Update: Both Signal and Telegram have been removed at China’s insistence as well. Apple statement in story.

Apple has removed two Meta apps from the App Store in China at the request of the Chinese government. Both WhatsApp and Threads have been made unavailable in the App Store, preventing new installs for the messaging and social apps.

Game Room is one of the best experiences on Apple Vision Pro, especially with newly introduced spatial Personas. The latest update to the Apple Arcade game introduces one of the most popular classics: checkers.

Apple Watch is a must-have accessory for every cyclist. That’s become time and again it has proven critical for helping cyclists after a crash. Eric Zollinger from New York is the latest wearer to know firsthand.

Today I learned two things. First, apparently Meta Quest headsets don’t work on planes? I guess Apple knew to prioritize that feature for Vision Pro. And second, support is reportedly on the way. Add this to the list of ways competition from Vision Pro is making a better product.

Ross Young of DSCC has great news for potential 12.9-inch iPad Air buyers. According to Young, the newly introduced larger iPad Air will use the same display technology as the current 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Apple will reveal its AI cards on June 10 at WWDC, and Siri is surely going to be a key component. Generally, people want Siri to get good. You can’t just replace Siri intelligence with generative AI, however, but the two technologies make a powerful combination. What I want to see from an AI-infused Siri is actually simple.

The game emulation situation on iOS just got real. The oft rejected game emulator Delta has finally made its way to the App Store. Additionally, the Delta developer has also published their alternative marketplace, AltStore, in the EU today.

Double good news for fans of the hit sci-fi series “For All Mankind” on Apple TV+. The alt-history space race drama is returning for a fifth season, and a new spinoff series dubbed “Star City” has been announced.

Existential question time: how do you take a selfie with your iPhone? This subject just hit the 9to5Mac Slack. That’s because Tim Cook is currently on tour in the eastern hemisphere, and at least two tweets include someone taking what I’ll call a reverse selfie with the Apple CEO.

Update: Half an hour after publishing, TikTok Comms shared much more on X, including availability in Australia and Canada starting today.

Remember that TikTok Photos app rumor? More recently, the unreleased app has been going by the name TikTok Notes. Although the name is changed, the game is still the same: take a swing at Instagram.

Update: That didn’t last long. Bimmy is no longer available in the App Store, which may or may not have something to do with the NES part of the title.

Update 2: Actually, from the developer, Tom Salvo: “I removed the app out of fear. No one reached out to me.”

Bimmy NES Emulator is one of the latest game emulation apps to officially land on the App Store. NES may or may not refer to the Nintendo Entertainment Console.

Prepare to dance and celebrate the planet. Two new Activity Challenges are on the way in April.

Update: One day later, we have public betas as well.

The iOS 17.5 beta train continues today with the second developer release. Apple is also testing macOS Sonoma 14.5, visionOS 1.2, watchOS 10.5, tvOS 17.5, and HomePod 17.5.

Apple stopped offering leather cases and watch bands last fall as part of its environmental efforts. The idea is that pushing leather specifically at Apple’s scale is a net negative for the planet. Ahead of Earth Day this weekend, Apple is marketing the move with a short clip.

I’m sure it’s been said countless times before, but—now that would be a good name for a column!—iMessage could use a send quietly option that’s always available. Send quietly is a feature today, but it’s only available when the recipient is in a Focus mode.

Here’s an early Earth Day victory for the planet we all inhabit. Apple is relaxing the rules for its repair policies to allow used genuine parts for the first time. The change will apply to select iPhones and go into effect this fall.

You don’t need to own an Apple Vision Pro to appreciate it. Just having competition from the high end is pushing Meta to improve its mainstream mixed reality headset.

Meta Quest 3 hit the market last year for $499. That’s $3000 shy of Vision Pro, but with the same goal of colorized passthrough for mixed reality. The only problem was that Meta’s version of passthrough was hardly comparable to Apple’s. My own evaluation is that Meta Quest 3 passthrough is usable but not convincing.

That appears to be changing now. In a Quest software update called v64, Meta says that it has improved passthrough quality for the . Here’s a summary from the release notes:

Apple has released a new software update for Apple Vision Pro. visionOS 1.1.2 is now available. According to the release notes, visionOS 1.1.2 focuses on bug fixes.

Apple is also testing visionOS 1.2 for Apple Vision Pro users on the beta release cycle. A new build of visionOS 1.2 has also been released today.

Apple Vision Pro is the best way to watch video, but Netflix hasn’t received the memo. Fortunately, young and aspiring developers are ready to show up and ship. Enter Christian Privitelli, the 19-year-old Australian developer of Supercut.

Happy Eclipse Day! Remember Apple’s secretive Project Artemis film? The movie production team basically took over Kennedy Space Center in a time machine for it. Last week the official movie title was revealed as Fly Me to The Moon, and today the first official trailer has dropped.

Apple Watch is an essential runner’s companion, and takes it to the next level with longer battery life and more. That’s why participants of this year’s The Speed Project call it an “instant lifeline” during a grueling relay race from Santa Monica to Las Vegas.

Apple turned Jetsons-style video calling into reality with FaceTime. Now the company sees personal robotics as an area worth exploration, reports Mark Gurman for Bloomberg. Is Rosey the Robot the next Jetsonian technology to become a reality?

Don’t throw your phone out of the window. Whatsapp, Instagram, and other Meta services are facing an outage of some kind for lots of users.

Four years ago, I was wowed by the experience that Pocket Rocket provided on the iPhone and iPad. The ARKit-powered rocket visualizer app excelled at bringing augmented reality rockets to life in your environment. Fast-forward to now and Pocket Rocket has officially taken off on Apple Vision Pro.

iPhone 16 Pro rumors continue to fly by, and the latest involves a change to the back glass. According to a Weibo post (via ShrimpApplePro), Apple may be bringing the custom dual ion-exchange glass process to this fall’s premium model.

Spotify is cranking up the volume, err, subscription price, for the second time in a year. Whether it’s to cover the increased cost of licensing music or to fund future complaints against Apple, Spotify will start charging subscribers $1 to $2 more per month, depending on their plan.

Update: We’re told May 2 is the release date for Beats Solo4 headphones. Early May sounds busy. No word on when this guy makes a come back.

It’s been a few days since Apple announced new Beats Solo headphones. 2,764 days and counting to be exact. The day counter is clearly about to reset, however, as more and more signs point to Beats Solo4 hardware launching soon.

The clearest sign yet? 9to5Mac has exclusively received the full rundown on Beats Solo4 specs from trusted sources. The TL;DR is this: Beats is about to deliver a big upgrade to the on-ear headphones for the same price as their predecessors from 2016. That translates to a great value in 2024 dollars, plus they’re USB-C. Here’s what we’re told to expect from Beats Solo4 headphones…

Update: Public beta versions are starting to roll in. Have fun!

Miss living on beta? All aboard the iOS 17.5 beta train. After a few too many weeks with no developer beta, Apple has released the first iOS 17.5 beta for testing. The full list of beta releases today includes Apple’s other platforms as well:

• iOS 17.5
• macOS Sonoma 14.5
• visionOS 1.1
• watchOS 10.5
• tvOS 17.5
• HomePod 17.5

Enjoy the fresh beta bits, and let us know what you find!

It feels like just yesterday when Apple continued to sell 2017’s Apple Watch Series 3 despite it not receiving an already announced watchOS update. Fortunately, Apple hasn’t repeated that mistake again. Instead, we’re merely looking at the successor to that Apple Watch potentially missing support for the next major watchOS release.

Nothing makes me feel more like Zion Williamson than shooting hoops at the arcade. And while I’d love to take arcade basketball home with me, I’m not sure that’s the best investment. Fortunately, Apple Vision Pro has quickly become the best way to turn any space into an arcade basketball arena.

Update: MacRumors has updated its piece with this: “We’ve received information from several sources indicating that the image is fake.”

Apple Vision Pro’s greatest contribution to humankind in year one may just be inspiring the iOS 18 redesign everyone wants. Our friends at MacRumors have published what they describe as an “iPhone frame template from an anonymous source who claims they obtained it from an iOS engineer.” It could be nothing, or it could be the first glimpse at a return to realism in iPhone software design.

Want to be featured on the App Store? Develop a new feature that uses Apple’s latest technologies. Looking for a similar featured spot on Apple Podcasts? Consider charging listeners for your podcast.

Siri has recently been attempting to describe images received in Messages when using CarPlay or the announce notifications feature. In typical Siri fashion, the feature is inconsistent and with mixed results.

Nevertheless, Apple forges ahead with the promise of AI. In a newly published research paper, Apple’s AI gurus describe a system in which Siri can do much more than try to recognize what’s in an image. The best part? It thinks one of its models for doing this benchmarks better than ChatGPT 4.0.

Siri launched with the iPhone 4S in October 2011, replacing Voice Control with a more capable virtual assistant. A dozen years later, Siri has evolved into the primary way we interact with our Apple products.

Wait, no, I’m being told Siri sounds more natural but the core technology is roughly the same. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence now means generative AI and chat bots are based on large language models.

Siri and the rest of iOS 18 will join the AI revolution in June, ending our long national nightmare of Siri being somewhere between hot garbage and kinda useful sometimes. At least that’s what’s being reported, but we don’t really have a great sense of what to expect yet.

A pair of iPhone 16 Pro rumors have surfaced overnight, giving us a possible preview of what’s to come this fall. The first is a new look at what may be the iPhone 16 Pro color lineup.

In this episode of Visioneers, Zac Hall of 9to5Mac sits down with Geert Bevin, the Director of Software Development at Moog Music, for an insightful conversation. Together, they delve into the fascinating world of music technology, focusing on Moog Music’s latest creation, Animoog Galaxy for Apple Vision Pro. Additionally, Bevin sheds light on his innovative app, MIDI Widgets; his history with computers and music creation; and how Apple Vision Pro is meshing with work life and leisure so far.

Sponsored by Things 3: Zac’s all-time favorite task manager for iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro! Try it today!

Spring cleaning continues at Apple. Per Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Apple no longer plans to design and produce its own displays for the Apple Watch. Apple has reportedly been investigating moving from OLED to custom microLED screens dates since at least 2016.

Apple has responded to the Department of Justice lawsuit that has been expected for some time now. In the statement, Apple says the lawsuit threatens its identity and it will vigorously defend itself from it:

Apple recently released visionOS 1.1, bringing higher quality Persona avatars and enterprise support to Apple Vision Pro. The software update also introduces support for a significant advancement in immersive web experiences.

Anyone ready for new iPads? New iPad Air and iPad Pro hardware is expected to be unveiled any day now. This includes a more affordable 12.9-inch display with the iPad Air expected to add a larger option. We also expect to see the first iPads OLED screen technology to deliver deeper black levels like the iPhone and Apple Watch.

A new report from DSCC may add color on when to expect new iPads to ship. The analyst firm also gives us an idea of what to expect with the iPad Pro supply mix at launch.

Apple has been forced by the EU to allow app purchases and installs without the App Store. The effort to enable the capabilities as securely as possible has been massive. The details continue to evolve based on developer arms regulatory feedback, and many more changes for EU customers are planned over the next year. Still, Apple continues to express concern that the Digital Markets Act that enforces all these changes could come at a cost.

You may recall the recently announced but unnamed sports streaming service from ESPN, Warner Brothers, and Fox. It turns out a former Apple sports deal maker will run the bundle.

Apple is moving on from a class action lawsuit that claimed CEO Tim Cook defrauded investors in 2019. The cost of doing business is just $490 million for Apple, according to a settlement that will have to be approved by the court.

After a whirlwind of events, Epic Games says Apple has reinstated their App Store developer account. The move clears the way for Epic to bring its Epic Games Store to the EU, avoiding the App Store structure altogether. The turnaround is somewhat unexpected as Apple seemed to stand by its decision to revoke Epic’s developer account on Wednesday.

iPhone 16 Pro is still half a year away, but we already have some ideas of what to expect. 91mobiles, which often publishes accurate design files of unannounced Apple products, adds to the knowledge base with a new set of iPhone 16 Pro CAD files.

The idea of outright banning TikTok in the United States has been debated in Washington for several years now. The possibility is all the more likely today as lawmakers in the House of Representatives have voted to advance a TikTok ban bill.

In addition to iOS 17.4 and visionOS 1.1 this week, Apple has updated the Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod. Today’s release includes macOS Sonoma 14.4, tvOS 17.4, watchOS 10.4, and the HomePod 17.4 software update.

Apple has released visionOS 1.1 for all users. The Apple Vision Pro software update features a number of changes that should be welcome to early owners.

Happy Digital Markets Act Day to those who celebrate. Apple has published a document titled “Apple’s Non-Confidential Summary of DMA Compliance Report” in which it outlines policy changes now in effect. In the new 12-page document, Apple outlines more future changes coming to EU users later this year and early next year.

Friday Night Baseball is returning to Apple TV+ on March 29. This marks the third Major League Baseball season with Apple streaming two MLB games each week. But don’t expect Immersive Video for Apple Vision Pro this season.