Apple's long-rumored product leasing program, which it calls unironically "Apple Upgrade," is finally here, and it looks like a low-cost way to slide into the Apple ecosystem whether on the shiny surface of a gleaming iPhone 17 Pro, a Snoopy-faced Apple Watch, a clamshell Apple Silicon Mac, or an ultra-slim iPad Pro.

With no upfront fee and monthly charges as low as $11.99 a month (it's only available in the US for now), your new Apple Watch might cost you far less than your daily Starbucks mocha latte.

Honestly, this sounds like a great program, especially when you can snap up a powerful MacBook Pro for as little as $38.99 a month. Naturally, most people might be looking at the Upgrade program, a leasing program actually run by Klarna, for their next iPhone and probably the popular iPhone 17 Pro Max, which starts at $34.99 a month. Still, when I asked on a pair of social media platforms (X and Threads) if people would be leasing their next iPhone, the sentiment was decidedly negative.

On Threads and with 199 votes in, 80% said no. On X, with 105 votes, 78% said nah. I was surprised, but some of the responses to my anecdotal polls offered a little insight.

One thing a few talked about was ownership. Apple Upgrade works like most other lease programs, which means ownership is not really a thing. Here are the highlights:

• You have to qualify for the program (might be a credit check)
• You pay a fixed fee for 12, 24, or 36 months
• You're not paying off the cost of the phone
• At the end of the lease term, you own nothing
• You can return the phone
• You can turn it in for an upgrade and continue paying
• A better device (upgrading from an iPhone 17 to an iPhone 17 Pro Max) will increase your monthly fee
• You can buy the leased device at the end of the lease term (it's the full price minus whatever you've paid thus far via the lease program)

Virtually every part of this resembles a typical lease program you might have with an automobile.

"I have an Apple Card for a reason… I like being able to pay it off whenever and ACTUALLY own the thing," wrote brianniesniak on Threads.

The ownership argument is the sole reason I've never leased a car. I always buy them with a substantial down payment and then pay the rest off. Of course, I tend to hold onto my cars for a decade or more. In the world of technology, like smartphones, laptops, watches, and tablets, technical advances are so rapid that it rarely makes sense to hold onto them for that long.

On the other hand, there are people who own their tech for extraordinarily long times and only upgrade when companies like Apple, Microsoft, or a necessary third-party application force them to through lack of support. These days, many companies, including Samsung and Google, tout years of OS and security updates, but in a world of leases, none of that really matters. Every two years, you could have a new device; it will always have the latest software and security protections.

Access for all

"If you can’t buy it, you can’t afford it," argues Mrmarchall on Threads. I mean, isn't that the whole point of credit and lease programs? They throw open the doors of access to these products to those who don't have the funds to cover full purchase. Yes, there is the risk of someone who unexpectedly is unable to afford the lease, and then, if they try to leave the program, they're still on the hook for the remainder of the program (they leave at 3 months and still have to pay 21 months).

Even though most in my poll respondents were anti-lease, some saw the obvious benefits. "People who picked no, you seriously have $1000 laying around?" wrote Ajvizz on Threads.

"Yeah, probably. I can't personally think of any negatives in my situation," surmised Dilpickle1 on Threads.

Others on X pointed to the excellent option of refurbished iPhones, which offer access to pre-owned iPhones (sometimes higher-end models) at far more reasonable prices. And you get the added benefit of true ownership, if that's your thing.

The endless age of subscriptions

Apple Upgrade's inherent lack of ownership and never-ending payments because you're in an endless upgrade cycle does raise some concerns and correlates to an unfortunate and rapidly growing trend.

"It is absolutely crazy that we have entered the era of leased consumer electronics. "Everything is a subscription!" should not be the new normal," wrote Tech Journalist Matthew Keys on X.

I had to agree. Last year I wrote about tech services subscription culture and how companies are now often placing key features behind subscription paywalls. At least in this instance, you're getting the whole device and all its capabilities. The lease only equates to a subscription in that there's an assumption you will jump from one leased device to another, hence the name "Apple Upgrade".

If I were asked, I think I'd look more positively on Apple Upgrade.

Smartphones, laptops, smart watches, desktop computers, and tablets are, in some ways, a fact of life. No one leaves home without a phone in their pocket. Frustration over aging iPhones that can't support the latest OS or whose battery life ends faster than a summer vacation is all too real. The knowledge that with a relatively affordable monthly payment, you're guaranteed a better phone in 24 months might be a relief.

It's an irrefutable fact that as soon as you unbox your shiny new iPhone, it's worth less than it was seconds before. Those who buy cars know that depreciation, which begins the moment you drive it off the lot, is real. It's no different with consumer electronics. Maybe ownership isn't all it's cracked up to be. So what if joining Apple Upgrade means, for the next 24 months, Apple kind of owns you?

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11: Two-minute review

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 is the brand’s answer to the iPad Air, with its premium design and compact form factor.

It certainly looks the part, taking cues from Apple with its sleek and minimalist aesthetic. It only comes in two colors — or rather shades, since it’s merely a choice between Grey and Silver. My review unit was the former, and I have to say that I enjoyed its classy appearance.

Beyond this, Samsung has also nailed the S11’s build quality. The one-piece metal chassis feels as expensive as they come, thanks to its incredibly smooth texture (so be careful when holding it) and supreme solidity. It easily ranks among the best tablets in terms of sheer construction.

The display, however, is less impressive. At 11 inches, content already feels squeezed, but the thick inner bezel only exacerbates the issue. What’s more, it's a magnet for dust and debris, while the grabby touchscreen is far from class-leading.

Thankfully, the included S Pen fairs better than fingers. There’s no dragging with the stylus, as it glides effortlessly across the screen. It’s also perfectly responsive and comfortable to grip, thanks to its ergonomic hexagonal form that provides extra security.

As with Samsung’s smartphones, the S11 features numerous first-party apps, which vary in their usefulness. Many fail to offer anything over and above Google’s suite of apps (which also come preinstalled), although I have to concede that some of the AI features, such as those for editing images, impressed me with their effectiveness. The One UI operating system is as clear and as stable as you could hope an Android fork to be, too.

The overall performance of the S11 is also impressive. Whether you're working, browsing, streaming content or even gaming, it can seemingly handle it all. What’s more, it does so while staying relatively cool; only parts of the rear heat up, and never to an uncomfortable degree.

The battery life of the S11 measures up well against its rivals. Samsung claims it can survive 18 hours of continuous streaming, whereas the iPad Air can only manage 10. Charging is quick, too, thanks to its 45W wired charging support.

There are certainly things to like about the S11, such as its premium design and excellent all-round performance. However, the touchscreen is somewhat disappointing. On balance it’s a little hard to recommend over the iPad Air given it it's slightly dearer, but if you want an Apple-inspired design while remaining in the Android realm, the S11 is far from a terrible choice.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 review: Price & availability

• Starts from $899.99 / £869 / AU$1,399
• Available now in two colors
• Very expensive for a small tablet

The S11 starts from $899.99 / £869 / AU$1,399 and is available now in two colorways: Grey and Silver. The base model features 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. All models come with Samsung’s S Pen. If you want cellular capability, you’ll need to part with an additional £50 / AU$250. US customers only get the Wi-Fi-only model.

This is undeniably expensive for an 11-inch tablet, even one as premium as the S11. An equivalent iPad Air model bundled with the Apple Pencil currently costs slightly less. What’s more, it’s one of the best tablets we’ve reviewed, thanks to its excellent performance and display.

If you want to stick with Android, the OnePlus Pad Go 2 is a great budget alternative to the S11. It comes in at a mere $399.99 / £319 (around AU$570), yet still has a respectable spec and impressive performance. It may have less RAM (8GB), but we still found it capable enough for everyday use.

• Value score: 3/5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 review: Specs

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 review: Display

• Slight lack of fidelity
• Thick bezel
• Grabby touchscreen

Despite the high 1600 x 2560 resolution of the S11, there’s a slight but noticeable softness and fuzziness to some elements of the UI, as if the resolution is stretched a little too thin for this size of display. This also means that Ultra HD content isn’t quite as pinpoint sharp as you might expect. Thankfully, there’s plenty of brightness and colors are vibrant, so it still makes for a pleasurable viewing experience.

The thickness of the bezel is also disappointing. At 11 inches the display is already small, so you’d think Samsung would want to maximize its real estate to its fullest potential, but instead a thick black border constricts the frame even more.

Perhaps the worst aspect of the display, though, is its touchscreen functionality. I found there was too much friction to perform gestures and swipes easily. What’s more, it’s also prone to attracting debris, more so than other tablets I’ve used. This is not only a visual impediment but no doubt affects the performance of the touchscreen, too.

• Display score: 3.5/5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 review: Design

• Fabulously premium design
• Compact and relatively light
• Slippery back panel

To say that the S11 takes inspiration from the iPad Air is an understatement. It’s virtually indistinguishable from Apple’s compact tablet, but this isn’t exactly a bad thing, given its stylish looks. However, the S11 lacks the same vibrant color options, with only grey and silver to choose from. My unit was the former and it still looked smart and sleek though.

But the resemblance is more than skin deep. The metal chassis feels just as high-grade as the iPad’s; in fact, it might actually be a cut above the best iPad constructions. The back panel folds around to form the edges, rather than being created from two separate pieces, which is very impressive. On the front, the join to the screen is also close to seamless.

It’s also reassuringly solid and durable, as well as being incredibly smooth. This latter aspect is a slight issue, though, since it can feel quite slippery, so you'll need to take care when holding it upright. At least it’s comfortable to hold, owing to its compact dimensions, minimal weight, and generously rounded corners.

The included S Pen is a fairly basic affair but I found its hexagonal design comfortable and secure. It features a well-placed and easy-to-use button, which is used like a ‘right-click’ to bring up context menus in apps and in the OS itself.

Both of the tablet’s long sides are magnetic, so can be used to attach the S Pen, which is convenient. It’s a shame that the top edge isn’t, though, since it can be awkward to hold the tablet in portrait mode when the stylus is attached to the side. The magnetic hold is strong without making it difficult to remove the stylus when needed.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 review: Software

• Numerous first-party apps
• Their usefulness varies
• OS is clear and fast

Plenty of Samsung apps are preinstalled on the S11. You’ll have to create a Samsung account to use them, which is a frustrating barrier for using any app. At least it’s easy to set one up if you already have a Google account, as you can use these credentials instead.

Although there’s a lot of them, the first-party apps are mercifully unintrusive. And since this is the year 2026, there are plenty of AI features, too. The most interesting of these is the photo assist mode, which allows you to effortlessly edit images to remove certain elements — such as photobombers and unwanted objects — and add others in based on text prompts.

I have to say I was impressed by this mode when I tested it on photos I shot. As with all things AI, its results aren’t perfect every time, but for rescuing images from unwanted aspects and adding all kinds of extra content, it’s a capable and easy-to-use tool. You can also stylize images by selecting presets, of which there are several, from Anime to Pop Art. Again, this is effective a lot of the time, but not always.

There’s also a drawing app with enough basic illustration features to please budding artists. It’s intuitive to use and it was fast and stable during my time with it, without any glaring bugs or slowdowns occurring.

More basic productivity apps are included as well, such as a note taker and a calendar. The main issue with these — and indeed any first-party Android apps that aren’t owned by Google — is that they fail to outperform Google’s counterparts. And given Google’s cloud platform is similarly superior, you’re much better off using its apps if you plan on working across multiple devices.

One UI 8.5 is an intuitive and amenable operating system. As you might expect, it’s very similar to its smartphone counterpart, which is part of the reason why the Galaxy models are some of the best phones around. The UI is clear and uncluttered, and it's quite easy to navigate and adjust settings.

It’s also easy to resize app windows and move them around on screen, since the options to toggle between fullscreen and pop-out windows, as well as minimize them altogether, are ever-present in the top-right corner of every app, just like a desktop app.

However, I found switching between windows in gesture mode too awkward and slow. After dragging from the bottom of the screen, you have to hold your finger in place for a long time until all your app windows are displayed for selecting. What’s more, that aforementioned grabbiness of the touchscreen makes the action even more difficult. I much preferred using the navigation bar, with its three buttons at the bottom much simpler and quicker to use.

• Software score: 3.5/5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 review: Performance

• Capable all-round performance
• Fluid and responsive S Pen
• Low-fidelity cameras

The S11 performs well at the kinds of tasks you’d expect from a tablet. It can handle web browsing, light productivity, and 4K streaming without any frustrating slowdowns and stutters.

I was pleasantly surprised with its gaming prowess, too. I managed to play Hitman: Blood Money — Reprisal, a fairly demanding mobile game, without issue. It looked great and ran very smoothly, while my controller worked flawlessly over Bluetooth.

What’s more impressive is that the S11 stays relatively cool during such intensive tasks. A few hotspots appear on the back, but these are far from alarming in my experience, with the tablet remaining comfortable to hold.

Despite the aforementioned touchscreen issues, I’m pleased to report that the S Pen fairs a lot better on the screen. Glides and gestures are frictionless and responsive, making it great for all kinds of scenarios, from basic navigation to drawing and note taking. The palm block feature works as intended, too.

Using the S Pen also gives you access to a handy shortcut menu with selectable functions such as screen drawing and AI search. You can also add your own app shortcuts to this menu, which is convenient.

Despite the impressive image editing capabilities, the cameras in the S11 are disappointing. The low megapixel count means photos lack fidelity, and the basic enhancements available in the camera app can’t fix the lackluster quality of the camera hardware.

• Performance score: 4/5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 review: Battery

The battery life of the S11 is impressive. While its 8,400mAh battery has a lower capacity than the the 11,600mAh one in the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, the smaller tablet is less power-hungry.

After a couple of days, it drained to 30%. My use during this time wasn’t constant, but I did use it for a variety of tasks, from productivity and browsing to streaming and gaming. Samsung claims it can stream continuously for 18 hours, and the brand is usually accurate on such matters. This makes it significantly more enduring than the iPad Air, which can last about 10 hours under similar conditions.

Charging the S11 is a quick affair, too, thanks to its 45W wired charging capability, the same as the Ultra’s. It took about a couple of hours to fully replenish in my experience.

• Battery score: 4.5

Should I buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11?

Scorecard

Buy it if…

Don't buy it if…

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 review: Also consider

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11

• Tested for several days
• Used for a variety of task
• Tablet reviewing experience

I tested the S11 for several days. I used it for a variety of tasks, from general browsing and light productivity to streaming and gaming.

I also used the included S Pen for drawing, writing, and navigation. I tried its various first-party apps and AI features, and tested the cameras by taking photos and holding video calls. I wasn’t able to use the S11 with the optional Book Cover Keyboard, though.

I have experience reviewing tablets and other mobile devices, such as smartphones and laptops. I’ve also used such devices personally for decades.

• Read more about how we test
• First reviewed: July 2026

It was the news none of us wanted to hear, but at the turn of the new financial year in Australia, Apple made the move to raise Australian prices across its entire product lineup. The tech giant has often been better than other tech companies at absorbing increased supply-chain costs, but the current RAM and component crisis meant it could no longer hold out.

Perhaps the biggest and most upsetting increase affected the delightfully affordable MacBook Neo, but even the iPad wasn’t immune, with the company’s entry-level iPad (A16) seeing its price surge to AU$749, an increase of AU$150.

If you were hoping to grab one for yourself, but were put off by the increase (we wouldn’t blame you), then Amazon could have just answered your prayers, as it has knocked it back down to its pre-increase price of AU$599.

OK, so this might not be the absolute best iPad discount ever — it dropped to AU$499 during the recent EOFY sales — but for Amazon to bring the asking price back down to its longtime RRP is worth shouting about.

At its previous full price of AU$599, we could confidently say that the iPad 11-inch (2025) ranks as the best iPad for most people and the best cheap tablet overall.

Not only does the aforementioned A16 chip mean it’s quick in use, but a 10-hour battery life and crisp 10.9-inch screen make it a stellar choice for scrolling, streaming, video calling and light gaming.

Amazon has only discounted the 128GB variant, and while the Cellular model also gets a discount, it’s nowhere near as impressive as the Wi-Fi-only alternative. Do note, however, that the AU$150 saving only applies to the silver and pink models. The blue colourway is down to AU$699, while yellow has been left untouched.

I don’t expect this discount to last forever, and it’s anyone's guess if and when it’ll receive a similar saving in the future. If you missed out during EOFY and weren’t taken by the Prime Day price, this is an opportune time to pounce.

• Apple will reportedly refresh its iPad Pro line in early 2027
• The main change is likely to be a new chipset, but it's uncertain whether the M6 or M7 will be used
• It's also very likely that these will be extremely expensive tablets

It will soon be a year since the last iPad Pro models launched, but if you were hoping for successors this year, you’re probably out of luck, as a new report suggests we won’t see new models until 2027.

According to reputable Apple tipster Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg (via MacRumors), the company will launch new 11-inch and 13-in iPad Pro models in ‘spring’ 2027 — presumably meaning sometime between March and May.

Apparently, their designs won’t be changed much, but the internals will be updated, with a new chipset and potentially a vapor chamber to help keep them cool.

However, which chipset they’ll use remains uncertain — the iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) and iPad Pro 13-inch (2025) both have an M5 chipset, so we’d expect at least an M6. But according to this Bloomberg report, Apple will debut its M7 chipset “as early as the first half of 2027.” So if that’s out in time for the next iPad Pro’s launch, there’s a chance it will be included.

Either way, this should be a very powerful tablet, but if it does launch with an M6 chipset only for Apple to announce the M7 soon after, that might make it less desirable than it could otherwise be.

A pricey prospect

The bigger concern about the next iPad Pro, though, is how much it might cost. The ongoing RAM crisis recently caused Apple to raise the prices of many of its devices, including iPads, and since the 9-month-old iPad Pro 2025 has shot up in price, there’s no doubt that 2027’s iPad Pro models will launch at a very high price too.

Exactly how high is uncertain, though. For reference, the iPad Pro 2025 series now starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$1,999, so the iPad Pro 2027 will almost certainly cost at least that much. But if RAM prices keep increasing, then it’s feasible that it could cost even more — especially with inflation and a new chipset.

So, you might want to get saving — or just make do with your old tablet for a while longer, especially if you upgraded in the last few years.

• Apple has raised prices across multiple categories in Australia
• The MacBook Neo has lost some of its entry-level appeal
• The move follows rising RAM and storage costs

Australian shoppers looking for after EOFY offers, or waiting for early Amazon Prime Day tech deals, now have another price shift to factor in. Apple has raised local prices across several major product categories, including the new MacBook Neo, MacBook Air, iPad range, Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini and more.

The timing is awkward, but it also hasn't come from nowhere. Apple has usually been better than most tech companies at absorbing supply chain pressure before it reaches shoppers, though the current RAM and component crunch has been dragging on for long enough to change that calculation.

The warning signs came last month, when Tim Cook flagged "significantly higher memory costs" on an earnings call, then said RAM prices would "drive an increasing impact" on Apple products from this month.

Australian buyers will feel this

One of the clearest examples is the new MacBook Neo, Apple's lower-cost MacBook model and the machine most likely to appeal to students, or anyone trying to get a new Apple laptop for less than MacBook Air money. In Australia it launched with a price from AU$899. It now starts at AU$1,049, so it has lost some of its entry-level appeal.

Sure, it’s still Apple's cheapest laptop, but the higher starting price makes it less competitive against Windows laptops that have been fighting to compete with the Neo. The 512GB model with Touch ID has also gone from AU$1,099 to AU$1,249.

The MacBook Air has lost some of its competitive edge, and the 13-inch model with the M5 chip (check out our MacBook Air 13-inch M5 review) has jumped from AU$1,799 to AU$2,099 to start.

The 15-inch model is up by the same AU$300 amount, from AU$2,199 to AU$2,499. For a laptop that often sits in the middle of Apple's consumer Mac range, that is a significant hit to its value proposition.

The MacBook Pro increases are especially notable in some configurations. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 now starts at AU$3,199, up from AU$2,699, and the higher-end M5 Max models have also moved up by several hundred dollars. Buyers looking at extra memory or storage were already dealing with expensive upgrades, so the higher base prices only make that decision harder.

The Mac mini is another notable hit. It has gone from AU$999 to AU$1,299, which is a 30% increase on a machine that has often been one of the easier Apple desktops to justify on price.

The iPad range is up, which matters for students, families and anyone who was looking at a new tablet for work, study, travel or general use. The 11-inch iPad Air now starts at AU$1,249, up from AU$999, while the standard iPad, iPad mini and iPad Pro models have also increased.

The rises are not limited to Macs and iPads. HomePod mini has gone from AU$149 to AU$199, HomePod is up from AU$479 to AU$549, and Apple TV 4K has jumped from AU$219 to AU$299. Vision Pro was already a niche product at AU$5,999, and the new AU$6,299 starting price certainly does not broaden its appeal.

Apple's iPhone lineup, Apple Watch and AirPods appear to have avoided this round of increases at least. That helps limit the pain for some buyers, but it doesn’t change the issue for anyone who was waiting to buy a Mac, iPad or other Apple device.

Aussie price changes

Of course, Apple is not the only company dealing with higher memory and storage costs, but the scale of these changes is still pretty notable. Price rises across one or two products are easy enough to explain. Price rises across most of Apple’s range are not something that’s easily avoided.

An Apple spokesperson said: “The consumer electronics industry is facing an unprecedented challenge. The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage. We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly. We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac. We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions.”

The main question is whether the Australian prices come back down if the RAM shortage eases, or whether these higher starting points become normal. We are hopeful, but Apple hasn’t promised a reversal.

For now, local retailers may be worth checking more closely, especially if older stock or short-term deal pricing remains available during EOFY and early Prime Day sales periods.

Other Apple deals

These products haven't gone up in price, but they're still great deals. Note, the prices were last checked on July 1, 2026.

I’m under no illusions that John Ternus’ Apple will be the exactly same as it has been under Tim Cook. Initially though, there will be few, if any, changes. Ternus is not an outsider with wild anti-Apple ideas intended to wake a sleeping giant. He's been here for decades, through all the major releases that made Apple, well, Apple. Claims that he's arriving in September to revive Apple's design excellence are, if not off base, then just wrong-headed.

First of all, the argument presupposes that there is something fundamentally lacking in Apple's Industrial design: Jony Ive was obviously lighting in a bottle, and current design lead Molly Anderson is a pale, albeit also British, imitation. (Granted, Anderson has not been in the position that long, taking over from Evans Hankey, who left in 2023.)

But accepting that presumption is to ignore all the beautifully designed products that have arrived under Cook's leadership, with and without Ive, and also often under the watchful eyes of Ternus.

Remember the Pro — oh

But since Ive's skills as a designer are so vaunted, let's start with a failure. Perhaps you remember the Mac Pro. No, not the cheese-grater design unveiled in 2023. While that had its detractors, it was miles above the trashcan design unveiled in 2013.

It was the ultimate expression (at least in PC terms) of Ive's "form meets function" obsession. The internal structure was sort of a triangle of boards that seemed perfectly wrong for a squat, circular enclosure. Ive's fingerprints were all over the impractical system, one that Craig Federighi later admitted to me (during a mea culpa meeting on the Pro) had boxed Apple into a thermal corner. It was hard to upgrade and was roundly rejected by pro system users.

Ive was also responsible for the Apple Pencil. With it, his penchant for skeuomorphism extended from app design into the physical world. The Apple Pencil fully resembled a white plastic version of a real, pencil, and to accommodate that, it had, under a custom cover, a hidden Lightning charging plug. You even needed a special adaptor to charge it. Later, wirelessly charging Apple Pencils, which I think Ive also designed, fixed this mess.

Naturally, Ive's hits far outweighed his misses, and many big ones came during the Cook-Ive collaboration period, including the iPad Air, the Apple Watch, and AirPods (which started awkwardly but gradually improved).

The more divisive Apple Vision Pro was likely designed under Hankey and Anderson's watchful eye. I do think it's a pleasant intersection between the needs of extremely high-end innovation and aesthetic appeal. Goggles will be goggles, after all.

Even iPhone design has remained, if not excellent, interesting.

The iPhone is still beautiful...discuss

When Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, there really was no other handset quite like it. Apple set the bar and, over the years, every other manufacturer followed. It became harder and harder for Apple to differentiate its metal and glass slab from its competitors. The ever-larger camera arrays have provided a sort of design challenge and an opportunity at the same time. Hankey and Anderson, at least, came up with a giant island that's quite recognizable from a distance. And let's not discount color. The orange was a stroke of genius and the new MacBook Neo's playful Blush and Citrus colors are lively, proving Anderson knows how to marry form with expression.

Ternus' role as hardware lead means he's been seeing these designs for years. My sense in sitting down with him after the launch of the iPhone Air is that he is intimately involved with the process of shoving all that technology into ever-thinner, but shockingly strong frames. He gets that you need to marry engineering skills with industrial design to get a durable and usable product that's still attractive.

When I think about what Ternus will do when he finally takes over in September, I am reminded of relay race runners. Cook continues to pace around the track while slowly holding out the baton behind him. Ternus is nearby, running just behind Cook with one hand outstretched. Neither man will stop. The handoff will happen in a few months, with everything still in motion.

The process of finishing the rumored iPhone Ultra (the folding phone) continues as we speak, and Ternus is not going to suddenly pull a Steve Jobs and throw the design into a fish tank, to see if bubbles rise, thus proving they could make it smaller. He won't demand that all plastic be replaced with glass, or even that one more color be added to the mix.

When, as the recent Bloomberg report claims, Ternus said of Apple's design history and appeal to customers, "We’re going to make sure that stays the case,” he's not talking about making huge changes to achieve that goal.

Ternus will stay the course and support Anderson. He may hire more design support and, down the line, Ternus will look for his signature initiative or product; he will want to have his own iPhone or iPod. But that's a natural inclination for any incoming CEO. Job one, though, is staying the course, shepherding the in-the-pipeline products to market and ensuring that Apple remains Apple.

I think Ternus knows exactly how to do that.

It's been a busy week for Apple fans, keeping track of all the news that came out of WWDC 2026 this year. Although there was a lot of new info on MacOS Golden Gate, iOS 27, new child safety tools, and more, the bulk of Tim Cook's last presentation was devoted to Siri AI.

Apple's first truly smart AI assistant was on full display, using natural language and working across the Apple ecosystem. But users in the EU were shocked when Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, mentioned during the presentation that EU iPhone and iPad users wouldn't get Siri AI, at least for now.

"Siri AI will not be available initially in the EU on iOS and iPad OS. We're working hard to find a path forward to preserve our users' privacy and security."

Federighi's unusually forward statement about regulations for a conference like this, without any indication of when Siri AI would arrive in the EU, sparked a lot of concern. So, what's going on? Read on, and watch our TikTok embedded below to understand exactly what's up regarding the Siri AI delay.

Watch our explainer on the issue here:

What is the Digital Markets Act?

The Digital Markets Act, or DMA, is the piece of EU legislation getting in the way of EU iPhone and iPad users accessing Siri AI in its current form. The DMA, brought into force in May 2023, is an anti-monopoly and pro-interoperability law designed to ensure major tech companies such as Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, and others don't restrict the growth or usage of other platforms, and allow users more choice when selecting online services and deciding who can access their data.

The DMA says, "A small number of large undertakings providing core platform services have emerged with considerable economic power that could qualify them to be designated as gatekeepers pursuant to this Regulation.

"The combination of those features of gatekeeper is likely to lead, in many cases, to serious imbalances in bargaining power and, consequently, to unfair practices and conditions for business users, as well as for end users of core platform services provided by gatekeepers, to the detriment of prices, quality, fair competition, choice, and innovation in the digital sector."

Essentially, the EU doesn't want companies like Apple or Google to lock users into a solitary ecosystem that only works with proprietary technology, leading to a monopoly.

The problem with Siri AI

In a world in which we grow increasingly distrustful of AI, Apple seems to have designed Siri AI with security and privacy in mind. Siri AI works across Apple's operating systems, using its Private Cloud Compute technology to act as a private 'on-device AI' while retaining the advantages of a cloud-based system. Apple claims that complying with the EU's interoperability laws will result in cracking open access to Private Cloud Compute to third-party AIs, leading to a breakdown of that trust Apple is trying to build.

In a press release, Apple says, "Siri AI is private by design and deeply integrated across Apple’s platforms using on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute, which extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud.

"However, under EU regulators’ extreme interpretation of the DMA, Apple would have to give any virtual assistant direct access to users’ private data — and the ability to directly control other installed applications — as soon as Siri AI is made available in the EU, without the essential protections necessary to keep users and their data safe.

"According to EU regulators, the DMA requires Apple to give any AI system nearly unlimited access to a user’s device, as well as the ability to act on that access autonomously without a user’s ongoing visibility and control. That includes the ability to read and send messages, make purchases, access files, and execute actions across any app."

Strong language there from Apple. The EU wants a level playing field, which means opening up operating system-level access to other AI companies, which Apple is obviously loathe to do. So, who's in the right?

Have your say — who's right?

You can vote in our poll above to have your say, and we'll publish the end results next week, but it's safe to say the debate is already fierce. Our TikTok above has hundreds of comments, and there are strong feelings on both sides of the aisle.

Pro-Apple users are saying that the EU is sacrificing their privacy, and there is already plenty of choice: just don't buy Apple devices if you don't want to use Siri AI.

One user said, "The European Commission is in the wrong here. I get that they want others to have the same access to make it fair, but we’re not talking about giving access to small European businesses, we’re talking about massive American corporations like Meta, Google, Musk’s X, Anthropic, OpenAI, etc."

Another said, "People already have a choice. If you like Apple's ecosystem, you get Apple products. It's that simple. If you want more 'freedom' then you get literally anything else." A third wrote, "I chose Apple because the other players have proven time and again they don’t care about privacy".

However, there were just as many pro-EU comments in the threads as pro-Apple ones. One person wrote, "The only thing Apple should provide is a means to allow another service to access my data, and prohibit the use if no permission is granted. Interoperability."

Another said, "Apple should adjust to laws of the region they are selling to if they want to be relevant there. simple as that." A third wrote, "100% in the EU camp here. I want to be able to choose my AI provider on my iPhone. I don’t want Gemini. I don’t trust Google."

This isn't the first time Apple has balked at the Digital Markets Act, releasing a similar statement last year regarding delays to features like Live Translation. At this moment in time, we don't know how things are going to play out. However, we want to hear more from you. Vote in our poll above and comment below, and we'll publish your thoughts next week.

I admit, I was confounded by Apple’s 20-minute Child Safety feature detour during its all-important WWDC 2026 keynote. After all, it’s a set of features that have warranted, at best, a passing mention at previous events. This year, though, Apple bombarded us with a cavalcade of existing, upgraded, and entirely new tools (we've rounded up five of the biggest new Apple child account features elsewhere on TechRadar).

The intention, it seemed, was to prove it’s dead serious about protecting your children from not just online threats but the very real danger of too much digital access.

While Apple hasn’t directly addressed why it went so hard, it is clear to me at least that it’s in tune with changing moods toward our digital experience, especially as it pertains to children. Studies show that excessive screen time is potentially damaging to cognitive development and behavior. A direct causal relation between social media use and teen mental health is harder to establish, though it's difficult to ignore the dual rise in social media and mental health issues. Overall, parents know that digital use — too much of it; the wrong kind — is a potential issue for their kids, and now they're actively looking for ways to manage it.

Perhaps Apple was right to devote so much time to this set of features. Still, I’m not sure it did anyone any favors with the overwhelming and slightly haphazard way it was all discussed.

I recognized many of the tools as already existing, but they were all slightly altered and enhanced. It wouldn’t be until later that I would learn exactly what was new and the crucial change Apple made to help get ahead of wily kids and teens who always know how to game the system.

So, to start from the bottom, it’s worth mentioning that Apple rewrote Screen Time’s entire architecture. Even how it works with iCloud is different (updated infrastructure).

This matters because, as you might’ve read elsewhere, crafty teens figured out how to game previous versions of the old Screentime Time Allowance and schedule controls. They did so by messing with the device’s clock. This trick apparently could extend screen limits significantly.

Apple, no doubt, is a student of all these teen screen time hacks, and the controls appear more robust. Re-architecture is likely aimed at those kinds of hacks, and if, for instance, your child learns the PIN code to authorize access to, say, a website or for a message chat, the system now automatically alerts the parent that the PIN code was used on one of the children’s devices.

A process of simplification and enrichment

Apple’s goal here was not only to strengthen the tools but also to ease the application. New devices can, in roughly six minutes (we timed it), guide a parent through the comprehensive parental control setup — I’ve seen it in action and it is impressive. You’ll make a fair number of decisions along the way, but it all appears sensible.

The ease is also because this is merely a starting point for managing your child’s digital learning experience (most of the presets are, it seems, in line with some guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics).

Over time, parents can and probably will dig into the now (when iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 ship this fall) voluminous settings that, for example, not only allow parents to block nudity but gore and violent images (though it’s not clear if it can do anything for words that describe such acts) across messages, AirDrops, and even communication in FaceTime.

In the case of violence and gore, if the content is detected, the communication is, for younger users, blocked (a parent could enter their PIN to see what triggered the action). While the system won't always send an alert to the parent, it can automatically end communication if it detects illicit content.

App and Web Sites under control

Developers don't just set their own age brackets for apps: each one goes through a rigorous questionnaire with answers mapping to specific age ranges. As for what happens when apps and games are upgraded and how Apple prevents non-age-appropriate content from seeping in, it uses another test to confirm that the existing age range still applies.

In addition to approving apps that your child can download, even those that are age-approved, parents will have control over which websites kids can visit. Every request shows up on the parent’s device, where they can investigate and then allow or deny.

Similar controls also exist for messages. If anyone who is not pre-approved or in the Family group tries to message your child, the child can ask for permission, and you’ll again get the approval notice. At this point, you can add that person to the approved list, and then they’ll be able to freely message.

Your groups

One of the big updates is in how the system manages time allowances, with new groupings and certain classes of apps, like phone and messages, always open in case of emergencies. You can even create your own app groups and add and remove apps.

So much of this is about tailoring the control to your child and your own family’s rules and restrictions. No family is alike, and so no two Child Safety and Screen Time settings necessarily need to be alike.

The setup walkthrough happens on new devices, so when it comes time to upgrade to iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, parents might first need to check which older devices still support the new software. If the systems don’t, the granular control might not be consistent.

Unfortunately, the Child Safety system can’t tailor the settings after a period of learning how you and your family use the devices. Though it seems you could use the new Describe a Shortcut to build a shortcut that watches usage insights and then changes settings based on those learnings.

Overall, I wouldn't say Screen time is now unrecognizable from its previous iteration. Still, the interface does feel somewhat cleaner and better organized, which I think is important because parents who dig into this are not interested in learning new tech management skills; they just need help protecting their kids from bad apps, websites, people, and their children's own sometimes too-intense screen habits.

Apple spending so much time rebuilding and enriching Child Safety and Screen Time and then talking about it during WWDC 2026 may have a dual effect. It could improve the lives of those who upgrade, but it might also open the eyes of parents who have been struggling to manage their kids’ digital lives without knowing there’s at least a partial solution already in their hands.

I was in charge of live-blogging WWDC 2026 earlier this week, and keeping up with Apple’s device requirements for iOS 27, Apple Intelligence, and Siri AI felt like a job for someone with a photographic memory.

All three software packages have different entry criteria (and that’s to say nothing of iPadOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate), so after the show, I published an iOS 27 and Siri AI compatibility explainer, which will tell you whether your iPhone can support Apple’s upcoming iOS features.

I’m not going to repeat all those device requirements here, but a big point of confusion has been the exclusivity of Apple’s "most powerful on-device model", known officially as Apple Foundation Models (AFM) Core Advanced. Only three iPhones — the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air — have enough RAM (12GB) to access this model and, therefore, the very best version of Siri AI. But what does that mean, exactly?

According to Apple's press release on Siri AI, the two features exclusive to AFM Core Advanced are voice customization and more advanced systemwide dictation.

The former gives you the ability to customize the expressiveness and pace of Siri’s voice — anyone with access to Siri AI can still choose from a set number of Siri voices, but you’ll need an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air to make Siri speak faster, slower, and with more or less enthusiasm.

The second feature — more advanced systemwide dictation — is arguably the more significant. It essentially means those top-end iPhones are more effective at converting speech into accurate text than older or less advanced iPhones. This updated dictation engine "automatically handles capitalization, punctuation, and formatting as [you] speak," Apple says, meaning you can "speak naturally and trust that [your] words will appear clearly, accurately, and as intended".

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that if you own, say, an iPhone 15 Pro, your Siri will be incapable of converting speech into text. Yes, Siri has been awful at doing just that in the past — anyone who’s tried to send a message using CarPlay will know what I'm talking about — but my understanding is that Siri AI, in being an entirely new version of Siri, will bring improved dictation at a foundational level (i.e. to all compatible iPhones).

But for those who rely on dictation to send messages or navigate their iPhone hands-free, the difference in dictation capabilities between the best iPhones and older models may be more consequential.

The capability gap will get bigger

At this point, it’s not entirely clear whether Apple’s AFM Core Advanced model will also result in noticeably faster query resolution for the iPhones equipped with it. Dictation is not the same as interpretation — Apple has only said that these iPhones will be better at the former, not the latter.

But given that AFM Core Advanced is a 20-billion-parameter model that only exists on iPhones with 12GB of RAM, it figures that these iPhones will be able to perform AI tasks more quickly than those equipped with Apple’s 3-billion-parameter AFM Core model and only 8GB of RAM.

Incidentally, more RAM also facilitates faster app loading and more seamless switching between apps, though the differences between iPhones on those fronts are already negligible (the iPhone 15 Pro feels just as fast to navigate as the iPhone Air, for instance). What's more, iOS 27 is making app loading and switching faster for all compatible iPhones, so having more or less RAM isn't a cause for concern outside of AI.

At the moment, then, it looks like owners of the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air are simply getting a more customizable Siri, and one more capable of converting speech into text.

That’s not ideal for iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 17 users who thought they were buying a phone “built for Apple Intelligence” — lawyers at the ready! — but these iPhones are capable of running all the Apple Intelligence features revealed at the software’s announcement in 2024 (so, actually, put down your pitchforks).

Of course, in classic marketing fashion, Apple’s small print on the matter leaves the door ajar for more features to be made exclusive to the AFM Core Advanced model: “Apple’s most powerful on-device model and the features it enables, like expressive voices and more advanced dictation, are available on…,” reads the press release. ‘Like’ is the operative word there — more hardware-exclusive features are surely coming down the line, ones which require more compute power than Apple’s base AFM Core model can provide.

But for the moment, I do think the furore is a little overblown. If you own an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone, you’re getting all but two of the features announced at WWDC 2026.

The opening keynote to Apple’s 2026 Worldwide Developer Conference has wrapped, and saying there’s a lot to unpack would be an understatement. Apple unveiled a brand new Siri experience, demonstrated more Apple Intelligence features, and even walked us through minor refinements we can expect to see across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch.

The announcements were primarily focused on AI features, of course, but Apple spent a few minutes walking us through a complete redesign of the parental controls across all its devices.

As a father of three — ages 14, 16, and 18 — I have been hoping for changes and improvements to Screen Time for well over 10 years now.

Screen Time upgrades are coming

There’s an entirely new sign-up experience for setting up a new device, specifically designed to create a child account. Apple will then take the age of the child and fine-tune the device’s safeguards and offer a curated list of apps based on that age. A child account is required for kids under 13, and is optional for kids aged 13-18.

Safeguards include blocking adult websites, age-restricting access to age-appropriate content, and enforcing age-based restrictions regarding apps the child can install on their device.

I got especially excited when I saw that kids will be able to send website requests, much like the download requests they can send now.

When my kids were younger, we tried limiting their contact list to something we could manage, but as their friend circle grew and they exchanged more and more contact information, managing it became incredibly frustrating and difficult. With this update, set to be released this fall to everyone and out now as a developer beta, the child can send a request to communicate with a new contact.

There are several more features Apple is adding, such as adding bonus time in apps, along with a complete redesign of the Screen Time interface, which is very exciting and should make it easy to get a sense of in-the-moment settings, usage, and limits at a quick glance.

With bonus time, I'll no longer have to approve multiple time requests or edit limits with the intention of reverting them back the next day, but I’d ultimately forget.

It could all be for nothing, however

I hope parents take full advantage of all the additions and changes — but here’s the kicker: if Apple didn’t fix the underlying bugs in Screen Time that often allowed kids to get around the limits, all of it’s for nothing.

I’ve been playing whack-a-mole with my kids and them getting around Screen Time for years.

Just last week, I noticed my son had an increase in the amount of time he was spending in the Settings app on his iPhone. I’m not talking about going from nothing to five minutes. I’m talking about how he was spending anywhere from four to 16 hours in the Settings app.

Something was up, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. The usage limits I’d set for games and social media, along with his bedtime when his device effectively locks down, hadn’t been changed, but somehow he was in the Settings app all night long.

After a few days of this happening and his denying any knowledge of why it was happening, I did some Googling and discovered that when someone changes the date and time on their device, the Settings app often registers that change as app usage.

Why change his date and time? Because it tricks Screen Time into resetting his usage limits.

This was just the latest hiccup in my adventure with trying to keep my kids safe while also letting them be social.

Don’t even get me started on the years of pulling my hair out as Screen Time would randomly shut itself off or temporarily stop working for days at a time after an iOS update. And, of course, my kids would never say a word. I can’t blame them.

At one point, after months of accusing my son of figuring out some sort of hack to circumvent limits, Apple released a software update that explicitly addressed the exact bug. And boy, did I owe him a giant apology.

I’ve stuck with Screen Time because any third-party parental controls require a subscription and installing profiles on your kids’ phones — giving the company full access to your child’s activities, which has never sat right with me.

I’m hopeful Apple got the new Screen Time right for the next generation of young kids who are getting their first iPhones and iPads, but years of experience tell me not to bet against kids figuring out workarounds to pretty much anything in life, especially tech.

We have emailed Apple to ask if it’s harder to work around these, and will update when and if we hear back.

Schrödinger sock. That's how I describe the child's foot apparel that was not visible but brought to photo-realistic life by Apple Intelligence running on iOS 27 Dev Beta. The sock exists in the liminal space between assumption and reality. Only generative AI can make it real, even if the child in the photo was never wearing his other sock. Such is the power of the upcoming update to Apple's iOS and other platforms, and of the up-to-now relatively disappointing Apple Intelligence: Apple takes on Artificial Intelligence so carefully applied that it seemed woefully behind the competition.

But that was before.

Today, after its unveiling on Monday at WWDC 2026, we have the new Apple Intelligence and its powerful image-altering and creation tools that are the product of powerful off-device models built in cooperation with Google, or rather, that incorporate Google's generative models but apply them with Apple flair.

In the demo I saw, designed to show off the power of Apple Intelligence's new and enhanced Image Editing tools, we looked at the more powerful clean up that can do something Apple has never tried before in image editing: create something biological out of nothing, or at least infer the existence of something human we clearly cannot see. In this case, a child's socked foot. In the image (which I sadly cannot share here, but there are other examples above), the boy is seated on the floor, with one leg partially obscured by a large stuffed bear.

As before, we can trace over such distractions like a chair and the bear, and then tap Clean Up to remove them. Removal is something Apple Intelligence is already quite good at, but replacing large image parts or creating what should be there was really not part of Apple's generative image editing strategy. Now it is.

Like magic, we could see the rest of the child's leg and his other socked foot. No matter that this small boy might not have been wearing a sock on that foot, it got the same sock. As I said, we'll never know if that sock ever truly existed, but in the mind's eye of Apple Intelligence, it does.

Reframing the story

The other tools similarly stretch the bounds of memory and reality. Spatial reframing is a wild Apple Intelligence tool that applies a sort of 3D model to the image, letting you subtly rotate the subject and background this way and that to better frame your image. You can even grab and shift the subject a little bit. I watched them do this with an image of a woman sitting on the grass. I must admit that the final result did look better, and I guess no one will remember the less perfectly composed photos. At least you can always go back to the original, imperfect image to remember how things truly were.

Perhaps the best and least drastic of these generative image alteration features is the new expansion tool that, like AI tools in, say, Adobe Firefly, lets you basically extend the background in a photo to make it a better fit for a certain frame or wallpaper. It's something I could see myself using quite a bit, especially because it leaves the subjects alone.

Create something new

Yes, friends, we are officially entering uncharted Apple territory. For a company that prides itself on photographic excellence with one of the best cameras, sensors, and image pipelines in the business, it is now fully in bed with photorealistic imagination creation.

In one demo I saw, a young man wanted to create a flyer to promote a, I think, a bake sale for his friend, Phil. As before, Image Playground lets you choose seed photos and subjects from your Photos library, but where the old app would stick to basically comic book renderings of these subjects, the new app, with new Gemini-infused models backing it (they all live on Apple's Private Cloud compute), happily creates photorealistic images.

It's now a powerful tool, and I watched as we selected the subject (Phil) and described him piping a cake and with a bowl of fruit nearby. Soon, our buddy Phil appeared on screen looking very much like a master baker. No matter if the guy ever baked a cake in his life, let alone decorated one. He was doing it here. There's nothing real about this image, and while Apple likes to talk about maintaining the essence of our photos in the Apple Intelligence-powered Photo editing tools, this other land will create full-scale image narratives from whole cloth.

Yes, there is some sonic dissonance here.

Even so, Image Playground is now a vastly more powerful tool. After we gave Phil his fake bakery skills, we decided that the bowl of berries we requested for the image was not the right kind of berries. No matter, we simply used the Apple Pencil to select the berry bowl and then asked the app to switch it to blueberries. We also asked for a cupcake tower because Phil's baker bonifides were not quite strong enough.

The result was photorealistic perfection.

This is what you wanted, right? We all said Apple was behind. Now it's pulling even with the rest of the generative image world. It's progress, though I'm not sure to what end.

I come here to celebrate Apple delivering. It's not overshooting the mark with the new Siri AI, which it unveiled at WWDC 2026, but it is finally delivering on the promises it made at WWDC 2024.

Sure, it's beta (again), and there's a wait list (again), but I've now seen it at work, in person, in live and potentially unpredictable demos. Siri AI, as it's now called, works across platforms, and it has the potential to change how you use your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

While I waited for my access to the new Siri on my iPhone 17 Pro, I visited one of the countless rooms in Apple's massive Apple Park headquarters, where I round-robined through a series of stations at which I could see Siri AI in action on iOS 27 Dev Beta, iPadOS 27 Dev Beta, and macOS Golden Gate Dev Beta. This is all a work in progress.

I'll admit that while I was probably most interested in the new Siri on the iPhone, I was most surprised by how it works on the iPad. On every platform, this smarter, more aware, and more personable Siri looks different than before. It's bigger, brighter, floatier (I made that a word), and it has a new sense of confidence.

On the iPad, you can summon Siri with your voice, but you can also swipe down from the top of the screen, and a sort of black teardrop will form until it releases from the top of the screen and is displayed as the small Siri AI window. It's a nice, classy touch.

Of course, you can type into Siri, and I watched as we searched for top PGA golfers, and I noticed how anxious new Siri was to get to work, auto-filling answers before we'd even finished our query. Since it initially had just 'Top PGA Golfers', it quickly spit out Jack Nicklaus before refining on the fly to more contemporary players like Scottie Scheffler.

I also noticed during this process a new 'working' iconography that looks unlike any previous form of Apple's 'Please wait for an answer' spinner. Sometimes Siri AI seems whip-fast; other times, you can watch that icon spin as it works. There's no obvious sense of, "Oh, it's heading out to the Private Cloud Compute for that."

I watched here and on other platforms as Siri AI effortlessly kept context, without demanding a restate or telling us it couldn't answer that, and "did we want to check the web?" or "Use ChatGPT?" In fact, ChatGPT appears to have been almost fully deprecated here. It does not show up as an option, though I believe you can still request it.

As we dug in on Scheffler's career, Apple was quick to show me how Siri AI always shows its sources. I appreciate the care.

The little Siri AI window that appears in a session can be easily expanded, and then you're suddenly in the new Siri app. Apple takes a slightly different approach here than, say, Gemini or ChatGPT: the chat window is familiar-looking, but the conversation history is card-based, with almost headlines for your query topic, and either a brief summary or image. I did not see an option for a tighter list form, which I might prefer.

iPhone, meet the new Siri

On the iPhone 17 Pro Max, we summoned Siri with a long press of the power button, which launched that new, large, almost alien spaceship-like floating blob. I say 'floating' because throughout the demo I noticed that Apple had made the effort to put very subtle shading under the new Siri interface so that it looks like it's floating just above the screen. It's a neat little effect.

Siri AI's superpower is not that it's smarter or more chatty (in fact, Siri will steer you away from conversations that might be better had with humans or, say, mental health support professionals); it's that it understands you through the data on your phone.

This is where the fulfillment of a promise comes in. Siri AI really does appear to know the contents of your phone in a way that could be truly helpful. Its needle-in-the-haystack approach means that, if you have a thread of memory about a bit of data, something someone mentioned to you in an email or message, Siri can dig it out for you.

In the demo I saw, we asked about a "podcast our sister recommended recently," and Siri searched across first-party apps (developers will have to build hooks into Siri AI in future versions of their apps) and pulled up a casual mention of a Sherlock Holmes podcast in Messages. Again, once we had that detail, we only had to say, "Play it," and Siri launched the podcast app.

The obvious benefit is the end of endless searching and then backing out and finding the right app. I could imagine a lot of your daily interactions with your iPhone getting done through Siri AI. Of course, much of this will depend on developers of apps like WhatsApp, Gmail, and others building in those Siri connections.

Still, the power here is exciting. Taking someone's lengthy emails full of useful but disorganized details and turning them into, say, a useful Camping Gear list in Notes is a significant leap from the current and endlessly disappointing "Sorry, I can't do that" Siri.

Over the course of my demo, I watched as Siri pulled up random references relating to queries about travel and meteor showers. It's sort of a de-randomizer. Like all good AI, Siri AI can see the patterns in your endless reams of data, and make sense of it.

I also got a look at Siri in the Camera app. That's right, it now has a menu item right next to 'Photo,' and once launched it works a bit like Visual Intelligence. Choosing it does mean that Siri can 'see what you see,' which may or may not comfort you, but if you're wondering what you're looking at or, say, want Siri to help you make a choice, it's ready. I did notice that the Camera app takes a photo of whatever Siri is analyzing.

At one point, we mispoke in the demo, but Siri sussed out the proper prompt and results without any intervention from us. Kind of impressive.

In a demo where it helped me decide which book to read next, I listened as Siri's new 'expressive' voice told me why I should read Blindsight next. I noticed, though, that the new voice sounded a bit odd. I don't know if the emotion sounded forced or missing, but I'm assuming this is an element that's still being tweaked in iOS 27 Dev Beta.

Spotlight on the Mac

Most of my Mac demo revolved around how Siri AI transforms Spotlight, the Mac's system-wide search engine. You can, it turns out, still use it to launch apps like Preview, but the new interface almost compels you to go further with the words, 'Search or Ask'.

Ask basically transforms Spotlight into a generative search box where almost any general knowledge question is welcomed. We asked about the Hawaiian islands for families. If the system deems the question as 'complex,' it will default to Siri and Apple's world Knowledge Engine. That's right, even though the new Siri is using, in part, Gemini Foundation models, Apple is not using Google's Search knowledge graph.

Once you launch a search, you're inside Siri, and you can keep that window open while you multitask on other desktop chores.

In Apple Intelligence, you select text and right-click to access AI-powered writing tools, but the new Siri is embedded in more subtle ways that still give you full access to its new power. We selected a bunch of text in Notes and, while we could still have Siri rewrite it, Writing Tools-style, we can also use this as a launch point to weave together other Apple first-party app capabilities. In this case, we asked it to use the notes to draft a structured email in Mail.

Again, this is a pair of first-party Apple apps working together, and Apple is well aware that your email client may not be Apple's Mail.

Overall, it's still just a glimpse of what Siri AI can do, but I find it a promising one, especially for beta software. The plumbing clearly works, and if you allow it, Siri can finally see across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac to understand you and your needs. It's been a long time coming, but I think Apple finally got this right.

Apple unveiled iOS 27 at WWDC 2026 today (June 8), but not every iPhone will support the new software upgrade when it lands later this year.

Despite offering some of the best software support in the industry, Apple regularly leaves a handful of iPhones out in the cold when releasing a new version of iOS — the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max, for instance, can’t run iOS 26.

Unusually for Apple, though, that list hasn't got longer this time round: the iPhone SE (2020), iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, all of which you might have expected to lose support this year, will still be able to run iOS 27.

That's great news for older iPhone users (as in, users of older iPhones — we're not ageist) who want to make use of Apple’s upcoming software features — all of which you can read about in our WWDC 2026 coverage.

iOS 27 support list

Here’s the full compatibility list for iOS 27:

• iPhone SE (2020)
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone SE (2022)
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 15
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 17
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone Air

Accounting for the expected iPhone 18 and its siblings, iOS 27 will be supported by around 34 iPhone models, which is an impressive showing of software support on Apple's part.

It’s also unlikely that any iOS 27-compatible iPhones will be left waiting for the update, since Apple tends to make new versions of iOS available to all models in one fell swoop (take note, Samsung).

It’s worth noting, however, that even though older models like the iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13 will support iOS 27, Apple Intelligence — which includes features like Clean Up, Live Translation, and Apple's new AI-powered voice assistant, Siri AI — will remain locked to the iPhone 15 Pro and newer.

Siri AI support list

As above, only those devices already compatible with Apple Intelligence will support Siri AI. The full list is as follows:

• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 17
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone Air
• iPad models with M1 or later
• MacBooks with M1 or later
• MacBook Neo

Importantly, though, not all Siri AI features will be available on those iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks.

Specifically, expressive voices and more advanced dictation — which are powered by Apple’s "most powerful on-device model" — are limited to the devices listed below:

• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone Air
• iPad Pro models from 2024 and later (7th generation onwards)
• iPad Air models from 2026 and later (8th generation onwards)
• MacBook Pro models from 2023 and later
• MacBook Air models from 2024 and later

Additionally, those iPads and MacBooks will need to be equipped with at least 12GB of memory to be capable of running those advanced Siri AI features.

Siri AI also won't be available in the European Union (EU) or China at launch: "Unfortunately, due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple will not be able to ship Siri AI in the European Union with the release of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Over the past several months, EU regulators did not accept any of Apple’s proposed solutions to bring Siri AI to the EU while safely supporting other virtual assistants," the company explained in a blog post.

So, frustratingly, there are quite a few criteria you'll need to meet if you're hoping to try the best version of Siri AI on your Apple device.

iPadOS 27 support list

As for iPads and iPadOS 27, specifically, Apple has confirmed that the iPad 10.2-inch (2020), iPad Air 10.5-inch (2019), and iPad mini 7.9-inch (2019) won’t support iPadOS 27.

Here’s the full compatibility list for iPadOS 27:

• iPad models from 2021 and later (9th generation onwards)
• iPad Air models from 2020 and later (4th generation onwards)
• iPad Pro models from 2017 and later (2nd generation onwards)
• iPad mini models from 2021 and later (6th generation onwards)

Side note: almost all iPad models are available in multiple sizes and in Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi + Cellular configurations, so, in the interest of readability, I’ve grouped the above models into dated categories.

As mentioned, neither iOS 27 nor iPadOS 27 is expected to be released until September, but if you're interested in trying a pre-release, developer-focused version of the former, here's how to download the iOS 27 developer beta.

It’s almost time for WWDC 2026, where Apple is expected to announce iOS 27 and all sorts of other software updates. But will we see new hardware? And more specifically, new iPads? Well, we can’t say for sure, but we do have a fairly good idea of what to expect (and not expect).

Sadly, the answer to that question is probably 'no' — for two reasons. The first is obvious — WWDC is Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, with the key word there being ‘developers’, meaning that the focus is on software, not hardware.

Now, that doesn’t completely rule out new devices. After all, Apple has announced various Macs and MacBooks at WWDC in recent years. The HomePod was also unveiled at WWDC back in 2019, and looking back further, some early iPhones even got a WWDC unveiling.

In fact, the iPad Pro (2017) was even announced at that year’s WWDC, so a new iPad in 2026 isn’t completely out of the question.

But it is very unlikely — while hardware does sometimes make an appearance at WWDC, most years, there’s next to none, and we haven’t heard any indication that a new iPad will land at this year’s event.

Plus, in recent years, Apple has tended to unveil its new tablets either early in the year, in March or occasionally April, or towards the end of the year, in September or October. Mid-year launches are rare.

And this year, we did indeed see an early-year launch, with the iPad Air (2026) landing back in March. That was only a few months ago, so it would seem odd for Apple to launch another model so soon.

So, based on all of that, I’d say it’s very unlikely that we’ll see a new iPad at WWDC 2026. That said, if you’re an iPad fan, it could still be worth tuning in to the keynote, which kicks off at 1pm ET / 10am PT / 6pm BST today (Monday, June 8,) or 3am AEST on Tuesday, June 9 if you’re in Australia.

Why you should still tune in

While we probably won’t see new iPads at WWDC 2026, Apple is almost certainly going to unveil some new software in the form of iPadOS 27, which could include some major changes and upgrades.

Nothing has been announced on that front yet, but leaks and rumors point to the long-awaited Siri overhaul, which could turn Apple's voice assistant into a proper AI chatbot, powered by a custom version of Google Gemini.

This upgrade reportedly won’t be limited to just making Siri smarter, though; it’s also likely to include new capabilities, like better AI photo editing prowess and on-screen awareness, so Siri can understand and respond to whatever’s on your screen. It will probably also be able to perform multi-step actions across multiple apps.

Beyond that, iPadOS 27 is also likely to bring improvements to various apps, such as the ability to use natural language to create shortcuts in the Shortcuts app, more customization options in the camera app, redesigned Safari and Weather apps, and a Grammarly-style keyboard upgrade.

These are all things that we’ll probably see in iOS 27 too, but on the iPad-specific side, reports point to new layouts for Apple Music, Apple TV, and the Podcasts app to make better use of the iPad's larger display. Plus, there are likely to be various performance and stability improvements.

While iPadOS 27 will probably be announced at WWDC 2026, it’s unlikely to launch in finished form until September — but in the meantime, we expect various betas to roll out, giving you a chance to try many of the features early if you don’t mind some bugs.

So, if you want to see exactly what Apple is cooking up on the software side, here’s how to watch WWDC 2026 live — though, of course, we’ll be covering all the announcements here too.

When might we see new iPads?

So, if we probably won’t see new iPads at WWDC, when might we? Well, the next point in the year when Apple would typically announce new tablets is September or October — either alongside the iPhone 18 line in the former month or separately a month later. The latter, though, has been more common, especially in recent years.

Of those two months, I’d guess October is the more likely, so the new tablets have some time to shine rather than getting buried in the iPhone launch. Of course, there’s a chance we won’t see any more new iPads this year, and that Apple will instead wait until March of 2027. After all, we don’t always see late-year iPad launches, but we have in the last two years.

Whenever we do get new iPads, the most likely models are the base model iPad (2026) and an iPad mini (2026), both of which have been rumored for a launch this year. That said, Apple doesn’t stick to yearly updates for its iPads, so it’s hard to predict.

There may also be a new iPad Pro this year, but with no real reports of one and the previous model only landing last October, we wouldn’t count on it. And with the latest iPad Air having landed earlier this year, it’s unlikely the next model of that will be among Apple’s next tablet releases — especially if we do see new slates this year.

Jony Ive was at the heart of Apple's design philosophy for generations until he left the company in 2019 to start his own venture. But his influence throughout his nearly 30-year tenure at the firm is undoubtedly still prevalent in the company's products today.

Wonder in simplicity

Ive has been responsible for some of the technology industry's most iconic designs, with landmark devices including the iMac, iPod, and the iPhone.

He delivered his thoughts on the potential for technology to transcend the mundanity of the ordinary when promoting the first generation of the iPad in 2010.

Describing the iPad, Ive sought to explain how Apple's core philosophy when engineering this device — by all accounts a game-changing piece of kit — was to strip away any and all complexity and clunkiness.

When you achieve this, the thinking goes, users are left with technology that hides the engineering smartly and makes the device as accessible as possible. They then stop questioning how the technology works and instead focus on their experience using it.

Simplicity in modernity

Jony Ive's new venture, LoveFrom, continued to work with Apple until 2022 before the relationship between the designer and the tech giant ended.

The company has since embarked on various projects, both in and outside the tech world, but the New York Times reported in 2024 that Ive's company was collaborating with OpenAI on novel AI-native hardware. OpenAI later announced it would acquire Ive's AI venture, IO, for $6.5 billion in May 2025 ahead of a push toward a wearables-centric future.

There's scant information on what this hypothetical new AI-native device might look like or how it might work. Also unknown is how it might coexist with smartphones, which are increasingly being stuffed full of AI functionality. Whether a new device gains traction might hinge on how well it cuts through complexity — and with Ive at the helm of its design, it's something consumers would certainly expect.

Apple is not on its back foot, but there's no question that it's under intense pressure to deliver a razzle-dazzle WWDC 2026 keynote on June 8 at 10AM PT.

It's been tradition over the past four or five years of quick in-person opening remarks before Tim Cook cedes the stage to a series of pre-recorded videos, but that may not cut it. It has to, for instance, tell and show, in real time, the product of deep AI foundation model work that it (and partner Google) is bringing to the all-new Siri.

We've seen videos before and then waited two years for a full Apple Intelligence delivery that never came. That won't work this time. What we want is to see the all-new Siri working on an iPhone 17, demo gremlins and all.

Being that vulnerable on stage will break with recent tradition and whisk us back to the Steve Jobs era, when, without a digital net, Jobs would demonstrate new hardware and software on stage. It's true, he occasionally admonished everyone in Apple's Town Hall at One Loop to "turn off their WiFi," but we'll never forget those moments.

Give us the "Cook" moment

I also think developer and media attendees will demand more than a brief glance at the outgoing CEO. This WWDC keynote will be Cook's swan song as Apple CEO before John Ternus takes over in September, just in time for the iPhone 18 rollout.

We'll want Cook to remark about his impact on the company, a video retrospective, and maybe even some frank comments about highs and lows ("Okay, maybe we went a little too far with Liquid Glass...").

Please, Apple and Tim, let's get real here and embrace the moment in a way that, again, no one will forget.

A series of live presentations

If I had my way, the entire keynote format would be switched up so that Cook engages with each platform lead to walk through the big changes coming with iOS 27 and the rest of the "27" platforms.

The biggest chunk should be reserved for a sit-down with Tenrus, who could walk Cook through the new Siri. It will all be far more impactful than an hour or more of videos, even the humorous ones featuring Craig Federighi's hair.

The hard truth

Any time I mention the possibility of "one more thing" at a WWDC Keynote, I'm reminded that it's not a hardware event...except when it is. The trash can Mac Pro made its debut there, as did the Vision Pro.

I think it's altogether possible that this WWDC 2026 keynote could be the one where Apple gives us a surprise glimpse of the iPhone Ultra (iPhone Fold).

As I've written before, a folding, and possibly two-screen iPhone would make special demands of iOS 27, ones that I think would be hard to hide from the public as dev and public betas start rolling out throughout the summer.

I'd suggest Apple embrace the sea change and reveal that "Of course, we're working on a folding device!"

Tim Cook holding the iPhone Ultra prototype over his head as the company announces an important new entry in the iPhone lineup is quite the image. It will be a brief look, and I'm sure Apple will offer scant details, but can you imagine the excitement and satisfaction for Cook, who will not have the opportunity to do so in September when I suspect the iPhone Ultra officially launches alongside the rest of the iPhone 18 lineup.

The other possibility here is that Cook gets to preview Apple Glasses, maybe even casually walking out on stage wearing the AR spectacles and not revealing the fact until he closes the keynote. People would lose their minds.

For all the success Apple has had in 2026 (mostly thanks to the MacBook Neo), it's clear it's lagging in key areas like foldables, AR, and especially AI. Business as usual will not suffice.

So this is my call to Apple: Don't play it safe, don't prerecord those videos. Leave the comedy behind, and go for an all-live event with high stakes and real impact.

That, my friends, will be a WWDC keynote for the books.

In all my years testing gadgets for TechRadar, I've never once reviewed an iPhone. I'm an Android boy through and through, and I've never found a convincing argument to change over to team Apple...

... if we're talking about smartphones. However, I've always maintained that the best tablets are those made by the Cupertino tech giant, and that's still the case in 2026.

In the last six months, I've tested several Android tablets with solid specs, great-looking screens, impressive portability, and useful accessory offerings. But so far, none have convinced me that I should leave behind the best iPads for an Android-powered slate.

But this isn't for the reasons often cited by iPad fans — for me, there's one key thing that Android tablets have failed to properly copy from Apple's slates.

The usual suspects are suspect

I've heard quite a few arguments for choosing iPads over Android tablets and, honestly, some of them are pretty valid.

For professionals and creative types, Android tablets can simply be a no-go due to their lack of apps. A few of the biggest names just aren't available on even the best Android tablets: Procreate, DaVinci Resolve, and Shapr3D, for instance, as well as Apple's own suite of apps.

Some reasons, however, don't fly. Apple fans will talk eloquently about how important the company's M-series chips are, components which were designed for laptops but now come in iPad Pros. However, there just isn't a need for this kind of power in a portal device.

I'm also not convinced by arguments citing the iPad's superior range of accessories (every Android tablet under the sun offers stylus and keyboard compatibility), wider product ecosystem (that's always been Android's strength anyway), and better longevity (I've met pensioners using decades-old Fire tablets; Androids survive just fine).

None of these are the reasons I'm still sticking to my iPad. It's something a lot simpler.

I just want two apps

There's one thing that my iPad does far better than any Android tablet I've ever used: multitasking via app split-screening. That might not seem like much of a feature to set my tablet hopes on, but I use my slate split-screened more frequently than I do in a single-app orientation.

The key is simplicity. When I've got one app open, and I want another on the other side of my screen, I just swipe up to summon the task bar, press and hold on the app I want, and drag it to one half of the screen. It'll appear, resizing itself to fit. Simple.

I'm constantly jumping between different apps in split-screen: a word processing app, an internet browser for research, email, or socials, depending on the work I'm doing and who I need to submit it to. In the last few years, Apple has also let me put different internet tabs on different sides, so I can conduct two-fold research.

This all sounds like a basic tablet function, and true enough, split-screening is — but on iPads, it's uniquely easy to enable.

Take, for example, the OnePlus Pad Go 2, which our reviewer was very taken by. On OxygenOS — which is pretty faithful to stock Android — the process involves loads more steps. You need to open the app, swipe up to the recent apps list, press the three-vertical-dot options menu, select Split View, and then navigate through your entire tablet's interface to find the other app you want. It's a timely process that depends on you knowing exactly where in your slate your chosen app is located.

That process is, from my experience, typical of Android tablets. It's the same in Samsung Galaxy tablets, for example, and on most alternatives: generally, Android tablets don't come with a lower toolbar, unless a manufacturer adds it themselves.

That's the case with Xiaomi's HyperOS, and it's also got a neat feature that lets you quickly banish one split-screen app in favor of the other.

Split-screening on Android tablets is such an unnecessarily convoluted process that it puts me off using them for my workflow. And that's a real shame, because Apple's ceding its crown, and someone needs to take it.

Apple's getting soft(ware)

Apple's days as the top tablet dog are numbered. Partly, it's because of what Android makers are pulling off, but for the most part, it's a case of self-sabotage.

In the last year or so, certain Android makers have started to work out what makes iPads tick. They've stopped trying to release big, powerful tablets with lovely screens and have instead focused a lot more on software.

Xiaomi, as mentioned, has come closest to nailing the multi-screen experience, with tablets like its recent Pad 8 really impressing me. It has an iPadOS-like bottom bar to easily summon apps, and a clean look that doesn't overwhelm you with apps or options.

Ironically, one of the biggest companies failing at the software game — at least in terms of new features — is now Apple. Its Liquid Glass design overhaul in iOS 26 (and iPadOS 26) is so ugly that we had to publish a guide on how to make it easier on the eyes; it's an accessibility nightmare, adding stuttery navigation effects and making app icons look like poorly-cut-out PNGs. As you can tell, I'm not a fan, and it makes iPads feel cheap.

Around the same time as Liquid Glass' release, another infuriating update rolled out, which brought Mac-like windowing and multitasking to the iPad. In doing so, it also brought an axe to the simplicity and ease of use that had defined iPads previously — and that likely made them so popular among users.

Now, when you open an app on an iPad, it's hard to know for sure whether it'll take up the whole screen, appear in a window with an annoying border so it doesn't take up the whole display, or hover in a small panel over an existing app.

Sometimes, you'll close an app, but it'll move off the screen with its edges poking over, and it's hard to know how to fully close it. Controlling and adjusting these windows is wildly unintuitive and frustrating; after at least six months on the software, I still never feel like I'm in control of my iPad.

Perhaps for seasoned Mac users, the upgrade is a positive one, but it's nullified the simplicity that made me enjoy my iPad. You can turn off windowed apps, but that also stops you from being able to split-screen, so it's not exactly a solution.

This all suggests that Apple doesn't actually know why people buy iPads. They think users buy these tablets as portable productivity machines, possibly misled by the fact that the iPad Pro is its most popular tablet. That's true in terms of sales rankings, but the iPad Pro still makes up a minority of sales compared to the brand's three consumer-focused slates combined. iPads are bought by everyday tech users, not professionals, and complicated, ugly software is just going to put them off.

For now, I'm just about holding onto my iPad. But the slow and steady improvements coming to Android tablets, and Apple's own iPad self-immolation (or should that be self-iMmolation?) is really tipping the balance. It's very likely that Android tablets will soon catch up, or even overtake, iPads and iPadOS, and I'll happily jump ship once that happens.

Apple’s iPad Air has been a great middle-ground tablet in recent years, sitting between the top-tier workhorse iPad Pro and the base model iPad.

While it’s tempting to get this year’s model with the desktop-class Apple M4 processor, last year’s iPad Air with the M3 chipset is currently discounted on Amazon Australia at AU$797, which is 20% off the RRP of the new version.

The current model might have the more powerful processor and more RAM (12GB vs 8GB in the M3 model), but our tests have shown that you really won’t feel the difference in speed between the two iPad Airs when browsing, streaming, taking notes or drawing. The power upgrade really only makes a difference if you’re doing a lot of heavy 3D or AI work with the tablet. For the average user, the M3 silicon is plenty powerful and then some.

In our iPad Air M3 review, the tester found the chipset helped make the tablet fly with nearly every task thrown at it, handling video editing and graphically demanding AAA games effortlessly. They even said that the tablet performed almost similarly to the M4 iPad Pro at the time, which had them question exactly which specific use cases might require someone to make that jump to the top-tier offering.

While the iPad Air is still capped at a 60Hz refresh rate, the Liquid Retina display is excellent and has punchy colours, good contrast and 500 nits peak brightness.

The M3 model is also perfect if you’re upgrading from an older iPad Air, an entry-level iPad or another tablet, providing you with enough processing power to last you a few more years before it feels sluggish.

If you want to take full advantage of the iPad Air’s features, you can use your savings to invest in the Apple Pencil Pro to take notes with, or get a keyboard folio to make it a laptop replacement.

Tim Cook’s reign as Apple boss is coming to an end. The long-time leader of one of the world’s largest tech companies is stepping down on September 1 and installing the company’s hardware chief John Ternus as his replacement. A new Apple era is almost here.

Ternus has been at the company for around 25 years, so we’ve had plenty of time to get acquainted with him. That hasn’t stopped fevered speculation surrounding what he might do to shape Apple in his own image. Yet there are plenty of ways that things will stay very much the same with this old hand at the wheel. If you’re curious to see what lies in store under Ternus’s watch, read on to learn five ways that Apple probably won’t change — and two ways that it might.

Hardware and software integration

Apple is world-famous for the way it controls the whole widget, to paraphrase Steve Jobs. The company makes its own hardware and software and integrates them together incredibly well. Could that change under Ternus’s leadership?

Don’t bet the farm on it. Given that Ternus has been part of the Apple furniture for a quarter century, building hardware and software that work together impeccably is now part of his DNA. And while he might currently be the firm’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, he’s also played a role in much of Apple’s software. He strongly pushed for the creation of iPadOS, for example, and took on the role of “executive sponsor” for design in recent months, which unsurprisingly includes software. If you’re expecting him to break with Apple tradition when it comes to integration, you’ll be disappointed.

Emphasis on design

As executive sponsor for design, Ternus is becoming intimately attuned to the design situation at Apple. His role involves explaining current projects and sticking points to Apple’s board, requiring a deep understanding of how the cookie crumbles at a company defined by design.

According to Bloomberg, Ternus and Cook held a staff meeting after the CEO transition was announced. There, Ternus reportedly told employees: “We’re going to keep focusing on design, because design is core to what we do at Apple. Apple’s brought truly incredible design to more people than any company in history.”

What’s more, there’s no way Ternus could have ascended to the lofty heights that he has without a proven grasp of Apple’s design inclinations. With that being so, the likelihood of him suddenly rewriting the playbook in this area is next to zero.

Durability over repairability

In his role as head of Apple’s hardware, Ternus has been repeatedly questioned about the company’s policies on product repairability. And on this subject, he’s been clear that Apple prioritizes durability rather than repairability, with the logic being that a product that lasts a long time doesn’t need to be repaired.

Speaking to TechCrunch, Ternus explained: “Repairability in isolation is not always the best answer.” As he went on to describe, “The reality is repairability is a means to an end. The goal is to build products that last, and if you focus too much on [making every part repairable], you end up creating some unintended consequences that are worse for the consumer and worse for the planet.” One example could be a removable part that introduces a new point of failure, thereby negatively affecting the device’s longevity in the long run.

Given Ternus has long been responsible for setting Apple’s hardware priorities, you can expect this emphasis on durability over repairability to remain. Although he has insisted that “We want to make things more repairable,” the focus will continue to be on making long-lasting products that, with any luck, won’t need to be repaired during their lifespans.

Privacy and security

Steve Jobs liked to insist on user privacy, but it was under his successor Tim Cook that the company really made this a defining trait. Now that John Ternus is next in line, you might be questioning whether that commitment to privacy and security will endure.

The good news is that it almost certainly will. In the comments reported by Bloomberg, Ternus told Apple staff that he will continue to work on these efforts, with no change in policy on this front. As before, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise – you don’t get as far within Apple as John Ternus has without believing in the program.

Environmental policy

In those same remarks cited by Bloomberg, another core Apple policy that Ternus pledged would not change is its stance on the environment. During Cook’s time in charge, Apple has made strenuous efforts in this area by reducing packaging and cutting emissions, so much so that Apple aims to ensure that both the company and its entire supply chain are carbon neutral by 2030.

Speaking to Apple employees, Ternus explained that: “there are some things that can never change and won’t change,” with action on the environment being one of them.

A renewed focus on hardware

Despite all those aspects that Ternus has promised will remain the same, there are a few areas where the new CEO might want to put his own stamp on affairs. Naturally, given his background, one of those could be a renewed focus on hardware. After all, Ternus has headed up Apple’s hardware division for many years now, so it seems reasonable to assume he’d bring plenty of that acumen to the table.

Tim Cook cut his teeth in operations and was not, by all accounts, a product person. John Ternus, though, most definitely is, and he’s been ultimately responsible for ensuring Apple’s physical products are up to scratch for years. With that in mind, we might see the company double down on hardware quality and innovation, which could be just what troubled devices like the Vision Pro need going into the future.

A drive into home tech

Before he got started in the world of work, Ternus studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. There, his senior project was a mechanical feeding arm designed for use by people with quadriplegia. I say this because it coincides nicely with a product that Apple is rumored to be working on: a smart home display that’s mounted on a robotic arm.

This device is just one of Apple’s mooted smart home products that are reportedly just around the corner. These devices were initiated under Tim Cook, but with Ternus heading up the company, we might see a new push into this arena. Given the parallels between his senior university project and at least one of Apple’s smart home devices, that could be a fitting change for Apple to embrace.

• iPadOS 26.4 has a new feature that helps users find hidden app windows
• It adds another Mac-like element to the tablet operating system
• But the Mac-ification of the iPad could cause unnecessary confusion

In recent years, Apple has steadfastly refused to say it’s merging the iPad and Mac, all while increasing the overlap between its iPadOS and macOS operating systems. With the launch of iPadOS 26.4 in March, that was strengthened even further. But I’m concerned that it blurs the lines a little too much — and risks confusing Apple fans as a result.

In this case, we’re talking about a new feature in iPadOS 26.4 that makes it easier to locate your open windows. The original version of iPadOS 26 added support for running multiple app windows on your iPad, but the problem was that you could lose track of them if you had too many open. In iPadOS 26.4, though, that’s all changed.

Now, you'll see a little popup appear over an app’s icon if it has multiple windows open. The popup will say “X Hidden Windows” (with X being the number of windows) and “Show All Windows” written below. Just click the popup and all that app’s existing windows will be shown on-screen. It’s a quick and handy way to keep track of your app windows without losing them over the course of your day.

This is definitely more of a feature for iPad power users than something most people will need on a day-to-day basis, as I suspect the majority of iPad users never open more than one app window at a time, never mind lose track of them. Yet despite the useful nature of this feature, I’m concerned that it might muddy the waters between Apple’s devices.

The MacBook Neo dilemma

Adding support for multiple windows is definitely a desktop-like feature and helps the iPad feel more akin to one of Apple’s best Macs than a tablet. Throw in a compatible mouse and keyboard and the tablet can easily double up as a laptop, with some caveats.

A few years ago, that was all well and good — the iPad could serve as an affordable laptop alternative for people who didn’t want to shell out $999 or more for a MacBook. But with the launch of the MacBook Neo, that’s all changed.

Now, you just need to pay $599 / £599 / AU$899 and you get a legitimate laptop that punches well above its weight. In a world like this, why would you need an iPad that moonlights as a MacBook? The only reason I can think of is that you like the tablet form factor.

Yet that doesn’t change the fact that Apple is making its iPads more Mac-like when there’s a perfect good — and affordable — substitute in the form of the MacBook Neo. If you want an entry-level device, you’ve now got to choose between the MacBook Neo and the iPad, and that feels like a needlessly confusing situation. Should you get an iPad or a MacBook Neo? That’s a question that users are increasingly going to have to ask themselves.

Evidently, though, it’s a state of affairs that Apple is comfortable with. As the recent iPadOS 26.4 update demonstrates, the company is still bringing Mac-esque features to its iPads, even after the MacBook Neo was revealed — and even as it denies that the two systems are being combined. That makes it look like this perplexing overlap is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

• Apple has listed the 32GB Apple TV HD and iPad Mini 4 'obsolete', and the 2017 MacBook Air is 'vintage'
• A lot of users are confused, as the Apple TV HD is still getting tvOS 26 updates
• It could mean a new Apple TV 4K is coming this year

Apple has added three more devices to its lists of ‘obsolete’ and ‘vintage’ products, and it’s caused a bit of confusion as all three are still in widespread use — and one in particular, the 32GB Apple TV HD, is still very popular.

The tech giant updated its support page yesterday (March 31), declaring the 32GB Apple TV HD and iPad Mini 4, both which were launched in 2015, obsolete. It also added the 2017 13-inch MacBook Air to its list of vintage devices.

What does this mean for users who still use these devices? For the 32GB Apple TV HD and iPad Mini 4, it means they’re no longer eligible for repair services at Apple, so you’ll have to rely on third-party providers. Additionally, Apple will no longer supply spare parts for the two devices. The 64GB Apple TV HD remains fully supported.

Because the 2017 MacBook Air is now vintage rather than obsolete, it’s still eligible for Apple’s repair services, however this is subject to whether parts are available.

Every now and then, Apple adds a handful of products to its obsolete and vintage lists as it launches new devices across its iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other categories, subject to specific criteria.

“Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago”, the company states on its support page. “Products are considered obsolete when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 7 years ago”.

Still using your 32GB Apple TV HD as if you bought it only yesterday? You’re not the only one, and many users can’t understand why Apple has made this decision.

"This is honestly pretty weird"

Apple listing the 32GB Apple TV HD has surfaced a lot of confusion and frustration among users, especially since the now obsolete 32GB device runs tvOS 26, which rolled out just six months ago in September. Some of those users have taken to Reddit in protest, with one posting "This is honestly pretty weird."

Although the 32GB Apple TV HD is still receiving tvOS 26 updates, the fact that it’s been declared obsolete leads us to believe that it won’t be included in the roster of devices that will be eligible for tvOS 27, which is expected to be announced at WWDC 2026 on June 8 alongside iOS 27.

That suggests the next Apple TV 4K model could drop some time this year, having failed to appear after rumors suggested it was going to drop at the end of 2025.

Reddit users are also wondering why only the 32GB Apple TV HD is affected, and not the 64GB version. Apple hasn’t made any comment on why this is the case, so we’re just as stumped as everyone else. It could be that Apple is waiting until the announcement of the next Apple TV 4K to shift the 64GB Apple TV HD onto its obsolete list — we’ll have to wait and see what’s announced on June 8.

Not many of us feel celebratory when we turn 50, but Apple is in good spirits today — the tech giant was founded on April 1, 1976, and it's feeling uncharacteristically nostalgic with some star-studded 50th anniversary festivities.

In those 50 years, Apple has left a massive mark on the tech world, so we'll be covering all of today's events and surprises in this liveblog, alongside our own musings on Apple's biggest successes and failures over the past half century.

What started with the original Apple Computer later brought countless other devices like the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, AirPods, the full expansion of the Mac lineup, and even the Vision Pro — not to mention a polishing cloth — and a growing suite of services.

Join us here for a look back at Apple's historic run, a gaze into what the future might hold, and the landmark gadgets that made Apple what it is today (plus the ones it'd rather you forgot about).

Apple is also preparing its own celebration at its main Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, after kicking off the 50th anniversary at Apple Grand Central in NYC and countless other stores across the globe. So to follow all of the action, join us here in this liveblog...

Apple's 50th anniversary — read our coverage

• 'A complete disaster': The 11 worst Apple gadgets of the past 50 years, according to you
• I saw Steve Jobs give his last WWDC presentation — and that was when I knew Apple could last for 50 years and beyond
• ‘A genuine masterpiece’: The 15 best Apple gadgets of the last 50 years, according to you
• How Apple accidentally destroyed the record business — and why I wish we'd stuck with iPods
• 'You've tarnished Apple's reputation': 11 things Apple got horribly wrong over the past 50 years
• I’ve used a Mac in every decade since the 1980s — Apple’s 50-year journey still feels magical
• 'The Apple graveyard': 7 mythical Apple products from the past 50 years that never saw the light of day
• 12 irresistibly boxy and beige Apple accessories that'll transform your shiny new gadgets into retro tech in seconds

Apple Park is getting ready for big celebration

Apple, it seems, is saving the best and biggest for last, as just hours after hands-on with the AirPods Max 2 dropped, it seems that Apple Park is getting ready for a true party to celebrate the 50th Anniversary. Likely one that will start in the evening and continue into April 1, 2026.

Judging by a post on Reddit (r/apple), the Rainbow Stage is being put to good use in the center of Apple Park, and employees – including CEO Tim Cook and SVP of hardware John Ternus – will be treated to a performance by none other than Paul McCartney.

Paul live at Apple from r/PaulMcCartney

The festivities did kick off earlier in the day, though, as the NASDAQ brought the opening bell to Apple Park and let Apple CEO Tim Cook ring it, ultimately starting the 50th celebration very early in the morning California time.

Apple Park has some special displays

Apple Park is clearly getting in the spirit of the 50th anniversary as the team at Apple has set up some pretty neat displays around the campus, according to images shared on X (formerly Twitter).

First up is a real-life version of the 50th Anniversary Apple logo as a statue in a spot in the main ring building. It's the classic Apple colors mixing together as if drawn with an Apple Pencil on an iPad within the logo, and it looks pretty sizable.

Elsewhere within Apple Park, there's a walk down Mac memory lane showing off the many versions of the iMac. It starts with the iMac G3 and works its way to the modern iMac with the M4 chip inside.

And similarly, potentially closer to Cafe Mac, Apple has every iPhone on display from the original, first-generation to the most recent iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone Air.

Test your Apple knowledge

If you're keen to test your knowledge about Apple and the many, many devices and software it has shipped since its inception in 1976, look no further than TechRadar's Big Apple 50th anniversary quiz.

It was crafted and created by our Editor-in-Chief, Marc McLaren, and let us know how you do in the comments below.

Apple employees are scoring some free 50th gifts

Apple's no stranger to serving up some exclusive swag, usually in the form of pins or clothing, to its employees, and it's safe to say the 50th stuff is pretty sweet.

According to a post on X, Apple employees are receiving a poster, a t-shirt, and an epic enamel pin to commemorate the 50th Anniversary.

A message from Tim Cook

Apple's CEO has just posted the post on X above to kickstart the 50th anniversary celebrations — it's a rewind through most of Apple's big releases from the last half century.

I couldn't help but notice an appearance from the Apple Card, which seems an odd inclusion among such illustrious company. It also reminds me of the time that Tim Cook reportedly saw his application for an Apple Card rejected in 2019.

The music in this promo clip is something of a mystery though. Any ideas what tune is lurking behind the distortion? Let me know in the comments below.

A glimpse into Apple's musical past

Apple has lined up quite the headliner for its Apple Park celebrations, with Paul McCartney due to take the stage later for a private gig for Apple employees — and that's got us musing about Apple's musical past over the last 50 years.

If you remember the pre-iPod era, or if you just want a taste of what life was life before Spotify, make sure to read TechRadar contributor Carrie Marshall's excellent account of how Apple completely changed music in the early 2000s — and why it's an era she still misses.

• Read the full story: How Apple accidentally destroyed the record business — and why I wish we'd stuck with iPods

What's happened so far?

Apple actually kicked off its 50th anniversary celebrations way back on March 13, with a performance from Alicia Keys at the Apple Grand Central store in New York.

Since then, Tim Cook has been on something of a global tour, most notably in China. I'll bring you photos from those recent celebrations — plus some videos from Paul McCartney performing at Apple Park.

The spectacular show below took place during Shanghai Fashion Week and was created by designer Feng Chen Wang for Apple's 50th anniversary celebrations. I'll take the luminous green dressing gown, thanks.

Below that, you can see Feng Chen Wang greeting fans at the Apple Jing’an Store, with futuristic fashionistas dotted among the crowd.

More recently, the Apple celebrations took over London's Battersea Power Station (below) with a surprise concert from Mumford & Sons.

Below that, you can see a video from the show, if you're a fan of the so-called 'Stomp, clap, hey' folk rock era from the early 2010s.

That private Paul McCartney show

Apple's big 50th birthday party at Apple Park actually took place last night, with Paul McCartney being the impressive (and very apt) headliner.

There are several videos floating around from Instagram, showing what it was like inside the private event. This one, for example, shows the queues before it kicked off and Tim Cook introducing McCartney before his set.

"Over the past few weeks, we’ve been celebrating with people who 'Think Different'. People whose creativity has shaped culture and changed the world. It only felt right to invite someone who’s done exactly that," Cook said.

‘Steve loved, I mean loved, The Beatles. And he often said he built Apple to be like them. A team where great people come together, challenge each other, and create something greater than any one person could do alone," he added.

According to Setlist FM, it was quite the concert too, encompassing 25 songs from across The Beatles' and McCartney's solo career.

What's your Apple era?

Before we delve further into Apple's celebrations and its 50-year history, it's time to pause for an important question — which Apple era do you belong in?

We've set up a short quiz to help you figure this out below. I'm pleased to announce that I'm firmly in the 'Trendsetter' category centering around Apple's golden era, which I think also just means I'm really old.

Have a play and let us know if you agree with your result in the comments...

Apple's homepage is looking different

If you head to the Apple homepage today, you'll be greeted with the rather lovely animation above — which takes you through the Macintosh, macOS, iMac, iPod and more.

You can sense Apple's hesitation to plunge too deep into nostalgia, with the message below the '50 years of thinking different' header stating: "At 50 years, it’s only natural to look back. But Apple has always looked forward, building tools and delivering experiences that enrich people’s lives."

It's hard not to read that in Tim Cook's voice — but unfortunately, there are no special 50th anniversary discounts when you go further into the store.

This slightly beats our office Christmas party

Here's another impressive view from inside the big Apple Park show last night, courtesy of Apple developer Steven Peterson.

It shows some serious pyrotechnics accompanying the coda to McCartney's live version of 'Live and Let Die'.

Is it curmudgeonly to suggest that a drone light show might have been a better fit for Apple's 2030 environmental vision? Maybe — you can't say that on Apple's birthday...

Tim Cook gets reflective

Esquire landed an engaging interview with Tim Cook ahead of Apple's 50th anniversary, where he talks about everything from Steve Jobs to working with the Trump administration.

Cook is too well media-trained to reveal anything hugely insightful, but he is in a more reflective mood than we typically see him.

On Jobs, he said: "I think about him often — and in the last few months, thinking about the fiftieth anniversary, even more so, honestly,” Cook says. “You think about the things he believed in. He believed in the simple, not the complex. He believed in collaboration, that if you put a small group of people together, the output of that small group would be much greater than any individual among them.”

The slightly thornier questions around Trump are met with a masterful neutrality, and echo his previous "I'm not political" comments. "The Trump administration is very accessible," he said. "So you can talk with them about your point of view on things. They may not agree, but you can engage. You can be heard. You may not, in the end, be able to convince," he added.

The Apple gadgets we never got

Like Tim Cook, we've been in a reflective mood today about Apple's last 50 years — in particular about the rumored Apple gadgets that never arrived.

And there's been a lot of those — from the Apple Car to AirPower wireless charging and a mysterious mash up of a computer, a fax machine, scanner and telephone called the Paladin, we've rounded up the company's biggest gadget unicorns below.

• Read the full story: 'The Apple graveyard': 7 mythical Apple products from the past 50 years that never saw the light of day

Tim Cook's been busy

Hypebeast has combined another nice visual trip through Apple's history with some celeb birthday messages below, with Tim Cook making a surprise appearance at the end.

At this rate, I'm half expecting Cook to pop up from behind my TV later and exclaim "here's to 50 more years of thinking different'...

One more thing...

Apple has had a serious knack for both 'breakthrough' marketing slogans and, thanks to Steve Jobs, memorable turns-of-phrase. But they haven't always worked in favor of Apple.

We thought it'd be fun to tell the story (below) of Apple's last 50 years through those well-worn phrases, from its early slogans ('The computer for the rest of us') to the episodes ('You're holding it wrong', 'Bendgate' and more) that its detractors love to hark back to. Just be wary of the 'reality distortion field'....

• Read the full story: 'You’re holding it wrong': 11 iconic phrases that define Apple's last 50 years, from genius highs to embarrassing lows

Watch our favorite Apple keynote moments

If you're anything like us, there's likely an Apple keynote that stands out the most to you – maybe it was the iPhone reveal, the original Macintosh, or the iPod.

Whatever your favorite is, take a stroll down Apple keynote memory lane and see our favorite picks of the best moments that Steve Jobs introduced.

Tim Cook shares a note with Apple employees recognizing the 50th

Thanks to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, we're getting a look at Tim Cook's memo celebrating Apple's 50th anniversary that was shared with employees earlier today. In it, he reflects on the first 50 years, a quote from Steve Jobs that's been on his mind, and teases that 'what comes next' is what excites him most.

Apple's 50th Anniversary swag apparently shows up on eBay

It was only a matter of time.

From all indications, Apple’s big 50th Anniversary bash featuring a live performance by Sir Paul McCartney was an exclusive, employee-only affair. That also means that the only people who got the really cool swag were Apple employees.

To refresh your memory, the swag included a t-shirt, a poster, and a “50” enamel pin.

Well, guess what just showed up on eBay? One of the pins. There are some huge caveats here. First of all, this might be a fake. It could also be someone grabbing someone else’s pin image and posting it, in hopes of luring unsuspecting bidders. Who knows what the winning bid will actually receive?

But what if it’s real? Would you pay $100 for a souvenir pin? Even a really cool one like this, complete with paperwork that indicates the date of Apple’s founding? Maybe. As of now, the pin has no bids but six watchers, who probably know better.

Is there anything else in technology that sounds quite as familiar and reassuring as the Mac’s iconic startup chime?

BONG!

After a restart, when your screen has gone black, it’s a sound that feels comforting — yes, your Mac is actually going to start up again — and plucky at the same time, proudly announcing to the room that yes, you own a Mac, and yes, it is a goddamn thing of beauty.

That startup sound (originally a C major chord played on a Korg Wavestation EX, in case you were wondering, later updated to F-sharp and then F major in 2020) has been around since 1991 and the Quadra series.

I’ve always felt that owning a Mac is as much about announcing that you own a Mac as it is about actually owning one. That’s part of the attraction — and the reason the Apple logo on a MacBook is designed to face the right way up to the person looking at you when it’s open.

By the mid-2000s, I was editing MacFormat, an Apple magazine that is still going strong today. That meant I had a front-row seat for Steve Jobs’ second coming as CEO of Apple, and I got to see him work his magic up close. I was there for the launch of the iPhone and the iPad, and I'll never forget it.

Even now, 50 years after Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, with early operations run out of Jobs’ parents’ garage, and despite the fact that Apple has in many ways become the very system it once positioned itself directly against, owning a Mac can still make you feel like one of the rebels — the crazy ones, the misfits — that Jobs spoke about in Apple’s 1997 'Think Different' campaign.

It’s such a powerful expression of that idea that it’s worth quoting in full:

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Those words were definitely of the time, and in 2026, it feels like we could all use a little less crazy, but in the 90s they hit hard, and attracted their fair share of criticism for being as much about marketing as anything else.

Insanely great

The fact is, if Apple and its products were nothing more than tribal marketing, they wouldn’t have lasted. Instead, Apple endured and eventually dominated because its products were usually better made than its competitors’. Fifty years on, that still feels broadly true.

In fact, Apple’s products were often so “insanely great” that they came to define the decades they belonged to. You can’t think of the 2000s without the iPod, or the decade after without the iPhone.

So let’s run through the timeline and what it actually felt like to be an Apple user in each decade.

1980s — discovery

I first used a Mac in the 1980s. My dad had a Macintosh 128K. I don’t remember doing much on it apart from marveling at the graphical interface. I’d grown up with an Acorn Electron, which booted into text mode — much like the PCs of the time, which dropped you into DOS before Microsoft created Windows.

In contrast, the Mac had menus, a mouse, and windows. Moving a cursor across the screen instead of typing commands felt almost absurdly futuristic. It took Microsoft until Windows 3.1 to catch up — but by then, Apple had already defined what personal computing could look like.

The classic 1984 Super Bowl ad set out Apple’s innovation stall early, making a stand against conformity and the PCs of the time. That wasn’t just marketing — it told you what it felt like to be an Apple user during the decade. Watch it here:

Of course, it didn’t turn out to be a smooth ride for Apple, as time would tell, but this was Apple at its best — bold, innovative, creative, and offering a glimpse of something different in a world of beige conformity.

1990s — doubt

This is the decade Apple lost its way. PCs were cheaper, ubiquitous, and far more flexible. They had more hardware options and, in most areas, could simply do more than a Mac. If you still owned a Mac, you probably worked in publishing (hello!), or in video editing and graphic design — the few areas Apple still dominated. Beyond that, it was getting harder to justify.

PCs had the best games and the best business software. Steve Jobs had been forced out of his own company, and Apple’s fortunes were on the wane. Plenty of people genuinely didn’t expect it to survive into the new millennium.

And being an Apple user didn’t feel good anymore. The Mac vs PC war was being won by Microsoft, and Apple was in real trouble. It felt like Apple users had backed the wrong horse.

My defining memory of the decade is PC users openly mocking my Mac for its one-button mouse — and me having pretty much nothing to say in response.

2000s — revival

This was when everything changed for Apple. Steve Jobs returned with a clear vision, and alongside designer Jony Ive, began reshaping the company with ruthless focus.

By the mid-2000s I was enjoying my dream job, editing MacFormat magazine, which meant I had a front-row seat to what was happening — and the shift was impossible to miss.

It started with the iMac in October, 1999. Designed for a world that was just beginning to get online, it ditched the beige box for something playful and translucent, available in bright colors. It felt different, and that difference mattered.

But it was the iPod that made Apple cool again. A small, simple music player that let you carry your entire record collection in your pocket. The click wheel, the white headphones… suddenly, Apple wasn’t just back, it was everywhere.

The iTunes Store followed, and with it, Apple found its place at the intersection of technology and culture in a way no company had quite managed before, or arguably since.

And then came the iPhone.

I was there for its launch in San Francisco in 2007, and it genuinely felt like watching Steve Jobs perform magic on stage — a touchscreen device you could put in your pocket and use to access the internet. It didn’t just feel new; it felt like science fiction becoming reality.

This was perhaps the best decade to be an Apple user. Every product felt fresh, ambitious, and just a little bit ahead of what Microsoft and everybody else was doing. Watching the company recover and then surge past everyone was exhilarating.

The ‘alternative’ identity of being an Apple user during this time was perfectly captured by the 'Get a Mac' ads, with Justin Long as the Mac and John Hodgman as the PC:

2010s — dominance

The 2010s began with Apple launching the iPad, ushering in what it called the post-PC era. For a moment, it felt like Apple could do no wrong.

But that confidence was shaken in October 2011, when Steve Jobs died. Apple didn’t collapse without him, far from it, but it did have to figure out what it was without its mercurial founder. Tim Cook took the reins, and we entered a new era.

This became a decade of bold decisions, not all of which landed. Apple was still trying to live up to its own myth, even if the results were sometimes divisive.

Nowhere was that clearer than in its design. The early part of the decade was defined by skeuomorphism, with interfaces that mimicked real-world materials. Then in 2013, Jony Ive tore it all down. iOS 7 introduced a flatter, brighter, more abstract look. It was a 'year zero' moment that split opinion and, for the first time in years, seemed to fracture Apple’s user base.

There were clear wins. Siri and iCloud became foundational parts of the Apple ecosystem. But there were also missteps, most notably the butterfly keyboard, which could be undone by something as simple as a few crumbs.

Apple spent the rest of the decade consolidating its position. The Apple Watch arrived in 2014, but grew slowly into its role rather than exploding onto the scene. The iPhone settled into a steady yearly rhythm of updates.

Apple was no longer the underdog, or even the comeback story. It was the dominant force in consumer tech, and for the first time in a long time it started to feel like it was playing it safe.

2020s — reflection

And so we come to the 2020s, where Apple managed to surprise everyone again — this time by ditching Intel and producing its own silicon. The M1 chip ushered in a new era of fast, efficient, and often fanless performance that reset expectations for what a Mac could be.

By 2023, the transition to Apple silicon was complete across the lineup. After that, progress became more incremental, with everything just getting a little bit better each year.

Then Apple took another swing at something bigger. The Vision Pro and its push into “spatial computing” felt like a return to the boldness of earlier decades.

Whether it was the right bet is less clear. For once, Apple seemed slightly out of step, focusing on new hardware just as the rest of the industry began to pivot hard toward artificial intelligence. It tried to claw it back with Apple Intelligence, but bit off more than it could chew, and had to go cap in hand to Google for its AI chops to spice up iOS and Siri.

We’re still waiting to see how that plays out — and this year’s WWDC could be a defining moment for Apple’s AI ambitions.

One more thing

It’s a credit to the quality of Apple’s products that they continue to dominate, even as the company appears slower to move on AI. Apple is often seen as an innovator, but its real strength has always been in execution — taking an idea and delivering it better than anyone else. Time will tell if that approach still works in the age of AI.

Across 50 years, Apple has managed to hold onto its identity as the alternative company. I still use a Mac and somehow, despite it being one of the biggest corporations in the world, Apple still makes me feel like I'm thinking differently by choosing it.

If there’s a single piece of Apple magic that has survived all this time, it’s that.

• Age verification is rolling out for iOS and iPadOS users in the UK
• Some users are struggling with finding ID or getting it approved
• One option is to refuse to install the iOS 26.4 / iPadOS 26.4 update

Apple has caused a storm of confusion and controversy with its decision to roll out age verification in the UK with iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 — and a substantial number of users are having problems proving how old they are.

If you're a UK user and install the iOS 26.4 or iPadOS 26.4 update, you'll be met with a message asking you to prove you're over 18, with some exceptions: people who already have a credit card on file (these can only be issued to adults), and those who've had their Apple account longer than 18 years.

For now, the prompt can be dismissed (you can find it again in Settings), but that presumably won't last forever. The two verification methods that Apple supports are scans of a credit card (not debit cards) and scans of a photo driving license, but as 9to5Mac reports, there are numerous people who don't have either.

Even for those who can provide a card or ID, the process seems to be buggy, and failing quite regularly. As per feedback given to 9to5Mac, you can try waiting a longer time (around 10 seconds) for a scan to be accepted, add a credit card to Apple Wallet, or restart your phone and attempt the process again if you're having an issue.

Stopping the update

While Apple hasn't explicitly said why the age checks have been brought in, there's growing momentum in the UK and worldwide for child safety protections to be built into phones and apps. Adult websites operating in the UK are required by law to verify the age of users, though up until now this hasn't been handled at the device level.

While UK regulator Ofcom has welcomed the move, the reaction among users has been less than impressed, with the rollout branded as "stupid" and "ridiculous". It's not quite on the level of Apple's biggest tech fails (which we recently rounded up for your amusement), but there's also a growing unease that these kinds of restrictions are going to be expanded to further countries and devices over time.

You do have the option of refusing to install the iOS 26.4 or iPadOS 26.4 update: From Settings, tap General > Software Update and turn off Automatic Updates. However, that does also mean you won't get the latest software features or security updates from Apple, so it's not usually recommended in the long term.

As well as keeping schtum about the age verification rollout, Apple hasn't said anything about or what people without a credit card or driving license in the UK are supposed to do to get verified — but hopefully we'll get some official guidance soon.

March has shaped up to be a fairly competitive month for Apple device deals in Australia, but if you missed or skipped the recent Amazon Big Smile Sale or Afterpay Day, the good news is that some lingering Apple deals have hung around — Amazon, for example, is still offering discounts of up to 40% on a range of Apple tech.

And in some cases, such as with the AirPods Pro 3, we’ve actually seen prices drop further, with Apple’s flagship earbuds now down to AU$369, compared to the AU$379 sale price during last week’s Big Smile Sale.

I’ve listed my five favourite Apple deals and discounts you can still snag below, but be sure to check out the full Apple listings at Amazon, or even the mega online retailer’s complete list of latest deals, as there are some tantalising ongoing discounts on Wi-Fi routers, security cameras, Kindles and more.

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026) review: One-minute review

Apple’s iPad Air has long been the 'pro model for most people,' and the 2026 refresh keeps that reputation intact. There are no real design changes this year, but Apple gives the tablet a fuel injection of performance thanks to the M4 chip under the hood, more RAM, and improved connectivity.

This means the iPad Air keeps pace in terms of having Apple’s latest silicon while still sitting below the iPad Pro in price. In everyday use the 13-inch iPad Air absolutely flies, whether you’re juggling multiple windows in iPadOS 26, editing photos or videos, gaming, or pairing it with the Magic Keyboard to act as a laptop replacement.

The display remains the same excellent Liquid Retina panel that was introduced in 2024, and while it still tops out at 60Hz rather than the iPad Pro’s 120Hz ProMotion, it’s a large, vibrant canvas for work, entertainment, and Apple Pencil note-taking.

If you already own an M3 or even M2 iPad Air, this probably isn’t a must-have upgrade. But for anyone coming from an older iPad, or buying their first Air, the M4 model continues to hit a sweet spot of power, portability, and price.

Simply put, the iPad Air with M4 remains the iPad most people should buy. I just hope Apple continues this trend of squeezing more value out of the device. The consistent silicon upgrades keep the iPad Air feeling fresh for years after release, giving it plenty of headroom for new apps and features. I do wish Apple had take the same approach it did with the iPhone 17e by bumping the starting storage, though.

And bear in mind that — as I note in every iPad review I write — you’ll want to factor in the cost of accessories like the Apple Pencil and the Magic Keyboard. Both are excellent companions for the iPad Air, but deciding whether to add one or both ultimately comes down to your needs and your budget.

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026) review: Specs

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026) review: Price and availability

Apple is continuing a welcome recent trend with the latest iPad Air, upgrading the processor, and some other features, without raising the starting price. The 11-inch iPad Air and 13-inch iPad Air still start with 128GB of storage, but can be configured up to 1TB.

The 11-inch iPad Air starts at $599 / £599 / AU$999, while the 13-inch iPad Air starts at $799 / £799 / AU$1,249, both with 128GB of storage and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026) review: Design

• Still a modern, portable design
• Same four colors and no major design changes

What's new about Apple’s 2026 iPad Air — aka the iPad Air with M4 or iPad Air (M4) — is mostly a matter of what’s under the hood. With the same four colors available — Blue, Purple, Starlight, or Space Gray — it keeps a nearly identical build and design language to 2025’s iPad Air with M3, and largely the same look introduced with the 2024 iPad Air with M2.

That’s not a bad thing at all — amid a sea of other mid-range tablets, Apple is still opting for a premium aluminum build that feels plenty portable. Even though the iPad Air is no longer the thinnest or lightest iPad in Apple’s lineup — that honor goes to the iPad Pro — the 13-inch variant remains easily portable, and the 11-inch model even more so.

I regularly go back and forth between either an 11-inch Air or Pro and a 13-inch, and I found myself right at home with the 13-inch iPad Air. It’s the same footprint generation-over-generation at 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.1mm and 616 grams (617 grams for cellular), and I absolutely love the Purple shade, although another fresher shade joining the range – maybe a blush pink, as with the iPhone 17e, or citrus yellow like the MacBook Neo, would have been nice.

For the purposes of describing the button layout, we'll talk about using the tablet in landscape mode. The power button with the all-important Touch ID sensor lives on the top left-hand edge, with the volume up and volume down buttons sitting nearby along the top edge. Right beside them are the magnets that easily hold the Apple Pencil Pro or Apple Pencil USB-C.

Everything remains easy to reach in either orientation, and it’s clear Apple feels it's got the ergonomics right here, since the layout hasn’t changed. Touch ID is still fast and reliable for unlocking the iPad Air, or authenticating purchases and other secure actions.

On the rear, the 12-megapixel rear camera remains in the top-left corner on the back, while Apple's Smart connector is along the right edge. This still lets the iPad Air connect to Apple's Magic Keyboard, all without the need for traditional Bluetooth pairing or needing to recharge the accessory.

The Apple logo is centered on the back of the iPad, though it's oriented to be in the proper position when it's held vertical, in landscape it's sideways — either way round it offers some neat reflections and sits flat with the matte aluminum finish.

Ultimately, if you liked the design of the previous iPad Air, or the one before that, you’ll feel right at home here.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026) review: Display

• Display is still sharp, vibrant Liquid Retina
• Still no 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate

Arguably, the most important part of any iPad is the display, and that's even more the case with the 13-inch iPad Air. There are no changes generation over generation here — in fact, this is the same display Apple introduced when it first introduced a larger 13-inch iPad Air in 2024.

That’s not a bad thing, though, as the 13-inch iPad Air affords you an expansive canvas on which to work. It’s only gotten better since true multitasking landed with iPadOS 26, and it's also excellent for watching films or TV shows (anyone else catching up on Scrubs on Disney+ or Hulu right now?).

The 13-inch Liquid Retina display is excellent (Apple is still rounding up from a 12.9-inch screen measured diagonally). It’s not quite as impressive as the iPad Pro’s Dynamic OLED panel with a 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate, but it goes the full mile for productivity and creative tasks. Whether I was watching a film, editing in Final Cut Pro, overlapping windows to write this review, browsing the web, or gaming, everything looked great here.

Colors are vibrant and punchy, but I especially like writing with the Apple Pencil Pro on the 13-inch iPad Air and seeing the inky black handwriting appear. Of course, you can make that pop even more by changing the color of the pencil in Notes, Notability, or GoodNotes — take your pick of your preferred note-taking app.

Just like the previous two generations, the 13-inch Liquid Retina display offers a 2732 x 2048 resolution at 264 pixels per inch with a maximum brightness of 600 nits. The anti-reflective oleophobic coating is pretty essential here on the 13-inch – and the same goes for the 11-inch Air – helping repel fingerprints and reduce reflections from natural light.

As I wrote in 2025, the main miss here is a higher refresh rate. The 13-inch iPad Air still tops out at 60Hz, while Apple reserves the adaptive 120Hz ProMotion display for the iPad Pro lineup. Then again, if you’re not coming from that device — and I don’t see why you would be — it likely won’t be a major issue, and Apple is clearly adding value elsewhere, as in the jump to the M4 chip.

• Display score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026) review: Cameras

• No changes to the front or rear cameras
• Front camera is still in a better spot, and supports Center Stage

If you’re picking up a 13-inch iPad Air for the first time, or upgrading from an older model, you’ll be happy to know the front-facing camera is in a much better spot than on older models. Like the previous 13-inch iPad Air, the 2026 model with M4 keeps the 12-megapixel front camera on the long edge, which makes it far more usable for FaceTime and other video calls when the tablet is docked in a Smart Cover or the Magic Keyboard.

In landscape mode, the camera sits centered along the top edge, which means you’ll appear properly framed on video calls or when recording self-tapes. It also works nicely with Apple’s built-in Center Stage technology, which keeps you in frame as you move around. That’s helpful if you tend to pace during meetings, or if you’re on a FaceTime call while cooking in the kitchen, and moving around to slice and dice ingredients. Image quality here is solid, and you can enable effects such as Portrait mode and Studio Light in iPadOS.

On the back is the same 12-megapixel rear camera as last time. It’s perfectly fine for snapping quick photos or scanning documents, though I’m not that sure many people are bringing a 13-inch iPad Air along specifically to capture the world. Either way, here are a few shots I captured.

• Cameras score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026) review:: Software

• iPadOS 26 is still a supercharged experience
• Works well with the optional Magic Keyboard or Apple Pencil

iPadOS 26 was a game-changing update for the entire iPad lineup, but you can really feel the difference on a larger 13-inch iPad Air or Pro. I remember buying the original 12.9-inch iPad when it first launched and ditching my MacBook Pro, hoping to use the iPad as my one device while in college — it wasn’t easy back then, but iPadOS 26 makes it a lot more achievable.

And I’ve been pushing iPadOS 26 pretty hard on the iPad Air (M4, 2026). I’ll dive more into performance below, but this thing really does fly. The main feature of iPadOS 26 is proper window multitasking. I can open Safari and resize it from the bottom corner, then pull Messages into a floating window, do the same with Pixelmator Pro, and continue stacking apps however I see fit. It’s not exactly the Mac experience like for like, though the familiar red, yellow, and green window controls appear in the corner and you can enable a top menu bar, but the system still feels purpose-built for the iPad’s more flexible way of working.

That flexibility really shines on the 13-inch display. I can use my finger, the Magic Keyboard’s trackpad, or an Apple Pencil — whichever input works best for what I’m doing. During testing I edited video in Final Cut, wrote and organized this review in Pages, Google Docs via Safari, and Notes, edited photos in Pixelmator Pro as part of Apple Creator Studio, played games like Real Flight Simulator and Disney Dreamlight Valley, took notes during meetings, FaceTimed with friends and family, and watched plenty of videos.

I did a lot of that undocked, but I also spent time using Apple’s Magic Keyboard. For the iPad Air it now comes in black as well as white, and pricing remains at $319 / £299 / AU$499 for the 13-inch model and $269 / £269 / AU$449 for the 11-inch. With the iPad Air attached it starts to feel quite Mac-like — the tablet floats slightly thanks to strong magnets and you get a good range of tilt for adjusting the screen. The keys have great travel, the trackpad is quite large, and you even get an extra USB-C port for charging or connecting accessories.

For most of this review period I actually pushed my Apple MacBook Pro (14‑inch, M5) to the side and used the iPad Air with the Magic Keyboard instead. No, the keyboard isn’t included, and it does add to the price, but it really does unlock a more complete working experience.

Similarly, the Apple Pencil Pro — priced at $129 / £129 / AU$219 — remains one of the accessories that truly makes an iPad feel like an iPad. It’s fantastic for note-taking, sketching, or mapping out ideas, and artists can do a lot with it in apps like Procreate or Pixelmator Pro. Of course, it’s also great for navigating around iPadOS itself.

Apple Intelligence is also supported here. You’ll see Siri’s full-screen edge glow when asking for help with a long press or by saying “Hey Siri,” — the much-anticipated AI-powered Siri is still on the way, but when it does arrive, the iPad Air will support it. In the meantime you can already use Apple’s AI features to clean up unwanted objects in Photos, solve math problems in Notes, and access a growing set of other tools that should expand further over time.

• Software score: 4 /5

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026) review: Performance

• M4 chip lets you complete most, if not all, feasible tasks on the iPad Air
• Keeps things fast today, with no concerns about the future
• Plenty of headroom for even the most complex tasks

As the name suggests, the iPad Air’s performance is where the real changes lie this year. On the cellular model I’ve been testing there are three upgrades, while the Wi-Fi model gets two. Let’s start with the chip under the hood — and credit Apple for sticking with a steady upgrade strategy.

Apple shipped the iPad Air with the M2 chip in 2024, and with the M3 in 2025; and now in 2026 both the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air move to the M4 chip with 12GB of RAM, up from 8GB previously. So while this does mean that if you have an M3 iPad Air you likely don’t need to upgrade — and the same goes for the M2 edition — Apple is steadily keeping this iPad up to date with its latest silicon, ultimately making it more appealing, and better value for someone approaching the iPad Air fresh today.

Inside, the M4 chip features an eight-core CPU with three performance cores and five efficiency cores, a nine-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine. Regardless of size, it’s paired with 12GB of RAM, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing is supported here as well, which can benefit gaming and creative tasks like video editing or 3D rendering. Memory bandwidth also jumps to 120GB/s, up from 100GB/s previously.

As with the previous generation and the M3, Apple’s decision to bring the M4 chip to the iPad Air really raises the question of whether most people need the iPad Pro for performance alone. The Air sits comfortably above the base iPad in this respect, and feels incredibly capable for heavy multitasking, creative work, and gaming.

As I always do, I tried to throw a lot at the 13-inch iPad Air with M4, and I struggled to slow it down. Even when exporting a video in the background while launching a game and running FaceTime in a floating window, the tablet remained smooth and responsive. The iPad Air simply flies — whether you’re using it as a media consumption device or pairing it with the Magic Keyboard as your main computing machine. The M4 chip also runs silently, and stays cool even while handling heavier workloads.

In everyday use, the iPad Air with M4 rarely feels limited by its hardware. Ultimately, the best compliment I can give it is that whatever I threw at the tablet — within the confines of iPadOS 26 on a 13-inch display — it handled it effortlessly.

Apple’s M4 chip also performed well in our benchmark tests. In Geekbench 6, the 13-inch iPad Air with M4 scored 3,745 single-core and 13,342 multi-core. That’s a solid jump over the iPad Air with M3, which scored 3,023 single-core and 11,716 multi-core, and the M2 model’s 2,591 single-core and 10,046 multi-core. The M3 model was already very fast, so you won’t see dramatic gains year over year, but if you’re upgrading from an M1 Air, an entry-level iPad, or even an older iPad Pro, the improvement will be noticeable.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026) review: Battery and connectivity

• Still all-day battery life
• Wi-Fi 7 is supported here
• C1X Modem makes for speedy 5G speeds, if you opt for cellular

Unlike the iPhone, Apple actually shares the exact battery size inside the iPad Air — and other iPads — along with its estimates for playback and use. The battery sizes remain unchanged generation over generation, with the 13-inch iPad Air packing a 36.59Wh battery and the 11-inch model coming in at 28.93Wh. That’s not a bad thing, as neither M3 model struggled with battery life.

Apple rates the iPad Air for up to 10 hours of web browsing or video playback on Wi-Fi models, and up to nine hours of web use on cellular models. In my daily testing, the 13-inch iPad Air generally made it through most of a workday without issue, though I did occasionally find myself reaching for a charger towards the evening if I wanted to keep using it later into the night.

Apple still ships the iPad Air with a USB-C to USB-C cable and a wall charger in the box.

Complementing the M4 chip is Apple’s N1 chip, which enables support for Wi-Fi 7 alongside Bluetooth 6 and the Thread networking protocol. If you opt for the cellular model, you’ll also get the C1X modem — the same one found in the iPhone Air — for fast connectivity. Like all cellular iPads, the iPad Air is eSIM-only. I’ve been testing the 13-inch iPad Air on Verizon and saw some impressive 5G speeds across New Jersey and New York City.

• Battery and Connectivity score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026): Should you buy it?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (2026): How I tested

I spent six days testing Apple's 13-inch iPad Air with M4, along with a Smart Folio, Apple Pencil Pro, and a Magic Keyboard. After unboxing it I set up the iPad Air as new, downloading all my essential apps.

After that, I switched to the iPad Air from a 14-inch MacBook Pro as my main device for work and play. I threw many tasks into the mix, from productivity-themed ones like responding to emails, uploading articles to a CMS, writing, editing, editing photos and videos, playing games, plenty of video calls, and multitasking to test the M4 chip inside the iPad Air. I also compared it to the entry-level iPad, the previous-generation M3 and M2 iPad Air, the iPad Mini, and the M4 and M5 iPad Pro.

First reviewed March 9, 2026.

It’s been years since I last invested in one of the best laptops, but now my trusted Chromebook is looking a little worse for wear. For a while, I’ve been toying with the idea of replacing it with the iPad Air with M3 — until Apple unveiled the rather attractive MacBook Neo.

Apple’s first entry-level MacBook is one of three new models on the way (along with the MacBook Air M5 and MacBook Pro M5 Pro), marking Apple’s first budget MacBook starting at $599/ £599/ AU$899. Though I’ve gone my whole life without having owned an Apple laptop, the MacBook Neo has me in a trance, and I’m seriously tempted to abandon my initial plan to convert to iPad for a number of key reasons.

The MacBook Neo puts the iPad in a very vulnerable position indeed, especially since more users gravitate towards iPads over MacBooks as a simpler option, primarily because of the laptop's high price point, which also saves them money on advanced features they know will go unused. The Neo shakes this up, not just because of its value, but because of its simple yet plentiful tools — and I like what I see.

1. iPads and its accessories are annoyingly expensive

Price-wise, the MacBook Neo is more or less the same cost as the best iPads, with the exception of the standard iPad range, which starts from a slightly lower price point ($349/ £329/ AU$599). But it adds up even more if you want all the gear, such as the Apple Pencil (starting from $79/ £79/ AU$139), or the Magic Keyboard (starting from $249/ £249/ AU$399).

2. macOS offers a better experience

As far as operating systems, macOS is a lot more flexible than iPadOS for multitasking and app availability, especially when it comes to offering full-featured versions of apps such as Adobe Creative Cloud. More often than not, iPadOS versions of popular apps aren't as extensive in comparison, which isn't a huge setback if you're using an iPad as a tablet, but rings alarm bells if you want to use it like a laptop, as iPadOS is designed to be touchscreen first.

Historically, iPad has also been late to the game with rolling out its own versions of popular apps. It didn’t make its WhatsApp debut until May 2025, and its official Instagram app followed in September 2025.

3. Same size, same fun colors…

The MacBook Neo comes with the same 13-inch screen as most iPad models and, for the first time in forever, comes with a variety of fun color options, just like the standard iPad lineup. Despite the lack of a touchscreen, the MacBook Neo adopts similar design quirks — plus you don’t have to fork out more money to add a keyboard, what more could you want?

4. …and the same Liquid Retina display

Similar to the iPad Air’s screen size and color options, the MacBook Neo also packs Apple’s high-res Liquid Retina display, which could’ve easily been compromised to lower the cost even more.

5. Solid battery life that gets you by

As well as display quality, the battery life on the MacBook Neo is pretty solid for a base-level laptop. Packing an all-day battery life that can run on a single charge (it’s up to 16 hours for continuous video playback), the Neo matches the iPad Air on the battery front.

The newly-unveiled MacBook Neo gives buyers on a budget the opportunity to get an Apple computer — but it's not the only affordable option that's worth considering.

The entry-level iPad 11 (2025) might not seem a natural competitor to this new $599 / £599 / AU$899 device, being a tablet instead of a laptop. But if you bundle it with its Magic Keyboard Folio, it's also a solid device for on-the-go working or creativity.

Moreover, the iPad (128GB, Wi-Fi) and Magic Keyboard Folio bundle costs almost exactly the same as the MacBook Neo at $598 / £578 / AU$998, so they're closer competitors than you'd think.

So if you're in the market for a portable Apple workhorse, which should you buy? I've compared them both below and pulled out their pros and cons to help you decide...

The MacBook Neo is more powerful

If you need raw power, you'll want to pick the MacBook Neo. The same goes if you want lots of storage space without relying on the iCloud.

This laptop has a mobile chipset, but it's a modern one: the A18 Pro, which the iPhone 16 Pro family used. The iPad 11 tablet has the A16, which was used by the iPhone 15 devices.

There's more RAM in the MacBook Neo, offering 8GB, which is a little bit more than the iPad's 6GB. You'll also get more storage for your money with the Neo than the slate, as while both cost the same, the base models have 128GB in the iPad and 256GB in the laptop.

So if you're primarily looking for a productivity tool, the Neo wins here — and that's boosted by the benefits of macOS compared to iPadOS (see 'The iPad and MacBook are very different software experiences' below).

The iPad is more portable

If your priority is buying a device which you can easily carry about, then you'll want to opt for the iPad.

The two devices weigh a similar amount: the MacBook Neo tips the scales at 1.23kg, while the iPad 11 and Magic Keyboard folio is roughly 1.36kg (the iPad is actually only 477g, the folio is heavier). So there isn't a huge amount of difference, weight-wise.

However, the MacBook Neo is bigger. It's 1.3x30x20cm, while the iPad is 0.7x24x18cm, and this is reflected in the screen: the iPad's is 11 inches diagonally, while the Neo has a 13-inch display.

The Magic Keyboard for the iPad counts as a protective folio too, so it's a little more protected.

The MacBook Neo has more ports and edges it on battery

Buyers who need ports to plug in extra accessories (but don't want to buy an adaptor) should pick up the MacBook. The only exception is stylus users, who'll naturally prefer the tablet.

While the iPad only has a single USB-C port, the Neo has two (albeit only one with USB 3 speeds, the other being USB 2) as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. So you can charge the Neo, plug in a hard drive, and listen to music all at the same time.

You can keep those add-ons running for longer with the MacBook, too. It has, according to Apple, a battery life that facilitates 16 hours of video streaming, while the iPad can only achieve that same task for 10 hours.

The iPad and MacBook are very different software experiences

When it comes to software, but the Neo has versatility in its favor. It runs MacOS, Apple's computer software, while the iPad is on iPadOS, a software that's similar to iOS on iPhones.

The name of the game with iPadOS is simplicity. It'll be easy to quickly bring up one or two apps, and have them take up the screen, or shift them around and swap them out if you need. Great if you need to lock in, and focus on a written article or hoard of emails to reply to — and obviously the touchscreen interface is a big differentiator.

However, the flipside of this iPadOS simplicity is that some apps may frustrate you with their limitations. iPad apps aren't the same as their desktop equivalents, usually offering a stripped-down experience with limited features and simpler interfaces. Fine if that's what you want — but if you want a desktop-type experience, maybe not for you.

MacOS may not be as simple, and finding the right apps or program might take a little more work, but it'll be better for more complicated workflows. If you use external storage, or have files in folders you need to juggle in multiple apps, it'll be the better choice for you. If you're trying to edit media on the fly, or mix music, the Neo should have the edge over this iPad — although we've yet to officially benchmark the new laptop.

Bear in mind that the MacBook Neo is navigated via mouse, using the trackpad or a wired / wireless extra. The iPad is touch-first, although you can also use a mouse on it if you want. If you have a preference for mouse or touch navigation, that should help steer your purchase.

Verdict

There's no clear and obvious winner when comparing the MacBook Neo and iPad 11 — deciding between them will come down to the type of mobile computer you want (touchscreen or not) and your main use cases (mostly productivity with a side of fun, or the reverse).

As a tablet, the iPad is designed to be compact, portable and simple, letting you do basic tasks on the go with minimal fuss. It's perfect for people who like to travel light, such as students on a coffee shop coursework crawl, or frequent fliers who need a simple work or entertainment device. The Magic Keyboard Folio offers a comfortable typing experience with similar key travel to the Neo, but it's less good for typing on your lap (being better suited to desks).

The MacBook Neo is a laptop, and this kind of device is naturally a little more advanced. It has more ports, a bigger screen, and a longer-lasting battery. It'll be better for doing involved tasks like file management, photo or sound editing and compiling projects, especially ones where you might be tethered to a desk or work station for long stints. It's also better if you're looking to do lots of typing in different scenarios (on your lap, as well as on desks and tables).

That summarizes the key differences between these two devices, but it's worth bearing in mind that both have more advanced iterations that cost more money. Announced alongside the MacBook Neo was the pricey MacBook Pro 5 Pro, with absolutely loads of power, and the mid-range, larger and more powerful iPad Air M4, with plenty of other members in each range at different price points and specs.

If you've decided on your preferred form factor but want more in the same shell, it's worth exploring those higher-end options, too.

• Apple has announced a new iPad Air
• The iPad Air now features the M4 chip alongside the N1 and C1X
• It keeps the starting price as the previous iPad Air with M3

Well, Tim Cook teased a big week ahead of Apple’s invite-only March 4, 2026, event, and the Cupertino-based tech giant is wasting no time. Apple has just announced an upgraded iPad Air with the M4 chip inside.

Now, while there isn't much to speak about in terms of design, Apple is supercharging things under the hood with better-equipped, more powerful silicon. And that’s really something we’ve come to expect from Apple’s now-annual refreshes of its mid-range iPads.

The iPad Air still sports a modern design, available in two sizes – 11-inch and 13-inch – with Touch ID for easy authentication and support for the Apple Pencil Pro, but the real upgrade here is the swap to Apple’s M4 chip from the M3. Apple promises a big boost, even generation over generation, as the M4 iPad Air is up to 30% faster than the M3.

It’s also not just the M4 chip, though; Apple is also upgrading connectivity with its own in-house chips – the N1 and C1X – for fast Wi-Fi 7 and LTE or 5G connectivity. All of this should make iPadOS 26 run smoothly and, honestly, continue to position the iPad Air as the Pro-level iPad for most consumers.

It still comes in four color options – blue, purple, starlight, or space gray – and starts at the same price in the United States. That’s $599 / £599 / AU$999 for the 11-inch iPad Air and $799 / £799 / AU$1249 for the 13-inch iPad Air, both with 128GB of storage and Wi-Fi connectivity.

The M4 chip should keeps things fresh

As I noted above, the main change with the iPad Air in 2026 is the chip. The M4 chip inside is configured with an 8-core CPU, 9-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine. It's also getting a 50% increase in RAM, now up to 12GB, which should make this iPad well-equipped for multitasking and more intense processes. With the latter, think 3D rendering in apps and large exports.

Beyond the improvements for general use I shared above, Apple also promises that the M4 iPad Air will deliver up to 4x faster 3D pro rendering with ray tracing compared to the original iPad Air with M1. I suspect this will really shine with video and photo editing, alongside other creative tasks and gaming on the iPad Air.

Alongside the Apple-made M4 chip, there are two other additions inside that bring more robust connectivity. The N1 chip means the iPad Air supports Thread, Bluetooth 6, and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, with the latter being new. Apple’s own C1X modem, which debuted on the iPhone Air, will power cellular connectivity on eligible iPad Air models. As with most previous iPad models, the Air with M4 is eSIM-only.

Between the M4 chip, the N1, and the C1X silicon, that about wraps up the major changes for the iPad Air. It still offers Touch ID in the power button paired with either an 11-inch or 13-inch Liquid Retina display with support for True Tone, Wide Color (P3), and an anti-reflective coating.

One note on display size: Apple is rounding up slightly, but these are the same as the last generation — the 11-inch is actually 10.86 inches, and the 13-inch is 12.9 inches, both measured diagonally.

The iPad Air with M4 still starts at 128GB of storage, but you can configure it up to 1TB. Pricing starts at $599 / £599 / AU$999 for the 11-inch iPad Air with Wi-Fi or $799 / £799 / AU$1249 for the 13-inch iPad Air with Wi-Fi. As always, cellular models start a bit higher at $749 for the 11-inch and $949 for the 13-inch. It's still compatible with the Magic Keyboard for iPad Air — both sizes — and works with the Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C).

Apple will kick off preorders for the iPad Air with M4 on March 4, 2026, and it will officially launch on March 11, 2026.

We'll be going hands-on with the latest iPad Air as soon as we can. Let us know what you think about the upgrade from M3 to M4 in the comments below.

• iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 get NATO Restricted approval with no software changes required
• Apple stressed it makes secure devices for "all its users" – not just NATO
• The latest M5 and A19 chips get a special shoutout

Apple has confirmed iPhones and iPads running iOS/iPadOS 26 and later have been approved to handle classified information up to NATO Restricted level – the first time any consumer devices have been rated to such an extreme.

NATO's Information Assurance Product Catalogue also lists eligible devices running the indigo configuration, stating that they provide secure access to Mail, Calendar and Contacts data.

"Indigo doesn’t require any special additional software or settings beyond managing and supervising devices using a device management service," NATO wrote, acknowledging that off-the-shelf iPhones and iPads are covered.

iPhones and iPads are now NATO Restricted-certified

Apple credited features like "best-in-class encryption, biometric authentication with Face ID, and groundbreaking features like Memory Integrity Enforcement" for its certification. NATO also acknowledged Apple Silicon, which features Secure Enclave's encryption.

iOS 26 is backwards compatible all the way back to the iPhone 11 family and iPhone SE 2. iPadOS 26 also supports older devices, spanning beyond M-series chips to some A-series chips.

Though the NATO certification covers the operating systems suggesting all supported devices are covered, the organization did reference the always-on memory safety for M5 and A19 devices, implying newer devices may be more suitable.

Devices aside, the accreditation comes from Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)'s testing and analysis.

"Expanding on BSI’s rigorous audit of iOS and iPadOS platform and device security for use in classified German information environments, we are pleased to confirm the compliance under NATO nations’ assurance requirements," BSI President Claudia Plattner wrote.

Apple stressed that its intention was not to create NATO-grade secure devices, but rather to create secure devices for all. "Apple has built the most secure devices in the world for all its users, Security Engineering and Architecture VP Ivan Krstić added, "and those same protections are now uniquely certified under assurance requirements for NATO nations – unlike any other device in the industry."

• Tim Cook teases 'a big week ahead' in a post on X
• Apple's already confirmed an experience happening on March 4
• Cook notes that the news will start on Monday, March 2

Ahead of Apple’s confirmed March 4, 2026 experience – which invited media, creators, and guests, including TechRadar – CEO Tim Cook is teasing “a big week ahead.”

That’s quite the tease, and Cook goes further in a post on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “It all starts Monday morning!” This suggests we may see several days of announcements leading up to the March 4 experience rather than a single event. That will likely be where Apple showcases the full new lineup, rumored to include new iPads, a follow-up to the iPhone 16e, and several new Macs.

The latter is expected to take center stage, potentially headlined by the long-rumored low-cost MacBook, and the attached video teaser Cook shared certainly seems to support that theory. Here’s the full post from Tim Cook on X.

This isn't the first time Cook has teased products and news on X either. In 2025, he teased both the arrival of the iPhone 16e and new iPads and MacBooks by saying something was in the “Air.”

This time around, rumors of a new entry-level iPad and iPad Air, a successor to the iPhone 16e, and several new Macs have been circling. The attached video shows a hand playing with a shape to form an Apple logo in the same silver color that many Apple products come in, including Macs.

I mean, it's hard not to see the surface as the rear of a top lid on a MacBook Air or Pro, as well as the top of a Mac mini or Mac Studio. Though one could also say the hand playing around with the logo elements to make the final shape is hinting at gestures, I don't think that's the focus here ... at least not yet.

Leading the rumor pack is the purported arrival of the low-cost MacBook. This long-rumored device would represent a new entry-level option in the all-in-one, portable Mac family, and at a significantly lower price point. It's likely to arrive at $699 with a similar form, hopefully paired with a much more colorful build, and rather than an M-series processor, it'll use an A-series chip that can still run macOS, and likely pretty well.

Adding to the rumored fun color options for this low-cost MacBook is the fact that the press invites for the March 4, 2026, event featured Apple logos in several colors – yellow, blue, and light green. Beyond a low-cost MacBook, it's likely that Apple will use next week to roll out the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips into the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

For the iPad, we're expecting a pretty similar update to what the entry-level iPad and the iPad Air received in early 2025. That would be a processor upgrade for both: the iPad Air would get the M4 chip – offering even more performance in a great build – and the new base iPad, which would be the 12th gen, would get an A18 chip. That would speed things up from the A16 chip and also enable Apple Intelligence support.

Lastly, we're pretty confident based on reports and rumors – and timing – that the iPhone 17e will arrive next week. This mid-range iPhone would succeed the iPhone 16e and likely keep the same overall build, but speed things up with the A19 processor. That same chip powers the iPhone 17 and should offer a fast experience, even if it's a slightly less powerful variant – think losing a core or two.

Of course, there's always a chance we could see something else unveiled, and Tim Cook is teasing that it'll be a big week. Might that mean we see a next-generation Studio Display? Or potentially upgrades to the MacBook Air, Mac mini, or Mac Studio? Time will certainly tell, and we only have a few days until Monday, March 2, 2026, when TechRadar will report on it all, along with our expert analysis. Let us know in the comments below what you're most excited to see.

Apple isn't exactly known for undercutting its rivals with affordable price tags, so it's unusual to hear that the premium brand is on the verge of launching an affordable MacBook – or so the rumors claim.

That growing speculation, which comes from reputable sources including Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo, suggests that a cheaper MacBook could arrive as soon as March 4 in a variety of bright colors.

The new laptop will apparently be much cheaper than Apple's current lowest-priced MacBook, the $999 MacBook Air, with the price tag potentially going as low as $599 or $699.

On paper, that means it could be a great option for people considering getting an iPad Air. And in my view, it’ll likely be a much better choice for a lot of people.

A tempting iPad alternative

For years, customers looking for an affordable MacBook have been told to get an iPad and pair it up with a keyboard case. That brings both protection and a laptop-like experience without the high cost of one of Apple’s laptops.

But I’ve never been wholly convinced by this argument. Sure, combining an iPad with a keyboard case is cheaper than a shelling out on a MacBook, but in my view the experience isn’t anywhere near as good.

For one thing, iPadOS doesn’t feel as powerful as macOS – it’s designed for touch controls rather than a mouse and keyboard (despite some recent improvements), and many of the best Mac apps and Mac games are not compatible with iPadOS.

Keyboard cases also aren’t as satisfying to type on as a mechanical keyboard made for the Mac – and while you could pair one of these up with an iPad, doing so compromises its portability. If you’re a Mac fan looking to get the same typing feel on an iPad, you’ve got to make some sacrifices.

That's where the rumored cheaper MacBook, which will apparently be powered by an A18 Pro iPhone chip, could neatly fill a gap.

It’ll apparently be available in an array of “playful colors,” with Apple testing “light yellow, light green, blue, pink, classic silver and dark gray” over the past year. That makes it reminiscent of the iPhone 5c, which was a cheaper iPhone that came with several bright color options.

But unlike the iPhone 5c, the affordable MacBook will feature an aluminum chassis, meaning it’ll dodge the route taken by some budget laptops that are kitted out in flimsy plastic. Gurman says that Apple won’t be “cutting corners” when it comes to the device’s build quality, and that makes sense given Apple’s tendencies.

It’s also an important decision, as this low-cost MacBook will be many people’s initial experience of the Apple ecosystem. Clearly, Apple doesn’t want to give them a bad first impression.

By maintaining the quality, Apple also gives iPad users another reason to consider switching to the Mac. The use of aluminum ensures there’s no loss of quality by stepping up from, say, a $599 iPad Air to a MacBook that’s expected to cost around $700. If the new MacBook was made of plastic, that would be instantly off-putting for any existing iPad user.

Which should you pick?

That’s what we expect on a surface level, but how might the low-cost MacBook compare to the iPad Air’s performance? After all, a MacBook that feels great in the hand isn’t worth much if it can’t compete with a cheaper iPad Air.

One of the key questions is the chip housed inside the MacBook. This is widely touted to be Apple’s A18 Pro that originally launched in the iPhone 16 Pro in 2024. The current iPad Air, meanwhile, uses the M3 from 2023.

Despite the former being a mobile chip and the latter being designed for Macs, the two chips actually offer fairly similar performance according to benchmarks, with the A18 Pro pulling slightly ahead in single-core tests and the M3 taking the lead in multi-core performance.

Another area where customers will potentially find similarities is the display. The iPad Air can be bought in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, while Gurman’s reporting has claimed Apple will offer the MacBook with a display that’s a little smaller than the MacBook Air’s 13.6-inch screen. Gurman says the MacBook’s display will be a “lower-end LCD display,” and while we don’t know exactly how that compares to the iPad Air, that tablet also uses LCD tech (as opposed to OLED or mini-LED).

Given the larger internal space in a laptop compared to a tablet, though, one key difference we can expect is with the battery. The current iPad Air will last up to 10 hours of web browsing or video playback, according to Apple. The 13-inch MacBook Air, meanwhile, goes strong for up to 18 hours, with the slightly larger 14-inch MacBook Pro lasting for up to 24 hours. If battery life is important to you, the upcoming MacBook is likely to be a better bet than the iPad Air.

That said, the iPad’s flexibility is undoubtedly something the MacBook won’t be able to match. You can use the iPad Air as a tablet or as a laptop-style device when paired with a keyboard, and it packs in touchscreen tech that will be absent in the MacBook. It’s also much more compact and lightweight and can more easily fit into a backpack on your travels.

That all suggests that picking between the forthcoming MacBook and one of Apple’s tablets isn’t going to be a straightforward affair. But if you're thinking of buying a mid-range iPad, it does mean it's worth waiting until early March to find out.

A return to the Steve Jobs way

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs often said that he wanted to make good-quality tech products affordable, and many of the products he developed can be seen to have achieved that.

The original iPad, for example, was priced far lower than most analysts expected, despite its trailblazing features. The iMac G3, too, launched at close to half the price of comparable computers and helped to revolutionize the entire PC industry.

As Jobs himself put it, “I love it when you can bring really great design and simple capability to something that doesn’t cost much … It was the original vision for Apple.”

In that sense, we shouldn’t be too surprised to see an affordable MacBook make an appearance in Apple’s product roster. Making great tech at an approachable price has a strong history at Apple, even if it’s been hard to spot in recent years.

And if you’ve been looking to pick up a new iPad, it might just give you more food for thought.

Apple has just announced a press event – well, technically an 'experience', which suggests something slightly lower-key – taking place on March 4, 2026, in New York, as well as London and Shanghai.

As ever, the company is keeping tight-lipped about what product launches we might see at the event, with nothing specific mentioned in the press invite itself.

However, we have a pretty good idea of what might be coming already based on the very active rumor mill when it comes to Apple. Indeed, one of the main fonts of speculation, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, has already tweeted that a clue in the invite points to a new affordable MacBook.

I'll come back to that shortly, but as well as that lower-tier MacBook, further laptops are expected to be launched by Apple, namely new MacBook Pro models.

Remembering that the iPhone 16e was launched around this time last year, we are also anticipating the successor to that handset, the iPhone 17e. On top of that, we may well witness the revelation of new iPads.

Let's break down the likely revelations for the March event, which Gurman believes is going to consist of online announcements and hands-on previews at the three locations. Then we'll look at what we might not see at this event (sorry – 'experience', which again hints at a hands-on feel).

1. MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips

There have been strong rumors that Apple will release new MacBook Pro models with more powerful processors early this year, and tipster Mark Gurman has previously suggested these laptops would debut in the first week of March. Obviously, that lines up perfectly with this event.

Also, don't forget that we've recently seen that new MacBook Pro M4 Max orders are delayed substantially, which is normally the case with an outgoing model, as stock is run down to prepare for its successor. So, all signs point to these new portables being imminent.

Of course, the new processors in the MacBook Pro will be the M5 Pro and M5 Max, but there might be something very different about them this time around – namely that both CPUs may be built on the same base chip. The M5 Max, a recently aired theory runs, would effectively be the higher-binned silicon, and the M5 Pro would be a lower-binned variant with a lesser amount of CPU and GPU cores based on the configuration chosen.

Take that with some seasoning, but it might mean MacBook Pro buyers are going to benefit from more customization options with these higher-end processors.

2. A cheaper MacBook with A18 chip

Another much-rumored possibility is a new bottom-tier MacBook that's much more affordable than the MacBook Air.

Apparently, Apple's plan with this is to use an iPhone processor – the A18 Pro, seemingly – to cut the cost of making such a device, as well as dropping down to 8GB of system RAM. (Which notably would defy its recent stance to deploy 16GB with all its Macs).

The idea with the price is obviously to make it affordable, possibly around the $699 to $799 mark in the US, or so runs the latest speculation – which has also put forward the belief that Apple's going all-in with this one. We're told shipments could be in the order of 5 to 8 million units, which would represent about a quarter of last's years total sales for Macs.

The clue I mentioned at the outset, flagged by Gurman on X, is that the colors on the press invite are light green, blue and yellow – which just happens to be the same colors seen on the test laptops for the affordable MacBook. It could mean nothing, of course, but I think that's a pretty heavy hint.

3. iPhone 17e

As noted at the outset, the iPhone 16e arrived at a press event a year ago, and there were already firm rumors that the iPhone 17e is 'imminent' – in fact we heard that last week. With this press event now revealed, we can put two and two together and, erm – actually, maybe we should be putting 8.5 and 8.5 together to get 17.

Again, it's Mark Gurman who believes this mid-range iPhone is close on the horizon, but the bad news is that the leaker isn't anticipating the device to be much of an upgrade on the existing model.

The main move will simply be upgrading the engine from the A18 chip to A19, which will obviously help the smartphone to be peppier – and another neat extra could be the introduction of MagSafe support.

While it may not be a hugely exciting new launch, and more of an iterative upgrade, the better news is that Apple is expected to hold the price of the iPhone 17e steady at $599 / £599 / AU$999 for this punchier handset. That's particularly good to hear given that we're in a full-blown RAM crisis (and storage is facing serious price hikes, too).

4. iPad Air (8th-gen)

We're expecting a couple of new iPads, including a refreshed Air model. A bit like the rumored iPhone 17e, this iPad Air is not supposed to be a major step forward, but it will get a chip upgrade – from the M3 in the current model to the M4. A tablet packing the M4 chipset would be quite something in terms of power and portability, of course.

5. iPad (12th-gen)

Along with the iPad Air, we're expecting a new iPad (which would be the 12th-gen incarnation). Again, this is expected to be a modest revamp, with the key move being Apple upgrading the A16 chip to an A18.

That's a sizable leap, and one that should see the iPad incorporate Apple Intelligence – with the current model not able to do so. Those keen on AI, then, will be glad to see that happen – if it does.

As ever, take all these rumors – all this iPad speculation again comes from Mark Gurman – with a suitable dose of seasoning.

What we're less likely to get – although you never know…

A revamped Studio Display, or Mac Studio, is a possibility that some people are certainly keeping their fingers crossed for. These devices are rumored for a refresh in the first half of 2026, but I'm not sure we'll see them just yet.

The same is true for the MacBook Air M5, which has also been rumored for early this year. But the new MacBook Pro models, and affordable MacBook, feel like more likely inclusions – and Apple surely won't be launching too many MacBooks at once.

Some folks are hopeful for a new Apple TV, but that seems unlikely to happen just yet, and Gurman explicitly pours cold water on the idea of Siri's big AI overhaul taking center stage here (though we'll likely hear something about it, or be treated to some teasers at least – or maybe a bit more).

If you were hoping to snag some deals on Apple tech for yourself or a loved one in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, you’re in luck. The consistently reliable online retailer, Amazon AU, has slashed up to 22% off a wide range of Apple products, from iPads to AirPods, MacBooks to watches, making now a fantastic time to save on wishlist items.

I’ve highlighted a few of my favourite Apple deals below, but if you’re keen to view the full selection, be sure to visit the Apple storefront on Amazon AU.

• Apple will reportedly launch two new tablets soon
• These will be new models in the iPad and iPad Air lines
• They could have new chipsets but few other upgrades

If you’re in the market for a new standard iPad or iPad Air then now is just about the worst time to buy one, as it sounds like new models could be launching very soon.

This is according to reputable Apple watcher Mark Gurman, who in his latest newsletter for Bloomberg (via MacRumors), claims that new models in these lines are “coming soon".

He doesn't mention an exact date, but the iPad (2025) and iPad Air (2025) both launched in early March last year, so another early March launch would make sense, and would definitely count as "coming soon".

These don’t sound like they’ll be massive upgrades over their predecessors, but one major thing is apparently changing, with Gurman claiming that the next iPad will have an A18 chipset (an upgrade from the A16 Bionic in the current one), while the next iPad Air will have an M4 chipset (up from an M3 currently).

An AI upgrade

So the iPad Air will unsurprisingly be the more powerful of these tablets if this claim is accurate, but the standard iPad would arguably be getting the bigger upgrade, since the move to an A18 should allow it to handle Apple Intelligence, which the current standard iPad can’t. For fans of AI, that’s a big deal, and should help seriously future-proof the slate.

Beyond the chipsets, though, not much is apparently changing, with these two tablets said to look much like their predecessors and have generally similar specs.

If that's the case then they might not be worth upgrading to if you already have an iPad or iPad Air from 2025; but for new buyers or anyone currently using an older model they should absolutely be worth waiting for compared to what’s available right now.

I use both an iPhone and a Mac, but I also have a Windows PC on the go, and that means there are times when my apps don’t translate across both platforms, with many working on one device but not the other. It’s a perennial problem for people like me, but one that rears its head in a myriad of ways.

That was particularly problematic when it came to my calendar. I like using Apple’s Calendar app on my iPhone, but there’s no Windows version. That meant I’d have to edit my schedule entirely on my iPhone, even when sitting at my PC, which was a fiddly task with no easy way to drag and drop items and entries. Or I’d have to log in to iCloud on my PC, which was cumbersome.

Eventually, I decided that enough was enough and started searching for a cross-platform calendar app that worked on my iPhone, Mac, and PC. I found it in the form of Fantastical, which happens to be one of the best calendar apps on the market. It’s an app that has long been an Apple stalwart but has recently released a PC version, making it ideal for cross-platform users like me (although there still isn't an Android version).

Since I started using Fantastical, I’ve found that it's solved nearly every problem I ever had juggling a calendar across multiple devices. Here’s why you might want to give it a try, too.

A rich set of features

First things first, Fantastical is a great option for people who use several different devices and platforms. As long as you have a Fantastical account, your calendars sync across every device you're logged in to, so changes made on one device propagate to all the others. That means there’s no more having to rely on just my iPhone – I can adjust my agenda wherever I am.

Fantastical also syncs with iCloud, so it updates Apple’s Calendar app on my iPhone (and vice versa), which is handy if I want to use Apple’s app for whatever reason.

But I don’t just love Fantastical because of its cross-platform support. No, it has many other features that are worthy of recommendation. One is its clean, clear design on any device. It’s easy to show the calendar in full or display it in half size with the week view shown in more detail, for example – all you have to do is swipe up or down. That gives it a very intuitive design on both Mac and PC.

As well as that, its ability to drag and drop events on desktop makes it easy to update your calendars. You can combine all your calendars in one view, meaning no more missing work events or social engagements because one calendar is stored in a different app. And it shows reminders as well as calendar events, giving a complete view of your schedule and upcoming tasks. It even shows the weather for the next 10 days, helping you plan ahead.

Aside from all that, there are also heaps of quality-of-life features that make my life easier in small ways that all add up. One of those is Fantastical’s inclusion of natural language event entry. For example, I can create an event with the text “Lunch tomorrow with Sam at 3pm for two hours at The White Horse, Wembley” and all those details will be added to a new event. It’s fast, simple, and easy to master.

To make things even more effortless, you can forward emails related to an event – such as a table reservation – to a dedicated Fantastical email address and the event will be automatically parsed and added to your calendar. That’s a handy trick if you’re ever in a hurry and don’t have time to manually add your events.

And uploaded attachments are synced to every device, while frequent events and tasks can be turned into templates for later use.

It’s also great for scheduling meetings. For instance, you can use the Openings feature to show other people when you’re available and let them book a slot from a range of options. Or the app lets you invite people to events with an RSVP system, and it can automatically add a conference call with a range of apps (including Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, and more) when people schedule a meeting using Openings.

With such a rich range of features, I’ve found it’s got much more going for it than basic cross-platform support.

Just what I need

There’s a lot to like about Fantastical, and it has largely solved my cross-platform scheduling problems, but I’m not going to sit here and pretend it’s 100% perfect. Since using it, I’ve found that repeating calendar events – those that recur every week, in my case – sometimes throw up errors that claim that the version in the app is different from the one on the server, despite me not altering the event in any way.

And for all its smarts, Fantastical’s natural language entry can sometimes be a little iffy and might not understand exactly what I’m asking for.

I’m also not a fan of the app’s tendency to show all overdue tasks – no matter how old they are – at the top of each day’s list of events, which can crowd out more relevant items on your agenda.

But even when taken together, those problems are not significant enough to put me off using Fantastical. Compared to what I had before – where I was faced with either routing my calendar management solely through my iPhone or managing things in several apps – Fantastical is miles ahead.

I pay $5 a month for Fantastical’s premium subscription, which gives me unlimited calendar sets, the full 10-day weather forecast, time-to-leave notifications, the Openings feature, and more. There’s also a free edition that can be used indefinitely, albeit with a more limited feature set. Considering how much Fantastical has helped get my schedule in order across my devices, I think the price is worth it.

Ultimately, it’s given me the calendar experience I’ve been needing for years. I just wish it hadn’t taken me so long to give it a try.

The Apple Creator Studio is a software bundle that makes its creative apps – Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro suites with Pixelmator Pro – and its productivity apps – Pages, Numbers, and Keynotes – all available across the Mac, iPad, and iPhone for a monthly or annual fee.

That fee is $12.99 / £12.99 / AU$19.99 a month or $129 / £129 / AU$199 per year, but if you qualify for the education discount, it’s a pretty unbeatable value at just $2.99 / £2.99 / AU$4.99 per month or $29.99 / £29.99 / AU$49.99 per year.

I’ve spent the better part of a week using the apps included in Apple Creator Studio, testing familiar workflows alongside newer features – particularly Apple’s increasingly restrained approach to AI. This isn’t a full review of every app in the bundle, but my early impressions are that Creator Studio feels like a return to form – it’s Apple bundling serious creative tools again in a way that feels cohesive, approachable, and easy to justify.

Pixelmator Pro is where that feeling clicks almost immediately. On the Mac, the app leans into Apple’s Liquid Glass design language, but unlike some of Apple’s own first-party apps, it doesn’t radically reshape the interface just to make a statement. Everything remains fast, operable, and familiar – it's a design that prioritizes editing over aesthetics.

On the iPad, Pixelmator Pro arguably shines brighter. The interface translates cleanly to touch control, and the new ability to warp multiple layers together using the Apple Pencil is genuinely useful. It's definitely more fun than resizing for a crop.

I also particularly like using the Pencil to navigate the app; it makes the experience feel direct and well-suited to iPadOS, rather than feeling like a Mac app that's been awkwardly adapted for a touchscreen.

As with the Mac, you can customize the tools that appear on the right sidebar by default. And if you're looking for 'Super Resolution', it's tucked under the three dots in the right corner, then image setup.

Compared to Photoshop, Pixelmator Pro is simpler to pick up, but it doesn’t skimp on power. Its AI-driven image tools are front and center: ML Enhance intelligently balances saturation, contrast, and color, Super Resolution impressively upscales images, and custom filters are easy to fine-tune without getting buried in menus.

Interestingly, those same machine-learning models are being used across Apple’s other apps – Keynote, for example, uses them to improve image quality. It shows that since acquiring Pixelmator Pro, its development team has been working in closer lockstep with others at Apple.

If you’re after a capable, easy-to-use photo editor that avoids the cost and complexity of Adobe Creative Cloud, Pixelmator Pro alone makes a strong case for the bundle.

Here's some good news: while Pixelmator Pro does work on M1 or newer iPad models as expected, it also works on iPads with an A16 or an A17 Pro chip. That's a relief and makes sense, since iPadOS 26 supports many of the landmark features, like multitasking, on iPads as old as the 9th Gen.

Logic Pro continues Apple’s more thoughtful approach to AI. The standout addition here is a new EDM-focused Session Player, dubbed Synth Player, which expands an area Apple has clearly been investing in for years with Logic Pro. Logic Pro treats AI like a collaborator here, acting as a virtual musician that helps you move ideas forward, experiment with structure, and play inside a digital studio. It can even play along, in real time or after you record a track of your own.

I’m not a musician by trade, but Logic Pro’s AI tools, including Session Players and Stem Splitter, feel less like automation and more like creative assistance. You’re still making the decisions, and the software may simply help you get there faster. That distinction matters, and it plays directly into Apple’s creative roots.

And if you haven't given Stem Splitter a go, just try it with a recording of one of your favorite songs. It can, in seconds, split out the various elements of a track onto separate tracks within Logic – it's super-functional.

Final Cut Pro’s biggest improvement in Apple Creator Studio is subtler, but no less impactful. Its enhanced natural-language search makes it far easier to find what you’re looking for when working with a large library of clips and assets. When you’re juggling a tremendous amount of footage, that reduction is meaningful – and it’s something video editors both big and small will appreciate.

Exclusive to Final Cut Pro for iPad with Creator Studio is a new Montage Maker that can automatically stitch a set of clips together. It’s essentially a more advanced take on the AI-powered editors you see in apps like CapCut or even TikTok, but with more adjustment levers that let you steer the final result closer to what you want. And you can always take what it creates and turn it into a full project.

The 'AI' here isn’t flashy – it’s doing the practical work of identifying key moments across your clips, which makes it feel less like a gimmick and more like a useful starting point for an edit.

Stepping back, Apple Creator Studio feels like a modern revamp of iLife and iWork – a bundle that makes sense as a whole, rather than a collection of disconnected apps. It also underscores Apple’s broader ambitions around services.

Now, given how storage-hungry these apps can be, it’s hard not to wish Creator Studio were bundled with Apple One and additional iCloud storage, but the value proposition still essentially holds up without those.

Apple Creator Studio is available now for $12.99 / £12.99 / AU$19.99 per month, or $129 / £129 / AU$199 annually. Students and educators get a steep discount, bringing the price down to $2.99 / £2.99 / AU$4.99 per month, or $29.99 / £29.99 / AU$49.99 per year – an especially compelling deal given the breadth of apps included. It can also be shared with others through Apple Family Sharing.

Here’s what’s included with Apple Creator Studio:

Mac

• Final Cut Pro
• Logic Pro
• Pixelmator Pro
• Pages
• Keynote
• Numbers
• Freeform
• Motion
• Compressor
• MainStage

iPad

• Final Cut Pro
• Logic Pro
• Pixelmator Pro
• Pages
• Keynote
• Numbers
• Freeform

iPhone

• Pages
• Keynote
• Numbers
• Freeform

For students, Apple Creator Studio is a no-brainer. For creators, prosumers, or even everyday users who want to dabble, the subscription makes sense as long as you find yourself regularly using a few of the included apps. More than anything, it feels purposeful – a reminder that when Apple leans into creativity and thoughtful bundling, it still knows exactly what it’s doing.

Furthermore, if you don't want to lock in with a monthly or annual fee, Apple still sells Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, MainStage, Compressor, and Motion individually, and offers Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for free. You'll just need to join Creator Studio for the extra features, mainly the AI ones.

Additionally, you can get a month of Creator Studio for free, while if you buy an eligible Mac or iPad, you can get a three-month free trial.

Just in time for the back-to-school shopping rush, Amazon has slashed the prices of the 11th generation Apple iPad (A16) and the iPad Air M3 by 20% and 25%, respectively.

While not the biggest discounts ever, this much of a price cut represents a great deal for current-generation Apple products, especially when outside of the bigger sale events like Black Friday or EOFY.

Our review of the 11th-gen iPad praised its performance, with the A16 processor allowing the device to run iPadOS 18 and most apps smoothly. And despite this upgrade, the base model with 128GB of storage didn’t get a price bump, making it a great value option for an iPad. We reckon it would suit most students as it performs well enough to handle tasks like homework, media consumption and some gaming on the side.

If you’re looking for a laptop replacement that can do a lot more, then the current-generation iPad Air fits the bill. The inclusion of the M3 chip places this device on par with previous-generation MacBooks (provided that you get a Bluetooth keyboard or keyboard folio to replicate that experience), and has 8GB of RAM to make it a better choice for multitasking over the base iPad (which has 6GB).

For a bigger screen, the iPad Air is also available with a 13-inch screen (compared to the base model’s 11 inches), and a larger battery capacity of 9,705mAh (compared to 7,606mAh for the 11-inch) means it will last all day whether at school, uni or work.

If you want to read more about how these two iPads compare and make your decision a bit easier, take a look at our full head-to-head matchup. In the meantime, get a wriggle on if you want an iPad for less as we don’t know how long these offers or stocks will last.

While the above listings are the best iPad deals right now, there’s one more offer that might be worth considering. The only reason it’s relegated as an alternative is that it’s not as big a discount as the aforementioned options. And that’s the current-gen iPad mini. If you’re looking for something more compact and portable, there’s a small but not inconsiderable 13% discount.

Speaking of the Apple Pencil, the USB-C model is discounted on Amazon as well at AU$117, or 16% off. This will work on all the iPads listed above. If you’re more partial towards the newer Apple Pencil Pro, JB Hi-Fi has it for AU$169 (23% off the RRP).

Unfortunately we did not spot any deals for the Apple Magic Keyboard for the iPad and iPad Air, but you can consider cheaper alternatives from third-party brands if you’re not too fussed about matching everything.

If you’re anything like me, watching shows in bed at the end of a long day is a great way to unwind.

However, when I’m spark out and Netflix is still running – sometimes for hours on end – it’s a pain the next day having to trying to find my place again. Some apps have built-in sleep timers, but many (like Netflix) still don't.

That’s where a handy hidden feature in the iOS and iPadOS alarm comes in handy – so, if you’re watching shows or listening to podcasts/audiobooks on your iPad or iPhone, you can happily fall asleep knowing your device soon will, too.

I had a new baby six months ago, and I’ve also got a two-year-old, so it’s safe to say that at the end of most days I’m pretty exhausted. Last thing at night, I’ll feed my baby (watching a show on my iPad, propped up on my bedside table), then lie down for a bit waiting for her to fall asleep and for me to get some much-needed shut-eye, too.

As you can imagine, it doesn’t actually take me that long to go to sleep, but, I like the comfort of the screen playing while I drift off. However, after consistently falling asleep within 10-20 minutes, but finding my shows continued to play for sometimes hours on end, I went looking for a solution.

Find the sleep timer

It’s not an obvious setting, so you’ll be forgiven for having missed this. Go to your device’s Clock app, and tap the Timers setting. I’m sure you’ll have used this for other things, such as cooking or as a reminder to do something.

Tap on 'When Timer Ends' and scroll all the way down to the bottom past all the ringtone options, and you’ll see 'Stop Playing' is listed.

Tap this and when your Timer ends, your Netflix show (or other streaming service) will stop, and your iPad/iPhone will lock. You’ll need to tap 'Set' the first time you do it – you’ll know if you’ve done it right as when you go back to the main timer screen, it will say 'Stop Playing' next to 'When Timer Ends' now.

Depending on how sleepy I am, I set the timer for anything between 5 and 20 minutes – I’ve usually got a pretty good idea of how long I’ll need. Then, the next day when I come back to watch/listen to the show again, I know I’ll only have a maximum of the timer setting to rewind to keep playing from where I left off.

Until I get a device which recognizes exactly when my eyes have closed, it’s the next best thing.

More timer tweaks

A few more timer tweaks can help make your life easier. A quick way to flip between different alarm lengths – say you want 5 minutes one night, 20 minutes another night, and 10 minutes on a different one – is to use the 'Recents'.

Scroll past the 'When Timer Ends' section and you should see a list of all your recently used alarms. Now you can simply tap on the one I want without having to adjust the timer at the top. Precious seconds saved!

This is also useful if you’re using the Timer for other things during the day, such as while cooking. I’ve labelled my Timers 'Bedtime' to make sure it’s got the 'Stop Playing' function set. You can set a Label when you’re originally making a timer, changing it from 'Timer' to whatever you like.

Control Center and Siri

You can also make use of Control Center and Siri – the latter is quite useful if you need to stay hands free, perhaps if your iPad is resting on a cabinet just slightly out of reach.

For Control Center – which are the set of options that appear when you swipe down from the top right-hand corner – you can add a Timer control here. After you’ve swiped down, press and hold in an empty area of the screen and tap 'Add a control' and find Timer within the list of options.

Once it’s added you’ve got two options. Tap once and you’ll be taken to the regular Timer options, but you can also tap and hold the timer icon then swipe up and down on the screen to add or remove time – a bit like you do with adding or reducing torch brightness. Note, with this you must have already had your Timer setting to 'Stop Playing' before.

Finally, you can of course also use Siri. You’ll need to either hold down the Side/Home button or say, “Hey Siri” followed by, “set a 10 minute Sleep Timer” for the “Stop Playing” function to activate. Make sure you include the word “Sleep” before Timer, or you’ll get a rude awakening when it elapses.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 was arguably the best phone of 2025, and it’s truly an engineering marvel. It feels impossibly thin and light, especially when it’s closed, and you know that you’re holding a full-sized mini tablet, even though it feels like a normal big-screen smartphone. The biggest problem - maybe the only big problem - was the price. Thankfully, deals like today’s sale on Samsung.com finally drop the Z Fold to a price that makes perfect sense.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is on sale right now on Samsung.com with a $400 discount in the US, even if you don’t have a phone to trade. There are huge trade bonuses happening as well, if you have the right phone. In the US, a Galaxy S25 Ultra or Galaxy Z Fold 6 will earn you $1,000 in trade (instead of that $400 discount). In Australia, an iPhone 16 Pro Max will drop the price of a new Fold 7 by AU$1,000.

The perfect price for the Galaxy Z Fold 7 would be the price of a 6.5-inch, flagship smartphone plus the price of an 8-inch tablet. The Galaxy S25 Plus starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699, though the Galaxy S25 Edge ($1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849) is probably a closer comparison, since it’s thinner and it packs the same 200MP camera as the Galaxy Z Fold.

Samsung doesn’t currently make a premium 8-inch tablet, so the Apple iPad mini (2024) is the best 8-inch tablet to consider. The iPad mini costs $499 / £499 / AU$799 for the latest model. Put that price together with a Galaxy S25 Edge, and you’re paying $1,598 / £1,598 / AU$2,648 for both devices.

Why would you want a Galaxy Z Fold 7 instead of just buying a fancy new smartphone and a mini tablet together? That’s a great question! Here are four reasons why I’d prefer a foldable (and one big reason why not):

My Galaxy Z Fold 7 is always connected, unlike my iPad mini

To be fair, you can get an iPad mini for $499 / £499 / AU$799, but you’ll need a Wi-Fi connection to make it surf. You can use your phone as a hotspot, but when your phone is also a tablet - like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 - you don’t need to burn through your data allotment or battery power to connect a second device. Your tablet is your phone, so it’s always connected.

This also means you won’t have to worry about sharing files between devices. If you want to edit a document on a larger display, or even open a web page on your tablet instead of your phone, you don’t have to perform any magic tricks between screens. You just open the small screen, and it becomes a tablet.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is more durable than any small tablet

You might not think of foldable phones as durable, but the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is one of the most durable mini tablets you can buy. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is water-resistant enough that you can dunk it in a pool or read your email in a bathtub.

There is no iPad you can buy with the same level of durability. Samsung makes water-resistant tablets (that are also more dust-proof), but only the larger Galaxy Tab S11 and Galaxy Tab S10 FE models.

You still have to worry about dust and small particles, so a trip to the sandy beach will require some care. Still, it’s impressive that Samsung’s foldable tablet has better ingress protection than Apple’s most portable iPad.

Samsung’s software is (shockingly) the best for multitasking

Samsung’s software doesn’t get the same accolades as Apple’s iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, but Samsung’s tablet software is the best you’ll find on any tablet - including the iPad. Samsung has done a great job making it easy to open multiple windows, to snap windows where you want them, and to move content between windows and apps.

Multitasking on a Samsung tablet is better than multitasking on any iPad, and it’s even better than multitasking on a Mac desktop with Apple’s macOS 26.

That makes the Galaxy Z Fold 7 a fantastic tablet for productivity and getting things done, much better than an iPad mini. Samsung’s version of Android is packed with useful tools and features, while Apple’s iPadOS tends to get out of the way and let app developers do the heavy lifting in the apps you buy and download.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has better cameras than any tablet

Samsung has been using a big 200MP sensor on its best camera phones for a few years, and this year it figured out how to pack that beefy component into its thinnest phones. Both the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the thin Galaxy S25 Edge got the same camera module as the mighty Galaxy S25 Ultra, instantly vaulting those devices to the front of the class for camera image quality.

That means the Galaxy Z Fold 7 isn’t just the best foldable camera phone you can buy; it also packs a better camera than you’ll find on any tablet, especially an iPad mini. The iPad mini uses a single 12MP rear camera sensor. The photos it captures don’t match what you’ll get from a Z Fold 7.

Best of all, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 uses its cameras in versatile ways. You can take photos with the phone open or closed, using either the smaller or larger display as your viewfinder. You can use the hinge and fold to aim that camera at yourself and see yourself in the outer display, making it a 200MP selfie camera. There’s really no contest; the Galaxy Z Fold 7 blows away the iPad mini in camera capabilities, whether it’s open or closed.

Why would you want two separate devices? Two big (battery) reasons

Having two big batteries in a separate iPad mini and Galaxy smartphone is better than… well, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 technically has two batteries, but they amount to a smaller total capacity than what you’d get in two devices.

It’s not even close. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has two cells that offer 4,400mAh of total battery power. The iPad mini alone has a battery that is larger than 5,000 mAh. In our battery tests, the iPad mini and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 offered almost the same amount of screen time - just under 11 hours for both. Still, if you carry an iPad plus a phone, you get all that battery life and more.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 still lasts through a normal day of use, but what’s normal for a phone and tablet combo? If you really need to use both screens all day, and you rely on your devices to get work done, I would recommend buying the two separately to maximize your battery.

Otherwise, it’s easier than ever to make a case for foldable phones. The price has finally dropped to a level that gives you more at once than you’d get buying a phone and a tablet separately.

2025 will be remembered as the year when, while we were still waiting on a truly smarter, AI-infused Siri, Apple introduced next-generation AirPods Pro, an ultra-thin iPhone, took its Pro iPhones to the next level, and delivered speedy Macs in several designs.

But perhaps the most exciting additions were to Apple’s iPad lineup. We got three new models: the entry-level 11th-Gen iPad, the iPad Air with M3 chip, and the iPad Pro with the M5. There was nothing new design-wise, but, with a nod to Bruce Springsteen, it was all about the fuel injection rather than the chrome wheels.

The fuel injection came courtesy of the latest Apple silicon, and Apple made the most of that extra power with arguably the biggest changes to iPadOS yet. With true windowing and the introduction of some of the best aspects of macOS, iPadOS 26 is what really made 2025 a landmark year for Apple's tablets.

Apple showed more of its cards with the iPad than ever before

It’s clear that Apple has been performing a balancing act with the iPad for many years – many users rely on their tablets for a mix of entertainment and productivity, and others want their iPad to be the one device to rule them all.

Much of what iPadOS 26 delivered was productivity focused, in the shape of a proper menu bar and dock; more flexible, reliable, and customizable multitasking; a major update to the Files app; and support for background tasks. It’s more macOS-like than ever before, including the red, yellow and green buttons for closing, minimizing and expanding windows, and even a menu bar that feels right out of macOS. We got a Mac-like experience in a form factor that offers easier portability, unique experiences, and – maybe most importantly – flexibility in terms of input.

You can operate the iPad with your fingers, a trackpad, the Apple Pencil, or even a connected mouse or trackpad. It’s a supremely versatile performer, but given how far Apple had taken performance – remember the redesigned iPad Pro launched in 2024 with the M4 chip, before that piece of silicon hit the Mac – the company needed to offer a more robust software experience. As my colleague Lance Ulanoff learned from senior Apple execs, it was something the company had been working on for quite some time.

iPadOS 26 shipped with most of its promised features in September 2025. I’ve used it across a broad range of iPad models, including the current lineup (11th Gen, mini, Air, and Pro) and the 9th-Gen entry-level iPad – while that model isn't as capable as the 11th-Gen iPads or the iPad Pro, the software upgrades have blurred the lines between models when it comes to performance.

As I wrote back shortly after Apple unveiled the fresh software, while it was still in beta, it was a purpose-built upgrade for the iPad – one that catered to the iPad faithful and stayed true to Apple’s ethos. It wasn’t blowing up the classic iPad experience, but it did introduce a familiar, easy-to-grasp way to manage windows. It also delivered some more advanced features that catered to users already maxing out the iPad experience.

Keeping the hardware ticking along

I reviewed all the iPads that Apple released this year, and the common theme is speed upgrades – to the point where the advantages you'll get from going Pro are less obvious than previously. The iPad Air comes in two sizes and is really a stunner, even if it’s not as ultra-thin as the iPad Pro.

In either an 11-inch or 13-inch size, with fun colors to pick from, long battery life, support for key accessories like the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil, and with the M3 chip now under the hood, it really feels like the model to choose if you want a larger size without the Pro price premium, and don't need sufficient power to use it as your main device.

It’s a strong performer, and a device I keep coming back to, even after testing the latest-generation iPad Pro with the M5 under the hood. If you don’t need the extra vibrancy or contrast capabilities of the OLED screen or Face ID – though I do wish this were on more models – it really comes down to budget.

Complicating your choices further is the 11th-Gen iPad – Apple Pencil quirks aside – which is an excellent model, and likely the best iPad for most users. The A16 Bionic chip under the hood provides plenty of headroom for both work or play, and while it doesn’t support Apple Intelligence, it doesn’t really matter here. It checks the boxes for what you’d want from an iPad, and at an approachable price point.

The iPad mini didn’t receive an update, which means the dream of an OLED screen in this size remains just that for now. But even that device supports iPadOS 26’s new windowing, which makes the case for a Magic Keyboard even more palpable than in years past. Please, Apple.

What’s to come in 2026?

While I can’t predict the future, the ever-churning Apple rumor mill gives us some idea of what we can expect to see from Apple in 2026, and it’s also instructive to look at what Apple did this year. I think the next entry-level 12th-Gen iPad could arrive at some point in the coming year, but don’t expect a treasure trove of new features.

I think the big upgrade here will be a better A-series chip from Apple that's not only more efficient but also adds support for Apple Intelligence. Hopefully, whatever version of iPadOS follows will also, finally, arrive with the AI-infused Siri. Similarly, rumors suggest the iPad Air will keep the same looks and feature set but gain a slightly faster M-series chip, likely the M4.

Basically, this would be a carbon copy of Apple’s approach to iPad upgrades that we saw this year and last year. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that new entry-level iPad and iPad Air upgrades will likely arrive sometime in 2026.

The more exciting model we could see next year is an iPad mini with a refreshed design, a better chip, and an OLED screen. This likely wouldn't arrive until the second half of the year, and it’s also reported that it might get a more water-resistant case.

The smallest iPad will likely be the most exciting change next year, while the iPad Pro could receive a chip upgrade, although nothing major in terms of a redesign is planned until 2027, according to recent reports.

Where we might see more exciting developments is in a refinement of the new iPadOS experience and the introduction of new features – maybe more customization around windowing to start. It’s one of the biggest ways Apple can improve the experience for people who already have an iPad and potentially tempt others to upgrade.

But if Tim Cook is listening, let’s keep the list of supported models long when it comes to future updates. I think that’s a major reason why 2025 was so successful for iPadOS 26 and the iPad as a whole.

• iPadOS 26.2 is now on the way to users
• One of the main upgrades is around multitasking
• Other improvements match iOS 26.2

As well as launching iOS 26.2 and macOS 26.2 over the last couple of days, we of course also have iPadOS 26.2 rolling out now to millions of iPads worldwide. If your Apple tablet works with iOS 26, it will also work fine with the new update as well.

The headline new feature, as noted by 9to5Mac, is an improvement to the way multitasking works. In fact, the upgrade was previously introduced with iPadOS 18 last year, before being removed when iPadOS 26 was pushed out.

Now it's back: it means you can once again drag an app icon from the dock or from your Spotlight results into a Slide Over or Split View multitasking layout. It just makes working with several apps on the same screen a bit more straightforward.

App icons can be dragged on top of other app windows to create a side-by-side layout, or to the left or right edge of the screen to open a Slide Over panel, or on top of an existing Slide Over panel to replace the app that's already there.

More to explore

There's more to the iPadOS 26.2 update as well: there are now more customization options for Liquid Glass on the lock screen, you get a new 'urgent alarm' feature for Reminders, and there's table support in the Freeform app.

Upgrades in the Podcasts app include AI-generated chapters, while over in Apple Music, support for offline lyrics have been added. In Apple Games, there are enhanced discovery options for finding new games and filtering games already in your library.

Apple News has some design changes too, which should make it easier to find your way around the various sections and the different publications included. A lot of these improvements match the upgrades in iOS 26.2, as you would expect.

The free iPadOS 26.2 is rolling out now, so you should see it pop up on your tablet very soon. If it hasn't shown up yet, you can try opening up Settings, then tapping General > Software Update to see if the new version is waiting.

Apple has already crowned the 2025 App Store Winners – a relatively short list of 17 apps and games with spotlights across each of its platforms (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Vision Pro included). But today, the Cupertino-based tech giant is also sharing a bit of the people’s vote in the realm of apps.

We have the top 10 lists – along with extended rankings within the App Store – for the most downloaded apps and games on iPhone and iPad, split by free and paid. There’s even a list of the most downloaded Apple Arcade titles. And while we all could have guessed that OpenAI’s ChatGPT would be high up, it ranks as the number-one free app for the iPhone. Still, there are a few surprises as you look down the lists.

Coming in at number two on the most downloaded free iPhone apps is Threads – yes, the still-new platform from Meta that Mark Zuckerberg hopes will steal thunder from X (formerly Twitter and Bluesky). That means a significant number of people have downloaded it, whether they discovered it on their own or via recommendations from the Instagram app.

Instagram itself isn’t far down the list at number six, and TikTok – which remains in something of an awkward spot here in the United States – comes in at number four. You can see the full list below, but it’s worth noting that Google also had a strong presence in the top ten, with Gemini, YouTube, the main Google app, and Google Maps all making the cut.

On the iPad side, while Instagram finally arrived on the platform, it didn’t break into the top 10 free iPadOS apps. As expected, it’s a streaming-heavy list, with Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video all securing major slots. YouTube takes the top spot, and Google Chrome isn’t far down the list. The ever-popular GoodNotes – a note-taking app with a suite of AI functionality, including handwriting cleanup and extensive folder organization – also appears.

You can keep scrolling to see the full top 10 lists for the top free and paid iPhone and iPad apps, the top games for each, and the overall list of most downloaded Apple Arcade titles. It’s always fun, and often insightful, to browse these year-end lists to see what people use most – or, in some cases, download and only open once.

I’m keen to know what apps you use most on the iPhone and iPad, so let me know your picks in the comments below – and whether you use any of the most downloaded ones.

Top Free iPhone Apps - 2025

• ChatGPT
• Threads
• Google
• TikTok - Videos, Shop & LIVE
• WhatsApp Messenger
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Google Maps
• Gmail - Email by Google
• Google Gemini

Top Free iPad Apps - 2025

• YouTube
• ChatGPT
• Netflix
• Disney+
• Amazon Prime Video
• TikTok - Videos, Shop & LIVE
• Google Chrome
• Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF
• Canva: AI Photo & Video Editor
• HBO Max: Stream Movies & TV

Top Paid iPhone Apps - 2025

• HotSchedules
• Shadowrocket
• Procreate Pocket
• AnkiMobile Flashcards
• Paprika Recipe Manager 3
• SkyView®
• TonalEnergy Tuner & Metronome
• AutoSleep Track Sleep on Watch
• Forest: Focus for Productivity
• RadarScope

Top Paid iPad Apps - 2025

• Procreate
• Procreate Dreams
• forScore
• ToonSquid
• Nomad Sculpt
• Shadowrocket
• AnkiMobile Flashcards
• Bluebeam Revu for iPad
• Teach Your Monster to Read
• Feather: Draw in 3D

Top Free iPhone Games - 2025

• Block Blast！
• Fortnite
• Roblox
• Township
• Pokémon TCG Pocket
• Royal Kingdom
• Clash Royale
• Vita Mahjong
• Whiteout Survival
• Last War:Survival

Top Free iPad Games - 2025

• Roblox
• Block Blast！
• Fortnite
• Perfect Tidy
• Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game
• Mini Games: Calm & Chill
• Goods Puzzle: Sort Challenge
• hole.io
• Subway Surfers
• Township

Top Paid iPhone Games - 2025

• Minecraft: Dream it, Build it!
• Balatro
• Heads Up!
• Plague Inc.
• Geometry Dash
• Bloons TD 6
• Stardew Valley
• Papa's Freezeria To Go!
• Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp C
• Red's First Flight

Top Paid iPad Games - 2025

• Minecraft: Dream it, Build it!
• Geometry Dash
• Stardew Valley
• Balatro
• Bloons TD 6
• Plague Inc.
• Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp C
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 3
• Purple Place - Classic Games
• Papa's Sushiria To Go!

Top Apple Arcade Games - 2025

• NFL Retro Bowl ’26
• NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition
• Balatro+
• Snake.io+
• Sneaky Sasquatch
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure
• Fruit Ninja Classic+
• Bloons TD 6+
• PGA TOUR Pro Golf
• Solitaire by MobilityWare+

• Apple’s 2025 App Store Award winners are official
• There are 17 winners across Apps, Games, and Cultural Impact
• Its includes picks for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV

Two weeks after announcing the finalists for App of the Year – and just a day after Spotify Wrapped dropped – Apple has officially revealed the winners of the 2025 App Store Awards. The Cupertino-based tech giant has named 17 winners across platforms in three categories: Apps, Games, and Cultural Impact.

Many of these we’ve already previewed in our roundup of the finalists, but the winners reflect the surge and abundance of AI. In many cases, they showcase applications that appear effortless, combining seamless, unique design with genuine functionality that solves a problem – or even provides an escape at times.

Take Tiimo, the iPhone App of the Year. It’s billed as an AI planner and to-do app that helps you visualize your day and stay on track with your tasks. Details, the iPad App of the Year, aims to move beyond the classic bar-and-edit approach to video editing by letting you describe your desired outcome and having AI do the work for you.

Apple is still naming an app and game of the year for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro, as well as an Apple Arcade Game of the Year and six Cultural Impact winners.

Below we've run through the winners across all the categories and given you a quick way to download them, plus a few more standouts, from the App Store...

2025 App Store Award Winners – The Full List

• iPhone App of the Year: Tiimo
• iPhone Game of the Year: Pokémon TCG Pocket
• iPad App of the Year: Detail
• iPad Game of the Year: DREDGE
• Mac App of the Year: Essayist
• Mac Game of the Year: Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition
• Apple Vision Pro App of the Year: Explore POV
• Apple Vision Pro Game of the Year: Porta Nubi
• Apple Watch App of the Year: Strava
• Apple TV App of the Year: HBO Max
• Apple Arcade Game of the Year: WHAT THE CLASH?
• Cultural Impact Winners: Art of Fauna, Chants of Sennaar, despelote, Be My Eyes, Focus Friend, and StoryGraph

Just like with the 2024 App Store Awards, there’s a lot of AI either front and center or subtly powering the experience behind many of the apps.

One notable difference this year is that, rather than F1 TV taking home Apple TV App of the Year, the honor goes to HBO Max, which debuted a new navigation bar in 2025 – and, of course, there’s the added context that F1 will begin streaming in the U.S. on Apple TV next year.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is a standout for Mac Game of the Year, especially considering the lengthy development process required to bring it to the platform. CD Projekt Red took full advantage of the gaming dev tools built into macOS to ensure the game runs smoothly on any Apple-silicon Mac – though, naturally, more power still enhances the experience.

I personally wish I had Essayist, or at least a version of it, back when I was in school. It automates the sometimes painful process of generating proper citations across a wide range of formats for academic papers – powered, as you might guess, by some AI on the backend.

From the Cultural Impact Winners, Be My Eyes blends the power of everyday volunteers with AI to help people with low vision or blindness complete daily tasks, such as identifying objects or providing quick visual descriptions.

The Apple Vision Pro is still the newest device in Apple’s lineup, and Apple named Explore POV the App of the Year and Porta Nubi the Game of the Year for the platform. Explore POV lets you immerse yourself in far-off destinations, while Porta Nubi overlays your real-world environment with fantastical puzzles.

Let us know in the comments below which of the 2025 App Store Award winners you’ve already downloaded – or which ones you’re most excited to try.

Few tech products are more consistently popular during big sales than tablets, and Black Friday 2025 is no different, with tablet deals trending once again.

If you’re one of the many people looking to snag a bargain slate this year, the big day is finally here and we’re happy to report that retailers are delivering the goods when it comes to tablet deals.

However, with sales from seemingly every retailer in the country to analyse, it can be hard to actually separate the good deals from the best ones. Luckily, we've been tracking tablet deals for nearly a month already, so we know what's what.

Whether you need an iPad that can handle your entire workload, a Galaxy tablet for watching Disney+ in the bath, or to snap up your last Christmas gift idea for a loved one, we’ve rounded up six Australian Black Friday tablet deals that cater to almost every use case.

Below, we've ordered them from cheapest to most expensive to make things even simpler.

Not looking for a tablet specifically? We're covering all sorts of November tech sales, including discounts on Apple devices, the top Samsung deals and just the all-round best Black Friday sales we've found.

iPadOS 26 marked one of the biggest upgrades for the iPad since the Apple tablet was first released in 2010. The new operating system added the gorgeous Liquid Glass design found across all of Apple's product line, but it was the shake-up of window management on iPad that had everyone talking

Now, iPadOS 26 has been available for over two months, and after a conversation with my elderly parents, I realized that Apple hasn't done the greatest of jobs in explaining how to get the most from the new Mac-like window management tools.

What's more, iPads are among the most popular Black Friday Apple deals, and that means loads of new users will be getting their hands on the best iPads before the turn of the year.

So, in this article, I'll break down how to get the most from window management in iPadOS 26, and give you an easy trick that should be enabled by default on all iPads, but isn't.

Do this right now

I have no idea why Apple isn't doing a better job at showcasing how to use windows inside of iPadOS 26, and it starts with a neat toggle in Control Center that, once activated, will transform the way you use your iPad.

1. Swipe down on the right side of your screen to open Control Center
2. Long press and tap Add a Control
3. Search for Multitasking
4. Add the Multitasking widget and then tap anywhere on your screen

Now that you've added the Multitasking widget, you can easily swap between the main window management styles now found in iPadOS 26. While that might not sound like a big deal, once you master the concept of switching between modes depending on what you're doing, you'll experience the best the iPad has to offer.

Read on to find out what each multitasking option does, and when you should use them.

Full-screen apps

When you have the Multitasking widget disabled, your iPad will function exactly like it used to. Full-screen apps, no windows, and the best way to just focus on the task at hand.

This specific mode is the iPad experience you've grown to love over the years, and the one at some moment in time you wished was replaced with a more Mac-like experience.

Since upgrading to iPadOS 26, I've found myself using the full-screen iPad experience the majority of the time, but you need to understand when it's best to do it the basic way.

If you're ever consuming media, using a web browser, scrolling Reddit, or using your iPad for any other kind of entertainment purposes, then I'd suggest sticking with full-screen. This is the quintessential iPad experience; don't neglect it now that you've got a swanky new toy.

Windowed apps

To enable Windowed Apps, simply turn on the Multitasking widget via Control Center. Now, your iPad is transformed into a PC-like experience, allowing you to move windows around, multitask with an endless number of windows, and experience the iPad you've always dreamed of.

This version of iPad window management is excellent for work, especially if you need access to multiple apps at the same time. That said, don't think you need to always use this new mode; if anything, you should be switching between window management styles often, depending on what you're doing and how you need to interact with your iPad.

I think Apple has done a pretty bad job at explaining the benefits of switching between multitasking options, instead focusing on the iPad's new ability to work more like your Mac.

After using iPadOS 26 for a few months, I became increasingly frustrated with the new window management, until I flicked a switch in my brain and accepted that it doesn't need to be all or nothing – in fact, you really can have the best of both worlds.

Make the most of your iPad's versatility

Long pressing on the Multitasking widget will allow you to enter Stage Manager, a pretty niche window management tool, but one that shines when you know how to use it.

I've found myself using Stage Manager more than ever before in iPadOS 26, and that's because it works very well as an option for multiple workspaces alongside the new Windowed Apps functionality.

The iPad is more versatile than ever; it's just a shame that Apple has overlooked teaching users how to get the most from proper window management, instead opting to focus on advertising a more traditional computer-like experience.

Trust me, adding this Multitasking widget to Control Center will make you love the iPad even more. Whether you've owned an iPad Pro for years, or just picked up a new iPad Air as part of Black Friday iPad deals.

iPads are among the most popular products in any year's slate of Black Friday Apple deals, but even with discounts applied, the best iPads are expensive bits of kit.

That said, I’ve been covering Black Friday sales for years now, and I’ve noticed a significant iPad-related sea change this year: refurbished tech products – and in particular, refurbished iPads – are even more discounted than usual.

Refurbished gadgets aren’t new, with some major and specialist retailers having built up a reputation for sprucing up pre-loved tech. But I’ve never seen so many early Black Friday deals appear for iPads, specifically, which means there’s scope for you to save loads of money if you know what to look for.

In fact, I bought a refurbished iPad several years ago, so I can guide you through what to know about the tech and what to expect from these deals.

What does 'refurbished' even mean?

Refurbished tech is gadgetery that's been professionally serviced; experts will make sure it works to a high standard, sometimes conducting tests or replacing parts, though the exact process varies from retailer to retailer. It's not the same as pre-owned tech, which will often be sold without these (or any other) assurances.

I bought my refurbished iPad for one key reason: it was cheaper than buying a brand-new model. I bought it from Apple's own refurb store, so I could trust that it'd be up to a high standard – and it was. If you gave me a new iPad alongside an Apple-refurbished model, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Even the packaging was very similar, subconsciously telling me, "this isn't some cheap leftover, but a fully-functioning tablet."

There are other reasons that people opt to buy refurbished, the primary one being the environmental aspect. There's no denying that we're in an e-waste crisis, with the World Health Organization citing electronic products as one of the fastest-growing solid waste streams. And by keeping a gadget in circulation, you save it from going to landfill and also avoid more rare earth materials being used for the new device you'd be buying instead.

Those are the big-ticket reasons for buying refurbished, but I'm going to list you two more that are just as relevant for some people. Firstly, buying refurbished gives you a way of getting older gadgets that a manufacturer has stopped selling. If you want to get a past-generation iPad, for instance, Apple and major retailers might not have any, but refurbs come to the rescue.

Secondly, and perhaps more anecdotally, I see amazing deals around refurbished gadgets. While 10% off an iPad is often seen as a great discount during Black Friday, I'm used to seeing much bigger reductions on refurbished models (and that's a discount over the already-cheaper price).

Three years of iPad

I've had my refurb for three years now; it was a 12.9-inch iPad Pro (2021), so when I bought it in late 2022, it wasn't from the newest range. I didn't mind it being older, since I'd been happily using one of TechRadar's 2018 models for years with no problems, but the 2022 model was also too recent to have any refurb stock.

Honestly, I've never looked back. Three years on, the battery still lasts as well as it ever did (admittedly, that's not saying much, given how poor iPad battery lives are), which is the main worry I had when buying refurbished. I've never had any issues with it, and I use it almost every day for various tasks (well, apart from abandoning it recently for an ereader).

In fact, it's fared a lot better than the peripherals I bought alongside it, as the new Apple Pencil I picked up at the same time broke a year ago. I've already documented my attempt to find a cheap knock-off iPad stylus, though I've just noticed that Apple and Back Market sell refurbished styli too.

I'm also glad I bought an iPad when I did: newer Pro models are stuffed full of specs I don't need (why do I need an M5 chip on a device I'm using for drawing and typing?), and I can bypass Apple's insistence on useless AI features by simply not updating my iPad.

The new wave of refurb

This isn't the first time I've written about this refurb purchase for TechRadar, having waxed lyrical about it a few years ago to encourage people to follow in my footsteps. But I've noticed changes in the refurb market since then.

When I first started writing about refurbished tech and bought my iPad, you really had to hunt down retailers. Back Market was the only major one I knew about, but it hadn't started promoting itself as insistently as it does now (which was arguably a good thing; I'm plagued by its low-effort YouTube ads).

Apple's own refurbished line is something I only heard about from a friend, and I'd have never thought to buy from the company if it wasn't for that mention. Back then, major retailers didn't stock refurbished gadgets, and it was something of a fringe topic, even for someone writing for a tech website!

Nowadays, it's very easy to go onto your chosen shop's website and find pre-loved devices listed alongside new ones. I was surprised, covering early Black Friday deals this year, by just how many I was finding on refurbished tech. It's not just iPads and smartphones now; I've been very tempted to buy one of the many Black Friday PS5 deals, and you can also find laptops, earbuds, home hubs, and even printers.

And that's a good thing all around: cheaper tech, greener purchasing.

Where to find great refurbished deals

Like I said, I've seen quite a few good refurbished deals so far already, and more will come and go as Black Friday gets closer. They don't always last long; refurbs naturally have lower stock than new models.

So, instead of listing specific deals, I'm going to share a few places you should go to look for refurbished tech. I'll list the perks of buying from their respective refurbished programs, too, which is often important.

• Back Market: 1-year warranty, guarantees, and a quality charter on how it grades tech
• Apple: 1-year guarantee, 90-day AppleCare, and replacement Apple parts
• Amazon: inspected, tested, and 1-year guarantee
• Walmart: inspected, tested, cleaned, and 90-day guarantee

• Apple has released iPadOS 26.1
• The new update brings back Slide Over multitasking, which was removed with iPadOS 26
• Fan-favorite Split View is still missing

Apple has released iPadOS 26.1, the first major update to iPadOS 26, bringing fixes and new features to the best iPads.

Many of the new features, like a tinted mode for Liquid Glass and new gestures in Apple Music, are shared between iPadOS 26.1 and iOS 26.1, which launched simultaneously, but there is one key feature exclusive to Apple's tablet lineup.

For iPad users specifically, the update brings marks the return of a much-loved iPadOS 18 feature, giving touchscreen-focused users back some of the multitasking power they lose with iPadOS 26.

iPadOS 26.1 brings Slide Over back to the iPad, serving up touchscreen users some extra multitasking power. The feature allows users to quickly access an app in a floating window on the edge of the display which can be swiped away off-screen when not needed.

Slide Over was a staple iPadOS feature for years up until the release of iPadOS 26, when it was quietly removed. Of course, iPadOS 26 also brought with it massively expanded multitasking capabilities with new free-floating windows and background processing. But for some users it seems that this shifted the priority to keyboard users, inspiring plenty of annoyed Reddit threads.

Luckily, Slide Over is back in iPadOS 26.1, and thanks to a new resizeable window could be considered more powerful than ever. As MacRumors reports, you can now access Slide Over by tapping the green full-screen button on the app window and pressing “Enter Slide Over”.

That’s sure to feel like a win for touchscreen users who felt left behind by iPadOS 26 – but there’s still more Apple could do to cater for its hands-on audience.

Split View is still missing

Apple didn’t just remove Slide Over with iPadOS 26 – it also took out Split View, which through iPadOS 18 allowed users to quickly and easily open two apps side by side, with a slider in the middle of the display controlling the size of each app.

And while Slide Over has made a return with iPadOS 26.1, filling the screen with two apps remains more tedious than before.

You can still do so, but now you’ll need to work with the new windowing system, dragging apps around and holding the full-screen button to access different app layouts.

As someone who uses their iPad with a keyboard and on its own in roughly equal measure, I’ve been missing Split View since the launch of iPadOS 26 – as much as I love the new windowed multitasking, I do think Apple needs to keep a good range of features available for people who want to use their tablet's touchscreen to get things done.

Will you be using Slide Over in iPadOS 26.1, or are you waiting for Split View to return? Let us know in the comments below.

The iPad Air is the long-serving middle child of Apple’s tablet lineup, and while mid-tier devices in the iPhone and Mac ranges have come and gone, the iPad Air has managed to hold down its position and shows no signs of leaving any time soon.

In fact, unlike the cursed mid-tier iPhone (think the iPhone mini, iPhone Plus, and dare I say it, the iPhone Air?), the iPad Air is the furthest thing from experimental. You take a base-model iPad, throw an M-series chipset in there, give it a 13-inch option, and boom: you've got one of the best iPads.

That’s been the formula for a few years now – more hardware power than a standard tablet without any of the design or display upgrades exclusive to the iPad Pro – all of which makes recent rumors of a major display upgrade for the iPad Air all the more surprising.

Bloomberg’s resident Apple analyst and tipster supreme, Mark Gurman, has shared fresh rumors that suggest the iPad Air, iPad mini, and MacBook Air could all get OLED displays in coming generations. That’d be the biggest display upgrade the iPad Air and iPad mini have ever received.

If we got shiny new OLED panels without any changes to brightness, resolution, or refresh rate, I’d welcome the upgrade – but if Apple is willing to go one step further, I think it has a shot at turning the iPad Air, specifically, into the best tablet for most people.

Once again, I am asking Apple to give another of its devices a ProMotion display.

For reference, ProMotion is how Apple brands its variable refresh rate displays. Refresh rate refers to how often a display redraws the on-screen image. The current-gen iPad Air has a 60Hz display. ProMotion displays, like the one on the iPad Pro, automatically modulate between 1Hz and 120Hz depending on the amount of movement on-screen – and that maximum 120Hz creates a much smoother experience.

In the past, asking Apple to fit the iPad Air with a ProMotion display might have seemed like a slightly pointless request; variable refresh rate panels were, up until recently, only found on devices with a Pro title – the iPad Pro, iPhone Pro and Pro Max, and MacBook Pro, to be exact.

However, with the release of the iPhone 17 series, Apple extended ProMotion to a non-Pro device for the first time by giving the standard iPhone 17 a ProMotion panel, which, in conjunction with those aforementioned new display upgrade rumors, gives me real hope that the iPad Air could be next.

Though the iPad Air’s 60Hz LCD display is nice enough, it’s perhaps the only thing holding the tablet back from true greatness. The M3 chipset is more than powerful enough for iPadOS, so much so that the vast majority of users won’t feel the difference between it and the iPad Pro’s M5 chipset. The Air’s design, while not as thin as the iPad Pro, is time-tested and pragmatic. And its accessory choices are excellent, with support for the Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard.

If Apple were to equip the iPad Air with ProMotion while retaining its starting price of $599 / £599 / AU$999 for the 11-inch model and $799 / £799 / AU$1,349 for the 13-inch model, it’d get my recommendation for all but the most budget-conscious users or the most power-focused professionals. Apple has shown renewed willingness to equip its everyday devices with Pro-grade tech – now it’s the iPad Air’s turn.

The tough part is that Gurman’s report suggests we might not see any kind of display upgrade for the iPad Air until after the expected 2026 refresh, as the iPad mini is apparently the priority (a great tablet in its own right, but not as universal as the larger iPad Air). Let us know if you want to see OLED and ProMotion come to the iPad mini or iPad Air in the comments below.

• Apple could launch an iPad mini with an OLED display in 2026, a report claims
• OLED might also come to the iPad Air and the MacBook Air
• The new screen might result in higher prices, though

Apple’s iPad mini has proved to be one of the best tablets around in recent years, with its combination of compact size and impressive performance making it an ideal choice for many people. And if the rumors are to be believed, it could soon get a significant upgrade that might give it a sizable edge on the competition.

In a post on the Bloomberg website, journalist Mark Gurman has claimed that Apple plans to bring an OLED display to the iPad mini as soon as next year. That follows a similar rumor from earlier this year and would usher in a marked improvement over the device’s current LCD screen, bringing better contrast and richer colors to content viewed on the device.

If that happens, it could help make the iPad mini a surprise hit in 2026. The pint-sized tablet already has a loyal following of users who are put off by the size of the iPad Air and the price of the iPad Pro, but the iPad mini has often missed out on features found in its more expensive siblings. With the introduction of an OLED screen, however, Apple’s smallest tablet would get a major visual upgrade to help it compete against rival products.

Adding to that is the idea that Apple wants to make the future iPad mini fully waterproof by redesigning its casing and adding “a new speaker system that uses vibration-related technology” instead of traditional speaker holes, Gurman says. The reporter points out that this is a different approach to the waterproofing used in all the best iPhones, but it could add another positive to the iPad mini’s list of features.

OLED arriving elsewhere

It’s not all good news, though, as Gurman’s report suggests that Apple might raise its prices in light of the iPad mini’s improved display. An increase of $100 would not be out of the question, Gurman asserts, potentially resulting in a starting price of $599 (around £450 / AU$900).

The iPad mini is not the only Apple device in line for an OLED upgrade, Gurman believes – Apple is also apparently planning to bring this display tech to the iPad Air and the MacBook Air.

The MacBook Air is unlikely to get the upgrade before 2028, Gurman says, with the iPad Air making the leap at some undetermined future date (but after in the generation after its expected spring 2026 refresh). In theory, that's when we could also see the new iPad mini.

OLED displays have already proven to be a hit in the iPad Pro and the iPhone and have been a fixture in the Apple Watch ever since it first launched. If the iPad mini joins these popular devices in adding OLED goodness next year, Apple could make a lot of iPad customers very happy indeed.