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Deals: M4 iPad Pro $406 off, 512GB M3 iPad Air $279 off, iPhone 16 Pro Max $510 off, more

Your 9to5toys Lunch Break is ready to kick the week off with some big time price drops on iPad. Alongside the M5 iPad Pro pre-order deals we detailed previously, Amazon just knocked over $400 off this upgraded M4 iPad Pro model and it is now delivering a new all-time low on this 512GB M3 iPad Air at $279 off the list price. We also have 1TB iPhone 16 Pro Max at $510 off courtesy of the Amazon Renewed Premium program as well as AirPods Pro 2 from $108 and a rare discount on the official Apple Watch Ultra 2/3 Black Milanese Loop. All of the details await below. 

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It’s getting harder and harder to believe Apple can deliver on the new Siri

It's getting harder and harder to believe Apple can deliver on the new Siri | Apple Intelligence logo with broken glass

For a very long time, I urged patience with Apple’s efforts to turn Siri into a truly intelligent assistant. Back in 2023, I argued that the stakes were higher for Siri than for primarily text-based AI systems like ChatGPT.

I’ve also said that Apple’s commitment to privacy poses a far greater challenge for the company’s AI efforts, and that the payoff would be worth it. But it’s gotten harder and harder to maintain this position, and the latest report certainly doesn’t help …

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You can now sign up to the Apple TV and Peacock bundle, discount also available for Apple One subscribers

As announced last week, there is a new bundle offer which combines Apple TV (formerly Apple TV+) and Peacock streaming services, offering substantial savings to US customers. You can get Apple TV with Peacock Premium for $14.99, or upgrade to the ad-free Peacock Premium Plus tier for $19.99 per month. This represents savings of about 35% compared to buying each service separately.

You can sign up straight from the Apple TV app, or through Peacock’s app or website. If you are an existing Apple One bundle subscriber, there’s also a special discount offer on Peacock Premium Plus available …

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Cheapest and most expensive iPhone 17 models reportedly seeing strong sales

Cheapest and most expensive iPhone 17 models both reportedly seeing strong sales | Full lineup shown

Both the cheapest and the most expensive iPhone 17 models are reportedly seeing strong demand. A new market intelligence report says that the base iPhone 17 is proving especially popular.

The report says that in the first 10 days of availability, sales of the entry-level iPhone 17 were almost a third higher than those of the iPhone 16 a year earlier …

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Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite, ChatGPT and more taken down by major AWS outage

Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite, ChatGPT and more taken down by major AWS outage | Photo shows a close-up of a red LED lightpanel

A major Amazon Web Services outage resulted in many different platforms and services being taken down for many users in the US. This includes Amazon, Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite, ChatGPT, and more.

The problem first occurred shortly after midnight PDT. The company identified the cause a couple of hours later and says that it is now “continuing to observe recovery” across most services …

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Apple TV, Apple Music and App Store are down as Apple services suffer major outage

Update: The Apple system status now says Apple TV, Apple Music and App Store issues are now resolved.

Apple online services are currently experience a big outage that has lasted a couple hours already. Some customers are noticing they are unable to stream on Apple TV, listen to their library on Apple Music, or download new apps from the App Store.

Apple’s official system status page says these services have been experiencing issues since around midnight Eastern Time. We currently don’t know when the problem will be fixed.

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MLS playoff matches to be available to all Apple TV subscribers, MLS Season Pass not required

As first reported by Sports Business Journal, all of the Major League Soccer playoff matches will be watchable with an Apple TV subscription (formerly Apple TV+), meaning fans don’t need the add-on MLS Season Pass subscription to tune in.

The playoff schedule begins on Wednesday. In light of the news that F1 will stream on Apple TV in the United States as part of the base subscription, there has been some speculation that the separate MLS Season Pass product could be going away …

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Auvio’ lets you create endless soundscapes on your iPhone

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Auvio is a neat audio engine for your iPhone. It offers everything you’d need to create your own immersive and personal soundscapes, whether you want them to fall asleep to, for focusing, or for studying.

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PSA: If you don’t like the new Preview app on iOS 26, there’s an easy fix for it

With iOS 26, Apple introduced a new app on iPhone and iPad: Preview. This app has been on the Mac for a long time, and as the name suggests, it serves as a system-wide file preview of sorts, that way you don’t need an app to view every file.

While this app may be intuitive on the iPad, I’ve found it rather cumbersome on the iPhone. Luckily, there’s a rather simple fix for it.

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Kuxiu’s X40 Turbo now comes in Cosmic Orange with 25W Qi2.2 charging [Hands-on]

Apple quietly made a massive update to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 lineup with their new iOS 26 update. They now officially support the new Qi2.2 wireless charging standard, allowing you to wirelessly fast-charge your iPhone at up to 25W. So one of my favorite iPhone accessory brands released their new Qi2.2 X40 Turbo charger, which I reviewed early last month. It was the first charger to bring true Qi2.2 25W fast charging to your iPhone. Today, they have doubled down on it and released the perfect companion to the new Cosmic Orange iPhone, with a perfectly color-matched X40 Turbo.

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Apple @ Work: Why Apple should cut the software update delay to 30 days

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Apple has long given IT admins the ability to delay software updates across fleets as it has built out the modern device management stack. The idea made sense at the time because it gave IT teams time to test, validate, and make sure nothing broke before updates hit thousands of devices.

The world has changed though. Security risks move faster, attacks are smarter, and the 90 day window Apple still offers feels outdated. As Apple has made the yearly updates more reliable in terms of not breaking things, I think it is time for Apple to rethink the balance and cut that maximum delay down to 30 days.

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HomeKit Weekly: Putting the SwitchBot S20 to work in HomeKit with Matter

SwitchBot S20

Previously, I wrote about the SwitchBot K11+, a smaller robot vacuum that was a great option for smaller spaces. This week, I am looking at the new SwitchBot S20, and this one is built for much bigger homes. After using it for the past few months, I believe it may be the best robo vacuum on the market, with some nice workarounds for rooms in Apple’s Home app.

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