Apple today announced that four additional games will be added to the Apple Arcade library throughout October, including NBA 2K26 Arcade Edition.
On Thursday, October 2, three existing App Store games will be added to Apple Arcade, including the classic tile-matching game Dominoes by MobilityWare, puzzle game Piffle by Hipster Whale, and kids game Thomas & Friends: Let's Roll by StoryToys.
NBA 2K26 Arcade Edition arrives to Apple Arcade on Thursday, October 16, ahead of the NBA's 2025-26 regular season, which begins Tuesday, October 21. In the latest version of the game, you can relive the greatest eras in the NBA's history with the new "NBA Eras" option in The Association mode. And in MyCAREER mode, there are new player templates, so you can build players that look just like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or other stars.
As always, team rosters have been updated, too.
Apple Arcade is a subscription service that provides access to hundreds of games across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. All of the games are free of ads and in-app purchases. In the U.S., Apple Arcade costs $6.99 per month, and it is also bundled with other Apple services in all Apple One plans.
Wednesday September 24, 2025 3:58 pm PDT by Juli Clover
With the iPhone 15 series, I did an experiment and kept my iPhone's Charge Limit set at 80 percent for an entire year. It provided an interesting look at the impact of charge limits on battery longevity, so I decided to repeat it for the iPhone 16 line.
Since September 2024, my iPhone 16 Pro Max has been limited to an 80 percent charge, with no cheating. As of today, my battery's maximum...
Monday September 22, 2025 12:44 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple released the first beta of iOS 26.1 today, just a week after launching iOS 26. iOS 26.1 mainly adds new languages to Apple Intelligence, but there are a few other features that are worth knowing about.
New Apple Intelligence Languages
Apple Intelligence is now available in Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Traditional), and Vietnamese.
AirPo...
Tuesday September 23, 2025 8:55 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are still a year away, there are already a few rumors about the devices that offer an early look ahead.
Below, we have recapped some of the early iPhone 18 Pro rumors so far. This story was published previously, and it has been updated to reflect the latest rumors.
Many early rumors prove to be true, but nothing is confirmed yet, and Apple's...
Monday September 22, 2025 10:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The next Apple TV is expected to be released later this year, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device.
Below, we recap what to expect from the next Apple TV, according to rumors.
Likely Features
N1 Chip With Wi-Fi 7
Last year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the next Apple TV would be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, which is...
Monday September 22, 2025 7:29 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The website ChargerLAB has tested the iPhone 17 Pro Max's USB-C charging speeds with a variety of Apple's chargers, from 18W to 140W.
The device reached a peak charging speed of around 36W with the following Apple chargers:40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max
61W USB-C Power Adapter
67W USB-C Power Adapter
70W USB-C Power Adapter
96W USB-C Power Adapter
140W USB-C Power AdapterFor...
Wednesday September 24, 2025 10:22 am PDT by Juli Clover
The marks on the iPhone 17 Pro models that people have noticed at Apple retail stores are caused by the chargers that Apple uses, Apple confirmed today.
Apple told 9to5Mac that worn MagSafe charging stands in stores are causing marks on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Apple says that the marks are not scratches, and are instead material transfer from the stand to the phone. The...
Wednesday September 24, 2025 7:20 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's annual "Back to School" promotion for students ends soon, so act fast if you want to score free AirPods with the purchase of an eligible new Mac or iPad.
Until Tuesday, September 30, college students and qualifying educational staff in the U.S. can receive free AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation when they purchase an eligible new Mac or iPad from Apple. This is a $179 value.
...
Tuesday September 23, 2025 1:06 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Digital ID, the iOS 26 feature that lets U.S. passport holders add their passports to the Wallet app, is coming later in 2025, Apple confirmed today.
Apple updated the release timing wording of Digital ID on its iOS 26 features page. "Digital ID will be coming later this year with US passports only," it reads.
Prior to today, the footnote for the feature said "Digital ID will be available ...
Monday September 22, 2025 11:15 am PDT by Juli Clover
With iOS 26.1, Apple Intelligence is gaining support for additional languages, including Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Traditional), and Vietnamese.
Apple announced plans to expand the languages that can be used with Apple Intelligence last year, and now the added language support is here. Apple Intelligence is now available in the following...
Tuesday September 23, 2025 2:18 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Early reports have suggested that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air are more vulnerable to scratches and scuffs, primarily due to damage spotted at Apple Stores.
Apple customers have discovered that the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro models Apple has out for display at its retail locations have scratching in the area of the MagSafe charger. Those devices are handled by hundreds to thousands of...
I still feel like such a sucker when in the beginning I actually believed Apple Arcade would have real games, just because they got Sakaguchi and Konami on board ...
Apple at the iPhone event: “Our new A19 Pro chip with vapor cooling system delivers sustained performance for demanding AAA games with ray tracing and shading.”
Apple Arcade: “Here’s a new dominoes and Thomas the Tank Engine game with pixel art graphics from 1992.”
Why does Apple continue to push GPU performance when there are zero games on Apple Arcade that even come close to taking advantage of what their current hardware can do? Apple Arcade should be a SHOWCASE for the gaming experiences possible on modern Apple hardware, but instead it’s a mockery of the power inside these devices.
I hope Apple keeps pushing forward with gaming so I don't have to keep a PC around to play "real" games. They need to have a "gaming-class" GPU that isn't thousands of dollars, or simply create a thunderbolt 5 eGPU using Apple Silicon technology.
The best time for gaming was when we could dual boot Windows and us eGPUs. I wonder if we could see this come around again given the proliferation of ARM based Windows machines? Somehow I think it would be comparing apples to oranges hardware/ chipset wise.
The problem with Apple Arcade is the game design, not the graphics. Their offerings are low-stakes, unambitious in narrative, derivative in design.
Just for the record, here's just a few pixel art games released in 1992. In case you are someone who cares about gaming, you might have head of some of these titles.
- A Link to the Past - Final Fantasy V - Bare Knuckle II - Romancing Saga - Art of Fighting - Sonic 2 - Shin Megami Tensei - Shining Force - Dragon Quest V - Mario Land 2 - Dune II - Kirby's Dream Land - Mega Man V - Contra III
I could go on and on. Those were proper games of many different genres, each of them better than anything on Apple Arcade. Graphics are absolutely not the problem with what Apple's offering.
Agree completely. For me, Super Nintendo was the golden age of gaming. I have nothing at all against pixel graphics. I was pointing out the wasted graphics potential of Apple Arcade, but the games fail in many other ways including design. They are all shallow one finger tapping games, put to shame by any good console game of the last 40 years.
Apple Arcade: “Here’s a new dominoes and Thomas the Tank Engine game with pixel art graphics from 1992.”
The problem with Apple Arcade is the game design, not the graphics. Their offerings are low-stakes, unambitious in narrative, derivative in design.
Just for the record, here's just a few pixel art games released in 1992. In case you are someone who cares about gaming, you might have head of some of these titles.
- A Link to the Past - Final Fantasy V - Bare Knuckle II - Romancing Saga - Art of Fighting - Sonic 2 - Shin Megami Tensei - Shining Force - Dragon Quest V - Mario Land 2 - Dune II - Kirby's Dream Land - Mega Man V - Contra III
I could go on and on. Those were proper games of many different genres, each of them better than anything on Apple Arcade. Graphics are absolutely not the problem with what Apple's offering.
