November 4, 1997: Apple unveils its plan to open small “store within a store” areas inside CompUSA outlets around the United States. Apple-trained employees will staff these mini-stores and sing the praises of the Mac and other Apple products.

The move gives Cupertino more control over the way its products are displayed and demoed to consumers. While ultimately disappointing, Apple’s CompUSA experiment paves the way for the flagship Apple Stores that will launch four years later and become the world’s most profitable retail outlets.

The SanDisk Extreme Fit USB-C Flash Drive packs up to a terabyte of storage, but is tiny enough that you can leave it plugged into your MacBook. SanDisk touts it as “the world’s smallest 1TB USB-C flash drive.”

Outgrown the storage capacity of your older MacBook? This drive could be just the boost you’re looking for.

The mini SSD can even be used with an iPhone, as well as an iPad.

Can you put a price on online privacy and cloud storage? We can, and it’s a remarkably tiny one.

The 2026 Cloud Storage & Internet Privacy Lifetime Subscription Bundle gives you a lifetime of storage and security for a small one-time payment. It pairs 1TB of FolderFort cloud storage with OysterVPN — and you get it all for just $59.99 (MSRP $598.97).

Slide Over, one of the best iPad multitasking features, got rescued from the rubbish heap with the new iPadOS 26.1. It’s an ideal way to keep an application that you check frequently but not constantly within easy reach — it’s offscreen but accessible with just a flick of a finger.

Here’s how to use Slide Over, and why you shouldn’t ignore the option now that it’s back in iPadOS 26.1, which launched on Monday.

The older Apple Home architecture will live for a few more months. Apple previously planned on phasing out the architecture in late 2025. 

Instead, the HomeKit architecture will stop functioning on February 10, 2026.

iOS 26.1, which Apple released Monday, brings five features you should check out immediately after you install the update.

The biggest change gives you a way to customize the legibility of Liquid Glass, the major user interface overhaul Apple delivered to all its software platforms this year. But there’s plenty of other cool stuff you don’t want to miss.

Other key upgrades come to Apple Music and the iPhone’s alarm clock interface. Plus, there’s a setting that can keep your iPhone battery from draining in your pocket. And for iPad owners, there’s the celebrated return of Slide Over on iPad.

The iPhone App Store is now accessible on a Mac. And iPad users can research what macOS applications are available. Anyone can see what Apple Watch apps are available. All of these are possible now that Apple finally put the App Store on the web Monday.

It’s long overdue, and still missing a feature many users would like.

November 3, 2010: Apple prepares to launch the Mac App Store, publicly accepting app submissions from registered developers — and kicking off a gold rush among coders.

After witnessing the enormous sums of money raked in by early entrants in the iOS App Store, the easy-to-use digital storefront that revolutionized software distribution on the iPhone, developers flood Apple with new Mac apps.

Apple’s long-delayed Siri upgrade will reportedly “lean on Google’s Gemini” model to power many of its features. It will also include an AI-powered web search.

However, this Gemini integration will supposedly function differently from how Apple currently integrates ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence.

November 2, 2012: The first iPad mini goes on sale, shrinking both the size and the price tag of Apple’s groundbreaking tablet computer.

With a reduced screen size of 7.9 inches – instead of the then-standard 9.7 inches – the original iPad mini is the fifth iPad to be released by Apple. Critics hail Apple’s most affordable iPad ever, although some people complain about the tablet’s lack of a Retina display.

Although Wi-Fi 7 is theoretically more than four times faster than Wi-Fi 6E, tests of wireless performance on newer iPhone models that support the upgraded standard show no real improvement in speed. This is reportedly because Apple did not implement the Wi-Fi 7 changes that would boost performance over iPhones with Wi-Fi 6E.

In Apple’s defense, it did implement the portion of Wi-Fi 7 intended to make wireless connections more reliable. That’s arguably the part of the standard that benefits average users the most.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The latest rumor about the 20th anniversary iPhone whets our appetite for this glorious device. It’s just over the horizon, and it sounds like an absolute stunner.

Also on The CultCast:

• Apple reportedly plans to bring a gorgeous OLED screen to almost every iPad.
• A horrifying AirPods Pro 3 problem strikes when you need it least — while flying! Thankfully, it seems like the glitch is not that widespread. Still, we’ve got some tips on preparing for the worst.
• Griffin serves up his M5 Vision Pro review, and Leander talks up Apple Watch Series 11.

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.

November 1, 2007: Six months after Steve Jobs showed it off, the original iPhone becomes Time magazine’s “best invention of the year.”

The iPhone stands out from the rest of 2007’s gadget pack, which includes the Nikon Coolpix S51c digital camera, the Netgear SPH200W Wi-Fi Phone and the Samsung P2 music player. Remember those? (Yeah, we thought not.)

In addition to a bunch of much-needed bug fixes, iOS 26.1 brings plenty of new features. Tweaks to Liquid Glass improve its legibility without sacrificing its cool effects. iPad multitaskers can rejoice the return of Slide Over, which returns better than before.

There are 20 new changes: A new user interface for alarms, improvements to Photos, a new gesture for quickly fast-forwarding music, a setting that fixes a long-standing problem with the Lock Screen, and much more.

Here’s the complete list. Read on or watch our hands-on video.

M. Night Shyamalan’s wonderfully dark series Servant is the creepiest horror show on Apple TV. The engrossing show, about a supernatural nanny with designs on an upper-class Philadelphia power couple and their missing baby, shines thanks to an amazing array of directorial talent and some fantastic on-screen presences.

Here’s why you should watch all four seasons of this runaway freight train of a show.

Record numbers of customers upgrading their gear helped push up Apple’s revenue into record territory last quarter, and that’s boosting AAPL’s stock price.

Here are the products that the company says are the most popular with upgraders in Q4 2025. Some you might be able to guess, but there’s a very conspicuous absence from the list.

October 31, 2005: Less than three weeks after launching video downloads with iTunes 6, Apple reveals that it has already sold more than 1 million music videos.

Apple’s dive into the online digital video market — with 2,000 music videos, Pixar short films and a selection of hit TV shows for $1.99 — looks like the logical next step after selling individual songs on iTunes. Passing the 1 million download benchmark so quickly suggests the plan is a roaring success.

Apple’s long-delayed AI-powered Siri upgrade remains on track for a 2026 debut, CEO Tim Cook said Thursday. That offers some reassurance to users after multiple setbacks pushed the originally planned 2024 release back by more than a year.

So, what can we expect from a smarter Siri voice assistant when it finally arrives? 

New Apple TV crime thriller Down Cemetery Road, based on British author Mick Herron’s debut novel, might not always match the fast-and-dirty fun of Slow Horses, the hit stablemate also derived from Herron’s work.

However, it offers enough intrigue, stellar performances (especially from star Emma Thompson) and dark humor to deserve your attention. 

Here’s why you should stream the eight-episode conspiracy thriller.

The budget wireless earbuds market has become increasingly competitive, but this EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus earbuds review finds they manage to stand out with a compelling combination great sound, premium features and aggressively good value. Priced at $100 — with a launch discount coupon on Amazon bringing it down to about $80 —  these earbuds challenge what we’ve come to expect from the sub-$100 category. And they do so while going toe-to-toe with Apple’s $249 AirPods Pro 3.

A decade after the first Apple Watch came out, WhatsApp is testing a dedicated app for the smartwatch. This would make replying to messages, viewing existing conversations, and sharing voice notes easier.

Currently, Apple Watch users can only respond to unread WhatsApp messages through the notification center. There’s no way to do anything else.

Hackers and malicious viruses are very much a concern when you’re on the web, but the biggest threats to your productivity and your privacy come from everyday internet hazards. AdGuard — an ad blocker for iOS, Mac, Android and Windows — helps protect your privacy by shielding you from the hidden bots that track your every online move and turn your data into currency for advertisers and bad actors both big and small.

When it comes to these threats, regular antivirus software won’t cut it. AdGuard, on the other hand, is specifically designed to deal with both annoying ads and the data crawlers hidden inside them. And it’s now cheaper than ever, thanks to a deep price cut. Get a lifetime subscription to AdGuard’s family plan for just $18.97 with code FAMPLAN.

Apple set a new record for iPhone revenue in its most recent financial quarter. Total company revenue reached $102.5 billion, an 8% increase over the same quarter of last year. And earnings per share hit $1.85, a rise of 13%, the company said Thursday.

Plus, Apple CEO Tim Cook predicted the current quarter will be “the best ever in the history of the company” — and AAPL’s stock price shot up in after-hours trading.

iFixit did its traditional teardown of the M5 iPad Pro on Thursday and gave Apple’s newest tablet a much better reparability score than previous models. That doesn’t mean the computer is easy to fix, though.

Watch the teardown to take a deep dive into the guts of the M5 iPad Pro.

Halloween may not be as big a shopping event as Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day, but you can still scare up some spooktastic deals on Apple gear and accessories for various Apple devices. We hunted down 10 must-see bargains on MacBooks, iPads, AirTags, chargers, power stations, headphones and speakers.