Month: May 2025

As I write this 777th edition of the Friday In the News post, I am thinking about how lucky I am to have some great videos of my kids when they were very young. Almost two decades ago, my wife and I upgraded from a VHS-C camcorder that we received as a wedding gift in the mid-1990s to one of the early consumer HD video cameras, a Sony model that recorded to MiniDV videocassette tape. It was expensive at the time, but I’m so happy that we have those videos in HD because they still look really good today. The quality of the home movies that I recorded in SD on a VHS-C tape just a few months before I purchased that HD video camera is pretty dismal in comparison. As we prepare for Mother’s Day weekend, I’m reminded of my earliest videos of my kids because Apple has just released a great video called A Gift for Mom that really tugs at the heartstrings. As reported by Brittaney Kiefer of AdWeek, director Goh Iromoto worked with Khulan and Sam Baasanjav over the past year as Sam filmed his wife with their newborn baby boy using the spatial video feature of the iPhone. Iromoto helped Sam edit over 55 hours of video into a 3D home movie for his wife to watch for Mother’s Day on an Apple Vision Pro. Even if you don’t currently own an Apple Vision Pro, if you have an iPhone that can take spatial video, I encourage you to use that feature when you record special videos as you are in close proximity to your subject—such as videos of a baby. At some point in the future when you do have a device that can handle 3D, you will be so happy that you captured those memories with an eye towards the future. And for all of the mothers who are reading this, have a Happy Mother’s Day this weekend. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• As a result of the ruling I discussed last week in the lawsuit between Epic and Apple, there are changes to in-app payments in certain third-party apps in the United States. For example, in the past, you could not purchase an ebook in the Amazon Kindle app, but now you can, as reported by Dan Moren of Six Colors.
• Sarah Perez of TechCrunch notes how the Patreon app has been changed as a result of the court ruling. When you choose to support a creator in that app, most of the screen gives you the option to make a purchase through the web, outside of the Apple payment system. You need to see and click on a tiny statement at the bottom “Or, continue with in-app payment” to make a traditional in-app payment through Apple. Apps that use this new system can bypass paying Apple a portion of the sale, which might mean that the price for you is less or it might mean that more money goes to the app (which, in the case of Patreon, means that more money goes to the creator). But keep in mind that this also means that you lose the ability to manage all of your subscriptions in the App Store app. I particularly like how easy it is to cancel a subscription using the App Store app. Hopefully, cancelling an app subscription made outside of the App Store won’t be as frustrating as trying to cancel a cable TV subscription.
• Fernando Silva of 9to5Mac discusses how you can use an HDMI to USB-C capture card (such as the Guermok Video Capture Card, which is $20.99 on Amazon) and the free Orion app to use the high-quality iPad screen as an external display for an Xbox, PlayStation, or Mac mini.
• If you are in the market for an iPad, there are some good sales going on at Amazon right now. You can save over $200 on the 13-inch iPad Pro, save $100 on the 11-inch iPad Pro, and save $100 on the 13-inch or 11-inch iPad Air models. You can also get the Pencil Pro for only $99.
• This past weekend, I ran across my first-generation iPad mini. As I noted in the review that I posted in 2012, that device was a joy to use because it is a great size to hold in the hand. Don’t get me wrong, for many tasks, the large 13-inch screen of my iPad Pro is much better, but that iPad mini is just so adorable. I tried to get that old iPad mini working when I found it last weekend, but since it cannot support modern apps, the version of Safari that it runs is very outdated, and it doesn’t even support the current Wi-Fi security protocols, I’m not sure that I can really do much with that model any more. So for a brief moment, it made me think that it would be fun to buy a modern iPad mini. And when I saw that Amazon is taking $100 off of the iPad mini (A17 Pro) model so that it is only $399, I became even more tempted. I really don’t need an iPad mini since I already have a great iPhone and iPad Pro—so that is what I keep telling myself. And yet, it is so cute!
• If you like the idea of attaching a wallet to your iPhone so that you can carry just one thing, you can purchase a MagSafe wallet from Apple that holds 3-4 cards and costs about $60. That Apple product has limited support for the Find My service: if it becomes disconnected from your iPhone, you can find out where the wallet was when it disconnected. But if someone then picks up that wallet and leaves with it, you cannot track it again (unless they attach it to their iPhone). Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac says that ESR’s Geo Wallet Boost is a good alternative. It is larger so it holds about one additional credit card, it costs only $34.99, and it has Find My support plus a battery built-in so that if the wallet gets disconnected from your iPhone, you can track it.
• Fernando Silva of 9to5Mac compares and contrasts Siri to two AI assistant alternatives for the iPhone: Perplexity and ChatGPT.
• iOS 18.5 may be released as soon as next week. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac identifies five of the new features.
• As I noted in my review of the Apple Watch Series 10, one of its best features is the nice, large display. Unfortunately, Apple has not yet created versions of all of its watch faces that take full advantage of the large display. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports on the five watch faces that do—one of which, the 2025 Pride Harmony face, will be included in watchOS 11.5, which may come out as soon as next week.
• By the way, the Apple Watch Series 10 is also $100 off at Amazon right now, starting at $299. That’s an all-time low price.
• Apple also introduced the 2025 version of its Pride Edition Apple Watch band, and this year’s version looks really great.
• One of the most comfortable watch bands made by Apple is the Braided Solo Loop, which I reviewed last year. My only real complaint about that band is that if you pay the full retail price of $100, I think it is too expensive. Another complaint I’ve heard from some people is that it can stretch over time and become too loose. Nick deCourville of The Mac Observer says that this has not happened to him after a year of using this band, and he says that he really likes it.
• Which Apple Watch features drain the battery more than others? Halyna Kubiv of the German publication Macwelt ran some tests to find the answer, and if you don’t spreken de Deutsch, Macworld presents a version of her article translated into English.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac shares the story of how an Apple Watch saved the life of a man who blacked out as he was walking to his car after work thanks to the fall detection feature.

• Twenty-seven years ago this week (in 1998), Steve Jobs introduced the iMac—the first new product released after Jobs returned to Apple as a result of Apple’s acquisition of NeXT. Jason Snell of Six Colors says that the spirit of the iMac lives on today in Apple’s other products. I got my first iMac on my birthday the following year—an iMac DV—and I loved that computer so much, even though the puck-style mouse was ill-conceived.
• Uber One (for Uber and Uber Eats) normally costs $9.99/month, which gets you no delivery fee on many food and grocery deliveries, 6% back on rides, and up to a 10% discount on orders. Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that if you use an Apple Card, you can use the service for six months at no cost.
• Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that Apple TV+ announced this week that it renewed two highly-rated series: Trying and The Studio. The first season of The Studio has been amazing to watch. And Trying is one of my favorite shows on Apple TV+, a show about a British couple who go on the adoption journey. Trying was actually renewed for a fifth season. No show has aired a fifth season on Apple TV+ yet, and the only fifth seasons currently in production are Trying, For All Mankind, and Slow Horses—which has been renewed for both a fifth and a sixth season.
• Apple announced this week that the third season of the Apple TV+ show Foundation will debut on July 11.
• Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that a crime thriller movie is coming to theaters and then Apple TV+ on September 5 claled Highest 2 Lowest. It stars Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright, and it is directed by Spike Lee. From the teaser trailer, it looks like it could be quite good.
• A new comedy TV series about golf called Stick comes to Apple TV+ on June 4. It stars Owen Wilson, Marc Maron, and Judy Greer. Apple released a trailer this week.
• A new thriller movie called Echo Valley starring Sydney Sweeney and Julianne Moore comes to Apple TV+ on June 13. Apple released a trailer this week.
• Wendy Lee of the Los Angeles Times interviewed a ton of people in Hollywood who have been involved with shows for Apple TV+ and discusses Apple’s strategy for that service, a focus on quality, not quantity.
• And finally, I’m mostly lukewarm about the current state of Apple Intelligence, but this six minute video from Apple does a really good job of showing off useful things that you can do today with Apple Intelligence.

A few days ago, Apple released the results for its 2025 fiscal second quarter (which ran from December 29, 2024, to March 29, 2025) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. The fiscal first quarter is always Apple’s best quarter of the year because it includes holiday sales. Three years ago, Apple set a new Q2 record of $97.3 billion. This year, the quarterly revenue was $95.4 billion, which was 5% better than this time last year and was Apple’s second-best Q2 ever. If you want to get all of the nitty-gritty details, you can listen to the audio from the conference call on this page of Apple’s website, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors. Apple’s official press release is here. Here are the items that stood out to me.

iPhone

• iPhone revenue for the quarter was $46.8 billion, up 2% from last year. The all-time high for Q2 was $51.3 billion in iPhone sales in 2023 Q2.
• As Jason Snell of Six Colors notes, “the truth is that iPhone revenue has been essentially flat for the last three years. Not since fiscal 2021 has there been multiple quarters of double-digit growth.” Of course, the iPhone still generates tons of revenue, and no other company has a product like the iPhone.
• Because of the Trump tariffs, Apple plans for the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in 2025 Q3 to come from India instead of China.
• When asked about why Apple has had to delay the Apple Intelligence feature that will make Siri do more with your personal data, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that “we just need more time to complete the work so they meet our high-quality bar, and there’s not a lot of other reason for it. It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought. But we are making progress and we’re extremely excited to get the more personal Siri features out there.”

iPad

• iPad revenue for the quarter was $6.4 billion, up 15% from last year. The all-time high iPad revenue in any quarter was 2023 Q1, when revenue was $9.4 billion. The all-time high iPad revenue in a Q2 was 2021 Q2, when revenue was $7.8 billion.
• With the growth this past quarter, Apple has now had four quarters in a row of iPad revenue growth, which comes after growth being down in nine of the ten prior quarters. Note that Apple did not introduce any new iPads in all of calendar year 2023: after introducing a new iPad and iPad Pro on October 18, 2022, the next iPad announced by Apple was on May 7, 2024, when Apple introduced a new iPad Air and new iPad Pro. Thus, it is not surprising that iPad revenue growth stalled before 2024, and with Apple now introducing new iPads more frequently, iPad revenue is getting back on track.
• Because of the Trump tariffs, Apple plans for the majority of iPads sold in the U.S. in 2025 Q3 to come from Vietnam instead of China.

Other

• Apple’s service revenue was an all-time record of $26.6 billion, up 12% from this time last year. This is a huge category that includes money that Google pays Apple for search, the App Store, Apple Pay, services like Apple TV+ and Fitness+, iCloud subscriptions, and more.
• Apple continues its efforts to be more environmentally sustainable, and has cut its emissions 60% since 2015. Cook explained: “Today we’re using more clean energy across our operations and more recycled materials in our products than ever. We have worked with suppliers to bring 17.8 gigawatts of renewable electricity online. We’re also saving billions of gallons of fresh water and redirecting millions of metric tons of waste from landfills. All of this will help us make important progress towards our goal of carbon neutrality across our supply chain and the life cycle of our products by 2030.”
• Apple said that the Trump tariffs had only a minimal impact on Q2, in part because Apple was able to optimize its supply chain and inventory—which I presume means importing a lot of items just before the tariffs began. Apple warned that it does not know the precise impact that these tariffs will have on 2025 Q3, in part because of all of the uncertainty, but as a rough estimate, it could add $900 million to Apple’s costs.
• Apple noted that many large organizations continue to invest in Apple products. For example, KPMG is now providing iPhone 16 to all U.S. employees.

Apple has gotten in some trouble with a court, and we begin this week’s episode of the In the News podcast discussing how we got here and what changes Apple has made to the in-app purchase rules for the App Store. Next, we talk about Dan Moren’s last column for Macworld and why I recommend the fantastic books in Dan’s Galactic Cold War series. We also discuss how Apple products are viewed in large companies, some iPhone tips, options for sending a text via satellite with your iPhone, and more.

In our Where Y’at segment, we discuss a man in Ohio who had a dangerous stroke but was rescued thanks to his Apple Watch—and how you can see on video everything that happened.

In our In the Show segment, we discuss some intriguing shows that are coming to Apple TV+ this month.

In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for making websites less annoying in Safari, and I share a tip for using Siri with the Apple Vision Pro.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice. You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

One of the tech writers that I often link to in these Friday posts is Dan Moren, who works with Jason Snell to publish the great website SIx Colors and also hosts a number of great podcasts. I mention Dan this week because I just finished reading the last book in his Glactic Cold War series, and I loved it, just like I loved all of the books in that series (and the short stories that fill in some gaps between the books). If you like science fiction, adventure, space, and spy thrillers, then you will love these books, and I highly recommend them. Coincidentally, the same day that I finished reading the last book in that series, Dan published his last Stay Foolish article for Macworld, ending a decade of that great column. In his final article, Dan discusses what it means to be a fan of Apple products in today’s world. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Although Apple won most of the claims in the lawsuit filed against it by Epic a few years ago, the judge did issue an order against Apple that related to in-app payments. This week, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple failed to comply with the judge’s prior orders, and even found that an Apple executive lied under oath. There are lots of good reports about the ruling from people like Jason Snell of Six Colors, John Voorhees of MacStories, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball (1, 2). Apple says that it will appeal, but in the meantime, it has changed the App Store Guidelines in several different ways, as noted by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac.
• What is the general opinion on how Apple products are doing in large companies? Jason Snell of Six Colors published the results of his fifth annual Apple in the Enterprise survey. I know for a fact that at least some of the report reflects the use of Apple products in a law firm because I was one of the 124 people surveyed.
• Chifundo Kasiya of Make Use Of identifies some useful iPhone accessibility features and other features that are worth checking out.
• Modern iPhones can use satellites to send and receive text messages when cellphone service is not available. Jared Newman of @dvisorator does a good job running down the available options.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac shares the story of a man in Ohio who had a stroke during a workout and was rescued thanks to his Apple Watch.
• Last week, I noted that Jason Snell of Six Colors is lukewarm about wearing an Apple Watch when he sleeps, but I find it valuable to do so. Shelly Brisbin wrote an alternative take on Six Colors, explaining why she also finds it valuable.
• It’s a new month, so that means new shows are coming to Apple TV+. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac lists all of the new shows coming this month. The list includes the sci-fi thriller comedy Murderbot (starting May 16), the action-adventure movie Fountain of Youth (May 23), and the show Bono: Stories of Surrender (May 30), which will also be available as an immersive movie on the Apple Vision Pro.
• Not on that list is an Apple TV+ show that debuted on April 30 called Carême, a sexy historical culinary drama loosely based on the life of the famous French chef Antonin Carême. It currently has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I plan to check it out. (Note that this is a French show, so prepare for subtitles if you don’t parlez the français.)
• If you want to send some Star Wars-themed emoji and stickers this Sunday as you celebrate May the 4th (be with you), Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks came up with a ton of different ways to do so.
• I’m all in favor of using technology in new and creative ways in a law practice, but there is a certain point when you clearly go too far, and as Kevin Underhill of Lowering the Bar explains, the Dragon Lawyer went way too far.
• Suno is a service that uses AI to generate songs. An iPhone J.D. reader (who has asked to remain anonymous) got frustrated at Siri one day when he asked Siri to play Alicia Keys and it instead played Carol King, so he asked Suno to create a Blues song about his frustrations. The result is the amusing song Siri Blues, which is presented for your enjoyment. There is something apropos about having one AI make fun of another AI.
• And finally, in this video called Clean Up Photos: Flex, Apple shows off one way that you can use the Clean Up tool in the Photos app (which is part of Apple Intelligence) to quickly remove a part of a picture that you don’t like. I remember working with photos years ago when features like this were slow and complicated. It is amazing that you can now do it with just a few taps in a few seconds.