France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, and Greece are preparing to test a new age verification system as part of the EU’s push to regulate how children access online content. Here are the details.

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It’s widely acknowledged that while Apple is happy for any Vision Pro sales it can get, the primary purpose of the existing headset is to let the company take a first step in the journey towards an Apple Glasses product.

But while a cheaper Apple Vision still seems to be a couple of years away, along with the company’s equivalent of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, we are now seeing the potential emergence of smart goggles as an interim device – with TikTok entering the fray …

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Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is officially coming to the Mac this week. CD PROJEKT RED has announced that the game will be available on Thursday, July 17 for Macs powered by Apple Silicon through the Mac App Store, GOG.com, Steam, and Epic Games Store.

The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Mac follows the debut of Assassin’s Creed Shadows on the Mac earlier this year.

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Apple today announced a $500 million multi-year commitment to buying American-made rare earth magnets developed by MP Materials, at a state-of-the-art factory in Fort Worth, Texas. Apple said the commitment is part of its overall pledge to spend more than $500 billion in the U.S. within the next four years, which it announced in February.


Apple and MP Materials will build out the Texas factory with a series of neodymium magnet manufacturing lines specifically designed for Apple products, the company said. Today, nearly all magnets across Apple devices are made with 100% recycled rare earth elements, including in the Taptic Engine in the iPhone 11 and newer.

The two companies will also work together to build a rare earth recycling line in Mountain Pass, California, according to the announcement.

"American innovation drives everything we do at Apple, and we're proud to deepen our investment in the U.S. economy," said Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a statement. "Rare earth materials are essential for making advanced technology, and this partnership will help strengthen the supply of these vital materials here in the United States."

Apple said its commitment will support dozens of new U.S. jobs in manufacturing and R&D.
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Earlier this year, Apple pledged a $500 billion investment in the United States over the next four years. Now, the company is further expanding that pledge with a $500 million plan to “launch an all-new recycling facility for processing recycled rare earth elements.”

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Back in May, analyst Jeff Pu suggested that while the iPhone 17 Pro models would get an A19 Pro chip, and the iPhone 17 Air would get an A19, the base model would get the same A18 chip as the iPhone 16.

In a note seen by 9to5Mac, Pu now says the supply chain evidence suggests he was wrong, and that the base iPhone 17 will get the same A19 chip as the Air – but with one significant difference …

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Following a recent Digitimes report that Apple’s foldable iPhone has reached the initial P1 prototyping stage, two new reports now claim that Samsung Display is preparing to begin panel production by the end of this year, including Ming-Chi Kuo.

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If you live in one of nine eligible states, you can buy a range of Apple products without paying state sales tax.

The sales tax holidays take place annually, with varying dates and product eligibility, but in almost all cases you get only a few days to act …

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YouTube is rolling out, or at least widely testing, a new video player design for its web experience that feels much different.

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Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.

In this episode of Apple @ Work, WebAI founders David Stout and Tyler Mauer join the show to discuss how WebAI aims to put large language model data in the hands of IT teams, Apple Silicon’s role in enterprise AI, and much more.

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I have an 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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The European Commission appears to have reversed its plans to impose a significant digital tax on large technology companies, including Apple.


The change was confirmed in a draft document circulated within the European Commission late last week that was obtained by Politico. The document outlines potential revenue sources for the EU's next seven-year budget, covering the period beginning in 2028.

Notably absent from this list is the widely discussed digital services tax, which had been under consideration as recently as May. The tax was framed as a tool to ensure that large digital companies contribute fairly to the European economy.

Apple has faced increasing regulatory scrutiny in Europe and was among the primary targets of the now-abandoned proposal. The digital levy would have imposed additional taxes specifically on digital companies generating significant revenue from European users without being physically based in EU member states.

Instead of the digital services tax, the Commission now proposes three new levies: an EU-wide excise tax on tobacco products, a tax on discarded electrical and electronic equipment, and a corporate levy on large companies with annual EU turnover exceeding €50 million, such as Apple. The proposals will require unanimous approval from all 27 EU member states.

The timing of the change is widely understood to be linked to ongoing negotiations over a new transatlantic trade agreement between the EU and United States. According to Politico, the Commission's decision to withdraw the digital levy is seen as an attempt to avoid derailing trade negotiations with the United States and secure more favorable terms in a prospective agreement.

The finalized proposal for the EU's 2028–2035 budget is scheduled to be published on Wednesday, July 16. While the digital services tax remains off the table for now, the outcome of the upcoming trade talks with the United States and the ongoing DMA enforcement actions will continue to shape the regulatory environment for Apple in the European Union.
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FORM has long been one of the leaders in the smart swim goggles market, with Apple even carrying the company's Smart Swim 2 goggles online and in select stores over the holiday shopping season last year. The goggles feature an augmented reality display inside one of the goggle lens, allowing you to see a variety of metrics such as time and distance, and even heart rate thanks to a built-in heart rate monitor that sits on your temple.


Today, FORM is launching the Smart Swim 2 PRO, an upgrade that builds on the previous model by using lenses made of Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 for improved durability and clarity compared to the plastic traditionally used in goggle lenses.

The lens stack provides a 50+ UPF rating to block 98 percent of harmful UV rays, and the switch from plastic to glass only increases the overall weight of the goggles by about 5 percent (3.4 grams). Because traditional anti-fog coatings don't stick to glass, the Smart Swim 2 PRO goggles come with a cost-effective anti-fog spray based on baby shampoo that can be quickly applied before each swim.


I've had a chance to test out the Smart Swim 2 PRO in both the pool and the open water over the past couple of weeks, and they've provided some valuable features and insight for tracking my swims. In the pool, the screen inside the goggles dynamically changes based on where you are in your swim, thanks to accelerometer readings.

For example, during a swim it can show you elapsed time and distance during the majority of your swimming, but then briefly show your speed over the previous interval when it detects you've made a turn, and show your rest interval when it detects you've stopped swimming, all the while displaying a near real-time measure of your heart rate.

Any of these views can be customized to show different information such as stroke rate, pace over different distances, and even some technique scores such as your head pitch and roll to help you improve your stroke. The FORM platform pulls pieces of this data together to generate a FORM score as a measure of your overall efficiency, and that's another display option.


Rather than having to configure just one set of data to view within the goggles, you can save up to five different dashboards and cycle through them with a quick press of a button on the goggles. The dashboard options come pre-populated with sets focused on Fitness, Technique, Pace, and Intervals, but any of these can be edited to display your preferred metrics and a fifth dashboard can be created from scratch.

FORM offers a Premium subscription plan that comes with a one-month free trial and offers features such as over 1,500 guided workouts, automated HeadCoach technique analysis that can provide tips during and after your swims, and SwimStraight, a digital compass for open water swimming.


FORM has been gradually rolling out new features for its Premium plan to increase the value proposition, including HeadCoach Plans to offer customized workouts that evolve over time as you progress, and Smart Set to automatically display intervals and sets as you swim to help you keep track of repetitions during workouts. Launching in September will be HeadCoach Insights with personalized data-driven guidance following each workout that is tailored to your goals.

For open water swims, the goggles can show your stroke rate, elapsed time, and heart rate, and once they've collected enough pool data to understand your speed, they can estimate your open water pace and distance. You can also pair your goggles with an Apple Watch or Garmin fitness watch for more accurate GPS-based pace and distance data. One of the neatest open water features is the aforementioned SwimStraight digital compass that after just a quick calibration prior to your swim can help you stay on your intended course, reducing the frequency of physical sighting required during your swims.


Overall, the FORM Smart Swim 2 PRO goggles are targeted at triathletes and developing swimmers looking to improve their technique and stamina, and FORM's data shows that users who subscribed to the Premium plan and used guided workouts saw 1.4x greater gains in performance than those simply using the goggles in an unstructured manner. For swimmers without access to regular in-person coaching, FORM's platform fills the gap with a remarkably robust set of features to track swims, suggest workouts, and provide technique advice.

For serious swimmers doing coached workouts and race-focused training for the pool, FORM's goggles have a bit less to offer, though features like live heart rate display and Smart Set counting can help even those swimmers keep tabs on their workout performance. But the higher physical profile of the goggles necessitated by the electronics can cause some issues keeping them on when diving into the pool and the design offers a narrower field of view than some more traditional goggle options.

When you're done with a swim, you can optionally sync your data to the Apple Health platform, allowing you to track metrics in the Health app and workouts in the Fitness app. You can also sync directly to Strava, TrainingPeaks, and TriDot.

With up to 14 hours of battery life, I haven't needed to recharge the goggles yet, but doing so is simple with an included cable that magnetically attaches to charging pins on the goggles, though I wish the opposite end of the cable was USB-C rather than USB-A.

The Smart Swim 2 PRO goggles launch today in the United States and Canada through FORM's website and select retailers, with global availability coming early next month. They're priced at $329 in the United States, a $50 premium over the standard Smart Swim 2 model. After the one-month free trial, FORM's Premium subscription is priced at $15 per month or $119 per year, although you can get your first year for $99 if you add it at the time of goggle purchase.

Note: FORM provided MacRumors with the Smart Swim 2 PRO goggles for the purposes of this news coverage. No other compensation was received.
This article, "FORM Debuts Latest Smart Swim 2 PRO Goggles With Gorilla Glass 3" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Research firm LightShed partners says Apple should consider replacing Tim Cook as CEO, but the change is unlikely to occur any time soon.


In a note to clients seen by Bloomberg, analysts Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone say that "Apple now needs a product-focused CEO, not one centered on logistics."

Bloomberg notes that Apple shares have "badly lagged" behind rivals like Microsoft and Meta this year after losing ground in the race to deliver compelling artificial intelligence features. Apple shares have fallen 16% in 2025, compared with gains of 25% for Meta and 19% for Microsoft. The note added:

Missing on AI could fundamentally alter the company's long-term trajectory and ability to grow at all. AI will reshape industries across the global economy, and Apple risks becoming one of its casualties.

It is worth noting that this year's slump in Apple shares is a comparative blip in the company's long-term performance with Cook at the helm. Apple shares have gained over 1,400% since Cook started as CEO, compared to 430% for the S&P 500.

The comments come after Apple announced that Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams will step down from his position this month. He will be replaced by Sabih Khan.

Williams was once thought to be Cook's most likely successor. Now, senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus is believed to be the frontrunner. LightShed says "‌Tim Cook‌ was the right CEO at the time of his appointment and unquestionably has done a great job," but in the wake of Williams' departure, "it's time for more disruptive change, not less."

However, Cook is unlikely to step down anytime soon. In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that "there's no immediate successor ready to take the helm. There also haven't been signs internally that Cook is getting ready to leave or begin the process of grooming a replacement."

More significantly, "the board doesn't feel the need to make a change. Apple's directors are Cook loyalists like Arthur Levinson, Susan Wagner and Ronald Sugar." Gurman says:

There's no question Cook bears responsibility for Apple's current struggles. That includes the company's AI missteps, an aging product lineup, the erosion of its design-focused culture, a decade-long drought of breakthrough mainstream hardware, and its growing tensions with developers and regulators. But there's also no question that the board still sees him as the only person capable of turning things around.

Put simply: No crisis is big enough to shake the board's faith in Cook.

In fact, Cook's influence at Apple may grow. Gurman believes he could become Apple's chairman, in addition to his role as CEO:

Levinson, Apple's longtime chairman, has already surpassed the company's recommended board retirement age. So it wouldn't be surprising to see Cook eventually step into that role himself, as Iger, Dimon, Microsoft Corp.'s Satya Nadella and Cisco Systems Inc.'s Chuck Robbins have done at their companies. That would give Cook an even tighter grip on the iPhone maker.

Nevertheless, Apple apparently recognizes the need for change at the company. Senior executives such as services chief Eddy Cue have warned that Apple risks becoming the next BlackBerry or Nokia if it doesn't adapt quickly.


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Apple today said its store at the Westfield Hornsby shopping mall, in Hornsby, Australia, will be permanently closing in October.


In a statement shared with Australian tech news website EFTM (via Reddit), Apple said that it has decided not to renew its lease at Westfield Hornsby. Apple said all affected retail employees will be given the opportunity to work at Apple's nearby store at the Chatswood Chase shopping mall, in Chatswood, which is set to reopen in October.

Hornsby is a suburb of Sydney, on the Upper North Shore. Apple opened its store there in 2011.

Apple Chatswood Chase has been closed for renovations for many months. Apple said the store will be completely redesigned, and it will offer an Apple Pickup station for collecting online orders, and a dedicated area for Today at Apple sessions.

Apple did not provide a specific reason for the Hornsby store closure, but it is clearly consolidating its North Shore retail presence into the Chatswood Chase store.

Apple has six other stores in the Sydney area.

Apple Hornsby will be at least the fifth Apple Store location to permanently close in less than two years. Apple is closing a store in Bristol, England next month, and it closed its store in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook in April. Last year, the company permanently closed its Infinite Loop and Royal Hawaiian stores simultaneously.

On the other hand, Apple continues to open new stores in several countries, including the U.S., Spain, Sweden, Malaysia, South Korea, China, and others. In the U.S., Apple opened a new store in Miami earlier this year, and in the Los Angeles area last year. Apple is also planning to open a store in Downtown Detroit soon.

In Australia, Apple just relocated its store in Perth to a historic bank building.
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Update 7:57 p.m. ET: The issue has been solved, and Cloudflare’s status page says that all systems are operational.

If you’ve noticed some internet slowdowns or trouble reaching websites tonight, you’re not alone. Cloudflare has confirmed an issue affecting its popular 1.1.1.1 public DNS resolver, which many people rely on for fast and private internet browsing.

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The Camera app received some of the most noticeable design updates in iOS 26, with Apple simplifying the interface to make it easier to get to various controls. Most of what's new focuses on design, but there are a couple other notable changes.

Liquid Glass Design

Like all of the ‌iOS 26‌ apps, the Camera app has adopted the Liquid Glass look. Buttons are more rounded and "float" over the background of the app thanks to a new depth effect.


The area behind the camera shutter and control buttons is a touch more see-through than before, so you can see the areas outside of your image more clearly. There's also no bar behind the toggles to change focal length, so the interface looks a bit cleaner.

Two-Tab Layout

The navigation bar at the bottom of the Camera app has been overhauled in ‌iOS 26‌. Rather than the option to swipe between all of the photo and video modes, there are now just two main options that you see: Photo and Video.


While it's only the Photo and Video buttons that are visible, you can actually still swipe in the same way to get to the other options like Portrait, Panorama, Slo-Mo, Cinematic, and more.

For multi-lens cameras, the small buttons to change focal length are still in the same position, and the buttons to view the photo you just snapped or change to the front camera haven't changed location. The button to view photos is now round instead of square, in line with the Liquid Glass update, and Apple has shifted the controls down on the display.

The Photo and Video buttons are below the shutter button, when they used to be above. The shutter button itself no longer has a bright white ring around it, with Apple instead opting for a more subtle Liquid Glass ring. Bezel size for the top and bottom bars hasn't changed.

Pop Out Menus

Some of the controls that used to be located at the top of the Camera app are now tucked inside pop out menus. When you select a mode like Photo, you can then tap on the Photo button to get more options.


The menu has a Liquid Glass design and it offers large buttons for accessing Flash, Live Photo settings, Timer, Exposure, Styles, Aspect, and Night Mode. Tapping one gives you further options for that setting. So if you tap Exposure, you'll get a slider where you can quickly adjust the exposure setting before you take a photo.

In Video mode, you can tap to access Flash, Exposure, and Action. Most of the other modes also have at least one option that's accessed through this new menu. These menu options are also accessible by tapping on the menu icon at the top right of the display.


There are still some quick access buttons at the top of the Photos app, so you can swap to RAW mode, tap into Styles, or adjust flash and ‌Night Mode‌ settings without having to open the menu. Context-specific settings like the Macro mode toggle also still pop up in the same way as before when applicable.

There are toggles to see the Flash, Live Photo and Action Mode indicators in the Camera section of the Settings app.

Remote AirPods Shutter

The AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 can be used as a camera shutter in ‌iOS 26‌, so you can take a photo by pressing on the stem of the AirPods. To get this to work, connect your AirPods to your iPhone, open the Camera app, and then press and hold on the AirPods stem.

You can take a photo using this method, or continue to hold to start a video. When you're finished recording, press and hold again to stop the video.

Using this feature requires ‌iOS 26‌ and the new AirPods firmware that accompanies ‌iOS 26‌. Using the AirPods as a remote shutter button works with the Camera app and with third-party photo apps.

Cleaning Warning

If your camera lens is dirty, your ‌iPhone‌ can detect that it needs to be cleaned and will send you a notification letting you know you should clean it.

Developer APIs

Developers have access to a new Cinematic mode API in ‌iOS 26‌ that allows third-party apps to capture Cinematic mode video, just like the built-in Camera app.


Cinematic mode supports recording video with a shallow depth of field and automatic focus changes between subjects. Apple uses rack focus to quickly swap the focus from one subject to another, for a movie-like recording experience.

Apple is also providing developers with an Audio Mix API for adjusting sound after a video is captured. Third-party video recording apps can offer the same Audio Mix controls that are available in the Camera app. Options include In-Frame for reducing sounds and voices from sources outside of the frame, Studio for reducing background sounds and reverb, and Cinematic for putting voices into a front-facing track while leaving environmental noises in surround, similar to movie audio.

Mac Accessibility

With macOS 26 and ‌iOS 26‌, your Mac can connect to your ‌iPhone‌ to use your ‌iPhone‌'s Camera app as a magnifying glass. A Magnifier on Mac feature uses the ‌iPhone‌'s zoom capabilities, with the ‌iPhone‌'s video feed showing up on a connected Mac through Continuity Camera.

Apple showed a student with vision issues using an ‌iPhone‌ to zoom in on a blackboard in a college class, with the feed coming through to her Mac so she could view what was going on while also taking notes.

Read More

We have a complete iOS 26 roundup that covers all of the new features that are available in the update.
This article, "iOS 26 Camera App: New Features and Design Changes" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Just ahead of its next multi-year budget proposal, the European Commission is walking back plans to impose a digital tax on Big Tech companies, handing a win to both U.S. tech giants like Apple and Meta, and to President Trump.

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Native Union today debuted the Find It Card and the Find It Tag, two new products that work with Apple's Find My functionality.


Priced at $40, the Find It Card is meant to fit in a wallet, and it measures in at 1.7mm thick. For comparison's sake, a standard credit card is about 0.76mm, so Native Union's card is about two credit cards in thickness. There's a hole in the center where a metal keychain wire attaches, so it can also be attached to items like backpacks.

There is a rechargeable battery inside that can be charged using a MagSafe charger or a Qi-based charger, and the battery is able to last for up to six months.

The $20 Find It Tag is shaped like an AirTag, featuring a round body and a replaceable CR2032 battery that lasts for up to a year. The Find It Tag has an attached loop that can be added to a keychain or connected to other items for tracking purposes.


The Find It Card and Find It Tag are both compatible with the ‌Find My‌ app, and can be added to the Items tab to be tracked alongside Apple devices like the iPhone. All of the ‌Find My‌ features are included, and you can get notifications when an item is left behind or play a loud sound to locate an item that's close enough to detect over Bluetooth.

When an item is out of Bluetooth range, the Find It Card and Find It Tag can take advantage of the ‌Find My‌ Network, leveraging nearby Apple products to relay location information back to you.

The Find It Card and the Find It Tag can be purchased from the Native Union Website.
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During the second quarter of 2025, Apple saw a modest gain in iPhone shipments, holding its worldwide ground amid slowing demand in China. Here are IDC’s preliminary numbers for the quarter.

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The base model iPhone 17 will have an A19 chip after all, according to Apple analyst Jeff Pu.


A few months ago, Pu said the device would have an A18 chip, but he has now reversed course.

"We now expect the iPhone 17 model to be equipped with A19 (vs. earlier expectation of A18)," Pu said today, in an investor note with equity research firm GF Securities. He also expects the iPhone 17 Air to have an A19 chip, and he said the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will be powered by an A19 Pro chip.

Even still, there are some conflicting rumors about the chips for the iPhone 17 series.

Last week, a Weibo account known as Fixed Focus Digital said the iPhone 17 Air will be equipped with an A19 Pro chip, instead of an A19 chip. However, the account said the A19 Pro chip will have a 5-core GPU in the iPhone 17 Air, whereas he expects the chip to have a 6-core GPU in the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

At least rumors agree on the base model iPhone 17 having an A19 chip now.

Just two months to go until the iPhone 17 series is official.
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Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will come with a key component many years in the making: the C1 modem, which debuted in the iPhone 16e. The idea of a new modem may not sound very exciting, but already with this first version it’s become clear why Apple spent so long developing it. There are cost benefits to ditching Qualcomm, but also user-facing improvements. Here are two killer features Apple’s new C1 enables.

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Apple’s M5 iPad Pro is launching this fall, and thanks to the huge upgrades coming in iPadOS 26, it’s set to deliver something users have long asked for: new hardware that’s truly pushed to the limits by it software.

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