Updates & Followup

Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

• 🇺🇸 The fallout from Tim Cook’s White House appearance after the murder of Alex Pretti by ICE last month continued into the start of this month:
  • Tim Cook responded with a weak-as-dishwater letter to staff — appleinsider.com/…
  • The lead democrat on the House Judicial Committee wrote to the Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask why the first-amendment violations of the orders to Apple and Google to remove ICE Block are not being investigated by the DOJ — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple’s creator studio seems to be off to a rough start: Apple Creator Studio users are hitting generative AI usage limits far too soon — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown

• 🇪🇺 Apple Maps & Apple Ads aren’t popular enough for the EU to regulate — appleinsider.com/…
  • The EU Commission confirmed these servers are not big enough for extra regulation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), they are still regulated like every other smaller company!
• 🇬🇧 For now at least, both Apple and Google get way with some token promises rather than tight regulation under the UK’s Competition and Markets Act (CMA) — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇪🇸 Spanish regulators have ruled that Apple & Amazon dragged their feet in implementing a ruling against them for 15 months, opening the door for more penalties — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇧🇷 Apple has been fined by a Brazillian state for not including chargers with iPhones — www.macobserver.com/… (These rules are so dumb in 2026, just forcing ever more e-waste 🙁)

Legal Latest

• 🇺🇸 xAI -v- Apple & OpenAI: In an unusual development, OpenAI have submitted a court filing accusing xAI if destroying evidence — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple -v- iOS 26 Leakers: court filing confirm that even though a default judgement has been entered against him, Jon Prosser has still been subpoenaed for a deposition in the case which continues against the other accused — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇺🇸 West Virginia -v- Apple: Apple’s miss-guided and abandoned anti-CSAM plan bites again, they are now being sued for not following through — www.macobserver.com/…
• US DOJ -v- Google: Google & Apple’s search deal is back under the legal spotlight as the DOJ and a group of state attorneys general have filed an appeal in the anti-trust case which had allowed Apple’s deal with Google to remain in place — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple Wins Third Trial in Long Running Optis LTE Case, Avoids Millions in Damages — www.macobserver.com/…
  • “Apple has won a major patent lawsuit in Texas after a jury ruled that it did not infringe any patents owned by Optis Wireless. The case centered on five LTE patents that Optis claimed Apple violated through its iPhones and other devices.”

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• Apple Buys Graph Database Startup Kuzu, EU Filing Shows More — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Interesting context: Faster, more flexible databases could be coming to FileMaker or iWork — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple Acquires invrs.io Assets and Hires Founder Martin Schubert — www.macobserver.com/… (Seems to be more of an aqua-hire than anything else, likely for camera improvements)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• Apple Arcade/Gaming:
  • Set sail in Oceanhorn 3: Legend of the Shadow Sea, an exciting new chapter in the hit action-adventure franchise, on Apple Arcade on March 5 — 📣 Apple PR
    • The best RPG on Apple Arcade gets a sequel — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Crimson Desert Launches on macOS March 19 With Day-One Release — www.macobserver.com/… (AAA title launching same day on Mac, PC, PlayStation & Xbox)
  • GameSir is bringing its GameHub emulator to macOS, promising “your Mac is now a gaming PC.” — www.cultofmac.com/…
• Apple Home: New standard makes more smart locks work seamlessly with iPhone — www.cultofmac.com/…
• Apple in the Car:
  • Apple Car Key support now available on the 2026 Toyota Rav4 — appleinsider.com/…
  • Rivian Launches Apple Watch App With Battery and Cabin Controls — www.macobserver.com/…
  • AI agents are coming to CarPlay, but they’re not getting the keys — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple Music:
  • Bad Bunny wins Grammy album of the year ahead of Super Bowl halftime show — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple Celebrates Super Bowl LX With Bad Bunny Across Apple Music and More — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Bad Bunny’s Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show Breaks Records Worldwide — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Music Connect is reborn as a marketing tool for the music industry — appleinsider.com/…
  • 🇩🇪 Apple Music and Ritter Sport launch album cover chocolate bars in Germany — www.macobserver.com/…
• The sports push continues:
  • Formula 1 channel pops up in Apple TV, can’t be removed — appleinsider.com/…
  • Race to the IMAX theater: Apple TV & F1 will screen live races — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple announces F1 details, and a surprising Netflix partnership — sixcolors.com/… (content swap — live race coverage for the popular Drive to Survive documentary series)
  • Apple Maps Gets Detailed Update for 2026 Formula 1 Races — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Sports adds golf scores for PGA, WPGA tours — appleinsider.com/… (📣 Apple PR)
  • MLS kicks off 2026 season on Apple TV with new features and World Cup spotlight — www.cultofmac.com/… (📣 Apple PR)
  • Apple TV F1, MLS, MLB streaming reach expands to bars & restaurants — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple TV:
  • Apple released their 2026 lineup for Apple TV, lots of impressive original content on the way – there’s bound to be something for everyone — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • ‘Severance’ acquired by Apple for $70 million, expect a 4-season run and spinoffs — appleinsider.com/…
  • Roku Adds Apple TV to The Roku Channel Premium Lineup — www.macobserver.com/…
  • More awards:
    • Apple TV Earns a Grammy Win With F1 The Movie Track — appleinsider.com/…
    • ‘The Studio’ and ‘Mr. Scorsese’ honored at Directors’ Guild Awards — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories

1. 🇺🇸 The US Supreme Court confirmed the obvious — Trump’s ‘liberation day’ Tariffs are not lawful — www.scotusblog.com/…
   • The court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the law that underpins most of Trump’s tariffs, IEEPA, does not actually grant tariff powers to the President, and since the constitution explicitly assigns the tariff power to Congress, that means the President exceeded his authority.
   • The loss was not unexpected, and the White House was already busy finding other laws that do delegate limited tariff powers to the President
   • Within hours of the ruling Trump announced a new world-wide flat tariff of 10% under section 122 of the of the 1974 Trade Act which allows the President impose emergency import controls for up to 150 days (at which point Congress needs to approve them) — www.rte.ie/…
   • There was a lot of bluster about raising the 10% to the maximum allowable 15%, but that didn’t happen (possibly because the markets reacted really badly to the ‘announcement’)
   • A good summary from Apple’s POV: Supreme Court Ends Old Tariffs, but Apple Hit Again With New Import Taxes — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Analysis: Supreme Court kills Trump tariffs — what it means for Apple — www.cultofmac.com/…
     • These blunter tariffs are actually worse for Apple because there are no exemptions, they are blanket tariffs!
   • Related: Trump-Appointed FTC Warns Apple News Over Alleged Conservative Bias — www.macobserver.com/…
2. 🇺🇸 Apple ramps up US manufacturing in Hueston Texas — 📣 Apple PR
   • Apple to Make Mac minis in the U.S. — www.macstories.net/… (just for the US market, not for export)
   • Apple’s press release also mentions more Apple AI servers being produce in Texas and because of the transparency measures Apple put in place on Private Cloud Compute, we also know they’re moving those servers to M5 chips — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Apple paired the news with some WSJ reporting they facilitated: Behind the Scenes of Apple’s Growing US Semiconductor Effort — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Related: Apple Commits to 100 Million Chips From TSMC’s Arizona Fab — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Related: 🇮🇳 Apple’s very public shift of a small amount of production to the US has not halted it’s on-going efforts to diversity it’s supply chain, with a new education hub opening for companies in their Indian supply chain — appleinsider.com/…
3. Apple’s March “Experience” — tidbits.com/… (3 days of press releases and in-person demos for press in 🇺🇸 New York, 🇬🇧 London, and 🇨🇳 Shanghai)
   • Some welcome but expected product evolutions:
     • Apple Releases iPhone Cases, Apple Watch Bands, and Crossbody Strap in New Colors — www.macrumors.com/…
       • Complete list of new options: www.macobserver.com/…
     • Apple iPad Air M4 Price is $599 for 11-inch and $799 for 13-inch — www.macobserver.com/… (📣 Apple PR)
       • Unified memory increases to 12GB and memory bandwidth to 120GB/s.
       • New connectivity chips: N1 (Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread) and C1X modem on cellular models.
     • New M5 MacBook Air gets double the storage, Wi-Fi 7, and a higher price — appleinsider.com/… & M5 MacBook Air Costs $100 More but Now Starts with 512GB Storage — www.macobserver.com/… 📣 Apple PR
     • Apple debuts MacBook Pros with M5 Pro, M5 Max chips — sixcolors.com/… (📣 Apple PR)
     • Note that the M5 Pro & M5 Max chips are more technically interesting than most new M-series chips — 📣 Apple PR
       • TL;DR — Apple have figured out how to split their cores over two silicon wafers while retaining their powerful unified memory architecture
       • Good technical description: M5 Pro and M5 Max are surprisingly big departures from older Apple Silicon — arstechnica.com/…
       • Best explanation of the broader context and importance of this change: Apple Does Fusion — om.co/…
       • And subtle details is that Apple have re-named their core-types, and while the new names make sense in isolation, they’re really confusing compared to the M1-4 names — sixcolors.com/… & daringfireball.net/…
   • Some over-due display updates: Apple unveils new Studio Display and all-new Studio Display XDR — 📣 Apple PR
     • A very minimal refresh of the existing Studio Display
     • A new, cheaper, pro display to replace the Pro Display XDR: Studio Display XDR arrives with mini-LED backlighting and 5K clarity — www.cultofmac.com/…
       • Studio Display XDR Brings Medical Imaging Presets to Radiologists — www.macobserver.com/…
       • Check If Your Mac Can Run Studio Display XDR at 120Hz — www.macobserver.com/…
       • Apple Redesigns Studio Display Packaging to Fit Standard Recycling Bins — www.macobserver.com/…
   • The hoped-for shift to annual budget iPhones: Apple launches iPhone 17e, adding MagSafe and doubling the base storage — sixcolors.com/… 📣 Apple PR
     • Also A19 Chip, 48MP Camera, and 256GB Storage — www.macobserver.com/…
     • iPhone 17e Camera Upgrades: 48MP Fusion Lens and Smarter Selfie Camera — www.macobserver.com/…
     • An existing iPhone 16e case will still fit the iPhone 17e — appleinsider.com/…
   • Apple Ends Sales of 7 Products This Week, One More Likely Next — www.macobserver.com/…
   • And a truly novel product: Say hello to MacBook Neo — 📣 Apple PR
     • The $599 MacBook Neo is Apple’s long-awaited colorful, lower-cost MacBook — arstechnica.com/… — Comes in ‘silver’, ‘indigo’ (a dark purple/blue), ‘blush’ (pastel pink) & ‘citrus’ (pastel yellow)
     • A18 Pro-powered MacBook Neo brings power at lowest price ever — www.cultofmac.com/…
       • Just two options — 256GB storage and no TouchID base model & 512GB with TouchID for an extra $100
     • MacBook Neo Brings 16-Hour Battery Life and Liquid Retina Display at $599 — www.macobserver.com/…
     • MacBook Neo Features 1080p Camera, Spatial Audio Speakers, and Dual Mics — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Apple MacBook Neo Drops RAM to 8GB to Keep Price Low — www.macobserver.com/… (no option to add more!)
     • macOS Will Warn You If You Use the Wrong USB C Port on MacBook Neo — www.macobserver.com/… (one of the ports does USB 3 & DisplayPort, the other is USB 2)
     • MacBook Neo Compromises: Everything Apple Removed to Reach the $599 Price — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Review: MacBook Neo hands-on: Apple build quality at a substantially lower price — arstechnica.com/…
     • Analysis:
       • Apple makes a Trojan horse play for the education market — sixcolors.com/… (Education get $100 discount, so starting at $499!)
       • MacBook Neo proves Apple can build a $599 laptop without cheapening the Mac — appleinsider.com/…
       • The MacBook Neo’s Carefully Considered Compromises — tidbits.com/… ⭐
   • Apple Event Week is now Over: Every New Product Announced — www.macobserver.com/…
   • 🎦 These Are All the Product Videos Apple Released This Week — www.macobserver.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple continue to experiment with AI in smaller ways ahead of the promised by Apple Intelligence Updates this year:
  • Xcode 26.3 adds support for Claude, Codex, and other agentic tools via MCP — arstechnica.com/… (📣 Apple PR)
  • Apple Launches Sales Coach App to Replace SEED for Store and Service Employees — www.macobserver.com/… (LLM-based)
• Google Releases YouTube App for Apple Vision Pro — www.macstories.net/…
  • Early review: YouTube’s bare-minimum app for Apple Vision Pro is better than nothing — hands on — appleinsider.com/…
• An iOS 26.4 pre-announcement: Apple Podcasts Will Combine Video with Audio in Shows — www.macstories.net/… (📣 Apple PR)
• Apple iPhone becomes first consumer product certified for handling classified NATO data — cyberinsider.com/… (📣 Apple PR)

Legend

Note: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.