Apple has announced a new promotion to celebrate the Japanese New Year. The company will be offering special deals to customers in Japan on January 2 and 3. Apple will give customers a gift card with the purchase of select products, but the first 20,000 customers that buy an eligible iPhone will receive a limited edition AirTag. 2022 is the year of the Tiger in Japan and the new limited edition AirTag celebrates this with a special Tiger emoji character printed on it....

2021 marked the first full year of Apple Silicon, and it was a highly successful year at that thanks to the new M1 iMac and all-new MacBook Pro lineup. To celebrate the success of the M1 chip so far, Apple gifted its engineers with a special M1 chip T-shirt… Andy Boretto, a senior software engineering manager at Apple, took to Twitter to share an image of the shirt and an accompanying note....

Although Apple’s AirPods earphones often receive firmware updates, there’s no easy or intuitive way to update them. Now it seems that Apple has realized this, as the company has developed a tool to manually update AirPods’ firmware – but it’s not available to everyone. As reported by the leaker known as “Fudge” on Twitter, the company has created a new tool called “AirPods Firmware Updater” that, as the name suggests, manually forces a firmware update on AirPods devices – which includes the regular AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max....

When Apple introduced Apple TV+, the company promoted it as a streaming platform focused on original movies and TV shows. However, Apple now seems to be shifting its strategy with Apple TV+, as the platform now has a back catalog for the first time. Apple TV+ now has a back catalog Back in September, the company added five classic Sidney Poitier films to Apple TV+ to celebrate the premiere of an original Apple documentary film by Sidney....

Just hours before the opening keynote of WWDC 2022, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Apple approval for a new health feature of the Apple Watch. According to the filings made available on Monday, Apple is working on a new Afib history feature for the Apple Watch. As reported or My Healthy Apple, the FDA’s 510(k) approval allows the company to use the Apple Watch to keep track of the user’s atrial fibrillation history as part of the ECG app....

Apple will definitely use US chips made in TSMC’s Arizona plant, according to a new report today, which says that around a third of chips made there will be for the iPhone maker. Additionally, the plant’s capabilities will be boosted to 4nm chips, rather than the 5nm plans originally announced. There have long been indications that Apple would be a key customer, and it appears that all doubt will be removed next week, as Tim Cook is said to be attending a TSMC event on Tuesday …...

Avengers: Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo explain the reason behind giving fake scripts to their cast and shooting scenes that were ultimately not part of the film at all. Amidst celebrations for its 10th anniversary, Marvel Studios is preparing for their biggest release to date - Avengers: Infinity War, which marks the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we have come to know it. Infinity War will bring together most of the current superhero roster of the MCU to fight Thanos as he collects the Infinity Stones to create the ultimate mayhem....

WARNING: This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Batman V Superman - Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has generated impassioned and divisive reactions ever since it came out in theaters last week. Though the film is doing just fine commercially (including strong repeat business), people are mixed in regards to the quality of the final product. While it’s an undeniable thrill for fans of DC Comics to see some of their favorite heroes finally join forces on the big screen, some felt that the story was muddled in its execution and featured too much Justice League set-up that detracted from the main narrative....

With only a matter of days to go before Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice finally hits theaters, fans of the epic battle are undoubtedly struggling to remain patient. The upcoming superhero face-off is one of the biggest DC-centric comic book movies to hit cinemas in a long time and as such the anticipation and uncertainty is off the charts. Ever since Ben Affleck was announced as the next Batman, Zack Snyder’s follow up to Man of Steel has been met with every emotion and reaction that could be thrown its way....

Scott Lang and Nadia Pym are teaming up for a new comic book miniseries that will release just in time for the upcoming film, Ant-Man and the Wasp. Though the superhero duo of Ant-Man and the Wasp is a big name in comic books, this is the first time these particular versions of the characters have worked together. Multiple characters have taken the names of Ant-Man and the Wasp, beginning with Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne....

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US government and the European Union imposed economic sanctions on the country – which include restricting foreign transactions to Russian banks. As a result, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other digital wallets have been suspended in Russia. As informed by the Central Bank of Russia on Friday (via Business Insider), five major Russian banks have had their international operations restricted due to sanctions from other countries....

Apple this week celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day by announcing new accessibility features that will be available later this year with iOS 16 and other software updates. However, while we wait for those updates, the company has been promoting accessibility tips that anyone can take advantage of. Apple devices are known for having multiple accessibility features so that people with disabilities can easily use them. This includes things like VoiceOver, AssistiveTouch, and Voice Control....

If you have an iPhone 13 or earlier device with a degraded battery, this may be the best time to get a battery replacement. On its website, Apple has announced that out-of-warranty battery service for all iPhone models (except iPhone 14) will be rising by $20. For instance, the iPhone battery service by Apple will increase from $69 to $89 starting in March. The iPhone 14 line is not included in this price adjustment, as it already costs $99 for these models from the outset....

The Apple Store is currently down ahead of preorders for iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max. Customers can start preordering their new phones beginning at 5 AM Pacific Time, or about six hours from now. The iPhone 13 lineup comes in the same screen size configurations as the iPhone 12, and starting prices are unchanged too. However, Apple has doubled based storage to 128 GB on the cheapest iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini models....

Apple TV+ today unveiled its latest bout of Peanuts content, as part of its exclusive Snoopy distribution deal with WildBrain. The second season of Apple Original series The Snoopy Show will premiere on March 11. Brand new Earth Day and Mothers Day specials will follow in April and May. Season two of The Snoopy Show comprises six new episodes, featuring Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the usual gang of classic Peanuts characters....

In the third episode of Arrow, Oliver Queen walked into a mechanic’s garage and started speaking fluent Russian to the men he found there. It was a bit of a shock, seeing as the show had already established that he had been a very poor student who never finished college. Adding to the confusion was the moment when Ollie revealed a tattoo on his chest and said “I am Bratva” in Russian....

There’s no shortage of live-action and inter-connected universes based on comic books. Between the MCU, the DCEU, and even FOX’s continuity nightmare that is their X-Men Universe, it’s not hard to get a superhero fix. For all the options out there though, the Arrowverse on The CW might be the best. The universe that started with the very grounded Arrow and now spans various dimensions isn’t perfect. Each of the four shows (and counting) have their ups and downs....

Asher tries to get by on the talent of its leads, but it’s a dull thriller hamstrung by sloppy pacing and a poorly-constructed screenplay. An official selection at the 2018 Sitges Film Festival, Asher is the latest film from director Michael Caton-Jones (Basic Instinct 2, The Jackal). Starring Ron Perlman as the titular character, it looks to provide yet another riff on the tried and true aging hitman sub-genre, giving fans of crime movies an interesting alternative as the holiday movie season heats up....

It is no secret that movies based on video games do not have the greatest track record, with most people agreeing that there has never been a good video game movie ever made. Warcraft was the latest attempt at cracking the genre, but instead suffered from harsh reviews and a lackluster performance at the box office. The pressure of turning around this genre has now shifted to Assassin’s Creed, prior to its release at the end of this year....

Avengers: Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo have shared fan art of Brie Larson as Captain Marvel to their social media accounts. Marvel Comics fans have been waiting years to see Carol Danvers show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but to no avail. Joss Whedon has early plans to introduce Captain Marvel at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, but that never actually came close to happening. Even after the Captain Marvel solo movie was officially added to the MCU’s Phase 3 slate, it was subsequently pushed back after Infinity War when Spider-Man: Homecoming was added to the docket....