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Good morrrrnnning! (Said in the style of Tim Cook’s presentation opener.) I’m back from Apple’s big Cupertino event with a fun video recap of the biggest news, plus my take on what’s an iPad versus what’s a MacBook. Also, will Apple have to say goodbye to its Lightning port? Will passwords be a thing of the past? Can TikTok really help you fight its algorithm? All these questions answered…sort of! Let’s do it!
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CREDIT: JOANNA STERN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Step 1: Watch my video recap of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. I sat through the entire two-hour presentation on Apple’s campus and picked my eight top products and features. (Did I miss something? Respond to this email!)
Step 2: Go back to No. 1 on the list: the MacBook Air and its new M2 chip. It’s no surprise that I made this No. 1. The Air has long been one of my top laptop picks, and now it looks even better. It has a new design (bye bye, wedge shape) and a slightly larger 13.6-inch screen (bye bye, 13.3 inches) and welcomes back the MagSafe charger (no bye bye, USB-C ports. It still has two.)
I haven’t yet had a chance to review it since it doesn’t go on sale until July, but from my brief time checking it out in Cupertino, Calif., it looks like a winner. Except—I’m sure you can anticipate one of my complaints—no touch screen.
Allow me to visit my Mac review archives:
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"Instead of embracing touch screens on its laptops, Apple has decided to expand the trackpad to the size and shape of Kansas."
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- Me in 2018
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“You know what would solve a lot of app compatibility issues? A touch screen.”
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- Me in 2020
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“Competing Windows all-in-ones generally have touch screens, and I find tapping to be a real shortcut in some situations, even though I mainly still use a mouse.”
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- Me in 2021
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“While nearly every Windows laptop and Chromebook has a touch screen, Macs continue to have only touchpads—albeit ones the size of Olympic swimming pools.”
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- Me in 2021 AGAIN
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I bring this all up now not because I like to review my prose from time to time, but because Apple gave me even more reason to ask “Where’s the touchscreen!?” this week.
Take the forthcoming MacOS Ventura, which has a new multitasking feature called Stage Manager. It automatically organizes your apps and windows along the left side of the screen. In demos the company showed how you can drag and drop files into these different apps and quickly switch between tasks.
Here’s the thing, though: The forthcoming iPadOS 16 also has Stage Manager—or at least iPads that have the M1 chip will get the feature. And it works very similarly to the Mac version, except you can use your fingers to move items around.
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Center Stage on iPadOS 16 vs. Center Stage on MacOS Ventura. CREDIT: APPLE
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There's even more criss-crossing of the two operating systems. iPadOS 16 now includes full external monitor support, and MacOS Ventura has a revamped settings design that looks like iOS and iPadOS.
So again, as MacOS becomes more touch-friendly and more iPad-like, I ask: Why no touch screen on the new Air? Is it so you buy an iPad Pro instead? Or in addition to? Or is it so Apple has a meaningful way to differentiate its Macs and iPads? Oh, sorry, I mean the touch-screen computers and the non-touch-screen computers!
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EU Pulls the Plug 🔌
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The European Union agreed to a deal that would make USB-C chargers the standard charging port. Aimed at reducing electronic waste and limiting the number of cables consumers have to carry, the legislation bans smartphones, tablets and other similarly sized electronics without USB-C charging ports from being sold in the EU. It’s a big ruh-roh for Apple, which still uses its Lightning ports on iPhones and other select gadgets. If the agreement is approved by the EU Parliament later this year (as expected), the company would have until fall 2024 to make the changes. Seems like Apple might just have to socket up. Sorry, not sorry.
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Uber Eats Anywhere
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Fact: New York bagels are better than California bagels. Other fact: You can only get New York bagels in New York. Not anymore! Uber Eats launched its nationwide shipping feature this week, letting customers get food delivered from select vendors in New York, Miami and Los Angeles to almost anywhere in the country. Sorry, Hawaii and Alaska. Just don’t expect it to be hot and ready, though. The food is usually flash-frozen, and typically takes four to five business days to arrive via FedEx, an Uber Eats spokesperson said. Shipping is free—for now.
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Passwords B Gone
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So much momentum around the end of passwords this week! Apple announced that its forthcoming iOS 16, MacOS and iPadOS all support passkeys, a password-free option that’s based on the FIDO industry standard. And LastPass launched its own passwordless feature that lets users log in to their password manager via the LastPass Authenticator app. It’s all the dream: cumbersome strings of letters and numbers replaced with another form of authentication (a fingerprint, face scan, etc.). While we wait for this brave new world, you should make sure your password-hygiene skills are up to date. My colleague, Cordilia James, wrote about the safest ways to store your codes here.
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You know the drill: You open the TikTok app thinking you’ll just swipe through a handful of quick videos. No more than five minutes tops. Thirty minutes later you’re deep into how one woman covered her toilet in chia seeds. Ah yes, the TikTok algorithm. It knows you better than you may know yourself, and it’s designed to keep you hooked. (Check out this investigation into the algorithm that I worked on last year with a bunch of colleagues.)
To curb TikTok addiction, the app is rolling out new features in the coming weeks to help users manage their screen time, including one that lets users schedule regular breaks.
To control how much time you spend on TikTok in a single, uninterrupted sitting, tap Profile in the bottom right corner. Then tap the three lines in the upper right. Then open Settings and privacy > Digital Wellbeing > Screen time breaks. You can then set it to remind you to take a break after a certain amount of time:
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CREDIT: JOANNA STERN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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The app also offers daily screen-time limits, which lets users decide how long they want to spend on the app each day, be it 40, 60, 90, or 120 minutes.
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PHOTO: JOHN F. KELLY
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John F. Kelly from Lakewood, Wash.
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The whole thing was a standout feature—revolutionary.
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I loved it and really wanted it to work, but the handwriting transcription was a major fail. And, of course, then came the Palm Pilot, which nailed the handwriting conversion, so it was back into the box for the Newton. That’s where it’s been for the past 28 years or so.
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It still works just like it did (or didn’t!), except that now I notice that the screen is so dim as to be barely usable, especially compared to what we have today with smartphones such as my iPhone 13 Pro.
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📷 Got an idea for a throwback? Reply to this email with a photo of your old tech and tell us why you loved—or hated—it. 📷
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Reply to this email and share your feedback and suggestions.
User-submitted content has been edited for clarity and length. This week’s newsletter was curated and written by Joanna Stern and Cordilia James in New York.
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