watchOS 27 is the new version of watchOS that's coming to the Apple Watch this fall. It's a little light on features, but there are some useful new additions, including access to Siri AI.


‌watchOS 27‌ will have ‌Siri‌ AI, so you'll be able to use many of the same ‌Siri‌ features that you have on the iPhone on your wrist. Right now, the ‌Siri‌ features aren't in the ‌watchOS 27‌ beta, but the integration will be coming later this year. Apple is planning for a ‌Siri‌ app on the watch so you can access all of your ‌Siri‌ conversations.

‌Siri‌ AI for the watch will rely on a connected iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, so you'll need an iPhone 15 Pro or later to use it on your watch. ‌Siri‌ will be able to access your personal data, search the web for info to answer questions, and take actions in apps.

There's a new dynamic app grid that's available when you press the Digital Crown. It will put the ‌Siri‌ app front and center, while also showing ‌Siri‌ Suggested apps that include your most used and recently used apps. The view shows multiple apps in addition to ‌Siri‌ and a shortcut to get to the full app list. Apple also improved Liquid Glass with better contrast and more uniform refraction, which boosts readability.

Workout Buddy is now available even without your iPhone nearby, and there are new metrics to keep you motivated, with the watch tracking progressive increases in the distance, pace, and duration of runs. Cycle Tracking now supports menopause/perimenopause recognition and notifications, and treadmill readings will be more accurate.

Apple added a new tap gesture, so you can single-tap your index finger and thumb together to select a widget in the Smart Stack. There are new Smart Stack suggested widgets for finding a parked car, accessing ‌Siri‌, getting to pinned messages, accessing transit cards, seeing noise notifications, getting reminders for birthdays, and more.

When you're getting a phone call, your watch can show information relevant to the call, like a flight confirmation number if you're on the phone with an airline. Custom passes made with the Wallet app on iPhone work on the Apple Watch, and there's a new unified Find My app for locating devices, items, and people. The ‌Find My‌ app supports Precision Finding for locating an iPhone, AirPods Pro 3, or an AirTag 2.

Under-the-hood improvements bring longer battery life, with Apple disabling little-used features like gestures, Start Workout reminders, and Raise to Speak to preserve battery.

‌watchOS 27‌ works on the Apple Watch Series 9 and later, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later, and the Apple Watch SE 3.
This article, "Hands-On With watchOS 27: Every New Apple Watch Feature" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Signify today announced two new Philips Hue devices to expand its Hue Entertainment lineup, debuting the Philips Hue Play Table Lamp and the Philips Hue Play Floor Lamp Large. There are also new candle bulbs.


The two lamps are similar to the existing Signe Hue table and floor lamps, featuring a tall, linear design that casts light on a wall or surface behind the light. The lamps offer color-changing lighting effects that synchronize with games, TV shows, movies, and music when used with the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box or the Hue Sync TV and desktop apps.

Signify says that the lamps are designed for flexible placement, and a video featuring the table lamp shows it placed next to a TV set to project on the wall behind it. The table lamp is 23.6 inches, while the floor lamp is 53 inches tall. Both support Chromasync for precise color matching.

The new lamps have a more affordable price than the previous gradient floor and table lamps. The Hue Play Table Lamp is priced at $80, and the Hue Play Floor Lamp is priced at $150.


The new Hue Candle bulbs have Matter over Thread integration and full-spectrum daylight technology. The temperature range up to 20,000K supports colors that mimic natural daylight throughout the day, and they support millions of Hue colors for use in lighting scenes. The bulbs are also 40 percent more energy efficient than the prior version, and they dim to 0.2 percent. Bulbs are priced at $110 for two.

All of the new products are available now from the Philips Hue website.
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Apple is raising its prices to offset the high cost of memory and storage, CEO Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal. Apple is no longer able to absorb the increased prices and will need to pass some of the cost on to consumers.


"Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," said Cook. "We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."

Cook did not say which products will get price increases or how much pricing will go up. The iPhone 18 Pro and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max coming in September could be more expensive than the iPhone 17 Pro and ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ Max. Prices on iPads and Macs could go up in the near future.

Apple already raised the price of the Mac mini from $599 to $799 by eliminating its lowest-tier model. Apple has also eliminated several higher-tier ‌Mac mini‌ and Mac Studio options.

Growing demand for memory and storage chips from AI companies has led to chip shortages and higher costs. The Wall Street Journal suggests Apple will need to increase device costs "substantially" to maintain its current profit margins given the cost of memory chips and SSDs. Research firm TechInsights claims Apple will need to make the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ around $270 more expensive to keep its existing profit margin.

Apple is struggling more with memory chips, but storage chips are also an issue. "There's less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases," Cook told The ‌Wall Street Journal‌. Cook said Apple will use its cash to increase memory supply, but he did not give details on what that means.

Apple does not plan to create its own memory and storage factories. "We can't do everything," Cook said. "We know what we're good at."

While memory chip makers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are increasing production capacity, much of that added capacity will prioritize server chips. Demand for consumer-device chips is expected to continue to outpace supply. At the same time, Apple needs to increase the DRAM in its devices to support new AI features. Cook likened the memory shortages to a hundred-year flood. "I've never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years," he said.

Apple is one of the largest purchasers of memory and storage worldwide, but it is likely reluctant to make the same deals AI companies do. Those deals involve signing multi-year agreements with a large cash prepayment.

Multiple companies have already raised their prices, including Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, and Dell.

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Like iOS 27, iPadOS 27 gains a smarter, more capable version of Siri, the ‌Siri‌ app, and new Apple Intelligence features in apps, but there are a few iPad-only standouts.


‌Siri‌ AI on iPad has all of the same features as ‌Siri‌ AI on the iPhone, so it can access your personal data, search the web for answers, complete tasks in apps, and answer questions about what's on your screen. For people who write with Apple Pencil on ‌iPad‌, it can index your handwritten notes so you can search through them. You can use ‌Siri‌ to take action on your notes, whether typed or handwritten.

‌Siri‌ can summarize, rewrite, give you writing advice, check grammar, generate new text for you, and more. There's a systemwide Write with ‌Siri‌ feature for getting help no matter which app you're using.

There's a new Image Playground app that can generate images in any style, including photorealistic, and that powers the Image Wand in the Notes app. You can draw a quick sketch of something in Notes and then use ‌Image Wand‌ to turn it into a photorealistic visual aid.

Visual Intelligence used to be an iPhone-only feature, but in ‌iPadOS 27‌, it's expanding to the ‌iPad‌. You can take a screenshot and then circle what you want to know more about with a finger or the ‌Apple Pencil‌. The ‌iPad‌ supports the same ‌Visual Intelligence‌ features, like telling you the nutritional value of food and identifying plants and animals.

The Shortcuts app can use AI to automatically generate shortcuts for you, which can be especially useful on the ‌iPad‌. If you want a quick way to change how the ‌iPad‌'s windowing works when you attach a keyboard vs. when you use it without a keyboard, you can describe that in a sentence or two and get a functional shortcut just a minute later.

Safari supports automatically grouping tabs, plus there's an AI feature for generating your own extensions. Like ‌iOS 27‌, ‌iPadOS 27‌ is also more responsive thanks to performance improvements. Browsing and transferring files are quicker, AirDrop is faster, apps launch more quickly, and multitasking on ‌iPad‌ is faster.

There's a Liquid Glass slider for adjusting opacity to your taste, and Apple also made other Liquid Glass improvements to boost readability. You can also resize iPhone apps that are running on the ‌iPad‌.

‌Siri‌ AI and ‌Apple Intelligence‌ in ‌iPadOS 27‌ require an ‌iPad‌ with an M-series chip or the A17 Pro iPad mini. EU users won't get ‌Siri‌ AI on ‌iPad‌ when ‌iPadOS 27‌ launches, and it's also not available in China.

Older iPads won't get ‌Siri‌ AI or ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features, but they will get the performance improvements Apple added. Older iPads will feel faster on ‌iPadOS 27‌ than they do in iPadOS 26.
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Apple is working on a new iPhone Air that's expected to launch in spring 2027, reports Bloomberg. The updated ‌iPhone Air‌ could get an Ultra Wide lens in addition to the Wide lens to make it a better value for the money.


An ‌iPhone Air‌ with two camera lenses has reached the advanced testing phase. The device has the same design as the current model with the exception of the extra lens.

Apple also wants to improve battery life, either through an increased battery size or improvements to efficiency. Given that the design of the new model is similar to the current design, there may not be room for a larger battery. The device will use an A20 chip built on Apple's new 2nm process, so it could feature better efficiency.

Multiple prior rumors have suggested Apple is adding a second camera to the ‌iPhone Air‌ to address the main customer complaint about the device. The current model has a single rear lens with a Wide lens, which makes it inferior to the more affordable iPhone 17 in terms of camera quality. The ‌iPhone 17‌ has a two-camera setup, while the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have three cameras.

The next ‌iPhone Air‌ will come out alongside the iPhone 18 in 2027, with the iPhone 18 Pro, ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, and foldable iPhone set to debut in September.
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The Connectivity Standards Alliance that includes Apple today announced the latest version of Matter, Matter 1.6. The update focuses on improved device setup, better coordinated device management, and response to control inputs.


Matter 1.6 includes NFC-Based Commissioning for setting up light bulbs in ceiling fixtures, in-wall switches, and other products that need to be configured prior to installation. It allows for setup before the device is fully powered, and it serves as an alternative to Bluetooth LE setup. Users will just need to hold a smartphone near a device to commission it.

For multi-ecosystem device sharing, Matter 1.6 supports "Joint Fabric" as a new approach that expands the Enhanced Multi-Admin toolkit. Joint Fabric lets multiple user-authorized controllers co-administer a single shared Matter network. Any device added to the Joint Fabric is accessible to all participating controllers, which makes it simpler for Android and iOS users in a household to access and control Matter-enabled devices. Matter smart home products can be controlled from any interface or ecosystem without requiring a separate setup of every device for each platform.

Thermostat Suggestions improve how thermostats account for user inputs and preferences. Controllers won't send direct commands to change temperature or mode, but will instead submit a time-bound suggestion tied to the thermostat's supported presets so the thermostat can react based on preferences and environmental conditions. The CSA says the new feature will be helpful in the following situations:

• A user enrolled in a utility demand-response program can configure the thermostat to protect those commitments, preventing an automation from a different ecosystem from accidentally overriding a savings event.


• A user who has chosen to optimize for energy savings, or for humidity control, air quality, or another preference, can have the setting recognized and respected across connected services without needing to configure it in each one.


• A thermostat that was just manually adjusted, on the device or through one ecosystem, can recognize a suggestion arriving moments later from another source and will identify it is likely not what the user intended, and defer.

The update standardizes how devices communicate their capabilities and operational limits, and CO and smoke alarms are now able to indicate when they have been removed from their installed position. Security sensors are also able to interoperably indicate a sensor event history, so ecosystems have access to real-time status and past activity.

Matter 1.6 is available for device makers and platforms to integrate into their products. Apple so far has not been quick to implement new Matter specifications. Matter 1.4 was announced back in November 2024, but Apple Home doesn't support all of the Matter 1.4 features.

In tvOS 27, Apple implemented support for Thread 1.4, improving Matter-over-Thread connectivity. Thread credential sharing allows smart home devices to join existing Thread networks for a true mesh network instead of separate, parallel networks across Thread Border Routers from different manufacturers.
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Nimble this week debuted the SharePower, a USB-C power bank that can be used as a single charger or split into two chargers so it can be shared with a friend.


SharePower is a 10,000mAh power bank, with 5,000mAh available through each side of the device. The two halves attach together magnetically for charging a single smartphone, or come apart to charge two. We were able to test the SharePower before launch to see how it works.

Each side has an included USB-C cable. The left half has a 7-inch braided cable that doubles as a lanyard and it can tuck into the interior when the two halves are connected and the cable isn't in use. The right half of the power bank has a short pop-out USB-C cable. The side with the pop-out cable is nice because it attaches to the bottom of the iPhone and it's compact in size. The longer cable is useful if you need a bit more length when charging.


In our testing, both modules charged at the advertised speeds, but there was a faint electronic sound when charging, regardless of whether one module was in use or both modules were paired. 5,000mAh isn't enough to charge an iPhone 17 Pro Max to full, but the combined 10,000mAh can do so.

When paired, the two halves deliver up to 35W power to fast charge an iPhone, and when separated, each half offers 20W charging. There are two additional USB-C ports, one on each side, so up to four devices can be charged at one time when the power bank is separated, and three when it's combined. 20W is a little slow because the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ models need a higher watt charger to fast charge, but it's nice to have the option for splitting the charger if two people need power at once.

There's an LCD display that lets you know the remaining charge when the two halves come together and when they're separated, and it's a clever design. The left half has indicator lights so you can see the battery level when it's separated, and the right half has a percent reading. When the two halves are reunited, the percent reading changes to the combined total instead of just the battery level of the right half. When your device is fast charging, there's a green PD light.


There are smaller 10,000mAh power banks out there, but the dual design of the SharePower stands out. It measures 2.8 inches by 3.1 inches, and it is an inch thick. It weighs 7.6 ounces, and comes with an extra USB-C cable so you can charge it.

Nimble's SharePower is useful for anyone who has run into a situation where multiple people need to charge their iPhones at one time. With hundreds of power banks on the market, it manages to distinguish itself with added flexibility.

SharePower is available in white, blue, and pink. It can be purchased from the SharePower website or from Apple.com for $80.
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Visual Intelligence is getting a big upgrade in iOS 27. It's now easier to find than it was before, and there are new ‌Visual Intelligence‌ capabilities. Apple also expanded it to the iPad and the Mac, so you can use the same features across devices.

Camera App

Apple moved ‌Visual Intelligence‌ to the Camera app in ‌iOS 27‌, and it's accessible through a new Siri Mode that lives with the Photo, Video, and other camera mode options. You can swipe over to ‌Siri‌ Mode and take a picture so ‌Siri‌ can see what you see.


‌Siri‌ will give you details about whatever you're looking at when you swipe down, and you can ask follow-up questions.

‌Siri‌ Mode replaces Camera Control as the primary method for accessing ‌Visual Intelligence‌, but you can still get to it by holding down the Camera Control button.

Smart Suggestions

‌Siri‌ Mode will suggest relevant actions based on what you're taking a photo of. If you take a photo of a plant, ‌Siri‌ will offer to identify it. If you take a photo of a plate of food, ‌Siri‌ can give you the nutritional information.

Siri Integration

‌Visual Intelligence‌ is integrated with ‌Siri‌ AI, and ‌Siri‌ can answer questions about what you're looking at. Complex questions were previously handed off to ChatGPT, but that's no longer necessary.


The smarter, more capable version of ‌Siri‌ can do much of what ChatGPT can do, pulling information from the web to answer questions.

New iOS 27 Visual Intelligence Features

• Nutritional Insights - You can take a picture of a meal or a food item to check its nutritional value. ‌Siri‌ doesn't tell you specific calories in an item, but it can tell you if what you're eating has nutritional value and what's good or bad about it.


• Bill Splitting (U.S. only) - If you take a photo of a restaurant bill, you can split out what you ate and then send money via Apple Cash. Or calculate what everyone owes and request money.


• Import Multiple Events - You can import multiple events into the Calendar or Reminders app at one time from a schedule or list.


• Import Contacts - You can import contacts from a photo of a business card.


• Wallet Passes - You can turn a photo of a barcode from a membership or pass into a Wallet pass.

‌Visual Intelligence‌ is much more powerful than before because of ‌Siri‌'s ability to search the web for answers. It can read laundry labels and give you clear instructions, look up items and find reviews on the web, identify odd devices or cables and tell you what they're for, scale recipes, read ingredient lists for you to check for allergens, transcribe messy written notes or lists into text, decipher confusing parking signs, offer plant care advice, solve math problems on a worksheet, and whatever else you can think to ask AI to do.

Other Visual Intelligence Capabilities

‌Visual Intelligence‌ has a long list of things it can be used for, and these options have been available in earlier versions of iOS.

• Identify plants, animals, insects, landmarks, art, sculptures, books, and more.


• Add items to your calendar from a piece of paper like an event poster or flyer.


• Use Google Image Search to find similar images.


• Search Etsy, Amazon, Anthropologie, and other apps for an item that you capture with the camera.


• Provide details about a business in front of you, like hours of operation.


• Translate, summarize, and read text aloud.

Siri App Integration

All of your ‌Visual Intelligence‌ ‌Siri‌ requests are saved in the ‌Siri‌ app so you can revisit them later. The ‌Siri‌ app can be set to retain conversations for a month, a year, or forever.

Visual Intelligence on Other Platforms

Apple expanded ‌Visual Intelligence‌ to iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, and visionOS 27. On Mac, you can use a Command-Shift-Space keyboard shortcut to access ‌Visual Intelligence‌ and select a part of your display to ask a question about. On ‌iPad‌, you can access ‌Visual Intelligence‌ by taking a screenshot or swiping up from the lower left corner with Apple Pencil.

On Vision Pro, you can use ‌Visual Intelligence‌ just by looking at something, including physical items around you.

Device Requirements

‌Visual Intelligence‌ in ‌iOS 27‌ requires an iPhone 15 Pro or later. For Mac, you need an Apple silicon chip, and on the ‌iPad‌, you need an Apple silicon chip or the A17 Pro iPad mini.
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Apple today released a new firmware update for the Beats Studio Buds. The firmware, 1B211, addresses a Bluetooth vulnerability.


Apple's security support document for the update says it fixes a bug that could allow an attacker in Bluetooth range to listen through the microphone of the device.

The vulnerability would only be affected if someone was in Bluetooth range and the Studio Buds were not yet paired and seeking pair requests.

The bug was in open source code, and Apple Software was among the affected projects.

Updating the firmware of the Beats Studio Buds can be done by pairing them with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, putting them on a charger, and keeping them in Bluetooth range of the paired device.
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Apple is celebrating International Day of Yoga with an Activity Challenge that takes place on Sunday, June 21. To earn the in-app award, Apple Watch owners must record a yoga workout of 10 minutes or more.


Any yoga workout will fulfill the requirement, as long as you select the yoga workout type from the Workout app on the Apple Watch or use an app that adds yoga workouts to the Health app.

Share your practice with the planet on the International Day of Yoga. Record a yoga workout of 10 minutes or more on June 21 to earn this award.

Apple Watch owners who complete the challenge will be rewarded with an award in the Fitness app and a set of animated yoga stickers that can be used in the Messages app.








Apple holds Activity Challenges for various holidays and events throughout the year. Apple previously celebrated Global Running Day on June 3, and will likely have another challenge to celebrate National Parks in August.
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Apple today released new firmware for the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods Pro 2. The firmware has a version number of 8B41, up from 8B40 for the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ and 8B39 for the AirPods Pro 2.


There is no word on what's included in the new firmware, but Apple has a support document with limited notes. Most updates are limited to bug fixes and performance improvements.

To get the updated firmware, make sure your AirPods Pro are in range of your iPhone, iPad, or Mac and are connected via Bluetooth.

From there, connect your Apple device to Wi-Fi, put your AirPods in the Charging Case, and connect the Charging Case to power. Keep the case closed and wait at least 30 minutes for the firmware update to install. After that, check the version number and repeat the process if the update hasn't been installed.

Apple also released new 1B211 firmware for the Beats Studio Buds, up from 1B204.
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Snap today unveiled Specs, a pair of augmented reality glasses that it describes as a wearable computer built into a pair of see-through glasses.


Specs are made from Swiss TR90 polymer that Snap suggests is "plastic titanium" because of its light weight and durability. The glasses are light enough to be "worn for hours" and two sizes are available. The 47mm frame weighs 132 grams (4.7 ounces), while the 52mm frame weighs 136 grams (4.8 ounces). Prescription lenses can be easily inserted and swapped out for sharing glasses with friends and family.

The AR glasses include cameras and sensors that feed data to AI with contextual understanding. There are two full-color high-resolution cameras, two infrared computer vision cameras, and 6-axis IMUs for inertial sensing. There are two Snapdragon chips inside, with one processor running the lenses, and the other handling computer vision.


Specs have a 51-degree field of view and a stereo waveguide display with automatic tinting for different lighting conditions. The device uses liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) miniature projectors to project images to the display. Snap compares the field-of-view to a 115-inch screen viewed from 10 feet.


Stereo speakers are included for spatial audio, and there's a microphone array for audio input. The glasses have hand tracking capabilities for gesture control, along with voice recognition and support for natural voice commands.

Specs last for up to four hours with mixed use, and there is a custom magnetic charging cable that can charge the glasses while they're being worn. They come with a charging case that supports 20 hours of use. Prior-generation Spectacles from Snap that were limited to developers only offered 45 minutes of battery.


Specs can be used for watching content like movies, videos, and TV shows, casting to a screen, writing on a whiteboard, and using the myriad existing Snapchat lenses. Specs can also connect to a computer, phone, or gaming system over USB-C to be used as a display.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel introduced the Specs at AWE USA 2026 and showed some of the experiences developers have created with Snap's Lens Studio. Since Specs can use lenses developed for Snapchat, there are already options for placing virtual items, playing mini games, getting DIY help, and more.


Lens Studio is getting agentic development for lenses, and there are developer integrations for Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor. Lenses are able to rely on APIs from OpenAI and Gemini for AI augmented reality experiences.

Specs are priced at $2,195 with a refundable $200 deposit, and they can be pre-ordered today. They're set to launch later this fall in the U.S., UK, and France.

Snap is beating multiple other tech companies to market with AR glasses, including Apple. Apple is developing augmented reality smart glasses with lenses, but the product won't launch for several more years. Apple's first glasses, which will be limited to AI capabilities and no built-in display, won't launch until late 2027.
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Apple today provided public beta testers with the second betas of iOS 26.6, iPadOS 26.6, macOS Tahoe 26.6, watchOS 26.6, and tvOS 26.6, with the software coming a day after Apple seeded the betas to developers and three weeks after the first public betas.


After signing up to beta test the software updates on Apple's beta site, public beta testers can download the new software using the Software Update section in the Settings app on each device.

iOS 26.6 has a feature that will let you know when you have blocked too many contacts, but the limit is in the thousands so most users may not ever see the messaging. There are also signs of a new iPhone anti-snatching feature that locks a stolen iPhone when it's grabbed from your hand.

No other major new features have been found in any of the software updates, with Apple likely focusing on bug fixes and security improvements. We're nearing the end of the "26" software cycle, with Apple planning to release iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, and more this fall.

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Apple will transition from 2-nanometer chips to 1.4-nanometer chips with the high-end 2028 iPhone models, reports Bloomberg. Chip supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will make the majority of Apple's A22 Pro chips, but Apple is also considering having Intel make some of them.


The current iPhone 17 models use a third-generation N3P 3-nanometer process. The iPhone 18 Pro, ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, and foldable iPhone expected in September 2026 will be the first to have chips built on a next-generation 2nm process. 2027 chips will also use the 2nm process, and then Apple will upgrade some chips to 1.4nm in 2028.

TSMC has been working on 1.4nm chips for several years, and its A14 node will bring up to 15 percent better performance than chips built on its N2 2nm node. Alternatively, the chips will offer the same performance but with 30 percent power savings.

Every step down in node size comes with higher production costs and limited capacity due to the difficulty of manufacturing the most advanced chips. Powerful and efficient chips from TSMC are in high demand from AI server manufacturers like NVIDIA, leading to a more limited supply for consumer devices. During Apple's last earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said ‌iPhone 17‌ models had been constrained during the quarter because Apple couldn't get enough A19 and A19 Pro chips from TSMC.

Apple has been aiming to diversify its chip supply chain, and it is rumored to be working with Intel. While Apple previously used Intel-designed chips in Macs, with the new agreement, Intel would make Arm-based chips using Apple chip designs.

Current rumors suggest Intel will make lower-end chips for devices like the iPad and Mac, but Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is aiming to revitalize Intel's chip manufacturing business by focusing on more advanced process nodes. Intel is developing its 14A node for 1.4nm chips, and it is expected to reach production in 2028. Prior rumors indicate Intel could make non-Pro iPhone chips in 2028.
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Apple is "ramping up" work on the 20th anniversary iPhone that it plans to launch next year, reports Bloomberg. Multiple rumors have suggested the device will have an edge-to-edge display with curved glass at all sides for a nearly borderless visual effect.


There will be two anniversary models similar in size to the iPhone 18 Pro and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max that are launching this September. The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max are expected to be the same size as current iPhone 17 Pro models, which suggests the anniversary iPhone could be available in 6.3 and 6.9 inch sizes.

Apple plans to release the 20th anniversary iPhones alongside a second-generation foldable iPhone. All three devices are going to adopt a 2-nanometer A21 chip. Apple has an iPhone 19 in the works too, and it is set to run a different A21 chip, likely a base chip instead of a Pro chip.

The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max coming this year will have an A20 Pro processor built on Apple's 2-nanometer process. The A20 will mark the first node upgrade in several years and will see Apple transitioning from 3-nanometer chips for its flagship iPhones.

The standard iPhone 18 is not coming this fall, with Apple instead planning to debut it in spring 2027. It will use a less powerful A20 chip that's also built on the 2nm process.
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Apple is working on camera-equipped AirPods that are expected to launch in late 2027 alongside the 20th anniversary iPhone and a next-generation foldable iPhone, reports Bloomberg.


The AirPods will be Apple's first wearable AI product. The cameras in the AirPods are not designed for taking photos and videos, and will instead send information about the wearer's surroundings to Siri. ‌Siri‌ will be able to answer questions about objects and whatever the wearer is looking at. Contextual reminders are a possibility, as are improved turn-by-turn directions when walking.

Apple already has a similar feature available through Visual Intelligence, which allows ‌Siri‌ to give details on photos that the user captures. In iOS 27, ‌Visual Intelligence‌ is accessible through the Camera app with a new ‌Siri‌ Mode.

The AirPods will look similar to the current AirPods Pro 3, but there will be cameras embedded in the stem. An included light will inform people around the wearer when the cameras are feeding data to ‌Siri‌.

Multiple rumors, including from Bloomberg, have previously suggested the AirPods with cameras could come in 2026. Apple apparently wanted to release the AirPods in 2026, but Apple's ongoing struggles with AI and a need to develop visual models capable of identifying objects around the user caused the AirPods to be delayed.

Bloomberg says all three devices are being tested with iOS 28, but timing "remains fluid and could change." Apple also has smart glasses in the works that could come as "early as the tail end of next year," which would presumably see the AirPods and the glasses launch at around the same time.
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The biggest change in iOS 27 is Apple's total overhaul of Siri, with ‌Siri‌ turning into ‌Siri‌ AI. Apple delivered on the features originally promised at WWDC 2024 and added new capabilities that turn ‌Siri‌ into a viable competitor to chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT.


‌Siri‌ AI is available in the ‌iOS 27‌ beta, but everyone will get access this fall. Below, we walk through everything new you can expect from ‌Siri‌.

Siri AI

‌Siri‌ AI is more knowledgeable, more capable, and unlike other chatbots, able to tap into your personal data in apps like Mail, Messages, and Photos. Apple says ‌Siri‌ has understanding and reasoning that wasn't available before, with four main improvements that change how ‌Siri‌ works.


All of the different ‌Siri‌ functions come together to allow ‌Siri‌ to do far more than it could before. You can have full back-and-forth conversations with ‌Siri‌, and include multiple tasks in a single request.

Personal Context Understanding

Apple overhauled its search index, and ‌Siri‌ has access to emails, text messages, files, photos, notes, and more. ‌Siri‌ can find content from across your apps, but it also understands that content. You can ask ‌Siri‌ to surface photos, bring up information from emails or texts, or find files, and the Apple Intelligence semantic index behind the scenes finds what you need.

• What was that movie my brother told me to watch last week?


• Can you get me the directions to that place I was supposed to meet Eric tomorrow?


• What video games did John recommend to me last year?


• Find images with pancakes from 2024


• What was the name of that restaurant I ate at in February?


• What's the confirmation number for my upcoming flight?


• What do I need to do tomorrow?


• Show me my photos from the music festival last weekend


• What's the door code Sarah texted me?


• Find the lease my landlord emailed me last month


• Who did I have lunch with two Tuesdays ago?

Broad World Knowledge

Apple can search the web for up-to-date information to answer questions about anything, similar to other chatbots. ‌Siri‌ can analyze documents and get information from the web for additional context, help come up with recipes, do party prep, help with homework, give gardening tips, assist with DIY projects, and much more.

• When is the Suki Waterhouse show in SF?


• How can I get tickets?


• I'm planning a birthday party, can you find me some good cake recipes?


• What's the difference between pine warblers and goldfinches?


• What's the Hurricanes score?


• What are the hours for the closest Ace Hardware?


• What's a good substitute for buttermilk?


• What's a 15% tip on $84?


• Help me plan a 5-day trip to Lisbon

Onscreen Awareness

‌Siri‌ knows what's on your screen and can answer questions about it. ‌Siri‌ can tell what you're looking at, read text, and analyze images.

‌Siri‌ can tell you where a photo was taken if there's something recognizable in it, and you can ask questions about any app you're in without having to provide specifics.

• Where was this photo taken?


• Summarize this


• Can you give me directions here?


• What are the best native plant options for a shady spot near my house?


• Does this document look correct?


• What is this?


• Translate this menu


• Explain what this chart is showing

App Actions

App Actions allow ‌Siri‌ to use tools in apps to complete requests. ‌Siri‌ can use some apps on your behalf, including apps from Apple and third-party apps that have implemented App Actions support.

• Write a quick response to this email


• Send all the photos from today to Eric


• Add a 3pm Tuesday meeting with the neighbor to my calendar


• Add these photos to the cat album


• Get me directions to the post office, but add a stop at the coffee shop first


• Move my 2pm meeting to Thursday

Siri Design

On the iPhone, a new Search and Ask ‌Siri‌ interface replaces the former Spotlight search option, and it's available from the Dynamic Island. A swipe down from the middle of the iPhone's display brings up Search or Ask, where you can type or speak a question or request to ‌Siri‌.


An animation is displayed as ‌Siri‌ is thinking, and then the ‌Siri‌ bubble expands into a short response. If you swipe down on a response, it brings up a text bar where you can provide clarification or ask another question. A "+" button lets you add images or documents to the conversation.

Some responses use rich information cards pulled from apps. If you ask ‌Siri‌ about the weather, you'll see the current weather forecast. If you ask about upcoming calendar events, you'll see them listed in the Calendar app format.

You can also access ‌Siri‌ by pressing the side button or by using the "‌Siri‌" and "Hey ‌Siri‌" wake phrases.

Systemwide Context

‌Siri‌ works in any app. You can select text or images, then ask ‌Siri‌ about the selection. If you see an image in Safari you want to know more about, you can long press it to select and then ask ‌Siri‌ whatever you want about it.

Siri App

There is a dedicated ‌Siri‌ app where you can start new conversations or revisit past conversations you've had with ‌Siri‌.


The app has a card-style interface with details on your most recent conversations across all of your devices. You can also use the search button to find conversations, and there's a pin option for conversations that you revisit frequently.

Write with Siri

In ‌iOS 27‌, you can write with ‌Siri‌ anywhere you type with a systemwide Write with ‌Siri‌ feature. ‌Siri‌ can draft documents from scratch, and in Mail and Messages, it can use the same writing style that you normally use.

‌Siri‌ can give you feedback on your writing if you select your text and ask ‌Siri‌ how it sounds, and as you type in apps, there's automatic proofreading for misspellings and grammar. ‌Siri‌ can also edit, and you just need to describe the change that you want to make to something you've written, such as changing the tone to be more professional.

• Make this email sound more formal


• Turn these bullet points into a paragraph


• Shorten this to three sentences


• Draft a thank you note for a gift


• Rewrite this to be friendlier


• What do you think of this presentation?


• How can I improve this email?

Apple's AI Models

The Apple Foundation models used for ‌Siri‌ and other ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features in ‌iOS 27‌ are the result of Apple's collaboration with Google. Apple used the technologies behind the Gemini AI models to develop the next generation of Apple Foundation models.


Apple's AI models are integrated into iOS and coordinated with a system orchestrator that can use the Spotlight index and the app toolbox.

The Spotlight index surfaces data from any app that integrates with it, such as Mail, Calendar, and Messages. The app toolbox identifies which app tools might be useful to answer a request.

Siri Voice

Apple has a more powerful on-device model for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air, allowing for a customizable ‌Siri‌ voice. Apple says its on-device model can understand and generate speech, plus understand text and images. You can tweak expressivity and pace when customizing ‌Siri‌'s voice.


The on-device model also improves accuracy for system-wide dictation thanks to better natural language understanding. Dictation is better at capturing what you're saying, and it makes fewer mistakes with spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.

Privacy

Apple's ‌Siri‌ features run on-device and on cloud servers using Private Cloud Compute. Data is not accessible to Apple or third parties.

Private Cloud Compute servers have historically all been Apple servers in Apple data centers, but Apple is expanding Private Cloud Compute to run ‌Apple Intelligence‌ workloads on Google Cloud using NVIDIA hardware.

Cross-Platform Availability

‌Siri‌ AI is available in ‌iOS 27‌, iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, visionOS 27, and watchOS 27, so you can start a ‌Siri‌ request on one device and revisit it on another device.


‌Siri‌ conversations sync across devices, and the ‌Siri‌ app is available on most of Apple's software platforms.

‌Siri‌ AI features are also available when using CarPlay and AirPods.

Device Requirements

‌Siri‌ AI requires a device that supports ‌Apple Intelligence‌, including the iPhone 15 Pro and later.

‌Siri‌ AI will not be available in the European Union at launch on iPhone or iPad, but it will be available on the Mac. It will not be available in China.

Language Support

‌Siri‌ AI works in English (Australia, Canada, Ireland, India, New Zealand, South Africa, UK, U.S.), and will expand to more languages in the future.
This article, "Siri AI in iOS 27: Features, Requirements, and How It Works" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple is planning to unify the email domains used by Sign in with Apple and iCloud+ Hide My Email under a single private.icloud.com domain.


Addresses generated for both features will be issued on the new domain, Apple says.

Sign in with Apple addresses currently use the privaterelay.appleid.com domain, while ‌iCloud‌+ uses icloud.com. Later this summer, both will use the same private.icloud.com domain.

Email addresses that use the legacy domains will continue to work and mail will be forwarded with no interruption.

Developers with apps or websites that use Sign in with Apple will need to make sure their account systems, email validation logic, and allowlists accept addresses on the private.icloud.com domain in addition to the existing domains. Email service providers may also need to update domain-based filtering, suppression lists, or routing rules to include the private.icloud.com domain.

Regular users won't need to do anything, and both features will continue to work as expected.
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Apple is teaming up with Nike for an Apple Card promotion that gives extra Daily Cash back.


For the next month, ‌Apple Card‌ users can get 6% Daily Cash back when making a purchase with ‌Apple Card‌ using Apple Pay at a Nike retail store, the Nike website or Swoosh website, or Nike's apps.

The ‌Apple Card‌ normally offers 3% cash back on Nike purchases, so the bonus is doubled during the promotion period (June 15 to July 15).

‌Apple Card‌ holders can get the 6% Daily Cash back on up to $500 in purchases, for a total of $30 back. The deal is available to ‌Apple Card‌ owners, co-owners, and participants, so multiple family members can take advantage of the bonus offer.

Most ‌Apple Pay‌ purchases provide 2% Daily Cash, but Apple has partnered with companies like Nike to increase that to 3%. Extra cash back is available when using ‌Apple Pay‌ and ‌Apple Card‌ for purchases at Ace Hardware, Apple retail stores, ChargePoint, Duane Reade, Hertz, Booking.com, Uber, and Walgreens.
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Apple today provided the second beta of an upcoming macOS Tahoe 26.6 update to developers for testing purposes, with the update coming almost three weeks after Apple seeded the first beta.


Developers can download the ‌macOS Tahoe‌ 26.6 update by opening up the System Settings app, selecting the General category, and then choosing Software Update. Beta Updates will need to be enabled, and a free developer account is required.

With macOS Golden Gate set to launch in just a few months, Apple is likely focusing most of its attention on the new software. We are not expecting any major new features in ‌macOS Tahoe‌ 26.6.
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Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 26.6 and iPadOS 26.6 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming three weeks after Apple seeded the first betas.


Registered developers can download the betas from the Settings app on the iPhone or iPad by going to the General section and selecting Software Update.

With iOS 27 set to launch in September, Apple is wrapping up work on iOS 26. We are not expecting any major new features in the iOS 26.6 update, and it will primarily focus on bug fixes and performance improvements.

The update adds new wording around blocked contact limits, letting users know when they have exceeded the maximum number of blocked contacts. The update might also include a new anti-snatching feature that locks your iPhone if it's grabbed from your hand.
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Apple today provided developers with the second betas of upcoming watchOS 26.6, tvOS 26.6, and visionOS 26.6 betas for testing purposes. The software comes three weeks after Apple seeded the first betas.


The software updates are available through the Settings app on each device, and because these are developer betas, a free developer account is required.

There's no word on what's in the software as of yet. watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS often get few features in each new beta, with updates primarily focusing on bug fixes and performance improvements.
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Safari is one of the apps that Apple focused on in iOS 27, and it includes multiple new Apple Intelligence features. From automatically organizing tab groups to custom extensions, Safari is getting useful new capabilities.

Automatic Tab Organization

Safari uses ‌Apple Intelligence‌ to organize your open tabs into relevant topics, grouping like concepts together to make it easier to browse your open tabs.


If you're searching for a new couch while also planning a weekend trip, websites that you open for each topic are grouped together. Automatic sorting can be enabled by tapping on the icon with three lines in the upper right of the display while in tab view and turning on the Automatically Create Topics setting.

This same Safari menu also lets you see all of the groups and filter by topic so you can open just the tabs related to a specific topic while avoiding the other tabs.

There is a new "Resume Browsing" section of the Start Page that lets you continue browsing topics you recently closed or topics you have open on other devices.

You can also group pages you've saved to Bookmarks and Reading List by topic.

Custom Extensions

You can use AI to create Safari Extensions in ‌iOS 27‌ with Apple's new Create an Extension option.


In the Safari settings accessible from the left of the URL bar, tapping into Create an Extension brings you to an interface where you can type in whatever you want an extension to do. Apple also includes suggestions in categories that include Boost Productivity, Improve Focus, Get Creative, and Develop and Design. Some of Apple's extension suggestions:

• Create a citation for the current webpage and copy it to my clipboard


• Create a 3-minute focus timer for the page


• Set the minimum font size to 14pt


• Turn the page into pirate speak


• Style websites like 90s websites with bold colors and type


• Every time I open a new tab, draw me a different flower


• Highlight and show the dimensions of webpage elements when I tap on them


• Enter the design mode for a website so that I can edit the contents

Notify Me

Safari can monitor a website for changes and alert you when new information is detected. Apple says it's useful for monitoring when concert tickets go on sale or watching for a product to be restocked.


To use it, navigate to a website, then tap on the settings icon to the left of the URL bar, and choose the Notify Me option. You can type in what you want Safari to watch for and set a frequency and a time.

At most, Safari will check websites once per day at a set time, with weekly and monthly checks also available.

Passwords

The Passwords app can use Safari to automatically change flagged weak and compromised passwords, turning them into strong passwords.


The feature uses ‌Apple Intelligence‌ to automatically navigate to eligible websites, sign in, and update your password with a tap.

Ask to Browse

Apple added new parental controls in iOS 27, including an "Ask to Browse" feature that requires children to get parental approval before visiting a new website.

Performance Improvements

Apple says Safari's power efficiency has improved, so it will drain less battery. Web apps and start page content load faster, JavaScript handling is faster, and animations and graphics are smoother.

Compatibility

Safari features like automatic tab grouping, custom extensions, and custom notifications require ‌Apple Intelligence‌. ‌Apple Intelligence‌ is available on the iPhone 15 Pro and later.

Availability

‌iOS 27‌ is in beta, and it is set to launch in fall 2026 alongside new iPhone models.
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Apple is phasing out support for Rosetta 2, which is a feature that allows Intel-based apps to run on Apple silicon Macs. Rosetta is going to stop working for most apps in macOS 28, and when that happens, apps that use it will stop working.


Apple began warning customers and companies about the upcoming sunsetting of Rosetta with macOS Tahoe, and the warnings go even further in macOS Golden Gate.

If you have apps that still use Rosetta, you'll get a warning every time you restart your Mac or open an Intel app. ‌macOS Golden Gate‌ also adds a new list where you can check which apps are going to stop working in the future.

You can get to the list by going to Settings > General > About > Intel-Based apps and clicking on the "Details" option.

The interface lists all of the apps that are going to stop working, giving Mac users plenty of time to contact app developers or find alternative apps.


‌macOS Golden Gate‌ does not install Rosetta automatically, so if you still have these outdated Intel apps, there will be a short installation when you try to open one for the first time after upgrading to Golden Gate. Authentication plugins and other pre-login utilities that require Rosetta fail to load in ‌macOS Golden Gate‌ because of the limitation.

Apple designed Rosetta to help users and developers transition from Intel to Apple silicon, but Apple phased out the last Intel-based Mac years ago. Apple only sells Apple silicon Macs, and it is slowly ending support for Intel-based models.

‌macOS Tahoe‌ was the final version of macOS available for Intel Macs, and ‌macOS Golden Gate‌ requires a Mac with an Apple silicon chip.
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macOS 27 Golden Gate is in beta ahead of a fall release, and we thought we'd go over what's new for those who don't want to risk beta software on their Mac. macOS Golden Gate adds Siri AI, Liquid Glass updates, and multiple new Apple Intelligence features.


‌Siri‌ on the Mac lives in Spotlight. Command + Space brings up a new Search or Ask interface for searching for files on the Mac or asking ‌Siri‌ a question. ‌Siri‌ is able to access data on the Mac, and it can answer the same general questions any chatbot can answer. The combination of personal context and world knowledge lets ‌Siri‌ do some things that are unavailable to other AI services like ChatGPT or Claude.

‌Siri‌ answers appear in Spotlight with an option to ask follow-up questions, but there's also a standalone ‌Siri‌ app where you can find all of your past ‌Siri‌ interactions. ‌Siri‌ is also integrated into the system for features like Write with ‌Siri‌. ‌Siri‌ can compose emails and messages for you in your own writing style, check your grammar, or just give you general feedback on what you've written.

Apple brought Visual Intelligence to the Mac, and it's available through the screenshot interface. When activated, you can select an area of your display that has something you want to know more about, and ‌Siri‌ can answer questions you have. In apps like Safari, you can select text or images, then ask ‌Siri‌ about your selection. Many of the same ‌Visual Intelligence‌ features that are on iPhone have carried over to the Mac, so ‌Siri‌ can identify plants and animals or even tell you the nutritional value of food in an image, which is a new feature this year.

‌Apple Intelligence‌ makes many of the built-in Mac apps better. Safari can group similar tabs together by subject, Passwords can automatically change weak passwords for you, Photos has new AI editing tools for changing framing and perspective, and Image Playground can generate photorealistic images.

Shortcuts uses AI to build shortcuts for you based on natural language requests, Calendar supports natural language event input, Mail search is better than before with quick action suggestions, and the Messages app also supports AI suggestions for actions you might want to take, like inserting a photo to send to a friend.

Apple updated Liquid Glass in ‌macOS Golden Gate‌. There's a slider for adjusting overall system opacity, refraction and contrast have been improved, sidebars are unified with less wasted space, and Apple has removed many of the unnecessary icons from menu bars.

If you have a Mac that can run Golden Gate, you're going to get ‌Siri‌ AI and the ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features. ‌Apple Intelligence‌ works on all Apple silicon Macs, and Golden Gate doesn't run on devices with an Intel chip.

EU users can't use ‌Siri‌ AI on the iPhone and the iPad because Apple isn't making it available yet, but ‌Siri‌ AI is available on macOS in the European Union.
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Apple was rumored to be working on an AI health service, but it was scrapped well before the iOS 27 beta came out. It could resurface in the future, but for now, there are a handful of health and fitness changes in the update.

Design

Apple redesigned the Browse section of the Health app, and it now uses a card-style interface instead of a list. It is more colorful and easier to see the different categories.


The app also has a single bottom navigation bar that incorporates a search/browse button, instead of a separate search button.

Visual Intelligence

Visual Intelligence has a new nutrition feature that can tell you the nutritional value of what you're eating. You can open the Camera app to the new Siri mode and take a photo of a food item to get feedback.


It does not give exact calorie counts, but it lets you know if a food is heavily processed, if it has protein, if it's high in sugar, and more. It gives food a nutritional value ranking between very low and very high. Data does not sync to the Health app, but it's still useful.

‌Visual Intelligence‌ requires an iPhone 15 Pro or later.

Cycle Tracking

Cycle Tracking is expanding with perimenopause/menopause support. The Health app now sends notifications when logged cycle patterns are suggestive of perimenopause.


The feature uses long-term cycle data to flag the perimenopause hormonal transition that can begin a decade or more before menopause. Cycle deviation alerts are based on the user's logged cycle history and are for users age 40 and above.

Users can keep track of symptoms and access educational resources that offer guidance and support.

Apple also added new Fitness+ workouts for perimenopause and menopause.

Faster Data Updates

Data syncs to the Health app quicker than before thanks to performance improvements Apple implemented.

Child Safety

There are several new Child Safety features that give parents more control over the content their children are seeing. Apple is including guidance based on expert health research to help parents make decisions about managing child accounts.

Route and Distance Accuracy

Route maps that populate the Fitness app after workouts are more accurate in ‌iOS 27‌. During treadmill workouts, distance is also reflected more accurately than before.

Step Count

Step counts will sync between the Health and Fitness apps.

GymKit

GymKit has expanded to the iPhone, which can pair with treadmills, indoor bikes, and other exercise equipment for data syncing. GymKit was previously an Apple Watch feature, but now iPhone users won't need a watch to use it.

GymKit can sync calories, distance, speed, incline, and pace.

Launch Date

‌iOS 27‌ is available to developers, with a public beta planned for July. It will launch to the public this fall.
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Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi and marketing chief Greg Joswiak sat down for an interview with Mostly Human after during WWDC, discussing the iOS 27 Siri changes, Apple's take on AI, new child safety protections, and more.


Apple set out to deliver an AI utility, not an AI companion. When asked whether users could create an AI boyfriend or girlfriend with the new Siri, Federighi said absolutely not. ‌Siri‌ is meant to help, and Apple didn't want to focus on engagement like other AI companies. From Federighi:

Quite the opposite, because as you may know, if you use many of the existing chatbots, they're really focused on engagement to a large degree. And sycophancy, right? They kind of want to pull you in. They might encourage you to reveal things about yourself, and then use that as a basis to establish a connection.

We view it quite the opposite. I mean, the way that we have designed Siri, Siri really wants to say 'Listen, that's not what I'm here for, right? I'm here to help you. I can help you get things done. I can help you learn about the world.' But if you try to engage Siri as a romantic partner, Siri's not up for that. Siri's 100 percent not into that.

Joswiak said Apple didn't want to do AI for AI's sake, and the company wanted AI to blend in with existing iPhone features.

We like when technology disappears, right? You just focus on what you want to do, or you focus on the content. And it's the same thing with AI. [...] We don't do AI for AI's sake. 'Hey, look at us, we're doing AI.' It's how does AI make everything better? And that makes our products better, our features better.

He went on to say that he doesn't want iPhone users to have to be "prompt experts" to use AI. "We want to meet them where they're at," said Joswiak. "Have the products and features become better, and this is just a really helpful technology in making those features and products better."

Federighi wanted to make it clear that Apple's approach to AI is privacy forward.

I think it's a challenging thing for a lot of people to understand the distinction between what your iPhone knows and what, say, Apple as a company knows. Your iPhone is yours, right? Your data is yours and it stays on your phone and your control and Siri is using it for you. Apple doesn't get to know any of this stuff, and that is very different than I think most players in the space, and I think super important.

The full interview covers other topics like child safety, AI and jobs, iOS 27 features, Apple's 50th anniversary, the future of AI, scammers, and much more.
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United States Senators Chuck Grassley and Amy Klobuchar this week reintroduced the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) that targets major tech companies like Apple, and Apple is not happy to see it back.


The bipartisan bill is reminiscent of the Digital Markets Act in the European Union, banning large platforms from favoring their own products or services, limiting competitors' access to key platform features, locking users into default settings, and more. It is a reworked version of the same bill that did not reach a floor vote back in 2022.

In a statement to MacRumors, Apple said AICOA will undermine privacy, security, and child safety protections, while also making it more difficult to do business in the U.S.

We strongly disagree with the Senate's consideration of European-style regulation that would hamper innovation and force changes consumers never asked for, while undermining the privacy, security and child safety protections they rely on every day. Apple is proud to be an engine of innovation, job creation, and economic growth in the U.S., where some of the world's most innovative companies have designed technology that has changed the world. Importing Europe's failed policies will not increase competition -- it will make it more difficult to do business right here at home.

AICOA aims to "restore online competition and affordability" by preventing digital platforms from "abusing their market power to stifle competition, undercut online businesses and raise prices for American consumers." It would permit the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general to challenge online platforms for exclusionary conduct that harms competition.

It is applicable to platforms that have at least $175 billion in average annual gross revenue and reach 34 percent of U.S. subscriber households or 34 percent of U.S. monthly active users over the age of 12. Apple would be subject to the restrictions should AICOA pass. Companies are barred from the following under the current AICOA wording:

• Unfairly favoring their own products or services.


• Misusing nonpublic business-user data to copy and compete against small businesses.


• Unfairly limiting competitors' access to key platform features.


• Blocking business users from accessing or moving their own data from one digital platform to another.


• Retaliating against users or business users who raise legal concerns.


• Unfairly enforcing terms of service in ways that harm competition.


• Conditioning companies' access to the platform, or product placement on the platform, on purchase or use of unrelated services.


• Locking users into default settings.


• Skewing ranking or presentation against similarly situated business users.

Apple says AICOA would have the same impact as the Digital Markets Act, harming innovation, weakening privacy protections, and delaying new product features. Most recently, Apple said it would not be able to bring Siri AI to the European Union when iOS 27 launches because of an inability to reach an agreement with the European Commission on the DMA's interoperability rules.

Like the DMA, AICOA would allow for third-party app marketplaces and alternative payment methods, which Apple maintains will undermine the user protections of the App Store. Apple also says the AICOA rules mandating open platform access would give the most sensitive user data to any company that wants it.

Bill sponsors say AICOA was written to "preserve safety, privacy, intellectual property, national security and constitutional protections," and that it includes language to ensure covered platforms are able to prevent fraud and protect safety, user privacy, nonpublic data, or platform security.

Along with Apple, AICOA would impact Google, Amazon, and Meta. It is endorsed by Mozilla, Proton, DuckDuckGo, Yelp, and Y Combinator, among others. Senators Josh Hawley, Dick Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Cory Booker are co-sponsors.
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The Photos app is one of a handful of apps that Apple paid extra attention to in iOS 27. It has multiple improvements to performance, and several quality-of-life upgrades. There are also new AI photo editing tools that use Apple Intelligence.

AI Tools

There is a set of AI photo editing tools in the ‌Photos‌ app, accessible by tapping on the icon featuring three sliders, and then selecting the ‌Apple Intelligence‌ icon labeled "Tools."

Clean Up

Clean Up uses new AI models, and it's better at removing objects. The original version of Clean Up was best for small items with little complexity in the surrounding area, but now it is able to do more work reconstructing backgrounds with generative AI.


There are now three options for object removal. Fast works more quickly and can still be used for simple edits, while High Quality works better for more detailed scenes. Auto lets the ‌Photos‌ app decide which option is best.

Extend

Extend lets you change the crop of an image, expanding the borders around content to zoom out a bit or change the photo's composition. It uses generative AI to fill in missing areas, and you can adjust the borders with pinch gestures.


Apple also uses the Extend feature for expanding iPhone Lock Screen wallpapers that don't quite fit the display.

Reframe

Reframe can change the perspective of the photo, making adjustments to the angle of a person or object. It draws on the spatial information the iPhone gathers when a photo is taken, and combines it with AI to change the angle of the camera in post-processing. The spatial data is used for adjusting the subject of the image, and then AI fills in any pixels that are missing.


Reframe uses touch and drag gestures to adjust perspective, and two fingers for panning, zooming, or rotating an image to get the right angle.

Image Playground

While not part of the ‌Photos‌ app, the Image Playground app can be used to make photorealistic edits to your image. If you have a photo of a friend and want to add a hat or an accessory that looks real, you can do so with ‌Image Playground‌. You can select specific areas in an image to modify and make AI edits using natural language, plus there's an option to combine images.


‌Image Playground‌ can be used for free, but there will be daily caps, with extra usage available through iCloud+ plans.

Videos to Photos

You can now save a frame of a video as an individual photo.

Metadata

Apple now lets you add keywords and star ratings to photos and videos in the ‌Photos‌ app. You can rate images with one to five stars and then filter images by rating.

Album Changes

Apple improved album organization in ‌iOS 27‌ and added new features for Shared Albums, including an option for Android and Windows users to contribute to ‌iCloud‌ albums.

• Shared Albums can be filtered by photos or videos.


• It's easier to save images from Shared Albums.


• You can set Shared Albums to expire after 30 days, which is useful for sharing photos without having a permanent album.


• It's easier to invite people to Shared Albums with a dedicated "Create Shared Album" option in any album menu.


• You can create a link for people to upload images to a Shared Album, and there are new permissions so you can require explicit access to be granted.


• Shared Albums have a recent activity log.


• You can react to images in Shared Albums with any emoji.

Slideshows

You can create a slideshow from any album or collection of images in the ‌Photos‌ app instead of being limited to what's in the Memories section. Just tap into an album, tap the icon in the upper right of the display, and choose "Start Slideshow." Alternatively, select several photos and then follow the same steps from the main Library interface.


Slideshows can be customized with transition styles, slide duration, and background music. The resulting file can be shared on social media, and saved as a video.

Utilities

There are two new Utilities folders in the ‌Photos‌ app. Captured by Me includes all of the images that you've taken from the Camera app on your current or past iPhone, while Identity Documents aggregates pictures of passports, licenses, and similar documents.

iCloud

In the ‌Photos‌ section of the Settings app, there's a "Sync Immediately" option that lets you prioritize immediate ‌iCloud‌ uploads for the day.


With the setting enabled, iCloud Photos will sync as soon as new images enter the ‌Photos‌ Library instead of holding uploads to save battery.

Full-resolution photos and videos can be added to ‌iCloud‌ Shared Albums, with support for all common photo and video formats.

Other Changes

• You can select a specific pet to use with the Photo Shuffle wallpaper.


• Search returns more pleasing photos of people and pets in Top Results.


• The Collections tab is faster to render.


• New captures from the Camera app load quicker in ‌Photos‌.


• You can include images of yourself in Photo Shuffle.


• A "Show Selected" option in the Library shows you all of the photos you have checked so you can modify metadata.

Compatibility

The AI photo editing tools are available on devices that support ‌Apple Intelligence‌, which includes the iPhone 15 Pro and later. Performance and organizational tools are available on devices that run ‌iOS 27‌, which includes the iPhone 11 and later.
This article, "What's New in the iOS 27 Photos App" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today shared a new ad highlighting AirPods Pro 3 Active Noise Cancellation.


The ad stars Vini Jr., a Brazilian professional footballer who plays for Real Madrid and the Brazil national team, and it arrives as the 2026 FIFA World Cup gets underway. In the spot, Vini Jr. dances through the streets to music only he can hear.

Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak shared the video on social media, and a short version is also on Apple's AirPods Pro 3 website.

Apple says the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ have the "world's best in-ear Active Noise Cancellation" based on a July 2025 evaluation in accordance with IEC 60268–24 as compared with best-selling commercially available wireless in-ear headphones. The ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ remove up to 2x more noise than the AirPods Pro 2, and up to 4x more than the original AirPods Pro.

The ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ are priced at $249, and along with Active Noise Cancellation, the earbuds feature spatial audio, heart rate sensing, hearing aid functionality, Live Translation, and more.
This article, "Apple Touts 'World's Best' AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancellation in New Vini Jr. Ad" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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