Apple’s Find My feature has finally been enabled in South Korea, translated by. This comes after years of public demand in which the finding network tool was absent from the country. The omission was especially odd when you consider that Apple sold AirTags throughout the region. Without Find My, they are basically just puck-shaped paperweights.
The company never explicitly stated why it limited access to Find My in South Korea, but it that could have allowed the government access to the location data. The service first appeared during a beta test of iOS 18.4, but the makes it available to everyone in the country. Find My has long been functional in South Korea’s outlying territories like Baengnyeongdo and Ulleungdo.
“Find My is an important tool that allows users to grasp the location of the most precious things to them, such as friends, family and personal items, and I am very happy to be able to introduce this function to Korea,” said David Dorn, senior director of Apple’s service products, in a statement on the company’s local website.
The modern iteration of Find My launched in the US in 2019 as part of iOS 13. However, the tool actually dates back to a service called Find My iPhone that started in 2010. Apple to let users share the location of a lost item with other people on the network. This is helpful when negotiating the return of a lost item with a stranger.
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The M4 also gives the MacBook Air its AI boost with Apple Intelligence. The 38 TOPS of local AI processing through the faster 16-core Neural Engine makes the M4 MacBook Air closer to the 48 TOPS on Intel’s Lunar Lake chips and 45 TOPS of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips.
This is difficult to judge, because Apple Intelligence is very much still unfinished, but there are some new third-party apps that Apple is showcasing that use Apple Intelligence right out of the box in third-party applications, such as the note-taking app, Bear. You can now do things like automatically format text into tables or summarize a report. It also comes with Image Playground, the updated version of Siri with ChatGPT integration, and lots more. On the other hand, you’ve never needed fast local AI processing to get Apple Intelligence, as AI tasks on older devices just get run on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute system.
The raw performance bump you’ll see on the M4 MacBook Air over last year’s M3 is 22 percent faster GPU, 31 percent multi-core, and 18 percent single-core, as measured in Cinebench R24. That’s a really solid step up for one generation, particularly in single-core performance, where Apple silicon continues to dominate the competition. In terms of the graphics, that’s also over double the performance from the M2. Whether you’re photo-editing or doing 3D modeling, that’s enough to feel the difference if you’re coming from an M1 or M2 MacBook Air.
As with all MacBook Airs, it’s a completely fanless machine. That feels incredible at certain points, especially when you’re in heaving applications like a game. I whipped out Baldur’s Gate 3, and while it’s far from ideal performance, the utterly silent system means you won’t even need headphones to play. But at 1200p, medium settings, and upscaling, it wasn’t too hard to find a balance of performance and image quality that felt enjoyable. Achieving that performance without fans is something that can’t be done on any other laptop right now.
The downside of being fanless, of course, is you’re not getting quite as much out of the M4 as you would on a system with active cooling, namely the 14-inch MacBook Pro. The Air’s system has to throttle frequencies down to prevent a meltdown, and even still, I recorded CPU temperatures as high as 102 degrees Celsius. Fortunately, the surface temperatures never got unbearable in my time with it, even while running under full load.
Smartwatch shipments in India dipped annually for the first time in 2024, as consumers moved away from cheap, unknown brands. Apple bucked the broader trend, however, with a reported 2.4x growth for the year.
According to data from analyst firm Counterpoint, India’s smartwatch shipments dropped 30% year-on-year in 2024. Signs of slowing sales emerged last year, as the market was flooded with unknown brands. The trend aversely impacted established domestic players, slowing the pace of innovation as a result.
As the broader market faltered, Apple Watch saw a 141% increase in its shipments last year. That growth bucked a 57% decline for the company in 2023, according to Counterpoint.
Counterpoint senior analyst Anshika Jain told TechCrunch that the Apple Watch saw an uptick last year as, “some experienced users gradually moved to advanced smartwatches” for better health insights, smartphone integration, and other features absent on cheaper devices.
“We expect this growing trend to continue in 2025,” she added.
The growth in Apple Watch shipments aligns with the the iPhone’s expanding marketshare in the country. Apple emerged as one of the top-five smartphone vendors in India last year, with a roughly 10% share in in Q4.
However, Apple Watch’s sizable growth ultimately had little impact on its overall share of the 35 million smartwatches shipped in India last year, according to IDC. Counterpoint, which does not share absolute shipment figures, told TechCrunch that the Apple Watch comprised roughly 2% of India’s entire smartwatch market in 2024.
Apple Watch’s success boosted overall premium smartwatch (priced above $230) shipments in India, with 147% growth. The Series 10 was the top model, followed by the Series 9. The Apple Watch cumulatively captured 50% of the total premium smartwatch segment in the country, per Counterpoint.
Samsung and OnePlus were the other top players in the premium segment last year, with a 4% and 1% market share, respectively.
Apple introduced its first in-house cellular modem, the C1, last week with the announcement of , and while it didn’t get into too much detail about it, the company reportedly has some big plans for future iterations. According to ’s Mark Gurman, “Apple intends to eventually meld the modem component into the main processor.” Integrating the modem into the main processor could have energy and cost benefits, but that design is still a ways off. We’ll likely see the C2 and C3 without it first, which the company is already testing according to Gurman, and the integrated design won’t follow until “2028 at the earliest
During its unveiling, Apple called the new C1 modem its “most power-efficient modem ever in an iPhone.” The $599 iPhone 16e also has an A18 chip (but with four GPU cores) and supports Apple Intelligence, even if that’s not .
Apple redesigned the Mail app on iPhones with the release of iOS 18.2 update back in December, but strangely skipped the treatment for iPads and Macs. The company has finally made a course correction with the macOS 15.4 and iPad OS 18.4 developer beta updates, which are now available for testers.
The biggest change introduced by the new Mail app are categories. All your emails are now neatly slotted across four categories. Here’s a brief breakdown of how it works:
Primary: For personal messages and time-sensitive content.
Transactions: A section for keeping a tab on confirmation emails, receipts, and shipping-related alerts.
Updates: All the content that you’ve signed up to receive via an email agreement, such as news, newsletters, and social media updates.
Promotions: This is the section where you get marketing and shopping material, such as coupons and sales-related notifications.
Apple, however, notes that if any of your emails across the last three categories contain time-sensitive details, they will appear in the Primary bracket. Apple is also taking an approach similar to social media profiles, when you open messages from a specific sender within these three categories.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
“When you tap a Transactions, Updates, or Promotions message, a digest view of messages from that sender opens,” says the company. This is a great way to catch up on activities such as alerts from your banking service provider, as you see all your payments neatly slotted in a vertically-scrolling card-like format.
Of course, you can always choose to disable categories and enable the classic list view that shows all your emails in the same order as they landed in your inbox. The idea is neat, as it separates unimportant jargon from relevant communication, but it’s not perfect.
The arrival of the updated Mail experience on iPads and Macs solves a big problem, even though it add some versatility, like letting users create their own categories. iPhones have had the new interface for a while now, and if you got used to it, not having a consistent experience on your Mac or iPad was a bummer.
With the arrival of macOS 15.4 and iPadOS 18.4’s first developer beta updates, there is finally some respite. It’s now only a matter of time before the developer and public beta testing comes to an end, and the overhauled Mail experience is available across the entire mobile and desktop ecosystem.
As far as other AI-powered tricks in the Mail app are concerned, Mac users can also take advantage of email summaries, smart replies, and priority messages.
Apple and Google on Thursday evening restored TikTok to their respective app stores in the U.S. on Thursday, several weeks after they removed the short video platform following a national security law that banned it in the country.
The companies has also removed other apps owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance — video editor CapCut and social media app Lemon8 — and on Thursday restored them as well.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden had passed the law last year, calling on ByteDance to sell TikTok to a company that wasn’t owned by a Chinese entity by January 19. The law was spurred by concerns that the company’s ties to Beijing threatened national security, and would have imposed severe financial penalties on app store operators if they didn’t comply. The Supreme Court had upheld the law on January 17.
But right after he assumed office, current U.S. President Donald Trump on January 20 signed an executive order aimed at delaying the law, and gave a 75-day extension to ByteDance to find a seller.
TikTok promptly restored services in the country, but Apple and Google kept the app out of their stores since there was some confusion regarding the penalties that would be imposed since the law had only been deferred.
For users in the U.S., those who had uninstalled TikTok were not able to reinstall it, but those who didn’t have been able to use it. Earlier this month, TikTok urged Android smartphone users to sideload the app.
Since then, Trump has said that he would like the U.S. to own a 50% share in TikTok through a joint venture with other tech companies. He also inaugurated a sovereign fund that could participate in TikTok’s dealmaking.
For one reason (coffee) or another (a small child), I constantly find myself with full hands. Simultaneously, the organization of the day relies heavily on a carefully curated alarm schedule. As a result, I am often left desperately trying to dismiss my buzzing smartwatch with just one hand. While I’m well aware of gesture controls, a deviant part of my brain insists on making do with another appendage instead: my nose.
Do you use your nose to navigate your wearable?
134 votes
Blame it on being a millennial, but I struggle with the principle of delayed gratification when it comes to tech. My adrenaline spikes at the sight of an alert, the feel of a vibration, or the sound of a ping. I need the dopamine hit that comes from seeing what’s happening on my device. You should see me when I can’t figure out which of the 15 fitness trackers on my desk is vibrating. Needless to say, if the device on my wrist wants to show me something, I need to see it, even if it means abandoning my dignity. Rather than waiting until my fingers are free, I am that person in the cereal aisle, nosing her smartwatch.
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
I know that gesture controls aren’t exactly new. These “hand-free” options aim to make tech more accessible and convenient, and for the most part, I applaud the effort. But the truth is, they rarely live up to expectations. For example, I was very excited to test Apple’s Double Tap when it launched, but a generation later, it still doesn’t offer the functionality I actually want. Most of the time, I end up looking like I’m trying to make a tiny alligator hand puppet chomp air. My nose, on the other hand, offers more tangible interactions — even if I look equally ridiculous doing it.
Unlike gesture controls, my nose offers more tangible interactions.
When an alarm sounds, I take my watch to the face and hit snooze. When my family chat blows up, I nod up and down to see which sibling is cracking a joke. When the notifications I keep forgetting to disable pop up excessively, I Pinocchio them right back into the ether.
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
Ironically, my nose faces similar issues as my fingers. (Yes, I’ve done this enough times that I’ve even identified problem areas). First, like any fair-skinned freckle face, I was taught to fear the wrath of the sun at an early age and apply SPF accordingly. A greasy nose doesn’t play great with touchscreens, and the resulting smudges are gross enough to make me question my life choices. Likewise, if my watch is wet, my nose’s tippy taps are even less effective.
Cold and flu season isn’t great for this method, either. Nasal runoff (aka boogers) can mess with the screen’s responsiveness. Considering winter gloves are one of the biggest hindrances to touchscreen use, it’s unfortunate that cold weather and stuffy noses often go hand in hand. Notably, your chin will work, but it’s a bit of a blunt instrument. With my nose, I can still see the screen as I scroll down a text thread or tap into a notification. It’s not the most refined behavior, but I make it as respectable as I can. Using my chin? Well, it’s more of a pecking-chicken motion.
SPF sunscreen still poses an issue, and so does a wet touchscreen.
The more I digress, the more I realize this is not my finest act as a wearables reviewer, but hey, I know I am not alone. At least one other Android Authority editor, who will remain nameless, signed off on this assignment in light of their own experience with nose-based interactions. I also found some Reddit threads of people celebrating the innovative use of their snouts. I can confirm that the elbows and toes will also work, as will presumably most body parts. If you find yourself holding a baby when a text comes in, their little feet also do the trick. I’d assume their adorable noses would also work, but I can’t, in good conscience, condone that.
As per an analysis by Kaspersky, malware with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities has been spotted on the App Store for the first time. Instead of stealing files stored on a phone, the malware scanned screenshots stored locally, analyzed the text content, and relayed the necessary information to servers.
The malware-seeding operation, codenamed “SparkCat,” targeted apps seeded from official repositories — Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store — and third-party sources. The infected apps amassed roughly a quarter million downloads across both platforms.
Interestingly, the malware piggybacked atop Google’s ML Kit library, a toolkit that lets developers deploy machine learning capabilities for quick and offline data processing in apps. This ML Kit system is what ultimately allowed the Google OCR model to scan photos stored on an iPhone and recognize the text containing sensitive information.
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But it seems the malware was not just capable of stealing crypto-related recovery codes. “It must be noted that the malware is flexible enough to steal not just these phrases but also other sensitive data from the gallery, such as messages or passwords that might have been captured in screenshots,” says Kaspersky’s report.
Among the targeted iPhone apps was ComeCome, which appears to be a Chinese food delivery app on the surface, but came loaded with a screenshot-reading malware. “This is the first known case of an app infected with OCR spyware being found in Apple’s official app marketplace,” notes Kaspersky’s analysis.
It is, however, unclear whether the developers of these problematic apps were engaged in embedding the malware, or if it was a supply chain attack. Irrespective of the origin, the whole pipeline was quite inconspicuous as the apps seemed legitimate and catered to tasks such as messaging, AI learning, or food delivery. Notably, the cross-platform malware was also capable of obfuscating its presence, which made it harder to detect.
The primary objective of this campaign was extracting crypto wallet recovery phrases, which can allow a bad actor to take over a person’s crypto wallet and get away with their assets. The target zones appear to be Europe and Asia, but some of the hotlisted apps appear to be operating in Africa and other regions, as well.
We test tons of tablets every year. Here are a few others we like, just not as much as our picks above.
OnePlus Pad for $399: The OnePlus Pad has a successor, but OnePlus says it will continue to sell the OnePlus Pad until stock runs out. It’s great value at the frequently discounted price of $300 (8/10, WIRED Recommends). Multitasking is notably efficient, aided by the company’s accessories: a Magnetic Keyboard case and a stylus. It was the first time I felt comfortable working for long stretches on an Android tablet. The 11.61-inch LCD 144-Hz display is sharp, fluid, and colorful, the battery can last nearly a full workday, and performance is smooth. It’s a shame there’s no microSD slot, headphone jack, or biometric authentication.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus for $480: The Galaxy Tab S9 FE is the “Fan Edition” version of the flagship Tab S9 series, meaning it makes some sacrifices for a more palatable price. It comes in a Plus and standard variant—I tested the former—and both include a stylus. It performed much better than the older Tab S7 FE tablet I tested with fewer stutters. The 12.4-inch LCD screen is large and a rarity to find at this price in the world of Android tablets, but it’s a bit tricky to comfortably hold, especially when browsing apps in bed. It has dipped as low as $400 before, so try to catch it on sale.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Series for $700+: The 2023 Galaxy Tab S9 series (7/10, WIRED Recommends) consists of three tablets: the Tab S9, Tab S9+, and Tab S9 Ultra. They’re all expensive, though prices have come down since their release. The hardware is still excellent and, considering the new Tab S10 series isn’t dramatically different, the Tab S9 series is still worth a look. They sport superbright 120-Hz screens and IP68 water resistance, and Samsung includes the S Pen stylus.
Poco Pad for £415: This affordable tablet from Xiaomi’s fun budget sub-brand has a lovely big, sharp 12.1-inch display with a 120-Hz refresh rate and four stereo speakers around the sides. The Poco’s build quality is impressive for the price, though it is quite bulky and heavy, and it’s ideal for watching movies or casual gaming in bed. Performance gets stretched if you play anything too demanding, and HyperOS on top of Android 14 can be clumsy and ugly. The battery life is pleasing, and you can expect several days from the Poco Pad with light use. Unfortunately, it’s not currently available in the US. —Simon Hill
Honor MagicPad 2 for £500: This classy tablet is also not currently sold in the US. Quite similar to the OnePlus Pad 2 we recommend above, it boasts a truly gorgeous OLED display with impressive specs (3K resolution, 1,600 nits, 144-Hz refresh rate) that are generally unavailable at this price. Paired with the eight speakers, watching movies and gaming on this tablet is a pleasure. The stylus and keyboard are great (I love the handwriting and formula recognition), but they don’t seem to be available in the UK. I found Honor’s AI features, like Magic Portal, which gets good at predicting what you want to do, very useful, maybe more so on a tablet than a phone. Battery life is good, and charging is speedy (66 watts). The only real weakness here is the limited processing power, which can’t match something like an iPad (though you will pay a lot more for an equivalent Apple device). —Simon Hill
Tablet Accessories
Satechi Aluminum Desktop Stand
Photograph: Satechi
Tablets often don’t come with kickstands or enough ports, so it’s a good idea to snag a few accessories to enhance your experience. These are some of our favorite tablet accessories, many of which you can also find in our Best iPad Accessories guide.
Satechi Aluminum Desktop Stand for $45: This is my favorite tablet stand, so much so that I’ve taken it with me on trips. It packs down relatively well, and it is very stable—there’s no wobbling around here. You can also adjust the angle quite a bit. It can handle huge sizes too—it worked perfectly with my 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Logitech K380 Pebble Bluetooth Keyboard for $40: Want a simple Bluetooth keyboard for your tablet instead of spending half the price of your tablet on a keyboard case? I’ve used Logitech’s K380 for years and it’s functioned perfectly. It takes two AA batteries that I’ve yet to replace (Logitech claims two years of use), and you can switch between three connected devices via Bluetooth.
Twelve South Compass Pro Stand for $30: This is made for iPads, but I’ve had no trouble using it for plenty of other tablets. It’s more travel-friendly than the Satechi above and fairly stable, but when I lift the tablet off, the back leg tends to change positions. You can angle it pretty low for sketching or keep it upright for watching movies. Unlike the Satechi, it’s not a great option for keeping the tablet upright on a mattress.
StayGo Mini
Photograph: Twelve South
Twelve South StayGo Mini USB-C Hub for $60: This works with iPads and other tablets just fine. You can either plug it in and keep it flush with the edge of a slate or use the included cord to keep it extended. You get a USB-C port you can use for pass-through charging, a USB-A, an HDMI, and a headphone jack.
Lamicall Gooseneck Tablet Holder for $28: I’ve used this on my bed frame to hold up various tablets for more than a year. The gooseneck requires a bit of finagling to get to the right position, and if you’re constantly tapping the tablet, it will jiggle around. But it’s a great hands-free way to watch movies. You can affix the clamp to any surface, like a desk or kitchen counter.
Twelve South HoverBar Duo Mount/Stand for $80: You can use this as a stand or as an arm mount, and Twelve South makes it really easy to switch between the two. That means you can easily affix your tablet to your bedside arm mount, and then put it on the stand in your home office in the morning. Both are sturdy, and the arm mount is decently adjustable. Best of all, it doesn’t wiggle around as much as the Lamicall above when you tap the screen.
Anker Nano 3 30-Watt Charging Adapter for $20: Most tablets charge at around 18 watts, so this 30-watt charger from Anker is more than capable. The plugs fold up, and it’s pretty compact. If your tablet does support faster charging, then I recommend Satechi’s 108-watt three-port USB-C charger ($75). This will let you charge your phone, tablet, and laptop all off the same plug.
Einova Ultra Fast Power Bank for $47: This power bank is slim enough to store next to a tablet in your bag, and it has enough capacity (20,000 mAh) to recharge an 11-inch tablet twice. You can fast-charge with the USB-C port and use the two USB-A ports to recharge other devices.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) is upset that Apple Maps still calls the Gulf of America the Gulf of Mexico. So upset that he tagged Apple CEO Tim Cook on X and said he’d filed a complaint. “Hey @tim_cook, just noticed Apple Maps still calls it the Gulf of Mexico. Sent a report through the app, but thought you’d want to know!” said the former Navy Seal.
It seems that Crenshaw is upset, triggered if you will, that Big Tech isn’t changing as fast as he’d like it to. He’s so upset that he did a cringe post in the style of a suburbanite upset at Target. Crenshaw’s whining typifies a behavior I’ve seen in right-wing pundits and politicians in the last few years, the rise of a kind of post and style once attributed to the left in online spaces.
Crenshaw is posting cringe and doubling down on the culture war. They’re obsessed with identity politics, attempting to cancel their enemies, policing gender norms, and demanding that the culture bend to their whims despite the culture not being interested. This is all the stuff they’ve long accused the left of doing.
Hey @tim_cook, just noticed Apple Maps still calls it the Gulf of Mexico. Sent a report through the app, but thought you’d want to know! pic.twitter.com/fA7cWtOGY1
Less than 24 hours ago, as of this writing, Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.” Along with a host of other changes, the order said that the U.S. would henceforth call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Google and Apple haven’t updated the name.
These things take time. But just because Trump says the name is different doesn’t make it so. It’s a body of water that’s not exclusively used by the U.S. and Mexico, and the rest of the world will still call it the Gulf of Mexico. A lot of people who don’t live in the U.S. use Google and Apple Maps and it’s a good bet that the name won’t change for them.
Wikipedia also hasn’t changed the name on its entry for the Gulf. “Even if it was official, America does not get to own Wikipedia entries. [It] stays the Gulf of Mexico as the rest of the world calls it,” said an unnamed Wikipedia editor in the editing history of the page.
“This is a modern version of the Freedom fries jingoism, having nothing to do with geography and everything to do with politics,” another Wikipedia editor said, referring to a post-9/11 attempt by conservatives to rename french fries. “We have the same sort of thing as a perennial complaint with British Isles from a series of Irish editors. This nothing new or special, and can be documented on its own and with simple passing mention in the article if and when it becomes more than a sound bite at a news conference.”
But Conservatives like Crenshaw will publicly make the demand, posting cringe and embarrassing themselves. Ignoble in victory, they now exhibit the traits they’ve long accused their opponents of having.
The American right has control over the Supreme Court, the presidency, and the legislature. That kind of total political victory isn’t enough. They want you to like them too. They want you to laugh at their jokes, take their memes seriously, and call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
The pinned post on Crenshaw’s X account is a “Conservative Guide to the Culture Wars” from 2021. The second item on the list is the claim that a “victor mentality is better than a victim mentality.”
Over the next four years, I suspect we’ll see a lot more cringe posts from Crenshaw and others as the victors twist themselves into victims when every little thing doesn’t go their way. Or when it doesn’t go their way quite as fast as they’d want.
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