The iMac Pro and its new space gray chassis gives us a good excuse to outfit the machine with color complimentary accessories. In this first edition of our new Back to the Mac video series, we discuss some of our favorite peripherals for the iMac Pro. more…

CNN is blaming Apple for a bug that seemingly caused Apple News users to receive multiples of the same push notification for a CNN story. The story in question is a CNN report about the firing of the worker who triggered the false ballistic missile alert in Hawaii earlier this month.

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Today we’ve got fresh details on what’s expected (and not expected) for iOS 12, a new government probe into Apple over iPhone slowdowns, and in interview with Quentin Zervaas who created Outcast for Apple Watch, a new podcast app.

9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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As the HomePod release inches closer, Apple and its executives are continuing to tout its sound quality and more to the press. Phil Schiller recently sat down with Sound and Vision to discuss the HomePod, talking about the inspiration Apple drew from the iPod Hi-Fi, how Siri and HomeKit integration works, and more…

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Following a round of updates for its suite of Mac applications earlier this month, Microsoft today has announced updates for Office on iOS. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and One Drive are all gaining new features, including drag and drop support and more.

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Podcast playback remains one of the biggest opportunities for Apple Watch. Apple doesn’t offer an official Podcasts app and watchOS doesn’t let developers create a fully featured app with features like sync, subscriptions, and even volume control.

Outcast for Apple Watch doesn’t magically fix any of those limitations, but the app does work within current constraints in a way that makes it actually usable.

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As HomePod pre-orders began last week and some first impressions came out, we’re able to gain more knowledge about Apple’s upcoming smart speaker. One aspect of HomePod that’s gone under the radar is how the device handles software updates. HomePod runs a special version of iOS, which means it gets new updates alongside iOS. The latest software publicly available for it is iOS 11.2.5, which will likely be the version installed on HomePods delivered on February 9th.

Software updates for HomePod will be managed through the Home app. The app will alert users when a new software update is available and will show an interface similar to the one used for iOS updates. Users will have the option to enable automatic updates, although it’s unclear how those will be managed. Updates can be installed on a single HomePod, all HomePods in the home or to specific stereo pairs (stereo pairing will not be available on HomePods running different software versions).

It also looks like Apple hardcoded iOS 11.3 to be the first version to support stereo pairing. The company could show a special alert via the Home App to notify users of the feature. That’s a pretty strong confirmation that the feature will ship alongside iOS 11.3.

HomePod will likely be updated in the same way watchOS updates do via the Apple Watch app on the iPhone, and will likely have the same update requirements (e.g. HomePod version 11.3 can’t be installed if iPhone is still on iOS 11.2.5).

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

Today’s news about Apple putting new features on the back burner for iOS 12 means that the company will finally be focusing on polishing up its mobile operating system. After years of interface inconsistencies and frame rate issues, iOS may be getting some much-needed attention on the finer details.

While frame rate issues have gone unnoticed by many, prominent YouTuber and entrepreneur Chris Pirillo has been documenting his findings over the years with a public list of issues. The most jarring and obvious frame rate issue is when invoking Siri and trying to access Control Center. This is an example of an “unlikely situation, so Apple didn’t check,” which some feel has been Apple’s software mantra with iOS 7 and beyond.

While it’s good to hear about Apple shifting focus to zero in on refinements, I would argue these sort of issues should have never should have shipped to begin with.

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Bloomberg reports that both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have launched an investigation into whether Apple may have violated laws with its practice of throttling iPhones with older batteries to avoid unexpected shutdowns.

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