Apple

Apple

Apple released the Mac mini M4 in late 2024 and we were impressed with how something so small could be so powerful. We gave it a 90 in our review, thanks to features like its speed and standard 16GB of RAM. The currently $479 base model also comes with 256GB of SSD. We were also happy to see it had front-facing USB-C and headphone ports.

Now it will be easier for Android users to watch Apple TV content on their TV with the addition of Google Cast support. However, even after this update, Google Cast is only an option on the Android version of Apple TV, not the iOS version. Likewise, the Android version still doesn't support AirPlay. The addition of Google Cast adds a core feature that's been missing from the Android version of Apple's streaming app since it launched earlier this year.

Apple has found itself in the crosshairs of the European Commission many times over the past few years, and now it's also being investigated by the Swiss Competition Commission (SCC). This has to do with access to NFC on iPhones. Apple started to allow third-party access to the NFC chip last year, following an initial opening up in the EU.

To help those looking to grab one get the most value possible, we're keeping an eye on sale prices and rounding up the best iPad deals we can find each week. This week's highlights include both versions of the latest iPad Air for $150 off at Amazon, matching the all-time lows we last saw around Black Friday. The iPad mini and iPad Pro are each $100 off as well.

If we didn't get paid, how are we going to pay back $15,000?

For the U.S. market, OpenAI's ChatGPT topped the ranks of free iPhone apps (not including games) with the most installs in 2025. The AI app was followed by Threads, Google, TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail and then Google's Gemini. ChatGPT made it to No. 4 last year, but the top spot was taken by Chinese shopping app Temu.

Apple doesn't like discounts, which can make picking up its products a bit hard, especially if you're on a budget. Thanks to StackSocial, that's not the case today. If you don't mind refurbished models, you can currently grab the Grade A 2020 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro for just $400 at Stacksocial. A brand-new one sits around $1,600, so you're saving a whopping 74% with this deal. Discounts this massive don't stick around for long, so it's best to bag yours before it's too late!

Shares of Apple Inc. were battered earlier this year as the iPhone maker faced repeated complaints about its lack of an artificial intelligence strategy. But as the AI trade faces increasing scrutiny, that hesitance has gone from a weakness to a strength and it's showing up in the stock market. Through the first six months of 2025, Apple was the second-worst performer among the Magnificent Seven tech giants, as its shares tumbled 18% through the end of June. That has reversed since then, with the stock soaring 35%, while AI darlings like Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. slid into the red and even Nvidia Corp. underperformed.

Working together, the AIM alliance developed a single-chip, POWER-based processor dubbed the PowerPC. In addition, they also developed two reference platforms for the new processor: the first was dubbed PReP (PowerPC reference platform), and its follow-on was CHRP (pronounced "chirp", common hardware reference platform), which incorporated Open Firmware. The "common" in CHRP's name referred to the fact that the platform was intended to run a variety of operating systems on its PowerPC processor, including the Mac operating system, Microsoft Windows NT,

There's also the squad of Apple staffers who have been lured away to work with OpenAI, notably Apple's former chief design officer Jony Ive after his independent stint at LoveFrom. In 2024, Molly Anderson was named industrial design leader, heading up a team of mostly fresh faces. Others have gone to Meta, such as Apple's VP of human interface design, Alan Dye, who just this week was poached to head up a new Reality Labs design studio. At Apple, he's been replaced by long-time UI designer Stephen Lemay. Phew.

Apple's app of the year suggests the tech giant was all about helping iPhone users get organized in 2025. Tiimo is an AI-powered visual planner that's marketed towards those with neurodivergent brains. With to-do lists, daily tasks, and reminders, Tiimo mixes an AI chatbot with a classic planner. It's free to download and use, with a premium version available for $10 a month.

Apple on Thursday released the list of its 2025 App Store Award winners, recognising 17 apps and games of the year across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV categories, for their design, innovation, user experience and cultural impact. AI planner and to-do app Tiimo emerged as the best app on iPhone in 2025, while The Pokemon Company's Pokemon TCG Pocket has been awarded the iPhone Game of the Year title.

New data from B-Stock, a B2B marketplace for wholesale liquidation of returned and overstock inventory, finds that large cellular carriers are already moving "bulk quantities" of iPhone 17s through the resale channels for B2B customers. One sale on the site currently offers 111 iPhone 17 Pro Max units (with bidding for the lot standing at $80,200 as of Wednesday afternoon). All totaled, there were more than 300 iPhone 17 devices up for resale on the site as of Wednesday.

They're not called the AI talent wars for nothing. With Big Tech firms scrambling to attract top talent, executives and artificial intelligence researchers have done a lot of job-hopping this year, and Apple employees were no exception. The company has lost over a dozen employees who worked on its AI projects, from executives to scientists to engineers, and even its AI chief, John Giannandrea, who announced this week he was stepping down from the role.