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iPhone 17 Pro's 'Clear Case' may not be completely see-through

iPhone 17 Pro's 'Clear Case' may not be completely see-through

Yet more supposed case leaks have emerged for the iPhone 17 , with the alleged Apple Clear Case being mostly transparent, except for the rear panel. Alleged clear cases for the iPhone 17 Pro - Image Credit: Majin Bu Apple is just over a week away from launching the iPhone 17, which means the rumor mill is set to go into overdrive. The first signs of that for 2025 is apparently case leaks , if one prolific leaker is to be believed. The latest missive from leaker Majin Bu on Sunday consists of a post of new cases on their website . This time, they claim to show an iPhone 17 Pro "Clear Case" design. Rumor Score: ? Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

I don’t need Windows 11 anymore. One final tool freed me from Microsoft

I don’t need Windows 11 anymore. One final tool freed me from Microsoft

I’ve been using Windows for as long as I can remember. It was on the very first PC I recall using, literally on my father’s knee. But I don’t need it anymore. That’s a weird thing to say as a writer for a site named PCWorld. But it’s been a long time coming, a slow mix of broad tech trends, feeling betrayed by multiple brands, and a little bit of intention on my part. To be clear, I still use Windows. It’s what I’m using right now to type this, on a beefy gaming desktop I assembled myself, with triple monitors and all sorts of googaws attached. But I don’t need all that anymore, and for the first time in my adult life, I can see myself transitioning to an entirely different operating system. That’s a big deal for me, and I suspect I’m far from alone. Microsoft might want to make a note of it. Why I don’t need Windows So here’s what I mean when I say that I don’t need Windows anymore: Every tool, program, and piece of information I rely upon is now essentially separate from whatever machine I’m using at the moment. I’m writing the words you’re reading right now in Google Docs. When I’m done, I’ll edit them in WordPress. Throughout my work day I’m talking with my coworkers and bosses on Slack, I’m chatting with my friends via text, WhatsApp, and some other platforms. I’m managing my own to-do list in Google Keep, updating my work tasks in a tool called Monday, and checking personal and professional email in Gmail and Outlook, respectively. I’m keeping an eye on news and social trends in BlueSky and The Old Reader for RSS. I still use local files, of course. But they’re all backed up weekly via Backblaze and accessible wherever I go, with whatever hardware I have to hand. Most of the time I don’t even need that. Aside from installed game files, the odd business/tax document, and a huge library of photos, both my own and my family’s, I barely even think about the storage on my PC. Michael Crider/Foundry Here’s a screenshot of my main Windows taskbar: Vivaldi, Gmail, Outlook, the PCWorld logo for WordPress, a certain green “P” I’ll address shortly, Slack, Explorer, Monday, Google Keep, Google Docs, YouTube. If you haven’t spotted the common thread here: every single one of these experiences is either a web tool or has a web interface. I use my favorite browser, Vivaldi , to access almost all of them, usually in a progressive web app (PWA) or merely a shortcut wrapper without a full browser interface. It’s one of my most essential features of modern browsers , allowing me to separate these tools more easily and focus on them when I need to. Every one of them is accessible on the web, and on other platforms. I can use all of them on a tablet or even my phone, and most of the time not lose any functionality. In fact even though I work from home, I access a lot of that on my phone during the day, on the same platforms. At this point Windows is basically just a means for accessing the web in a comfortable way, on expensive hardware I’m familiar with. I think a lot of users feel the same way, especially younger folks who grew up post-iPhone. Further reading: The best Chromebooks we’ve tested Photoshop was the last holdout The very last domino to fall in this chain was image editing. I’ve been using Photoshop for over 20 years. Since I learned it in a high school media class, it’s been incredibly difficult to break myself of the reliance on it for creating article header images or editing review photos. Not that I didn’t want to — I’ve had a chip on my shoulder for Adobe for almost as long, especially after it transitioned its extremely expensive Creative Suite software to an even more expensive Creative Cloud subscription setup. It reeked of “ you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy .” I liked owning Photoshop, and I was not and am not happy that the option was taken away. Until a few weeks ago I was still keeping an ancient copy of Creative Suite 6 from 2012 (the last time it was offered as a real purchase) alive and kicking. I’ve tried alternatives many times , including the tastelessly-titled GIMP, Affinity Photo, and Pixlr X. All are pretty good tools, but to my shame, I kept crawling back to the familiarity of Photoshop. Foundry My memory, both conventional and muscle, made it difficult to use any of these programs, even though each one of them covers the vast majority of Photoshop’s core functions. I’ve spent years of my life using Photoshop, a few of them using it for up to eight hours a day in a print shop. It’s a hard experience for me to quantify if you’re not married to a piece of software like that — imagine it as the feeling you get from wearing someone else’s prescription glasses. It’s that kind of functional discomfort. I’m fairly certain Adobe banks on this, and that’s why you can access Photoshop and other programs at a huge discount if you’re a student or otherwise working at a school. To paraphrase Aristotle, “Give me a high-schooler until they are 17, and I will show you the foundations of a life-long subscription customer.” But after a long-overdue Windows reinstallation, I decided to forego the hassle of getting my trusty, rusty copy of CS6 operational. Instead I tried out Photopea , an online raster image editor with a shameless and wonderful clone of the Photoshop interface. Attack of the Clones I’ve tried Photopea a few times before, with this exact aim in mind. And I couldn’t quite get it to stick. To be honest I can’t recall if it was a lack of performance in the tool, or simply that it wasn’t as capable as CS6 even over a decade later. But whichever part of the equation has changed — the performance in a modern browser on a powerful desktop, the server-side performance, or the image editing options being improved — it just clicked. Now I’m using Photopea ( pronounced “photo-pee” if you’re wondering , but the creators don’t really care) in place of Photoshop for all my work purposes. I don’t even have the latter installed, though I still have my copy just in case. I’m paying $5 a month for the ad-free version of Photopea, which still rankles my “just let me buy it” heart a bit. But the fact that it’s completely free with ads, not to mention far, far cheaper than an Adobe subscription even if you banish them, is a balm to my skinflint soul. Photopea’s interface apes Photoshop closely enough that I can use it without problems. And yes, I used it to edit this story’s header image, and even this screenshot. Photopea And after all, Photopea is a web tool hosted on a server — it at least has a basic justification for charging a subscription. Nothing stops Adobe from selling a stand-alone, non-subscription version of Photoshop. Except greed. Photopea is a clone of Photoshop, not a perfect replacement. There are things it can’t do, notably load up custom fonts without a lot of extra steps, that would make it unsuitable if I were still doing graphics full time. And to be perfectly honest, I’m not quite as good at it as I used to be with Photoshop. Some of the effects I’d throw together with ease just don’t look as good. That could be equal parts my own unfamiliarity with the deeper tools and the web-based program’s lack of Photoshop’s most powerful, deeply buried options. Maybe I’ll get back to my old expertise in time. But I’m not a graphic designer anymore. I’m a keyboard jockey who needs a lot of cropping for PR images, a bit of background work, clone-stamp and color adjustments for original photos, that sort of thing. And I can do all that, without sacrificing speed or most capability, and without local software. I can do it on any machine, from a laptop or a tablet or even my phone in a pinch (with a mouse and keyboard), and I can log in on all of those to get access to it ad-free. Samsung Oh, and even if you prefer to pay Adobe’s exorbitant prices, you might still not need a local installation of the program. Photoshop has an online version now , very similar to Photopea, included with the subscription. Everything I need to do my job, and most of whatever else I want, is completely divorced from Windows. Or if not divorced, then at least amicably separated. I realize that a lot of people got to this place before I did, people younger than me, older than me, both more tech-savvy and less. But it still feels like a personal milestone. Gaming still lives on Windows…for now I’m still using Windows 11, warts and all, even while I moan about ever-encroaching advertising in allegedly premium software, not to mention the hard upsell for “AI” tools I don’t want . These are where Microsoft is hoping to get that real (read: recurring) money out of me, and where I refuse to let it go. But Windows is still my personal and professional home, even as I increasingly “live” on my phone, just like everyone else. Gaming is a big part of this. I own a Switch and a PS5 and a nice tablet and a few other wingdings for games — over a recent vacation I even played through Skies of Arcadia to the end on an Android emulator. But PC gaming is where I really sink my teeth into the medium, and that’s unlikely to change. Not just because I like building desktop PCs (again, check the name of the site up top!), but because Steam is my primary means of acquiring and playing games. Lenovo/Valve And even that is not a sacred cow I’m unwilling to eat. Valve is making Steam its own OS, spreading into hardware from partners like Lenovo and Asus , and I think it has a legitimate shot at dethroning Windows as the home of PC gaming . To say nothing of trends that let you access your games anywhere, including Nvidia’s cloud-powered GeForce Now (which plays my Steam games!) and Microsoft’s own Xbox Game Pass streaming. I’ve used both of them on the go, enjoyably if far less smoothly than on my fancy-pants desktop at home, and been keenly aware of their platform-agnostic nature. I played the PC version of Fortnite , complete with mouse and keyboard, by using my Samsung phone’s DeX desktop mode, a USB-C monitor, and GeForce Now. Hey, at least one tiny sliver of the future doesn’t suck. A new world of options This newfound freedom is liberating, if only in a consumer sense. For the first time I can seriously consider a Mac or a Chromebook laptop , safe in the knowledge that everything I need will be accessible with barely even an adjustment to my routine. An iPad Pro, while not my first choice, would probably be doable. I could even see myself trying out Linux on the desktop, though I confess I’d probably keep it dual-booting at first. And maybe using SteamOS or a derivative like Bazzite , just to satiate my degenerate gaming needs. I don’t need Windows anymore. There’s a pretty good chance you don’t, either, or at least that it’s easier than ever to work around it. I think you should keep it in mind…especially if you’re a Microsoft executive who wants me to buy a new laptop . Further reading: Windows survival skills: 8 things every PC user should know how to do

Next Vehicle With CarPlay Ultra Named in Report as Rollout Continues

Next Vehicle With CarPlay Ultra Named in Report as Rollout Continues

Hyundai's upcoming IONIQ 3 electric vehicle will support Apple's CarPlay Ultra system, according to the BBC publication Top Gear . Here is what Top Gear 's Paul Horrell reported last week: The Ioniq 3 will be digital-forward. For a start it can run Apple's CarPlay Ultra if the driver wants. Even without the Apple skin, the interface allows more configuration of the design, and links to new synthesised EV sound effects. The mention of CarPlay Ultra in the report was spotted by French blog MacGeneration . Hyundai plans to showcase a conceptual version of the IONIQ 3 at the IAA Mobility auto show, which begins on September 9 in Munich, Germany. The report described the vehicle as a smaller and more affordable EV that will offer up to 365 miles of range per full charge. The vehicle is expected to launch in the first half of 2026. Launched in May, CarPlay Ultra is the long-awaited next-generation version of CarPlay that was previewed in 2022. CarPlay Ultra is currently limited to newer Aston Martin vehicles in the U.S. and Canada, but Apple said that many other automakers around the world are working to offer it over the next year and beyond, including Hyundai and its Kia and Genesis brands. So, it would make sense if the all-new IONIQ 3 supports CarPlay Ultra. CarPlay Ultra features deep integration with a vehicle's instrument cluster and systems, built-in Radio and Climate apps, customizable widgets, and more. The interface is tailored to each vehicle model and automaker's identity, and drivers can choose from various preset design options. The connected iPhone provides app-related data, while the vehicle provides driving data like current speed, and other info like tire pressure. Some other automakers like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz have said they have no plans to offer CarPlay Ultra , but decisions can always change over time. Related Roundup: CarPlay Tag: CarPlay Ultra Related Forum: HomePod, HomeKit, CarPlay, Home & Auto Technology This article, " Next Vehicle With CarPlay Ultra Named in Report as Rollout Continues " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums

Globular Cluster CMA1 Comfort Mod for Apple Vision Pro review: customized weight redistribution

Globular Cluster CMA1 Comfort Mod for Apple Vision Pro review: customized weight redistribution

Globular Cluster is known for making comfort mods for VR headsets, and its version for Apple Vision Pro brings a variety of fits and customization to the controversially heavy headset. Globular Cluster CMA1 Comfort Mod review I'll get this out of the way right off the bat — I hate having too much stuff piled up on my head. It's a weird problem to have as someone who loves Apple Vision Pro. The thing is, I fell in love with the Solo Knit Band right away. It's basically the minimum amount of headwear to keep the Apple Vision Pro attached without making things uncomfortable. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums