Control Center has gotten so much better over the past year, with a fully customizable toolset that’s always expanding. And my most-used Control Center feature, Background Sounds, will get even better in iOS 19 per a recent Apple announcement.

Since Apple launched its M-series processors and recently the C1 cellular modem, the company has been slowly but surely moving toward complete chip independence. Apple is even working on its own Bluetooth and Wi-Fi solution, which is reportedly coming with new Home products and the iPhone 17 lineup in the Fall.

One obvious benefit of developing chips in-house is energy efficiency. Apple toated this with the introduction of Apple Silicon what feels like a hundred years ago, and with its latest C1 modem, which gives the iPhone 16e nearly 20% better battery life over the flagship iPhone 16. While improved battery life is certainly appealing, there are less obvious and possibly more significant benefits of Apple having end-to-end control over both the software and hardware components.

This is Security Bite, where I share insights on data privacy, vulnerabilities, or emerging threats within Apple’s vast ecosystem of over 2 billion active devices each week.

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A good door and window sensor doesn’t just tell you when something opens or closes. It can trigger lights, tweak thermostat settings, or alert you when you’re not home. The new checks all the boxes with fast, reliable alerts, local automation support, and wide compatibility thanks to native Matter over Thread. If you’ve been holding off on adding a sensor to your setup, this one makes a strong case.

Trying to make a payment using your iPhone? You might need to use a third-party service, as Apple Cash appears to be down, and Apple Pay looks to be struggling too.

Based on more than 200 interviews with former Apple execs and engineers, Patrick McGee’s ought to leave Tim Cook laying awake at night. It makes a convincing argument that the iPhone could be killed overnight should the Chinese government wish it.

This is a book reminiscent of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs in its careful research and the detailed inside stories it tells about Apple. The company’s official line is that it’s full of inaccuracies, but the case it makes is an incredibly persuasive one …

After years of more iterative, some might say ‘boring’ iPhone updates, Apple has major new designs coming soon. And one upcoming iPhone model, timed for the product’s 20th anniversary, looks set to make a long-time Jony Ive dream come true.

Amazon’s is now live and kicking alongside a series of new deals on Apple and Beats gear. The details on the early Amazon Memorial Day event are right here, but you’ll also find a new all-time low on Apple’s 13-inch 24GB M4 MacBook Air at $170 off alongside entry-level configurations from $849. Next we spotted up to $349 off unlocked iPhone 15 units as well as as much as $114 in savings on Apple’s latest 11-inch M4 iPad Pro Magic Keyboards. Alongside the ongoing $50 price drops on the new Powerbeats Pro 2, open box units with full warranties are now over $90 off and you’ll find everything else waiting down below. 

If you closely follow Apple’s inner workings (and since you’re here, I’m guessing you do), you know Phil Schiller has always been known for his unrelenting and fierce protectiveness of Apple and the App Store.

This is why perhaps the most surprising aspect of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’s recent scathing order to Apple in the Epic Games case was how Schiller emerged as the uncompromising good cop within the circular walls of Apple Park.

But here’s the thing: outwardly, Schiller is still Schiller.

The countdown to WWDC is winding down, as Apple’s big software unveilings are just weeks away. macOS 16 will introduce a new California-inspired name, of course, alongside a variety of feature upgrades. Here are four new Mac features expected to be announced next month.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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Microsoft has published a new video on its YouTube channel that touts the speed of its top Copilot + PCs. Curiously though, these “top PCs” are compared against Apple’s consumer-targeted MacBook Air…from over a year ago.

We are less than a month away from WWDC 2025, where Apple is set to announce a redesigned and less glitchy iOS 19 alongside what it’s been cooking over the past year for its other operating systems.

While rumors abound regarding what’s to come to iOS 19, there’s one feature I hope to see make its way into the new system. Sadly, it’s probably not going to happen.

After my last WiFi-enabled smart scale broke and refused to connect to the Internet anymore, I sought something simpler and cheaper to replace it. The old scale had all sorts of fancy service integrations that I never used. I just wanted something that would track my weight and report the measurements to the Health app on my iPhone.

The is what I landed on and I’m very happy with it — and it’s pretty cheap too. Here’s how it works …

Update May 16, 2025, 8:36 a.m. PT: Apple tells Bloomberg that it did not take action to block Epic Games from releasing its Fortnite update in the European Union. Instead, the company asked it to resubmit the EU update without including the US to avoid impacting other regions.

There’s still no word on the status of Epic’s attempt to bring Fortnite back to the App Store in the US.

Last week, Epic Games announced that it had submitted Fortnite to the App Store in the United States. The move followed an injunction in which a federal judge said Apple couldn’t charge a 27% commission on out-of-app purchases initiated through in-app links.

In a new statement today, however, Epic says that Apple has “blocked” this submission…

The Murderbot Diaries is a 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.

Today, Apple announced that veteran actor Michael J. Fox will appear in a guest role in Season 3 of Apple TV+’s acclaimed comedy series Shrinking.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says Apple is keeping Fortnite’s return to the App Store in limbo, having “neither accepted nor rejected” the latest submission for review.

The ongoing silence now threatens to delay Fortnite’s next major update, planned for this Friday.

Apple is launching a brand new Home product in the coming year. I’ve been calling it ‘HomePad,’ and these are five of the core features it will bring with it.

Going on 20 years now, Kantar has released its BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands report, which combines financial data with consumer perception metrics to find the world’s 100 most valuable brands.

In a year in which the total value of the Top 100 reached an all-time high of $10.7 trillion (a 29% jump from last year), Apple has once again led the pack.

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: iPhone 20th anniversary model, iOS 19 features, 2027 “product renaissance,” and more. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.

After a tough period of laying staff down and hiking prices up following its acquisition by Bending Spoons, Evernote has finally been getting some cool features.

Recently, the platform got multimodal AI transcription support, and it’s actually pretty good.

Apple TV+ has had several hit shows so far this year, but there’s a lot more on the way. It’s still early, so Apple likely has more announcements planned for summer TV+ releases. But with the summer movie season in full swing and schools starting to let out, here’s an early look at what Apple TV+ has planned for the months ahead.

It’s the time of year when the NFL schedule for the coming season gets revealed, and one team, the Baltimore Ravens, has gone all-out making a Severance parody video as part of their schedule announcement.

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Benjamin and Chance react to all the new accessibility features Apple previewed for iOS 19, like Magnifier and vehicle motion cues for Mac. This week also saw the surprise debut of next-gen CarPlay, now called CarPlay Ultra, arriving first in partnership with Aston Martin. We’ve also got some more rumors about some software features to expect at WWDC. 

And in Happy Hour Plus, HBO corrects the Max branding mess. Should Apple follow suit? Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join.

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Apple and Comcast kicked off a partnership this year to support MLS Season Pass, which saw Major League Soccer matches stream on Comcast Xfinity cable channels. In an expansion of that relationship, Apple is making more of the MLS Season Pass content free to watch for Xfinity subscribers, at no additional charge.

Rumors have long indicated new AirPods Pro were in the works, with a fall launch expected. But now, a leak from Apple’s own software has brought the first official hint that AirPods Pro 3 are coming soon.

Last year Apple launched Music Haptics in iOS 18, letting users experience Apple Music songs through haptic taps and vibrations. Ahead of upgrades to the feature in iOS 19, today the company shared a new video spotlighting Music Haptics.

Apple’s long-brewing next generation of CarPlay is finally here. CarPlay Ultra officially launched this morning. And while anyone not driving an Aston Martin may be disappointed, Apple’s announcement actually brought good news for all CarPlay users.

Sony has now officially unveiled the new WH-1000XM6 headphones. What might be the most anticipated pair of headphones in the last year has finally arrived as a follow up to some of the most cherished over-ear ANC cans in the business. This time around featuring a new, faster processor, enhanced noise cancellation, even better call quality with upgraded AI noise reduction, and a nicer, more compact design, the question is whether or not all of this and another jump in price will have fans trading out their beloved XM5s (or something from the other brands) for the new XM6.

Today’s best Apple deals include wearables, tablets, accessories, earbuds, and more. Firstly, we have some seriously notable open-box deals with the 512GB 13-inch M4 iPad Pro at up to $329 off and one of the better deals this year on the black Apple Watch Ultra 2 at over $120 off. Next we have a new all-time low on Apple’s 11-inch 512GB model M2 iPad Air and some notable offers on ecobee HomeKit gear – the premium Smart Thermostat at $219 and one of the best prices ever on its Home Smart Video Doorbell Cam. All of that and more awaits below in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break.

Later this month, Vision Pro’s first ever feature-length Immersive Film premieres. In a new interview, the subject of that film, Bono, has shared about his experience on the project and Apple’s ambitions with Vision Pro, the product’s struggles being affordable, and more.

It’s taken a very long time, and it’s so far only being offered by a single, niche car-maker, but next-gen CarPlay – which Apple has branded CarPlay Ultra – is finally here.

It’s currently limited to Aston Martin, and is available with new orders, alongside a software update being made available to owners of existing (recent) models …

Next year’s iPhone Fold will introduce an entirely new form factor to the iPhone lineup. One of its design features, though, will reportedly follow the pattern of new 18 Pro models launching at the same time.

As I mentioned recently, SmartGym has become one of my favorite apps.

Anyone who uses it as a workout companion can easily see why it was named Apple Watch App of the Year in 2023, chosen as a finalist for the Apple Design Awards, and recently featured by Apple as one of the best apps optimized for iOS 18.

Now, the app just got even better, with its biggest update yet.

A Coinbase hack has seen some customers tricked into sending funds to the attackers, with the company estimating that they suffered losses of somewhere between $180M and $400M.

The attackers also stole personal data, after Coinbase refused to pay a ransom demand – instead reporting the hack to law enforcement, and offering a $20M reward for information on the perpetrators …

Apple today officially announced CarPlay Ultra, the next generation version of CarPlay that it first teased way back at WWDC 2022.

CarPlay Ultra is rolling out starting today to Aston Martin owners in the United States and Canada. Apple today also revealed that three new automakers have signed on to support CarPlay Ultra in the future: Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.

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.

Data brokers may be banned from selling your personal data without legitimate justification, under a new proposal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Back in the summer it was revealed that one of these brokers was hacked, resulting in the compromise of personal data for every person in the US, UK, and Canada.

Update: With the CFPB being neutered by the Trump administration, plans for this protection have been killed. Original post follows …

Back in February, we saw beta-testing of an Apple Music tool to import playlists from Spotify and other music services. An updated Apple support document suggests that this is now rolling out as a live feature.

Apple says you can import both your music library and playlists into Apple Music, using your iPhone, iPad, Android device, or a web interface …