Apple TV+ gave a first look at a hotly anticipated comedy starring the brilliant Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd. A trailer for The Shrink Next Door premiered on Thursday, and the streaming service revealed that the limited series will debut November 12.
Watch the trailer now for an early glimpse:
Apple dropped the cost of AppleCare+ breakage insurance plans for MacBooks with the M1 processor by up to $50.
These plans offer deeply-discounted repairs on two accidents for every twelve months of coverage.
Apple has awarded $5 million in “Innovation Grants” to four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States. Alabama A&M University, Howard University, Morgan State University, and Prairie View A&M University will all receive funds from Apple as part of its $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative.
The money, given over three years, will be used to help prep students for future careers in both hardware technology and silicon chip design. In other words, while there’s no guarantee of this, Apple could be helping provide the training that will up-skill future Cupertino employees. If that pays off, it’s a great investment on Apple’s part, as well as being a positive social contribution.
LG Electronics threw in the towel on manufacturing smartphones earlier this year. Now, according to a new report, it’s considering stocking Apple products in its 400 LG Best Shops stores in South Korea.
The companies supposedly are negotiating for an Apple store-within-a-store setup that will sell iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches. This sounds similar to when Apple set up mini-stores inside CompUSA outlets around the United States in the late 1990s. As with the CompUSA mini-stores, the new LG outlets might be staffed by Apple employees.
Facebook is gearing up to launch its own podcast platform later this month. Facebook’s podcasts feature will launch June 22, an attempt by the social media giant to muscle in on the incredibly popular and fast-growing podcast market.
Facebook confirmed the news in an email to podcast page owners, seen by The Verge. Users will be able to listen to podcasts directly on Facebook, as well as via a new podcasts tab that has yet to launch. Facebook is also working on a feature that will let listeners create clips from their top shows.
The online Apple Store might not be the best place to buy the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Place an order for 2021’s hottest tablet on Apple.com on Wednesday and you could wait a month or more to have it shipped to you. But other stores have the device in stock now.
Why wait?
Apple’s CEO told the audience at France’s VivaTech conference that a critical part of the European Union’s proposed Digital Markets Act isn’t in the best interests of iPhone users. The proposal would require Apple to allow users to sideload applications, something CEO Tim Cook and the company are adamantly opposed to.
Add season two of Truth Be Told to the list of Apple TV+ summer 2021 offerings. Octavia Spencer returns as the star of the crime drama series, and Kate Hudson joins for the new season.
Apple dropped a teaser trailer Wednesday to whet fans’ appetites. Watch it now.
Redditor carrotcakeblack wins more than a few style points for his “mostly monochrome! Also some keyboards” setup, as he calls it in his post’s title.
But he leaves out one of the factors visitors like most about his well-photographed MacBook Pro-based outfit. Namely, the way he hangs so much of his gear on a pegboard off to one side in such a visually appealing way.
Smart sensors in future AirPods possess “all kinds of potential” for health tracking, according to Apple VP of Technology Kevin Lynch.
While he surely knows the company’s goals in this area, Lynch doesn’t spill the beans in a new interview with TechCrunch. However, the Apple exec hints (or, rather, doesn’t exactly deny) that the health-tracking technology already found in iPhones and Apple Watch could arrive in next-gen AirPods.
Beats co-founders Andre “Dr. Dre” Young and Jimmy Iovine, both of whom previously held high profile roles at Apple, are working to transform a public high school to welcome pupils who feel “disconnected from, [or] unmotivated by, the typical school experience.”
The public high school will supposedly mirror the format of the USC’s Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation, which they donated $70 million to start in 2013. The USC academy has since expanded due to its popularity. Some graduates have even gone on to work at Apple.
Apple has successfully fixed a problem that was stopping some Apple Card users from using Apple Pay with the Apple-branded credit cards in stores. On its System Status page, Apple noted that “Some users were affected,” although it does not provide details of the problem — or the fix that the company employed.
The issue was marked as revolved at 6.41 am ET/3.41 am PT on Wednesday, June 16. This was two days after Apple first noted it had a problem. No other problems were highlighted on the Systems Status page, which showed green lights across the board.
Apple reportedly considered launching its own subscription-based primary care medical clinics with Apple-employed doctors, says the Wall Street Journal. The plan — part of Apple’s push into health and wellness — was supposedly conceived in 2016. However, it’s not clear whether it is still on the cards today.
Apple has confirmed that its Apple Music Lossless and Spatial Audio features will be coming to India. The features debuted elsewhere for users in May at no added cost.
Apple’s Support Twitter page notes that “We appreciate your interest. Dolby Atmos on Apple Music will be coming to India soon. Keep an eye out here.” Meanwhile, the Apple Music page for India also makes mention of the feature. No official launch date has yet been announced.
Three classic games are are getting updated and becoming part of the Apple Arcade subscription service. That includes Angry Birds Reloaded, Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City and Doodle God Universe.
All are set to debut soon.
The trailer for the second season of Central Park debuted Tuesday to get fans ready for the imminent return of the musical comedy to Apple TV+. The first season of the animated series scored an Emmy nomination and praise from critics.
Check out the trailer for a taste of what to expect in season two.
Apple made an enormous number of changes in its 2021 operating system updates. Many of these drew plenty of attention — like the FaceTime upgrade — but some useful improvements might have been overlooked in all the hoopla.
Here are nine new features in iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey you might have overlooked.
The global pandemic was bad for many industries. One sector it was good for was the worldwide tablet market, led by Apple’s iPad. According to a new report by Counterpoint Research, Apple sold a third more iPads in 2020 than it did in 2019. In the first quarter of 2021, it expanded its share to a massive 37% of the global tablet market — including hitting an all-times sales record in Japan.
“The basic iPad models accounted for 56% of the overall iPad shipments in Q1 2021,” said Senior Analyst Liz Lee said. “The iPad Air and iPad Pro series came next with 19% and 18% shares, respectively. Since consumers are constantly concerned about prices and portability, the latest iPad 8 emerged as the top-selling model. Launched in October 2020, the iPad Air 4 ranked second on the bestseller list as it was a huge hit with consumers looking for cost-effectiveness as well as high specifications.”
In a new video aimed at the European market, Apple CEO Tim Cook talks about how “privacy is a fundamental human right” that his company works hard to embed into every new product it makes. The six-minute video comprises various clips from Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference related to the topic of privacy. Cook also recorded new bookends in which he shares some of his own thoughts.
Check it out below.
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions went live Tuesday, allowing podcasters around the world to charge monthly subscriptions for their shows. When announced at Apple’s Spring Loaded event in April, the company billed the feature as a “global marketplace for listeners to discover premium subscriptions offered by their favorite creators.”
The premium podcasts show up in Apple’s Podcast app, complete with the ability to subscribe, in more than 170 countries and regions, Apple said. And the new option gives podcasters a fresh way to cash in on the craze Apple helped start.
Apple quietly reduced the one-year Apple TV+ free trial for customers who buy new Apple devices to three months.
The company made the change in a note on its Apple TV+ website. While customers who buy and activate an eligible device (that’s an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac) before July 1 will get the one-year trial, those who do so from July 1 onward will qualify only for three months.
Save on some of the best accessories money can buy for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac in the Cult of Mac Store’s big Father’s Day sale. Enjoy up to 72% of cases, bands, charging stands, and more from the likes of Elago, Elkson, Monowear, and SwitchEasy.
These are limited-time offers, so enjoy them while you can!
Apple released iOS 12.5.4 and iPadOS 12.5.4 on Monday. These contain security patches for iPhones or iPads old enough that they can’t upgrade to 2019’s iOS 13 or iPadOS 13 but are still in use.
The classic writer’s garret, a small room where a tortured scribe toils over lonely hours to put words on the page — using a quill or a fountain pen or maybe a Smith Corona typewriter — has been tastefully updated.
Now it’s all about a 12.9-inch iPad Pro locked hard into the Ulysses text editor to prevent any distractions. There’s also a highly customized mechanical keyboard and really nice noise-canceling headphones. At least that’s how Scottish novelist Matt Gemmell limits his gear in a minimalistic setup, he told Cult of Mac.
It helps him focus on writing. That, and sitting his ass down in the chair for hours a day. The chair is a Herman Miller Aeron, by the way. The spartan surroundings need not lack comfort, after all. It’s about limiting distractions.
If you’re heading to the store with an Apple Card on Monday, you’d better bring a second form of payment. An ongoing technical glitch means that it might not be possible to make in-store purchases with the credit card.