Apple Maps still calls it Lake Ontario, but perhaps not for much longer. President Donald Trump is trying to rename it “Lake America,” and reportedly asked Apple directly to make the change in Apple Maps.
The push to rename the lake is part of Trump’s pressure campaign against Canada as the two countries remain locked in a trade war.
Your iPhone has known for years that it’s about to rain. Your car’s dashboard, running Apple’s own CarPlay software, has had no idea — because Apple Weather never made the jump to CarPlay. But starting today, you won’t have to wait on Apple to fix that.
The Weather Channel’s Storm Radar app version 4.0.19 just rolled out. The centerpiece is a dedicated CarPlay experience that finally puts live weather where you’re already looking while driving. If your commute was ever ambushed by a storm your map app couldn’t see coming, this is the update you’ve wanted.
Apple’s OLED iPad mini is closing in on release. A fresh report says the redesigned tablet would reach store shelves by the end of October.
Expect a sharper, brighter screen as well as a faster chip built for Apple Intelligence. Apple is also said to be reworking the tablet’s shell for better water resistance.
Read on for everything to expect in the OLED iPad mini.
The Mac mini and Mac Studio are apparently a huge hit among AI companies. OpenAI reportedly purchased tens of thousands of Macs from Apple for reinforcement learning and “computer-use” AI agents.
Anthropic, which offers Claude AI, is renting Mac minis through Amazon Web Services (AWS) for similar reasons.
This heavy demand helps explain why Apple launched new versions of the Mac mini and Mac Studio last week, months before the usual fall release window.
The upcoming Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 might feature continuous heart rate monitoring for better health tracking. The two watches should also come with a speedy new S-series chip for better performance and longer battery life.
Unfortunately, Apple does not plan to introduce any design changes this year. But the Apple Watch Series 12 could come with a premium ceramic casing option, which Apple last offered on Series 5 models.
The folding iPhone expected in September will open to become what is essentially a small iPad. But that doesn’t mean that it will support Apple Pencil, the stylus designed for Apple tablets.
Apple tested a version of the stylus for its upcoming foldable phone, but nixed the idea for multiple reasons, according to an unconfirmed report published Sunday. The most notable reason for cancellation: danger that the stylus might damage the iPhone’s folding screen.
This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: Apple sent out invites for its Surprise and Shine event this week, and the big question is, will there actually be any surprises on September 9?
The invite itself doesn’t reveal much, naturally. And a crazy deluge of rumors and leaks already painted a pretty thorough picture of what to expect from the iPhone 18 Pro, the first folding iPhone and more.
Still, it’ll be incoming Apple CEO John Ternus‘ first time running an event, and surely he’ll want to make it special. We discuss how he might make the event shine.
Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:
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.
The iPhone 17 Pro is barely a year old, but its successor could bring some meaningful upgrades. Rumors point to camera, display and performance improvements for the iPhone 18 Pro, along with a potentially unwelcome price hike.
Here’s how Apple’s next flagship could compare with the iPhone 17 Pro.
While the price of Apple TV just keeps rising, Apple One bundles let users save money on the subscription offerings they have come to depend on and love.
The company offers three Apple One configurations, all of which offer discounts on Apple Music, Apple TV and iCloud+ storage. Check pricing on Apple One’s three tiers — Individual, Family and Premier — and find out what you get for your money (and, most importantly, how much you can save).
Apple raised the price of an Apple TV subscription to $12.99 a month in 2025, and hiked it again to $14.99 on Friday. That follows last month’s Apple Music price hikes due to rising licensing costs. The latest increases make Apple One bundles an even better value.
Parents, convinced your child is a budding genius? Then be sure to save everything they make because maybe someday you’ll be able to auction it off for big bucks. As proof, a science project Apple co-founder Steve Jobs built as an eighth grader recently sold at auction for $34,375.
It was part of an auction with other Apple memorabilia, like an Apple-1 computer and an Apple Computer business card signed by Jobs.
Apple’s new support document explains how you can speed up Spotlight indexing on your device. It also goes into detail about how Spotlight indexing works.
Many iPhone, iPad and Mac users will face this indexing slowdown once Apple releases its next-generation operating systems next month.
Samsung just took its portable storage to a new speed tier with its latest external SSDs. On Wednesday, the company unveiled the P9 and P7, a new generation of portable solid-state drives equipped with USB4 connectivity.
The flagship P9 is aimed at professionals who need to move huge amounts of data quickly, while the P7 offers a more affordable option for everyday storage. Both are designed to work with a broad range of devices, including the latest Macs and high-end iPads.
Apple Maps ads finally started showing up for iPhone and iPad owners in the United States and Canada this week, and some users are angry — and even threatening to switch to Google Maps.
Sponsored listings now appear inside the Maps app’s search experience, front and center, tagged with a discreet label. But some iPhone owners feel disappointed and even betrayed, saying Apple is prioritizing ad dollars over a pristine user experience.
Apple pitches its new M5 Ultra Mac Studio as a way to end your AI subscription bill for good. But the math tells a different story.
“Mac Studio lets users run massive models entirely on device with complete privacy — without counting tokens or worrying about rising cloud costs,” Apple said in a press release announcing the computer’s surprise launch Tuesday.
While Apple’s marketing frames the Mac Studio as a way to run AI coding models locally instead of paying for an AI subscription every month, a pricing breakdown shows the payback stretching into years, not months.
Jailbreak developers have found a way to run macOS on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. But it works as a virtual machine, not a full swap of iOS. The trick piggybacks on an existing iPad project that was never built with phones in mind.
The update comes from Virtual Mac, an open-source tool that lets some iPads run full macOS. Version 1.2.1 of the project extends the package to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. And, as expected, support is thin, and the trade-offs are real.
Apple launched the powerful new M6 processor in a fresh version of the Mac mini on Tuesday. It’s a significant boost over its predecessor, and is expected to soon become part of a range of products — MacBooks, iMacs and more.
But the M7 could already be closer than you realize.
Leaked photos purportedly showing Apple’s AI servers reveal a chassis packed tight with custom silicon.
The unverified photos were posted Sunday by X user @hsuchingpo, an account with a good track record of Apple hardware leaks. The leaker said the Apple servers “most likely” power Private Cloud Compute, Apple’s privacy-first answer to cloud AI.
Apple just gave its smallest Mac an outsized performance upgrade. The company on Tuesday launched new Mac mini versions powered by either the all-new M6 chip or the more powerful M5 Pro, bringing substantially faster performance and a major focus on local AI workloads to the tiny desktop.
“Whether it’s being used as a home computer, powering a professional studio, or as an always-on agentic device, it’s the little Mac that can do it all,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer. “Today, we’re taking this versatility even further.”
Update: As predicted, Apple released a Mac mini upgraded with M6 and M5 Pro chips on Tuesday, saying the tiny desktop computer “delivers up to 4x faster AI performance, up to 2x faster graphics and storage, along with enhanced connectivity.”
Apple’s next-gen Mac mini may debut in the coming days, possibly even ahead of Apple’s September iPhone event, according to an unconfirmed report published on Monday. The miniature desktop could debut with an Apple M5 or an M6 processor.
The new model should do well — Mac mini demand has exploded in recent months due to the AI boom.
Apple just gave its most powerful desktop Mac a major performance boost. The company on Tuesday introduced an upgraded Mac Studio powered by the M5 Max processor and the all-new M5 Ultra, promising substantially faster AI, graphics and CPU performance in the same compact design.
“Mac Studio is the ultimate desktop for on-device AI and the world’s most demanding pro workflows, relied on by users for its tremendous performance and extensive pro connectivity, all in a quiet, compact design that sits right on your desk — and today, we’re pushing the boundaries even further,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, in a press release.
Apple could be preparing an iPhone price increase for this fall. The move would follow Google and Samsung, both of which raised prices on their flagship phones this year.
The iPhone faces the same memory and chip shortages that pushed Apple to jack up Mac and iPad prices back in June. And while an iPhone price increase now looks all but certain, Apple appears to be trying to keep the hike modest.
Apple is clearing shelf space for a new era of smart home gear. The company is reportedly preparing a significant overhaul of its retail stores this fall. The changes point to more than a routine refresh. And at the center of it all sits the rumored Apple home hub — its first smart display built for the home.
The retail work targets the “Avenues,” the perimeter walls in Apple’s newer stores. These walls showcase HomePod, Apple TV, AirPods, and Beats gear. Store-layout teams are reportedly rearranging these sections and adding new accessory bays. The scale of the project suggests Apple needs room for something significant.
Apple will reportedly give the iMac an M6 upgrade later this year. As part of this, it also plans to launch the all-in-one desktop in new color options.
Just be aware, besides a faster chip and new colors, Apple supposedly won’t make any other changes to the iMac.
Want to add Touch ID to your Mac without giving up your favorite keyboard? A DIY Touch ID project called the Dashboard Touch shows how you can build your own fingerprint sensor for less than $35.
It’s not as secure as Apple’s own implementation, but Anil Dash’s new DIY Touch ID hack should be safe enough for most users.
This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: The Apple leaks are getting out of hand! Code in the macOS 26.7 release candidate spills the beans on tons of unreleased Apple products, and that’s just the start.
Tim Cook must be fuming — unless it’s the world’s craziest marketing campaign!
Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:
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 and also available on our YouTube channel.