Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed details about the company’s approach to artificial intelligence and defended its Vision Pro headset in an extensive interview Wednesday. In a now-familiar refrain, he discussed the company’s strategic entry into generative AI while addressing criticisms about Apple’s seemingly delayed response to the AI boom.

“We never talked about charging for it,” Cook said of Apple Intelligence. “We view it sort of like multitouch, which enabled the smartphone revolution and the modern tablet.”

Apple uses Amazon Web Services’ custom artificial intelligence chips to power its search services. The company is also evaluating if it can use Amazon’s latest AI chips to pretrain Apple Intelligence models.

Apple’s Benoit Dupin, senior director of machine learning and AI, made these revelations Tuesday in a surprise appearance at Amazon’s annual AWS re:Reinvent conference in Las Vegas.

Apple picked Hysterical as the winner of the Apple Podcasts Award for 2024, which honors quality and innovation in podcasting.

It’s not a comedy. The seven-part series by Dan Taberski investigates a mysterious illness that spreads among a group of high school girls in upstate New York, and looks for parallels with one that affects American diplomats.

Anya Taylor-Joy, perhaps best known for starring in The Queen’s Gambit, is coming to Apple TV+. She’ll star in an adaptation of the bestselling crime thriller Lucky by Marissa Stapley.

Working in an office or in the city, you’re probably inundated with noise from people chattering, cars running and nearby music. Your iPhone has a built-in feature called Background Sounds for playing rain noises or white noise to tune it all out.

You don’t need to download any apps or pay a cent; it comes for free on your Mac and iPhone. Let me show you how it works.

A rumor from early November said the iOS 18.2 launch day would be the week of December 2, but that’s now impossible. There are steps that must take place before the operating system can be introduced, and not all of them have happened yet.

The release will probably be in the second week of December. Right now, the earliest likely date is December 10, though December 11 is looking increasingly likely.

Whenever the launch finally happens, it’ll usher in some of the most-anticipated new Apple Intelligence features, including Genmoji, the Image Playground and more.

Update: The much-anticipated release candidates for iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2 went out December 5, which means Apple Intelligence phase 2 will likely launch December 12.

Apple’s Vision Pro will go on sale in Taiwan on December 17. Pre-orders for the spatial computing headset will start on Thursday, December 5.

Prices for the headset start from NT$119,900, with higher storage models costing extra.

The Samsung T9 SSD is quick and it’s very portable. Plus, for Cyber Week means it’s up to 40% off.  Opt for 1TB, 2TB or even 4TB of additional storage for your Mac or iPad.

For an even more affordable option, the older Samsung T7 series is available for as much as 44% off.

Note: This post has been updated with new deals and the latest price drops. Some prices vary according to Apple Watch color, band, etc.

Apple Watch Cyber Monday deals are live, featuring some significant price drops on both the most affordable and the priciest models.

The best deal is the entry-level Apple Watch SE 2 from just $149 (save $100 or 40%). This is a great price for a great watch that boasts almost all the same features as its pricier siblings. It’s a great starter watch and perfect for kids (and you can track them with it). Meanwhile, the latest high-end Apple Watch Ultra 2 in sleek black titanium is also $80 off. Or pick up a refurbished Ultra 1 for just $380.

Not to be left out, the brand-new Apple Watch Series 10 with its big beautiful screen is available at its best price to date on Amazon, starting at just $329. The biggest savings are on Series 9.

Tesla is rolling out a significant holiday software update, headlined by the launch of its first Tesla Apple Watch app. The new app, long expected and finally available next week, will allow owners of Tesla electric cars and trucks to use their Apple Watch as a digital key to lock and unlock their vehicles. That eliminates the need to carry a smartphone (at least for that reason).

Users can also view battery charge levels, control climate settings, and remotely open the front trunk (“frunk”) directly from their wrist.

While I’ve focused on my own workstation just a few times in several years of handling Cult of Mac setups coverage, it’s hard to resist an opportunity to extoll the virtues of my favorite over-ear headphones while they’re deeply discounted for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I added the headphones to my workstation recently, and right now you can pick up Beats Studio Pro at Best Buy for $159.99. That’s about $10 less than the discount I nabbed on Amazon for the normally $350 cans (although you should not pay that full price because you usually don’t have to).

Update: This fantastic Black Friday deali s still in effect for Cyber Monday!

Turns out we won’t be able to order robot vacuum cleaners around with Siri commands and the Home application quite as soon as hoped. Apple moved the release date for this feature to early 2025.

When it launches, though, it’ll be a powerful tool for controlling these automated home-cleaning devices.

If you use a desktop computer like Mac mini or Mac Studio — or if you typically hunch over a MacBook or other laptop — it’s time to bring beautiful views to your computer setup with a big, bright external display. And with the holiday season upon us, you can monitor Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals with plenty of Amazon bargains on external displays with 4K or 5K resolution to choose from. That includes every iteration of Apple’s popular Studio Display at $300 off!

See below for the best Black Friday monitor deals we’ve seen. And don’t miss our roundup of the best Apple Black Friday deals.

Update: While most of the Studio Display options are sold out, plenty of other deals are still in effect for Cyber Monday. And some discounts are even better now.

When Apple unveiled M4 MacBook Pro models on October 30, I preordered an M4 Pro MacBook Pro for $1,999. And I lined up a $705 trade-in of my M1 Pro MacBook Pro to help ease the financial pain. Now I see Black Friday/Cyber Monday has set a new Amazon price on my exact model at $1,749 — $250 less than I paid. I really can’t recommend (or envy) the machine at that price enough. It’s a fantastic price tag on a power-packed laptop.

Update: This MacBook Pro deal remains in effect for Cyber Monday!

Apple’s AirPods Max are a great pair of wireless headphones. But they are too expensive for what they offer. Plus, they don’t work as well with non-Apple devices. Due to these limitations, I got the Bose QuietComfort headphones earlier this year.

For Cyber Monday, these fantastic Bose headphones are down to their lowest price ever. And you should buy them over any other option you might have in mind. Here’s why.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday HomePod deals aren’t as extensive as you might find on other products, but at least you can save a few bucks on Apple’s smart speakers. We found early Black Friday savings at B&H Photo on both HomePod 2 and HomePod mini, and we’ll update this post if sweeter bargains come along.

Currently, the prices are as cheap or cheaper than even major warehouse discounters like Costco and Sam’s Club (which admittedly offers the HomePod mini for a penny less than B&H). Plus, if you’re searching for a Black Friday deal on HomePods at Amazon and coming up blank, you’re not going crazy. The retailer doesn’t stock HomePods, possibly because it’s trying to sell so many of its competing Echo smart speakers.

If you’re looking for deals on other Apple gear, don’t miss our big roundup of Apple Black Friday deals.

Update: These deals are still in effect for Cyber Monday. 

Amazon has dropped the price of the latest AirPods Pro 2 to just $170, a killer deal for the best wireless earbuds out there. This fantastic early Cyber Monday deal knocks a hefty $79 (32%) off the AirPods Pro 2 (regularly $249).

The deal is currently available at Amazon.

Now that AirPods Pro 2 can act as hearing aids, it’s hard to recommend any other earbuds for your iPhone, Mac or iPad. And yes, this is for the latest model with the USB-C charging case.

Seems like the new Macs with M4 chips just got here — and you can already get great deals on them! Why? Well, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, of course. While it’s still a couple weeks away, that never stops deals from coming earlier and earlier every year, just like holiday decorations and pumpkin-spice-flavored everything. Check out early Black Friday Mac deals, below.

Update: The deals below saw updated on the runup to Black Friday and then again for Cyber Monday.

Setting a goal to read more is easy — sticking with it is the hard part. Even if you have every intention of finally cracking open a good book, social media is a cruel temptress. Those who are serious about reading more should check out Pearls, a book summary app for iOS.

Pearls boils down nonfiction books so it takes just 15 minutes to read or listen to them. And you can get a lifetime subscription for just $29.99 (regularly $99) during our Cyber Monday sale. You won’t find a better price anywhere else. Plus, a single subscription allows you to use Pearls on all your Apple devices (iOS/iPadOS only).

We don’t recall seeing low prices on standard iPads any lower than a couple you can find right now on Amazon for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Those low price tags are on an iPad 10 (Wi-Fi only, 64GB) at $50 off as well as iPad 10 Wi-Fi + Cellular models for $50 off. Plus you can nab an iPad 9 model for up to a record $138 off, depending on which color you choose. Check the links below and gift yourself or someone else Apple’s entry-level tablet.

Update: Since we first called out the savings below on November 14, nearly every iPad Black Friday deal had gotten better. We also updated the post for Cyber Monday.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: With a slightly smarter Siri on the way in iOS 18.4, a new rumor indicates Apple might actually fix Siri once and for all … in 2026! We discuss the “LLM Siri” that supposedly will catch up with ChatGPT and other chatty competitors. As Apple refines its AI capabilities, companies like Buyback Boss are also innovating in tech resale and trade-in solutions. Find out more about the latest updates.

But the question remains: Can Apple really afford to wait that long to make its AI assistant less of a laughingstock?

Also on The CultCast:

• New rumors and renders show what the iPhone 17 lineup might look like.
• Uh-oh: We’ve got bad news about AirPods Max.
• And finally, Griffin talks up a solid — and much cheaper — stand-in for Apple’s Studio Display in an all-new Under Review.

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 live stream, embedded below.

London’s iconic Battersea Power Station is decorated with a sort of enormous Christmas card starring the beloved characters Wallace & Gromit.

The short animation of the man, his dog, and their Christmas trees was filmed on an iPhone 16 Pro Max and then projected onto the 101-meter (330 foot) chimneys that rise above the River Thames.

The best Cyber Monday deals on Beats headphones and earbuds are now live. You can get many Beats headphones and earbuds at their lowest prices ever. A fresh price drop on Beats’ flagship headphones — the Beats Studio Pro — brings a whopping $190 discount. At just $159.99, they make a great alternative to other premium headphones.

If you want the biggest and highest-capacity external hard drive, Cyber Monday is the time to buy.

I have a personal recommendation on a Thunderbolt enclosure that fits four full-size hard drives or SSDs, so you can get the fastest storage in enormous capacities. I’ve used the OWC ThunderBay 4 for about a year (having purchased the hard drive last Black Friday, coincidentally enough) and it’s served me well for all my odd purposes.

Here’s how to get the fastest, biggest external storage this shopping season.

Apple charges too damn much for additional storage for Macs and iPads. I got tired of overpaying for internal storage and went for an external SSD instead. The Kingston XS1000 is my favorite — portable, reliable and affordable.

And it’s an even better deal now that Cyber Monday is coming up: under $75 for a terabyte of storage.