When Apple entered the artificial intelligence race, the company faced a fundamental challenge: how to deliver powerful AI capabilities while maintaining its long-standing commitment to user privacy. The result is Apple Intelligence, a system designed around a simple but revolutionary premise — your personal data should work for you without leaving your control. Basically, that’s how privacy shapes Apple Intelligence features on “the edge,” meaning the furthest reaches of a computer network, where user devices dwell. 

Before Apple even launches its first folding iPhone, the company is reportedly exploring a follow-up model with a clamshell-like form factor, similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola Razr.
There’s no guarantee that Apple will launch such a model. But for now, it’s at least under consideration.

February 1, 2010: The tech-loving world goes into meltdown at the sight of comedian Stephen Colbert using a prerelease iPad to read nominations during the televised Grammy Awards show.
“Jay-Z, did you not get one of these in your gift bag?” Colbert quips from the stage. “Am I cooler than you?”
The celebrity sneak peek is all part of Apple’s big (and wildly successful) plan to hype its upcoming tablet.

There’s tremendous anticipation for a MacBook Pro upgraded with faster M5 Pro or M5 Max processors, but the laptop did not launch this week, despite eager speculation that it would. And we need to be patient because we’re likely to continue waiting well into February and maybe beyond. A critical feature apparently isn’t ready yet: macOS Tahoe 26.3.

January 31, 1998: Mac clone-maker Power Computing goes out of business, having auctioned off its office supplies and computers.
Apple bought out Power Computing, once the fastest-growing PC company of the decade, the previous year. As a result, Power Computing shareholders receive Apple stock as a replacement. As it turns out, that may not have been a terrible deal.

The way I type on my Mac hasn’t changed in years. But then, I started using Wispr Flow — an AI-powered voice-to-text app for Mac. It has reshaped how I write on my Mac, making me more efficient and faster.
It’s not just about typing faster. Using your voice for typing also feels more natural in many cases. Here’s how Wispr Flow has changed how I write on my Mac, and why I can’t go back. 

How much would you pay for a check signed by both Apple co-founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak? Factor in that it is Apple check No. 1. Got a figure in mind? Now double it. Your guess is probably still less than a collector paid for that item in a recent auction.
It went for a stonking $2.4 million — believed to be the highest price ever paid for a signed check at public auction.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: The second-gen AirTag finally arrives, and it packs some pretty awesome upgrades — although you’d never know by looking at it!

We discuss all the reasons we love AirTags in general, and Cult of Mac writer Ed Hardy joins us for his review of Apple’s upgraded tracking tag.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• A quick teardown of an AirTag 2 shows the massive redesign hiding inside the familiar circular form factor.
• Griffin explains Apple Music‘s killer feature that lets you easily upload your own tracks and sync them to all your devices. Take that, Spotify!
• A listener mentions my band, Those Darn Accordions, and that prompts a bit of a rabbit hole run through the band’s history (and surfaces a surprisingly popular ancient YouTube video of me sabering a bottle of Champagne back in the day at Wired.com).

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 live stream, embedded below.

For millions of Apple Watch owners, the Hypertension Notifications Feature available on recent models is a big leap in wearable health monitoring. It promises to alert users to potential high blood pressure before it leads to serious health problems. But how reliable are the alerts, and what should Apple users realistically expect?
I’ve had measurably high blood pressure for years. I wear Apple Watch 10, one of the models with hypertension alerts. And yet I’ve never seen one up close and personal. Apparently my meds are working!

StackSkills has a news flash for anyone who got a little too comfortable after high school: It’s not smart to stop learning. That’s especially true in this accelerated stage of the information age, where new tech skills are increasingly in demand.
The good news is that it’s easier than ever to catch up to the needs of today’s job market, thanks to resources like StackSkills. This vast platform for online education can help anyone chart a path to a new career. And lifetime subscriptions cost just $19.97 (regularly $600).

January 30, 1995: Apple Computer launches the Newton MessagePad 120, the first truly great device in an unfairly maligned product line.
Coming 18 months after the original Newton MessagePad, the upgraded PDA packs more power — and truly shines once Newton OS 2.0 rolls out.

Apple might be slow to jump on the AI bandwagon, but internally, the company “runs on Anthropic at this point.” Apparently, the company was also ready to rebuild Siri around Claude, but the deal fell through at the last moment. 
“Anthropic is powering a lot of the stuff Apple’s doing internally in terms of product development and a lot of their internal tools,” revealed Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman in the TBPN’s Technology’s daily show. 

“I am proud to say that we just had a quarter for the record books,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during Thursday’s earnings call, before rattling off numbers that surprised Wall Street analysts — in a good way.
The highly successful quarter was also one for the stat geeks. Apple racked up several all-time highs during the quarter (technically Apple’s Q1 2026). From overall revenue (a new all-time high!) to customer satisfaction ratings (through the roof!), the numbers Apple put up during the 2026 holiday quarter will blow your mind.

If you’ve used iPhones and digital cameras for years, chances are older images in your photo library don’t quite hold up anymore — but an image upscaler like Aiarty Image Enhancer can help.
Early iPhone shots, low-light photos, scanned prints and older, low-resolution images often look soft, grainy or blurry on today’s large, high-resolution displays. Aiarty Image Enhancer, available for Mac and PC, is designed to solve exactly those problems.
It’s a focused, AI-powered photo enhancement application that prioritizes speed, simplicity and natural-looking results — without subscriptions or complicated editing tools. And for a limited time, you can get a great deal on it.

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke publicly for the first time on Thursday about the collaboration with Google that will upgrade the Siri voice assistant with the Gemini AI. He emphasized that the new Siri will “maintain our industry-leading privacy standards.”
Cook also said the company will continue to develop its own artificial intelligence models, even as it’s using Google’s.

Apple broke all kinds of revenue records during the critical holiday quarter, the company said Thursday, including setting an all-time quarterly high of $143.8 billion. The shockingly good revenues led to sky-high earnings per share that blew past Wall Street’s lofty expectations. And Apple gave the iPhone much of the credit.
“Apple is proud to report a remarkable, record-breaking quarter, with revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16 percent from a year ago and well above our expectations,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a press release. “iPhone had its best-ever quarter driven by unprecedented demand, with all-time records across every geographic segment, and Services also achieved an all-time revenue record, up 14 percent from a year ago.”

After years of rumors, Apple finally unveiled the second-generation AirTag on Monday. At first glance, it looks identical to the original, but the similarities end there.
From improved tracking precision to a louder speaker, AirTag 2 builds on its predecessor in every way.

Apple just paid $2 billion for Q.ai, an AI company with technology that could dramatically enhance the Siri voice assistant. It’s a stealth-mode Israeli artificial intelligence startup that develops advanced technologies to improve human/computer communication beyond basic speech recognition.
It’s the second largest acquisition in Apple history.

January 29, 1990: Apple CEO John Sculley appoints Michael Spindler as the company’s new chief operating officer.
Nicknamed “The Diesel” on account of his work ethic, Spindler’s new job continues his upward trajectory at Apple. Three years later, he will become CEO.

Apple just gave new subscribers an extended opportunity to try its music streaming service, offering three months of Apple Music completely free. The promotion to get three months of Apple Music free — which runs through February 24 — greatly expands the standard one-month trial period.
The new offer coincides with Apple’s sponsorship of the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show with musical act Bad Bunny.

With the launch of Apple Creator Studio Wednesday, Apple also updated its suite of productivity apps otherwise known as iWork. That’s Keynote, Pages and Numbers, which were always free and are now “freemium.” Some features will only work for Creator Studio subscribers, but others work for anyone using free versions of the productivity apps.

Seven out of the ten bestselling smartphones in 2025 were iPhones, reports a market research firm, including all of the top four. But it’s not a Pro model that was the No. 1 seller, nor was it the cheapest. It was the base iPhone 16.
Those strong sales powered iPhone to the top of the global market overall. Apple outsold all rival smartphone makers last year, according to a separate report.

Spendify is a personal finance app that helps you track and plan your spending. The new AI tool turns a tedious and sometimes overwhelming task into something extremely manageable. It can even help you identify ways you’re unknowingly wasting your hard-earned cash.
With a lifetime subscription to Spendify, you get long-term access to tools that help you understand where your money goes and how to improve your habits. And the savings start now: Lifetime access to Spendify is on sale now for just $29.99 (regularly $180).

An AirTag 2 teardown video reveals Apple’s second-gen AirTag packs major internal changes. From the outside, though, the tracking tag looks identical to its predecessor. 
Internally, Apple has used a thinner PCB and revamped the speaker assembly to make it louder. The latter will also help avoid unwanted tampering with the tag.

Apple just launched the long-awaited new version of its AirTag. The upgraded tracking tag is easier to find, with much longer range when using either a Bluetooth or Ultra Wideband connection from your iPhone. It also includes a louder, shriller speaker.
I put the improvements in the AirTag (2nd generation) through real-world testing for this hands-on review.