AppleInsider · Kasper's Automated Slave

A class-action lawsuit is accusing Apple of false advertising, claiming the crackling issue of the first-gen AirPods Pro go against Apple's marketing promises.

AirPods Pro

Filed on November 1 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the proposed class action lawsuit titled "LaBella et al v. Apple" claims that Apple was incorrect in marketing the high-quality audio of the AirPods Pro. Across 51 pages, the lawsuit alleges that the audio issues of the personal audio accessories go directly against the quality claims.

The lawsuit, first reported by ClassAction.org, discusses how consumers complained about audio problems when using the AirPods Pro within months of release. The issues were significant enough for Apple to launch a service program for affected units made before October 2020.

However, the lawsuit insists that the problems aren't just experienced by users of initially produced units, and that all first-generation AirPods Pro actually suffer from the issues. Apple was supposedly aware of it affecting more users, so it allegedly extended the service program to cover AirPods for three years after the initial sale.

Apple's own support documents explain that users could hear cracking or static sounds, along with Active Noise Cancellation faults, in certain circumstances. This included the use of the AirPods Pro in loud environments, or while a user was exercising or in a phone call.

The lawsuit further claims that customers would've either avoided the AirPods Pro or paid less for them if the issues were known about beforehand.

"The AirPods Pro Gen 1 were thus not worth the premium price that consumers paid for them-- as they contained an Audio Defect and did not live up to Apple's advertising," the suit states.

Apple is also alleged to have failed to notify first-gen model buyers of the support program's existence.

The claims for relief include accusations Apple breached its warranty under California law, Ohio law, Texas law, and Pennsylvania law, violations of the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, California Unfair Competition law, and the Consumer Protection Acts.

In its Prayer for Relief, the lawsuit demands damages to plaintiffs and class members, pre- and post-judgment interest, for Apple to repair and replace affected AirPods Pro units, and attorneys' fees.





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It is easily possible to double the cost of a new M4 Mac mini by buying Apple storage -- but if you know what you're doing, you can buy external drives, and save hundreds of dollars by working off those. Here's how.

External drives are vastly cheaper than Apple's storage upgrade prices

Apple's New Mac mini is a stunning bargain for its price and its performance -- but maybe only in its base configuration. Once you start adding anything like more storage, you hit Apple's excessive upgrade charges and the bargain diminishes, or even goes away entirely.

It is true that Apple has made things better, both by increasing the amount of RAM that base model gets, and also by making 256GB the smallest amount of storage you can buy.

Not long ago, you could buy a Mac mini with 128GB of storage. You've already guessed that 128GB is too small, but what you may not appreciate is how storage is not just about how many spreadsheets and videos you can save.

Once any size drive goes below a certain amount -- perhaps even just 10% of its capacity -- then you have more problems than not being able to fit in another email. On a small drive that's nearly full, the whole Mac will slow down.

It can slow down intolerably. And there is no way to upgrade that internal storage after you've bought.

Thunderbolt 5 logo and Thunderbolt 5 devices - Image credit: Intel, Hyper, Kensington, OWC

But there is of course a way to get more storage, and do so at a fraction of Apple's prices. No other vendor sells SSD storage for the high prices Apple does, and they are typically not even close to what Apple charges.

Yet there is a price to pay in a little complexity. It isn't very much, and the fact that you can use such a lot more storage for a little effort is well worth it.

You just need to know certain things, and you need to make certain decisions.

What you need to know about using an external SSD on a Mac as a boot drive

• External drives may be slower


• Certain files will always save to the boot drive


• External drives need to be backed up

It has always been the case that external drives are slower than internal ones, but it isn't necessarily true any longer. if you buy, for instance, an M4 Pro version of the Mac mini, you get three Thunderbolt 5 ports.

Thunderbolt and USB-C look identical, but they differ enormously. USB-C might transfer 20Gbps, but Thunderbolt 5 can go up to 120Gbps.

So you need a Mac with Thunderbolt 5 ports and an external drive that supports it, and the right cable. You can buy an external SSD and add it to an enclosure that has a fast connection, although note that there are currently no Thunderbolt 5 enclosures available.

Local files and backing up

Most apps create temporary files when you run them, and the good ones are careful to delete those files again when you're done. Whether they do that or not, though, they are going to save the files on the boot disk, which is typically the internal one.

So it's best to plan to use external drives from the start, rather than waiting until things have gone wrong.

But speaking of things going wrong, you have to remember that an external drive may not be included in your backups. You need to set Time Machine to specifically backup that external drive.

Online backup service Backblaze will automatically back up any drive that's permanently connected to your Mac. So you can't easily have a rotating pile of drives you use for different purposes.

Where you install apps

It used to be that, unlike a Windows application, a Mac app was one file you installed anywhere you like. Now most apps also install and save a ream of supporting files and they do it across your boot drive.

Some are invisible, some are meant to be temporary, but all of them can be hard to find. The Hazel drive utility will find them all, though, whenever you delete an app.

Aside from those temporary files, few Mac apps require you to save them to your Applications folder. It's a convenience for you when you do that, but it isn't required since most apps will just run whatever drive they're on.

But most is not anywhere near the same as all. For instance, the Adobe Creative Cloud suite requires you to install apps on the boot drive.

That's an outlier. Most apps are fine running anywhere, even if they default to the boot drive.

This includes the Apple apps that are likely to be taking up the most room on your drive. So Photos, and Music, for instance, may be taking up more space than you think.

Apple Intelligence could, too, if you choose to have its LLM downloaded to your drive. That's not something recommended by Apple, nor actually supported, and it isn't for casual users -- but it can be done.

If you do download and store Apple Intelligence, you can in theory move it to any drive. Just don't expect Apple to help.

Whereas Apple does help with the Mac's libraries of media, like Music and Photos but also your Apple TV library.

You can move your whole Music library to a new, external drive

And as of macOS Sequoia's latest betas, you can do even the same thing -- or very similar -- with the Mac App Store. Should you choose to, you can have any large downloaded app be saved to an external drive and run from there.

You don't get a lot of control. You do have nominate the external drive on which to save them, but if the app is larger than 1GB, it will go on that drive.

If it's anything smaller at all, it will continue to be saved to the boot drive. There is nothing you can do to change what apps are saved where from the Mac App Store.

How to install App Store apps on an external SSD

1. Open the Mac App Store


2. From App Store menu, choose Settings


3. If the option is there, tick Download and install large apps to a separate disk


4. From the dropdown menu, choose an external drive

From then on, those large apps will install directly to the nominated external drive -- so long as it's connected.

So this is Apple's nod to users with low storage remaining, but other manufacturers have done more. Steam games, for instance, can simply be saved to external drives.

How to make Apple's own apps save to an external drive

1. Open Music, Photos, or TV


2. Under the app's self-titled menu, choose System Settings


3. Click on the Files option


4. From there enter the new destination

Saving your own documents to an external drive

The Mac App Store and the libraries from Music, Photos, or TV, will automatically save to an external drive once you've set it. You, though, have to remember to save your documents there each time.

You can, though, use the app Default Folder X. This can give you fast access to your folders, and it can let you pin shortcuts to them on every Open or Save dialog.

Among many other things, Default Folder X lets you say, for instance, on which drive all your Pages documents should be saved

Plus it can do what the name suggests and make it so that a document is saved to the default folder you set up once.

How to boot from an external drive

You can make the external storage be the startup drive for your Mac. That's normally something you would do when there's a problem and you need to start the Mac up from a separate boot disk.

It used to be extremely easy to create an external boot disk, and it's still not exactly hard. But Apple has made it take several steps -- and done so for security reasons.

A Mac can't now just be started up from an external drive by pressing a keystroke, or changing the Startup Disk in System Settings. Instead, you have first disable the macOS security feature that stops booting from any external drive.

1. Shut down the Mac


2. Press the power button and keep it pressed


3. Let go when you see one or more drives and an Options section


4. Select Options and click Continue


5. When the Mac boots into Recovery Mode, select a Mac user you know the password for


6. Log in as a user with admin privileges


7. Ignore all of the options in the pop-up list and instead choose Startup Security Utility from the Utilities menu


8. Click to select the Mac's internal drive and then click Unlock


9. Follow the prompts concerning passwords, and select Security Policy


10. In the Security Policy window that appears, click to select Reduced Security


11. Then click OK


12. Under the Startup Disk menu at top left of your screen, choose Shut Down

Having done all of this, your Mac is ready -- once you have prepared an external, bootable work disk. You need to format the external drive, then put macOS Sequoia on it.

How to format an external drive on macOS Sequoia

1. Connect your external drive to your Mac


2. Open Disk Utility in Applications, Utilities on your Mac


3. Carefully select the external drive from the list that appears


4. Click on Erase


5. Give the drive a name


6. From the dropdown menus that appear, choose APFS


7. Click on Erase

How to get macOS Sequoia for an external drive

1. Search the Mac App Store for "macOS Sequoia"


2. Click "View" and then "Get"


3. When you've been bounced over to System Settings, choose the Download button


4. When downloaded, make a safety copy of the file called "Install macOS Sequoia"


5. Follow the prompts to install it on the drive you want


6. If your Mac starts to prompt you through setting up Siri etc, just quit it

Buying external drives

All of this supposes that you have at least one external drive but of course you might not. You could buy external drives from Apple -- or save the money, buy another Mac, and still have cash left over.

For instance, Apple will upgrade a base 256GB Mac mini to 512GB for $200. To go to 1TB, it's another $200, for a total of $400 over the base price.

Upgrade options from Apple vary depending on the Mac, but for the new M4 Mac mini the only other option is a 2TB upgrade. That costs $800.

You shouldn't buy drives from Apple, and there is an AppleInsider guide to the best external drives for the Mac. But wherever you buy, there is an issue in that drives either come complete in their own casings, or they are sold bare, ready to plug into other devices.

Those bare drives go into enclosures, which you buy separately.

A complete, self-contained external drive chiefly has the advantage that it's one purchase. You can also get ones that are sold in a rugged form, specifically for use when travelling.

So for instance, you could pay about $200 and get a SanDisk 2TB drive that simply plugs into your Mac. Or similarly a SanDisk Professional 1TB PRO-G40 SSD that's sold as being ultra rugged, and typically costs around $175.

Or you could buy an enclosure which has a fast connection to the Mac and lets you add a bare drive to it. So the ACASIS 40Gbit/s M2. NVME SSD enclosure typically costs around $90, as does a UGREEN model.

OWC sells a enclosure that you can also buy pre-configured with up to an 8TB SSD

Similarly, OWC sells an enclosure for $120. But in that case, you can buy it preconfigured with a 1TB drive for $250, or up to an 8TB configuration for $1,400.

SSD drives that fit into such enclosures are described as being m.2 size, which is similar to a stick of chewing gum.

Typically a 1TB m.2 drive costs $75. Then a 2TB m.2 drive tends to be around $130. In both cases, you can find them for less.

So the cost of an enclosure plus a drive is around the same as a self-contained drive, although both are substantially cheaper than Apple's upgrade pricing. With an enclosure, though, you can replace the drive with a higher capacity one as you need -- and it will use the same enclosure.

Or you can replace the enclosure and keep the same drives. That could be a benefit as faster enclosures are released.

Until Thunderbolt 5 enclosures are available, the fastest option is a Thunderbolt 4/USB4 connection. That offers 40Gbits/s, compared to USB-C's typical 10Gbit/s.

Non-Thunderbolt USB-C can go up to 20Gbit/s, but that isn't well-supported on the Mac. Those connections will default to 10 gigabits per second.

Buying options

Consequently you need to think about connection speed, and whether you buy a complete drive or a bare one plus an enclosure. This may be why complete drives are more convenient, because there are so many options for different enclosures.

So many that there is a whole AppleInsider guide to choosing the right one.

It takes time to find the right enclosure, if you need one, and even just the right external drives. Apple perhaps relies on some people figuring it isn't worth their bother and they might as well just pay for more internal storage in their Macs.

But Apple probably really relies on users not knowing that they can use external drives like this.



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The Connectivity Standards Alliance has finalized the Matter 1.4 spec, releasing it to accessory makers and platforms like Apple Home with several new device types and improvements.

Matter continues to improve with its latest update

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) is the governing body that develops the Matter spec. It's a member-led organization that is made up of Apple, Google, Samsung, and countless others.

Matter is intended to be the unifying standard, allowing products to work seamlessly across multiple platforms such as Apple Home -- formerly HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and more.

So far, the CSA has been on a bi-annual release cadence, updating the spec twice a year with additional features and improvements. We got the Matter 1.2 update in October 2023 and Matter 1.3 in May 2024.

What's new in Matter 1.4

New in Matter 1.4 is support for home routers and access points, generally referred to as HRAP. This allows HRAP devices to not only be controllable via Matter apps, but ensures that they will play nicely with Matter accessories.

Any Matter HRAP device will act as a Wi-Fi access point and a Thread border router. They also will help sharing Thread network credentials.

The 1.4 update makes it easier for devices to be added to multiple ecosystems, such as a smart light that you can control with a HomePod and a Google Nest smart speaker. They can now be added to multiple ecosystems automatically.

Finally, there's a big push for energy management. New devices and features include:

• Solar power inverters, hybrid solar systems, and solar panel arrays


• Battery walls, battery storage cells, and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) that feed back into the grid


• Heat pumps


• Water heaters


• Scheduling for EV chargers


• Scheduling and preset modes for thermostats


• New in-wall devices that deliver power to wired devices like lights and fans

Matter 1.4 availability

It's unclear when new devices or ecosystems supporting Matter 1.4 will arrive. Technically, Apple still hasn't added support for Matter 1.2 yet.

As it does every year, the annual Consumer Electronics Show is coming in January but that seems early for new devices to be launched. Since the spec was just finalized, that doesn't leave accessory makers or ecosystem developers much time.

It may not be until 2026 that compatible devices ship. Rumors have pointed to Apple making a big push into the smart space in 2025.



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Apple Silicon speed has steadily improved since the debut in 2020. Here's how much faster Apple has made its chips in just four years.

M4 is Apple's latest chips - Image credit: Apple

Chip generations tend to improve with age. As designs get better and production processes squeeze more onto a smaller space, the performance of chips get better over time.

This is also true of Apple Silicon, Apple's self-designed chips used in its Mac lineup, as well as the iPad Pro and iPad Air. The replacement of Intel's chips has proven itself repeatedly to have been a great move for Apple, with the improvements impressing customers and resulting in more buyers.

Now, as the fourth generation of Apple Silicon ships in the form of the M4 series, we have three generational jumps to analyze. We can see more accurately how Apple's chip lineup has improved since the M1 first launched in November 2020.

Apple Silicon Chip comparisons

When performing this comparison, we are using the Geekbench results listings as our base. Using the latest results eliminates any version changes in the benchmark, so the results should all be on a fair footing.

There are some other issues to consider when using this approach, such as chip releases with core count options. There are also differences between a MacBook Pro and a Mac Studio, for example, which can affect the thermal management and therefore the results.

There are other factors too, including the production process providing improvements with die shrinks, as well as memory bandwidth upgrades.

To save splitting hairs, we are only using the top result for each chip in each category, to give it the highest potential score.

When it comes to the M4, Geekbench's Mac results list doesn't have any figures. However, you can search for the models of Mac in its database and fish out results.

For M4 models, we averaged out figures that seemed plausible, to try and root out any false or heavily errant results.

Single-core changes in Apple Silicon

Of the three benchmark results, the single-core testing offers the least variance between models. This consistency is pretty much down to how Apple produces versions of its chips.

A chip maker like Intel could differentiate between chip variants in a generation by modifying multiple factors, including core clock speeds and the number of cores. Apple tends to keep the clock speeds pretty similar across a generation, but it still has the option to change the core counts.

Each Apple Silicon chip could have different core splits between performance cores and efficiency cores. But since we know the speed of each core type will be pretty comparable, there's not going to be much difference between an M1 and an M1 Max here.

Also, when performing a single-core test in Geekbench, the performance cores are the ones that tend to be used.

Geekbench single-core benchmarks

When compared by percentage change from the M1 version, we see pretty similar results for each of the base, Pro, and Max chips.

The M2 generation is between 11% and 16% better than the M1 for single-core results. The M3 is between 29% and 20% better, while the M4 is between 63% and 68% better.

For the two Ultra chips, the M2 Ultra is 16% better than the M1 Ultra in single-core testing.

What this comparison shows is that Apple's upgrades are quite consistent across a generation when it comes to single-core comparisons. It also demonstrates that there is a fairly sizable performance boost evident in each generation.

Multi-core changes in Apple Silicon

While single-core was fairly straightforward to understand, things get a bit tougher when it comes to the multi-core scores.

The problem here is that prefix "Multi," in that it means all of the chips on a CPU are put under load. With more cores, a chip can score higher.

However, Apple hasn't been entirely consistent in the way it distributes its performance and efficiency cores.

On the lowest 8-core CPUs, it usually splits them evenly, with four each in use. On a more powerful Max chip, such as the M3 Max, it could have a small collection of four efficiency cores, but then fill out the other 12 spots with performance cores.

The inconsistency comes in with the M3 Pro generation. A 12-core M3 Pro is configured with six efficiency cores and six performance cores.

This is odd, since the 8-core M3 and the 16-core M3 Max both have four efficiency cores and the remainder are performance cores. The even split means the M3 Pro doesn't have as much CPU number-crunching performance in multi-core testing than it normally would.

Geekbench multi-core benchmarks

Examining the figures, the addition of lots of cores makes the differences more pronounced, as a percentage. The M2 generation is generally 16% to 17% better than the M1 in multi-core testing.

For the M3 generation, the M3 is 39% better than the M1 and the M3 Max is 66% better, but the M3 Pro is only 24% better. Again, the M3 Pro is an anomaly for Apple Silicon.

M4 is, again, considerably better, reaching 70% better than M1 for the base level, 84% better for the Pros, and 111% better for the Max chips.

Again, the M2 Ultra is 17% better than the M1 Ultra.

GPU changes in Apple Silicon

When it comes to graphical performance, we turn to the Metal test results in Geekbench. Much like how multi-core performance is based on clock speed and core counts, the GPU performance relies on the same things.

However, the core counts of GPUs can grow by a considerable number, depending on the variant.

For example, the humble base M1 has at most an 8-core GPU, the M1 Pro has a 16-core GPU, the Max has a 32-core version, and the Ultra up to 64 cores.

Likewise, M4 starts with 10 cores for the GPU, rising up to 20 cores at most for the Pro, and a maximum 40-core GPU on the M4 Pro.

Clock speeds and other graphical improvements can also impact results.

Geekbench Metal benchmarks

Comparing the results against the M1 counterparts, the Geekbench figures say the M2 is 41% better than the M1, the M3 is 45% better, and the M4 is 75% more powerful than the original.

For Pro models, there's a 22% improvement from M1 to M2, but the improvement seemingly dips to 17% for the M3 over the M1. Oddly the M4 Pro's GPU is only 3% better than the M1, at least according to the results.

This seems to be an oddity with Geekbench's results listings at some point, as they should be a lot higher. Since the results are updated regularly, it's possible that these figures could correct themselves within days.

At the Max end, things pretty much return to normal. The M2 Max's GPU is 26% better than the M1 Max, the M3 Max is 35% faster than the M1 Max, and the M4 Max is 69% better.

On the Ultra chips, the M2 Ultra's GPU is 38% better than the M1 Ultra's version.

Consistent improvements

Each time Apple introduces a new generation of Apple Silicon, it's promoted as the best version yet. Faster cores, more cores, and better graphics each year.

It's clear from the Geekbench listings that Apple is keeping up with its promise.

At least, if you ignore the oddities that are the M3 Pro's CPU core split and the Pro model GPU results. The former is explainable as Apple's decision, the latter is more likely to be a results problem rather than an Apple issue.

What is certainly understandable is that Apple is making a considerable improvement in each generation of its chips, regardless of the variant.

We can expect that, when M5 eventually arrives, it will be about 20% better than the current M4 chips. That is, if you base the results against what each chip generation brings versus the previous in these figures.

Apple could go wild and offer something completely different in the next generation. More cores, different performance-efficiency core splits, new GPU ideas, can all make a difference to performance.

It could do that, or it could stick to its more gradual improvements. Either way, whatever comes next should be Apple's best yet. As usual.



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A VPN is meant to protect you and your data, but that's not always the case when it comes to free services. Here's why you should be wary of no-cost VPN services.

VPNs are available for the iPhone and other hardware

Paying for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service offers users many benefits, including encrypting their online web traffic. Keeping your sensitive data private is its primary function, and in the vast majority of cases, that's how they operate.

However, alongside the trustworthy paid-for services, people who want to use a VPN without signing up for a subscription have another option. They can instead use a free VPN service.

This doesn't necessarily sound like a bad deal for users. It's seemingly all of the benefits of a VPN, including tunneling through nodes in other countries to get past geo-limitations on content.

However, while free is a great price, it certainly doesn't mean that you'll get a good service. In some cases, it actually does more harm than good, and for multiple reasons.

Weak encryption

Many of the top subscription VPNs for Mac and iPhones boast about having high standards for their encryption. Using top-tier encryption that regularly gets checked and tested, paid services do a lot to assure clients that their data is safe.

However, the better the encryption, the more expensive it is to implement and to run. For a free VPN which doesn't necessarily have the cash reserves to do this, they simply cannot.

Instead, the free VPNs end up using older protocols. A common one is PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol), which isn't exactly the most secure method to use online anymore.

Weak protocols are more easily broken by a determined attacker, which means your traffic is at risk.

Data logging

Another reason not to use free VPN services is due to the way they can earn revenue. To offset your use of their services, they have to use whatever data they collect to recoup the cost.

This typically means that your activity is logged. While your actual connection could be private from prying eyes, the service could be collecting your browsing history and other personal information that it can detect.

This data is then sold off to data brokers, which is then used to build profiles that online marketers can use to target advertising to you. It's even collected and used by government agencies.

This is pretty much how Google earns revenue while providing many free online services, and practically everyone is aware that this happens. The difference is that you wouldn't expect a service like a VPN to actively collect and share your data when it's meant to keep your online browsing private.

As usual, if you're using a free service online, you are often the real product.

Paid VPN services often point out that they do not collect data on their users in this way. Not just because they don't work with data brokers, but because of privacy risks.

If a VPN collected data on your browsing habits and stored it, that data cache becomes a potential target for hackers.

Page insertions and ad hijinks

A VPN service with lesser-quality encryption and data logging capabilities could go one stage further to recoup its revenue. They could interfere with the web traffic itself.

This doesn't mean large-scale tampering with web search results and the website content you want to view. Really, a free VPN may slip in some extra elements to pages, or as popups, so that you can be served advertising.

These ads would earn revenue for the free VPN service itself, not the website that the ad has been inserted into. It's also plausible that the real advertising on a website could be replaced when using some unscrupulous free VPN services.

In the latter case, this would be denying the website you're reading some advertising revenue.

This is actually a bigger problem than you may think, beyond being served more ads. It's possible for those ads to be serving malware directly to the browser, since they're being added through lesser ad networks that are less safe and secure than traditional ones.

Malicious VPN apps

The worst problem with free VPNs is if you pick one that is actively malicious. Accessing a free VPN is a big carrot a hacker could dangle to catch unsuspecting victims who are all too willing to install the VPN app.

That app could contain malware, hidden away so that it can be installed without your knowledge. That malware could, at its worst, collect and send off your data or infect the system it's installed on.

Well-known and paid-for VPNs obviously don't have that problem, since it would severely harm their reputation. A barely-heard-of free VPN doesn't have that to lose.

Not all VPNs

The issues outlined above are common problems for free VPN services, but not all of them have these issues. Aside from paid services with better security and encryption levels, you can still find some free services out there that are safe to use.

Some free services are actually freemium, referring to paid services that offer free tiers of usage. While limited in various ways, such as in server selection or speed, they often offer the same sort of security as the paid version.

One considerable exception in the free VPN world is ProtonVPN, the service from the same people who made ProtonMail. While the free options limit what servers you can use, it does still use excellent encryption and has a strict no-logs policy.

If you only need a VPN for occasional tasks and you're not quite ready to pay for a full-blown VPN, ProtonVPN is a decent option for free protection. You can also find discounted prices on paid VPN services with the best VPN deals.



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