Macworld Like the iPhone, the Apple Watch is stuck in a (very successful) rut. With the notable exception of the Apple Watch Ultra, a niche variant for people who love massive watches, the watch we have today is nearly indistinguishable from the ones Apple sold back in 2018. ...   Mac Central

Macworld Apple has just released the third beta of iOS 26.2 as it eyes a likely December release. The update isn’t a huge one, but it does bring some interesting improvements, such as further tweaks to the Liquid Glass interface, offline lyrics in Apple Music, and enhancements to Apple Podcasts. ...   Mac Central

Macworld Tim Cook celebrated a birthday on November 1. He’s 65 years old. Cook has been Apple’s CEO for 14 years–the longest tenured Apple CEO–and has been with the company for 27 years. That’s a lot of years, which means people (in the media, at least) speculate about when Cook is going to step down from his position. ...   Mac Central

Macworld Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter doesn’t have much in the way of big announcements, but there are a few interesting notes worth bringing up. One of them is his informed assessment of Apple’s Fitness+ service, asked in the Q&A section, where Gurmen delivers information that leans more into his educated opinion than new scoops. ...   Mac Central

Macworld If you’re the type of power user who’s been keeping an eye on the next Mac Pro upgrade, it’s time to make other plans. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Pro is basically dead, as Apple has “largely written off” its desktop tower and believes its target audience is served by the Mac Studio. ...   Mac Central

Macworld While it looks like Apple may be done releasing new hardware in 2025, it’s still hard at work on new software. Still to come before the end of the year is iOS 26.2, and over the weekend, Apple dropped a surprise in the App Store for iPhone users. ...   Mac Central

Macworld Apple has suffered a major defeat in its long-term legal dispute with the medtech firm Masimo and has been ordered to pay $634 million in damages. As the Daily Journal reports, a federal jury agreed that the latter company’s pulse-oximetry patent was infringed by a feature in some Apple Watches. ...   Mac Central

Macworld 2026 Mac mini: In summary The current M4 and M4 Pro Mac mini were released in November 2024. A report states that Apple is planning an M5 update in 2026. No design changes are expected. With its November 2024 release, Apple drastically changed the Mac mini, reducing its overall size. The smallest Mac you could buy actually got even smaller. ...   Mac Central

Macworld The iPhone’s distinctly mixed year continues, with a report on social media this week claiming that the iPhone 16e is in the same poor-sales category as the divisive iPhone Air. ...   Mac Central

Macworld We really shouldn’t be surprised, but Apple’s iPhone Pocket is a hot commodity. Shortly after it went on sale earlier today, it appears to be completely sold out.  A check of the U.S. website at 8:15 am ET showed the long strap, which costs $230, sold out for delivery and unavailable for store pickup in all three colors. ...   Mac Central

AudioThing has released B00GA, a studio and live instrument made in collaboration with Hainbach, designed to create experimental rhythms and tonal textures. Inspired by a rare piece of lab equipment, the Hewlett-Packard Word Generator 8006A, it offers a different way to sequence clicks, pulses, and noise. ...   KVR Audio

BlauKraut Engineering has updated Charlatan, the free synth plugin for Windows and Linux, to v3.3.2. Changes: Added 'Constant' modulation source. Persist MSEG/XForm editor grid settings. Support mouse wheel adjustment in Osc harmonics editor. Support zoom via mouse wheel in MSEG editor. BUGFIX: Silence Delay/Reverb FX left-over signal after re-enabling. Minor improvements and fixes. Read More   KVR Audio

Atrium's User Interface Convex Audio has announced the release of Atrium, an 'acoustic space simulation' VST3 Plugin for Windows. Convex Audio says Atrium is not simply another reverb; it is an acoustic space simulation. With Atrium, you don't just set the decay time or use ominous parameters to adjust the sound. Instead, you create the room. ...   KVR Audio

Audio Brewers has introduced ab Encoder MS, a tool designed to streamline the conversion of MS and Double MS recordings into First-Order Ambisonics (1OA). The plugin encodes Mid-Side (MS) and Double Mid-Side (DMS) signals directly into Ambisonics, eliminating the need for intermediate stereo decoding and preserving the spatial characteristics of the original recording. ...   KVR Audio

Venomode has released Mesa and Mesa Lite, clipper plugins for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Mesa Mesa is a multi-mode clipper plugin which offers multiple ways to control peaks and increase loudness. The 3 clipping modes and 2 enhancers can be used for everything from simple peak taming, to adding weight and volume to tracks. ...   KVR Audio

Soniccouture has announced the latest in their Polarity series of instruments exploring granular synthesis with different artists and sound designers. Polarity | Modular is a dual-layer granular engine loaded with 250 custom waveforms crafted by UK synthesis and DIN label boss Ian Boddy, utilizing his extensive collection of modular gear, including a Roland System 100M, Serge Modular, Buchla ...   KVR Audio

Bela D Media has released Vocal Tools Poetic for Kontakt. In response to a recent YouTube poll where users expressed a desire for another lyrical vocal product following the launch of Vocal Tools Spoken, Bela D Media has issued the following statement: We are happy to introduce Vocal Tools Poetic. ...   KVR Audio

Algoriffix has updated Transkr V2, the audio-to-MIDI converter, to version 2.9.2 adding chord matching and in-app purchases to its rich set of features. Version 2.9.2 allows you to enter custom chords and have them automatically matched and time-aligned with the audio. ...   KVR Audio

discoDSP has announced Bliss 3.5, a major update to its sampling workstation, delivering enhanced workflow capabilities, performance improvements, and cross-platform refinements. Macro Presets System The new macro preset system transforms workflow efficiency with comprehensive save/load functionality for all 8 macro configurations. ...   KVR Audio

MuTools has updated MuLab App & Plugin to 10.1.19. Highlights: Improved Plugin Support & Plugin Manager. Improved Audio Sequences. Demo version now allows saving. Many more enhancements, see all detail here: MuLab Change Log. Read More   KVR Audio