Benjamin Mayo

Apple typically sets Friday as its release date for Apple TV+ content. Following the tradition it has set in previous years, the service has released all new episodes and premieres for the week a day early, so people can stream them on Thanksgiving in the US (and just another Thursday around the world).

The brand new premiere this week is a new documentary film ‘Twas The Fight Before Christmas, which charts the insane lengths one man will go to to decorate his house and celebrate Christmas with his local community … much to the community’s dismay.

Pixelmator Pro is adding advanced background removal and subject selection with today’s 2.3 update. Using machine learning and AI, Pixelmator users can separate the foreground from its background in one click.

The Remove Background command automatically detects the subject and erases the background. Version 2.3 also includes more fine-grained AI-enhanced selection options if you require more manual control.

Apple today unveiled its Black Friday – Cyber Monday shopping event for 2021. Similar to previous years, Apple will be giving away gift cards with eligible purchases of iPhones, AirPods, Mac and iPad models.

The Apple Store offers run from November 26 through November 29. As usual, Apple’s Black Friday offer don’t beat out what you can get from third-party sellers this week. Check out 9to5Toys for the best deals.

A little over a year ago, the Apple Music app made its debut on Samsung smart TVs. It appears the exclusivity period is up as today the Apple Music app is also rolling out to the LG smart TV App Store.

This means Apple Music subscribers ($9.99/mo) can now stream their entire music library, playlists, radio stations and more directly from their (compatible) LG smart TV, without the need for an Apple TV or other add-on console.

Apple TV+ is the exclusive streaming home of the Fraggle Rock franchise. The service is already streaming the entire back catalog of episodes and a series of ‘Rock On’ shorts produced during the COVID lockdown period.

However, the big news from the deal signed last year for fans of the Fraggles was that Apple had commissioned a full series reboot. The company today announced that the new series, entitled ‘Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock’, will debut on January 21, 2022.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Apple told Deadline that last weekend’s debut of the Tom Hanks movie ‘Finch’ was its biggest ever. As usual, it isn’t releasing firm numbers but the company said Finch drove the biggest opening weekend for Apple TV ever. The previous most popular Apple Original Films premiere was Tom Hanks’ submarine war movie ‘Greyhound’, released last year.

Apple has also reportedly seen strong audience numbers for its recent TV slate including Foundation, Invasion, The Morning Show season two and of course Ted Lasso season two.

Following an Android launch last week, Netflix has now launched its new Games initiative on iOS. Netflix subscribers can now enjoy the following games on iPhone and iPad: Stranger Things 1984, Stranger Things 3, Shooting Hoops, Card Blast, and Teeter (Up!).

As video streaming market matures, Netflix is looking for new entertainment avenues to explore. Games is one of its first ventures. There’s nothing earth-shattering or groundbreaking in the initial set of available titles, but it’s the first step and analysts expect Netflix to expand aggressively over time.

As reported by Bloomberg late on Friday, Apple has hired away Tesla’s former Autopilot software director Christopher Moore. Bloomberg says Moore will report to Stuart Bowers, another former Tesla employee.

Apple has been not-so-quietly working on a self-driving electric car project for more than five years, codenamed Project Titan. The group has seen much leadership turnover with reports claiming Apple keeps shifting the goalposts on what it wants to achieve.

Apple is taking the PC world by storm with its first debut of Apple Silicon chips inside of Macs, taking what it learned from developing the iPhone and iPad A-series of chips and bringing that architecture to laptops and desktops.

Today, The Information said that Apple has no intent of slowing down and has plans for even faster second- and third-generation chips in the coming years.

Apple today released its newest big-budget original movie: Finch starring Tom Hanks is now available on Apple TV+.

Finch was originally planned for a theatrical release by Universal, however the coronavirus pandemic upset its schedule and the movie was sold to Apple as an exclusive. So, how do you watch the new Tom Hanks movie on Apple TV?

Apple today launched its first standalone original podcast series, entitled ‘Hooked’. Apple’s previous podcast releases have all been tied to Apple TV+ properties (such as The Line) or Apple News (Apple News Today). No such TV project has been announced — so far — for Hooked.

Hooked is a nine-part true crime podcast about the true story of Tony Hathaway, whose opioid addition led him down a career in bank robbery. The show is available for free inside of the Apple Podcasts app, or via this RSS feed to listen in any podcasts app.

Following the success of last year’s special entitled ‘Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special’, Apple and the artist are again partnering up. The company announced today a new holiday special ‘Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues’ which will debut on Apple TV+ in December.

The 2021 special will showcase Mariah’s new Christmas single with Khalid and Kirk Franklin, entitled ‘Fall in Love at Christmas’.

The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro are getting rave reviews, and for good reason: industry-leading performance, impressive battery life, beautifully rich displays, and the return of ports that make working professionals happy.

One of the big surprises at the Apple event announcement was the inclusion of 120Hz ProMotion on these laptops. Just like the smooth scrolling experiences on iPad Pro and the new iPhone 13 Pro series, Apple promised that the high refresh rate of the new display would make “tasks like scrolling through web pages super fluid.” Unfortunately, the availability of ProMotion in apps on macOS is currently sporadic and incomplete, leaving much to be desired.

Apple stock (AAPL) had a meteoric rise in the last couple of years, topping $2 trillion market cap just a year after becoming the first public company ever to hit $1 trillion. Post-pandemic, though, other huge big tech stocks have been catching up.

Today, Microsoft overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable public company, with a market cap of $2.45 trillion. The switch-up happened as Apple stock fell in response to its quarterly earnings results, where its financials came in weaker than expected, due to supply chain issues.