A chance to score Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $575 headlines today’s best deals. Complete with Blood Oxygen tracking tech, today’s all-time low comes joined by some desktop Mac deals. Apple’s latest M2 Mac mini now starts from $499 and is joined by an even better discount on the 24-inch M1 iMac at just $800. Hit the jump for all that and more in the latest 9to5Toys Lunch Break.

Apple stopped offering leather cases and watch bands last fall as part of its environmental efforts. The idea is that pushing leather specifically at Apple’s scale is a net negative for the planet. Ahead of Earth Day this weekend, Apple is marketing the move with a short clip.

We have featured a near countless number of iPhone cases around here over the years, but today it’s time to take a look at “the world’s first action-button phone case.” Apple introduced the new haptic Action Button on its latest iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone Pro Max handsets, and now the folks at Bitmo Lab – a brand that originates from collaborations with sspai and JSAUX – are ready to debut the new BANG!CASE. Alongside the see-through case back, onboard LED lighting, and magnetic charging, the case also sports an Action Button (or BANG!Button as the brand puts it) you can customize to trigger any number of things with single, double, and long press clicks. Now available with early bird pricing, be sure to head below for more details. 

Apple trade-ins aren’t known for their generosity, but they do make for a very painless experience when upgrading to new devices – and the company will accept any older electronic devices for recycling if they have too little value for trade-in.

The company is currently linking to its trade-in and recycling page from the Apple homepage, in the run-up to this year’s Earth Day on April 22 …

While shooting professional-standard video is possible with an iPhone, it generally requires the use of accessories like lighting and external microphones. The new Rode MagSafe mount is designed to let you do this at an affordable price.

If your video accessory needs are more demanding, there’s also a MagSafe Phone Cage with five cold shoe mounts, as well as plenty of 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch threads for use with tripods, handles and other accessories …

Apple’s ad transparency tools aren’t sufficient to investigate issues like paid influence, says a new report, which also scored the effectiveness of 11 other tech companies’ tools.

Five companies – including social network X and Microsoft’s Bing search engine – scored close to zero, while Apple got a yellow rating indicating “big gaps” in the information provided …

The rollout of the Apple Developer Academy continues, with the company announcing the latest one in Bali, Indonesia. However, you don’t have to be based in the country to participate – it welcomes applications from anyone in the world.

The academy program has now been operating for more than a decade, and Apple says that 90% of graduates go on to “find meaningful employment” …

Update: MacObserver has now issued a retraction.

Here we go again. LeaksApplePro is back, this time with a claim that iPhone 16 Pro storage tiers could start at 256GB, up from the 128GB starting point of last year’s model.

As we’ve noted before, the supposed source is an account with a history of just making stuff up, and we’re mentioning it at all simply because coverage elsewhere means readers might be misled into giving it credence …

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In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Ari Leviatan from iMazing about their suite of tools designed to give hands-on power to an iOS and macOS admin.

A report last year revealed that Elon Musk had plans to introduce a new charge for users who have just registered on X (formerly Twitter) on the grounds that this would be the only way to make the platform free of bots. Now Musk himself has confirmed his intentions and revealed more details about this potential fee.

A recent report revealed that Spotify is planning to raise the price of its subscription soon, at least in some countries. And for those who think that paying $10.99 a month for a music streaming platform is already too much, the company may soon introduce an even more expensive “Music Pro” subscription that will enable lossless audio and some other extra features.

Threads, Meta’s microblogging platform, has come a long way since its launch almost a year ago. However, Threads still lacks some important features – such as an option to show real-time search results. After Meta said it had no plans to make this a reality, the company is finally letting some Threads users see recent search results.

When WWDC kicks off on June 10, there will be a lot of attention on Apple’s plans for new artificial intelligence features. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reiterates that one of Apple’s primary focuses will be on privacy and on-device intelligence.

In a 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus members-only episode, Benjamin and Chance watch BlackBerry, the 2023 film covering the “story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone.” 

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• BlackBerry (2023) on Letterboxd

Trying to stand out among all the MagSafe accessories on the market can often be challenging. What makes one battery pack better than the others? What makes one stand better than the others? It can often come down to minor features, pricing, and form factor. That’s precisely what the aims to deliver: a robust battery pack at a fair price that can charge up to three devices at the same time.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Sponsored by Kolide by 1Password: The device trust solution that ensures that if a device isn’t secure, it can’t access your apps. Close the Zero Trust access gap for Okta. Watch the demo.