Zac Hall

Five years ago, Apple reportedly considered acquiring podcast studio Wondery for around $400 million. At the time, Spotify and other companies were spending millions on putting podcasts behind paywalls to boost their businesses and steal mindshare from Apple.

The price for streaming ad-free music is about to increase for Spotify subscribers in several markets around the world, according to the company.

Microsoft has detailed a serious macOS vulnerability that could allow malicious apps to bypass system privacy protections. Dubbed “SploitLight,” the flaw exploited how Spotlight indexes plugin data to access sensitive files and Apple Intelligence metadata. Apple addressed the issue in macOS in March, but users on older versions could be at risk.

We’re probably about six weeks away from Apple announcing the iPhone 17 Pro. Much of what we expect to see has been leaked for months, but a new rumor has surfaced about some unexpected camera upgrades.

While macOS Tahoe 26 shares redesign polish with iOS and iPadOS, its best new features double down on what makes the Mac the Mac. Terminal upgrades, automation triggers, and power-user tweaks are the kind of Mac updates that you won’t find on the iPhone and iPad. Apple aims its focus on the Mac with these features.

Apple is now offering the first public beta of watchOS 26, the next major update for Apple Watch, ahead of its official fall release. While the biggest visual update may appear to be the limited Liquid Glass elements, the substance of watchOS 26 exists in how it integrates with Apple Intelligence for smarter workouts and more context-aware communication. After some hands-on time with the update, here’s what stands out so far.

Apple has released a revised version of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 beta 4 for iPhone and iPad. This is the second revision to an iOS 26 developer beta version, following a small revision to iOS 26 beta 1 for some iPhones.

Social media has been fragmented since Twitter got X’d and cleared the path for Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and others. Still, Apple personalities like Tim Cook still rely on sharing company news, often exclusively, on X. Others seem more fond of Instagram. It’s a lot to follow, especially if you’re off one or more social media networks.

AppleCare is taking a page from the Apple One services bundle and introducing a bundle of its own. AppleCare One is a new way to pay for additional warranty status on all your Apple products, and the window to add coverage is more generous than ever.

In addition to introducing AppleCare One, Apple is making a significant change to how some individual AppleCare+ plans are offered.

Ever forget to add AppleCare to your iPhone, iPad, or Mac in time? Apple is dramatically changing the grace period for adding AppleCare+ on most products starting today.

Apple’s headline iOS 26 features like Apple Intelligence and redesigned apps tend to get all the attention. But some of the most useful changes are easy to miss. These underrated iOS 26 updates quietly improve the iPhone experience in ways that don’t make the keynote but still matter in everyday use.

From smarter AirPods behavior to new journaling tools and better battery estimates, here are 13 updates you might have missed.

iOS 26 beta 4 is out now for iPhones on the developer beta release cycle. Below we’re collecting all of the iOS 26 beta 4 changes compared to the previous version.

Apple changed a few Liquid Glass elements in iOS 26 developer beta 3 and got a lot of online feedback. Now we’re on to iOS 26 beta 4, which will surely be compared under the microscope in as much detail in this season of change.

Everybody’s working for the weekend, but Microsoft Outlook clocked out early. The mission-critical email service is facing a widespread, hours-long outage.

We’re less than 60 days out from the start of the 2025 NFL regular season, and football fans have something new to get ready for kickoff. Many NFL team iPhone apps are coming to Apple CarPlay, starting with three team apps that are already live.

Synology is synonymous with NAS, or network-attached storage, and there’s good reason for that. The DiskStation line of products is reliable and robust with a great community that supports consumer and professional use cases. More recently, Synology has reached beyond traditional NAS solutions with BeeStation, a private and family cloud storage solution. I’ve recently been testing the BeeStation Plus, a somewhat less capable, but much more approachable, product, and the DiskStation DS925+, a traditional NAS with a familiar product name to us at 9to5. Both are great in their own way. Here’s how they perform and compare.

Apple made an interesting omission in yesterday’s chief operating officer transition announcement. Design, which previously reported to COO Jeff Williams, will soon report to CEO Tim Cook, but the press release stopped short of explaining where Williams’ other product responsibility will go when he leaves.

I’ve tested a few BenQ products lately. My favorite has been their Mac monitor with Apple Studio Display specs and a more affordable price. The most fun? A new category for me: projectors. The GP520 4K HDR model BenQ loaned me to test alleviated my concerns about the practicality of a projector instead of a TV.

Jeff Williams, often considered Tim Cook’s successor, is leaving Apple. Sabih Khan, a 30-year veteran of the company, is Apple’s next chief operating officer. Does Khan taking Cook’s old job make him CEO-designate? Jeff Williams retiring certainly clears the path for Khan to climb up the succession planning ladder. However, I would wager that Apple’s CEO succession plan isn’t changing.