Apple appears to be moving ahead with plans to provide Apple News+ users with an option to listen to audio stories of some news stories, according to details found in the iOS 13.5.5 beta.
An Apple News+ audio icon in the beta
An icon depicting an Apple News+ Audio feature is present in the beta, along with some related imagery.
Apple is planning to offer a recap of the day's top stories, based on this wording found in the update: "Listen to a quick recap of today's top stories."
An icon that might indicate when a news story is available with an audio version
A rumor earlier this month from Digiday first pointed toward Apple's work on audio versions of its news stories.
Over the course of the last several months, Apple has been asking publishers participating in Apple News+ for permission to create audio versions of their stories.
An icon displayed when an audio news recording ends
Apple plans to handle production costs and compensate publishers for the audio news recordings in the same way Apple News+ payouts work. 50 percent of subscriber revenues go to publishers based on how much time subscribers spend with publishers' content in a 30-day stretch.
It's not clear when exactly Apple plans to roll out support for audio versions of news stories, but given that some of the assets for the feature are in iOS 13.5.5, it's a feature that could be coming soon.
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,...
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...
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,...
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 ...
Walmart's Black Friday sale has officially kicked off today, with an online shopping event that's also seeing some matching deals in retail locations. There are quite a few major discounts in this sale, including savings on headphones, TVs, and more.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Walmart. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us...
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...
IMO, Apple's Music, News, and TV apps suffer from bloat and lack of customizability. It feels like an endless stream of randomly categorized contents.
It's made worse by the fact that contents that require additional payment (e.g., subscription to either Apple or 3rd party) are sprinkled throughout the page.
Where's the coherent minimalist design language Apple is known for? NYTimes is far cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing.
I don't want audio contents to be another randomly inserted contents onto already crowded News interface.
I would pay $10 a month for Apple News+ IF it removed all ads (why pay to keep seeing ads?) and it was actually giving you original content (currently the exclusive Apple News+ content is content you can get for free on that news source’s website... it’s not part of that new source’s paid content).
Access to subscription publications is the point of News+. I'm not sure where you live but here in Canada, we're getting The Toronto Star ($15/mo) and the Wallstreet Journal ($10/mo) in addition to dozens and dozens of magazines that you don't have access to without their own independent subscriptions. The News+ subscription pays for itself many times over.
I can wholeheartedly support this if it's to help the visually impaired or blind for whole stories but is the likely interface (Siri) up to linking at all together? Even if it's just a curated audio version of the news headlines in soundbite form its a step ahead but Apple must keep the investment going and make it compelling.
This is great, for a number of reasons, but the cost of the subscription needs to come down. It simply is not worth $10 a month.
As someone that pays the monthly price I agree. I hope for a bundle one day that will wrap several services into one price. Music for the family, storage, News, AppleTV+ once the free wears off. One payment would be nice and maybe Acrade too which I am not currently willing to pay for. Not a bad looking service, just don't play games that much personally.
