iOS 27 includes new features for Apple Calendar, Wallet, Messages, Maps, and also the Weather app. Here are two new features coming to Apple Weather in iOS 27.
#1: ‘Highlights’ is a new summary of expected conditions
The Weather app has always offered a brief written overview of conditions near the top of the home page. But in iOS 27, Apple has upgraded and expanded this feature into a new ‘Highlights’ section.
’Highlights’ informs you of any noteworthy weather updates happening in the next day or so. It might inform you of rising temperatures, chances of rain or high winds, and the like.
Though Apple hasn’t said this, I suspect the feature might be powered by AI in some way. The iOS 27 beta placement of the ‘Feedback’ icon in the top-right corner of Highlights makes this seem likely.
So far in early testing, I’ve definitely found Highlights more helpful than the condition summaries available in iOS 26 and earlier. The updates seem more descriptive and relevant than what was offered before.
#2: New rain and wind forecast views
Another big change in iOS 27’s Weather app involves convenient new forecast views for Precipitation and Wind that live right on the home page.
You’ll notice in the images above and below that the Weather app now lets you switch between the default forecast view (signified by the cloud icon with sun behind it) and new rain and wind-focused views.
When you tap on the rain or wind icons, the hourly and daily summaries on the home page change from their default to focus solely on your chosen condition.
I’ve found the new forecast views a great addition to the Weather app. They let you stay in a familiar interface while providing in-depth data on precipitation and wind that you would previously need to dig to find.
Apple will be bringing Sign in with Apple and Hide My Email under one email domain, according to a new announcement for Developers. These are privacy features that require an iCloud+ subscription, where users can create a temporary email address to sign up for various websites and platforms. These temporary email addresses forward emails to the primary iCloud email address, but it can be turned off if you do not wish to receive emails from that specific website. Sign in with Apple allows users to sign up for a website or platform, and users are given an option to share or hide their primary email address.
A new change to these features will be coming later this summer, where “Apple will unify the email domains used by Sign in with Apple and iCloud+ Hide My Email under a single, shared domain: private.icloud.com.”
According to Apple, “New addresses generated for both features will be issued on the new domain. For example:
Sign in with Apple addresses, previously issued on privaterelay.appleid.com, will be issued on private.icloud.com.
iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses, previously issued on icloud.com, will be issued on private.icloud.com.
Existing addresses on the legacy domains will continue to work and forward mail to users without interruption.”
As implied, users who are currently using these features with existing addresses will be unaffected, and this change will only apply to new addresses created when this change comes into effect later this summer. App developers will be required to update their account systems and email validation to work with the new address alongside the previous one.
‘Suggested Places’ adds two recommended places to Maps’ search screen every time you tap the search bar to perform a search.
These recommendations are based on two main factors:
What’s trending nearby
Your recent search history
Suggested Places tend to refresh often—in my experience nearly every time I open the search screen.
So if you’re looking for spots near you, the two recommendations will be based in your local area. But if you’re planning a vacation to New York City, and just searched for something there, Apple Maps will offer two NY-based recommendations instead.
#2: Ads support ahead of summer launch
If you’re running iOS 26.5 in the US and Canada, your iPhone will alert you about its support for another Apple Maps change: ads.
Ads haven’t officially launched yet in Apple Maps. Apple previously said they would launch this summer.
However, iOS 26.5 introduces compatibility for the forthcoming rollout. And it notifies users via a new ads popup when Apple Maps is opened.
Here’s what it says:
Maps may show local ads based on your approximate location, current search terms, or view of the map while you search.
For your privacy, advertising information is not linked to your Apple Account.
Apple’s two-stage rollout is understandably confusing some users.
For example, Polymarket told its 1.4 million followers on X: “Apple officially rolls out ads in Apple Maps.” Which isn’t technically true, but it’s hard to blame them since users who update to iOS 26.5 will be greeted by the ads popup in Maps.
In line with the new iOS 26.4 update, Apple has launched a collection of new emojis, including a familiar (and controversial) face. While the Unicode Consortium officially approved the designs last summer, the new emojis have caused a stir for their unexpected addition, which is giving fans major flashbacks to Apple’s most controversial ad.
From its playful new ads to the Gen Z branding of the new MacBook Neo, it seems Apple is in an exciting new era, finally shedding its stuffy professional skin. The new emoji additions are just another example of how the brand is leaning into its sillier side, even making light of its own past mishaps, much to the delight of fans.
The new iOS 26.4 beta includes the addition of eight new emojis, including a fight cloud, hairy creature (a.k.a bigfoot), landslide, orca, trombone, treasure chest, ballet dancers and the infamous ‘distorted face’. Look familiar? That’s right. He’s the little yellow guy who starred in Apple’s highly controversial ‘Crush’ ad, which appalled audiences so much that the tech titan had to issue an apology.
The addition divided fans, with some seeing the funny side, while others were a little less jovial about it. “Because we needed a memento from that horrible advertisement?” one disgruntled critic wrote on X. “Close enough, welcome back iPad Pro Crush! ad,” another wrote, while one fan predicted, “Distorted Face is about to become the most used emoji overnight.”
Natalie Fear is Creative Bloq’s staff writer. With an eye for trending topics and a passion for internet culture, she brings you the latest in art and design news. Natalie also runs Creative Bloq’s 5 Questions series, spotlighting diverse talent across the creative industries. Outside of work, she loves all things literature and music (although she’s partial to a spot of TikTok brain rot).
The long, happy relationship between Apple and chipmaker TSMC is going through a rough patch. It seems Nvidia has come between them.
As a result, Apple reportedly must pay significantly more for the processors it acquires from the South Korean foundry — and Cupertino might even need to fight to gain access to the latest chips
It’s yet another example of how AI causes problems for Apple.
Apple and TSMC’s long and fruitful relationship
The partnership between Apple and TSMC has been crucial for both companies, and it drove them to the top of their respective markets. The Korean chipmaker became the exclusive manufacturer of Apple’s CPUs in the mid-2010s, and together the two companies have steadily pushed technology forward, from early A-series iPhone processors to today’s super-powerful Apple silicon for Macs, iPads and data centres.
Apple’s enormous scale and willingness to commit billions of dollars in long-term chip orders helped justify TSMC’s massive investments in cutting-edge fabrication plants. Meanwhile, TSMC’s manufacturing expertise gave Apple early access to the most advanced processors, delivering performance and efficiency advantages over rivals.
Apple loses its seat at the front of TSMC’s production line
“Nvidia likely took the top spot in at least one or two quarters of last year,” said Culpan.
Despite occasionally being described as a chipmaker, Nvidia does not manufacture its own GPUs and AI accelerators. Nvidia is a fabless semiconductor company — it designs products but relies on other companies to manufacture them. In fact, TSMC serve as Nvidia’s primary foundry for its most advanced chips.
With the huge growth in AI data centres, Nvidia is selling chips as fast as TSMC can make them. And that gives Nvidia plenty of pull with the Korean company. Maybe more than Apple has.
“Apple, which once held a dominant position on TSMC’s customer list, now needs to fight for production capacity,” said Culpan. “With the continuing AI boom, and each GPU from clients like Nvidia and AMD taking up a larger footprint per wafer, the iPhone maker’s chip designs are no longer guaranteed a place among TSMC’s almost two dozen fabs.”
A-series and M-series chips cost Apple more
Along with more competition comes higher prices. Culpan claims that TSMC hit Apple with “the largest price rise in years” last fall. The analyst did not reveal how much the cost of iPhone, Mac, etc., chips will go up, though.
In the past, being the foundry’s largest customer really helped Apple in negotiations over the cost of processors. But now that Nvidia has taken on that role, Apple is in a weaker bargaining position.
It never rains but it pours
Paying significantly more for processors is only one of the challenges facing Apple thanks to AI. The massive expansion in servers going into data centres being built by OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and others is straining supplies of RAM and other memory, also driving up the cost of these vital components.
With the cost of processors, RAM and SSDs all on the rise, Apple will find itself under pressure to raise prices on its products.
Feature image credit: AI image: Gemini/Cult of Mac
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
It’s easy to change that. You can lock down your location sharing, app sharing, and targeted advertising, as well as enable features that will help you find your device if it’s lost or stolen. All of the settings I’ve rounded up are based on the latest iOS 26 version, which debuted shortly before the release of the iPhone 17. If you have an older version of iOS, certain settings may be in a different location, but the majority of iPhones should have access to most (if not all) of these settings.
iPhone Privacy Settings to Change
Privacy is personal, so you shouldn’t treat the settings I listed here as a checklist. Treat them as suggestions. Your tolerance for data collection and the individual apps you have installed will largely dictate what settings you need to change. And remember, there’s some level of privacy you have to give up with any device connected to the internet, so although these settings will help your online privacy, they won’t make you completely anonymous.
Turn Off App Tracking
ScreenshotApple via Jacob Roach
You’ve undoubtedly come across an app asking to track you, which the iPhone, thankfully, lets you deny. If you want to turn off all tracking, you can. By default, the iPhone allows apps to request to track you, following you around other apps and websites to see what you’re doing. In the settings, you can automatically deny app tracking requests whenever you install a new app.
Open the Settings app, swipe down to the bottom, and choose Privacy & Security. Choose Tracking, and tick off the All Apps to Request to Track setting. You’ll also see any apps you’ve given tracking permission to listed, and you can revoke those permissions if you want.
Customize Location Sharing
ScreenshotApple via Jacob Roach
There are a lot of reasons you’d want to share location data with an app—for example, when using Apple or Google Maps—but apps that don’t need your location might still request it. Follow the same path of Settings, then Privacy & Security, but choose Location Services after. There, you’ll find all of the apps that have access to location services, their individual settings, and the option to turn off location services altogether.
I don’t recommend doing that, but you can still clean things up. First, for any app that doesn’t need a precise GPS signal (for instance, a retailer’s app), turn off the Precise Location setting, which you can find by tapping into an app. Once that’s done, choose System Services, which covers all of the functionality built into the iPhone that accesses location data.
There are a lot of settings here you probably want to leave on, such as Setting Time Zone and Cell Network Search, but there are some you can take off. At the bottom, you’ll find the Product Improvement section, and you can safely turn off those settings. You can also turn off Significant Locations & Routes if you don’t want your iPhone to automatically pick up your home or, for instance, your route to work.
Change App Sharing Settings
In the same Privacy & Security menu, just below the previous two settings, you’ll see a list of apps. These are apps that other apps might request access to, and you can customize those settings here. A great example is already set up on the iPhone. You’ll see that the Focus app is shared with the Messages app, which is pretty useful to let your iMessage friends know that you need some time to focus.
There’s some app sharing you might want to turn off. For example, the Photos app is fully shared with Google Drive on my iPhone, but I don’t use Google Drive for photos. There’s a ton of information that travels along with photos—metadata like the date captured and location—that I’d rather not share. Tapping in, I can change Google Drive to Limited Access to choose what I share, or I can block it outright.
Turn Off Apple Analytics
ScreenshotApple via Jacob Roach
By default, the iPhone doesn’t share a ton of data. In fact, most settings are turned off out of the box, but there are a few analytics you’ll need to dig in and turn off manually. Once again, head to the Privacy & Security menu, and swipe all the way down to the bottom. There, you’ll find two settings: Analytics & Improvements and Apple Advertising.
First, analytics. Tap in, and you’ll find two settings turned on: Share iPhone Analytics and Share With App Developers. Turn those off. You might find some other settings depending on what you’ve connected to your iPhone (like an Apple Watch), and you can turn off that analytics sharing, as well.
Next is advertising. Apple Advertising is more focused on privacy than other platforms, blocking ads from tracking you across websites and services. You can turn off the Personalized Ads toggle. You’ll still get ads, but they’ll be generic. If you turn on Apple Advertising, you can tap into the Ad Targeting Information screen to see what data is shared, such as your birth year, zip code, and the categories for apps you have downloaded.
Generate Privacy Reports
This isn’t really a setting, but the iPhone has built-in privacy reporting tools that can give you insight into what data apps are requesting and using. In the Privacy & Security menu, near the bottom, you’ll see the App Privacy Report and Apple Intelligence Report.
For the former, you’ll see the domains the app contacts each time you use it, as well as a layout of how many domains an app contacts. For Apple Intelligence, you’ll see private compute requests and what data was shared with the request. This report is exported as a JSON file, and you’ll need a text editor to view it. Regardless, both of these reports are fairly technical, and they don’t help your privacy; they just give you more information.
ScreenshotApple via Jacob Roach
Keep Notes Local
Apple automatically stores and syncs anything you put in the Notes app through iCloud, so no, those random thoughts you jotted down five years ago aren’t completely private. Thankfully, you can keep them private with an “On My iPhone” account, which, as the name suggests, doesn’t sync your notes and keeps them local to your device.
To set it up, open Settings and go down to the bottom of the list for Apps. Find the Notes app and toggle the On My iPhone Account setting on. Just above it, you can also set a password if you want to encrypt and lock any highly sensitive notes. Remember, you won’t be able to pull up these notes on another Apple device because they won’t sync, and if you lose your iPhone, you may not be able to access your notes altogether without a recent backup.
Hide (or Lock) Apps and Photos
You can hold down on any app icon, select Edit Home Screen, and tap an app to hide it. That’ll keep the app on your phone, but it won’t appear on your home screen. (You can search for it via Spotlight.) You can also hold down and select Require Face ID to lock the app, meaning it’ll require biometric authorization every time you open the app.
That’s great for apps, but you can do the same thing for photos, as well. Hold down on any photo in the Photos app and select Hide. It’ll be put into your Hidden album, which is locked behind either Face ID or your password. You can find the Hidden album in the Collections tab, at the bottom under the Utilities section.
iPhone Security Settings to Change
The iPhone is pretty secure out of the box, and Apple courts users into leveraging its security features as you set up a new device. Just like the privacy settings, however, the particular settings you use here are up to you. Many security settings will sacrifice privacy, and vice versa. You can’t locate a stolen device if you aren’t using location services, for example.
Use Face ID
ScreenshotApple via Jacob Roach
You need to set up Face ID when you set up an iPhone, and you’re probably using it anyway. But I’ve seen some misconceptions about how Face ID (and biometric authentication more broadly) works. Your fingerprint for Touch ID and images for Face ID are not sent to Apple, and they’re generally more secure than a password or simple PIN.
Instead, your fingerprint or face is used to generate an ID, which is encrypted and stored in Apple’s Secure Enclave, locally on your device. When you unlock your device, Face ID or Touch ID is checked against this ID, and if there’s a match, your device unlocks. If you’ve been avoiding Face ID due to privacy concerns, you aren’t protecting yourself as much as you might think.
Set Up Two-Factor Authentication
You and I both know it—you should be using two-factor authentication (2FA). I hate typing in a code or pulling up a second device as much as the next person, but it’s hard to overstate just how much more secure an account is with two authentication factors instead of one. And, you can easily set up 2FA for your Apple account from your iPhone.
Select your name at the top of the Settings app, which will open your Apple account information. Select Sign-In & Security, and then choose Two-Factor Authentication. Here, you’ll see devices you can use for 2FA, including the iPhone you’re using. When signing into your Apple account on another device, you can use any of the devices listed as your second factor, be it another Apple product or a text sent to a verified phone number.
ScreenshotApple via Jacob Roach
Encrypt Your iPhone’s Cloud Storage
iCloud encrypts your data, but it doesn’t use end-to-end encryption, at least by default. Out of the box, Apple manages your encryption keys, so it could, technically, decrypt the data you store in iCloud. Although that’s unlikely, you can still set up end-to-end encryption and manage your own encryption keys with Advanced Data Protection.
To turn it on, open Settings and select iCloud. Then, scroll down and select Advanced Data Protection. To turn it on, you’ll need to set up some account recovery options. Apple won’t be able to decrypt your data, so if you don’t have any recovery options set up, you won’t be able to decrypt or recover your data.
Turn On Stolen Device Protection
ScreenshotApple via Jacob Roach
Apple includes Stolen Device Protection with your iPhone, but it’s turned off by default. This feature requires you to verify with Face ID or Touch ID when taking certain actions without a password to fall back on, and it enforces a security delay, where critical actions such as changing your Apple password are only possible after a one-hour delay.
There are two forms of Stolen Device Protection. You can either have these features on all the time, or only when you’re away from familiar locations. Note that if you choose the latter, you’ll need to keep the Significant Locations & Routes setting mentioned earlier turned on.
If you set up Stolen Device Protection to only work when you’re away from familiar locations, it’ll kick in automatically. However, Stolen Device Protection doesn’t lock down everything about your iPhone. It crops up in certain situations, which Apple details on its support page. You can turn on the setting in the Privacy & Security menu at the bottom of the page.
Turn On Find My
You often have to trade privacy for better security, and that’s the case for both Stolen Device Protection and Apple’s “Find My” feature. To make sure you have it on, open Settings, select your account at the top, and choose Find My. Make sure Find My iPhone is turned on. If you tap in, you can also turn on Send Last Location, which will update the location of your iPhone if it’s about to die.
Although you’ll need to have location services running, Apple says that devices using iOS 17 and later don’t need to share that location data. When offline, at least, Apple can’t see location information when you have Find My turned on.
Hide Notifications
Finally, a bit of operational security. If you have sensitive information that could pop up in notifications, you can obfuscate how notifications appear while your iPhone is locked. It’s a small change, but it can keep you protected from someone peaking over your shoulder or picking up your phone while it’s locked.
Open Settings and head to Notifications. There, switch the display to Count and change Show Previews to either When Unlocked or Never. If you have a particularly sensitive app—say, an encrypted messaging app—you can also customize individual app notifications on this screen.
iPhone Privacy and Security Apps to Download
The iPhone provides a surprising number of privacy and security tools, from app privacy reports to a built-in password manager via the Passwords app. Some functions are better served with a third-party app, though, either for better security or more features. Although all of the apps I’m recommending here have paid options—and I recommend those paid plans—they all also have a free version if you don’t have the money to spare.
ProtonVPN is the best VPN you can use, and you can get started with it for free. While most free VPNs are questionable at best, Proton’s free service is rock solid. You’re limited to slower speeds and only have access to a handful of servers, but it still works. I’d be worried if a free VPN didn’t impose any limitations, frankly. It’s also one of the best VPNs for iPhone, mainly due to its excellent speed. Proton tops the charts in our speed tests, and although others, such as NordVPN, are close, Proton has maintained its lead across desktop and mobile.
The iPhone has a VPN built in, but it’s not the same thing as commercial VPNs as most people know them. Rather, it’s a configuration tool if you want to set up your own VPN. If you want a tool to mask your IP address and help you stay more private online, you’ll need a third-party VPN, and Proton VPN is the best.
A Password Manager
Bitwarden ranks as the best password manager you can use, though Proton Pass takes a close second. Both offer free options, and they’ll give you more flexibility when storing and sharing credentials compared to Apple’s built-in Passwords app.
Although Apple’s Passwords app is plenty secure, it’s limited. An app like 1Password has apps for Windows and Android, for instance, which Passwords lacks. Third-party password managers let you store a wide range of data, too, from passwords and passkeys to encrypted documents and medical insurance.
Encrypted Email
You’ve locked down your messages; now it’s time for email. Google recently started offering end-to-end encryption for Gmail, but only for Google Workspace customers. If you want end-to-end encryption for personal use, you’ll need an encrypted email service like Proton Mail, which is my favorite option.
There’s a lot to like about Proton Mail, but from a security standpoint, it does a couple of things right. First, if you’re sending emails to another Proton Mail user, you get the convenience of a service like Gmail, but with true end-to-end encryption. Your emails are encrypted before they leave your device, and they’re only decrypted once they’re delivered.
You can also send emails to non-Proton users with end-to-end encryption, either using Proton’s password-protected email feature or by sharing your public key, though that requires a bit of technical know-how on both parties.
Jacob Roach is a product writer and reviewer at WIRED, focused on software as a service (SaaS) products, including VPNs, password managers, cloud storage, and antivirus applications. Previously he worked as lead reporter at Digital Trends, and his work has been cited in Fox News, Business Insider, and Futurism, among … Read More
The first iPad Pro reviews are here, and as we rounded up earlier today, they focus a lot on the new OLED displays, the M4 chip, and the limitations of iPadOS as a platform. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple marketing executive Tom Boger explained how the iPad compares to the Mac, and touched on whether Apple might ever release a touchscreen Mac.
Boger, who serves as Apple’s vice president of Mac and iPad product marketing, explained to Joanna Stern that Apple doesn’t see the two devices as competitors. Instead, the idea is that the Mac and iPad are complementary. The iPad serves as a “touch-first device” while the Mac is for “indirect manipulation.”
“We don’t see them as competing devices. We see them as complementary devices,” Tom Boger, Apple’s vice president of iPad and Mac product marketing, told me in an interview. The iPad, he said, “has always been a touch-first device” while the Mac is for “indirect manipulation”—aka using a keyboard, mouse and/or trackpad.
This naturally brings up the question: will Apple ever release a touchscreen Mac? Joanna tried to get an answer – even a hint – from Boger multiple times:
He remained firm: iPads are for touch, Macs are not. “MacOS is for a very different paradigm of computing,” he said. He explained that many customers have both types of devices and think of the iPad as a way to “extend” work from a Mac. Apple’s Continuity easily allows you to work across devices, he said.
I did ask Boger if Apple would ever change its mind on the touch-screen situation.
“Oh, I can’t say we never change our mind,” he said.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that Apple is actively developing touchscreen Macs. The company is reportedly targeting a release date for a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen in 2025.
The MacBook Pro revamp being tested inside Apple retains a “traditional laptop design” that includes a standard trackpad and keyboard. The difference, of course, is that the screen would “support touch input and gestures – just like an iPhone and iPad,” Gurman has reported.
But fans have long wondered: why the missing chunk?
Rumors swirled that it was a play on words on the words “bite”and “byte” (a unit of memory).
But the story, dating way back to the brand’s humble beginnings in 1977 suggest that this isn’t, in fact, the case.
Per the video by Apple Explained, Steve Jobs turned to an ad agency to design a simple logo.
Wikimedia Commons
The brand’s original logo of Sir Isaac Newton seated under an apple tree was far too complicated to put on the side of a computer.
Enter corporate logo graphic designer, Rob Janoff with a simple instruction from Jobs: “Don’t make it cute.”
Unlike brands including IBM and Hewlett Packard, the decision was made to focus on an image rather than typography.
He created a simple silhouette of an apple with a leaf on top.
So far so simple.
The problem?
UnsplashUnsplash
Apple is not the only round fruit with leaves and, with no context on its size, many confused it for a cherry.
The solution was a bite out of the side, which consumer groups agreed made it more easily identifiable as an apple, without overcomplicating it.
While no longer the case today, coloured stripes were also added.
This represented that the computer could display colour images – something no other brand had done.
Ever the enthusiast, Jobs simple responded: “Okay, that’s nice.”
And history was made as it became the official logo of the company.
However, Apple have recently taken a more subtle marketing approach and doesn’t show its logo on its latest releases such as its AirPods.
When asked about the “bite”/”byte” rumours, Janoff had to admit the wordplay wasn’t intentional: “I’m afraid it didn’t have a thing to do with it,” he said.
Here we go again, folks. First it was Amazon Fire TV, with a large (and apparently unescapable) ad that invaded the home screen. And Chromecast with Google TV reportedly is starting to do the same sort of thing, at least if a singular post on Reddit is any indication.
I haven’t been able to replicate the experience on my Chromecast with Google TV. That might or might not be indicative of anything. For one, I don’t use the Chromecast as my usual device of choice (though it does end up in my gear bag on most trips). For another, I run a Pi-hole ad-blocker on my entire home network — and still very much think it’s a thing you should use if you have any sort of connected TV or streaming device. Finally, and more likely, this new home screen ad hasn’t seen a widespread rollout just yet.
In any event, nobody should be surprised by this turn of events, even if we don’t like it. Google’s job is to make money. And it does so by selling advertising. Same goes for Amazon Fire TV. Same goes for Roku. And you can absolutely make the argument that Amazon, Google, and Roku are now advertising companies first, and anything else second.
Google, for its part, just announced $9.2 billion in revenue from YouTube advertising in the fourth quarter of 2023 (up from $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.) “We’re pleased with the NFL Sunday Ticket signups in our first season,” Philipp Schindler, Google senior vice president and chief business officer, said during the earnings call.
But it was advertising — not pure subscription numbers — that stood out in the mention of YouTube TV and NFL Sunday Ticket. By literally cornering the market on out-of-market Sunday NFL games, Google is able to sell that many more ads. Lucrative ones, no doubt.
“Advertisers can buy from an NFL lineup as part of our YouTube Select portfolio,” Schindler continued. “And this actually allows advertisers to reach football fans across YouTube’s pretty unique breadth of NFL content, independently of whether you are viewing live NFL games or on YouTube TV or Primetime Channels or watching NFL highlights or postgame commentary on YouTube channels.”
Roku makes things even more clear. It made $787 million in revenue on advertising in the third quarter of 2023, but only $125 million on hardware. It’s an advertising company first. Everything else second.
Which brings us to the obvious question: Is there a streaming device you can buy that won’t bombard you with advertising? The answer is “yes,” and it also happens to be the streaming box that we think is the best you can buy — Apple TV 4K.
The Apple TV 4K home screen is boring. But it also doesn’t have advertising.Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
You’re still going to get a lot out of Apple TV 4K even if you’re not in the Apple ecosystem. (I used it for years while I was still on Android phones.) In addition to hardware and software that practically lasts forever, you get a home screen that does not contain any display advertising. Not all ads are created equal, and display ads are the sort we’re talking about here. You’ll see the occasional (somewhat annoying) notification for a hot new show or movie on Apple TV. And you’ll eventually see a notification for a sporting event while you’re watching said game. It happens. And I still chuckle anytime it tells me to hop over to a “close” soccer match. They’re almost all close.
But Apple TV 4K does not have display ads. You won’t be tempted by a crispy chicken wrap. Or any other wrap. And definitely not any chicken. You’ll not see a home screen with much more than row upon row of app icons. The top row will give a couple show previews, but that’s hardly the same thing as a display ad.
That could one day change. Never say never, especially when potential revenue is concerned. But Apple, generally speaking, isn’t a company to sully its products with display ads, whether it’s on home screens or hardware. You’ll not find an ad attacking you from within the notifications of an iPhone, nor will you find a sticker affixed to the body of a MacBook letting the world know whose processor is inside. (Not even when Apple was still using Intel chips.)
For now, though? If you want the cleanest, ad-free user experience, there’s only one option. It’s not Google TV. It’s not Fire TV. It’s not Roku. And it’s none of the built-in TV operating systems.
During my time with Apple Vision Pro, I sat in the studio with Alicia Keys during a private rehearsal, carefully approached a dinosaur and watched movies in Avengers Tower. But what’s stuck with me isn’t these immersive experiences — it’s the fact that Apple has made using a VR headset feel as intuitive as swiping around your iPhone. And while that alone might not be worth $3,500, it certainly has me intrigued at the potential of this fancy set of goggles.
Apple’s much-hyped “spatial computing” headset has plenty of exciting capabilities, from putting you in a virtual, customizable movie theater to doubling as a full-on computer that lets you get work done, browse the web and use familiar Apple apps in new and engrossing ways. There’s not much of a learning curve either; navigating this device is often as simple as looking around and pinching your fingers.
But does all of that warrant its staggering price? And out of the folks who do have that kind of cash to spend, who should actually buy one? Here’s my attempt at answering those questions after some brief hands-on time with Apple’s long-awaited headset.
Available starting Feb. 2, the Apple Vision Pro is an immersive “spatial computing” headset that lets you watch movies, play games, get work done and use your go-to Apple apps in a whole new way.
Apple Vision Pro may be a new type of product from the company, but the process of using one will feel pretty familiar to anyone already deep in the Apple ecosystem. Before I put the headset on, I used an iPhone to scan my face to ensure the experience was properly personalized — just like you do when setting up Face ID on your handset.
It was then time to sit down and strap the thing on. The headset’s default medium Solo Knit band turned out to be too big for me, so I simply popped it off and swapped in a small option that fit much better. The straps attach and detach with an easy magnetic snap, not all too different than swapping out Apple Watch bands. I used the onboard dial to tighten the band a bit further for a snug fit, pressed the headset’s Digital Crown button and felt the internal lenses automatically close in on my eyes. Then, it was time to play.
Apple
The Vision Pro’s home screen is likewise familiar: a floating array of apps like Photos, Safari, Apple TV and Music that look exactly like they do on your iPhone or iPad. Except instead of swiping around a touchscreen, you’re navigating with your eyes.
By far, this is what impressed me most about Apple’s headset — your eyes are effectively the mouse cursor, and anything you look at will instantly be highlighted and ready to be selected with a quick pinch of your finger. There was something surreal about smoothly bouncing between Apple TV’s various options just by moving my eyeballs, and aside from a few minor hiccups, using gesture controls to open apps, resize and arrange multiple windows and zoom into the finer details of my photo library all felt smooth and intuitive. I’ve experienced solid eye tracking on VR headsets like the Meta Quest Pro and PlayStation VR, but Apple’s implementation provides the most frictionless controller-free navigation I’ve ever seen.
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Thanks to the Vision Pro’s outward-pointing cameras, I could easily see and interact with the Apple reps in front of me while bouncing between apps. It’s similar to the Meta Quest 3’s passthrough capabilities, but everything looked a bit sharper. You don’t have to stay in the real world while on the home screen, though; the Digital Crown lets you finely adjust how much of your chosen virtual environment (such as the serene views from Haleakala I selected) seeps through. This is a nice edge over the Quest 3, which only lets you choose between full immersion and full passthrough.
As for how Vision Pro feels to wear? I’ll have to get my own unit to see how it holds up over prolonged use, but I found Apple’s headset to be fairly comfortable during my roughly 25-minute demo — at least in terms of weight. I did have an issue with the lenses, which pinched my nose a little too tightly during the initial setup process and stayed that way throughout my session. Thankfully, an Apple rep noted that you can manually adjust the lens distance in the settings menu, and that there will be multiple eye insert options you can switch between to find a comfortable fit.
Related articleThe 7 best Apple Vision Pro accessories to check out for your new headset
Immersive apps with some serious potential
Apple
The content I tried out on Apple Vision Pro largely fell into two categories: new, immersive versions of things you can already do on your other Apple devices, and a few custom-made experiences that have me intrigued about the potential of this powerful and pricey headset.
I started out by flipping through the headset’s Photos library, where you can see your pictures and videos in ways that a static screen simply doesn’t allow for. Zooming into a series of portraits shot on an iPhone 15 Pro revealed much more detail than I’d be able to see on just my phone, as I could easily make out the very fine patterning of a woman’s dress. Looking through panoramic photos reminded me of being inside the mind-boggling venue of The Sphere in Las Vegas, as my entire peripheral vision was suddenly immersed in these beautiful wide-screen nature shots.
Then there’s Spatial Photo and Video, which Apple is pushing as one of Vision Pro’s key selling points. These 3D photos and videos can be captured on your iPhone 15 Pro or directly on your headset, then played back on your Vision Pro to let you relive a cool memory in virtual reality. It certainly was neat — a photo of kids eating cake had lots of depth to it, and when one of them blew bubbles in a video, it looked as if the bubbles were coming toward me. I watched one spatial video recorded at a family’s dinner table, and it almost made me feel like I was there with them. The overall quality of Spatial Photo and Video is impressive but not quite so good that I forgot I was watching a video rather than actually reliving a memory.
Apple Vision Pro is perhaps best suited as an immersive movie-watching device, at least if my short time in the headset is any indication. The Apple TV app provides a wealth of engrossing viewing options, many of which effectively let you block out the real world and enjoy your own personalized movie theatre or stream your favourite shows while in the virtual wilderness. I was especially impressed by the multiple “seating” options (such as “front row” or “balcony”) that I was able to switch between while watching Avatar: The Way of Water in 3D at a crisp-looking 4K resolution.
I also checked out a few three-dimensional Apple Immersive Videos shot specifically for Vision Pro. These were neat; I had front row seats to an Alicia Keys jam session, got a bit unnerved watching a tightrope walker at the top of a mountain and smiled as a bloat of baby hippos practically ran into me. However, these weren’t true 360-degree videos, and the large black borders I noticed whenever I moved my head around took me out of the experience a bit.
Apple
But the real magic happened when I opened up Disney+. My real-world surroundings washed away, and I was suddenly watching movies while overlooking the New York City skyline from Avengers Tower. Needless to say, I geeked out. This virtual environment — one of several available in Disney’s streaming app — was painstakingly detailed to please nerds like me, as I looked around in full 360 degrees to notice things like Doctor Strange’s cape hanging in a corner or some leftover takeout shawarma sitting on a table to my right. These backgrounds are also dynamic; when I transported myself to Tatooine and played a trailer for “A New Hope,” the scene around me automatically shifted from day to night to help me get better immersed in the movie. This felt like an experience truly built for Vision Pro rather than just an iOS app blown up on a big virtual screen, and I hope to see more like it as developers invent for the headset over time.
Another highlight was the Mindfulness app, in which a calming narrator encouraged me to slow down and relax as the real world slowly faded away into a serene darkness where I was surrounded by colourful dots. It was a short session but still very soothing, and much needed after a full day of hustling around the city.
The rest of my demos were a standard mix of Apple stuff and familiar augmented reality experiences. As a taste of the Vision Pro’s enterprise chops, the JigSpace app let me virtually explore, manipulate and take apart an Alfa Romeo vehicle, which I was able to make as small as a toy car or as big as the real thing using simple hand gestures. An app called Explore Dinosaurs thrust me into a mixed-reality wilderness where a virtual butterfly managed to spot and land on my real finger, and where a dinosaur tracked and reacted to my movements as I walked around the room. I got a little spooked when it got right up in my face, which means it worked.
Then there’s the basic Apple functionality. Multitasking between apps and scrolling through the CNN Underscored homepage on Safari felt smooth and intuitive, and I was able to type on a fairly reliable virtual keyboard that felt comparable to the one on the Meta Quest 3. But typing on a virtual keyboard is never ideal, which is why I was pleased to see that you can use voice dictation in Safari by simply looking at the microphone icon at the top of the browser. Oh, and Apple’s own hardware — such as its mice and keyboards — is also supported. This headset packs the same Apple M2 chip you’ll find in many of the best MacBooks, so it’s no surprise that juggling and rearranging multiple apps felt instant and stutter-free.
Some uncanny concerns
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I had a good time inside of the Apple Vision Pro, but a few concerns came to mind after I watched another person use the headset. After my demo, I was taken to a room where someone was working with a Vision Pro on (complete with a Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad) in order to simulate how you might interact with someone wearing the goggles in an office. Due to the headset’s ability to create a virtual representation of your face, which Apple calls Persona, I was actually able to see this person’s eye movements and expressions through the front of the headset — or at least an uncanny digitized version of them. While I could indeed make out every blink and raised eye this person made, it was all just slightly off in a creepy, “Black Mirror” kind of way. For what it’s worth, you can use the Digital Crown to adjust how visible your “eyes” are through the headset — the idea being that you’ll make things fully opaque to indicate you’re going heads down and clear when you’re able to talk.
Apple also showed off what taking photos and videos looks like to the person on the other end; a quick white flash for the former and a prolonged pulse for the latter. You’ll also hear the standard iPhone shutter sound when someone takes a picture. Unlike the flash, this sound can be disabled (much like it can on an iPhone). I find this to be a slight privacy concern for folks who are unaware that they’re being photographed, but it is in line with devices that have similar functionality, such as the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
The takeaway
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I came away from my Apple Vision Pro demo impressed and intrigued, but I still have plenty of questions and concerns. Here’s what I do know: Apple has successfully made a mixed-reality headset that’s nearly as intuitive to use as an iPhone or a Mac, all without any cumbersome controllers or unreliable gesture tracking (like with Meta’s headsets) to get in your way. If nothing else, that lays the groundwork for how great the Vision Pro could be after a few iterations, and hopefully a lower price.
Its $3,500 cost alone will likely be prohibitive for many, though this is a device that can ostensibly function as your 4K TV and your computer — two types of products that can easily run you thousands of dollars on their own. The question is, are you willing to have your TV and your computer strapped to your face, with device-specific quirks and limited battery life? Unless you’re an avid Apple enthusiast with an unlimited budget, it’s hard to imagine who might fall into that camp.
I also have questions around fitness and gaming — two things I use my Meta Quest 3 for almost daily. Aside from Super Fruit Ninja, I haven’t seen many titles that look to take advantage of Vision Pro’s powerful ability to bring virtual games into your real-world living space. And as an avid Supernatural user, the Vision Pro doesn’t seem to have comparable apps that’ll get me excited to work out (no offense to the Apple Fitness+ trainers).
It’s for these reasons that I’m especially eager to truly live with the Vision Pro for a few weeks and see if it’ll truly become part of my daily routine or just a fun, expensive toy to use when I want to return to Avengers Tower. We’ll have a lot more to say on Apple’s new headset once we receive one, so stay tuned for more.
Feature Image Credit: Mike Andronico/CNN Underscored
