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.
The Apple TV set-top box has gained a significant new app to its roster today. Comcast today released the Xfinity Stream app for tvOS, supporting Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD devices.
The app’s launch was first teased back in October 2021, when a partnership between Apple and Comcast also brought Apple TV app to Comcast cable boxes.
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At WWDC, much of the attention was on the fancy next-generation CarPlay Apple previewed, but those experiences won’t appear in cars for several years.
Near term, something new for CarPlay in iOS 16 is the addition of new supported app categories for “fuel and driving tasks,” according to the iOS 16 feature preview page. A report from Reuters today says that some gas station chains are already preparing to take advantage of this and allow drivers to pay for fuel through the car’s infotainment center.
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In 2020, Apple overhauled its gift card system with a new singular Apple Gift Card that can be used for hardware purchases at the Apple Store, or digital Apple services and software purchases in the App Store.
This unified gift card came to Canada and Australia in 2021. And today Apple Gift Card is now available in Europe, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and more (first spotted by iCulture).
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When beta 1 of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 dropped earlier this month, based on code findings and wording on Apple’s official feature preview website page, it seemed that the iPad will no longer be a supported device to act as as a HomeKit home hub.
However, in a new statement to The Verge, Apple says this isn’t correct. Apple says iPads can continue to be home hubs in iPadOS 16 “with no loss of functionality”. However, you won’t get any new functionality either …
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Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released some interesting information on Twitter today. Kuo said that his latest supply-side surveys are indicating that Apple has been unable to develop a custom 5G modem of its own, in time for the 2023 iPhone series (iPhone 15).
Due to the apparent development delays, Kuo believes that Apple will resort to using Qualcomm modems for the 2023 iPhones once again. Previously, Qualcomm executives had warned investors that it expected to lose up to 80% of the Apple business by 2023, as Apple planned to use its own chips instead.
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Apple TV+ debuted its new comedy series Loot last week, starring Maya Rudolph. Following the premiere, Apple has also announced that it has struck a deal with Rudolph’s production company Animal Pictures.
Animal Pictures is headed up by Rudolph, Natasha Lyonne and Danielle Renfrew Behrens. Other notable output from Animal Pictures includes Russian Doll on Netflix.
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Apple has released a company statement in response to today’s decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade, which paves the way for states to make abortion illegal.
Apple said it supports employee’s rights to make their own choices about their reproductive health. It reiterated that its company health benefits include paying for out-of-state travel for procedures, if care is unavailable in their own state.
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Apple continues to release new titles to its streaming service, Apple TV+. This week, Apple TV+ premieres the first three episodes of new original comedy TV show ‘Loot‘. Loot stars Maya Rudolph as the divorced wife of a tech billionaire, now $87 billion wealthier.
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The default video player gets a big upgrade with iOS 16 and iPadOS 16. The redesign brings a drastically modernized UI, as well as some new features and enhancements.
Apple uses the system video player in all of its apps, of course, but many third-party apps do too so these changes take effect across your entire iPhone and iPad experience. Here’s everything new to try in the iOS 16 video player.
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Apple today released its latest original movie, Cha Cha Real Smooth by Cooper Raiff. The film has received glowing critical acclaim including the Sundance audience award earlier this year. The film is available exclusively on Apple TV+. Here’s how to watch Cha Cha Real Smooth.
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Update: In a statement to 9to5Mac, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed this was a glitch that has been fixed.
The Apple Music skill for Amazon Alexa speakers has mysteriously disappeared in the United States and several other regions. Several 9to5Mac readers today noticed that asking their Echo to play Apple Music was failing, and the skill is not available to re-add either.
It’s unclear if this is a temporary glitch or an intentional move. As the skill is still available in the UK and some other markets, it seems more like a bug. However, we could not get official confirmation at time of writing of the true cause.
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Apple today announced a major new sports streaming deal. Following on from its MLB Friday Night Baseball deal on Apple TV+, the company today announced that it will be the exclusive streaming destination to watch Major League Soccer games, in the US and internationally, starting with the 2023 season.
Unlike Friday Night Baseball, watching the games will require a separate subscription to an MLS streaming service, available exclusively through the Apple TV app.
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Apple TV+ space drama For All Mankind returns today for its third season. For All Mankind is streaming exclusively on Apple TV+. Here’s how to watch.
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A new filmed version of acclaimed Broadway musical Come From Away is available on Apple TV+ today. Come From Away is ending its Broadway run this fall, but it will still be available to watch on Apple TV+ for years to come. Here’s how to watch.
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The hero changes to iMessage in iOS 16 are the addition of edit button and undo send features. However, there’s also another enhancement that Apple didn’t mention on stage: the dreaded Tapback spam in SMS group chats has been resolved.
Apple is now using a very similar strategy to the hacky workaround that Google rolled out earlier this year to tackle the same problem for Android users receiving Tapback messages from iPhone users …
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Catching up to feature request from at least five years ago, the Photos app will finally let you lock your Hidden photos album with your passcode or biometrics.
In previous versions of iOS, marking a photo as Hidden merely removed it from the main camera roll, and put it in a separate bucket available in the albums list. But prying eyes could just tap on it to reveal them.
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iOS 16 will finally allow you to unlock your iPhone in landscape. On the iOS 16 features page, Apple says that select iPhone models will support the ability to unlock Face ID in landscape.
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Apple today announced its next-generation MacBook Air, starting at $1199, featuring the just-announced M2 chip inside. The new MacBook Air has a redesigned enclosure and comes in striking new case colors.
The new Air design comes in silver, space gray, starlight, midnight, and gold. The previous teardrop wedge shape has been replaced with a simpler, flat-edged chassis. Just like the 2021 MacBook Pro, the display has also been pushed closer to the edges with the addition of a display notch.
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Apple launched Apple Silicon to much fanfare in October 2020, with the first generation chip named ‘M1’. Now, Apple is debuting its second-generation custom Mac chip architecture, unsurprisingly named M2. M2 chip arrives first in the brand new MacBook Air.
Apple says CPU performance is 18% faster. You can now get 50% more memory bandwidth than M1, with up to 24 GB total RAM. There are also now 10 total GPU cores, with up to 35% better graphics performance than M1.
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iMessage in iOS 16 is getting a lot better. The company is adding new features in the Messages app for iMessage conversations including the ability to edit messages after they have been sent.
You will be able to edit sent messages, undo sending messages entirely and mark read conversations as unread. There are some limits to be aware of …
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The Apple Store is down ahead of Apple’s WWDC 2022 keynote later today, with a new placeholder page that reads ‘Developing news’. The ceremonial store-going-down dance usually indicates that Apple is preparing to announce new hardware products.
Of course, the main star of the show today will be on the operating system updates; we expect Apple to unveil major new features for iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, watchOS 9 and tvOS 16. Some new hardware announcements are also in the cards …
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Apple authorized reseller B&H Photo has drummed up some speculation this morning about what new hardware we might see at the WWDC Apple keynote on Monday, alongside the usual iOS 16, macOS 13 and other software releases.
The reseller has set up placeholder product pages for an as-yet-unreleased M2 Mac mini (the M1 Mac mini debuted in October 2020) and a seemingly all-new ‘Mac mini tower‘ product, which may possibly be a reference to the new Apple Silicon Mac Pro …
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European lawmakers are going to meet on June 7 as they look to finalize an agreement to enforce a single universal charging port law, which would see all mobile devices sold in the EU be required to offer USB-C ports for charging.
This idea has been circling in the minds of EU regulators for almost a decade, citing environmental e-waste benefits. The plans have previously drawn strong pushback from Apple, who intimated it would stifle innovation.
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Apple spy drama Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman, has picked up a series order today for two more seasons by Apple TV+. This follows the season one premiere of the show back in April, and a season two release already set to arrive later this year.
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