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PS5 system update that makes your controller sound better is rolling out today

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Sony is rolling out a new PlayStation 5 system update that makes your controller sound better, your screen sharing more immersive and your power indicator adjustable. System Update 9.00 entered beta over a month ago and is available in the public software pushed to PS5 owners on Wednesday.

PS5 system software version 24.02-09.00.00 enhances DualSense and DualSense Edge controller audio. The controller speakers are now louder, making the speakers sound clearer when broadcasting in-game sounds and voice chat. The controller’s microphone is also improved. Sony says a new “AI machine-learning model” suppresses background noises from button presses and game audio, leading to an improved voice chat experience.”

The update also adds brightness adjustments for the PS5 power indicator. You can change its levels by heading to Settings > System > Beep and Light > Brightness. You can choose from three settings: dim, medium and bright (default).

Screen still from The Last of Us Part II, featuring Share Screen interactions. The player’s audience members have arrows (circles with upward-left-facing arrows) at various points on the screen.

PS5 Share Screen pointers (Sony)

Share Screen, which lets you broadcast your gameplay straight from the console, adds pointers and emoji reactions. Your live audience can now use a pointer to show you locations on the screen. They can also send emoji reactions highlighting your gameplay triumphs and tragedies from the Share Screen. The features are toggled on by default, but hosts can turn them off from the Share Screen settings.

The 9.00 update also adds Unicode 15.1 emojis to messages. Less specifically detailed changes include performance and stability improvements for the system software, DualSense gamepads, PlayStation VR2 headset and controllers and Access controller.

If you aren’t automatically prompted to update, you can trigger the software download by heading to Settings > System > System Software > System Software Update and Settings, and choosing “Update System Software” under “Update Available.”

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CNN predicts doom for Apple: Today in Apple history

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March 13: Today in Apple history: CNN predicts doom for Apple March 13, 1997: With Apple preparing to cut thousands of jobs, CNN reports that “the coffin door is closing” on Cupertino. Apple is doomed! Doomed!

Knowing what happened in the years following, we guess this could technically be considered “fake news.”

CNN says Apple is doomed

With my Today in Apple history entries, I typically steer clear of highlighting comically inaccurate stories predicting Apple’s doom. After all, hindsight is 20/20. Writing about Apple for a living, I’m sure I’ve covered some dubious rumors over the years that failed to materialize as reported.

Still, more than two decades since the publication of CNN‘s story, “Apple running out of time,” it’s fun to go back and see how wrong the pundits were in 1997.

The death of Apple?

For this particular story, CNN spoke with Gene Glazer, technology analyst at (now defunct) securities firm Dean Witter.

“I don’t see how [Apple] can go much lower than that and do what they have to do, which is get back on track and turn the company around,” Glazer said.

Elsewhere in the article, he said Apple needed to turn things around — and do so quickly — or face the end.

“They don’t have a lot of time,” Glazer said. “I would say even two years is too long.”

As if to compound his incorrect predictions, Glazer totally missed the boat on the Newton MessagePad. He said people likely could bank on the success of Apple’s PDA. Apple had just debuted a new version of its Newton operating system, and was in the process of spinning off Newton as a startup.

According to Glazer, the biggest problem Apple faced was its reputation on Wall Street, which was in tatters.

“The people investing in Apple are contrarians,” he said. “The analysts are generally very pessimistic about the outlook.”

Apple doomed: What happened?

The “Apple is doomed” story, as reported, wasn’t totally wrong. In fact, Apple soon announced plans to cut 4,100 jobs — about one-third of its workforce at the time.

On top of that, Apple then reported a quarterly loss of $56 million that effectively ended then-CEO Gil Amelio’s 500 days of running the company.

The $56 million hit contributed to an overall Apple loss of $1.6 billion during Amelio’s reign. The losing streak wiped out every cent of profit Cupertino had earned since fiscal 1991.

Steve Jobs turns Apple around

However, it didn’t take long for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to turn things around after his return to the company in September 1997. Aggressive cost-cutting, which also included slashing Apple’s R&D spending on unnecessary projects, helped reduce the company’s losses. In addition, new products like the beige Power Macintosh G3 computer performed very well with customers. (It sold 130,000 units against a forecast of 80,000.)

By January 1998, in fact, Apple became profitable again — well within the time frame Glazer laid out for a turnaround. From there, Apple debuted the iMac G3 and iBook, and never looked back.

Oh, and the Newton — whose future was supposedly all but guaranteed — soon wound up being canceled so Apple could focus on building Macs.



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Quordle today – hints and answers for Wednesday, March 13 (game #779)

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It’s time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off. 

Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I’m still playing now, around two years after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it’s fun, but also difficult.

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Apple market cap breezes by Walmart: Today in Apple history

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Apple could be a $2 trillion company by end of 2021
At this point, a $200 billion market cap seems almost quaint for Apple.
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

March 12: Today in Apple history: Apple overtakes Walmart in value March 12, 2010: Apple passes Walmart and investment firm Berkshire Hathaway in value to take third place in market capitalization among publicly listed U.S. companies. The Apple market cap soars past $200 billion, fueled by intense excitement over the first-generation iPad.

Things look good for the company as it guns for powerhouses ExxonMobil and Microsoft.

Apple’s climb to the top of the stock market

At the time, AAPL was trading at $226 per share. Today, it trades higher than $172, but bear in mind that a seven-to-one stock split took place in 2014 after AAPL peaked at $645. If that split hadn’t happened, Apple would now be trading at a much higher price.

Back in 2010, it didn’t take Apple long to catch up to market leaders ExxonMobil and Microsoft after passing Walmart. In May 2010, Apple overtook Microsoft, surpassing the tech giant that dominated Cupertino during the previous decade. A little over a year after that, on August 9, 2011, Apple blew past oil giant ExxonMobil to become the world’s most valuable company.

In all, it was an astonishing turnaround for a company that came perilously close to going out of business during the 1990s.

Apple market cap heads for $1 trillion

Today, Apple has long since passed its $200 billion valuation. It went on to become the first company in history to reach the $700 billion, the $800 billion and the $900 billion marks. That was all en route to the $3 trillion mark, which Apple achieved on January 3, 2022. (That peak didn’t last: Today, Apple’s market cap sits at $2.66 trillion.)

Did you follow Apple during its climb to the top of the stock market? Did you possess the foresight to invest before the Apple market cap shot sky-high? Let us know in the comments below.




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Quordle today – hints and answers for Tuesday, March 12 (game #778)

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It’s time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off. 

Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I’m still playing now, around two years after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it’s fun, but also difficult.

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Bisnis Industri

iPad 2 is the sequel fans hoped for: Today in Apple history

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March 11: Today in Apple history: iPad 2 is the sequel fans hoped for March 11, 2011: How do you follow up your biggest product debut ever? That’s the question Apple needs to answer as it releases the iPad 2.

Apple’s second-generation tablet boasts a faster dual-core A5 processor inside a lighter build. It’s also the first iPad to feature VGA front-facing and 720p rear-facing cameras.

This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.

iPad 2: A worthy upgrade

Although iPad sales today pale in comparison to the iPhone, the original iPad came out of the gate as one of Apple’s biggest successes. When introduced in January 2010, it immediately became the most exciting new gadget in the world.

When the original iPad went on sale, it took less than a month to sell 1 million units — half the time it took Apple to sell that many iPhones at the time.

In its first year, Apple sold around 25 million iPads, making the tablet the most successful new product category launch in Cupertino history. After six months, it already outsold the Mac.

Second Apple tablet brings advances in form and function

The iPad 2, therefore, had a lot to live up to. Did it succeed? In a word, “yes.”

Apple’s second-generation tablet maintained its predecessor’s display size, price and capacity, but packed more power into a one-third thinner body. Measuring just 0.34 inches thick, it even came in slimmer than the then-current iPhone 4.

The iPad 2 lineup also added a new color: It now came in black and white options. The speaker grille also wrapped around the back of the device, providing users with better sound quality.

Apple’s new magnetic Smart Cover arrived at the same time as the iPad 2, instantly making the bulky, rubber, third-party cases for the original iPad look terrible by comparison.

In the end, the iPad 2 hung around for an impressively long period. It outlasted both the iPad 3 and iPad 4. Apple sold the iPad 2 until 2014.

Sound off on iPad 2

Did you own an iPad 2? What was the first model of Apple’s tablet that you bought, and what were your initial impressions? Let us know in the comments below.



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Your Galaxy A52 is one step closer to its end, but you could upgrade today

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It hasn’t been long since your Galaxy A52 received its third and likely last major firmware update. Samsung rolled out Android 14 and One UI 6.0 for the Galaxy A52 earlier this month, and now, the company has turned its full attention to its latest Galaxy A55 model. And maybe you should, too.

Samsung announced the Galaxy A55 today, and it might be the perfect upgrade for Galaxy A52 users who are ready to move on. Granted, your Galaxy A52 barely received Android 14, so it’s not out of the game yet, but the clock is ticking fast and the Galaxy A55 looks very appealing for many reasons.

Galaxy A55 — Better everything

Whether or not you think it’s time to upgrade the Galaxy A52, there’s no other way to put it: The Galaxy A55 is plain better in virtually every way.

Samsung’s new phone has a metal frame, which is a first for the series. It also has Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection for the front and back panels, and it looks like a modern device with flat surfaces, rounded corners, and independent camera cutouts instead of a camera housing.

More importantly, the Galaxy A55 has a brighter screen (1000 nits HBM) with Vision Booster technology for improved visibility and color accuracy. And as you know, the Galaxy A52’s display can’t go higher than 90Hz if it’s not the 5G variant, whereas the Galaxy A55 can go up to 120Hz.

Samsung’s new mid-range phone also has a bigger 5,000mAh battery and improved connectivity features, including Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 instead of version 5.0. The newer Bluetooth standard is faster and more reliable, offers better location-based features, and improves audio quality.

In terms of cameras, the Galaxy A55 exemplifies why more megapixels aren’t always better, especially when it comes to mid-range phones. Even if your Galaxy A52 has a 64MP primary shooter, the Galaxy A55’s 50MP camera is bound to take better photos and videos thanks to improved processing and nightography.

And if you feel like your Galaxy A52 is not powerful enough or doesn’t offer a smooth One UI experience, the Galaxy A55 might just fix that. The new model sports a minimum of 8GB of RAM instead of 4GB and can go as high as 12GB.

In addition, the Galaxy A55 has an Exynos 1480 chip, which is based on a 4nm process and boasts an AMD RDNA-based GPU.

So, what do we make of Samsung’s new phone? It’s pretty good! Nevertheless, maybe you could squeeze one more year of usage out of your Galaxy A52 if you really want to and try to enjoy the last Android 14 update. Maybe you can even push it to the launch of the Galaxy A56 next year.

On the other hand, if you are looking for worthwhile improvements right now, the Galaxy A55 is here and offers plenty of upgrades inside and out. It’s in a different league.

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Quordle today – hints and answers for Monday, March 11 (game #777)

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It’s time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off. 

Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I’m still playing now, around two years after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it’s fun, but also difficult.

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Bisnis Industri

App Store hits 25 billion downloads: Today in Apple history

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March 5: Today in Apple history: The App Store hits 25 billion downloads March 5, 2012: Apple reaches a staggering milestone, with 25 billion apps downloaded from the iOS App Store. The company celebrates with a giveaway titled the “25 Billion App Countdown.”

The lucky 25 billionth app downloader wins an iTunes gift card worth $10,000.

Apple’s 25 Billion App Countdown

Just four years after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs relented and opened the iPhone’s App Store, the genius of allowing third-party developers to create iOS apps was undeniable. Hitting the 25 billion downloads landmark in such a short time showcased just how smart — and lucrative — the move was.

Developers dreamed up apps that made the iPhone more useful and fun. Apps that became hits made devs rich, and Apple took a cut of the sales. The App Store became a major profit center for Apple.

“We’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded,” says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, in a statement. “When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users.”

At the time, the App Store offered more than 550,000 apps for download. Apple had doled out more than $4 billion to developers for their 70% share of revenue from paid downloads.

The winner of the gift card in Apple’s 25 Billion App Countdown is Chunli Fu from China. The app is Disney’s Where’s My Water?, a free puzzle game released the previous September.

App Store continues to grow

By comparison, today the App Store peddles nearly 2 million apps, and clocks more than 100 billion downloads a year. The App Store’s reach and influence continue to grow, although Apple’s management of the store faces increasing scrutiny from international antitrust regulators.

“Apps and games have become the essential source for the world’s most innovative and timely entertainment,” Apple said in a 2022 press release. “The efforts, innovation, and creativity of the developers who leverage Apple technology to build these incredible experiences, coupled with the power of the App Store’s global platform to connect businesses of all sizes with over 600 million people each week across 175 countries, has led to developers selling digital goods and services earning more than $260 billion since the App Store launched in 2008.”

Apple continually touts the benefits of the App Store to both consumers and third-party developers. However, the company’s strict control over the app marketplace and the overall iOS ecosystem have landed Apple in hot water. Changes coming soon in iOS 17.4 will open the iPhone to sideloading and third-party app stores in the European Union. And Apple faces a $1.8 billion fine for its allegedly abusive treatment of streaming music rival Spotify.

Apple loved the milestones

Just a few years ago, Apple liked celebrating milestone events with promotions like the 25 Billion App Countdown. In fact, a 2004 contest to mark 100 million iTunes song downloads made the 2012 app download contest look meager.

The winner of the 2004 contest received a personal phone call from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod and a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs.

These days, Apple mostly avoids making a big deal of these kinds of landmark events. When Apple passed the 1 billionth iPhone milestone, the company did little to commemorate the occasion. The same held true when Apple’s market cap surpassed the $1 trillion valuation. And $2 trillion. And $3 trillion.

Similarly, Apple avoids sharing too many details about the usage of services like Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness+. The company also stopped revealing the number of iPhones sold each quarter.

While I understand the logic behind this less-bombastic strategy, I miss the excitement of such old-school Apple events. It was fun when Apple eagerly (and publicly) counted down to its next gigantic sales record with events like the 25 Billion App Countdown.



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Today in Apple history: Apple reconsiders the Newton?

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March 10: Today in Apple history: Apple reconsiders the Newton MessagePad? March 10, 2004: Apple sends out a survey to select Apple customers, claiming that it is considering relaunching the Newton MessagePad.

“We need to determine why the Apple Newton was not a commercial success and whether there is an interest in re-launching a new version of the Newton,” Apple’s survey says. “Your comments will help understand why the Newton failed and if there is interest in re-launching a new, improved Newton.”

In hindsight, it seems pretty clear that this apparent “interest” in launching another personal data assistant was a way of doing some undercover market research for the still-in-development iPhone.

Newton MessagePad and the new thing

Apple launched the Newton MessagePad in 1993 with the goal of creating one of the world’s first PDAs. Apple engineer Steve Sakoman, a passionate advocate of handheld computing, drove the project early on. While at Hewlett-Packard in the 1980s, Sakoman developed the HP 110, the world’s first battery-powered portable MS-DOS PC.

The MessagePad project took place entirely during the decade-long period while Steve Jobs was away from Cupertino after his boardroom coup attempt failed. Many viewed the Newton as Apple CEO John Sculley’s answer to the Mac. It was his first attempt to launch a game-changing new product line during his tenure as CEO.

Newton flaws make it a joke

Unfortunately, the Newton technology did not initially work as well as hoped. The press piled on, printing numerous jokes about the Newton and painting the device as a failure.

Ironically, once Apple actually got the technology right with later devices like the MessagePad 2100 — which perfected the handwriting-recognition system the Newton included as a central feature — Jobs had returned to Apple. He decided to cancel further development of the PDA.

Apple officially ended the Newton experiment on February 27, 1998, with Jobs issuing a statement.

“This decision is consistent with our strategy to focus all our software development resources on extending the Macintosh operating system,” he said. “To realize our ambitious plans we must focus all of our efforts in one direction.”

Apple’s stealth iPhone survey

However, by the mid-2000s, Apple’s Mac business was booming. The company successfully moved into other areas as well, such as the enormously popular (and profitable) iPod music player. It only made sense, therefore, that Cupertino would consider other mobile devices — with the Newton the obvious reference point.

Inside Apple, two simultaneous iPhone research projects got underway: the so-called P1 and P2 projects. Right from the start, it became clear that both would need to offer PDA-style functionality. But Apple needed to work out exactly why the Newton MessagePad failed to click with customers.

It’s not known how much attention Apple paid to the feedback from the customer survey it sent on this day in 2004, just three years prior to the original iPhone launch. Still, as with the various patents Apple filed over the years, it’s fun to look back later and see how some of the company’s decisions make perfect sense in hindsight.

Were you a Newton MessagePad user? Leave your comments below.



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