Apple first revealed its M4 chip when it launched the iPad Pro (2024) earlier this year. Logically, the company plans to bring its latest processor to the Mac line, which is currently powered by its predecessor. The shift from M3 to M4 will reportedly start this year, and beyond the chip bump, at least one Mac model is expected to feature dramatic changes.

According to Bloomberg Power On’s subscriber edition, Apple will introduce M4-powered iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini computers in 2024. Interestingly, at least one of these machines is expected to include some significant modifications — apart from the M4 chip. Apple could then resume its M4 Mac overhaul next year by refreshing the MacBook Air, Mac Pro, and Mac Studio. The newsletter states:

Apple introduced the Dynamic Island with the iPhone 14 Pro, and brought it to base-model iPhones with the most recent iPhone 15 series. It's a polarizing feature, with some viewing it as a software game-changer and others seeing it as more of a gimmick. However, Apple is somewhat known for controversial features, and there's no better example of that than the notch on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. These great laptops don't have Face ID hardware inside, so there isn't a functional reason for the notch to exist. Apple seemingly added it just because, perhaps for brand consistency.

Arguably, macOS Sequoia’s most significant feature is iPhone Mirroring. Through this upcoming Apple ecosystem integration, users will be able to control their iOS devices directly from their Macs. While macOS Sequoia beta 1 doesn’t officially offer this feature, a user has managed to enable it forcibly. Based on the brief screen recording they shared, Apple’s iPhone Mirroring appears to be much more polished than the Phone Link feature tying Android and Windows.

Region lock my ass.
iOS 18 seems to have turned a few of us into full-time reverse engineers pic.twitter.com/ZcfIxWx5DX

— xezrunner (@XeZrunner) June 20, 2024

As shown in the video embedded above, Twitter user Xezrunner has managed to enable and use iPhone Mirroring on iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. The mirroring in the demo seems to be instantaneous, with virtually no lag or glitches. The user swiftly launched, navigated through, and exited a mirrored iOS app — reflecting a natural, intuitive user experience.

User Albacore, who helped enable the feature, states that there’s currently no easy way to activate iPhone Mirroring on macOS Sequoia beta 1. Consequently, users may have to wait until Apple officially enables it in a future beta build. Nevertheless, the fact that an unreleased feature on a first developer beta seems to be working seamlessly only highlights how well-developed it is. The second OS betas, which could potentially enable this feature for all testers, are expected next week.

Summer is Coming!

I live in California, so I don’t worry too much about winter as even when it is bad… storms and rain… that is generally good for us.  Summer though… it is going to be a hot one.  It was already up in the 90s this week and the first official day of summer, June 20th, hasn’t even arrived yet.

On the good news front, we got a heat pump central forced air system for the house, so after 17 years in our place we will have air conditioning in the summer.  We’ll be getting solar installed at last early next month so we’ll have the electricity to drive the heat pump which, while it is energy efficient, still draws power.

But that is neither here nor there for this post.  I wanted to list out some things coming up in June.  I know, isn’t that what the “Coming Up” section of my month in review post is for?  Sure, but I forgot some things, found out about some new things, and I’ll put pictures and links in this post.  So let’s go!

• WoW: The War Within Beta – June 5th

Yeah, that was Wednesday, but you’re not too late if you want to participate.  There is a whole page dedicated to the beta, what content will be available, and how to join here.

The War Within 30 minutes or it is free

The War Within is, of course, the next expansion due later this year for retail WoW.  Being somewhat divorced from retail since early in Shadowlands, I have some mild interest in the expansion, but going to retail these days is like going to a foreign country… they do all the same stuff as us… or classic… but it is all slightly different and awkward for a naive traveler like myself.  But I’ve been over all of that already, haven’t I?

But a beta… I haven’t done a retail WoW beta since Cataclysm, and we saw how that went.

• Valheim on MacOS – June 10th

2021’s huge indy survival success, Valheim, will be making the move to MacOS as the developers look for new markets to conquer.

Are there apples in Valhalla?

I guess it will be on Steam.  Does Microsoft Games even support MacOS?  Maybe?  I don’t know.

But Iron Gate assures us that it will support cross-play, so if you setup a server for you PC buddies and a friend with a Mac shows up, they can play too.  I don’t have a Mac anymore… I mean, technically there are at least three MacOS computers in the house as I write this, but I do not actively work or play on the Mac these days.

• EVE Online Equinox Expansion – June 11th

I suppose if I am listing things out I need to include this.  The big old Equinox expansion is coming on Tuesday.

Equinox – Seize Control – June 11, 2024

We shall see then who exactly is seizing control and whether or not null sec will be upended or if it is a great big nothing burger.  The ship SKINR should be neat, depending on how they plan to tax people to use it.

• EverQuest II Anashti Sul Origins Server – After June 13th

The jump back to a more authentic 2006 experience with the EverQuest II Anashti Sul Origins Server is slated to land this month.  The beta is slated to end on June 13th… so maybe the following Tuesday, the 18th?  Or maybe the 14th?  We’ll have to see.

Anashti Sul is a mystery in her way

It may seem a bit odd to go back 18 years for a 20th anniversary celebration, but the 2006 experience marks the settling point for the game, where it finally decided what it was for the moment and moved forward with content.  I wrote my views on this decision a while back, and plan to give it a peek when it shows up.

• Pax Dei Early Access – June 18th

Pax Dei is entering Early Access.  What does that mean?  All sorts of things I suppose and they have a whole post about it.

Coming to Early Access

As a title it has been kind of on my watch list… I subscribe to their Discord server news channel so updates there show up in the blog’s Discord server… you can join if you like here… but given all the other stuff I have on my list for June, I feel like Pax Dei might not make the cut… especially since they want $40 to be a founder.  I already have $40 unplayed games in Steam, I am not sure I need another.

Also, there will be pwipes.  I don’t have time for that.  Call me when it ships.

• Steam Summer Sale – June 20th

The first day of summer, the summer solstice, and Steam is usually pretty good about kicking off the Steam Summer Sale on that day.

Will I buy anything?  That is always the question.  As noted above, I have my share of unplayed titles already, and I bought a bunch over the Winter Sale… and then ended up playing Valheim.

My Steam Played Stats

You can see your own Steam stats over at SteamDB.

Also, as it came out last week, when you cannot pass on your Steam titles.  You die, your account is dead… unless your give your kids your password and have family sharing on or something.  I am sure there is a work around, but it is just a reminder that nothing “digital” you buy is actually yours.  (Word is GoG.com might let you pass things on to your heirs, but there is paperwork involved.)

You want to have access to something it needs a physical… though even that isn’t a guarantee.  Sonus loves to brick their older sound systems and Spotify is bricking their car player later this year… though you might get a refund after a lot of outrage at their “fuck you” attitude about the whole thing… and all sorts of “smart” home devices end up getting bricked by Google or whoever buys the company then discontinues them.

Anyway, side rant there.  But for our new heat pump I got a dumb Honeywell thermostat.  No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no other connectivity or ability to host Russian bot nets, and no way for Honeywell to shut it down without showing up at my doorstep.

• Tarisland Launch – June 21st

Tarisland, Tencent’s everybody-says-it-is-a-WoW-knockoff MMORPG title is set to go live on Windows, Android, and iOS on the second day of summer.

Coming soon and Free to Play

Tencent is promising all the things, diverse classes, challenging raids, a flexible talent system, excellent graphics, all in a free to play package with a cash shop that I am sure will have all the usual items in it.

Still, it is the first MMORPG from a big player to hit our market since maybe Lost Ark.

As with everything Tencent has a big post about joining in on the fun.  We’ll see if I can find the time for it come launch day.

• ICQ Shutting Down – June 26th

Children of the 90s… or maybe those of us who were young-ish adults of the 90s… hear me and weep.  What might have been the first instant messenger platform I ever used, ICQ, is going away on June 26th!

ICQ Logo Evolution

This was one of those one-two punch bits of news where I was saddened to find that ICQ was going away, but first I was surprised it was even still around.

What to say?  Way back in the day we used to use it to tell people to log in for a zone in TorilMUD.  I kept the login going well into the 2000s with Trillian.  Somewhere along the line I let it go, forgot the password, couldn’t remember my number, and basically moved on.

Still, it was quite a thing back in the day.  I told somebody I had a 5 digit ICQ number… but it might have been a 6 digit number.  This was like 25 years ago or more, right?  I had it before I had a Yahoo account, and they sent me a 25 year anniversary notice last year. (I noted the 24th anniversary message they sent me, but decided that didn’t have to be an EVERY year thing.)

Anyway, that was all I had for June.  Did I miss anything?  I mean, at least anything there is a chance I might play?  I am not really primed for things like the Elden Ring expansion of whatever is going on in FFXIV.

At its WWDC 2024, Apple announced macOS Sequoia and a significant expansion to Continuity, dubbed iPhone Mirroring. As the label suggests, the feature will let you remotely control your smartphone directly from a Mac. To access this feature, Apple is adding a new iPhone Mirroring icon that will permanently live in the Mac dock. Clicking on it will launch a new window with the iPhone’s home screen streamed wirelessly.

You can launch and interact with any iPhone app using the Mac’s trackpad and keyboard and the phone will even pass along audio to the computer. Moreover, since this feature is part of Apple’s broader Continuity suite, it extends beyond screen mirroring. For starters, iPhone notifications will now show up alongside your Mac notifications and you can simply click on one to launch screen mirroring.

Apple previewed its upcoming desktop operating system, macOS Sequoia, at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10. The headlining feature for macOS Sequoia is obviously Apple Intelligence, which is what Apple is calling its new portfolio of AI features. There are other big additions to the next version of macOS that have nothing to do with Apple Intelligence, too. For the first time, macOS Sequoia will bring proper window snapping to the best Macs, finally rivaling the Snap feature built into Windows 11. There are other neat tricks like iPhone Mirroring, gaming improvements, and better Mac Virtual Display support.

Enlarge / Using macOS S15 Sequoia to stream an iPhone's screen to a Mac while the iPhone stays locked. (credit: Apple)

Apple has formally announced macOS 15 at its Worldwide Developers Conference. Codenamed Sequoia, the new release brings a combination of iOS 18 features and a few Mac-specific things to the devices it supports.

Users who split their time between Windows and macOS will be the most excited to see that Apple has finally implemented a form of automated window tiling in macOS. This makes it easier to arrange windows automatically on your screen without manually dragging and resizing each one individually or switching into full-screen mode.

Another feature called iPhone Mirroring sends your iPhone's screen to your Mac, so you can use apps directly on your phone while manipulating them using your Mac's keyboard and trackpad. The iPhone audio is also streamed to your Mac. For privacy's sake, your phone's screen stays locked while apps are streaming to your Mac, and your Mac can also receive your iPhone notifications alongside your Mac notifications (no word on how the operating systems will handle duplicate notifications from Messages, Calendar, or other apps that are getting the same updates on both platforms).

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Enlarge / The M2 Pro Mac mini. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman thinks that Apple's M4 chips for Macs are coming sooner rather than later—possibly as early as "late this year," per a report from earlier this month. Now Gurman says Apple could completely skip the M3 generation for some Macs, most notably the Mac mini.

To be clear, Gurman doesn't have specific insider information confirming that Apple is planning to skip the M3 mini. But based on Apple's alleged late-2024-into-early-2025 timeline for the M4 mini, he believes that it's "probably safe to say" that there's not enough space on the calendar for an M3 mini to be released between now and then.

This wouldn't be the first time an Apple Silicon Mac had skipped a chip generation—the 24-inch iMac was never updated with the M2, instead jumping directly from the M1 to the M3. The Mac Pro also skipped the M1 series, leapfrogging from Intel chips to the M2.

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Whether you are a student, professional, or general consumer, you simply can’t ignore a Mac when shopping for a new laptop. Powerful and efficient M-series CPUs, comprehensive redesigns on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, and the company’s ever-expanding Mac lineup have attracted many new users to Apple’s desktop OS.

If you're a gamer with a Mac, you'll know the struggles of seeing Windows get all the hottest new games while macOS is left on the wayside. However, you're in luck; Parallels Desktop is here to save the day. The app lets you run a virtualization of Windows so you can play your favorite games, and it has just received a new update that makes the app better than ever before.

Enlarge / A blurry, ghostly Persona in visionOS 1.0. They should at least look less bad in visionOS 1.1. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple has released a long list of medium-sized software updates for most of its devices today. The macOS Sonoma 14.4, watchOS 10.4, tvOS 17.4, and visionOS 1.1 updates are all available now, and most of them add at least one or two major features as they fix multiple bugs and patch security vulnerabilities.

The visionOS 1.1 release is the first major update for Apple's newest operating system, and as our coverage of the headset has demonstrated, there's still plenty of low-hanging fruit to fix. Most notably for people who are trying to use the headset for work meetings, Apple says that there have been multiple changes to the look of Personas, the 3D avatars that show up in your place when you're video chatting with the Vision Pro on your face. The update improves "hair and makeup appearance," "neck and mouth representation," and "rendering of the eyes," and while it's clear that it's an improvement over the 1.0 release of Personas, the core uncanniness still seems to be intact. The Persona feature is still labeled as a beta.

Apple has also made tweaks to the appearance and functionality of the headset's virtual keyboard, improved the Virtual Display feature's Mac connectivity, and added a handful of mobile device management features for IT administrators.

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Screen recording on your Mac, Windows PC, or Chromebook presents an exciting opportunity to showcase your gaming prowess, create informative tutorials for the software you ...

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