The week's biggest Apple stories revolved around a new Apple Card promo essentially offering free AirPods Pro 3 to new cardholders, as well as Apple's official announcement of the major WWDC 2026 events plus media invitations to the keynote.


Other popular topics this week included rumors about the upcoming foldable iPhone, tips and tricks for Apple Watch and iPhone, and more, so read on below for all the details!

Top Stories

New Apple Card Holders Can Get Free AirPods Pro 3, But There's a Catch

Late last week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman revealed that Apple would be launching a new promo to encourage users in the U.S. to sign up for Apple Card: a cash back promotion that would essentially offer free AirPods Pro 3 to new Apple Card customers.


The promo officially launched this week, and while it does offer the free AirPods Pro 3, there is a bit of a wrinkle. The cash back comes in the form of $25 per month over 10 months with a requirement that the Apple Card be used at least 10 times in a given month to qualify for that month's rebate.

Apple Announces WWDC 2026 Schedule, Sends Media Invites

Apple this week provided a schedule for its 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference, which starts on June 8 and runs through June 12. Apple also sent out invites to members of the media who have been invited to attend an in-person keynote viewing at Apple Park.


Both the invites and schedule confirm that the WWDC 2026 keynote will begin at the usual time, 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time or 1:00 p.m Eastern Time.

MacRumors will be on hand for keynote day and will have full coverage of WWDC announcements throughout the week.

Foldable iPhone Production Stalls Amid Hinge Issues

Trial production of Apple's long-anticipated foldable iPhone, likely called the "iPhone Ultra," has run into a significant engineering hurdle centered on hinge reliability, according to a known leaker.


The leaker known as "Instant Digital" posted on Weibo that the foldable device's hinge is consistently failing to meet Apple's quality control standards under conditions of prolonged, high-frequency opening and closing. The leaker described the mechanical wear issue as one that "must be resolved with absolute perfection; otherwise, progress will simply have to be stalled for the time being."

The issues are reportedly unlikely to delay the phone's launch, as Apple still has time to get the kinks worked out and ship the device later this year. Rumors have already suggested that availability could come a bit later than that of the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max that are expected to be introduced at the same time in September.

Apple Watch: 15 Tips Every Owner Needs to Know

Apple Watch is now eleven generations in, and packed with useful features that are easy to miss at first glance. To help you get more out of your device, we've rounded up 15 practical tips you might not have discovered yet, including a few that long-time users often overlook.


We also took a look at 10 useful tips and tricks for iPhone that may make your life easier but which can be a bit hidden.

iPhone 17 Pro Named Fastest-Charging Smartphone

Apple's iPhone 17 Pro has been named the fastest-charging phone overall in a recent CNET lab test covering 33 smartphones, with Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra taking the top spot for wired charging speed.


To determine the rankings, CNET's lab team ran each phone through a 30-minute wired charging test starting at 10% battery or less, using the phone's included cable and a wall charger rated at or above the device's maximum supported speed. Phones that support wireless charging went through a matching 30-minute wireless test using a Qi (7.5W), Qi2 (15W), or Qi2.2 (25W) charger matched to the phone's peak supported speed. CNET then averaged the wired and wireless results into an overall charging score.

Apple Re-Releases a Sold-Out iPhone MagSafe Grip in Three New Colors

Apple this week re-released the Hikawa Grip & Stand for iPhone in three new colors, after the original version quickly sold out last year. The accessory is exclusively available on Apple's online store worldwide, with U.S. pricing set at $54.95. The latest color options include Orange Swirl, Glow Blue, and Speckled Stone.


Designed by Bailey Hikawa and produced by PopSockets, Apple says the accessory was created with accessibility in mind, in close collaboration with individuals with a wide range of disabilities affecting grip, strength, and mobility. The ergonomic grip magnetically attaches to any iPhone with MagSafe, and it doubles as an iPhone stand.

The release comes alongside Apple's annual unveiling of upcoming accessibility features that will be debuting in iOS 27 and related updates, with many of the new features powered by Apple Intelligence.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has just published documents related to an apparently unreleased Apple product with model number A3577, with the product described as "Bluetooth over-ear headphones."


These headphones do not appear to be the AirPods Max 2, which carry a model number of A3454, and there is little other information to go on, so it is unclear what these headphones are.


Most of the documents that would reveal details on this A3577 product are being temporarily withheld from publication under a confidentiality request, which is standard for Apple's product filings with the FCC. One figure showing the location of the FCC ID labeling on the product appears to show a generic-looking headphone ear cup, with no identifying design details.


It is possible these are an upcoming Beats product, such as an updated version of the brand's over-ear Beats Studio Pro headphones, but this is purely speculation. The Beats Studio Pro were released nearly three years ago in July 2023, so they could be due for a revision.

We'll share additional information as we learn more.
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Google today appealed a 2024 ruling that found it violated antitrust law by paying to be the default search engine on iPhones. In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Google said the district court made an error when concluding that Google's search success was due to anything other than competition on merit.


Google suggested it surpassed competition through better innovation, more investments, and "just working harder," which is why Apple chose Google Search as its default search option on Apple devices.

Whether or not Google has monopoly power, Google did nothing that "harm[ed] the competitive process." It did not impede its rivals' opportunity to make—or Apple's and Mozilla's ability to choose—a better offer. Indeed, there is no finding—or even any evidence—that Google's customers would have chosen a rival, even in the absence of the challenged agreements. Google just prevailed in the marketplace fair and square.

The filing points out that Apple was free to distribute and promote rival search engines, with Google highlighting the alternative browser options that Apple offers in the Safari settings. Google suggests that any "exclusivity" interpreted by the district court was Apple's choice for "sound business reasons."

Google is asking the appeals court to undo the remedies that were put in place to address its search monopoly. Google was told to share search data, offer information on user interaction, and syndicate its results to competing companies, which it will need to start doing barring a successful appeal.

While Google is aiming for the entire ruling to be thrown out, Google also wants generative AI companies like OpenAI excluded from receiving data. Google says AI products "did not even exist" during the period covered in the DoJ's filing, so it makes no sense for them to receive search data. Google further said that AI companies are "already succeeding as wildly as any technology in human history without any need to free-ride on Google's success."

Google pays Apple billions of dollars each year to be the default Safari search engine, and the deal was a major component in the antitrust lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Justice brought against Google. Apple and Google's search engine deal could have been addressed in the remedies applied to Google, but the court did not prevent Google from making search agreements.

While Google is barred from entering into exclusive contracts for search engine distribution, it is still allowed to pay Apple to be a search engine option on iPhone. The DoJ also wanted Google to be forced to sell its Chrome browser and possibly offload the Android operating system, but neither of those consequences were implemented.

The remedies in the DoJ vs. Google case went into effect on February 3, but Google hasn't been required to provide data yet because implementation details have not been worked out. The five-member Technical Committee set up by the judge overseeing the case has not outlined license terms or privacy safeguards, nor has criteria for which companies qualify as competitors been established.

Oral arguments for Google's appeal haven't been scheduled, so we're unlikely to hear more on the issue until late 2026 or early 2027.
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Smart home device maker Aqara launched the Camera Hub G350 in March, and it is the first Matter-certified smart camera on the market. Cameras are included in Matter 1.5, and while Apple doesn't support Matter cameras yet, Aqara's camera still works with Apple Home. For Apple users, Matter integration doesn't provide any benefit, but it adds cross-platform support for Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings, and more.


The Camera Hub G350 is my favorite indoor home security camera that I've tested to date, and not just because it's wearing a cute bunny-ear costume. It records in 4K and has zoom capabilities, plus it has movement tracking and can rotate 360 degrees.

There are two cameras in the G350, and the design makes the lenses look like eyes. If you don't like the cutesy style, you can take off the silicone bunny hood, which makes the G350 look more like a traditional security camera.


You can view the G350's feed through Apple Home, and it connects as a HomeKit Secure Video camera. Footage is stored in iCloud, and as with other ‌HomeKit Secure Video‌ (HSV) options, you need an ‌iCloud‌+ plan. The $0.99/month 50GB plan supports a single HSV camera, the $2.99/month 200GB plan supports five HSV cameras, and the higher-tier plans that start at $9.99/month for 2TB storage support an unlimited number of cameras.


Using the G350 with HomeKit limits you to the ‌HomeKit‌ set of features. You can view the feed in the Home app, add the camera to automations, and customize when the camera is recording and when it's not using geofencing. It supports notifications for movement, can recognize people and animals for customized notifications, and it has facial recognition. Unfortunately, though this is a high-resolution camera, HSV is limited to 1080p.


Because the Camera Hub G350 offers so many features that are not available in ‌HomeKit‌, it's not worth getting if you're only going to use it with Apple Home. You need the Aqara app to get the full functionality, but I do think the feature set is worth venturing out of the Home app for.

The wide-angle 4K camera with a 133-degree field of view is the main camera, but there's also a 2.5K HD camera for zooming in up to 9x to get a closer look. The camera feed is clearer than what I get from ‌HomeKit‌ because of the resolution restrictions. This is the only camera I have that has a second lens for zooming in, and the zoom is sharper than what I get from single-lens cameras.


Aqara says the camera has an f/1.6 aperture and 940nm infrared LEDs for night vision, and it does do well in low lighting conditions and at night. Recordings are not as clear as when there's optimal lighting, but the night vision works as expected, offering a grayscale view of what's going on.

The G350 can rotate 360 degrees, and there is an included AI auto-tracking feature. It can recognize people and pets, turning the camera to keep them in view, and zooming in slowly where appropriate. It tilts too, which is helpful for keeping people and pets in view. You can have the camera track motion with AI, but you can also use pan and tilt controls in the app to control it while watching the feed live. I don't need to reinvent the wheel, so Aqara's video showing the panning, tilt, and zoom is embedded below. The camera and the app do work as demonstrated in the video.



The tracking works well, and it can be somewhat creepy to have a camera following you, so it might be a good theft deterrent. It's clear when it's moving to keep you in view, but there is no audible sound when it's panning. It is meant to pan slowly, so there can be a little bit of blur in recordings when the camera is moving or when you use the zoom feature. The Aqara app has an option for selecting preset angles that the camera will quickly pan to so you can see different areas of a room.






The camera has on-device AI processing that can recognize faces, pets, gestures, and select sounds. It can detect coughing, snoring, loud sounds, alarms, a dog barking, and a baby crying, sending alerts when it hears the sound.


I often think that Aqara includes too many features in its products, but it gives people options. The camera supports gestures, so you can trigger scenes that you've set up in the Aqara app with a wave or an OK sign. This is a beta feature, and it's not super reliable, especially when the lighting is bad. I don't know why, but the G350 also has smile detection and will send you a notification when it detects someone smiling. It does successfully detect motion, follow me around, and detect smiles, though the latter feature hasn't worked 100 percent of the time.


For those who don't want footage uploaded to the cloud, there is an option to record to a 512GB microSD card. Footage can be saved to a NAS, you can use Apple Home's ‌iCloud‌ storage, or you can use Aqara's cloud storage. You don't need a subscription for Aqara's cloud storage, but some features are locked behind one.


Aqara has a HomeGuardian subscription service that's $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for a single camera, or double that for unlimited cameras. It adds 90 days of video event history, package and vehicle detection, face detection, AI video summaries, AI video search, fire detection, alarm notifications, unlimited storage space, and video downloads from the app. So you can use local storage or the free cloud storage, but you lose some features.

There is a mode that physically disables the cameras with a cover that makes the "eyes" look like they're closed, which is both cute and useful. This mode also reveals the microSD card slot, and you stick the card in the "mouth." The camera-off mode can be enabled by tapping the little eye icon in the Aqara app. There is a speaker and microphone for two-way conversation.


I cannot think of a camera feature that I want that's not already in the G350, except maybe rich notifications. The motion detection alerts that come from the Aqara app don't provide me with a preview of the motion like my Ring cameras do.


If you have other Aqara devices, the G350 works as a hub for them. I have Aqara thermostats, so this serves as a functional hub and improves connectivity between Aqara products. It's also a Thread Border Router for Thread devices and a Matter Controller. It can use either a 2.4GHz or 5GHz connection.

The Camera Hub G350 is meant to be plugged in all the time, but for some reason Aqara didn't include a power adapter. There's a USB-C cable, but no charger, so you'll need to supply your own. It takes a 10W USB-C power adapter or higher.

Bottom Line

With the pan and tilt features and automatic tracking, the G350 is an excellent indoor camera. It's perfect in a baby's room or for tracking pets, but it also works well for general home security use.

It supports local storage for those who don't want data uploaded to the cloud, and while some features are locked behind a subscription, all of the most useful options are readily available without paying extra.

How to Buy

The Aqara Camera Hub G350 is available from Amazon for $140.

Note: Aqara provided MacRumors with a G350 Camera Hub for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.
This article, "Aqara Camera Hub G350 Review: 4K Recording, Dual Lenses, Pan-and-Tilt Tracking, and AI Subject Detection" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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On Tuesday, Google held its I/O developer event, and introduced an AI-forward version of Google Search that the company described as an "intelligent search box" powered by the newest version of Gemini. It turns out Google's all-new version of search semi-breaks when you search for the word "disregard."


Typing "disregard" into Google Search results in Google's AI interpreting it as a system-style instruction instead of a search query. "Understood. Message disregarded," is the result.

You do get standard search results like a Merriam-Webster definition of disregard if you scroll down further, but the AI Overview reply is filled with a bunch of white space that blocks out what's below.

There's a similar response on mobile devices, though with less visible white space.


Using a non-AI search engine like Kagi brings up the expected results for the search, immediately showing the definition instead of reading it as a command.


Words that have a similar meaning like ignore or stop produce the same result with Google's AI Overview. So do other command-like statements such as "remember." Google will likely fix the issue soon, but it's a reminder of the shortcomings of the AI tools that have become impossible to avoid.

Update: A Google spokesperson told MacRumors that the bug is unrelated to Google's I/O Search announcements, and is instead an issue with AI Overviews. "We're aware that AI Overviews are misinterpreting some action-related queries, and we're working on a fix, which will roll out soon," said the spokesperson.
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For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Digiarty VideoProc to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an iPhone 17 and a copy of the VideoProc Converter AI software to use with it.


VideoProc Converter AI is software for editing and managing videos, images, audio, DVDs, and more. It includes a suite of AI features for easy photo and video editing, along with tools for converting, downloading, upscaling, colorizing, enhancing, compressing, editing, recording, and repairing all kinds of media files.


Videos that are blurry, noisy, shaky, or overly compressed can be improved with VideoProc Converter AI's tools for cutting down on noise, improving sharpness, and boosting image quality.


An AI Super Resolution feature uses multiple AI models designed for different kinds of footage. The tool reduces noise and blur, restores detail, sharpens soft footage, and is able to upscale lower-resolution videos up to 4x. 480p or 720p video can be upscaled to 1080p or 4K. A deinterlacing tool improves older interlaced recordings, which is useful for restoring archived footage, improving low-light video, and cleaning up scenes with a lot of motion.


There's also an AI frame interpolation option that adds additional frames to make videos smoother, and it can improve videos up to 480fps for slow motion. It works on older home videos, mixed frame-rate footage, sports clips, gameplay recordings, and action scenes.

A stabilization tool is able to reduce camera shake, plus there are tools for reducing audio noise, correcting color, removing fisheye distortion from videos shot on action cameras, and compressing file size while preserving quality. There are also the standard tools you would expect from video editing software for trimming, cropping, adjusting playback speed, watermarking, fixing audio syncing, and adding filters.


VideoProc Converter AI has tools for photo editing as well. Image AI Super Resolution improves blurry or pixelated images and increases resolution, with multiple AI models available for different image types. With batch processing, it supports editing over 3,000 photos at once.


In older images where faces are blurry, pixelated, faded, or lacking detail, a Face Restoration feature improves facial detail. It can recover clarity in eyes, skin, hair, and facial textures with natural-looking results. AI Colorization is also available for adding color to black and white images, and it adds realistic colors and tones to grayscale photos with a click.


Digiarty optimized VideoProc Converter AI for the Mac, and the software supports hardware acceleration for Apple silicon chips, Intel chips, and NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. Video converting tools use GPU acceleration to speed up encoding and decoding without affecting output quality. The software supports over 320 codecs and formats, and it works with footage from drones, GoPro cameras, professional log formats, 3D videos, and VR videos. It also includes tools for downloading video from social media platforms, DVD backup, iPhone screen capture, recording from a webcam, and green screen recording.

VideoProc gets new features regularly, and recent new additions include improved Video Super Resolution that keeps original colors for natural-looking restoration of low-quality video, new AI models, three AI face restoration models for touching up people in videos without impacting original detail, and audio AI improvements like Noise Suppression for cutting down on background noise in audio and video files.


There is a VideoProc free trial for those who want to try it out. A lifetime license is normally priced at $54.95, but Digiarty is offering MacRumors readers a discount on a lifetime license, dropping the price to $39.95. The lifetime license includes the full range of VideoProc tools, along with software for transferring media between Macs and iPhones and vlog software for editing video for social media. It also includes access to future updates.

Digiarty is offering one lucky MacRumors reader the chance to win an ‌iPhone 17‌ and a lifetime VideoProc license. To enter to win, use the widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, following us on Threads, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older, UK residents who are 18 years or older, and Canadian residents who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. All federal, state, provincial, and/or local taxes, fees, and surcharges are the sole responsibility of the prize winner. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.


Digiarty VideoProc Giveaway
The contest will run from today (May 22) at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time on May 29. The winner will be chosen randomly on or shortly after May 29 and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.
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Apple's software engineers are testing iOS 26.5.1, according to the MacRumors visitor logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions.


iOS 26.5.1 will almost certainly be a minor update that fixes bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, and it will likely be released by the end of next week.

The logs show that Apple has ramped up testing of iOS 26.6 as well, with a first beta of that update likely to be released at some point in June. iOS 26.6 will likely be a minor update as well. Last year, Apple seeded the first beta of iOS 18.6 to developers on Monday, June 16, which was three days after WWDC 2025 ended.

Apple is shifting its attention towards iOS 27, which is set to be unveiled during the WWDC 2026 keynote on Monday, June 8 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
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Images of third-party clear cases for the iPhone 18, iPhone 18 Pro, and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max suggest there is a chance Apple may revert back to a more familiar MagSafe ring design, and away from the controversial opaque white panel introduced on last year's iPhone 17 Pro cases.


The images have been circulating on Chinese social media and were spotted by MyDrivers. Where the iPhone 17 Pro clear case drew considerable criticism for replacing the traditional circular ‌MagSafe‌ magnet array with a large opaque white rectangle that covered most of the case's back panel, the cases shown here return to a more open horseshoe or ring-style ‌MagSafe‌ design, leaving the majority of the case genuinely transparent.

If the design is an accurate reflection of Apple's first-party case plans, it would represent a meaningful course correction from a design that many buyers felt made Apple's own "clear" case a misnomer. Accessory manufacturers commonly produce cases ahead of Apple announcements using anticipated details sourced from the supply chain.


The ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ Clear Case redesign proved to be highly polarizing at launch. The ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌'s Apple logo shifted to a lower position on the rear panel to sit centered within the new rectangular glass section below the camera plateau. As reported ahead of the device's launch, that placement would have been obscured by the traditional circular ‌MagSafe‌ design, prompting Apple to replace the ring entirely with a large opaque white rounded rectangle bearing a centered Apple logo. The result covered most of the lower three-quarters of the case, and forum discussions and reviews described the white panel as a "deal breaker" for some buyers who wanted to show off the color of their phone.

The open horseshoe design suggested by the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ cases takes a different approach seen on some other third-party cases, with a break in the ring at the bottom allowing the Apple logo to remain visible through the case without requiring the large opaque panel. The third-party cases shown in the images are clearly trying to emulate Apple's first-party accessories, and given the negative reaction to Apple's clear cases last year, it wouldn't be surprising if the company opted to move to this design.

Beyond this detail, the replica cases reflect design details consistent with existing rumors about the new models. The standard ‌iPhone 18‌ case features a cutout suggesting a vertical dual-camera layout, in line with reports that the base model will retain a broadly similar rear design to its predecessor. The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max cases both show large horizontal camera plateau cutouts consistent with the design established on the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ models.

The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max are expected to be announced alongside the first foldable iPhone in the fall. The ‌iPhone 18‌ is likely set to follow in the spring with the iPhone 18e and iPhone Air 2.
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On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss Apple's WWDC 2026 keynote date, the sweeping Siri redesign coming in iOS 27, Apple's latest accessibility feature previews, and the hinge troubles reportedly plaguing the foldable iPhone ahead of its expected launch in the fall.


Apple this week confirmed its ‌WWDC 2026‌ keynote for June 8 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, with the conference running through June 12. The event is expected to introduce ‌iOS 27‌, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, tvOS 27, and visionOS 27, with developer betas available immediately after the keynote and public releases following in September. The focus is expected to be on Apple Intelligence and AI advancements across its platforms. No major hardware announcements have been rumored for the keynote, but we are overdue seeing a new "homeOS" platform for a tabletop or wall-mounted smart home hub, though launch timing remains unclear.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that ‌iOS 27‌ will bring a sweeping ‌Siri‌ redesign, evolving the assistant into a full chatbot designed to compete with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. For the first time, ‌Siri‌ will apparently have a dedicated app, showing a grid or list of past conversations with support for favoriting, searching, and starting new chats, all using iMessage-style chat bubbles.

‌Siri‌ will also purportedly be integrated into the Dynamic Island, where triggering it will show a "Search or Ask" prompt with a glowing cursor; results appear as a translucent card, and pulling it down opens a full conversation mode. ‌Siri‌ is set to replace Spotlight search, though Suggestions will remain and gain access to more user data.

Users will be able to set chats to auto-delete after 30 days, one year, or never. The app could also launch labeled "beta" despite years of development, and is powered by Google Gemini, though Apple is said to be reluctant to emphasize that given Google's reputation as an advertising business.

Separately, Apple this week previewed new accessibility features coming later this year, ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, as is Apple's annual tradition. Among the highlights: VoiceOver Image Explorer uses ‌Apple Intelligence‌ to generate detailed descriptions of images, scanned bills, and personal records throughout the system; the Action button can now be used to ask questions about what the camera sees, with natural language follow-up supported; and Voice Control is getting a natural language upgrade that lets users describe on-screen elements in their own words rather than memorizing exact labels. Automatic captions for personal videos will also arrive, generated on-device for recorded videos, received from friends, or streamed online. The features are expected to launch with ‌iOS 27‌, iPadOS 27, ‌macOS 27‌, tvOS 27, and visionOS 27 in September.

Finally, Apple's "iPhone Ultra" reportedly hit a new obstacle this week, after Weibo leaker "Instant Digital" posted that trial production has run into a serious hinge reliability problem. According to the leaker, the hinge is consistently failing Apple's quality control under high-frequency open and close testing, eventually producing audible rattling, and the issue "must be solved with absolute perfection, otherwise progress will remain stalled."

That broadly aligns with a DigiTimes report from April that placed production one to two months behind schedule, with mass production now pushed from June to August. Bloomberg's Gurman has pushed back on a Nikkei report suggesting the device could slip to 2027, calling it "off base", and expects the foldable iPhone to land around the same time or soon after the iPhone 18 Pro models; if it does launch in September, supply is expected to be constrained, with some reports suggesting customer availability could slip as late as December.

The foldable iPhone is rumored to be called the "iPhone Ultra" and is expected to start at over $2,000, with one report citing $2,500, which would make it the most expensive iPhone ever. The MacRumors Show has its own YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed to keep up with new episodes and clips.



You can also listen to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or other podcast apps. You can also copy our RSS feed directly into your player.



If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up to hear our discussion about Google's latest wave of announcements for Android and Gemini, the newly announced Fitbit Air, and Apple Watch Series 12 rumors.

Subscribe to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by interesting guests such as Kayci Lacob, Kevin Nether, John Gruber, Mark Gurman, Jon Prosser, Luke Miani, Matthew Cassinelli, Brian Tong, Quinn Nelson, Jared Nelson, Eli Hodapp, Mike Bell, Sara Dietschy, iJustine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Arnold Kim, Ben Sullins, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Tyler Stalman, Sam Kohl, Federico Viticci, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie.

‌The MacRumors Show‌ is on X @MacRumorsShow, so be sure to give us a follow to keep up with the podcast. You can also email us at podcast@macrumors.com or head over to The MacRumors Show forum thread. Remember to rate and review the podcast, and let us know what subjects and guests you would like to see in the future.
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This week we saw Memorial Day deals kick off at retailers like Best Buy, plus great discounts on Anker's newest Prime chargers and all-time low prices on the AirPods Max 2 and 15-inch M5 MacBook Air.

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.

Anker

• What's the deal? Save on Anker charging accessories


• Where can I get it? Amazon


• Where can I find the original deal? Right here

Anker's new Prime 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station has been marked down to $104.99 on Amazon, down from $149.99. This is one of Anker's newest accessories, and Amazon's sale today is a match of the all-time low price.

Best Buy

• What's the deal? Save sitewide for Memorial Day


• Where can I get it? Best Buy


• Where can I find the original deal? Right here

Best Buy kicked off its annual Memorial Day sale this week, with notable markdowns on Apple devices, TVs, headphones and speakers, monitors, appliances, and much more. This sale is set to last through Memorial Day on Monday, May 25, and you don't need to be a My Best Buy Plus or Total member to see the deals.

AirPods Max 2

• What's the deal? Take $40 off AirPods Max 2


• Where can I get it? Amazon


• Where can I find the original deal? Right here

Amazon this week has a record low price on the AirPods Max 2, now available for $509.00, down from $549.00. This sale is available in three colors of the headphones.

M5 MacBook Air

• What's the deal? Take $199 off 15-inch M5 MacBook Air


• Where can I get it? Amazon


• Where can I find the original deal? Right here

Amazon has sweetened its deal on the 512GB 15-inch M5 MacBook Air this week, dropping the price of the notebook down to $1,099.99, from $1,299.00. This is a new record low price on the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air.

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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This article, "Best Apple Deals of the Week: Memorial Day Deals Arrive at Best Buy, Plus Lowest Price Yet on 15-Inch M5 MacBook Air" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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April and May have been relatively slow months for Apple this year, but there is a lot to look forward to heading into WWDC 2026 and beyond.


Apple is expected to release at least 15 more products later this year, with some of them held up until the more personalized version of Siri launches.

Beyond the usual annual updates to iPhones and Apple Watches in September, Apple's all-new smart home hub is finally expected to debut later this year. We are also expecting a foldable iPhone Ultra, a redesigned MacBook Ultra with an OLED display, and long-awaited updates to the Apple TV, HomePod, and HomePod mini. Plus more.

Here is what to expect from Apple later this year, according to rumors.

iPhones

• iPhone 18 Pro: A20 Pro chip, a smaller Dynamic Island, a simplified Camera Control button, a Dark Cherry color option, variable aperture for at least one rear camera, Apple's C2 modem with support for 5G web browsing via satellite, and more.


• iPhone 18 Pro Max: The same features rumored for the iPhone 18 Pro, but the Pro Max model might be slightly thicker.


• iPhone Ultra: A foldable iPhone Ultra with a 7.7-inch inner display and 5.3-inch outer display, two rear cameras, one front camera, a Touch ID power button instead of Face ID, and more. iOS 27 is expected to be tailored for the foldable iPhone, allowing for side-by-side apps and other iPad-like multitasking functionality.

Apple Watches

• Apple Watch Series 12: A faster S11 chip or newer, plus design changes such as Touch ID and/or more health sensors (disputed).


• Apple Watch Ultra 4: A faster S11 chip or newer, plus design changes such as Touch ID and/or more health sensors (disputed). There may also be additional satellite features for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and newer, such as Apple Maps via satellite and the ability to send and receive photos with Messages via satellite.

iPads

• iPad 12: A16 chip → A18 chip or A19 chip with Apple Intelligence support.


• iPad mini: A17 Pro chip → A19 Pro or A20 Pro chip, an OLED display, a vibration-based speaker system, and a water-resistant design.

Macs

• Mac Studio: M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips → M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips.


• Mac mini: M4 and M4 Pro chips → M5 and M5 Pro chips.


• iMac: M4 chip → M5 chip, plus new color options.


• MacBook Ultra: A major MacBook Pro redesign in late 2026 or early 2027, with M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, an OLED display, a touch screen, a Dynamic Island, and a thinner design. On this laptop, which will reportedly be named MacBook Ultra, macOS 27 is expected to offer a touch-friendly interface.

Home

• Apple TV: A17 Pro chip with support for the more personalized Siri, and Apple's N1 chip with Wi-Fi 7 support. A built-in FaceTime camera has been rumored for a future Apple TV, but it is unclear if that will arrive with the next model.


• HomePod mini: S9 chip or newer with support for the more personalized Siri, Apple's N1 chip with Wi-Fi 7 support, improved sound quality, a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, and potentially new color options like red.


• HomePod: A new full-sized HomePod that supports the revamped Siri.


• Home Hub: An all-new smart home hub featuring the more personalized version of Siri, a 6-inch to 7-inch square display, an A18 chip for Apple Intelligence, FaceTime, and more. Place it on a table or mount it on a wall.

Notes

• Apple's smart home hub may be accompanied by accessories such as a security camera/sensor and a Face ID doorbell.


• AirPods Ultra with cameras for Visual Intelligence are also rumored, but it is unclear if they are launching this year or later.


• The next Mac Studio and Mac mini models as well as the MacBook Ultra could be delayed until 2027 due to the RAM chip shortage.

This article, "Apple to Release These 15 New Products Later This Year" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple finished as the world's number one smartphone brand by shipments in the first quarter of 2026, according to new data from Counterpoint Research. It's the first time the company has ever led the market in a Q1.


Apple captured 21 percent of global shipments and grew 9 percent year-over-year, even as the overall market contracted 3 percent. Samsung came in a close second, also at 21 percent on roughly flat shipments, followed by Xiaomi at 12 percent, OPPO at 10 percent, and vivo at 7 percent. Meanwhile, Xiaomi's shipments fell 19 percent year-over-year, while OPPO and vivo declined 4 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Apple's brand-level milestone follows Counterpoint's earlier finding that the iPhone 17 was the best-selling smartphone model in the world in Q1, during which the iPhone 17 series swept the top three spots in the firm's Global Handset Model Sales Tracker. During Apple's April 30 earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said the ‌iPhone 17‌ family was the most popular lineup in Apple's history.

Apart from sustained iPhone 17 demand, Counterpoint credits Apple's brand-level performance to its proactive supply chain management as well as improved sales in China. The firm said Apple's ability to maintain premium pricing and protect margins also helped it weather the ongoing memory chip shortage a lot better than its rivals.


Shortages of DRAM and NAND memory continue to weigh on the market as a whole, as chipmakers prioritize AI data center customers over smartphone manufacturers. Cook has said memory shortages and rising costs will have more of an impact on Apple later in 2026. Counterpoint expects the rest of the year to impact most brands similarly, with the memory crisis potentially stretching all the way into late 2027.
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Amazon today has the AirPods Pro 3 available for $199.00, down from $249.00. This is a match of the all-time low price on the AirPods Pro 3, and it's been nearly a month since we last tracked this discount.

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.

This model of the AirPods Pro launched in September 2025 and has 2x better Active Noise Cancellation than the previous generation, better audio quality, a revised fit that's meant to improve comfort and stability, Live Translation for in-person conversations, and heart rate sensing for workouts.



Head to our full Deals Roundup to get caught up with all of the latest deals and discounts that we've been tracking over the past week.

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Meta today launched a new standalone app called "Forum" that brings Facebook Groups into a dedicated feed separate from the main Facebook experience.


The app was spotted by Matt Navarra without any formal announcement from the company. Its App Store listing describes Forum as "a dedicated space for the conversations that matter most to you," built for the groups users already belong to and those they have yet to discover.

Forum's feed surfaces conversations from a user's existing Groups instead of mixing them with posts from friends, Pages, and algorithmically recommended content. When logging in for the first time, users are asked what they want to see more of, suggesting the app will also surface posts from other Groups aligned with their interests. Any post made through Forum syncs back to the main Facebook app, and vice versa.

Users will need an existing Facebook account to sign in. The app supports anonymized usernames for public interactions, similar to the option already available on Facebook, though group administrators can still see the real identities behind those accounts.

Two AI features are available in Forum. The first, called "Ask," is said to pull answers from across a user's Groups so they don't have to search each community individually. The second is an AI-powered assistant for group moderators to help manage administrative tasks.

This is not Meta's first attempt at a standalone Groups product. The company launched a dedicated Facebook Groups app years ago before discontinuing it in 2017.

A comparison to Reddit has been drawn given the app's focus on niche community discussions, real-people recommendations, and question-and-answer style content. Forum is available on the App Store now.
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OpenAI has rolled out Computer Use for its Codex desktop app on macOS, and its latest trick is that your Mac doesn't even have to be unlocked for the coding agent to use your apps while you're away.


In a post on X, OpenAI Developers said users can now send Codex tasks from their phone and have it operate apps on their Mac "even when the screen is off and locked." A picture attached to the post shows a locked Mac displaying a "Codex is Using Your Mac" overlay with a prompt to press any key or click to unlock.

For the feature to work, the Computer Use plugin needs to be installed and granted Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions. After that, Codex can click through windows, type, navigate menus, and interact with the clipboard in apps that you explicitly allow.

OpenAI says the feature is useful for the types of things command-line tools can't easily reach, such as reproducing a GUI-only bug, changing app settings, or running a flow in a desktop app Codex is helping to build.

Codex asks for permission before operating each new app, and for those brave enough you can mark specific apps as "Always allow." OpenAI says the feature is unavailable in the European Economic Area, the UK, and Switzerland at launch, and it can't automate Terminal apps, Codex itself, or system-level admin prompts.


The update follows some other recent Codex additions, including a new "Appshots" feature that pulls a screenshot and text from a Mac app window into a Codex thread with a Command-Command shortcut, plus a new /goal mode that makes an agent keep working toward a milestone across hours or days.
This article, "OpenAI's Codex Can Now Use Your Mac Even When It's Locked" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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The Sonos app is currently unavailable to download on the iPhone and Mac App Stores owing to a mysterious problem that the company is currently looking into.


The app disappeared as of about two hours ago, and the app's URL link currently throws up the message: "The page you're looking for can't be found," while a manual search in the App Store returns no results.

A red banner across the Sonos status page reads: "We have identified a problem with the Sonos App availability in the iOS / Mac App Stores and are working on a solution. You may experience issues downloading or updating the Sonos app from the App Store until this issue is resolved." The same page shows a major outage of Sonos Account, suggesting the problems are related.

The last info we had on the app's future came in a February Bloomberg report that said Sonos was preparing a major update that would aim to simplify navigation and introduce iPhone Lock Screen controls using Live Activities.

Those changes were supposed to be rolled out gradually "in the coming months," as part of a broader effort to rebuild confidence after the company's troubled 2024 software overhaul.

We'll update this story as soon as we know more.

Update: After several hours of outage, the Sonos app is back on the App Store, and the Sonos status page says that all systems are operational.
This article, "Sonos App Currently Unavailable on iOS and Mac App Stores [Updated]" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple is rumored to be adding an AI feature for creating shortcuts with natural language to the Shortcuts app in iOS 27, but MacStories' Federico Viticci has a clever AI tool for making shortcuts that you can use today.


Shortcuts Playground is a plugin for Claude Code and OpenAI Codex that can create shortcuts for the Apple Shortcuts app using natural language input. It's set up to let users type in a short sentence requesting a shortcut, with the final version output to Finder and ready to upload to Apple's Shortcuts app in a few minutes.

Viticci made Shortcuts Playground free and open source, and the plugin is available from GitHub. Viticci provided detailed documentation on how it works, plus anyone can inspect the code. While Claude Code or Codex can correct errors during the shortcut creation process, Viticci warns that shortcuts generated are not guaranteed to be 100 percent accurate, and users should always check the AI's work.

To get Shortcuts Playground, give Claude Code or OpenAI Codex a link to the GitHub repo, and the agent will find the plugin marketplace and install it. Viticci has several example shortcuts, including one that remembers the location of a parked car and guides the driver back to it, and another that adjusts several display settings at night while also turning on a Focus mode.

Club MacStories+ and Premier members can get Shortcuts Playground as a generative shortcut. Once the main plugin is installed on a Mac, there's an option to make more shortcuts using a shortcut and install them directly on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Viticci is also debuting a redesigned MacStories Shortcuts Archive that features over 400 pre-built shortcut options. More information on Shortcuts Playground can be found on MacStories.
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Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser that was first introduced in March 2016. Apple designed ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ to allow users to test features that are planned for future release versions of the Safari browser.


‌Safari Technology Preview‌ 244 includes fixes and updates for Accessibility, Animations, CSS, Forms, HTML, Images, JavaScript, MathML, Media, Networking, Rendering, SVG, Scrolling, Security, Storage, Web API, Web Extensions, Web Inspector, WebAssembly, WebGL, and WebGPU.

The current ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ release is compatible with machines running macOS Sequoia and macOS Tahoe, the newest version of macOS.

The ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences or System Settings to anyone who has downloaded the browser from Apple's website. Complete release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple's aim with ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while it is designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download and use.
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There are multiple companies making bird feeders with AI identification that send you pictures and info on the birds visiting your home, and Birdfy is one of the better-known brand names. I've reviewed and regularly use multiple Bird Buddy products, so when Birdfy asked if I wanted to give their bird feeders a look last winter, I said yes.


Birdfy has a lot of bird feeder options at different prices, along with camera-equipped bird baths and bird houses. I've been testing the standard Birdfy Feeder ($170 with solar panel and lifetime AI included), the Birdfy Feeder 2 Duo ($360), and the Birdfy Bath Pro (currently $280) for the past five months, so I'm very familiar with the product options and the Birdfy software, which is a major factor when choosing a smart product.


Birdfy products record bird visits, providing AI species identification and photos and videos that you can watch. You just need to put them in a spot that gets a decent Wi-Fi signal to view the birds that are coming to your area.

Birdfy Feeder

The Birdfy Feeder is a good starting point for someone new to bird feeders. There's a cheaper model that starts at $80, but the Birdfy Feeder has a 2K high-definition camera and an option to buy it with lifetime AI bird identification.


The lower-priced Birdfy options can be purchased with or without a solar panel, and I think the solar panel is worth getting. It's an extra $40, but as long as your feeder is somewhere with partial sun, the solar panel provides enough power to prevent the camera from having to be manually charged.

My Birdfy Feeder is in a spot with morning and afternoon sun, and it has never dipped below a 90 percent charge. I have the other Birdfy feeder in a wooded area, also with solar panel, and it hovers at about 50 percent battery. I had to charge it once in the winter, but I haven't needed to do so again.

The solar panel that comes with the Birdfy Feeder is not attached to the feeder itself, so it can be positioned a couple of feet away if necessary. There are pros and cons to that setup compared to the Bird Buddy, where the solar panel is on the roof of the feeder. The Bird Buddy is a more compact, all-in-one design with no extra cords, and I prefer that look. The Birdfy solar panel is larger and more versatile, but it's also more visible and there is a cable to contend with.


While the Bird Buddy hangs or can be mounted, Birdfy's feeders are all meant to be mounted to a pole, tree, wall, or post. There's no loop for hanging one up, and feeder designs don't work for hanging. Birdfy includes multiple mounting options, which is nice, but also more complicated than the Bird Buddy.

There are a lot of components in the box, and for someone that just wants to put up a bird feeder and connect to an app, Birdfy products might feel overwhelming. I've gifted a Bird Buddy to older family members and it's been a hit, but I'd be more hesitant to gift the Birdfy to those same people.

Unless you live somewhere with no tree-climbing seed-loving creatures, mounting to a tree with the included tree straps isn't ideal because it makes access too easy.


Mounting on a wall or a post can work, but my squirrels will climb the side of my house to leap over to bird feeders. I like hanging feeders like the Bird Buddy because I can put them on a pole with a baffle without a hassle and keep them away from squirrels. Birdfy also supports pole mounting, but it uses adjustable metal hose clips that take longer to install.

I can't put the Birdfy Feeder on one of the hanging branches because of its design, so it has to be on the pole itself just above the baffle that I have. It's sturdy and works fine. All of the mounting options work in the same way, in that you install a metal plate that the Birdfy Feeder then attaches to. That lets you remove it without having to unmount it for cleaning, filling, and charging.


The Birdfy Feeder has a simple design where the seed goes into a reservoir at the sides of the camera, which is in the middle of the feeder. The top pops up so you can fill it, and it holds a good amount of seed. I fill it about once a week, and I have a lot of birds visiting.

The roof keeps the seed dry for the most part, and there is an included perch for the birds to land on. The camera slots into the feeder, and then the solar panel plugs in at the back of the camera (if you have the solar panel). If you don't have a solar panel, you take the Birdfy Feeder off the mount and charge it with USB-C.


Birdfy uses white plastic for the standard Feeder I tested (with blue or yellow accents), though there are wood options for those that prefer that look. The plastic has held up well so far through rain, sun, and freezing temperatures over the winter, and Birdfy says it's IP65. Since the Feeder can be removed from the mount, it's simple to clean. Bird feeders need to be cleaned every two weeks or so, and I typically rinse them in hot water, spray them with alcohol, give them a bit of a scrub where necessary, rinse again, and let them dry. Refilling the seed is simple, and I don't even take it down for that. I just need to pop open the roof and pour the seed in. I do wish Birdfy included a seed pouring device like the Bird Buddy does, but a measuring cup or a 3D-printed solution works fine.


The camera in the Birdfy Feeder is 2K, and the image quality is on par or better than the Bird Buddy. I get clear images and videos, but the camera doesn't handle direct sun well, so when it's sunny, video quality suffers. I don't think the Birdfy Feeder has the best video I've seen from a camera, but it's similar to the Bird Buddy and my outdoor security cameras.

I don't have many night visits from birds, but there are night vision modes. There's an infrared mode for black and white recording, or a mode that uses white light to provide illumination for recording in color. Neither mode is very clear, so it's just a matter of whether you'd prefer to have more detail in infrared mode or color with less detail.

Birdfy Feeder 2 Duo

The Birdfy Feeder 2 Duo has a different design than the Birdfy Feeder, and it's expensive, so this is an upgrade version for someone who loves bird watching. The Duo has two cameras instead of one, with three lenses between them. One camera is located in the center and it has a wide-angle lens and a close-up portrait lens, while another camera captures side angles.


The portrait camera is 2K and some bird shots come out crisp and vivid, and I've also been happy with the wider-angle videos and images. Photo and video quality depend on the lighting conditions, connection, the length of time a bird stays, when the camera captures the shot, whether the lens is clean, and the weather conditions outside, so results are always variable with all of my bird feeders.


Getting multiple angles is fun, because if one camera doesn't pick up a bird, it's likely going to get captured from the other camera. It's ideal for birds that tend to stick to the sides of the feeder and just flit in to grab a quick seed. My Bird Buddy is unable to capture visits when the bird is not in the center of the feeder.


I wish that at the $360 price point, the camera quality was even better. Videos come out well and look good for the most part, but the portrait lens is not as crisp as I would have hoped.


Seed goes in a hopper that splits around the central camera. The lid flips open and the seed is poured inside, and it fills the feeder tray. The tray has bars at the bottom that can prevent larger birds from getting to the seed, and some people use those kinds of barriers on bird feeders to cut down on mess.


The Birdfy Feeder 2 Duo is made of plastic, but it is black and green, so it blends in better outside. It too has held up well through the winter, and it has IP66 water and dust resistance rating. It mounts the same way as the Birdfy Feeder, with multiple mounting options. I tried this one strapped to a tree to begin with, but it was too easy for squirrels to reach, and they ate all the seed. They also chewed through the USB-C cable that connects the cameras to the solar charger, and I had to get a replacement. I moved it to a bird feeder pole with a baffle that's a good eight feet from trees, and the squirrels can no longer reach it.


The solar panel for the Birdfy Feeder 2 Duo is a separate component, and it connects to the feeder with a USB-C cable. To power more than one camera, it uses a split USB-C cable. I have the feeder in a spot with little direct sunlight, and I have had to manually charge the cameras twice. Since they charge over USB-C, I bring a USB-C battery pack out and charge them at the feeder, but it's also easy to remove the feeder from the bracket that holds it in place for charging and cleaning.

Bird Bath Pro

I first put the Bird Bath Pro out in December, and I thought it was a failure. I had no bird visits for the first two months it was outside, but when spring came, it became a wildlife favorite.


While I do occasionally see birds taking a bath in the Bird Bath Pro, it's used more often as a drinking fountain. Even though the bird bath is next to a fountain and also close to my pond, it is the preferred drinking spot for every creature nearby.


The crows that come to my house like to take a mouthful of food, spit it into the bird bath, and eat it like bird cereal. A raccoon that comes by every night drinks from it, as does a local fox. The squirrels are especially fond of the bird bath and drink from it every day.


The Bird Bath Pro is made from plastic, and it has an optional base that you can get from Birdfy. I thought it might be a little low, but it's a height birds seem to like. It holds maybe an inch of water, or a little more if I fill it to the top. A built-in solar-powered fountain comes on when the sun is out to move the water, which prevents mosquitoes.


I don't see the fountain run when it's not in direct sunlight, so it's not on all the time. I'd like to see it run more often, but it seems to be designed to work only some of the time. The birds will use it either way. There is a filter in the fountain part of the Bird Bath Pro to keep the mechanism from getting jammed up with debris, and that should be replaced or cleaned regularly. Speaking of the fountain, there are interchangeable nozzles with different spray patterns to choose from. I use the flower that has gentle water movement.


The Bird Bath Pro tends to get dirty quickly, so I wipe it out and change the water every other day. Other than the cleaning and the filling, it doesn't take much more work, and I think I like it even more than my bird feeders.


Like the other Birdfy cameras, it struggles somewhat in direct sun and the image gets washed out. It's also not crystal clear because birds don't stay still for glamour shots, but I enjoy the photos and videos.


Setting up the Bird Bath Pro is simpler than setting up the cameras, because it's mostly all one piece. The camera fits into a slot in the bird bath, and then it's ready to go. No attaching it to a pole with clips or straps, and the filter and fountain parts are easy to figure out.

Birdfy App

All of the Birdfy products use the Birdfy iOS and Android app for bird identification and visit alerts. The Birdfy app works, but I think it's confusingly designed and not as intuitive as the Bird Buddy app. It's used for everything from setup to viewing bird images.

I did not like the Birdfy setup process. It's the standard connect, enter Wi-Fi password, and add to app system that most products use, but when you put the Birdfy cameras into pairing mode, they beep incessantly until successfully paired. It was by far the most irritating setup process I've ever gone through just because of the noise. Once connected to Wi-Fi, Birdfy's devices work fine, and I haven't had interruptions in service.


The app opens to a Home section that shows a view of each Birdfy camera, and you can tap in to see captured moments or get to a live view. Tapping into a camera provides an overview of the day with a readout of the total number of bird visits and the bird visits by species. Scrolling down lets you watch all of the videos for the day, and if you keep scrolling, you can swap to prior days. There's also a calendar icon you can use to get to previous recordings.

Birdfy's app gets a lot of birds right, but it makes errors regularly and there are some fleeting visits where it can't identify the bird type. As I'm writing this review, I've had 47 visits, some of which involved more than one bird at a time. The app correctly identified 38 birds, but marked 14 unknown. Two birds were incorrectly identified. It called a house finch a canyon towhee (despite correctly identifying finches the rest of the time), and marked a white-breasted nuthatch as a brown-headed nuthatch.

Yesterday, I had 73 visits. Of those visits, 12 were unidentified, one house finch was misidentified as a canyon towhee again, and a tufted titmouse was incorrectly named an oak titmouse. It's not able to identify crows, and it sometimes struggles with the raccoons and squirrels that visit the bird bath. I can tell when it's wrong because I know the local birds by sight, but misidentification is a bigger problem for users that aren't aware of what's around. On the plus side, it's right much more often than it's wrong, and it is able to tell male or female for some birds. Birdfy says it is able to identify over 6,000 bird species.


The camera does not use AI to decide when to record. If it detects motion, it records. It will pick up people walking by and other random movement. Unlike the Bird Buddy, it does send a notification for every bird visit, and that's a lot of notifications.

I wish there was an option for daily highlights instead of a notification for each visit. I can exclude certain types of birds in the app, but since it sometimes misidentifies birds, I don't want to do that. I mostly ignore the notifications now though, since I'm getting 50+ per day. The Bird Buddy sends occasional postcards from the best bird visits, and I think that's a much better way to do it.

Birdfy does have a useful recap feature, but it's not obvious. You need to tap on your profile and then tap on Highlight. It opens a recap on the web rather than in the app, which is a weird choice. It gives an overview of everything that visited in a day, and lets you know when you've had a certain type of bird visit for the first time. You also get overall monthly recaps.

There is no fee for the Birdfy AI if you buy it upfront with the camera. Cameras with "lifetime" AI are around $20 higher, and I think that's worthwhile not to have a subscription. You get free AI, 5GB storage, and 20-second video recordings that are kept for a month, but you can also pay for a subscription for expanded cloud storage.

The $6.99/month Plus plan keeps videos for 60 days and expands recordings to 30 seconds each, plus it provides 20GB storage and 15 percent off Birdfy products. There's also a Bird Data feature for visit statistics, activity patterns, and time-of-day analysis. Since the Plus plan only extends recordings by 10 seconds and it is limited to two Birdfy devices, it doesn't seem like a good value. It makes more sense to pay for AI access when making an initial purchase and doing without the extra features. Birdfy does have a 50 percent discount for those who bought the lifetime AI, but the device limit still doesn't feel worth it even at $3.50/month.

Local storage is not an option as an alternative to cloud storage, but video clips and images can be downloaded and shared.

Bottom Line

Smart bird feeders can feel repetitive because most people get the same birds with the exception of seasonal migration, but it's still fun to see the antics that the regulars get up to. I have bird spats, bird couples that come in pairs and check in often, little wrens that like to carry around large peanuts, and silly doves that like to just sit on the food. It's also always a treat to see colorful bluebirds and goldfinches that I don't get as often as cardinals, mourning doves, and sparrows.


Birdfy has an extensive product line with different feeder styles and multiple price points, which makes it easy to recommend. The app and the setup are not as simple as the Bird Buddy and I'd be a little hesitant to get a Birdfy Feeder as an option for someone who isn't app and iPhone savvy, but it's not impossible to figure out.

For any bird watcher that can figure out an app that's somewhat convoluted, it's a fun product for keeping tabs on what's around your home. There are lifetime AI options that don't require a subscription, and the AI had a good (but not perfect) accuracy rating in my testing. The feeders are easy to fill and clean because they all use the same easy-access mount, but there is no hanging option and that makes them a target for squirrels and other critters depending on location.

The standalone solar panels are useful for finding just the right sun spot for charging, though it does introduce extra cabling to deal with compared to an all-in-one solution.

Of the Birdfy products I tested, I liked the Bird Bath Pro best. It's been a hub of activity, and it provides a look at birds doing something other than eating. If you live somewhere that you can't have bird feeders (like somewhere with rat or mouse concerns), the Bird Bath Pro is a product that will still let you see local birds.

How to Buy

Birdfy's products can be purchased from the Birdfy website. The Birdfy Feeder is $170 for the lifetime AI and the solar panel, the Birdfy Feeder 2 Duo with three lenses is $360, and the Bird Bath Pro is priced at $280 for the version with lifetime AI and an included stand. The stand-free model is $200.

Note: Birdfy provided MacRumors with a Bird Bath Pro, Birdfy Feeder, and Birdfy Feeder 2 Duo for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.
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Apple today formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the series of rulings that led to changes to App Store linking rules and fees in the United States.


In 2021, Apple largely won its legal dispute with Epic Games, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to relax its anti-steering rules and let developers link to alternate payment options in apps. Apple complied, but charged a 12 to 27 percent fee on link-outs instead of its standard 15 to 30 percent fee. When taking into account fees from payment processors, there was little to no discount to developers, and few opted in. Apple also restricted button design, limiting developers to a single plain text link.

‌Epic Games‌ went back to Gonzalez Rogers and said Apple was in violation of the court's order, and she agreed. In April 2025, she found Apple in contempt of court for willfully violating that 2021 injunction. Apple was then barred from collecting any fees on links in the U.S. ‌App Store‌, and it has collected no money for link-outs in third-party apps since then.

Apple appealed, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Apple was in contempt of court, but said Apple should be able to charge a reasonable fee for its intellectual property. Apple does not want courts deciding the fees it is able to collect, so it is now asking the Supreme Court to hear the case.

Apple has two main issues with the appeals court ruling. First, Apple says holding it in civil contempt was not appropriate because the original injunction did not prevent it from charging developers a fee when linking to third-party payment options. The district court and the appeals court agreed that Apple violated the "spirit" of the injunction by charging a high fee. Apple argues that prior court decisions have only held a party in civil contempt when an order has been "clearly and unambiguously" violated. A contempt ruling based on "spirit" is a "recipe for abuse," Apple says.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65 reinforces this understanding by demanding specificity in injunctions to ensure clear notice. The Ninth Circuit's spirit-based inquiry is antithetical to these requirements. Under that rule, the potent weapon of contempt turns on an amorphous, know-it-when-you-see-it inquiry that permits a court to impose contempt merely by declaring a violation of an order's "spirit."

As it has done in several other court filings, Apple also cites Trump v. CASA, a ruling that said lower courts do not have the authority to issue universal injunctions to block nationwide policies. Apple says the court ruling requiring it to drop fees for all developers goes far beyond the scope of the ‌Epic Games‌ case, and any relief ordered by the court should be limited to ‌Epic Games‌.

Yet the injunction here enjoins Apple and the commissions it can charge with respect to millions of registered worldwide developers that are not parties to this case. It does so even though Epic never brought a class action and never attempted to show that enjoining Apple's conduct against all other developers—like Microsoft or Spotify, who have nothing to do with Epic—was somehow necessary to provide relief to Epic.

According to Apple, the contempt ruling based on "spirit" and the order applicable to all developers "have combined to create an injunction that may reshape the global app marketplace."

‌Epic Games‌ and Apple agreed to an expedited schedule and Apple's petition will be considered on June 25. Apple expects a decision on whether the Supreme Court will hear the case by the time the justices recess for the summer in late June or early July.

Apple previously asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on its legal fight with ‌Epic Games‌ in January 2024, but the justices declined to hear the case. Justice Elena Kagan also recently denied Apple's request for a stay of the fee calculation mandate while Apple waits to hear from the Supreme Court.

Update: In a statement to MacRumors, ‌Epic Games‌ Director of Corporate Communications Natalie Munoz said the following:

The Supreme Court has already rejected Apple's attempt to overturn the injunction in this case. This challenge to the contempt order is one last Hail Mary to delay a conclusion to this case and avoid opening up the gates to payment competition for the benefit of consumers. The court proceedings and Apple's own documents made it clear that Apple intentionally designed its sham compliance with the District Court's order to prevent competition, clearly violating the District Court's injunction.

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Apple today announced that this Saturday's Major League Soccer match between the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo FC will be captured entirely with the iPhone 17 Pro.


Apple said this will mark the first time an iPhone will be used to capture the entirety of a major professional live sporting event broadcast, rather than studio cameras, so the iPhone 17 Pro will make sports history this weekend.

"iPhone 17 Pro will capture live footage throughout the match, including team warmups on the pitch, player introductions, in-net goal angles, and the atmosphere inside the stadium," said Apple. "With cameras positioned throughout the venue, the broadcast will deliver the pristine video quality fans expect, alongside dynamic new perspectives that bring viewers closer to the action, made possible by the small form factor of iPhone."

Apple TV subscribers will be able to stream the match live on Saturday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time. For the 2026 season, only an Apple TV subscription is required, with a separate MLS Season Pass subscription no longer necessary.

Apple already used the iPhone 17 Pro to capture select moments and cinematic Fenway Park footage during a Major League Baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers last year, but other cameras were also used. For the Major League Soccer match this weekend, the iPhone 17 Pro will exclusively capture all footage.

Earlier this year, the U.S. National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum added one of the four iPhone 17 Pro devices that captured the Red Sox's thrilling walk-off win over the Tigers to its permanent collection in Cooperstown, New York, so the device already made sports history, and now it will repeat the feat in an even bigger way.
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Amazon has sweetened its deal on the 512GB 15-inch M5 MacBook Air today, dropping the price of the notebook down to $1,099.99, from $1,299.00. This is a new record low price on the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air, and it's available in three colors.

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

Amazon is providing delivery by the end of this week for many locations, and Prime members should see same-day or overnight options as well. Additionally, you'll find $150 markdowns on both 1TB models of the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air this week on Amazon, but we aren't tracking any major discounts on 13-inch models right now.



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 has announced the rollout of two new device features in India: sleep apnea notifications for Apple Watch, and Hearing Test for AirPods Pro.


Sleep apnea is a condition in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, often leading to poor rest. The Apple Watch detects signs of the disorder by using its accelerometer to track subtle wrist movements associated with irregular breathing patterns. When these disturbances occur repeatedly across several nights, the watch can flag a potential case of sleep apnea.

The feature is supported on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 2, and Apple Watch Ultra 3, and is available in more than 150 countries worldwide. To receive an initial reading, users need to wear the watch consistently for several nights, although nightly breathing disturbances are logged in the iPhone's Health app.

Hearing tests can be conducted by connecting AirPods Pro 2 or AirPods Pro 3 to an iPhone running iOS 18.1 or later or an iPad running iPadOS 18.1 or later. The hearing test mimics the hearing tests one might encounter at a doctor's office or when visiting an audiologist.

Tones at different frequencies and sound levels play in each ear, with users instructed to tap the iPhone's display whenever a sound is heard. Apple tests four frequencies, including 500Hz, 1kHz, 2kHz, and 4kHz. Results up to 25 dBHL indicate little to no hearing loss. 26 to 40 dBHL is a sign of mild hearing loss, while results of 41 to 60 dBHL suggest moderate hearing loss. 61 to 80 dBHL is severe hearing loss, and a result above 80 dBHL is considered profound hearing loss.

The results, which include an audiogram, are stored in the Health app, and can be shared with a healthcare provider to have more informed conversations.

Apple Health features are now available in over 160 countries and regions globally, according to a post on X by Apple's Greg Joswiak. Joswiak's post also suggests that Apple recently brought its Hearing Aid feature to Italy and hypertension notifications to Taiwan.
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Apple is testing an iPhone 19 Pro with a display that curves around all four edges of the device, a leaker out of China has claimed.


According to Weibo-based Digital Chat Station, the 2027-generation Pro device, currently at the evaluation stage, has a hole-punch cutout in the display for the front-facing camera, but Face ID is completely hidden under the panel.

The claim is notable because multiple reports suggest Apple is aiming to launch a 20th-anniversary iPhone next year featuring a quad-curved display with no cutouts. Whether Apple plans to position the commemorative model as an ultra-premium tier above its Pro and Pro Max lineup has remained unclear, but the leaker's latest comments suggest that could be the case.

That said, if Apple is planning to use quad-curved panels across both the iPhone 19 Pro and iPhone 19 Pro Max, it would leave the company less room to differentiate them from the rumored commemorative iPhone.

One way Apple could play it is to keep the uninterrupted display exclusive to the 20th-anniversary iPhone while leaving a hole-punch cutout in the 19 Pro models – an option that the leaker's comments do seem to imply. However, Apple is said to be finding it particularly challenging to get both the Face ID system and the front-facing camera under the panel, with the selfie camera proving to be the most difficult to hide.

If existing technologies can't hide the camera under the panel without degrading quality, Apple is unlikely to go ahead with it – which would leave the 2027 iPhone series' differentiation outlined here unresolved.

Digital Chat Station has more than three million followers on Weibo, and has a track record of accurately leaking Apple-related information. For example, they accurately revealed the overall design of the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro, as well as the triple 48-megapixel rear camera system of the ‌iPhone 17 Pro.‌ Recently, the leaker claimed Apple's first foldable, expected to arrive alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models, will be called "iPhone Ultra."
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Apple's first OLED MacBook Pro models have cleared a major manufacturing hurdle, with panel supplier Samsung Display having reportedly achieved yields above 90 percent on its Gen 8.6 OLED production line.


According to Korean publication The Elec, some individual process stages are now reaching yields as high as 95 percent, a level that the display industry considers "golden yield" territory for stable mass production.

The report says Samsung could begin shipping OLED laptop panels through the supply chain as early as June. The panels are expected to be used in future 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, with estimated supply volumes of around 2 million units this year.

The rapid yield improvement is notable because OLED laptop panels are a lot harder to manufacture than smartphone displays due to their larger size and stricter brightness and lifespan requirements. For example, MacBook Pro panels are expected to use brighter tandem two-stack OLED technology like Apple's OLED iPad Pro models, oxide TFT backplanes for improved battery life, and an anti-moisture sealing protection method called hybrid encapsulation.

Samsung began its Gen 8.6 IT OLED investment in 2023 and is currently operating one of two planned production lines. Depending on demand for the OLED MacBook Pro models, which will reportedly have touchscreen capability for the first time, Samsung could activate the second line and expand capacity further.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has repeatedly stated that 14-inch and 16-inch OLED MacBook Pro models are slated to launch in late 2026 to early 2027, but the latter time frame is now said to be more likely due to the industry-wide chip shortage.
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Every May, Apple previews new accessibility features coming to devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The announcement typically occurs a few days before Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and it offers a glimpse into what will be included in the next major releases of Apple's software platforms, such as iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.


This year, one of the new capabilities shown off by Apple is natural language support for the Voice Control feature on the iPhone and iPad.

Voice Control is receiving an Apple Intelligence upgrade that will make the feature "more intuitive than ever," according to Apple. Specifically, iPhone and iPad users will be able to describe on-screen buttons and controls with natural language, instead of having to remember exact labels, numbers, or descriptions like before.

For example, users will be able to say things like "tap the guide about best restaurants" in Apple Maps or "tap the purple folder" in the Files app.

Voice Control powered by Apple Intelligence will initially be available in English in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Australia, according to Apple.

AI-powered Voice Control hints at the more personalized version of Siri that Apple first announced all the way back at WWDC 2024. At the time, Apple said Siri would gain on-screen awareness, which would essentially turn the assistant into an AI agent that is capable of understanding natural language and taking action for you.


Apple's own example was an iPhone user asking Siri about their mother's flight and lunch reservation plans based on info retrieved from the Mail and Messages apps, and it was later reported that Siri will be able to do things such as comment on an Instagram post, or scroll through a shopping app and add something to your cart.

Overall, the revamped Siri is expected to have a better understanding of a user's personal context, on-screen awareness, and deeper per-app controls. In March 2025, Apple announced that these capabilities were delayed until later this year. The new-and-improved Siri is expected to be a tentpole feature of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, which will be unveiled on June 8 and should be released to the public in September.

The more personalized Siri will likely require an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, a Mac with an M1 chip or newer, or an iPad with an A17 Pro or M1 chip or newer.
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Apple this week previewed new accessibility features that are coming later this year, and one is particularly notable: automatic captions for personal videos.


For videos that do not already have captions, Apple said a new on-device speech recognition model can automatically generate them for spoken audio. According to Apple, this feature will be available for videos that you record on your iPhone, videos that you receive from friends and family, and videos that are streamed online.

The automatic captions will initially be limited to English in the U.S. and Canada.

Apple ensured that the captions are generated privately, and you will be able to customize their appearance in the video playback menu or in the Settings app. The feature will be supported across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Vision Pro, with the "later this year" timing pointing to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, and visionOS 27.

Apple will unveil those software versions during its WWDC 2026 keynote, which begins on Monday, June 8 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, so we expect to learn more about this feature and its exact implementation in a few weeks from now.
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Samsung has edged past Apple for the top spot in customer satisfaction for cell phones, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index's 2026 Telecommunications, Cell Phone, and Smartwatch Study, published this week.


Samsung scores 81 in the ACSI's cell phone rankings while Apple posts 80, breaking last year's tie between the two companies for satisfaction leadership. The overall cell phone industry score rose 1% to 79 this year, recovering from a sharp 4% decline in 2025 that had pushed it to its lowest point in a decade.

The ACSI says satisfaction improves most when new features translate into everyday value without introducing new pain points, citing battery life tradeoffs as an example. AI integration, measured by the ACSI for the first time, scores 85 overall, signaling that customers are not only aware of AI features but find them useful, while improvements in battery life, up 5% to 81.

For the cell phone industry, the highest-rated customer experience metrics are the fundamental functions of making phone calls and sending text messages, both scoring 86. AI feature performance debuts at 85, nearly matching those top table-stakes interactions, suggesting that AI is moving from novelty to practical utility for many customers.

Among new flagship owners, Samsung's latest Galaxy S-series leads at 84, followed by new iPhone owners at 82, with Google's flagship models scoring 80. Satisfaction with flagship models overall scores 82, far outpacing legacy phones at 76 and foldables at 72.

In the foldable segment, Samsung holds a clear lead with an ACSI score of 80, which is 8 points ahead of Google at 72 and 10 points ahead of Motorola at 70. The ACSI notes that foldable owners are three times as likely to complain as non-foldable owners, and says competitive dynamics in the segment may shift as Apple's rumored entry into the foldable market is anticipated for later this year. Apple is widely expected to debut a foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models this fall, featuring a 7.8-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch cover screen, priced at around $2,000.

In the smartwatch category, Apple holds steady at 80, while Samsung drops 4% to create a first-place tie at the top of the leaderboard. Customer experience characteristics of smartwatches are universally rated higher this year at the industry level, with the biggest gains including ease of navigating menus and settings, up 7% to 80, and app and accessory connectivity, up 5% to 83.

The ACSI study is based on 26,963 completed surveys, with customers contacted via email between April 2025 and March 2026.
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Apple today shared stats that paint the App Store as a safe and trusted place for both customers and developers, even though the reality is that fraudulent or deceptive apps continue to make it past Apple's review process from time to time.


In 2025, Apple said its App Review team evaluated more than 9.1 million App Store submissions, with a mix of human review and AI. The company rejected over two million of these submissions, including over 1.2 million new apps and nearly 800,000 pending app updates, for failing to adhere to the App Store's Review Guidelines.

As bad actors continue to evolve their methods, Apple said it continuously improves its multilayered defenses, leveraging a combination of human review and advanced machine learning in an attempt to detect and prevent malicious activity.

"By utilizing AI to rapidly identify complex malicious patterns, analyze app similarity, and flag potentially problematic changes in app updates, Apple's systems help human reviewers focus their expertise where it matters most," said Apple. "This not only improves the customer experience by ensuring a high-quality, curated storefront, it also helps legitimate developers get their great apps and updates to users faster."

Apple added that it terminated 193,000 developer accounts over fraud concerns and prevented over $2.2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2025.

In 2025, Apple processed over 1.3 billion App Store reviews and ratings. Using a mix of human review and AI, the company said it identified and blocked close to 195 million fraudulent reviews and ratings from ever appearing.

"Apple's Trust and Safety teams integrate AI throughout the entire moderation process to detect spam, offensive content, and inauthentic reviews at scale," the company explained. "Additionally, AI-powered dashboards and rapid data analysis tools accelerate the discovery of new fraud vectors, enabling Apple's teams to react quickly to deceptive activity and protect the integrity of the platform."

Apple's press release contains many more stats that highlight the company's efforts to ensure the App Store is secure, even if they are not perfect.
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Accessory maker Ugreen has expanded its Nexode and MagFlow Air lineup of chargers with a set of compact units aimed squarely at Apple users.


First up is the Nexode Air 65W charger, which Ugreen is pitching as a travel-friendly option for MacBook Air owners, but it should work just as well for iPhones, iPads, and other USB-C devices. (Its Cosmic Orange-style finish twins particularly well with the iPhone 17 Pro.) Ugreen describes the unit as pocket-sized while still delivering up to 65W of fast charging, and it features the company's Ugreen's Thermal Guard temperature control for safety.

For users who want a thinner option, Ugreen is also touting its Nexode Air 45W Charger Slim, plus there's a new MagFlow Air Magnetic Power Bank 10000mAh – a Qi2-certified 15W magnetic battery with a built-in USB-C cable, a second USB-C port, and ATL battery cells inside.

The company's broader existing Air lineup includes a thicker Nexode Air 65W Charger Slim and a less bulky 5000mAh version of the MagFlow Air.

The Nexode Air 65W Charger and 45W Slim are priced at $39.99, with the 10000mAh MagFlow Air at $79.99. All the chargers are available now over on Ugreen's official site as well as Amazon.com.

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