Benjamin Mayo

Siri is rumored to be getting an overhaul next year as part of a wider AI features initiative inside Apple. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today posits that this goal may also be having implications on hardware design, in a post on his Medium blog.

Kuo says that all iPhone 16 models, expected to arrive in fall 2024, will feature significantly upgraded microphone hardware. The new mics will pick up the user’s voice better, helping improve the accuracy of dictation and Siri voice commands.

As first reported in October, Apple will discontinue the standalone iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows apps on the Apple TV box, starting with tvOS 17.2 The warning message seen above has started appearing in the release candidate version of tvOS 17.2 beta, released yesterday.

Apple directs users to the TV app instead to manage their purchases, and buy and rent from the store. At least as far as Apple’s video content is concerned, the iTunes brand is on the way out.

The much-hyped Apple original film Killers of the Flower Moon (starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone) will be available on video-on-demand services to buy or rent from tomorrow, Apple announced today. It will be available at “leading digital retailers” in over 100 countries. For instance, here’s where you could find Killers of the Flower Moon to watch on Amazon Prime.

This means you’ll be able to buy or rent the film, through the Apple TV Store or other VOD services, before it becomes available to stream on Apple TV+. An official streaming date has still not been announced.

tvOS 17 added support for VPN apps on Apple TV set-top box, allowing simple on-device setup of a VPN provider running natively on the device. The number of compatible tvOS VPN apps has been slowly growing, and today major VPN provider ExpressVPN has debuted their app.

You can get ExpressVPN now in the App Store, with access included as part of your existing ExpressVPN subscription.

As promised earlier this year, the popular video meetings app Zoom is now available on the Apple TV 4K. Of course, the Apple TV box itself does not have a camera, so the app relies on using your iPhone with a stand like the Belkin MagSafe Mount to take advantage of the Continuity Camera feature.

tvOS 17 brought the FaceTime app to Apple TV in the same manner. Now, Zoom has joined the party. Competitor WebEx previewed its Apple TV app a month ago, but it is not yet publicly available.

Apple is said to be in early talks with Paramount about a possible streaming bundle deal, that would see Apple TV+ and Paramount+ sold together at a price less than the cost of purchasing both services separately.

The notion of a cross-platform streaming bundle is becoming increasingly common, as streamers experiment with new ways to attract and retain subscribers. Today’s Wall Street Journal report says talks between Apple and Paramount are still in the preliminary stages and it did not detail exactly what the Apple and Paramount bundle would look like, if a deal comes to fruition.

The official Apple Black Friday deals are now live on apple.com. As usual, Apple special offer is a free gift card (worth up to $200 in value) with the purchase of an eligible hardware product including iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod and some Beats headphones.

Amazon offers free money $15 Amazon gift card with purchase of a $100 Apple Gift card.

The gift cards are a nice perk if you really want to buy from Apple directly, but you’ll be able to find bigger and better discounts from other retailers, like this $1049 M2 MacBook Air or 22% off the price off a base model iPad on Amazon. Check out 9to5Toys for the latest best value deals.

Apple TV+ today kicked off its holiday programming lineup with a new musical special ‘Home for Christmas’, in which Hannah Waddingham sings a variety of classic songs with cameos from much of the Ted Lasso cast. The 45-minute show was filmed earlier this year in front of a live audience at the London Coliseum, and includes duets with Leslie Odom Jr., Sam Ryder, Phil Dunster and more.

The service also premiered The Velveteen Rabbit, a loving and tender adaptation of the classic children’s novel. And due to the Thanksgiving holiday in America, all new episodes of TV+ content have been released earlier this week than usual.

In the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, he writes that Apple had at one time planned for the Apple Vision Pro headset to be released in January 2024. However, the company is still preparing distribution plans for the product and doing final device testing.

For its part, Apple has officially said the Vision Pro will go on sale early next year in the United States. Gurman says he now expects that the device will debut “sometime around March”.

The new Godzilla universe TV show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is available to watch now on Apple TV+. Set after the events of the Godzilla (2014) movie, the show dives deep into the Monarch organization, spanning multiple family timelines. Here’s how to stream.

Apple Music Classical, included as part of a standard Apple Music subscription, launched as an iPhone only app in the spring … but is now available on the iPad too.

The v1.1 update rolling out now in the App Store adds a brand new design optimized for the larger iPad display, with a navigation sidebar and now playing media controls toolbar.

Apple and Sony have partnered to offer a new deal to PlayStation 5 owners, giving up to six free months of an Apple Music subscription.

As long as you have a PlayStation 5, new customers can get six free months of Apple Music, and returning subscribers can get up to five months free. You can see the full terms of the offer here.

Apple today announced it is extending the free usage period for Emergency SOS satellite features for iPhone 14 users. Previously, Apple gave iPhone 14 customers two free years after device activation, which would have began expiring this time next year.

But now, all current iPhone 14 users will be able to use the service for free for another two years. Apple has not revealed how much it will charge for Emergency SOS via satellite when the free period is up, and today’s announcement means the company can defer any decision making on that further into the future.

The Tado Smart Thermostat system is one of a few options available for United Kingdom home owners looking to upgrade their heating to smart home control. I’ve been using it for almost a year, and I’m generally very happy with it.

The Tado system is composed of a central controller, an internet bridge to connect to HomeKit, and optional radiator valves to control heating on a per-room basis.

A strange quirk of production delays and scheduling has meant Apple has not updated any iPad model this calendar year, for the first time ever.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says he expects the company will aggressively catch up in 2024, updating the entire lineup with new models of iPad Air including a larger 12.9-inch size option, iPad Pro with OLED displays, updates to iPad mini and a new generation of the cheapest entry-level iPad.

The new Double Tap gesture is the hero feature of the Apple Watch Series 9, allowing users to control their watch ‘hands-free’ without needing to touch the screen. Apple is certainly pushing the feature aggressively with a new series of ads running on social media this week.

Before getting the new watch, it was hard to tell whether Double Tap would be a genuinely convenient gesture, or a rarely-used gimmick once the novelty wears off. A month in, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle …

In a perhaps unsurprising move, Bloomberg reports Apple is set to appeal to the European Union about the inclusion of its App Store and iMessage services in the Digital Markets Act.

The EU has deemed the App Store and iMessage as gatekeeper monopoly services, which will require Apple to make changes like allowing alternatives to In-App Purchases, app sideloading, and more.