As Apple turns 50, it’s worth looking back on the company’s greatest accomplishments and lowest moments through history. If you don’t have time for David Pogue’s 600-page epic, Apple: The First 50 Years, maybe you can spare eight minutes to relive the single biggest piece of Apple news every year.
You can watch 50 years of Apple announcements compressed into a single video. Or, keep reading below for a quick rundown.
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Apple is working to upgrade Siri so the voice assistant can handle multiple requests at once, according to an unconfirmed report from Bloomberg. The feature would let users combine several commands into a single query instead of issuing them one at a time.
It’s apparently part of a much larger project to inject some real intelligence into Siri. Artificial intelligence.
Two new Sonos speakers — one portable, one not — aim squarely at easy home setup for listeners who want room-filling audio without headaches. Both the portable Sonos Play ($299) and mic-free home speaker Era 100 SL ($189), which went on sale Tuesday, work with Apple AirPlay 2.
“Much of consumer tech promises innovation, yet too often delivers isolation — new devices replacing old ones instead of building on what already works,” said Sonos CEO Tom Conrad. “We believe a great sound experience shouldn’t reset every time you add something new. It should get better.”
March 31, 2010: When the first iPad reviews hit the internet, the world gets a sense of how Apple’s new tablet measures up.
The consensus? That there’s no Flash, no USB, no multitasking — but Apple’s tablet offers an exciting new computing experience all the same. As USA Today writes, “The first iPad is a winner.”
April 1 marks a milestone: Apple turns 50. Half a century after Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne signed the papers in a California garage, Apple has become one of the most valuable companies on Earth — and one of the most design-obsessed in history.
And lucky for gear fans, some of its brilliant products inspired other companies to make some great retro-futuristic Apple accessories.
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Apple produced an amazing string of hit products over its 50 years, but to paraphrase Napoleon the pig: Some are more important than others.
Here are the most important products in Apple’s 50-year history. And no, this list is likely not what you were expecting. They’re not necessarily the biggest or the most well-known.
Macs in enterprise settings typically last for five years, besting the three-year lifespan for Windows PCs, according to a company that makes software to help businesses manage their computers.
But the really shocking revelation from the report is that more than half of Windows PCs used in big business get replaced within a year.
macOS Tahoe 26.4 brings several new features to Macs. But it also breaks one critical functionality: Time Machine backups.
The bug appears to affect backups over network drives and NAS (network-attached storage), causing them to fail with a credential error.
Following the public release of iOS 26.4 a week ago, Apple released iOS 26.5 developer beta 1 on Monday.
Unlike its immediate predecessor, the first iOS 26.5 beta arrives with few new features. Most of the changes focus on users in the European Union.
This rare Apple Magic Keyboard deal means you there’s no reason to use an old-fashioned wired keyboard with your Mac. Not when you can get an Apple Magic Keyboard on sale for 19% off, and say goodbye to cables.
Or maybe you’re using a third-party keyboard you don’t like. Perhaps your Apple keyboard is close to wearing out. Whatever the reason, get a new one at a welcome discount.
The Apple Magic Mouse doesn’t go on sale very often, so don’t miss a rare deal that saves you 19% on the svelte input device for your Mac or iPad. This new Apple Magic Mouse deal drops the price to just $63.99.
The sale is on the USB-C version, not the older Lightning model, so it’s a great opportunity to upgrade.
Apple’s first desktop Mac with an OLED screen is in early development, according to a report coming out of the company’s supply chain in Asia. That would give the all-in-one desktop a truly beautiful display.
At this point, OLED screens typically go into Apple’s premium models. It’s not clear if that’ll hold true for the iMac, however.
Apple’s global 50th anniversary celebration is building to what might be its most memorable moment yet — and if the clues are right, it involves a Beatle performing at Apple Park this week. Or somebody else from the British Invasion that Steve Jobs loved.
Update: The rumor proved true: Paul McCartney played Apple Park on Tuesday night.
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March 30, 2006: A court case begins that once again pits Apple Computer against Apple Corps, The Beatles’ record label and holding company.
The lawsuit caps a long-running legal battle between the two wealthy companies. It’s the final fight in an epic legal battle over music, technology and money.
The Brydge Max 11.0 is a premium iPad keyboard case with the potential to dethrone Apple’s own. The two products have much in common, including a cantilever design, but the Brydge version stands out with much wider viewing angles and a gorgeous aluminum exterior.
It fits recent 11-inch iPad Pro models. A version for earlier 11-inch iPads is also available, and one for 13-inch iPads comes out soon.
UPDATE: Brydge Max 11.0 was announced in February and is now shipping.
Apple’s history is often distilled into the “Jobs and Woz” garage origin story and the slick modern era of design legend Jony Ive and current CEO Tim Cook. But a group of critical, often overlooked contributors actually forged the company’s 50-year arc. Here are 16 unsung heroes from Apple’s first 50 years — some of the most important “geniuses” and original thinkers behind Apple’s success.
“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do,” Steve Jobs once said. “We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
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March 29, 2012: A settlement ends the “Antennagate” controversy, as Apple gives affected iPhone 4 owners the chance to claim a whopping $15 payout. The settlement covers customers whose phones dropped calls due to its cutting-edge design, but were unable to return their handsets (or didn’t want a free bumper case from Apple to mitigate against the problem).
While it’s arguable whether a $15 payout was worth filing all the paperwork necessary to claim the cash, the Antennagate story — and the resulting class-action lawsuit — generated big headlines at the time.
Apple’s latest M5 Pro and M5 Max chips will serve as the company’s flagship SoCs until the M5 Ultra lands on the Mac Studio in a few months.
Power-hungry Mac fans want to know: Compared to the M4 Pro and M4 Max, what improvements do the M5 Pro and its Max sibling bring? Our comparison shows exactly how these Apple processors stack up.
This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: New details emerge about a major upgrade that would transform Siri from a laughingstock to a legitimate AI assistant.
Unfortunately, these plans sound mighty familiar. Still, we’re guardedly optimistic that Apple can pull it off this time.
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 Shark TurboBlade is a sleek and highly customizable bladeless fan that cools efficiently without the noise. It’s a modern take on home cooling that’s just right for anyone who cares about both performance and how things look.
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March 28, 1996: In a dire message to Wall Street, Apple warns that it will report a $700 million after-tax loss for its most recent quarter.
Apple’s biggest quarterly loss in history, the shocking news reveals a company in far more financial trouble than previously thought. More than half the loss comes from $1 billion of unsold products.