Alongside ongoing all-time lows on the , we are also now tracking the very first price drops on the as well a discount on . From there we move over to the at $80 off the price you would pay at Apple right now and the return of $500 price drops on the . All of that joins some new all-time lows on MagSafe chargers, ongoing iPhone 16 case deals, and more.
Yesterday Apple released a new beta version of the HomePod’s software. HomePod 18.1 beta 2 debuted with no reported new features. But today Apple has pulled the update after some users reported it had bricked their HomePod.
Apple’s HomePod software releases have been lacking in new features for quite a while. But the company continues to develop software updates, including the currently-in-beta HomePod 18.1.
Beta 2 of that update, with build number 22J5552
Since the weather isn’t cooperative enough to do any outdoor shooting, I decided to start by putting the iPhone 16 Pro Max macro photography capabilities to the test, comparing to its predecessor.
In principle, macro shots taken with this year’s phone should be much more detailed, given the new 48MP sensor. However, the differences between the two aren’t vast, and I suspect have more to do with processing than sensor resolution …
For many years, Apple resisted indulging in the megapixel wars
Apple TV+ is preparing to debut one of its most ambitious series next month. ‘Disclaimer’ hails from an Oscar winning writer and director, stars Oscar winning lead actors, and is being presented by Apple as an ‘event’ series. Today, reveals exactly what we should expect.
Disclaimer is a seven-part limited series that was written and directed, in its entirety, by five-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón. It debuts on Friday, October 11.
That alone would earn it
Apple has a new high profile partner for its Podcasts subscription business in The New York Times. The Times is effectively paywalling its archive of popular podcast feeds like The Daily and Hard Fork. Podcasts app users can unlock the full archive and more with a paid subscription that contributes a percentage to Apple’s Services revenue.
has the news, adding that The New York Times is similarly offering its paid perks through Spotify as well:
Come October, listeners will need to subscribe to The Times’ audio content to unlock older episodes
AI is being infused into so many different services and software features we use every day. Now, it’s impacting the music we listen to as well. Today that it’s rolling out AI playlist generation—formerly in a limited test—to several new countries, including the US. Here’s how it works.
One of the modern challenges in media is that there’s so much content available, but not enough good curation tools to find it all.
Apple Music, for example, has a
Halide may have been featured during the iPhone 16 keynote, but it seems that wasn’t enough to protect it from an over-zealous App Store reviewer. co-founder Ben Sandofsky shared that the latest version of Halide was rejected from App Store …
The reason? Because it seemingly wasn’t clear why a camera app needs access to the camera in order to take photos.
When you run Halide, the app of course requests access to the camera. Developers are required to explain why they require access to
With Apple CEO Tim Cook visiting New York for the iPhone 16 launch, comedian and The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon took a walk with him in Central Park.
Cook said that he tried to visit the Fifth Avenue store every iPhone launch “because it’s sort of the center of the world, and the enthusiasm is so incredible there” …
The two wander through the park en-route to the Upper East Side store, and Fallon asks Cook about the celebrity reception he gets during store visits.
Fallon:
macOS Sequoia screen recording permission reminders can now be permanently vanquished, thanks to a new pay-what-you-like app.
Apple’s new security feature was intended to make Macs safer, by reminding us that we’d granted a powerful and potentially dangerous permission to an app, but many experienced users simply found it irritating …
Usually, when you grant an app permission to do something – like access your location – that’s a one-off deal. But with Sequoia, you’d be nagged
More schools are banning students from using smartphones in classes, with calls for a federal ban rather than the current mix of state laws. Apple’s home state of California is expected to be the next state to introduce a ban.
Update: California has now signed into law. School districts have until July 1, 2026, to “adopt a policy to limit or prohibit the use by its pupils of smartphones while the pupils are at a school site” …
Worldwide, around one in four countries has