someone needs some space, and be able to talk through and work problems out. That can’t always happen when a union represents a store’s team members.”

Apple also calls efforts to unionize against the company’s culture, and would make the store operations inherently less flexible.

“The way we work now, we understand and appreciate that we’re all balancing our personal and work lives, and we try to make it work for you,” the document continues. “A rigid union contract that must be followed at all times would make that very difficult.”

Apple has yet to publicly decry unionization efforts, but the tech giant recently hired anti-union lawyers at Littler Mendelson.

Employees in Apple Stores across the U.S. have begun unionization efforts, citing that the low wages aren’t enough to support themselves on.

The Sonos Ray is a budget-friendly soundbar with support for Dolby Digital audio and connects to TVs via optical cable. It packs two tweeters for higher frequencies, as well as two midwoofers.

Sonos says the Ray will provide good sound performance no matter where it’s placed. It can also integrate into a larger surround-sound system by using pairs of Sonos speakers.

The Sonos Ray will retail for $279 and will go on sale on June 7 in the U.S., Canada, and other countries.

Alongside the Sonos Ray, the speaker maker is also debuting its portable Sonos Roam Bluetooth speaker in three new color options: red, green, and blue. As with other Sonos Roam speakers, they’ll retail for $179.

The new Sonos Roam colors.

In addition to the new audio hardware, Sonos also confirmed that it will release its own privacy-focused voice assistant in June. Users will be able to play music, skip tracks, adjust volume, and send audio to other Sonos speakers using the “Hey Sonos” command.

The voice assistant will be added to all of the company’s existing speakers via software update. It’ll support Apple Music, Pandora, Deezer, Amazon Music, and Sonos Radio at launch.

The streaming giant told employees of the planned changes in an internal letter obtained by The New York Times. Although the company informed employees of the changes, it didn’t offer many details about them.

During its last earnings call, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said the company would take time to roll out an ad-based tier, stating that it would “figure it out over the next year or two.”

However, in its internal letter, the company appears to have accelerated that timeframe, stating that the planned changes will be “fast and ambitious” and could “require some trade-offs.” Netflix pointed out that “every major streaming company excluding Apple has or has announced an ad-supported service” — adding that consumers want “lower-priced options.”

Netflix has been bleeding subscribers in recent quarters. In the first quarter of 2022, for example, it lost 200,000 subscribers — its first loss in more than a decade. It also expects to lose two million in the current quarter.

The company plans on deploying measures to crack down on the practice later in 2022. In the internal letter, Netflix characterized the clampdowns as allowing users to “easily and securely” share their passwords at the cost of “paying a bit more.”

Netflix said it would test those changes in specific regions, but didn’t make it clear when it would roll them out more broadly. However, Netflix told employees that those mechanisms would debut “around the same time” as its ad-supported tier.

The new lineup includes the Pro-Blade SSD Mag, which is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB configurations. Each mag sports a three-meter drop resistance and 4,000-pound crush resistance, making them ready to use for on-location workflows.

Those SSD mags slot into the Pro-Blade Transport, which is a modular system that allows users up to 2,000 MB/s read and write speeds over USB-C. Users can also easily swap out multiple mags so they can carry terabytes worth of storage without extra bulk.

When connected to a USB-C compatible camera, users can easily record directly onto a specific mag. Once the mag runs out of space, they can easily swap it out for another one to keep recording without interruption.

For those looking to bring the Pro-Blade SSD to the desktop, Western Digital has also unveiled a larger enclosure that can fit up to four SSD mags at once. With Thunderbolt 4 support and 40Gbps speeds, users. Can offload up to four high-capacity mags simultaneously.

Western Digital says the setup supports real-time 4K, 8K, and 12K editing, as well as super-cast copying.

The Pro-Blade SSD mag is available to order for $179.99 for the 1TB option. The Pro-Blade Transport retails for $69.99, although users can also purchase bundles with mags included starting at $239.99.

Both the mag and transport are expected to begin shipping in June. The desktop SSD enclosure will launch in late 2022.

The monitor market is more competitive than ever, so companies have to compete with design, quality of life implements, and unique features to stand out. The Monoprice 28-inch CrystalPro 4K monitor struggles to excel in any of those categories.

While this 4K monitor isn’t terrible for its price, it lies in a highly competitive portion of the market where there are a few dozen options with varying features. So, for every problem this monitor has, there are several that don’t.

There’s a lot to like about Monoprice’s display design at first glance. The display bezels are slim on three sides, and the thicker bottom bezel has a discreet logo.

The base rotates so the sides can sit flush with the corners of your desk, with the monitor facing the user diagonally.

We like the extreme difference between the stand’s lowest and highest height settings. You are much more limited if you use the display in portrait mode, but the tilt options provide some interesting angles.

The entire display is encased in black plastic, which is the standard for monitors in this price range. The display does have a slight wobble when typing, thanks to how it is mounted to the stand.

The monitor controls aren’t labeled, but they aren’t difficult to figure out

There are six buttons on the display with only one label for the power button. When changing monitor settings, the UI hovers over where the unlabeled buttons are, so it isn’t hard to figure out which one to press.

The screen has a matte texture, which is great for bright office environments. However, this texture is highly noticeable and causes a slight blur effect on content.

Overall, the design is in line with what we’d expect from a display that costs less than $400, but some critical oversights exist. The monitor itself is ok, but the stand it sits on is another matter.

First, the stand has a cable management system, a fancy way of saying a hole in the post for cables to stick through. But, strangely enough, that hole isn’t big enough to allow the power cable through.

The power cable cannot fit through the cable managment hole in the stand

The power cable is hard-wired to the large power supply brick on one end, while the other has one of those ferrite cores near the AC plug. The ferrite core is too big to fit through the cable management hole, so it can’t fit through.

You end up left with a cable sticking out by itself, but with practically all other cables able to go through that management hole.

If you’re the type of person who doesn’t want to see cables on their desk, seek another monitor. The cable management hole is front and center, so all cables going through it are on full display.

If you can get over the poor design decisions, the Monoprice CrystalPro monitor isn’t that bad in use. The colors are accurate enough for general purposes but maybe not accurate enough for a photographer.

The promised HDR mode, however, is included for the sake of the spec page. We wouldn’t recommend anyone buy this monitor because it claims to be HDR compatible.

Once you’ve turned on HDR mode in the monitor settings and on macOS, the display immediately dims and takes on an off-green tint. Look elsewhere if you’re expecting to use your monitor for HDR editing or content.

Using the monitor through the USB-C port works great, and we appreciate it can keep our 14-inch MacBook Pro charged during use. The two downstream USB-A ports can be connected to accessories for the Mac to access as well.

There are plenty of port options for connecting multiple devices on your desk

There are built-in speakers in the CrystalPro display, but they shouldn’t be used except as a last resort. The audio quality is reminiscent of hold music — flat, empty, and oddly tinny.

We liked testing this monitor in portrait orientation. The overall footprint is much nicer with the stand obscured behind the large display, and it acts as a great second-monitor companion to our Studio Display.

Note that this is a 28-inch monitor with a 2160p display, meaning it isn’t Retina by Apple’s standards. At arms-length, the pixels are distinguishable to a discerning eye, especially when the monitor is placed next to a MacBook Pro.

There is one significant issue with the monitor during use — coil whine. While we cannot say if this is present in every shipping model, it is in this one.

Whenever the monitor is on and displaying content of any kind, a faint electrical noise can be heard coming from the monitor. The whine is enough to be drowned out by music, but those especially sensitive to the noise and frequency will always make it out.

We can’t attribute this coil whine to anything except cheap construction and parts. We’ve noted reviewing other Monoprice goods that the company can keep prices low while retaining premium-feeling materials and specs, but this monitor is an exception.

The Monoprice 28-inch CrystalPro monitor would make a good secondary monitor in portrait

We cannot recommend the Monoprice 28-inch CrystalPro 4K monitor. The lack of attention to detail with things like the cable management system and the constant coil whine make this monitor a poor option.

If you believe you can ignore the coil whine and want a cheap 4K monitor that can be used in portrait orientation, then this isn’t a bad choice. It shouldn’t be someone’s first or only monitor in any case.

Again, this isn’t a terrible display with its 2160p panel and decent color accuracy. Its specs are in line with what is expected for a monitor of this price and size.

However, the design and poor construction tradeoffs make this display less desirable overall.

We’d rate this monitor at 4 out of 5 if the coil whine wasn’t present and there was some thought to the cable management system. Instead, it has a lower score, which only really counts if you’re capable of ignoring the coil whine.

• Low-priced monitor with tilt-and-height adjustments
• Decent color reproduction and contrast
• 65W USB-C single-cable connection

• Audible coil whine during use
• Cable managment system is basically useless, power cable doesn’t fit through
• HDR mode dims display adds tint
• Built-in speakers should never be used except in worse-case scenario

The Monoprice 28-inch CrystalPro Monitor is available from Monoprice’s online store, priced at $359.99.

Tronsmart has released a portable speaker designed to get the party started wherever you go. The Bang certainly seems impressive, with an IPX6 rating and the ability to pair 100 units together, but we still wanted to see how it held up to our standards.

We like the design of the Tronsmart Bang quite a bit, taking the form of a cylindrical speaker that features an integrated plastic handle. The all-black design looks pretty slick, though we will note that it makes seeing the buttons rather tricky if you’re in a low-light setting.

The buttons are also difficult to understand, and the layout isn’t intuitive, so there’s a bit of a learning curve here.

Tronsmart has included a button that allows you to pair the device with other Tronsmart speakers, but the icon doesn’t convey that. Likewise, the one-touch equalizer button doesn’t make much sense, either.

We’re tech-savvy here at AppleInsider, and we still had to take quite a bit of time to read through the included handbook to make sense of it. In addition, we still don’t have all of the controls committed to memory.

The Tronsmart Bang features built-in LED party lighting, which is a nice touch. If this doesn’t float your boat, or if you’d prefer not to use it, it can also be turned off.

A built-in charging port also allows you to connect smartphones or small electronics.

Lastly, the speaker has an IPX6 rating, meaning that it’s pretty water-resistant. So it should be able to handle hanging out poolside — though you shouldn’t submerge it, — the occasional rainstorm, or even hanging out in the shower, if that’s your thing.

Tronsmart says that it’s also dust and sand-resistant, but since the IP rating does not say what the speaker is rated at, we feel that it would be too risky to take it somewhere particularly dusty. So we don’t think this would be a good companion at the beach.

There are two ways to pair the Tronsmart Bang. The first is a standard Bluetooth pairing process where you hold down the device’s power button for about three seconds to put it in pairing mode. We paired the speaker with a Mac, a Windows PC, an iPhone, and an iPad without much trouble.

You can also pair the speaker via the integrated NFC chip. However, as the iPhone doesn’t support NFC pairing, iPhone owners won’t be able to use this feature.

The speaker uses Bluetooth 5.0, which means it has a 60-foot range from whatever device it’s paired with. Of course, we didn’t have a reason to need to get more than 60 feet from the speaker, but we did manage to get about 40 feet away from it with no connection issues.

One of the more interesting features of this speaker is that it can pair with up to 100 other Tronsmart Bang speakers. While that may not be particularly useful for an individual, flexibility is helpful for certain businesses.

We think three or four Bang units paired together would make an excellent weather-resistant sound system for an outdoor restaurant section.

A closeup of the unit’s ports

If you don’t want to play music over a Bluetooth connection, Bang also features a spot for a flashcard and a 3.5mm aux port.

Because it bills itself as an outdoor/party speaker, we wanted the Tronsmart Bang to sound good at medium to high volume. And, good news — it does. The bass coverage is solid, the mids are crisp, and the highs are clear without distortion or clipping.

We wouldn’t call the sound quality revolutionary, but it is pretty decent. We’d go as far as saying it’s a bit above average for its price.

It does fall a bit short at lower volumes, though. Also, we noticed that the audio sometimes sounds muffled if you’re playing audio under 15% on the speaker, especially if you’re listening to something like a podcast.

The sound quality wasn’t bad enough to make us avoid using the speaker, but not enough for us to prefer using it over something like our iMac‘s built-in speakers, either.

You can also customize the sound quality by using the Tronsmart App. We found that this helped round out the quality for things like podcasts, which we appreciated.

As with all speakers, the battery life is highly dependent on how loud you’re playing your audio. The louder the audio, the shorter the battery life.

Additionally, because this speaker features integrated LED lighting, leaving the lighting on can reduce battery life.

We were able to get nearly 13 hours of playtime across three plays at about 30% volume with the LEDs on. Tronsmart notes that you should be able to get up to 15 hours with the LED off at 50% volume.

The side LEDs are quite bright

However, this is a speaker that you can use while it’s charging, so if you’re using it indoors, you can leave it hooked up to USB-C power.

When we fully depleted the battery, we found that it took about 4 hours to fully recharge it using a USB-C 30W PD wall charger.

Perhaps one of the most significant downsides to this speaker is that it’s currently only available through purchase through Aliexpress.

Aliexpress is hardly a beginner website, and many people may find that it might not find it worth it to shop outside of more familiar retailers. Additionally, it takes a full two weeks for the item to arrive, and you’ll need to pay for shipping as an extra charge.

The Tronsmart Bang is a decent speaker for what it is. The sound quality is good, the design looks nice, the battery life is great, and we like that it’s water-resistant.

We aren’t the biggest fans of the buttons, though, which hinder the speaker more than help it.

It’s certainly an attractive option for businesses that may want to order several speakers rather than just one or two. We wish it was easier to obtain one, though, and hope the seller eventually lists it through Amazon.

• Wholesale option for businesses
• Can be paired with up to 100 other units
• Decent sound quality for price
• Built in charger for keeping smartphones topped up

• Only available to purchase through Aliexpress
• Controls are not intuitive
• Limited lighting effects
• Sound quality at lower levels is lacking

The bug-related alerts have a few distinguishing characters from actual reports of stalking, including the fact that their pathway on a map appear erratic and non-sensible, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

“The maps on phantom AirTag alerts share a similar pattern: straight red lines radiating out from the user’s location,” the publication noted. “If an AirTag were in motion (perhaps flying?) along these paths, it would be crossing in the middle of city streets, passing through construction zones, even penetrating walls.”

It isn’t clear how widespread the bug is, but The Wall Street Journal points out that reports have surfaced on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and other platforms.

One person who received a phantom AirTag alert at his home said the notification was frightening, but added that the AirTag’s movement on the map “looked super weird.” He wasn’t able to find any maliciously placed AirTags near his house.

When a 24-year-old nonprofit worker received a phantom AirTag alert on her iPhone, she searched her belongings and found none. When she attempted to get the AirTag to play a sound, the Find My app showed a notification saying “AirTag Not Reachable.”

It’s a similar situation to one faced by a family visiting Disney World earlier in May. While they received an AirTag anti-stalking alert, they weren’t able to find any trackers on their persons or in their belongings.

An Apple spokesperson said the alerts may have resulted from an iPhone receiving Wi-Fi signals that temporarily confused its location services. Alternatively, the spokesperson added that AirTags owned by other nearby people in densely populated areas could result in false alarms — and it doesn’t get much denser than Disney World.

There are certainly real cases of AirTag-facilitated stalking, which is why Apple has deployed new mechanisms meant to bolster safety and security. The company is also working on other safeguards that will debut down the road.

In October 2021, a ruling passed by the Reserve Bank of India made it so banks, financial institutions, and “gateways” would need to require approval before completing credit and debit card transactions for auto-renewable subscriptions.

According to the mandate, merchants must obtain user approval through transaction notifications, e-mandates, and Additional Factors of Authentication (AFA). Banks or card issuers will decline transactions that do not meet the directive’s requirements.

Because of this regulatory change, users in India will not be able to purchase apps from the App Store, subscribe to Apple TV+ or Apple Music, or buy movies or shows through iTunes with a credit or debit card.

To prevent seeing interruptions to their subscriptions, users will need to fund their Apple ID balance, Apple’s support site explains.

Regulatory requirements in India apply to the processing of recurring transactions. If you hold an Indian debit or credit card and you have a subscription, these changes impact your transactions. Some transactions might be declined by banks and card issuers.

To continue enjoying your subscriptions, you can pay with your Apple ID balance. You can add to your Apple ID balance using App Store Codes, Net Banking, and UPI.

In addition to encouraging developers to warn customers about the change, Apple ran a promotion that gave customers in India chance to add funds to their Apple ID to receive a 20% bonus.

Based on Pat Conroy’s 1986 novel, “Prince of Tides,” follows a man that falls in love with his twin sister’s psychiatrist. As the story progresses he learns that many of his sister’s issues — as well as his own — stem from traumatic events in his childhood.

Conroy is also a co-writer of this Apple TV+ series, alongside Becky Johnson. The series is set to be directed by Streisand, who both directed and starred in the original film.

There has yet to be any casting decisions for the series, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter.

The 1991 film adaptation was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.