This weekās episode of the In the News podcast addresses Apple over the decades. We talk about what it used to be like to purchase Apple products and how that changed substantially for the better 24 years ago when Apple opened the first Apple Store. We also discuss how Appleās new announcement regarding Emory University in Atlanta is just the latest in a long history of Appleās connection with that university. Then we talk about Appleās need to fix the CarPlay of the past at the same time that it prepares for the CarPlay of the future. We also discuss new requirements for using batteries on Southwest Airlines flights, the latest Apple TV+ news, using an AirTag to track down a lost dog, and more.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a cool Apple Watch tip about showing your step count on your watch face, and I provide some tips for using an iPhone as a clock next to your bed by adjusting the settings for StandBy mode.
Twenty-four years ago this week, on May 19, 2001, Apple opened its first retail store. That original store was at Tysons Corner Center in Virginia. Tim Hardwick of MacRumors relives that day and shares a video of Steve Jobs showing off the store. John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out that, at the time, there were some who thought that the stores were a dumb idea. Of course, the Apple Store eventually became the most successful store in the United States in terms of sales per square foot, twice as much as the #2 store (Tiffany’s). And the Apple executive in charge of the Apple Store, Deirdre OāBrien, is on Fortune‘s 2025 list of the Most Powerful Women in Business. I’ve seen the Apple Store in the New Orleans area move to larger locations in the Lakeside Shopping Center multiple times, and no matter how big that store gets, it always seems packed with people. If you live in a place that has access to an Apple Store, you know how useful and convenient these stores are. Long before the first iPhone and even before the first iPod, Apple did a great job executing on this idea. And now, the news of note from the past week:
In an article for Six Colors, Joe Rosensteel explains that while CarPlay Ultra sounds great, Apple ought to also focus on improving and fixing the regular CarPlay. As much as I love CarPlay and use it every day, I agree 100% with this.
John Voorhees of MacStories reports that with the new version of the Airbnb app, you can not only book a place to stay but also “a chef, personal trainer, hair stylist, manicurist, photographer, and more,” even if you are in your own hometown and not staying at an Airbnb.
HomeKit News reports that new projectors from Epson have built-in support for AirPlay 2 and the Apple Home app. AirPlay support seems like an obvious and useful feature for a projector.
Joe Hernandez of NPR reports that starting on May 28, if you use a portable battery to charge a device such as an iPhone during a flight on Southwest Airlines, the charging device will need to remain visible at all times. No putting the charger in a bag or the back of the seat compartment and having a cord snake out to your device. This is being implemented as a safety measure to help crew members respond more quickly if a lithium-ion battery overheats and catches fire.
Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that Amazon will soon be using drones to deliver iPhones, AirPods, and AirTags. The service will only be available in Phoenix, Arizona, and College Station, Texas, at first, but the idea is that Amazon can deliver to a specified location, such as your backyard, in less than an hour.
I first spent any significant time using a Mac was when I was freshman in college at Emory University in Atlanta. The computer labs had Macs and Apple LaserWriter printers, making it easy to produce documents that looked great. I used the money I earned from a summer job to purchase a Mac Plus from the Emory bookstore at the beginning of my Sophomore year, and I’ve been a Mac userāat my home, at leastāever since then. So I was happy to see Apple announce yesterday its deep relationship with Emory Hospital, including the extensive use of Macs, iPhones, and iPads at the Emory Hillandale Hospital in Lithonia, Georgia. I also see on the Emory website that the computer lab in Cox Hall is still full of Macs.
Apple also recently announced a collaboration between Apple Music and Universal Music Group to introduce Sound Therapy, a collection of playlists designed to promote clearer focus, deeper relaxation, or better sleep. These are special versions of songs that embed “special sound waves designed to enhance usersā daily routines, while retaining the artistās original vision” based on “scientific research” to harness “the power of sound waves, psychoacoustics, and cognitive science to help listeners relax or focus the mind.” Does it work? I’m not sure myself, but Devon Deundee of MacStories says that he thinks it does.
Kevin Purdy of Ars Technica explains how an AirTag on a lost dogācombined with Purdy having an extra battery on handāhelped man’s best friend to get back to his home.
If you are considering purchasing a refurbished iPhone from a company other than Apple, Dave Gershgorn of Wirecutter shares some helpful advice.
As the Peanuts characters are celebrating their 75th anniversary this year, Apple announced this week that on July 18, 2025, it will air the first Peanuts musical in over 35 years. (I believe that the last one was the TV version of the 1975 stage musical Snoopy! The Musical, which aired on CBS on January 29, 1988, and can be found on YouTube.) The new show is called Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical, and it features original music from one of my favorite artists, Ben Folds.
And finally, John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes that Jony Iveāthe former design chief at Appleāhas assembled an incredible team of former Apple designers, and they have joined with Sam Altman and OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT) to create a new company that will create … well, they haven’t quite told us yet, but it will be a brand new product in 2026 that, if you believe them, will be as great as the iPhone. Will this be a dud or the next big thing? I have no idea, but it will be fun to watch and find out. I agree with this take from Adam Engst of TidBITS: “Years of hearing overblown promises have made me inherently skeptical, but Jony Ive and his team have done important work in the past, and OpenAI has the resources and the chutzpah to bring a product to the mainstream market.” Here is the slick and interesting video released in which Ive and Altman explain why they are so excited to be working together:
There were a surprisingly large number of Apple announcements this week, and we have lots to say about them in this weekās episode of the In the News podcast. We start by discussing CarPlay Ultra. It looks like a big step forward, and the only downside is that most of us will need to wait before it is in a car that we are ready to buy. But hey, if you are in the market to purchase an Aston Martin car right now, this is your lucky day. Next, we discuss the numerous announcements of upcoming new features that Apple made on Global Accessibility Awareness Day. These features will be useful for lots of folks, and they also paint a picture of future improvements that are even more exciting. We also discuss the multiple ways that FindMy works on an Apple Watch, an iPad productivity tip, the next version of Bluetooth, the Dogcow, the first letter of the alphabet, and more.
In our In the Show segment, we discuss Murderbot, the newest show on Apple TV+. We also discuss Trying, the next season of Shrinking, and more.
In our In the Know segment, we provide some Apple Watch watch face tips designed for Pope Leo, but even those of us who donāt drive around in the popemobile can use them as well.
It made the news this week that the new Pope, Pope Leo XIV, wears an Apple Watch. He even did so during his first Holy Mass. If he uses an Apple Watch, that must mean that he uses an iPhone as well. (We also know that his brother John uses an iPad to talk to Pope Leo.) However, I still haven’t seen an answer to the heavenly question that we are all wondering: since Pope Francis had asked for his popemobile be turned into a health clinic for the children of Gaza, will the next popemobile for Pope Leo have CarPlay? Talia Lakritz of Business Insider reported that it is likely to be a custom Mercedes-Benz G-class electric vehicle, and that vehicle does come standard with CarPlay. But if only it had been an Aston Martin, Pope Leo might have been among the first to experience CarPlay Ultra, which Apple unveiled yesterday. As Jason Snell of Six Colors explains, this next generation of CarPlay, which comes first to Aston Martin vehicles and then to other brands, will “provide deeper integration with the car experience, taking over all of the vehicleās screens, including providing real-time information in the instrument cluster.” CarPlay Ultra will not look the same in every car, in part because different cars may have different types and sizes of screens, and in part because different automakers will work with Apple to create different designs for CarPlay Ultra that reflect the style of each car. Top Gear has a video with a hands on review. Apple has been talking about the next generation of CarPlay for a while now, and it is nice that it is now hereāfor a few cars, at least. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Yesterday was Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and as Apple has done for many years now, Apple announced a ton of new accessibility features that will be coming in iOS 19 later this year. For example, Accessibility Nutrition Labels for apps will let people know whether an app will be accessible before they even download the app. But the feature that impressed me the most is the new Magnifier feature. Using the Continuity Camera feature, your iPhone and Mac will be able to work together so that the iPhone’s camera can zoom in on surroundings to see things more easilyāsuch as the screen in the front of a classroom. I have poor vision, even when I wear glasses, so I sometimes found it difficult to read the chalk board when I was a student, and I sometimes have trouble today reading a screen, such as when I attend a CLE presentation. This new Magnifier feature looks impressive, and I included a video preview of this feature at the bottom of today’s post. There is also a similar Enhanced View feature coming to the Apple Vision Pro, which will allow you to zoom your surroundingsāsuch as zooming in on a sign across the room so that you can read it. Very cool.
Another new accessibility feature coming later this year is an enhancement to Live Captions. Live Captions is currently available on the iPhone, and it provides you with a real-time transcription of spoken audio. Later this year, you will be able to see on your Apple Watch the live captions that your iPhone hears. You will also be able to use an Apple Watch to control the Live Listen feature of an iPhone paired with AirPods.
An amazing article by Rolfe Winkler of the Wall Street Journal describes how Apple is working with a company that installs a brain implant that allows a person to control an iPhone, iPad, or Vision Pro using brain waves. The article explains how Matt Jackson, a patient with ALS, is able to control and use the immersive video feature of the Apple Vision Pro to experience what it is like to be in different parts of the world.
I’m a huge fan of the Anker Laptop Power Bank for the reasons I explained in this review. Michael Burkhardt of 9to5Mac likes it as well, as he explains in his review.
Tim Hardwick of MacRumors discusses the new Bluetooth 6.1 standard, which will enhance privacy and improve power efficiency. Hardwick thinks we may see this in the next version of the iPhone that Apple will announce later this year.
If you know what I mean when I say “Dogcow,” then you will want to read this article from Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac to learn about the new stickers that come with the Apple Developer app.
Nathan Ingraham of Engadget explains why he wants to see a change to the “a” in Apple’s Notes app. Before I saw this, I can’t say that I paid much attention to the distinction between a “single storey a” such as the one that you probably use in your handwriting and which Apple used in its logo in the late 1970s and the 1980s and the “double storey a” used in most fonts (including the one I use on this website).
There is a new show on Apple TV+: Murderbot, starring Alexander SkarsgĆ„rd. Ryan Christoffel reports that the early reviews are excellent. I watched the first two episodes last night, and I really enjoyed them. I’ve never seen a show like this before, and SkarsgĆ„rd is excellent.
Just in case I needed a reason to love the Apple TV+ show Shrinking even more, Selome Hailu of Variety reports that Michael J. Fox will appear in Season 3. It will be the first time that Fox has acted since 2020. Fox and Bill Lawrence, the co-creator of Shrinking, worked together on the sitcom Spin City.
The Baltimore Ravens released their 2025 game schedule and teamed up with Apple to do so Severance style. The joke gets a little old in this video, but the idea of what they did is still cute. If you are a Ravens fan, I suspect that you will especially enjoy the video.
Speaking of 3D movies on the Apple Vision Pro, it used to be rather difficult to find all of them in the TV app. But as Juli Clover of MacRumors notes, visionOS 2.5 came out this week, and it includes a new “Vision” tab in the app to make it easier to see all of the 3D content in one place.
By the way, I continue to update a curated list of every Apple Immersive Video that has been released for the Apple Vision Pro. You can find it at iPhoneJD.com/AppleImmersive.
The blockbuster summer movie coming from Apple this year is F1, starring Brad Pitt. John Voorhees of MacStories describes a number of new features recently added to Apple’s Maps app, such as integration with Michelin ratings. One of the new features is the addition of a Detailed City Experienceāwhich I described just a few weeks agoāfor Monaco. That’s just in time for the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco 2025, which starts in a few days. The new details make it easy to see the course, the grandstands, iconic buildings such as the Monte Carlo Casino and the HĆ“tel de Paris, and even representations of the racecars. (If you want to see the cars, open the Maps app and search for “Formula 1 Pit Garages” in Monaco.)
And finally, here is the video released by Apple yesterday that I mentioned above. It shows off the upcoming Magnifier feature of the Mac and iPhone. This is going to be very useful for a lot of people.
In an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Google, Judge Amit Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled last year that Google illegally maintained monopoly power in the market for general search services and the market for general search text advertising. The court held that Google entered into an anticompetitive deal with Apple and others for the placement of Google’s search engine. That left the question of what remedy to impose for this violation of the Sherman Act.
The phase of the trial to determine the remedy is going on right now. One of the witnesses called to testify was Apple executive Eddy Cue. As the court fashions the remedy, Apple has an interest in continuing to be paid by Google to make Google the default search engine in Safari. Documents filed in that lawsuit reveal that Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to be Safari’s default search engine. (Apple’s revenue for fiscal year 2022 was $394.3 billion, so that was about 5% of Apple’s total revenue and about 25% of the portion of Apple’s revenue for fiscal year 2022 that Apple attributed to “Services.”) When Cue testified, it was no surprise that he favored a remedy that allowed Google to continue paying Apple. For example, he testified that it “just seems crazy to me” that the DOJ argued that the appropriate punishment against Google would be to let Google save money by no longer making these payments to Apple.
Cue also testified that, given how rapidly AI is advancing, the antitrust threat that Google posed in the past is shrinking. For example, he testified that, for the first time in 22 years, Google searches in Safari actually declined last month as more people are running searches using AI tools like ChatGPT.
The portion of Cue’s testimony that particularly interested meāand the reason for today’s postāwas his testimony about how things change in the world of technology. Lauren Feiner of The Verge reports that Cue explained the changes in the industry that he had seen so far as follows:
Cue cautioned the judge that tech is not like other industries, and giants often fall even without court intervention. āWhen I got to Silicon Valley, all of the best companies, or the most successful companies, either donāt exist today or are significantly smaller and less impactful,ā Cue said, pointing to companies like HP, Sun Microsystems, and Intel. In the technology field, being an incumbent might not offer the same benefits it does in other markets. āWeāre not an oil company, weāre not toothpaste. These are things that are going to last forever,ā he said. āYou may not need an iPhone 10 years from now.ā
The idea that you may not “need” an iPhone in 10 years does not mean that there will not be an iPhone in ten years for those who prefer to use a smartphone. But it does mean that somethiing better would be available to use instead of an iPhone. We’ve seen this story in the past, even just in the context of Apple. The iPod debuted in 2001 and it went on to become widely regarded as the device that saved Apple, not only because of the revenue that Apple saw from the incredibly high number of iPod sales, but also because people who became fans of the iPod would often consider and then purchase other Apple products, like an Apple computer. This was called the iPod halo effect. But despite the success of the iPod, when the iPhone was introduced in 2007, the iPod became just one of many apps on the device. From that day forward, you no longer needed an iPod to have a great way to play music on a portable device.
So what did Eddy Cue have in mind when he testified that you may not need an iPhone ten years from now? It’s an interesting question that I’ve been thinking about since last week. I’m a big fan of my Apple Vision Pro, and so I thinkāand hopeāthat Apple will be selling a similar device ten years from now that is much lighter and much less expensive. Just a few days ago, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported that Apple is making progress on a new computer chip that will allow Apple to make something as powerful as the Apple Vision Pro that will fit in a pair of smart glasses that are similar to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which look like this:
Perhaps Cue was thinking of something like this, which would include a “virtual” iPhone-like device that you would see through the glasses but that nobody else would be able to see. (That would certainly be useful for privacy.) Or maybe he had something else in mind that I’m just not creative enough to think about right now. Some of the original devices created by companies to incorporate something like an iPod into a smartphone certainly exhibited a lack of creativity, most notably the ROKR developed by Motorola, which was released in 2005 and looked like the other mobile phones already in the market and nothing like the iPhone that Apple would release two years later:
I look forward to the day when we have something even better than the iPhone that will cause me to no longer need an iPhone. I’ll mark my calendar for the year 2025 to come up with a new name for this website.
This week, Brett Burney and I celebrate the fourth anniversary of the In the News podcast. It started as what I originally thought was a crazy idea when Brett reached out to me, and it has turned into one of the best parts of my week. Thanks to all of you who have listened, and a special thank you to those of you who have reached out to us over the years to talk about the podcast. In this weekās episodeāwhich was a great oneāwe start by discussing two Apple firsts that continue to have an impact today: the first iMac, and the first iPad mini. Next, we look to the future to discuss iOS 18.5 and why it might be released on Monday or Tuesday. We also talk about the changes to in-app purchases, using your iPad as a monitor, using a MagSafe wallet with an iPhone, AI, and more.
In our In the Vision segment, we discuss Appleās latest tear-jerker. In our Where Yāat segment, we discuss yet another life that was saved thanks to the Apple Watch. And in our In the Show segment, we discuss promising programming coming to Apple TV+.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a tip for using Siri to make decisions for you, and I discuss different steps you can take when apps behave badly.
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 subjectāsuch 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.
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 Proāso 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.
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 doāone 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 iMacāthe 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 yearāan iMac DVāand 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 Horsesāwhich 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 Appleās 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. Appleās 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 thereās not a lot of other reason for it. It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought. But we are making progress and weāre 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 weāre 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 inventoryāwhich 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 weekās 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 Morenās last column for Macworld and why I recommend the fantastic books in Danās 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 Yāat segment, we discuss a man in Ohio who had a dangerous stroke but was rescued thanks to his Apple Watchāand 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.
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.
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 CarĆŖme, a sexy historical culinary drama loosely based on the life of the famous French chef Antonin CarĆŖme. 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 franƧais.)
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.
