With less than two weeks until the launch of Apple Music in over 100 countries, the latest signs of the streaming music service continue to appear in iOS 8.4 and iOS 9 betas. A number of users running the pre-release software versions have shared screenshots showing a new Radio tab in the Music app that displays a Beats 1 demo alongside a list of other stations and genres.
The new Radio tab and Beats 1 pre-recording by DJ Zane Lowe have gone live for users in the United States, Canada, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom and select other countries, although it remains unclear if all features of Apple Music will be available worldwide on June 30. The search feature in the Radio tab is working as of now for some users, but Beats 1 and other playlists cannot be listened to yet.
The curated playlists shown in the screenshots cover a wide selection of genres, including classic, indie, pop-hits, all-city, francophone hits and charting music. Searching for and tapping on an individual song brings you to the Apple Music subscription menu that began appearing earlier this month and has revealed possible international pricing of €9.99/£9.99 per month in Europe and as low as $2-$3 per month in some countries.
Apple Music subscription menu added to iOS 8.4 beta earlier this month
Apple Music was announced last week as an all-in-one streaming music service, live global radio station and social platform for artists to connect with fans. The subscription-based service will be available June 30 for $9.99 per month after a three-month free trial period for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC. Apple TV and Android versions of the service will be available in the fall.
Thursday November 13, 2025 11:35 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods 4, and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 firmware is 8B21, all up from the prior 8A358 firmware released in October.
There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 with ANC, and AirPods Pro 3...
Thursday November 13, 2025 6:48 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26 extended pinned conversations in the Messages app to CarPlay, for quick access to your most frequent chats. However, some drivers may prefer the classic view with a list of individual conversations only, and Apple now lets users choose.
Apple released the second beta of iOS 26.2 this week, and it introduces a new CarPlay setting for turning off pinned conversations in the Messages...
Tesla is working to add support for Apple CarPlay in its vehicles, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
Tesla vehicles rely on its own infotainment software system, which integrates vehicle functions, navigation, music, web browsing, and more. The automaker has been an outlier in foregoing support for Apple CarPlay, which has otherwise become an industry standard feature, allowing users to...
Friday November 14, 2025 10:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Starting with the upcoming tvOS 26.2 update, currently in beta, additional profiles created on the Apple TV no longer require their own Apple Account.
In the Settings app on the Apple TV, under Profiles and Accounts, anyone can create a new profile by simply entering a name and indicating whether the profile is for a kid. The profile will be associated with the primary user's Apple Account,...
Wednesday November 12, 2025 11:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol
While it was rumored that Apple planned to release new versions of the HomePod mini, Apple TV, and AirTag this year, it is no longer clear if that will still happen.
Back in January, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple planned to release new HomePod mini and Apple TV models "toward the end of the year," while he at one point expected a new AirTag to launch "around the middle of 2025." Yet,...
Friday November 14, 2025 6:20 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple recently teamed up with Japanese fashion brand ISSEY MIYAKE to create the iPhone Pocket, a limited-edition knitted accessory designed to carry an iPhone.
iPhone Pocket is available to order on Apple's online store starting today, in the United States, France, China, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. However, it is already completely sold out in the United...
Tuesday November 11, 2025 9:48 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple released the first iOS 26.2 beta last week. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics in Apple Music, and more.
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date....
Monday November 10, 2025 1:08 pm PST by Juli Clover
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Apple silicon chip that replaced Intel chips in Apple's Mac lineup. The first Apple silicon chip, the M1, was unveiled on November 10, 2020. The M1 debuted in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The M1 chip was impressive when it launched, featuring the "world's fastest CPU core" and industry-leading performance per watt, and it's only ...
Wednesday November 12, 2025 3:29 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple today provided developers with the second beta of iOS 26.2, which adds a few new features worth knowing about.
Measure App
Apple's Measure app now features a Liquid Glass design for the level, with two Liquid Glass bubbles instead of white circles.
Games App
There's now an option to sort games in the Games app Library by size, in addition to Name and Recent.
CarPlay
The...
Apple's entry-level iPhone 16e model is selling poorly, just like the iPhone Air, according to an Asia-based leaker.
The Weibo user known as "Fixed Focus Digital" said that the iPhone 16e is not selling well and the attempt at delivering a popular, low-cost iPhone has "failed." That being said, both models are expected to see successors. The iPhone 17e is expected to debut in the spring of...
Get users to pay for radio. Wow that takes some balls!!! or poor education from parents to children.
what next?
paying to browse a shop for clothes, electronics or food. I **** you not. Tokenisation of bluetooth and wifi to debit your apple account everytime you enter a shop.
Beats 1 radio is free. You don't have to be signed up for any special plan to listen to it.
Get users to pay for radio. Wow that takes some balls!!! or poor education from parents to children.
what next?
paying to browse a shop for clothes, electronics or food. I **** you not. Tokenisation of bluetooth and wifi to debit your apple account everytime you enter a shop.
It depends on the quality of the stream. If it's a 128kbps stream, then 128kb :)
Which is about 1MB per minute.
not quite. 128 Kbps is 16 kB/s which is about 0.012Mb per second or 0.72Mb per minute. Yeah I get .72 could be said to be "about 1Mb" but that is a pretty big difference once you start to add up over a longer duration. For example over an hour that becomes 43.2Mb vs 60Mb. People average about 2.5hr per day of terrestrial radio (streaming radio is probably higher for this demographic but I didn't look up the data) so in a given months time that would equate to about 77.5 hours. This would be about 3348Mb vs 4650Mb.
Lastly, this also does not factor in the potential for other compression technologies that may be used to reduce the size of data in-transit, however, I wouldn't assume this when trying to plan how much streaming music you can listen to with your data plan.
