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PSA: On the Rocks, Letter to You, more debut on Apple TV+

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Bill Murray and director Sofia Coppola reunite for On the Rocks.
Bill Murray and director Sofia Coppola reunite for On the Rocks.
Photo: Apple TV+

It’s a packed Friday for Apple TV+ with the debut of Sofia Coppola’s movie On The Rocks, plus a new episode of Tehran and Long Way Up. There’s also the new Bruce Springsteen documentary Letter to You, which was due to debut Friday, but wound up debuting Thursday after a tweet sent out by The Boss (and, no, we don’t mean Tim Cook).

Here’s what to expect from this week’s new arrivals.

Scarlett Johansson will star in genre-bending Bride on Apple TV+

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Scarlett Johansson will star in ‘Bride’ on Apple TV
Scarlett Johansson is probably best known as Black Widow, but she’ll also star in Bride on Apple TV.
Screenshot: Marvel

Scarlett Johansson reportedly will take the lead in an Apple TV+ film. Bride will be about a creation designed to be the perfect wife. And what happens when she rejects the role.

Oscar-winner Sebastián Lelio will direct the film.

COVID-19, riots finish off Minneapolis Apple Store

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Say goodbye to the Uptown Apple Store in Minneapolis.
The Uptown Apple Store in Minneapolis didn’t survive multiple blows from 2020.
Photo: Apple

The Uptown Apple Store in Minneapolis closed its doors for good. Though it might be more accurate to say the store won‘t reopen, as it’s been shuttered to the public since March due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

That didn’t stop the store from being damaged by rioters in May after the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. 2020 has been just extra hard on it.

Sleek Zagg Pro Keys adds detachable keyboard to iPad Air 4 and iPad 8

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Zagg Pro Keys
Zagg Pro Keys has a design that puts it head-to-head with the Apple Smart keyboard.
Photo: Zagg

Zagg Pro Keys is a keyboard case for those who want to use their iPad as both a slender tablet and a laptop. There are versions for the new iPad Air 4 and iPad 8.

In addition, the Zagg Pro Stylus debuted on Thursday. It sports two tips, making it a competitor for the Apple Pencil as well as basic capacitive styli.

Halide Mark II brings pro camera features to the average Joe

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Halide Mark II is for professional photographers and beginners.
Halide Mark II sports a new UI intended to make the camera software easier to use and more powerful.
Photo: Lux Optics

Halide Mark II brings a significant revamp to a popular alternative camera application for the iPhone. The developer redesigned the software to make it even easier to use for beginners. But it also comes with professional-grade features built in, like new tools for working with RAW images.

Quibi’s crash and burn makes the slow, steady approach of Apple TV+ look smart

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Tortoise
Apple's not in a rush with Apple TV+.
Photo: Magdalena Kula Manchee/Unsplash CC

In the words of Ron Burgundy, “That escalated quickly.” A day after short-form video streamer Quibi pivoted from a mobile-only approach to launch an Apple TV app, the beleaguered service announced it will shut down for good.

What lesson can we learn from Quibi’s glitzy, high-profile launch, only to crash and burn six months later? That the slow-but-steady, tortoise-like Apple TV+ strategy looks smarter than ever.

Save $400 on a speedy 2019 MacBook Air today

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2019 MacBook Air
Don't miss out!
Photo: Apple

Pick up an ultraportable MacBook Air with beefy internals and enjoy $400 off the usual selling price today only.

B&H Photo is offering a 2019 model with Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for just $1,299 — down from $1,699. Or you can save up to $100 on newer 2020 options.

This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.

Creepy Apple TV+ show Servant season 2 coming January 15

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Servant on Apple TV+
Get 2021 off to a creepy start.
Photo: Apple

Season two of Apple TV+’s creepy M. Night Shyamalan series Servant will debut on January 15, the famed director tweeted Thursday.

The first season was among the initial wave of shows that debuted on Apple TV+ in November 2019. It seems likely that the second season would have been due to begin about now, but shooting was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down filming.

Sony confirms Apple TV app is coming to PlayStation 4 and 5 in Nov

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PS5 media remote
A look at the PS5 media remote.
Photo: Sony

The Apple TV app is coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Sony revealed Thursday.

According to Sony, the Apple TV app will join Disney+, Netflix, Spotify, Twitch and YouTube as streaming services that will be available when the PS5 ships on November 12. (Amazon Prime Video, MyCanal, Hulu, Peacock, and others are also coming soon.)

Apple spent more than $1.5 million on lobbying fees in Q3

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Election contributions by Apple employees for heavily toward Democrats
Apple threw around some money in the last quarter.
Photo: Pixabay/Pexels CC

Apple spent $1.56 million on lobbying fees in the third quarter of 2020, a new report reveals.

Apple directed seven lobbyists to influence the *deep breath* U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Defense, Federal Communications Commission, Treasury Department, Health & Human Services, U.S. Trade Representative, State Department, Homeland Security, Office of Management & Budget, National Institute of Standards & Technology, and Executive Office of the President.

These were the biggest hits on Apple TV+ in the third quarter

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Jason Sudeikis is the titular Ted Lasso
No wonder he's smiling.
Photo: Apple TV

Apple doesn’t reveal too many numbers about Apple TV+, which can make it difficult to gauge which shows are the streaming service’s biggest hits.

Most of the time, the best you can do is use anecdotal evidence, such as what people are talking about on Twitter, or extrapolate the number of Rotten Tomatoes reviews to get a sense of which shows are the getting the most attention.

However, Reelgood, which describes itself as the “most extensive movie and TV streaming search engine with more than 2 million monthly active users in the United States,” thinks it’s going a more accurate idea. It’s produced a chart showing date about Apple TV+’s top-performing TV shows for the past three months. Check it out.

Jony Ive is ‘designing the future’ at Airbnb

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Jony Ive pays for thousands of orchards to be planted at schools
Jony Ive, the man who once designed the iPhone, Mac and iPad, is now doing design work for Airbnb.
Photo: Apple

Sir Jony Ive, who once headed up the design of all Apple hardware and software, is now working on future Airbnb products. His design company, LoveFrom, will collaborate over the next several years with the vacation rental service.

Quibi launches Apple TV app just in time to shut down [Updated]

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Power players Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman apparently couldn't save Quibi.
Power players Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman ran Quibi.
Photo: Fortune Brainstorm Tech/Flickr CC

Quibi, the mobile-first streaming video service that launched at the worst possible time, is shutting down, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report came Wednesday, just days after Quibi launched an Apple TV app so subscribers could enjoy its bite-size videos on the big screen.

Apple needs a ‘don’t be evil’ policy (and here’s what that might look like)

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Apple, just ‘Don’t be evil.’
In general, Apple is good company. But some policies make it look a bit malevolent. These need to go.
Composite: Cult of Mac/Mitja Juraja/Pexels CC

Apple must avoid following a path blazed by Google. Years ago, the search giant touted its “don’t be evil” policy. But somewhere along the line, Google lost track of that — and ended up getting sued Tuesday by the Justice Department.

Apple, which faces similar scrutiny by a variety of governmental bodies, has a chance now to drop some of its questionable policies. If it doesn’t, Cupertino could end up facing its own lawsuit(s).

The encouraging news is, Apple is mostly a good company, so a few tweaks now could easily head off much larger adjustments down the line. Court-ordered changes — like a forced sale of the App Store — could prove painful.

Here’s why Apple needs its own “don’t be evil” policy, along with some concrete steps Cupertino can take to prove that it’s actually a force for good in the world.

The Velvet Underground music doc explores avant-garde ‘60s band for Apple TV+

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Discover how an unsuccessful rock band went on to become hugely influential in the Velvet Underground documentary on Apple TV+.
Discover how an unsuccessful rock band went on to become hugely influential in the Velvet Underground documentary on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple

Apple TV+ is carving out a niche of musical documentaries. It’s latest project is The Velvet Underground. This will be, of course, about the 1960s band that found little success in its day, but went on to be hugely influential.

French iPhone 12 buyers get free EarPods — in a ridiculously huge box

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Free iPhone headphones are still a thing in France.
In France, the Apple Store keeps giving free headphones with every new iPhone sold this autumn.
Screenshot: Apple

The Apple Store stopped bundling free headphones with all new iPhones sold this autumn. But that’s not true in France. In that one country, buyers still get a pair of EarPods with their purchase… in a relatively enormous box.

But French consumers don’t get a wall charger in the box. That’s true for every iPhone buyer.

iOS 14 resets default email and browser when apps update

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iOS 14.0.1
Make Gmail your iOS 14 default email app and it still won‘t stick.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Another significant bug has been found in iOS 14’s ability to change the default web browser and email applications. If third-party apps are chosen, they’ll stop being the defaults when an new version is installed.

The same problem apparently affects tablets running iPadOS 14.

Apple reminds iPhone 12 customers of all the ways they can buy devices

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There are plenty of ways to buy a new iPhone or iPad, either online or in stores, including new Shopping Sessions.
There are plenty of ways to buy a new iPhone or iPad, including new Shopping Sessions.
Photo: Apple

Thanks to COVID-19, the idea of queuing up for an iPhone, huddling up with other people eager to get their hands on the latest Apple smartphone, seems like the stuff of another lifetime in 2020.

To ensure that as many people as possible can get the iPhone 12, 12 Pro or iPad Air 4 when they launch this week, Apple’s issued a press release Wednesday detailing the myriad ways would-be customers can give the company their hard-earned cash.

Early iPhone 12 and 12 Pro battery tests suggest 5G comes at a cost

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Tim Cook seems really excited about 5G. Should you be?
Tim Cook seems really excited about 5G. Should you be?
Photo: Apple

The new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro bring 5G to Apple’s smartphones for the first time. But it comes at a cost to your battery.

In the first published battery tests, Tom’s Guide tested the new iPhones on both 4G and 5G, running both on the same screen brightness and loading up new sites every 30 seconds until they ran out of battery. Their conclusion? That 5G usage has a pretty major impact on battery life.