What you need to know

Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo Immortal will arrive in the App Store on June 2.
Gamers will be able to play Diablo Immortal on iPhones and iPads with iOS and iPadOS 11 or later installed.
PC players will be able to sync their progress from mobile to desktop and back again.

The MMORPG will be free with in-app purchases when it arrives in June.

Blizzard has confirmed that the mobile-first Diablo Immortal will be available to play on iPhone and iPad come June 2, 2022. The new title will also get a PC version with progress syncing between both versions of the game.

The new Diablo Immortal game will give mobile gamers a chance to dive into a huge massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) like no other, with the App Store description telling the story of a game that will be on a huge scale.

Just have a read of this and prepare to get excited for what will be available in just a few short weeks:

Diablo Immortal™ is a brand-new game in Bli…

What you need to know

WhatsApp is testing a change that will allow people to keep messages that would normally disappear.
Anyone can mark a message to disappear even after someone removed its expiration time.
If anyone decides to make a message disappear, it will disappear for everyone.

Surely the whole point of disappearing messages is that they… disappear.

WhatsApp is testing a change that will allow people to mark a disappearing message so that it doesn’t. That means that any message that is sent as a disappearing message could potentially hang around forever.

The change is part of a recent WhatsApp beta release first reported by WABetaInfo. The theory is simply — users will be able to remove the expiration date from expiring messages so that they don’t get deleted when the time comes. However, the report notes that WhatsApp will require that all parties agree that the message shouldn’t be deleted. Otherwise, it’ll be removed as planned.

As you can see in this atta…

What you need to know

Apple has confirmed that it is having problems with some services.
Apple Music is having problems right now.
The App Store is experiencing issues, Apple says.

If Apple Music is down for you, you aren’t the only one.

Update, April 25 (5:15 PM ET): Apple says it has resolved the issue affecting Apple Music and the App Store.

Apple has confirmed that some of its services are currently experiencing issues including Apple Music and the App Store.

Amid reports that the App Store is missing its privacy labels, Apple has now confirmed via its system status page that ”users may be experiencing a problem with this service.” It’s a similar story for Apple Music, with the same page noting that ”users may be experiencing intermittent issues with this service.”

A Twitter search suggests that a number of people have been unable to stream music via Apple Music for a while, while others are experiencing an issue with lyrics not appearing on-screen.

is apple music down…

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John Stewart has been awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Joh Stewart has an Apple TV+ show called The Problem With John Stewart.

Stewart was recognized for a 16-year career and his work to help 9/11 emergency service workers.

John Stewart has picked up the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, making him the first to do so since Dave Chappelle in 2019.

Stewart, who rose to fame with The Daily Show now plies his trade on Apple TV+ via The Problem With John Stewart. And while the win wasn’t specifically for his work on Apple TV+, it’s another sign of the caliber of talent the streamer has to call upon these days.

The New York Times was first to report on the win for Stewart:

Mr. Stewart, 59, was celebrated as a staple of American late-night television for 16 years, appearing weeknights behind his desk on ”The Daily Show,” dispensing quick-witted takes on the news media, ripping into political punditry, mocking conservatives and …

Everything you need to know to get Thready for the future of the smart home.

It never fails. Every few years or so, a new ”game-changing” wireless protocol or standard comes along in the wide world of the Internet of Things (IoT) that promises to bring unity to a fragmented market. Unfortunately, things never really pan out, and users are typically stuck with yet another hub — locked down to vendor-specific hardware that doesn’t play nicely with others.

However, this dubious cycle may finally be coming to an end soon, thanks to the recent introduction of two key technologies: Thread and Matter. While both have grand unification as the end-game, these nascent technologies vary as one focuses on software while the other focuses on hardware.

As of now, Matter is still in development, so the jury is still out on it, but Thread, on the other hand, is actually available in some smart home accessories today — and it truly lives up to the hype. So what exactly is Thread, how does it r…

What you need to know

App Store privacy labels are no longer available in the App Store.
It isn’t clear whether the change is a bug or something Apple has done on purpose.
Privacy labels show whether an app collets data or not.

The App Store’s privacy labels are missing across all platforms and nobody knows why.

Apple’s App Store privacy labels have gone missing but it isn’t clear why. While it seems most likely that this is a bug, it’s possible that Apple is tweaking something in the background. Either way, no apps currently display their privacy labels in the App Store across all of Apple’s platforms.

Apple announced its privacy labels at WWDC in 2020 with the aim being to allow people to get a look at what information an app would collect before they installed it. If an app collects data, the privacy labels are supposed to explain that so people can make an informed decision before downloading. However, as Twitter posts have pointed out, they’ve all gone missing.

Notably,…

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A used device retailer used AirDrop to tell Apple Store customers not to buy new iPhones.
The Back Market campaign saw ads sent to iPhones at Apple Stores in London, Paris, and Berlin.
The ads asked buyers to go the used route rather than buying brand new devices.

It was all just a little bit weird.

A used device retailer used AirDrop to send ads to iPhones in Apple Stores in an attempt to get buyers to go refurbished instead of buying new. Apple Stores in London, Paris, and Berlin were bombarded with the AirDropped link that opened a Black Market website.

In a YouTube video showing off how everything went down, Back Market shows people in the three Apple Stores receiving the link via AirDrop as they browsed devices including the iPhone 13 range. MacRumors was the first to spot the YouTube ad.

Back Market obviously wants people to buy its refurbished devices rather than Apple’s new ones and there is undoubtedly an environmental case to be made to do e…

You can find a wide variety of bands for your Apple Watch Series 7 (or any other model) on Amazon that look great and don’t cost a lot. We’re here to help you sort through the many Apple Watch band options. Here are 18 great-looking Apple Watch bands fresh from Amazon that are bound to catch your eye and save you a bit of cash.

Best for most

WFEAGL Top Grain Leather Apple Watch Band

Staff Favorite

The WFEAGL Apple Watch Band is a top grain, genuine leather strap that comes in a huge range of colors and trendy patterns. It’s one of the best watch band options, and it even comes with different hardware colors to complement your Apple Watch.

38/40/41mm: From $15 at Amazon

42/44/45mm: From $15 at Amazon

Beads and pearls

TOMAZON Pearl Stone Bracelet Strap

The TOMAZON Pearl Stone Bracelet Strap is a pretty and fashionable strap that looks more like a bracelet than a boring watch band. It comes in both Apple Watch sizes and a few color options.

$16 at Amazon

Flexible

Sunnywo…

What you need to know

Apple has shared a new video that was shot on an iPhone 13 Pro.
The new video tells the story of a feud in the world of Singaporean food.
Apple has also made a behind-the-scenes look at the video’s creation available on YouTube.

Apple even shared a behind-the-scenes look at how the video was made.

Apple has shared a new Shot on iPhone 13 Pro video and this time it’s a documentary about Singaporean food — and there’s a little drama thrown in for good measure, too.

Apple shares videos like this to show what the iPhone 13 Pro cameras are capable of and this latest video is all about macro shots and some gorgeous lighting. It all comes together to build an interesting aesthetic and a gripping story of feuding food outlets. You really should just watch the video to see what it’s all about — it runs for just five minutes and is well worth your time.

Big ambitions clash in tiny kitchens, all in the name of Singapore’s beloved hawker dish — chicken r…

What you need to know

Someone left a Pixel Watch prototype in a restaurant.
An Apple engineer famously left an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar.
It’s possible this Pixel Watch could be announced soon.

The Apple Watch might have some new competition, but not really.

Someone appears to have managed to leave a pre-released Pixel Watch in a restaurant somewhere in the United States, with the finder then leaking images of the device to Reddit and the press. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is — an Apple engineer famously left an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar back in the day.

First reported exclusively by Android Central, the watch was found at an undisclosed restaurant. The person who shared the images understandably wanted to keep their name and the location out of the story, but the images do most of the talking. The same person later shared more images to Reddit.

While we don’t get to see the Pixel Watch powered on — assuming this is what we’re looking at — but we still g…