It has been quite a week, to say the least, and many of us are looking to find some escape from the daily news. Watching a great show can be a wonderful way to do that, and there are so many amazing shows on Apple TV+. As noted by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac, there four shows coming to Apple TV+ this month. Next week, it will be the second seasons of Bad Sisters and Silo. The following week, the new series Blitz debuts, as does the documentary Bread & Roses. In a related post, Christoffel says that the early reviews of Silo's second season are very positive. But those four are still at least a few days away; what if you want something this weekend? Here is my current ranked list of my favorite Apple TV+ shows of all time: (1) Ted Lasso, (2) For All Mankind, (3) Severance, (4) Slow Horses, (5) Silo, (6) Dark Matter, (7) Trying, (8) Bad Monkey, (9) The Morning Show, (10) Five Days at Memorial, (11) Mythic Quest, (12) Foundation, (13) Hijack, (14) Lessons in Chemistry, (15) Schmigadoon!, (16) Shining Girls, (17) Bad Sisters, (18) Presumed Innocent, (19) Echo 3, (20) The Afterparty, (21) Sunny, (22) Tehran, (23) Shrinking, (24) Physical, (25) Black Bird, (26) Dickinson, (27) Masters of the Air, (28) Palm Royale, (29) Lady in the Lake, and (30) Loot. Ask me again tomorrow and I'm sure the order of some of those will change, so don't focus too much on the specific rankings, but suffice it to say that those are thirty great shows, and if you haven't seen one or more on my list, I recommend them. And I'm not even including some other Apple TV+ shows—such as See, Manhunt, Sugar, and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters—that had some good moments but they don't make my Top 30. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Apple announced that it purchased Pixelmator, a company that makes some amazing software for the iPad and Mac. I use Photomator on my iPad all the time. William Gallagher of Apple Insider shares his thoughts and hopes about the acquisition. I for one hope that Pixelmator's great apps continue to thrive with Apple in charge, even if we see some name changes and other modifications to fit into the Apple ecosystem. It is my sincere hope that Apple wasn't just looking to hire some smart computer programmers with no interest in the company's existing apps.
- John Gruber of Daring Fireball offers his thoughts on the Pixelmator acquisition.
- Apple also announced that it purchased a 20% interest in Globalstar, a company based just outside of New Orleans that provides satellite services, as reported by Eric Slivka of MacRumors. Again, I'm very curious to see what Apple does with this technology in light of this investment. It seems unlikely that Apple would spend so much money on a feature—albeit a potentially life-saving feature—that isn't used very often. So there must be more to this story.
- Belkin announced two new products for the Apple Vision Pro this week. One is a Head Strap that you use with the Solo Knit Band to provide extra support on the top of your head. The other is a travel case. Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews them both and concludes with a thought that I also had when I first saw this product announcement: did Apple reach out to Belkin, encourage them to create these two products, and then work with them to do so? That's something that Apple has done in the past when Apple wanted to have an accessory for one of its products but, for whatever reason, did not want for it to be an Apple-branded accessory. And as Jason notes in his post, there are some signs of that here.
- Andrew O'Hara of Apple Insider notes that when visonOS 2.2 is released, a new feature will be the ability to create a virtual external Ultra Wide display for your Mac.
- 9to5Mac asked readers to send in some of their best photos taken with an iPhone 16 and Arin Waichulis shows off the winners.
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac says that he is a fan of Apple's new Passwords app because of its ability to create shared password groups. I do something similar in 1Password by designating some passwords as private to me and others that I share with my family members. Shared password groups in Passwords is more flexible because you can share passwords with any group of people, although for me it would be pretty rare for me to want to share one of my passwords with anyone outside of my family.
- Christoffel also notes changes in CarPlay in iOS 18.1, such as a new Siri voice, which I noticed a few days ago. It's a fine voice—Apple says that it is more natural, expressive, and clear—but it is noticeably different.
- Michael Simon of Macworld notes that you can currently get Apple Solo Loop bands in discontinued colors for only $20 on Woot, a big savings off of the original $50 price. I just purchased a Deep Navy one to replace one that I loved using until it broke.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors discusses Apple's litigation with Masimo and notes that Apple said this week "that it is exploring all possible methods to get blood oxygen sensing back in U.S. Apple Watch models."
- Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac has advice for buying an iPod. Wait a minute ... [checks notes] ... yes, that's correct. I did mean to say iPod.
- In an article for Macworld, Jason Snell contemplates what additional Apple devices might get Apple Intelligence in the future.
- What would your daughter do if you took away her phone for a few months even though she and many others could still easily see it? Malcolm Owen of Apple Insider reports on a man in the UK who is getting the cold shoulder from his daughter after her iPhone was frozen in a public skating rink.
- Christian Zibreg of iDownloadBlog reports that in the upcoming iOS 18.2, you can share a link to the location of a Find My item with others—such as sharing the location of a lost bag with an airline. Interesting.
- Many people remember a time when using an electronic device to communicate with people around the world meant hearing three words: You've got mail. Emmett Lindner of the New York Times notes that the man who spoke those three words, Elwood Edwards, died this week.
- And finally, let's end up with a return to Apple TV+. If you are as excited about Season 2 of Silo as I am, you might enjoy the sneak peek at Season 2 (which I thought had only the lightest of spoilers) and this short video in which the star, Rebecca Ferguson, discusses (but doesn't really answer) a few fan theories about the show:
