Apple: Page 2

From its official launch back in September, iOS 11 has been equal parts revered as it has been criticized. Even with all the great, new features we've come to expect from a major iOS update, plenty of bugs and glitches have forced users to overlook the positives. Perhaps that is why, four months later, 25% of iPhone owners are still running iOS 10.3 or earlier.

Apple's support documentation still requires an iPhone to set up an Apple Watch, even though some third-party guides describe ways to use a cellular model alongside an Android phone after initial setup. That sentence is the extent of what's confirmed. Apple hasn't published eligible models, carriers, regions, or setup steps to go with it.

iOS 27 restores a real Home Screen icon for the Apple TV Remote app, but the release candidate also contains two more additions most users can't touch yet: an app launcher and a Top Shelf content carousel. Both of these iOS 27 Apple TV Remote app hidden features sit behind disabled feature flags, so installing the update on its own won't switch either one on, according to MacRumors and Cult of Mac.

iOS 27 rolled out today, September 14, and buried inside it is something AirPods owners have asked for through several software cycles: a working iOS 27 AirPods customizable EQ that lets owners push lows, mids, and highs up or down instead of trusting Apple's automatic tuning alone. Apple Intelligence and a beta version of Siri AI ship the same day.

Granola Apple Watch App Explained: Features, Privacy Gaps, and Timing

Apple didn't quietly bolt on a new financing tier this week. It shut down the iPhone Upgrade Program and iPhone Payments in the United States and replaced both with the Apple Upgrade program, a Klarna-backed lease that now spans iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac (Apple Newsroom, this week). Leases start at $17.99 a month for iPhone and run 12 to 36 months depending on device category, sold through Apple's own retail and online channels in partnership with buy-now-pay-later provider Klarna...

Apple's WWDC26 preview of iOS 27 showed off video playback in the car and a much smarter Siri, but installing the update on an iPhone doesn't unlock either feature by itself. Working out iOS 27 CarPlay features compatibility means checking three separate things at once: the iPhone's model, the car parked in the driveway, and whether the apps already installed have caught up to Apple's new tools.

Apple CarPlay not working is rarely about a bad cable or spotty Wi-Fi, not at first anyway. The real diagnostic starting point is simpler: figure out whether the connection is wired or wireless, because the checks that follow are different for each (MacObserver, last year).

TechCrunch's hands-on verdict on the rebuilt Siri AI is blunt: the assistant finally works the way Apple promised, though the review reads more like relief than excitement, closer to a bug fix than a breakthrough (TechCrunch's hands-on review). Scientific American frames the wait differently, noting that Apple has promised, and repeatedly delayed, this more proactive Siri for two years (Scientific American). Whichever framing feels right comes down to something more basic than opinion: can you...

Wallpaper Engine isn't available on macOS. Its developers currently support Windows and Android and say they have no immediate plans for a Mac version.

Apple's iOS 27, currently moving through beta testing ahead of a fall release, brings a broad set of improvements to Messages.

Pocket Casts does not currently support Apple TV. That is the last documented position from the company, stated on its support page two and a half years ago, with a note that support may come in the future. Nothing in the app's current App Store listing changes that picture. What has changed is the platform Pocket Casts would be entering: Apple announced last month that it is rebuilding Apple Podcasts on tvOS from scratch, adding video playback, optional 4K creator support, and in-show episode...

Apple Maps ads are now live in the US and Canada. Ad delivery began on August 21, and Apple confirmed a few days later that the rollout would keep expanding over the coming weeks, according to 9to5Mac and PPC Land.

NameDrop lets two iPhones, or an iPhone and Apple Watch, swap contact cards by holding the top edges close together and confirming a prompt that appears on both screens. It works by sharing contact information using AirDrop, and it's available now on any compatible iPhone running iOS 17.1 or later (Apple Support). This guide covers how to use NameDrop on iPhone step by step: which devices qualify, how to control exactly what gets shared, and what to check when the screen refuses to show up.

Apple's long-rumored Home Hub display is shaping up to be less a single shared screen and more a device that can serve personal content depending on who's using it.

Some App Store apps now let you pay for an annual subscription in monthly installments instead of one upfront charge. Apple calls these monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment, and they're easy to mistake for flexible, cancel-anytime monthly plans.

WhatsApp's in-chat search feature for iPhone would let users jump straight into a chat's search mode with a single tap, skipping the detour through chat info the app currently requires. The feature was discovered in WhatsApp beta for iOS 26.31.10.70 on TestFlight, but WhatsApp has not enabled it for beta testers and has not announced a release date.

iOS 27 shipped September 14, 2026, as build 24A437, and Apple's support documentation lists the new Apple Intelligence capabilities by platform. Counting Siri AI separately and counting Apple's three Intelligent Accessibility subfeatures individually produces 20 entries for the purposes of this article. Updating doesn't hand every iPhone owner all 20 iOS 27 Apple Intelligence features at once, though. Hardware, storage, language, age, and region each gate access on their own, and some entries...

Apple's iOS 27 update landed this week, but plenty of iPhone owners are opening Settings and finding the same old Siri staring back at them. That's not a bug. Siri AI, the overhauled assistant Apple began promising back in June, does not activate automatically with iOS 27.

Apple's next few years in the smart home are starting to take shape, at least according to people briefed on the company's internal plans. The Apple smart home product roadmap now being reported includes refreshed Apple TV and HomePod mini hardware, a first-ever room-by-room display hub, and Apple's first self-made security camera and doorbell (9to5Mac, 2 days ago). Apple has not publicly announced any of it in the reporting cited here.

Apple now markets the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max as an intelligent personal hub, pairing AI capability with personal context and calling privacy and security core to the design. That's a confirmed claim from Apple's own announcement. It doesn't tell you which parts of that hub are working today, or whether they apply to the phone you already own.

Apple Music subscribers don't have to wait until the end of the year to see their listening habits laid out. The 2026 Replay playlist has been updating since early February, tracking top songs throughout the year rather than appearing only as a year-end recap.

Mac owners running macOS 27 "Golden Gate" are watching Apple Intelligence eat into their free storage well beyond the figures Apple lists in its own documentation, according to iThinkDiff, which compiled owner and tester storage readings last week. Reported figures range from about 14GB to over 30GB, against Apple's stated maximums of 8GB to 14GB. The gap in macOS 27 Apple Intelligence storage usage shows up in both pre-release beta and Release Candidate builds and in reports from Macs running...

Apple is testing its redesigned Health app in iOS 27.2, giving beta users an early look at the new Insights and Longevity tabs before the full experience launches later this year.

iOS 27 now lets iPhone owners create their own Apple Wallet passes without a developer account.

The most useful iOS 27 HomeKit changes have little to do with new hardware. Apple added several HomeKit Secure Video features powered by Apple Intelligence: plain-language descriptions of recorded activity, natural-language search across camera clips and a single notification that can combine related activity instead of sending separate alerts one after another.

Some Mac owners running macOS 27 have watched Apple Intelligence balloon to 20GB or more in the Storage pane, well beyond what Apple's own documentation says it should need. If you're trying to figure out how to remove Apple Intelligence models on Mac and claw back some of that space, start by separating what's actually been measured from what's circulating on Reddit.

The Apple CarPlay settings worth changing after that first pairing live in two places: the iPhone's Settings app and CarPlay's own Settings app on the vehicle display.

Apple shipped watchOS 27 on Sept. 14, and the update removes a familiar Apple Watch multitasking shortcut.

Here's how iPhone Handoff works in iOS 27: supported carriers can put the same phone number on two iPhones, but only one of those phones is ever active at a time. It's not two simultaneously active lines, and treating it that way is the fastest way to misunderstand what you're paying for (MacRumors explains).

Open System Settings after installing macOS 27, and Apple Intelligence might be claiming far more space than Apple's own numbers suggest it should. That's the pattern surfacing on Mac forums this week: multiple owners running Apple's newest macOS release are seeing Apple Intelligence storage usage on Mac systems run well past what Apple's support documentation lists as the requirement. MacRumors measured 20.67GB on its own M4 Pro Mac mini, already above Apple's published 14GB ceiling for that...

CarPlay automatically adds every compatible app on the iPhone to the display, with no ranking of what actually matters while driving (Pocket-lint, two months ago). That means the default layout may not reflect what's useful behind the wheel. Apple built CarPlay to put iPhone tasks, navigation, calls, messages, onto the car's built-in display rather than the phone screen (Apple Support, last year). Connecting the phone gets those tasks on screen, but the deeper controls, app order, notification...

A Messages background isn't a private wallpaper choice. It's a setting tied to the conversation itself: everyone in the thread sees whatever background gets applied, and anyone in that thread can change it again later (Apple Support). Learning how to change iMessage background on iPhone only takes a few taps, but knowing who else it affects matters more than the taps themselves.

Apple confirmed this week that Apple Podcasts Subscriptions video is coming, letting creators lock subscriber-exclusive episodes, ad-free video, early access, and bonus content behind the same paywall they already use for premium audio, across more than 170 countries and regions (9to5Mac, reported this week). The move would end an audio-only run that's lasted since Apple Podcasts Subscriptions launched in 2021, even though free video has already been playing in the app since March, when Apple...

Code buried inside HomePod Software 27 shows Apple has been quietly laying groundwork for Siri AI on HomePod, according to a leak that surfaced yesterday. Apple has not announced the feature, and it is not active on any HomePod currently in homes. The leak, spotted by code sleuth pdfu and reported by 9to5Mac and MacRumors, gives the clearest hint yet that Apple's smarter assistant is headed for its smart speakers, but it also raises a harder question for anyone with a HomePod already on a...

Apple spent part of the iPhone Duo unveiling drawing a sharp contrast with rival foldables, including the awkward black space that can surround apps not designed for larger folding screens. But Apple's first foldable won't make that problem disappear overnight. As 9to5Google noted after the Sept. 9 unveiling, older iPhone apps can face a similar limitation when opened on Duo's 7.6-inch inner display.

Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate on Sept. 14, 2026, as a free update for eligible Macs, calling it a stability, performance, and compatibility release recommended for all macOS 27 users. The headline macOS 27 Golden Gate features center on Siri: Siri AI now lives inside Spotlight for conversational search, while a separate Siri AI app handles saved conversations synced through iCloud.

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.

The Apple Intelligence subscription cost for Home app camera features now has a specific number attached to it: $9.99 a month, tied to Apple's 2TB iCloud+ plan. That figure comes from beta release notes for macOS 27, the update Apple calls Golden Gate internally, which confirm that AI-powered camera tools require the top iCloud+ tier even though the features themselves run on iPhone and iPad (MacRumors; MacRumors).

An old Mac mini doesn't have to end up in a drawer once a newer model takes over your desk. Turning an old Mac mini into a home server is one of the more practical uses for hardware that's small, quiet, and easy to tuck away where noise and space matter.