Apple News
Critics call Apple TV’s new comedy series the year’s quietest triumph
Apple TV’s strongest new arrival this year may not be an original at all. “Small Prophets,” the six-episode comedy from “Detectorists” creator Mackenzie Crook, landed on the service on October 7th after a celebrated run on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, and early American reviews are treating it as the streamer’s standout of 2026.
The Hollywood Reporter says the series “may be the finest show to hit Apple this year,” with the caveat that the ranking depends on how one feels about “Widow’s Bay.” The Verge called it “extremely strong in basically every regard,” a low-key mix of sweet and silly that has no real equivalent elsewhere. Elsewhere it has been described as a “jewel-like, unhurried masterpiece” that is funny, profound, and capable of breaking and mending the heart in the same stretch. It holds a rare perfect critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and earlier won Best Series in the International Panorama at Series Mania.
The premise is small on the surface and strange underneath. Pearce Quigley plays Michael Sleep, a Manchester-area hardware-store worker whose life has stayed on hold since his partner, Clea, disappeared seven years ago. He visits his father, Brian (Sir Michael Palin), spars with a nosy neighbor and a difficult boss, and keeps a house still full of Clea’s boxes. Then an old alchemical recipe enters the picture: tiny prophetic homunculi, grown in jars, that may be able to tell him what happened to her.
Lauren Patel plays Kacey, the co-worker who becomes an unlikely ally. Crook writes, directs, and co-stars as Gordon, Michael’s boss. Sophie Willan, Jon Pointing, and Paul Kaye round out the ensemble.
What reviewers keep returning to is the tone. Crook’s show is droll rather than broad, whimsical without tipping into twee, and grounded in ordinary grief even as the alchemy grows stranger. Quigley’s performance is being singled out as one of the year’s best: sarcastic and shut-in on the surface, funny and oddly lovable once the show lets him in. Palin’s turn as the father has drawn similar praise. Episodes run about half an hour, which suits the unhurried pace.
The pickup itself is unusual for Apple. Rather than commissioning the series, the streamer acquired worldwide rights after the BBC run, the first time it has bought an existing English-language show this way. In Britain it was the year’s biggest new scripted launch for the broadcaster, drawing as many as 9.2 million viewers, and the BBC has already ordered a second series, due in 2027 and moving to BBC One. Outside the U.K., the first two episodes are streaming now, with the rest arriving weekly through November 4. British Apple TV subscribers will have to wait until 2027.
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 4K, 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 $14.99 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 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
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Amazon, Google face new smart home rival as Apple preps smart home blitz
Apple is preparing its most direct challenge yet to Amazon and Google in the connected home, lining up a new hub and a slate of security and climate devices developed with LG Electronics, according to people familiar with the plans.
The products — a doorbell, deadbolt lock, thermostat, indoor camera, outdoor camera and floodlight camera — are designed to work with an Apple smart-home ecosystem the company has been rebuilding for years, Bloomberg News reported. The hardware is expected alongside a long-delayed smart-home hub, an updated HomePod mini and a new Apple TV, with an introduction targeted for October 13th.
If the schedule holds, the launch would mark Apple’s first full-scale push into a category Amazon’s Ring and Alphabet’s Nest have dominated with doorbells, cameras, locks and thermostats. It would also be one of the first major product expansions under Chief Executive John Ternus, and a formal reboot of HomeKit, the platform Apple introduced in 2014 that never matched the reach of Alexa or Google Home.
At the center of the effort is a tabletop hub, internally code-named J490, described as a roughly six-inch square display on a tiltable arm reminiscent of the early-2000s iMac G4. A wall-mountable variant, J491, is also in development. The device runs a new interface drawn from iOS, tvOS, and watchOS, built around Apple’s rather capable Siri AI. It is expected to handle device control, FaceTime, intercom, media and household personalization, using the front camera and voice recognition to switch the screen to the person standing in front of it.
The LG-developed accessories are meant to give that hub something to control beyond lights and plugs. The deadbolt is said to support ultra wideband, so it can unlock as an authorized iPhone approaches — an extension of the proximity features Apple already uses in AirTag, car keys and Home Key. Cameras and the doorbell would put Apple in direct competition with Ring’s security lineup and Nest’s cameras and doorbells, categories where both rivals sell hardware and recurring cloud-storage plans.
Apple has reasons to move now, and reasons the timing has reportedly been delayed several times. The hub was once expected in 2024, then spring 2026, and slipped again while Apple reworked Siri. Amazon and Google spent those years embedding newer assistants — Alexa+ and Gemini for Home — into speakers, displays and cameras, and both already support Matter and Thread, the interoperability standards Apple is also expected to lean on. Samsung’s SmartThings platform has a different advantage: televisions and appliances already in millions of homes.
Apple’s counter is the installed base it already owns. iPhones, Apple TV devices, and HomePods can act as controllers, and the company has long sold privacy and on-device processing as the difference versus cloud-heavy rivals. The risk is price and breadth. Earlier reporting has put the hub near $350, well above typical Amazon Echo Show and Nest Hub prices, and HomeKit’s certified-device list remains far smaller than Alexa’s or Google’s. An iPhone is still expected to be required for setup.
Apple has not commented on the reports. Until the expected October 13th event, the lineup remains unconfirmed, but, after a decade on the edge of the category, Apple is seemingly trying to turn the home into another place where its hardware, its assistant, and its services set the terms, rather than leaving that role to Amazon and Google.
MacDailyNews Take: Breadth of devices is overrated: People only need a few smart doorbells, cameras, locks, plugs, sensors, and thermostats from which to choose, not fifty of each. Too many options just add confusion for average people who are just trying to make their homes smarter. Apple’s advantage is privacy, security, and ease-of-use, which includes the larger Apple ecosystem in which billions of users already operate.
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Apple and LG co-develop doorbell, lock, and thermostat for smart-home push
Apple is preparing a broader smart-home lineup that includes a video doorbell, thermostat, and other accessories co-developed with LG Electronics, according to Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman.
The devices are meant to sit alongside Apple’s own upcoming hardware: a new smart-home hub, an upgraded HomePod mini, and a refreshed TV set-top box. Those Apple products are set to be introduced on October 13th, Gurman reported, citing people familiar with the plans. The LG-linked accessories are running behind that schedule and are not expected to reach buyers for at least a few more months.
Beyond the doorbell and thermostat, the partnership covers a smart deadbolt lock, an indoor security camera, an outdoor security camera, and a floodlight camera, the people said. Even though Apple and LG worked on the products together, they will carry the LG brand. LG is handling manufacturing and product support, while Apple is shaping design, features, and engineering.
Gurman described the arrangement as part of a pattern Apple has used with “second-party” suppliers, including Foxconn’s Belkin and Logitech, in which products developed with Apple ship under another company’s name. The approach lets Apple expand an ecosystem without taking on the full cost of making and supporting a wide accessory line.
Recent regulatory filings have already surfaced product names. LG has sought approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and UL Solutions for items labeled the LG Video Doorbell Wired, LG Floodlight Cam, LG Outdoor Cam Plug-In, LG Indoor Cam Plug-In, LG Smart Deadbolt Lock, LG Smart Thermostat, and LG Temperature Sensor. LG asked that photos and more precise details stay confidential until early next year. The filings do not mention Apple.
Many of the devices support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Thread, and Matter. The lock also includes ultra-wideband, which can enable automatic unlocking as an authorized user approaches the door, according to the report.
For Apple, the push is a formal reboot of HomeKit, the platform it launched in 2014 that has lagged Amazon and Google. The company is counting on the new devices and Siri AI to revive the category. Gurman has also reported that Apple is planning further home products of its own, including a privacy-focused home-monitoring device, a hub variant that mounts the screen on a robotic arm, and an in-home security monitoring service.
For LG, better known for TVs and appliances, the lineup is a rare expansion into connected security and climate control: its first indoor camera in nearly a decade, and its first recent outdoor camera, thermostat, floodlight camera, and doorbell. It would also be LG’s first smart lock sold outside South Korea.
That puts both companies closer to Amazon’s Ring and Google’s Nest. Apple and LG declined to comment, Gurman reported. The two have a long history — LG Display supplies screens for many Apple products, Apple has integrated services into LG TVs, and nearly a decade ago Apple co-developed external monitors with LG after briefly leaving that market.
MacDailyNews Take: LG will be the first of many, hopefully.
And, now, a blast from the past:
LG is the former “Lucky GoldStar,” as it was known in the United States before rebranding to “LG.” In other words: for years, they made some of the world’s worst craptronics; so bad, in fact, that they had to change their name. – MacDailyNews, December 18, 2007
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Apple Music gets new logo
Apple Music is set to get a new logo, according to MacRumors’ Tim Hardwick, who reports that the redesigned mark has already appeared in the third developer betas of iOS 27.2 and macOS 27.2.
The logo matches the one Apple used last month when it announced Apple Music Hall, its 600-capacity venue at London’s Battersea Power Station. At the time, Hardwick notes, it was unclear whether the mark was limited to the hall’s press materials and its site, applemusichall.com, or whether it signaled a broader brand change. Its presence in the system betas now points to the latter: the streaming service’s official logo is being updated.
Apple’s public Apple Music website and web player still carry the current logo. Hardwick writes that those surfaces are expected to switch over as the company rolls out the software updates later this month, shortly after the launch of the iPhone Duo. By then, the new mark should be visible across Apple Music’s apps and related branding.
iOS 27.2 beta 3 uses the new Apple Music logo https://t.co/Y2OaON5Bg3
— Aaron (@aaronp613) October 5, 2026
The new Apple Music logo is starting to appear in macOS 27.2 beta 3! https://t.co/nWZAW5dobf
— ldt (@madeby_ldt) October 5, 2026
MacDailyNews Take: It’s cleaner and the font and style better fits with the iconic Apple logo.
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Apple raises Apple One Family and Premier prices in select European countries
Apple has raised the monthly price of its Apple One Family and Apple One Premier bundles in a limited set of European countries, according to MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol. Affected subscribers began receiving email notices on October 5, 2026. The new rates apply immediately for new sign-ups, while existing subscribers will see the higher charge on their next renewal date.
The Family plan increased in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland. Premier rose in only three of those markets: Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. In Spain and Portugal, both Family and Premier went up by €2 a month, with increases in other currencies described as similar in scale. The Individual plan was left unchanged.
Apple One Individual includes 50GB of iCloud+ storage plus Apple TV, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade. Family steps storage up to 200GB and keeps the same three services. Premier adds 2TB of storage, Apple Fitness+, and Apple News+.
MacDailyNews Note: Rossignol noted that this is at least the third round of Apple One price increases in 2026, a pattern that supports Apple’s services revenue. Family and Premier had already gone up earlier this year in the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K., and other countries, while Individual rose in the U.S., Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.
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Green-bubble chats get closer to Apple’s iMessage as iOS 27 adds RCS replies and reactions
Apple’s Messages app in iOS 27 now handles two features that will help Android RCS chats – one that iMessage users have taken for granted for years: inline replies and proper Tapback reactions.
The changes, reflected in Apple’s iOS 27 user guide, mean an iPhone user can long-press a message in an RCS thread and reply to that specific bubble. The reply shows inline for everyone in the conversation, whether they are on iPhone or Android, instead of landing as an unanchored message that only makes sense if you scroll back and guess the context.
Tapbacks get the same treatment. Until now, reacting to a photo or video from an Android contact often produced a separate text on the other side — something like “Jane loved an image” — rather than a heart or thumbs-up sitting on the media. In iOS 27 those reactions render as reactions. Apple’s guide now lists read receipts, typing indicators, Tapbacks, inline replies, and high-resolution photos and videos among the RCS features Messages supports.
Both pieces belong to the RCS Universal Profile 2.7 specification. Apple had not shipped them until now. The features showed up in iOS 27 betas over the summer — testers noted proper emoji reactions and threaded replies as early as beta 2 in June — and are part of the public release.
They land on top of a larger security change from earlier in the year. In May, Apple said end-to-end encrypted RCS had begun rolling out in beta with iOS 26.5 for supported carriers, in parallel with Google Messages. Apple and Google led the cross-industry work with the GSMA; encryption uses the Messaging Layer Security protocol in RCS Universal Profile 3.0, is on by default, and is marked with a lock icon in the thread. It only applies when both sides and their carriers support it.
Taken together, the 2026 updates narrow the practical gap between the inferior green-bubble RCS and superior blue-bubble iMessage. Editing and unsending messages are also in the newer RCS profiles and have not clearly arrived on iPhone yet; 9to5Mac has noted those as possible later additions. iMessage remains Apple’s fully encrypted default between Apple devices, and group features, effects, and Apple Intelligence tools such as one-tap suggestions and the new Drawing app in Messages are still iMessage-side experiences.
MacDailyNews Take: For mixed iPhone–Android chats, though, the everyday annoyances are a bit smaller: you can answer the message that was actually sent, and a reaction no longer dumps a sentence into the thread.
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Apple TV 4K may gain four-HomePod surround sound, software clues suggest
Apple appears to be preparing a four-HomePod surround-sound setup for Apple TV 4K, according to MacRumors‘ Joe Rossignol, who reports that fresh software evidence has surfaced ahead of an expected product announcement.
Rossignol writes that a leaker known as “pdfu,” who previously said Apple had tested connecting four HomePods to an Apple TV 4K in front-left, front-right, rear-left, and rear-right positions, has found more related code in the third beta of audioOS 27.2, Apple’s internal name for the HomePod operating system. Among the findings, the leaker said Siri can match a speaker to its surround system.
Separately, MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris found two new SF Symbols in the third beta of macOS 27.2 that depict four speakers arranged in a room. The symbols do not name the HomePod, but one looks like a top-down view of the speakers and the other refers to a home-theater setup. Their addition at this stage is being read as another sign that the feature is real.
Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman has said Apple plans to unveil a new HomePod mini and a new Apple TV 4K on Tuesday, October 13th, with a full-size HomePod refresh still expected later. It is not clear whether four-speaker surround would need new hardware. According to Rossignol’s report, pdfu previously said Apple tested both four second-generation HomePods and a mix of two second-generation HomePods in front with two unreleased rear speakers. It is also unclear whether current Apple TV 4K models would be included or whether the feature would be limited to the next model.
MacDailyNews Note: Today, Apple TV 4K can use a pair of HomePods or HomePod mini units as its default stereo output. With new HomePod and Apple TV models reportedly close, and with matching clues in software code and system symbols, Rossignol concludes that Apple is likely to show the feature soon unless something changes at the last minute.
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Apple TV announces ‘The Choir,’ a new comedic drama from Ruth Jones and James Corden
Apple TV on Tuesday revealed details of the new comedic drama “The Choir,” the highly anticipated eight-episode series about family, friendship, love, and music from Ruth Jones and James Corden. “The Choir” marks the multi-award-winning writers and stars’ first project together since the record-breaking “Gavin & Stacey: The Finale.” Jones and Corden also serve as executive producers on the series, now in production and set to premiere globally on Apple TV in 2027.
Brother and sister Ben (Corden) and Lisa (Jones) haven’t seen each other for several years. Ben has been living abroad, while Lisa has carried on in their small English town, where nothing ever happens. But when events take a sorry turn, Ben is forced to return to a life he never wanted, a town he never liked and a family from which he’s estranged. Can the unlikely healing of a rift with his big sister come in the form of a struggling local choir and the ensemble who sing their hearts out each week?
The ensemble cast also includes BAFTA Award winner Tom Davis (“Wonka”), Rosie Sheehy (“The Custom of the Country”), Actor Award nominee Susan Brown (“Mr Bates vs The Post Office”), BAFTA Award winner Jason Watkins (“Dirty Business”), Actor Award nominee David Harewood (“Homeland”), Alexandria Riley (“Silo”), Sylvestra Le Touzel (“Intelligence”), Tom Edden (“Mr. Turner”), Gary Lamont (“Rivals”), Emily Lloyd-Saini (“Wicker”), Stephen Leask (“Mother’s Pride”), Luiis Rouf (“Sunlight”), Jo Foster (“Into The Woods,” Bridge Theatre), Evie Jones (“Truckload”) and Farrah Abbassy. The series also features Emmy Award winner Hannah Waddingham (“Ted Lasso”), BAFTA Award winner James McAvoy (“Split”), and Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent (“Iris”) in guest roles.
The series is produced for Apple TV by Various Artists Limited and TidyTwo with Phil Clarke, Jack Bayles, Jones, and Corden serving as executive producers, and BAFTA Award nominees Jennifer Sheridan (“The Other Bennet Sister”) and Jim Archer (“Big Boys”) set to direct.
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 been honored with 919 wins and 3,832 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
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 4K, 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 $14.99 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 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
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No, Apple’s year does not hinge on the iPhone Duo
Analysts are treating Apple’s first foldable as the product that will decide the year. Bloomberg Opinion’s Dave Lee writes that the question Wall Street is asking is how many consumers are waiting for the iPhone Duo, and that the answer is “hugely important to Apple’s stock this year and beyond.”
Lee’s column lands as the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max approach three weeks on sale. He notes that analysts have described consumer interest in the new Pro range as somewhat flat versus last year’s Pro models, and frames the Duo (priced at $1,999, with preorders set for October 16th and stores on October 23rd) as the make-or-break device. The caption on the piece says as much: this could be the product the year turns on.
That reading fits a familiar pattern. Apple moves its base iPhone 18 to a spring launch, so the September lineup is Pros plus a foldable that will not ship until late October. Counterpoint Research has put Duo shipments at about 6 million units for 2026, a figure more typical of the niche foldable market than of a core iPhone. If Pro demand really is soft, the argument goes, Apple needs the Duo’s waiting list to refill the narrative before the holiday quarter closes.
Lee is right that the Duo matters to the story investors are telling. He is less convincing that the year itself depends on it.
MacDailyNews Take: Lee just wanted so desperately to work “hinge” into an iPhone Duo headline.
The year does not hinge on a supply-capped halo phone. Analysts already have Duo units for 2026 at roughly 6 million, and the constraint being cited is production, not a lack of buyers. Apple will sell every Duo it can build. Calling a 6-million-unit foldable the make-or-break product is laughable when the Pro models, the mix shift, and Services are what actually matter. Flat iPhone Pro demand versus last year’s launch-week fever is not a crisis with the first foldable ten days from preorder. It is more likely a tell that some Pro upgraders are holding for Apple’s first foldable instead.
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Apple TV renews ‘Imperfect Women’ series for second season
Global hit limited series “Imperfect Women” is back on Apple TV by popular demand. The series is returning for a compelling new chapter set on Martha’s Vineyard that will revolve around fan-favorite character Eleanor, played by Emmy Award-winning producer and actor Kerry Washington, who will reprise her role and serve as executive producer alongside Emmy Award winner Elisabeth Moss. Creator Annie Weisman will return to serve as co-showrunner alongside Justin Hillian (“The Chi,” “Snowfall”) on the second season of the thriller, which will be based on an original idea.
“We were thrilled to see how deeply these women and their stories resonated with audiences around the world, and I’m so excited to step back into Eleanor’s shoes,” says Kerry Washington in a statemnt. “She’s intelligent and strong, but she also finds herself navigating complicated and sometimes messy situations. We at Simpson Street, along with our incredible partners at Apple and Love & Squalor Pictures, can’t wait to explore a fresh chapter for her and share where this story takes us next.”
“After a wildly entertaining first season, driven by the performances of Kerry, Lizzie and Kate, we jumped at the opportunity to expand the world of ‘Imperfect Women’ through Kerry’s fan-favorite character of Eleanor,” said Matt Cherniss, Apple TV’s head of programming, in a statement. “Annie and Justin’s thrilling new story felt like an exciting and natural next chapter. We can’t wait for fans to experience it.”
Based on Araminta Hall’s novel of the same name, “Imperfect Women” examines a crime that shatters the lives of a decades-long friendship of three women. In season two, Eleanor (Washington) returns to her hometown roots in the affluent black enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, only to find that beneath its idyllic surface, lie secrets and scandals that threaten to upend everything she thought she knew about her past.
“Imperfect Women” is a co-production between 20th Television and Apple Studios. The second season will be created, co-showrun and executive produced by Weisman and Hillian. Washington executive produces for her Simpson Street banner alongside Pilar Savone. Moss and Lindsey McManus, who initially optioned the book via their production company Love & Squalor Pictures, are executive producers alongside author Hall.
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 been honored with 919 wins and 3,832 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “Widow’s Bay,” “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
MacDailyNews Take: 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 4K, 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 $14.99 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 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
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Second October product launch expected as Apple lines up more late-month hardware
Apple is expected to stage a second product launch in the final week of October, according to MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol, citing multiple sources familiar with the company’s plans.
That later window would follow an earlier October event. Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman has reported that Apple intends to unveil an all-new home hub, a new HomePod mini, and a new Apple TV 4K on Tuesday, October 13th. MacRumors has since learned of a separate launch slated for the end of the month, pointing to two distinct sets of announcements rather than a single October drop.
Rossignol writes that the exact lineup for the late-month launch is not confirmed, but the most likely candidates are Macs. Those include long-rumored “MacBook Ultra” models with OLED displays and a thinner, lighter design, a base 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M6 chip, and an iMac with an M6 chip. Apple has also already said a high-end Mac Studio configuration with the M5 Ultra chip and 512GB of RAM is due in late October, which would fit the same period.
A new iPad mini is also expected this month, with an OLED display, an A20 Pro chip, a landscape front camera, and a redesigned speaker system. It is not clear whether that tablet would appear with the home products on October 13, with the Macs in the final week, or on its own.
MacDailyNews Take: The two launch windows would sit alongside the iPhone Duo, which is set to launch on Friday, October 23rd. Taken together, the schedule described points to a crowded second half of the month for Apple hardware.
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Apple special event reportedly planned for October 13th
Apple is planning to hold a special event on Tuesday, October 13th, to introduce a long-awaited smart home hub, a new HomePod mini, and an updated Apple TV, according to Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman.
In his Power On newsletter, Gurman wrote that “Apple is planning to hold an event on Oct. 13 to unveil its long-awaited smart home hub with a screen, the new HomePod mini and an updated Apple TV.” He added that all three devices will have Siri AI at the core. The report goes further than earlier reporting: last week Gurman said the products were set to be unveiled on October 13th, but he did not then specify that Apple would stage an event.
Apple has not issued an invitation or confirmed the date. Based on the timing of past October launches, invitations could go out as soon as this week. If the company follows recent practice, the event is expected to be streamed online, with a hands-on session for selected media afterward.
The centerpiece is expected to be Apple’s first dedicated smart home hub, sometimes referred to in reports as HomePad. Bloomberg has described a square display of about 6 inches, an iMac G4-style design with a screen on a connected base, and versions that can sit on a countertop or mount on a wall. It is said to include a front-facing FaceTime camera, microphones, and speakers in the base, and to serve as a control point for HomeKit devices, widgets, and personalized information.
Also expected is the first new HomePod mini since the original launched in 2020, with a faster chip, improved audio, and support for Apple’s newer Siri AI features. The refreshed Apple TV 4K is likewise reported to gain a faster processor, more memory, and Siri AI.
The possible October event would follow a busy September in which Apple, under new CEO John Ternus, introduced the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, the company’s first foldable phone (the iPhone Duo), AirPods 5, and new Apple Watch models. Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo are expected to begin October 16th, with availability on October 23rd.
MacDailyNews Note: Other products still rumored for later in 2026, including an OLED iPad mini and new Macs, are not part of Gurman’s October 13th event description. Apple typically confirms event dates only when it sends invitations.
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New tool lets Mac users strip Apple Intelligence and reclaim about 12GB of storage
Mac owners who never asked for Apple Intelligence are finding a new way to get the disk space back.
A free open-source tool called RemoveMacAI turns the feature off on macOS 27, deletes the on-device models, and tries to stop them from returning. Developer Om Lahore released it under an MIT license after Apple dropped the single master switch in Golden Gate. You can still toggle individual features, but the models stay on the drive anyway. Apple has put the footprint at up to about 14 GB on recent Macs. Lahore says the tool typically recovers around 12 GB. Some users have seen System Settings list 30 GB or more, and a few report reclaiming space in that neighborhood.
The utility runs from Terminal. You install it with a one-line curl command or Homebrew, confirm what it plans to do, then approve a configuration profile in System Settings. macOS requires that approval, so the tool cannot skip it. The profile uses Apple’s own restriction keys to shut off the features and the asset service that manages the models. RemoveMacAI then deletes the downloads through that service rather than by turning off System Integrity Protection or hand-editing protected folders. It also points future download attempts at a closed local port so they fail. A dry-run previews the change. A revert command undoes it. Dictation is left alone.
What you lose is the rest of the AI suite: Siri and “Hey Siri,” Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, the ChatGPT extension, summaries, smart replies, inline predictions, Photos Clean Up, Spatial Photos, and Xcode’s predictive completion. You can keep specific features if you want.
The appeal is obvious on a 256 GB Mac that cannot be upgraded. The risk is also obvious. This is an unofficial tool, and the restriction keys it relies on were already deprecated in macOS 26.4. They still work in 27.0.1, but a future update could break them. Storage numbers in Settings can lag while the system finishes cleaning up. Anyone who runs it should read the code first and treat the result as reversible only for as long as Apple leaves the door open.
MacDailyNews Take: More info: https://github.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI
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Apple is hiring an ‘iCup’ specialist to keep break-room coffee flowing
Apple is looking for someone to keep the coffee running across its Santa Clara Valley offices, under a job title that sounds more like a product codename than a facilities role.
The company posted a listing on September 28 for an “iCup Supply Specialist,” a full-time role in its Corporate Functions group based in Santa Clara, California. The posting says the hire will make sure employees have access to freshly brewed coffee in break rooms, and it opens with a line that has already circulated among Apple watchers: “At Apple, we take coffee seriously.”
As MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol reports, the specialist would work as a route operator, driving between sites to sanitize, clean, restock, and manage as many as 90 bean-to-cup machines. Day-to-day work includes refilling beans and supplies, cleaning food-contact surfaces, answering service calls, and coordinating with building managers. The role reports to an iCup Service Supervisor. MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris first flagged the listing over the weekend.
Pay is listed at $27.75 to $36.05 an hour. Minimum requirements include a high school diploma or equivalent, knowledge of safe food-handling practices, one to three years of route or delivery experience, similar time in customer service and warehouse or grocery work, a driver’s license with a clean record, and the ability to lift up to 50 pounds.
The “iCup” name is not new. Apple was already recruiting an “iCup Technician” by 2014, when TIME Magazine noted the internal coffee operation. More than a decade later, the team is still branded like a product line, even though the work is break-room logistics rather than a secret device.
The listing is on Apple’s jobs site for applicants who want the route.
MacDailyNews Take: For a second, we were worried the job was for the company softball team.
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Today is the 15th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death
Today marks the 15th anniversary of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ death.
Jobs died at his Palo Alto, California home on October 5, 2011, due to complications from a relapse of his previously treated islet-cell pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. He died with his wife, children, and sisters at his side. His sister, writer Mona Simpson, described his passing: “Steve’s final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times. Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve’s final words were: ‘Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.'” He then lost consciousness and passed away several hours later.
There’s lots of ways to be as a person, and some people express their deep appreciation in different ways, but one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there.
And you never meet the people, you never shake their hands, you never hear their story or tell yours, but somehow, in the act of making something with a great deal of care and love, something is transmitted there.
And it’s a way of expressing to the rest of our species our deep appreciation. So, we need to be true to who we are and remember what’s really important to us. That’s what’s going to keep Apple, Apple: is if we keep us, us. — Steve Jobs
MacDailyNews Take: As always, we miss you, Steve!
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Apple will replace a ‘small number’ of AT&T iPhone 18 Pro Max units after service-loss bug
Apple said it will replace a “small number” of iPhone 18 Pro Max phones on the AT&T network after a bug left some devices unable to connect to cellular service.
In a statement given to media outlets, the company said it had “identified an issue affecting a small number of iPhone 18 Pro Max users on the AT&T network that may cause a device to lose service and be unable to make calls.” Reports from affected customers describe phones that also cannot send or receive texts or use mobile data, leaving them usable mainly on Wi-Fi and, in some cases, stuck in SOS mode.
The problem is limited to the iPhone 18 Pro Max on AT&T. Apple said it has not seen the same failure on other iPhone models or on other carriers. The $1,299 handset had been on sale for about two weeks when the reports surfaced. Apple has not said how many devices are affected; MacRumors noted that thousands of users had posted complaints on Apple’s support forums and elsewhere, while the company continues to describe the group as small.
Software fixes will not restore phones that have already lost service. Apple released iOS 27.0.1 earlier in the week and began pushing an AT&T carrier settings update intended to stop the bug from hitting more devices. “These updates together are meant to help prevent this issue from occurring,” the company said. It urged all iPhone 18 Pro Max owners on AT&T to install the updates now. The carrier settings update is expected to download automatically over about 14 days; users can also trigger it manually by opening Settings, tapping General, then About.
Customers whose phones have already dropped service need a hardware replacement. Apple said those users should contact Apple Support or AT&T, or visit an Apple Store or AT&T store, to arrange a swap. Once a replacement is issued, the line has to be activated on the new handset.
MacDailyNews Note: For everyone else on AT&T with a working iPhone 18 Pro Max, the immediate step is to update. Owners of other iPhones, and iPhone 18 Pro Max users on other carriers, are not affected.
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Apple to tighten Mac prompts when AI agents seek full-disk access after Meta Muse complaints
Apple said Friday it will add clearer warnings and extra controls on Macs when AI agents request broad access to a user’s files, a change that follows complaints about Meta’s Muse agent and private messages, Reuters’ Stephen Nellis reports.
On iPhones and iPads, apps are sandboxed by default and cannot read data inside other apps. Macs are more open: a “Full Disk Access” setting lets programs such as backup tools see everything on the machine if the user agrees. Apple said some developers have used that permission in ways that could put people at risk, and that the danger will grow as AI agents become more capable and autonomous.
“Going forward, we will introduce additional controls to ensure that users who genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access can only do so with very explicit user action,” Apple wrote in a developer post, according to Reuters’ Stephen Nellis. The company said it wants people to understand those risks before they hand over that level of access.
The move follows a column by Inc magazine’s Jason Aten, who said Meta’s Muse — an agent meant to handle tasks such as canceling unused subscriptions or negotiating better prices — had read private messages on his Mac even though he believed he had not turned on Full Disk Access. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone disputed that account, writing on X that Muse can read Apple Messages content only if a user enables both Full Disk Access and a Messages connector, and that the permission can be revoked at any time.
MacDailyNews Take: Meta Platforms is not to be trusted. Anyone who grants Full Disk Access on their Mac to Meta Platforms, of all companies, deserves whatever privacy or security disasters befall them.
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Apple Original Films celebrates ‘Matchbox The Movie’ in Mexico City
At the start of this month at Toreo Parque Central in Mexico City, Apple Original Films hosted a special screening for its highly anticipated action film “Matchbox The Movie,” premiering globally on Apple TV on Friday, October 9, 2026. Event attendees included stars John Cena, Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Teyonah Parris, and Arturo Castro.
Inspired by the iconic Mattel toys, “Matchbox The Movie” is an action-packed, globe-trotting adventure about a group of friends since childhood who have their lives upended when undercover CIA agent Sean (John Cena), their long-absent former leader, returns to their small town and unwittingly gets them embroiled in a frantic international pursuit to save the world.
An Apple Original Film hailing from Skydance Media and Mattel Films, “Matchbox The Movie” is directed and executive produced by Sam Hargrave and written by David Coggeshall. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger produce for Skydance, and Robbie Brenner and Ynon Kreiz produce for Mattel Films. Jules Daly also serves as producer. Patrick Newall and Elizabeth Bassin serve 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 been honored with 919 wins and 3,829 award nominations and counting including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
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 4K, 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 $14.99 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 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
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Apple’s redesigned OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro said to be significantly lighter
Apple’s redesigned MacBook Pro will be significantly lighter than the current models, Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman reports, on top of the touchscreen and OLED display already expected.
In his Power On newsletter, Gurman says Apple has reengineered the interior, miniaturizing parts and rearranging components so the computer is much easier to carry. He does not give a new weight. The current 16-inch MacBook Pro weighs as much as about 4.7 to 4.8 pounds, compared with 3.3 pounds for the 15-inch MacBook Air, so a real cut on the larger Pro would be obvious in a bag.
The machines are the first MacBooks with a touch screen and the first MacBook Pros with OLED, which Gurman has previously described as tandem OLED. They are also expected to be thinner, swap the notch for a Dynamic Island, and use M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. Gurman says they are being tested with macOS 27.2, which is already in beta, and that he still expects Apple to introduce them in October or November.
Touch is meant to sit alongside the keyboard and trackpad, not replace them. Software changes tied to the new display include controls that enlarge after a tap, menus that appear near the finger, and support for scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. The OLED models are expected to sit above the existing MacBook Pros and cost more.
MacDailyNews Take: Lighter is better!
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New Apple CEO is far more involved in design than predecessor
Apple is not looking outside for a chief design officer. Chief executive John Ternus is doing the job himself, according to Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman.
In his Power On newsletter, Gurman reports that Ternus has immersed himself in the company’s industrial design and human interface teams since becoming CEO on September 1st. People familiar with the department say he works hands-on in the design studio several times a week, sometimes returning more than once in a single day. That is a sharp change from Tim Cook, who typically visited for about an hour once a month at most, Gurman writes.
Ternus already had some involvement with the studio as head of hardware engineering, because the two functions have to stay closely coordinated. His role has widened since he took the top job. Gurman describes him as having effectively chosen himself as the overall design leader, even though Apple has not formally named him chief design officer.
The two groups still have their own heads: Molly Anderson in industrial design and Steve Lemay in human interface design. Apple has not had a single executive over both functions since Jony Ive left in 2019. Ternus began overseeing design before he became CEO. After former chief operating officer Jeff Williams retired in 2025, the teams formally reported to Cook but, in practice, began answering to Ternus. During the April-to-September transition, the design leaders were effectively his only direct reports, Gurman reports.
The shift matches how Ternus is splitting the rest of the job. He is largely leaving finance to chief financial officer Kevan Parekh and the supply chain to chief operating officer Sabih Khan, and is spending product time with chief hardware officer Johny Srouji and hardware engineering leader Tom Marieb.
Gurman also recounts a conversation between Ternus and Cook in which Ternus was told to be himself rather than copy his predecessor. Cook had focused on the areas where he could create the most value for Apple — operations, sales, financial strategy, and the supply chain. Ternus, a hardware engineer, is putting his time into engineering and design instead.
MacDailyNews Take: It is so very nice to finally have a product guy back at Apple’s helm! It bodes very well for the company’s future after a decade and a half slog of iteration and financial engineering. We can’t wait to see what Ternus & Co. create!
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