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If you’ve been green with envy watching those grainy fan clips of Paul McCartney lighting up Apple Park last month for the iPhone giant’s 50th anniversary, Sir Paul just gave the rest of us a proper consolation prize. McCartney posted a polished, three-minute, behind-the-scenes film to his YouTube channel Tuesday, offering an intimate look at his celebrated March 31 performance.

Apple’s appointment of John Ternus as its next CEO signals a potential shift in leadership style at the company, with insiders pointing to his decisive approach to decision-making.

In contrast, outgoing CEO Tim Cook is more of a consensus builder.

Is Tim Cook Apple’s best CEO? No, that title belongs to Steve Jobs — but Cook definitely comes in a very close second.

In a remarkable 15 years at the helm of Apple, Cook oversaw extraordinary growth, released a string of innovative products, and instituted important internal changes.

He performed almost flawlessly, and, to my mind, has only done one thing wrong.

Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a heartfelt letter of thanks to Apple users.

As Cook gets ready to step down as CEO on September 1, 2026, he expressed his gratitude to the Apple community for making his work meaningful.

It’s a nice, sincere note of appreciation — and typically humble. You can read the full text of Cook’s letter below.

Apple announced a sweeping leadership transition on Monday, naming longtime executive John Ternus as its next chief executive officer in September. Current CEO Tim Cook will move into a new role as executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors at that time.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company,” said Cook in a statement. “I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people who have been unwavering in their dedication to enriching the lives of our customers and creating the best products and services in the world.”

If you were looking forward to iPhone 18 as a meaningful upgrade of last year’s model, new rumors out of China might give you pause. Apple reportedly plans to cut costs on the standard iPhone 18 by paring back several of its manufacturing processes.

That would bring the iPhone 18 significantly closer in specs to the budget-oriented iPhone 18e, according to a prominent Weibo leaker.

Potential folding iPhone buyers can breathe a sigh of relief. New images of cases for the device — supposedly dubbed the iPhone Ultra — show it including MagSafe. Previously, we saw no sign of this feature in leaks about the much-anticipated handset.

This could have been a deal-breaker for some buyers.

Apple will bring a minor but important upgrade to the iPhone’s Home Screen customization experience in iOS 27. It will reportedly allow you to “undo” and “redo” changes to your Home Screen.

This small tweak should make rearranging apps and widgets far less frustrating, especially when you accidentally move or delete something.

The wait for Apple’s much-anticipated M5 refresh of the Mac Studio just got longer. The company will reportedly delay the launch of the next big MacBook Pro refresh to 2027 as well.

The ongoing DRAM and NAND flash shortages are to blame for the delay, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

There’s a setting called Lockdown Mode you can activate on your iPhone that will make it virtually impossible to hack. Just by flipping a switch, you can make your iPhone incredibly secure. So secure, in fact, that Apple says no phone using Lockdown Mode has ever been hacked.

Sure sounds great. Surprise — here’s why you don’t want to use it.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: New details emerge about Apple’s smart glasses, including possible shapes, sizes and colors.

Now for the important question: Will we — or anybody else — actually want to wear a pair?

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• Apple reportedly plans a last-ditch effort to get its Siri team up to speed on AI-powered coding. Meanwhile, Siri’s worse than ever! Will Apple make the WWDC26 deadline for the Siri upgrade?
• The tech behind the first folding iPhone’s (supposedly) crease-free screen sounds insane.
• A MacBook Pro setup puts the weirdest hinged screens we’ve ever seen front and center.
• And finally, Griffin shows us how to walk back one of macOS Tahoe’s most divisive design decisions.

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast 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.

Phone users are sticking with Apple at unprecedented levels, according to a new nationwide survey, underscoring the growing strength of the company’s ecosystem and the challenges facing rivals trying to win them over.

And while Android users’ loyalty to their smartphone maker is noticeably weaker, that doesn’t mean huge numbers are switching to Apple.

New supply chain information reveals the four iPhone 18 Pro colors Apple might release this September. The popular and vibrant cosmic orange is gone, with a dark, wine-colored cherry red in its place, according to a new report.

ChatGPT is making its Codex app for Mac more powerful. It can now operate your Mac in the background, plug into more apps and services and even browse the web.

OpenAI initially launched Codex primarily for coding purposes. But the latest update greatly expands its capabilities.

Update: Introduced at CES 2026, Edifier’s new M90 Comact Active Speakers finally went on sale Wednesday. They’re the company’s first compact active speaker with HDMI eARC for easy use across desktop and TV-based setups. Available in black or white colors, they cost $370 per pair (not cheap, but incredibly versatile). 

Edifier introduced a new lineup of speakers at CES 2026 designed specifically for users who need seamless audio across multiple devices and environments, the China-based audio manufacturer said. 

The collection addresses a growing need among consumers who work, stream, game, and entertain from the same space, often switching between desktop computers, TVs, gaming consoles and mobile devices throughout the day.

Update: Perplexity said in March it would unleash Personal Computer software to work as an artificial intelligence manager for Mac, and now it’s available. 

Today we're releasing Personal Computer.

Personal Computer integrates with the Perplexity Mac App for secure orchestration across your local files, native apps, and browser.

We’re rolling this out to all Perplexity Max subscribers and everyone on the waitlist starting today. pic.twitter.com/kxgFQFo7BB

— Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) April 16, 2026

Original post:

Artificial intelligence search engine company Perplexity just unveiled what it calls Personal Computer. It’s not a new piece of hardware, but a layer of software that transforms a Mac — specifically an M4 Mac mini in the company’s promotions — into a tireless AI employee.

It works around the clock, coordinates other artificial intelligence systems, accesses your local files and can be controlled from anywhere in the world. Mac users might be intrigued. Privacy advocates may not be so sure.

A fatal microlight aircraft accident in 2024 has been linked to production of Apple’s Adventure immersive video series for Vision Pro, according to a new report. And it seems crew members raised safety concerns before the accident. 

Apple hit record recycled material use and other environmental milestones according to its annual Environmental Progress Report, the iPhone giant said Thursday. In 2025, 30% of the material in all Apple products shipped came from recycled sources — a record.

What makes the Apple ecosystem so alluring? Individually, the iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch might not be the best devices in their respective categories. Yet, when combined, they form one of the best ecosystems in the world.

It’s this Apple ecosystem — the so-called walled garden — that makes it almost impossible to ditch Apple devices. But what makes it so good?

Supply chain manufacturers have begun producing components for the iPhone 18 Pro’s variable aperture camera system, according to a new report. It marks a significant milestone ahead of the device’s expected September launch — and a first in iPhone history.

All previous iPhone cameras feature fixed apertures. A variable aperture allows more control of light reaching the sensor for sharper, properly exposed images.

Google will give a 50% discount on YouTube Premium if you already pay or upgrade to its AI Premium plan. This brings the price down from $159.99 to $79.99 for the first year.

The offer applies to both existing and new Google subscribers.

Apple will reportedly send a sizable share of its Siri development team to an intensive, multi-week bootcamp to improve their AI coding skills. To be clear, the employees won’t be learning how to make an AI, but how to use AI to develop.

It’s part of a push to finally complete the revamp of Apple’s voice assistant that the company promised years ago.

Google brought its Gemini AI assistant directly to Mac, launching a new native macOS app on Wednesday. The app makes it easy to share what’s on your computer’s screen with the AI.

It’s designed to be more tightly integrated with the user’s workflow than the web version.

Apple will bring two limited-edition Activity challenges to Apple Watch this month, giving users a reason to get moving in the final stretch of April, the iPhone giant said. The occasions are Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22, and International Dance Day on Wednesday, April 29.

Samsung Display will reportedly start mass production of OLED panels for the next iPad Air in January 2027. 

Unlike the iPad Pro, Apple will use a standard OLED panel in the iPad Air to keep costs down.