Today’s best deals on Apple hardware and accessories are headlined by Wi-Fi + Cellular 10th Gen iPad models alongside a solid $100 price drop on M2 Mac mini that is currently sitting at a new all-time low. Moving over to the accessory side of things, the new iMac G3-inspired translucent MagSafe iPhone 15 cases from Spigen have now dropped even lower during the launch phase and Woot is giving folks a chance to scoop up some leather Apple AirTag holders before they are gone for good. Hit the jump for all that and more in the latest 9to5Toys Lunch Break.

A busy time meant that my first test of the new 5x telephoto lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max was nothing more than a quick 3x versus 5x comparison shot from my apartment as part of a first impressions piece.

Yesterday, I got the chance to see how useful the new lens is for portraits – from the purely optical bokeh seen above, to testing iOS 17’s newfound ability to automatically add depth data, letting you adjust focus after taking the photo …

A cybersecurity company says that iPhone scalpers seeking to profit from early demand for iPhone 15 models used bots to make millions of dollars’ worth of purchases from the Apple website as soon as orders went live.

The activity is lucrative for scalpers – who are able to resell the devices for hundreds of dollars over the retail price to those who are otherwise facing long delays to order through Apple – but in turn increase the waiting time for legitimate customers …

An Apple Pay antitrust lawsuit will go ahead, after the judge rejected the iPhone maker’s motion to dismiss the case.

Three credit unions are suing Apple for what it says is a 100% monopoly on mobile wallets on iPhones and Apple Watches …

The is a premium and luxurious case for your phone, at competitive price points. The exterior sports long-lasting European leather that looks great and, crucially, feels great in the hand.

It is not just style without substance, of course. The case offers a reassuring level of protection, including a raised bezel around the display and metal surround for the rear camera module. The case also integrates strong magnets for compatibility with the ecosystem of MagSafe charging accessories. The high-quality case is available in sizes fitting for iPhone 15 Pro, , iPhone 15 and . Read on for full my review (Monaco Blue, iPhone 15 Pro pictured).

The iPhone 15 Pro is now in the hands of many consumers around the world, and since then, we’ve seen multiple complaints about overheating problems. Earlier this week, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that these problems may be caused by design compromises, and new reports from Bloomberg and WSJ reveal that the problem may be worse than it seems.

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Sponsored by WaterMinder: The best way to track your daily water intake, now with interactive widgets, an all-new Apple Watch app, StandBy support, and more.

On Wednesday, Apple released the first beta of iOS 17.1 to developers, as the company promised to bring some new features later this year. We’ve already covered most of what’s new in the iOS 17.1 beta here, but there’s another interesting change. With the update, Apple is bringing the flashlight indicator that appears on Dynamic Island to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15.

The Apple TV+ service is currently experiencing a glitch which is affecting playback of content on the service. Inexplicably, the foreign language dubbing credits that are usually inserted at the end of a show are being played first as the ‘intro’. There’s also a related issue where affected episodes end too soon, meaning viewers often miss the climax of the final scene.

Apple’s long-running, often-maligned Apple Car project is once again said to be falling apart. A new report today from Ming-Chi Kuo says that Project Titan “seems to have lost all visibility at the moment.” This leads Kuo to believe that Apple is likely nowhere close to actually debuting a car to the public.

I hope you enjoyed the two-week gap with no Apple betas, because we’re back on the grind today. iOS 17.1 beta 1 is here, and it includes a number of changes and new features. There are AirDrop updates, new Apple Music features, and more.

One of the features announced with Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 earlier this month is a new Double Tap gesture that lets users interact with the system without touching the screen. However, Apple said that this feature wouldn’t be available at launch and would come later this year. With watchOS 10.1, users will be able to use the new Double Tap gesture.

Meta wasted no time throwing shade at Apple during its Connect event today. While formally introducing the new Quest 3, Mark Zuckerberg needed to point out that Meta’s new headset won’t distract you with wires or battery packs.

Update: One day later, Apple has released public beta versions as well. The new update brings changes to Apple Music, AirDrop, and more.

Now that iOS 17 is the latest shipping software, Apple is ready to move on to iOS 17.1 for developer beta testers. The first iOS 17.1 beta is now available for iPhones with developer beta updates enabled.

Fitness Stats landed in 2020 on iPhone as a valuable way to view your lifetime activity across a dozen categories. Then support for more categories and new comparison features made it even more useful with the 2.0 release. Now Fitness Stats has landed on iPad along with a fresh Today Tab and stats across date ranges.

Apple delivered a long-requested feature this week when it enabled following shows on Apple Music Radio. How Apple went about providing this feature is clever. However, there are some drawbacks for now.

Apple delivered a long-requested feature this week when it enabled following shows on Apple Music Radio. How Apple went about providing this feature is clever. However, there are some drawbacks for now.

Amongst some of our favorite cases every year, Moment is back with its new iPhone 15 covers. Delivering some of the best iPhonegraphy cases on the market, the latest debuts continue to offer textured designs for added grip, four fun colors, and support for the next-generation T-Series lenses. There’s just one problem keeping these from being perfect…

Apple is soft launching a new iPhone Wallet app integration today that is powered by the United Kingdom’s Open Banking API. The Wallet app will now be able to show the user’s current account balance from their bank, as well as a history of deposits and payments. The balances will also be shown inline when buying something with Apple Pay, helping users be more financially aware about whether they can responsibly afford the purchase.

This integration is rolling out first as part of the upcoming iOS 17.1 developer beta. It will be available to a subset of Wallet app users in the UK, who have an Apple Pay card associated with a supporting bank.

We’ve written quite a bit about the controversy surrounding Apple’s FineWoven cases for iPhone 15. One thing I wanted to point out today, however, is that it’s not just FineWoven cases that might not work with your USB-C cables.

While Alphabet is busy trying to convince the government that Google doesn’t stifle search innovation, Microsoft is making an interesting point about Bing and Apple. In Microsoft’s view, Bing benefits Apple financially more than it benefits Microsoft.