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 was prepared this time for its M5 chip launch in the new MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, as it promptly included the new devices in its polishing cloth compatibility list. We got a bit of a scare last month when it took a couple days for iPhone 17 compatibility.
It’s supporting new solar and wind farms across Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, and Romania that are supposed to add 650 megawatts of renewable energy capacity to local power grids.
The company also shared that its suppliers jointly launched a new $150 million investment fund to support renewable energy infrastructure in China.
Apple’s quiet announcement that its streaming service is now just Apple TV, which definitely won’t create confusion with its Apple TV app and Apple TV hardware, brought the best out of The Verge’s comment section, but there was only going to be one winner:
PSVita:
It’s your turn Google, change Android Auto to Google Drive
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The Apple-produced Brad Pitt vehicle will stream on Apple TV Plus, which Apple has just quietly rebranded to Apple TV, available on the Apple TV app, which you can stream using your Apple TV hardware. Nope, not confusing at all.
Apple’s thinnest iPhone is finally launching in China next week, with preorders this Friday. The eSIM-only phone’s launch was delayed a month ago over regulatory issues to do with the electronic SIM cards, which aren’t widely available in the country.
Side note: this is how I found out Tim Cook has a Weibo account?
Another tidbit from Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter further explores the rumor he’s reported about Apple shifting resources from a Vision Pro follow-up to something more like Meta’s Ray-Ban Display:
The smart glasses are also likely to run the Vision Pro’s operating system, visionOS... A future device could operate the full version of the OS when it’s paired with a Mac, and then switch to a lighter, more mobile-friendly interface when it’s linked to an iPhone, I’m told.
In his latest installment of the Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman claims that it’s “likely” the base model M5 MacBook Pro will hit Apple stores this week. He expects them to be announced alongside M5 iPad Pros and a slightly updated Vision Pro.
CNBC reports Seemour maker Prompt AI is in late-stage talks over an acquihire by Apple, “likely” joining the Apple Home division.
Seemour’s ambient intelligence (more on that topic here) promised alerts and summaries of action caught on camera feeds, which could be useful for Apple’s rumored security camera and HomeScreenPod.
Apple has updated its bug bounty program, doubling the top reward to $2 million, plus bonuses that could take payouts over $5 million, for “exploit chains that can achieve similar goals as sophisticated mercenary spyware attacks.” Apple says that’s “the largest payout offered by any bounty program” it’s aware of.
Analytics firm Appfigures told The Verge Sora was downloaded 627,000 times in its first week on Apple’s App Store. Sora is still invite-only, so it’s hard to tell how many people are actually using it, but its first week has been plagued with controversy after users generated a torrent of AI slop, deepfakes, and disturbing copyright violations.
Now, interestingly, ICEBlock users are the same users who build, support, and buy Apple’s products. And these same people rely on and trust Apple every single day. And I’ll tell you, if I was speaking directly to Tim Cook, I’d say, “Tim, you’ve broken that trust, and now it’s up to you to fix it.”
Apple removed ICEBlock from the App Store last week.
Last week, Ford CEO Jim Farley stepped up to the Decoder mic to explain why Ford isn’t offering CarPlay Ultra. Then this week, our friend Joanna Stern followed up with RJ Scaringe to discuss (again) why his company’s cars don’t have CarPlay support at all.
Next month’s Apple Arcade lineup includes the revamped Football Manager (November 4th), which, among other things, is finally adding women’s teams. Meanwhile, on November 6th the subscription service is adding a pair MySims games and a collection of Toca Boca minigames. Full details here.
The newest iOS 26.1 developer beta forces you to slide to stop the alarm instead of mashing a button. This makes a lot of sense to me and I hope Apple keeps it in the final release, though I may regret saying that when I want to sleep more.
