Music-recognition service Shazam now features Popular Segments, a data-driven feature that reveals exactly which part of a song resonates most with listeners all over the world, according to an Apple website update Thursday.
As new details on Apple’s smart home hub leak out, the device is shaping up to be something that’ll attract plenty of customers. On Thursday, it was revealed that the device will have a front-facing camera with Center Stage, making it ideal for making FaceTime calls.
Previous reports indicate that it’s designed to be the centerpiece of a smart home, not only controlling smart accessories but also displaying shared calendars and answering questions, thanks to the improved version of Siri now in development.
This could be a flagship product in a fresh push by Apple into smart home technology.
Apple’s next budget iPad refresh could introduce a big performance boost. It will reportedly use the A19 chip, the same SoC that’s found inside the iPhone 17.
Additionally, the tablet will switch to Apple’s in-house N1 chip to handle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
A decade after getting banned from the App Store, iFixit is back with a free DIY repair app that uses AI to diagnose problems and guide users as they fix their Apple devices.
iFixit trained the app’s AI-powered FixBot on 20 years of the company’s highly regarded repair guides. Now the iFixit app, released Tuesday, promises to make fixing broken iPhones and MacBooks a breeze (as long as you don’t have clumsy sausage fingers).
Plus, the iFixit app features a built-in real-time battery monitor that will prompt you when to replace a failing battery (with iFixit parts, of course).
Apple Studio Display 2 is shaping up to be a major upgrade over the original. Code found Wednesday in iOS points to the upcoming high-end monitor getting a ProMotion screen, HDR and a much newer processor.
The new leak builds on earlier reports that the next-gen Studio Display will drop its traditional LCD in favor of a mini-LED panel.
Apple TV has emerged as the streaming platform to beat this awards season, capturing half of the Best Drama series nominations at the 2026 Golden Globe Awards unveiled Monday — a remarkable achievement that signals the tech giant’s arrival as a major force in prestige television.
Three of the six nominations in the coveted Best Drama TV series category belong to Apple — the mind-bending workplace thriller Severance, the darkly humorous espionage drama Slow Horses and the breakout new sci-fi series Pluribus. That puts Apple ahead of streaming rivals Netflix and HBO Max, which each landed only one drama series nomination in the category.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is Apple’s flagship phone. But in popular YouTuber MKBHD’s yearly Smartphone Awards 2025, the iPhone 17 bagged the Phone of the Year award, beating its siblings and Android rivals.
The iPhone Air and iPhone 16e also won three more awards in different categories.
Despite its age and stiff competition from Android flagships, the iPhone 16 was the bestselling smartphone in the world in the third quarter of 2025. More impressively, a new report from Counterpoint Research indicates iPhones bagged the top four slots.
Even the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which launched toward the end of the quarter, made the list.
Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, reportedly reassured his team Monday that he won’t become the next high-level exec to leave the company.
Srouji leads Apple’s internal custom chip design team, the group behind Apple silicon, the Neural Engine and several of the company’s other in-house processors. Losing him would have been a major blow to Apple’s hardware division.
Apple is adding new language options for Fitness+, its subscription workout service. Hundreds of workouts and meditations will be digitally dubbed into Spanish and other languages. In addition, Fitness+ is expanding to 28 new markets around the world.
The expansion should broaden the appeal of a service voice that reportedly hasn’t found many customers so far.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: With the sudden departure of Apple’s UI design chief Alan Dye — and the prompt naming of a Steve Jobs-era veteran to take his place — are we looking at a software renaissance for iPhones and Macs?
We certainly hope so!
Also on The CultCast:
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video version, embedded below.
The best people to ask about Steve Lemay, the new head of user interface design at Apple, are the people who’ve worked with him.
Spoiler alert: They seem absolutely thrilled. The word “excited” keeps coming up in their comments on the change in leadership.
Here’s what the people in a position to really know Lemay have to say about him.
Alan Dye, the former chief of Apple’s user interface design, has done brilliant, groundbreaking work — but almost no one is getting to experience it.
Dye just got poached by Meta, and the majority opinion among Apple fans seems to be “don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Some of Dye’s critics, like John “King of the Apple nerds” Gruber, are scathing. “His tenure is considered a disaster by actual designers inside and outside the company,” Gruber wrote after Dye’s departure from Apple became public Wednesday.
Dye, of course, is not perfect. He is rightly getting criticized for Liquid Glass, the shiny new interface in Apple’s operating systems, that’s been tweaked, rolled back, tweaked again, and is now semi-optional for users who don’t want it.
Where’s the conviction Apple is famous for? Steve Jobs must be spinning.
But Dye’s best work is spectacular, important and deep. You’ve just not seen it.
The first trailer for Apple TV’s upcoming documentary series Born to be Wild means well, offering hope in the face of species extinction. But it leans so hard on baby-animal cuteness and human hero worship that I found it cloying. Nowhere does it acknowledge humans as a major cause of animal extinctions. The series itself most likely does, but we’ll have to see when it airs.
The emotional six-part documentary series debuts December 19.
Classic console game Red Dead Redemption, as well as companion title Undead Nightmare, are now free to play on iPhone and iPad for Netflix subscribers.
Released in 2010 and widely regarded as one of the best video games of all time, Red Dead Redemption mixes Western themes, gunfighter gameplay and a vast open world that players can walk (or gallop) through.
It’s also one of the most emotionally resonant and artistically accomplished titles to ever come out of Rockstar Games. If you own an iPhone or iPad, and subscribe to Netflix, playing Red Dead Redemption should fill up your weekend!
Apple’s efforts to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery to bolster the Apple TV streaming service ended in disappointment Friday, with Netflix emerging victorious in one of Hollywood’s most competitive bidding wars in recent years.
Netflix said Friday it will purchase Warner Bros. Discovery’s entertainment assets for $72 billion, outbidding Apple and other tech giants to secure one of the industry’s most valuable content libraries. The deal, far larger than any Netflix (or Apple, for that matter) has attempted to date, includes Warner Bros. studios, HBO and the HBO Max streaming service. Those assets would have dramatically transformed Apple TV’s positioning in the streaming wars.
Right after UI chief Alan Dye quit Apple, two more executives are poised to leave the company. Next out the door are Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, and Kate Adams, Apple’s general counsel, the company said Thursday.
Jackson will retire in late January 2026, according to Apple. Adams will retire late next year.
In the meantime, Apple said Jennifer Newstead, Meta’s chief legal officer, will become Apple’s general counsel on March 1, 2026.
Apple Podcasts awarded its prestigious Show of the Year honor to The Rest Is History Thursday, marking the first time a UK-based podcast has received the recognition. With the award, the streamer celebrates the show’s exceptional quality and cultural impact in the podcasting landscape. And the hosts obliged with insights into how they do what they do.
Apple honored 17 apps and games that stood out for their innovation and cultural impact in 2025, as the iPhone giant unveiled the winners of its annual App Store Awards Thursday.
In 2025 an unprecedented talent exodus decimated Apple’s leadership ranks, with Meta Platforms emerging as the primary beneficiary of the iPhone maker’s retention struggles. The social media giant has successfully lured away four high-profile executives from Apple’s artificial intelligence and design divisions, raising serious questions about the Cupertino company’s competitive position in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Find out more about the top executives left Apple for Meta below.
Meet Steve Lemay, the new head of user interface design at Apple — the highest-profile software design job at the giant company, and possibly the world.
Unfortunately for Lemay, who has worked at Apple since 1999, he shares the same first name as the late Steve Jobs, who nicknamed him “Margaret” — a name that reportedly stuck.
Aside from being called “Margaret” internally at Apple, Lemay has a long and stellar design record at the company. He’s helped shape everything from OS X to visionOS. He is named on hundreds of patents and helped develop one of Apple’s most highly celebrated UI tricks.
Apple’s set to lose yet another top executive as Alan Dye, the company’s head of user-interface design, departs for Meta Platforms, according to a new report Wednesday. While some view this as a coup for Meta, others seem tickled pink to see Dye head for the exit.
This major news instantly inspired Liquid Glass-fueled snark over whether Dye’s departure is really such a big loss for the iPhone giant.
Apple on Wednesday seeded the iOS 26.2 and macOS Tahoe 26.2 release candidates to developers and public testers, a move that typically signals the software is just about ready. The final versions are expected to arrive next week.
There is a useful change to AirDrop file sharing, improvements to Sleep Score for Apple Watch wearers, a prominent tweak to Liquid Glass and more.
Release candidates for iPadOS 26.2, watchOS 26.2, tvOS 26.2 and visionOS 26.2 also went out on Wednesday.
Apple may ship a whopping 247 million iPhones in 2025 thanks to the “phenomenal success” of iPhone 17. The new iPhones have also led to Apple reclaiming its lost market share in China.
Post the launch of iPhone 17, Apple grabbed 20% market share in China, “miles ahead of the competition,” says an IDC report.
Your next Mac might run on an Intel processor, which is a gigantic surprise, considering Apple dropped the chipmaker years ago in favor of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
But there’s a standout reason why Apple needs Intel — and it might not be what you think.