Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted in Washington DC today where he met with lawmakers to push back against proposed App Store age policy.

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.

When iOS 26 launched, it brought a variety of upgrades and expansions to the Shortcuts app, including 25+ brand new actions. Here’s everything new.

Every month, JustWatch ranks the most-watched Apple TV titles among its users, which offers helpful context on which premieres or catalog titles are trending worldwide. Here’s November’s Top 10, according to the streaming guide.

IDC has published a new report highlighting expectations for the foldable smartphone market next year, projecting huge 30% year-over-year gains driven by the “game-changer” of the iPhone Fold.

In macOS 26.2, which will be released soon, Apple is introducing a new low-latency feature that lets you cluster several Macs together using Thunderbolt 5 at up to 80Gb/s. Among other potential use-cases, this feature may prove to be handy for AI developers and researchers looking to run massive local models by pooling together device resources.

This clustering capability won’t just be limited to high end machines like the Mac Studio, but will work with any Thunderbolt 5-enabled Mac, including the M4 Pro Mac mini. It’s perfect timing, because I just went hands-on with Sonnet’s new rack mount solution for the M4-era Mac mini, aptly titled RackMac mini.

The RackMac mini lets users mount up to three Mac mini machines in a standard 19-inch rack footprint, and features a handful of intelligent design decisions – like front power buttons – that make managing multiple machines easy. Watch our hands-on video as we take a closer look, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more.

It’s been a long time coming, but premium Spotify subscribers in the U.S. and Canada can finally watch music videos of their favorite artists. However, the feature is still in beta. Here are the details.

Apple has a strong lineup of new Macs expected next year, but there are two 2026 models in particular that seem set to kick off a new era for the Mac.