Updates & Followup

Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

• 🇺🇸 A few updates from Trumplandia:
  • 🇮🇷 Trump’s ‘special military operation’ in Iran has a direct effect on Apple: Iran Warns Major Tech Companies Including Apple Could Become Regional Targets — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple adds 4 new partners to its American Manufacturing Program — www.cultofmac.com/… & 📣 Apple PR (additional $4Bn investment into Bosch, Cirrus Logic, TDK & Qnity Electronics through 2030)
• MacBook Neo draws record number of new buyers to macOS — www.cultofmac.com/… (‘fun with numbers without numbers’ from Tim Cook)
• Apple has dropped the price of the Studio Display XDR by $400 when bought with a VESA mount rather than the Apple stand — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Apple to Refund VESA Studio Display XDR Buyers After Surprise Price Drop — www.macobserver.com/…
• More Android Phones start using Google’s reverse-engineered AirDrop: Galaxy S26 can now share files with iPhones using AirDrop — www.cultofmac.com/… (still no reaction from Apple to shut this down — not possible? or tacit consent?)
• 🇺🇸 After last month’s NATO approval, the iPhone got another notable approval: How NASA Approved the iPhone 17 Pro Max for the Artemis II Space Mission — appleinsider.com/…
  • Related: Apple Says It’s Not Aware of Lockdown Mode Ever Having Been Exploited — daringfireball.net/…

Regulatory Rundown

• 🇷🇺 Forced by the government: Apple Blocks in-App Purchases and Subscriptions in Russia — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇨🇳 Apple’s App Store In China Gets Lower 25 Commission To Appease Regulators — appleinsider.com/…
  • Related: App Store Fees Drop in China, Beijing Immediately Asks for More — appleinsider.com/… (Critical article in People’s Daily ‘newspaper’)
  • Related: Apple Accidentally Enabled Apple Intelligence in China Before Approval — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇮🇪 🇬🇧 🇷🇺 Apple Ireland Appears to Have Broken Sanctions on Russia — appleinsider.com/… 🙁
  • “Apple’s Ireland subsidiary has been fined half a million dollars by UK regulators who say the company probably broke sanctions against Russia.”
• Apple is rolling out Age Verification in multiple juristictions:
  • 🇬🇧 Apple Now Requires Age Verification in the UK with iOS 26.4 Update — www.macobserver.com/…
    • Not verifying prevents you installing new apps or making in-app purchases
    • Currently 4 verification options:
      1. Scan a passport or driving licence
      2. Verify using a credit card
      3. Use an existing payment method linked to the Apple account
      4. Allow Apple to estimate age based on account history
    • Apple Age Verification is Failing for some: Here is What to Try — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 🇸🇬 🇰🇷 Apple Age Verification Now Required in More Regions — www.macobserver.com/… (Singapore & South Korea)
• 🇪🇺 the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is succeeding in forcing Apple to more open:
  • Apple Introduces AudioAccessoryKit for Third Party Headphones on iPhone — www.macobserver.com/… (EU-only for now)
  • Preparation for notifications to no-Apple watches: Apple Updates Privacy Rules for Notification Access on Third Party Devices — www.macobserver.com/… (also EU-only for now, and rules look like they provide good user protections)

Legal Latest

• 🇺🇸 Apple can delist apps “with or without cause,” judge says in loss for Musi app — arstechnica.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Masimo wins hollow victory over Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensors — appleinsider.com/… (complex story, but Masimo effectively lost by technically winning, with no bans or new penalties for Apple)
• 🇺🇸 The Epic vs Apple Case Won’t Get a Rehearing for App Store Fees — appleinsider.com/… (significant loss for Apple — linking to external payment providers without a commission for Apple will remain in place in the US)

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• MotionVFX Acquisition Hints at New Final Cut Pro Features on iPad — appleinsider.com/… (publish a suite of FinalCut Pro plugins)
• Apple Fitness Chief to Retire After No Wrongdoing Found in Bullying Accusation — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple Home Hardware Chief Leaves for Oura — appleinsider.com/… (Brian Lynch)
• Apple Hires Former Google VP Lilian Rincon to Lead AI Product Marketing — www.macobserver.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• Apple Arcade adds award-winning hits DREDGE+, Unpacking+, and My Very Hungry Caterpillar+ to its growing catalogue in April — 📣 Apple PR
  • Two indie greats and a legendary children’s book app arrive on Apple Arcade in April — appleinsider.com/…
  • Sinister fishing adventure Dredge sails toward Apple Arcade — www.cultofmac.com/…
• Apple Music subscribers will soon be able to listen to complete songs in TikTok —appleinsider.com/…
• Apple TV:
  • Apple TV Reveals Friday Night Baseball Schedule for First Half of 2026 Season — www.macobserver.com/… & 📣 Apple PR (already 5th year!)
  • Anime Streaming Service Crunchyroll Is Now Available in the Apple TV App as a Channel — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple TV ‘F1: The Movie’ Wins Oscar for Best Sound at 98th Academy Awards — www.macobserver.com/…
    • Related: F1’s debut race in the 2026 season beat everyone’s expectations, even Apple’s — appleinsider.com/…
  • 🇬🇧 Apple TV Scores Fifteen Nominations at the 2026 BAFTA Awards — www.macobserver.com/… & Nine Apple TV Shows Nominated for UK’s BAFTA Television Awards — appleinsider.com/…
• CarPlay:
  • Apple CarPlay Arrives On Lucid Gravity SUVs — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Kwikset Adds Apple CarPlay Support for Smart Lock Controls — www.macobserver.com/…
  • ChatGPT Comes to Apple CarPlay with New Voice only App Support — www.macobserver.com/…
• University of Texas to Launch Digital Student IDs in Apple Wallet — www.macobserver.com/… (disappointingly slow rollout of this feature in general 🙁)
• Apple Sports gets updated twice:
  • Apple Sports App Gets Three New Upgrades For MLB And NASCAR Fans — www.macobserver.com/… (also toggle for hiding gambling odds)
  • Apple Sports Update Adds FIFA World Cup 2026 Tracking Live Scores and More — www.macobserver.com/…

Main Stories

1. Apple released the OS 26.4 updates:
   • Common features:
     • No new Siri features, but one Apple Intelligence
     • Support for the 8 newly approved Emoji
     • The new video podcast features announced last month are included in these releases
     • Adult members of a family can now all have their own credit card instead of having to share one card for all members of the family — appleinsider.com/… 🎉
   • Common features for the Mac & iPad (but not iOS):
     • New compact tabs option in Safari
     • The promised improvements for Freeform for Creative Studio subscribers are included with these updates
   • iOS & iPadOS 26.4:
     • A nice overview of all the new features — www.cultofmac.com/…
     • Two more Liquid Glass tweaks — www.macobserver.com/…
       • The Reduce Motion option has been improved
       • A new Reduce Bright Effects setting has been added
     • Make an Apple Music playlist automatically with Playlist Playground — www.cultofmac.com/…
     • iOS 26.4 Adds Ambient Music Widget for One-Tap Playback — www.macobserver.com/…
   • macOS Tahoe 26.4:
     • A nice overview of all the new features — www.cultofmac.com/…
     • Your MacBook can now tell if your charger is too slow — www.cultofmac.com/…
     • Warnings have been added each time you launch a Rosetta 2 app, warning that that app will need to be updated to work on future versions of macOS (support ends after macOS 27).
   • watchOS 26.4: the only notable change is a much requested fix for the workouts app — www.macobserver.com/…
   • visionOS 26.4: only notable changes are new VR streaming capabilities:
     • Demanding spatial apps can now stream directly to Vision Pro — www.cultofmac.com/… (Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards can stream high-fidelity immersive content directly to Vision Pro via Nvidia CloudXR)
     • Apple Vision Pro now Supports 90FPS Streaming with GeForce Now — www.macobserver.com/…
   • tvOS 26.4 only gets minor tweaks: Apple Releases tvOS 26.4 with Genius Browse and Removes iTunes Apps — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Related:
     • Apple releases first Background Security Improvements patch for iPhone and Mac — www.cultofmac.com/…
     • Apple also started sending lock-screen alerts to people with un-patched iPhones & iPads vulnerable to the new DarkSword exploit chain — thehackernews.com/…
2. Apple introduces AirPods Max 2 — 📣 Apple PR
   • Apple announces AirPods Max 2 update with H2 chip, same price — sixcolors.com/…
   • Apple Explains AirPods Max 2 Improvements with H2 Chip and Better Anc — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Related: Beats, Nike and LeBron James team up for Powerbeats Pro 2 special edition — www.cultofmac.com/…
3. Apple Announces Apple Business, a New Platform for Device Management and Ads on Maps — www.macstories.net/… & 📣 Apple PR
   • “Apple Business combines built-in mobile device management, business email and calendar services with custom domain support, and a powerful new option to reach local customers” — Apple’s description
   • That ‘powerful new option to reach local customers’ is ads in Apple Maps, which Apple describes as: “Beginning this summer in the U.S. and Canada, businesses will have a new way to be discovered by using Apple Business to create ads on Maps. Ads on Maps will appear when users search in Maps, and can appear at the top of a user’s search results based on relevance, as well as at the top of a new Suggested Places experience in Maps, which will display recommendations based on what’s trending nearby, the user’s recent searches, and more. Ads will be clearly marked to ensure transparency for Maps users.”
   • To be clear, the service as a whole is available world-wide, like the existing Apple Business Manager & Apple School Manager are, but the ads in Maps are US & Canada only (🇺🇸 🇨🇦 ).
   • John Voorhees (in the linked MacStories article) summarises:
     • “On the device management side, Apple Business lets companies manage employee onboarding and devices, centralizing control over email, calendar, iCloud backups and sync, support, and other company information, while separating company and employee data. The platform also allows companies to distribute apps to employees.”
     • “Apple also notes that the ads on Maps protects user privacy, preventing advertisers from seeing their location or tracking the ads they see.”
   • My take: Sounds like a business version of iCloud+ combined with the existing Apple Business Manager (managed Apple IDs + managed app purchases), and Apple’s own implementation of an MDM service like JAMF or Microsoft Intune.
4. Apple Turned 50, having been founded on April 1st 1976 🎂🎉
   • Apple’s official celebrations:
     • Tim Cook published an open letter: 50 Years of Thinking Different — 📣 Apple PR (short, genuine, and leaning into the very best aspects of Apple)
     • Apple announced world-wide public events, all with an artistic focus — 📣 Apple PR
       • “In the coming weeks, Apple and its global community will celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, recognizing the creativity, innovation, and impact that people around the world have made possible with Apple technology.”
       • 🇺🇸 Apple Hosts Alicia Keys Concert in New York to Begin 50th Anniversary — www.macobserver.com/…
       • 🇰🇷 Apple Taps K-Pop Band Cortis for Its 50th Anniversary Events — www.macobserver.com/… (in South Korea)
       • 🇨🇳 Tim Cook Dashes over to China for the Latest Apple Anniversary Concert — appleinsider.com/… (by Li Yuchun)
       • 🇫🇷 France Goes for Conversation Fashion and a Fictitious Radio Station in Its Celebration of Apples Anniversary — appleinsider.com/… (collection of events in Apple’s Champs-Elysees store in Paris)
       • 🇬🇧 Mumford & Sons concert in London — www.macrumors.com/…
       • 🇦🇺 Digital art from local artists projected on the Sydney Opera House — www.macobserver.com/…
       • A nice overview of the events with plenty of photos — www.cultofmac.com/…
     • The final event in the lead-up to the big day was huge invite-only event on Apple’s Cupertino campus headlined by Paul McCartney — appleinsider.com/…
       • Scott Forstall and Former Apple Leaders Spotted at Apple Park 50th Anniversery Event — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Apple’s overview of all the public events, and the final event in Cupertino — 📣Apple PR
     • On the day Apple took over their own home page with a beautiful celebration including a lovely Picasso-style video showing animated line drawings of their most iconic products — www.cultofmac.com/… & daringfireball.net/… (Daring Fireball has a direct link to the video file)
     • Tim Cook also sent a letter to staff on the day — appleinsider.com/… (also nice and genuine)
     • Following the anniversary Apple have opened a private exhibit show-casing historic products for staff in Cupertino — appleinsider.com/…
   • Apple’s Execs tour the media:
     • 🎦 Tim Cook does a fun video interview with WSJ tech reporter Ben Cohen in Apple’s archives where they look at some old Apple docs and prototypes together — appleinsider.com/…
     • 🎧 Eddie Cue did an excellent interview on the TBPN podcast — appleinsider.com/…
     • Tim Cook provided quotes for an excellent (but very log) Esquire piece on Apple — www.esquire.com/…
       • A nice summary of the Cook quotes — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Some unofficial celebrations:
     • 🎦 David Pogue hosted an excellent event at the Computer History Museum — tidbits.com/…
     • The Mac Observer turned Apple’s artwork into nice wallpapers for Macs and iPhones — www.macobserver.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple Mac Studio Deliveries Now Delayed up to 5 Months Due to Ram Shortage — www.macobserver.com/… 🙁
• Apple pulls the plug on its high-priced, oft-neglected Mac Pro desktop — arstechnica.com/…
  • Apple Still Selling Discontinued Mac Pro Through Refurbished Store — www.macobserver.com/…
• New AirTag Firmware Makes Unwanted Trackers Easier to Detect and Locate — www.macobserver.com/… (only for the new AirTag 2!)
• Apple are making a big push into more social media:
  • Apple continues to renovate its social media presence with new @helloapple Instagram account — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple Joins bilibili and LinkedIn Before WWDC 2026 and iOS 27 Launch — www.macobserver.com/… (bilibili is a YouTube-like streaming platform with a lot of dev vids)
• 🇺🇸 Apple Scales up Its Partnership with Save the Music — appleinsider.com/… (student music programs in NYC)
• 📆 Apple’s Q2 Results Will Be Reported on April 30 — appleinsider.com/…
• 📆 Apple Schedules WWDC 2026 for June 8–12 Along with a Special Event at Apple Park — www.macstories.net/… & 📣 Apple PR
  • Developers that Won the 2026 WWDC Invite Lottery Are Being Notified — appleinsider.com/…
  • Related: Apple gives developers over 100 new app-performance metrics — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Related: Apples App Store Will Show if an App Is Classified as a Regulated Medical Device — appleinsider.com/…
  • Related: Swift 6.3 Brings Official Android Support Letting Developers Build Native Apps Beyond Apple Platforms — www.macobserver.com/…

Legend

Note: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.