2025-11-14 06:43:19
Paul Tenorio of The Athletic reports that Apple and MLS are putting all MLS games on the standard Apple TV subscription:
MLS and Apple have agreed to alter the partnership agreement at the end of the 2025 season, multiple sources told The Athletic. MLS Season Pass will no longer exist, and all MLS games will be available on the Apple TV streaming service. (Apple rebranded Apple TV+ to Apple TV.)
It’s an important change for the MLS-Apple deal, which put every MLS game behind a paywall that cost fans for $14.99 per month or $99 for the season. While the streaming service provided a far better broadcast experience than the local TV deals for diehard MLS fans, it also made it much more difficult for the league to reach new fans.
This mirrors Apple’s recent deal with F1, which will also be available to all Apple TV subscribers. It enhances the value of the base Apple TV service and broadens the potential audience for MLS games.
In related news, Tenorio reports that MLS is rejiggering its season schedule to play through the winter beginning in 2027, matching international soccer leagues:
The plan is for the MLS regular season to span from the middle of July to April, with playoffs staged in May. A winter break would take place in December and January. Games would likely pause from around the second week in December through the first or third week in February. MLS understandably is trying to avoid restarting the league on Super Bowl weekend.
These are both interesting moves that could improve viewership and interest in the league as North America prepares to host the 2026 World Cup.
2025-11-14 00:56:10
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg has a pretty good scoop, reporting that Tesla is working to add CarPlay to its vehicles:
The carmaker has started testing the capability internally, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the effort is still private. The CarPlay platform — long supported by other automakers — shows users a version of the iPhone’s software that’s optimized for vehicle infotainment systems. It’s considered a must-have option by many drivers.
Adding CarPlay would mark a stunning reversal for Tesla and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, who long ignored pleas to implement the popular feature. Musk has criticized Apple for years, particularly its App Store policies, and was angered by the company’s poaching of his engineers when it set out to build its own car.
With the evaporation of U.S. EV rebates, Elon Musk’s controversial political moves, and a generally stale product line-up, Tesla is facing a sales crisis. Meanwhile, new car buyers very much want CarPlay as an option. Adding CarPlay isn’t quite a cure-all, but it sure couldn’t hurt in giving potential Tesla buyers one less reason to shop elsewhere. (Tesla is not, according to Gurman, interested in anything like CarPlay Ultra—this is straight-up “CarPlay in a window” alongside Tesla’s own interface.)
Gurman says the rollout could happen “in the coming months,” but the plan has not been finalized. Of course, any mercurial executive at Tesla (who could that be?!) could pull the plug at any time. But if this ends up happening, it might be the first sign of car companies realizing that prioritizing their needs over your phone was a big mistake.
2025-11-14 00:29:07
The first iPad Pro came out ten years ago. Last month, on the tenth anniversary of the announcement, I wrote about it at Macworld:
In a decade, the iPad product line has progressed to the point where the iPad Air can possess a load of features that debuted in the iPad Pro in a lower-priced, “mainstream” iPad. Meanwhile, the iPad Pro itself has shot into the stratosphere, with cutting-edge processors and an outrageously good display, not to mention the thinnest body in any Apple device ever.
Where the iPad Pro goes next is anyone’s guess, but it’s hard to deny that it’s changed the perception of what iPads are capable of. And thanks to the numerous multitasking upgrades in iPadOS 26, it feels like the iPad’s software has also embraced all the possibilities an iPad Pro offers.
It took a little too long, I think. But a decade on, it feels like today’s M5 iPad Pro is fulfilling the original model’s destiny.
My words would have been much more harsh were it not for iPadOS 26 and the M5 iPad Pro. (I just spent a week in London with only an iPad Pro. It was informative. More on that a little later.)
It means it’s also ten years since I reviewed the iPad Pro:
The iPad Pro isn’t a Surface. Instead, it’s a product that brings out the contrast between Apple’s mobile-device strategy and Microsoft’s… iOS is Apple’s flagship operating system, so rather than mash the Mac and iOS together, it’s decided to keep them separate. There’s no Mac compatibility layer, no requirement for Mac developers to recompile their apps to run on the A9X processor. The iPad Pro is unapologetically an iOS product….
If Apple made a Retina MacBook whose screen popped off and became an iPad, would I buy it? It seems like such a Frankenstein product, so inelegant a concept and so clearly not the way the world is going. And yet, I would be tempted. Not because it’s a bold direction forward, but because it’s a compromise that grants me some comfort in a time of change.
The iPad Pro does not exist to give comfort to Mac users.
Today’s iPad Pro resembles the Mac a little more closely, but it still isn’t a Mac.
2025-11-13 04:15:34
Our mobile ID usage, the oldest tech we regularly use, smart TVs and spying, and our favorite pre-smartphone phones.
2025-11-13 00:30:19
If you suffer from that recurring nightmare that you’re at the airport but have forgotten your wallet,1 fret no longer: starting today, holders of U.S. passports can create a Digital ID in Apple’s Wallet app, which can be used at TSA checkpoints across the country for domestic flights—even if you don’t have a REAL ID-compliant state ID card or driver’s license.
First announced at this year’s WWDC, Digital ID is an iOS 26 features and works along the same lines as the various ID and driver’s license systems that Apple Wallet currently offers in 12 states, Puerto Rico, and Japan.
If you hold a U.S. passport, you’ll be able to add a Digital ID by first taking a picture of the machine-readable page in your passport (the one that contains your data and photo), confirming the information by scanning the chip in your passport, and then completing a few steps that help verify that you’re really you, including taking a selfie and then making certain face and head movements.
As with the existing ID cards in Wallet, using Digital ID does not require you to unlock, hand over, or even show your phone to the requesting entity. For example, at a TSA checkpoint, you’ll double click your phone’s side button to bring up Wallet, then hold it over the scanner as you would for an Apple Pay transaction. The phone will tell you what information is being requested and you’ll have to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID to then provide that information. Once you’ve set up a Digital ID, it will also be available via Wallet on the Apple Watch as well.
Apple, as usual, stresses the security and privacy of this feature. Your information is encrypted on your device and protected with your biometric information (preventing somebody who knows your passcode from presenting or even viewing your ID card), and Apple does not itself know anything about where, when, or what information is presented.
The system is also designed with privacy in mind, so that the least amount of necessary information is provided. For example, if you were to use your Digital ID to verify your age, the only data that would be provided would be your ID picture and a simple “Yes” or “No”. Other information, like your name or birthdate, wouldn’t even be given. That is, in some ways, an advantage over handing over your physical ID card which can not only include those, but other sensitive information like your address.
The Digital ID should be accepted starting today at more than 250 in the U.S., though certain specific checkpoints within those airports may not yet have been updated to support mobile IDs. Though Digital ID is based on ISO standards for personal identification and mobile documents, it’s not currently valid for international travel or border-crossing as there is not yet an international standard in place for using mobile IDs for those purposes. However, that’s not to preclude it from happening in the future, should such a standard be adopted.
While air travel is the first place you’ll be able to use your Digital ID, further applications are in the works. Apple provides APIs to allow verification of both identity and age, allowing third parties to implement these features in their apps or on the web. (Many states have already rolled out age-verification apps to work with the mobile ID standard.)
The addition of Digital ID is a clever move. Apple’s been working with states for several years to add mobile IDs and driver’s licenses for several years—the first state, Arizona, rolled out in 2022, and while adoption has been steady, it’s been a slow trickle. Using a federal document allows the company to make an end-run around states dragging their feet2, helping drive adoption of the feature and hopefully encouraging lagging states to get onboard.
2025-11-13 00:00:00
Apple announces a new, exciting way to carry your iPhone, we discuss some travel technology and then we do our TV picks.
