Muse isn't just for iPhone and Mac any more. Image: Meta
Meta’s Muse personal AI agent just arrived on the iPad. Wednesday’s release gives Apple’s tablet a native version of an AI assistant that has quickly become one of Meta’s most visible consumer AI products.
iPad support arrives less than a month after Muse launched on iPhone (and Android).
A drawing of an LG Electronics smart thermostat filed with the FCC and reportedly co-developed with Apple. Image: LG Electronics/FCC
Apple partnered with LG Electronics to create an array of smart home devices, including a doorbell, a thermostat, a smart lock and indoor and outdoor security cameras, according to a new report.
The devices will work with Apple’s long-rumored smart home hub, which supposedly will launch next week. Although the LG-produced gear won’t arrive for several months, it should bolster Apple’s attempt to catch up in the smart home game. And new images purport to show what three of the devices will look like and function.
Apple Watch Series 12 inches upward on iFixit's repairability ranking, while the Apple Watch Ultra 4 stays put. Photo: Apple
Apple Watch repairability barely budged this year, according to teardowns of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4.
Both watches scored just 4 out of 10 on iFixit’s repairability scale, with the Series 12 benefiting from a handy new battery pull tab. However, with both models, you still need to pry off a glued screen to swap out a failing battery.
The iPhone 4s was the last iPhone that Steve Jobs directly worked on. Photo: Apple
October 7, 2011: Two days after the death of Steve Jobs, Apple opens preorders for the iPhone 4s.
The last iPhone that Jobs worked on directly, the 4s boasts a speedier A5 chip, an improved 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video recording, and — most significantly — Apple’s new AI virtual assistant, Siri.
Dolby Atmos for F1 comes to Apple TV at the US Grand Prix in Austin. Photo: Apple
Apple TV is getting Dolby Atmos for F1 races, starting with the US Grand Prix in Austin this month.
So far, Apple’s F1 streams have been using 5.1 surround sound. Atmos should make engine roars feel far more immersive, provided your TV or audio system supports it.
Build practical AI skills with this training bundle. Image: Cult of Mac Deals
This AI training bundle teaches you how to make the most of six of the most popular AIs around. It covers ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity AI, DeepSeek and Tabnine AI.
With more than 180 lectures and 25 hours of video, it will help you master the biggest AI platforms with a single, self-paced curriculum. And for a limited time, you can secure lifetime access to The Ultimate AI Assistant Masterclass for just $15.99 (MSRP $39).
Let ChatGPT handle note-taking in your meetings now. Photo: ChatGPT
ChatGPT for Mac can now act as a note-taking assistant in meetings. The new Meetings plugin takes notes during calls and provides a personalized summary afterward.
You can also share meeting notes with your team members or ask ChatGPT to take follow-up actions based on them.
Your Apple Watch is right there, ready to help you communicate in real time. Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The Apple Watch Translate app can help you quickly speak in a different language while you’re abroad, right from your wrist. Translate between 20 different languages by speaking out loud, play translations out of your Apple Watch speaker and build a list of favorite phrases you can play instantly.
★★★★★Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris made the jump to iPad and iPhone. Image: Feral Interactive/Cult of Mac
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris was made for consoles but is perfect for mobile. The action-puzzler delivers a compact arcade-style game easily broken up into playable chunks.
So it makes complete sense that Feral Interactive brought the game to iPhone and iPad. And rather than creating a stripped-down mobile version, Feral has delivered what is essentially the full 2014 game, including its downloadable content.
The result is an unusually complete mobile port that holds up surprisingly well more than a decade after the original’s release. I loved the original and I’m enjoying the heck out of the port.
Siri AI on Apple TV could debut with a new Apple TV 4K, rumored to arrive on October 13 alongside the new HomePod. Photo: Apple
Siri AI on Apple TV looks closer than ever, thanks to fresh code found in the latest tvOS 27.2 beta. The code references Apple’s foundation models and a new Siri messaging framework.
Both hint that the next Apple TV set-top box could get Apple Intelligence features, possibly as soon as October 13.
Steve Jobs took issue with Michael Dell's "rude" comment about Apple. Photo: Oracle PR/Flickr CC
October 6, 1997: Michael Dell makes an incredibly bleak appraisal of Apple’s fortunes, uttering a quote that will become notorious. Asked what he would do with the struggling company, the founder of Dell Inc. says he would “shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”
As incorrect forecasts go, this ultimately will go down as one of the more notable in tech history. But it doesn’t seem that way at the time.
Get lifetime access to this tool and turn practically anything into audio. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Text-to-speech software is useful, but most of the stuff you actually want to convert isn’t sitting neatly inside a text box. It’s in PDFs, presentations, web pages, images and documents. AnyToSpeech solves that problem easily — it’s designed to turn all those formats into natural-sounding audio.
It quickly turns text, PDFs, documents, images and URLs into audio, and can even clone your voice, transcribe media and create two-speaker podcasts. And right now, you can secure lifetime access to AnyToSpeech’s Hobby Plan for just $39.99 (MSRP $249).
Don't miss out on these great deals for Amazon Prime Big Deal Days. Photo: Amazon
The right accessory can make your iPhone or Mac even more useful. A compact charger can replace several power adapters in your travel bag, while a Thunderbolt dock can simplify your Mac desk setup.
Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days give you a chance to pick up these upgrades for less. Below, we have rounded up the best accessories worth checking out.
OLED MacBook Pro might debut as soon as this month. Photo: Unsplash
Apple’s October launch plans might extend beyond its rumored October 13 event, with the first touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro potentially debuting later in the month.
This could make its rumored October 13 smart home event just the start of a much bigger launch spree.
Save a tidy sum on the M6 Mac mini, while this deal lasts. Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
You can already get a real deal on an M6 Mac mini even though Apple only launched the tiny desktop last month. This deal is kind of amazing for such a new model, dropping the base model to $779.99, saving you $119.
RemoveMacAI can remove Apple Intelligence and its models from macOS 27. Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
A new open-source tool lets Mac users remove Apple Intelligence from macOS 27 and regain 12GB of storage or more. Named RemoveMacAI, the tool runs from Terminal.
Apple took away the Apple Intelligence master switch in macOS 27. Now, if you turn off individual features, the AI models still sit on your drive. On a Mac with a small SSD, that’s a lot of dead weight.
Apple CEO John Ternus is reportedly a regular presence in Apple’s design studio. Image: Apple/Cult of Mac
Apple CEO John Ternus is reportedly spending far more time in the design studio than Tim Cook ever did. He’s there several times a week, sometimes more than once a day.
It’s clearly different from the Tim Cook era. Many people think design influence at Apple slipped after Jony Ive left the company back in 2019, but Ternus seems determined to fix that.
Get nine comprehensive CompTIA courses so you can ace your IT certification exams. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Want to land a high-paying IT job? Taking a CompTIA course will prepare you to pass the industry-standard IT certification exams offered by the Computing Technology Industry Association.
The courses in the 2026 CompTIA Certification Training: Complete Exam Prep Bundle are not some random collection of unrelated tech tutorials. They’re designed around the exact tests you need to ace if you want to succeed in the IT industry. That includes training for CompTIA Tech+, A+ and Network+, with lessons that follow those respective exam objectives. And right now, you can get all CompTIA training for just $24.99 (MSRP $269.91).
Steve Jobs leaves an enduring legacy at Apple. Portrait: Jeremy Martin
October 5, 2011: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs dies at the age of 56 in his home in Palo Alto, California.
Jobs’ official cause of death is respiratory arrest arising from complications related to a rare type of pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed with cancer eight years earlier, and officially stepped down from his role as Apple CEO in August 2011, just weeks before his death.
★★★★☆
The Clevetura S keyboard looks familiar, but its keys do more than type. Photo: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac
The Clevetura S keyboard stands out due to its dual functionality, which combines a Mac keyboard with a built-in trackpad. The twist is that instead of adding a dedicated trackpad to the keyboard, it turns the keys themselves into a touch surface.
This clever idea works well in daily use, although it comes with a learning curve.
AirPods Pro 3 are always brilliant, and now they are much more affordable. Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
An AirPods Pro 3 deal drops Apple’s excellent noise-canceling earbuds to just $179 at Amazon. That’s a sweet $70 discount.
AirPods Pro 3 bring loads of features, including Live Translation, a heart rate monitor, revved-up audio quality and redesigned ear tips for better active noise cancellation. Plus, like the previous model, they can even function as clinical-grade hearing aids.
Make no mistake: These are the best wireless earbuds you can buy for your iPhone, Mac and other Apple gear. Nothing can match how seamlessly AirPods integrate with Apple devices.
Apple envisioned an AI helper like Siri way back in the late 1980s. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
October 4, 2011: With the unveiling of the iPhone 4s, Apple introduces the world to Siri. A groundbreaking example of artificial intelligence in action, the Siri launch fulfills a long-term dream at Apple.
In fact, the company first predicted such a feature in the 1980s — with Siri’s debut coming in almost the exact month Apple envisioned.
Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are so fun to watch in Brothers on Apple TV. Photo: Apple TV
Apple TV found an unusual premise for its latest comedy: What if Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson really were brothers? That is the question at the heart of Brothers, the new Apple TV comedy starring the longtime friends as fictionalized versions of themselves.
And while critics are divided about the show itself, plenty of reviewers and I agree that watching McConaughey and Harrelson goof around together is a lot of fun.
Here are three reasons you should watch Brothers on Apple TV.
Make your own illustrated books with lllustratorMagic. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
AI children’s book generator IllustratorMagic turns your ideas into complete illustrated storybooks, comics and coloring books. It can generate entire books in two to five minutes, depending on the number of pages.