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.
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.
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.
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.
Apple Arcade subscribers can look forward to an eclectic selection of new games today, as ninja action, sects education, and a trip to Bikini Bottom have all been added to the service. The main event game this month is Cult of the Lamb, a delightful blend of roguelike dungeon-crawling and base-building. If you haven't tried it out yet, Apple Arcade
The M1 chip is the real MVP here. I can hop between Slack, Google Docs, Spotify, Zoom, and an embarrassing number of Chrome tabs without a single hiccup or buffer wheel. It's also genuinely shocking how quiet this thing is. There's no fan, so it stays completely silent, even when I'm running big files or editing photos. And the battery? I'm convinced it runs on magic because this MacBook Air easily lasts me through an entire workday.
A total of 1.25 billion smartphones will be shipped in 2025, which represents a 1.5% increase compared to the figures for 2024. The latest International Data Corporation (IDC) report reflects an updated forecast that is reportedly driven by Apple's continued success with the iPhone 17 series. Cupertino is now forecasted to push over 247 million iPhone 17 series units in 2025, driven by favourable demand factors like an accelerated push in the holiday quarter, alongside growing demand in emerging markets and in China.
Apple just lost a top design talent. Meta has hired Alan Dye, who was the head of Apple's human interface design team. The company is filling his position with Stephen Lemay, who CEO Tim Cook told Bloomberg "has played a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999." Before being poached by Meta to become its chief design officer, Dye worked at Apple since 2006, where he oversaw projects including Liquid Glass and Vision Pro.
Through today only, new customers on select Unlimited plans can get an , an , and an , all for free -- no trade-in required. Bought separately, those devices would cost over $2,000, so this is quite the deal. (T-Mobile is running a similar bundle deal right now, too.) For the service, you'll need to either purchase a new smartphone line on Verizon's Unlimited Ultimate plan , which is $90 a month with Auto Pay enabled for a single line, or on the , which is $80 a month with Auto Pay enabled for a single line.
