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.”

Meta and Apple are working together to bring a powerful new open-weight AI model to high-end Macs.

Meta announced Muse Spark Open on Thursday, describing it as “the most capable US open-weight model to date.” For its part, Apple updated its MLX machine-learning framework for the model.

“Leveraging the latest version of MLX, Muse Spark Open was optimized to run on Mac Studio with M5 Ultra, and together they’re the best way to run a powerful model on your own desktop,” said Meta in a statement.

The fourth-generation Apple TV 4K comes four years after its predecessor. While the streaming box retains almost the same design as its third-generation sibling, it packs some notable usability upgrades. That’s in addition to faster internals for a better overall experience. 

Do these improvements make the Apple TV 4K (4th generation) a worthy upgrade from the third-generation model?

Apple is reportedly sending select journalists invitations to a product launch event that will be held on October 28. The company has yet to make an official announcement of the event, though.

Still, what’s on the agenda already leaked out. The highlight will be the first touchscreen MacBook, but two M6-powered Macs are also expected, as is an OLED iPad mini.

The Apple HomeView apps lineup is finally official. The smart home hub comes with 15 built-in apps, but there’s no App Store.

That means the $299 device leans on your iPhone for anything beyond the basics. Supported third-party audio and video apps come from your phone, too.

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.

A new replacement iPod motherboard is promising to bring your old click-wheel player into the modern era. It adds Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and USB-C, all while keeping the classic look.

Called Sprout, the open-source board is designed so that it drops into select iPods with no soldering required. It is still in development, but if it works as promised, it could be a dream upgrade for retro fans.

Your Mac already provides a screen recorder to capture what’s happening on your display. The annoying part often comes later: getting that screen recording edited, uploaded, organized and in front of the person who actually needs to see it.

Advanced screen recorder Glooin streamlines that entire process. It lets you record, edit and instantly share your screen, webcam and audio. If you’re tired of hassling with screen recordings on your Mac or PC, grab lifetime access to Glooin’s Starter plan, with 25GB of lifetime storage, for just $24.99 (regularly $99).

We have confirmation that Apple’s original HomePod mini will miss out on a Siri AI upgrade, even as the company prepares to bring the technology to older Apple TV 4K models. The same apparently goes for the larger HomePod 2.

To be clear, Apple never said the previous versions of its smart speakers would get the new AI-enabled version of Siri. And the devices still include classic Siri and work as AirPlay speakers, just like they did before.

You can use your iPhone, iPad or even your Apple Watch as a remote for your Apple TV. It’s a convenient feature when you’ve lost the remote in the couch cushions.

And even if your remote hasn’t gone missing entirely, sometimes it’s sitting on the table way over there and you don’t want to interrupt a show by asking for someone to pass it to you. Or maybe someone is intentionally hogging the remote, and you want to pause the video on the Apple TV yourself. Either way, it’s really easy to do from an iPhone or an Apple Watch.

The Apple TV 4K (4th Generation) is raising eyebrows and dropping jaws, but not with amazing new features. It’s the price: $299. Fortunately, owners of older versions of the streaming box can get many of the biggest upgrades without buying new hardware.

And for a small investment, the improved Siri Remote can also upgrade a current Apple TV 4K.

Here’s how you might save yourself almost $300.

Apple HomeView’s repair cost without AppleCare+ is $279, just $20 shy of buying a brand-new unit.

With AppleCare+, the fee drops dramatically to just $39. That gap makes repair coverage a tempting add-on for the $299 smart home hub, which Apple introduced on Tuesday.

October 14, 2005: Tim Cook takes the reins as Apple’s chief operating officer. His new role as Apple COO continues his climb through the company’s ranks and will lead to his appointment as CEO less than six years later.

“Tim has been doing this job for over two years now, and it’s high time we officially recognized it with this promotion,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs says in a statement. “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.”

Making smarter financial decisions isn’t just about picking the right stocks. It’s also about understanding the bigger picture — budgeting, saving, investing and planning for what’s next. The Financial Freedom Bundle tackles both sides of the equation, combining lifetime access to Sterling Stock Picker with the Pro$per financial education platform.

If you’re ready to tackle your financial situation once and for all, grab the Financial Freedom Bundle while it’s on sale for just $69.99 (regularly $598).

Using recipes on the new HomeView will apparently be even easier than Apple’s pitch suggests. Handoff will be able to move a recipe straight from your iPhone to the display, and then the smart screen can automatically display step-by-step instructions with hands-free timers.

That matters a lot in the kitchen, where messy hands and a locked phone rarely mix.

In iOS 27.2 beta 4, Apple changed the Apple Music app icon from white musical notes on a vibrant red background to similar black notes on a white background.

The reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly negative after the beta came out Tuesday. Apple Music fans slammed the change, with some calling it one of the company’s worst design choices ever.

October 13, 2006: Apple launches a limited-edition iPod nano (Product) Red Special Edition music player in collaboration with U2 lead singer Bono and activist/attorney Bobby Shriver, with 10% of profits going to fight AIDS in Africa.

It’s the first of many Apple philanthropic products. “We’re ecstatic that Apple is giving their customers the choice to buy a red iPod nano and help women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa,” the U2 singer says in a statement.

Apple’s new Siri Remote adds a long-requested feature that makes it easier to track down the little controller when it goes missing… which you know it will. And you don’t have to buy the company’s new Apple TV 4K to get it.

The updated remote, announced Tuesday alongside Apple’s latest streaming box, adds an audible alert sound to make the device more findable. And it has Precision Finding, too.

The Siri Remote (4th Generation) is sold separately, so owners of older Apple TV models can upgrade to it.

Apple is making a big push in the smart home segment with HomeView. The smart home hub, introduced Tuesday, brings Siri AI, smart home controls and FaceTime to a dedicated display for your home.

But there’s more to HomeView than its headline features. From differences between the two models to extra installation costs and requirements for personal Siri requests, these are the things you should know before ordering one.

The new Apple TV 4K lets you ask Siri AI what to watch from across the room, no remote required.

The A19-powered box arrives November 13 for $299, making it $100 more expensive than the previous model’s starting price. It’s the first Apple TV 4K refresh since 2022.

The new Apple TV supports four-speaker surround sound, and it finally gets perhaps the most-requested feature ever: The new Siri Remote gets Find My — making a lost clicker a thing of the past.

Apple intends its new HomeView hub to be permanently at the center of a digital home. It’s intended to offer “entertainment, connection, and smart home management,” said the official announcement. It features a 7-inch screen and a built-in speaker system.

“Apple HomeView is designed to be shared by everyone in the home yet feel completely personal to each user,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement. “It recognizes your face to shift from a household screen to your own experience, fills the room with incredible sound, keeps you connected to the people who matter most with FaceTime, and makes it easy to control your smart home. And it’s powered by Apple Intelligence with Siri AI at its core, drawing on personal context from your iPhone to help you find what you need and get more done, all while keeping everyone’s information private and secure.”

The hub was announced Tuesday alongside a range of other smart home accessories.

There’s a fairly big gap between occasionally asking Claude a question and knowing how to make it genuinely useful at work. This Claude AI Professional Skills CPD Certification course bundle is on sale for $19.99 (regularly $147) and is designed to help close that gap with four courses and more than nine hours of training.

The HomePod mini 2, revealed Tuesday as part of Apple’s renewed push into the smart home, looks the same as its predecessor. However, the updated smart speaker comes in new colors and packs upgraded internals for an enhanced Siri AI experience.

“HomePod mini 2 brings together Siri AI, gorgeous new colors, and incredible audio,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide home product marketing, in a press release.

The new set-top box arrived Tuesday alongside the HomeView smart hub, the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K and the Apple Home Collection of smart home accessories.

Apple unveiled its Apple Home Collection, a handful of “recommended” smart home products produced in partnership with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, during its “Welcome Home” event on Tuesday.

The new gear, including a door lock, temperature sensors and security cameras, work with Apple’s new HomeView smart home hub and give consumers an easy way to outfit their homes with trusted devices. The company played up ease of use and security in a bid to differentiate its products from the sea of similar products.

“Apple Home Collection makes it easy to choose smart home accessories with confidence,” said Matthew Costello, Apple’s vice president of hardardware engineering, in a press release Tuesday. “Working closely with industry leaders LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, we designed every accessory to work seamlessly with Apple Home, so managing your home is simple, reliable, and private.”

Apple’s long-awaited HomePod mini 2 and next-generation Apple TV 4K could debut on Tuesday, with leaks and rumors pointing to significantly smarter Siri capabilities and a collection of internal hardware upgrades.

They’ll apparently be part of a renewed push by Apple into the smart home market.

Here’s what we know about these products before the announcement.