Commotion Of Links

Your Commotion of Apple Links for the week ending February 24, 2026

February 26, 2026 • 10 min read

Was it a light week for Apple news? Maybe everybody's saving their energy for next week, when Apple's three-day Announcement Fest-A-Palooza happens. But there was at least one biggie, in the form of Apple's big push to get a certain kind of press about its Texas manufacturing facilities.

If I'm totally honest, my focus at the moment is still on self-pity. The Blizzard of '26 stranded me inside the house for three days. If the phrase "all Work AND no plaY makes JAck a DULl bOy" creeps into the following narrative, please be kind.

The Future, Soon

[via Gurman] Apple testing ‘deep red’ color for iPhone 18 Pro, but iPhone Fold may skip the fun: report https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/22/iphone-18-pro-rumored-to-come-in-new-red-color-iphone-fold-details/ I am 100% in full support of, and all-in on, having an absolute minimum of one fun colorway in every flagship phone line. Yes, almost everyone buys a non-controversial color, and yes, everyone who wants a phone with some personal zazz can just stick it in a case that even the costume designer on Elton John’s 1976 world tour would consider “too much.” But it’s good for the brand. Also, it can boost sales of Pro phones: when people see an orange iPhone Pro, they know the owner can afford to rock the Latest Thing. Those who value that reaction tend to upgrade on an accelerated schedule.

Company

[Apple Newsroom] Apple accelerates U.S. manufacturing, with Mac mini production coming later this year https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/02/apple-accelerates-us-manufacturing-with-mac-mini-production/ It’s a big, flashy news release that comes a day after Apple gave an exclusive tour to The Wall Street Journal. And it’s happening on the day of Trump’s State Of The Union. Why do I suppose that the timing isn’t coincidental?

Paywalled Apple Plans to Manufacture Mac Mini in Houston https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-plans-to-manufacture-mac-mini-in-houston-c9b4c23c The WSJ piece fleshes the story out a little bit (within the confines of what Apple was willing to let them see, o’course.)

Paywalled The Looming Taiwan Chip Disaster That Silicon Valley Has Long Ignored https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/technology/taiwan-china-chips-silicon-valley-tsmc.html The NYT puts this announcement into an appropriate broader context. It correctly places Apple’s move within the context of a US policy shift that spans multiple Presidential administrations. Basically, Biden’s plan to get companies like Apple to move more tech manufacturing to the US was “Carrot and Stick.” Trump 2’s is “Stick and Carrot (conditions and restrictions apply to Carrot; Carrot not available during mood-induced blackout periods; monitor Truth Social for ongoing updates regarding your specific company’s day-to-day access to Carrot).”

Tim Cook ‘slept with one eye open’ after classified CIA briefing on Taiwan https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/24/tim-cook-slept-with-one-eye-open-after-classified-cia-briefing-on-taiwan/ The above snark isn’t to deny that this is an important issue, for both US tech companies and the economy — US and worldwide — as a whole. A little more Stick might have been appropriate in 2025, no matter who wound up as President. The details of what Apple's Texas facility can actually accomplish might seem like small stakes (and they are) but this is the start of a transition that's going to require a decade or more to spin up.

How the Supreme Court’s decision affects Apple and its $3.3 billion tariff bill https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/20/supreme-court-tariff-decision-apple-trump-cook-iphone.html Consumers prolly won’t see any price drops. Apple chose to just eat the costs of tariffs while keeping an eye on the situation. If Apple gets any of that dough back, it’s only going to be after years and years of litigation. And the new tariff are still a mystery. (shrug)

West Virginia sues Apple over child sex abuse material stored and shared on iCloud https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/19/west-virginia-apple-child-sex-abuse-material Multiple things are true here and the story merits a full blog post. In summary: yes, this suit smells of grandstanding; yes, there’s a credible argument that Apple doesn’t do enough to make iCloud inhospitable to CSAM; and yes, (for God’s sake) Apple cares deeply about this issue.

West Virginia Attorney General Sues Apple for Role in Distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material https://ago.wv.gov/article/west-virginia-attorney-general-sues-apple-role-distribution-child-sexual-abuse-material Press release from the West Virginia AG’s office: “the company knowingly allowed its iCloud platform to be used as a vehicle for distributing and storing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — and for years chose to do nothing about it.” Yeah, grandstanding. This an unfair hit against all of the people inside Apple who think of little else but how to keep this kind of content off of the platform.

Mark Zuckerberg said he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss ‘wellbeing of teens and kids’ https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/18/meta-mark-zuckerberg-social-media-safety-trial.html Stop the presses: Zuckerberg zuckers during his testimony. Keep in mind that as a company strategy, he’s trying to move the problem onto the shoulders of Apple, and other makers of operating systems.

Paywalled Apple quietly removes environmental metrics from executive pay https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-02-23/apple-quietly-removes-environmental-metrics-from-executive-pay Since 2021, Tim Cook and other top execs used to get bonuses tied to meeting various environmental targets. A new corporate filing discloses that those bonuses have been Norwegian Blued. At Apple, the 2020 Goodvibes Troika of Tech Company Policies is now down to just one. Environmental impact and digital wellbeing are out to pasture (not dead, but no longer signature initiatives), leaving only DEI.

Vision Pro

Disneyland’s “MuppetVision 3D” will be released on the Apple Vision Pro. Here’s why Brian Henson is okay with it https://dailydot.com/muppetvision-3d-apple-vision-pro The obvious and correct answer is “because it’s better for a creative thing to be able to be seen somewhere, as opposed to impossible to see anywhere.” MV3D is noted as the last Muppet project that Jim Henson was directly involved in, and it demands preservation. It’s a bloody shame when a work becomes a ghost…something that only lives in memory and in secondhand retellings. This is why, in many situations, I support piracy.

Showbiz

The evil LeapFrog tablet in Toy Story 5 appears to be running the macOS window manager https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1r988ll/the_evil_leapfrog_tablet_in_toy_story_5_appears/ Like, this isn’t a dig against Apple by any means. But given how…”proactively itchy”…Apple gets about how its stuff is depicted in movies, I wonder if this Easter Egg will survive all the way to the movie’s release date.

Imax To Screen Five Formula 1 World Championship Races Live In Deal With New U.S. Rights Holder Apple TV https://deadline.com/2026/02/imax-apple-tv-formula-1-world-championship-races-1236729069/ I’m glad that Apple’s not locking F1 up inside its walled garden. The world has lost its access to the Peanuts specials, but at least it’s still possible for an F1 fan to watch a race (in an innovative presentation, no less) without having to crawl to old man Potter.

Apple TV F1, MLS, MLB streaming reach expands to bars & restaurants https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/19/apple-tv-f1-mls-mlb-streaming-reach-expands-to-bars-restaurants If, (x) years ago, you’d told me that Apple TV would one day become a signature live sports broadcaster, I would have doubted you. I don’t know what the value of (x) is, but it’s a low number.

Apple TV’s The Hunt finally gets a new premiere date after delay https://www.macobserver.com/news/apple-tvs-the-hunt-finally-gets-a-new-premiere-date-after-delay/ Adding yet more urgency to the question ”So why doesn’t Apple announce a new release date for ‘The Savant’?” “The Hunt” is a third example of an Apple TV series that got yanked from the schedule in 2025 (in this case, due to claims of plagiarism) and was then re-instated, with a new launch date. Apple’s continued silence on this topic makes the conclusion “they greenlit the series when the political landscape was much easier to navigate than it is now, and they’re scared” more credible with each passing month.

Forget billboards – Apple just used 3,000 drones to build a 500-foot Godzilla over Hollywood for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2 https://www.techradar.com/streaming/apple-tv-plus/forget-billboards-apple-just-used-3-000-drones-to-build-a-500-foot-godzilla-over-hollywood-for-monarch-legacy-of-monsters-season-2 And here I am, a Person with Some Kind Of Audience, mentioning a TV show I never heard of…so, job well done. It’s a super-cool display. I never knew until now how much I want a record-smashing animated drone show over the Apple spaceship campus as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations. (Suggested scene: a $10,000 Apple Lisa is beaten into wisps of fireflies by a $2500 Mac 128 wielding a flagpole with a pirate flag on it, while Steve Jobs looks on, cackling.)

Misc

PageMaker pioneer Paul Brainerd, 1947-2026: Aldus founder devoted his second chapter to the planet https://www.geekwire.com/2026/pagemaker-pioneer-paul-brainerd-1947-2026-aldus-founder-devoted-his-second-chapter-to-the-planet/ Brilliant remembrance of a guy who led an interesting life and led it well. PageMaker is an example of exactly the sort of technology I like. In the days when “publishing” still exclusively meant “designing and printing and distributing something printed on paper,” this app gave power to lesser-empowered and disempowered people and communities. A bare-bones team — even an individual — could produce something that looked almost as professional as an entity with corporate funding. Its effect on the diversity of communication was as important as the effect of the Web, years later.

Google, Apple start testing encrypted RCS on Android and iOS 26.4 https://9to5google.com/2026/02/23/google-messages-encrypted-rcs-iphone/ Apple continues to lay some significant track towards the destination of platform interoperability. The first beta got end-to-end encryption in RCS working between iPhones. The new beta allows testing of iPhone-Android connections. It’s unlikely to be ready in time for iOS 26.4, but it’s definitely on its way.

Apple in 2025: The Six Colors report card https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/02/2025reportcard/ How the hell did I not see Jason’s emails, reminding me to contribute to this? As always, it’s a valuable moment in which we all gather around the campfire.

Apple will kill iPadOS https://birchtree.me/blog/apple-will-kill-ipados/ This is an opinion piece, not a prediction. But read it, and find out where you agree and where you disagree.

Apple Sports enhanced with key features and expansion https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/23/apple-sports-ncaa-tournament-bracket-soccer-expansion/ Hey, awesome, great. I’m only mentioning this as an excuse to remind everybody that Apple’s inclusion of betting odds as a key part of the app’s content is morally indefensible.

Introducing Acme Weather https://acmeweather.com/blog/introducing-acme-weather The former makers of Dark Sky, who went on to become former Apple employees, are back with another fresh take on weather apps. They’re releasing it during the week when an unprecedented blizzard hit New England. Folks, during the four or five days before the snow started, I kept refreshing multiple weather apps and weather sites, wondering why the hell there was such a wide variance in the forecasts. I tried hard not to just cherry-pick one that made me feel better (“Hey! We might get as little as 16 inches!”). Today, having been housebound by snow for the past three days, I can declare that Acme Weather’s central philosophy of collecting, distilling, and presenting forecasts from multiple sources and models in a simple UI is very much The Right Way To Do This.

Steve Jobs Archive releases ‘Letters to a Young Creator’ featuring Tim Cook, Jony Ive, and more https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/24/steve-jobs-archive-releases-letters-to-a-young-creator-featuring-tim-cook-jony-ive-and-more/ I want to call this “inspiration porn,” but that would be clumsy and it wouldn’t reflect how much I like this project. What I mean is that the site is full of interesting, thoughtful reactions written by people who took the challenge seriously. None of it is particularly practical. But you’re likely to find something that clicks for you and sticks with you for years.

Letters to a Young Creator is a collection of honest perspectives on what it takes to make something great, written by people who have done it before. https://letters.stevejobsarchive.com/about (Don’t just look for the Steve one and the Tim one and the Jony one. Click on names you don’t recognize. And: I’m as baffled by the slow-running animation on the landing page as you. There’s a “Skip” button at the bottom.)