Benjamin Mayo

While we wait for the F1 movie’s streaming debut, Apple has just dropped a new feature film starring Denzel Washington, Highest 2 Lowest directed by Spike Lee. You can stream the movie for free right now with an Apple TV+ subscription.

Highest 2 Lowest is a modern adaptation of a 1963 classic High and Low by Akira Kurosawa. In this version, Washington plays a modern New York music mogul, named David King, whose child is apparently kidnapped and held for ransom.

Next week, Apple will announce the new lineup of iPhone. The big change is the discontinuation of the iPhone 16 Plus phone, instead introducing a new thin form factor design model. This is widely expected to be branded as the iPhone 17 Air.

It will feature the thinnest chassis of an iPhone ever, measuring about 5.5mm at its thinnest point. The tradeoff to achieve the strikingly-thin enclosure is a compromise on camera specs, with the model featuring just one rear lens. But the big question overhanging this launching is exactly how much Apple will charge for its flashy new phone?

Like in previous years, Apple is dropping the price of the MLS Season Pass service as the year progresses. The annual sub is now just $29 for the rest of the 2025 season. That price is further discounted to $25 for Apple TV+ subscribers.

The price change affects the 2025 season pass only, the monthly plan price remains the same. The price will return to its usual $99 at the beginning of the 2026 season.

Apple’s longest-running original comedy series is getting new life on the BBC in the United Kingdom. The Apple Original Trying, which premiered on Apple’s streaming service in May 2020, will now be available on BBC iPlayer and set for broadcast on the BBC’s linear channels.

The BBC deal was first reported by Deadline, and apparently includes the first three seasons of Trying with the first season debuting on September 8. Meanwhile, Apple TV+ is currently in development of a fifth season of the under-rated British series.

In what appears to be a marketing effort for its subscription service, Apple has partnered with TuneIn to offer the free Apple Music radio stations outside of the Apple Music app for the first time.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, starting today, all six of the Apple live music radio stations will be made available to listen to on TuneIn. TuneIn reports more than 75 million monthly active users, spanning a variety of platforms and devices.

Apple is no longer allowed to advertise the Apple Watch as carbon neutral, a German court ruled following a protest from environmentalists about Apple’s promoted claims.

The Frankfurt court found the company misled consumers for describing the Apple Watch as a CO2-neutral product. Apple first unveiled its first carbon neutral products starting with the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in September 2023.

Apple’s big box office bet continues to break records for the company, with F1: The Movie now breaking another milestone this weekend, topping $600 million at the worldwide box office.

This figure beats even the most optimistic expectations ahead of release, which cost Apple about $250 million to make. The film hit buy or rent video on demand on Friday, but a streaming date on Apple TV+ has not yet been announced.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman spilled some more details about the upcoming foldable iPhone in his Power On newsletter today.

He says the foldable iPhone will open like a book to reveal a larger inner display, like many Android foldables. The foldable iPhone will feature a total of four cameras, one on the front screen, one on the inside and two on the back. It will also use Touch ID for biometrics and use Apple’s in-house cellular modem for connectivity.

Apple TV+ just announced a 30% price rise, which may convince some subscribers to cancel and churn out for a while.

However, the company seems to be prepared to mitigate for that somewhat. Users on Reddit discovered that when they went to cancel their subscription in the Apple TV app, they were presented with a 54% discount offer for two months.

Apple’s F1: The Movie has exceeded all expectations at cinemas, with the film about to top $600 million at the worldwide box office since its premiere on June 27.

Following its extended theatrical window, F1: The Movie is now available to buy or rent on-demand at digital stores like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and more.

On the same day that Apple TV+ announced a 30% price rise, news has broken that one of its key TV execs is leaving the company. Creative executive Chris Parnell is leaving Apple and is joining Paramount+, per Deadline.

Parnell joined Apple back in 2020 and spearheaded development of many high-profile TV+ originals, including Dark Matter, Bad Monkey, and the upcoming Vince Gilligan series Pluribus.

Apple today announced that the monthly price of Apple TV+ is rising in the United States and some international markets. From today, the monthly subscription will cost $12.99, up from $9.99.

Existing subscribers will see the price change 30 days after the next renewal date. The pricing for yearly TV+ subscriptions and the Apple One services bundle remains unchanged.

A package of MLB baseball rights are currently up for grabs. As recently as last week, Apple was said to be a front runner to land expanded baseball streaming coverage. But according to Yahoo Sports reporter Kendall Baker, that is no longer the case.

According to the report, Apple has elected to exit its relationship with Major League Baseball altogether. That means it will add no new Sunday games, and it also implicates the future of Friday Night Baseball. Friday Night Baseball currently streams two weekly games for Apple TV+ subscribers.

The iPhone Messages app on iOS 26 gets a bunch of new filtering features, primarily targeted around dealing with spam and junk texts. But it also gets some filters that are generally useful too.

For the first time, iMessage has a dedicated Drafts folder. This filters the conversation list to show only threads where you have a partly-written message.

As part of its exclusive deal with Peanuts, Apple TV+ today premieres Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical. This is the latest original Snoopy special to air on the platform, and this one stands out as it is a song-filled musical. The last time Peanuts premiered a new musical episode was more than 37 years ago.

The new special celebrates summer camp. Charlie Brown is trying to make his last year at camp as special as possible. Meanwhile, Snoopy and Woodstock find a treasure map that leads them on an adventure.

The design revamp brought about with iOS 26 brings all sorts of new animations along with the Liquid Glass visual treatments. With beta 6, Apple overhauled Springboard’s app launch animations for the first time in years.

Apps now launch to full-screen much faster than before, accompanied a minor warp effect that is reminiscent of how Mac windows minimise to the dock. The faster animation speed makes a big difference. It really feels like iOS 26 made your iPhone faster, even several-year old models …

A hardware refresh for the Apple TV 4K set-top box is coming soon. The current generation was released in spring 2022, and is powered by an A15 Bionic chip.

The new generation is expected to feature a new Apple-designed WiFi and Bluetooth chip, as well as a CPU upgrade. A report from MacRumors today cites code references that indicate the box will actually get an A17 Pro chip, the same processor that powers the iPhone 15 Pro.

The iTunes Movies and TV Shows app predate the unified Apple TV app, and go all the way back to the first version of tvOS in 2015. Fast forward to today, and these apps are almost entirely redundant and serve as mere placeholders.

As system apps on Apple TV are not deletable, these husks of times past have somewhat comically stuck around on the Apple TV home screen. With the latest beta of tvOS 26, users will finally have a way to bury these apps for good.

iOS 18 featured a major redesign to the Calculator app, including fancy features like Math Notes. Those changes included adding a back button to the keypad, replacing the traditional C/AC button. This was so frustrating for some, the real hard-core Calculator users I guess, that The Atlantic published an entire column when iOS 18 shipped, decrying the button’s removal.

Apple has seemingly taken those complaints onboard. With iOS 26, the Calculator once again has a dedicated C/AC button.

You can now watch Apple TV+ shows on in-flight entertainment systems across United Airlines’ fleet of planes, thanks to a new partnership announced today.

United travellers can get free access to Apple Originals like Severance, Slow Horses, and Ted Lasso, with more titles being added on a monthly basis.