Apple Hires Former Disney, Hulu, and Quibi Executive for Apple TV
Apple has hired Tim Connolly, a Hollywood executive with experience at Disney, Hulu, and Quibi, for Apple TV, according to The Telegraph.
Connolly was vice-president of digital distribution and new product development at Disney. He was one of the most senior executives at streaming startup Quibi, running partnerships and advertising, but he vacated the role before the video service launched earlier this year. Connolly also helped to launch Hulu's live TV service, which involved striking deals with other major networks. Similarly, he oversaw a deal between Spotify and Hulu to bundle their services.
Connolly's exact role at Apple is as yet unknown, but it seems likely that he will be involved in brokering deals for Apple TV's Channels feature. The Apple TV app allows users to buy and watch third-party streaming services directly within the app, but support has been limited thus far. Apple began selling subscriptions to combined services last month, with a bundle including CBS All Access and Showtime, for an overall lower price of $9.99. This move and the hiring of Connolly may indicate that Apple is planning to launch more similar bundles and bolster Apple TV Channels.
Given Connolly's experience in bundling services, it is also possible that he is involved in launching Apple's upcoming "Apple One" subscription service bundles. The series of bundles would allow customers to subscribe to several Apple digital services, such as Apple Music and Apple TV+, together. This is expected to result in a lower monthly price than when the services are subscribed to individually.
Apple did not respond to The Telegraph's request for comment. Connolly's arrival at Apple is yet another indication that the company is heavily investing in its TV and subscription service enterprises.
Popular Stories
2026 could be a bumper year for Apple's Mac lineup, with the company expected to announce as many as four separate MacBook launches. Rumors suggest Apple will court both ends of the consumer spectrum, with more affordable options for students and feature-rich premium lines for users that seek the highest specifications from a laptop.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
...
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
One thing worth...
In a statement shared with CNBC today, Apple confirmed that Google Gemini will power the next-generation version of Siri that is slated to launch later this year.
"After careful evaluation, we determined that Google's technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we're excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users," the statement...
Elon Musk today expressed concern about Apple and Google partnering on a more personalized version of Siri powered by Google's generative AI platform Gemini.
"This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that [they] also have Android and Chrome," wrote Musk, in a post on X.
Musk serves as CEO of xAI, the company behind Gemini competitor Grok.
It is unlikely...
Apple today seeded the second beta of iOS 26.3, nearly a month after the first beta. So far, the update includes a couple of new features for iPhones.
iOS 15.3 through iOS 18.3 were all released in late January over the years, so it is thereby likely that iOS 26.3 will be released towards the end of this month as well. The update is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer.
Below,...
Apple and Google today announced that Google Gemini will help power not only a more personalized version of Siri, but a range of future Apple Intelligence features.
"Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology," the companies said, in a statement. "These...
The Unicode Consortium has published a draft list of emoji that could come to smartphones and other devices in the future. The list shared by Emojipedia outlines 19 emoji candidates under consideration for Emoji 18.0, which is expected to be finalized in September 2026.
Among the proposed additions are a squinting face emoji, left- and right-pointing thumb gestures, a pickle, a lighthouse, a ...
iOS 26.3 will likely be released to the public later this month, but it appears that Apple is preparing to push out another software update in the interim.
Apple's software engineers have started testing iOS 26.2.1, according to the MacRumors visitor logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. The update will likely be released at some point this week or next week.
...
