At its "Let's Talk iPhone" media event early last month, Apple announced that it would be launching its iTunes Match service in the United States at the "end of October". That launch date was itself apparently a slight delay from Apple's original plans given that support for the feature had been built into developer builds of iTunes 10.5, which was released in mid-October to support iOS 5 and iCloud.
But with Apple apparently pushing back the iTunes Match launch slightly, the feature was removed from the public release of iTunes 10.5 and moved to a new iTunes 10.5.1 that was released for developer testing.
Sources have indicated that Apple is close to a launch of iTunes Match, with retail store staff having been briefed on the service in preparation for its debut. But with the calendar now having turned to November, Apple has missed its public launch target for iTunes Match. The company has not yet commented on the status of iTunes Match, leaving some questions about its plans even though a launch still seems near.
One group that may have been caught off-guard by the delayed iTunes Match launch is Apple's developers, who have been testing the service for a number of months. Apple has repeatedly wiped users' iTunes Match libraries during the beta testing process, with the most recent wipe occurring last Thursday.
But those developers who have continued testing the service are now discovering that their iTunes 10.5.1 betas have expired, leaving them unable to launch the application as of today with no public launch and no new beta release. Apple routinely advises developers to only install beta builds of its software on machines dedicated to development, but some users undoubtedly have installed iTunes 10.5.1 on their primary machines and may now be experiencing difficulties.
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features.
Notification Summary Changes
Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines.
For...
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...
My first thought too... just watch, bit by bit Steve's influence will disappear and we'll be stuck with Microsoft again :(
Do some digging and you will see this isn't the first time Apple has been late on an expected deployment. Many examples of this when Steve was at the helm too.
This is Business as usual for Apple, or really any other tech company. ;)
It's kind of sad that folks would be so negative about the Apple team for a few hours delay in a new service. No one knows why iTunes Match hadn't been released. I think Apple learned a very hard lesson from MobileMe about releasing crap software. I don't think they are going to let a flagship piece of software like iTunes Match go release with a bunch of problems, you would all complain 2x as much. You aren't giving the people who have run Apple for the last couple of years enough credit. :(
Maybe all hands are on deck to fix the 4s battery issue first.
I expect there is 0 crossover between the people working on iTunes Match and any iOS battery bugs. What, you think there are like 10 guys working for Apple or something?!
I wonder if the Chicken Littles here already proclaiming the death of Apple remember when Leopard was delayed like 5 months - and that was a major OS upgrade.
Or Push Notifications on the iPhone, which were delayed almost a year.
