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.
Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app.
Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 12:46 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
A leaker known as "Majin Bu" today shared an alleged image of a component for the rumored, ultra-thin "iPhone 17 Air" model.
The blurry, pixelated image shows a pair of rear iPhone shells with a pill-shaped, raised camera bar along the top. On the left side of the bar, there is a circular cutout that appears to be for a single rear camera. On the right side of the bar, there appears to be an ...
Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action.
Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
Monday January 20, 2025 9:01 am PST by Joe Rossignol
A new iPhone SE is widely rumored to launch this year, and the device has potentially been confirmed today by known leaker Evan Blass.
In a private social media post, Blass shared an image of what appears to be source code mentioning an iPhone SE (4th Gen), which casts doubt on the alternative "iPhone 16E" name rumored for the device. However, the name in the source code could be a...
Sunday January 19, 2025 8:11 am PST by Joe Rossignol
After a four-year wait, a new AirTag is finally expected to launch in 2025. Below, we recap rumored upgrades for the accessory.
A few months ago, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was aiming to release the AirTag 2 around the middle of 2025. While he did not offer a more specific timeframe, that means the AirTag 2 could be announced by the end of June.
The original AirTag was announced...
Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr.
The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models:
iPhone 16
iPhone 16 Plus
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPhone 15
iPhone 15 Plus
iPhone 15 Pro
iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 14
iPhon...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes.
The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 6:40 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple plans to release at least one new iPad Pro model this year, according to a supplier-focused report today from Korean website The Elec. It is likely that the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models would be updated simultaneously.
After receiving an OLED display last year, the report said the iPad Pro will receive only "minor" changes this year. Overall, the next iPad Pro is expected to...
Sunday January 19, 2025 8:25 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon.
Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...
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.
