Apple is planting its own flag in the streaming wars with Apple TV+, its in-house streaming service that focuses almost entirely on original programming rather than an extensive library of existing TV shows or movies.

Though the service has been available for only about a year and and doesn’t yet have a lot of shows or films available, there’s a lot in the works. This is a list of all the Apple TV+ content we know of so far, along with details about prominent stars, directors, producers, and release dates.

Updated 11/14/21: Deadline reports that Apple Studios will finance and produce Kitbag, a historical epic about Napoleon Bonaparte starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Ridley Scott. An additional report says Apple has landed a two-part biographical documentary film about Oprah Winfrey.

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The iPhone 13, an Apple silicon iMac, iPadOS 15—those are just some of the products we could see from Apple in 2021. Which ones are we most excited see in the coming year? We talk about that and more in this episode of the Macworld Podcast.

This is episode 727 with Jason Cross, Karen Haslam, Michael Simon, and Roman Loyola.

Listen to episode 727

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It’s a sad thing that after so many years of offering screen sharing as a native feature in OS X and then macOS, the remote-access service remains unreliable. I have two Macs in my house on the same network—one a laptop, one a desktop—and it’s often the case that the two can see each other and mount each other’s drives, yet can’t initiate screen sharing.

With Big Sur, I recently noticed that when I was unable to connect from one machine, the one that wouldn’t share stated it was being controlled by my other Mac already. (Big Sur offers more visible and obvious signs of remote screen sharing, as one of the subtle security improvements Apple added.)

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Just two days after releasing iOS 14.3 with several significant new features like ProRAW photos and Fitness+, Apple started the beta testing process for iOS 14.4. Since this is a full point-release number than a minor one (e.g. iOS 14.3.1), we expect there to be some user-facing changes present.

Update 01/13/21: After apparently taking some time off for the holidays, beta releases are back. Beta 2 has been released for developers, and the public beta is expected to follow within a day or so.

What’s new in iOS 14.4

We don’t yet know the full extent of the new features we can expect from iOS 14.4. As the community of beta testers discovers significant changes, we’ll update this article with more information. 

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Apple’s ‘big announcement’ might not have been as exciting as a new iPhone, but its impact could be just as monumental. As part of its previously announced $100 million investment in the Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, Apple on Wednesday unveiled several ways it will be using its sizable investment.

First and foremost, Apple will be launching a “first-of-its-kind global innovation and learning hub” called the Propel Center (pictured above) in partnership with the Southern Company and “a range of community stakeholders.” Apple is contributing $25 million to the Atlanta campus, which “is designed to support the next generation of diverse leaders, providing innovative curricula, technology support, career opportunities, and fellowship programs.” The center will offer a wide range of classes, including a curriculum focused on music business developed by Vydia, and Apple “will help develop curricula and provide ongoing mentorship and learning support, along with offering internship opportunities.”

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In macOS 10.15 Catalina, Apple brought the first part of the existing iOS/iPadOS battery-charging optimization algorithm to Mac laptops with Thunderbolt 3 capability. Instead of always charging your laptop battery to 100 percent and then topping it off whenever it’s plugged in, the 10.15.5 update of Catalina added a Battery Health Management checkbox in the Energy Saver preference pane that throttles charging as a battery’s capacity reduces over time. (Many Mac models without Thunderbolt 3 can run Catalina and Big Sur, but they can’t use this improved charging routine.)

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I’ve been a fan of tiny Mac laptops for many years. From the 12-inch PowerBook G4 to the iBook to the 11-inch MacBook Air, I’ve always opted for the smallest laptop I could get my hands on.

And yet, with the discontinuation of the 12-inch MacBook, the smallest Apple goes is the 13-inch MacBook Air. Is the Air as small as a Mac laptop can get? I don’t think so. And that’s why I think Apple should add an additional laptop to its product line and bring back the 12-inch MacBook.

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In an exclusive interview with CBS This Morning anchor Gayle King, Apple CEO Tim Cook will speak out about removing the controversial social media app Parler from the App Store as well as accountability following the siege on the Capitol.

Update 1/13/21: Apple has announced a new education and innovation hub as part of its pledge to fight racial inequity.

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After waiting for it for four years, the Macalope has only had his beloved iPhone 12 mini for a few months and already he has to defend its very existence. Truly this is the most annoying of timelines.

Thanks for nothing, Large Hadron Collider.

“CIRP: iPhone 12 sales strong at launch, but iPhone 12 mini ‘likely disappointed Apple’”

First of all, SHUT UP, CIRP, YOU’RE NOT SELLING WELL.

There. That's taken care of.

Second, the Macalope knows what some of you are going to say. Oh, Macalope, why are you being so defensive? Oh, Macalope, why are you barricading yourself in your house with your iPhone 12 mini? Oh, Macalope, is that a moat around your house… filled with venomous snakes? Where could you have possibly gotten so many? That is a lot of snakes. And how did you train the sharks to swim through the snak—you know what? I don’t wanna know.

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If good things come in small packages, then the truism reigns supreme in the case of the Envoy Pro Elektron. It’s small, it’s good–by good I mean it’s rugged, fits easily in a shirt pocket, and delivers 1GBps reads and writes over SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps. (If you’re not up to speed to the latest USB naming conventions, that's USB 3.X Gen 2.) 

Design and specs 

The Envoy Pro Elektron is a small, silvery rectangle measuring 2-inches wide (the site says 2.1), by 3-inches long, by 0.5-inches thick. The bottom is heavily beveled on three sides with two rubberized strips inlaid cross-wise to keep it from sliding about. They’re surprisingly effective.

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I think we can all agree that there are times when the current reality could be a little...better.

For several years, Apple has talked up the potential of the augmented reality space, and more recently, there have been rumors that the company is getting ready to take those ambitions to the next level by releasing a product focused on augmented reality, virtual reality—or possibly both.

But Apple isn't one to take on projects casually: despite the multitude of calls for Apple to enter this market or that, the company tends to be very conservative in what projects actually make it through the extensive gauntlet to become shipping products. As Steve Jobs once said, "innovation is saying no to 1,000 things."

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We’ve heard rumors for about a year or so that Apple is on the verge of launching some products with Mini LED display technology. It could come to MacBooks, iPads, iMacs—really anything with a display, though it’s quite unlikely to ever end up in Apple Watch or iPhone (which use OLED displays).

What is a Mini LED display and what will it do for you? This short explanation may help you understand why this technology can be such a big step forward for Apple’s products.

A better backlit LCD

To understand Mini LED, you first have to know the basics of how a traditional backlit LCD works. That’s what we have in all our iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs today.

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Apple Arcade is here, and you can play some of the subscription service’s many games with select models of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers as well as Mfi (Made for iOS) controllers like the SteelSeries Nimbus+.

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Apple’s new Apple Arcade subscription-based gaming service is basically Apple’s way of helping customers sort through the chaff in the App Store, as the highly curated service features premium games that are untainted by in-app purchases and ads. If all goes well, it could elevate the perception of mobile gaming in general.

Got questions? We’ve got plenty of answers. 

Updated 01/08/21: Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon has been released.

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Relatively few people buy stand-alone scanners these days unless they work with printed documents, photos, or photographic negatives, and most financial, medical, and legal documents show up in digital form—but not all. That’s particularly true if you have kids in school and are tasked with endlessly filling out variations of the same form, by hand and often submitting as paper.

Apple has built in a scanner into Notes for a few releases, which lets you capture pages or images as documents, and then edit them directly (via the embedded Markup tool) or export them as PDF to fill in forms or make other modifications.

Based on reader email and online questions in forums, relatively few people seem aware of the power hidden away there. Like most iOS/iPadOS apps, Apple’s gradual improvements don’t overcome people’s memories of what didn’t work or what was omitted in earlier releases.

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