Ugreen’s HomeAgent combines local AI, storage and smart home control to deliver a smart home experience that runs locally.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

German chemical conglomerate BASF has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in a U.S. federal court, accusing the iPhone maker of using its technology in Face ID and related facial authentication systems without a license.

The complaint, lodged in the United States, claims Apple’s TrueDepth camera system, Secure Enclave processing, and liveness-detection features in iPhones, iPads, and other devices infringe multiple BASF-owned patents covering methods for secure biometric matching, three-dimensional facial mapping, and anti-spoofing analysis. BASF alleges these technologies have been incorporated into Apple products since the introduction of Face ID in 2017 and continue to be used for device unlocking, Apple Pay, and other authentication functions.

BASF, best known for chemicals, materials, and agricultural products, maintains a sizable intellectual-property portfolio that extends beyond its core industries. The company asserts the patents in question describe techniques for capturing and verifying facial geometry in a way that resists photographs, masks, or other presentation attacks — capabilities central to modern smartphone security.

Apple has not publicly commented on the specific filing. The company has faced a series of Face ID and Touch ID-related patent cases over the years from various rights holders and has generally defended its biometric systems as independently developed and implemented within its own secure hardware architecture.

The suit seeks an injunction against further sales of accused devices, monetary damages for past infringement, and other relief. Patent cases of this type often take years to resolve and frequently involve challenges to patent validity at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in parallel with district-court litigation.

The dispute highlights how companies outside the traditional consumer-electronics sector sometimes assert older or adjacent patents against high-volume products such as smartphones. Whether BASF’s claims will survive early motions or claim-construction proceedings remains to be seen. Apple routinely contests such assertions and has prevailed in several prior biometric-patent matters.

MacDailyNews Take: The case is yet another in the crowded field of Face ID-related litigation that has dogged Apple since the feature launched nearly a decade ago. Courts and the patent office will now determine whether BASF’s patents actually cover the specific combination of sensors, algorithms, and secure processing Apple deploys.

And, yes, we haven’t thought of BASF since:

Also, yes, we’re old.

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Apple released the all-new MacBook Neo earlier this year, and it’s been a resounding success by all indications. Here’s everything we know so far about what’s next for Apple’s most affordable laptop …

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Inde Navarrette is lining up her next high-profile film after “Obsession” and Marvel’s “X-Men.” She will star in “The Waffle House Index,” a sci-fi thriller acquired by Apple Original Films. The project also marks her first turn as an executive producer.

Plan B Entertainment is producing. Andrew Nunnelly wrote the screenplay, a 2025 Black List title that sources say sold in a seven-figure deal, according to THR. Louis Paxton, whose Sundance NEXT Innovator Award-winning “The Incomer” arrives in theaters later this month, is attached to direct.

The title borrows a real-world shorthand for hurricane damage. Because Waffle House restaurants typically stay open around the clock, emergency officials use the chain as an informal gauge: green means full service and limited disruption; yellow means a reduced menu and strained supplies; red means the restaurant is closed and conditions are unsafe.

Nunnelly’s story begins closer to the diner floor. A Waffle House waitress is already having a rough night when a stranger with a gun walks in. From there the plot escalates into a mass flood, killer crocodiles, a nuclear explosion, a magical bunker beneath the restaurant, and aliens.

The film adds to Plan B’s relationship with Apple. The company, led by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner, was among the producers of the racing drama “F1.” Plan B recently made the horror film “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” and is preparing Sarah Polley’s “The Bell Jar.”

Navarrette’s breakout in Curry Barker’s “Obsession” has turned her into one of Hollywood’s most in-demand young stars. The film has grossed more than $505 million worldwide, drawn strong reviews, and spilled into pop culture, including a “Halloween Horror Nights” presence at Universal Studios. Oscar talk has followed her performance. She is also set to play Rogue in Marvel’s upcoming X-Men movie. Earlier credits include Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” and The CW’s “Superman & Lois.” A source described the Apple deal as a measure of how large her profile has become at a studio built around stars.

Navarrette is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Hansen Jacobson. Nunnelly is represented by Buchwald, Untitled, and Hansen Jacobson. Paxton is represented by CAA and Independent Talent.

MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $14.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.

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iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will have the same screen sizes as their predecessors, but rumors indicate their displays will be upgraded in two other ways. Here’s what’s coming.

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Benjamin and Chance talk about John Ternus’s first week in the job as Apple CEO, and how much Tim Cook will still be involved. Also, it’s the last chance for iPhone event rumors, with details about some health updates for the Apple Watch Series 12 coming to the fore. And there was an Apple TV subscription price hike, for the second time in as many years.

And in Happy Hour Plus, on the eve of iPhone 18 Pro, we reflect on our overall positive experiences using the iPhone Air for the entire year. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join.

Sponsored by Square: Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/happyhour.

Sponsored by Bitwarden: Register for the free, virtual Open Source Security Summit on September 17, featuring cybersecurity leaders David Sanger and Joseph Menn — and check out Bitwarden for trusted open source password, passkey, and secrets management, with end-to-end encryption and seamless autofill across all your devices.

Sponsored by Gusto: The online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. Get three months free when you run your first payroll at gusto.com/happyhour.

Sponsored by Notion: Learn more about how Notion can support your business, at notion.com/happyhour.

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Apple has already put the M5 Ultra in a machine: the new Mac Studio, announced in late August with a first-of-its-kind quad-die UltraFusion design, up to a 36-core CPU, up to an 80-core GPU, and as much as 512GB of unified memory. That should have closed the book on where the chip would land. It hasn’t.

Earlier this year, software identifiers in an iOS beta pointed to both M5 Max and M5 Ultra silicon in contexts that looked a lot like upcoming MacBook hardware. Apple’s internal naming has long been consistent: “C” for Max, “D” for Ultra. Those codes were enough for some analysts to float a once-unthinkable idea: an M5 Ultra MacBook Pro.

That rumor never became the official plan. Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman has since reported that Apple’s first OLED, touchscreen high-end laptop — widely expected to be branded MacBook Ultra rather than another MacBook Pro — will ship with the existing M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, not the Ultra and not the skipped high-end M6 parts. A follow-up with M7 Pro and M7 Max is already in testing for late 2027.

So why keep talking about an M5 Ultra MacBook Pro?

Because the engineering and product logic hasn’t fully gone away. Apple skipped an M4 Ultra entirely. It built the M5 Ultra anyway, then put it in a compact desktop that can swallow the heat and power. A laptop version would be a different problem: more dies, far higher memory bandwidth (Apple cites 1.2TB/s on the Studio chip), and a thermal envelope that the current 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro chassis was never designed to hold. Battery life would suffer unless Apple cut clocks, limited cores, or redesigned the cooling stack from scratch.

That last option is exactly what the rumored MacBook Ultra is supposed to be — a thinner, redesigned chassis with OLED, a touchscreen, and a Dynamic Island. The first models are slated for late 2026 or early 2027 and are expected to stay on M5 Pro and M5 Max so Apple doesn’t have to wait for M7. Putting a true Ultra in that body would be the most aggressive move Apple has made with portable silicon since the original M1 Max.

There is still a narrow path where an M5 Ultra laptop appears. Apple could treat it as a limited, top-of-line SKU rather than the volume product. It could use a derated Ultra configuration. Or the early beta strings were simply leftover desktop code that happened to sit next to laptop identifiers. The safer read, based on the latest reporting, is that the Ultra stays on the desk for this generation and the new laptop line differentiates itself with display, input, and industrial design instead of raw die count.

Even so, the combination of an announced M5 Ultra, older software leaks that named it alongside MacBook-class chips, and a high-end laptop that Apple is clearly treating as a new flagship is why the rumor won’t die.

MacDailyNews Take: If Apple is testing an M5 Ultra MacBook Pro, it would be the first time the company has tried to put its biggest fused SoC in a notebook. That would be a statement product — and a thermal engineering marvel.

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iOS 27 adds a variety of new features for popular apps like Notes, Reminders, and Calendar—and the Calendar app gets some notable design changes too. Here’s what’s new.

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iOS 27 adds a variety of new features for popular apps like Notes, Reminders, and Calendar—and the Calendar app gets some notable design changes too. Here’s what’s new.

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iOS 27 adds a variety of new features for popular apps like Notes, Reminders, and Calendar—and the Calendar app gets some notable design changes too. Here’s what’s new.

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iOS 27 adds a variety of new features for popular apps like Notes, Reminders, and Calendar—and the Calendar app gets some notable design changes too. Here’s what’s new.

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It’s been just over a year since OpenAI released the first GPT-5 models for ChatGPT. Now it’s time for GPT-6 Astra to upgrade ChatGPT and Codex capabilities. Details below.

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It’s been just over a year since OpenAI released the first GPT-5 models for ChatGPT. Now it’s time for GPT-6 Astra to upgrade ChatGPT and Codex capabilities. Details below.

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It’s been just over a year since OpenAI released the first GPT-5 models for ChatGPT. Now it’s time for GPT-6 Astra to upgrade ChatGPT and Codex capabilities. Details below.

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It’s been just over a year since OpenAI released the first GPT-5 models for ChatGPT. Now it’s time for GPT-6 Astra to upgrade ChatGPT and Codex capabilities. Details below.

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Apple is facing a massive £2 billion ($2.7 billion) collective lawsuit in the UK, accused of abusing its dominant position in the smartphone market by enforcing unfair privacy rules that hobbled rival app developers while boosting its own advertising empire.

The class-action claim, filed Thursday at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal by ATT Collective Action Limited, alleges that the tech giant’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework introduced in 2021 placed stringent restrictions on third-party developers while giving its own internal services a distinct competitive edge.

Privacy Feature or Self-Serving Gatekeeping?

Apple launched the ATT framework in 2021, marketing it as a privacy-first feature designed to give users control over whether third-party apps could track their browsing and usage activity across other companies’ apps and websites.

However, lawyers and claimants behind the action argue that Apple operated under a double standard. While third-party developers faced a mandatory prompt that dramatically curtailed opt-in rates for targeted advertising, Apple’s own ad platform operated under far less restrictive conditions—gathering user data without imposing the same burdensome consent friction on users.

“Apple’s policy resulted in very significant harm to businesses that depend on Apple as a gatekeeper,” said Ann Pope, a former senior official with Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) who is leading the litigation. “This action is important to protect the rights of British businesses that depend on Apple, to ensure that the rules that Apple applies are fair, and to compensate the losses that British companies have suffered.”

Under the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal’s opt-out regime, the class action covers all affected UK-based developers automatically unless they choose to explicitly opt out.

Growing Regulatory Scrutiny Across Europe

The London claim is part of a broader regulatory backlash against Apple’s privacy policies across Europe. Multiple antitrust watchdogs have investigated whether the iPhone maker used privacy safeguards as a shield for self-preferencing:

• Germany: Germany’s Federal Cartel Office launched an abuse-of-dominance probe into ATT, which resulted in Apple agreeing to modify its ad-tracking data rules for developers.

• France & Italy: Competition regulators in France and Italy previously levied major fines—exceeding £150 million and £98 million respectively—over anti-competitive practices tied to user consent frameworks.

• Broad Industry Pushback: Major platforms dependent on ad targeting, including Meta (formerly Facebook), alongside news publishers and independent mobile developers, have long criticized ATT for disproportionately choking off revenue models reliant on digital ads.
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MacDailyNews Take: Apple has historically defended ATT as a core consumer feature aimed solely at granting users transparent choices over their personal data.

The outcome of the tribunal proceedings could set a major precedent for digital gatekeeper regulation across Europe, adding to a slew of ongoing legal challenges regarding App Store fees and ecosystem dominance.

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Apple has three new flagship iPhones launching next week: iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max and iPhone Ultra. Apple’s Pro models will have several advantages over the Ultra, but here are three ways the high-end Ultra will come out on top.

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When will you be able to add your driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet on your iPhone? It varies by where you live.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

We’ve seen several stories about Apple Vision Pro being used in healthcare settings. This week, Stryker announced the completion of the first surgical procedure using an innovative new app on Vision Pro.

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iPhone and Apple Watch users can add their passport to the Apple Wallet app — and in some states, their driver’s license. Here’s how.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

I mentioned today in my Siri AI Apple Watch piece that there’s one change I still hope Apple makes to watchOS 27 before it ships this month. It’s one of those common muscle-memory features that have existed for years, and I’ve been missing it all summer.

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Reports about Apple switching its MacBooks and iPads to OLED displays have been circulating in the rumor mill for some time now. A new report by Omdia gives us a more concrete look at when the switch could actually happen, as well as a few far-out details about Apple’s alleged plans.

The first MacBook equipped with an OLED display will reportedly be available “by the end of 2026,” according to the site, which is in line with previous rumors. The MacBook Omdia is referring to is likely to be Apple’s first touchscreen MacBook Pro, which is expected later this year or in early 2027.

It appears, however, that the touchscreen MacBook will be a new addition to the MacBook Pro lineup, a higher-end model that could fall under Apple’s Ultra branding. Omdia states that “the existing 14.3-inch and 16.3-inch MacBook Pro models with LCD + Mini LED backlighting will not be discontinued,” which means the MacBook Pro lineup, as it is now, will continue, with Apple upgrading the chip on a regular basis.

Surprisingly, and perhaps unbelievably, Omdia predicts that this new model is “highly likely to be equipped with the M5 Ultra chip.” Apple’s M5 ultra chip is only used in the Mac Studio, which includes a complex thermal cooling system with a heavy copper heat sink that adds two pounds to the machine’s weight.

Omdia also reports that the MacBook Air will continue to use an LCD display, and that there’s a “new 13.8-inch MacBook, which is expected to launch in 2029 with a hybrid OLED display.” This “new” MacBook is likely an upgraded version of the MacBook Air, which has been reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman to be making the switch to OLED in the future.

Omida also confirms previous reports that an OLED iPad mini will arrive later this year. The current LCD iPad mini was released in October 2024, so it’s due for an update. It would be Apple’s first non-Pro tablet to have an OLED display.

Amazon has rolled out a major markdown on Apple’s upgraded Studio Display, offering buyers a rare chance to pick up the high-end monitor at its best price yet.

The deal applies to the Studio Display with Nano-Texture Glass and Tilt-Adjustable Stand, which is currently discounted to $1,684.88 — down $214.12 from its standard $1,899.00 retail price. To secure the full savings, shoppers must clip an on-page coupon on Amazon, with the final discounted price reflected at checkout.

This offer marks the lowest price tracked for this specific configuration, beating the previous record low by more than $100. It also represents the first significant discount on Apple’s 2026 Studio Display lineup in nearly three months.

Apple refreshed its Studio Display family earlier this year in March. The updated line features two Thunderbolt 5 ports, a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with Desk View support, and a studio-quality six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio. The nano-texture glass option is designed to minimize glare in bright environments while preserving high image contrast and clarity.

While Amazon has listed a few other Labor Day markdowns across the Studio Display lineup, this nano-texture tilt-adjustable variant boasts the largest savings of the bunch.
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MacDailyNews Take: Because Amazon coupons on high-ticket Apple hardware tend to sell out quickly, prospective buyers should act fast before inventory or the clip-and-save offer expires.

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Apple told Mac App Store developers they can now ship Apple silicon-only apps, dropping support for Intel Macs.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

A new Omdia research note today outlined Apple’s reported Mac and iPad roadmap for the years ahead, and it also mentioned that a key rumored product has been canceled. Here are the details.

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Lenovo is taking on the MacBook Neo with a colorful new laptop – the IdeaPad Vibe.

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A new report from Omdia offers fresh details on Apple’s roadmap for new MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iPad models in the years ahead. Here’s what it says is coming.

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Millions of users worldwide were left staring at blank prompt boxes and error screens on September 3, 2026, as the world’s leading artificial intelligence models — OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and xAI’s Grok — suffered simultaneous global outages.
India Today

The widespread disruption began halting traffic around mid-morning EDT, with outage tracking site Downdetector showing sharp spikes in error reports across all three platforms within minutes of each other. Users attempting to send prompts were met with failed connection warnings, severe latency, or complete internal server error messages. Secondary services and developer APIs that rely on these foundational models, including popular coding agent tools like Cursor, also confirmed downtime as upstream infrastructure collapsed.

While occasional single-platform downtime is common in tech, a near-simultaneous failure across competing models developed by separate companies — OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI — is exceptionally rare. Early speculation points toward shared dependencies, such as regional cloud backbone providers, major domain name system (DNS) routing failures, or distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting core AI infrastructure networks.

Engineering teams at OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI acknowledged the disruptions via their respective status pages, confirming active investigations into platform instability and API timeouts.

The widespread dark-out instantly disrupted workflows across tech, media, and finance, where reliance on AI assistants for coding, research, and content generation has become deeply embedded. Social media platforms like X were quickly flooded with memes and posts from developers, students, and professionals suddenly forced to resume manual operations.

Updates are ongoing as network engineers work to isolate the root cause and restore normal service across affected clusters.
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MacDailyNews Take: Oh, the inhumanity!

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The giant Labor Day sales roll on at both Amazon and AirTag 2 at $20 each. But today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break is headlined by this 2026 Apple Studio Display hitting the Amazon all-time low at $214 off and the most affordable current-gen iPad Air at $100 off. We also have launch deal on Anker’s brand new MagGo 2 Pro Qi2.2 power bank with smart display and Powerbeats Pro 2 with Find My, heart rate tracking, more now up to $92 off. Head below for a closer look. 

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On Wednesday, September 2, Apple TV celebrated its highly anticipated Australian thriller series “Last Seen” with a special screening event in Sydney, Australia, attended by stars Patrick Brammall, Brendan Cowell, Daniel Henshall, and Chloe Jean Lourdes, alongside executive producers Hakan Kousetta, Kris Mrksa, and Joanna Werner.

Entirely set and filmed in Victoria, Australia, “Last Seen” is a gripping six-episode drama starring Gotham Award winner Patrick Brammall. Produced by 60Forty Films, the series is adapted by acclaimed writer and executive producer Kris Mrksa from CWA John Creasey Dagger Award-winning author Ryan David Jahn’s book “The Dispatcher.” Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker Christian Schwochow directs and executive produces the series. “Last Seen” will make its global debut on Apple TV on Wednesday, September 9, with two episodes, followed by a new episode every Wednesday through October 7.

Police detective Ian Ridley’s (Brammall) life fell apart 11 years ago when his young daughter, Maggie, disappeared without a trace. Now working as a police dispatcher, the only thing that has kept him going is his implacable refusal to accept that she might be gone forever. When he receives a distress call from a teenage girl he is certain is Maggie, he will stop at nothing to find her and reunite his broken family, whatever the cost.

In addition to Brammall (“Colin from Accounts,” “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Evil”), the series also stars Maxine Peake (“Say Nothing,” “Black Mirror”), Brendan Cowell (“Dune: Prophecy,” “Plum”), Daniel Henshall (“Mickey 17,” “How to Make Gravy”), Zahra Newman (“Thirteen Lives,” “Addition”), Jessica Wren (“Mr. Inbetween,” “Devil’s Playground”), Tobias Muhafidin (“Bali 2002”) and introduces Chloe Jean Lourdes.

The series is executive produced by Jamie Laurenson and Hakan Kousetta at 60Forty Films (“Hijack,” “Slow Horses,” “Down Cemetery Road”), with executive producers Schwochow (“The Crown,” “Bad Banks,” “Munich: The Edge of War”), Mrksa (“Requiem,” “No Escape,” “The Murders at White House Farm”) and Joanna Werner (“The Newsreader,” “Riot,” “Clickbait”).

Apple TV offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 878 wins and 3,819 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
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MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $14.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.

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It’s not just you. Claude, ChatGPT/Codex, and Grok are currently experiencing what appears to be a widespread outage for many users.

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On September 3, 1982, Woz’s first US Festival, an $8 million music and technology event, kicked off in California.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Apple Maps now calls Lake Ontario “Lake America” for U.S. users, following President Trump’s controversial name change.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Apple’s biggest event of the year is just days away. September 9 will bring the “huge launch” new CEO John Ternus recently teased, with rumors indicating new iPhones, Apple Watch models, and AirPods are coming—and possibly more. Here are the six major products expected to debut.

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An alleged circuit and solder-joint diagram for Apple’s upcoming A20 Pro chip offers a detailed look at the internal architecture expected to power the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and Apple’s rumored first foldable iPhone.

The leak comes from Chinese social media network Weibo, where tech user “Fried White Rice” reconstructed the processor’s layout by mapping solder ball positions and overlaying them with die-level images. While analyzing chip layouts via solder points is indirect and far from an exact science, the findings highlight a series of plausible, performance-focused internal upgrades.

Key Architectural Highlights

• 7-Core GPU (Up from 6 Cores): The diagram indicates a shift from the 6-core graphics configuration found on the A19 Pro to a 7-core design on the A20 Pro—a roughly 16% increase in GPU cores.

• Wider Memory Interface (96-bit Bus): The layout suggests a upgrade to a 96-bit memory interface for LPDDR5x RAM, expanding beyond the 64-bit interface used in the previous generation. This 50% widening of the memory bus would significantly boost overall memory bandwidth, helping feed graphics-heavy games and onboard machine learning models.

• Expanded L2 Efficiency Cache: While the CPU retains its standard configuration—two performance cores paired with four efficiency cores—the shared L2 cache for the four efficiency cores reportedly increases from 6MB to 8MB. The two performance cores appear to keep their existing 16MB L2 cache.

• Performance Expectations: Coupled with recent supply chain rumors, the A20 Pro is projected to deliver up to 18% faster overall speeds and 30% better power efficiency compared to its predecessor.

Outlook and Expected Announcement

Beyond processing improvements, the A20 Pro is expected to accommodate a revamped Image Signal Processor (ISP) and Neural Engine.

MacDailyNews Take: With Apple anticipated to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro lineup shortly, these architectural changes point toward a heavy emphasis on graphics performance, local Apple Intelligence processing, and memory-intensive workflows. However, as with all pre-launch board-level leaks, these architectural deductions remain unconfirmed until Apple officially takes the stage.

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Siri AI on Apple Watch arrived two cycles late for watchOS 27 beta this summer. I had high hopes for how new Siri could transform Apple Watch into an AI wearable.

What actually happened in July and August is that Siri has been remarkably unusable in watchOS 27 beta. Like “hold off on updating” bad.

This week, I half-expected Apple to remove “Siri AI” from watchOS 27 beta 8 and revert to the previous version of Siri. Instead, I think Siri AI on Apple Watch actually got good?

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The BenQ MA320UG combines a spacious 32-inch 4K panel, a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and extensive Thunderbolt connectivity to deliver a compelling Studio Display alternative.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Brydge, the Apple accessory company that came back from the dead back in 2023, has just announced a new set of colour-matched keyboards for the entry-level iPad.

While Apple offers the iPad itself in a choice of four colours, the Magic Keyboard for it is only available in white. That’s what prompted Brydge to launch its latest lineup …

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Secure lifetime access to 500GB of Vault encrypted cloud storage (browser-based AES-GCM-256 encryption and zero-knowledge privacy).

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

iOS 27’s new iPhone Handoff feature lets you share one phone number across two iPhones — here’s how the setup works.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

While Apple has long used privacy as a selling point for both its hardware and services, I do wonder whether it now regrets introducing one privacy measure: App Tracking Transparency (ATT).

For something with rather limited scope, it sometimes feels like scarcely a month goes by without a new antitrust lawsuit or regulator challenging it. A third ATT lawsuit is being brought in the UK – this one with a twist …

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Apple Original Films this week unveiled the teaser trailer and key art for “Being Heumann,” a powerful new feature film that chronicles the “mother of the disability rights movement,” Judy Heumann, as she leads a group of young adults who come together to find their collective voice in a fight against discrimination. The film marks the second collaboration for Apple Original Films and writer/director Siân Heder, who directed the multi-Academy Award-winning film “CODA,” which made history as the first film with a predominantly deaf cast to receive the Best Picture honor. “Being Heumann” will debut in select theaters November 6, 2026 and premiere globally on Apple TV Friday, November 13, 2026.

The teaser trailer has been unveiled just ahead of the premiere of “Being Heumann” as the opening film of the Toronto International Film Festival, set to take place on September 10.

They wouldn’t take Judy Heumann’s phone calls, so she took their building. In 1977, a young disabled woman (Ruth Madeley) and a scrappy coalition of outsiders decide they’ve had enough. What begins as one impulsive act becomes the longest occupation of a federal building in American history, as hundreds spontaneously seize government offices and refuse to leave until the bureaucrat in their way (Mark Ruffalo) takes action. Bringing rebellion in all its forms to the hallowed halls, a movement’s accidental leaders struggle to find their path forward where none has ever been paved for them. Directed by Academy Award winner Heder and based on true events, “Being Heumann” is the revolutionary, irreverent and deeply human story of the least likely people trying to pull off the impossible and change the lives of millions.

Apple TV offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 80 wins and 3,826 award nominations and counting including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
‎
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.

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Save $100 on the 11-inch iPad Air

View Deal

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Even after Apple raised prices in June, the M4 iPad Air is still the best option for tablet buyers looking for the best performance, size, and value in the iPad lineup. And for the first time, it’s nearly as cheap as it was before: Amazon is selling the 128GB M4 iPad Air in all colors for $100 off, bringing the price down to $649.

The iPad Air is a fantastic tablet, with an 11-inch Liquid Retina display, speedy M4 processor, 12MP front and rear cameras, and a Touch ID-equipped power button. This model was just released in March, but it looks the same as it has since its 2020 redesign. Still, if you haven’t bought an iPad in a few years, this is a great time to grab one.

We’re not fans of Apple’s new iPad pricing, but we still think the 11-inch M4 iPad Air is the smartest tablet for just about anyone. So if you want one, go save $100 and grab one before the price jumps back up.

Save $100 on the 11-inch iPad Air

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Even after Apple raised prices in June, the M4 iPad Air is still the best option for tablet buyers looking for the best performance, size, and value in the iPad lineup. And for the first time, it’s nearly as cheap as it was before: Amazon is selling the 128GB M4 iPad Air in all colors for $100 off, bringing the price down to $649.

The iPad Air is a fantastic tablet, with an 11-inch Liquid Retina display, speedy M4 processor, 12MP front and rear cameras, and a Touch ID-equipped power button. This model was just released in March, but it looks the same as it has since its 2020 redesign. Still, if you haven’t bought an iPad in a few years, this is a great time to grab one.

We’re not fans of Apple’s new iPad pricing, but we still think the 11-inch M4 iPad Air is the smartest tablet for just about anyone. So if you want one, go save $100 and grab one before the price jumps back up.

Save $100 on the 11-inch iPad Air

View Deal

(function () {
document.querySelector(“#sticky-promo-block a”).addEventListener(“click”, function(e) {
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};

if(debug)console.log(“Sticky Conversion CLick – pushing to dataLayer: “, data);
dataLayer.push(data);
return true;
});
})();

Even after Apple raised prices in June, the M4 iPad Air is still the best option for tablet buyers looking for the best performance, size, and value in the iPad lineup. And for the first time, it’s nearly as cheap as it was before: Amazon is selling the 128GB M4 iPad Air in all colors for $100 off, bringing the price down to $649.

The iPad Air is a fantastic tablet, with an 11-inch Liquid Retina display, speedy M4 processor, 12MP front and rear cameras, and a Touch ID-equipped power button. This model was just released in March, but it looks the same as it has since its 2020 redesign. Still, if you haven’t bought an iPad in a few years, this is a great time to grab one.

We’re not fans of Apple’s new iPad pricing, but we still think the 11-inch M4 iPad Air is the smartest tablet for just about anyone. So if you want one, go save $100 and grab one before the price jumps back up.

A Chinese leaker with some track record has posted images of claimed circuit diagrams of the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models.

These suggest that the new A20 Pro chip may have seven GPU cores – one more than its predecessor – and a faster memory interface …

more…

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Sponsored by Stuff: Stuff helps you get everything out of your head and into a simple, elegant system—closing open loops and reducing mental stress. A simple to-do list for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with powerful tools that make organizing, tracking, and checking off your tasks a whole lot more satisfying. Get Stuff done.

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A new market intelligence report suggests that Apple will be paying four times more for iPhone 18 Pro memory than it did for last year’s model.

TrendForce says that Apple won’t be passing on the full impact to customers, and will be increasingly looking to Services revenue to offset higher hardware manufacturing costs …

more…

Syncing your Philips Hue lights to your TV display used to be a rather expensive undertaking, at $385 for the company’s Sync Box 8K. A couple of new products now bring that cost down to as little as $120.

Additionally, you can now integrate Nanoleaf wall panels into your Philips Hue ecosystem thanks to a new $40 Wall Light Module …

more…

A leak on the Chinese social media site Weibo, 白饭炒白米饭, has posted images of what are purported to be the solder joint diagram for the A20 Pro (the diagram showing all the little contact points by which the chip is attached to the board beneath). This account has correctly leaked details of some Apple chips or products in the past.

From there, the leaker has used the layout and the previous chip block diagram to estimate some of the layout of the new A20 chip—a rough diagram of some of the major components.

Weibo – 白饭炒白米饭

There are three details gleaned from this process, if you trust in its accuracy.

First, we have seven GPU cores. The A19 Pro has six.

Second, there’s a 96-bit memory interface for LPDD5x RAM. The A19 Pro had a 64-bit interface.

Third, there will still be a 6-core CPU configuration, with two high-performance cores and four efficiency cores.

How does all this compare to the A19 Pro, and what could it mean? Well, the smaller efficiency cores all share a single 8MB L2 cache, which is 2MB more than before. That will speed things up a bit when the efficiency cores do bigger jobs on larger data sets. The two performance cores share a 16MB L2 cache (two 8MB blocks in the diagram), which is the same as before.

It’s not clear if any of these cores have architectural design changes or if these cores are Apple’s “Super Cores.”

Going up from 6 GPU cores to 7 is an increase of about 16 percent. We think it’s likely that the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will have all GPU cores enabled, but the folding iPhone Ultra (very thin and difficult to cool) will have one core disabled, just as the iPhone Air has one A19 Pro GPU core disabled.

Graphics performance tends to be highly constrained by memory bandwidth, which is where the change to the memory interface gets interesting. Apple is not making the jump to LPDDR6 this year, sticking with LPDDR5x again, but a 50 percent wider interface means 50 percent more memory bandwidth. If Apple increases the memory clock speed, it can be even more.

So while there are “only” 16 percent more GPU cores, the increase in memory bandwidth and the potential for higher clock speeds or GPU core architectural improvements means that we can expect 20-30 percent higher GPU performance. That’s not unprecedented, but it’s more than we predicted in our A20 preview.

AI is increasingly important to Apple, and it shares many core architectural features between its A-series mobile chips and its M-series chips for Macs. So it makes sense that Apple is investing heavily in GPU performance, memory bandwidth, and GPU compute features—all of which help with running or training local AI models. Fortunately, even if you don’t care about AI performance, all of this increased GPU performance and memory bandwidth will also mean better performance for 3D games and other graphics-intensive apps and tasks.

Apple is preparing to expand its Ultra line in a big way. The designation, currently limited to Apple Watches, M-series chips, and CarPlay, will reportedly come to the iPhone next, with the launch of the first folding iPhone on September 9. Per Apple’s nomenclature, an Ultra product is the highest-end of its kind, outperforming the Pro models with high-end features worthy of its name and price. That, however, won’t be the case when the iPhone Ultra launches in a few weeks.

The iPhone Ultra will undoubtedly cost the most and offer exclusive features unavailable on Pro iPhones, most notably a folding display and upgraded iOS multitasking. Nevertheless, it’ll miss out on a ton of essential features that users already get with Pro phones and, in some cases, even entry-level iPhones. When evaluating the full packages, one could arguably crown the iPhone 18 Pro Max as this year’s actual Ultra model.

Faceless ID

Users will experience the downgrade from the moment they pick up their iPhone Ultra. Due to its complex folding design, Face ID, the decade-old biometric authenticator and standard across all iPhone models, will reportedly be missing from a flagship iPhone for the first time since 2017. Instead, you’ll have to precisely position your registered finger on the Touch ID sensor embedded into the power button, as wth the iPad.

I’ve used Apple’s side-mounted Touch ID reader on an iPad Air in the past, and, trust me, you wouldn’t want it on your primary device. The operating system relies on biometric authentication for numerous sensitive tasks, beyond merely unlocking your iDevice. It’s used for Apple Pay, Apple Passwords, App Store purchases, etc. If your fingertip is moist or you’re wearing gloves, you’re going to find yourself manually entering your iPhone’s passcode countless times per day.

The iPhone Ultra will reportedly have just two cameras, a stark downgrade from the Pro phones.

Foundry

Camera shy

iPhones are many users’ sole digital cameras, with the Pro models boasting three advanced rear lenses for wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto shots. Given the Ultra name’s perceived superiority, customers would assume that the folding iPhone would match or even outdo the Pro variants in photography. In reality, it likely won’t.

According to rumors, the iPhone Ultra will completely drop the telephoto lens, downgrading the maximum digital zoom from 40x to around 10x. This will bar users from taking crisp shots of faraway subjects. Furthermore, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is rumored to exclusively adopt a variable aperture main camera, letting you control the depth of field and produce more balanced photos. You won’t get that with an iPhone Ultra, either.

Lack of Action

A couple of years ago, the iPhone 15 Pro retired the classic mute switch in favor of an all-new Action button. The mappable button allows users to run any task by pressing and holding it, including custom shortcuts, menus, and conditionals, making the Action button highly personalizable and useful. Based on the latest reports, the iPhone Ultra will exclude the Action button, providing users without an easy way to perform frequent daily actions.

Another common iPhone feature that might be missing is MagSafe. Not only does MagSafe provide a more reliable wireless charging experience and unlock StandBy mode, but it also lets you effortlessly attach a wide range of accessories, including wallets, power banks, kickstands, tripods, and much, much more. 

While the necessary magnets are incorporated into all iPhone models—including the $599 17e—the $2,000-2,500 iPhone Ultra might skip it, according to some rumors. However, a report just this week claims that Apple’s folding phone will indeed have MagSafe, so if you’re hoping to buy one, keep your fingers crossed.

The Action button has become a standard feature on all flagship iPhones—but it might not be coming to the Ultra.

Foundry

Handle with care

With the highest water and dust resistance, we no longer think twice before rinsing our iPhones or bringing them to the beach. The iPhone 17 Pro, for example, has the highest ingress protection rating: 68. The 6 refers to its dust-tight seal that prevents fine particles from entering the device, while the 8 indicates you can immerse it in up to 1.5 meters of water for no more than 30 minutes.

Foldable phones typically come with a lower IP rating due to their more complex design, including the mechanical hinge. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8—which reportedly mimics the iPhone Ultra form factor—has an IP48 rating. So, while it’s generally resistant to water, the 4 translates to vulnerability towards particles finer than 1mm. Beach sand, pocket lint, and dirt can get inside the phone and potentially damage it down the road, so you’ll need to be a lot more careful when carrying it around.

Simple SIM

Lastly, the iPhone Ultra, like the iPhone Air, will reportedly be eSIM-only internationally. While all iPhones sold in the US migrated to this format long ago, many frequent fliers and international users still prefer physical SIMs for a number of reasons. If you buy an iPhone 18 Pro from abroad, for example, you can still get a physical SIM card tray, but that won’t be the case with the Ultra.

Anker’s new IFA 2026 charging lineup uses active cooling, displays and device-specific charging profiles to power iPhones and MacBooks more intelligently.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

TL;DR: Edit, encrypt, and sign PDFs with ease with a lifetime subscription to PDF Reader Pro Premium License for Mac for $39.99, 50% off the retail price of $79.99.

PDFs may be the preferred format for electronic document sharing but creating, editing, and working with PDFs is a hassle if you don’t have specialized (and pay-by-the month) software you never really own — but not with PDF Reader Pro. The software program is already used on more than 60 million devices to create and manage letters, contracts, and other PDF documents for their business and personal needs, and right now you can get a lifetime subscription for one device for half off, or just $39.99. That’s less than two months of getting similar features from an Adobe Acrobat Pro subscription.

With the lifetime subscription to PDF Reader Pro, you get a number of useful abilities that save you time and make life easier, including:

Rearrange, reorganize, and reorient pages in your document

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Modify and edit text and images within your PDF

Batch process encryption and compression, and add watermarks, headers and footers

Extract text and convert scanned documents into searchable and editable text files

The program also includes advanced security features that make it seamless to issue or process invoices, contracts, or other sensitive documents. Within the program, you can encrypt files and protect them with a passcode; add a watermark; redact confidential information with a permanent black box; and create and legally sign forms.

PDF Reader Pro even comes with bookmarking and search function, as well as an easier-on-the-eyes night mode, that makes reading through even lengthy files easier and more convenient.

PDFs aren’t going anywhere. Make creating, editing, and sending them less time-consuming and dramatically easier, and get off the monthly subscription treadmill at the same time.

Get a lifetime subscription to PDF Reader Pro Premium License for Mac for $39.99 (reg. $79.99).

PDF Reader Pro Premium License For Mac: Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Apple is set to reveal new iPhones on September 9, so on this episode of the Macworld Podcast, we talk about what to expect: the iPhone 18 Pro, new Apple Watches, and a new folding iPhone.  

This is episode 998 with Michael Simon, Jason Cross, and Roman Loyola. 

Watch episode 998 on YouTube

Listen to episode 998 on Apple Podcasts

Tune in to episode 998 on Spotify

Get info

Click on the links below for more information on what was discussed on the show.

Surprise and Shine! Apple’s big iPhone event set for September 9 

iPhone 18 Pro: Release date, price, specs and latest rumors ahead of Apple’s event

iPhone Ultra: Apple’s first folding iPhone

Apple Watch Series 12 (2026): Everything we know so far

Review of the very first iPod touch

Comment Corner 

Had the last Intel Mac Pro $12,000. Went to a Mac mini M4 Pro $3000. It had 50% headroom on my pro audio projects. 

 I plan on waiting till 2030 or later…Don’t need a faster Mac for audio or web development – occasional music videos are fine…New Computer Prices are too high for me…I’ll wait for ram to drop. 

Michael D. via email

In your criticism of Apple project Titan: Apple spent an estimated $10 billion dollars over 8 years.  A whopping $1.25 billion a year for what ended up being an R&D project. Isn’t a little revisionist to call the endeavor a failure if all it provided was the neural engine, the photo processing pipeline, and visual intelligence. Especially, considering Meta spent $60 Billion on the Metaverse and what the hyperscalers are spending each quarter on datacenters ($580 billion in 2025 and est $620 billion ). 

Craig E. via email

Subscribe to the Macworld Podcast

You can subscribe to the Macworld Podcast—or leave us a review!—right here in the Podcasts app. The Macworld Podcast is also available on Spotify and on the Macworld Podcast YouTube channel.  Or you can point your favorite podcast-savvy RSS reader at: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/macworld

To find previous episodes, visit Macworld’s podcast page or our home on MegaPhone.

Apple

With new retail stores in the offing, Anker Innovations combines its various product lines under one branding banner: Anker.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Apple’s AirPods lineup is stronger than ever, but there are already rumors about what’s coming next. Here’s everything we know so far about when Apple will release new AirPods.

more…

Apple’s board has structured incoming CEO John Ternus’ first full-year compensation so that the bulk of his wealth depends on whether the company’s stock outperforms other members of the S&P 500. Ternus will receive a $3 million base salary and a targeted annual equity award of $55 million beginning in fiscal 2027. Three-quarters of that award consists of performance-based restricted stock units that vest according to Apple’s total shareholder return relative to the rest of the index. The remaining 25 percent vests on a simple time schedule — 12.5 percent every six months over four years.

The design is straightforward: Ternus has a direct financial incentive to deliver returns that beat the broader large-cap market and, by extension, to reward shareholders. Apple also granted him a smaller, prorated restricted-stock award of $2.5 million for the few weeks he served as CEO in fiscal 2026. Cook, now executive chairman, received a reduced $2 million salary and a $45 million target equity award that is less heavily weighted toward relative performance.

The structure continues Apple’s long-standing practice of linking a large share of executive pay to multi-year stock results rather than short-term operational metrics. Because the performance hurdle is measured against S&P 500 peers rather than an absolute stock-price target, Ternus cannot simply ride a rising market; Apple must outperform. That alignment is meant to keep management focused on capital allocation, product execution, and capital-return decisions that actually move the needle versus the index.

Whether that same incentive could eventually support another stock split is an open question. Apple last split its shares 4-for-1 in 2020 when the stock price had climbed high enough that some retail investors found individual shares cumbersome. A split does not change the company’s market value or the economic substance of Ternus’ award, but it can improve liquidity, broaden the shareholder base, and make the stock more accessible to index funds and individual buyers. If the board and Ternus conclude that a more widely held, more liquid stock would help Apple’s relative total-shareholder-return ranking over the multi-year vesting window, a split could become one of several tools they consider. Nothing in the current filing points to an imminent split, and any such decision would still rest with the board. The pay package simply makes clear that Ternus’ personal payoff will be larger if Apple’s stock does better than its S&P 500 neighbors — regardless of how that outperformance is achieved.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s CEO compensation structure is largely the same; the differences are in size and in what has been disclosed so far.

Cook’s last full-year CEO package (fiscal 2025) used the same architecture Apple is now using for Ternus: $3 million salary, equity that is 75% performance-based and 25% time-based, and performance vesting tied to Apple’s total shareholder return versus other S&P 500 companies.

That 75/25 mix and the relative-TSR test are unchanged for Ternus’ $55 million fiscal 2027 equity award.

Component
Cook as CEO (FY2025)
Ternus as CEO (FY2027 target)

Base salary
$3 million
$3 million

Target equity
$50 million
$55 million

Equity mix
75% performance / 25% time
75% performance / 25% time

Performance metric
TSR vs S&P 500
TSR vs S&P 500

Target cash bonus
$6 million (200% of salary)
Not yet disclosed

Target total (disclosed)
$59 million
~$58 million (salary + equity only)

Reported/realized total
$74.3 million
N/A yet

Cook’s reported 2025 total of about $74.3 million was higher than his $59 million target because the cash bonus paid out at $12 million (twice target) and because the accounting value of the stock awards was $57.5 million rather than the $50 million target.

Ternus’ disclosed package is slightly richer on equity ($55 million vs $50 million) and silent so far on an annual cash bonus.

SEC filings omit details regarding an annual cash bonus program for Ternus. If Apple awards him a standard executive annual cash bonus structure matching Cook’s $6 million target, his full target will land around $64 million (above Cook’s $59 million target). If no cash bonus is awarded, his disclosed baseline target ($58 million) sits slightly below Cook’s total $59 million target.

The package does not represent a new philosophy. Apple kept the same pay architecture, the same relative-performance test, and the same salary. The material changes are modest: a $5 million larger equity target for Ternus, an undisclosed cash-bonus question, and the absence (so far) of the perks and above-target cash that inflated Cook’s reported 2025 total. Alignment with shareholders via beating the S&P 500 is the same idea under which Cook already lived.

Bottom line: It’s good news for Apple shareholders that the CEO is rewarded for AAPL outperforming the broader market.

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The post Apple CEO Ternus has a direct incentive to beat the market: How Apple structured his equity award appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Apple’s first foldable iPhone could contribute about $14 billion in revenue in the December quarter, according to Morgan Stanley, which called next week’s product event the company’s most consequential since the iPhone X.

Analyst Erik Woodring described the device as the biggest iPhone form-factor change since 2017. The bank expects strong early demand, but tight supply, with 7 million to 8 million units built in the second half of 2026 and as many as 20 million over the first product cycle. Shipments are expected to start in October or early November.

Morgan Stanley also framed the launch as a test of Apple’s pricing power. Rising NAND and DRAM costs are expected to push Pro models more than $200 higher year over year. The key upgrade on the iPhone 18 Pro is likely TSMC’s 2-nanometer process, aimed at stronger on-device AI performance. The bank said Apple appears more focused on securing components than finding buyers, though memory supply could still limit near-term production.

The September 9th event will also mark a leadership shift. New CEO John Ternus is expected to introduce the foldable — rumored as iPhone Fold or Ultra — alongside what Morgan Stanley called the broadest like-for-like iPhone price increases in company history. Woodring kept an Overweight rating and a $360 price target, noting Apple stock often outperforms into launch events, but can fade on the day itself. Sustained gains, he said, will depend on later estimate revisions.

Other analysts have put the foldable at roughly $2,300 to $2,500. Independent checks from Ming-Chi Kuo have pointed to similarly constrained early volumes and the possibility of weeks-long wait times.
‎
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll see how supply holds up when pre-orders beign – likely within a minute or two. If you want one of the first foldable iPhones, you’ll need to pre-order within the first minutes!

‎
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!

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The post Morgan Stanley: Foldable iPhone could add $14 billion to Apple’s December quarter appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Apple TV kicks off its big fall lineup this week with Mayday, a new Ryan Reynolds film that’s part buddy comedy, part action spy thriller. And the first reviews say the movie’s a winner.

more…

While computer use isn’t new for Claude on the desktop, running it in the background is a nice upgrade.

more…

iOS 27 is packed with powerful features like Siri AI and upgrades to productivity apps like Apple Mail, Notes, Reminders, and Calendar. But for many users, some of iOS 27’s best changes might be bug fixes that make apps run better than ever—here are three coming to Apple Mail.

more…

Grab Apple’s small yet powerful desktop computer with this Mac mini deal. It’s so new it’s not even in stores yet, but you can save on it.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Even before its unveiling, Apple’s first foldable iPhone has already become the design benchmark the rest of the industry is racing to copy. Google, Oppo and Vivo are now preparing to adopt the same dual ultra-thin glass (UTG) structure Apple pioneered, TheElec reports citing industry sources.

The dual-UTG approach places one sheet of ultra-thin glass above the OLED panel as the cover window and a second sheet beneath it for structural support. The upper layer, thinned to tens of micrometers, protects the display from impacts and scratches while still folding repeatedly. The lower layer spreads stress around the hinge and stiffens the panel from below. Together, the two glass layers give manufacturers tighter control over rigidity and folding stress, which helps reduce the crease that has long defined cheaper foldables.

Apple chose this construction as a late entrant precisely because it wanted to minimize crease visibility and raise overall quality rather than simply match existing products. That decision is now being treated as the new premium standard. Samsung Display is already building dual-UTG OLED prototypes to the specifications of Google, Oppo, and Vivo, working with partner Dowoo Insys on both the upper and lower glass layers. Mass production is targeted for the companies’ 2027 launches.

Samsung’s own Galaxy Z Fold8 series takes a different route: a single UTG layer on top plus a titanium alloy film and reinforced titanium plate underneath. That architecture is simpler and cheaper to manufacture at scale. Apple’s rivals, however, have decided the extra glass is worth the cost. Oppo and Vivo in particular have made crease reduction and durability central selling points for their Find N and X Fold lines. Google is expected to follow the same path with its next Pixel Fold.

The three companies all sell book-style foldables — the Pixel Fold series, Find N series, and X Fold series. Their current flagships are the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, Find N6 and X Fold6. New models using dual UTG are slated for early 2027 at Oppo, the first half of the year at Vivo, and the second half at Google.

For the UTG supply chain the shift is unambiguously good news. Even if overall foldable shipments stay flat, each device will now consume two sheets of glass instead of one. Apple’s decision to lead with dual UTG did not just improve its own product; it doubled the material content the rest of the market is now lining up to use.
‎
MacDailyNews Take: Apple leads. All others follow. As usual.

As with fingerprint and facial recognition, when Apple debuts a foldable iPhone, then foldable smartphones will have been done right. – MacDailyNews, January 17, 2019

‎
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GymKit has been one of Apple Watch’s smartest fitness features since it launched in 2017. Tap your watch to compatible gym equipment, and Apple Watch shares your heart rate while the machine sends back metrics like distance, incline, pace, and calories.

With iOS 27, Apple is expanding that idea beyond Apple Watch. I tested the new GymKit on iPhone and AirPods Pro 3 experience with a GymKit-compatible treadmill. It basically gives you the Apple Watch GymKit workout tracking experience, just without the watch. This could be useful in a lot of scenarios.

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Today, Apple TV revealed a first look and premiere date for the highly anticipated second season of “The Sisters Grimm,” premiering globally on Friday, October 2nd. Based on Michael Buckley’s New York Times bestselling book series, “The Sisters Grimm” is a journey of adventure and heart about sleuth-solving sisters descended from the Brothers Grimm who, while very different, make a pretty great team. Season one earned a 100 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.

In season two, one year after their parents’ mysterious disappearance, sisters Sabrina and Daphne Grimm continue uncovering the secrets of Ferryport Landing, where fairy tales and fairy tale creatures are real, as they face new adventures and mysteries.
The series is led by a stellar voice cast, including Ariel Winter (“Modern Family”) as Sabrina, Leah Newman as Daphne, Laraine Newman (“Saturday Night Live”) as Relda, Abubakar Salim (“Raised by Wolves”) as Charming, Billy Harris (“Ted Lasso”) as Puck and Harry Trevaldwyn (“How to Train Your Dragon”) as Mirror.

eason two of “The Sisters Grimm” premieres on October 2, 2026 on Apple TV.

“The Sisters Grimm” is developed by Emmy Award nominee Amy Higgins (“Star vs. the Forces of Evil”), who serves as showrunner, and Emmy Award nominee Erica Rothschild (“Sofia the First”). Emmy Award-winning studio Titmouse (“Duck & Goose,” “Harriet the Spy,” “Frog and Toad”) produces the animation. The six-episode series is executive produced by Higgins, Buckley (“Robotomy”), Emmy Award winner Elliot Blake (“ReVisioned: Tomb Raider”), Emmy Award winner Philip Alberstat (“The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie”), Steven Amato (“27 Mins”) and Theresa Park (“Roar,” “Expats”) alongside Titmouse’s Chris Prynoski (“The Legend of Vox Machina”), Shannon Prynoski (“Scavengers Reign”), Ben Kalina (“Big Mouth”) and Antonio Canobbio (“Digman!”). Sage Cotugno serves as supervising director.

The exciting slate of recent offerings for kids and families on Apple TV includes “My Brother the Minotaur,” from Academy Award-nominated animation studio Cartoon Saloon and award-winning children’s media company Dog Ears; “Wonder Pets: In the City,” from Emmy Award winner Jennifer Oxley and produced by Nickelodeon Animation; animated adventure trilogy “WondLa,” based on Tony DiTerlizzi’s New York Times bestselling book series “The Search for WondLa”; “Yo Gabba GabbaLand!,” inspired by the hit, Emmy Award-nominated cultural phenomenon “Yo Gabba Gabba!”; season two of Emmy Award-winning “Shape Island,” based on the internationally bestselling picture books by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen; “Goldie,” inspired by Emily Brundige’s award-winning 2019 short film of the same name; Television Critics Association Award-winning “Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical”; “Snoopy Presents: There’s No Place Like Home, Snoopy”; animated series “Camp Snoopy”; and many more.

Award-winning all-ages offerings now streaming globally on Apple TV include the BAFTA Award and Emmy Award-winning live-action animated hybrid special “The Velveteen Rabbit”; BAFTA Award and Humanitas Prize-winning “El Deafo”; BAFTA Award-winning “Lovely Little Farm”; DreamWorks Animation’s music-driven animated comedy “BE@RBRICK”; “Duck & Goose”; “Get Rolling With Otis”; Spin Master Entertainment’s “Sago Mini Friends”; Emmy Award-winning “Frog and Toad,” based on the Caldecott and Newbery Honor-winning books; Annie Award-nominated “Not a Box”; GLAAD Media Award-nominated “Pinecone & Pony”; The Jim Henson Company’s Emmy Award-winning “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock,” “Harriet the Spy” and “Slumberkins”; Sesame Workshop’s “Helpsters”; Scholastic’s “Puppy Place”; Joseph Gordon-Levitt, HITRECORD and Bento Box Entertainment’s “Wolfboy and the Everything Factory”; and Jack McBrayer and Angela C. Santomero’s Emmy Award-nominated “Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show.”

Live-action offerings include “Me,” an elevated, cinematic coming-of-age story from Barry L. Levy; Bonnie Hunt’s DGA Award and WGA Award-nominated “Amber Brown”; DGA Award-winning “Best Foot Forward”; “Surfside Girls”; WGA Award-winning “Life by Ella”; Sesame Workshop and Sinking Ship’s Emmy Award-winning “Ghostwriter”; and Emmy Award and Environmental Media Association Award-winning “Jane.” The collection also features “Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth,” the Emmy Award-winning television event based on the New York Times bestselling book and TIME Best Book of the Year by Oliver Jeffers.

Apple TV offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 859 wins and 3,816 award nominations and counting including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
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MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.

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Always running late? Change your Apple Watch time to set it a few minutes ahead of the actual time to trick yourself into punctuality.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Apple has officially unveiled the new features coming to compatible iPhones running iOS 27 later this year, introducing major Apple Intelligence upgrades, changes to Siri, parental controls enhancements and improvements across core iPhone apps.

iOS 27 is currently available as a beta test version for developers and public testers. The software has been going through several months of testing before its full public release – which is likely to happen in the next few weeks. Apple typically launches new versions of iOS in September, often around the second week – making Monday, September 14 a likely release date based on past patterns.

iOS 27 will be supported on every iPhone all the way back to iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2, though some Apple Intelligence and Siri related features will only be available on newer iPhones.

This hub contains everything Apple has confirmed will be coming in iOS 27 when it launches, including new features, compatible iPhones, beta release information, Apple Intelligence updates and what’s new for Siri.

What’s New in iOS 27 at a Glance

Siri AI: Apple’s new Siri AI combines personal context, onscreen awareness and web knowledge to deliver more natural conversations, richer answers, app actions and cross-device chat history.

Apple Intelligence across apps: Apple Intelligence expands across Safari, Photos, Messages, Mail, Calendar, Home and Shortcuts, adding smarter suggestions, automation, image generation and context-aware assistance.

Smarter Photos editing: Photos gains Spatial Reframing, Extend and an upgraded Clean Up tool, allowing users to improve composition, expand images and remove distractions more naturally.

Child safety and parental controls: New parental controls include Ask to Browse, Time Allowances, app schedules and enhanced Communication Safety tools designed to give parents more control.

Safari and productivity upgrades: Safari can organise tabs, monitor webpages and build extensions from descriptions, while Passwords, Calendar and Shortcuts gain powerful new AI-powered capabilities.

iOS 27 release date: When will Apple release iOS 27?

September 2026

iOS 27 has been in beta since it was unveiled at WWDC in June, but the official version of iOS 27 will not be available to install on compatible iPhones until later in 2026.

Apple has confirmed that the iPhone launch event will take place on September 9, so we anticipate that iOS 27 will be available to download on Monday, September 14, as the iOS download usually closely follows Apple’s September event.

What is the latest iOS 27 beta?

As of September 1, iOS 27 beta 8 is now available to developers, with the public beta expected shortly.

At this late stage in the development cycle, Apple is focusing on stability rather than adding new features, with recent betas mainly delivering bug fixes, security updates, performance improvements and final polish ahead of launch.

Siri AI in iOS 27

Apple

By far the biggest upgrade coming in iOS 27 is Siri AI – Apple’s new Apple Intelligence-powered version of Siri. Apple says it is more personal, conversational and capable than the current assistant, with support for natural follow-up questions, personal context, onscreen awareness and up-to-date information from the web.

Siri AI features

More natural conversations: Siri AI can understand open-ended questions, follow-up requests and more complex natural language, making interactions feel less like issuing simple voice commands.

Personal context: Siri can draw on information stored in Messages, Mail, Photos and Notes to find details and answer questions. For example, you could ask it to find information buried in an old email or message.

Onscreen awareness: Siri can understand what you’re viewing and act on it, such as saving an address from a message, adding an event to Calendar or answering questions about an article.

Camera intelligence: A new Siri Camera mode lets you show Siri something through the iPhone’s camera, then ask questions or perform actions based on what it sees.

More capable app actions: Siri can perform tasks within apps such as Messages, Music and Reminders. It can, for example, edit a recently sent message, add a song to a playlist or handle more complex Apple Music requests.

Better general knowledge and web answers: Siri can use information from the web to answer questions about recent events and tackle more specific or complicated queries than before.

Conversation history across devices: A dedicated Siri app lets users revisit previous conversations, pin important chats and continue conversations across Apple devices using iCloud syncing.

More natural Siri voices: Siri gains more expressive voices, with controls on compatible devices for adjusting speaking pace and expressiveness. Voice customisation requires an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air or newer.

Improved dictation: Better speech recognition, automatic punctuation, capitalisation and formatting allow users to dictate more naturally when converting speech into text.

AI-assisted message replies: Siri can compose contextual replies in Messages using the conversation, personal information and web searches. Shortcuts can also automate replies to selected contacts, although manual Siri-assisted replies allow users to check and edit the response before it is sent.

For more Siri AI message replies read about what happened when we made Siri AI Answer all our Messages.

How good is Siri AI?

Siri AI represents a significant improvement over the old Siri, particularly when handling conversational questions, current information and personal context.

Early testing suggests it can deal with far more complicated requests than Siri previously could. Apple Music is a good example: Siri can identify very specific groups of songs, create playlists and combine music knowledge with reasoning.

It could therefore become one of the biggest reasons to upgrade to iOS 27, potentially changing Siri from a basic voice-command system into a more general way of interacting with the iPhone.

However, Siri AI is still in beta. Testing has revealed server failures, incorrect answers, weak reasoning and unexplained limitations, so its usefulness will depend heavily on how much Apple improves reliability before release.

Apple’s approach to AI safety also appears more restrained than some rival chatbots, with Siri designed to avoid excessive flattery, pretending to be human or responding inappropriately to potentially harmful requests.

When will Siri AI launch?

Apple says iOS 27 arrives in autumn 2026, but Siri AI does not yet have a specific public release date. Apple currently says the new Siri will launch in English later in 2026.

Regional Siri AI availability

Siri AI will not initially be available on iPhone or iPad in the EU. It will also remain unavailable in China while Apple works through regulatory issues.

Siri AI compatibility

Some Siri AI features have more demanding hardware requirements than others. In particular, Apple’s new Siri voice customisation controls require an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air or newer.

Apple Intelligence across apps

As well as Siri AI, the enhanced Apple Intelligence will also power new AI-powered features in Apple’s core apps throughout iOS 27. Safari will organise tabs into topics, monitor webpages for changes and even build extensions from natural-language descriptions. Photos is set to gain a new Spatial Reframing edit tools including and an upgraded Clean Up feature. Messages, Mail and Calendar will be able to understand context, suggest actions and create events from simple descriptions.

New features coming to apps in iOS 27

iOS 27 brings a mix of major Apple Intelligence upgrades and smaller quality-of-life improvements across Safari, Photos, Messages, AirPods, Passwords, Wallet and other core iPhone apps. Apple is also making iOS more adaptable to different screen sizes and orientations, changes that appear to be laying some of the groundwork for its expected folding iPhone.

Safari

Safari will automatically group tabs into topics, making related pages easier to find. A new Notify Me feature will monitor webpages and alert you to changes such as price drops or products coming back into stock.Apple is also adding Describe an Extension, which lets users create custom Safari extensions simply by explaining what they want the extension to do.

Apple

Photos

Photos gains significantly more powerful AI editing tools.

Spatial Reframing/Reframe can alter the composition and perspective of an existing photo, while Extend generates new image content beyond the original frame when straightening a horizon or changing the aspect ratio.

Apple

Clean Up has also been improved, with Fast and High Quality modes for removing unwanted objects. High Quality mode can produce considerably more natural results, although more ambitious edits can still introduce distortions or invented details.

Photos also adds new categories and the ability to save a frame from a video as a full-resolution photo. The resulting HEIF or JPG retains the video’s original resolution, date and location metadata rather than simply creating a screenshot.

Camera

Apple is developing a customizable Camera interface, although it has not appeared consistently throughout the iOS 27 beta cycle. It could arrive in a later iOS 27 update.

Apple is also reportedly developing Apple Reference Image, an authentication system designed to prove that a photo or video was genuinely captured on an iPhone and has not subsequently been manipulated.

The feature would use additional metadata and Apple’s Private Cloud Compute to authenticate an image and assign it a unique ID. Its usefulness may be greatest for journalists, insurers and investigators rather than as a general solution to AI-generated imagery, particularly because authentication would be optional and social networks frequently remove metadata.

Messages

Foundry

Messages gets several useful improvements.

You can also decide what the microphone button beside the text field does. Under Settings > Apps > Messages > Show in Text Field, it can be set to Record Audio, Start Dictation or None. Disabling it does not remove either feature: dictation remains available from the keyboard and audio messages remain in the + menu.

Voice-message playback controls are easier to access, while Apple Intelligence can suggest actions based on a conversation, such as creating a reminder, making a note or finding relevant photos.

Messages will also gain smarter suggested replies that can better reflect the user’s writing style.

Drawing

Foundry

A new dedicated Drawing app replaces the old hidden handwriting interface. Accessible from the + menu, it uses the familiar pens, colours and drawing controls found in Notes and Markup, with finished drawings sent as images.

Mail

Mail gains more context-aware smart replies, including responses that can better match the user’s usual writing style.

Apple Intelligence can also surface information from Mail elsewhere in iOS. For example, the Phone app could retrieve a flight confirmation number from an email when you call an airline.

Phone

A new Call Context feature can surface information that may be useful when calling a business. Apple says the information is selected according to who you are calling rather than by listening to the conversation. For example, calling an airline could cause iOS to surface the relevant flight confirmation from Mail.

Birthday reminders can also appear when calling contacts whose birthdays are stored on the iPhone.

FaceTime

FaceTime gains Dual Capture, allowing the front and rear cameras to be used at the same time during a call.

Passwords

Passwords in iOS 27 will fix things for you.

Apple

The Passwords app will continue to warn about weak, reused and compromised credentials, but iOS 27 goes a step further by offering to fix some of them automatically.

Using Apple Intelligence, Passwords can visit supported websites, change a vulnerable password and save the replacement credentials. See: Apple got rid of my biggest password headache.

The usefulness of the feature will depend on how widely websites are supported and how well it handles obstacles such as two-factor authentication and unusual account-management interfaces.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts gains Describe a Shortcut, allowing users to create automations simply by explaining what they want to happen.

Apple Intelligence will interpret the request and assemble the appropriate actions across supported apps, potentially making Shortcuts significantly easier to use for people unfamiliar with building automations manually.

Calendar

Calendar can create or modify events from natural-language instructions.

Apple says the app can recognise contacts, locations, dates and other event details as users type, reducing the amount of information that needs to be entered manually.

Image Playground

Image Playground is becoming considerably more powerful.

Apple says it can create photorealistic images and lets users modify generated pictures simply by describing the changes they want. Individual objects can also be selected, resized or repositioned.

AI-generated images will include a SynthID watermark identifying them as synthetic content.

Wallet

Wallet can create custom passes from QR codes.

Users can add their own fields and information to the pass, and passes automatically sync to Apple Watch.

Home app

Apple Intelligence comes to the Home app for compatible HomeKit Secure Video cameras.It can group related camera notifications, describe recorded video and highlight clips that appear particularly noteworthy.

Maps

Apple Maps improves Flyover using higher-quality aerial imagery and Visual Intelligence models.

Apple says this produces sharper architectural detail and more realistic rendering of elements such as individual trees.

Podcasts

Video podcasts become easier to use, with improved controls for switching between watching a podcast and simply listening to it.

Fitness

Workout summaries have been redesigned to make them easier to share.

Users can also hide completed Fitness+ workouts.

iOS 27 changes beyond the iPhone

CarPlay

CarPlay gains an audio scrubber, giving drivers and passengers more direct control when moving through audio tracks and other content.

AirPods

iOS 27 introduces several new AirPods features.

A new Custom EQ lets users independently adjust bass, mids and treble using a simple three-band equalizer under Settings > AirPods > Audio and Routing > Equalizer > Custom.

Compatible AirPods also gain improved Precision Finding through Find My, making individual earbuds easier to locate.

Some features require both iOS 27 and compatible AirPods firmware.

Read How to tune your AirPods with a custom EQ in iOS 27.

Other changes coming with iOS 27

It’s not only individual apps that will see changes.

Home Screen and landscape mode

Apple is making iOS significantly more flexible when dealing with different screen orientations and sizes.More Apple apps now work properly in landscape, including Health, Home, Music, Weather and Watch. Dynamic Island and Live Activities can also adapt to landscape orientation. The Home Screen additionally supports extra-large widgets.

These changes could simply improve iPhone usability, but they also appear well suited to Apple’s expected folding iPhone, which is likely to have an unusual, wider aspect ratio.

Evidence within Apple’s software also includes new foldState and angleDegrees variables that could allow apps to respond to whether a device is folded and at what angle.

iPhone Mirroring in macOS 27 has similarly become freely resizable, with Apple apps dynamically rearranging their interfaces as the window changes shape.

Liquid Glass refinements

Apple

Apple says Liquid Glass has been refined for better readability, more uniform refraction and improved contrast. A new slider lets users adjust the look from ultraclear to fully tinted, while updated icons, toolbars, sidebars and window shapes add polish.

Ringtones, alarms and alert volume

iOS 27 finally separates several sound-volume controls.

Instead of one combined Ringtone and Alerts slider, users can independently adjust:

Ringtones

Alarms and timers

Alerts and system sounds

The change is optional. Under Settings > Sounds & Haptics, turning off Match Ringtone Volume reveals separate controls.

Media and call volume continue to work independently as before.

Keyboard

iOS 27 introduces a new quick-paste control above the keyboard.

It lets you paste recently copied text, images or screenshots without having to long-press inside a text field, making everyday copy-and-paste considerably faster.

Apple has also made the Liquid Glass keyboard design more consistent across apps.

Privacy and Find My

iOS 27 introduces the ability to temporarily pause Find My location sharing without notifying the person with whom the location is normally shared.

Recovery and troubleshooting

Apple is also expanding the iPhone’s recovery interface, giving users more options for diagnosing problems and recovering an iPhone without immediately connecting it to another device.

System changes and how iOS 27 will make your iPhone faster

Alongside the headline AI features, Apple says iOS 27 includes a wide range of under-the-hood improvements designed to make iPhones faster, smoother and more efficient.

Apple says apps can launch up to 30% faster, newly taken photos can appear in the Photos library up to 70% faster, and AirDrop transfers can be up to 80% quicker. External drive transfers should also improve, while updates to network performance and the system-wide search index are designed to make connectivity and finding information faster.

The company has also reworked core technologies including CPU scheduling, display performance and processing efficiency. These changes should benefit older iPhones in particular, with Apple promising smoother performance and more efficient battery use on devices as old as the iPhone 11 and second-generation iPhone SE.

Our testing of the iOS 27 beta supports those claims. On an iPhone 11 Pro Max, Camera launch time fell from 0.98 seconds in iOS 26 to 0.65 seconds in iOS 27, while Maps improved from 3.01 seconds to 1.36 seconds.Everyday use also feels smoother, with more fluid animations, unlocking, Control Center and app transitions. The phone ran cooler during testing too, which could point to improved system efficiency and potentially better battery performance.

More broadly, iOS 27 appears focused on refinement rather than simply adding new features. Apple says it has addressed dozens of common user frustrations, while changes such as more adjustable Liquid Glass effects are intended to improve readability and general usability.

That focus should make iOS 27 particularly worthwhile for owners of older iPhones, even on models that do not support Siri AI. Those devices still gain performance improvements alongside features such as clipboard tools for the keyboard, independent alarm and timer volume controls, custom Wallet passes, Photos changes, larger widgets and Liquid Glass refinements.

Child safety and parental controls

Apple

There are lots of improvements coming to parental controls, including new time allowances for entertainments, games, and social media, and new schedule tools for different times of day or days of the week.

This includes new features like an expansion of the existing “ask to buy” feature for apps to websites. Before a child can view a new website, they’ll have to ask for permission.

Ask to Browse: Ask to Browse will expand the current Ask to Buy fetaure to the web. Apple says children will need to request permission before visiting new websites, and parents can review requests in Messages before approving.

Communication Safety: Communication Safety will continue to help protect children from viewing or sharing nudity in Messages, FaceTime and other apps. Apple says it will also intervene before children see gore or violent content in shared images and videos.

Time Allowances and schedules: Parents will be able to set Time Allowances across categories such as Entertainment, Games and Social Media. Recommendations are based on a child’s age combined with guidance from clinical and child development experts. Schedules let parents choose which apps are available at different times or on different days.

Redesigned Screen Time: Screen Time will get a redesigned interface with an at-a-glance view of average device usage and most-used apps. Apple says parents can quickly limit or extend access in the moment.

Child accounts and family safety: Apple says child accounts remain central to age-appropriate protections. Parents can manage app access, web access, communication permissions and Screen Time settings.

Apple says it is working with the American Academy of Pediatrics to adapt its Family Media Plan.

Accessibility changes coming in iOS 27

Accessibility features will be smarter and more intuitive in iOS 27:

VoiceOver will get richer image descriptions and better understanding of onscreen content.

Live Recognition will let users press the Action button to ask questions about their surroundings and receive detailed responses.

Voice Control will become more intuitive, allowing users to describe onscreen buttons and controls rather than remembering exact labels or numbers.

Accessibility Reader will be able to handle more complex source material and provide summaries and translation.

iOS 27 compatibility

iPhone 11 is supported by iOS 27.

Roman Loyola/IDG

According to Apple, iOS 27 supports iPhones back to the iPhone 11 and second-generation iPhone SE, although some Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features require newer hardware.

Support for iOS 27 does not mean every device gets every feature. Apple Intelligence requires an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 or later, while the most advanced on-device AI models require an iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air. On iPad, Apple Intelligence requires an M1-class model or the A17 Pro iPad mini, while the newest on-device models require an M4 iPad with at least 12GB of RAM.

There had been speculation that the iPhone 11 series and iPhone SE 2 would miss out on iOS 27 after leaker Instant Digital claimed on Weibo that the 2019 iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, along with the 2020 iPhone SE 2, would no longer be supported. That prediction proved incorrect, giving those models at least one more year of software support.

However, the iPhone 11 generation is nearing the end of its support life. As we explain in our guide to how long Apple supports iPhones, the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max have already been added to Apple’s Vintage iPhone list.

The iOS 27 compatibility list is:

iPhone 17e (launched in 2026)

iPhone 17, 17 Pro / 17 Pro Max (launched in 2025)

iPhone Air (launched in 2025)

iPhone 16e (launched in 2025)

iPhone 16 / 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro / 16 Pro Max (launched in 2024)

iPhone 15 / 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro / 15 Pro Max (launched in 2023)

iPhone 14 / 14 Plus / 14 Pro / 14 Pro Max (launched in 2022)

iPhone SE 3 (launched in 2022)

iPhone 13 / 13 mini / 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max (launched in 2021)

iPhone 12 / 12 mini / 12 Pro / 12 Pro Max (launched in 2020)

iPhone SE 2 (launched in 2020)

iPhone 11 / 11 Pro / 11 Pro Max (launched in 2019)

The main dividing line for Apple Intelligence remains the iPhone 15 Pro generation: the standard iPhone 15 and all older models can run iOS 27, but they do not support Apple Intelligence.

FAQ
1.
When is iOS 27 coming out?

Apple hasn’t confirmed exactly when iOS 27 will be available to install, but it usually launches to the general public in September, or at the latest October.

Once iOS 27 launches Apple will likely continue beta development to test new features that weren’t available at launch.

2.
Should I install the iOS 27 beta?

Installing a beta lets you test new features ahead of release, so you may be keen to install the beta on your iPhone, but before you do beware of the risks.

For most users, the recommendation is simple: don’t install the beta. Pre-release software can be unstable. Bugs, performance issues, and app incompatibility are common as Apple uses the beta period to identify and fix problems before the final version launches.

If, despite our warnings, you’re still eager to try the new features, be sure to make a backup of all important information, passwords, and so on.

If you want to uninstall the iOS 27 beta read: How to remove an iOS beta from your iPhone.

3.
Which iPhones get iOS 27?

The iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2 and newer get iOS 27. However, the new Siri voices feature requires iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro or newer.

]]> 2026-09-02T16:50:17Z Macworld

When Apple introduced its M-series chips, it also marked the beginning of the end for software written for Intel Macs. It’s been nearly six years since then, and Apple has let developers know that they can bring Intel Mac development to a close.

In an email to developers, Apple said:

We’re reaching out to let you know that universal macOS apps on the Mac App Store that require macOS 13 or later can now remove support for Intel-based Mac computers.

By removing support for Intel-based Mac computers, you can simplify your development and optimize your download and on-device size.

When Apple announced macOS 26 Tahoe last year, the company said it would be the last version to support Intel Macs. This new announcement takes another step toward dropping Intel altogether. A new Apple support document adds this vital bit of information:

macOS 27: Final release to support Rosetta — Intel-only apps will no longer run on Mac computers with Apple silicon after this update.

Now it’s up to developers to determine when to stop with Intel code. App designers will need to determine how many of their users still use Intel Macs before they can drop development, which means that some will need to continue to support Intel for a while. If you use an Intel app, reach out to the app developer to find out their plans.

Apple won the ‘Best Picture’ Oscar for CODA back in 2022, and now director Siân Heder is back with another potential winner: Being Heumann. Here’s the new trailer.

more…

A new report says iPhone Ultra MagSafe support is locked in, and offers new details on the folding iPhone’s pricing, release date and more.

(via Cult of Mac – Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Amazon is offering cash discounts on Apple’s just-announced 2026 Mac mini lineup, just weeks before the machines ship on September 22nd.

The retailer has marked down two M6 configurations and one M5 Pro model for pre-order:

• M6 Mac mini with 16GB unified memory and 256GB SSD: $879.99, down from $899 ($19 off)

• M6 Mac mini with 16GB unified memory and 512GB SSD: $1,069.99, down from $1,099 ($29 off)

• M5 Pro Mac mini with 24GB unified memory and 512GB SSD: $1,669.99 ($29 off)

These are the first advertised dollar-off pre-order deals on the new Mac mini at Amazon.

Apple ‘s new M6 Mac mini can deliver up to 40% faster CPU performance, up to 4× faster AI performance, up to 2× faster graphics, and up to 2× faster storage versus the prior-generation M4 model it used for comparison (a 10-core M4 with 32GB memory and 2TB storage). Those figures come from Apple and apply to specific workloads, not every task.

Pre-order pricing can change, and stock or delivery dates may vary by configuration. If you are shopping specifically for an Amazon Mac mini deal, those three SKUs are the ones currently listed below Apple’s starting prices.

MacDailyNews Take: get ’em while they last here!

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Apple has a new M6 MacBook Pro launching this fall with a 14-inch screen and the current industrial design. Now that the M6 chip has officially been unveiled, here are three upgrades to expect from the new MacBook Pro.

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