Apple today shared a new television ad on its YouTube channel, designed to introduce people to the new Screen Effects feature in iOS 10. In the minute-long spot, a sole red balloon drifts through mountains, over the sea, and through hilly terrain to reach the city, where it's joined by hundreds of additional balloons floating through the streets.
The shot pans to an iPhone user who receives a "Happy Birthday" message, where balloons fill up the screen to accompany the text. It ends with the tagline "Expressive messages on iPhone 7. Practically magic."
Introduced in iOS 10, Screen Effects are designed to make the messages experience more emotive, personal, and fun. Screen Effects temporarily alter the look of the Messages display with full screen animations that play alongside text messages. There are several animations, ranging from balloons and confetti to lasers and fireworks.
With certain keywords like "Congratulations!" or "Happy Birthday!" Screen Effects play automatically whenever the relevant text phrase is sent to an iPhone user who has iOS 10 installed.
Tuesday October 13, 2026 5:29 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple has launched a new "Switch to Safari" marketing campaign that encourages Chrome users to switch to Safari as their web browser of choice on the Mac.
"Safari is a more powerful and private browser than Chrome," says Apple.
Apple has a new "Switch to Safari" page on its website that outlines more than 10 reasons that Chrome users should switch to Safari, including faster performance...
Tuesday October 27, 2026 4:20 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today continued with its "True Apple Watch Story" series, featuring two more people who credit the Apple Watch with saving their lives.
In the first video, Morgan tells the story of how her Apple Watch woke her up with high heart rate alerts. She ended up having a kidney infection and was going into septic shock.
The second video features a man named Josh, who used the Apple...
Monday November 2, 2026 1:22 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is releasing five new products this Friday, November 6, following pre-orders that opened last week, including its first touchscreen MacBook Pro models.
The following new products will be available from Friday:
iPad mini with OLED display and A20 Pro chip
iMac with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen
16-inch MacBook Pro with OLED...
I find apples new ads to be stupid. Honestly, my favorite was the retina macbook pro ad they ran years ago for the 15 inch. short sweet and to the point.