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Benjamin Mayo

bzamayo

Follow Benjamin on Twitter to keep up with his latest projects. Benjamin blogs about Apple news and rumors and posts insightful product and app reviews. Read his work on 9to5Mac and his personal blog.

Benjamin Mayo also creates apps for iOS as a professional indie developer and contractor; more details here. Email to discuss making your iOS project.

on Twitter and follow @bzamayo on Threads.

Connect with Benjamin Mayo

Tidy up your Mac office space with a Thunderbolt dock hidden under your desk

Like many people these days, I work from home and use a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an external display. I have been a long-time user of the OWC Thunderbolt Dock which lets me connect my display and various peripherals to the hub’s I/O ports, with only a single cable plugged in to the laptop.

This dock has simply sat atop the desk, until recently. I came across a further improvement to my setup which helps declutter even more. Quite simply, I discovered this cable management tray that lets the dock sit on a shelf just underneath the desk, so all the mess is out of sight …

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Review: SwitchBot Wallet Finder is an incredibly useful accessory to track your wallet with iPhone Find My

I have an AirTag on my keychain to keep track of my keys, but obviously an AirTag is too big and bulky to fit inside a wallet. That’s what the SwitchBot Wallet Finder is for.

Disguised inside a thin, credit-card form factor, the SwitchBot Wallet Finder connects to the Find My app on your iPhone, so you can follow its location, and it even houses a speaker so you can make it beep to help you find your wallet when it inevitably gets lost somewhere in your home. Read on for my review …

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Log your weight in Apple Health quickly and cheaply with this iPhone-compatible smart scale

Update: Limited time Amazon Prime Day deal has this scale discounted to under $35 right now.

After my last WiFi-enabled smart scale broke and refused to connect to the Internet anymore, I sought something simpler and cheaper to replace it. The old scale had all sorts of fancy service integrations that I never used. I just wanted something that would track my weight and report the measurements to the Health app on my iPhone.

The Eufy C20 smart scale is what I landed on and I’m very happy with it — and it’s pretty cheap too. Here’s how it works …

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Your AirPods case will never run out of battery again thanks to these new charging reminders

Your AirPods are getting even better with iOS 26 later this year. As well as new features like camera remote and sleep detection to pause media, Apple is also improving the charging experience.

With the new update, your iPhone can automatically remind you when your AirPods are running out of juice. These alerts can show even when your AirPods are not currently in your ears, but stored in their case, that is running low on battery.

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A cheaper Apple Vision is still a few years away

Vision Pro EyeSight

Last month, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicated that a cheaper model of Apple Vision Pro wasn’t due until late 2027. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has now corroborated that timeline in a new report that says the device, codenamed N100, will be both “lighter and cheaper”.

However, the device’s design has not yet been finalized. Work on the project is apparently expected to be finished in 2026, with a ramp up to a public launch in 2027.

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Apple Vision Pro 2 with more comfortable strap and upgraded chip is coming later this year

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports today that Apple is nearing a release of the first update to the Apple Vision Pro hardware. The new model will feature an M4 chip, offering a significant performance upgrade compared to the M2 chip found in the original Vision Pro.

Perhaps more importantly, the new Vision Pro will apparently include a redesigned strap. This will make the headset more comfortable to wear for longer periods of time.

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Report: Apple in active negotiations for Formula 1 streaming rights in the US

Apple is in active talks to acquire the rights to broadcast the sport of Formula 1 on its own streaming service platform, through the Apple TV app, according to a new report from the Financial Times. The league’s current deal with ESPN expires at the end of this year.

If a deal materializes, Apple would stream Formula 1 in the US starting with the 2026 season. However, Apple is not believed to be the only bidder and exact nature of the company’s proposal is currently unknown.

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watchOS 26 will alert you if your Apple Watch battery is draining faster than normal

With watchOS 26, Apple is upgrading the battery monitoring features on the Apple Watch. The system will observe your average usage patterns, and notify you if your watch battery is draining faster than normal.

This alert gives you a quick shortcut to enable Apple Watch’s Low Power Mode to maximise battery life until you can next get to a charger.

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Apple keeps Jennifer Aniston in the TV+ family with new series ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’

Apple launched Apple TV+ with the flashy drama The Morning Show, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. With the debut drama about to enter its fourth season in September, Apple is doubling down on Aniston’s star power.

The streamer announced that Aniston will headline a new ten-part dramedy, entitled ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’, based off the bestselling memoir by former iCarly star Jennette McCurdy, recounting her experiences growing up as a child actor and her complicated relationship with her controlling mother.

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MLS Season Pass is now 50% off

The MLS Season Pass price is now $49 for the remainder of the season, which lets subscribers stream all MLS regular season and playoff games, live and on-demand. The price drop reflects the fact that the 2025 season is about halfway finished.

As always, Apple TV+ members get an additional discount: MLS Season Pass is now just $39 if you are a TV+ subscriber. The monthly plan price is unchanged.

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Kuo: Apple to release cheaper MacBook powered by iPhone processor

Apple’s current entry-level laptop is the $999 MacBook Air, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple is aiming to launch an even more affordable model soon.

He writes on X that Apple will go into production in late 2025 or early 2026 on a new MacBook model that will be powered by the A18 Pro chip, rather than an M-series processor. This is the same chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro line. The machine may feature colorful casing options, including silver, pink and yellow.

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The F1 movie is a cinema smash hit, on track to outperform combined box office of all previous Apple originals films

Whatever you think about Apple’s in-your-face advertising tactics, it seems to be paying off. The F1 movie is set to take in about $145 million in its opening weekend at the box office, with $55.6 million domestic.

This easily outstrips any of Apple Original Film’s prior theatrical debuts, and sets the movie on a path to exceed the gross box office of all previous Apple films … combined.

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New Apple TV+ series starring Taron Egerton starts streaming today

Reeling of the success of prior Apple originals Black Bird and Tetris, Taron Egerton returns to Apple TV+ with a new crime drama Smoke, which starts streaming today. The show is both hot as in fire, as the series centers on tracking down serial arsonists, and hot as in acclaimed, garnering a positive early reception from critics.

You can watch Smoke exclusively on Apple TV+. The nine episode series drops new episodes every Friday through August 15, with a two-episode premiere available to watch now.

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Apple Sports app redesigned with new personalized sections, adds tennis scores just in time for Wimbledon

The Apple Sports app for iPhone has just got a big new update. The home screen layout has been revamped, with upcoming games now separated by league. You can further personalize the list by re-ordering the sections to their preference, so you can make the sports you are most interested in appear first, and starred teams always show at the very top.

And, just in time for Wimbledon, the app has now added tennis scores. That means you will be able to follow along with live scores for Grand Slam tournaments, spanning men’s and women’s singles matches, starting with Wimbledon.

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Apple continues F1 movie marketing blitz with new immersive hot lap experience on Apple Vision Pro

As spotted by Sigmund Judge, Apple is continuing its marketing blitz for F1: The Movie, which lands at the box office on June 27 and will stream on Apple TV+ later in the year.

Apple is certainly going out of its way to push awareness of the film. We’ve already seen Apple release a special haptic trailer, kickoff WWDC with a F1 sketch, Tim Cook and Brad Pitt made a surprise appearance at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store at the weekend, among many other media interviews. And today, it has expanded the pool of Apple Immersive content with a new Hot Lap Immersive instalment, available now in the TV app on Apple Vision Pro.

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Video: Here’s a first look at using Apple Vision Pro with PlayStation VR controllers

At its big software event last week, Apple officially announced that support for Sony PlayStationVR2 controllers was coming to the Apple Vision Pro headset, along with other six-degrees-of-freedom spatial controller accessories. This is in addition to the Vision Pro’s primary input methods of eye and hand tracking.

While interest in support for PSVR2 will no doubt center on gaming possibilities, Nathie on YouTube has given us a great first look at how interacting with visionOS works with PSVR2 controllers in hand …

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iOS beta code includes new references to Apple’s upcoming smart display home product

HomePad WWDC

Apple was most recently rumored to be readying an unveiling of its upcoming smart display product in the spring, but the device’s dependence on the troubled Siri features seemingly put the launch on hold.

Nevertheless, it seems work on the project continues as we have found new assets meant for the device, hidden inside the just-released iOS 18.6 beta. The asset may even reveal the screen resolution of the device …

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Apple Music chief says ‘music is art’, describes Spotify free tier as terrible mistake for the industry

Apple vice president Oliver Schusser, who leads Apple Music, TV+ and Apple’s sport content initiatives, made some grandiose comments last week in a sit-down interview with the president of the National Music Publishers’ Association, David Israelite. You can watch the conversation in full here.

Most notably, Schusser is asked what he would change about the music industry if he could do it all over again. He replies, “I think it’s crazy that 20 years in, we still offer music for free. It’s a terrible mistake … As a company, we look at music as art, and we would never want to give away art for free”.

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Apple will let third party music apps show animated artwork on the iPhone lock screen, not just Apple Music

One of the stylish visual changes to the iPhone on iOS 26 is a new layout for the lock screen when music is playing. Artwork can now be animated and shown full-screen on the iPhone display, with playback controls resting on a platter of a liquid glass.

You can try this out right now with Apple Music. Play a song that has animated album art, and lock the phone. But users of third-party music streaming apps like Spotify will also be pleased to know that Apple is opening up this capability as an API, so third-party developers can also adopt it.

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Why is it called iOS 26? What happened to iOS 19 for iPhone

So, Apple just held its annual WWDC conference where it announces all the new software for the next year. And the company proudly announced the next version of iOS for the iPhone, iOS 26. If you have an iPhone model newer than the XS, you will be able to update to iOS 26 for free later this year.

But the current version number of iOS is iOS 18. So what happened to iOS 19? Why did Apple jump to 26?

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In iOS 26, the Safari browser on iPhone has three different toolbar layouts to choose from

The iOS 26 Safari browser on iPhone evokes the new design system featuring Liquid Glass, with floating toolbars and buttons that shine through the web page content behind them as you scroll.

Ever since the controversial iOS 15 Safari redesign, iPhone Safari has offered two layout modes ‘Tab Bar’ and ‘Single Tab’. In iOS 26, these are renamed to ‘Bottom’ and ‘Top’ respectively, and there’s a brand new default called ‘Compact’. While it should still feel familiar, all modes have received design changes to suit the new Liquid Glass-infused system theme.

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