As if what it’s done with MLS Season Pass wasn’t proof enough that Apple is serious about sports, today we have another example. Enter Apple Sports, a new app for iPhone that aims to be the only app you’ll need for live sports scores, real-time stats, and more.
Apple Sports is available today in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Inside it you’ll find the likes of MLS, NBA, college basketball, Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga, Liga MX, Ligue 1, and Serie A — and that’s just for starters. We’re still in the offseason for sports like Major League Baseball, the NFL and college football, and the National Women’s Soccer League and WNBA, but you’ll see them all in Apple Sports once games begin.
Apple is putting a premium on speed and simplicity in this free app, which doesn’t include any advertising.
“We created Apple Sports to give sports fans what they want — an app that delivers incredibly fast access to scores and stats,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, said in a press release. “Apple Sports is available for free in the App Store, and makes it easy for users to stay up to date with their favorite teams and leagues.”
There’s a fair amount of customization in Apple Sports. You can follow your favorite teams, entire leagues, or individual tournaments. And in addition to scores, you’ll find things like betting odds (you can turn these off, if you’d like), team stats, and lineups.
And Apple has added a button that’ll take you straight to the event in the TV app on your phone, which should then take you to the game on whatever service you have tied into the TV app.
The Apple Sports app also will sync with anything you have favorited on Apple News. So while Apple Sports may not completely replace other sports apps you have installed — not yet, anyway — it’s likely to find a prime spot on home screens pretty quickly.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.