Apple: Page 2

Siri has been a punchline for so long that skepticism feels like the responsible position. So here's the direct answer to the question everyone's asking after WWDC26 this week: is Siri actually good now? Not yet. But for the first time, there's a credible structural argument that it could be and that argument is worth taking seriously, with clear eyes about where it breaks down.

Apple Music, Fitness, and Health have all gained landscape orientation support in iOS 27, ending years of portrait-only layouts for three of the company's most-used first-party apps, Macworld reported this week. For everyday users, that's a straightforward fix. The more significant story is what sits behind it: the same beta that quietly rotated those apps also contains framework strings referencing fold states and display angles, neither of which maps to any device Apple currently sells.

iOS 27 gives the Apple TV Remote a dedicated Home Screen icon for the first time since the app was pulled from the App Store in 2020. Users can add the Apple TV Remote to their iPhone Home Screen with a simple drag from Spotlight or the App Library, no Settings configuration required. The change ships in the current developer beta, as MacRumors reported this week.

Apple is moving Visual Intelligence out of a hidden gesture and into a named mode inside the Camera app with iOS 27, making a capability that has existed since iPhone 16 actually discoverable. The iOS 27 Camera Control improvement gives the feature a dedicated Siri mode in the mode selector alongside Photo, Video, and Portrait, according to MacRumors' hands-on developer beta coverage three days ago.

Apple's June figures put 79% of all compatible iPhones on iOS 26, below the 82% iOS 18 had reached at the same point last year, and the second-lowest June adoption rate Apple has recorded since 2015, ahead of only iOS 17, according to App Store data. The upgrade cycle is functioning. It's just running softer than Apple's own recent standard.

Two years ago, Apple announced an AI-powered Siri that never fully materialized. This week, at WWDC 2026, the company tried again and this time, the evidence suggests it actually delivered. Whether that's enough to win the AI assistant wars is a different question, with a less flattering answer.

When iOS 27 ships this fall, most drivers won't be watching video on their CarPlay screen. Apple formally introduced video apps as a supported CarPlay category at WWDC 2026 this week, completing a gradual platform shift that began when Apple first signaled parked-only video support at WWDC 2025.

A UK refurbisher has been quietly tracking something the laptop industry rarely quantifies with precision: how often machines come back broken, controlled for how long they've been in use. The results, published this week, are stark. Age-matched Intel MacBooks return for hardware faults at roughly twice the rate of Apple Silicon models, with Apple Silicon units sold throughout 2025 logging a 0.9% fault return rate against approximately double that figure for Intel machines sold under equivalent...

Apple previewed tvOS 27 at WWDC on June 8, and the compatibility list that followed cuts off two models that ran tvOS 26: the Apple TV HD (2015) and the first-generation Apple TV 4K (2017). Both devices are now classified as "no longer software-supported," per Apple Support documentation. tvOS 27 runs only on the second-generation Apple TV 4K (2021) and third-generation Apple TV 4K (2022), according to Apple's documentation as reported by MacRumors Monday. It is the first Apple TV hardware...

Before WWDC 2026, the consensus on watchOS 27 was polite and unexciting. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman told readers to expect AI features, stability work, and "not much, really" beyond that, and 9to5Mac summarized those expectations in March. What Apple announced today is still narrower than a typical platform release. It's also more targeted than the preview implied.

Apple raised the memory bar for its most capable on-device AI today at WWDC. iOS 27 introduces a new on-device model requiring at least 12GB of unified memory, which means the standard iPhone 17, shipping with 8GB, is excluded from the top tier of Apple Intelligence at launch. Not because the phone is underpowered in any other sense, but because of where Apple drew a single spec line, MacRumors reported today.

Adam Lisagor of Sandwich has released the Hovercraft Mac app, a virtual camera utility that keeps presenters visible on screen while they share content during video calls. The app composites the presenter's webcam feed and a floating, movable window into a single outgoing video stream, so the audience never sees a screen takeover. Hovercraft is available now, free to try, and priced from $19 for a single Mac.

Many apps trigger the same pop-up the moment you open them: "Allow [App] to track your activity across other companies' apps and websites?" You tap "Ask App Not to Track." Next app, same prompt. It's friction without end, and most iPhone users don't know there's a single toggle that makes it stop.

Apple is closing its Towson Town Center store on June 20, and the roughly 90 employees there will have to reapply for jobs as outside candidates. Workers at the two other Apple stores closing this month, at Trumbull Mall in Connecticut and North County Mall near San Diego, are being offered transfers to other locations in their markets, Bloomberg Law reported. The union says the difference comes down to one thing: Towson was the first Apple retail store in the United States to unionize.

Weibo leaker Ice Universe revised the expected iPhone 18 Pro Max thickness today, dropping the figure from 8.8mm to 8.75mm and matching it exactly to the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The change, reported by AppleInsider today, came with no explanation. Separate claims about a battery in the 5,100–5,200 mAh range, from Digital Chat Station, and a weight exceeding 240 grams, from Instant Digital, were not revised and remain open questions, per Trusted Reviews.

iOS 26 lets compatible AirPods control the iPhone Camera app directly from the stem or Digital Crown. No Apple Watch, no tripod remote, no extra hardware. This guide covers enabling Camera Remote, picking the right gesture for your shooting style, taking photos and recording video hands-free, and routing mic input through your AirPods while you shoot.

Indie singer-songwriter Brye posted a TikTok this week saying her song "Lemons" was produced in GarageBand on a school-issued iPad using what she called a "horrible little plug-in mic," 9to5Mac reported. She claims the song racked up 100 million streams after going viral during quarantine in 2020.

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Apple's AirPods hearing health suite reached the Philippines in March 2026, the latest addition to a rollout that now spans more than 100 countries and regions. Apple's broader hearing health suite covers three distinct capabilities: a Hearing Test, a Hearing Aid mode for mild to moderate loss, and active Hearing Protection, though availability varies by feature and region.