Today happens to be the 800th In the News post on iPhone J.D., and Apple TV is nonplussed. What I mean is that one of many announcements from Apple this week was that the service formally known as Apple TV+ will now simply be called Apple TV. Goodbye, plus sign. I agree with the comment on this change from Jason Snell of Six Colors: “When everyone calls your service one thing, it’s probably best to just go with it and simplify.” Moreover, it was already a little confusing to have a streaming service, a hardware box connected to a television, and an app for watching videos that basically had the same name, so I don’t think that dropping the plus sign will cause much additional confusion; when someone says “Apple TV,” you can figure out from the context what they are talking about. But that’s not all that Apple had to say this week, so here is the rest of the news of note:
- As I noted yesterday, Apple announced the iPad Pro M5 this week. But if you would prefer to use that speedy new chip in a laptop computer instead of an iPad, John Voorhees of MacStories notes that Apple also released a new MacBook Pro with an M5 chip.
- Dan Moren of Six Colors notes that Apple also released the first new version of the Apple Vision Pro since it was previewed in 2023 and went on sale on February 2, 2024. Apple hasn’t changed the name—they are still calling this second version the Apple Vision Pro—but it now includes an M5 processor (a notable upgrade from the M2 in the original Vision Pro) and other enhancements. It also includes a new Dual Knit Band that provides more support (because it includes not only the strap that goes around your head but also a strap that goes on top of your head) and should be better balanced (because it includes tungsten inserts to provide a counterweight to the weight of the main part of the Vision Pro). If you already own a Vision Pro and you just want the new strap, you can purchase that for $99 from Apple.
- As William Gallagher of AppleInsider notes, Apple also announced this week that, starting November 11, 2025, you will be able to purchase a PlayStation VR2 Sense controller from the Apple Store that can be used to play games on an Apple Vision Pro.
- If you want to draw items in space while wearing an Apple Vision Pro, Apple worked with Logitech to release the Logitech Muse. It is sort of like a thicker version of the Apple Pencil that works in 3D. It costs $130, and while I’m interested in hearing how it works, it doesn’t seem like something that I would use.
- If you own the original Apple Vision Pro and want to trade in that model towards the purchase of a new one, Hartley Charlton of MacRumors reports that you cannot do so. However, I still wonder if Apple will allow that option at some point in the future, but just isn’t ready to do so right now.
- Apple giveth, but Apple also taketh away. This week, Apple removed its Clips app from the App Store and, as noted by Eric Slivka of MacRumors, announced in a support document that the app will no longer be supported for those who have it installed. Apple released the Clips app in 2017. Although I haven’t used it frequently, I did use the app a few times to quickly create some fun movies, and I found that it worked well.
- In 2018, the U.S. Mint began releasing American Innovation dollar coins. The first version of the coin commemorated the first patent, and every coin released since then celebrates a state or U.S. territory, along with an invention or inventor associated with that region. For example, in 2023, the U.S. Mint released the Louisiana coin, which celebrates the Higgins boat—a boat invented in New Orleans that played a crucial role during World War II, including on D-Day. I mention all of this because, as noted by Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac, this week the U.S. Mint announced that the California dollar coin will be released in 2026 and will honor Steve Jobs.
- In an interview with Sahil Mohan Gupta of the Indian business publication BW Businessworld, Jon McCormack, who leads camera and photo software engineering at Apple, discussed the new front-facing camera on the newest iPhones. He says that Apple wanted to uncouple the orientation of your iPhone from the aspect ratio of your capture. He also notes an advantage that I had not thought of: “You’ll also notice everyone in the photo has better eye gaze because the camera preview is centred with the front camera rather than being off to the side.” Taking better selfies should be a popular new feature considering that Apple says that people around the world take 16,000 selfie photos every second. I’m fairly certain that a good portion of those are taken by my daughter.
- David Sparks of MacSparky has been leasing a Rivian, and while he likes the car, he says that the lack of CarPlay is a problem.
- Michael Simon of Macworld reports that Apple has doubled its top award from $1 million to $2 million for people who discover a security flaw with Apple’s operating systems and report that bug to Apple.
- Alex Sherman of CNBC reports that Apple executive Eddy Cue said that Apple’s F1 movie is the highest-grossing sports film of all time. Apple also announced that the movie will come to Apple TV on December 12. I enjoyed the movie at an IMAX theater, and I look forward to watching it again on a virtual huge screen using my Vision Pro.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors notes that there is heavy speculation that Apple is going to announce this weekend that it has purchased the exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to F1 racing, and Snell discusses the different ways that Apple could do that.
- Apple TV released a trailer for Season 2 of the show Palm Royale, which starts on November 12, and I love that Carol Burnett—at 92 years old—is still in the show.
- And finally, here is a short, fun video from Apple that celebrates design. This was the beginning of Apple’s recent introduction of the new iPhones, but even though I saw it before, I enjoyed watching it again.