The mobile app market is growing more and more each year, and the numbers make this clear. New Sensor Tower research published on Tuesday revealed that users spent $133 billion on apps in 2021, which is 20% more than in 2020. Interestingly, Apple’s App Store continues to generate more revenue than Google Play.

To kick-off the 2021 holiday season, 9to5Mac is bringing readers exclusive deals on some of our favorite accessories for iPhone, Mac and more, with our annual Holiday Deal Hub. That includes our featured deals: Up to 30% off at SimplyMac on a selection of iPhone and Mac accessories, as well as 20% off Dreametech smart vacuums and other cleaning devices.

Read on for this year’s holiday deals for iPhone and Mac accessories, ranging from cases for MacBook and iPhone 13, to Apple Watch and MagSafe accessories, USB-C hubs, docks and more. We’ll also be highlighting some of our favorite discounts to help upgrade your workspace or home office. 

The well-known composer Hans Zimmer was recently interviewed by Zane Lowe on Apple Music. While most of the conversation was about Zimmer’s career, they also talked about Spatial Audio – which is something the musician seems to enjoy quite a bit. Zimmer also mentioned that Jony Ive sent him new headphones created by Apple’s former design chief.

In another attempt to circumvent the App Store commission for in-app purchases, Facebook on Tuesday launched a new website to let users buy virtual items called “Stars” to support creators during livestreams.

As Apple’s ever-important holiday shopping season continues, the company is facing what a new report from Nikkei Asia describes as the “nightmare before Christmas.” According to the report, Apple is ramping up pressure on suppliers amid iPhone and iPad shortages impacting lead times.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Sponsored by FitnessView: A health and fitness dashboard for tracking Health data with insights, widgets, and Apple Watch support!

Along with releasing macOS 12.1 RC to developers today which gives us a preview of all the new features and changes coming to the public soon, the release notes for the update also include a list of important bug fixes, three of which affect the 2021 MacBook Pro.

A week after seeding developers and public testers with macOS 12.1 beta 4, Apple has released the 12.1 RC ahead of a public launch. Notably, the macOS 12.1 release candidate doesn’t include support for the highly anticipated Universal Control feature.

Apple is seeding today the release candidate version of iOS 15.2, tvOS 15.2, and macOS Monterey 12.1. For Apple Watch users, watchOS 8.3 is set to bring Apple Music Voice plan support and more.

Update: Now available to public beta testers as well.

After over a month of beta testing, Apple has made the iOS 15.2 Release Candidate available to developers. Head below for the full release notes on everything new in this update, which will be released to the public as soon as next week.

Update: Now available to public beta testers as well.

Apple TV+ has officially signed on to produce and distribute a long in-the-works adaptation of the book ‘Bad Blood’, which dissects the fall of Theranos and its Steve Jobs-wannabe founder Elizabeth Holmes.

As reported by Deadline, Apple Original Films and Legendary Entertainment studios are co-producing the film, directed by Adam McKay and starring as Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes.

There’s an awkward debate over 5G happening between U.S. phone carriers and the Federal Aviation Administration. The latest development comes in the form of two new airworthiness directives regarding 5G being adopted by the FAA.

Amazon’s AWS cloud servers are suffering from issues this morning, taking down a handful of services including Disney+, Kindle, Tinder, Roku, and more. Amazon has acknowledged the outage on its official status page, saying that it is working towards a fix.

Facer has become a popular place to get unique smartwatch faces across Wear OS, Tizen, and watchOS. However, its Facer Creator tool hasn’t included the ability to develop Apple Watch faces. That changes today with the arrival of Facer Creator 7.0 with support for watchOS.

Twitter is rolling out the ability to let all users on iOS, Android, and the web listen to recorded Spaces. This means that a Spaces host can now record a Space, then make it available to listen after the fact.

Apple’s iPhone success over the years in China is hardly an accident. The Information reveals a previously unreported agreement negotiated by Apple CEO Tim Cook and Chinese government officials that saw the company invest over $275 billion in the country over five years. The deal was reached at a time when local smartphone makers were forcing iPhone sales in China to fall.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley now say that Apple shares could hit $200 as we inch closer to the launch of new products such as an augmented reality headset or self-driving car. Shares of Apple stock rose over 2.5% in premarket trading on this prediction.

As we’ve detailed several times recently, Apple’s lineup of Apple Silicon-powered Macs is seeing fast-paced adoption among enterprise users. Now, the folks at Jamf are out with a closer look at Apple Silicon in the enterprise…

How much can a product change in five years? Well, in tech years, this is more like a decade. AirPods, first announced alongside the iPhone 7, have gone through a few different variations over the years. Now, the publication Scan of the Month is offering us an in-depth look at how much Apple’s wireless earbuds have changed from AirPods 1 to the Pro model, and now to AirPods 3.