Perfectly timed with the holiday shopping season, Apple Pay has just launched a new offer that gets you 30% off a selection of more than 600 toys from Mattel. Here are the details.

Update 5:02 p.m. ET: Apple says the outages have been fixed. The original post follows below.

Apple’s System Status page confirms that it is currently experiencing three four outages. Here are the details.

MacPaw’s Mac AI assistant is now faster and more reliable, thanks to an overhaul of its underlying technology. Here are the details.

Apple Glasses are coming, with an unveiling rumored for next year. Based on the latest leaks and reporting, here is every feature to expect from Apple’s brand new wearable product: Apple Glasses.

You put a lot of effort into capturing Christmas gift ideas, project timelines, home renovation plans, health check-ups — you name it. But do your notes actually make you more productive, or make your life easier?

For most people, the answer is no. Most people’s notes just sit there. Beautiful, maybe even neatly organized, but static. We collect information, yet rarely reuse it. We save ideas, but they don’t resurface when they could help us.

“Most note-taking apps help you collect. Craft helps you create.”

The team at Craft has been working to solve this exact problem: helping you use your time meaningfully, accomplish things that matter, and stay creative, without drowning in information.

Your notes should work for you, and with the latest update, it’s closer than ever to that mission.

Discover how Craft fits into a complete productivity ecosystem through the Winter Clarity Bundle. Get four essential apps, Craft, Raycast, Endel, and Ground News for $149.99 (60 percent off) through December 31st.

Rumors have long indicated that there’s a new Apple Studio Display launching in 2026, and a new report highlights three expected features: an A19 chip, ProMotion, and HDR.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted in Washington DC today where he met with lawmakers to push back against proposed App Store age policy that Apple says doesn’t protect user privacy.

Apple TV has easily had its best year ever, and as the latest evidence: a prestigious institution’s list of the year’s top 10 TV shows features more Apple releases than ever before.

Today’s 9to5toys Lunch Break is now ready to roll. We have $100 pice drops on Apple Watch Series 11 joining a $200 price drop on the 46mm Jet Black Apple Watch Series 10 and some new lows on official Apple Watch bands – black Alpine Loop, Neon Green Ocean Band, and the Sport Loop. Those offers join the ongoing AirPods Pro 3 deal at $220 as well as another chance to save at least $119 off AirPods Max (USB-C) and a particularly rare deal on Apple’s most affordable Studio Display at $230 off. Head below for much more and a closer look at today’s headliners. 

It’s been three months since Apple unveiled AirPods Pro 3, and despite a complicated first few weeks with the product, I’m happy to report that with more use it’s become an excellent upgrade.

If you’ve just purchased a new Mac, like the recently-released, you might also be looking into some of the best display options.

Here are my recommendations, covering multiple product categories, price points, and more.

Apple’s Messages app scored a bunch of new features in iOS 26, including a new ‘Screen Unknown Senders’ option meant to eliminate spam texts. My initial experience with the feature wasn’t great, but tweaking one key setting has changed that.

Today, Homey has announced the new Homey Pro 2026, and the big update is straightforward: more RAM at the same price point. If you are not already familiar with Homey Pro, it is one of the most interesting home hubs on the market. It supports Matter, Thread, Zigbee, Z Wave, Wi-Fi, and even IR devices together so you can manage your entire home from one place. For people who want a hub that talks to everything and does almost all of its processing locally, Homey Pro has become a really cool option.

On the heels of unveiling the App Store Awards winners last week, Apple today unveiled the most downloaded apps and games of the year in the United Staes. This year, the most downloaded free iPhone app was ChatGPT, while the top paid iPhone app was HotSchedules.

Meanwhile, the top free iPhone game was Block Blast!, while the top paid iPhone game was Minecraft: Dream it, Build it.

Head below for the full list of the top iPhone and iPad apps games of 2025.

A commonly expressed frustration with algorithmically-driven apps like Instagram is that users have no control over their feeds. They are instead shown what the app thinks they want to see, which is often wildly inaccurate.

Meta is promising to provide at least a partial solution to the problem with a new feature called Your Algorithm …

I love smart plugs for smart home automations. Smart plugs are one of the easiest ways to start building out a smart home without overwhelming someone. They are easy to install, use, and are usually low-cost. Today, Shelly has released the new Shelly Plug Gen4. Big point up front: it works with Matter, and it’s under $20. For HomeKit users, it is an easy way to add automations, track power usage, and control lamps or small appliances directly from the Home app.

Apple has been accused of breaking the law by failing to comply with US sanctions after the App Store was found to have contain dozens of apps from sanctioned companies. The same was true of Google, though at a smaller scale.

The banned apps were identified by the Tech Transparency Project, which says it demonstrates that Apple failed to live up to its promises that the App Store represents a safe and trusted source …

Starting today, features from three of Adobe’s flagship products will be natively integrated into ChatGPT, for free. Here’s how it works.

Around 210,000 budget portable power banks sold exclusively by Amazon USA are being recalled after they were found to have caused 11 fires resulting in both injuries and property damage …

Authoritarian governments don’t like their citizens being able to have private conversations using end-to-end encrypted messaging apps. This is the reason Russia has just banned FaceTime, but it was surprising iMessage had escaped a ban.

A potential reason for this has now been discovered: Apple may have accidentally made it almost impossible for a government to ban its end-to-end encrypted text messaging app …

Despite the ongoing leadership turmoil and AI uncertainty, Citi’s analysts raised the price target on Apple’s stock from $315 to $350. Here’s why.

A new study by researchers from MIT and Empirical Health used 3 million person-days of Apple Watch data to develop a foundation model that predicts medical conditions with impressive accuracy. Here are the details.

Yesterday, Apple and Google announced that they have teamed up to make it easier to switch between Android and iPhone devices. The companies say they have developed new features that make it easier and faster to move data between each platform as part of this joint collaboration.

In a new statement to 9to5Mac, a European Commission spokesperson says this is an “example of how the Digital Markets Act (DMA) brings benefits to users and developers.”

While the European Commission is taking credit for this Apple-Google collaboration, the features will be available worldwide, not just in the European Union.

Jeff Williams wasted no time finding his next thing after retiring from Apple. The former Apple chief operating officer has been nominated to Disney’s board.