Apple

700-piece Lego G3 iMac design faces long-shot odds to get made, but I still want one

Apple, iMac, lego, Tech / Kelly Newman / August 29, 2025

I don’t usually get too excited about user-submitted designs on the Lego Ideas website, especially when those ideas would require negotiating a license with another company—user-generated designs need to reach 10,000 supporters before Lego considers them for production, two pretty high bars to clear even without factoring in some other brand’s conditions and requests.

But I’m both intrigued and impressed by this Lego version of Apple’s old Bondi Blue G3 iMac that has been making the rounds today. Submitted by a user named terauma, the 700-plus-piece set comes complete with keyboard, hockey-puck mouse, a classic Mac OS boot screen, and cathode ray tubes and circuit boards visible through the set’s transparent blue casing (like the original iMac, it may cause controversy by excluding a floppy disk drive). The design has already reached 5,000 supporters, and it has 320 days left to reach the 10,000-supporter benchmark required to be reviewed by Lego.

With its personality-forward aesthetics and Jony Ive-led design, the original iMac was the first step down the path that led to blockbuster products like the iPod and iPhone. It was the company’s first all-new Mac design after CEO Steve Jobs returned to the company in the late ’90s, and while it lacked some features included in contemporary PCs, its tightly integrated design and ease of setup helped it stand out against the beige desktop PCs of the day. Today’s colorful Apple Silicon iMacs are clearly inspired by the original design.

700-piece Lego G3 iMac design faces long-shot odds to get made, but I still want one Read More »

After successes like Severance and The Studio, Apple TV+ gets a price hike

Apple, Apple TV, culture, streaming video, Tech, TV / DJ Henderson / August 22, 2025

To confront all that, streamers have to turn any knobs they can to balance costs with revenue to satisfy the market. Some have turned to ads as an additional source of revenue, others crack down on password sharing or offer different subscription tiers. But virtually all of them have hiked subscription prices, because the previous price ensured short-term losses for long-term growth.

Apple TV+ does not have ads in any plan, and it hasn’t broken its offering into multiple tiers. (For example, some other streaming services charge more for 4K content.) Because of that, the monthly cost is the only knob it can turn to confront these realities, passing new costs to consumers.

Despite all this, it’s still very possible that even with successes like Ted Lasso, The Studio, and Severance, Apple TV+ is losing some amount of money every year. When reporting to investors each quarter, Apple bundles TV+ into a larger “services” category that includes Apple Music, the App Store, iCloud, AppleCare, and more, making it difficult for outsiders to estimate how well Apple TV+ is doing specifically.

Certainly, its shows have been critically well-received. Both Severance and The Studio in particular have gotten the streaming service positive attention. But the landscape is brutal for a relatively new entry like Apple, so expect Apple’s approach to continue to evolve.

After successes like Severance and The Studio, Apple TV+ gets a price hike Read More »

In Xcode 26, Apple shows first signs of offering ChatGPT alternatives

AI, Anthropic, Apple, chatgpt, Claude, coding, IDE, openai, Opus, Programming, software development, Swift, Xcode / DJ Henderson / August 20, 2025

The latest Xcode beta contains clear signs that Apple plans to bring Anthropic’s Claude and Opus large language models into the integrated development environment (IDE), expanding on features already available using Apple’s own models or OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Apple enthusiast publication 9to5Mac “found multiple references to built-in support for Anthropic accounts,” including in the “Intelligence” menu, where users can currently log in to ChatGPT or enter an API key for higher message limits.

Apple introduced a suite of features meant to compete with GitHub Copilot in Xcode at WWDC24, but first focused on its own models and a more limited set of use cases. That expanded quite a bit at this year’s developer conference, and users can converse about codebases, discuss changes, or ask for suggestions using ChatGPT. They are initially given a limited set of messages, but this can be greatly increased by logging in to a ChatGPT account or entering an API key.

This summer, Apple said it would be possible to use Anthropic’s models with an API key, too, but made no mention of support for Anthropic accounts, which are generally more cost-effective than using the API for most users.

In Xcode 26, Apple shows first signs of offering ChatGPT alternatives Read More »

Apple Watch gets reformulated, non-patent-infringing blood oxygen monitoring

Apple, apple watch, Tech / Beth Washington / August 14, 2025

The redesigned version of the feature will be available on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 after users install the watchOS 11.6.1 update on their watches and the iOS 18.6.1 update on their paired iPhones.

Apple says that watches outside the US won’t be affected by the update, since they were never subject to the US import ban in the first place. It also won’t affect Apple Watches purchased in the US before the import ban went into effect—Apple never removed the feature from watches it had already sold, so if you bought a Series 9 or Ultra 2 watch in the fall of 2023 or if you’re still using an older watch with the blood oxygen monitoring feature, the updates won’t change anything for you.

Masimo originally sued Apple over the blood oxygen monitoring feature in January of 2020. According to Masimo, Masimo and Apple had initially met in 2013 to talk about a potential partnership or acquisition, but Apple instead poached Masimo’s engineers to implement the feature on its own without Masimo’s involvement.

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Report: Apple’s smart home ambitions include “tabletop robot,” cameras, and more

alexa, Amazon, Apple, HomePod, Siri, Tech, tvos / 9u50fv / August 14, 2025

Rumors about a touchscreen-equipped smart home device from Apple have been circulating for years, periodically bolstered by leaked references in Apple’s software updates. But a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman indicates that Apple’s ambitions might extend beyond HomePods with screens attached.

Gurman claims that Apple is working on a “tabletop robot” that “resembles an iPad mounted on a movable limb that can swivel and reposition itself to follow users in a room.” The device will also turn toward people who are addressing it or toward people whose attention it’s trying to get. Prototypes have used a 7-inch display similar in size to an iPad mini, with a built-in camera for FaceTime calls.

Apple is reportedly targeting a 2027 launch for some version of this robot, although, as with any unannounced Apple product, it could come out earlier, later, or not at all. Gurman reported in January that a different smart home device—essentially a HomePod with a screen, without the moving robot parts—was being planned for 2025, but has said more recently that Apple has bumped it to 2026. The robot could be a follow-up to or a fancier, more expensive version of that device, and it sounds like both will run the same software.

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Musk threatens to sue Apple so Grok can get top App Store ranking

AI, App Store, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, chatbot, chatgpt, DeepSeek, elon musk, Google, grok, openai, play store, Policy, Twitter, X, xAI / 9u50fv / August 12, 2025

After spending last week hyping Grok’s spicy new features, Elon Musk kicked off this week by threatening to sue Apple for supposedly gaming the App Store rankings to favor ChatGPT over Grok.

“Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation,” Musk wrote on X, without providing any evidence. “xAI will take immediate legal action.”

In another post, Musk tagged Apple, asking, “Why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps?”

“Are you playing politics?” Musk asked. “What gives? Inquiring minds want to know.”

Apple did not respond to the post and has not responded to Ars’ request to comment.

At the heart of Musk’s complaints is an OpenAI partnership that Apple announced last year, integrating ChatGPT into versions of its iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems.

Musk has alleged that this partnership incentivized Apple to boost ChatGPT rankings. OpenAI’s popular chatbot “currently holds the top spot in the App Store’s ‘Top Free Apps’ section for iPhones in the US,” Reuters noted, “while xAI’s Grok ranks fifth and Google’s Gemini chatbot sits at 57th.” Sensor Tower data shows ChatGPT similarly tops Google Play Store rankings.

While Musk seems insistent that ChatGPT is artificially locked in the lead, fact-checkers on X added a community note to his post. They confirmed that at least one other AI tool has somewhat recently unseated ChatGPT in the US rankings. Back in January, DeepSeek topped App Store charts and held the lead for days, ABC News reported.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Ars’ request to comment on Musk’s allegations, but an OpenAI developer, Steven Heidel, did add a quip in response to one of Musk’s posts, writing, “Don’t forget to also blame Google for OpenAI being #1 on Android, and blame SimilarWeb for putting ChatGPT above X on the most-visited websites list, and blame….”

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Apple brings OpenAI’s GPT-5 to iOS and macOS

AI, Apple, apple intelligence, chatgpt, GPT-4o, GPT-5, iOS, ios 26, iPadOS, ipados 26, IPhone, macOS, macos tahoe, openai / 9u50fv / August 9, 2025

OpenAI’s GPT-5 model went live for most ChatGPT users this week, but lots of people use ChatGPT not through OpenAI’s interface but through other platforms or tools. One of the largest deployments is iOS, the iPhone operating system, which allows users to make certain queries via GPT-4o. It turns out those users won’t have to wait long for the latest model: Apple will switch to GPT-5 in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe 26, according to 9to5Mac.

Apple has not officially announced when those OS updates will be released to users’ devices, but these major releases have typically been released in September in recent years.

The new model had already rolled out on some other platforms, like the coding tool GitHub Copilot via public preview, as well as Microsoft’s general-purpose Copilot.

GPT-5 purports to hallucinate 80 percent less and heralds a major rework of how OpenAI positions its models; for example, GPT-5 by default automatically chooses whether to use a reasoning-optimized model based on the nature of the user’s prompt. Free users will have to accept whatever the choice is, while paid ChatGPT accounts allow manually picking which model to use on a prompt-by-prompt basis. It’s unclear how that will work in iOS; will it stick to GPT-5’s non-reasoning mode all the time, or will it utilize GPT-5 “(with thinking)”? And if it supports the latter, will paid ChatGPT users be able to manually pick like they can in the ChatGPT app, or will they be limited to whatever ChatGPT deems appropriate, like free users? We don’t know yet.

Apple brings OpenAI’s GPT-5 to iOS and macOS Read More »

Trump wanted a US-made iPhone. Apple gave him a gold statue.

Apple, Donald Trump, iPhones, Policy, tariffs, us-china trade war / DJ Henderson / August 7, 2025

Once again, Apple escapes Trump’s iPhone pressure

Since Trump took office, analysts have suggested that Cook might be the tech CEO best prepared to navigate Trump’s trade war.

During Trump’s last term, Cook launched a charm offensive, wooing Trump with investment commitments to avoid caving to Trump’s demands for US-made iPhones while securing tariff exemptions.

Back then, Apple notably seemed to avoid following through on some of its commitments, abandoning plans to build three “big, beautiful” Apple plants that Trump announced in 2017. Ultimately, only one plant was built, which made face masks, not Apple products. Similarly, in 2019, Trump toured a Texas facility that he claimed could be used to build iPhones, but Apple only committed to building MacBook Pros there, not the Apple product that Trump sees as the crown jewel of his domestic supply chain dreams.

This time, Apple has committed to a total investment of $600 billion to move more manufacturing into the US over the next four years. But Apple was probably going to spend that money anyway, as “analysts say the numbers align with Apple’s typical spending patterns and echo commitments made during both the Biden administration and Trump’s previous term,” Reuters reported.

Trump has claimed that any company found to be dodging pledges will be retroactively charged tariffs if they fail to follow through on investments. However, Apple seems to be chugging along with its usual business in the US, while manufacturing iPhones elsewhere probably wouldn’t change the tariff calculus, as it is now.

So at least at this stage of Cook and Trump’s friendship, it appears that Apple has once again secured exemptions without committing to building a US-made iPhone or even committing significant new investments.

On Wednesday, at least one analyst—Nancy Tengler, CEO and CIO of Laffer Tengler Investments, which holds Apple shares—told Reuters that Apple’s moves this week were “a savvy solution to the president’s demand that Apple manufacture all iPhones in the US.”

Trump wanted a US-made iPhone. Apple gave him a gold statue. Read More »

RIP to the Macintosh HD hard drive icon, 2000–2025

Apple, macos 26 tahoe, Tech / Beth Washington / August 6, 2025

That version of the icon persisted through the Apple Silicon-era Big Sur redesign and was still with us in the first public beta build for macOS 26 Tahoe that Apple released last week. The new beta also updates the icons for external drives (orange, with a USB-C connector on top), network shares (blue, with a globe on top), and removable disk images (white, with an arrow on top).

All of the system’s disk icons get an update in the latest macOS 26 Tahoe developer beta. Credit: Apple/Andrew Cunningham

Other icons that reused or riffed on the old hard drive icon have also been changed. Disk Utility now looks like a wrench tightening an Apple-branded white bolt, for some reason, and drive icons within Disk Utility also have the new SSD-esque icon. Installer apps use the new icon instead of the old one. Navigate to the /System/Library/CoreServices folder where many of the built-in operating system icons live, and you can see a bunch of others that exchange the old HDD icon for the new SSD.

Apple first offered a Mac with an SSD in 2008, when the original MacBook Air came out. By the time “Retina” Macs began arriving in the early 2010s, SSDs had become the primary boot disk for most of them; laptops tended to be all-SSD, while desktops could be configured with an SSD or a hybrid Fusion Drive that used an SSD as boot media and an HDD for mass storage. Apple stopped shipping spinning hard drives entirely when the last of the Intel iMacs went away.

This doesn’t actually matter much. The old icon didn’t look much like the SSD in your Mac, and the new one doesn’t really look like the SSD in your Mac either. But we didn’t want to let the old icon’s passing go unremarked. So, thanks for the memories, Macintosh HD hard drive icon! Keep on spinning, wherever you are.

RIP to the Macintosh HD hard drive icon, 2000–2025 Read More »

New “AppleCare One” plan bundles three extended warranties for $20 a month

Apple, AppleCare, ipad, IPhone, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Tech, warranty / Beth Washington / July 23, 2025

AppleCare One can also be extended to other Apple products you own “that are up to four years old” (or one year old for headphones) and “in good condition,” even if they’re outside of the typical 60-day grace period for subscribing to AppleCare+. Apple says that the condition of these devices may need to be verified “using a customer’s iPhone or iPad, or at an Apple Store” before they can be added to the plan, presumably to reduce the number of people who opt in after the fact to avoid pricey repairs to already damaged devices.

While the potential savings are the best argument in favor of the new plan, it also adds a handful of new benefits for some devices. For example, AppleCare One covers theft for both iPads and Apple Watches, something that isn’t covered for these devices under a standard AppleCare+ subscription. The subscription can also simplify the trade-in process, removing a traded-in device from your AppleCare One plan and replacing it with an upgraded device automatically.

If you haven’t subscribed to AppleCare+ before, it functions both as an extended warranty and an insurance program. If your device breaks suddenly for reasons outside of your control, repairs and replacements are generally free of additional charge; for accidental damage, theft and loss, or battery replacements, users are charged additional flat service fees for repairs and replacements, rather than Apple’s hefty parts and labor costs. Battery replacements are also free when your battery drops below 80 percent of its original capacity.

AppleCare One plans will go on sale starting tomorrow, July 24.

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Conduct rules are coming for Google and Apple in the UK

Apple, Google, Policy / Mike M. / July 23, 2025

“The targeted and proportionate actions we have set out today would enable UK app developers to remain at the forefront of global innovation while ensuring UK consumers receive a world-class experience,” Cardell said. “Time is of the essence: as competition agencies and courts globally take action in these markets, it’s essential the UK doesn’t fall behind.”

Google and Apple oppose the outlined changes, arguing they could threaten user security and delay the launch of new products and services in the UK.

“We’re concerned the rules the UK is now considering would undermine the privacy and security protections that our users have come to expect, hamper our ability to innovate, and force us to give away our technology for free to foreign competitors,” Apple said. “We will continue to engage with the regulator to make sure they fully understand these risks.”

Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director for competition, said the CMA’s move was “both disappointing and unwarranted” and that it was “crucial that any new regulation is evidence-based, proportionate, and does not become a roadblock to growth in the UK.”

Apple has repeatedly clashed with Brussels over the implementation of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, making changes to its platform after the European Commission accused the iPhone maker of failing to comply with its “online gatekeeper” rules.

The DMA also requires Apple to open up iOS features and data to its rivals and has demanded changes to its App Store, such as allowing users to install apps from outside its store.

The CMA said it was taking a different approach to the EU by being more “tailored” and iterative than the DMA’s blanket rules.

Last month, Google’s search services were the first Big Tech product to be targeted under the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, which was passed last year.

If a company’s products or services are designated as having “strategic market status,” it can last for a five-year period. Companies can be fined up to 10 percent of global turnover for breaching conduct rules.

Conduct rules are coming for Google and Apple in the UK Read More »

Apple Intelligence news summaries are back, with a big red disclaimer

AI, Apple, apple intelligence, iOS, ios 26, iPadOS, ipados 26, macOS, macos 26 / Beth Washington / July 23, 2025

Apple has released the fourth developer betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 and its other next-generation software updates today. And along with their other changes and fixes, the new builds are bringing back Apple Intelligence notification summaries for news apps.

Apple disabled news notification summaries as part of the iOS 18.3 update in January. Incorrect summaries circulating on social media prompted news organizations to complain to Apple, particularly after one summary said that Luigi Mangione, alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had died by suicide (he had not and has not).

Upon installing the new update, users of Apple Intelligence-compatible devices will be asked to enable or disable three broad categories of notifications: those for “News & Entertainment” apps, for “Communication & Social” apps, and for all other apps. The operating systems will list sample apps based on what you currently have installed on your device.

All Apple Intelligence notification summaries continue to be listed as “beta,” but Apple’s main change here is a big red disclaimer when you enable News & Entertainment notification summaries, pointing out that “summarization may change the meaning of the original headlines.” The notifications also get a special “summarized by Apple Intelligence” caption to further distinguish them from regular, unadulterated notifications.

Apple Intelligence news summaries are back, with a big red disclaimer Read More »