Apple Podcasts isn’t the dominant force in podcasting that it once was. But if you still get your podcasts from Apple rather than YouTube or another third-party app, there are some nice Podcasts app additions in iOS 18.4—including a new widget that solves a key shortcoming.
Expand Expanding Close
Benjamin and Chance start with a catch-up on changes to Friday Night Baseball, before diving into the software updates of the week, with the launch of iOS 18.4 and the first iOS 18.5 beta launching. Also, thoughts on Apple’s rumored AI Health service plans, and the latest on finding a new partner for the Apple Card.
And in Happy Hour Plus, Benjamin embarks on a mission to convert baby videos from old camcorder tapes, to digital files. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join.
Intel Unison was a strong tool for Android and iOS users that wanted to share files, check messages, and more. Now, it seems like Intel is shutting that app down, leaving some users without a strong option for PC connection.
Read More
iOS 18.4 is available now, and among its many features are some easy-to-miss changes to Apple’s Photos app that give users more flexibility and options than before. Here are the details on iOS 18.4’s Photos enhancements.
Expand Expanding Close
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: updates on the M5 and M6 iPad Pro models, an Apple Health+ service, iPhone Fold, and more. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.
Expand Expanding Close
As someone who grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s, I played a ton of simulation games on my computer. Games like The Sims, Age of Mythology, and Roller Coaster Tycoon are synonymous with my childhood. So when I saw that Apple was bringing the original Roller Coaster Tycoon to Apple Arcade, I dropped everything and put it on my iPad Pro. I was immediately taken back! In that same light, Apple released five other brand-new games that are worth taking a look at!
Expand Expanding Close
iOS 18.4 packs a lot of new features, but one of my top picks is the addition of tens of thousands of recipes to Apple News alongside a special cooking mode. Here’s how it works.
Expand Expanding Close
Hyperspace, the new utility from Macintosh veteran John Siracusa, has been updated a handful of times since we covered its launch in February. If you haven’t tried Hyperspace since it first launched, there are new capabilities that could reveal even more space to reclaim.
Expand Expanding Close
Joining some ongoing $100 price drops on iPad mini 7 and the new M4 MacBook Air, today we are turning our attention back to AirPods. Amazon has now brought back its best price of the year on the latest AirPods 4 with ANC down at $149 shipped, which is now joined by a solid $250 price drop on Apple’s 1TB 13-inch M4 iPad Pro. From there we move over to a 20% clearance price drop on the official blue Apple Ocean Band alongside a new all-time low Belkin’s 15W MagSafe Wireless Car Charger mount, a 25% price drop on Eve’s latest Energy (Matter) smart plug, Bose earbuds, and this 140W USB-C to MagSafe 3 nylon braided cable at just $20. All of that and more awaits below in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break.
Expand Expanding Close
After nearly a decade, Nintendo finally returned with a true successor to the original Switch. The Nintendo Switch 2, unveiled at Nintendo’s Direct event, brings long-awaited upgrades across the board – from display and performance to multiplayer features and accessories. I spent some hands-on time with the device at press-only Nintendo event yesterday, and as someone who has owned every Switch variant from the OG Switch to the Switch OLED, here are my thoughts.
Read More
Apple is updating its iWork suite of productivity apps with new features that require iOS 18.4. This includes version 14.4 of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for iPhone and iPad.
Expand Expanding Close
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 DREAME: Get up to $600 off intelligent robotic cleaners and effortless wet/dry vacs in DREAME’s Spring Cleaning sale now.
In the aftermath of Severance’s season ending, Apple TV+ has been able to debut two strong new shows to keep subscribers engaged: The Studio and Dope Thief. But next week, yet another prestige new series is coming to the streamer. It’s called Your Friends & Neighbors.
Expand Expanding Close
Apple is a US-based company that relies heavily on a global supply chain to manufacture its products. As a result, the tech firm’s stock seems to be getting hit especially hard by the new tariffs just announced yesterday, with AAPL down almost 10% upon the market’s open today—a big hit to Apple.
Expand Expanding Close
The Trump administration yesterday announced punishing import tariffs on a long list of countries, including all of Apple’s key manufacturing hubs. It’s been estimated that this would force the company to either increase US prices by 40% or see its profit slashed by 32%.
The news saw stock market slumps around the world, with AAPL stock falling more than 7% in pre-market trading on fears of the impact …
Expand Expanding Close
Prototypes of an OLED iPad mini display are currently being evaluated by Apple, according to a leaker with a decent track record.
It seems pretty clear by this point that the next model will have an OLED screen, and it will definitely be worth waiting for if you currently have an older model …
Expand Expanding Close
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has turned up the dial to 11 on his anti-Apple rhetoric, calling the iPhone maker a “gangster-style business” which has concluded that “crime pays.”
He said that both Apple and Google are guilty of the same practices, including using scare tactics to make iPhone and Android users afraid to install the Epic Games Store …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple has big plans for the iPhone 17 lineup. In addition to the rumored iPhone 17 Air, the Pro models are also expected to receive significant hardware upgrades, especially when it comes to cameras. And in addition to everything that’s been leaked so far, it looks like the iPhone 17 Pro will have another camera surprise.
Expand Expanding Close
As we reported this morning, Apple has released a firmware update for the USB-C AirPods Max that enables lossless audio. However, due to a bug in iOS 18.4, the headphones were unable to download the update. Now the company has re-released the firmware that brings the new feature to AirPods Max.
Expand Expanding Close
The full extent of the U.S. government’s impeding tariffs were revealed by the Trump administration today in a press conference. The hefty tariffs threaten economic trade on a massive scale with implications on almost all big US companies, including Apple.
The Apple supply chain relies on manufacturing and assembly of its devices in countries like China, India, Malaysia and Vietnam. All of these regions are now facing huge tariffs, which ultimately increases the cost of production and undermines Apple’s margins and potential profitability.
Expand Expanding Close
With the release of iOS 18.4, Apple Intelligence now supports eight additional languages besides English. However, a small number of users have been complaining that they don’t see Apple Intelligence in the settings even after updating an eligible iPhone, iPad, or Mac to the latest software – and this may be related to having a device purchased in China.
Expand Expanding Close
I started using OS X full-time when I was 18 and the Mac was 25. Booting up my first Apple computer, a 2009 MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5 Leopard, was like getting behind the wheel of a Porsche for the first time after being raised on pedestrian PCs.
Now it’s the iPhone and its software that are 18. In Macintosh terms, the iPhone and iOS are in the iMac G4 “iLamp” running OS X 10.2 Jaguar era — maturing products and platforms that still have room to grow up.
For this reason, I am still one to welcome changes to the way things look with open arms. ‘It looks different’ is a great feature if the way it looks is cool. “Does it look cooler” is a different question than “does it look better.” The former has more to do with trends while the latter is a matter of longevity.
If a change can be both stylish and practical such that it can last for years, then that’s a design change success. iOS 7 was too polarizing and required too many iterations before reaching stability to really hit that mark. iOS 19 has the potential to meet both metrics. It could also be a bigger deal than iOS 7 for three reasons.
Expand Expanding Close
TikTok was temporarily saved from a US ban earlier this year, but a key deadline is coming up that could see the ban reinstated. According to a new report, President Trump’s plan to stop that from happening is a new company called “TikTok America.”
Expand Expanding Close
iOS 18.5 beta 1 was released today for developers, and so far it’s been particularly light on noticeable changes. However, one key update makes it easier than before to get the old Apple Mail design back in iOS 18.5.
Expand Expanding Close