‘SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit 2’ launches December 4th on Apple Arcade
Who lives in a pineapple and is back for another exciting adventure? SpongeBob SquarePants! Next month, the world’s most beloved sponge… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple launches new Digital ID feature in Wallet using US passport
Apple has officially launched the highly-anticipated new Digital ID feature in Apple Wallet. The feature was first announced at WWDC and is now rolling out to everyone in the United States. Apple’s implementation of Digital ID is powered by your US passport. Here’s how it works and where you can use it. more…

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Today in Apple history: Cupertino salivates over the restaurant biz
On November 12, 1996, Apple laid out a wild plan to get into the restaurant business, saying it would open a chain of Apple Cafes. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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Apple Store now offers extended holiday returns for all products
Apple is gearing up for the holiday season, including launching one change that it institutes every year: an extended holiday return window for Apple Store product purchases. more…

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The 11-inch iPad Wi-Fi 256GB is $50 Off
Black Friday has arrived with discounts for the 11-inch iPad with 256GB storage and Wi-Fi 6. The 11th-gen iPad is powered by the A16 chip so that you can smoothly perform daily tasks and activities like editing, creative projects, and gaming. Fast connectivity lets you seamlessly upload, download, and stream on your iPad. The iPad […] The post appeared first on iLounge.

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Severance and F1 The Movie Earns Nominations For Emmy Awards
The Grammy Awards nominees list for 2026 was released last Friday by the Recording Academy. Apple TV has received 4 nominations in 4 different categories. The F1 film music received three awards while the fourth is for the Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media garnered by Severance, Season 2. The 68th Grammy Awards will be […] The post appeared first on iLounge.

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Leaders of Apple TV Reflect On Their Success
The F1 film has made $630 million in the box office, making it the biggest movie Apple released this year, while season 3 of Severance has been announced. Eddy Cue, Apple’s Service senior vice president, Apple Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, Worldwide Video Apple chiefs, had discussions and reflected on the path to success. […] The post appeared first on iLounge.

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Pluribus Hit With Rough Release As Outage Occurs with Apple TV
The release of Pluribus made by Vince Gilligan has not had a smooth release, Apple servers had outages in Canada and the United States after the show was available for streaming on Apple TV last Thursday. Subscribers of Apple TV were not able to stream the show during this time. The problem was acknowledged by […] The post appeared first on iLounge.

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EU developers don't pass on App Store fee savings to users
The main reason the Digital Markets Act exists according to the European Union is to lower costs for consumers. For App Store customers, developers didn't bother to cut prices.An EU flag with the App Store logoThe Digital Markets Act (DMA) is how the European Union (EU) and its European Commission (EC) were able to fine Apple $570 million over allegedly treating consumers unfairly. It's how the EU could fine the company $2 billion for purportedly abusing its monopoly position and again doing so to the detriment of European users.Now Apple is saying more specifically that the DMA is failing to achieve the price cuts for consumers that it set out to do. A new study examined App Store prices before and after Apple lower its fees to developers, and saw practically no difference. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Apple says study proves the EU is wrong about lowering app prices
Apple’s opposition to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation took a turn back in September when the company started arguing that the law should be repealed. It also suggested that more new features would be delayed for EU customers, and perhaps even new hardware. The company is now claiming a new study proves that the DMA fails to live up to one of its core promises: reducing app prices … more…

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Comedy Palm Royale season 2 brings new murder mystery [Now streaming!]
Set in tony Palm Beach, Florida, in the late 1960s, "Palm Royale" season 2 stars Kristen Wiig, Carol Burnett and Ricky Martin. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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iOS 26.2 adds new way for your iPhone to make notifications pop
iOS 26.2 is coming next month, packed with changes for Apple’s system apps, and also a hidden new feature for notifications that can help ensure you don’t miss any alerts. more…

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The one thing Vision Pro is great at is basically guaranteed to fail
Macworld When Apple launched Vision Pro, reviewers were conflicted. Most acknowledged the very high standard of the headset’s technology, while wondering if there was a convincing use case. What are we supposed to do with this thing that justifies the enormous price tag? What’s the killer app? Even after the launch of the second-gen model, those questions remain. But one possible solution lies in the world of sports. With traditional broadcast technology, watching sports on TV is a pale 2D imitation of attending the event in person; even 3D TVs struggle to properly immerse you in the crowd and the atmosphere. The kind of immersion enabled by Vision Pro would, quite literally, be a game changer. Sadly, there remain many barriers in the way of this becoming a mainstream reality, as one startup appears to have discovered. In a detailed article, AppleInsider this week recounts the strange tale of OneEightyDegrees, a small firm seeking investment and media coverage of its Be There platform. This was designed to capture immersive video at sports events using specialist cameras located in or near the stands, and broadcast this live to VR users–initially Vision Pro, with other platforms to be added later. That sounds like a good plan, but it doesn’t seem to have worked out. OneEightyDegrees stopped responding to AppleInsider’s emails, and the site is now unsure whether it was a legitimate startup which simply didn’t manage to secure the funding it needed, or if the whole thing was just a fishing expedition “in an attempt to secure a one-in-a-million chance at funding and to become a real service.” Either way, I wouldn’t expect to hear much more about OneEightyDegrees or Be There. The sports conundrum There’s a wider point here, because this odd case study demonstrates the near-impossibility of any small company breaking into the live broadcast of VR sports video. As AppleInsider explains, OneEightyDegrees never stood a chance. The startup would have had to pay licensing fees to leagues and franchises, likely running into the tens or even hundreds of millions, obtain broadcast-grade cameras and other equipment and gear, then manage bandwidth-hungry data streams to viewers. And after all that expense, OneEightyDegrees would have run into the worst problem of all: the audience isn’t guaranteed, and will be very small at first, partly because hardly anyone can afford a Vision Pro and partly because the idea of watching a multi-hour sports event using a weighty headset is unappealing. The money you’d have to pump into the project simply wouldn’t be justified by the money you could draw out at the other end, which essentially rules the idea out as feasible for a startup. Or for any company that wants to actually make a profit. Sports could be Vision Pro’s killer feature, but it’s extremely expensive.Dall-E/Petter Ahrnstedt The only way this could work, in other words, is for a company to take it on as an initially loss-making enterprise that pays out in the long run. Create it in the knowledge that it won’t turn a profit, and hope that the existence of high-quality live sports broadcasts on Vision Pro will convince more people to buy one, thereby making the service commercially viable. Although we’d still need Apple to make a lighter version of the headset, and the bad news is that this project is believed to have been scrapped. Apple itself has dipped its toes into sports broadcasting on Vision Pro, but to a very limited extent: a few basketball games and a slam dunk contest, none of them live. Where it has much wider experience is traditional sports broadcasting, from soccer and F1 to Friday Night Baseball, so the company clearly has the coffers to stomach those franchise fees; the question is whether it would be willing to commit to the much greater costs and difficulties of broadcasting in VR on a wider basis. Perhaps it will do so for the sake of Vision Pro’s success. But I’m not convinced. Apple has plenty of money, but that doesn’t mean it’s willing to throw a chunk of it at a losing venture. And as the case of OneEightyDegrees demonstrates, there’s little profit to be had right now from broadcasting sports to Vision Pro users.

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PowerWash Simulator and more coming to Apple Arcade next month
Apple has announced its next round of Apple Arcade titles. In a press release today, the company revealed that games including PowerWash Simulator, SpongeBob Patty Pursuit 2, and more will launch on Apple Arcade on December 4. more…

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OWC StudioStack expands Mac Studio storage without a larger footprint
The new OWC StudioStack brings SSD speeds close to Apple's fastest to Macs, pairing a Thunderbolt 5 hub with up to 32TB of storage.OWC has a new Thunderbolt 5 enclosureThe OWC StudioStack is the latest in the line of storage that fits underneath a pre-M4 redesign Mac mini or Mac Studio, and expands the storage and port options of Apple's desktop Macs, especially the Mac Studio and Mac mini. It connects through Thunderbolt 5 but is backward compatible with Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 3 systems.According to OWC, the StudioStack can reach up to 6,302 MB/s when paired with a compatible NVMe SSD, approaching the speed of Apple's fastest internal drives and exceeding most. It supports one NVMe M.2 SSD and one 3.5-inch SATA drive for a combined capacity of up to 32TB. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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Hands-on: Smart glasses that finally look & feel normal – Even Realities G2
During the chaos of CES 2025, I came across one product that gave me the “I need to have that” feeling. It was at a small booth in the smart wearables area. They were the Even Realities G1 glasses. They were the first smart glasses I came across that I actually wanted to wear purely based on the look. When I finally got my hands on them, they mostly lived up to my internal hype. These G1 glasses were amazingly well made, had some great functionality that I used a lot, like the teleprompter feature, and seemed to be heading in the direction that I thought most smart glasses should take. However, it was still a first-generation product, so some kinks needed to be ironed out. Fast forward to today, and Even Realities introduced their new G2 glasses and the R1 bright ring, and now it feels like a whole different beast. Here is what you should know. more…

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Apple celebrates world premiere of ‘The Family Plan 2,’ starring Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan, and many more
Apple Original Films hosted the world premiere of its family action comedy “The Family Plan 2,” premiering globally on Apple TV… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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iPhone 18 Pro Max may be the heaviest iPhone ever made
Apple's update to the iPhone 18 Pro Max could make it thicker and the heaviest iPhone ever, if a Weibo leaker is to be believed.iPhone 17 Pro MaxWhile Apple does prefer to make major design changes to products on a periodic basis, it does often make smaller tweaks to the design. If a Wednesday post by a well-known leaker is true, we could end up with the heaviest iPhone Apple has ever produced.According to Instant Digital on Weibo, Apple won't be making the next iteration of the iPhone 18 Pro Max any lighter, following its iPhone 17 Pro Max redesign. Instead, it will be going in the opposite direction. Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

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The clever story of ending Steve Jobs’ critiques of the Macintosh Calculator app
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was infamous for his harsh critiques of the work of his team. Hardware or software, if Steve wasn’t 100% happy, you would certainly know about it. Chris Espinosa, who wrote the first Macintosh calculator app and still works at Apple as its longest-serving employee, found a creative way around Steve’s never-ending critiques in what must be one of the best ever examples of managing upwards … more…

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When is the best time to buy an iPad? We investigate
Macworld We’ve all been there. You decide to pick up a shiny new device, so you head to the shops and return home with your expensive purchase; all is well with the world. Then a week later a newer, better version is released, and you’re left wondering whether you’ve wasted your money. In this article we show how to avoid this trauma by explaining when it’s the best time to buy an iPad. If you’re struggling to decide which one is the right device for you, incidentally, you should also take a look at our iPad buying guide. When is the best time to buy an iPad? It’s easier to say when the worst time to buy a new iPad is: just before a new version is launched. That’s when you find out you could have got more for your money and the retailer you brought from drops the price of the model you now own because they want to clear out the old stock. To avoid this you might want to check to see if Apple is about to update the range of iPads you are interested in. Unfortunately there is no clear schedule to when Apple will update any of the iPad models because Apple doesn’t tend to update iPads as regularly as it does iPhones. But you can be reasonably confident that if the iPad you want to buy is less than a year and a half old it probably isn’t about to be updated. However, buying an iPad just after it launches isn’t necessarily the best time to buy one either. This is the time when you will be paying the most for a new iPad, not because Apple might drop prices but because other resellers probably will. We see iPad deals from retailers throughout the year, but the best deals tend to happen during Amazon Prime Day (July and October) or Black Friday (November). For this reason we would recommend that those are good times to buy a new iPad. Apple doesn’t discount its products in its own stores, but it does offer vouchers with new purchases from time to time–and Black Friday is one of those times as is the Back to School deal that it runs throughout the summer months. So if you want to get vouchers from Apple those are good times to shop at the company’s stores. When was the iPad updated? Life would be a bit easier for the iPad fanbase if you could always rely on the latest update to your preferred model appearing in September, as is the case with the iPhone. Instead, Apple updates its iPads on a less predictable schedule, with new models tending to appear around September/October or April, and often with a gap of two or more years between updates. Here’s a list of the iPads on sale today and when they were last updated: iPad mini (A17 Pro): October 2024 iPad (A16): March 2025 iPad Air (M3): March 2025 iPad Pro (M5): October 2025 When will Apple launch new iPads? The next update is likely to be to the iPad mini (A17 Pro), we also hope that Apple will soon update the iPad A16 as that is incompatible with the Apple Intelligence features. As for when to expect these updates, spring 2026 is possible but we think we could be waiting until fall 2026. Is now a good time to buy an iPad? Here’s our breakdown of the four types of iPad that Apple currently sells, and in each case whether you should buy now or wait. Should I buy iPad (A16, 2025)? Price When Reviewed: $349 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $299 View Deal $299.99 View Deal $324.99 View Deal $329 View Deal $349 View Deal $349 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide View more prices Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket BUY (but consider an alternative) Last updated: March 2025 Is now a good time to buy? Yes. But keep in mind that there are Apple Intelligence features you won’t be getting now, or in the future, so a different iPad might be a better choice. The current 10-inch iPad arrived in March 2025. This is the cheapest iPad, with a starting price of $349/£329, and as such it is an easy model to recommend for those who don’t care about the latest flashy innovations and instead want a reliable, mid-size tablet in fun colors, for general use. However, if size isn’t important, you may be better off with the smaller iPad mini, which starts at $499/£499. Another reason to choose the iPad mini or iPad Air is that the standard iPad doesn’t support Apple Intelligence, which could mean missing out on features coming to the iPad in the future. Read our full Apple iPad (A16) review Should I buy iPad mini (A17 Pro, 2024)? Price When Reviewed: $499 (128GB; Wi-Fi only) | $599 (256GB; Wi-Fi only) | $799 (512GB; Wi-Fi only) Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $399.99 View Deal $469.36 View Deal $489 View Deal $489 View Deal $499 View Deal $499 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide View more prices Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket BUY Last updated: October 2024 Is now a good time to buy? Yes. We don’t expect an update until 2026 or later. The 2024 iPad mini offers 128GB storage at the entry level, rather than a measly 64GB. This is a definite point in its favor. In addition, the 2024 model features a chip compatible with Apple Intelligence features, so it will be nicely future-proofed for a while (and it’s likely to be a few years until Apple updates it). There is a choice of color options, as there are on the iPad and iPad Air. The iPad mini has pale blue, purple and starlight in contrast to the bolder color choices on the Air and standard iPad. Read our full Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro) review Should I buy iPad Air (M3, 2025)? Price When Reviewed: $599 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $542.17 View Deal $559 View Deal $559 View Deal $599 View Deal $599 View Deal $599.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide View more prices Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket BUY Last updated: March 2025 Is now a good time to buy? Yes. We don’t expect an update until 2026 or later. The iPad Air with M3 chip is a stunning machine at a comparatively affordable price. It has some competition from the iPad Pro (which has a much more meaty M5 chip), and it’s no longer the thin, light offering it once was now that the iPad Pro is just as slim. Like the iPad Pro the iPad Air now comes in two sizes, so you can choose either a 11-inch or 13-inch display. It’s the iPad Air that has the fun color palette though, available in blue, pink, yellow or silver, while the Pro has a more professional color scheme. Read our full Apple iPad Air 11-inch (M3, 2025) review Should I buy iPad Pro (M5, 2025)? Price When Reviewed: $999 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $938 View Deal $946 View Deal $949 View Deal $999 View Deal $999 View Deal $999.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide View more prices Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket BUY Last updated: October 2025 Is now a good time to buy? Yes. The iPad Pro now has a M5 chip and we don’t think that it will be updated again for at least 12 months. As the flagships of Apple’s tablet range, the iPad Pro 11-inch and 13-inch are highly desirable devices that boast incredible levels of performance. These features don’t come cheap, though. The M5 iPad Pro which arrived in 2025 is already more powerful than it has any right to be, so we don’t think you need to wait for the M6 iPad Pro to launch. Read our full Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (M5, 2025) review

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