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.
As part of today’s iOS 14.3 update, Apple has rolled out a new tab to the TV app. The Originals tab acts as a top-level navigation to the TV+ channel, which provides access to the Apple Original TV shows and movies.
This TV+ section has existed in the TV app since TV+ launched, but it has always been buried by at least a few screens of scrolling. By making it a tab, it is now much, much easier for TV+ subscribers to enjoy the content they have access to.
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Apple today overhauled the Shazam iOS app with a new look, modernizing the user interface and bringing the design language in line with recent UI updates to Apple Music.
Upon launching the app, the screen is dominated by the central Tap to Shazam button with access to recently identified music revealed by swiping up. Apple is also adding the ability to identify songs through a web browser for the first time, available in beta now at Shazam.com.
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The M1 chip in the entry-level MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini lines already rivals high-end Intel CPUs. But a new report from Bloomberg indicates that Apple is confident it can fully leave Intel in the dust, as it works on next-generation Apple Silicon chips with higher power budgets.
Bloomberg says Apple is working on successors to the M1 with up to 20 CPU cores, made up of 16 high performance and 4-efficiency cores. In 2021, the company is expected to roll out ARM versions of the higher-end MacBook Pro, “both entry-level and high-end iMac desktops”. An ARM Mac Pro is scheduled to follow in 2022.
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If you signed up for Apple One on day one, then that means your free trial subscription will be renewing today.
At least, it should be. Some readers are reporting that their Apple One transition has not gone so smoothly. Although these customers have not opted to cancel, the Apple server appears to think that is the case. For the people affected, the subscriptions page is currently showing their Apple One membership as ‘expired’.
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The Apple Store has today launched its Black Friday shopping event. The company is offering a gift card with eligible iPhone, iPad Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple TV, HomePod and Beats purchases. The event runs from November 27 through November 30.
As usual, you will definitely find better promotions elsewhere: check out 9to5Toys for the best Black Friday deals coverage. However, if you were planning on buying from the Apple Store, you can now get a little extra bonus …
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In a report today, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared his view on Apple’s product momentum heading into the holidays. Most importantly to Apple’s bottom line, Kuo sees better than expected demand for iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, apparently offsetting slightly–weaker sell-through of 12 and 12 mini.
In terms of new products, Kuo indicates that form factor redesigns are coming to the Apple Watch and the MacBook lineup, in the second half of 2021.
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In October, Apple TV+ announced that it will exclusively stream the Peanuts holiday specials as part of a wider deal that includes new Snoopy and Charlie Brown original series. That announcement irked some people, leading to a ~250,000 signature petition that asked Apple to keep to tradition and put these specials on broadcast TV.
It seems Apple has listened to the complaints. The company today announced that PBS will air both Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Charlie Brown Christmas.
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Update, November 18th: You can now download the new Pixelmator Pro update from the App Store, with an updated design for Big Sur and performance optimizations targeting M1 Macs.
The Pixelmator team today announced the next major version of Pixelmator Pro, version 2.0. The update will be available in about a week’s time on Thursday, November 19th.
Pixelmator Pro 2.0 features an overhauled user interface with new layouts for the app’s toolbars and editor sidebars, including a dynamic Effects browser. There’s also drastically expanded customization options for the app’s interface, so you can tweak the chrome just the way you like. This update also brings support for macOS Big Sur and the new M1-powered MacBooks and Mac mini.
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Apple acquired Shazam back in late 2017 (the deal closed in 2018), and now the company has announced that the application has crossed 200 million monthly active users.
Shazam is available as a standalone app in the App Store and the Google Play Store, as well as available through Siri, and recently made its way into Control Center with iOS 14.2. (The 200 million figure does not count Siri requests as an active user.)
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Apple Store customers are starting to get shipment notifications for the HomePod mini. Most day one orders appear to be set to be delivered from Tuesday, November 17.
The HomePod mini is Apple’s latest attempt to crack the smart speaker market, with a $99 offering that reviewers said produces the best sound in its size class. The big HomePod is still the go-to option for people wanting the highest audio quality, but its high price has meant Apple has only sold a few million of them since its 2018 launch. The HomePod mini stacks up more favorably against cheaper competition from Amazon Echo and Google Home.
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Apple TV+ is Apple’s streaming service and priced at $4.99 per month in the US, or $49.99 per year. A lot of current subscribers are on promotional free trials. However, if you are currently paying for TV+ on a monthly or yearly basis, you should have received an email that Apple is refunding that amount as store credit … here’s why.
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Next week, Apple TV+ series ‘The Oprah Conversation’ will feature an interview between Oprah Winfrey and former president Barack Obama. The discussion will revolve around Obama’s upcoming memoir, ‘A Promised Land’.
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The Apple Store is back online and you can order Apple’s new lineup of M1-equipped Macs today, with first shipments delivering next week.
In today’s 45-minute event, Apple launched a new 13-inch MacBook Air, a new 13-inch MacBook Pro and a new Mac mini. Each of the machines feature the new M1 chip, providing significant power efficiency and performance increases.
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Apple today unveiled a new 13-inch MacBook Pro featuring the Apple M1 chip, replacing the previous Intel x86 models. Apple retained the same $1299 price point for the notebook.
The 8-core CPU offers up to 2.8x faster performance compared with the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro. Thanks to the efficiency of the M1 chip, the new MacBook Pro offers up to 20 hours of video playback on a single charge, twice the previous quoted figure.
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Apple today announced a new Mac mini featuring the Apple M1 chip. Apple said the new chip enables up to 3x faster CPU performance, and up to 6x better graphics, than the previous generation Mac mini.
The new Mac mini features the same industrial design, but with greatly overhauled performance thanks to the M1 chip. Apple also lowered the price, now starting at $699.
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The Apple Store is down for what is most likely Apple’s last product event of the year. At 10 AM PT, Tim Cook and team will take to the virtual pre-recorded stage to announce the first Apple Silicon Macs.
As previewed at WWDC in June, Apple is embarking on a transition to move from Intel-based Macs to ARM architecture using chips of its own design, just like how it designs the A-series processors in iPhones and iPads.
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The two mythical MagSafe accessories now have listings on the Apple Store: the MagSafe Duo charger and the Leather Sleeve are listed as coming soon and are priced at $129 each.
The sleeve cases feature a cutout window which allows you to tap the iPhone’s screen to show the time. Because the case contains the MagSafe magnets, the phone knows to enter the special lock screen mode to position the time readout correctly with matching colored background.
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Right on cue, the Apple Store is down today ahead of new iPhone and HomePod mini preorders.
The store will be back up at about 5 AM PT, so if you are waiting to order a new HomePod mini or the iPhone 12 mini, or the iPhone 12 Pro Max, you’ve got a few more hours to wait.
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One of the new Siri features in iOS 14.2 is called the Personal Update. This is similar to the daily briefing feature available on Amazon Echo, answering a long-lasting feature request for Apple’s personal assistant.
You can get Siri to read out your update on iPhone, HomePod, and HomePod mini. Just ask Siri “What’s my update?”
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Today, Apple announced its final event of the year, set for November 10. This is widely expected to be the time when Apple announces its first round of ARM Macs, with the company having already stated that it will transition the entire line away from Intel within two years.
Bloomberg has more specific reporting on exactly which models are getting updates first. The publication says new 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are currently ramping production, all featuring Apple Silicon. However, Bloomberg says the new laptops will not feature dramatic design changes other than the chip upgrades, which should provide improvements to performance and battery life.
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With the current iCloud plans, the maximum tier is 2 TB. Although that’s a lot of storage, some iPhone users have already filled theirs up with thousands of photos and 4K videos and such. Until today, those people have simply been stuck at capacity — but with the release of Apple One, it is now possible to get up to 4 TB total of iCloud space.
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Apple One is now available. You can upgrade now by going to Settings -> Apple ID -> Subscriptions on your iPhone or iPad. Apple One is a services package including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+ and iCloud storage.
There are three Apple One tiers. The cheapest tier costs $14.95 per month and includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and 50 GB of iCloud. The most expensive ‘Apple One Premier’ costs $29.95 per month … but how much money do you actually save?
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As part of its quarterly earnings call release, the company announced that its services bundle Apple One will be officially launching tomorrow, on Friday 30th. Apple One combines Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Arcade and Apple TV+ at a discounted price for individuals and families.
For $30 a month, the top tier plan Apple One Premier includes 2 TB of iCloud and Apple News+. It will also include access to Fitness+, Apple’s upcoming workout videos service that will debut before the end of the year.
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Jon Stewart left US talk show scene in 2015, but is now set to make a triumphant comeback with a new current affairs series exclusive to Apple TV+. Via Hollywood Reporter, Apple and Stewart today announced a multi-year deal covering the series and future projects.
Each hour-long episode will focus on a single news topic. The show is expected to begin airing next year. Hollywood Reporter says Stewart will also likely host a companion podcast.
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