By John Moltz
June 27, 2025 2:00 PM PT
This Week in Apple: Bigly mad
Apple has a movie out? Who knew? The company makes a better beta and begrudgingly complies with EU rules.
Unhappy meal
Welcome back to the summer of “F1”, already in progress. If you’re just joining us, F1 F1 F1 EFFFFF ONNNNNNEEEE!!!
VROOM-VROOM! WHHHHRRRRRRRROOOOOOM!
OK, lemme give you the 411 on “F1”.
[scoots closer, puts arm around reader]
Look, I don’t know if you’ve heard… but Apple… yes, the company that makes those things. And the other things. That’s right. That’s the one.
Anyway, you probably haven’t heard this, but Apple… has a new movie out.
I know. No one could be more surprised than I. I wish they would have told someone.
It is called… you might want to get a pencil and write it down so you don’t forget because it’s a bit of a sleeper… it is called…
“F1”.
“F1 – The Movie” if you’re nasty.
I’m not going to link to a story about it because online outrage is not exactly a new or even particularly noteworthy phenomenon, but just know that people are mad. Apple may have been slightly over-aggressive in the notifications, promotions, and cross-partnerships related to this movie, to the extent that social media was rife with some pretty good gags about it.
Apparently people don’t want information on show dates and times, deals on tickets, or whether or not there is a promotional popcorn bucket in the shape of Tim Cook’s head.
Weird.
There isn’t, by the way. Shame. But if you live in Latin America, you can get miniature racing cars thanks to a cross promotion with McDonalds that has forged the “McMenu F1 The Movie” combo.
And you thought the Tim Cook-head popcorn bucket was a crazy idea.
Despite user outrage over notifications, Apple thinks this is all going great. Great enough to double down.
“Apple Considers Theatrical Arm Amid $250M Bet on ‘F1: The Movie’”
In a time when analysts are downright demanding Apple drop $30 billion on what Wired called an AI “bulls*** machine”, a $250 million bet on a movie starring Brad Pitt seems positively quaint.
It’s the little things
Apple released new betas this week, which fixed a number of, ugh, bugaboos? That sounds so trite in a programming context and also obnoxiously like a pun. How about “Deal-ending errors that were sure signs that Apple had lost its way and would be the reason the company’s biggest fans would finally leave it for good.”? Because surely that’s what they were.
What are these deceased dead-breakers? Well, forget corners a Formula 1 car would not be able to navigate, the colors on the Finder icon in macOS 26 were backwards! BACKWARDS!!!
If I tell you to go find your own GIF of Lemongrab screaming “UNACCEPTABLE!” I want you to take this assignment seriously and actually do it, OK? I’ve recently come to find out that some of you are not going to find these GIFs I’m referring to and it’s frankly… well… it’s unacceptable is what it is.
Anyway, save your pitchforks and torches for later because sanity has been restored. The forward face is blue again, the side face is white. Though some are still not happy with it, it’s at least a bit better.
In another sign that there may be a steady hand on the wheel after all, Apple also added an option to give the menu bar a background, as God intended.
Pretty sure it’s in the Bible somewhere. Maybe toward the back just before it talks about all the different families of hobbits.
Based on these beta trends, however, I fully expect macOS to return to looking just like Sequoia by early 2027.
App Store service tears
Being mad isn’t just for users. Apple can also be mad about things, too, you know.
“Apple Makes Big App Store Changes in the EU”
The changes include free linking to offers, removing the Core Technology Fee in favor of a percentage-based commission and, most interestingly, new tiered App Store fees, including a bare-bones 5% fee that doesn’t give you App Store features like automatic updates or ratings and reviews.
Now, that might sound like something you’d pay for instead of pay less for, but please note that Jerry Onestar makes some very good points about your app. It should be free.
Needless to say, Apple is not happy about any of this.
“We disagree with this outcome and plan to appeal.”
Could be worse, Apple. The EU could be sending you push notifications demanding these changes.
Zzzzzing.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]