Alongside its HomeView and its partnerships with other firms, Apple has revealed that it is serious about smart homes through new research aiming to make smart locks safer. Future smart locks could detect more than just whether your iPhone is near by - image credit: Apple. Imagine if you have a smart lock and a thief knows it. In the right circumstances, they could wait until you were walking away from your house and simply open the door before the smart lock registers that you're out of range. In practice, smart locks need you to be pretty close before they will open, but nonetheless, Apple has been considering problems like this. A newly-revealed patent application shows that Apple has been researching what it calls "Approach-Based Lock Control." Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
In iOS 27.2, Apple has a new settings menu that lets you choose which apps Siri, Search, and suggestions can access, all from one list. Here's what's changed and how to use the new menu. With iOS 27.2, Apple has replaced the old App Access controls with a redesigned Excluded Apps feature that makes it a lot simpler to keep specific apps away from Siri, Search, and suggestions. It's actually a bigger change than it might sound. Previously, excluding an app in iOS meant opening Settings ➝ Apple Intelligence & Siri ➝ Apps and adjusting each app's toggles individually. This included a switch that let Siri "Learn from this App," and several suggestion options that appeared in Search and widgets. What was confusing is that some of these switches controlled on-device personalization, rather than access to an app's contents. Moreover, fully keeping an app's content out of search results also required toggling off a separate "Show Content in Search" switch that was buried in each app menu in Settings ➝ Apps. Thankfully, in iOS 27.2, Excluded Apps consolidates all of this into a single multi-select list, where you can add an app once and make it unavailable to Siri, Search, and suggestions. Here's where to find it. How to Exclude Apps From Siri and Search Open the Settings app on your iPhone. Tap Siri . Tap Excluded Apps . Tap Add Apps , select the apps you want to exclude, then confirm your selection. Bear in mind that excluding an app can disable some Siri features for it. For example, the Electronic Freedom Foundation found that excluding Messages stops Siri AI from reading or replying to messages. Also, onscreen awareness – where you invoke Siri and ask it for information about what you're currently looking at – will no longer work in any app you exclude. Let an App Back Into Siri and Search To return individual app access to Siri and Search, simply tap the Edit button in the Excluded Apps menu, then tap the minus button next to the app in question and hit the checkmark at the top to confirm. Tag: Siri This article, " Prevent Siri and Search From Accessing Specific iPhone Apps " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
Apple today began rolling out the Creator Studio app updates that it announced last month . For example, both the Creator Studio version and standalone version of the Logic Pro app for the Mac were updated today. It is our understanding that Pixelmator Pro will also be updated today, with more apps in the suite set to be updated throughout November. MacStories editor John Voorhees tested the updated Creator Studio apps over the past week and has shared his impressions of the new features. Logic Pro for Mac has received a new Liquid Glass design, an AI-powered Intelligent Assistant feature that can help you build beats using natural language, a redesigned browser that centralizes things from loops and instruments to patches and plug-in presets, an enhanced Stem Splitter that now separates drums, and more. Sidecar support will turn an iPad into a multi-touch controller for Logic Pro on the Mac. Apple says Intelligent Assistant requires a Creator Studio subscription, so that feature will not be available in the one-time purchase version. Here are the Logic Pro version 13.0 release notes for the one-time purchase version, which costs $199.99: Version 13.0 - Unified Browser • Find the perfect sound faster with a redesigned browser that brings your entire library into one place — loops, one-shots, instrument and effect patches, and plug-in presets • Add your own custom or third-party sound to the browser and Logic Pro uses music understanding to analyze and classify them, applying tags that make even massive sample libraries easily searchable • Narrow results with dynamic tag filtering, or describe what you're looking for in plain terms like "atmospheric pad" or "lo-fi kick" • Find similar sounds or samples across your entire collection with ease • Browse your licensed Splice sounds alongside the rest of your library • Add any folder on your Mac as a Browser location for instant access to your personal collection Enhanced Stem Splitter • Break the drum stem into individual tracks — kick, snare, hi-hat, toms, cymbals, and other percussion • Rebalance your entire drum mix without ever needing the original multitracks All-New Liquid Glass Design • Bring clarity to your workflow with translucent surfaces and deeper contrast — menus, toolbars, and windows feel lighter and more refined Sidecar Support • Transform your iPad into a Multi-Touch controller for Logic Pro on your Mac • Tap to trigger cells in Live Loops, populate Step Sequencer patterns, adjust plug-ins and instruments, and control multiple mixer channels at once Play Surface • Play instruments with a resizable performance window — trigger drum and chord pads with your typing keyboard and mouse, or tap your iPad using Sidecar • Play a musical keyboard with controls for velocity, modulation, and polyphonic pitch glide • Make beats by triggering drum pads and use note repeat to add rolls — perfect for trap hats • Customize Chord pads to follow the Chord track in realtime, so every chord and note you play fits perfectly Step Sequencer Multi-Select • Select a range of steps with a drag or Shift-click, then adjust velocity, note repeat, or any parameter for the entire selection at once • Copy and paste groups of steps to new positions or rows, and use dedicated key commands to select all steps in a row, invert a selection, or nudge selected steps Apple has more detailed Logic Pro release notes in a support document . For $12.99 per month or 129 per year in the U.S., a Creator Studio subscription provides access to full-featured versions of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, MainStage, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and Freeform. One-time-purchase versions of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage remain available on the Mac App Store. Free versions of Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and Freeform continue to be available, but they do not receive all of the new Creator Studio features. When the remaining updates are released, we will let you know. Tags: Apple Creator Studio , Logic Pro This article, " Apple Creator Studio App Updates Rolling Out, Starting With Logic Pro " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
