Chinese brand TCL today at the all-digital CES 2021 announced that all of its 2021 6-Series Roku TVs will feature 8K resolution, up from 4K, with the lineup set to begin rolling out later this year. As with TCL's other recent Roku TVs, these 8K models should support AirPlay 2 for wirelessly streaming audio and video to the TV from Apple devices like an iPhone or iPad, as well as HomeKit for controlling the TV with Siri and the Home app.
TCL also plans to releases its first 85-inch Roku TVs this year, including two 4K models that should support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. Exact pricing, availability, and specifications have yet to be disclosed for any of the TVs.
In the home audio department, TCL is teaming up with Roku to launch new "Roku TV Ready" sound bars this year, including wired and wireless options, with advantages being TV and sound bar control with one remote, automatic software updates, consolidated on-screen sound settings, and optimized audio/video synchronization.
One of TCL's new sound bars will be the Alto 82i with Dolby Atmos surround sound, dual built-in subwoofers, and support for AirPlay 2, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant, set to launch in the third quarter of 2021.
Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps.
More features and changes will follow in future ...
Monday October 20, 2025 10:57 am PDT by Juli Clover
With the fourth betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1, Apple has introduced a new setting that's designed to allow users to customize the look of Liquid Glass.
The toggle lets users select from a clear look for Liquid Glass, or a tinted look. Clear is the current Liquid Glass design, which is more transparent and shows the background underneath buttons, bars, and menus, while tinted ...
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec).
The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions.
iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet.
The update will likely be released by the end of next week.
Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more.
With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings.
iOS 26.4 will...
Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year.
The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
Monday October 20, 2025 1:55 pm PDT by Juli Clover
With the fourth beta of iOS 26.1, Apple added a toggle that makes Liquid Glass more opaque and reduces transparency. We tested the beta to see where the toggle works and what it looks like.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
If you have the latest iOS 26.1 beta, you can go to Settings > Display and Brightness to get to the new option. Tap on Liquid Glass, then...
Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year.
Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
Ugh. Nobody needs 8K TVs at these display sizes (unless you're sitting close up in front of them because otherwise you can't tell the difference, even with 20/20 vision). I could only kind of tell a difference in resolution on my 65" LG C9, but I got a sturdy ass mount that extends it out from the wall about 2ft closer. I use that when watching 4K movies and it makes the display size a lot bigger than the apparent size of 77" stuck to the wall. By moving it closer, I can really see the increase in resolution.
But here is the big downside to all these 8K TVs: They'll start only putting the new display technology that matters (better color, dynamic range, panel technology, refresh rate, etc into 8K displays instead of 4K, much like they did with 1080p and 4K back in the day. And this will only serve to keep the prices of TVs very high as 4K TVs drop in price with outdated specs. This is probably a good year to jump on 4K OLED if you haven't already. I did last year and it's great and will hopefully last me for a while. I bought my LG C9 after the CX was announced and saved a lot. I recommend others to do the same with the CX this year if you can afford it. Great TVs.
85" 8K TVs don't really make any sense to me. A 36-42" 8K desktop display makes some sense to me, as you sit a lot closer. But 85"? For most living rooms, 4K would do just as well. For 8K you need like over 120" for it to be worthwhile for most setups, and by that point you're talking about needing a second mortgage. You can probably start to see some benefit around 100" from a typical viewing distance. I guess if you have a tiny apartment and are sitting 5ft from the TV then this might be worth it, but then you have other factors to consider: Do you have enough wall space in a tiny apartment? Will you feel comfortable sitting only 4-5ft from a giant TV display? Will the HDR scorch your retinas from that distance? Are you likely to find much 8K content in the coming years? Many TV streaming services are still only 1080p. I think Fox was the only app I found streaming 4K NFL Playoffs this weekend. As slow as they move I expect it to be another 10 years before 8K starts to come online.
It just seems like the display resolution to screen size to amount of space it takes up is reaching a point of imbalance with extremely diminishing returns. But someone always comes on here and says I'm a luddite or something, even though we're talking about exceeding human vision at this point. There will probably never be enough processing power, but display resolution? Definitely hitting a wall on that.
