What's Up With Apple: iPhone Tricks, Mac Pro to Keep Intel Chip, and More

Technology

Published: December 23, 2021 7:59 am

If you are lucky enough to receive an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone for Christmas, you might want to learn how to get the most out of your new smartphone. It is likely that the new iPhone can do a lot of things you will never use, but you won’t know that unless you poke around.
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To save new iPhone owners some time, Apple has posted a new five-minute video that details 10 tips and tricks that most of us do not know about. MacRumors has a brief summary of the video’s tips and links to other tips and tricks to help people get the most out of their new iPhones and Apple’s iOS 15. Here’s a sample:

To scan a document in the Notes app, tap the camera button in a note, tap Scan Documents, and position the document in the viewfinder.

We didn’t know that.

The most recent version of the Mac Pro desktop computer was released in 2019. According to a report from Business Insider India, which cites MacRumors, the next iteration of the Mac Pro will continue to use an Intel CPU. This isn’t exactly stop-the-presses news because there have been several reports since at least January that Apple is going to stick with Intel’s Xeon Scalable CPU (aka, Ice Lake).

According to a recent MacRumors report, “Apple does plan to transition its entire Mac lineup to Apple silicon, but the earliest versions of Mac Pro chips may not [be] able to compete with Intel’s Xeon processors for heavy duty professional workloads, and there may also be concerns about software compatibility.” An updated Mac Pro is expected to be released next year, along with a smaller version that is expected to use Apple’s own CPUs.

Briefly noted:

India’s Economic Times reported Wednesday that Apple has begun trial production of the iPhone 13 at Foxconn’s Chennai facility. By manufacturing the iPhone in the country, Apple avoids an Indian law that slaps a high tariff on imported smartphones.

We noted last week that Apple had closed three of its Apple Stores due to new outbreaks of COVID-19. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that an additional eight Apple Stores have been temporarily closed, including two in Florida, two in Atlanta and one each in Houston, Ohio, New Hampshire and Montreal.

We will be back on Monday. Until then, we wish you all a Merry Christmas.