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Adobe Announces Image and PDF Integration with ChatGPT

Source: Adobe.

Source: Adobe.

Adobe announced today that it has teamed up with OpenAI to give ChatGPT users access to Photoshop, Express, and Acrobat from inside the chatbot. The new integration is available starting today at no additional cost to ChatGPT users.

Source: Adobe.

Source: Adobe.

In a press release to Business Wire, Adobe explains that its three apps can be used by ChatGPT users to:

  • Easily edit and uplevel images with Adobe Photoshop: Adjust a specific part of an image, fine tune image settings like brightness, contrast and exposure, and apply creative effects like Glitch and Glow – all while preserving the quality of the image.
  • Create and personalize designs with Adobe Express: Browse Adobe Express’ extensive library of professional designs to find the best one for any moment, fill in the text, replace images, animate designs and iterate on edits – all directly inside the chat and without needing to switch to another app – to create standout content for any occasion.
  • Transform and organize documents with Adobe Acrobat: Edit PDFs directly in the chat, extract text or tables, organize and merge multiple files, compress files and convert them to PDF while keeping formatting and quality intact. Acrobat for ChatGPT also enables people to easily redact sensitive details.
Source: Adobe.

Source: Adobe.

This strikes me as a savvy move by Adobe. Allowing users to request image and PDF edits and design documents with natural language prompts makes its tools more approachable. That could attract new users who later move to an Adobe subscription to get more control over their creations and Adobe’s other offerings.

From OpenAI’s standpoint, this is clearly a response to the consumer-facing Gemini features that Google has begun releasing, which include new image and video generation tools and reportedly caused Sam Altman to declare a “code red” inside the company. I understand the OpenAI freakout. Google has a huge user base and has been doing consumer products far longer than OpenAI, but I can’t say I’ve been very impressed with Gemini 3. Perhaps that’s simply because I don’t care for generative images and video, but these latest moves by Google and OpenAI make it clear that they see them as foundational to consumer-facing AI tools.

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Letterboxd Reveals Details of New Video Store Available December 10 on Web, iOS, tvOS, and More

Letterboxd today announced full details of its previously teased Letterboxd Video Store, along with a launch date of December 10. It was also revealed that members will be able to access films on the platform via the existing Letterboxd app on iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS, as well as AirPlay, Chromecast, Android, and web.

Letterboxd claims Video Store is “the next evolution of the platform’s core mission of film discovery”. It builds on the hugely successful community platform, where members can log, rate, and review their film-watching, as well as follow and interact with other members’ reviews and film lists.

Video Store will follow a transactional video-on-demand rental model with no subscriptions, and the company says, “each title has been selected based on genuine member demand, while leaving room for discoveries the community has yet to find”. Pricing will take into account country, film availability, and life cycle. Launch films will be priced between $3.99 and $19.99 in the U.S.

Video Store will launch with just nine films, which seems to indicate how hand-picked the titles are and how difficult they may have been to procure. The initial batch – split across two themed “shelves” with more to come – includes Todd Haynes’s directorial debut, a restored Filipino classic, and a Cannes 2025 award winner.

Regarding the launch, co-founder and CEO Matthew Buchanan said:

We’re incredibly proud of what we and our community have built. We take their lead, and believe that has been integral to Letterboxd’s success. They tell us what’s really happening—a 1980s action film suddenly trending, a festival title from two years ago still being added to watchlists.

Video Store lets us act on that real demand, whether it’s helping a distributor unlock value from a forgotten gem in its vault or giving a filmmaker direct access to the audience they’ve been building on our platform. It’s our way of saying to the industry: let’s harness this interest to get films to the people who want them most.

Despite the very small collection of launch films, this is a big move for Letterboxd, a company that has so far resisted expanding beyond its core, beloved community framework. As a frequent user of the platform, I will be interested to see how they build on this and which films they add going forward.

Letterboxd wants this to be a way to champion filmmakers, find hidden gems, draw films out of vaults, and support the filmmaking ecosystem as a whole. In a time when traditional film studios are being swallowed up by big tech, it’s a refreshing approach to work directly with filmmakers, sales agents, and distributors to make films available to viewers.

What’s also interesting is the technological access to Letterboxd Video Store. Renting these titles will be as easy as opening Letterboxd’s existing app, and having direct access via Apple TV is a big win in my book.

Letterboxd Video Store launches December 10 at Letterboxd.com and in the Letterboxd app for iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and Android. It will be accessible in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, and Cyprus.

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Apple’s Fitness+ Comes to New Countries and Gets New Language Support

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

On December 15, Apple is expanding Fitness+ to 28 new markets, including Chile, Hong Kong, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Taiwan, which will more than double the number of places with access to the service. The company is also dubbing fitness classes into Spanish, German, and Japanese, with the first two languages coming December 15, and Japanese dubbing coming early next year. K-Pop is being added as a new music genre to the service, too.

The dubbing of fitness classes into Spanish, German, and Japanese sounds like it’s using the same tech found in the Apple Watch’s Workout Buddy feature, which uses a generated voice based on existing instructors’ voices:

To help make Fitness+ even more welcoming to users around the world, the service is introducing digitally dubbed versions of workouts and meditations in Spanish and German, with Japanese dubbing to follow early next year alongside the availability of the service in Japan. The dubbed workouts and meditations feature a generated voice based on the actual voice of each of the 28 Fitness+ trainers.

I’ve been using Workout Buddy ever since watchOS 26 launched, and at least in English, the voices work well.

Last month, Mark Gurman wrote in his newsletter that Fitness+ was under review and might be folded into a broader health service. It may have been the case that the service was under review, but with the expansion into 49 total countries and the addition of new features, it appears that Apple has concluded Fitness is worth keeping as a standalone subscription.

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Podcast Rewind: Black Friday Gadgets and This Year’s Best Shows and Movies

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Matt wants to give the AirPods Pro 3 a piece of his mind, Niléane has another old school music app for the Mac, and everyone brings their best Black Friday deals. (Uh, hope you got them already. ?)

This week’s Cozy Zone is the challenging TineGuessr, where you look at a photo and guess where and when it was taken. Easier said than done, or is the gang going to set a new world record?

MacStories Unwind

This week, Federico and John share their favorite TV shows and movies of 2025.

Read more

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Apple Announces That Kate Adams, Its General Counsel, and Lisa Jackson, Head of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, Are Retiring

If you thought Apple’s leadership changes were finished, you’d be wrong. Today, the company announced two more changes.

The first change is to Apple’s General Counsel position, which has been led by Kate Adams since 2017. Adams will step down as general counsel on March 1, 2026 and will be replaced by Jennifer Newstead, Meta’s recent general counsel. Newstead will begin her tenure at Apple at the beginning of 2026 as a senior vice president and report to Tim Cook.

The second change is that Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives is retiring in late January 2026. Under her leadership, Apple says it has reduced its global greenhouse emissions by 60% in the past ten years. Upon Jackson’s retirement, Government Affairs will be handled by Adams who will be staying at Apple until late 2026 when she plans to retire herself, at which point Government Affairs will become Newstead’s responsibility. The team handling Environmental and Social Initiatives will report to Sabih Khan, Apple’s chief operating officer.

Although Apple doesn’t say so in its press release, it’s pretty clear that a few things are playing out among its executive ranks. First, a large number of them are approaching retirement age, and Apple is transitioning and changing roles internally to account for those who are retiring. Second, the company is dealing with departures like Alan Dye’s and what appears to be the less-than-voluntary retirement of John Giannandrea. Finally, the company is reducing the number of Tim Cook’s direct reports, which is undoubtedly to simplify the transition to a new CEO in the relatively near future.

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2025 App Store Award Winners Revealed

From a pool of 45 finalists, Apple has named 17 App Store Award winners comprised of apps and games across all of its platforms. This year’s App Store Award honors were presented to:

Apps

iPhone App of the YearTiimo from tiimo. 

iPad App of the YearDetail from Detail Technologies B.V. 

Mac App of the Year: Essayist from Essayist Software Inc. 

Apple Vision Pro App of the YearExplore POV by James Hustler.

Apple Watch App of the YearStrava from Strava, Inc. 

Apple TV App of the YearHBO Max from WarnerMedia Global Digital Services, LLC.

Games

iPhone Game of the YearPokémon TCG Pocket from The Pokemon Company. 

iPad Game of the YearDREDGE from Black Salt Games. 

Mac Game of the YearCyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition from CD PROJEKT S.A. 

Apple Vision Pro Game of the YearPorta Nubi by Michael Temper.

Apple Arcade Game of the YearWHAT THE CLASH? from Triband ApS.

Cultural Impact

Art of Fauna by Klemens Strasser

Chants of Sennaar from Playdigious

despelote from Panic, Inc.

Be My Eyes from Be My Eyes

Focus Friend by Hank Green from B-Tech Consulting Group LLC

StoryGraph from The StoryGraph

Tim Cook had this to say about the winners and their apps:

Every year, we’re inspired by the ways developers turn their best ideas into innovative experiences that enrich people’s lives. This year’s winners represent the creativity and excellence that define the App Store, and they demonstrate the meaningful impact that world-class apps and games have on people everywhere.

This year’s list of App Store winners is one of my favorites for a bunch of reasons. There are excellent games ranging from Art of Fauna by indie developer Klemens Strasser to Cyberpunk 2077 by CD PROJEKT S.A., as well as other great titles like despelote, which was published by our friends at Panic, Chants of Sennaar, and DREDGE, whose creators Federico and I interviewed at WWDC this year. There were other excellent apps, too, like Essayist, the academic-focused word processor.

Of course, my favorite app among the bunch is Detail, this year’s iPad App of the Year. Yes, I’m hopelessly biased because my son Finn is part of the team that built the app. But it’s also a great example of an app that lowers the barriers to creativity by leveraging Apple’s hardware in a unique way.

Congratulations to all of this year’s App Store Award winners. Of all the apps on the App Store, it’s quite an honor to be among the 17 apps recognized by Apple’s editorial team.

Finally, the year-end award season isn’t over. We’ll be presenting the 2025 MacStories Selects Awards later this month, so keep an eye out for more award-winning app coverage from us.

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Coming Soon: What’s Next on Apple TV and Apple Arcade in December 2025

This month is a relatively quiet one for Apple TV, but there are a few gems coming soon, and Apple Arcade has a bunch of new games that are out tomorrow, so let’s dig into the highlights of both.

Apple Arcade Games (December 4)

SpongeBob Patty Pursuit 2

SpongeBob Patty Pursuit 2

Apple Arcade is kicking things off this month with four new games:

SpongeBob Patty Pursuit 2

This sequel to the popular platformer SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit is filled with the same colorful mayhem as its predecessor.

PowerWash Simulator

I was pretty excited to see PowerWash Simulator coming to Apple Arcade. I know a lot of people find these types of simulator games relaxing, but I’ve never tried one, so I think I’ll dip into PowerWash over the holidays.

Cult of the Lamb Arcade Edition

Cult of the Lamb is a great roguelite from Massive Monster that was originally published by Devolver Digital in 2022 and is coming to Apple Arcade. According to Apple’s press release:

This version includes exclusive content, including new follower forms, decorations, and outfits, along with all existing content updates and paid packs.

If you haven’t played it yet, be sure to check out Cult of the Lamb. It’s a game I have returned to several times since its initial release, and I expect it will do well on Apple platforms.

Subway Surfers+

Subway Surfers is an App Store classic that remains popular more than a decade after its original release. With the plus version on Arcade, subscribers can enjoy the game uninterrupted by ads or in-app purchases.

NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja STORM+

NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja STORM+ originally debuted on the Sony PS3 and was later ported to other platforms including mobile phones. On iOS, the 3D arena fighting game that’s based on a manga and anime series was available as a paid upfront game. With the plus version, there’s no upfront cost beyond a subscription to Apple Arcade, and the game adds new characters and a new stage.

The First Snow of Fraggle Rock (December 5)

The holiday season is upon us, and Apple TV is kicking things off on Friday with The First Snow of Fraggle Rock, featuring the characters from the Apple TV series.

Add to your Calendar:

F1: The Movie (December 12)

The biggest event of December for Apple TV is the streaming debut of F1: The Movie. The film has been available to buy or rent for a while after playing in theaters last summer, and now it will be available to stream as part of an Apple TV subscription, too. I haven’t seen F1 since WWDC in June, so I’m looking forward to rewatching it with my family over the holidays.

Add to your Calendar:

Read more

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Bloomberg Reports That Alan Dye Is Leaving Apple

Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg, reports that Alan Dye, Apple vice president of Human Interface Design, is leaving the company to head up Meta’s design team. Dye’s departure was confirmed by Apple to Bloomberg, with Apple CEO Tim Cook telling the publication that Steve Lemay will take over Dye’s role:

Steve Lemay has played a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999. He has always set an extraordinarily high bar for excellence and embodies Apple’s culture of collaboration and creativity.

Dye, who led the rollout of Apple’s Liquid Glass design language across all of its OSes, will be in charge of hardware, software, and AI across Meta’s product lines. Billy Sorrentino, who worked with Dye, is also leaving Apple’s design group for Meta.

Dye’s departure comes at an interesting moment for Apple and Meta. Meta, which has seen some success with its Ray-Ban smart glasses, has struggled with other consumer product projects but clearly wants to do more with AI-infused hardware. Meanwhile, Apple has had trouble infusing its software and hardware lineup with AI and has experienced a rash of departures among its AI team and retirements within its executive ranks. 2026 is shaping up to be a year of change across much of Apple.

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Podcast Rewind: Apps with Liquid Glass and SteamOS Plans

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John dig into some of their favorite apps that have adopted Apple’s Liquid Glass design language.

On AppStories+, it’s John’s 10th anniversary at MacStories, so he and Federico look back at the last decade.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, the Retroid G2 and Anbernic DS look like duds, the Xbox full-screen experience for PCs is out to more users, and John flirts with the idea of a mini PC for SteamOS.

On NPC XL, Federico rearranges his living room and plans a SteamOS-ready living room gaming setup.

Read more

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