Apple and Major League Soccer today introduced Sunday Night Soccer. Apple TV+ subscribers will be able to watch a featured MLS match every Sunday evening during the upcoming 2025 season, at no additional cost. In the U.S., Apple TV+ is priced at $9.99 per month or $99 per year, and it is also included in all Apple One subscription bundles.


Apple TV+ now offers Friday Night Baseball for MLB and Sunday Night Soccer for MLS, as part of its growing professional sports portfolio.

The 2025 regular season kicks off with the MLS is Back weekend on Saturday, February 22 and Sunday February 23, with all 30 clubs set to take the field.

Sunday Night Soccer will spotlight the most compelling MLS matchups, with enhanced production and studio programming, according to Apple. The inaugural matchup will see the league's newest franchise, San Diego FC, make its debut against the reigning MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy, on Sunday, February 23 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

Sunday Night Soccer will also be included with an MLS Season Pass subscription, which is now available for the 2025 season. In the U.S., MLS Season Pass is priced at $14.99 per month, or $99 for the full season, and this subscription also lets you watch select preseason matches, all regular season matches, the MLS Cup playoffs, and more. MLS Season Pass is available in the Apple TV app on Apple devices, most smart TVs, and many other streaming devices and game consoles, as well as on the web at tv.apple.com.

T-Mobile is offering qualified customers complimentary access to MLS Season Pass this season. The offer can be redeemed in the T-Life app, starting Tuesday, February 18. MLS Season Pass is also available through Comcast Xfinity and DIRECTV this season.

2025 marks the third year of a 10-year partnership between Apple and Major League Soccer.
This article, "Apple TV+ Introduces 'Sunday Night Soccer' With Weekly MLS Matches" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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It might be hard to believe, but the HomePod mini launched alongside the iPhone 12 series all the way back in November 2020. Fortunately, after more than a four-year wait, a new model is finally expected to launch later this year.


Earlier this month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple is aiming to launch the new HomePod mini "toward the end of the year." According to his reporting, the speaker will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, with Wi-Fi 6E support. The current HomePod mini supports Wi-Fi 4, so Wi-Fi 6E would be an upgrade, enabling faster and more reliable Wi-Fi connectivity for Siri, music playback, and more.

While there are no other firm rumors yet, likely upgrades for the next HomePod mini include a newer "S" chip, improved sound quality, new color options, and a newer Ultra Wideband chip for a lower-latency Handoff experience. The current HomePod mini is equipped with the S5 chip, which debuted in 2019's Apple Watch Series 5.

In addition to a new HomePod mini, Apple reportedly plans to release an all-new smart home hub at some point this year. The hub is expected to feature around a 6-inch to 7-inch display that can be mounted on a wall, or attached to a tabletop base with a speaker, so the device could be similar to the HomePod mini in some ways.

The home hub is expected to support Apple Intelligence, but the next HomePod mini is not. Read our HomePod mini roundup for more details.
This article, "New HomePod Mini Finally Expected This Year Following 2020 Launch" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today updated its Apple Sports app for the iPhone with several enhancements, including improved navigation, broadcast information for nationally-televised games in the U.S., and support for additional soccer leagues.


The release notes for version 2.4 of Apple Sports:

• The Apple Sports soccer lineup keeps getting bigger with the FA Cup, EFL Championship, and League Cup.
• Navigating between your favorites is even faster now. Swipe left or right to browse all of the leagues and teams you follow.
• Tune in to all the national games with broadcast information now available on game pages.

Launched in February 2024, the Apple Sports app shows scores, stats, standings, upcoming games, and more for a variety of leagues, such as the NFL, MLB, MLS, NBA, NHL, Premier League, and others. The free iPhone app is available in the App Store.


This article, "Apple Sports App for iPhone Updated With TV Broadcast Info and More" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Update: Apple has released iOS 18.3.

In its press release unveiling a new Black Unity Sport Loop for the Apple Watch today, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.3 is "upcoming." According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple Stores are being instructed to update the software on demo devices today, so iOS 18.3 should be released either today or within the next few days.


Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3.

Notification Summary Changes

Apple Intelligence notification summaries for news apps are temporarily unavailable on iOS 18.3, after the feature inaccurately summarized some news stories.

Starting with iOS 18.3, notifications that have been summarized have italicized text, which makes them stand out visually compared to regular notifications. Apple also promised that improvements to notification summaries are coming in a future iOS update.

Last, iOS 18.3 lets you easily manage settings for notification summaries from the Lock Screen.

Visual Intelligence Upgrades

All four iPhone 16 models are equipped with a Camera Control button that enables Visual Intelligence, a new feature that can provide information about items or places in a person's surroundings. For example, Apple says users can click and hold the Camera Control to bring up the hours or ratings for a restaurant that they pass by.

iOS 18.3 includes a few Visual Intelligence upgrades for all iPhone 16 models. First, you can now add an event to the Calendar app from a poster or flyer. Second, Visual Intelligence can now identify animals and plants.

Visual Intelligence is not available on any other iPhone models.

Calculator App Enhancement

iOS 18.3 reintroduces a small but useful Calculator app function that had been removed in an earlier software update. Now, when you tap the equals sign a second time, the Calculator app repeats the last mathematical operation. This functionality is useful for calculating compound interest or other repeat operations.

Black Unity

In honor of Black History Month this February, Apple today unveiled a new Black Unity Collection, consisting of a special-edition Black Unity Sport Loop for the Apple Watch, a Unity Rhythm watch face, and matching iPhone and iPad wallpapers.

The new Black Unity Sport Loop is available to order today, and the watch face and wallpapers will be available in the upcoming iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and watchOS 11.3 software updates, according to the band's product page.

More

iOS 18.3 fixes these two bugs related to Siri and Apple Music:

• Fixes an issue where the keyboard might disappear when initiating a typed Siri request


• Resolves an issue where audio playback continues until the song ends even after closing Apple Music

Apple also added references to robot vacuum support in the Home app to iOS 18.3's code, but it seems this functionality never went live. Apple's website says the feature is coming in a future update, so perhaps we will see it with iOS 18.4.

We previously shared Apple's full iOS 18.3 release notes.
This article, "iOS 18.3 Available as Soon as Today With These New Features" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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In honor of Black History Month this February, Apple today unveiled a new Black Unity Collection, consisting of a special-edition Black Unity Sport Loop for the Apple Watch, a Unity Rhythm watch face, and matching iPhone and iPad wallpapers.


The new Black Unity Sport Loop is available to order today, and the watch face and wallpapers will be available in the upcoming iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and watchOS 11.3 software updates, according to the band's product page. The updates are expected to be released this week, following more than a month of beta testing.

Apple said the collection is "inspired by the rhythm of humanity," with Black creatives and allies at Apple collaborating on the designs.

"The collection, Unity Rhythm, weaves together the colors of the Pan-African flag: black, green, and red," added Apple's press release. "The Black Unity Sport Loop is woven in a custom pattern of raised and recessed loops that creates a lenticular effect, revealing green on one side of each loop, and red on the other."

The new Unity Rhythm watch face features "custom numerals formed by intertwined threads of red, green, and yellow." When a user raises their wrist to check the time, the abstract brush strokes seamlessly transform into digits.

The matching iPhone and iPad wallpapers feature the word "Unity" in the same custom lettering.
This article, "New Apple Watch Band: Black Unity Sport Loop Now Available to Order" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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