Apple

Open the Health app on your iPhone and there's a feature tucked inside that can hand a paramedic someone's blood type, list their allergies, and name who to call when they can't answer for themselves. It only works, though, if someone filled it in before the emergency happened. This guide walks through how to set up Medical ID and emergency contacts on iPhone: building the medical profile, adding contacts, deciding what to expose on the Lock Screen, configuring Emergency SOS without triggering...

For years, Apple Notes was a one-way street. Text went in and mostly stayed there, with no built-in way to hand a note back out in a format other writing tools could actually read. iOS 26 changes that by building native, two-way Markdown support into Notes, and this guide walks through how to import and export Markdown in Apple Notes on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Apple's China support site posted, then quietly pulled, a guide showing Mac users how to connect Alibaba's Qwen model, known in mainland China as Qianwen, to Siri and Writing Tools. The page went live on August 8 and disappeared within a day, according to Particle. It is the most detailed public look yet at how Apple Intelligence Qwen integration is meant to work, even though Apple has not confirmed the feature is actually live.

WhatsApp is rolling out a new settings panel that lets a subset of Mac beta testers set their own WhatsApp beta for Mac update schedule, picking between two release channels instead of taking whatever build the company pushes automatically, according to WABetaInfo and Hardware Upgrade this week.

Rivian's chief software officer has a blunt answer for anyone still shopping for Apple CarPlay in an electric truck: the debate itself, he argues, no longer matters. That's a striking claim from a company whose own buyers once ranked CarPlay as their single most-requested feature, according to The Verge, two months ago.

Tucked inside CarPlay's Accessibility menu are three tools: Voice Control, Sound Recognition, and a set of display adjustments covering text size, boldness, and color. These count among the hidden Apple CarPlay features that go unused simply because accessibility submenus rarely get opened without a specific reason to check them. None of them is a universal upgrade. Each solves a specific kind of friction for a specific kind of driver, and figuring out which one applies to you is the actual...

Apple expanded support for its Apple Account Card in Wallet last week, adding Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Malta to the list of countries where the feature works (MacRumors). It's a small update to a feature that's been rolling out gradually since 2022 (MacRumors), but it's a good excuse to answer a question a lot of iPhone owners have been quietly Googling: what is an Apple Account Card, and is it something you need?

Firefox for iOS quietly picked up a built-in ad blocker. Mozilla shipped it switched off by default, though, and tucked the toggle inside a page-level menu instead of the app's main settings. If you're trying to figure out how to enable ad blocker in Firefox on iPhone, the process itself is short: a few taps inside a webpage's Site menu. What takes longer to explain is what the feature actually filters once it's on, and where it stops.

A newer iPhone can text emergency services from a trailhead with zero bars, but that capability isn't something you switch on in advance. It only activates when a normal call fails and you're outdoors with a clear view of the sky, and only on an iPhone 14 or later (Apple Support, updated last month). What you can control ahead of time is what information reaches responders and who gets notified, and setting that up is the point of the iPhone emergency features covered in this guide.

No iOS 27 developer beta 5 or iPadOS 27 beta 5 turns up in the reporting compiled for this piece. The newest confirmed build documented is developer beta 4, released July 20, which iClarified describes as continuing to refine both operating systems ahead of their fall launch.

A rubberized, soccer-ball-shaped tracker that costs as little as $14.99 now taps into the same crowdsourced Find My network that powers Apple's $29 AirTag. That's the pitch behind Ugreen's FineTrack 2, and on paper it reads like an easy win for anyone tired of paying Apple prices for a plastic disc with a chip inside. But "half the price" only holds true on sale days, and the real question buried under that marketing line is what a buyer actually gives up at either price point.

References to WhatsApp custom emoji reactions for iPhone have turned up in WhatsApp for iOS beta version 26.32.10.16, hinting that the app may eventually let iPhone owners swap out its six standard reaction icons for their own picks (WABetaInfo, last week). Right now, every iPhone user sees the same fixed lineup, 👍, ❤️, 😂, 😮, 😢, and 🙏, when they long-press a message, with no built-in way to change it (Cult of Mac, today). The reference surfaced in that TestFlight build, though the feature...

Apple confirmed this month that macOS 28 will no longer mount encrypted Mac OS Extended volumes. Unencrypted HFS+ drives are explicitly preserved and need no changes. The group with a real problem is smaller but specific: anyone running Time Machine to an encrypted HFS+ drive has no in-place migration path and will need to start a fresh backup chain before macOS 28 ships, according to Apple's support document.

Volvo is pushing a software update over the air to more than two million vehicles already on the road, adding a native Apple Music app that runs directly in the car's own software without needing an active iPhone session for playback, Volvo Cars SG reported. The update covers eleven model lines dating back to model year 2020. Apple CarPlay remains available alongside the new app, and Volvo is adding a native option, not swapping one system for another.

Suno is marketing a workflow it calls the Suno iMessage song generator: screenshot a conversation, extract the text with your phone's built-in OCR, paste it into Suno, and get back a full song with vocals, lyrics, and instrumentation in about 60 seconds. The pitch leans hard on iMessage branding. The actual mechanic involves no Messages extension or official Apple integration of any kind.

MOFT now offers three MagSafe-compatible wallets with Apple Find My support: a slim two-card wallet and stand, a two-card model with a taller tripod and camera remote, and a larger Field Wallet that holds up to eight cards.

Every Mac includes Preview, Apple's app for opening PDFs and images. Double-click a supported file, and it will usually open without another download, subscription, or setup process.

The Strava Events tab went live yesterday, letting users search for nearby races, group runs, rides, and club meetups inside the app, then move toward a training plan through the app's Runna integration. Strava says the tab connects race discovery with Runna-powered training plans, per the company's press release, timed to what it calls peak running season.

Reviewed by: Y. Garcia

Code changes found in Apple's Wallet backend suggest that Apple Car Key support for GWM Tank vehicles may be in development, MacRumors reported last week. None of Great Wall Motor's four current Tank models, the 300, 400, 500, or 700, support the feature today, MacObserver reported last week.