
I have been using an Apple TV since the first model was released in early 2007. That doesn’t just predate the launch of this website in 2008; it predates the iPhone. I’ve upgraded to different models over the years and have been using the Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) since 2021. As a result, I haven’t paid close attention to the competition in a long time. Thus, I was curious to read the comparison of the latest TV streaming devices by Jason Snell of Six Colors. Even though the current generation Apple TV hardware hasn’t been updated in four years, Snell explains that it is still the best of the pack. One huge advantage is the lack of ads, which he notes are especially obnoxious with the Fire TV. (Snell writes: “I wouldn’t use the Fire TV if Amazon gave me one for free, and given the amount of advertising on the box, they should be paying people to use them.”) But Snell also identifies some software features used by other devices that he thinks Apple should implement, such as listing streaming live TV channels. If you use an Apple TV like I do, this is an interesting article that helps you to appreciate what is good about what you already have while also showing how others have taken some interesting different approaches. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Last week, I discussed Apple’s acknowledgment that it was behind in AI, and Siri got even more bad press this week when folks realized that Siri doesn’t even know what month it is, as noted by John Gruber of Daring Fireball. But maybe there is hope in the future. Gruber also discusses a report by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg that Apple is changing its AI leadership, replacing John Giannandrea (formerly of Google) with Mike Rockwell (who had been in charge of the Apple Vision Pro). It will be a while before we see the impact of this change, but hopefully, the change will pay dividends for us users.
- Esther Fung of the Wall Street Journal reports that 13 people were arrested in an international crime ring targeting FedEx deliveries of iPhones and other Apple products. An AT&T store employee was bribed to leak order details, and theives would track the deliveries and then pick up packages from doorsteps immediately after items were delivered.
- If you want a new watch band for your Apple Watch at a huge discount, Woot is once again selling Apple Watch bands at an extreme discount: Apple Solo Loops for $20 and Apple Braided Solo Loops for $30. I took advantage of a similar sale in the past. These are original Apple products from prior seasons, and I loved gaining two new Solo Loop colors for only $40.
- Ryan Christoffel explains one of his favorite improvements to Apple Maps in iOS 18: the ability to search for places in a specific area that you are viewing on the map.
- Christoffel also discusses a recent study of Apple’s new C1 modem in the iPhone 16e by Ookla—maker of the popular Speedtest app—and the conclusions are quite promissing. Qualcomm modems can outperform the C1 when the network connection is good, but when you have a good connection, you are less likely to notice slight improvements. What really matters more is how the modems perform when the network performance is poor, and Apple’s C1 modem beat Qualcomm’s modems in those tests. Considering that this is Apple’s first effort, these findings make me think that future C2, C3, etc. modems from Apple could be quite impressive.
- Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reviews the PNY Pro Elite V3, a flash drive with a huge capacity, including a 2TB version fo $145 on Amazon. That’s a ton of storage in a very small package. I could see it being useful with an iPad if you want to carry around a ton of files that won’t fit on your internal storage.
- If you don’t use a password manager, you should. The one that I use and highly recommend is 1Password, which is especially useful if you get 1Password for Families so that you can easily share certain passwords and other important information with others. Mitchel Broussard of MacRumors reports that 1Password Families is currently 50% off (and the individual version is 25% off).
- I heard from a lot of you who purchased an Anker Laptop Power Bank after reading my review earlier this week. That device is fantastic, and I highly recommend it. After I first published that post, Anker (or Amazon?) added a coupon so that you can get it for about $100 on Amazon. If you ever have a need for portable power when you lack convenient access to an outlet, you should check it out. Of course, Anker makes many other products too, and Eric Slivka of MacRumors reviews some other new interesting charging accessories from Anker.
- Joe Rossignol of MacRumors identifies the nine states, plus Puerto Rico, where you can currently add a driver’s license to the iPhone’s Wallet app and identifies eight more states that are working to add this feature: Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah, and Oklahoma.
- When iOS 19 comes out later this year, Apple will add support for new RCS features that will improve your text messaging experience with Android users in five ways, as explained by Joe Rossignol of MacRumors.
- Who is that actor, and what else were they in? Callsheet is a great app from Casey Liss that can answer those types of questions. Devon Dundee discusses an update to that app that allows you to create multiple pinned item lists.
- Speaking of TV, I stayed up late last night to watch the Season 2 finale of Severance. No spoilers, but OMG it is so good! An incredible episode of television. The only thing I don’t like is that now I’ll have to wait until Season 3 to get more. Fortunately, Armando Tinoco of Deadline reports that we won’t have to wait as long for Season 3 as we did for Season 2.
- If you are a fan of Severance, do a Google search for the word “Severance” and then tap the blue button at the bottom. And feel free to keep tapping it repeatedly. Nicely done, Google!
- Speaking of great shows on Apple TV+, Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that Season 4 of Ted Lasso is confirmed and will feature Lasso coaching a women’s team.
- Mitchel Broussard of MacRumors reports that you can currently get a bundle of Disney+ and Hulu (both with ads, unfortunately) for only $2.99/month for four months. I’m currently watching Paradise on Hulu, and it is really good.
- The very best content for the Apple Vision Pro comes from Apple: the almost two dozen Apple Immersive Videos that I identified in this post (a post that I continue to update as new content is released and announced). But third parties are also doing interesting things with immersive video, and the very best one right now is the Prima Immersive app, which premiered on February 10, 2025, with the first episode of the Sessions immersive video series from The Spatialists, featuring bluegrass band AJ Lee & Blue Summit. Tim Chaten of the Vision Pros podcast interviewed Tom Rettig, the founder and Executive Producer of The Spacialists, in the latest episode of the Vision Pros podcast. I thought it was a fascinating interview, and it provides some great insight into additional great third-party content that we should see in 2025 and beyond.
- One of the funniest viral videos that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic featured Texas attorney Rod “I’m not a cat” Ponton. Claire Moses of the New York Times caught up with Ponton to discuss it, and he has a great sense of humor about the incident. That video still brings a smile to my face when I watch it.
- And finally, for a very long time, Apple has released ads for the iPod and iPhone featuring people listening to music as they walk down the street. But the one that Apple released this week called Someday is particularly impressive. It was created by Spike Jonze, it stars Pedro Pascal, and it is a feast for the eyes: