October 16, 2003: Six months after opening the iTunes Music Store for Mac owners, Apple expands the service to Windows computers. This gives PC owners a new, legitimate way to download — and pay for — songs at a time when digital piracy threatens the music industry.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs later quips that making iTunes available to Windows owners is akin to “giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.”
Apple introduced a version of its Magic Keyboard for iPad Air in black on Wednesday. Previously, the premium keyboard/case came only in white.
The accessory is also available for iPad Pro, including the newly launched M5 version of the tablet.
Apple’s newest M5 MacBook Pro does not ship with a power brick in the box in Europe and the U.K. But this time, don’t blame Apple for the move.
The change stems from new EU regulations around energy efficiency and electronic waste reduction.
Meta continues poaching high-profile executives from Apple’s AI team for its Superintelligence group. The latest hire is Ke Yang, who Apple recently appointed to lead its Answers, Knowledge and Information team.
Apple’s team is making an “answer engine” that will crawl the web to answer simple search queries.
A questionable portrait of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sitting cross-legged in a California meadow will appear on a collectible $1 coin from the U.S. Mint in 2026. It’s a great tribute to Jobs and Apple’s innovation — but you’ll need to squint pretty hard to identify the hippie-turned-techpreneur.
“This design presents a young Steve Jobs sitting in front of a quintessentially northern California landscape of oak-covered rolling hills,” the Mint said in a press release Wednesday. “His posture and expression, as he is captured in a moment of reflection, show how this environment inspired his vision to transform complex technology into something as intuitive and organic as nature itself.”
The Jobs coin — which kinda makes Apple’s late leader look like a young Ellen DeGeneres — is one of four featured in the 2026 American Innovation $1 Coin Program, a commemorative series established to honor U.S. inventors and innovators.
Fans of The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin can enjoy an episode that was unexpectedly added to the end of season one of the historical comedy.
Unfortunately, it likely won’t be followed by any more episodes after its star, Noel Fielding, forced the show’s cancellation.
The Dual Knit Band introduced Wednesday with the new M5-powered Vision Pro is compatible with Apple’s original headset, too. You don’t need to shell out another $3,499 — the extra comfort can be had for a fraction of the price.
Other improvements to the new headset are somewhat minor, with nothing else standing out as a must-have for current Vision Pro owners (all 12 of them lol). The Dual Knit Band might be all you need to spice up life in your spatial computer.
Those who want the best performance out of their new M5 iPad Pro need to opt for at least a terabyte of storage. That’s because paying out for additional capacity also brings a faster version of the processor and more RAM. There’s no way to configure the tablet with these features other than to choose a version with plenty of storage.
Plus, only the priciest variants can add nano-texture glass.
Is your iPhone photography hindered by low light and a lack of control over depth of field? Well, good news confirmed: Apple plans to equip its iPhone 18 Pro lineup with variable-aperture camera technology. That marks the first time the tech giant implements the feature in any iPhone, according to a supply-chain report Wednesday that appears to prove earlier predictions right.
The technology should debut in the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models, slated for release in fall 2026.
October 15, 1993: John Sculley, the former CEO responsible for forcing Steve Jobs out of Apple, is forced to leave the company himself. When Sculley resigns as Apple’s chairman, he leaves with a golden parachute.
His parting gifts include $1 million in severance pay, a one-year consulting fee of $750,000, a commitment from Apple to buy his $4 million mansion and $2 million Learjet, and $2.4 million in stock options. Total take: around $10 million.
Apple just revealed the 2025 iPad Pro, which gets a speed boost from the new M5 processor, and some variants get 50% more RAM. The premium tablet includes an OLED screen in both the 13-inch and 11-inch versions.
“Powered by the next generation of Apple silicon, the new iPad Pro delivers our most advanced and versatile iPad experience yet,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “iPad Pro with M5 unlocks endless possibilities for creativity and productivity — with a huge leap in AI performance and a big boost in graphics, superfast wireless connectivity, and game-changing iPadOS 26 features, it pushes the boundaries of what iPad can do yet again.”
Apple launched the M5 Vision Pro on Wednesday, bumping the impressive headset up from the years-old M2 processor. The punchier M5 processor boosts the headset’s video resolution and refresh rate for a clearer, sharper image.
The updated Vision Pro is “setting a new standard for what’s possible in spatial computing,” said Apple Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Bob Borchers in Apple’s press release. “Spatial computing is even more capable, entertaining, and magical with the new Vision Pro.”
The M5 isn’t the only upgrade, either. A new Dual Knit Band elegantly adds comfort and style to the headset. And as icing on the cake, the M5 Vision Pro boasts noticeably improved battery life.
The M5 Vision Pro starts at the same high price of $3,499 with 256GB of storage. It’s available for preorder today, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning on October 22.
Apple’s new M5 chip packs more power than predecessors, with advanced performance for Apple Intelligence and pumped up GPU performance boosting graphics processing, among other incremental improvements across the chip.
“M5 ushers in the next big leap in AI performance for Apple silicon,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “With the introduction of Neural Accelerators in the GPU, M5 delivers a huge boost to AI workloads.”
“Combined with a big increase in graphics performance, the world’s fastest CPU core, a faster Neural Engine, and even higher unified memory bandwidth,” he added, “M5 brings far more performance and capabilities to MacBook Pro, iPad Pro and Apple Vision Pro.”
Apple unveiled an upgraded 14-inch MacBook Pro powered by the new M5 chip on Wednesday. While the laptop looks the same as its predecessor, it sports a faster new Apple silicon processor to deliver even better performance.
“MacBook Pro continues to be the world’s best pro laptop, and today, the 14-inch MacBook Pro gets even better with the arrival of the M5 chip,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in a press release.
Hey Google Workspace users: Whether you’re juggling content in Docs, analyzing data in Sheets or just trying to make Slides look halfway decent, AiAssistWorks is basically the AI productivity buddy you wish came bundled in Google’s popular tools.
It taps top AIs so you can get the results you need using plain-language commands. And right now, you can save big-time on this Google Workspace booster. For a limited time, you can get a lifetime subscription to AiAssistWorks’ Plus Plan for just $39.99 (MSRP $480) with code AI20.
It’s a quick and easy way supercharge your workflow and reclaim your evenings.
Ugreen’s new NASync DH2300 and DH4300 Plus network-attached storage devices aim squarely at everyday home users, the consumer electronics maker said Wednesday. In other words, those who want local storage as an alternative to iCloud, but without the complexity typically associated with NAS systems.
Starting at a low price of $209.99 $188.99, the two-bay DH 2300 device joins the more capable four-bay DH4300 Plus ($429.99 $364.99) in Ugreen’s effort to make personal cloud storage accessible to non-technical users. Both are on sale for launch, too.
Apple will build its upcoming smart home products in Vietnam to diversify its manufacturing away from China. This includes indoor security cameras, a smart display and a tabletop robot.
A $350 smart display will be the first to launch in spring 2026.
Apple’s SVP of Marketing, Greg Joswiak, teased the imminent launch of the M5 MacBook Pro on X today.
“Mmmmm… something powerful is coming,” Joswiak said on X, with his post accompanied by a short clip giving a quick glimpse at the upcoming MacBook Pro.
This Western Digital Elements SSD gives you 2TB of external hard drive storage you can take anywhere. Now on sale for just $64.99 (MSRP $79.99), this little powerhouse is the storage solution your setup didn’t know it needed.
Whether you’re juggling high-res photos and videos on your phone or tablet, or heavy project files on your desktop, the WD Elements drive offers 2TB of space in a pocket-size design. That’s enough to stash years of photos, entire movie libraries and way more spreadsheets than you’ll ever want to open.
In iOS 26, you can use Apple Cash in a group chat to make it super-easy to split a bill. You won’t need to chase down everyone separately if you use this incredibly convenient feature.
Here’s how to request money and send payments using Apple Cash from a group chat.
October 14, 2005: Tim Cook takes the reins as Apple’s chief operating officer. His new role as Apple COO continues his upward climb through the company’s ranks that will make him CEO less than six years later.
“Tim and I have worked together for over seven years now, and I am looking forward to working even more closely with him to help Apple reach some exciting goals during the coming years,” Steve Jobs says in a statement.
Apple shipped 58.6 million iPhones and captured 18.2% of the global smartphone market, the company’s “best results ever in a July quarter,” according to new data from the International Data Corporation. The iPhone nearly matched Samsung’s 19% market share.
Demand for innovation, like new artificial intelligence features, plus aggressive trade-in programs, helped fuel the surge, despite tariff woes, IDC said.
Apple’s next Pro Display XDR monitor could take a cue from MacBooks and iPhones and feature a Center Stage camera. Code strings referencing the monitor with the camera were discovered in the latest macOS 26.1 beta.
The Pro Display XDR is long overdue for a refresh, with the current model debuting in late 2019 for $4,999.
After a month’s delay, Apple will launch the iPhone Air in China on Wednesday, October 22. Preorders for the device will begin this Friday, October 17.
Apple pushed back the iPhone Air’s September launch in China at the last minute due to regulatory hurdles around eSIM support.
With multiple devices to manage and little room for bulky chargers, it helps to have an all-in-one solution to keep everything powered. GoCable is up to the task. This 8-in-1 keychain charging cable is designed for modern travelers, creators and adventurers who need fast, reliable juice for almost any device
It’s small enough to fit right in with your EDC essentials. And Cult of Mac Deals chops the price down to just $21.99 (regularly $49.99).