As one of the biggest names in fitness trackers, Fitbit is an easy pick for recording your daily steps or sleep patterns. Selecting the best Fitbit model for your needs, however, isn’t quite as simple.

The different Fitbit trackers have a lot of overlap in features, and so it’s not straightforward which one is the “best.” Moving up the scale in price doesn’t necessarily mean you get all the features of the cheaper trackers plus additional ones. (This quirk is particularly relevant if you need water resistance.)

That’s where we come in. We’ve boiled down the options into three simple picks that should match most people’s activity levels and styles.

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Rumors suggested late last year that Apple was working on a battery case for the iPhone XS and XR, but the products sort of fell off the radar after weeks went by without no information. All of a sudden, though, Apple is selling battery cases for all three of the iPhones on its website.

The cases come in either black or white and cost $129, and remarkably, that price applies regardless of whether you get one for the iPhone XSRemove non-product link, iPhone XS MaxRemove non-product link, or iPhone XRRemove non-product link. They’re made of the same grippy silicone I love from Apple’s regular cases, and taking a cue from its previous battery cases, Apple designed it so the battery sits snugly against the back of the device.

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Apple replaced a lot of iPhone batteries last year. Should Apple switch to AMD processors? We also respond to your comments and questions for Jason Cross, Leif Johnson, Roman Loyola, and Dan Masaoka in the Macworld Podcast, episode 636.

Watch us live

The Macworld Podcast broadcasts live on the internet on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Pacific. You can watch on Twitter via Periscope or on the Macworld YouTube channel.

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What’s in store for the new iPhone in 2019? We won’t officially know until the fall (most likely in September), but until then, you can bet that the rumor mill will be fully operational. This page will keep track of what’s being rumored as new features of the 2019 iPhones, and we’ll provide some analysis and whether or not a rumor seems feasible.

Updated 1/15/18: New reports of the 2019 iPhone with a horizontally-placed three-camera system.

Three-camera system

The current iPhone XS has a rear dual-camera setup. Could the 2019 iPhone use three cameras? That’s what was rumored last April. though there wasn’t much detail as to how the three-camera system would work.

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Apple is said to be spending as much as $1 billion over the course of 2018 on original TV programming. That’s a lot of TV! It’s not the $8 billion Netflix is going to spend, but it’s still a huge commitment.

What can you get for a billion dollars? Well, some simple math gives us 200 episodes at $5 million a piece (a reasonable per-episode price for high-end TV). But we’re not likely to actually see 10-20 shows with 10-20 episodes each, all costing around that much. For starters, that billion dollars has to cover a lot more than per-episode production costs.

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It didn’t make a big splash, but Apple unveiled a new mapping tool last year at WWDC. MapKit JS is a JavaScript library that anyone can use to put Apple Maps on the web. It’s currently still in beta, but can be used by any registered Apple developer (with a daily limit on how many map views can be called).

Today, privacy-minded search engine DuckDuckGo announced that it will use the new MapKit JS tool for all its location-based search results. Previously, the site used OpenStreetMap for its results, with a drop-down box kicking you off to Bing, Google, or Here maps if you asked for directions.

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Whenever see a billboard while driving down the highway or see a stylish animation on your favorite website, you have experienced graphic design firsthand. Behind each of these beautiful designs is a graphic designer trying to catch your attention through art. If you’re interested in captivating viewers with your stunning visuals, you’ll need experience in a handful of programs, and this $39 Certification School is a great place to start.

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When you start up a Mac while holding down Command-R on the keyboard, the Mac boots into macOS Recovery. In this mode, you can run Disk Utility, access the command-line Terminal app, and reinstall the operating system. But what do you do if you restart your Mac into Recovery mode and a language appears other than one you know?

This doesn’t seem to happen at random, but it can occur when you’ve purchased a computer from someone who installed the system using another language, which can remain in place in the Recovery partition, a separately organized part of your startup drive.

Fortunately, there are a few ways to resolve this.

• Choose the third menu from the left, which is labeled File when in English, and pick the first option, which is labeled Change Language in English. You should be able to select the language you want.
• Launch Terminal, which is in the fifth menu from the left, labeled Utilities in English. The apps have icons next to them, and Terminal is a little rectangle with a prompt in it. After Terminal launches, type sudo languagesetup and press Return. You can then select the language to use.
• If you have a Keyboard menu at the far right of the screen, you can select the one with a tiny U.S. flag to switch to English.
• If all else fails, you can reinstall macOS by restarting your Mac and then holding down Command-Option-R. This will re-download installation files and prompt you for a language choice, while also upgrading the Recovery partition. It won’t overwrite your hard drive, but installs in place the latest version of macOS that works on your computer.

This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld reader Curtis.

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Bad news about Apple once again as it turns out that the company and its products are nor—repeat: not—immune to the effects of time.

Writing for The Wall Street Journal, John D. Stoll tells us how the destroyer of all things will eventually get Apple as well.

“Polaroid. Walkman. Palm Pilot. iPhone?” (Tip o’ the antlers to Philip.)

People love iPhones. But were you aware that death eventually catches up to all of us? Where is your god now?

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If you’ve spent the last few days watching for a good deal on an Apple Watch to help with your New Year’s resolutions, I’ve got good news: The wait is over. Best Buy is currently selling the Apple Watch Series 3Remove non-product link for as little as $229Remove non-product link. It’s the best price we’ve seen for this device this month, and it’s much better than the prices at other retailers.

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Keeping a bag full of devices all charged up can be a juggling act. A multi-port charger can help with that, and today you can grab Anker’s Premium 60W 5-port USB charger for $35 on Amazon, its lowest price ever and a sharp discount from its list price of $50.

This wall charger comes with five ports, including four high-speed USB-A ports with PowerIQ and one USB-C Power Delivery port. An LED indicator light shows when it’s plugged in. To keep all your devices safe, this charger comes with features like temperature control and surge protection, while a durable exterior keeps the charger itself safe from drops and scratches.

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The iPhone has a Today View that provides access to at-a-glance information from your most-used apps. It’s a great way to use your apps without actually tapping them on the Home screen. For example, the Weather widget in Today View shows the local forecast. You can even access Today View from the iPhone’s Lock screen.

Here’s how to access and manage the widgets in Today View.

IDG

How to access Today View

On the iPhone Home or Lock screen, swipe to the right edge of the screen. You can do this swipe from anywhere: the far left edge, the middle, or even close to the right edge of the screen.

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The new MacBook Pro comes with two or four external ports, depending on the model you pick. And the new MacBook Air has a pair of ports. But those ports are only of one type: Thunderbolt 3, which is compatible with USB-C.

But you probably have devices that use USB-A, Thunderbolt 1, Thunderbolt 2, DisplayPort, HDMI, or something else. How do you connect these devices? With an adapter.

If you’re planning to buy a new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, make sure you set aside a considerable amount of cash for the adapters you need. Apple doesn’t include any in the box, except for a power adapter.

Your best bet is to get a combination dock, like the Satechi Slim Aluminum Type-C Multi-Port Adapter ($60 on Amazon). It connects via USB-C, and includes a USB-C pass-through port, two USB 3.0 ports, and an HDMI port with 4K (30Hz) support. With this, you don’t have to carry around multiple adapters.

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The new iPad Pros models are pretty awesome, but they’re also pretty expensive. Fortunately, for two days Best Buy is offering discounts ranging from $100 to $150 for both new and old iPad Pro modelsRemove non-product link, which makes these prices a heck of a lot more palatable for the pocketbook. In some cases, they’re the best prices we’ve ever seen.

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All Macbook users know the pain of a paltry port situation. Today, you can fix your lacking I/O with a pretty slick deal: Amazon is selling the Vava USB-C Hub 8-in-1 adapter for just $45Remove non-product link, down from a list price of $60 and the lowest price we've seen.

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SSDs (solid-state drives) offer extremely reliable, fast, and consistent performance over many, many years. They aren’t subject to problems that can harm even the best-designed modern hard disk drives (HDDs): exposure to magnetic fields or the failure of moving parts inside the drives.

But SSDs remain expensive many years after they first appeared. Nearly all other aspects of computation—from processors to RAM to LCD displays—have dropped dramatically in price while improving in quality and performance year after and year. SSDs initially followed that curve, especially for lower-capacity drives, but tapered way off. The cost of manufacturing higher-capacity memory chips used in SSDs hasn’t dropped much in recent years.

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Apple’s not known for being the most outward-looking organization. For much of its existence, it’s seemed to project an aura of indifference—verging on ignorance—of what goes on outside its walls. That’s in large part by design: Apple has always had a carefully cultivated veneer of being in a league of its own, eschewing any need to pay attention to what its would-be rivals were up to.

Even when it has deigned to work with others, Apple generally presented an attitude of doing this as a favor to its partners, bestowing some small iota of the Apple brand and mojo upon them. (Remember its deals with Motorola and HP in the 2000s?) There’s no better example than porting iTunes to Windows—arguably one of the best business decisions Apple made, since it brought the iPod to scads of PC users—a move that Steve Jobs famously, if not decorously, described as “giving a glass of ice water to someone in hell.”

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