Amid sharply rising memory and storage prices that are forcing many tech makers to hike prices, Apple is in a surprisingly strong position. While the company has raised prices on select iPad and MacBook models, its robust margins, new lower-priced lineup (including the MacBook Neo and iPhone 17e), and pricing power could make its products look more attractive relative to competitors — potentially driving market share gains and long-term ecosystem growth.
[A]s other companies need to raise prices significantly due to rising memory and storage costs, Apple may not feel as much pressure to do so, given its strong margins. While it has announced price increases for some products, including the MacBook Neo, it has held off on raising iPhone prices for the time being. Other companies that don’t have Apple’s financial might may not have that same luxury. And as the gap between Apple’s products and lower-priced options diminishes, consumers may be more inclined to simply buy an Apple product.
Apple’s stock is up 15% since the start of the year, as concerns about rising prices don’t appear to be weighing on the business. While higher prices may negatively impact demand for some of its premium-priced products, there’s still hope that Apple might be able to capture greater sales on its lower-priced products and, in doing so, potentially attract more consumers into its ecosystem, leading to more future growth.
And there’s nothing that Mr. Market loves more than growth!
Learn how to enable star ratings in the Photos app on iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate, so you can rate your photos and videos from 1 to 5 stars (★★★★★) for better organization and easier searching.
When you need to find an image or video in your photo library quickly, you can use the search bar to type what you’re looking for. For instance, typing ‘food‘ should show all food and food-related pictures. If you have set up Apple Intelligence, you can even search using longer descriptions, such as ‘Sebastien wearing a red shirt on the beach,’ to find pictures that match this description.
Another option for quickly finding something is to use sorting and filtering, as shown in the screenshot below.
iOS, iPadOS, and macOS 27 add a new star rating feature, similar to the one in the Music app. It lets you rate your photos on a scale of 1 to 5 stars (★★★★★). And then you can filter all photos by these star ratings to quickly find what you’re looking for.
For example, I have decided to mark the best family photos with 5 stars, so I can view them all quickly. Similarly, I will mark all screenshots that I want to keep for a while with 1 star (so I don’t select them when cleaning my library). You can obviously see what rating scale works best for you.
Open the Photos app and click Photos > Settings from the top menu bar. Or, press the Command + , (comma) keys.
Check Show Rating Controls and close the settings pane.
Rate photos and videos 1 to 5 stars in the Apple Photos app
After enabling ratings controls, you can start assigning stars to your media.
iPhone or iPad
Open the Photos app and tap to view a picture or video in your library or album (but don’t select one from a shared iCloud album).
Tap the little star icon (★) at the top and set the rating to 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 stars.
Mac
Open the Photos app, view a photo or video, and click the star icon (★) to select from 1 to 5 stars.
You can also Control-click on a photo and select between one and five stars.
Or, select a photo and click Image from the top menu bar to set a star rating (★★★★★).
Filter photos by star rating
Once you have rated some photos and videos, you can use the filter option to see those – and just those – photos and videos.
iPhone or iPad
Open the iOS 27 Photos app and make sure you’re in the Library tab. Going to an album, category, and the like works too.
Tap the three-line filter menu icon at the top and select Rating.
Select one or more ratings (★★★★★) to view all photos and videos that are marked that way.
To view all photos without a ratings filter, follow the above steps and unselect all star ratings. Or, tap the three-line menu icon and select All Items or Remove Filters.
Mac
Go to the Photos app, click the three-line filter menu icon, and select one or more star ratings.
You can also click View in the top menu bar and select Filter By > Show Rating.
Show star ratings in your photo library
Once you assign star ratings to your photos, Mac displays them as a tiny label in the left corner of each photo, as shown in the screenshot below.
And you have the option to enable the same for your photo library on iPhone and iPad by following these steps:
Open the iOS 27 Photos app and make sure you are in the Library tab.
Tap the three-line filter menu icon.
Tap View Options and tap to enable Star Rating. You should now see your star labels for such photos in your library. This is similar to how a little heart icon is shown for photos you have marked as favorites.
What do you think of this feature? Will you be using it? I sure will.
