This digest compiles the latest from Apple Insider.
Today’s Apple Insider Roundup
Flash deals: Save $200 on M4 MacBook Air with 24GB RAM, up to 50% off Sonos
Prices have been ticking up, but you can still save $200 on these M4 MacBook Air configs with an upgrade to 24GB of RAM. Plus, get up to half off Sonos speakers and soundbars.
In our hunt for the best deals, we’ve noticed there are still several M4 MacBook Air SKUs in stock at $200 off, despite prices trending upward as January comes to a close.
These models have an upgrade to 24GB of memory to allow for multiple apps to run simultaneously. You can find deals on both the 13-inch and 15-inch screen sizes at B&H and Amazon, with prices falling to as low as $1,199 with the RAM upgrade and 512GB of storage.
Season 5 of 'For All Mankind' shows what happens after the space race is won
“For All Mankind” returns to Apple TV in March for its fifth season, continuing the series’ alternate space-race timeline into the early 2000s.
The series is now one of the service’s longest-running scripted dramas. Its return also aligns with Apple’s continued preference for weekly releases over binge drops.
Season 5 serves as a continuation and an accessible entry point for viewers, and it debuts on March 27. Apple has framed the new episodes around a changed political reality instead of a single mission.
Ozempic maker's 'I'm a Mac' ripoff is painfully unfunny
Make it stop. Ozempic’s maker has taken the warehouse of cash it has made to reunite the “I’m a Mac” actors for another excruciating ripoff, but has no more clue how to do it than Microsoft or Qualcomm did.
Let’s recap a bit. The original Apple ads from 2006 to 2009 were clever, effective, and funny, but “Get a Mac” is still being copied by companies that want to show they are none of these things.
The latest is from Novo Nordisk. It’s the Danish mega-pharmaceutical company that makes Ozempic, and about three-quarters of the rest of the medicine that you take.
Apple gets a partial win in iPhone user privacy lawsuit, but not on merit
Apple has secured a partial win in a lawsuit claiming it violated privacy laws in California, but the ruling came down to technicalities and sloppy preparation rather than on merit.
Apple stands accused of violating the privacy of iPhone owners in California by collecting data on its users using its first-party apps, based on a report from developers Mysk in 2022. While the case is still ongoing, Apple has managed to get some of the claims dismissed from the overall lawsuit.
In a filing to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose on January 20, the court granted a motion from Apple to dismiss some of the claims. The filing, shared by Bloomberg Law, says the court agrees with Apple that it shouldn’t face a number of elements in the lawsuit.
Japan finally gets Apple FItness+, lazily using AI-generated dubs
Apple Fitness+ is now available in Japan, but instead of using local trainers, and despite being one of the most wealthy companies in the world, Apple has dubbed existing workouts with AI-generated versions of the trainers’ voices.
It was back in 2020 that Apple first announced its Apple Fitness+ program, and it has been slowly rolling out worldwide ever since. Now Apple has announced that it is available in Japan.
“We are very pleased to be able to deliver the Fitness+ experience to Japan,” said Jay Blahnik, Apple VP of Fitness Technologies, in a translated statement. “Seamless integration with iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV makes Fitness+ makes it easy to work out and meditate anytime, anywhere.”
Apple services outage hit Apple TV, Maps, & App Store
Catching up on “Pluribus” or updating your apps might not have been possible, as an outage struck multiple Apple Services affecting developers and users alike Tuesday evening.
Almost everything you do on your iPhone touches online servers and services, and occasionally, they go down and become unresponsive. Such an outage struck multiple Apple Services on Tuesday evening that took about four hours to resolve.
According to the Apple System Status page, an outage affected the App Store, Apple TV Channels, Apple TV, iTunes Store, and Maps Traffic. These services may have been slow or completely unavailable.
French court says Apple App Tracking Transparency function can stay
After getting Apple fined by the French government over antitrust allegations, advertisers hoped to get App Tracking Transparency tools changed or removed, but a court has ruled in Apple’s favor.
App Tracking Transparency debuted in 2021 and advertisers around the world immediately sought ways to undermine it. In 2023, a French advertising group took legal action and Apple was ultimately fined by the competition authority.
According to a report from La Tribune, the advertising coalition sought further penalties beyond the fine, and has lost. The group asserted that the feature ruined their ability to target ads at users and resulted in a shortfall of “nearly 50%.”
End of today’s Apple Insider roundup.
