Apple today extended its 2026 Back to School Promotion until September 24, which means it will last almost a month longer than planned. The extension is applicable in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and multiple countries in Asia.


The Back to School promotion offers a free item or gift card when students or educators purchase an eligible Mac or iPad model, plus an educational discount.

In the United States, Canada, Mexico, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand, Apple is offering a gift card with purchase. In the U.S., that includes a $150 gift card when purchasing a MacBook Pro or a $100 gift card when purchasing a MacBook Air, iPad Pro, or iPad Air.

In China, Singapore, and Vietnam, customers can get a pack of four AirTags with the purchase of select devices, while customers in India can get a pack of four AirTags, AirPods 4, or Apple Pencil Pro depending on the device bought.

The MacBook Neo, iPad mini, entry-level ‌iPad‌, desktop Macs, and iPhones are excluded from the promotion. UNiDAYS verification is required to make a purchase.

Apple previously planned to end its Back to School promotion on August 27.
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Elon Musk's SpaceXAI today announced the launch of Grok Bot, a "team of always-on agents" that can complete tasks using tools, websites, and apps. Grok Bot can work in the cloud, so jobs keep running when your laptop is closed. The feature is tied to Cursor, the AI coding company that SpaceX is acquiring for $60 billion.


Grok subscribers can send a message to a bot from their phone or desktop app using natural language. SpaceXAI says that while other tools may require building workflows and routines, Grok Bot gets a task done with a chat. It is able to sign into websites (even those with no API), but SpaceXAI hasn't given details on how authentication works.

Multiple bots can be used in parallel, with one managing others and specialists for different tasks. Bots can join a group chat where they can coordinate on their own, passing work, assigning ownership, and only drawing in the user for judgment calls.

Users can teach Grok Bot a workflow. It watches as a task is completed, saves the routine, and then can run it solo the next time by following the same steps. SpaceXAI says bots learn over time and can eventually start working "before you need to ask."

There are several Grok Bot examples on the SpaceXAI website, like a sales bot updating the CRM with call transcript notes, an ops bot onboarding new hires and processing invoices in Gmail, and an engineering bot reproducing a bug in the product UI, filing a ticket, and handing the fix task off to a debugging bot.

Grok Bot is in beta and available for SuperGrok Heavy, Cursor Ultra, and Cursor Teams Premium subscribers on macOS and iOS. Enterprise users can join a waitlist for future access.
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Apple has again failed to earn a stay for fee calculations in its ongoing legal fight with Epic Games. Apple's case will be heard by the Supreme Court in the term that begins in October, and Apple asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to pause proceedings until then, but the court said no [PDF].


Apple now has 24 hours to give the court an outline of the fees it wants to charge developers for using alternative payment options and linking out to purchase options on the web. ‌Epic Games‌ will then be able to give a legal analysis of Apple's fee proposal, and the court will decide what's reasonable.


Fee calculations are the result of a long, drawn-out dispute between ‌Epic Games‌ and Apple, which started when Epic sued Apple in 2020. Apple largely won the initial legal fight, but was ordered to change its anti-steering rules to let developers link to non-App Store purchase options. Apple complied, but charged a 12 to 27 percent fee that resulted in few developers choosing to use the option.

‌Epic Games‌ accused Apple of violating the court's order and U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed. In April 2025, she found Apple in contempt of court for willfully violating her ruling, and stopped Apple from collecting any fees on links in the U.S. App Store.

Apple appealed, and the appeals court upheld the contempt ruling, but said Apple was entitled to reasonable fees for its intellectual property. The appeals court sent the case back to the district court to figure out what a reasonable fee might be. Apple has not been able to collect payment for link-outs since April 2025, and right now, there are no fees.

The appeals court ruling that continued to hold Apple in contempt led Apple to appeal to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Apple sought a pause on the fee calculations because the higher court's decision could undo the contempt ruling, but the appeals court, Supreme Court, and now the district court have denied Apple's pause requests.

The court will now determine a fee, and Apple will need to change its ‌App Store‌ rules to comply. The fee that's set in this legal battle could have implications well beyond the United States because Apple told the Supreme Court that regulators around the world are watching to see the outcome.
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Apple today released new AirPods beta firmware available for public testers. The firmware has a build number of 9A5336b, and it is available for the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, AirPods 4, and AirPods Max 2. It is the same as the AirPods beta released for developers last week.


In iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS Golden Gate, Apple is adding a new AirPods interface, a slider for Adaptive mode, and support for custom EQ, so the firmware lets public beta testers use those features. AirPods are also compatible with the new Siri AI.

When the AirPods are connected to an iPhone, iPad, or Mac running iOS 26, iPadOS 26, or macOS 26 or later, there is a beta firmware option that can be accessed in the AirPods settings interface. Toggling on beta updates allows users to install the beta firmware.

Firmware updates can be downloaded by connecting the AirPods to an Apple device and connecting them to power. It can take a few hours for new firmware to be installed because there is no software update option like there is for other Apple devices.
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Apple Pay executive Jennifer Bailey is retiring and leaving Apple in October, reports Bloomberg. Bailey has been with Apple since 2003 and has long overseen ‌Apple Pay‌ and Apple Wallet.


In an employee memo announcing her departure, Apple's services chief Eddy Cue said Bailey will be available in an advisory role.

After more than 25 years at Apple, Jennifer Bailey has decided to retire in October. During her tenure, Jennifer has made extraordinary contributions from leading the Apple Store Online through a period of significant growth and global expansion to overseeing the launch of Apple Pay.

Under Jennifer's leadership, Apple Pay has changed the way hundreds of millions of our users pay, with a simpler, more secure, and private experience. She also led the development and growth of Apple Wallet, oversaw the development and launch of Apple Card, and led our work in Services fraud prevention and partner operations, Gift Cards, and Trust and Safety. And those are just a few of her achievements.

On a personal note, Jennifer has been an incredible friend and leader, and I will miss working with her.

Please join me in thanking Jennifer for her incredible contributions to Apple. Before Jennifer's transition at the end of October, we will announce our succession plan, and Jennifer will continue to be available to support the transition in an advisory role.

As we continue to work toward our vision of replacing the physical wallet, I'm more confident than ever in the work that we are all doing and look forward to an exciting future ahead.

Bloomberg says Bailey's retirement is "seen as a major loss" for the company. ‌Apple Pay‌ has expanded to more than 80 countries under Bailey's leadership, and Apple says it is accepted at more than 85 percent of retailers in the United States.

Bailey is one of several Apple leaders who have retired or are retiring in the near future. Apple general counsel Kate Adams is leaving Apple in late 2026, while environmental chief Lisa Jackson left in early 2026. AI chief John Giannandrea and COO Jeff Williams retired in 2026 and 2025, respectively, and UI design lead Alan Dye departed for Meta in late 2025. Apple CFO Luca Maestri and marketing chief Phil Schiller have taken on smaller roles, and CEO Tim Cook is set to transition to a new role on September 1. Other executives like ‌Eddy Cue‌, Craig Federighi, Deirdre O'Brien, and Greg Joswiak have all been with Apple for decades and are getting closer to retirement age.
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Apple's AirPods Max 2 have hit $449.00 on Amazon this week, down from $549.00. This sale is available in all five colors and it's the best price we've seen on the headphones since June.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Free delivery has the AirPods Max 2 arriving around August 16, but Prime members should see same-day delivery options in many locations. We haven't seen the AirPods Max 2 hit their all-time low price since June, so if you've been waiting for a solid deal, today's your chance to save on the headphones.



If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.

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Apple today released the third public beta of macOS Golden Gate, allowing non-developers to test the software ahead of its fall release. You can sign up to test the update on Apple's beta website, and then download it by going to System Settings > General > Software Update and toggling on the macOS 27 beta.


‌macOS Golden Gate‌ includes the same Siri AI features as iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, but you get to ‌Siri‌ through Spotlight with a Command + Space keyboard shortcut. ‌Siri‌ can search the web to answer questions, look through your personal data like photos, emails, and messages to help you find what you're searching for, and complete actions in and between apps. There is a dedicated ‌Siri‌ app, and you can hold ongoing conversations with ‌Siri‌.

Apple brought Visual Intelligence to the Mac, so ‌Siri‌ can look at what's on your screen and answer questions about it.

The Liquid Glass design introduced last year has been updated, and Apple added a slider for controlling overall system transparency. Liquid Glass opacity has been changed so it better diffuses complex content, and other design changes bring more depth and separation to the UI so it's easier to tell which window is active.

Apps now feature uniform toolbars with headings and controls that are easier to read, and windows no longer have such dramatically rounded corners. Sidebars are no longer floating and extend edge-to-edge, plus window positioning is more consistent across external displays.

Write with ‌Siri‌ is able to generate text from scratch, correct your grammar, or give you feedback on your writing, and there are new AI editing tools in the Photos app. In Shortcuts, you can create automations with natural language requests, and search has been improved in Mail and Messages. Apple made multiple performance improvements across ‌macOS Golden Gate‌ for a faster, smoother experience even on older Macs.

More on the new features in macOS 27 can be found in our macOS Golden Gate roundup.
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Apple today released the third public betas of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, allowing anyone with a compatible device to download and test the new software. The third betas come two weeks after Apple seeded the second betas.


You can get started by signing up on Apple's beta website and then opting in to the public beta by going to Settings > General > Software Update and choosing the ‌iOS 27‌ or ‌iPadOS 27‌ Public Beta option.

‌iOS 27‌ introduces Siri AI, a more capable version of ‌Siri‌ that can search the web, access your personal information, see what's on your screen, and take actions in and across apps. ‌Siri‌ in ‌iOS 27‌ is more similar to Claude or ChatGPT than the prior version of ‌Siri‌, with a dedicated ‌Siri‌ app for back-and-forth conversations. You can use ‌Siri‌ AI if you have a device that supports Apple Intelligence.

Apple updated the Liquid Glass design that debuted last year, adding a slider to adjust the transparency level and refining its look. There are new AI features in many of Apple's apps. Visual Intelligence moved to the Camera app and supports new features like getting the nutritional information for a meal or splitting a bill, and ‌Siri‌ is able to generate text for you or help you refine your writing with Write with ‌Siri‌.

There are new AI photo editing tools in the Photos app, Safari can organize your tabs automatically, and you can create Shortcuts and Safari extensions using natural language commands. AirPods have custom EQ, the Home app supports 4K video cameras, and there are new child safety controls for parents.

Apple made dozens of improvements to device performance, and everything feels faster, even on older iPhones. Apps launch quicker, AirDrop transfers are faster, the keyboard loads quicker, and more.

Additional information on the new features in ‌iOS 27‌ can be found in our dedicated iOS 27 roundup, with info on ‌iPadOS 27‌ available in our separate iPadOS 27 roundup.
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Apple today released the third public betas of tvOS 27 and watchOS 27, giving Apple TV and Apple Watch users a chance to try the new software ahead of its fall launch. There's also a new HomePod Software 27 beta for the ‌HomePod‌ and HomePod mini.


You can sign up for Apple's public beta testing program on the beta website, and then download the updates through the Settings app on each device.

‌watchOS 27‌ adopts Siri AI, and you can use ‌Siri‌ from your wrist as long as you have an iPhone that supports it. ‌Siri‌ AI can access your personal information, answer all kinds of questions, and complete tasks for you. There is a dedicated ‌Siri‌ app that's front and center on the watch in the new dynamic app grid that comes up when pressing the Digital Crown.

There's a new gesture for selecting a widget in the Smart Stack, plus Apple added Smart Stack suggestions for finding a parked car, accessing a transit card, and getting a birthday reminder.

Workout Buddy works without your iPhone nearby, treadmill run and walk distances are tracked more accurately, and Apple added a unified Find My app that also supports Precision Finding.

tvOS 27 has a redesigned Podcasts app, Hi-Res Lossless audio and AutoMix song transitions in Apple Music, and easier profile switching. With performance improvements, apps launch faster, animations are speedier, and devices connect more quickly when AirPlaying content.

More on what's new in the updates can be found in our watchOS 27 roundup and Apple TV roundup.
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In response to rising component prices, Apple has extended how long it holds OLED display panels in reserve, according to a report from ETNews, citing industry sources in South Korea.


Apple apparently moved from a four-week display supply buffer to six weeks starting in the second quarter of 2026. The move is unusual since Apple has long treated inventory as a cost to be minimized rather than built up, operating one of the leanest supply chains in the industry.

Deliberately stockpiling more panels for longer marks a noticeable shift in that approach, reportedly driven by a sharp rise in memory chip prices that's rippling out to other components. Buying more panels upfront, especially during quieter periods of sales cycle, will help the company stabilize prices.

Apple already raised prices on 14 products, including all Macs and iPads, in June. The iPhone 18 Pro is widely expected to see a price hike when it launches next month.

Samsung Display and LG Display remain Apple's primary iPhone ‌OLED‌ suppliers, with BOE supplying a much smaller share out of China. A display industry official told ETNews the longer holding period is likely to stick, and expects it to stretch further once the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max launch.
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If you are subscribed to an iCloud+ plan with at least 2TB of storage, you will receive new perks in the Home app on iOS 27, according to Apple.


Starting with iOS 27, Apple said iPhone users who are subscribed to an iCloud+ plan with at least 2TB of storage receive access to three new Apple Intelligence features in the Home app: generated video descriptions for HomeKit Secure Video cameras, the ability to search for camera clips, and automatic surfacing of noteworthy clips.

According to Stephen Robles, the Home app on the fifth developer beta of iOS 27 now indicates how many HomeKit Secure Video cameras are eligible for generated video summaries. Robles told us he had a total of 8TB of iCloud+ storage (6TB plus 2TB from Apple One), and this made him eligible for video summaries for up to 15 cameras.


Based on the screenshots that Robles shared in a social media post, it appears that upgrading to the maximum 12TB iCloud+ plan may have an even higher limit.


Apple also said select iCloud+ plans provide increased daily usage limits for other new Apple Intelligence features, including image generation in the revamped Image Playground app. However, Apple has yet to list the specific limits for each iCloud+ plan, with those details likely to be shared by time iOS 27 is out of beta in September.

Apple said the new features are limited to higher iCloud+ plans because they rely on "powerful server models," which are undoubtedly more expensive to run. In other words, Apple is limiting these AI features to paying customers.
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Apple today announced that "Block Blast!+" and "Art of Fauna: Cozy Puzzles+" are coming to Apple Arcade on September 3, adding two more puzzle games to the service's catalog.



Block Blast!+ is the Arcade edition of "Block Blast," a chart topping block clearing puzzle game. Players fill a grid with block shapes to clear full rows and columns, chasing bigger combos as they go, and the Arcade version drops the ads found in the free to play original.

Art of Fauna: Cozy Puzzles+ is based on "Art of Fauna: Cozy Puzzles," winner of the 2025 App Store Award for Cultural Impact. Players reconstruct vintage style nature illustrations piece by piece while learning facts about the animals depicted, and the game offers a text based alternative to the visual puzzles for players with visual or cognitive impairments.

The two new titles join an existing roster of Arcade puzzlers, including the dungeon crawling combat puzzler "Grindstone," the pipe connecting puzzle game "Flow Free+," and the word search title "Crossword Jam+." "Everyday Puzzles: Mini Games+" and "Water Sort Puzzle: Get Color+" are more recent additions to that same catalog.

A handful of existing Arcade games are also gaining new content this month. On August 12, "puffies." adds 28 new packs, including two collections themed around Oden Tomodachi and The Knights. Starting August 20, "Simon's Cat - Blast Time" is rolling out 200 new levels, with 50 arriving each week over the course of a month. And on August 26, "stitch." hits a milestone of 800 unique hoops, marked with a commemorative hoop and a new achievement.

September 3 brings a wider wave of additions to Arcade beyond the two new puzzlers. "NFL Retro Bowl '27" also gains its new Gauntlet Mode that day, tasking players with stringing together as many consecutive wins as possible using limited starting resources, with real NFL players and more perks the further they progress. "Coloring Games for Families+" launches with more than 3,000 activities aimed at players of all ages, while "Let's Play! Oink Games+" brings nine of the developer's board games to Arcade, supporting solo play, offline multiplayer, and online matches.

‌Apple Arcade‌ is a subscription service that provides access to hundreds of games across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. All of the games are free of ads and in-app purchases. In the U.S., ‌Apple Arcade‌ costs $6.99 per month, and it is also bundled with other Apple services in all Apple One plans. ‌Apple Arcade‌ can be accessed through the ‌App Store‌ and the Apple Games app.
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Apple is facing a proposed class action lawsuit accusing it of fraud and false advertising over a security flaw in iCloud Private Relay, according to 9to5Mac.



The suit was filed by the Clarkson Law Firm, which accuses Apple of deceiving ‌iCloud‌+ subscribers with its marketing of Private Relay, the feature meant to shield a user's IP address and DNS records while browsing in Safari. The firm alleges Apple knew, or should have known, that its privacy claims about the feature were false and misleading at the time it sold the subscriptions.

Clarkson previously took Apple to court over the delayed rollout of personalized Siri features, a case that ended in a $250 million settlement. That deal was reached in December 2025, though the payout terms were not made public until May.

Clarkson partner Tim Giordano said Apple had built its reputation on privacy promises, and argued that ‌iCloud‌+ subscribers paid a premium for protection that failed to hold up, calling it "an outrageous violation and betrayal of consumer trust and law."

The lawsuit points to a set of WebKit issues that security researchers detailed earlier this month. The most serious ties to passkey sign-ins: a site can trigger a passkey check that gets handled by the device's operating system rather than Safari, bypassing Private Relay's proxy servers entirely, sometimes without showing any passkey prompt at all, even on a site that only claims to support them.

Two further issues, tied to DNS prefetching and the WebTransport protocol added in iOS 26, can also expose a user's real IP address or DNS servers under certain conditions. Since WebKit powers every browser on iOS, the exposure is not limited to Safari.
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Apple Arcade upgrades its catalog of hit puzzle games with Block Blast+ and Art of Fauna: Cozy Puzzles+.

LG is hosting a big Back to School sale on its website this week, with deals on monitors, TVs, home appliances, and more. LG's discounts have been automatically applied and do not require any discount codes or special memberships.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with LG. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Highlights of the event include up to $700 off select LG monitors and up to $2,700 off LG's best TV sets. Regarding the TVs, discounts include big savings on the new 2026 LG OLED evo AI sets, like the 65-inch LG OLED evo AI C6 4K Smart TV for $1,799.99 ($900 off) and the 65-inch LG OLED evo AI G6 4K Smart TV for $3,299.99 ($100 off).



This sale has been running for a few days now, and we're seeing stock running low on a few of LG's TVs. You can opt in to be notified if a TV is out of stock, and LG will send you an email when they've returned and are available to purchase.

TVs

50-inch

• 55-inch LG UHD 4K Smart TV - $299.99 ($80 off)


• 50-inch LG QNED mini LED 4K Smart TV - $329.99 ($20 off)


• 55-inch LG QNED evo AI 4K Smart TV - $749.99 ($149 off)


• 55-inch LG Gallery TV with Frame 4K Smart TV - $899.99 ($400 off)

60-inch

• 65-inch LG QNED mini LED 4K Smart TV - $459.99 ($20 off)


• 65-inch LG OLED AI B6 4K Smart TV - $1,699.99 ($300 off)


• 65-inch LG OLED evo AI C6 4K Smart TV - $1,799.99 ($900 off)


• 65-inch LG OLED evo AI G6 4K Smart TV - $3,299.99 ($100 off)

70-inch

• 75-inch LG 4K Nano AI Smart TV - $599.99 ($100 off)


• 75-inch LG Mini LED 4K Smart TV - $679.99 ($120 off)


• 77-inch LG evo AI 4K Smart TV - $2,199.99 ($1,500 off)


• 77-inch LG OLED evo AI C5 4K Smart TV - $2,199.99 ($1,500 off)


• 77-inch LG OLED evo M Series 4K Smart TV - $2,299.99 ($2,700 off)


• 77-inch LG OLED evo AI C6H 4K Smart TV - $2,999.99 ($700 off)


• 75-inch LG Micro RGB evo AI 4K Smart TV - $3,799.99 ($1,200 off)


• 77-inch LG OLED evo AI G6 4K Smart TV - $4,299.99 ($200 off)


• 77-inch LG OLED evo AI W6 4K Smart TV - $4,799.99 ($700 off)

80-inch+

• 86-inch LG QNED 4K Smart TV - $1,299.99 ($399 off)


• 100-inch LG QNED evo AI mini LED 4K Smart TV - $3,499.99 ($999 off)

Monitors

• 34-inch UltraGear Curved Monitor - $249.99 ($150 off)


• 34-inch UltraWide Curved Monitor - $299.99 ($200 off)


• 34-inch UltraGear OLED Curved Gaming Monitor - $699.99 ($600 off)


• 27-inch UltraGear OLED Gaming Monitor - $599.99 ($400 off)


• 32-inch UltraFine 6K Monitor - $1,299.99 ($700 off)

Appliances

• 24-inch FlushFit Top Control Dishwasher - $799.00 ($350 off)


• 26 cu. ft. Wide Bottom Freezer Refrigerator - $1,799.00 ($400 off)


• 27 cu. ft. Side-by-Side InstaView Refrigerator - $1,899.00 ($700 off)


• Single Unit Front Load WashTower - $1,899.00 ($700 off)


• 27 cu. ft. Smart InstaView French Door Refrigerator - $1,949.00 ($950 off)


• Washer/Dryer LG WashCombo All-in-One - $2,199.00 ($1,100 off)


• 30 cu. ft. Smart French Door Refrigerator - $2,599.00 ($1,400 off)

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.

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While the iPhone 17 Pro has double the base storage compared to the iPhone 16 Pro, there will apparently be no further increase this year.


In a report this week estimating that the iPhone 18 Pro's bill of materials will be nearly 40% higher than the iPhone 17 Pro, Taiwanese research firm TrendForce said the iPhone 18 Pro will start with 256GB of storage, matching the iPhone 17 Pro's minimum capacity. The report did not explicitly mention the iPhone 18 Pro Max, but the Pro and Pro Max models have started with the same amount of storage for the past two generations.

Minimum storage capacities by model:

• iPhone 16 Pro: 128GB


• iPhone 17 Pro: 256GB


• iPhone 18 Pro (rumored): 256GB

Even though it does not expect an increase in base storage, TrendForce said that retail price increases for the iPhone 18 Pro models are "unavoidable" due to increased costs for components. RAM costs have increased significantly due to the ongoing memory chip shortage, and prices for storage and A20 Pro chips are also expected to be higher.

According to reports, iPhone 18 Pro starting prices in the U.S. could be $200 to $300 higher compared to iPhone 17 Pro starting prices. If so, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max could start at up to $1,399 and $1,499, respectively.

In June, Apple raised prices on all Macs and iPads, as well as the Apple TV, HomePod, HomePod mini, and Vision Pro. The increases ranged from $30 for the HomePod mini to up to $1,300 for a high-end Mac Studio configuration.

Apple said it raised prices because of the ongoing memory chip shortage, resulting from companies building out data centers with powerful AI servers. The supply-demand imbalance has led to skyrocketing prices for RAM and SSD storage chips used in a wide range of Apple products, and Apple has now passed those costs on to customers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook previously commented that price increases were "unavoidable" due to "a hundred-year flood" on memory pricing.

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 18 Pro models in September.
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Apple Pay will launch in India by this October, reports Business Standard, citing people familiar with the matter. Apple Pay will support major credit card networks like Visa and Mastercard, but it won't support transactions via the country's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at launch.

Apple would need clearance from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for that to happen, plus it would need to partner with a sponsor bank for routing the transactions. Negotiations are said to be ongoing.

Bloomberg reported in February that Apple has been in talks with major Indian banks in a bid to get Apple Pay up and running in the country this year.
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Macworld reports that iOS 27 beta 5, released to developers on Monday, contains hidden code revealing six unreleased iPhone models – although you've probably heard of them before.


The following references are said to have been found alongside references to existing iPhone models, in system files associated with the iPhone's battery drivers and Battery Intelligence features:

• V62 — iPhone Air 2


• V63 — iPhone 18 Pro


• V64 — iPhone 18 Pro Max


• V67 — iPhone 18


• V68 — iPhone Ultra


• V69 — iPhone 18e

It's the first time the full iPhone 18 lineup has been mentioned in code found in an iOS 27 beta. To be clear, the discovered references are the codes in bold, excluding the names (which are inferred) but these internal Apple identifiers have appeared in previous leaks or have been used by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his reporting, allowing them to be matched to the expected iPhone models.

Apple has not publicly confirmed the existence of any upcoming iPhone 18 models, but regular readers will know that they have been heavily rumored for several months now.

Apple is taking a different launch approach to the iPhone 18 series this time around, with a split-launch strategy that will see the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone Ultra unveiled in September. For the first time, the regular iPhone 18 will be launched in the spring of 2027 alongside the iPhone 18e and iPhone Air 2.
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BOE wants a share of the OLED supply chain for Apple's next iPad Air, aiming to land a secondary sourcing role behind primary supplier Samsung Display, according to a report from South Korea's The Elec.


Sources cited by The Elec say the Chinese panel maker is building out its iPad Air ‌OLED‌ effort at its B12 fab in Chongqing, home to BOE's sixth-generation ‌OLED‌ production line, ahead of the launch of a redesigned ‌iPad Air‌ that isn't expected to launch until the first half of 2027. Samsung Display already holds the lead supply role for that panel and is on track to begin ramping production toward the end of this year or the start of next, as previously reported.

BOE still has to clear Apple's qualification process. Samples reportedly still need to be submitted for evaluation, and a verdict on whether the company wins any commercial orders is not expected until closer to the end of the year. Even a favorable outcome may only translate into modest volume at first, with output confined to ‌iPad Air‌ units destined for the Chinese market or to refurbished devices, rather than the entire global launch.

The sources put BOE's qualification decision at some point in November or December, noting Apple typically finalizes production approval just one to two months ahead of mass production actually starting. Should BOE fall short of that bar, Samsung Display will end up carrying the entire initial production run by itself.

Becoming a supplier for the ‌OLED‌ ‌iPad Air‌ would be a meaningful expansion for BOE, which has experience providing ‌OLED‌ panels for the iPhone, but has struggled to break into larger ‌OLED‌ products. Samsung Display and LG Display have held onto that ground in tablets specifically, and BOE has lost, rather than gained, footing elsewhere in Apple's ‌OLED‌ lineup recently; its utilization on Apple-dedicated lines reportedly slid from roughly 82% in 2024 to about 48% earlier this year as Apple is set to lean on Samsung instead for the upcoming ‌OLED‌ iPad mini.

The redesigned ‌iPad Air‌ is expected in 11 inch and 13 inch sizes, with a hybrid ‌OLED‌ panel pairing a glass substrate with thin film encapsulation, a single stack RGB emissive layer, and an LTPS backplane, with a refresh rate of 60Hz. That keeps it below the iPad Pro's tandem stack ‌OLED‌ panel on cost, while still moving the ‌iPad Air‌ away from an LCD.

BOE is also reportedly pursuing a secondary supplier role for Apple's ‌OLED‌ MacBook Pro from its 8.6 generation B16 fab in Chengdu, but persistent yield problems there make commercial shipments to Apple unlikely soon. Industry sources do not expect BOE to enter that supply chain until sometime after 2028.
This article, "iPad Air OLED Panel Orders Could Be Split With BOE in 2027" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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About 95% of my Debian contributions this month were sponsored by Freexian.

You can also support my work directly via Liberapay or GitHub Sponsors.

OpenSSH

Now that Ubuntu 26.04 LTS has been released, I’ve been getting back to the GSS-API key exchange package split in our OpenSSH packaging. Once I started testing my draft openssh-gssapi source package, I realized that I needed to make some changes in the main openssh source package first in order to support it. The dependency from openssh-server to openssh-client was awkward, as was the (related) fact that openssh-client contained shared documentation for other OpenSSH binary packages. After some thought, I created a new openssh-common binary package, moved shared documentation and the ssh-keygen program to that, and dropped dependencies on openssh-client which were no longer necessary (fixing #699473 and #1070098 in the process).

This caused a couple of regressions (#1141420 and #1141550) that I had to fix, and more subtly it also caused a number of autopkgtest regressions in other packages because openssh-client is no longer in base images as a result of a dependency from openssh-server. I believe I have fixes for all of these either pending review or merged (one of which I did in August rather than July):

• curl
• diffoscope
• glome
• golang-github-appleboy-easyssh-proxy
• parsyncfp2
• rsync

I upgraded from 10.3p1 to 10.4p1, and in the process contributed a GSS-API option handling fix upstream.

I made openssh-ssh1’s package description more accurately describe the package, thanks to suggestions from Matthias Lang.

Installer team

With support from a Freexian customer, I reviewed, tested, edited, and merged a patch to add VLAN support. I described the details of what I did in a comment.

This has been vaguely on my to-do list since, er, about 2014, so it was very satisfying to get it sorted out.

Python packaging

New upstream versions:

• cryptodatahub (fixing a build failure)
• dep-logic
• django-q
• flufl.lock
• more-itertools
• multipart
• pyasn1 (fixing CVE-2026-59884, CVE-2026-59885, and CVE-2026-59886)
• pytest-rerunfailures
• python-auditwheel
• python-build
• python-certifi
• python-datamodel-code-generator (fixing a build failure, and an incompatibility with pydantic 2.13 that I reported upstream)
• python-django-parler
• python-httplib2
• python-pgbouncer
• python-time-machine
• python-treq
• python-typing-extensions
• python-wheezy.template
• storm
• ubelt
• webpy
• zope.testing

Other build/test failures:

• django-q: autopkgtest failure with Python 3.14 (reported upstream)
• httpx: FTBFS: E assert [(‘uvicorn.ac…1.1 200 OK”’)] == [(‘httpx’, 20…1.1 200 OK”’)]
• libntruprime: autopkgtest failures with Python 3.14
• pygments: Handle None object before HTML escaping (fixed build failures in cmd2, gunicorn, python-inline-snapshot, and python-openapi-core)
• python-authlib: some of tests/flask/test_oauth2/rfc9068/ failed
• python-click: autopkgtest regression with pytest 9.1 (contributed upstream)
• python-httplib2: FTBFS: ERROR tests/test_proxy.py - Failed: ‘forked’ not found in markers configuration option
• python-maturin: Please upgrade goblin dependency to 0.10
• python-memray: FTBFS on armhf (segfault)
• python-mne: FTBFS: E pytest.PytestRemovedIn10Warning: Passing a non-Collection iterable to parametrize is deprecated (actually fixed in scikit-learn; contributed upstream)
• python-softlayer: autopkgtest fails with python3-click 8.3.3 (contributed upstream)
• python-urllib3: FAILED test/contrib/test_pyopenssl.py

I fixed some other bugs:

• django-pipeline: Fails to build source after successful build
• more-itertools: Please mark python3-more-itertools with M-A: foreign

I adopted transaction for the Python team.

I attended the Python BoF at DebConf remotely, although a badly-timed fibre outage in the village I live in really didn’t help.

Code reviews

• openssh: sshd-session built without crypt(), breaking UsePAM=no password auth (merged and uploaded)
• openssh: Slovak debconf templates translation (merged and uploaded)
• python-treq: Fails to build source after successful build (merged and uploaded)
• python-better-exceptions: FTBFS: failing tests (sponsored upload for Seyed Mohamad Amin Modaresi)
• yubihsm-connector: patch to make the build reproducible (merged and uploaded)

Other bits and pieces

Dan Poltawski pointed out in a Fediverse post that the project history didn’t list Sruthi as the current DPL. I fixed that, although it doesn’t look as though the fix is in the published version yet.

I upgraded yubihsm-shell to 2.8.0.

Bluesky now lets you hide reposts from a specific person in your feeds if they're getting a bit spammy for your liking. You can hide reposts from individual users by clicking the three dots button in their profile and selecting "Hide reposts in feeds."

Bluesky told The Verge it will also be launching a feature that will auto-add post numbers to threads, which should make it easier for users to gauge how long a thread will take to read. The beta feature can be enabled in Bluesky's settings.
This article, "Bluesky Now Lets You Hide Reposts From Specific Users in Your Feeds" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Aiming to refute a report from Jefferies analyst Edison Lee earlier today that claimed Apple's all-glass iPhone planned for the device's 20th anniversary next year has been canceled, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that the "glass-centric" redesign remains on track for 2027.


Gurman says that the 20th-anniversary iPhone will make heavy use of glass, with the front and rear wrapping around the edges to sandwich a thin metal band.

The company expects to launch iPhone Pro models next year that will make use of a new glassy look, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is confidential. Glass is used on the front and back of the phones — known internally as V73 and V74 — and the material will curve into the sides of the devices, with a metal band in the middle.

Gurman does mention a "more aspirational version" that "used even more glass," but says that design "was scrapped early on" in the development cycle.

It's possible that this more ambitious design is the one Lee was referring to in today's report, but Gurman implies that it was discarded some time ago, rather than being a more recent development as Lee had suggested.

Lee's report also appeared to suggest that the all-glass design would have been for an all-new model, saying the Jefferies analysts believed Apple's plan was to "extend the all-glass features to future iPhone Pro and Pro Max models," but we have not heard anything about such a potential additional model in quite some time. All recent rumors have been pointing toward the glass-heavy design already being for the Pro and Pro Max models in next year's lineup.
This article, "Apple Still Planning 'Glass-Centric' iPhone Redesign for 2027" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple is working on "Apple Reference Image," a photo provenance system that will verify if an image was captured with an iPhone. References to the feature were found in a privacy disclosure included in iOS 27 beta 5, but it is not live yet.


According to the text, there will be a "Reference" mode option in the Camera app that users can select. Using this mode will embed provenance data in the image's metadata.

Images captured with an opt-in Reference mode can be authenticated to confirm they were taken with an iPhone. Authenticating is done by tapping the Reference badge on the image, which sends the raw image, sensor signatures, capture time frame, and the unique hardware identifiers of the sensor to Apple's Private Cloud Compute (PCC) servers. PCC uses the information to determine whether the camera captured the photo, gives it a unique ID, and then returns an authenticated version to the user's device.

When authenticating a photo, Apple receives sensor data, a hash, and the assessment results, but not the raw photo. Apple can refuse to authenticate images from a sensor that might be compromised, and it can retroactively revoke a sensor's past authentications.

Authenticated photos can be viewed on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and the Reference badge can also be clicked on a Mac. Images have to be captured in Apple's specific Reference mode to be authenticated, which suggests it's a feature aimed at pro photographers, journalists, and others who need to verify images. There may also be a video component, since Apple's disclosure mentions "photos or videos" and "uncropped footage."

Reference mode offers hardware-backed evidence that an image was captured with a physical camera sensor, which is useful at a time when AI can generate realistic-looking images. AI images are often watermarked or labeled through metadata to make sure they can be identified as fake, including images from Image Playground.

Camera manufacturers like Leica, Sony, and Nikon use C2PA Content Credentials for authentication, and Google also adopted it for the Pixel 10 lineup. Apple's authentication system sounds like it serves a similar purpose.
This article, "iOS 27 Hints at 'Apple Reference Image' Photo Authentication" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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We're a little over a month away from the launch of iOS 27, and Apple is continuing to make changes. The fifth beta of ‌iOS 27‌ changes the look of some app icons and adjusts Liquid Glass, plus it adds some smaller features that make the iPhone just a little nicer to use.

App Icons

There are updated Liquid Glass icons for Safari, Siri, Settings, Remote, App Store, and Preview. Some of the icons have been entirely redesigned, while others feature more detail than before.

Siri AI Voice Customization

Voice customizations for ‌Siri‌ AI have been expanded, and Pace and Expressivity can be adjusted for all seven American voices and the four British voices.


‌Siri‌ AI voice customization is done on-device, so the feature is limited the iPhone 17 Pro, ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ Max, or iPhone Air.

Contacts

If a contact you've created has a company associated with it, the company name will show in the contact list under the name and in search. It makes it easier to see more information on a contact without having to tap into the contact card.

Create a Pass

The Apple Wallet Create a Pass feature is now available outside of the U.S.

Splash Screens

Apple added splash screens for the Photos, Wallet, and Music apps, explaining what's new in ‌iOS 27‌.

Search and Ask

Apple made minor changes to the animation when bringing up Search or Ask. The suggestions interface now comes up as the search bar does rather than popping up slightly afterward.

The search interface also now has a "Search the Web" option at the bottom of results that was not there before.

Apps in Search

You can now decide whether search should show app results, and if so, how many. You can turn off app results, have it show four apps, or have it show eight apps. There's also a toggle for showing app shortcuts.

Control Center

When connected to Wi-Fi, the Control Center no longer shows information on cellular connection.

5G

5G+ is now available in Spain.

Software Updates

When you look at your software version in Settings > General > About, it now tells you when the last update was installed.

Clock

There is a thicker font for the Alarms and Timers section of the Clock app.

Liquid Glass

The clearest Liquid Glass setting is clearer than it was in the prior beta.

Mail

There's now a toggle for the Personalize Smart Replies feature in the Mail app. It's off by default and can be turned on in the Mail section of the Settings app.

Battery

The Battery section of the Settings app will now let you know if a poor cellular connection is causing battery drain.
This article, "Everything New in iOS 27 Beta 5" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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On Saturday 25 July 2026, the annual Debian Developers and Contributors Conference came to a close. The Debian Press team would now like to share this personal and beautiful message from the Santa Fe Local Team.

Words from DC26 Local Team

DebConf26 is over, and those of us who were part of the Local Team are trying to return to “normality”, if such a thing exists after organizing a DebConf.

This event changed our lives and would not have been possible without the help of many great people.

We would especially like to thank everyone who became part of our extended local team. Our endless thanks go to Gunnar —who also instigated this whole adventure—, Santiago, Nattie, Stefano, and Olasd. Thank you for supporting and guiding us, sharing your experience, and helping us find solutions throughout the entire process.

It was also made possible thanks to the great work, strong support and patience of international teams: Fundraising, Bursaries, Content, Video, Treasury, Visa, Website, Accommodation, Front Desk, Cheese and Wine, Publicity as well as all the other teams and individuals who contributed. We apologize if we have forgotten to mention anyone; many people helped make this event possible.

Our deepest thanks also go to everyone who joined us in working on the event, especially Fer, José, and Julián, who showed great commitment and took responsibility for several important tasks.

We would also like to extend our gratitude to FICH, the Universidad Nacional del Litoral, the institutions, organizations, sponsors, suppliers, and everyone who contributed in one way or another to welcoming the Debian community to Santa Fe.

And finally, a very special thank you to our families, to whom we dedicated little time these past few weeks, who supported us on this adventure, enduring the exhaustion, the calls and messages at all hours, and the occasional stressful situation. Always giving us that much-needed, encouraging hug with so much love.

These were very intense weeks, during which we tried to give our best so that everyone could enjoy their stay and so that the Debian community had the necessary conditions to meet, work, share knowledge, and continue creating the magic that characterizes community life and the development of Debian.

As happens at every DebConf, there were difficulties, unexpected situations, and challenges that required us to improvise, learn, and perform a few juggling acts. There were also moments that will certainly remain as memorable anecdotes: the “antisocial room”, some gas heaters worthy of a museum, and newly unlocked powers for negotiating with suppliers.

We have no evidence, but also no doubt, that for many people the Conference Dinner was one of the best moments of the event.

A few ingredients we had hoped would happen naturally were missing, such as more wine nights and at least one in-person football match.

During the two weeks of DebConf, we experienced every kind of weather and a wide range of emotions. Above all, however, we saw people enjoying themselves and building friendships, which fills us with pride.

Thank you very much to everyone who came and helped DebConf26 leave such a beautiful mark on our hearts.

We hope our paths cross again somewhere in life.

Best regards,

Leonardo, Emmanuel, Mariano, Pablo, and Martín DebConf26 Local Team

About Debian

The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of the largest and most influential Open Source projects. Thousands of volunteers from all over the world work together to create and maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal operating system.

About DebConf

DebConf is the Debian Project's developer conference. In addition to a full schedule of technical, social and policy talks, DebConf provides an opportunity for developers, contributors and other interested people to meet in person and work together more closely. It has taken place annually since 2000 in locations as varied as Scotland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, Korea, France. More information about DebConf is available from https://debconf.org/.

Contact Information

For further information, please visit the DebConf26 web page at https://debconf26.debconf.org/ or send mail to press@debian.org.