O'Grady's PowerPage

  • Apple chooses 350 Swift Student Challenge winners, highlights four winners and their entries

    Apple chooses 350 Swift Student Challenge winners, highlights four winners and their entries

    The entries are in, and Apple has chosen 350 Swift Student Challenge winners and highlighted four distinguished winners and their apps.

    The entries hailed from 37 different countries and winners, and of those 350, 50 have been invited to attend the company’s WWDC event in June, 2026.

    The four distinguished winners, per AppleInsider:

    Steady Hands — Gayatri Goundadkar

    Created by 20-year-old Gayatri Goundadkar, Steady Hands was built to help her grandmother create artwork using an iPad despite suffering from hand tremors.

    Using Apple’s accessory features, such as Touch Accommodations, Goundadkar learned SwiftUI concepts and then leveraged Anthropic’s Claude AI to figure out a solution.

    The result is an app that uses Apple’s PencilKit and Accelerate frameworks to monitor an Apple Pencil’s movement and then identify tremors. Those tremors can then be accommodated for.

    Pitch Coach — Anton Baranov

    At the age of 22, Anton Baranov is a computer science student at the University of Applied Sciences Mittelhessen in Germany. He developed Pitch Coach after hearing his linguistics and literature professor’s mother explain how students sometimes struggle under pressure in her class.

    Four diverse young adults smiling and posing playfully, surrounded by colorful 3D icons including music notes, brackets, arrows, a rain cloud, stars, and an artist palette on a light background

    Pitch Coach is designed to help users overcome presentation anxiety. The app uses Apple’s Foundation Models framework to generate feedback and help users avoid filler words such as “like” or “um.” Now, Pitch Coach helps everything from students doing class presentations to stand-up comedians.

    Asuo — Karen-Happuch Peprah Henneh

    Having only learned Swift earlier this year, Henneh created Asuo to help people in flood-prone communities find safety when they need it. The app provides real-time routing in flood zones, and includes support for VoiceOver to help visually impaired users.

    At its core, Asuo calculates rain intensity and then uses a pathfinding algorithm informed by historic flood data. Henneh used Figma to create the app’s interface before turning to Claude for help in building the rain simulator.

    LeViola — Yoonjae Joung

    Yoonjae Joung came up with the idea for his app after finding that he missed playing an instrument that he’d had to leave at home. He found that he didn’t have room for his viola when packing for an exchange program at New York University.

    He was inspired to create LeViola, an app designed to make it easier to learn and play the viola even if you don’t have one.

    Joung used Apple’s on-device machine learning frameworks to analyze the movement of his left hand to determine which notes are pressed. Tracking the angle of the right arm means the app can differentiate between strings.

    It’s still early days for LeViola, but Joung says that he can also make similar apps for other instruments, too.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via AppleInsider

  • Rumor: Apple may drop the $599 MacBook Neo configuration due to global component shortage

    Rumor: Apple may drop the $599 MacBook Neo configuration due to global component shortage

    The hardware component shortage continues, and Apple may consider dropping its cheapest MacBook Neo notebook configuration as a result.

    According to Taiwan-based tech columbisat and former Bloomberg contributor Tim Culpan, Apple is considering dropping its $599, 256GB MacBook Neo model, thereby making its cheapest notebook the 512GB version, which retails for $699.

    Writing in his latest Culpium newsletter, Culpan says cutting the entry-level 256GB model is among the options Apple is weighing as component costs climb. Such a move would push the Neo’s effective starting price up by $100 without raising the price of any individual configuration.

    Apple recently executed a similar move with two of its desktop Mac models. The company stopped offering the 512GB version of the Mac Studio in March, and dropped the Mac mini’s lowest 256GB storage option last week, making the latter’s starting price increase from $599 to $799 in the United States. The moves come as a result of a worldwide shortage of memory chips, which are being purchased and used for the construction of AI data centers.

    Culpan’s article states that Apple is pushing to ramp up manufacturing. Shipping estimates on Apple’s website currently put delivery times at two to three weeks across the lineup given stronger-than-expected demand, and Apple is said have instructed suppliers to increase production capacity to 10 million units, roughly double the original forecast of 5 to 6 million.

    Apple is also said to be up against the fact that the initial Neo batch used lower-end A18 Pro chips, which had one GPU core disabled. A fresh production run would produce more fully functional chips, increasing the per-unit cost even before any expedited manufacturing premiums are applied. Should Apple decide against dropping the $599 MacBook Neo configuration, the company may consider introducing new color options for the current-generation Neo to help justify a potential price hike.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via MacRumors and Culpium.com

  • Rumor: Apple to allow users to select their preferred third-party AI models in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 operating systems

    Rumor: Apple to allow users to select their preferred third-party AI models in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 operating systems

    You may be able to choose your AI assistant in Apple’s upcoming operating systems.

    According to Bloomberg, Apple is rumored to be offering users the option to run the artificial intelligence assistant of their choice through third-party models as an alternative to Apple Intelligence.

    The report, which was published on Tuesday, cited sources who stated that users will be able to choose from multiple third-party AI models in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27.

    While users can already use ChatGPT for some actions on their iPhone, the new version will work with other models as well. These integrations have apparently included models from Anthropic and Google, the sources claim.

    The choices will be part of an “Extensions” feature, which will allow for generative AI capabilities from installed apps. The Apple Intelligence feature will include access to Siri, Writing Tools, and Image Playground, as a message in a test build apparently said.

    Siri users will be able to select a different voice for conversations with the external models, which will help differentiate AI sources on the fly.

    Apple has stated that it intends to warn users that it isn’t responsible for content generated by any of the selected third-party models. In addition to this, there’s word of a specific App Store section that will list compatible AI apps that users can download.

    The company is expected to detail its AI roadmap at its WWDC 2026 keynote speech and sessions next month.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via AppleInsider and Bloomberg

  • Additional Mac mini and Mac Studio models cut from the Apple Store website as AI data centers strain available RAM, SSD supplies

    Additional Mac mini and Mac Studio models cut from the Apple Store website as AI data centers strain available RAM, SSD supplies

    An additional number of desktop Mac configurations have been removed from Apple’s online storefront as the global memory shortage continues. Per MacRumors, the models with 32GB and 64GB of RAM are no longer available for purchase, and the M3 Ultra Mac Studio with 256GB of RAM is off the shelf as well.

    The M3 Ultra Mac Studio is now available only in a 96GB RAM configuration, with higher-tier options eliminated. Both M3 ‌Mac Studio‌ and M4 Max ‌Mac Studio‌ models have delivery estimates of 9 to 10 weeks.

    Where the Mac mini is concerned, the M4 Pro model now maxes out at 48GB of RAM, and the 64GB option is no longer available. The stock M4 Mac mini is now only available with 16GB or 24GB of RAM, because the 32GB option has been removed.

    Last week, Apple removed the ‌Mac mini‌ with 256GB of SSD storage, leaving the 512GB model as the minimum option. This effectively raises the price of the Mac mini from $599 to $799, and Apple has also stopped accepting some orders for Mac Studio and Mac mini models with higher amounts of RAM as of March and April of this year.

    Apple CEO Tim Cook recently acknowledged that the company had underestimated the demand for Mac mini and Mac Studio models from customers looking for a machine to run AI and agentic tools locally. He said Apple also expects significantly higher memory costs in the months to come, so Apple is likely conserving supply by eliminating some configuration options. Components such as RAM and SSDs have recently been gobbled up by the creation of AI data centers, which have led to high prices and memory shortages.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via MacRumors

  • Rumor: Apple to retain anodized aluminum finish for iPhone 18 Pro models despite durability complaints associated with the components

    Rumor: Apple to retain anodized aluminum finish for iPhone 18 Pro models despite durability complaints associated with the components

    Apple may carry over the same anodized aluminum finished introduced with the iPhone 17 Pro to the 18 Pro, despite complaints from some users about its durability.

    Per noted Weibo leaker “Fixed Focus Digital,” complaints of surface chipping on the iPhone 17 Pro have become common, and some users who have sought recourse from Apple have been told they cannot claim it, with the company classifying the issue as an inherent characteristic of the aluminum alloy material and normal wear and tear. Representatives from Apple have also stated that the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ will “continue to utilize this same design approach” despite these complaints.

    The introduction of the iPhone 17 Pro saw the iPhone maker move away from the titanium frames Apple had used in its iPhone Pro lineup in 2024 and 2025, adopting an anodized aluminum unibody design. Surface durability concerns surfaced almost immediately after launch.

    Complaints surfaced that the Dark Blue and Cosmic Orange models appeared to scratch more easily than other finishes, some users stating that visible marks had emerged within days of availability. Scratch tests from sources such as YouTuber JerryRigEverything noted that the anodized shell holds up well against everyday items like keys and coins, but pinpointed the camera plateau as a clear weak point where the raised, unchamfered edges chip and scratch easily.

    Another issue that was cited has been a number of Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro owners reporting color shift, wherein the aluminum frame and camera plateau drifting toward a rose-gold or pink hue, and in some cases, prompting device replacements by Apple Support.

    Rumors have pointed towards four color options for the iPhone 18 Pro models: Dark Cherry, Light Blue, Dark Gray, and Silver.

    The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max are expected to be announced in September 2026, alongside the first foldable iPhone.

    If you’ve seen these issues on your end, please let us know about your experience in the comments.

    Via MacRumors and Weibo