Trending about Apple

Notability's calendar meeting recording feature launched on August 25, letting Mac and Windows users start a recording by tapping directly on a calendar event. Tap the event, and Notability opens a note ready for input while recording begins, according to 9to5Mac.

Apple shipped iOS 27 public beta 5 on August 24, alongside iPadOS 27 public beta 5, tvOS 27 public beta 5, and macOS Golden Gate public beta 5, making the latest builds available to anyone enrolled with a compatible device, according to MacRumors. Of the four, iOS 27 carries the bigger story: a rebuilt Siri that remains limited by hardware, language, region, and Apple's access waitlist.

Apple released iOS 27 Public Beta 4 on Aug. 17, one week after Public Beta 3 and just hours after iOS 27 developer beta 6. Anyone with a compatible iPhone can get the update by enrolling in the Apple Beta Software Program.

The most interesting evidence for Apple's rumored home hub isn't a spec sheet. It's a home-screen system borrowed straight from the Apple Watch, and it does more to justify buying several units than any display resolution or chip upgrade could. That's the real story buried in this month's Apple HomePad rumors: not a bigger screen, but a smarter one.

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...

Apple is drawing a hardware line in tvOS 27 for the first time in four years, cutting two older Apple TV models out of the update entirely (TechRadar, 2 months ago). But knowing whether your box makes the cut is only half the story. The more useful question, especially if you own one of the tvOS 27 compatible Apple TV models, is whether upgrading right now would actually get you anything.

Parallels announced Parallels Desktop 27 today, adding a Metal-based graphics driver that brings hardware-accelerated OpenGL 4.3 to Windows virtual machines on Apple silicon Macs. The company describes the capability as unique among Mac virtualization tools, though that comparison comes from Parallels itself rather than independent testing (GlobeNewswire, today; 9to5Mac, today).

iOS 27's Shared Albums update fixes a problem baked into the feature for years: shared photos and videos will no longer get compressed the moment they leave a personal library. The tradeoff is that new Shared Albums now count against the owner's iCloud storage, according to MacRumors and Trusted Reviews, reversing a setup that let people share thousands of images without touching their plan. The change is rolling out now, with iOS 27 in public beta ahead of a full release expected alongside new...

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 becomes available when you're off-grid and a normal call or text to emergency services can't connect, as long as you're outdoors with a clear view of the sky and using an iPhone 14 or later.

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.

Beta code inside tvOS 27 and Bloomberg reporting suggest Apple is preparing Siri AI for the Apple TV ecosystem, but neither source confirms which existing models will support it. Whether the second- and third-generation Apple TV 4K will run the redesigned assistant, or whether it's reserved for hardware Apple hasn't announced yet, remains an open question (9to5Mac; 9to5Mac).

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.

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?

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...

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.

Wikipedia's iOS app picked up a new Home Screen widget yesterday that does exactly one thing: open a random Wikipedia article the moment someone taps it. The Wikipedia iOS random articles widget shipped in Monday's iPhone and iPad update, joining the trending, featured, and Picture of the Day widgets the app already offers, 9to5Mac reported.

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).

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.

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.

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).

Most Mac users assume the system language is all-or-nothing: change it, and everything from Finder to your third-party apps follows along. That's not quite right. macOS has a dedicated setting for how to change language for individual apps on Mac, letting you override one app's display language while leaving the rest of the system exactly as it was.

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.

Continuity isn't one setting tucked into a menu. iOS, iPadOS, and macOS bundle nearly a dozen distinct tools under that name, everything from AirDrop and Handoff to lesser-known features like Continuity Sketch and Instant Hotspot (Apple Support, earlier this year). Knowing how to use Apple Continuity well means matching the right feature to the right task, not switching everything on and hoping it sorts itself out.

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.

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.

Jennifer Bailey, the Apple vice president who built and ran Apple Pay, Apple Wallet, and Apple Card, is retiring after 23 years at the company, AppleInsider reported today. Bloomberg broke the news first, and Apple's Eddy Cue confirmed the departure in a note to employees, according to AppleInsider. Bailey spent the last 12 years as vice president of Apple Pay and related services, a run that began when she joined Apple in 2003, per AppleInsider.

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.

In late January 2026, Banjo: Recompiled launched for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a standalone native app. Not an emulated N64 game running inside a simulated console, but its own application, built with remappable controls, a second-stick camera option, and mod support. It's one entry in a growing scene that lets players play classic console games natively on Mac without touching an emulator.

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 shipped the first developer beta of tvOS 27 on June 9, 2026, days after unveiling the software at its WWDC 2026 keynote, MacObserver reported that day. This is the tvOS 27 beta 1 developer release, not a later build, and nothing in the available reporting points to a sixth developer beta anywhere in this cycle.

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.

Apple added one of CarPlay's most significant upgrades to iOS 27: users with supported vehicles will be able to browse and play videos directly from the infotainment screen, without selecting the video on their iPhone, once compatible cars and apps become available. The feature, called "video in car," got no keynote time at WWDC 2026. Apple discussed it in a developer session and has said little publicly since.

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.

A forged email header can make Apple's Mail app on Mac send a reply from the email address associated with your Apple Account, even when the message arrived through another account and you have never used Hide My Email.

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.

Apple's Game Porting Toolkit 4 beta delivered a 66% frame rate jump in GTA V on the same M4 Pro MacBook Pro hardware, with no changes to the game itself, according to Macworld's testing today. That single benchmark captures something broader: the software layer translating Windows games on Mac has improved enough that Apple silicon can now show what it was always capable of delivering.