Benjamin Mayo

Apple today announced a new ‘Catch Up’ feature as part of MLS Season Pass. When joining a live stream for a game in progress, viewers can catch up on the action by watching a series of clips of highlights that have already happened during the game.

The Key Plays carousel is offered when you select a game in progress from the TV app main menu. You can also access it any time later, from the video player controls menu.

Earlier this year, it was reported by The New York Times that Apple was nearing a deal to exclusively stream the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup tournament.

However, months have gone by with no official news, perhaps hinting that the companies weren’t close to signing on the dotted line as it first seemed. And today, Bloomberg reports that talks between Apple and FIFA have in fact stalled, with the league exploring different distribution options.

The Apple Store has today launched its Back to School promotion in the United States for 2024. Eligible students and staff can get a free gift card with the purchase of a new Mac or iPad. The gift card is in addition to the usual education discount in items sold through the Apple Store for Education.

You can get a $150 gift card when buying a new iMac, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro. A $100 gift card is on offer for purchases of Mac mini, and the new iPad models: iPad Pro (M4) and iPad Air (M2). As usual, for the best value for money, you should probably shop elsewhere — Amazon has the new MacBook Air for $200 off for instance.

Qualcomm has been touting the performance characteristics of its new Snapdragon X Elite series of ARM chips for a while, which finally debuted this week inside the new Copilot+ PC’s (albeit without the fancy AI Recall feature, which has been delayed following security concerns).

While reviewers have more testing to do, the initial benchmarks and results paint a mixed bag. While the 12-core CPU Qualcomm chips are posting higher multi-core scores than the 8-core CPU M3 chip found in Apple’s MacBook Air, the M3 is still unbeaten on single core. That means for many tasks, the MacBook Air will still be faster. The M3 chip is also more power efficient than the X Elite …

Apple is reportedly working on a cheaper, cut-down version of the Apple Vision Pro, scheduled to arrive by the end of 2025, according to The Information. At the same time, the publication says development work on a second-generation high-end model of the Vision Pro has been shelved, seemingly to prioritize the cheaper hardware path.

Although it’s unclear at what price point the cheaper Apple Vision headset would hit, anything less than the $3,500 starting price of Vision Pro will help the company compete with the likes of the Meta Quest. The Information suggests Apple is aiming for a price around $1500, similar to the cost of a high-end iPhone.

The highly-anticipated Apple Original Films project has finally gotten a release date. The as-yet-untitled F1 movie, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, will premiere in cinemas on June 25, 2025, with a North America release on June 27.

The film will later stream exclusively on Apple TV+, Apple’s streaming service. The theatrical distribution, which will include IMAX screens, is being handled by Warner Bros in partnership with Apple.

In his latest note, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote that he believes the upcoming Apple Watch Series 10 will feature a thinner chassis and a larger display, compared to Apple Watch Series 9. What is perhaps most surprising is just how much bigger Kuo believes the screens are getting.

Kuo says the Watch will increase from the current 41mm and 45mm sizes to about 45mm and 49mm respectively. Remember, unlike other Apple devices, these sizes measure case height of the watch, not diagonal screen size. Naturally, a taller case also means a bigger display. For comparison, the current Apple Watch Ultra is also measured at 49mm case height.

The new limited series Presumed Innocent starts streaming today on Apple TV+. Based on the book by Scott Turow, Jake Gyllenhaal stars in his first major TV role as Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor in the Chicago Attorney’s office.

The office is turned upside down when blame for a murder is pointed at Rusty himself. His innocence or guilt is examined, across the twisty eight-part thriller.

Apple investors are reacting strongly to the company’s WWDC announcements, with positive sentiment towards iOS 18 and the Apple Intelligence unveiling in particular. AAPL company stock hit new all time highs today in intraday trading, topping $205, up 6% on the day.

Following months of narrative of Apple being behind in AI, the buzzy topic for tech investing right now, Apple demonstrated its strengths with a series of relevant customer features that integrates artificial intelligence throughout the iPhone experiences.

While we still waiting for new smart home hardware products from Apple, iOS 18 does bring some new advancements to the Apple smart home software experience, with upgrades to HomeKit and the Home app.

The hero new feature this year is the addition of guest user access, allowing you to let visitors control your smart accessories temporarily, without adding them as a full permanent member of your Home. Also, there is new support for smart robot vacuum cleaners and door locks with Ultra-Wide Band connectivity …

iOS 18 includes a swathe of new Apple Intelligence features, as well as integration with ChatGPT for things like image generation and writing assistance. Users can optionally pass off their Siri requests to ChatGPT, for example.

Elon Musk has just heard the news about iOS 18, and is weighing on with his elevated thoughts. He describes the OpenAI integration as an “unacceptable security violation” and threatens to ban the use of Apple devices at his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and X.

Apple confirmed today that it will support RCS messaging with iOS 18, releasing this fall. RCS will enable a richer experience when communicating with Android users.

RCS will give your green bubble chats many of the best of features of iMessage, like high-resolution image and video attachments, typing indicators, read receipts and more.

Apple Intelligence is the core of generative AI features in iOS 18, but Apple will also let users sign in with their OpenAI account and use ChatGPT models as well.

Once connected, users can select ChatGPT as their model to use inside Siri and as part of the new intelligent writing tools and other features across iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia.

Apple today unveiled a new version of Siri, that it promises is more natural and helpful. The new Siri is powered by Apple Intelligence generative AI models.

Siri has a new UI, which features a glow around the device bezel. Responses appear in new richly detailed cards. Apple said the new Siri will roll out gradually, “over the next year”.

As part of its WWDC keynote, Apple today unveiled its AI strategy, with a suite of features aimed to be powerful, intuitive, integrated, personal, and private. Apple Intelligence features are available across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and use a combination of on-device and server-powered generative AI models.

Apple Intelligence features includes personalized prioritization of notifications on iPhone, generative writing tools across apps, image generation and more …

Apple today announced tvOS 18, the software that runs on the Apple TV set-top box. New features include InSight, which is like Amazon X-ray but for Apple original content.

For video, Apple is now supporting 21:9 projectors for the first time. For audio, Apple is also upgrading its Enhance Dialogue feature with machine learning to improve voice isolation …

iOS 18 includes Tap to Cash, a new way to send money to your friends using Apple Pay Cash. By simply bringing your phone close to a friend, you can send money instantly – transferring from your Apple Cash account.

It’s like AirDrop, but for sending money.

Apple today announced that the Apple Vision Pro headset will be expanding beyond the US for the first time. The headset will go on sale in eight additional countries, in two batches.

Firstly, on June 28, Apple Vision Pro will be available in China, Japan and Singapore. On July 12, Apple Vision Pro will also launch in Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

As part of its WWDC announcements, Apple unveiled visionOS 2, the first major software update for the Apple Vision Pro headset.

visionOS 2 includes changes to the gestural system to make quick actions easier to access. The Photos app can automatically synthesize Spatial Photos from your 2D photo library, and the Mac Virtual Display feature is being upgraded with bigger resolutions and better quality.

The Apple Store is down ahead of the WWDC keynote in just twenty minutes time. We are expecting Apple to announce iOS 18, watchOS 11, visionOS 2, new macOS, and more.

AI is believed to be the center of the announcements, with Apple branding its new endeavour as ‘Apple Intelligence’.

App Review has rejected a submission from the developers of UTM, a generic PC system emulator for iPhone and iPad.

The open source app was submitted to the store, given the recent rule change that allows retro game console emulators, like Delta or Folium. App Review rejected UTM, deciding that a “PC is not a console”. What is more surprising, is the fact that UTM says that Apple is also blocking the app from being listed in third-party app stores in the EU.