Apple’s significant expansion of its smart home lineup in 2025 should include new HomePod and HomePod mini models. The company plans to introduce both a display-equipped HomePod and a refreshed HomePod mini amid a renewed focus on the smart home market.
As usual, you can expect Apple to emphasize quality audio as well as airtight security. Here’s what to expect from HomePod and HomePod mini in 2025.
Today’s dual-display MacBook Pro setup sits on a desk up against a mirrored wall. In the photograph above, that let’s us see the nifty ring of colorful monitor RGB lighting built into the back of the LG UltraGear display — a decorative and functional touch included in an aging but still formidable external display for serious gamers.
AirPods Pro 3 keep generating buzz as we approach the launch of Apple’s next-generation premium wireless earbuds. Here’s what to expect from AirPods Pro 3, which probably will arrive in early 2025.
While the current AirPods Pro 2 model dominates the market two years after launch, rumors say its successor will bring substantial improvements and new features. Unfortunately, you probably shouldn’t expect changes to the recently updated AirPods 4 and AirPods Max in 2025. We could see updated earbuds or headphones from Apple subsidiary Beats, though.
Watching the new Severance season two trailer, below — and the new sneak peek at the first eight minutes of episode one Apple TV+ dropped Monday — my excitement for the new episodes became one with my grim determination to watch the entire first season again before the undoubtedly bizarre new scenes of workplace hell start streaming on January 17, 2025.
Never before have I force-marched myself through a whole TV series season as a matter of preparation. But this funny-yet-unnerving workplace psycho-thriller deserves and demands it.
Update: As a twisted sort of holiday gift, Apple TV+ posted a sneak peek at the first eight minutes of Severance season two on Monday, December 23. It’s safe to say the main character is very much on the run through Lumon Industries sterile yet deeply alienating hallways until he comes face to face with a team of direct reports he doesn’t recognize. And he ends up with more questions than answers in a one-on-one with Mr. Milchik. Watch the sneak peek at the link above and the trailer below.
This holiday season, give yourself or someone else the timeless gift of better cable management. Today’s MacBook Pro and LG DualUp display user shows us one way to make a small but significant improvement in the look of a computer setup. You can use cables with 90-degree connectors rather than straight ones for a cleaner look (or get USB-C cable adapters with right-angle or vertical ends for your straight cables). Check out the “after” photo above and the “before” photo below.
And seriously, if you’re hard up for stocking-stuffer ideas, a USB-C adapter kit might be just the thing. See below.
Want to extend your AirTag’s battery life to 10 years and keep the tracker dry and concealed? Well, that’s easy to do with ElevationLab’s innovative new TimeCapsule AirTag battery case. The weatherproof case keeps an AirTag safe and sound — and frees you from swapping out the Apple tracking tag’s coin-shaped batteries every year.
When you run a ton of peripherals with your Mac, how do keep it all connected and running smoothly? Well, today’s featured M4 Pro Mac mini user drives a pair of 4K external displays, runs a power hub and input devices, and keeps backups on portable storage devices. And they keep it connected without a hitch using the well-regarded CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 hub named “Element.”
Popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee recognized Apple’s iPhone 16 series in two significant categories in his much-anticipated 2024 smartphone awards Thursday. No one will be shocked to hear iPhone 16 Pro won for Best Camera in the MKBHD Smartphone Awards 2024. But some might raise an eyebrow to learn iPhone 16 won for Best Small Phone.
And no iPhone took the coveted MKBHD Phone of the Year prize. That went to the “boring” Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, which also won Best Big Phone.
If you love a good nature documentary — especially because the photography is so mind-blowing nowadays — you’re in for a treat with The Secret Lives of Animals. Apple TV+ dropped an official trailer for it recently (see below). The 10-part series is now streaming, as of Wednesday, December 18.
“Welcome to a world beyond imagination, where fish can fly and lizards walk on water,” the trailer’s voiceover says, as those images appear onscreen. “Animals do the most remarkable things at every stage of their lives.”
Update: The Secret Lives of Animals 10-part docuseries started streaming on Apple TV+ Wednesday.
International journalism organization Reporters Without Borders called Thursday for Apple to remove its new artificial intelligence-powered news notifications, following a complaint from the BBC over a wildly inaccurate news summary. Apple Intelligence’s notifications summary feature generated a misleading BBC News headline last week about a high-profile murder case in the United States, falsely stating the accused shooter had shot himself.
Apple just enhanced its web version of Apple Maps by adding a beta version of Look Around, a street-level view similar to Google Street View in Google Maps. The new functionality lets users explore high-resolution, ground-level views of cities and points of interest directly through their web browser. The Apple Maps app already has Look Around.
With all the mousing and typing people do, you’d think products designed for ergonomic comfort — and to help avoid repetitive-strain injuy — would crop up in more computer setups. Well, today’s MacBook Pro and Mac Pro rig answers the call. The user, a smarty-pants undergrad at Harvard, relies on a Logitech MX Vertical wireless mouse setup plus a Logitech Pop Keys Mechanical Keyboard for data input.
As federal authorities in the United States investigate China-based TP-Link over national security risks, a ban of the most widely used home and small business internet routers in this country becomes a possibility, according to a new report Wednesday. Any ban would most likely come under the new Trump administration
Designer Basic Apple Guy, known for nifty wallpapers for Mac, iPhone and iPad screens, dropped his annual Apple Product Tier List Monday. The Apple product rankings give letter grades to everything the iPhone giant released in 2024. He considers M4/M4 Pro Mac mini the best of the best, by the way.
“For the third year in a row, I am once again painting a target on my head and releasing my tier rankings of the products Apple released in the 2024 calendar year,” he wrote. Undoubtedly, not everyone will love his choices, particularly those he grades in the low D and F tiers, but he takes care to explain them.
The Hohem iSteady M7 is a three-axis gimbal featuring iSteady’s latest technology. It offers full 360-degree rotation in the vertical axis and AI-powered subject tracking, so you can easily capture incredibly dramatic shots.
Eufy expanded its HomeKit ecosystem Monday with the release of the Indoor Cam E30, a sophisticated 4K security camera priced at $69.99. It’s a big upgrade from the 2020 model, marking Eufy’s second HomeKit-compatible camera launch in recent months following September’s S3 Pro Outdoor Cam. E30 upgrades include advanced pan-and-tilt mobility and color night vision through lighting.
Apple unveiled its annual roundups of top apps and games — that is, those most downloaded titles — across iPhone, iPad and Apple Arcade platforms Monday. The comprehensive year-end lists are featured on the App Store’s Today tab. They offer insights into user preferences across more than 30 countries and regions. And once again, free app and games dominate, overlapping with recent App Store Award winners.
In most MacBook-based computer setups people put together at home or in offices, an external keyboard stands in for the laptop’s own. That’s typically because the laptop sits open or closed on a stand, where reaching the keyboard is either awkward or impossible. Today’s MacBook Pro setup relies on a pricey and cool Realforce R3 TKL mechanical keyboard used in combination with a Magic Trackpad.
Apple TV+ scored a record 29 nominations in the upcoming 3rd Annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards, showcasing a growing influence in family entertainment, the streamer said Friday. The nominations span 10 different programs, highlighting the streamers diverse content portfolio for youngsters.
Today’s featured M4 Pro Mac mini user drives a pair of 4K external displays with the tiny new powerhouse desktop. And they keep an array of budget peripherals, including data and power hubs and solid input devices. And in addition, for physical backup, they like portable storage solutions in addition to cloud backup — in this case, fairly affordable hard drives from Samsung and La Cie (and the Samsung is deeply discounted right now — see below).
Designer Basic Apple Guy started the last month of 2024 by releasing yet another fresh and interesting set of wallpapers for your Apple devices. They’re the “vibrant and minimal cubist-inspired” Liminal Spaces series, released December 2. They might be the best new wallpapers I’ve seen this month.
And they’re certainly an interesting alternative to holiday themes. For me, the light, colors and shapes composed in the wallpapers brought to mind not only cubist art, but abstract expressionist Richard Diebenkorn’s landscape paintings.
Apple CEO Tim Cook welcomed King Charles III of Great Britain to Apple’s U.K. headquarters Thursday in the iconic Battersea Power Station, Apple said. And it showed off a raft of photographs from the occasion, below.
“We were honored to welcome His Majesty King Charles to Apple Battersea — our home in the U.K. — and we’re proud to support The King’s Trust in its vital work educating and empowering young people,” said Cook. “We look forward to our continued growth here, building on more than 40 years of history in the United Kingdom.”
In a strategic move that could reshape the mixed-reality landscape, Google and Samsung announced a partnership Thursday to develop a new mixed-reality headset running on the Android XR operating system, according to a new report. Clearly, the Google and Samsung Android XR headset directly challenges Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s headsets in the premium market.
The collaboration aims to create a more accessible and diverse ecosystem for extended reality (XR) devices, potentially offering buyers, including Apple users, alternative options in the growing mixed-reality space. More competition could impact both features and pricing, of course.
Probably the coolest wearable you can get is Apple Watch Ultra 2. And that’s especially true with the recently added black titanium finish. Right now you can get $65 off a black titanium Apple Watch Ultra 2 with shipping in time for Christmas, Amazon says.
Emmy winner Brett Goldstein, who plays footballer-turned-coach Roy Kent on Apple TV+ hit comedy Ted Lasso, takes on dual roles as star and co-writer in the new romantic drama All of You, a movie set to debut on Apple TV+ in 2025, the streamer said Wednesday. It offered a “first look” image. And the other writer, who also directs? That’s none other than William Bridges, who writes for Netflix’s darkly fascinating sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror. If often explores the scary side of technological innovation.
And they say All of You is a romantic drama. Well, that’s probably going to be interesting, no matter how much or little the film has in common with Ted Lasso or Black Mirror.