Benjamin Mayo

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.

As spotted by FlatpanelsHD, the Apple TV app on tvOS 17.2 beta is starting to list 3D versions of movies, which will be playable on the upcoming Apple Vision Pro headset.

In the metadata section of a compatible movie, a new “3D” icon appears alongside the symbols for Dolby Vision, 4K, age rating and such. The 3D icon is in the shape of a headset, indicating that the 3D playback experience will only be accessible through the Vision Pro.

The actors guild announced last night that it has reached a tentative deal with the studios and streamers, ending the actors strike. The deal still has to be ratified by SAG members, but that is basically a foregone conclusion at this point.

The overlapping strikes of writers (which was resolved in September) and actors have resulted in more than six months of shutdown in the Hollywood industry this year, and billions of dollars in lost economic value. For streamers like Apple, it has severely impacted their content pipeline with almost no production happening in the US since the summer.

Apple and its partners at WildBrain have announced plans today for a new Peanuts feature-length movie featuring Snoopy and the gang. The as-yet-untitled project expands the Apple TV+ Peanuts universe, which sees the streamer as the exclusive home of all classic Peanuts specials, as well as new original series and specials.

The new movie will go into production next year, and its announcement shows Apple Original Films remains committed to the animation genre despite ending its Skydance deal prematurely.