Apple News
Apple seeds second betas of macOS 26.1, iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1
Apple today released the second betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 to developers for testing. These betas follow the first betas by two weeks.
Apple Intelligence is now available in more languages in the updates, including Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Traditional), and Vietnamese. AirPods Live Translation also works with Japanese, Korean, Italian, and Chinese (both Mandarin Traditional and Simplified) in iOS 26.1.
Liquid Glass has been expanded to the Phone app’s keypad, Apple Music has a new swipe gesture for changing tracks, and there are visual changes to Calendar, Safari, and Photos.
MacDailyNews Take: Expect the public releases of macOS 26.1, iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 to drop later this month. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update.
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Taylor Swift’s latest album ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’ breaks multiple streaming records on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music
Taylor Swift made history by shattering streaming records on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon with her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Carolina Piras for the Daily Mail:
On Spotify and Apple Music, the album became the most streamed in one day in 2025, and on Amazon Music it broke an all-time record – surpassing her own previous album The Tortured Poets Department.
As the new album holds the record for Apple Music’s biggest album of 2025 by first-day streams worldwide, her single The Fate of Ophelia reached Apple Music’s biggest song of 2025 by first-day streams globally.
The Cruel Summer hitmaker has also climbed up iTunes’ charts, earning the spot of biggest album of 2025, also based on first-day sales worldwide.
To celebrate her new album, Apple Music has compiled three Taylor Swift playlists that embody each phase— with highlights from her 12th full-length and the rest of her catalogue that express the feelings experienced before, during, and after a performance.
Taylor reunited with Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback for her 12th studio album, and their influence is clear in the driving beats and catchy hooks…
Elated fans worldwide snapped up tickets to special ‘release party’ screenings in movie theaters – including the premiere of the video for lead single The Fate of Ophelia… Aside from the Ophelia video, the weekend screenings feature behind-the-scenes footage and lyric videos.
The one-off cinematic event is estimated to gross $30-50 million, according to film industry website Deadline.
MacDailyNews Take: Money Machine.
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The Guardian reviews Apple Watch Series 11: ‘Wrist-flickingly good with longer battery life’
The new Apple Watch Series 11 offers the most comprehensive set of health features yet, longer battery life, an even more durable cover glass, and 5G cellular capabilities, all in its thinnest and most comfortable design. Apple Watch Series 11 is the ultimate health and fitness companion, empowering users with notifications for signs of chronic high blood pressure — also known as hypertension — plus new insights into sleep quality with sleep score, adding to the robust suite of health features included in the device. Featuring up to 24 hours of battery life and Ion-X glass that’s 2x more scratch-resistant, Apple Watch is more convenient than ever to wear throughout the day and night. watchOS 26 delivers more personalized ways to stay active, healthy, and connected with Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence, the wrist flick gesture, new watch faces, and more.
Apple Watch Series 11 is available in aluminum in a new space gray, as well as jet black, rose gold, and silver, and also in polished titanium in natural, gold, and slate.
Samuel Gibbs for The Guardian:
The Apple Watch Series 11 adds the one thing most people actually want from a smartwatch: longer battery life.
Otherwise the new model is a direct replacement for the Series 10, matching it in design, dimensions, and features, with most of its upgrades coming from software. That makes it one of the very best smartwatches available, even if it hasn’t changed much.
The new watch has the same S10 chip as last year’s model but now supports optional 5G and stronger reception for those times when you’re in the wilderness. The batteries have increased in capacity by 9% and 11% for the 42mm and 46mm watches respectively.
The Series 11 hasn’t changed the winning Apple Watch formula but it has added two things that most will appreciate: more scratch-resistant glass and longer battery life…
The best new feature is the wrist-flick gesture, where you rapidly twist your wrist away from you and then back to dismiss things and return to the watch face. It works even without raising your wrist to look at the watch, meaning you can dismiss alarms with a satisfying flick of the wrist…
The slim design, fast charging and two-day battery life make the watch easy to live with, particularly for sleep tracking and use as a silent alarm clock. The wrist-flick gesture is so good every watch should have it, while compatibility with straps and charging pucks for all previous Apple Watches is a great bonus for those upgrading.
MacDailyNews Take: Yet another stellar review for the Apple Watch Series 11!
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As Elon Musk’s SpaceX delivers real satellite connectivity to smartphones, Apple might be having second thoughts about propping up Globalstar
SpaceX’s $17 billion acquisition of spectrum licenses from EchoStar is set to enhance Starlink’s satellite-to-smartphone service, potentially prompting major corporations to reconsider their partnerships with Starlink’s rivals. With SpaceX planning to launch up to 15,000 advanced satellites for cellular connectivity, companies like AT&T and Verizon may doubt their ties with AST SpaceMobile. Apple, already facing internal skepticism over its Globalstar deal, now has further cause to question the wisdom of its decision to decline an offer from Elon Musk.
Jon Brodkin for Ars Technica:
SpaceX plans to acquire EchoStar’s rights to the spectrum in the US and globally. This “spectrum will allow SpaceX to provide phone, text, and broadband services from space to mobile users throughout the United States and around the world, especially in areas where terrestrial systems do not reach and at times when terrestrial coverage may be unavailable,” SpaceX told the Federal Communications Commission in a filing that seeks approval of the transaction and describes its plan for the satellites… [T]he FCC is likely to give SpaceX the approvals it needs for its new satellite network.
Starlink has deployed about 650 Direct to Cell (D2C) satellites under its existing authorizations, but the new satellites will be more capable and more numerous. Starlink service offered through T-Mobile initially supported texting only and now has limited data service. It’s a free add-on for T-Mobile’s most expensive plans, and it’s available for a $10 monthly fee on other T-Mobile plans.
SpaceX said the next-generation system will support voice, texting, and high-speed data. “The SpaceX MSS [mobile-satellite service] system will communicate with fixed and mobile earth stations and will be capable of providing connectivity virtually anywhere on Earth,” SpaceX said… If all goes as planned, Starlink should be able to provide a much-improved service for smartphones in late 2027.
Apple is partnering with satellite company Globalstar for the iPhone’s emergency SOS feature. The service is free to iPhone users, at least for now. Apple declined a pitch from Musk, who reportedly sought a $5 billion payment from the iPhone maker in exchange for an 18-month exclusivity deal.
There’s some internal frustration at Apple about Globalstar’s limited capabilities compared to Starlink, according to a May report by The Information. The concerns are that the Globalstar network is “outdated, slow, and limited in what features it can support compared with offerings from SpaceX and others.”
MacDailyNews Take: iPhone users, including non-T-Mobile subscribers, can add T-Satellite with Starlink by calling 1-844-638-8913 or visiting a T-Mobile retail store. More info here.
Note: On February 28, 2023, Apple lent Globalstar $252 million to help cover upfront costs for replenishing its low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation to support Apple’s “Emergency SOS via satellite.”
See also: Apple to invest up to $1.5 billion more in Globalstar for satellite coverage expansion – November 1, 2024
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OpenAI’s secretive AI device designed by Jony Ive beset by critical problems that could delay release
OpenAI and renowned designer Jony Ive are tackling multiple technical challenges with their secretive AI device, aiming for a major product launch next year. The San Francisco-based startup, led by Sam Altman, acquired Ive’s design firm, io, for $6.5 billion in May, but the duo has revealed little about their ongoing projects.
Tim Bradshaw, Cristina Criddle, Michael Acton, and Ryan McMorrow for Financial Times:
Their aim is to create a palm-sized device without a screen that can take audio and visual cues from the physical environment and respond to users’ requests.
People familiar with their plans said OpenAI and Ive had yet to solve critical problems that could delay the device’s release… [O]bstacles remain in the device’s software and the infrastructure needed to power it.
These include deciding on the assistant’s “personality”, privacy issues and budgeting for the computing power needed to run OpenAI’s models on a mass consumer device.
“Compute is another huge factor for the delay,” said one person close to Ive. “Amazon has the compute for an Alexa, so does Google [for its Home device], but OpenAI is struggling to get enough compute for ChatGPT, let alone an AI device — they need to fix that first.”
Multiple people familiar with the plans said OpenAI and Ive were working on a device roughly the size of a smartphone that users would communicate with through a camera, microphone and speaker. One person suggested it might have multiple cameras.
The gadget is designed to sit on a desk or table but can also be carried around by the user… One person said the device would be “always on” rather than triggered by a word or prompt. The device’s sensors would gather data throughout the day that would help to build its virtual assistant’s “memory”.
The goal is to improve the “smart speakers” of the past decade, such as Amazon’s Echo speaker and its Alexa digital assistant, which are generally used for a limited set of functions such as listening to music and setting kitchen timers.
OpenAI and Ive are seeking to build a more powerful and useful machine.
MacDailyNews Take: As we just asked earlier today, “The question is how does a “pocket-sized AI device” differ from the already pocket-sized iPhone and its Android knockoffs. The iPhone already has everything needed – microphones, cameras, fast processors, display, speakers, connectivity, etc. Why carry a “pocket-sized AI device” when you already carry a smartphone that could, via settings, be set up to match whatever the “pocket-sized AI device” offers (always listening, etc.) and exceed it (on-device LLMs, etc.)?”
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In the smart glasses race, Apple will win – Gene Munster
Veteran Apple analyst Gene Munster predicts Apple will lead the smart glasses market but questions whether glasses can achieve mainstream success, surpassing 500 million units annually. Unlike headphones or watches, glasses face unique adoption hurdles, such as fashion, comfort, prescription challenges, and privacy concerns. Wearing something on the face is a significant ask. Munster’s view is that even if Apple excels, the smart glasses market will likely peak at a few hundred million units yearly, falling short of the potential of phones or pocket-sized devices.
Gene Munster for GemeMunster.com:
I’ve been researching and investing in Apple for a long time, and don’t remember a more memorable seven months when it comes to product development. In March, the company announced the new AI-powered Siri would be delayed for about a year…
This week’s reporting from Gurman that Apple has paused development of Vision Pro and redirected resources toward lighter, more wearable devices stands alone in modern Apple product development as a miss. Putting the two together, we get a sense of how hard it is to predict and productize where the world is going.
It’s easy to harp on Apple’s recent misfires given it is so out of character. What’s more constructive is to ask ourselves, does Apple have the right north star by going for glasses, and do they have the technical chops to get the job done and be a player in the market. Relative to Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, Apple has meaningful advantages in retail, distribution, and integrating hardware, software, and services.
Some evidence that it’s hard: Meta’s latest glasses are sold in Best Buy stores but require Meta employees to staff the aisles. Apple, in contrast, has a global retail footprint and experience driving mass adoption of new categories. This advantage will help Apple, but the ceiling for glasses remains lower than phones or pocket devices.
Bottom line, I believe in the glasses race, Apple will win… My take is even if Apple succeeds, this segment will cap at a few hundred million units annually, which is below the potential of phones or pocket companions.
I believe a pocket-sized AI device will in five plus years emerge as a winner. Its strengths are speed, ambient context, and a simpler privacy model compared to glasses. This device would not need to replace the phone but rather complement it.
Consumers will need a reason to carry an additional device, which was the same hurdle faced by Apple Watch, which took three years to gain traction. The Jony Ive device will first be shown off next year and volume production is expected in 2027. If pocket companions deliver speed, reliability, and privacy at scale, they could become the next great consumer hardware category.
MacDailyNews Take: The question is how does a “pocket-sized AI device” differ from the already pocket-sized iPhone and its Android knockoffs. The iPhone already has everything needed – microphones, cameras, fast processors, display, speakers, connectivity, etc. Why carry a “pocket-sized AI device” when you already carry a smartphone that could, via settings, be set up to match whatever the “pocket-sized AI device” offers (always listening, etc.) and exceed it (on-device LLMs, etc.)?
As for smart glasses:
Meta’s glasses are hardly smart, nor are they a threat to Apple. There is no substitute for Apple’s vast ecosystem. As soon as Apple releases its first pair of smart glasses it will quickly become that nascent market’s leader. – MacDailyNews, October 2, 2025
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Apple Original Films celebrates the premiere of ‘Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost’
On Sunday night, Apple Original Films celebrated the world premiere of Ben Stiller’s highly anticipated documentary, “Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost,” at the 2025 New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall. Emmy Award-winning director and producer Ben Stiller was joined by Amy Stiller, Christine Taylor-Stiller and Quin Stiller, along with producers John Lesher, Lizz Morhaim and Geoffrey Richman. Executive producers Kathryn Everett and Andy Hsieh, editor Adam Kurnitz and composer Will Bates were also in attendance, along with special guests Amy Sedaris and Cynthia Nixon. “Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost” will debut in select theaters October 17, 2025, before premiering globally on Apple TV+ October 24, 2025.
Quin Stiller, Christine Taylor-Stiller, director and producer Ben Stiller, and Amy Stiller attend the 2025 New York Film Festival world premiere of Apple Original Films’ “Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost” at Alice Tully Hall. “Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost” will debut in select theaters October 17, 2025, before premiering globally on Apple TV+ October 24, 2025.
Ben Stiller tells the story of his parents, comedy icons Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, exploring their impact both on popular culture and at home, where the lines between creativity, family, life and art often blurred. In the process, Stiller turns the camera on himself and his family to examine Jerry and Anne’s enormous influence on their lives, and the generational lessons we all can learn from those we love. Directed and produced by Emmy Award-winning Ben Stiller, “Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost” is also produced by John Lesher, Lizz Morhaim, and Geoffrey Richman, with Bryn Mooser, Justin Lacob, Kathryn Everett, Tony Hsieh and Andy Hsieh serving as executive producers.
Apple TV+ offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have earned 625 wins and 2,817 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” and historic Oscar Best Picture winner “CODA.”
About Apple Original Films
Momentum around the Apple Original Films slate continues to grow since the debut of Apple TV+ over five years ago. Following its theatrical release on June 27, 2025, “F1: The Movie” debuted as the No. 1 movie at the global box office. Featuring an unparalleled cinematic experience and boasting an impressive 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film stands as Apple’s highest-grossing theatrical film to date. Celebrated Apple Original Films include “The Lost Bus,” an emotional, action-packed rescue drama directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Greengrass and starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera, which premiered in theaters on September 19 and globally on Apple TV+ on October 3. In addition to Apple making history as the first streaming service to land the Academy Award for Best Picture with “CODA,” Apple Original Film “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” also earned the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, and “Killers of the Flower Moon” landed 10 historic Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Apple TV+ also recently premiered “Highest 2 Lowest,” the latest feature reuniting Spike Lee with Denzel Washington for the fifth time; Emmy Award nominee “The Gorge,” starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy; “Wolfs,” starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt; “The Instigators,” starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck; Academy Award-winning director Steve McQueen’s “Blitz”; and “Echo Valley,” the thriller from BAFTA Award winner Michael Pearce, starring Academy Award winner Julianne Moore and multi-Emmy Award nominee Sydney Sweeney.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $9.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.
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Who will run Apple after CEO Tim Cook?
When Tim Cook leaves Apple, the key question is who will manage the company’s daily operations? In a crisis, new COO Sabih Khan and retail head Deirdre O’Brien are well-equipped to step in. However, for a formal CEO succession, hardware engineering chief John Ternus is the top candidate, according to Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
There are a few reasons this makes sense. For one, Apple has limited options within its executive management team. Ternus is 50 years old — the same age Cook was when he took the role — giving him the potential to be CEO for a decade or more if things go well. The same can’t realistically be said for most of the other top executives who might be under consideration.
Second, Apple probably needs more of a technologist than a sales or operations person. Though Apple has grown tremendously under Cook in both product breadth and revenue — and the iPhone 17 is clearly resonating with customers — the company has struggled to break into major new technology categories.
Apple has had great success designing its own chips, but the company has stumbled in areas such as mixed reality, generative AI, the smart home and autonomous vehicles. That could lead the board to conclude that a product engineering leader like Ternus is the answer, despite him not being known internally as someone who pursues big bets.
Third, Ternus stands out. He’s charismatic and well-regarded by Apple loyalists and trusted by Cook, who has granted Ternus more responsibilities. The executive has emerged as a key decision-maker on product road maps, features and strategies, extending his influence beyond the traditional scope of a hardware engineering chief.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote in July:
For its NeXT CEO, Apple needs relative YOUTH, not another 50- or 60-something calcified company lifer who was part of the so-called team that blindly missed the GenAI paradigm shift.
Steve Jobs was 42 years old when he returned to Apple as interim CEO in September 1997. pic.twitter.com/Bk0kdul7QF
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) July 10, 2025
Apple’s next CEO doesn’t need to be Steve Jobs, but does need to be much better than Tim Cook.
What should happen at Apple:
- Tim Cook retires (yesterday, preferably)
- Cook does not get Chairman of the Board position
- Apple hires a charismatic, visionary CEO in the mold of Jobs
- Company returns to path of inventive innovation
What likely will happen at Apple:
- Tim Cook hangs on for years
- When he finally retires as CEO, he becomes Chairman
- Apple hires another bland, myopic CEO in the mold of Cook
- Company continues on path of iterative stagnation
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Paris prosecutor’s office probes Apple’s voice assistant Siri
The Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Monday that it is investigating Apple’s voice assistant, Siri, following a complaint. Politico reported earlier that day that Apple is allegedly using users’ recordings without their consent.
Benoit Berthelot and Gaspard Sebag for Bloomberg News/a>:
The probe has been referred to the Office for Combating Cybercrime, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Monday.
The investigation concerns Apple’s collection of user recordings through Siri, the digital assistant available on most of its devices. Apple can record and retain audio interactions through Siri to help improve its services, a feature the company says is opt-in. Some of that data can be retained for up to two years and reviewed by “graders”, or subcontractors, according to Apple.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple addressed this in January:
Although Apple attempts to do as much as possible on device, certain features require real-time input from Apple servers. And when that’s the case, Siri uses as little data as possible to deliver an accurate result. Siri searches and requests are not associated with your Apple Account. A random identifier — a long string of letters and numbers associated with a single device — is used to keep track of data while it’s being processed, rather than tying it to a user’s identity through their Apple Account or phone number — a process that we believe is unique among digital assistants in use today.
Apple does not retain audio recordings of Siri interactions unless users explicitly opt in to help improve Siri, and even then, the recordings are used solely for that purpose. Users can easily opt out at any time.
Read more here.
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Apple TV+ series ‘Presumed Innocent’ goes anthology in season two
Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent” will be back for a second season, but it will diverge from the first installment as the series goes from limited to anthology.
The legal drama series was renewed in July 2024 with its final two episodes still to launch on Apple TV+. Starting out as a limited series, the series will take on an anthology style like The White Lotus after becoming Apple’s most-watched show.
There is no word yet on a release date for Season 2 of the series, though casting announcements have been made recently.
Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Superman) will lead Season 2 of the legal series alongside Jack Reynor (Midsommar, The Perfect Couple, whose casting Deadline reported exclusively. Matthew Rhys (The Americans, Perry Mason) was also cast as a lead in early September, and Fiona Shaw (Bad Sisters, Killing Eve) was cast as a series regular Oct. 1.
As Deadline first reported, Season 2 will be based on Jo Murray’s debut legal thriller Dissection of a Murder, which will publish in 2026. The book centers Leila Reynolds, who is way out of her death when offered her first murder case by a defendant that only wants her. Complicating matters is the fact that her husband is the prosecutor.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $9.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.
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What to do if you can’t activate iMessage with your phone number in iOS 26
When you update to iOS 26, you might not be able to activate iMessage with your phone number if you have an inactive SIM with the same phone number as your active SIM.
If you can’t activate iMessage with your phone number after you update to iOS 26, you might encounter these issues:
• iMessages fail to send with a “Not Delivered” alert and can’t be received.
• Text messages can only be sent and received as SMS/RCS messages that appear as green bubbles.
• Messages are unexpectedly sent using an email address rather than a phone number.
• The same phone number may be displayed twice under Settings > Apps > Messages > Send & Receive.
To fix this issue, remove or delete your inactive SIM.
Remove or delete an inactive SIM and activate iMessage
- In the Settings app, tap Cellular.
-
If there are two SIMs displayed that have the same phone number, find the one that is no longer active. If the inactive SIM is a physical SIM, remove the physical SIM. If the inactive SIM is an eSIM, tap Delete eSIM to remove the inactive eSIM.
-
After you remove the inactive SIM, return to the Settings app and tap Apps.
-
Tap Messages.
-
Tap Send & Receive.
-
Tap the displayed phone number to activate iMessage.
MacDailyNews Note: Learn what to do if you are still unable to activate iMessage or FaceTime on your iPhone.
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Apple’s biggest movie, ‘The Gorge,’ cost Skydance just $176.6 million
In Apple’s film “The Gorge,” two highly-trained operatives (Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy) are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within. They bond from a distance while trying to stay vigilant in defending against an unseen enemy. When the cataclysmic threat to humanity is revealed to them, they must work together in a test of both their physical and mental strength to keep the secret in the gorge before it’s too late.
It takes much more than the wave of a magic wand to make a movie which soars to the top of a streaming platform’s charts. Pulling it off in the face of lukewarm reviews is even tougher. Doing all that for a net cost of just $176.6 million sounds like the stuff of fantasy. Not for Skydance… the multimedia conglomerate founded by billionaire Oracle scion David Ellison.
Unsurprisingly, critics didn’t warm to the movie’s cliched plot and gave it a 62% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes… In contrast, audiences lapped it up. They rated it 75% on Rotten Tomatoes but that was just the start. As Deadline reported, The Gorge became Apple TV+’s biggest launch for a movie ever, surpassing Wolfs starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
Although Apple didn’t disclose specific numbers it confirmed that during the weekend that the movie was released it drove double-digit growth globally for its platform and boosted new viewers by more than 80% compared to the same period the previous week. In Apple’s battle with bigger and better established streamers, that kind of increase in business was invaluable…
The Skydance subsidiary behind The Gorge is called Hadrian Productions UK and its latest earnings releases reveal that by August 31, 2024, a total of $213.6 million (£166.2 million) had been spent on the movie which was in line with the budget… The movie cast a powerful spell on the U.K. economy as a total of $12.6 million (£10.1 million) was spent on the staff who peaked at a monthly average of 165 employees.
That doesn’t include freelancers, contractors and temporary workers as they aren’t listed as employees on the books of U.K. companies but often represent the majority of the crew on a film shoot. In return for generating this blockbuster economic impact, Skydance banked a total tax credit of $37 million (£28.9 million) bringing its net spending down to just $176.6 million.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in February, “Two thumbs up. The Gorge is a fun popcorn flick! It’d be perfect for a drive-in.”
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Steve Jobs wore a $100 Seiko digital watch whose rectangle, big numbers, and simple buttons became a blueprint for Apple’s minimalist design
Long before the Apple Watch, a rare 1981 photo from “Make Something Wonderful,” a posthumous collection of Steve Jobs’ words published over a decade after his passing, shows Jobs wearing a Seiko D031-4000 “Dot Matrix” watch. This sleek, rectangular digital watch with a groundbreaking dot-matrix display reflects the design philosophy Jobs later infused into Apple’s core.
Sayan Chakravarty for LuxuryLaunches:
The D031 was Seiko’s first watch to feature a dot-matrix LCD. Released around 1980, it offered a handful of straightforward functions: time, day, date, alarm, and a backlight. In Japan it retailed for about ¥25,000 to ¥30,000 at launch (roughly $110 to $150 in 1981). Some versions even allowed multilingual day displays. Most distinctive was its animated right-to-left sweep that appeared on the hour. Unlike the calculator watches and feature-cluttered novelties of the time, the D031 was built with focus and clarity, leaving out gimmicks in favor of a cleaner experience…
Jobs had long credited Zen aesthetics and Japanese minimalism with shaping his approach to design. The Seiko D031 mirrored that sensibility — an unfussy, mass-market watch designed to do a few things well, rather than many things poorly. The plain case and practical strap fit neatly into Jobs’s larger vision that tools should be elegant by virtue of their clarity, not by decorative excess…
In choosing this watch, Jobs revealed that even in the early 1980s, he was drawn to objects that placed clarity, discipline, and human-centered design above all else.
MacDailyNews Take: As Steve said, “”Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
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Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera play everyday heroes in Apple TV+ film ‘The Lost Bus’
From director Paul Greengrass and inspired by real events, “The Lost Bus” is a white-knuckle ride through one of America’s deadliest wildfires as a wayward school bus driver (Matthew McConaughey) and a dedicated school teacher (America Ferrera) battle to save 22 children from the terrifying inferno.
George M. Thomas for the Akron Beacon Journal:
Director Paul Greengrass has a track record with fact-based films, most notably “United 93,” which documented the drama of one of the planes hijacked and crashed in the attacks on 9/11. His filming style lends itself to that type of you-are-there subject matter.
In the case of Apple TV+’s “The Lost Bus,” that’s especially true, as Greengrass — who also directed two entries in the Bourne series, “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” — is known for high-level action films.
In fact, Greengrass blends the two sensibilities to create a tense journey based on a true story that possesses the tension of a good actioner…
McConaughey and Ferrera do a lot of the dramatic lifting here as their characters work overtime to get the students home safely all while ensuring that they won’t panic. In McKay’s case he has to worry about relatives who are in the fire’s direct path and McConaughey, an Oscar winner, conveys the conflicting emotions regarding conflicting duties.
Their performances certainly add to the film, but Greengrass deserves a heaping amount of praise for recreating the disaster on the screen providing scope that does indeed put the audience right in the middle of action.
“The Lost Bus” would have been a great watch on a big screen, but at home will have to do. It makes for an easy, enjoyable weekend watch.
MacDailyNews Take: This one sounds like a real barnburner!
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Apple to release fourth quarter results after market close on October 30th
Apple will release its fourth quarter results after market close on October 30th, right around 1:30pm PDT / 4:30pm EDT.
The company will then hold a conference call to discuss the results and business updates on the same date at 2:00pm PDT / 5:00pm EDT.
MacDailyNews Note: We will have the results on our home page as soon as they are available on October 30th right around 1:30pm PDT / 4:30pm EDT. Shortly thereafter, we’ll cover the conference call webcast with live notes as usual 2:00pm PDT / 5:00pm EDT.
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OpenAI asks court to dismiss trade-secret lawsuit from Elon Musk’s xAI
On Thursday, OpenAI urged a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it poached employees from Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI to steal trade secrets, labeling the case part of Musk’s “ongoing harassment” of the company.
xAI’s lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in San Francisco, alleged that OpenAI engaged in a “deeply troubling pattern” of hiring away former xAI employees to gain access to trade secrets related to its AI chatbot Grok, which it said was more advanced than OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The lawsuit is part of a broader legal battle between Musk and OpenAI, which he co-founded alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, amid a high-stakes race in Silicon Valley for talent and to gain market share in the burgeoning AI industry.
xAI has separately sued Apple for allegedly conspiring with OpenAI to suppress rival platforms. Apple and OpenAI denied the allegations and asked the court to dismiss that case on Tuesday.
MacDailyNews Note: Musk is independently pursuing a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in a California federal court, aiming to block OpenAI’s transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit.
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Apple’s App Store removes ICE tracking app after DOJ raises concerns
On Thursday, Apple removed ICEBlock, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tracking tool, from its App Store after the Department of Justice raised concerns about the app endangering law enforcement officers’ safety.
Ashley Oliver for FOX Business:
DOJ officials, at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, requested Apple take down ICEBlock from its App Store, a move that comes as Trump administration officials have claimed the tracking tool puts law enforcement officers in danger and helps shield illegal immigrants.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Bondi confirmed the department reached out to the big tech giant.
“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so,” Bondi said. “ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed. This Department of Justice will continue making every effort to protect our brave federal law enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe.”
Controversy surrounding ICE tracking apps intensified after last month’s deadly shooting at an ICE field office in Dallas, the latest in a series of attacks that appeared to be targeted at immigration enforcement officers.
Authorities said the suspect, Joshua Jahn, searched his phone for tracking apps, including ICEBlock, before opening fire on the facility from a rooftop. Authorities said Jahn killed one detainee and left two critically injured but that the immigrants were not his intended targets. One of the injured, a 32-year-old husband and father of four, died this week.
MacDailyNews Take: Duh. It never should have been in the App Store in the first place.
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Morgan Stanley bull case sees Apple stock hitting $376
Morgan Stanley analysts, led by Erik Woodring, are growing more optimistic about Apple’s iPhone 17 sales potential, raising their fiscal 2026 iPhone revenue forecast by 4% to $230.3 billion, surpassing the consensus estimate of $220 billion. The increase is driven primarily by stronger expected unit sales, with higher average selling prices also contributing.
Britney Nguyen for MarketWatch:
In the analysts’ view, the base iPhone 17 model is “a compelling upgrade option for older iPhone users that seek a capable yet relatively affordable device,” and lead times — the amount of time between an order being placed and being delivered — are getting longer for that model. They have a sense that initial demand for Apple’s new model is up relative to a year ago.
But Apple’s stock is up about 20% over the past three months, and the Morgan Stanley team thinks the stock price already factors in the strong early iPhone 17 demand. The path to further gains depends on clearing a higher bar, and the analysts think that’s possible, lifting their price target to $298.
Right now, what’s driving the iPhone 17 cycle are users looking for an upgrade. But next year could feature Apple’s first foldable iPhone and six new iPhone launches in the iPhone 18 cycle, which could entice consumers further and spur high-single-digit iPhone revenue growth for fiscal 2027 — even without factoring in the potential for artificial-intelligence features to spur upgrades.
Under the analysts’ bull case, which sees the stock going to $376, Apple would have to ship 270 million iPhones and top $10 in earnings per share for fiscal year 2027. In Morgan Stanley’s view, that target is “achievable if foldables and AI catalyze even stronger demand than we are contemplating in our base case.”
MacDailyNews Take: Come on, Morgan Stanley bull case!
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Elon Musk becomes world’s first half-trillionaire
Elon Musk, the visionary founder or co-founder of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and xAI, has made history as the first individual to surpass a net worth of $500 billion, driven by the soaring valuations of his groundbreaking companies. According to the Forbes billionaires index, Musk’s wealth hit $500.1 billion on Wednesday afternoon in New York before slightly settling just above $499 billion later that day.
The milestone further cements Musk’s status as the world’s richest person, well ahead of rivals in the global tech sector.
According to Forbes’ billionaires index, Oracle founder Larry Ellison is the world’s second richest person, with a fortune of about $350.7 billion.
Mr Ellison briefly overtook Musk last month after shares in Oracle soared by more than 40%, boosted by the firm’s surprisingly rosy outlook for its cloud infrastructure business and artificial intelligence (AI) deals.
Musk’s huge wealth is closely tied to his more than 12% stake in Tesla, which has seen its shares rise sharply this year.
Tesla shares were more than 3.3% higher at the end of New York trading on Wednesday and have now risen by over 20% this year.
He faced criticism earlier this year over his work with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the body tasked with reducing US government spending and cutting jobs.
Musk, who also owns the X social media platform, has also been vocal about his views on issues such as immigration and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes.
MacDailyNews Note: Elon Musk’s proposed Tesla compensation package, unveiled in September 2025, could exceed $1 trillion in value if fully earned, granting him up to 423.7 million performance-based shares (about 12% of Tesla’s current shares). This vests in 12 equal tranches over 10 years, but only if Tesla achieves all milestones—requiring shareholder approval at the November 2025 annual meeting. Musk receives no salary; all pay is performance-tied, and unvested shares forfeit if he leaves or goals aren’t met by 2035. The package boosts his stake from ~13% to ~25%, increasing his voting power.
The plan combines escalating market cap thresholds (starting at $2 trillion, then nine $500B increments, ending with two $1T jumps to $8.5T total—~8x current ~$1.1T valuation) with operational milestones, all to be hit progressively for each tranche:
• Deliver 20 million Tesla vehicles cumulatively.
• Secure 10 million active Full Self-Driving (FSD) subscriptions.
• Deliver 1 million Optimus humanoid robots.
• Deploy 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation.
• Achieve a series of adjusted EBITDA* benchmarks, culminating in $400 billion over four consecutive quarters.
The final two tranches also require Musk to establish an approved CEO succession plan.
*Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.
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Apple has plenty of runway to fine-tune its own smart glasses – Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer analysts state that Apple’s hardware ecosystem is not immediately threatened by new AI-enabled smart glasses, as significant design challenges persist. After testing Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses in a New York City demo, the brokerage noted that the experience underscored “the key challenges that have prevented smart glasses from mass consumer adoption since Google Glass (2013).”
Sam Boughedda for Investing.com:
In particular, Oppenheimer said Meta’s single-eye display “fails to tackle well-known issues that cause eye strain and blurry vision.”
The analysts added that while the Ray-Ban Display introduces novel designs, it is “too early to view [it] as an everyday wearable such as Apple Watch, let alone a potential challenger to smartphones.”
Oppenheimer concluded: “We came away from the demo more confident that Apple’s hardware ecosystem is safe from new AI-enabled smart glasses for the next 2-3 years. It also gives Apple more runway to fine-tune its own smart glasses products.”
While the demo showed early consumer interest, with stock selling out on launch day at the store visited, Oppenheimer’s verdict was clear: “We came away convinced that Ray-Ban Display will remain a niche product.”
MacDailyNews Take: Meta’s glasses are hardly smart, nor are they a threat to Apple. There is no substitute for Apple’s vast ecosystem. As soon as Apple releases its first pair of smart glasses it will quickly become that nascent market’s leader.
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