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Apple Mixed-reality headset will draw most of Apple’s focus in 2023

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Enlarge / Apple introduced an all-new ruggedized Apple Watch Ultra in 2022, but updates for the Apple Watch and many of Apple’s other products will be more low-key in 2023. The company is gearing up to release a new mixed-reality headset.
Samuel Axon

Apple is still planning to launch a new mixed-reality headset sometime in 2023, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. The headset will run its own operating system (currently dubbed “xrOS”), and Gurman says there are still “many kinks to work out,” which is typical of any new hardware and software from any company.

Aside from its ever-changing release window—previous estimates said the headset could be announced as early as this month, which has now changed to “spring 2023 announcement, fall 2023 launch”—there aren’t many new details about the headset in the latest report. What’s coming into focus, though, is the extent to which the headset launch will divert resources from elsewhere in the company this year.

Gurman says the main casualties will be the iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and AirPod lineups—all of these lineups received significant updates in 2022, and the report indicates that most updates this year will be mostly minor “spec bump” updates. New iPad Pros supposedly won’t launch until 2024. Apple’s established operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, will all have “fewer major changes than originally planned.”

The company made similar decisions in the run-up to the launch of the original iPhone in 2007, delaying a previously announced macOS release because it needed to “borrow” resources to finish the phone. Apple is a much larger company with many more resources now, but it also has more product lines to attend to, and the mixed-reality headset is launching amid a hiring freeze Apple reportedly implemented in October.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have any non-headset hardware to look forward to. The report says Apple will relaunch a larger HomePod with an S8 processor borrowed from the latest Apple Watches, all at a lower price than the original HomePod. The Dynamic Island feature, as well as USB-C, faster chips, and other design tweaks, will come to the entire range of iPhone 15 models.

The Mac lineup will also get several updates, as Apple wraps up the transition from Intel CPUs to Apple Silicon chips. The biggest launch would be a planned 15-inch MacBook Air, which should please people who want a larger screen but don’t need or want to pay for the extra performance of the 16-inch MacBook Pro. But Apple has purportedly scrapped plans to revisit the 12-inch MacBook, and the 24-inch iMac won’t be refreshed until the M3 chip is ready in “late 2023 or early 2024 at the earliest.” (A larger-screened iMac or iMac Pro refresh is still MIA, after the 27-inch Intel model abruptly disappeared from Apple’s store back in March.)

A Mac Pro update is also coming, though Apple’s ambitions for that model have apparently been scaled back—it’s no longer shipping with its unique M2 variant, opting insteadto ship with the same Ultra-series chip Apple uses in the Mac Studio. Gurman says the new Mac Pro will look like the current design, which dates back to 2019; it will include two SSD slots for storage and additional slots for GPUs and other peripherals, but it apparently won’t support upgradeable RAM. This isn’t a huge surprise, since Apple Silicon chips rely on integrated RAM for their speed and power efficiency, but it would be a first for the Mac Pro—even the tightly integrated “trash can” design from 2013 had RAM sticks that could be upgraded and replaced.

The report doesn’t specifically mention M2-based MacBook Pros or a more powerful M2-based Mac mini, but those models were originally rumored to launch late in 2022, so we’d expect to see most, if not all, of them before too long.

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Here is how to prepare your online accounts for when you die

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LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?

It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.

Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:

Apple

The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.

For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.

You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.

Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.

Google

Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.

When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.

You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.

There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.

Facebook and Instagram

Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.

When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.

The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.

You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.

TikTok

The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.

Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.

X

It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.

Passwords

Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?

Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.

But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.

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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

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Google’s partnership with AI startup Anthropic faces a UK competition investigation

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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.

The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.

“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”

San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.

Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”

“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.

The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Kuwait bans ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ video game, likely over it featuring Saddam Hussein in 1990s

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The tiny Mideast nation of Kuwait has banned the release of the video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6,” which features the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and is set in part in the 1990s Gulf War.

Kuwait has not publicly acknowledged banning the game, which is a tentpole product for the Microsoft-owned developer Activision and is set to be released on Friday worldwide. However, it comes as Kuwait still wrestles with the aftermath of the invasion and as video game makers more broadly deal with addressing historical and cultural issues in their work.

The video game, a first-person shooter, follows CIA operators fighting at times in the United States and also in the Middle East. Game-play trailers for the game show burning oilfields, a painful reminder for Kuwaitis who saw Iraqis set fire to the fields, causing vast ecological and economic damage. Iraqi troops damaged or set fire to over 700 wells.

There also are images of Saddam and Iraq’s old three-star flag in the footage released by developers ahead of the game’s launch. The game’s multiplayer section, a popular feature of the series, includes what appears to be a desert shootout in Kuwait called Scud after the Soviet missiles Saddam fired in the war. Another is called Babylon, after the ancient city in Iraq.

Activision acknowledged in a statement that the game “has not been approved for release in Kuwait,” but did not elaborate.

“All pre-orders in Kuwait will be cancelled and refunded to the original point of purchase,” the company said. “We remain hopeful that local authorities will reconsider, and allow players in Kuwait to enjoy this all-new experience in the Black Ops series.”

Kuwait’s Media Ministry did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press over the decision.

“Call of Duty,” which first began in 2003 as a first-person shooter set in World War II, has expanded into an empire worth billions of dollars now owned by Microsoft. But it also has been controversial as its gameplay entered the realm of geopolitics. China and Russia both banned chapters in the franchise. In 2009, an entry in the gaming franchise allowed players to take part in a militant attack at a Russian airport, killing civilians.

But there have been other games recently that won praise for their handling of the Mideast. Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage” published last year won praise for its portrayal of Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age in the 9th century.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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