If you want to upgrade to a premium Apple fitness tracker ahead of the summer months but don’t want to spend $400 on the latest Apple Watch Series 8 or Apple Watch Ultra, you can get in on the Apple Watch ecosystem for less today with a one-day refurb sale on the Apple Watch Series 6 at Woot. With various colors and configurations on sale and prices starting at just $170, you can get a recent Apple Watch model with support for upcoming WatchOS 10 software for less than half the price of the latest model.
Though a couple of years old, the Apple Watch Series 6 still boasts impressive features like an always-on display, water-resistance up to 50 meters and an 18-hour battery life. The Series also offers advanced health features like accurate heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, ECG capabilities and SpO2 tracking. At today’s price, it’s possibly a better starter smartwatch pick than the Apple Watch SE, which strips out some of the advanced health tracking features in order to come in at a low price.
You can use the Apple Watch to track your workouts and daily activity, see your notifications, take calls on your wrist and customize your watch’s look with different watch faces and bands. It runs the current WatchOS 9 software and will get the just-announced WatchOS 10 software when it releases this fall meaning you’re getting a smartwatch that will be supported into the future.
Note that the Apple Watch deals on offer at Woot will have a little wear and tear, such as minor scratches, dents or dings, but they are in full working condition with batteries guaranteed to function at 85% capacity.
Samsung plans to hold its next Galaxy Unpacked event in its home country for the first time next month, the Korean electronics giant announced late Tuesday.
Samsung’s 27th Unpacked launch event will be held in Seoul in late July, the company said in a statement that indicated it would unveil its next generation of foldable devices. In the past, Samsung has usually chosen to unveil its new lineup of devices in cities such as New York and Barcelona.
Foldable phones have garnered a lot of attention in recent years, but they still haven’t hit the breakout moment when they graduate from being a novelty device. But the space appears to be picking up steam, with Google announcing its first foldable phone, called the Pixel Fold, and Motorola unveiling the new Razr Plus and Razr.
“The foldable category embodies Samsung’s philosophy of delivering breakthrough innovation that pushes boundaries to reshape the future of mobile experiences,” TM Roh, the head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung, said in a statement.
With the release last year of the Galaxy Z Flip 4, Samsung’s current flagship foldable, the company took a step in the right direction in its quest to win over consumers’ interest and wallets, CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco wrote earlier this month.
She praised the device’s fine-tuned the phone’s design, improved nighttime photography and longer battery life. But she still has a wishlist of improvement suggestions she thinks will make Samsung’s foldable more attractive.
Eadicicco suggests the Galaxy Z Flip 5 needs a bigger cover screen and could add more functionality to Flex Mode, which taps into the phone’s ability to bend and fold in different ways.
Samsung didn’t announce a specific date for the event or tease specific products expected to be released, but perhaps a new Galaxy Z Flip will be unveiled that taps these suggestions. You can expect CNET to be on hand for the event with all the details and commentary.
If you’re an iPhone owner, you’re likely excited about all the changes coming with iOS 17. Apple previewed the latest software update at its WWDC event Monday. It’ll be available to download this fall, but not all iPhone users will have access. As with all of the major Apple software updates, several iPhones are getting left behind, including the iPhone X.
If you’re not sure which iPhone you’ve got, a quick check in your settings can show you. Open your Settings app and tap General > About. Next to Model Name, you’ll see which iPhone you have.
What if your iPhone isn’t on the compatibility list?
If your iPhone isn’t listed above, it won’t support iOS 17 and you won’t get a notification to download the newest software. For instance, if you have an iPhone X or older, the latest software you’ll ever be able to use on that phone is iOS 16.
The best phones under $500 include so many features that you want to see in an excellent phone, with sacrifices that you might not even notice. These are phones that include displays with high refresh rates, modern chips, good cameras and 5G. They even get several years of software and security updates.
These phones do make cuts that justify why they’re cheaper than phones that cost more than $500, but those cuts are increasingly in areas that might not raise any particular flag when you just want a reliable device. Apple’s iPhone SE along with Google’s Pixel 6A and 7A phones, for instance, have a smaller screen, but all run on newer processors and software. Samsung’s Galaxy A series of phones often look just like the Galaxy S line, but instead run on a less powerful processor. And the Moto G Stylus 5G takes nice photos, provides a roomy 256GB of space and throws in a stylus, but Motorola doesn’t provide software support for as long as its competitors.
Photography and video in particular are areas where the phones in this price bracket take a noticeable hit in comparison to their more expensive counterparts. However, photo-processing software should help pick up some of the slack. For instance, while the iPhone SE has a single 12-megapixel camera that doesn’t support night photography, its A15 Bionic chip does allow for Apple’s Deep Fusion processing. It’s a similar situation for the Pixel 6A, which uses a 12-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, yet can enhance those photos with processing powered by the phone’s Tensor chip. However the new Pixel 7A offers a 64-megapixel main camera, which some might consider an upgrade from the Pixel 7’s 50-megapixel main camera.
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You can see the pros and cons of each of these phones below, with more details available in our full reviews.
Watch this: Pixel 7A Review: A Step Forward for Google’s Budget Phone
07:15
What is the best phone under $500?
Google’s $499 Pixel 7A compares so closely to the $599 Pixel 7, that it’s now tough to recommend the more expensive option. The Pixel 7A includes the same Tensor G2 processor that powers Google’s Pixel-exclusive features, gets wireless charging, a 90Hz refresh rate and a 64-megapixel main camera paired up with a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera. My colleague Lisa Eadicicco said that the Pixel 7A does miss out on the Pixel 7’s battery share feature, the camera’s Action Pan mode and slightly faster charging, but none of those features feel like a major omission.
And if you want to save even more money, last year’s Pixel 6A has received a permanent price drop to $349 and still has a lot to offer. It runs on the Tensor chip, includes many of the same Pixel features like Real Tone for photography and Hold for Me for phone calls and takes crisp and colorful photos for a phone of its price. This is especially true when it gets discounted to $299, which it often is, making it the best phone for under $300 as long as it’s on sale.
Google’s budget phone took a leap forward in 2023 with the Pixel 7A, which offers many of the same benefits as the Pixel 7 but at a cheaper price. Like the Pixel 7, the Pixel 7A runs on Google’s Tensor G2 processor, meaning it has many of the same photo editing and language translation features as its pricier sibling. The Pixel 7A’s 64-megapixel camera also takes excellent photos that rival the Pixel 7’s in quality.
While we still like the Pixel 7, the Pixel 7A’s lower price makes it a better deal for most people. Only opt for the Pixel 7 if you really want a slightly larger screen and are willing to pay the extra $100 for it. Otherwise, the main differences between the Pixel 7 and 7A come down to the former’s more durable build, slightly faster charging and its ability to wirelessly charge compatible accessories. The Pixel 7 also has a larger camera sensor that’s more sensitive to light, according to Google, but CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco didn’t notice much of a difference.
The Pixel 6A is still available, and at its permanently discounted price of $349, it still has a lot to offer. CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco said in her Pixel 6A review that the phone includes many of the Pixel 6’s best features, and that remains the case even as the Pixel 7A hits the market at $499.
The phone is slightly smaller than the Pixel 6, featuring a 6.1-inch OLED display and a refresh rate of 60Hz. And while it has a 12.2-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, photos taken look quite good using Google’s photo processing software. Pictures can benefit from its Real Tone skin tone feature, Face Unblur, Night Sight for darker photography and the Magic Eraser for removing unwanted elements from a photo.
The Samsung Galaxy A53 includes many of the best features seen in the Galaxy S22 line, with a few tradeoffs to hit that lower price. The phone includes a 6.5-inch AMOLED screen with a 2,400×1,080-pixel resolution, 5G support and a long-lasting 5,000-mAh battery. The phone also comes with a 64-megapixel main camera, 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, 5-megapixel macro camera and 5-megapixel depth camera.
But a particular high point for this phone is Samsung’s pledge to provide four years of software support, in addition to shipping with Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI 4.1. However, Samsung just announced a new version of this phone, called the Galaxy A54 5G, which we’re looking forward to testing soon.
The $429 iPhone SE is a mix of an older design with the latest smartphone features, including Apple’s A15 Bionic chip and 5G support. It’s also one of the few phones on the market that includes a smaller, 4.7-inch screen.
It’s that throwback design, which continues the general shape that Apple has used since 2014, that could be what you love or dislike most about this phone. If you want a larger iPhone in this price range, you can also consider the iPhone 11, and get a bigger screen and Face ID. But that phone does not include 5G connectivity.
The phone also only includes one 12-megapixel main camera, which does not support night mode. Most other phones in this roundup include multiple cameras and features like night mode, making the omission noticeable. However, photos make up for this by including the Deep Fusion photo-processing technique to enhance medium-to-low light photos, and Smart HDR4 processing for improving color and contrast. CNET Managing Editor Patrick Holland did find that video shot in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second is particularly good on the iPhone SE, but it will not include the Cinematic Mode seen on the iPhone 13.
The $500 Moto G Stylus 5G (2022) is one of the best stylus-equipped phones you can get right now, especially for the price. You get Android 12, 5G connectivity, a large 6.8-inch screen and a spacious 256GB of storage. Unfortunately, the phone is only promised one software update and three years of security updates, which is a much shorter timeline than the four years promised by Samsung for the Galaxy A53.
Yet if you want a stylus-equipped phone, the next step-up option is the substantially more expensive Galaxy S22 Ultra at $1,200.
With the launch of the iPhone 14 series, Apple discontinued the $500 iPhone 11, but it’s still widely available. It might be a few generations old, but this phone is still more than capable, handling gaming well and equipped with two superb rear cameras. It is missing 5G support, which is increasingly improving as wireless carriers invest in the network, but the phone will work fine on LTE and Wi-Fi. The iPhone 11 also does not support MagSafe accessories, which were introduced alongside the iPhone 12.
Just note that some places may be selling refurbished versions of the phone since Apple itself is no longer selling new iPhone 11 models. Best Buy does not carry any unlocked models, so you’ll have to sign up for a service plan through either AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint.
The Nothing Phone 1 is technically available in the US for $299, but only through a beta program that is selling an international model with limited US carrier compatibility. While the company does plan to officially launch a future phone for the North American market, this phone is still worth a look in countries where it’s available. It offers a striking design and decent specs for the money, even at its higher 399 UK price (which converts to roughly AU$700).
The Nothing Phone 1 is adorned with LED strips on the back, each of which is called a “glyph,” that light up for alerts and notifications. That design is accompanied by two 50-megapixel cameras: a wide angle and an ultrawide. Around the front is a 6.55-inch 120Hz display with a 2,400-by-1,080-pixel resolution and a 16-megapixel selfie camera. The phone runs on a Snapdragon 778G Plus chip, with models that start with 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage.
All that amounts to a phone that compares well within the price range, especially given its camera quality and looks.
How we test phones
Every phone on this list has been thoroughly tested by CNET’s expert reviews team. We actually use the phone, test the features, play games and take photos. We assess any marketing promises that a company makes about its phones. And if we find something we don’t like, be it battery life or build quality, we tell you all about it.
We examine every aspect of a phone during testing:
Display
Design and feel
Processor performance
Battery life
Camera quality
Features
We test all of a phone’s cameras (both front and back) in a variety of conditions: from outdoors under sunlight to dimmer indoor locales and night time scenes (for any available night modes). We also compare our findings against similarly priced models. We have a series of real world battery tests to see how long a phone lasts under everyday use.
We take into account additional phone features like 5G, fingerprint and face readers, styluses, fast charging, foldable displays and other useful extras. And we, of course, weigh all of our experiences and testing against the price so you know whether a phone represents good value or not.
Not disclosed, but Apple claims it will last 1 hour longer than iPhone XR
Fingerprint sensor
In-display
Side
Under display
Home button
In-display
None (Face ID)
Connector
USB-C
USB-C
USB C
Lightning
USB-C
Lightning
Headphone jack
None
Yes
None
None
None
No
Special features
5G-enabled; IP67 rating; supports 25W wired fast charging, Samsung Pay
5G-enabled; OIS for main camera; NFC for Google Pay;
5G-enabled, 18W fast charging, Wi-Fi 6E, security updates for 5 years, Android OS updates for 3 years, dual SIM, IP67 water resistance
5G-enabled; supports 25W wired fast charging; Water resistant (IP67); dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM); wireless charging
5G, IP53, Three years of Android updates, Dual Sim, 120Hz adaptive refresh rate
Water resistant (IP68); dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM); wireless charging
Price off-contract (USD)
$450
$500
$449
$399 (64GB), $449 (128GB), $549 (256GB)
N/A
$499
Price (GBP)
399
NA but converts to 405
399
419 (64GB), 469 (128GB), 569 (256GB)
399
489
Price (AUD)
AU$699
NA but converts to AU$715
A$749
AU$749 (64GB), AU$829 (128GB), AU$999 (256GB)
N/A
AU$849
Phones under $500 FAQs
Are cheaper phones worth it?
For many people, a phone that costs less than $500 will likely have everything you need for communication, photography and entertainment. In some cases, the phones even provide some of the latest features seen on higher-end phones like smooth 120Hz refresh rates and multiple cameras.
However, you should be aware of — and OK with — the limitations a phone may have compared to its more expensive counterparts. For instance, if you want an iPhone with a bigger screen than the iPhone SE and iPhone 11’s screens, your next best option is the $899 iPhone 14 Plus. That’s far outside the $500 price range, but you also get additional benefits like an improved camera.
On the other hand, if you want a phone with a bigger screen and if running Android is fine, you’ll have plenty of options that are under $500.
Can you get a good camera on a cheaper phone?
Yes, you can find several cheaper phones that take great photos, whether it’s through the camera available on the device, photo processing software on the phone or — is most often the case — a combination of both.
Apple’s iPhone SE includes the A15 Bionic chip, which supports Smart HDR4 processing and Apple’s Deep Fusion processing. Smart HDR4 helps with improving color and contrast, while the Deep Fusion processing helps with medium- to low-light environments. CNET Managing Editor Patrick Holland put together a sampling of photos and videos taken on the phone during his review, which can be watched on the CNET Highlights YouTube channel. However, the iPhone SE also has only one 12-megapixel camera, and that camera does not support night photography.
Over on the Android side, the Google Pixel 6A includes the company’s Tensor chip, which brings photography features like Real Tone for capturing more accurate skin tones, Face Unblur for fixing a person’s face and Magic Eraser for removing unwanted objects. But it has a 12-megapixel main camera paired up with a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, which takes good photos but is a clear step down from the 50-megapixel main camera seen on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7.
Samsung’s Galaxy A53 is an interesting case: Iit has a main 64-megapixel camera alongside a 12-megapixel ultrawide, 5-megapixel macro camera and 5-megapixel depth camera. While that’s more megapixels than the 50-megapixel main camera on the Galaxy S22, the image detail is a step down with the S22 able to produce photos with better contrast and sharpness.
What makes these phones cheaper?
Each company takes a different approach toward cheaper phones.
The iPhone SE, for example, has a recent Apple processor packed inside an otherwise dated phone design. Google’s Pixel 6A likewise includes the new Tensor processor, but uses an older 12.2-megapixel main camera instead of the 50-megapixel main camera found on the $599 Pixel 6.
Samsung’s Galaxy A53 takes the opposite approach. It includes a processor that’s slower than the Galaxy S22’s but includes other modern features like a screen with a high refresh rate.
Diablo 4, the latest installment of the popular dungeon crawler, launched on Tuesday, and according to developer Blizzard Entertainment, it’s already the company’s fastest-selling game.
Diablo 4 puts players back into the bleak world of Sanctuary, where forces from heaven and hell manipulate humans to do their bidding. The Mother of Sanctuary, Lilith, has returned and intends to spread her evil across the world. It’s up to the players to take on her forces and stop her before it’s too late.
When did Diablo 4 come out?
The game came on Tuesday, June 6. Those who preordered the Deluxe or Ultimate edition of the game had early access to the game starting on June 1.
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 280
Storage: Solid-state drive with 90GB available space
Publisher Blizzard recommends the following specs:
Operating system: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K or AMD R3-1300X
Memory: 16GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 470
Storage: SSD with 90GB available space
What classes are available in Diablo 4?
There are five classes available in Diablo 4: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Druid and Necromancer.
What’s the story in Diablo 4?
Diablo 4 is the newest entry in the legendary dungeon-crawling action RPG. Players will fight against the horde of monsters controlled by Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto, one of the Great Evils, and called the “mother” of Sanctuary, the world in which the Diablo series takes place.
Will Diablo 4 have microtransactions?
Yes it will, although Blizzard says they will only be used for cosmetic purposes.
Are there plans for a Diablo 4 expansions?
Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson said in an interview with Kinda Funny Games from last week that his team is working on two expansions for the game. He didn’t provide a timeframe on when the first expansion would be released.
How is it?
Diablo 4 is bigger and darker than previous games, which is a much-needed upgrade to its dungeon-crawler formula.
Sanctuary is split into large regions that are then divided into smaller zones. Zones generally have open areas filled with monsters, as well as different towns and encampments where players can interact with merchants or find side quests.
Quests in the game are abundant and will send you to the far reaches of Sanctuary. Some will require killing a number of enemies in the wild, while others are focused on taking down bosses found in dungeons.
Dungeons are scattered throughout the regions, some of which take a few minutes to clear, while others may take up to 15 minutes or more. There are also landmarks to discover and overworld events that will send waves of gruesome enemies your way.
Diablo 4 isn’t just bigger, it also has a far darker feel than previous games in the series. Time and time again, I was creeped out by the events unfolding in the game. Blizzard pushed the envelope in villainy by introducing Lilith, who entices individuals to let their inner demon out and do horrible things. The visuals in Diablo 4 help elevate the darker tone with cinematic sequences zooming in on the characters to give a close-up view of the horror rather than the distant viewpoint used throughout the game.
As remarkable as Diablo 4 is, the review build I experienced did have some issues that could frustrate players. I used the Necromancer during my time playing. It was great to have a gang of skeletons at my beck and call, but they tended to attack targets that posed no harm, like a destructible wall, while ignoring the boss I was fighting. Targeting itself can be a little cumbersome, especially from a distance, as auto-targeting doesn’t always pick the ideal enemy to attack. Some of my minions would also just stand there instead of attacking, but this was a rare occurrence.
Arguably the most frustrating aspect of playing the game was the lack of a basic attack button. For some reason, Blizzard felt it would be better to have players use a skill as the default attack. This means if I have a fancy sword or a giant scythe — I am playing a Necromancer after all — the default attack would be whatever initial skill I picked, instead of me swinging my weapon that I have equipped. It made having a cool weapon somewhat useless, which is almost sacrilegious for a game like Diablo, where the ultimate goal is to have the best-equipped character.
Diablo 4 does many things right to elevate the series. It offers a lot of content to keep players occupied for long periods of time, but it doesn’t do so without meaning. The game also returns to the dark tone of the original game but amplifies it for the modern audience.
Apple’s WWDC keynote on Monday put a spotlight on video games with a new gaming mode and a special guest.
Making a surprise appearance at the event was famed developer Hideo Kojima. He expressed his appreciation for Mac computers and revealed that his game Death Stranding: Director’s Cut will come to Macs later this year. Kojima also said his studio is working on future titles that will come to Apple’s platform.
Watch this: Apple Upgrades the Mac Pro with Silicon
02:45
Game mode is a feature coming to MacOS 14 Sonoma, the latest operating system for the company’s desktops and MacBooks. The new mode prioritizes using CPU and GPU cycles while gaming to provide a smoother experience and more consistent frame rates. There’s also lower controller and speaker latency by doubling the Bluetooth sampling rate, which translates to less input and audio lag. There will also be a new toolkit for developers allowing them to easily port over their games to Mac.
WWDC is Apple’s annual event to show off its new software, including iOS, iPadOS and WatchOS. The company also showed off its first mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro.
Apple’s iOS 17 software update, announced Monday, will add some handy features to Messages. With iOS 17, you’ll be able to turn pictures into stickers, transcribe voice memos, keep your friends and family notified on your way home, and more.
News about the iOS 17 Messages update came during the keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Apple traditionally uses the annual event to give developers a preview of updates to its desktop and mobile software, and sometimes it introduces new hardware too. On Monday, the company unveiled its first mixed reality headset, the Vision Pro.
The update to Messages will be part of iOS 17, which will arrive this fall. With the new features, people will be able to take their photos and turn them into stickers they use in text conversations, alongside standard emoji, which can also be used as stickers. People can customize their stickers with effects — like shiny, puffy, comic and outline — and keep them in a new drawer in the keyboard for streamlined access, Apple said in a press release. Stickers will be available systemwide, including in third-party apps.
To make a photo into a sticker, you’ll touch and hold an object in a photo. Then you can style your object with various effects, outline it or create animated Live Stickers with Live Photos. To use the sticker in Messages, you’ll add them in the bubble from the Tapback menu.
Watch this: Apple Reveals iOS 17
16:43
Search in Messages, Check In and more
Also coming is a refined search feature. People will be able to apply additional filters to their Messages search to more quickly find the exact conversation they’re looking for. Plus, when you’ve received lots of texts in a group chat, you’ll be able to use the catch-up arrow to locate where the conversation left off last.
iOS 17 Messages will also transcribe voice memos you receive, if you don’t have the time to listen to them. Apple also announced a new feature that will let you keep track of your friends by viewing their location in your text conversation.
Apple’s Check In feature through iOS 17.
Screenshot by CNET
Another new location sharing feature is Check In. If you want to keep a friend or family member updated on your journey home, for example, you’ll be able to use Check In, which notifies the person of your whereabouts and lets them know if you’re having trouble getting home. “If they are not making progress toward their destination, useful information will be temporarily shared with the selected contact, such as the device’s location, battery level, and cell service status,” Apple said in the press release. Check In will be end-to-end encrypted, so only you and the person you’re sharing this information with is privy to your location.
The iOS 17 updates don’t stop at Messages. Apple also introduced Live Voicemail, which will give people the ability to see the message a person is leaving you as it is being recorded. This could help with deciphering between important calls that unknown numbers leave and spam.
The iOS 17 update for FaceTime includes audio and video messages, so people can leave their friends and families a FaceTime voicemail of sorts.
Also, if people want to share a contact with one another, they can use the new feature NameDrop. By bringing two iPhones or one iPhone and one Apple Watch close together, contact information can be transferred from one device to the next.
Apple has always made it easy to play and share music across its devices, and the next versions of the company’s operating systems for iPhones, iPads and Mac computers will expand those features for cars, hotels and personal connections.
The mixed-reality Vision Pro headset was the major highlight of Apple’s WWDC 2023 event Monday, but the two-hour show was packed with tons of improvements and new features across the Apple ecosystem. A new AirDrop feature will let iOS users easily kick off shared listening experiences (as well as easily share contact info), and AirPlay and CarPlay will both make it easier for Apple users to stream and share music when traveling.
New AirDrop features in iOS 17 will let you share music easily
An update to iOS for iPhones will soon add a new phone gesture for launching an AirDrop, Apple’s Bluetooth-based system for secure personal sharing. Now users will only need to “bump” their devices by bringing them close together to initiate an AirDrop and share contact info or other files.
The new AirDrop functionality will make it easier for Apple users to kick off shared experiences as well. Bumping devices will also enable starting SharePlay, which lets two people listen to the same music or watch the same movie simultaneously.
At the WWDC event, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi gave the example of two people running together who bump their phones to start listening to the same music at the same time. Similarly, two friends at a coffee shop could bump phones to watch the same video stream together.
CarPlay will make it easier to share music on road trips
Apple also showed off the integration of SharePlay with CarPlay, which will make it possible for everyone in the car to contribute to a road-trip playlist without passing a phone around. If you’re running CarPlay and using Apple Music, everyone in the car with an iPhone should be able to join your share and add songs to the playlist.
Apple didn’t announce a release date for SharePlay in CarPlay, and it’s not clear yet whether the new SharePlay feature will support music apps other than Apple Music.
AirPlay will let you play music and movies on hotel devices
Apple announced an upcoming partnership with hotels to allow iPhone, iPad and Mac users to stream music and movies directly to hotel devices. While the most obvious use of AirPlay in hotels will be playing your movies and TV shows on the big screen, you’ll also probably be able to stream music to the hotel TV for a stereo music experience that doesn’t require headphones.
Pairing your Apple device with the hotel’s will be as simple as scanning a QR code. According to the WWDC announcement, “AirPlay will be available in select hotels before the end of the year.”
AirPlay will also soon learn your favorite music preferences
Along with the new streaming options for music in hotels and cars, Apple AirPlay is set to start learning your listening preferences and adapting to them. iPhones and iPads will soon use “on-device intelligence” to analyze your listening habits and adjust playback suggestions accordingly.
In the example provided at WWDC, someone who always listens to music while cooking dinner would be prompted to stream their music via a kitchen HomePod speaker during the usual time for food preparation.
You’ll also soon be able to initiate an AirPlay session using Siri and your Apple HomePod, letting you control the music playing at home with only your voice.
Other new audio features announced at Apple WWDC 2023
Sharing and streaming music more easily were the main audio features announced at WWDC, but there were a few other minor announcements that could improve the listening experience for AirPods, iPhones and iPads.
First, a new iOS diary app called Journal will use curated information from your device — such as photos, music and location — to create personalized prompts for your journaling. You’ll soon be able to simply tap a song on your Apple device to add it to your Journal entry.
Also, Apple AirPods will soon add a new feature called “adaptive audio,” which dynamically tweaks volume and noise cancellation based on what you’re listening to and the sounds around you. A personalized volume system will also adjust your sound based on your listening preferences over time.
Amazon and Grubhub have a treat for Prime members who jumped on an offer last summer to get one free year of Grubhub Plus, the food app’s membership program that comes with free deliveries. On Monday, the companies said they’re extending the perk, giving Prime members who signed up another 12 months of Grubhub Plus at no additional cost.
The two companies unveiled the perk for Prime members last July. Grubhub Plus, which costs $10 a month, lets you order takeout from participating restaurants without paying delivery fees, and offers other benefits like free food and special discounts. In order to qualify for free delivery, Grubhub Plus orders must be at least $12 before taxes, tips and other fees.
Prime members who didn’t sign up already can still take advantage of this extended deal. Amazon said Prime members who redeem the offer between now and July 5 will get two years of Grubhub Plus for free. Prime members who sign up on July 6 or later will get one year.
Amazon Prime costs $15 a month or $139 annually and comes with a slew of perks for members, including two-day shipping, streaming video, prescription discounts and more. There’s also the annual Prime Day shopping event for members, likely coming up in July.
How to get a year (or more) of free Grubhub Plus
If you’re a Prime member who’s already redeemed the Grubhub Plus perk, then you don’t need to take any new actions. Amazon said an additional 12 months will automatically be applied to your existing Grubhub Plus membership.
If you’re an active Prime member signing up for the first time, here’s how to get a free Grubhub Plus membership.
2. Hit “Activate Grubhub+ and save.” Sign into your Grubhub account or create an account.
3. Agree to terms and conditions to connect your Prime and Grubhub accounts and to share your Prime membership status with Grubhub.
5. Hit “Order now,” and you’ll be taken to the Grubhub delivery platform.
Once you hit the end of your free Grubhub Plus membership, the food app will automatically charge $10 a month to the payment method associated with your account. You can cancel your membership at any time.
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off on Monday with a keynote address showing everything coming to the company’s lineup of devices. WWDC has been typically where the company gives us a first look at new software for iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and Macs. But this year, Apple revealed a bevy of new hardware, too.
The big announcement was the debut of the Apple Vision Pro headset, a “new kind of computer,” as CEO Tim Cook put it in the presentation. But with MacBook Air and other Mac hardware announcements — including new silicon — as well as software upgrades, no corner of Apple’s ecosystem lacked for updates.
Watch this: Everything Apple Announced at WWDC 2023
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For a detailed summary of everything announced as it happened, give our live blog a look. Read on for the highlights of the presentation and links to our stories.
The Vision Pro will cost $3,499.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
Apple Vision Pro, a new headset
The Apple Vision Pro is the company’s answer to the AR and VR headset race. It’s a personal display on your face with all the interface touches you’d expect from Apple, with an operating system that looks like a combination of iOS, MacOS and TVOS. And it’s not going to come cheap: The Apple Vision Pro retails for $3,499 and will start shipping early next year, though only in the US.
The device itself looks like other headsets, though the glass front hides cameras and even a curved OLED outer display (more on why later). The headset is secured to the wearer’s head with a wide rear band (an over-the-top strap is optional), though as rumors suggested, there’s an external battery back that connects over a cable and sits in your pocket. There’s a large Apple Watch-style digital crown on the right side that lets you dial immersion (i.e. the outside world) in and out.
The Vision Pro has three-element lenses that enable 4K resolution, though you can swap out lenses, presumably for different vision capabilities. Audio pods are embedded within the band to sit over your ears, and “audio ray tracing” maps sound to your position. A suite of lidar and other sensors on the bottom of the headset track hand and body motions.
Technically speaking, the Vision Pro is a computer, with an M2 chip found on Apple’s highest-end computers. But a new R1 chip processes all the other headset inputs from 12 cameras, five sensors and six microphones, and sends it to the M2 to reduce lag and get new images to its displays within 12 milliseconds. The Vision Pro runs the new VisionOS, which uses iOS frameworks, a 3D engine, foveated rendering and other software tricks to make what Apple calls “the first operating system designed from the ground up for spatial computing.”
Interior cameras track your facial motion, which is projected to others when on FaceTime and other video chatting apps.
Apple Vision Pro can scan your face to create a digital 3D avatar.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
To keep users from being cut off from the outside world, the EyeSight feature uses inside-pointing cameras and the headset’s outer display to show your eyes — essentially showing people around you what your eyes are focusing on. If you’ve dialed your immersion all the way on, your eyes will disappear on the outside screen. But you’re not totally cut off. While wearing the headset, if someone approaches you they’ll filter in to your vision.
The interface uses hand motions to control the device, though there are also voice controls. It’s tough to tell how these controls will work, and we’d expect that users will need some time to adapt to not using a mouse and keyboard.
This isn’t just an entertainment device. Apple is pitching its first new product in eight years as a work-from-home and travel device, essentially letting you open however many windows you want. It can work in the office as a display for Macs, and supports Apple’s Magic Keyboard and Trackpad devices.
The Vision Pro has Apple’s first 3D cameras and can take spatial photos, providing 3D depth with binaural audio to experience moments with more immersion. Of course, this spatial experience is extended to movies that’s “impossible to represent on a 2D screen,” Apple said during its presentation, continually teasing the exclusivity that non-headset wearers won’t even understand without trying out a Vision Pro. Disney CEO Bob Iger took the WWDC stage to vouch for the headset, and followed with a short video showing interactive 3D experiences that Vision Pro users will soon get to experience on the Disney Plus streaming service.
Now that Apple has all these new cameras and eye-tracking, it’s introduced a way to secure your data and purchases with Optic ID, which uses your eyes as an optical fingerprint for authentication. Camera data is processed at the system level, so what the headset sees isn’t fed up to the cloud.
The 15-inch MacBook Air is powered by an M2 chip and gets up to 18 hours of battery life. Configurations can come with up to 24GB of memory and up to 2TB of storage, retailing for $1,299 to start (or $1,199 with a student discount).
The 15-inch model is 11.5mm thick and 3.3 pounds, and has two Thunderbolt ports and a Magsafe cable connector — along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. It has an above-display 1080p camera in a notch, three microphones and six speakers with force-canceling subwoofers.
A new Mac Studio has landed and it comes with Apple’s latest silicon. The new model comes with an M2 Max chipset, or the new M2 Ultra chipset — essentially two M2 Max chips combined, which enables up to 192GB of memory.
The M2 Ultra stole the spotlight with new capabilities, with a 24-core CPU and streaming 22 videos at 8K ProRes resolution at once. It can support up to six Apple Pro Displays at once.
The Mac Studio starts at $1,999 and will be available starting next week.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
Mac Pro with M2 Ultra
Apple wasted no time announcing that its new high-end desktop Mac Pro model would get the M2 Ultra as well. The new Mac Pro gets all the M2 Ultra upgrades as the Studio, including support for up to 192GB of RAM.
The Mac Pro has eight thunderbolt ports, two HDMI ports and dual 10GB ethernet ports, with six open PCIe Gen 4 slots. The new Mac Pro comes in both upright tower and horizontal rack orientations.
The new Mac Pro starts at $6,999 and will be available starting next week.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
iOS 17
iOS 17 brings a ton of quality-of-life improvements, and the iOS 17 developer beta is available now to download. Finally, you can use more filters while searching within your Messages. In addition to pressing and holding on messages to reply, you can also simply swipe on specific messages to reply to them, and voice notes will be transcribed.
Say goodbye to gray screens when you get calls — now you can set full-screen photos or Memoji to contacts when they call you. And if someone leaves a voicemail, you can see it transcribed in real time to help you screen calls if you don’t recognize a caller.
Watch this: WWDC 2023: Here Are All the Major iOS 17 Features
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A new safety feature, Check In, sends a note to a trusted contact when you reach a location — like when you make it home safe after late-night travel. If it’s taking you longer to get to a destination, you’ll be prompted to extend the timer rather than alert your contact. It also shares your battery and signal status. Check In is end-to-end encrypted.
Last year, Apple introduced an iOS feature to let you copy photo subjects and paste them as stickers — and now you can do that with video to essentially create GIFs to share with friends or even as responses to Messages. All emoji are now shareable stickers, too.
AirDrop has been a helpful tool to send files between Apple devices, but now you can share your contact info with Name Drop. You can choose what you want to share between email addresses, phone numbers and more.
Also, say goodbye to relying on Notes to jot down your thoughts — Journal is a new secure app for personal recollections. Apple is pitching it as a gratitude exercise, but iOS will auto-include activities like songs and workouts you’ve done to your personal log.
Apple Maps got an update that Android owners have had for years — the ability to use Maps offline, especially helpful when you’re outside network range while outdoors or conserving battery.
A new mode, StandBy, converts an iPhone to an alarm clock when it’s charging and rotated horizontally. It gets smart interactions like a large visible clockface along with calendar and music controls.
Lastly, as was rumored, you won’t have to say, “Hey Siri,” anymore. Just saying “Siri” will bring up the voice assistant.
iPadOS 17 brings more controls to widgets, which don’t just show more info at a glance — they have more interactive buttons to let you control your smart home or play music.
iPadOS 17 is bringing more interactive personal data to the Health app, including richer sleep and activity visualization.
The next iPadOS update brings quality-of-life upgrades like more lock screen customization and multiple timers (helpful when cooking), as well as improvements to the follow-you-during-video-calls Stage Manager feature for iPad selfie cameras.
With all the screen space on an iPad, Apple expanded what you can do with PDFs, which can be autofilled and signed from within iPadOS. iPad owners can collaborate in real time while tweaking PDFs, and the files can now be stored in the Notes app.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
MacOS Sonoma
MacOS Sonoma, named after one of California’s most famous wine-producing areas, continues the WWDC theme of adding more widget functionality.
Sonoma also has some gaming upgrades like a new gaming mode that prioritizes CPU and GPU to improve frame rate. Apple is paying attention to immersion with lower latency for wireless controllers and speakers or headsets. The company is also courting developers with game dev kits and Metal 3. But the biggest gaming announcement is that legendary game creator Hideo Kojima’s opus Death Stranding is coming to Macs later this year. “We are actively working to bring our future titles to Apple platforms,” Kojima said during the WWDC presentation.
On the business side, Mac has improved videoconferencing with an overlay that shows slide controls while you’re presenting. Apple also introduced new reactions — like ticker-tape falling for a congratulations — that can be triggered with gestures.
PassKey, the end-to-end encrypted password chain tech Apple introduced last year, can now be shared with other contacts, and everyone included can edit and update passwords to be shared with the group.
Safari has security updates including locking the browser window when in private browsing mode, and profiles to separate accounts, logins and cookies between work and personal use.
AirPods and audio upgrades
Apple has a handful of improvements to its audio products. AirPods will get Adaptive Audio, which combines noise canceling with intelligent audio to drown out annoying background noise while letting through important sounds — like car horns or bike bells. It’ll also pass through voices in case someone starts a conversation in person.
And it’s far easier to digitally take control of the music with SharePlay while somebody with CarPlay is driving — a prompt will go out to others in the car asking if they want to take control.
Apps in WatchOS 10 are getting a new look.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
WatchOS 10
Yet again, widgets make an appearance with WatchOS 10, the next operating system upgrade for Apple Watches. Widgets are now accessible in a stack from your home screen — just use the digital crown to scroll between them.
Apple has focused on cycling this year, improving workouts by showing functional threshold data, an important metric for cyclists. It also connects over Bluetooth to sensors on bikes, and there’s a new full-screen mode for iPhones that allows you to use it as a full screen while cycling.
Hikers, rejoice! WatchOS 10 has upgraded its compass with cellular connection waypoints, telling you which direction to walk and how far you have to go before you can get carrier reception. It also shows SOS waypoint spots, and shows elevation view in the 3D compass view. There’s also a neat topographical view.
Apple is also expanding its Mindfulness app to log how you’re feeling in State of Mind, choosing between color-coded emotional states. You can even access this from your iPhone in case you’re away from your Apple Watch.
Health focuses for 2023
On top of the WatchOS Mindfulness updates, Apple introduced a neutral survey to self-report mood and mental health, which acts as a sort of non-medical way to indicate whether you may want to get professional help.
Apple also has a new cross-device Vision Health focus in the Health app, and a new feature on the Apple Watch measures daylight time spent outside to watch for myopia in younger wearers. Screen Distance uses the TrueDepth camera on iPads to warn people if they’re too close to the screen.
