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Apple is going to be quite picky about the types of ads it shows in Apple Maps. New advertising rules say plumbers, electricians, locksmiths and roofers can’t buy ads on the navigation app — even though Google happily sells them in its mapping app.

That’s a deliberate distinction from Google’s model, in which home services ads make up one of the biggest categories. And that’s just the start of Apple’s restrictions on ads in Apple Maps and its other services.

As it turns out, Apple wants Maps to feel more like a curated storefront than a search engine.

Apple closed the unlocked iPhone loophole for T-Mobile and Verizon buyers. If you’ve financed an iPhone through any of these carriers, it used to stay unlocked. Not anymore.

Every iPhone financed through T-Mobile or Verizon will now stay locked to that carrier until you fully pay it off. This is exactly how AT&T’s financing has always worked. It means no more SIM swapping, joining an MVNO or popping in a travel eSIM on the go.

Apple is pushing an AppleCare+ price increase, with Mac and iPad owners footing the bill. Sign up for coverage on a new Mac or iPad today, and you’ll pay 50 cents more per month than you would have last week.

The change just went into effect and only affects new AppleCare+ enrollments. If you’re already subscribed, you’ll keep your current rate for now. But Apple hasn’t clarified how long that will last. It’s a small bump, but lands just weeks after Apple hiked hardware prices.

Apple’s AirPods appear to have dodged a costly redesign after the European Commission carved out new exemptions to its upcoming replaceable battery rules for portable electronics.

The requirement could have also required changes to the design of the Apple Watch.

Update: Apple’s Back to School 2026 offer is now available in the United States and Canada. We updated this article with the latest details.

After a slight delay, Apple’s Back to School 2026 offer is now live across most major markets. It first launched in select Asian countries before expanding to the United States and Canada.

The Back to School promo comes weeks after Apple steeply hiked prices of its Mac and iPad lineup due to rising DRAM and NAND costs.

The colorful Lego iMac G3 for nostalgic Apple fans just cleared another important milestone on its long journey from fan concept to store shelves.

A Lego version of Apple’s iconic iMac G3 desktop has been working its way through the approval process for almost a year, and the Lego company confirmed on Tuesday that the possibility remains very much alive.

Your iPhone will soon speak up before a booby-trapped text message can do damage. The iOS 26.6 malicious message warning is a new pop-up that tells you when Apple thinks an iMessage is trying to harm your device or steal your data. And it gives you a quick way to send that message straight to Apple for investigation.

The alert hasn’t gone live for anyone yet. It was spotted buried in iOS 26.6 beta 5 code, which means it’s still in the testing phase. But its presence indicates iPhone users will soon get a much more visible security layer that makes it harder to ignore message-based attacks.

Major League Soccer returns to Apple TV on Thursday with the resumption of regular-season play after a break for FIFA World Cup insanity. That’s great news for soccer fans new and old.

If you got hooked on the sport after watching World Cup matches during Major League Soccer’s monthlong break, tune into Apple TV for your fix. You should see some familiar faces on the field.

You love your pink or yellow MacBook Neo, and now you can get a mouse or hub specifically designed to match its color from Satechi.

A new collection includes a slim wireless mouse plus a pair of USB-C hubs, all available in Neo colors for the first time.

Apple just got a proposed class-action lawsuit wiped off its plate — and it’s a big one. A federal judge on Monday dismissed a case that accused the company of failing to stop child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from spreading through iCloud, a lawsuit that sought as much as $32.8 billion in damages.

U.S. District Judge Noël Wise ruled that Apple would be shielded from the claims by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the 1996 law that protects online platforms from being sued over content their users upload. The judge tossed the case with prejudice, so it’s gone for good.

Nearly two years after launch, China’s regulator has given Apple the green light to launch Apple Intelligence in the country.

Apple will rely on AI models from Baidu and Alibaba to power Apple Intelligence features in China.

OpenAI’s probable first device will likely be a portable smart speaker with a winning personality and features that make it seem like a living creature. The company envisions a screenless device that will “serve as a humanlike AI companion that lives in the home,” according to a new report citing anonymous sources.

While previous rumors indicated OpenAI wants to build a device to challenge the iPhone, this sounds like more of a threat to Apple’s HomePod, Amazon’s Alexa devices and other smart speakers.

Oh, and the thing might actually move to make it seem more lifelike. (Let’s hope it doesn’t give off an Existenz game pod vibe.)

Brydge added three new models to its ProDock line of vertical MacBook docking stations on Tuesday. These bring fresh features, including Thunderbolt 5 support, to products that let users slide their Mac into a vertical cradle that takes a minimal amount of space.

Each of the three new models is intended for a different kind of user, with a range of features to match.

Word on the street is that the iPhone 20’s all-glass revamp recently moved from “maybe” to “the factories are literally getting ready for it.”

Seems like anyone ready for Apple to shake up iPhone design can look forward to 2027.

Apple seems to have gone to unusual lengths to keep one man out of its trade-secret lawsuit against OpenAI: Jony Ive.

However, the legal battle could end up with Apple’s former design chief taking the stand. And that could rattle Apple’s cordial relationship with Ive, who’s helping OpenAI build AI-powered gadgets that threaten the iPhone’s dominance.

If you see a file called CrashReporter.dmg in your Mac’s Downloads folder, don’t open it. It’s not from Apple — it’s a new strain of malware called CrashStealer. It’s wearing Apple’s own clothing, right down to the icon, name and a fake password box designed to look like standard macOS.

The malware slips past Apple’s security checks and tricks victims into typing their Mac password before draining everything of value on the machine. Anyone who’s opened an unfamiliar app in the past few weeks should pay close attention.

WhatsApp currently uses iCloud as a cloud backup provider on iOS. Apple’s free 5GB of iCloud storage can fill up quickly, especially if you have years of WhatsApp chats and media. It also makes moving from an iPhone to an Android phone more complicated, as WhatsApp cannot restore iCloud backups on Android.

That may not be the case for much longer. WhatsApp appears to be working on its own cloud backup solution, which could solve both of these problems.

Apple released the first iOS 27 public beta Monday, giving everyday iPhone users a chance to experience the latest features.

By most accounts, it’s stable enough to download now and run without too much worry. The biggest bummer is that you’ll still need to get in line to experience the new, improved Siri AI.

Apple continued to gain ground in the global smartphone market during the second quarter of 2026, according to new data from a market-analysis firm. The iPhone posted another quarter of year-over-year growth, increasing total shipments by 3% while boosting Apple’s global market share to a quarterly record.

The iPhone 17 series continues to experience strong sales, according to the analysts. One main reason for the success might seem surprising, coming from Cupertino: small price tags! Apple maintained iPhone prices while rivals increased theirs due to sharply rising memory costs.

The Mac Studio, Apple’s top-of-the-line desktop, delivers extraordinary CPU and GPU performance in a surprisingly compact enclosure — but many users simply cannot add as much RAM as they need.

However, change is apparently on the way. Apple is reportedly developing an M5 Ultra chip that supports more unified memory than the current version. And the subsequent M7 Ultra chip will be even better — it will supposedly handle as much as three times more RAM. That’s a dramatic leap beyond the best of today’s Macs.

Apple just went shopping for a bug hunter. Cupertino scooped up SigScalr, a small startup behind SigLens, an app designed to detect exactly where the software goes wrong — even if the software is basically hundreds of smaller programs working as a single app.

Apple did not announce the acquisition via a press release. It surfaced through the European Union’s paperwork, the same way a lot of Apple’s smaller acquisitions did in the last few years.

But don’t let the quiet rollout fool you. SigLens tackles a problem that’s only getting worse as apps become more complex. And it looks like Apple clearly wants it fixed before it becomes Xcode’s problem too.

Apple CEO Tim Cook didn’t fly to Washington last summer to talk about Intel. He went there to keep Apple from getting hit with a 100% tariff on every chip the company imports. But somewhere in those meetings, the conversation shifted to an unexpected topic — Intel.

Fast forward a year, and Apple and Intel now have a manufacturing arrangement in the works. And according to a new report, the origin story is less about “engineering roadmap” and more about “the White House brought it up while Apple was trying to survive a tariff fight.”

The next time an Apple Store employee rings you up, don’t be surprised if you don’t see the traditional plastic card sled. Apple is silently retiring the hardware its retail staff has strapped onto their iPhones for years. The company seems to be betting on the fact that the iPhone is finally good enough to close the sale.

Apple is now reportedly handing out iPhone 16s to its blue-shirted employees to expand Tap to Pay on iPhone. This software feature turns the device into a contactless payment terminal with nothing bolted on. It’s a small hardware swap, but Apple no longer thinks it needs a middleman to take your money.

Apple will supposedly skip launching the M6 Pro and M6 Max chips due to AI. Instead, it will launch an M6-powered MacBook Pro and then directly jump to the M7 Pro and Max chips in 2027.

This move would mark a notable shift from Apple’s long-established Apple silicon release strategy. Since the M1 debuted, every generation expanded from the base chip to Pro and Max variants.

Apple is reportedly working on two new styli models for launch alongside next year’s iPad Pro refresh. Both the Apple Pencil Pro and the entry-level Apple Pencil with USB-C are back on the drawing board, according to a reliable source of insider information.

One major reason for the redesign could be upcoming European Union rules that will require consumer electronics to use more easily replaceable batteries.