iOS 26.3: New features for your iPhone
Apple released the first iOS 26.3 beta recently for iPhone users. The update focuses a lot on interoperability between iPhone and Android devices, as well as support for third-party smartwatches. Here are all of the new iOS 26.3 features so far. more…

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The first iPhone Fold dummy shows a radical new design for a folding phone
Macworld According to reports, the foldable iPhone is going to arrive next year. Now, foldable phones have been around for a while, so the concept isn’t new, but Apple’s take on it certainly is. If you’ve been wondering what an iPhone Fold (or whatever Apple decides to call it) is going to look like, we might have an idea right now. A user who goes by Subsy posted on MakerWorld a physical, plastic model of the iPhone Fold, based on leaked CAD files reportedly leaked from Apple’s own production line. The model isn’t supposed to be an exact replica of what Apple will ship next year (for example, Subsy’s hinge isn’t based on any Apple design), but it’s “a physical reference you can actually hold.” And from what Subsy created, the iPhone Fold is going to have a very different design from what iPhone and folding phone users are accustomed to. Based on the model, Apple has decided to prioritize the form factor of the iPhone Fold when it is unfolded, where the aspects closely resemble those of an iPad mini. That means that when folded, the iPhone Fold’s shape is a lot more square than a regular iPhone. That’s a different approach from Android folding phones, which often have tall, skinny outer displays to maintain the folded form as a more traditional rectangular shape. Thus, the inside of the folding iPhone will be more widescreen than foldable offerings from Samsung and Google. We could get a sense of how real this square-ish form is at WWDC in June. Though Apple won’t specifically address this new form factor, the company could introduce methods for developers to vary app UI designs so that their apps will be able to adjust and maintain usability. It could also go so far as to preview the folding phone months before it releases, as it did with the original iPhone back in 2007.

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Three months after skipping iPhone 17 Pro, I’m starting to reconsider
Three months ago, I chose the iPhone Air over the iPhone 17 Pro. After years of using Pro models, I was excited by the prospect of something new and futuristic. But despite being very happy overall with my iPhone Air, I’ve recently started second-guessing my choice. more…

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Lead times across Apple’s iPhone 17 series are finally moderating
Lead times for Apple’s iPhone 17 series are finally easing as supply catches up with demand, according to JPMorgan. Analyst Samik Chatterjee… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple Pay promo offers 20% off at Adidas
Apple has announced a new limited-time Apple Pay promotion. The company says you can save 20% on online orders from Adidas when you check out with Apple Pay. more…

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These are Apple TV’s top 10 shows that are coming soon
Apple TV had its biggest year ever in 2025, but there’s a stacked lineup of new and returning shows premiering in early 2026. Here are the top 10 Apple TV shows coming soon. more…

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This $479 Mac mini is the best kind of last-minute holiday gift
Macworld Okay, so it might be a little late to get a new Mac delivered in time for Christmas, but there’s no reason you can’t get yourself a gift now that your shopping is done. And if you’re going to buy one, you might as well take advantage of the deal from Amazon, which is selling a M4 Mac mini with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for $479, a savings of $120 off the regular price and the best price we’ve ever seen. This model is the base configuration, which has a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, two front USB-C ports, three rear Thunderbolt 4/USB ports, gigabit ethernet, HDMI, and a headphone jack. You’ll need to provide your own display, as well as a keyboard and mouse, but you’ve probably got those already. In our review of the M4 Pro Mac mini, we marveled at its tiny design–it’s really, really, small. Don’t wait too long to pick up this Mac mini–with Christmas just around the corner, we don’t know how long these sales will last. Put in the order now, and before you know it, Santa will be gone but the Amazon truck will be just around the corner, too, ready to drop off your new Mac mini for $479. Saec 20% on an M4 Mac miniBuy now on Amazon

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Deals: 24GB M4 MacBook Air $300 off, Apple Pencil Pro, 240W Apple USB-C cable, final Best Buy 48-hr. flash sale, more
This close to Christmas, after basically months of incredible deals on Apple gear, I didn’t expect to be telling folks we have one of the best deals of the year on an M4 MacBook Air today. The most affordable 24GB M4 MacBook Air is headlining today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break at $300 off the list price to undercut all of the best Black Friday deals that surfaced this year. That offers joins a chance to save on Apple Pencil Pro, Apple’s iPhone Air Bumper, official 240W USB-C cables, and Best Buy’s final 48-hour holiday flash sale. Scope it all out down below.  more…

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Price drop: This weather radar app gives you real-time data you can use
Stay ahead of inclement weather events with Weather Hi-Def Radar, a weather radar app that goes beyond your phone's usual weather alerts. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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Macworld picks Apple’s biggest hits and misses of 2025
Macworld As 2025 comes to a close, Macworld is proud to present our Apple awards, a look back at the best and worst of everything released over the past 12 months. It was a busy year for Apple, with new products across its entire range of products, including iPhone, iPad, AirPods, Mac, and even Vision Pro. So join us as we recognize the products that made the most impact in 2025: iPhone/iOS Emma Rowley / Foundry iPhone of the Year:  iPhone 17 The iPhone 17 isn’t just the best iPhone of 2025; it’s the best iPhone of the last five years. Apple finally stopped holding back features that should be table stakes for an $800 phone. You get double the storage, 120Hz ProMotion, 50 percent higher peak brightness, always-on display, better cameras, and speed and battery life that both exceed last year’s Pro model. All without raising the price. There’s never been a better year not to go Pro. — Jason Cross Apple iOS feature of the year:  Tackling Spam Call Screening will silently answer unknown numbers and ask them to say why they’re calling, and you can see it all right on screen. It’s a great way to eliminate spam calls without missing legit calls from numbers that just aren’t in your contacts. Couple that with new spam filtering in Messages, as well as in the Phone app and FaceTime, and Apple is finally doing something about one of the biggest pain points of using a smartphone. There’s still a long way to go, but since upgrading to iOS 26 and enabling these features, I’ve noticed a big drop in the number of times a day I pick up my phone only to immediately hang up on a solicitation message. — Jason Cross Britta O’Boyle Color of the Year: Cosmic Orange For the company that ostracized beige as the default color in computing when it launched the out-there Bondi Blue iMac in 1998, Apple has been rather tame in terms of its recent color choices. The iPhone 17 Pro’s Cosmic Orange is therefore a refreshing shock to the system and a vibrant return to form. Orange is no longer restricted to traffic cones and dodgy Seventies furniture. The Apple Store should hand out sunglasses for the crowds picking up the vibrant new iPhone and ignoring the dark blue one. There’s even a growing range of orange accessories available for the new phone. — Simon Jary Apple Oddity of the Year: iPhone Pocket Readers of a certain vintage who still fondly remember when Apple released a pair of socks for its iPod back in 2004, were rocked once again with the unexpected—and indeed unasked-for—iPhone Pocket, which the company described as “a singular 3D-knitted construction designed to fully enclose iPhone, while expanding to fit your everyday items”. Designed in conjunction with the Issey Miyake design studio famous for Steve Jobs’ trademark turtleneck, the iPhone Pocket comes in eight crazy colors, including Peacock, Sapphire, and Cinnamon. We all laughed until it sold out in mere minutes. — Simon Jary Foundry Flop of the Year: Liquid Glass Liquid Glass was Apple’s bold new, all-encompassing design language that radically changed the look of Apple’s software across all of the OS 26 software updates. Alan Dye, Apple’s vice president of Human Interface Design, tried to channel his inner Jony Ive by describing it as making “even the simplest of interactions more fun and magical.” We didn’t get that. Instead, Liquid Glass is the worst example of flamboyance over function, the opposite of Ive’s philosophy. — Simon Jary Mac/macOS Foundry Mac of the Year: M3 Ultra Mac Studio Overall, 2025 was a quiet year for Mac hardware, but one Mac made a sizable impact on Apple’s lineup. The Mac Studio was a bit of a surprise because its M3 Ultra chip was released out of sequence with  Apple’s usual cadence. Still, in the Mac Studio, it’s the fastest Mac available, leaving the M2 Ultra Mac Pro behind—way behind. At thousands less, it basically renders the Mac Pro irrelevant to everyone who doesn’t really need an expansion card. With its exhilarating CPU speed, powerful GPU performance, and robust expandability, the Mac Studio became King of the Macs in 2025. — Roman Loyola Apple Chip of the Year: M5 To say, “Apple is on a roll,” undercuts how much momentum the company has with its chips. Apple silicon is downright killing it, and the M5 chip exemplifies why. Making its debut in the MacBook Pro, the M5 provides an ideal and unprecedented combination of processing speed, graphics power, and energy efficiency in a consumer-level chip. The M5 is so good that Apple felt that it could wait until next year to release the M5 Pro and Max variants. — Roman Loyola Foundry Disappointment of the Year: Mac Pro While every other Mac has some version of the M4 and the 14-inch MacBook Pro has an M5, Apple’s most expensive Mac still has the same M2 Ultra chip it got back in June 2023. Meanwhile, the Mac Studio with a superior M3 Ultra costs a couple of thousand dollars less, and I’m left to wonder: How can Apple charge upwards of $10,000 for a Mac with a two-plus-generation-old chip? There were plenty of opportunities to update the Mac Pro in 2025, but instead, Apple let it languish another year with the same aging processor. — Roman Loyola iPad/iPadOS Foundry iPad of the Year: iPad Pro M5 Apple updated three of its four iPads in 2025 (sorry iPad mini), but the M5 iPad Pro is really the only one that could be considered for this distinction. All three updates were essentially chip refreshes (A14 to A16 (iPad); M2 to M3 (iPad Air); M4 to M5 (iPad Pro), but only the iPad Pro delivered a noticeable boost over its predecessor. Add in 50 percent more entry-level RAM, faster Wi-Fi, and fast charging, and you’ve got an upgrade worthy of a pro. — Michael Simon Apple Update of the year: iPadOS 26 This year’s WWDC keynote was jam-packed with features, from Liquid Glass to Live Translation and revamped app designs. But the star of the show was iPadOS 26, which introduced a new interface that incorporated many of the visual and productivity elements users have wanted for years, with resizable windows, macOS-like multitasking, and a new lease on life. — Michael Simon Apple Watch David Price / Foundry Watch of the year: Apple Watch SE 3 Strictly speaking, the Series 11 was the best Apple Watch to come out this year (I find the Ultra models too bulky for everyday wear), but the SE 3 was without a doubt the one I’d recommend to a friend. It’s nearly as good and far better value. As part of the 2025 refresh, the SE gained an always-on display, a bigger and longer-lasting battery, improved scratch resistance, new health features and gestures, on-device Siri, and the option of 5G. And all that for $249! Forget the Series 11; this has everything you need from a smartwatch at an excellent price. — David Price Services Apple Apple TV show of the year: ‘Pluribus’ There’s something nerve-wracking about recommending a TV show in the middle of a run–particularly one as unpredictable as Pluribus. Who knows where it will go from here? But just six episodes into the debut season of this frequently funny, occasionally harrowing sci-fi drama, and even against strong competition from the second season of Severance, I feel (reasonably) confident naming this as the Apple TV show of the year. As you’d expect from a Vince Gilligan production, Pluribus flips seamlessly between slow-burn beauty and sudden shocking action, between grief and humor and mystery. And Rhea Seehorn is superb as the last unhappy woman in the world. Maybe it’ll go downhill at some point, but let’s enjoy the ride while it lasts. — David Price Foundry Service of the year: News + Apple TV and Music may get all the attention, but Apple News+ came into its own in 2025. Apple’s daily puzzles had long revolved around somewhat pedestrian offerings, such as crosswords and Sudoku, but a completely original concept, Emoji Game, quickly became a unique and highly entertaining option for users seeking original concepts. And for those of us who have grown sick of the fluff and intrusive ads we come across when Googling recipes, Apple News+ added a new search function that lets you find recipes and view the ingredients and directions in a clutter-free interface. Neat, right? It gets better. You can directly set timers based on the stated durations and add the listed ingredients to your Reminders app. — Mahmoud Itani

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iOS 26 lets you customize Liquid Glass on your iPhone, here’s how
iOS 26 launched in the fall, but with 26.1 and 26.2 updates it added more tools for customizing the new Liquid Glass design. And now that a new wave of users is upgrading to iOS 26 for the first time, here’s an overview of two ways to personalize your iPhone’s Liquid Glass style. more…

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American economy grows at fastest pace in years with much-better-than-expected 4.3% GDP gain
The American economy grew at its fastest pace in two years during the third quarter, with inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP)… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple and Google Asking Some Employees With H-1B Visas To Avoid International Travel
Tech giants Google and Apple are asking some employees with H-1B visas to reconsider international travel, as their legal teams warned that visa processing delays could keep employees abroad for months, according to Business Insider. From a report: Law firms representing the tech giants sent memos advising staff who require visa stamps for reentry to stay in the U.S., warning that international travel could entangle them in visa screening delays following the introduction of a new social media screening requirement, according to the news agency. The policy subjects H-1B workers and their dependents to reviews of their social media histories. "Please be aware that some US Embassies and Consulates are experiencing significant visa stamping appointment delays, currently reported as up to 12 months," BAL Immigration Law, which represents Google, said in a memo obtained by Business Insider. The law firm said the delays were affecting H-1B, H-4, F, J and M visas. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Today in Apple history: Apple invents ‘slide to unlock’
On December 23, 2005, Apple filed a patent application for its iconic "slide to unlock" gesture for the iPhone. (via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

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iOS 26.2 adds new features in six iPhone apps, details here
iOS 26.2 is available now, and it’s packed with a bunch of new features. Many of those features are additions to Apple’s built-in iPhone apps. Here’s everything new across six Apple apps in iOS 26.2. more…

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iPhone 18 Pro: Six new features are coming next year
Next year’s iPhone 18 lineup will bring a brand new foldable option, but the most popular models will no doubt be the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Here are six new features rumored for iPhone 18 Pro. more…

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Apple TV series ‘Bad Monkey,’ set in the Florida Keys, lured by $20.6 million tax credit to film in California
“Bad Monkey” embodies Florida through and through — set in the Keys, adapted from Carl Hiaasen’s novel, and with its first season fully… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.

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Apple Fined $116 Million Over App Privacy Prompts
Apple has been fined $116 million by Italy's antitrust regulator over the "excessively burdensome" privacy rules it imposes on third-party apps. From a report: The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) says that Apple abused its dominant app store market position by burdening developers with "disproportionate" terms around data collection that exceed privacy law requirements, compared to rules for native iOS apps. The fine specifically targets the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy Apple launched in 2021, which requires third-party developers to ask users for consent twice to track their data across other apps and websites. Apple's own apps can obtain this permission in a single tap. AGCM says that the burden of consenting twice led to a reduction in user consent rates for advertising profiling, thus harming developers whose business models depend upon revenue generated by personalized ads. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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