December 17, 2009: Apple finally triumphs over longtime rival Microsoft … on mobile operating systems market share. New data shows that iPhone OS surpasses Windows Mobile in the United States for the first time, just two years after the original iPhone’s launch.

With roughly 36 million Americans owning smartphones, a quarter of them run Apple’s mobile operating system, according to figures released by research firm Comscore.

December 16, 1994: Apple Computer inks a licensing deal with Power Computing, for the first time allowing a company to produce Macintosh-compatible computers, aka “Mac clones.”

With falling market share, and longtime rival Microsoft steaming ahead thanks to its software licensing strategy, Apple executives think the only way to compete is for the company to allow its operating system on third-party Macs. Of course, it doesn’t turn out exactly like that.

December 14, 2017: The much-anticipated iMac Pro finally reaches customers many months after Apple’s announced the product. With a built-in 27-inch, 5K display and an Intel Xeon processor, the high-end desktop combines the features of an iMac and a Mac Pro.

It is beautiful and far more powerful than earlier iMacs, but is destined to stay in Apple’s product lineup only a relatively short time.

December 11, 2013: A Chinese labor rights group calls on Apple to investigate the deaths of several workers at a Shanghai factory run by iPhone manufacturer Pegatron.

Most controversially, one of the dead workers is just 15 years old. The underage worker reportedly succumbed to pneumonia after working extremely long hours on the iPhone 5c production line.

You can ping a lost Apple Watch from your iPhone, giving you an easy way to find your misplaced wearable.

If you take your Apple Watch off at the end of the day, forgetting to throw it on the charger, you might not remember where you left it the following morning. (The reverse has always been a cool feature of the Apple Watch. Read our post: How to find your lost iPhone with Apple Watch.)

Now, you can find a lost Apple Watch from your iPhone. Here’s how it works.

Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, reportedly reassured his team Monday that he won’t become the next high-level exec to leave the company.

Srouji leads Apple’s internal custom chip design team, the group behind Apple silicon, the Neural Engine and several of the company’s other in-house processors. Losing him would have been a major blow to Apple’s hardware division.

Apple may ship a whopping 247 million iPhones in 2025 thanks to the “phenomenal success” of iPhone 17. The new iPhones have also led to Apple reclaiming its lost market share in China.

Post the launch of iPhone 17, Apple grabbed 20% market share in China, “miles ahead of the competition,” says an IDC report.

Plenty of Apple fans miss red iPhones, if responses to an X.com post Monday from Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak is anything to go by.

He talked about the company’s donations on World AIDS Day through customer purchases. Joswiak didn’t even mention hardware, but the commenters sure did. 

Have you noticed clean, comfortable air is getting harder to find? Among the reasons I finally left California after many years were the increasingly common and unhealthy “smoke seasons” caused by western wildfires. So I moved back east only to discover Canadian wildfires wafting choking drafts into New England, as well as my old nemesis — humidity. So I finally got myself a serious appliance to deal with indoor air quality. This Turonic PH950 Air Purifier and Humidifier review finds it quite the beast for the tasks, with just a few caveats (no HomeKit!?). But control via app for iOS and watchOS makes it especially convenient. 

Apple will reportedly surpass Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone maker this year. The strong sales of Phone 17 will help the company reclaim the crown in more than a decade.

Strong consumer interest in the new iPhones has led to double-digit growth in sales, which will make this achievement possible.