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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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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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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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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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Deals: 512GB M3 iPad Air $250 off, Apple Watch Ultra 3 open-box up to $120 off, Mac mini $499, more

Friday’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break deals are kicking off with M3 iPad Air. While we have already detailed the pre-order deals available on M5 MacBook Pro and M5 iPad Pro right here, Amazon is now offering its best price ever on this 13-inch 512GB M3 iPad Air config at $250 off the list. And now, joining Amazon’s price drops on new units, Best Buy’s open-box deals on the black Apple Watch Ultra 3 are up to $121 off alongside the return of M4 Mac mini down at $499, AirPods 4 with ANC back at the $119 low, and our exclusive deals on these brand new leather M5 iPad Air cases. Everything else awaits below. 

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Apple says Epic Games is seeking a free ride, as we await latest court ruling

Apple says Epic Games is seeking a free ride, as we await latest court ruling | Permission screen on third-party app install

Apple has accused Epic Games of seeking a free ride as the games company asks a court to permit its apps to be sideloaded onto iPhones with no commission to the Cupertino company.

The accusation was made after an Australian court indicated it was likely to rule that Apple must permit sideloading – but with details yet to be decided …

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Report: Apple-F1 deal could be announced today with F1 giving up F1 TV control

Apple’s deal to acquire F1 streaming rights in the United States is imminent and could be announced as soon as today, according to a new report from Puck’s John Ourand.

The report also details that F1 is “relinquishing control of F1 TV in the U.S.” as part of the deal, a key tidbit that was reportedly a sticking point throughout the negotiations between Apple and F1 parent company Liberty Media.

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