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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One of my most anticipated Apple products is ‘HomePad,’ a new HomePod-type device with a display. But per leaker Kosutami, the wait may be longer than expected.

Both Apple Pencil and iPad are essential tools for illustrators, a reality that will be on full display later this month in Sydney, Australia.

Chance and Zac break down Apple’s Mac announcements of the week. There’s the M5 MacBook Air and more powerful MacBook Pro models with an intriguing new chip architecture and naming scheme. Plus, the new Studio Display “family” is here with good and bad news. Finally, Chance recounts his trip to NYC where he saw the launch of the all-new MacBook Neo. 

And in Happy Hour Plus, Zac gives us a rundown of his current Apple gear. And a small philosophy lesson. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join. 

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The 2026 Formula 1 season kicks off this weekend, with the Australian Grand Prix as the first race of the season. If you are in the United States, the sport has a new broadcast home: all races are streaming with an Apple TV subscription, live and on demand.

You can watch in the Apple TV app across iPhone, Android, Mac, Apple TV 4K set-top box, Windows, PlayStation, Xbox, Fire Stick, Roku and more platforms. You can also watch online at tv.apple.com.

While the new M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros won’t be available until March 11, the first M5 Max benchmark has already appeared on Geekbench. Here are the results.

Apple unveiled the all-new MacBook Neo on Wednesday, and several configurations have already sold out for day one deliveries.

iOS 26 is a big update for many system apps, such as Wallet, Messages, and Music. One popular app—Apple Calendar—is mostly light on changes, but it did gain one unique new advantage: event creation via screenshots.

Your Friends & Neighbors premiered last spring and quickly became one of Apple TV’s biggest hits, and soon the Jon Hamm series will return for season 2. Here’s the new trailer.

According to Wired, Apple is blocking US users from downloading or updating several ByteDance-owned apps, even when they have a valid Chinese App Store account. Here are the details.

A year ago today, Apple unveiled the M4 Max and M3 Ultra Mac Studio desktop computer. In addition to Thunderbolt 5 and SSD storage configurable to 16TB, Apple advertised the Mac Studio as featuring up to 512GB of unified memory. As of this week, the highest RAM upgrade option is no longer available.

Apple has released a second version of iOS 26.4 beta 3 for developers. The update comes three days after the first version. It’s unclear what the new build address, but it’s available as an over-the-air update now.

Kino, the pro video capture app for iOS, just received an update that makes it the ultimate filmmaking app for iPhone 17 Pro.

Apple is releasing its first foldable iPhone this fall, commonly referred to as ‘iPhone Fold.’ Here’s why I think its name might be ‘iPhone Duo.’

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.

Sponsored by BenQ: Check out BenQ’s smarter displays made for how Mac users actually work. Sign up for the giveaway here. 

Earlier this week, OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Instant, promising to make ChatGPT less cringe and more natural when using its most popular model. Now OpenAI is back with GPT-5.4 Thinking and Pro, which is an overall upgrade to its most capable frontier model.

The Super Bowl was almost a month ago, but the official numbers for Bad Bunny’s Apple Music halftime show were just released this week. And they confirm that the halftime performance was a record-breaker.

Following yesterday’s MacBook Neo unveiling, Apple’s SVP of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, spoke to ABC News about the new product, AI, and speculation about him becoming Apple’s next CEO.

Today’s 9to5Mac Lunch Break is headlined by the best deals on the new 2026 MacBook pre-orders: MacBook Neo, M4 MacBook Air, and M5 Pro MacBook Pro. But from there we move over to the now live Best Buy Apple Shopping Event alongside a rare price drop on brand new condition unlocked iPhone Air units, today’s official Apple Watch band sale from $14, and M4 MacBook Air models at $300 off (Amazon all-time low prices). Head below for a closer look at the details.

Netflix is no longer buying Warner Bros. Discovery or HBO Max, but the company just announced an entirely separate acquisition: InterPositive, a company founded by Ben Affleck that “develops AI-powered tools built by and for filmmakers.”

MacBook Neo is the latest addition to the Mac lineup, and it comes with a unique name for an Apple product. Here’s why Apple says it chose the ‘MacBook Neo’ name.

Apple now has three portable computers that are priced around $600. MacBook Neo, iPad Air, and the plain iPad paired with Apple’s Magic Keyboard Folio each fit the bill. They offer very different experiences for the money, however, so here’s how they compare.

Apple TV just announced Twisted Yoga, a new true crime docuseries that’s premiering next week. Here are the details and the trailer.

You’d expect Windows Central to be pretty adamant in favoring Windows laptops over any MacBook. Yet not only the website itself, but also its readers, see the MacBook Neo as a move that should see Microsoft panicking.

The site says that the timing couldn’t be better for Apple given that more Windows users than ever before are looking to switch platform, and thinks it will hurt sales of machines like the $600 ASUS Vivobook 14 shown above …