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.
Follow @bzamayo on Twitter and follow @bzamayo on Threads.
Apple TV+ has renewed its mysterious workplace thriller ‘Severance’ for a second season, ahead of the season one finale premiering this Friday.
Although Apple does not release exact viewing figures, Severance does appear to be one of Apple TV+’s relative breakout hits, with word of mouth increasing every week since the season debuted in February.
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Across almost all of its projects to date, Apple TV+ has shown that it looks to bring big name Hollywood stars under its wing. And it doesn’t get much bigger than Harrison Ford. Taking on his first major recurring role in a television series, Ford has been cast in the upcoming Apple TV+ comedy ‘Shrinking’.
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Apple TV+ continues its prolific rollout of premium series this year with the announcement of Prehistoric Planet. The series has been in the works for approximately three years, hailing from BBC Studios Natural History Unit and executive produced by Jon Favreau.
Prehistoric Planet will stream beginning May 23rd, with one episode released each night of the week. It relies on big-budget CGI to tell a story of the last days of the dinosaurs, narrated by David Attenborough. Watch the trailer after the break …
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Apple TV+ today premieres its newest original series, Slow Horses. The show is an adaptation of the Mick Herron novels, about a division of MI5 that takes in reject spies, who have been taken off the standard job path due to career-ending screwups. The first two episodes are streaming now.
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Apple today announced a new docuseries on basketball’s up-and-coming star Makur Maker will debut on Friday, April 22nd exclusively on Apple TV+.
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Business Insider featured an interesting article today with some soundbits and tidbits from Hollywood agents working with Apple, and sources inside the content arm of Apple TV+.
Despite easily being the most resourced company financially, the Insider article suggests that Apple TV+ content division is understaffed, or perhaps more generously experiencing growing pains, leading to rollout issues of new content.
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The Best Picture Oscar winning film CODA is streaming now on Apple TV+. In the movie, Ruby is the only hearing member of her family, and struggles with a choice of furthering her passion for music or staying to help her family’s fishing business. Here’s how to watch.
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The Apple TV+ movie CODA today picked up three awards at the Oscars, including the prestigious Best Picture top honors. Apple acquired the movie out of Sundance back in January 2021.
In just its second year of eligibility, Apple has beat out the competition to become the first streaming service to win the Best Picture prize. CODA also won for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Troy Kotsur).
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The international epic drama series Pachinko debuts today on Apple TV+. Pachinko tells the story of a Korean family who immigrate to Japan in the 20th century, at a time when Japanese attitudes towards Koreans was far from amicable. The first three episodes are streaming now.
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The Apple TV app is not particularly outstanding on any platform, but the tv.apple.com website is by far the most primitive. Since Apple TV+ launched in 2019, the website has lacked key features like access to your Up Next queue, category or tabbed navigation, and a search bar. At least one of those things has now been resolved.
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Today, the limited series WeCrashed premieres on Apple TV+. WeCrashed stars Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway as Adam Neumann, the CEO of office space startup WeWork, and his wife Rebekah Neumann. WeCrashed charts the crazy ventures that led to its meteoric fall from grace.
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Reviews for the Apple Studio Display dropped today to a mixed reception, with an apparent webcam quality software issue plaguing reviews. However, one big takeaway is that the display quality is almost identical to the LG UltraFine 5K display, as they feature almost the exact same panel. So if you don’t care about build quality or nice speakers, you can get that instead …
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Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today tweeted that he thinks Apple might break from tradition this year, and release some iPhone 14 models with the same A15 chip as the iPhone 13. 9to5Mac sources independently corroborated this reporting.
The A15 chip would power the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 and 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max, although the RAM would be upgraded to 6 GB from 4 GB. The new A16 SoC would be reserved for the higher-end, and more expensive, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models. The Pro phones would feature the same 6 GB RAM as the iPhone 13 Pro …
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The Apple Store has officially stopped selling the 5K LG UltraFine in the wake of the Apple Studio Display launch. It’s unclear if LG will stop manufacturing the model altogether, with the product also out of stock on LG’s own website, although it currently remains on sale at Amazon for the time being. The eBay aftermarket seems quite healthy, probably because people are offloading the display en masse now a first-party solution is available.
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Samuel L. Jackson stars in this week’s Apple TV+ premiere, the limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, an adaptation of the novel by Walter Mosley. Here’s how to watch.
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Following the announcement of the Mac Studio and Apple Studio Display at the event on Tuesday, the next logical question is whether there will be a higher-end pro version anytime soon, perhaps to replace the Pro Display XDR.
This morning, respected display analyst Ross Young and Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo have both weighed in on Twitter on this topic, albeit with differing views.
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Apple concluded its March event by teasing that the company is still working on an Apple Silicon generation of its highest-end Mac Pro machines.
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Alongside the brand new Mac Studio desktop, Apple today announced a new addition to its external display lineup: the Apple Studio Display. The Studio goes on sale on March 18, with prices starting at $1599.
The Studio Display measures 27-inches on the diagonal, with 5K display resolution. You can also get a nano-texture display option to minimise glare. The Studio display integrates an A13 chip to provide rich integration and features, including powering the speaker system and a Center Stage-enabled webcam.
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In classic fashion, the Apple Store has gone down ahead of today’s ‘Peek performance’ spring media event. We expect to see the announcement of a new iPhone SE with 5G support and a spec-bumped iPad Air. We also expect Apple to continue the Apple Silicon transition, perhaps introducing a brand new ‘Mac Studio’ model and a new Apple-branded external display at the same time.
The show starts at 10 AM Pacific Time, so stay tuned to 9to5Mac for full coverage of all the announcements.
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Ming-Chi Kuo has continued his newfound career as a Twitter leaker by today sharing his predictions for Apple’s desktop roadmap.
The respected analyst said that he expects Apple to ship a high-end Mac mini this year, as well as a 27-inch Apple external display. However, he suggests that updates to iMac Pro and Mac Pro will not arrive until 2023.
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YouTuber Quinn Nelson from Snazzy Labs has released a very interesting video showing just how much smaller a Mac mini could be, by stripping down the current M1 Mac mini and making a whole new enclosure for it. The CAD files and schematics have also been published for free, if you want to DIY your own.
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In a statement to media, Apple said it is deeply concerned about the Russian invasion and said it stands with all those who are suffering as a result of the violence. Apple said it is supporting humanitarian efforts and providing relief aid.
Apple also confirmed that it has paused all product sales and stopped exports into the Russian sales channel. It has also pulled the Russian state media apps for RT News and Sputnik News in all App Store regions outside of Russia.
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The Apple Online Store in Russia has suddenly halted sales of all products in Russia amidst the ongoing international conflict as a result of Russia invading Ukraine. The company has also shared a comprehensive statement on the situation.
Ukranian minister Mykhailo Federov reportedly said ‘thank you Tim Cook’ in response to the news.
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Apple TV+ today officially announced a new limited series project about Benjamin Franklin. Michael Douglas will take up the lead role as the American polymath. The show is based off the book ‘A Great Improvisation’.
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