Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin Mayo

bzamayo

Follow Benjamin on Threads to keep up with his latest projects. Benjamin blogs about Apple news and rumors and posts insightful product and app reviews. Read his work on 9to5Mac and his personal blog.

Benjamin Mayo also creates apps for iOS as a professional indie developer and contractor; more details here. Email to discuss making your iOS project.

on Twitter and follow @bzamayo on Threads.

Connect with Benjamin Mayo

All Apple TV shows and movies: what to watch with your subscription

Apple TV offers exclusive original TV shows and movies in 4K HDR quality. You can watch across all of your screens and pick up where you left off on any device. Apple TV costs $12.99 per month. You can get a seven-day free trial for new accounts here. Here’s every Apple original television show and movie available now on Apple TV, as well as the latest trailers …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple TV partners with IMAX to show Formula 1 races live in theaters

You’ll need an Apple TV subscription if you want to watch Formula 1 at home this season in the United States. But, Apple is taking its new broadcasting rights beyond the living room. In a partnership announced today with IMAX, Apple TV will also show select races from this season live in theaters.

Five of the 2026 Grand Prix’s will be shown at IMAX screens across the country, including Silverstone, Miami, Monaco, Monza and Austin.

Expand Expanding Close

Apple is making it easier to customize how subtitles look on iPhone

The usage of subtitles and captions in TV shows and movies is ever increasing, both due to the popularity of foreign language content and Hollywood’s inability to produce an audio track where the person speaking is sufficiently intelligible.

With iOS 26.4, Apple is improving the subtitles experience in the native video player on iPhone and iPad, and a similar change is rolling out to Apple TV with tvOS 26.4 …

Expand Expanding Close

The new F1 channel has appeared in the Apple TV app ahead of first race

The new dedicated channel for Formula 1 has appeared in the Apple TV app, starting today. Users in the United States can now see a dedicated Formula 1 item in the sidebar, alongside the existing Apple TV originals and MLS tabs.

This channel is where Apple TV app subscribers will be able to stream all of the races, starting with the Melbourne Grand Prix on March 8. As a reminder, F1 is now included in the base Apple TV subscription in the United States ($12.99 per month or $99 per year).

Expand Expanding Close

New romantic comedy film ‘Eternity’ is now streaming on Apple TV

Just in time for Valentines Day, Apple TV today premieres a new romantic comedy movie film Eternity, starring Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner and Miles Teller.

Based in an afterlife where souls choose their living arrangements in eternity, Joan is faced with the choice of continuing her marriage with her long-term husband, or picking her first love, a man who died young and was waiting for her to arrive all this time. The movie was originally released last year in theaters by A24, and is now streaming on Apple TV.

Expand Expanding Close

Apple says it is still on track to launch new Siri this year, as promised

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman yesterday reported that Apple’s new Siri initiative was facing internal delays, having originally been planned to start rolling out with iOS 26.4. Gurman suggested features may start appearing in iOS 26.5, or later releases in the year.

That report has seemingly rocked investor confidence, with Apple stock plummeting today. Seemingly in response, CNBC’s Steve Kovach says Apple confirmed to him that it remains on track to launch new Siri this year, which is essentially reaffirming what it has promised publicly all along.

Expand Expanding Close

iPhone battery life test shows just how much power 5G drains compared to WiFi

It is common knowledge that communicating over WiFi is more efficient than using the 5G cellular network, but by how much exactly? That’s exactly what PhoneBuff set out to measure in its latest battery life benchmark test.

Using an iPhone 17 Pro Max, the test simulated general phone usage including texting, web browsing, streaming video, Instagram and FaceTime. Once on 5G, once on WiFi. The final timings are perhaps closer than you’d think.

Expand Expanding Close

How to watch Formula 1 races on Apple TV

Starting with the 2026 season, Apple TV has entered an exclusive deal to broadcast Formula 1 in the United States, including all Grand Prix, qualifying and practice sessions in the United States.

In short, that means you need an Apple TV subscription to watch Formula 1 races this season. In this post, we’ll break down exactly how to subscribe, how to save money, what is the best device to use to tune in, and what you can watch for free.

Expand Expanding Close

You can now access F1 TV with your Apple TV account, here’s how to set it up

About a month ahead of first Grand Prix of the season, Formula 1 fans can now link their Apple TV account with F1.TV, in order to start enjoying the F1.TV platform at the Premium tier at no extra charge; Premium used to cost $129 per year.

This rollout is part of Apple’s exclusive streaming partnership deal with Formula 1 in the United States. To get started, sign up to Apple TV here and then go here to link it to your F1.TV account.

Expand Expanding Close

Expect more upsells and subscription bundles from Apple, Creator Studio was just the start

In the future, Apple users should expect more paid upgrades and subscription bundles just like what the company launched with Apple Creator Studio last month. As said by Mark Gurman in this week’s Power On newsletter, “I believe Apple is looking at all areas of its software and services” for further services monetization opportunities.

Obviously, the appeal of more subscription bundles depends on the particulars. For instance, Apple One has been very popular and seems relatively consumer friendly. But, while Creator Studio is a reasonable deal for hardcore users of Final Cut and Logic Pro, it also introduced exclusive paid features and upsell banners into Apple’s previously free-with-no-asterisks iWork suite of Pages, Keynote and Numbers.

Expand Expanding Close

AirTag 2 hands-on review: Apple’s clever item tracker finds even more utility with longer range and louder sound 

AirTag 2

The new generation of Apple AirTag finally landed this week, almost five years after the convenient item tracker accessory first debuted in 2021. 

You’d be hard pressed to tell the AirTag 2 — technically the ‘AirTag (second-generation)’ — apart from the first version, by eye. But inside, it packs in some meaningful upgrades that make this tracker even better at finding your misplaced items … 

Expand Expanding Close

Apple TV shares first look at Ted Lasso season four, airing this summer

The hit comedy Ted Lasso is (almost) back. Apple TV has announced that season four will being airing later this year. The highly-anticipated summer release sees the return of star Jason Sudeikis as Ted, Brendan Hunt as Coach Beard, Hannah Waddingham as Rebecca, Brett Goldstein as Roy Kent, and more familiar faces.

In this season, Ted Lasso is set on a new mission, as coach of a women’s team. Production is still ongoing right now, but Apple is confident enough to confirm the summer 2026 release date anyway.

Expand Expanding Close

The App Store will start showing multiple ads in search results beginning in March

At the end of last year, Apple announced that it was expanding App Store search ads beyond the single promoted placement at the top of the results. Instead, developer paying for promotion in App Store search can now have their apps appear further down the search results list, mixed in with the usual stream of organic results.

Apple has now confirmed that this will go into effect beginning March 3, starting the UK and Japan, with a rollout across all Apple Ads markets by the end of the month.

Expand Expanding Close

Apple TV earns Best Picture nomination for ‘F1: The Movie’ in 2026 Oscars

Apple TV is back in the above-the-line Oscars awards conversation with an unexpected Best Picture nomination for F1: The Movie, the Academy announced this morning.

The blockbuster F1 also got nominated for Best Sound, Film Editing, and Visual Effects. Documentary Come See Me in the Good Light was nominated for best feature length documentary, and The Lost Bus also got recognized for Visual Effects.

Expand Expanding Close

Silent iPhone alarms: check your alarm sound settings have not been changed

If you are having your iPhone alarms go off without making a noise, you may want to check the settings have not been reset for them.

We’re not sure how many users this affects, but we’ve heard from a small number of people who have noticed that their iPhone alarm sound has been recently changed to ‘None’, which means they go off silently …

Expand Expanding Close

The new Siri chatbot may run on Google servers, not Apple’s

Nestled in Bloomberg’s reporting earlier on Apple’s plans to revamp Siri as a chatbot with iOS 27, was an interesting tidbit on a possible change in the company’s cloud strategy. Specifically, Mark Gurman says Apple and Google are discussing running the next-generation Siri models directly on Google’s servers, not Apple’s.

With iOS 26.4, Apple is set to launch the first new LLM Siri features, using models running in Private Cloud Compute based on an older generation of Gemini. But the Siri chatbot coming in the iOS 27 cycle will apparently be based off the newer, smarter, Gemini 3 models. Running these latest-gen models seemingly requires higher performance servers than what Apple can deliver right now through its own Private Compute cloud infrastructure …

Expand Expanding Close

Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and search results

Apple is testing a new design for App Store search ads on iPhone. Some users on iOS 26.3 are noticing that the blue background around sponsored results is no longer shown, blurring the line between what paid ad results look like and the real search results that follow.

This means the only differentiator between organic results and the promoted ad is the presence of the small ‘Ad’ banner next to the app icon. Right now, it appears to be in some kind of A/B test phase.

Expand Expanding Close

Thriller ‘Hijack’ season two premieres today on Apple TV, starring Idris Elba

The popular thriller Hijack starring Idris Elba returns today with season two on Apple TV. Whereas the first season saw negotiator Sam Nelson trapped on a plane, season two uses a different mode of transport for its setting, namely a train on the Berlin underground.

Like much of Hijack, you have to suspend your disbelief at the circumstances, but if you can, there’s a thrill ride of action ahead. The eight-episode second season starts today, January 14, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.

Expand Expanding Close

Apple TV comedy that mocked Golden Globes wins Golden Globe for best comedy

The story of the Apple TV comedy The Studio has come full circle, with the actual Golden Globes ceremony last night honoring the show with the Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy award, and star Seth Rogen for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series. It follows major wins at the Emmys and other awards shows since the show premiered in spring 2025.

On a more serious note, Apple TV also picked up a Golden Globes win for Pluribus, with star Rhea Seehorn winning the award for best actress in a drama. This much-deserved recognition follows many years of her performances on Better Call Saul being overlooked by awards bodies.

Expand Expanding Close

Apple’s most watched TV show just barely makes an appearance on the Nielsen streaming chart

In December, without providing specific viewing figures of course, Apple said that Pluribus had become the most watched TV show in the history of the Apple TV streaming service.

The show has now also appeared in industry analytics firm Nielsen’s US streaming report. For the week commencing December 8, Pluribus came in at number 9 out of the top 10 streaming originals …

Expand Expanding Close

Apple TV’s first release of the year sees the return of thriller series Tehran

The Apple TV streaming service kicks off its 2026 slate with the return of international thriller series Tehran. The long-delayed third season starts airing today with the first episode, with new episodes dropping each Friday through February 27.

In season three, Hugh Laurie joins the cast in the role of a South African nuclear inspector. As one of Apple’s most popular foreign language series, Tehran is also renewed for a fourth season, despite fans having to wait more than 3 years for new episodes after the season two finale.

Expand Expanding Close

Review: SwitchBot Wallet Finder is an incredibly useful accessory to track your wallet with iPhone Find My

I have an AirTag on my keychain to keep track of my keys, but obviously an AirTag is too big and bulky to fit inside a wallet. That’s what the SwitchBot Wallet Finder is for.

Disguised inside a thin, credit-card form factor, the SwitchBot Wallet Finder connects to the Find My app on your iPhone, so you can follow its location, and it even houses a speaker so you can make it beep to help you find your wallet when it inevitably gets lost somewhere in your home. Read on for my review …

Expand Expanding Close

Bizarre iOS 26 bug causes some Android camera photos to turn red in iPhone Photos app

Users have been noticing a weird iPhone bug with some pictures they have saved in their Photos app on iOS 26; sometimes, photos taken from Android phones are being imported into the Photos with a seemingly intense red color filter applied.

What’s even stranger is this red haze only shows when you actually tap on an image in Photos and zoom in. The preview thumbnails preserve their full color so if you are just scrolling through your library, you might not see anything wrong. Luckily, this bug has a simple fix you can do to put each picture back to how it was …

Expand Expanding Close