Apple:

Apple today announced the third generation of AirPods featuring spatial audio, delivering advanced features and a magical experience in a new contoured design. By combining the power of the H1 chip with an Apple-designed acoustic system, the new AirPods use computational audio to deliver breakthrough sound with Adaptive EQ. Users can enjoy spatial audio featuring Dolby Atmos in Apple Music, movies, and tv shows, along with dynamic head tracking, across Apple devices.

And:

The new AirPods are resistant to sweat and water, and feature a force sensor for easy and intuitive control of music and phone calls. The extended battery life enables up to six hours of listening time and up to 30 hours of total listening time with the convenient charging case.

The new AirPods list for $179. Order them today, in your hands a week from tomorrow (Oct 26).

Apple:

Apple today introduced HomePod mini in three bold new colors — yellow, orange, and blue — giving users more ways to express their personality and style in any space.

And:

HomePod mini will be available in these new colors, along with white and space gray, with color-matched details throughout, including the tinted touch surface, mesh fabric, volume icons, and woven power cable, starting in November for just $99.

Follow the headline link to get a sense of the colors.

Apple:

Apple today updated Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro with powerful new features for creative professionals, and optimizations that take full advantage of the power and performance of the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in the all-new MacBook Pro. Professional video editors using Final Cut Pro on the new MacBook Pro can perform tasks never before possible on a Mac, like the ability to play seven streams of 8K ProRes or color grade 8K HDR video with the new Liquid Retina XDR display — a first for any notebook. Final Cut Pro also introduces a new Object Tracker that uses machine learning to automatically detect faces and objects, and match their movement to create beautiful, cinema-quality titles and effects on any Mac.

And Logic Pro?

Logic Pro, Apple’s pro music creation software, now comes with a complete set of tools for authoring spatial audio music — allowing anyone to mix and export their songs in Dolby Atmos for Apple Music. And musicians can use up to 3x as many plug-ins for recording on the all-new MacBook Pro with M1 Max. Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro are Universal apps that build upon the breakthrough performance and pro capabilities of macOS Monterey, and both are available today on the Mac App Store.

And:

Spatial audio represents the next generation of sound with its revolutionary audio experience and true multi-dimensional sound and clarity. Now with a complete set of mixing and rendering tools, Logic Pro allows anyone to author their songs as Dolby Atmos music files compatible with Apple Music. Musicians, producers, and mix engineers can expand their stereo projects to the surround channels supported by Dolby Atmos, using new mixer and panner controls. In addition, 13 plug-ins within Logic Pro — including Space Designer, Limiter, Loudness Meter, and Tremolo — have also been updated to take advantage of this new creative capability. Once the songs are published to Apple Music, listeners will be able to enjoy the immersive audio experience on their devices with spatial audio support. With the new MacBook Pro, musicians get workstation-class performance for creating massive spatial audio mixes, can quickly load large sample libraries, and can use up to 3x more plug-ins for recording.

I imagine all the studios are jumping to order these. As I write, I’m watching delivery dates of the loaded machine slip and slip. As I hit Publish, we’re already pushed back into late December.

Apple:

Apple today announced the Apple Music Voice Plan, a new subscription tier for Apple Music designed around the power of Siri. The Apple Music Voice Plan offers subscribers access to the service’s catalog of 90 million songs; tens of thousands of playlists, including hundreds of brand new mood and activity playlists, personalized mixes, and genre stations; as well as the award-winning Apple Music Radio — all through Siri for just $4.99 per month.

And:

Users can subscribe to the Apple Music Voice Plan through Siri by saying “Hey Siri, start my Apple Music Voice trial,” or by signing up through the Apple Music app. Once subscribed to the Apple Music Voice Plan, users can request music be played across all of their Siri-enabled devices, including HomePod mini, AirPods, iPhone, or any other Apple device, and when using CarPlay.

And:

Apple Music is also adding hundreds of new mood and activity playlists created by Apple Music’s editorial experts that are fully optimized just for voice. Subscribers can ask Siri to “Play the dinner party playlist,” “Play something chill,” or even “Play more like this” for a truly personalized music experience. These new playlists are available to every subscriber of any Apple Music plan — and make using Apple Music, together with Siri, even better. Subscribers to the Apple Music Voice Plan will also have access to Apple Music’s entire lineup of playlists, including favorites like New Music Daily, Rap Life, Today’s Hits, Today’s Country, A-List Pop, R&B Now, and more.

And:

The Apple Music Voice Plan will be available later this fall in 17 countries and regions, including Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

That’s a significant discount from the Apple Music Individual Plan, which is $9.99 a month. The difference? The Individual Plan adds in lyrics, music videos, spatial audio, lossless audio, and support of non-Apple devices. This new Voice Plan offers a lot, and undercuts Spotify Premium, which is $9.99 a month.

Reddit:

My car (a 2010 Subaru Forester) had been stolen.

I did all the normal stuff one should do when your car’s stolen. I called the police and filed a report. They reported the car stolen but didn’t seem optimistic much could be done.

And:

I remembered then, after the dust settled, that I had put a spare AirTag in the sunglasses holder of my car. I’d bought a 4 pack and figured there might be an off chance it could potentially help me find the car. There’s millions of iPhones in Chicagoland too, so I figured the chances of it getting pinged were decently high.

Follow along as this Reddit user marks their AirTag as lost, and follows the pings to find their car. An interesting read, raises some questions about how far to go to get your stolen stuff back, what you’d do if you caught someone stealing from you and had them arrested.