9to5Mac

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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Microsoft has published a new video on its YouTube channel that touts the speed of its top Copilot + PCs. Curiously though, these “top PCs” are compared against Apple’s consumer-targeted MacBook Air…from over a year ago.

We are less than a month away from WWDC 2025, where Apple is set to announce a redesigned and less glitchy iOS 19 alongside what it’s been cooking over the past year for its other operating systems.

While rumors abound regarding what’s to come to iOS 19, there’s one feature I hope to see make its way into the new system. Sadly, it’s probably not going to happen.

Update May 16, 2025, 8:36 a.m. PT: Apple tells Bloomberg that it did not take action to block Epic Games from releasing its Fortnite update in the European Union. Instead, the company asked it to resubmit the EU update without including the US to avoid impacting other regions.

There’s still no word on the status of Epic’s attempt to bring Fortnite back to the App Store in the US.

Last week, Epic Games announced that it had submitted Fortnite to the App Store in the United States. The move followed an injunction in which a federal judge said Apple couldn’t charge a 27% commission on out-of-app purchases initiated through in-app links.

In a new statement today, however, Epic says that Apple has “blocked” this submission…

The Murderbot Diaries is a wildly popular book series by Martha Wells. Apple has now adapted the series for television, with Murderbot premiering today with the first two episodes on Apple TV+. New episodes roll out weekly.

The sci-fi comedy features Alexander Skarsgard as an awkward human-reclusive SecUnit robot. It is sent on assignments by a group of research scientists, protecting them from space worms and other dangers, while all it really wants to do it is relax in a corner and watch soap operas on its helmet TV.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says Apple is keeping Fortnite’s return to the App Store in limbo, having “neither accepted nor rejected” the latest submission for review.

The ongoing silence now threatens to delay Fortnite’s next major update, planned for this Friday.

Apple is launching a brand new Home product in the coming year. I’ve been calling it ‘HomePad,’ and these are five of the core features it will bring with it.

Going on 20 years now, Kantar has released its BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands report, which combines financial data with consumer perception metrics to find the world’s 100 most valuable brands.

In a year in which the total value of the Top 100 reached an all-time high of $10.7 trillion (a 29% jump from last year), Apple has once again led the pack.

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: iPhone 20th anniversary model, iOS 19 features, 2027 “product renaissance,” and more. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.

After a tough period of laying staff down and hiking prices up following its acquisition by Bending Spoons, Evernote has finally been getting some cool features.

Recently, the platform got multimodal AI transcription support, and it’s actually pretty good.

Apple TV+ has had several hit shows so far this year, but there’s a lot more on the way. It’s still early, so Apple likely has more announcements planned for summer TV+ releases. But with the summer movie season in full swing and schools starting to let out, here’s an early look at what Apple TV+ has planned for the months ahead.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Sponsored by Backblaze: Never lose a file again. Use code “9to5daily” at checkout for 10% off.

Benjamin and Chance react to all the new accessibility features Apple previewed for iOS 19, like Magnifier and vehicle motion cues for Mac. This week also saw the surprise debut of next-gen CarPlay, now called CarPlay Ultra, arriving first in partnership with Aston Martin. We’ve also got some more rumors about some software features to expect at WWDC. 

And in Happy Hour Plus, HBO corrects the Max branding mess. Should Apple follow suit? Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join.

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Rumors have long indicated new AirPods Pro were in the works, with a fall launch expected. But now, a leak from Apple’s own software has brought the first official hint that AirPods Pro 3 are coming soon.

Last year Apple launched Music Haptics in iOS 18, letting users experience Apple Music songs through haptic taps and vibrations. Ahead of upgrades to the feature in iOS 19, today the company shared a new video spotlighting Music Haptics.

Apple’s long-brewing next generation of CarPlay is finally here. CarPlay Ultra officially launched this morning. And while anyone not driving an Aston Martin may be disappointed, Apple’s announcement actually brought good news for all CarPlay users.

Later this month, Vision Pro’s first ever feature-length Immersive Film premieres. In a new interview, the subject of that film, Bono, has shared about his experience on the project and Apple’s ambitions with Vision Pro, the product’s struggles being affordable, and more.

It’s taken a very long time, and it’s so far only being offered by a single, niche car-maker, but next-gen CarPlay – which Apple has branded CarPlay Ultra – is finally here.

It’s currently limited to Aston Martin, and is available with new orders, alongside a software update being made available to owners of existing (recent) models …

Next year’s iPhone Fold will introduce an entirely new form factor to the iPhone lineup. One of its design features, though, will reportedly follow the pattern of new 18 Pro models launching at the same time.