Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple is best known for making some of the world’s most ubiquitous consumer devices, software, and services: the iPhone, iPad, iMac and MacBook computers, Apple TV, Apple Watch, iOS, iCloud, iTunes, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and many more. Led by CEO Tim Cook since 2011, Apple is one of the largest technology companies in the world alongside Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
Apple just updated its compatibility page for Apple Intelligence, and erroneously swapped every Mac to “M2 and later.” MacRumors spotted the goof, which is only live on the US site, and deduced that it was probably an effort to update the Vision Pro entry to account for the new M5 model.
Everyone’s expecting an imminent release for the new Apple TV and HomePod Mini, so yesterday’s surprise product drop sparked some excitement. But I’m not sure a high fashion phone pouch with Issey Miyake was quite what they had in mind.
Technostalgic
Me: Patiently waiting for the new Apple TV and HomePod mini announcement.
Apple: Here’s a sock.
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Apple seems to finally know what its largest and most impressive tablet really is. Time to build it.
This is the self-aware way Apple used to launch socks for its devices at a fraction of the cost of its new iPhone Pocket. I’m guessing it too, was inspired by “a piece of cloth.”
“I don’t want to say no forever,” Apple head of services Eddy Cue told Screen International, “but there are no plans.”
There are plenty of signs that Apple has at least explored ads for its streamer in the past, but right now it seems content with price hikes to pay the bills.
[Screen International]
The company told Wired it removed Blued and Finka, two of the country’s most popular gay dating platforms, to comply with an order from the government’s cyberspace watchdog. Most international LGBTQ+ dating apps are already blocked on Apple’s Chinese storefront, including Grindr.
According to Mark Gurman the future of those features is very much up in the air. They would require major upgrades to Globalstar’s network, which Apple relies on. But Globalstar is also deep in talks to be acquired by SpaceX. Still, if Apple can pull these off, it would be a boon to users when traditional 5G isn’t available.
Satellite-powered maps: The company is eyeing bringing satellite connectivity to Apple Maps, allowing users to navigate without cellular or Wi-Fi access.
Richer messaging capabilities: Apple is working on enhanced satellite messaging that supports photos in addition to basic text messages.
“Natural usage” improvements: One of the biggest limitations of Apple’s current system is the need for an unobstructed view of the sky. The company aims to let users stay connected while their iPhone is in a pocket, car or even indoors — eliminating the need to physically point the device toward the sky. This approach is known in the industry as “natural usage.”
In the tvOS 26.2 beta, if you make a new profile on an Apple TV, you can designate it to be for a kid, according to MacRumors. “Selecting yes limits content to a PG rating by default, but there is a customize option for more granular control,” MacRumors says.
Before today, the best deal we’d seen on a four-pack of Apple’s AirTag Bluetooth trackers was $64.99. Apple lowered the price to just $29 when you skip engraving. Whether it’s an error or not, a few of us have been able to check out successfully. Hopefully, you can, too.
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It’s a good day to stay home: the first two episodes of Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus are now on Apple TV, while Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is on Netflix after a brief theatrical run. And if you’re looking for more after you watch, here are my interviews with Gilligan and Frankenstein creature designer Mike Hill.
Never mind Liquid Glass, the new Apple TV intro was made using the real stuff, filmed by shining colorful lighting behind a glass model of the logo. With big companies like Coca-Cola and Google putting out entirely AI-generated marketing, it’s nice to see some things being made the old-fashioned way.
The new show from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan isn’t afraid to take things slow.
The new WhatsApp watchOS app announced today lets you send and receive full-length voice and text messages, get call notifications, use reactions, view images and stickers, and view your full chat history, all end-to-end encrypted.
The redesign, spotted on the updated Apple TV website by MacRumors, splits the typical Apple logo into six colorful slices, with each segment representing one of the subscription services included in the Apple One Premium bundle. It also somewhat resembles Apple’s 1977 rainbow logo, which is a pleasant throwback.
In this episode of Version History: Microsoft’s wildly ambitious, totally hopeless music machine.
