News and Updates about Apple

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.

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.

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.

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...

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).

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?

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.

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...

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

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...

The available reporting on a watchOS 27 beta 6 developer release doesn't include a build number, changelog, or fix list tied to that specific version. The most detailed independent account of watchOS 27's beta software comes from PCMag, which tested an earlier developer build roughly a month ago, about a week before the watchOS 27 public beta went live in mid-July.

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 released App Store Connect for iOS version 3.2 earlier this year, but the exact scope of the update is unclear. 9to5Mac reported that it added streamlined TestFlight feedback filtering, revised sorting, and VoiceOver and Voice Control improvements. Apple's current App Store version history, however, lists different changes for version 3.2, including filtering for Ratings and Reviews, age-rating visibility, and a refreshed design.

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.

Claims are circulating that future GWM Tank SUVs will support Apple Car Key, the feature that lets drivers lock, unlock, and start compatible vehicles using an iPhone or Apple Watch through Apple Wallet. The evidence doesn't support that yet. No GWM or Tank model appears on Apple's supported vehicles list. No CCC Digital Key certification for any Tank model exists in public records. Neither GWM nor Apple has issued any announcement on the subject. Buyers factoring this into a purchase decision...

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.

WordPress released a native Apple TV app today that brings its long-running community video archive to the living room. The WordPress TV Apple TV app is free, requires no account, and opens immediately to thousands of talks, tutorials, and WordCamp session recordings from events held around the world. Reporting so far points to the app listing rather than a separate WordPress announcement, with 9to5Mac covering the launch today.

DuckDuckGo's browser now blocks most YouTube video ads on iPhone and Mac, with the feature switched on automatically for users running the latest version. No extensions, no configuration required. The catch: DuckDuckGo YouTube ad blocking on iPhone and Mac only applies when YouTube is open inside DuckDuckGo's browser, not through the standalone YouTube app, as Engadget noted this week.

The pitch for Matter was simple enough to print on a box: buy any device with the logo, scan the QR code, and it works in your smart home. No compatibility research, no ecosystem anxiety, no app drawer colonized by proprietary software. Three years in, Apple Home's Matter problems run deeper than the marketing ever suggested. The logo is not a promise. It's a prompt to start asking questions.

For the first time, Roblox is bringing game creation into its mobile app. A new feature called Build, a dedicated creation tab inside the existing iPhone and iPad app, lets anyone type a text prompt and generate a basic playable game without writing a line of code, according to the Roblox newsroom today. The Roblox game creation feature on iPhone and iPad enters public alpha on July 28, initially limited to New Zealand.

Apple's free iCloud tier has sat at 5GB for years. As Macworld put it, that limit "felt stingy a decade ago and certainly isn't enough now." For most iPhone owners with any real photo library, hitting that ceiling isn't a surprise. It's a subscription prompt dressed up as a warning.

WhatsApp has started rolling out its Liquid Glass redesign to the Mac app, making Mac the last major Apple platform to receive the update. The translucent visual overhaul is the obvious draw, but the changes with the most practical effect on daily use are structural: a privacy gap that left sensitive chats exposed on shared Macs is being closed, and navigation that required too much guesswork has been rebuilt from scratch.

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.

iOS 27 will push receipt-scanning, itemized bill splitting directly into Apple Wallet and Messages, turning Apple Cash into the settlement layer for group dining tabs. Announced at WWDC 2026 last month, the feature identifies the receipt's line items, lets each participant select what they ordered, and calculates what that person owes before they pay the payer with Apple Cash. The wider iOS 27 release is expected this September.

Apple raised the price of Apple Music today, and in doing so, made Apple One a slightly better deal for the people already on the fence about it. That's not how price hikes are supposed to work, but the arithmetic is clear. Whether Apple One is worth it in 2026 depends almost entirely on which services a subscriber would pay for anyway, and today's pricing moves shifted exactly where that break-even line falls.