Benjamin Mayo

Apple just announced the first new musical Peanuts special in more than three decades. The new instalment entitled ‘Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical’ will stream on Apple TV+ on July 18.

The special hails from Apple’s deal with WildBrain, where TV+ is the streaming home of all classic Peanuts specials as well as new originals. A feature-length animated Snoopy movie is also currently in development.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman continues his iOS 19 tidbits streak by revealing two upcoming new features in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, which was published today.

Gurman says that iOS 19 will include a major localization focus on supporting customers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and India. Specifically, that entails a new Arabic-English software keyboard for iPhone and a new calligraphy pen for Apple Pencil users.

OWC has just announced their new OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock, adding up to 11 ports of I/O expansion for your M4 MacBook Pro with M4 Pro or M4 Max, which was the first Apple laptop to feature the latest generation of Thunderbolt port. It joins the likes of the Anker Prime Docking Station and the CalDigit E5 in the market. The OWC dock is set to start shipping in July.

Thunderbolt 5 enables higher bandwidth, which allows the OWC dock to sport three daisy-chained Thunderbolt 5 ports, as well as power things like 2.5Gb/s Ethernet, and feed multiple high-res external displays.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today tweeted that he does not forecast major updates to the AirPods lineup coming this year. Instead, he reiterates that new AirPods Pro with Infrared cameras are set to arrive in 2026.

This contradicts reporting from other publications that have suggested AirPods Pro 3 will launch in 2025, including new features such as improved active noise cancellation.

If you are a fan of Apple’s own-brand over-ear headphones, the AirPods Max, you may be wondering when to expect a new generation model. Apple revised the headphones last fall, adding a USB-C port, but the model was otherwise unchanged. Despite costing the most, AirPods Max lack features that are available in even the cheapest AirPods 4, and are driven by the outdated H1 chip.

And if you believe analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, you’ve still got a while to wait before Apple will be ready to release a next-generation model. In a tweet, Kuo reports that next-generation AirPods Max will not arrive until 2027.

The Murderbot Diaries is a wildly popular book series by Martha Wells. Apple has now adapted the series for television, with Murderbot premiering today with the first two episodes on Apple TV+. New episodes roll out weekly.

The sci-fi comedy features Alexander Skarsgard as an awkward human-reclusive SecUnit robot. It is sent on assignments by a group of research scientists, protecting them from space worms and other dangers, while all it really wants to do it is relax in a corner and watch soap operas on its helmet TV.

After months of delays, Apple officially announced the launch of next-gen CarPlay, now with a new brand name of ‘CarPlay Ultra’. From today, CarPlay Ultra is available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the United States and Canada, and a software update will also bring the technology to existing vehicles. Apple also said Hyundai, Kia and Genesis are working on adding CarPlay Ultra to their cars, but did not disclose a timeframe.

CarPlay Ultra integrates vehicle controls with the CarPlay experience, including taking over display of the instrument cluster and gauges, toggles for air conditioning and driver assistance systems, advanced media controls and more.

In comments to press this morning, President Donald Trump said he has an issue with Apple’s handling of the tariff policy in regard to iPhone production.

Trump wants Apple to build iPhones domestically in the United States, but has clearly seen the recent news that Apple will source most of the iPhones sold in the US quarter from India, rather than China. “I don’t want you building in India”, he said …

Apple stock soared almost 6% at market open today, following the announcement of an easement of US tariffs on China. The countries agreed over the weekend to cut reciprocal tariffs from 125% to 10%. However, the deal is set to expire in 90 days as talks over a longer-term resolution continue.

Naturally, investors in Apple are reacting positively to the news. Tariffs on Chinese production hurt Apple’s bottom line, as they directly affect the cost of making the iPhone, which accounts for more than half of the company’s revenue.

All iPhone 16 models feature a USB-C connector, replacing the old Apple Lightning connector. Via this USB-C port, you can connect to a vast number of accessories and peripherals. iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max support faster USB-3 speeds over the USB-C port, enabling up to 10 Gbps data transfer speeds.

USB-C makes it easy to connect displays, external storage, cameras, and charge using the same cable as all your other devices. Here’s what you can do with your new iPhone and its shiny new port …

Over the last decade, CarPlay has become ubiquitous on almost all makes and models of cars. Consumers love it too. In fact, Apple has said before that 80% of new car buyers require CarPlay as a specification before making their purchase.

However, this argument is less satisfactory when it comes to electric vehicles. Aside from Tesla or Rivian, almost all EVs come with CarPlay installed, but its utility is greatly diminished. CarPlay support for electric vehicle routing is just weak. Apple really needs to step on the gas and get its act together …

In court testimony yesterday, Apple SVP Eddy Cue told the judge that usage of search in Safari fell for the first time ever in April, suggesting users are turning to AI alternatives like ChatGPT instead.

This led to Google investors getting cold feet on the search giant’s outlook, with the company stock dropping about 8% in response. However, Google has now formally contested Cue’s comments in a company blog post.

Apple is going to add AI search providers to the Safari browser on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Bloomberg reports Apple SVP Eddy Cue made the disclosure in court testimony today, stating “we will add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default” in reference to providers like Perplexity and Anthropic.

Cue also revealed that the number of searches through Safari fell for the first time ever in April, suggesting users are looking to AI sources as alternative ways to find information.

Apple’s hit comedy ‘The Studio’ is making waves across Hollywood for its incisive and hilarious portrayals of all-too common movie biz scenarios, covering topics like the excessive use of ‘I.P.’, keeping overzealous directors in check, and the efforts execs go to overthink casting choices. As well as funny storylines, the show includes a laundry list of star-studded cameos.

The latest episode, which premiered last night, is all about the frenzy of awards season. Incredibly, The Studio managed to get Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos to appear in a scene, in a talking role. You can watch it now on Apple TV+.

Apple’s flashiest new iPhone launch this year will be the iPhone 17 Air / iPhone 17 Slim, a new entrant in the lineup featuring a striking 5.5mm thin chassis.

The Air is expected to replace the current Plus SKU, with a price point in the range of $900-$1000. Based on numerous leaked schematics, the iPhone 17 Air will sport a 6.6-inch display, nestling between the Pro and the Max in terms of size. But Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple is already working on a future generation Air with a bigger screen.

Corroborating The Information reporting from over the weekend, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has laid out his predictions for the next few years of iPhone launches in a post on Craft today. Most notably, Apple will move away from releasing all of its flagship phones at the same time in the fall, a rigid calendar that has been in place since the iPhone 4s in 2011.

Going forward, Apple is moving to launching its cheaper budget iPhones in the first half of the year, and Pro models in the fall. This means you will see versions of the iPhone 18 and iPhone 19 arrive in the first and latter half of the same year, across 2027, respectively.

Apple posted its quarterly earnings last night, with generally strong performance. One standout point was the company’s ability to continue to expand its gross margin on the ever-growing services division.

In fact, Apple recorded a new all-time high for gross margin on services this quarter, at 75.7%. That figure is based on costs of $6.46 billion on sales of $26.64 billion.

Following the Apple vs Epic ruling this week, developers are racing to take advantage of their new ability to link out to their own website to collect payments from user, with Apple no longer able to force them to use its in-app purchase system.

Spotify has just announced that it has submitted its app update to Apple for approval, including these changes. In a blog post, it details how it has been able to make the user experience better for users upgrading from free to paid memberships.

On the quarterly earnings call today, Apple gave some color on the impact of tariffs on its business. Most notably Apple CEO Tim Cook said that in the current quarter, April through June, the company will see costs of about $900 million assuming the current tariff policy remains for the whole quarter.

Apple warned the figure could change — higher or lower — if administration changes tariff policy unexpectedly over the course of the quarter. It also said that costs in future quarters could be higher, still.