A new report on Apple’s partnership with Google to have Gemini power the new Siri appears to confirm speculation that the iPhone maker is paying around a billion dollars a year for the deal.

It also claims that ChatGPT provider OpenAI made a conscious decision to decline the opportunity to provide the intelligence behind Siri …

The newest version of the Opera One browser improves on the interesting Tab Islands feature, brings a re-engineered AI assistant, and adds theme-specific soundscapes. Here are the details.

Hours after a coalition of digital rights, child safety, and women’s rights organizations asked Apple to “take immediate action” against X and Grok AI, xAI confirmed that Grok will no longer edit “images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis,” with significant carve-outs. Here are the details.

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Sponsored by Stuff: Stuff helps you get everything out of your head and into a simple, elegant system—closing open loops and reducing mental stress. Use code 9TO5 at checkout for 50% off your first year.

Appfigures’ annual report on the app economy shows that app downloads declined in 2025 compared to 2024, even as estimated gross revenue surged to a record high. Here are the details.

Digg is officially back. After months in closed beta, the rebooted platform is now open to the public, relaunching with a focus on trust signals, transparency in moderation, and defenses against AI-driven spam.

Last week, Apple officially announced that Chase is set to take over Apple Card, ending its deal with Goldman Sachs.

A new report from The Wall Street Journal, based on conversations with “20 people familiar with the matter,” goes in-depth on what Apple told people was an “unhappy marriage.”

iOS 26.2 arrived last month, packing a bunch of brand new features, including an enhancement to AirDrop called ‘AirDrop codes.’ Here’s how the new feature works.

Apple researchers have published a study about Manzano, a multimodal model that combines visual understanding and text-to-image generation, while significantly reducing performance and quality trade-offs of current implementations. Here are the details.

Netflix is officially getting into podcasting, with video podcasts from a Spotify deal recently launching, and now the company has unveiled its first original podcasts that are coming soon.

If you’re having problems with your cellular connection today, you’re not alone. Verizon, appears to be experiencing a major outage. The carrier says its teams are “fully deployed and are focused on the issue.”

Verizon has also now promised credits for affected users … here’s the latest.

Update, 10:24pm ET

Verizon says the outage is resolved:

The outage has been resolved. If customers are still having an issue, we encourage them to restart their devices to reconnect to the network. For those affected, we will provide account credits. Details will be shared directly with customers. We sincerely apologize for the disruption.

Reacting to Apple Creator Studio – another case of subscription fatigue, or a decent deal? Jeff and Fernando make the case for and against Apple’s latest services endeavor.

9to5Mac Overtime is a weekly video-first podcast exploring fun and interesting observations in the Apple ecosystem, featuring 9to5Mac’s Fernando Silva & Jeff Benjamin. Subscribe to Overtime via Apple Podcasts and our YouTube channel for more.

Apple Creative Studio is a mighty good value for an impressive suite of pro apps. It also makes up a rather polarizing set of app icons, based on the internet’s reaction to yesterday’s news. However, it turns out those app icons won’t be forced upon all users of apps that are included in the suite.

Apple’s big Siri upgrades are expected to ship as part of iOS 26.4, and a new report indicates they might come with a very convenient new feature for Apple Notes users.

Today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break is now ready to roll starting off with Apple’s mid-range M4 Mac mini at $110 off the list price. We also have the most affordable 13-inch M5 iPad Pro at $150 off alongside a new all-time low on the official Apple Milanese Loop in black and a solid discount on its latest green Ultra Trail Loop. From there, we spotted Anker’s impressive display-equipped 3-in-1 Qi2 25W MagSafe Charging stand at 30% off and the ULTRALOQ Bolt NFC smart lock with Apple Home Key down at $132. Get a closer look down below. 

Google’s goal with Gemini is to make a “personal, proactive, and powerful” assistant. The Gemini app today is adding “Personal Intelligence” in beta. This lets Gemini use the data Google already has about you to “supercharge” and personalize responses.

Last week Apple confirmed what had long been rumored: Chase is becoming the new issuer of Apple Card. Per The Wall Street Journal, the move is already making an impact on JPMorgan Chase’s bottom line—and not in a good way.

Apple has just announced the latest new games coming to Apple Arcade, and there’s a big AAA title among them: Sid Meier’s Civilization VII. Here are the details.

iPhone Air users, your MagSafe Battery pack has a new firmware update available now. Here are the details.

We’re eight months away from the iPhone 18 lineup being unveiled, and today a reputable leaker has detailed screen sizes and Dynamic Island plans for Apple’s forthcoming models.

It’s been close to a decade since I first started being grumpy about subscription apps. I did acknowledge the benefits right from the start, including giving many developers a more sustainable income, but expressed my unease about where we were headed.

A few years later, I voiced doubts as to whether it was a sustainable business model. But the trend has continued to grow, with Apple Creator Studio the latest example …

The popular thriller Hijack starring Idris Elba returns today with season two on Apple TV. Whereas the first season saw negotiator Sam Nelson trapped on a plane, season two uses a different mode of transport for its setting, namely a train on the Berlin underground.

Like much of Hijack, you have to suspend your disbelief at the circumstances, but if you can, there’s a thrill ride of action ahead. The eight-episode second season starts today, January 14, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.

At this point, I kind of have to feel sorry for Roblox. The company came under increasing criticism for failing to adequately protect children, and then courted even greater controversy when it started requiring children as young as nine years old to submit a video selfie for age verification.

The latest development in the saga is that the age verification process appears to be failing badly, with the company saying that you can’t expect everything to work on day one …

I still have affectionate feelings about the original Macintosh I owned back in 1984, and if you feel the same, you can now give your iPhone 17 Pro a nostalgic makeover …