Joe Rossignol

Apple today announced that Tyler, The Creator has been named Apple Music's Artist of the Year in 2025 for his "outstanding impact on both music and culture". Tyler, The Creator received a physical Apple Music Award, featuring a custom silicon wafer.

In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Starting this Wednesday, November 19, the feature will be available to residents of Illinois.

The free Apple Sports app on the iPhone was released in additional European countries today, including Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Ukraine, and others.

On Friday, the Financial Times reported that Apple is preparing for Tim Cook to step down as CEO as soon as next year, but he might not fully retire. Instead, it is possible that he will become the next chairman of Apple's board of directors. Apple's current chairman is Arthur D. Levinson, who turned 75 on March 31.

Apple has announced it will be opening an all-new store at the Livat Centre shopping mall in Beijing, China on Saturday, December 6, at 10 a.m. local time. Opened in 2014, the Livat Centre is one of the most popular shopping malls in Beijing. The mall has a Scandinavian design and is anchored by IKEA, as a result of being owned by Sweden's Ingka Group, the world's largest IKEA franchisee.

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated that Tesla plans to add Apple CarPlay support to its vehicles "in the coming months". This is easily the biggest news for the regular version of CarPlay in years, should Tesla actually follow through with offering the system in its vehicles.

iOS 26.2 is currently in beta testing. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics for Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date.

Apple is preparing for Tim Cook to step down as CEO of the company "as soon as next year," according to the Financial Times. The company's board of directors and senior executives "recently intensified preparations for Cook to hand over the reins," the report said.

iOS 26 extended pinned conversations in the Messages app to CarPlay, for quick access to your most frequent chats. However, some drivers may prefer the classic view with a list of individual conversations only, and Apple now lets users choose. Apple released the second beta of iOS 26.2 this week, and it introduces a new CarPlay setting for turning off pinned conversations in the Messages app.

Apple has teamed up with a handful of accessory makers to offer charging stands, cables, a power bank, a laptop sleeve, and more in a Dark Cherry color. The range of Dark Cherry accessories were added to Apple's online store this week in the U.S. and many other countries, with delivery and in-store pickup available. Participating brands include Herschel, Nimble, PopSockets, Zens, and others.