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.
A filing says the deal allows Apple to hire employees and license IP from Huxe, founded by Jason Spielman, Raiza Martin, and Stephan Hughes, who previously designed Google’s NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook). Huxe offered personalized AI podcasts, but as MacRumors notes, it announced it was shutting down in May.
Following the news that LG may be making devices for Apple’s smart home platform, leaker itspdfu spotted evidence that Schneider Electric is developing a smart thermostat and temperature sensor. Schneider has played a major role in developing the Matter standard and recently bought smart home device manufacturer Shelly — a move that suddenly makes more sense.
The leak suggests more 2nd-party products are coming, and they’ll differentiate from Matter-compatible products by adding extra features that make them easier to use in Apple Home, including NFC-based tap-to-pair without power and setup animations.
Apple’s new M&A and corporate development boss is now Steve Smith, Bloomberg reports, and he’s taking over the duties from Adrian Perica. Perica will continue leading the iCloud, Fitness Plus, and News businesses.
Carson Oliver is also becoming VP of the App Store following Phil Schiller’s departure from heading up the platform.
They’re the latest changes under new CEO John Ternus, who took over on September 1st.
This is definitely a proceed-with-caution situation. It’s experimental: Bluetooth doesn’t work, you’re capped at a 60HZ refresh, and there are some other bugs too. But if you’ve got an Apple Silicon machine with at least 16GB of RAM, you could install Googlebook OS and give it a test drive.
The Series 12 and Ultra 4 both scored 4/10 for repairability — a slight bump on last year’s models, but well short of the 9/10 for Google’s Pixel Watch 5. iFixit warns that Apple’s provision of parts and repair tools for watches falls short of new right-to-repair laws in 10 US states.
Apple TV subscribers in the US can experience Formula 1 in the enhanced audio format for the first time starting October 23rd with the US Grand Prix in Austin.
More phones should have matte displays.
While the design team technically reported to Tim Cook, it was understood that Ternus effectively ran it as part of the transition to CEO. But rather than hire an outside design chief now that there’s a lot more responsibility on his plate, Ternus has fully immersed himself. Per Bloomberg:
Ternus already had some involvement with the design studio as Apple’s head of hardware engineering, given the close coordination required between the two functions. Since becoming CEO, however, he has immersed himself in the industrial design and human interface teams. Several people familiar with the department say he works hands-on in the studio several times a week, sometimes visiting multiple times in a single day.
To prevent it from happening on your phone, Apple has issued a carrier settings update and is encouraging users to install iOS 27.0.1, 9to5Mac reports. However, if your phone is affected and has lost service, you have to get the phone replaced.
A major update for Final Cut Camera is now available that introduces a redesign with customizable overlays and easier access to popular settings like shutter angle, white balance, and the iPhone 18 Pro’s new variable aperture. Apple Creator Studio has also been updated with new template collections and advanced selections for Pixelmator Pro plus trigonometry, statistics, and logic functions for Numbers spreadsheets.
It’s been a solid year for crime thrillers with the likes of Furious, and now Apple TV is entering the fray with Nocturne. It’s hard to gather too much from the new trailer — though Stephen Graham is shaping up to be a very fun serial killer — but the show starts streaming on October 30th.
An issue in Firebase’s analytics led some iOS apps that use the Google service to crash on launch, a problem which persisted for hours even after Google’s fix. That’s one more thing to worry about after internet outages and rogue AI attacks.
[Android Authority]
According to Apple’s patch notes, here’s what’s fixed:
iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max may unexpectedly restart when Face ID fails to authenticate
A color artifact may appear on photos captured at 2x under certain lighting conditions at f/1.48 on a small number of iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max devices
Opening Notification Center and Control Center simultaneously may cause the touchscreen to become unresponsive
To test the new AI-powered features on Ring, Google Nest, and Apple Home connected video doorbells, I put on the iconic Scream mask to see if any of them would warn me.
Only Google told me someone was wearing a mask; Ring somehow still knew it was me, and Apple just said “someone” was at the door. Read the full review.
That revamped Trump admin app (now offering access to Trump TV) apparently bounced up to the top of the News list this week.
You might think that securing access to the Strait of Hormuz or really anything else would be the federal government’s focus, but hey, it had the number one app in a category, and as David Pierce wrote in February, the very best thing about that is “being able to tell people you were number one.” The app has since slipped to #2 in news behind X, and to #96 overall.
After a recent software update, the custom EQ option is now available on a handful of supported AirPods, 9to5Mac reports. You can find it in the Settings app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac — on my MacBook Air the new Equalizer feature was under Audio & Routing in my AirPods Pro 3 settings.
