Follow Benjamin on Threads to keep up with his latest projects. Benjamin blogs about Apple news and rumors and posts insightful product and app reviews. Read his work on 9to5Mac and his personal blog.
Benjamin Mayo also creates apps for iOS as a professional indie developer and contractor; more details here. Email to discuss making your iOS project.
Follow @bzamayo on Twitter and follow @bzamayo on Threads.
Apple TV+ today announced that its high-budget sci-fi series Foundation will premiere on September 24, debuting the first three of the ten total episodes in the first season. Foundation is based off of Isaac Asimov’s novels of the same name.
The show was first teased more than a year ago as part of WWDC 2020. Watch the new teaser trailer after the break …
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Right on schedule, Digitimes is reporting that Apple is now pulling in orders from its component suppliers ready for the iPhone 13 launch (likely in September).
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In the first instalment of Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman says that Apple is currently considering future iPad designs with larger displays. The current iPad Pro maxes out at 12.9-inches diagonally.
Gurman says that any new iPad screen size change is at least a ‘couple of years down the road’ and has not yet left the exploratory stages. Apple is still said to be developing a redesigned iPad chassis with a glass back for 2022, which will ship in the existing 11-inch and 12.9-inch screen sizes.
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A newly documented entitlement will allow app developers to request privileged access to RAM on iOS and iPadOS. This system entitlement has existed in prior iOS versions as a private escape hatch, used by some internal processes.
The change from private to public means that third-party app developers will be able to take advantage of it where appropriate. This will be especially useful on the latest-generation iPad Pro with M1 chip, where available system RAM can reach 16 GB but the standard RAM-per-app limit is only 5 GB.
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Apple today released the official trailer for its next original movie, CODA. Apple TV+ will release the film on August 13, alongside a limited theatrical release. CODA first debuted as part of the 2021 Sundance film festival.
At Sundance, the film was warmly received and it was awarded the Grand Jury prize. Apple acquired the film in a record-setting $25 million deal. Watch the trailer below …
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After its first season of Time to Walk workouts ended in April, Apple today announced that new audio episodes will start again beginning June 28.
Time to Walk is part of Apple Fitness+, Apple’s fitness workout subscription service. Time to Walk encourages users to take a half-hour outdoor walk with their Watch, guided by uplifting and inspiring narration from famous celebrities.
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Apple TV+ today announced its first French original production, a contemporary thriller drama named Liaison. The series will star actress Eva Green and actor Vincent Cassel, as reported by Le Figaro.
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Apple has started sending out emails to Apple TV+ users whose free trials will finally expire soon, as the (twice extended) free trials with hardware purchases finally come to an end in July.
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App Store Search Ads started in 2016, right around the time that Apple announced a financial target to double Services revenue by 2020 (it would go on to easily beat that goal). At the time, Search Ads were sold only in the United States. Apple would quickly expand the ad service internationally.
More than five years on, the company is now releasing App Store Search Ads in China, as first reported by blog AppInChina.
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The US is already accustomed to the idea of a loud siren emanating from their phones to announce an official Emergency Alert message. That same system is now being tested by the UK government to send out important messages to people in the United Kingdom.
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Via Digitimes, TSMC is set to prioritize chip orders from Apple and car manufacturers in the third quarter, as global shortages of silicon chips continues to plague manufacturing.
As so many products include silicon these day, the semiconductor shortage has impacted production of many industries, although the auto industry has been most prominent.
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At the April Apple event, Apple released a teaser for the highly-anticipated second season of Apple TV+ hit comedy Ted Lasso.
Today, the company is releasing the official trailer ahead of season two’s debut on July 23rd. Watch the new trailer after the break …
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After a month of having the new Apple TV in our household, I can firmly recommend that all Apple TV owners pick up the new generation of Apple TV Siri Remote.
The differences between the 2017 Apple TV and the new 2021 Apple TV hardware are negligible, but the remote redesign stands on its own as bringing happiness and joy to the living room. Everything about the Apple TV is expensive, but fortunately you can buy the remote separately. It’s compatible with any Apple TV that runs tvOS …
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Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos songs are available at no extra charge with your Apple Music subscription. Apple advertises it as being supported by any AirPods, including the original generation. However, in my experience, the effect is most pronounced when using large over-ear headphones but you don’t need the pricey AirPods Max. You can enjoy Apple Music Spatial Audio on headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones — here’s how …
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Here’s a funny bug: a security researcher has found that a carefully crafted network name causes a bug in the networking stack of iOS and can completely disable your iPhone’s ability to connect to Wi-Fi.
On Twitter, Carl Schou showed that after joining a Wi-Fi network with a specific name (“%p%s%s%s%s%n”), all Wi-Fi functionality on the iPhone was disabled from that point on.
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Apple TV+ today announced the release date for upcoming dark comedy limited series starring Will Ferrel and Paul Redd. Based on the podcast of the same name, The Shrink Next Door will premiere on Apple’s streaming service beginning November 12.
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Apple subsidiary Shazam has crossed the 1 billion Shazams per month milestone, the company announced on Thursday. The song recognition app has also tagged more than 50 billion songs since it first launched in 2002.
Apple acquired the company in 2018 and is slowly building Shazam discovery features deeper into its services and operating system, including a Shazam Control Center panel on iPhone a ShazamKit framework for developers in iOS 15.
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Apple has launched its Back to School promotional offer for the 2021 season. Customers can get a free pair of AirPods bundled with the purchase of eligible Mac and iPad purchases.
Free bundled AirPods are available as standard, and customers can pay the extra to get AirPods Pro. Students, parents and school faculty in the United States can take advantage of the offer from now until September 27. Details after the break …
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According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Apple had considered setting up an in-house medical service that would offer primary care clinics with doctors employed by Apple. The Journal says the company was exploring how the Apple Watch could be used to improve healthcare.
This project was envisioned in 2016 but has seemingly been put on pause, partly because Apple’s dogfooding of a similar project for its own employees saw limited use.
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Apple has been very generous with its free promotional offers for Apple TV+ with year-free trials alongside the purchase of new hardware extended through the pandemic period. However, those trials are now coming to an end and many more customers will need to start paying to watch Apple TV+ original TV shows and movies, or cancel their subscription if they don’t want to continue.
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Today, the UK’s competition watchdog (the Competition and Markets Authority) announced an official investigation into the mobile device ecosystem, citing Apple and Google’s effective duopoly.
The group will investigate dominance of iOS and Android and the control they wield over the App Store and Google Play Store, and Safari and Chrome.
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After launching the one-year free trial with new Apple device purchases starting back in November 2019, Apple TV+ is reducing that free offer period to 3 months, starting from July.
The new terms are listed in a quiet update to the Apple TV+ marketing website. The ‘free year’ trials have been extended twice for up to an additional 9 months free, but these are now finally set to expire in July as well.
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Apple is now rolling out its new podcast subscription and channels initiative. Apple Podcasts Subscriptions allow creators to host bonus content and ad-free versions of their shows, in exchange for a monthly subscription.
You can now listen to 9to5Mac Happy Hour ad–free, for instance. Apple has partnered with large podcasts networks including Wondery and Luminary to get their paywalled shows available inside Apple Podcasts app.
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Update: Shortly after publishing, the app has been pulled from the store. Original story below.
A free-to-play app called Zoshy+ has been gradually climbing up the Puzzle game charts on the App Store. Based on its screenshots and app description, the app looks like an innocuous Sudoku client.
However, actually launching the app reveals a very different experience. Users are presented with thousands of movies and TV shows to stream illegally for free, including content from Apple’s own TV+ service. 9to5Mac has confirmed that the videos do indeed play, although users of the app must first endure several rounds of pre-roll ads.
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