Apple News
Apple’s iPhone Pocket now sold out worldwide
Apple has collaborated with renowned Japanese fashion house ISSEY MIYAKE to launch the iPhone Pocket—a limited-edition knitted carrier designed specifically for the iPhone. The accessory is now completely sold out worldwide in every market where it was released.
It was available in two lengths and multiple colors:
• Short version: Lemon, Mandarin, Purple, Pink, Peacock, Sapphire, Cinnamon, Black
• Long version: Sapphire, Cinnamon, Black
In the United States, prices were $149.95 for the short version and $229.95 for the long version.
Joe Rossignol for MacRumors:
iPhone Pocket became available to order on Apple’s online store starting Friday, November 14, in the United States, France, China, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. It quickly sold out in the United States, but some colors and size options were still available in South Korea and a few other countries until the past few days.
Given it is a limited-edition accessory, it is unclear if there will ever be additional inventory of the iPhone Pocket now that it is fully sold out worldwide.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple and Issey had better get knitting!
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Apple poised to reclaim its rightful crown as world’s top smartphone maker
According to Counterpoint Research, Apple is poised to reclaim its position as the world’s top smartphone manufacturer for the first time in over 10 years, topping a raft of iPhone knockoff peddlers. Apple’s iPhone sales boom is fueled by the strong launch of its latest iPhone lineup and a surge in consumer device upgrades.
Vlad Savov for Bloomberg News:
The iPhone 17 models introduced in September have been a hit both domestically in the US and in Apple’s other critical market, China. They’ve enticed more people to upgrade, leading to double-digit year-over-year sales growth in both markets, according to the researchers. The US company also is benefiting from a cooling of US-China trade tensions and a depreciating dollar that has boosted purchases in emerging markets, they added.
The growth will propel Apple past longtime rival Samsung Electronics Co. this year, according to Counterpoint’s figures. Shipments of the iPhone are set to grow at 10% in 2025, compared with 4.6% for Samsung.
The overall smartphone market is expected to expand by 3.3% in 2025, with Apple projected to claim a share of 19.4%. It will be the first time since 2011 that the company takes the No. 1 position.
Looking further into the future, [Counterpoint analyst Yang] Wang sees Apple extending its lead. The upcoming 2026 debut of a foldable iPhone and a budget-friendly iPhone 17e will both help sales. And Apple is expected to follow those models with a major iPhone design revamp in 2027, as Bloomberg News has previously reported.
MacDailyNews Take: If it’s not an iPhone, it’s a pretend iPhone.
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Apple TV forced to scrap ‘The Hunt’ (‘Traqués’) series after creator’s plagiarism scandal
In a setback for Apple TV’s budding French-language content slate, the streaming giant has been compelled to abandon its highly anticipated crime thriller series “The Hunt” (“Traqués”), following explosive allegations of plagiarism against its creator. The scandal, which has rocked the European entertainment industry, centers on claims that the show’s script and storyline were lifted almost verbatim from an existing French graphic novel and TV project. This development not only highlights the perils of intellectual property theft in the streaming era but also raises questions about Apple’s vetting processes for international productions.
The controversy erupted earlier this month when French author and comic book creator Julien Blondel, known for his work on the acclaimed graphic novel series W_E_ (a gritty tale of surveillance and pursuit in a dystopian France), publicly accused Traqués‘ creator, a relatively unknown screenwriter named Lucas Moreau, of wholesale plagiarism. According to Blondel’s detailed exposé shared on social media and corroborated by industry insiders, Moreau had pitched Traqués to Apple Studios Paris as an original concept. However, side-by-side comparisons revealed striking similarities: identical plot twists involving a rogue intelligence operative evading a shadowy government agency, recurring motifs of urban cat-and-mouse chases through Paris’s underbelly, and even verbatim dialogue lifted from W_E_‘s third volume, published in 2022.
Blondel wasn’t alone in his outrage. The allegations quickly snowballed when it emerged that Moreau had also drawn inspiration—without attribution — from the 2021 French miniseries Les Invisibles, a Canal+ production about undercover agents in a surveillance state. A forensic analysis by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD), France’s leading authors’ rights organization, confirmed that over 40% of Traqués’ pilot script overlapped with protected material from these sources. “This isn’t homage; it’s highway robbery,” Blondel told Le Monde in an interview. “Apple was about to greenlight a show that could have fooled audiences into thinking it was fresh, but it’s a Frankenstein of stolen ideas.”
Apple TV acted swiftly upon receiving the formal complaint from Blondel’s legal team on November 10, 2025. In a terse statement released via its European press office, the company confirmed the project’s indefinite suspension: “We take all claims of intellectual property infringement seriously. After a thorough internal review, we’ve decided not to proceed with Traqués in its current form to uphold our commitment to original storytelling and creator rights.” Sources close to the production reveal that the decision came directly from Apple’s content acquisition head, who reportedly viewed the evidence as “irrefutable.” The series, which had already cast rising stars like Adèle Exarchopoulos in the lead role of a fugitive hacker, had been slated for a 2026 premiere with a budget exceeding €15 million ($16.5 million USD).
This isn’t the first time plagiarism has derailed a high-profile streaming project. Just last year, Netflix faced backlash over similarities between its Spanish thriller Intimidad and an earlier Catalan novel, leading to script rewrites and delays. But Apple’s misstep with Traqués stings particularly in France, where the company has aggressively expanded its local output to compete with established players like Canal+ and Arte. Since launching Apple TV in 2019, the service has invested heavily in Gallic talent, producing hits like the Oscar-nominated The Tragedy of Macbeth (with French co-production elements) and the sci-fi drama Extrapolations. Traqués was positioned as a flagship for Apple’s “European Originals” initiative, aimed at capturing the continent’s 450 million potential subscribers.
The fallout extends beyond the canceled series. Moreau, who had been hailed as a “rising voice” in French TV circles after winning a minor César for screenwriting in 2024, now faces potential lawsuits from both Blondel and the Les Invisibles production team. Industry observers speculate that his career could be in tatters, with agents distancing themselves amid whispers of blacklisting. “In an age where AI tools make copying easier than ever, this is a wake-up call for streamers,” says media analyst Marie Dupont of the Paris-based consultancy ScreenTrends. “Apple’s quick pivot is commendable, but it exposes gaps in their due diligence—especially for non-English content where translation barriers can hide red flags.”
For Apple TV, the silver lining might be the opportunity to pivot to other promising French projects in development, such as a historical drama about the French Resistance co-created with Pathé. Yet the Traqués debacle serves as a stark reminder of the cutthroat world of global content creation: in the rush to localize and innovate, authenticity remains the ultimate currency. As Blondel put it, “Stories are sacred. Steal one, and you’re hunted for life.”
MacDailyNews Note: This article draws from Clément Garin’s in-depth reporting on Substack, where he unpacks the intricacies of the scandal for paid subscribers. For the original French analysis, visit ClemGarin.substack.com.
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