Benjamin Mayo

The F1 movie continues its hot streak at cinemas, with the film still widely resonating with audience a month after its theatrical premiere. The Apple Original Film has now crossed the $500 million mark at the global box office, with the running total now standing around $509 million.

F1: The Movie will eventually land on Apple TV+, likely in October. But Apple and distributor Warner Bros. have little incentive to hurry along the secondary release windows if the cinema takings remain as strong as they are.

Apple today announced a new series from Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad. The series is called ‘Pluribus’ and stars Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul). It will premiere on Apple TV+ on November 7.

It appears to be a mysterious sci-fi thriller in which “the most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness”. You can watch the 30-second teaser after the break:

The Apple TV 4K set-top box is getting a handful of new features with tvOS 26. tvOS 26 is available now as a public beta, and will be available as a free software update later this year for everyone to install.

tvOS 26 includes updates to Apple Music Sing, easier profile switching, better support for AirPlay speakers that are not HomePods, and a visual design refresh featuring Liquid Glass material. Here’s everything new …

After launching notification summaries as one of the flagship features of Apple Intelligence, Apple disabled the feature for apps in the News and Entertainment categories in the iOS 18.3 update, following backlash from publications like the BBC about Apple Intelligence portraying its news headlines inaccurately.

Having been disabled entirely for these apps since mid-January, Apple announced this week the feature will return as part of iOS 26. Users running the developer have noticed that these notifications get a different visual treatment compared to normal notification summaries generated from other categories of apps.

Apple is expanding the capability of its In-App Purchase framework with a new retention messaging API. This means, for the first time, developers will be able to show offers to users when they go to cancel a subscription in the global Subscriptions screen inside the Settings app.

Apps will be able to show a simple static message, display dynamic progress based on the user’s app state, or present a special offer to try and dissuade the user from cancelling their payment altogether.

The Apple Sports app, which allows users to track sports scores in real-time, today expanded its coverage of soccer. With the new 3.1 update, fans of the FA Community Shield soccer match can now follow along inside Apple Sports.

Also notable is that the app is now available to download in Mexico. This means fans of Liga MX can now use the app for the first time to track the performance of their local teams, as well as how they fare in the MLS Leagues Cup.

Like many people these days, I work from home and use a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an external display. I have been a long-time user of the OWC Thunderbolt Dock which lets me connect my display and various peripherals to the hub’s I/O ports, with only a single cable plugged in to the laptop.

This dock has simply sat atop the desk, until recently. I came across a further improvement to my setup which helps declutter even more. Quite simply, I discovered this cable management tray that lets the dock sit on a shelf just underneath the desk, so all the mess is out of sight …

I have an AirTag on my keychain to keep track of my keys, but obviously an AirTag is too big and bulky to fit inside a wallet. That’s what the SwitchBot Wallet Finder is for.

Disguised inside a thin, credit-card form factor, the SwitchBot Wallet Finder connects to the Find My app on your iPhone, so you can follow its location, and it even houses a speaker so you can make it beep to help you find your wallet when it inevitably gets lost somewhere in your home. Read on for my review …

Update: Limited time Amazon Prime Day deal has this scale discounted to under $35 right now.

After my last WiFi-enabled smart scale broke and refused to connect to the Internet anymore, I sought something simpler and cheaper to replace it. The old scale had all sorts of fancy service integrations that I never used. I just wanted something that would track my weight and report the measurements to the Health app on my iPhone.

The Eufy C20 smart scale is what I landed on and I’m very happy with it — and it’s pretty cheap too. Here’s how it works …

Your AirPods are getting even better with iOS 26 later this year. As well as new features like camera remote and sleep detection to pause media, Apple is also improving the charging experience.

With the new update, your iPhone can automatically remind you when your AirPods are running out of juice. These alerts can show even when your AirPods are not currently in your ears, but stored in their case, that is running low on battery.

Last month, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicated that a cheaper model of Apple Vision Pro wasn’t due until late 2027. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has now corroborated that timeline in a new report that says the device, codenamed N100, will be both “lighter and cheaper”.

However, the device’s design has not yet been finalized. Work on the project is apparently expected to be finished in 2026, with a ramp up to a public launch in 2027.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports today that Apple is nearing a release of the first update to the Apple Vision Pro hardware. The new model will feature an M4 chip, offering a significant performance upgrade compared to the M2 chip found in the original Vision Pro.

Perhaps more importantly, the new Vision Pro will apparently include a redesigned strap. This will make the headset more comfortable to wear for longer periods of time.

Apple is in active talks to acquire the rights to broadcast the sport of Formula 1 on its own streaming service platform, through the Apple TV app, according to a new report from the Financial Times. The league’s current deal with ESPN expires at the end of this year.

If a deal materializes, Apple would stream Formula 1 in the US starting with the 2026 season. However, Apple is not believed to be the only bidder and exact nature of the company’s proposal is currently unknown.

With watchOS 26, Apple is upgrading the battery monitoring features on the Apple Watch. The system will observe your average usage patterns, and notify you if your watch battery is draining faster than normal.

This alert gives you a quick shortcut to enable Apple Watch’s Low Power Mode to maximise battery life until you can next get to a charger.

Apple launched Apple TV+ with the flashy drama The Morning Show, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. With the debut drama about to enter its fourth season in September, Apple is doubling down on Aniston’s star power.

The streamer announced that Aniston will headline a new ten-part dramedy, entitled ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’, based off the bestselling memoir by former iCarly star Jennette McCurdy, recounting her experiences growing up as a child actor and her complicated relationship with her controlling mother.

The MLS Season Pass price is now $49 for the remainder of the season, which lets subscribers stream all MLS regular season and playoff games, live and on-demand. The price drop reflects the fact that the 2025 season is about halfway finished.

As always, Apple TV+ members get an additional discount: MLS Season Pass is now just $39 if you are a TV+ subscriber. The monthly plan price is unchanged.

Apple’s current entry-level laptop is the $999 MacBook Air, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple is aiming to launch an even more affordable model soon.

He writes on X that Apple will go into production in late 2025 or early 2026 on a new MacBook model that will be powered by the A18 Pro chip, rather than an M-series processor. This is the same chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro line. The machine may feature colorful casing options, including silver, pink and yellow.

Whatever you think about Apple’s in-your-face advertising tactics, it seems to be paying off. The F1 movie is set to take in about $145 million in its opening weekend at the box office, with $55.6 million domestic.

This easily outstrips any of Apple Original Film’s prior theatrical debuts, and sets the movie on a path to exceed the gross box office of all previous Apple films … combined.

Reeling of the success of prior Apple originals Black Bird and Tetris, Taron Egerton returns to Apple TV+ with a new crime drama Smoke, which starts streaming today. The show is both hot as in fire, as the series centers on tracking down serial arsonists, and hot as in acclaimed, garnering a positive early reception from critics.

You can watch Smoke exclusively on Apple TV+. The nine episode series drops new episodes every Friday through August 15, with a two-episode premiere available to watch now.

The Apple Sports app for iPhone has just got a big new update. The home screen layout has been revamped, with upcoming games now separated by league. You can further personalize the list by re-ordering the sections to their preference, so you can make the sports you are most interested in appear first, and starred teams always show at the very top.

And, just in time for Wimbledon, the app has now added tennis scores. That means you will be able to follow along with live scores for Grand Slam tournaments, spanning men’s and women’s singles matches, starting with Wimbledon.