Apple's week October 31: Happy Halloween!

I'm back from my honeymoon, well rested and happy to have spent the time away from work and social media. Thankfully, not much happened in the world of tech, so I don't feel like I missed much.

Here's the news for the week:

• Apple Maps could get ads
• Pixelmator Pro coming to iPad
• $4 trillion Apple
• OLED iPad mini
• Apple makes more money
• $3.4 billion in tariff costs

First off, the wedding went great. We did a whole AppleInsider+ segment on the podcast about it, so I don't feel the need to carry on about it. The time off was amazing, but honestly, I'm happy to be back to the routine.

I'm currently sitting in my favorite Friday lunch spot in a red panda kigurumi on Halloween. Yep, things are going well.

Make sure to catch the full AppleInsider Podcast this week.

Advertising doesn't have to be terrible

If you've known me for any length of time, the one thing you might have learned is I'll do whatever I can to avoid ads that interrupt content. I'll happily pay for a premium subscription for the privilege, or own media outright on the Apple TV Store.

So, it might come as a surprise to learn that I also believe some ads are fine. Billboards serve their purpose, as do in-line ads on podcasts or YouTube. It's the abuse of ads and the slop they share that is the problem.

So, when Apple enters a new ad market, my first instinct isn't to be upset or mourn the loss of an otherwise unblemished service. No, I think ads can sometimes help a service establish a form of authority in a space.

I will share the disclaimer that I'd love it if Apple allowed users to pay some amount of money, or include it with Apple One, to remove ads from places like Apple News. Of course, as long as that ad removal is met with some kind of compensation to the media from my ad removal payment.

Anyway, there are rumors suggesting Apple will bring ads to Apple Maps, and honestly, I welcome the move. Maps is one of those services that can't help but grow and thrive thanks to the competition and revenue that ads bring. Businesses will have to treat their Apple Maps presence seriously, and users will be met with more quality information and service.

Of course, Apple could mess this up and ruin the Apple Maps experience by prioritizing businesses with money or saturating the interface with calls to action. I'm not sure that would be the case though. Advertising on Apple Maps could simply be prioritized search results, regionally placed ads from a local business to help with discovery, and advertisements within the journalistic-style guides Apple already publishes.

I've been really enjoying Apple Maps and its features and don't really feel like I'm missing out on anything from some other service. The guides came in very handy during our honeymoon, though granted we were in Charleston, South Carolina, which had plenty of guides and points of interest to populate the service.

The biggest hurdle to further mass adoption of Apple Maps is likely something Apple has little control over. Businesses need to care and invest in the platform. From what I can tell, most businesses care and worry about their presence on Google Maps, but don't know or care about how they look on Apple Maps.

Whatever Apple does, that should be their top priority. And if competing via ads and improved presence within the service is the solution, then fine.

Pixelmator Photo

Some exciting, if limited, news this week. It seems Apple might be preparing for an iPad launch of Pixelmator Pro. That's particularly exciting for me because it's the one app I've been wanting to come to iPad for years.

Sure, I'm able to get my work done with Affinity Designer, but it's not quite what I want in an editing tool. When I was on Mac, Pixelmator Pro proved to be the exact thing I needed for everything I might make for work.

Every now and then, I revisit Pixelmator Pro, usually through Apple Vision Pro via Mac Virtual Display, and I'm reminded of how great an app it is. I really hope we get to see the app ported to iPad soon, especially now since Affinity seems to be shifting strategies. It's not that it's a bad strategy on its face, but you never know what the future holds when an app owned by Canva goes fully free.

OLED iPad mini

It seems like we just got an iPad mini update, but it actually arrived a full year ago. A spring 2026 update works, but it is rather quick for the product line, which usually sees two to three years between updates.

I assume the update is arriving now simply because the OLED display is ready. We should see an A19 Pro chipset in this model, and rumors indicate a new case design. I'd love to see a thinner, lighter design, but there's also talk about a more water-resistant case.

Losing the speaker holes for a more durable design sounds like the perfect trade-off. Who knows what these "vibrational" speakers sound like, but I'm sure they're using the iPad case to push audio outward, even if it's not the best quality. Think bone conduction, but through the case.

Even if it feels a bit short-cycled, I'm absolutely going to be buying the OLED model. It'll be great for my use cases, especially reading at night.

Back to work

Now that we're finally past the wedding, I can finally hush about it, so don't worry. I'm happy to be back to a regular schedule here, and I want to try and find time to post more often in the near future, if I can get a proper routine together.

Expect to see my impressions of the M5 Apple Vision Pro early next week. It's an interesting update to say the least, and I'm happy I got the chance to upgrade and test it out. There's a difference from M2, but I think we won't see the biggest differences until we get some new apps and games on the platform.

Thanks again for reading, and I'll be back to write more soon.