• Apple avoids setting off your iPhone when its execs say “Hey Siri” at events
• One enterprising engineer decided to find out why
• By analyzing the keynote’s audio, they solved an intriguing mystery

Siri has just been given the brain transplant it's needed for years, but it's always been good at detecting the words "Hey Siri" — so much so that accidental summonings have been a common problem. But an audio engineer has just explained how Apple cleverly avoided Siri popping up on your phone during its recent WWDC 2026 keynote.

As revealed by Techexplain on Substack, it all comes down to the audio frequencies embedded in Apple’s keynote video. Once Apple’s audio engineers made a few subtle tweaks, the company’s presenters could say “Hey Siri” as much as they liked without risking millions of phones going off around the world.

To find out what was going on, Techexplain downloaded the audio and video from the WWDC event. They fed that into a spectrogram analyzer, which is an app that can visualize audio frequencies as colored graphs and bands. When the WWDC video was examined, it revealed that a few frequency bands in the 3kHz to 6kHz range had been removed from the audio.

And this is the key to the video not invoking Siri. Without those four frequency bands, the Siri assistant lurking on your device did not hear the phrase “Hey Siri” — even though Apple’s presenters said it repeatedly throughout the show.

Wait, how exactly does this work?

Apple’s solution might sound odd. After all, doesn’t Siri listen out for the trigger words being spoken? If those words were present in Apple’s video, shouldn’t Siri have been activated?

Well, not quite. Your iPhone contains an “always-on processor” chip whose job is to constantly sample background audio, which is then fed into a neural network. The audio is converted into a spectrogram and the neural network analyzes it to look for a specific frequency pattern — in this case, the sibilant sound that occurs when you say “Siri.” And yep, you guessed it, those sibilant sounds mostly exist in the 3kHz to 6kHz range.

In other words, what Siri is actually listening out for is a frequency rather than the words being spoken. It means that if Apple’s engineers remove the 3kHz to 6kHz bands from the WWDC keynote, Siri won’t “hear” its name being spoken — even if that’s exactly what the presenters are doing.

It’s a clever trick that helps ensure Apple’s presenters can speak naturally without the need to avoid saying “Siri.” At the same time, it avoids setting off millions of iPhones and annoying their owners when “Hey Siri” is uttered. It’s an ingenious solution that solves a thorny problem in a satisfyingly elegant way — and we wouldn’t expect anything less from Apple.

Online safety — and in particular, the online safety of children — has emerged as a hot topic of debate in recent months.

The UK is following Australia’s lead in banning social media for under-16s, while Big Tech companies including Apple and Google have committed to giving parents more safety tools to better protect their children from smartphone-related harm.

Apple, for its part, dedicated a sizeable portion of its WWDC 2026 presentation to the new Child Account features it’s introducing in iOS 27, but are these changes — which include more granular parental control and app-specific screen time limits — enough to satisfy increasingly safety-concerned governments? The answer, at least for now, appears to be ‘no’.

On the same day as Apple’s WWDC 2026 keynote, the UK government gave major tech firms a three-month ultimatum to “implement technical solutions on smartphones and tablets to detect and block nude images for children,” lest they face fines and legislative action forcing them to do so.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer referenced Apple and Google by name as the biggest bearers of responsibility on this “horrific issue”, adding that “nothing is off the table” in terms of sanctions: “As a last resort, we are exploring criminal liability for tech bosses who fail to comply.” Yikes.

Starmer also cited British AI company SafeToNet — whose HarmBlock software blocks all nude content on supported smartphones at the operating system (OS) level — as proof that the government’s demands are possible to implement at a technological level.

TechRadar spoke exclusively to Richard Pursey, founder and CEO of SafeToNet, to understand where Big Tech companies like Apple are still falling short when it comes to child safety — and how they can address the vulnerabilities in their respective approaches to this complex issue.

The questions in this interview have been edited for clarity.

TechRadar (TR): Apple dedicated a sizeable portion of its WWDC 2026 keynote to demonstrating its new child safety features. Does this suggest Big Tech companies are waking up to the dangers of smartphone use among children?

Richard Pursey (RP): All advancements from Big Tech in online child safety are welcome. At SafeToNet, we've never believed in one silver bullet, because protecting children online requires a collaborative approach where the online safety ecosystem must work together. This includes legislators, big tech, and cyber safety specialists like SafeToNet.

What Apple announced at WWDC 2026 was genuine progress: mandatory child accounts, parental approval before new app downloads or website [visits], and an expansion of its Communication Safety detection to cover violent and graphic content alongside nudity. All of that matters, and parents should switch it on.

But the protection still lives where Apple chooses to build it — inside its own apps, like iMessage and FaceTime — and depends on individual app developers like Meta, TikTok, etc. choosing to build similar protections into theirs. And there’s the rub. The tech platforms have been given years to sort this issue out, and they’ve failed. I don’t see why they will start now. As welcome as Apple’s announcements are, they don’t get to where the harm is happening — on platforms where users can see, film and share harmful content.

Ann Thai, Apple’s Senior Director of Marketplace Platforms and Technologies, said at WWDC 2026, “It’s developers who play an important role in assuring kids get age-appropriate experiences in apps”. She further continues, “…we believe every app has the same responsibility.” And [she] cited Apple’s resources to help developers build this functionality into their apps. The reliance on every app platform, every messaging app, every chat room, [and] every gaming platform to build solutions themselves is a huge risk to every child's safety. We can’t afford to leave any gaps, as we all know that the bad actors will find them and exploit them.

That's precisely the gap that the UK government called out on June 8, giving every device manufacturer three months to define how they will close it.

It's also the gap HarmBlock was built to close: one safeguarding layer that runs across the entire device. One that is application agnostic and which even works on E2EE environments. HarmBlock is designed to prevent the seeing, filming, and sharing of sexual content across the entire device, including livestream and the camera. The government further stated that all of this must be delivered without threatening users’ privacy, which is where HarmBlock is so powerful. It runs on the device, in real-time, without collecting or transmitting any user data.

TR: Is it too late — or even possible — for Big Tech companies to implement these changes?

RP: It's not too late, but we can’t be timid in our approach. The UK Government has been bold, and it must not soften or concede. HarmBlock is absolute proof that it is possible to make every smartphone and tablet (laptops too — even though they are out of the initial UK Government scope) safe out of the box.

Technology like ours is tamper-proof; it cannot be deleted or circumvented. This must become the standard. We used to drive cars without seat belts. Nobody in their right mind would do that now. So, we need to push ahead with confidence and make every device in the hands of a child safe to use. We can do that, and we can do it now.

TR: Apple's Communication Safety feature uses on-device AI to determine if a photo or video appears to contain nudity and blocks that content accordingly. As you noted, Apple announced that it's expanding this functionality to include gore and violent content. Could you clarify how HarmBlock still differs from Apple's approach?

RP: HarmBlock is universal. It runs across every device and across the entirety of that device. It isn’t selective like Apple. It is agnostic and protects across the entire ecosystem — not just the apps a manufacturer happens to control. HarmBlock stops problems like sextortion in its tracks because it works in the camera of any application — not just the Apple native camera. I don’t know of a single parent who doesn’t want that.

TR: Regarding the UK government’s new demands surrounding the detection of sexually explicit images, how does Apple’s current approach fall short of those demands?

RP: There's still a clear gap. Apple has confirmed it can block explicit content within its own messaging ecosystem, but it puts the responsibility on every other app to build that same protection into its own environment, and there's currently no way for a parent to check whether any given app has actually done that. The camera also remains unprotected, meaning content can be created.

With a HarmBlock-enabled device, you don't have to check. It just works the moment the device is switched on. You'll see our sapling symbol in the status bar, and that's confirmation that nude-based protection is active across the entire device, not buried somewhere inside one app's settings. Children cannot circumvent or disable it. Parents shouldn't have to dig through every app their child has installed just to know their child is safe. SafeToNet makes the entire device safe out of the box. No onboarding, no confusing user flows. It just works.

TR: Are there plans to make HarmBlock AI available on additional devices, beyond the HMD Fuse?

RP: Yes, and that is happening as we speak. More OEMs are turning to SafeToNet, including chipset manufacturers, and we plan to make some major announcements in that area very soon.

We believe we are setting the gold standard for on-device safety. If it isn’t HarmBlock-enabled, then it isn’t safe. We are being chosen due to the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of our software, and, crucially, because we are independent. We are specialists in this area and have been safeguarding children for over 14 years. This is our area of expertise

HarmBlock detects harm faster than the blink of an eye, which is how it works in livestream. Manufacturers like that we don’t intrude on the user’s experience of their device or their apps. We are chosen because we balance safety with privacy. We don’t know of anyone else who does that.

If SafeToNet is in talks with chipset manufacturers, it figures that HarmBlock will become a key selling point of more phones soon — and hopefully on models available outside the UK, too.

Might the company also be in direct communication with Big Tech firms like Apple and Google over the issue of child safety? “I can't deny or confirm,” SafeToNet’s Co-Founder, Sharon Pursey, told TechRadar for a separate article, which suggests Richard's vision for a true a “collaborative approach” might soon be realized.

In any case, if you’re mulling over which smartphone to buy your child right now, we recently researched the best phones for kids so you don’t have to. Our comprehensive guide explains the difference between smartphones, dumbphones, and hybrid devices, and features recommendations for different parental needs.

We've reached out to Apple for its response to the UK government's demands and will update this article if we hear back.

I’m sorry to keep banging on about the iPhone Air, but WWDC 2026 provided an unexpected boost to the appeal of Apple’s super slim iPhone.

Now, irrespective of what I’m about to explain, $999 / £999 / AU$1,799 is still a lot of money to spend on a device that has only one camera and so-so battery life. But the iPhone Air’s combination of an A19 Pro chipset and 12GB of RAM has suddenly become more significant than most people realize.

You see, at WWDC 2026, Apple announced its all-singing, all-dancing Siri AI assistant, which will soon be available on all Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhones as part of iOS 27. But only three iPhones will get the very best version of Siri AI — and the iPhone Air is among that number.

Specifically, only the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air will get Siri voice customization and more advanced systemwide dictation, because only these phones run on Apple’s AFM Core Advanced model and 12GB of RAM.

Admittedly, these two features alone aren’t reason enough to buy a top-end iPhone — the former gives you the ability to customize the expressiveness and pace of Siri’s voice, while the latter makes Siri more effective at converting speech into accurate text — but I would bet my (non-existent) house that Apple locks several additional, more significant features behind this AFM Core Advanced paywall in future versions of iOS.

Indeed, we’ve already seen this segmentation start to happen with the move from Apple Intelligence in its original form to Apple Intelligence as it exists in iOS 27. Anyone who bought an iPhone “built for Apple Intelligence” can access all of the AI features revealed at the software’s announcement in 2024 — Apple has covered its back, legally speaking — but the iOS 27 version of Apple Intelligence (let’s call it Apple Intelligence 2.0) contains a handful of features that only iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air users can access.

At the moment, these features are limited to those two relatively minor tools mentioned above — but who’s to say what hardware-specific features Apple will introduce with Apple Intelligence 3.0 and iOS 28? I noted as much in a separate feature explaining the significance of Apple’s AFM Core Advanced model:

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 company’s Siri AI 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.

In other words, like the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, the iPhone Air will soon support more software features than any other iPhone — and the gap between model capabilities will only grow wider as more hardware-exclusive features are announced.

Maybe, for you, the promise of upcoming features still isn’t enough to justify the Air’s sizable price tag and lack of hardware in other areas — but finally, Apple's super slim iPhone boasts more than just looks.

WWDC 2026 was all about software, with new versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and more unveiled. But while hardware didn’t take center stage, it was present in the background, with Apple hinting at (and in some cases all-but-confirming) its long-rumored foldable phone, believed to be called the iPhone Ultra.

These clues came in announcements, software changes, and even buried deep in code, and combined, they strongly point to the iPhone Ultra not just being in the works, but probably launching soon.

So, below, we’ve detailed the various WWDC clues that hint at the iPhone Ultra’s existence.

1. Mentions of a foldable phone in iOS 27 beta code

Perhaps the most telling sign of the iPhone Ultra's existence can be found within iOS 27 itself, as code within the first beta found by Sam Henri Gold contains mentions of “foldState” and “angleDegrees.”

Both of these references seem like they’d only be relevant to foldable devices, and since the mentions are in an iOS beta, they evidently concern an iPhone, specifically.

This code also isn’t present in iOS 26, so it’s been newly added, suggesting that checking for fold states will be relevant before the launch of iOS 28. That in turn means we’ll probably see the iPhone Ultra before too long — with most leaks pointing to September.

2. A check for how many screens a device has

The same source has also found a check in the iOS 27 developer beta for how many built-in displays a device has.

Since this is iPhone software and no iPhone currently has more than one screen, this is another obvious hint that a multi-screen device — such as a foldable phone — is on the way.

3. Resizable iPhone Mirroring

At WWDC 2026, Apple debuted the ability to resize the iPhone Mirroring window on Mac, allowing you to make it bigger and more like an iPad display — or more like a large foldable screen.

Now, this could just be about making your iPhone’s display appear bigger and more readable on a large desktop screen, but displaying it in a larger size would also be necessary for the iPhone Ultra, which will probably be able to switch between a phone-sized cover screen and a near tablet-sized foldable display. As such, this feature feels like it’s laying the groundwork for Apple’s foldable phone.

4. Resizable apps and developer encouragement

As well as being able to resize your iPhone screen when mirroring it on a Mac, Apple is also making it easier for developers to resize apps to support a variety of display sizes, which similarly seems to hint that new screen sizes are coming.

And the company is making a real push for developers to embrace this change, encouraging them during WWDC’s Platforms State of the Union to allow their apps to support "a dynamic range of sizes and aspect ratios," rather than designing apps to work just for specific devices or screen sizes.

5. Larger widgets

Finally, iOS 27 is adding larger 4x6 widgets, which can fill up an entire iPhone home screen. While some people will probably find this useful on existing iPhones, these widgets are likely to be more beneficial on the iPhone Ultra, where a widget that size would probably fill just around half of the foldable screen.

So, while not as obvious a hint as some of the above ones, this too feels like a feature that’s been designed with larger — and perhaps foldable — iPhone screens in mind.

iOS 27 and WWDC 2026 are very much the talk of the tech town right now, and I’m sure their implications will continue to be discussed for quite some time (somehow, Apple’s Liquid Glass aesthetic is still a topic of debate 12 months after its announcement).

Apple paid particular attention to child safety at WWDC 2026, announcing new features for Screen Time that aim to give parents more control over their child's iPhone-using habits. However, as a longtime Apple fan, I’m surprised to admit that I’m far more taken with the screen time-reducing approach of Android 17 and Pause Point.

In theory, Screen Time is a good idea. The ability to set timers on apps makes sense, and giving parents more granular control over their child's phone activity feels like a natural extension of that offering, even if existing bugs threaten to unravel Apple's good intentions.

The problem is, adults need their screen time checked too, and I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve set a time limit for Instagram, continuously ignored it, and then removed the restriction completely. Now, with an iPhone 16 in hand, I have no Screen Time limits set up whatsoever.

For me, Screen Time is just too easy to bypass. The concept works best when you’re setting it up for someone else (like your child), as you hold the keys to unrestricted access, but trying to apply those restrictions to yourself feels moot when you’re in the driver’s seat. Unless you change your behaviour in how you interact with your phone and the apps therein, the cycle is doomed to repeat itself.

I used to get irritated with myself if I wasted a good 30 minutes doomscrolling over nothing, but now that I’m a dad, I’m suddenly aware of the fact that my daughter, being delightfully inquisitive, is now watching my every move. This is a habit that I do not want her to pick up. To that end, I think that Google’s Pause Point, which is set to appear in the next big Android update, can fix my mindset.

Why Pause Point feels so important

For those not in the know, Pause Point takes a different approach to smartphone use, instead acting as a barrier that pops up any time you want to access an app that’s known for being a time sink. When it appears, users are encouraged to take 10 seconds to partake in a breathing exercise and to consider why they feel the need to use the app in the first place.

As someone who took up meditation and mindful breathing during the pandemic via the Calm app, I know firsthand how helpful this practice can be in centring yourself in moments when you’re on autopilot and your instinct is to just open up your phone and scroll aimlessly as a means of passing the time.

If, after the moment of reflection, you recognize that there is a genuine need to open the app in question (maybe you need to respond to a message from a friend), then Pause Point lets you set a quick timer so that you don’t get too sucked in. Much like with Screen Time, I’m less enthusiastic about this particular aspect of Pause Point, but what really gives the feature a leg up is how it steers you to use a more fulfilling app.

In one of the images shared by Google at The Android Show 2026, Pause Point is shown to suggest alternative apps like Play Books and Mellow Mindspace. It’s such a simple concept, but it’s a great reminder of how, under the right circumstances, our smartphones can be conduits to learning and self-improvement.

Apple’s next steps and other mindful tech

Apple is already halfway there in the fight to promote more mindful smartphone use, as it has one of the best reading apps in the game: Apple News.

My subscription to Apple News+ and the ability to get lost in tons of great magazines filled with thought-provoking articles are two of the reasons why I’ve stayed with iPhone for so long, and I utilize a massive Apple News widget on my homescreen to try and catch my attention before social media does.

If Apple could bring about its own version of Pause Point, then, in tandem with the revamped Screen Time app, it could have one of the best systems out there when it comes to promoting healthier habits among its users. I just hope that, unlike the much-rumored iPhone Ultra foldable, this isn’t something we have to wait years for.

As a side note, even with all of these guardrails set up, it’s still worth having periods of separation from your smartphone during the day, and I have a few other devices on my person that help to keep those breaks intact.

My go-to device here is the Kindle Paperwhite, as there really isn’t a better antidote to the digital world than getting lost in a good book. The device’s E Ink display is far easier on the eyes than the blue-light-emitting screens of our phones, tablets and laptops.

On the productivity front, the reMarkable Paper Pro Move is perfect for parsing through ideas or writing out your to-do list without getting distracted by the usual barrage of incoming notifications. This miniature digital notebook also uses an E Ink display, but it brilliantly recreates the feeling of using pen and paper, with the modern convenience of having your doodles saved digitally so that you can access them at any time.

If you want to go one step further, here’s how one member of the TechRadar Pro team managed to construct a virtually ‘distraction-free’ work-from-home setup.

8. We picked our favorite World Cup tech

Yes, the World Cup has officially kicked off, but it isn’t too late to fine-tune your setup. Far from it — with over a month of soccer to go, we’ve rounded up everything you need for a successful tournament at home.

From our dream watch party setup to soundbar upgrades and the best World Cup tech deals, you won’t be short of ways to upgrade your viewing experience. And once that’s all sorted, you can dive into our ultimate World Cup watching guide for the lowdown on how to catch every match, from anywhere in the world.

• Read the full story: The TechRadar guide to World Cup 2026

7. Ocarina of Time was reborn

Closing out gaming’s week-long celebration that is Summer Game Fest and the showcases surrounding it, Nintendo’s Direct showcased an exciting mix of trailers, which included a tease for a The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on the Nintendo Switch 2.

Little has been revealed so far beyond child Link’s design, and hints at full voice acting as the Great Deku Tree is heard narrating the intro like he does at the beginning of the N64 game.

Perhaps best of all, the trailer ended with a release year: 2026. So we won’t be waiting too long to get this Zelda game in our hands and find out if this is the series’ Resident Evil 2 Remake moment, as many hope it will be.

• Read the full story: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2

6. Trump Phone not ‘made in America’

To probably no one’s surprise — after serious delays, changing promises, and accidentally doxxing its buyers — the Trump Mobile T1 phone has been taken apart by iFixit, and it turns out the “American-proud design” is just a gold-skinned HTC U24 Pro, aka a Taiwanese phone launched in 2024.

In fairness, it does boast a couple of tweaks. The design has been adapted with a new camera bump shape, and the battery is a little larger at 5,000mAh battery — up from 4,600mAh — though it only offers 30W charging rather than the HTC original’s 60W.

iFixit notes that markings on the phone say it’s “assembled in the USA”, which is notably different from being “made in America,” which comes with some very specific FCC requirements that the Trump Mobile phone ironically doesn’t seem to meet.

The teardown company puts it best: “against all expectations, the T1 is actually well priced when compared to the equivalently specced U24 Pro, and the only things you give up are the 60W fast charging and your dignity."

Read the full story: Trump Phone unmasked as a 'gold-painted HTC U24 Pro'

5. Valve abandoned physical gift cards

It’s bad news for PC gamers on Steam this week, as Valve announced it will no longer be restocking physical Steam gift cards. Why? Because scammers are taking advantage of consumers.

This isn’t exactly a new occurrence; Steam scams have been around for years. However, Valve clarifies it’s effectively been forced to end restocks of physical gift cards, as “scammers have adapted”, even after it has actively worked with retailers and law enforcement to foil scams.

Physical gift cards are an excellent gift option for the less gamer-savvy to give their PC gamer loved ones, and can be useful for parents to top up their child’s Steam account with funds without pairing a credit card to it. However, with them gone, digital Steam gift cards will be the only option, as soon as stock runs out across multiple retailers — and one can only hope that scammers don’t end up forcing Valve to restructure digital gift cards as well.

Read the full story: Valve is officially done with Steam physical gift cards

4. Philips launched a virtual skylight

Philips unveiled a new ceiling light dubbed the ‘Philips Skylight’, designed to mimic the effect of natural daylight for indoor use, blending advanced LED and Philips’ NatureConnect technologies. Starting at 499.99 euros (about $580 / £430), the ceiling light comes in four different models and will be available later this month in most regions. It’s coming to the US in September.

Each variant of the Philips Skylight comes with a slim ceiling profile for mounting, a remote control, five preset lighting scenes, and Philips’ Day Rhythm tool, which automatically adjusts color temperature and brightness throughout the day. But despite its slew of features, it’s not Philips Hue.

This means that, unfortunately, it doesn’t connect to Wi-Fi or work with Matter over Thread, so you can't integrate it into your existing smart home setup, and you’ll have to use the included remote to control it manually.

• Read the full story: Philips just launched a new ceiling light that looks like a skylight

3. Apple revealed some major software surprises

Siri AI (see no.1 below) was the undoubted star of Apple’s WWDC event this week, but the software showcase revealed hundreds of other upgrades for iPhones, Macs, Apple Watches and more. And not all of them went down well.

You can read our pick of the best features coming to iPhones in iOS 27, or the macOS 27 highlights below (in entry no.2). But there were some notable surprises too, including the next version of watchOS dropping support for some recent models and Apple controverisally embracing generative AI in Photos.

Apple also went very hard on boosting parental controls at the event — leaving us with a sense that it had one eye on child safety, and another on increasingly demanding government regulators.

• Read the full story: 17 things we learned at WWDC 2026 — Siri's getting a big AI makeover, Golden Gate is the next macOS, Liquid Glass is changing, and more

2. macOS 27 named Golden Gate

Tim Cook's final WWDC as Apple CEO gave us a glimpse of the future of its software, including the upcoming macOS 27 build — called Golden Gate. Unlike previous years, however, it’s not the most exciting.

There are Liquid Glass and other design tweaks that’ll make your Mac feel more usable, plus there’s a new and improved search to help you locate just about anything on your machine. There are also some performance enhancements, with apps said to feel more responsive, and of course, there’s the debut of Siri AI, more on that below.

While not the flashiest update, it’s a solid upgrade from the looks of things, though if you aren’t a fan of AI, it might feel like a downgrade.

• Read the full story: macOS 27 Golden Gate announced at WWDC 2026

1. Siri’s AI upgrade landed

It was a long time coming with at least one false start, but the new Siri that’s already in some people's hands, thanks to the iOS27 Dev Beta, which arrived with the WWDC Keynote, is the Siri Apple promised us in 2024 and more.

Sure, Apple is basically playing catch-up with OpenAI and Google, but in what may be looked back on later as one of the canniest moves in this AI race, Apple has adopted Google Gemini’s best models and crafted something new. Siri AI and the Apple Intelligence updates feel at once familiar and yet like a totally Apple experience. Yes, it even makes photo-realistic fake images.

• Read the full story: I tried Siri AI on the iPhone, Mac, and iPad

Test yourself on last week's biggest tech news

All caught up with this week’s tech news? Why not test yourself on last week’s seven biggest tech stories to see how good your memory is? Take the quiz below.

We’re only a few days out from Apple’s jam-packed WWDC 2026 keynote, and while Siri AI has taken center stage, each of the platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS — has a treasure trove of updates that we’re all beginning to learn more about.

And beyond the headline AI push, Apple is quietly continuing to turn Wallet into something much bigger than a place to store tickets and cards. It’s increasingly becoming a real-time, dynamic layer for travel, events, and now theme park experiences — and that shift is about to get a lot more visible.

Just as Disney World adopted Live Activities on the iPhone in 2025, later this fall it’s going to adopt one of the most meaningful new Wallet features Apple is shipping with iOS 27. That's support for Apple Wallet’s enhanced keys feature, which turns passes into dynamic, updateable credentials rather than static tickets.

Wallet is getting a host of updates with iOS 27, many of which you can try right now in the developer beta, but it’ll fully ship this fall (think September). You’ll be able to use Visual Intelligence to easily split a bill just by showing a receipt to the camera — or pulling one up in Photos — and then automatically send requests via Apple Cash, create your own passes, and use a much easier-to-use Apple Pay sheet when checking out.

Apple Wallet’s enhanced keys feature, though, is what Disney is adopting as an update to the current MagicMobile experience.

In its present form, MagicMobile has been a way to add your park ticket — either a single-day, multi-day, or annual pass — to Apple Wallet. That made it pretty seamless to enter any of the parks at Disney World — Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, EPCOT, or Hollywood Studios — by just tapping your iPhone or Apple Watch at the gate.

Now, though, Wallet is set to go a step further beyond just being a digital ticket holder for Disney World. You’ll be able to see more of your itinerary directly within the Wallet app when you tap your Disney MagicMobile pass. That includes park reservations for the day (and future visits), Lightning Lane redemptions you’ve booked, special ticketed events (like after-hours), dining reservations, and even upcoming trips — all surfaced directly in Wallet.

Because this is built on Apple’s enhanced key system, the pass itself becomes dynamic. Instead of being simply a ticket, it can update itself in real time as your plans change.

Better yet, thanks to continuity features across iOS and watchOS, Wallet will automatically suggest your pass when you approach a Disney World park, making it even easier to badge right in without digging through apps or screens.

You’ll still initially add the pass to your Apple Wallet via the MyDisneyExperience app, which is also where you’ll make park reservations, Lightning Lane selections, dining bookings, and purchase tickets for special events.

But once that’s set up, if someone in your party is managing reservations within the MyDisneyExperience app and you’re linked to their plans, those updates will automatically sync to your MagicMobile pass on your iPhone. It’s a strong example of how Apple and Disney are using enhanced keys to make passes genuinely responsive.

MagicMobile, since its launch, has been a handy tool for Disney guests. If you haven’t invested in a MagicBand or MagicBand+ — Disney’s wearables for park entry, ride access, PhotoPass taps, and enable some epic immersive experiences — your iPhone or Apple Watch can do the same job. And if you’re staying at a Disney hotel on property and have linked a payment card, you can also pay for merchandise and food throughout the parks and resorts by tapping MagicMobile.

The ability to surface a more detailed itinerary inside Wallet takes that experience a step further. It turns the app into a real-time trip companion, and it’s a strong early example of how Apple’s enhanced keys could expand beyond hotels and transit into full-scale hospitality and resort ecosystems.

Disney World won’t be the only location adopting this either. Resorts World Las Vegas is also expected to support it at launch when iOS 27 formally ships later in 2026, hinting at a broader push to make Wallet a core part of travel and venue access going forward.

Disney World is also in the midst of updating its MyDisney Experience app for iOS with a quest to make it simpler — search will be getting an enhanced experience with portions of it powered by AI, and a more intuitive layout that should make it much simpler to book various reservations and add-ons for trips that you have.

We're expecting to see those roll out in the coming weeks and months, so they'll likely arrive alongside this enhanced MagicMobile experience — it's all about simplicity, and that's something to get behind. If you're interested in other features arriving with iOS 27, check out our roundup of 21 additions here.

• macOS 27 Golden Gate has fixed menu icons on your Mac
• Menus are no longer stuffed to bursting with unnecessary icons
• That makes it much easier to find things at a glance

Apple’s macOS Tahoe operating system came in for its fair share of criticism, particularly when it came to design decisions. One of the most controversial concerned the way it used icons in menus, but it now appears that macOS 27 Golden Gate introduced at Apple’s WWDC 2026 event has backtracked completely — much to the relief of long-suffering Apple fans. And it has big implications for anyone who wants a better experience of using their computer.

The problem in macOS Tahoe was that app menus were stuffed full of icons, making it very difficult to tell the difference between menu items at a glance. In macOS 27, that’s been scrubbed entirely, as noticed by programmer Nikita “Tonsky” Prokopov, with most menus now containing only a smattering of icons.

Now, only certain menu items have icons next to them, with others remaining simple text entries. That restores the menu design to the way it used to be and greatly reduces the visual clutter in macOS menus, reducing the work it requires to tell menu options apart.

As well as the design change, Prokopov noticed that Apple has also updated its guidelines for third-party designers, reminding them to “use menu items sparingly and with purpose.” Icons should be used to “highlight the most common actions and key features of your app,” Apple says. If a menu item doesn’t fit an existing icon, it probably shouldn’t be used.

Better late than never

Menu design might seem like a pretty niche gripe, but it can have a big impact on how you use your computer.

If you’re having to analyze fistfuls of icons every time you open a menu, it slows you down and can cause frustration. The entire purpose of an icon is to quickly convey meaning — if a menu is overflowing with icons, an icon’s meaning is quickly lost among the sea of competing visual elements. It’s one small thing, but it taps into a broader picture: good design makes using a product effortless; bad design makes it infuriating.

The situation was so bad in macOS Tahoe that it left prominent Apple commentators livid. Influential blogger John Gruber, for example, called macOS Tahoe’s menu icons “glaringly inconsistent and often utterly inscrutable.” Respected macOS developer Rogue Amoeba called them “infuriating.”

This is not the first time Apple has had icon trouble. Both macOS Tahoe and iOS 26 came with transparent icons that obliterated your ability to tell icons apart at a glance. It felt like Apple didn’t understand the basic principles of good design — and this is the company that’s meant to be a global design leader.

For me, the worst part of all this is that Apple’s menu design in macOS Tahoe broke its own rules. As pointed out by Prokopov, Apple’s Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines from way back in 1992 said that menus chock-full of icons could “overload the user.” And yet it still went ahead and ignored its own advice in macOS Tahoe anyway, often reusing the same icons for different menu items, sometimes right next to each other.

It all contributed to my despairing feeling that macOS Tahoe’s visual language was far worse than I initially realized. Under now-departed design chief Alan Dye, it seemed that Apple naively thought design meant taking something average and painting it in pretty colors, functionality be damned. In other words, exactly the kind of shallow thinking that Apple founder Steve Jobs railed against in the past.

Yet with macOS 27 fixing its menu icons and Alan Dye out of the way, things are looking up. Putting things right in your Mac’s menus might be a small step, but it suggests that Apple is starting to remember why good design makes everything better for its users. As Gruber put it, “it’s proof that the rot has been rooted out of Apple’s software design team.”

• Apple’s Walkie Talkie feature seems to be missing from watchOS 27
• It lets you chat to a companion via your Apple Watch
• Users have reported it’s nowhere to be seen in the first watchOS 27 beta

When Apple announces new software, as it did at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8, the usual procedure is that the company adds new features. But this time, eagle-eyed sleuths have noticed that an enjoyable feature has been removed from watchOS 27 — and there’s no indication that it’s coming back.

The feature in question is called Walkie Talkie, and it lets you raise your wrist and chat with another connected Apple Watch user. It’s a fun little way to communicate with other people and can be especially entertaining for younger children.

Yet it appears that Walkie Talkie is entirely absent from the watchOS 27 developer beta that Apple recently released. Although Apple hasn’t made any official announcement on this topic, Walkie Talkie appears to be missing from the first watchOS 27 beta.

Users have taken to social media to voice their disappointment, with user ra4oasis lamenting: “Well that sucks. My son and I use it all the time.” User Loupetron_Primal, meanwhile, explained the usefulness of the feature: “My best friend and I live in a split-level apartment. He’s upstairs and I’m downstairs. We’ve used this feature for years instead of shouting.”

A sadly neglected feature

While I can’t say that I’ve been a frequent user of Walkie Talkie, it’s had its moments over the years that I’ve owned an Apple Watch. It’s a great retro throwback and has genuine utility for those times when you don’t need a full-on phone call or text conversation.

Yet Apple has barely given it a second glance since launching Walkie Talkie in 2018. It’s had no significant updates in the years since, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that many Apple Watch users don’t even know it exists. That suggests this could be a deliberate app retirement from Apple rather than a mistake or oversight.

As well as that, Walkie Talkie has been the subject of complaints and criticism over its occasional unreliability. On Reddit, for example, user nate390 argued that it was always a little flawed: “It was a really nice idea, but in my experience, it didn’t work well. Well, it did when both parties were on cellular, but not so much when one or other end was connected to an iPhone via Bluetooth.” With that in mind, perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised to see it fail to make the cut in watchOS 27.

Still, it’s disappointing that this feature has apparently been removed entirely — perhaps Apple felt it wasn’t worth the effort to fix it up. While there’s a small chance that Apple could change course before watchOS 27 launches to the public in the fall, don’t bet the farm on it.

Child accounts for Apple devices aren’t new, but at WWDC 2026, Apple made a big push into child safety, announcing various new and redesigned features that parents can make use of to keep their kids safe.

But these features don’t come at the expense of flexibility, as parents will be able to customize their child’s experience and access according to their needs and preferences.

These features and improvements will be rolling out with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 later this year, and we’ve detailed them below.

1. Ask to Browse

Apple had already solved the problem of kids downloading apps and making in-app purchases with the Ask to Buy feature, which requires parental approval for any of that. But now, the company is adding a similar tool for the internet called Ask to Browse.

With this, if you choose to enable it, your child will have to get parental permission before browsing new sites in Safari. So, rather than simply blocking unsuitable content, you can go a step further and only grant permission for specific sites.

2. Allowed apps

When you first set up a child account, you’ll be able to customize exactly which pre-installed apps the child will have access to.

You’ll be able to either choose specific individual apps, what Apple considers “essentials”, or a recommended set. Then, if they ever want to access others, they’ll need parental permission first.

This essentially extends the Ask to Buy feature to apps that are already on the phone, giving you total control.

3. Controlled communication

Apple is also making it easier for parents to control who their kids can talk to over Messages, FaceTime, and through the Phone app, with a requirement for kids to ask permission before talking to anyone new.

Plus, Communication Safety — a tool that already blurs nudity when detected in Messages and FaceTime calls — will soon also block gore and violent content when it’s detected in shared images and videos.

4. Time Allowances

With Time Allowances, parents will be able to set time limits for specific types of apps, such as ‘entertainment’, ‘games’, and ‘social media’, with different allowances for each category. And the feature also includes guidance based on expert research to help give suggestions on how long the limits should be set to according to a child’s age.

Additionally, you'll be able to set daily schedules to restrict the apps a child has access to at certain times of the day.

5. A Screen Time redesign

The Screen Time interface is also being redesigned so that it will provide an at-a-glance overview of how much time a child is spending on their device and which apps are being used most.

From Screen Time, you’ll also be able to make adjustments to app access with a tap, making managing and adjusting screen time limits easier.

We've published a deep dive into Apple's new Screen Time redesign elsewhere on TechRadar, if you're interested in learning more.

• Siri AI is getting a new gesture in iOS 27
• It’s taking over the well-established Notification Center gesture
• That breaks 15 years of muscle memory and may be hard to get used to

When Apple introduced Siri AI at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8, it understandably wanted to make its AI-enhanced virtual assistant become a key part of people’s everyday lives. But in doing so, it looks like the company has taken a step that could annoy a significant portion of its user-base.

That’s because invoking Siri AI involves a new gesture: you swipe down from the top of your iPhone’s screen. Well, it’s new for Siri, as swiping down on your iOS display previously launched the Notification Center. That means users of the best iPhones could be left frustratingly confused after they update to iOS 27.

The iOS Notification Center is where you see and interact with all your alerts on your iPhone. Apple has used the swipe-down gesture for the Notification Center since 2011, meaning we’ve had 15 years of training to reinforce this gesture. Having Siri AI take over this swipe movement is going to take some getting used to, if it does indeed make it into the final version of iOS 27.

The Notification Center hasn’t been banished entirely — in iOS 27, you’ll be able to load it up by swiping downwards from the top-left corner of your display. Thankfully, that gesture isn’t used by any other iOS feature, so we’re not going to be left with a cascading set of muscle memory disruptions. But it’s still something that a lot of people won’t be familiar with.

The new order

While I understand Apple’s desire to make Siri AI as prominent as possible, I anticipate I’m going to make plenty of mistakes swiping in the wrong place until I get used to the new arrangement. After all, I’ve had an iPhone since the days of the iPhone 3GS, meaning I’ve gone through those full 15 years of swiping down to get the Notification Center. Undoing that kind of habit isn’t always easy.

As well as that, swiping down from the top-left corner is an entirely new action, as no other feature currently occupies that space. It’s not like I’ll be used to interacting with that side of the screen from past experience.

Still, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from Apple, it’s that its gestures are incredibly intuitive and can be learned with very little effort. When the iPhone X came along in 2017 and changed not just one gesture but the entire way you used iOS, it only took me a day or two to feel entirely comfortable with the new arrangement. I’ve got my fingers crossed for similar good luck this time around.

And besides, if Siri AI proves to be even half as impressive as Apple implied at WWDC, I’ll be happy to have it in such a prominent place on my iPhone. The Notification Center isn’t going away — it’s just having to make way for the new kid on the block.

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.

• Apple delivered exactly what users wanted at WWDC 2026
• Almost half of 1,500+ TechRadar readers wanted more AI features
• iPadOS, watchOS and visionOS all saw marginal updates

Now that Apple's annual developer keynote has wrapped and we've digested all the major updates from WWDC 2026, did Tim Cook deliver what users actually wanted to see? Based on 1,529 responses to a poll we ran last week, the answer is a resounding 'yes'.

Nearly half of the TechRadar readers who voted in our 'What we expect to see at WWDC 2026' poll (see some of the results below) told us that artificial intelligence (AI) — to be clear, I mean machine learning, not the sentient kind — was the number one update they most wanted.

Combining the results of the poll across our articles and social media profiles (680 readers cast their vote via our WhatsApp channel), we found that 47% were most excited for a new AI-powered Siri and various Apple Intelligence upgrades.

Of course, given that many of us had already been waiting for Siri to get an AI boost since 2024, a lot of the rumors leading up to the keynote strongly suggested that this was the year that Apple would finally deliver, making the announcement largely expected but no less fulfilling.

After such a long wait, many were pleased that most of the 75-minute-long keynote was dedicated to unveiling new AI tools being rolled out to its ecosystem. Most of these updates are coming to iPhone users, which is great news for the 42% of readers who most wanted to see new upgrades in iOS 27.

From the new Siri AI to a Liquid Glass fix that finally lets you adjust the opacity, we've rounded up our favorite new iPhone features coming to your phone in iOS 27, and it's a notable list of handy tools. Of the several new features we've highlighted, let us know which new iOS 27 update you're most looking forward to trying out when the software launches in September by voting in the poll below.

What were you least excited to see at WWDC?

Leading up to WWDC 2026, TechRadar readers confirmed to us that they were least interested in hearing about what updates were planned for iPad, Apple Watch and Vision Pro devices, with all three seeing under 8% in votes from our pre-show barometer poll.

Outside of the integration of AI and the latest updates coming to iPhones, it appears there just wasn't as much appetite for the rest of the brand's product lineup. It seems like Apple already knew this too, because it didn't waste any valuable time focusing on the minor software enhancements it's made to these platforms.

Instead, it was macOS 27 that saw the biggest refresh outside of the iPhone, with the rollout of macOS Golden Gate, which is getting most of the main features coming to iOS 27, including the Liquid Glass adjuster, better Search, improved parental controls, Siri AI, and the new AI image generator app, Image Playground.

All in all, Apple largely delivered on exactly what most of our readers wanted to see. Tim Cook finally made good on overdue promises and didn't drag out his last WWDC with minor watch face updates and niche spatial computing features that most of us can't use. Did Apple do enough this WWDC? Let us know in the comments below.

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.

As artificial intelligence (AI) worms its way further and further into our daily lives, one increasingly popular way to edit photos is to use AI to help adjust your images in ways that would normally be impossible after the fact.

Yet this is also a deeply contentious subject among photographers, as it blurs the lines between reality and fiction. If you can go back in time to shoot an image from a different angle, for example, why not just go the whole hog and drum up something entirely artificial?

Apple has decided to enter this swirling storm with the iOS 27 updates it showed off at WWDC 2026, and one feature in particular has piqued my interest.

Apple calls it Spatial Reframing. The idea is that you can load up a photo whose composition is not quite to your liking, then use AI to adjust its angle and framing to get the result you wish you’d captured the first time around.

Instead of messing up a once-in-a-lifetime moment or taking multiple photos in the hope that one is right, you just need to shoot once and edit later if necessary. Not only might that help improve my images, but it could also free up storage space on my devices and in the cloud. It could be just what I’ve been needing to take my iPhone photography up a notch.

Ending a bad old habit

Here’s how Spatial Reframing works. When you tap the Edit button on an image in the Photos app, there’s a new Tools button on the right-hand side. Tap it, then select Reframe. Once Apple Intelligence has analyzed your picture, you can touch and drag it to adjust its framing and perspective. The feature also lets you zoom in and out and will generatively infill content where needed.

There are other AI image-editing tools in iOS 27 too, including improved Clean Up capabilities and an Extend option that can generate additional content around your subject to expand the photo’s dimensions.

Those new tools look interesting, but it’s Spatial Reframing that could be the most useful of the bunch for me.

You see, I’m one of those people who are never entirely satisfied with the images they capture. Whenever I line up my iPhone to take a photo, I end up snapping several from different angles, just in case I look back later and decide my original framing was off.

As you can imagine, this fills up my storage space fast and makes sorting through my pictures a chore. I don’t want to miss a moment thanks to poor composition, but I also don’t like the burden it puts on me and my storage. Not to mention the extra cost of needing a more capacious iCloud library to accommodate everything.

But with Spatial Reframing, I might finally be able to let go of that bad old habit and just settle for a single shot at a time, content in the knowledge that I can go back later and reframe my photos if anything appears to be off. That’s the kind of AI boost I can get behind.

A controversial move

That said, Spatial Reframing certainly isn’t without its critics. AppleInsider, for example, said it has the potential to create “nightmare fuel” and isn’t quite ready for prime time.

YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss, meanwhile, had his own reservations, saying: “You’ve already got a perfectly fine photo there of your two real children. Why would you turn that into a fake AI image that never happened just to make the angle more aesthetic?”

And I can understand why some people are reluctant to embrace any kind of AI intrusion into photography. Apple seemed to be aware of that at WWDC 2026, promising that it has a “deep respect for the craft of photography” and that its tools would “help photographers enhance their images in ways that respect the original moment.”

But how true is that when you’re changing an image into something it never was in the first place? Removing small distracting aspects from a photo is one thing — after all, photographers already do this by taking multiple snaps and combining them into one, obliterating pesky crowds and photobombers in one fell swoop — but reshooting a picture from an angle that you were never standing at might feel like it’s leaning too far into artificiality for a lot of people.

Me? I don’t mind it so much because my goal isn’t to pass off my images as something they’re not. I’m not about to use AI to edit an image and then enter it into a competition or present myself as a more competent photographer than I actually am.

Instead, I want to use this tool to help cut down on unnecessary images and ensure my pictures come out the way I intended, even if I didn’t notice a small error in the original composition.

Sure, Spatial Reframing is not going to revolutionize my skills overnight. But if it can prevent me from feeling the need to waste time taking image after image throughout the day — and save me money on iCloud+ storage upgrades in the process — then that’s good enough for me.

• Apple Maps is getting a huge Flyover visual upgrade
• It will use Vision Intelligence and aerial imagery to create detailed 3D models of city landscapes
• It looks like Apple has also adopted Gaussian Splatting to help render its 3D models

Apple’s upcoming iOS 27 upgrade isn't just about fancy new AI upgrades like the new Siri voice assistant — but Apple Maps is also getting quite a noticeable revamp.

During its WWDC 2026 keynote, Apple took a moment to shine a light on the new visual upgrade for the Flyover tool in Apple Maps, which allows you to view over 350 global cities in 3D from a bird's eye perspective. In iOS 27, Flyover will display buildings and natural landscapes alike using a combination of aerial imagery and Apple’s own Vision Intelligence models to produce 3D views that are even more detailed.

Though Apple didn’t go into further detail, the images used in the WWDC presentation suggest that the company has also adopted Gaussian Splatting to create its 3D landscapes, a graphics technique that uses video footage as the foundation to build a 3D framework. The tool could really give Apple a huge leg-up over Google Maps, which still uses photogrammetry to generate its own 3D models.

It’s not a theory that’s completely out of the question; there are users out there who have also pointed this out after seeing the newly rendered imagery in Apple’s keynote (see below).

Flyover’s enhanced imagery is designed to bring out every visual aspect of Apple Map’s 3D aerial views, including the nitty gritty parts that go unnoticed. Speaking at WWDC, Vice President of OS Program Management, Stacey Ford, shared the following: “From beautiful architectural details to the shapes of individual trees, to the way light reflects off the glass of skyscrapers, you’ll see cities around the world like never before”.

The update is quite a big technical shift for Apple Maps, and will join other upgrades from macOS Golden Gate, to custom AirPods EQ adjustments in iOS 27. The only downside is that you’ll have to wait a bit to test out Flyover’s new look, as iOS 27 is expected to roll out publicly in September — but you can register as a developer and download the first iOS 27 beta now.

Although there’s still a few months left to wait, users have spotted signs that Apple is tinkering with Flyover ahead of the wider iOS 27 rollout.

When the announcement was shared to the r/AppleMaps community on Reddit, users flocked to the comments to share more theories. One user believes Apple is conducting a “weird rollout”, who says that switching to iOS 27 reverts previously-supported cities to low-quality satellite images, while newly-supported cities receive the visual upgrade.

From the user’s experience, they recall seeing a handful of US locations including San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and Phoenix revert to 2D, as well as international cities such as Sydney, Paris, and Stockholm. On the other hand, Vegas, London, Berlin, Barcelona, and others have been upgraded.

At the moment it’s still very much a guessing game, and Apple probably won’t provide further information until we get closer to the wider iOS 27 launch later this year. That said, Apple’s move from photogrammetry to Gaussian Splatting marks a big shift in digital map rendering, and now we’re just waiting for Google Maps to follow suit.

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.

• Passwords app in iOS 27 will automatically change weak and compromised passwords for you
• The feature improvement leans on Gemini-backed Apple Intelligence upgrade
• Apple shares fell 1.9% in the day following WWDC 2026

Apple is set to introduce a major improvement to its Passwords app in iOS 27, which will see the native password manager now be able to automatically change compromised passwords rather than just warning users about potential leaks.

The Passwords app already warned users of passwords that have appeared in a breach, or potentially weak passwords like reused login details, but the upcoming software also promises to fix them automatically.

By using AI, Apple promises to navigate password-change websites automatically, generate new passwords and update those credentials within the app, though it's worth noting it only works on eligible, supported platforms.

Apple Passwords app will soon automatically update passwords for you

Announced at the company's annual software keynote at WWDC 2026, Apple explained the system uses Apple Intelligence to complete the process – an underlying feature that also got an upgrade at the event.

Upcoming versions of Apple Intelligence, which process requests either on-device or securely via Private Cloud Compute, will be powered by new models that lean on Google's Gemini.

The upgrade will make changing passwords less of a chore, because physically changing them is often a source of friction for affected users.

However, minor improvements to the Passwords app generally reflect the entire WWDC experience, with Apple focusing on the three core pillars of platform improvements, trust and safety, and Apple Intelligence this year, ruling out any radical software changes.

Share prices have fallen around 1.9% since the announcement, reflecting broader disappointment around this year's software announcements.

Apple’s 2026 WWDC event promised some serious upgrades for Siri, macOS and parental controls.

Here at TechRadar our live WWDC 2026 coverage tracked everything the announcement included. If you need to catch up, we've summarized the 17 things we learned during the event.

And though we’ll continue covering all the on-device security upgrades, there’s still good reason to pick up a VPN subscription.

That’s where NordVPN comes in. NordVPN is the best VPN overall as well as our choice for the best VPN for iPhone, and with this deal you can now get it for an excellent price:

Do I still need a VPN if I have an iPhone?

Apple is keen to let its users know about its privacy and security credentials, such as offering users the opportunity to ask apps not to track their activity.

Apple has built a reputation as the ‘safer choice’ for those concerned with cybersecurity, with popular wisdom suggesting that iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks are less susceptible to data interception or malware than devices from rival brands.

However, there is one frontier that Apple can’t fully control, and that’s online privacy. Because accessing the internet depends on your ISP, public networks and companies outside of Apple’s purview, it can’t fully protect its users from online surveillance.

The best VPNs increase your digital privacy and shield your data from unwanted monitoring by ISPs. What’s more, NordVPN comes with a bevy of additional features to help keep you safe online.

While all three NordVPN plans offer a fast, reliable VPN with access to thousands of servers in the US and worldwide, the Complete plan adds advanced email monitoring, scam call filtering, an antivirus, and a dedicated secure search engine. Meanwhile, Prime adds insurance against identity theft (though its availability depends on your region).

Other VPN options

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And if you're an iPhone user but want to prioritize your Windows laptop, ExpressVPN is currently our pick for the best VPN for Windows users thanks to its blazing fast connection speeds on Windows devices.

• Apple Music's iOS 27 upgrades include new artist pages and performance upgrades
• The platform has yet to roll out highly-requested functions such as continuity tools and social features
• The longer Apple Music goes without them, the better chance Spotify has at snatching its users

Tim Cook took what may be his final bow as Apple CEO at the company’s WWDC 2026 event, and there’s lots for iPhone users to look forward to with iOS 27, including upgrades to Apple Music.

In addition to the announcement of Apple’s next-gen Siri upgrade, Siri AI, the company is rolling out a handful of upgrades to its music streaming platform. It hasn’t been long since Apple last updated the Apple Music UI, but its Liquid Glass look divided subscribers.

One of the most notable new changes to the UI is a new look for artist pages, which now places the ‘Play’ and information buttons in the center of the page under new name displays. The ‘Essentials’ carousel, which spotlights an artist’s popular albums, has also been changed and is now in a list form that doesn’t look as punchy, which is a bit of a design downgrade if you ask me.

Apple Music redesigned artist pages from r/AppleMusic

It’s not just Apple Music’s UI that’s had a bit of a nip and tuck; the platform is also getting some performance enhancements in iOS 27, starting with the Automix tool, which uses AI to beat-match songs and create seamless DJ-like transitions.

According to Apple, the company has improved its algorithms to make room for better transitions. That's quite a vague way to put it, but I assume this means it will perform more efficiently when creating transitions between songs of different genres — a pain point I experienced during my time testing it out. Additionally, Apple says it has upgraded start times for quicker playback, and the 'Now Playing' page will now load much faster.

Apple Music is allergic to continuity tools and social features

I’ll always welcome new design approaches and performance upgrades — I’ve been running into delayed playback times far too often recently. But once again, Apple has chosen to overlook the meaningful features users actually want.

Many Apple Music subscribers like to criticize rival platforms such as Spotify, but if they can agree on one thing, it’s that Spotify Connect destroys Apple Music on the continuity front. To this day, Apple Music users are still waiting for a similar feature, and it’s one of the tools, if not the tool, that will really bring Apple Music into line with its competitors. The fact that Apple has never even discussed such a feature only adds to the frustration.

The platform also faces scrutiny for the inconsistency of its features across devices, creating a far-from-seamless user experience. For example, Apple Music’s new live concert information and playlists and albums tabs are still missing from the Mac version.

Something I was patiently waiting for during WWDC was Apple’s official announcement of Playlist Playground, an AI-integrated playlist-making tool similar to Spotify’s Prompted Playlists. To my dismay, though, nothing was mentioned, even though we were expecting a wider roll out to be confirmed after Playlist Playground came arrived in beta in February.

Just like continuity tools, this feature would give Apple the perfect opportunity to not only match a popular Spotify feature, but give its users another reason to stick around. Apple Music has already won on the audio streaming quality and editorial fronts, but Apple now it needs to start paying close attention to how it can build social features that complement its ecosystem.

It’s been four months since Playlist Playground first appeared, but there’s still been no word from Apple on when it will finally open its doors to the public. We might see a reveal at Apple's iPhone launch event, which will likely be in September, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

• Apple's WWDC on June 8 contained several big announcements
• …including CarPlay updates for video streaming while the car is 'parked'
• You can now browse favorite videos from iPhone, on your CarPlay display
• It raises concerns, when a key reason for collision is failure to look properly (at the road around you)

Apple's just wrapped a busy WWDC event. At the conference on June 8, the Cupertino giant announced an AI-overhauled Siri, a long-awaited AirPods equalizer, AI-powered Apple Photos editing, and more — see our roundup of 17 things we learned at WWDC '26 for more.

But another piece of news was delivered to developers, so it kind of went under the radar. Apple has announced an update to CarPlay coming with iOS 27, which will likely be coming to iPhone users from September (though you can download the developer beta now). As well as upgrades to navigation and "voice-based conversation apps", the update will introduce video apps.

That's right: soon, you'll theoretically be able to watch Netflix TV shows on supported car screens (which is, of course, how the creators intended you to see them), or swipe through YouTube (or even TikTok) while you're waiting at the airport — or potentially even at a traffic light. What a joy. What a world we live in.

In an Apple Developer video explaining the changes, the brand's Car Experience Engineer, Chris Whitney, stated that people will only be able to use the feature "when they aren't driving" but later gave use cases wherein a vehicle could potentially be idling, rather than parked.

We've reached out to Apple for clarity on this, but the ability to beam videos to your car's display when your vehicle is turned on (albeit in park and unable to roll, for instance), makes me very cautious. Consider that "ineffective observation" of the roads around us while driving is regularly listed by solicitors as one of the top reasons for road collision incidents in the UK, where I reside, and I hope you can see my concern.

Roads could get more dangerous

Apple forbidding the playing of videos when a vehicle is actually moving is obviously intended to stop people focusing on the big game while they're barreling down a highway. But it's not enough.

As far as I can tell initially, there'd be nothing to stop you popping on some YouTube Shorts while you're waiting for the lights to turn red (other than the fact that few people watch YouTube Shorts) or queuing at a drive-thru. What I'm saying is, it may still be easy to watch videos with CarPlay when you, as a driver, are a threat to other people.

Distracted driving is a massive threat to road users; according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2024, over 3,200 people were killed and 315,000 injured from distracted driving. The agency repeatedly cites mobile phone use as major source of said distractions. I accept that tapping on your CarPlay screen is a step up from fiddling with your phone, but it's not a big step up — not in terms of how safely you're driving.

Crucially, road danger exists whether or not you're in motion on said road. Anyone who's had a professional driving lesson knows that you're taught to be aware of your surroundings when you're behind the wheel. I remember being drilled on all the angles to check before pulling out onto the road; you need to give it time and attention. And you need to keep both hands on the wheel.

In conclusion, you need to give the road your time and attention, not the screen in your car. You may be obsessed with the documentary about a Lego shop stealing $200,000 in Star Wars sets, but if you're streaming it in your vehicle when you should be watching the road, you're a risk.

And, if Apple does let you stream videos when you're on the road (waiting in traffic, idling at the airport, etc), you could miss an important change in light or situation, become flustered, and then be a huge risk to others as you rush to get going without checking your mirrors for bikes.

As you can tell from those stats I cited earlier, distracted driving isn't new, and I'm not claiming that Apple has introduced it. But it is encouraging it, with features like CarPlay video playback, which feels irresponsible. CarPlay should reduce distractions and safety concerns, not introduce them.

So, as someone who's frequently on, or near, the concrete, please don't use it! Roads are dangerous enough as it is, and if people are streaming videos in their car display instead of checking their angles, it'll only get worse.

When Apple talks about how it used Google's Gemini foundation models to build the all-new Siri, without using the Gemini app, it can start to sound like semantics. But a deep dive with the team that built the Siri we were promised almost two years ago quickly disabuses you of that notion.

"This is the amount of the Google assistant we use, which is none," said Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, on Monday, just hours after Apple finally unveiled the Siri we'd been promised two years ago during Monday's WWDC 2026 Keynote.

Wearing his trademark tight blue dress shirt, Federighi sat alongside Sebastien Marineau, VP Software at Apple, Amar Subramanya, VP, AI, at Apple, and Apple's VP of engineering, Mike Rockwell, on the small Developer Center stage, a relatively intimate setting compared to the vast outdoor Keynote venue situated just outside the vast Apple Park ring.

It was in this darkened hall, with outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook and his successor, John Ternus, looking on from front-row seats, that Federighi and company dug into the thorny architectural details of building a more personable, contextual, and deeply integrated Siri that spans the Apple ecosystem. They were, in a way, celebrating the late delivery of a promise but also reckoning with the reality of what the tumultuous past 24 months have wrought.

From a macro level, Siri is now a vast and complex system that includes one very powerful local, multi-model model and a series of even more powerful cloud-based ones that all live in some versions of Apple's Private Compute Cloud.

The models feature names like AFM Core, AFM Cloud Pro, and ADM Cloud Images. "Every model is a significant leap based on quality and operation compared to previous generation models," said Subramanya.

I was inclined to agree after seeing demos both during the architecture talk and later during one-on-one demos. Think of Siri AI and the Siri App as Siri unleashed.

Siri reborn

It has, it appears, full knowledge of your first-party Apple app capabilities and can quickly make the leap from a query in one app to the contextual information sucked right out of, say, Messages. It appears to know that the image of a month's worth of planned soccer games you just opened on your desktop is a schedule that it can add to your calendar.

It sees images on the desktop and through the camera. It remembers the context of a conversation and uses a more convincing voice to guide you through the most complex tasks. In a word, this Siri seems smart.

But Apple would not have gotten here without Google, and, it turns out, Nvidia.

Just how involved was Google? Apple makes no secret of its use of Google Gemini foundation models, but the scope of its involvement was thrown into stark relief by a schematic Federigi used to explain the inner workings of Siri's architecture.

A model collaboration

As you can see, there are boxes for all the new models and system components; all of them are color-coded, but with just two different colors: solid blue for Apple's own builds, and a sort of mix of blue and white for Apple and Google co-developed models. Every single model is co-developed. Apple's solo work is largely in what sits over all of this.

Here's how Apple explained the clockwork to us. The system starts with, naturally, speech recognition, which produces the query text. After that, it's the job of the all-important System Orchestrator to build a prompt and send it to the foundation models. It's also at this stage that Apple's system decides if the query will be handled within the large, 20 billion parameter AFM Core Advanced model (up from 3 billion on the current Siri model) or be sent to Apple's Private Cloud compute and one of the larger models, which includes AFM Cloud, AFM Cloud Pro, and ADM Cloud (for a diffiusion model for image generation).

A smarter way of parsing parameters

One of the big innovations here, and why Apple can have such a vastly large model on your iPhone, is in how it handles parameters. Normally, because each query can have many different requests and require a variety of parameters, all those parameters are loaded into memory at once to meet the demands. It's a huge strain on memory and battery life and, with 20 billion parameters on Apple's AFM Core Advanced model, simply not practical. So they built something called a "scarce model."

"Unlike the server models, what core advance does is it looks at the entire request, chooses the right set of parameters, and then locks them in for the entire request. And so you're not having to reload parameters with every token and this dramatically cuts down the cost of loading these parameters," said Subramanya.

Even though these models are co-built with the latest Gemini models and will be updated with future Google Foundation Model work, at no point in that pathway is Google Gemini taking the wheel.

Instead, Apple took the same approach it's taken for most of its innovation partnerships. It identifies the best-in-class component or technology and then has the partner build a bespoke version. In this case, the collaboration is, perhaps, richer, since Apple is co-building these models, but its interest in Google's AI capabilities stops short of the app client.

The customer experience is and should feel completely Apple.

Apple, Google and Nvidia, perfect together

The back end, or cloud side, is a far more collaborative effort than you might expect from Apple. For a company that's built its name on privacy and security, it's been forced to work with third-party partners to wrench their cloud offerings into secure spaces that satisfy both Apple and its customers' demands and expectations of privacy.

The idea of Private Cloud Compute (PCC), originally introduced with Apple Intelligence in 2024, is a cloud space big enough to accommodate models too large for on-device computation, while also replicating the privacy structure found on local devices. That's easier to do when you control all the servers, but in the new world of Siri AI, Apple has opened up PCC to Google and a new Apple Intelligence partner, Nvidia.

To run far more powerful models like AFM Cloud Pro, Apple needed "the latest technology from NVIDIA, and so we set out to extend private cloud compute to third-party cloud," explained Subramanya.

Nvidia was already working on something it called confidential compute, but it didn't meet Apple's stringent PCC criteria. "We set out to design this with Google as a collaboration," said Subramany. The solution comprises, in part, Nvidia GPUs and redundant security components from Intel and Google.

The moment of truth

In essence, Apple's Private Cloud Compute now lives on Nvidia and Google servers, but Apple execs insist, "Apple devices can only talk to software signed by Apple," meaning that if these systems do not have software signed and verified by Apple, Siri won't connect with them.

This is unquestionably a vastly different Siri than the one you might be using on your iPhone 17 Pro today, but it's also quite similar to what Apple demonstrated but did not deliver in 2024 or 2025. Federighi and company didn't rehash all the hurdles and false starts of the past 24 months, but VP of Engineering Mike Rockwell did offer a rare glimpse into what was clearly a pivotal moment.

"Last year, we had actually built a first version of this that was sort of incremental on top of the original Siri...and we had it working, but we didn't feel it was really delivering on the vision and the experience that we wanted to do, and so we also had a design which required much more extensive changes. And we decided to go with that. And so we went back, and we rebuilt Siri from the ground up," said Rockwell.

What's not clear from this is if this was the moment Apple realized it couldn't go it alone, it needed Google and its powerful Gemini models to fulfill its vision, but without somehow letting the Gemini experience take over.

Siri AI is that successful melding of Apple's original vision for artificial intelligence with, perhaps, the best generative models in the business. And like all the best consumer software experiences, you don't have to know how the sausage is made, just that it works exactly as Apple promised and you want it to.

We've been waiting a long, long time for Siri to get the AI glow-up it sorely needed, but at WWDC 2026, it finally happened: Siri AI is real.

That wasn't the only thing Apple announced at its annual developer conference, but it's fair to say that it was the main event, with more than half of the relatively short (only 75 minutes!) show dedicated to it.

Still, there were several other notable reveals both on stage and afterward. Here are the big things we learned.

1. Siri AI is the smarter, AI-powered Apple assistant we've been waiting for

It’s been a long two years, but we're nearly at the end of the winding road leading to Apple’s AI-powered, next-generation Siri — or at least we will be soon.

At WWDC 26, Craig Federighi ushered in Siri AI, an entirely next-generation personal assistant that delivers on what Apple originally set out to do at WWDC 2024, while adding some new tricks and a slightly updated look.

There’s a lot here to unpack — check out our first thoughts on the new Siri AI for more — but whatever you think of it, Siri AI is a big upgrade.

The assistant will now extend out from the Dynamic Island on the iPhone, creating a more integrated experience. Apple has also greatly expanded Siri’s world knowledge and contextual understanding, plus it's also multimodal: it can see what’s on your screen to gain broader context for a given request, and it can use your camera view as a set of eyes to help answer questions or respond to queries in real time.

That’s just scratching the surface. For instance, Siri’s voice has been updated to sound more expressive (see more on that below), and the assistant can now be customized to better suit your preferences.

Safe to say it took a while, but if you’ve already taken the leap and downloaded the Developer Beta, you can join the Siri AI waitlist now.

• READ MORE: Apple just gave 'Siri AI' its biggest upgrade ever — whether iPhone users asked for it or not

2. But Siri AI isn’t coming to the EU… because Apple says it needs to protect your privacy

The 27 EU countries won’t get Siri AI in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 because of the EU’s “extreme interpretation of the DMA [digital markets act]” that means that if it offers Siri AI’s features there that access your personal data (but process it on the device), it must also allow other AI tools on your iPhone to access your data too, but with no restriction on where that data goes (other than the EU’s data laws, of course).

Apple says it tried to create workarounds that balanced the EU’s aim for less lock-in with Apple’s aim of privacy, to no avail: “Apple designed a solution called Trusted System Agent — an intermediary that would allow virtual assistants to safely access the same features and capabilities as Siri AI for devices in the EU… The European Commission said no.”

• READ MORE: iOS 27 and Siri AI compatibility explained — confirmed device requirements for Apple's new software updates

3. You’d better buy a new device if you want the best version of Siri AI

The new Siri AI is going to quietly have two different flavors. The regular version is available on iPhone 15 Pro or later, iPad mini (A17 Pro) or later, iPad models with M1 or later, Mac with M1 or later, Apple Vision Pro, Apple Watch Series 10 or later, Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later, and Apple Watch SE 3.

However, Apple says that its “most powerful on-device model and the features it enables, like expressive voices and more advanced dictation”, are only available on super-new devices. That means iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPad (M4) or later with at least 12GB of memory, a Mac with an M3 or later with at least 12GB of memory, and Apple Vision Pro (M5).

All of this means that a lot of pretty recent and expensive devices are being left behind by Siri AI altogether, including the iPhone 17, iPhone 14 Pro, and the original Apple Watch Ultra. The brand-new MacBook Neo isn’t powerful enough for the best Siri model, either.

4. You can make Siri AI’s voice way less annoying…

…or more annoying, if you want! The point is that it’s now really customizable, in a way that rivals Alexa+ by letting you make your voice assistant your kind of vibe.

You can choose from five basic (and much more natural) voices, and then you can change the pace and expressivity within each of those voices.

Fast and simple expression for efficiency’s sake? No problem. Slower and more expressive because the kids like interacting with it? Go for it. It should help make you want to interact with Siri’s voice more — at least it would, if it were actually coming to Apple’s HomePod smart speakers…

5. Apple's also expanded its AI-powered photo editing chops

If you’re a fan of Clean Up in Apple Photos, you’re going to be pleased to know that Apple’s expanding its AI-powered photo tools… though it’s not a throw-anything-at-the-wall approach, as the design is that these tools respect the original photo.

Firstly, Clean Up will be faster and able to tackle larger removal jobs, and will sit alongside two new features. Extend will let you stretch the borders, and only the borders, of an exciting image. This can help you achieve a rule-of-thirds shot with a portrait or rebalance an image.

More intriguing is Spatial Reframe, which, with a pinch-to-zoom or a twist of your finger on the screen, lets you adjust a shot's perspective. It’s really neat, and the demo looks impressive, as it lets you adjust the camera's position after you’ve taken the shot.

6. All of which means that Apple’s changed its approach to AI and images

Before today’s upgrade to Siri AI and Apple Intelligence, Apple was pushing the line that its approach to AI images was unique. It told us it wanted to preserve the original moment when it came to photos, so it didn’t try to make any AI image generations or image edits look too realistic, and the images you could make with Image Playground looked like AI images, not real ones.

Now, with the new Apple Intelligence features, Apple seems to have abandoned that approach entirely, and with new features such as the Extend, Clean Up, and Spatial Reframing described above, it's letting you make AI enhancements to images that look very real indeed. Image Playground now also features the ability to create realistic images.

So why the switch? Well, maybe that now that Apple has had longer to get user feedback, it has realized that this is what people actually want from AI images, or maybe it’s that until it switched to its new Gemini-powered foundation models for its AI, it really didn’t have the ability to deliver this level of realism. Either way, it's a big change in approach.

7. Siri AI in Vision Pro gives us a glimpse of what Apple AI Glasses could be

One of the most interesting examples of using Siri AI was in Vision Pro, where the user could look at a floating virtual browser window with a shopping site and ask a question about how a product would fit into their life, and the system knew what they were looking at and could give a totally context-aware answer.

It’s thanks to the eye-tracking camera in the Vision Pro, and it’s easy to see this as being the long-term goal for the much-fabled Apple Glasses. Cameras on smart glasses right now see so many things at once; it’s not an elegant system to just ask a question about what you’re facing — you could actually be looking at 20 different things.

Combining cameras on the outside of the glasses with eye detection would mean that your eyes become a way of directing the AI to one specific thing — literally, your focus becomes the software’s focus.

We’re a long way from moving it out of goggles and into glasses, but it’s easy to see that this is the future… maybe.

8. The next macOS is… Golden Gate

Seeing what Apple’s crack marketing team comes up with as a name for the next version of macOS is now something we look forward to annually, and after a bit of a runaround between the team and Craig Federighi — including some excellent visuals— we finally learned that macOS 27 is called macOS 27 Golden Gate.

It will arrive with some changes to Liquid Glass, mainly a slider to adjust the overall transparency level (more on this below). This is good news, especially since on the Mac it could be a bit hit-or-miss in macOS 26.

As with the other platforms, Apple is also taking the opportunity to fine-tune a bunch of macOS features under the hood to make it feel a bit smoother. And as the name hints, there’s a really nice new wallpaper on the horizon. Lastly, Siri AI will be supported here on Macs — or at least those that can support it, of course.

• READ MORE: macOS 27 Golden Gate announced at WWDC 2026 — here's everything you need to know

9. Search on Apple devices is about to get much better

Apple's on-device search is getting a major overhaul for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, with a fully revamped experience in Spotlight, Photos, and Mail that should make it far easier to find what you're looking for.

The key, Apple says, is the 'device index' — essentially Apple's catalog of everything on your device, whether in Photos, Mail, or saved somewhere. This index has been made "more stable, more efficient and more comprehensive of content both old and new," Apple says, and that in turn should mean you get better results when you search — and that you get them more quickly.

It's a quality-of-life improvement rather than a big update, sure, but it's the kind of thing that Apple has traditionally excelled at getting right, so it's no bad thing in our eyes.

10. macOS 27 is the end for Intel Macs

As you might expect, Macs with Intel chips won't support Siri AI — but there's worse news still for owners of those devices: Apple confirmed that macOS Golden Gate is the first version of the software to work only on Apple Silicon.

Yes, it’s the end of an era for sure, with the announcement meaning that the clock is officially ticking down for the many, much-loved Intel Macs out there.

Apple will keep updating previous versions of macOS for a while with core security updates and basic maintenance, and macOS 26 in particular will get quite a few releases along these lines — but this will be it for new features, and we can expect Intel versions of software to stop being supported in many cases, too.

• READ MORE: Apple quietly kills off support for Intel Macs and MacBooks

11. AirPods are finally getting an EQ

It seems incredible that we’ve never been able to tinker with AirPods’ sound profile, given that they’re approaching 10 years old as a product. But a custom AirPods EQ is finally coming as an option in iOS 27.

You’ll be able to use a super-simple interface to adjust the frequencies, with a waveform on the screen, and you can play a song right from that interface as you’re changing things to hear instant results.

• READ MORE: AirPods are finally getting a custom EQ in iOS 27, this is not a drill!

12. Apple admitted it got it wrong on Liquid Glass (sort of)

Apple was very proud of itself when it launched its Liquid Glass design update last year, using superlatives such as "delightful", "elegant," and "beautiful" to describe it. Well, exactly a year later, it seems it wasn't quite so elegant or beautiful after all.

That's because iOS 27 and Apple’s other software updates will introduce a new slider that lets you adjust how transparent the Liquid Glass elements are, from completely clear to fully opaque.

Now, Apple didn’t actually say it had got it wrong the first time round with Liquid Glass; obviously not. Instead, it said that all users are different, and so it was offering the slider so that people could choose what worked best for them. But come on — a fully opaque Liquid Glass is not Liquid Glass. It's, I don't know… solid perspex or something. Still, if it makes iOS easier to use, then we won't complain.

• READ MORE: 7 new iPhone features coming to your phone in iOS 27 — from the new Siri AI to big Liquid Glass upgrades

13. Apple is taking online safety very seriously

Apple took a surprisingly large chunk of time out of its presentation to focus on parental controls, highlighting new tools that allow parents to manage which apps children can access, how long they can spend on different apps, and encouraging app developers to adopt tools it has developed to help keep kids safe online.

It also showcased new tools to protect children from messages from strangers and from explicit content, and Apple placed such importance on the topic that Tim Cook even used his closing remarks to discuss it yet again.

These announcements come in the wake of governments all over the world focusing on legislation designed to protect minors online, with this segment feeling like Apple proving it’s ready to proactively respond to parents' concerns rather than waiting to get pushed by laws.

14. Apple's Password app is about to get better still

Apple might be using its next-generation of Apple Intelligence to power one of the most useful features ever, and it will likely make you switch to the Passwords app if it works as promised.

It’s already a safe haven for all your usernames and passwords, and when the time comes to change the latter, the app easily creates a new one. It will even warn you when it might be time to update, for instance, if your password appears in a data breach.

Now, though, with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, the Passwords app will actually handle the step of changing the password for you on whatever service it’s for. We’ll need to see exactly how this works, but I've been dreaming of this for years.

15. tvOS is getting some small changes

Apple didn’t really mention tvOS in its keynote, but there are some changes coming to the Apple TV 4K. These include a bunch of speed improvements — including when launching apps, using Control Center, and connecting over AirPlay — plus a few smart home upgrades, including Thread 1.4 and on-device processing of HomeKit security camera footage.

There will also be a redesigned Podcasts app, support for Hi-Res Lossless in Apple Music (previously limited to the Lossless tier), and the ability to use AI to auto-generate subtitles for shows that don’t have them, which is one feature we’ve been hoping for for a few years.

Notably lacking from the list? Siri AI. It seems like it would be really useful, enabling you to ask all kinds of questions about movies you’ve seen, where you know an actor from, what kind of show you watch next… but there are rumors that a new Apple TV 4K is coming later this year. Perhaps that will have a beefier processor capable of running the new and smarter assistant.

16. But Home is missing out almost entirely (again)

Apple made a few soft-touch improvements to Apple Home, with grouped event notifications, searchable AI-generated summaries for security camera footage, and improvements to Shortcuts — but that was about it.

Did we get Siri AI for Home? We did not. Were we surprised? We were not. And unless we get new hardware in September, it seems unlikely we'll see any genuinely worthwhile updates to the platform now.

• READ MORE: Siri AI’s new voice customization could have trumped Alexa+, but scant HomeOS updates stall the win for Apple

17. Tim Cook signed off as CEO, but without much screen time

This was Tim Cook's final WWDC as CEO — and presumably his final Apple event, given that John Ternus will have taken over by September. It was therefore a little strange that he spent so little time on screen, with Craig Federighi and a cast of a thousand (just about) Apple employees instead taking us through the updates to Siri and iOS.

Nor did Ternus appear; this is perhaps not surprising, given that he's a hardware guy, but all the same, it felt like Apple missed an opportunity to mark the end of one era and the beginning of the next.

Again, there was plenty of that kind of thing around Apple's 50th birthday earlier this year, and maybe Cook (and Ternus) didn't want to take the focus away from Siri AI. And let's face it, he's always been more content to let Apple's devices and software do the talking, rather than hogging the limelight himself. Either way, it is the end of an era — and one that Ternus will have a tough job to surpass when it comes to success.

iOS 27 has been officially revealed — and if you're an iPhone owner, that means there's a very long list of software treats heading your way.

The final version of iOS 27 won't actually be released until September, but an early developer beta is available to download now and a public beta will likely follow in July.

But what exactly do you have to look forward to? I've been using iPhones since the 3GS (yes, I'm that old) and below are the seven biggest iOS 27 features that I'm looking forward to taking for a spin.

1. A new Siri AI

Yes, it's finally happening. Two years after Apple originally announced a more personalized version of Siri, a next-gen assistant called Siri AI is finally coming — well, as long as you live outside the EU and have a very recent iPhone.

Siri AI appears to be the conversational assistant we hoped to see back in 2024. Based on Apple's new Foundation Models (which were built with Google), it understands your "personal context" — so can answer questions by pulling information from across your messages, emails, photos, and more.

It'll also be available in a dedicated Siri AI app, which lets you go back to old conversations that it remembers, and you can also use iCloud to sync your conversations privately across devices. A Siri mode in the Camera app will also boost the iPhone's visual search — for example, letting you get nutritional info about your hastily-concocted dinner.

Unfortunately for those in the EU (which doesn't include the UK), Apple has said that Siri AI won't be available there due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA). But for the rest of us, it looks like iOS 27's biggest upgrade — the only downside is you'll need an iPhone 15 or newer to use it (and an iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air to use the version with expressive voices and more advanced dictation).

2. Liquid Glass finally gets a slider

If you're not a huge fan of Liquid Glass on iOS 26, we have good news — Apple has admitted that its critics had a point and has given us an opacity slider to adjust the effect to our liking.

The new slider will let you tweak how, well, glassy the effect is in areas like tabs and menus. Apple says it can go from "ultra clear" to "fully tinted" (which basically removes the effect).

Liquid Glass will also now apparently do a much better job of diffusing any content that's behind the effect, which should be a boon for readability.

3. The Passwords app can change your passwords for you

Here's a smaller iOS 27 update that could be one of its sleeper hits — the Passwords app will now be able to change weak or compromised passwords for you.

The app currently tells you if any of your passwords have been leaked or appeared in known security incidents. But rather than fixing those passwords manually, in iOS 27 you can tell the Passwords app to automatically change and update them to something that's strong and secure.

Apple says the feature will let you update the passwords on "eligible accounts", so it remains to be seen how wide that support is, but it certainly sounds like a potential time-saver.

4. Apple Photos gets new editing tricks

Apple Photos has slowly been catching up with Google's photo editing trickery on Android — and iOS 27 will see it take another solid step forward with three features that you'll find in its 'Tools' section (above).

The first, Clean Up, already exists but is apparently getting a "big upgrade" that will help you remove distractions in a more realistic way. As its name suggests, the 'Extend' tool also lets you expand your photo in the same way as Photoshop, using generative AI to fill in the details.

Lastly, there's an even more fancy tool called 'Spatial Reframing', which uses on-device spatial models to help you tweak the perspective. It's a bit like 'Spatial Scenes' from iOS 26, which let you convert 2D photos into 3D, only you get to save the perspective change into your photo.

In a slight dig at Google, Alok Deshpande (Apple's Director of Camera and Photos Software Engineering) said: "At Apple, we have a deep respect for the craft of photography, and so our goal for bringing AI into the Photos app is to help photographers enhance their photos in ways that respect the original moment". Touché, Apple.

5. Speed improvements

If you've been frustrated with how sluggish iOS 26 feels on your iPhone, particularly if you're on an older model, then iOS 27 could improve things.

According to Apple, iOS 27 will feel much snappier than its predecessor thanks to range of bug fixes and performance boosts. It claims that app launches will be up to 30% faster, AirDrop transfers will be 80% quicker, and loading new snaps in Photos will be 70% faster.

These boosts, and others across Wi-Fi and cellular connections, will likely vary depending on which model you're running (iOS 27 compatibility goes back to the iPhone SE (2020) and iPhone 11 series), but it's promising news for those on older devices.

6. A Screen Time overhaul

Apple's built-in parental controls on the iPhone, called Screen Time, are still a work in progress, but fortunately they're getting a big facelift in iOS 27.

In Safari, a new 'Ask to Browse' feature means kids need to ask their parents when they want to browser a new website. Stronger 'Communication Safety' features in the Screen Time settings also blur content that might contain nudity, gore or violent content.

Lastly, 'Time Allowances' gives parents a suggested starting point for the maximum time their child is allowed on certain apps or categories of apps like 'Entertainment' and 'Games', based on their age. There's no doubt Apple had one eye on EU and UK regulators with its new Screen Time boosts, but they certainly look useful for parents.

7. Shortcuts gets an AI upgrade

Shortcuts is one of those apps is loved by a few, but it too confusing for truly mass adoption. Well, iOS 27 might finally change that thanks to a new Apple Intelligence upgrade that lets you describe the shortcut you want using natural language. We've settled on called this 'vibe-cutting'.

Rather than adjusting all your inputs and variables manually, you can type something like "when I'm leaving work message Pedro I'm on my way with my ETA" and the Shortcuts app will automatically pull together all the apps and system actions you need.

Even Apple admitted that the current Shortcuts system in iOS 26 "can feel, well, complicated". So this promises to be a pretty big step forward — and is one we've wanted to see for quite a while.

As another WWDC keynote comes to a close, plenty of exciting new software is coming soon to an Apple device near you. None looms so large as the extensively discussed new Siri AI, which dominated most of the presentation; finally, Apple's digital assistant can keep pace with the competition, with a new look in the Dynamic Island, an app, as well as vast improvements to tools like Visual Intelligence.

Largely, Siri AI's newly boosted skillset owes to Apple enlisting the help of Google's Gemini AI models to bolster its own Apple Intelligence models, but amidst the flashy demonstrations, there was one feature that could make Siri AI my go-to voice assistant, and it's all to do with expressiveness.

Currently, I use Alexa+ around my home, but in my heart, I've always been a HomePod girlie. For two years, my HomePod mini was my go-to smart home hub, but continued frustrations with its poor user experience and lacklustre automations gradually saw me seeking greener pastures in Alexa's more user-friendly setup.

Since then, I've upgraded to Alexa+, and I've broadly made good use of the benefits that arise with Natural Language Processing; the experience is far more conversational, and it's a whole lot easier to get what you want out of Amazon's voice assistant.

It's a shame she's so gosh darn annoying.

Siri AIn't as annoying

Alexa+'s interesting control of the English language — or, more specifically, its delivery — isn't quite enough to put me off the service entirely, but it's definitely a source of a fair few laughs in my home.

Whether it's the hyper-enthusiastic, nasal, and abruptly loud "OKAY!" when executing a command or the multiple personalities it cycles through when delivering a longer response, Alexa+ has faced a fair amount of criticism for its uncanny voice delivery.

Now, while we only heard a snippet of Siri's speech patterns during the WWDC keynote, there's one new feature coming to Siri AI that could just turn the tide for my AI usage, and that's the ability to tweak the smart assistant's voice; you can choose between five voices and then tweak the pace and expressivity — yes, that's a word, and no, it shouldn't be.

For those of us who don't need a hypeman whenever they have a query, this is a delightful level of control — provided it actually works in practice.

... but Siri AIn't coming home

The downside is that HomeOS, the HomePod's operating system, seems to practically be vaporware at this point, with next-to-no major updates announced as part of WWDC 2026. The Home app was mentioned, sure; grouped event notifications are nice, and searchable AI-generated summaries for security camera footage will come in handy for many a user.

Improvements to Shortcuts are nice-to-have, too, allowing users to speak automations into existence with natural language prompts — I've long bemoaned the terrible UI and limited IFTTT functionality in Shortcuts, so I won't sniff at this particular upgrade.

But where, oh where, is Siri AI for home?!

Simply read the update history for HomePod, and you'll catch my drift even if you haven't been using Apple's best smart speaker; the last meaningful update came with HomeOS 26, when Apple added support for crossfade with Apple Music and AirPlay. Before that was December 2024, when Apple quietly added improved natural language search to Apple Music.

While there's still a small chance some news will crop up this week for HomeOS, the outlook is dire. I'm unsurprised, in some capacity, because HomePod hardware is dragging ever further behind the rest of Apple's powerful devices. The HomePod (2nd generation) uses the S7 chip, which is the same one used in Apple Watch 7. Given that device isn’t on the watchOS 27 compatibility list, it's hard to imagine we'll see any existing HomePods getting in on the Siri AI action.

Perhaps a major announcement for Siri AI on HomeOS would have given too much away; we've been waiting for Apple's HomePod Hub smart display and new HomePod Mini 2 for years at this point, and while signs presently point to a Fall 2026 release, we also heard such rumors last year... and the year before. And, if memory serves, the year before that.

Still, it's hard to imagine Apple taking precious time out of its September event, which is typically iPhone-first, to talk about new HomePod hardware and software, so I'm struggling a little to predict when exactly HomeOS will have its day in court. I'm hoping it's sooner rather than later, or my HomeKit compatible smart home devices will continue collecting dust.

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.

UPDATE 09/06: This article has been updated to reflect that the Apple Watch Series 9, which was originally missing from Apple's list of watches compatible with watchOS 27, has now been added.

Another WWDC, another set of operating systems. This year's WWDC 2026 keynote has been chock-full of highly-advanced AI-powered features, led by a revamped Siri AI designed to work across the whole Apple ecosystem — but these advanced features need devices capable of running them.

Because Apple updates its software each year, users of older versions of the best iPhones, MacBooks and, of course, the best Apple Watches worry their old technology may not get the new update, and thus official support for it would end.

Although there was no mention of compatibility in this year's keynote speech, the official Apple website confirms it that five watches that support watchOS 26 won't be able to make the upgrade to watchOS 27 — presumably because those models can't handle the new Siri AI.

Here are the watches that will still be supported when watchOS 27 lands later this year:

Which watches will get watchOS 27?

The full list of compatible models are as follows:

• Apple Watch Series 9
• Apple Watch Series 10
• Apple Watch Series 11
• Apple Watch Ultra 2
• Apple Watch Ultra 3
• Apple Watch SE 3

These are the recent models without support for watchOS 27:

• Apple Watch Series 6
• Apple Watch Series 7
• Apple Watch Series 8
• Apple Watch Ultra
• Apple Watch SE 2

The Apple Watch Series' 6, 7, and 8 do not appear on Apple's list of compatible devices. Users running those watches can only expect to receive basic security and maintenance upgrades in the future.

The first-generation Apple Watch Ultra — which is only four years old and was, let's remember, quite a premium product — and Apple Watch SE 2 are also included in this list.

This will be a blow to so many users. Traditionally, Apple has ended support for watches after six or so years, not three or four — to place this in context, last year's watchOS 26 supported Apple Watch Series 6, which was originally released in 2020.

First-generation Apple Watch Ultra users will also be incredibly irate — spending $799 / £849 / AU$1229 on a watch that was only supported for four years will be seen as a very predatory move by Apple, and may drive some customers away to competitors such as Garmin. After an exciting WWDC speech for AI fans, this news will leave a sour taste.

All the above watches' core features will still work, although users will run into problems as the watches reach the end of their lives. For example, you may be unable to update apps which are designed to work with the latest software features.

Series 9 is now the oldest watch to receive new versions of watchOS.

How to download the watchOS 27 beta

If you do have a supported watch and can't wait until September to try out all the new features, you can sign up to beta test Apple's latest OS. To do so, you'll need to enrol in Apple's beta program, which you can do either on Apple's developer portal here for the developer beta, or wait until the public beta next month, which most users will want to do. Remember to always back up your devices before doing so.

On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Software Update > Beta Updates, , and action the software update when available.

Once the update is installed, you can go to the Watch app on your phone and use a similar pathway: My Watch > General > Software Update > Beta updates, enter your passcode and away you go.

Apple's WWDC 2026 keynote has wrapped up, and it marks Tim Cook's final hurrah as CEO. And he signed off in style, unveiling the tech giant's new features for iOS 27 — including the new AI-powered Siri as the star of the show.

The arrival of the new Siri voice assistant, dubbed Siri AI, and which now has a dedicated app, ends a two-year wait, after Apple initially announced it during WWDC 2024. Until now we've known very little about it, other than that Apple has enlisted the help of Google's Gemini AI models to power its new assistant.

Siri AI will arrive in English initially, with support for other languages coming in the future.

What's new in Siri AI?

It's safe to say that Siri AI is a monumental upgrade to the traditional Siri voice we've been used to. Not only will it be able to carry out simple requests like the original Siri, but Apple promises its upgraded version is far smarter, and will be much more responsive to your needs.

Siri AI has a new design which, as we expected, extends from the Dynamic Island where you can speak or even spark a typed conversation. Then there's Siri's iconic voice and tone, which is also getting a revamp.

Apple says Siri AI's new voice will be more conversational, detailed, and engaging, making your back-and-forth chats easy to navigate. Siri AI can understand slang and other colloquial terms, which it incorporates into its responses, but that's not the most impressive part — it's even more customizable.

Until now, Siri's options have spanned different accents from two distinct voices, male and female, but with Siri AI you can be even more precise with how you want it to sound by amending its speaking pace levels, and how expressive it is, ensuring you can create a voice assistant that you don't find jarring.

For the first time, Siri is getting a dedicated app which, as per Apple's keynote visuals, doesn't look too dissimilar to Chat GPT's, with your chat history integrated across all of your Apple devices, which is synced privately with iCloud. If you don't want to open Siri via its new Dynamic Island home, the Siri AI app allows you to kick-start conversations right there.

On top of all this, you can write and edit with Siri AI wherever you type on your device, be that in Messages, Mail, or Pages, and it even proof-reads your writing while you type, offering helpful tips and suggestions for improvement. This means you won't need to manually take action whenever a writing error is highlighted. Apple has also said this function will also be available across selected third-party apps.

This is a breaking news story. We'll be updating this article as we learn more.

If you're using an older Mac or MacBook with an Intel chip, then we have bad news, as Apple has quietly killed off support for any device sold before 2020 that doesn't have an Arm-based Apple silicon chip (that is, Macs with M1 chips or newer, or the A18 Pro, in the MacBook Neo's case).

Apple announced macOS 27 Golden Gate at WWDC 2026, and highlighted new features and performance improvements. However, it didn't reveal which Macs would be getting the upcoming operating system, which is due to release 'this Fall', so expect it about October.

Instead, we found confirmation tucked away at the bottom of the macOS news site. This is a bit cheeky, as it's a major change that will impact a lot of people, though it's also not that surprising, as it was only a matter of time before Apple dropped support for older Macs.

This also means there's no Mac Pro or iMac Pro model which can run macOS 27. Will Apple silicon models come out this year for those super-powerful workstations? Let's hope.

Bye bye Intel

Here is the list of Macs and MacBooks that will be able to run macOS 27 Golden Gate:

• MacBook Air M1 or later
• MacBook Pro M1 or later
• MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 2020 or later
• MacBook Pro 14-inch M1 Pro 2021 or later
• MacBook Pro 16-inch M1 Pro 2021 or later
• MacBook Neo
• iMac M1 2020 or later
• Mac mini M1 2020 or later
• Mac Studio 2022 and later

By concentrating on its own chips, which use Arm architecture, Apple also no longer has to worry about Macs running on Intel's x86 chip tech, which will hopefully mean the macOS team has more scope to improve the performance of the software and add features in the future.

If you have an Intel Mac, you can continue to use it with macOS 26, though running an older operating system that might not get security updates in the future isn't recommended. So, it might be time to consider a new Mac — see below for some top deals.

• MacBook Air M1 or later
• MacBook Pro M1 or later
• MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 2020 or later
• MacBook Pro 14-inch M1 Pro 2021 or later
• MacBook Pro 16-inch M1 Pro 2021 or later
• MacBook Neo
• iMac M1 2020 or later
• Mac mini M1 2020 or later
• Mac Studio 2022 and later

WWDC 2026, this year's edition of Apple's software-focused developer conference, has been particularly notable due to it being the last one with Tim Cook as CEO — he'll be handing over the reins to John Ternus later this year. But it's also given us a glimpse of what the future holds for Macs and MacBooks, with the announcement of macOS 27 Golden Gate.

Unlike Microsoft's rival Windows operating system, Apple releases yearly major updates to its macOS operating system which come with a new name (usually taken from a Californian landmark) and number, which now reflects the year of release. While macOS 27 will release at the end of 2026, Apple will count 2027 as its main release year, so it doesn't feel outdated a few months after it lands on people's hard drives.

While WWDC 2026 is noteworthy for being Cook's last event, this year's macOS update is less exciting, and is mainly focused on performance improvements (which are always welcome), and AI integration (less welcome).

Still, it's an update anyone with a Mac or MacBook will want to download, as long as your device is compatible, so read on to find out what's new.

A note about compatibility: perhaps the most noticable change with macOS 27 Golden Gate is that Intel-based Macs and MacBooks are no longer supported. Only Macs that have Apple silicon chips (so, M1 Macs and MacBooks or newer) will be able to install macOS 27.

macOS 27 Golden Gate: at a glance

• What is it? The newest operating system for Macs and MacBooks
• When will it be out? A beta for developers is available to download right now, full version likely in October 2026 ('coming this Fall' according to Cook)
• How much will it cost? As usual, macOS 27 will be a free upgrade for everyone who has a compatible device

macOS 27 Golden Gate: Compatibility

Want to know if your Mac will be compatible with macOS 27 Golden Gate? Here’s the full list of Macs that’ll be able to run the operating system:

• MacBook Air M1 or later
• MacBook Pro M1 or later
• MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 2020 or later
• MacBook Pro 14-inch M1 Pro 2021 or later
• MacBook Pro 16-inch M1 Pro 2021 or later
• MacBook Neo
• iMac M1 2020 or later
• Mac mini M1 2020 or later
• Mac Studio 2022 and later

You'll notice that no Macs made before 2020 are supported. That's because macOS 27 Golden Gate is only compatible with Macs running on Apple's own M-series chips (or the A18 Pro, in the MacBook Neo's case).

This is a major change, and could see a lot of people unable to upgrade. Apple likely sees dropping older Intel models as a clean break, and means macOS 27 Golden Gate can include a big focus on AI features — the old Intel chips don't have NPUs for on-device AI.

By concentrating on its own chips, which use Arm architecture, Apple also no longer has to worry about Macs running on Intel's x86 chip tech, which will hopefully mean the macOS team has more time to improve the performance of the software and add features in the future.

If you have an Intel Mac, you can continue to use it with macOS 26, though running an not-updated operating system isn't recommended. So, it might be time to consider a new Mac — see below for some top deals.

macOS 27 Golden Gate: release date

The developer beta preview for macOS 27 is available today, but you probably don't want to install that.

For a start, you need to be a developer to download this beta, and that requires signing up and paying for a developer account. The public beta, which will come out in July, will be free, as will the final version when it launches later in the year.

Secondly, developer betas are very early versions of software that are mainly designed for (as the name suggests) software developers to test and make sure their apps are compatible. So, they're often very barebones, with missing features and plenty of bugs.

The public beta will hopefully be more stable, but there could still be problems, so I recommend most people wait until the final version is released, especially if you're installing macOS 27 on a device you rely on every day.

macOS 27 Golden Gate: new features

1. Liquid Glass tweaks

Last year's macOS 26 brought a major design change with its Liquid Glass theme. While macOS 27 doesn't bring another major change to the interface, it does address some of the common complaints about Liquid Glass, especially the issue with transparency effects (which gives the interface its name) making text hard to read.

It will diffuse shadows to make it easier to read, and there's a new slider to adjust the transparency of Liquid Glass.

2. General performance improvements

The major focus of macOS 27 will be making the operating system feel faster and more responsive on Macs and MacBooks, so while the new features might not be that exciting, you should hopefully notice an improvement in the overall performance of your Mac — and for free!

'Responsiveness' is an important word, with animations feeling faster, and Apple promises that Mac apps will load 30% faster thanks to pre-loading.

Photos should appear in your gallery faster, and AirDrop sharing is up to 80% faster.

3. Better Search in macOS

Search has been rebuilt on iOS and macOS for Spotlight, Photos, and Mail (new ranking system for more relevant results), so finding files and folders on your Mac should be a lot easier.

4. Improved parental controls

This is quite a hot topic at the moment, and it's good to see Apple has taken the protection of children seriously. Alongside the existing parental controls, macOS 27 Golden Gate will let parents put a block on apps, and there are now tools that will prevent unsuitable images, including nudity and gore, from being seen.

"We're giving powerful tools to parents," according to Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple.

5. Siri AI

Personally, I've never felt the need to use Siri much on a Mac, unlike on iPhones and iPads where the virtual assistant feels like a more natural fit.

That could change with the new overhauled Siri, which after several delays, will be a key part of macOS 27 Golden Gate. With advanced AI features, courtesy of Google's Gemini, the new and improved Siri will be able to complete tasks with just a voice command (or text prompt), such as write emails for you, and it can also detect what's on your screen.

Siri will also make using the Calendar app in macOS better, as you can ask it to create events for you, and it can even check to see if you're available before you respond to invites.

There will be a new Siri app for macOS, where you can have conversations with the assistant, as well as see previous chats, much like you would see text messages in the Messages app. Conversations are synced with iCloud, so you'll be able to continue them on your iPhone or iPad.

You also get system-wide context menus, and Siri AI is now integrated directly into Spotlight, where you can ask Siri questions without going into an app. A keyboard shortcut will bring up Visual Intelligence, so you can ask Siri about things on your screen.

6. Image Playground improvements

Image Playground, the generative AI tool that turns prompts into images, has a new look that's easier to use, and it's getting an option that allows you to create wallpapers using AI.

A new model allows for photo-realistic images, and you can use it on your own photos, and nothing is uploaded or shared - it's all done on-device.

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.

• Apple is expected to launch an AI-powered version of Siri at WWDC today
• That could enable new features on the Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini
• Other Apple products have been postponed due to Siri’s long delay

Apple’s long-overdue Siri upgrade — which should see it level up with new artificial intelligence (AI) powers — is set to be unveiled at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) today. Not only could that give Siri a much-needed shot in the arm, it might also bring new features to a bunch of hardware products that have had to sit on the sidelines until Siri is ready.

That includes the Apple TV 4K and the HomePod mini, two devices that haven’t seen meaningful changes for years now. And I’m excited to see what new powers could be unlocked once they’re imbued with Apple Intelligence.

Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman — who broke the news that these devices have been held up while Apple finalizes its AI efforts — cautions that we shouldn’t expect much aside from new chips that are compatible with Apple Intelligence. But to me, that feels a little beside the point — the Apple Intelligence upgrades alone could be worth the wait.

That’s because the new version of Siri is expected to better understand your personal context and work within other apps running on your devices. For the HomePod mini, I’m hoping that might mean learning your listening habits and picking out more personalized selections on request.

And if you’re able to better control apps running on the Apple TV 4K using Siri and your voice, that might let you bypass the Siri Remote, which is still frustrating many years after it launched. Although Gurman did note that the remote might itself be “refreshed in some form,” he didn’t share what that would look like.

Further delays

Aside from new powers coming to the HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K, other products could get a dose of Siri medicine in the future, Gurman reports in his latest Power On newsletter. Yet he also adds that many of these products are still years away from arriving.

That includes a tabletop robot, which has been pushed back from 2026 or 2027 to 2028, and a smart home display that has seen its release date slip from the original 2024 target to late 2026 “at the earliest.” And Apple’s smart glasses have also been delayed from early 2027 to later in the year, Gurman claims. Despite the hardware being close to launch, these products have all been rescheduled because they rely on the new Siri software, Gurman explains.

So while the Siri upgrade coming to WWDC later today could finally lift the limitation that has delayed updates to the Apple TV 4K and the HomePod mini, Apple’s AI holdup still appears to be having a negative effect on some as-yet-unreleased devices hidden in its secret labs.

Still, the silver lining is undoubtedly what Siri could enable for existing Apple products — and we’re about to see exactly what the company has planned. While we might not get big improvements to the hardware of the Apple TV 4K and the HomePod mini, the software upgrade alone could be worth the wait.

Apple's opening WWDC 2026 keynote has been and gone, and boy, did we hear a lot about iOS 27, macOS 27 (or more specifically, macOS Golden Gate), and the rest of Apple's upcoming software upgrades.

Leading the charge were announcements surrounding Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, which will seemingly make your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch as capable as rival products from Google and Samsung from an AI perspective.

Siri, specifically, will be more conversational, detailed, and engaging, and will no longer hand off your query to third-party AI providers like ChatGPT (that is, if you ignore the fact that Siri AI is powered by Google's Gemini model).

Elsewhere, Apple announced a host of productivity, security, and creativity upgrades coming to devices across its portfolio — even the Apple Vision Pro got a mention — and many of its new software packages are available to try in beta.

Below, I've rounded up the key news from WWDC 2026, and stay tuned to TechRadar for more analysis as the dust settles on Apple's major announcements.

Jump to the live updates here

WWDC 2026 — key news

• 17 things we learned at WWDC 2026 — Siri's getting a big AI makeover, Golden Gate is the next macOS, Liquid Glass is changing, and more
• 7 new iPhone features coming to your phone in iOS 27 — from the new Siri AI to big Liquid Glass upgrades
• Apple's new, AI-powered Siri is finally here — here are the biggest upgrades coming with Siri AI
• Apple just gave 'Siri AI' its biggest upgrade ever — whether iPhone users asked for it or not
• iOS 27 and Siri AI compatibility explained — confirmed device requirements for Apple's new software updates
• macOS 27 Golden Gate announced at WWDC 2026 — here's everything you need to know
• How to download the iOS 27 developer beta
• How to download the macOS 27 Golden Gate developer beta
• Apple quietly kills off support for Intel Macs and MacBooks
• Apple just quietly dropped 6 current-gen watches from supporting the upgrade, including Ultra and SE models — here is the full list
• AirPods are finally getting a custom EQ in iOS 27, this is not a drill!
• Siri AI’s new voice customization could have trumped Alexa+, but scant HomeOS updates stall the win for Apple

WWDC 2026 — how to re-watch

You can re-watch Apple's WWDC 2026 keynote via Apple’s YouTube page or via the embedded video above.

Live updates

Welcome to our WWDC 2026 live blog! Stick with us throughout the day for our pre-event coverage of Apple's big software showcase.

A look back at WWDCs past

What better way to count down to WWDC 2026 than with a visual look back at the WWDCs that came before? TechRadar's Mark Wilson has put together a visual retrospective of the 25 biggest moments from previous WWDCs, including the announcement of Mac OS X, Apple's switch from Power PC to Intel, and the launch of the iPhone 4.

TechRadar's editor-at-large, Lance Ulanoff, has touched down in California and— wait a minute, is that Apple CEO-to-be John Ternus? If you're reading this, Lance, let us know if he gave you any pre-show hints about what to expect from WWDC 2026.

More than just Siri

Of course, Siri 2.0 will be just one part of iOS 27, so what else are we hoping to see in Apple's next iPhone-focused software package?

Elsewhere on TechRadar, we've detailed 5 things we want iOS 27 to fix at WWDC 2026, from the iOS keyboard to Liquid Glass glitches.

What can Siri tell us about WWDC 2026?

If you were to ask Siri right now what to expect from WWDC 2026, you'd be met with a response that sums up the whole issue with Apple's voice assistant.

"Do you want me to use ChatGPT to answer that?" No surprises there.

If Apple can cut out the middle man and deliver a Siri that doesn't so explicitly rely on external AI to function, it'll be a win for everyone involved. TechRadar's editor-at-large, Lance Ulanoff, dug into this topic in a separate article over the weekend.

What to expect for iPad at WWDC 2026

Will we see new hardware at WWDC 2026, 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.

Second, in recent years, Apple has tended to unveil its new tablets either early in the year, or towards the end of the year. 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.

Still, we're expecting to hear plenty from Apple regarding iPadOS 27 today — here's the full breakdown on what to expect for iPad at WWDC 2026.

As for how Siri 2.0 might actually work in iOS 27, rumors suggest Apple could roll out a dedicated chat app for its voice assistant, as well as integrate Siri into the Dynamic Island.

Specifically, when you activate Siri with a wake word or the side button, a Siri animation will reportedly appear in the Dynamic Island. Then, once you’ve asked it something, a transparent results card will be displayed. If you need to go deeper than those initial results, you can swipe on the card to bring up a chat interface that apparently looks similar to an iMessage chat.

Hopefully, we'll see this rumored Siri interface in action today at WWDC 2026.

Which Apple era do you belong in?

Are you a longtime Apple user? If so, which Apple era do you belong in? Take our quiz to find out.

Don't expect a Liquid Glass-level redesign

As for what we're expecting to see in iOS 27 besides a major Siri revamp, rumors suggest Apple could add the ability to use natural language to create shortcuts in the Shortcuts app, as well as a new ‘Create a Pass’ option for Apple Wallet.

Other leaks point to tweaks to the look of Apple’s controversial Liquid Glass interface, design changes for the Camera and Weather apps, and improvements to autocorrect.

Don't expect a Liquid Glass-level design overhaul this year, then, but as mentioned, we're expecting to see Apple make experience-improving tweaks to the iPhone's transparent UI.

It looks like TechRadar's editor-at-large, Lance Ulanoff, is waking up to a clear morning in Cupertino, California (by my calculations, the local time is 6am PT).

Hang on, here's an even better pic...

And we've had our first "Good morning!" from Tim Cook, too.

The Apple CEO just tweeted a video of himself — and friends of the company including Harrison Ford, Jimmy Fallon, and Whoopi Goldberg — saying those exact words. Might today be the last time we hear a Tim Cook "Good morning!" on an Apple stage? With John Ternus stepping into the role of Apple CEO in September, it's certainly possible.

Coming bright up

Let's take a look at the official event invite for WWDC 2026. The official tagline reads "Coming bright up," and Apple's developer website is awash with references to glowing light ("Glow all out" and "A glowing giveaway," for instance). You may remember that Apple added an edge-to-edge glow to Siri in iOS 18.1 — yes, almost two years ago — and we're pretty confident that this is what Apple is teasing again here (albeit for an updated, genuinely usable version of Siri).

One other thing that's worth mentioning: as much as we're expecting Apple to right the wrongs of Siri at WWDC 2026, rumors suggest the company will still add a 'beta' label to its new voice assistant, and there may even be a waitlist of some sort before you can actually try it. Apple did the same thing with the launch of Apple Intelligence in 2024, suggesting that Siri 2.0 might still not be a finished product (despite being much better than Siri as it exists now).

Lance has touched down in Apple Park, and things are looking 'bright'.

Annual 'Lance at WWDC' selfie just dropped:

What about MacOS?

Let's pivot to MacBook for a moment. With MacOS 27, Apple looks set to introduce a “slight redesign” to the Liquid Glass-based UI, bringing fixes for “shadows and transparency quirks,” according to Bloomberg's resident Apple expert Mark Gurman.

However, “Liquid Glass itself isn’t going away,” Gurman insists: “The goal is more of a cleanup and refinement effort aligned with the company’s wider push to polish its software this year.”

This fits with the design rumors we've heard about iOS 27 and iPadsOS 27, too — so, Siri notwithstanding, 2026 looks set to be a year of small tweaks, rather than big swings.

Media pass secured

Behold, the official Apple pins from WWDC 2026:

Lil’ Finder Guy is definitely the best of the four.

With less than two hours to go until kick-off, it looks like Lance is doing laps around Apple Par— oh no wait, he's just finding his seat.

Survey says... Siri!

Early results for our 'What are you most excited to see at WWDC 2026?' poll suggest Siri 2.0 is the most hotly anticipated announcement of the day, closely followed by iOS 27 more generally. That makes sense, since more people use iPhones than, say, iPads or MacBooks, and Apple hasn't been discreet about marketing today's event as a Siri-focused showcase.

To see the current results of our poll, simply cast your vote below.

Apple Park is starting to fill up.

A reminder that today's event is due to start at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (or 3am AEST on June 9), and you can tune in via the video link at the top of the page.

Here's what the TechRadar team is most excited to see at today's event:

Marc McLaren, Global Editor in Chief: I'm excited to see how Apple reclaims the narrative around AI. There are very few areas of tech where it's ever been so far behind its rivals and ended up looking a little out of touch, so if it has big things in store on this front, that's massive news. And if it doesn't… well, that's massive news too.

Jacob Krol, US Managing Editor, News: I'm really keen to see new Siri come to fruition after two years, but also how Apple positions it as helpful for everyday folks, and the features it decides to spotlight (will they be the same as originally promised?). It'll also be interesting to see whether Gemini or Google gets even a very tiny mention (I doubt it), and how Apple describes generative edit features for Photos.

Mark Wilson, UK Managing Editor, News: I’m looking forward to the new ‘Siri’ mode in the Camera app — I’ve been getting tired of Android getting all the cool visual search tricks like proper ‘Circle to Search’. And that sounds genuinely useful, assuming it’s not all smoke and mirrors again.

Matt Hanson, Managing Editor, Core Tech: I'd like Liquid Glass to look nicer in macOS 27.

Matt Evans, Senior Fitness & Wearables Editor: I'm excited to see how Tim Cook handles the baton-passing to John Ternus

Tim Coleman, Cameras Editor: More pics of Lance shaking hands with important people.

I'm with you there, Tim.

Interestingly, both the Apple Developer Portal and Apple Store website are still operating as normal, with just over half an hour to go until WWDC 2026 kicks off. Apple typically closes both sites for maintenance ahead of keynotes like WWDC, so we're expecting them to shutter imminently.

In other words, if you want to buy an iPhone from Apple directly, you've probably got about 30 seconds to do so...

We're ready and waiting (it looks like there are still some seats available, guys).

We're just about 30 minutes away from the start of WWDC 26, and I'm curious whether we'll see John Ternus join Tim Cook and Craig Federighi on stage at Apple Park before the pre-recorded presentation begins.

Typically, the latter two appear in front of the big screen at Apple Park to offer a few words before the event video kicks off, but considering Ternus was out mingling with attendees last night — including TechRadar's own Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff — it feels like perfect timing for the CEO-to-be to step into this emcee role.

Either way, we'll find out soon enough.

If you're wondering what Apple might call macOS 27, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman isn't convinced that Big Bear, Redwood, or Tiburon are the chosen monikers.

And just like that, Apple's beta page is down, teasing "We'll be back."

10 minutes to go. There's no music on Apple's live stream yet — at this point during Google I/O 2026, Google was torturing us with some AI-generated EDM — but the silence has got me wondering whether we'll see some sort of skit featuring Craig Federighi to kick things off.

The 'number of people in the waiting room' ticker is steadily heading north. It's now at 90,000...

The Apple stewards are wrangling the last few attendees...

Here's a quick prediction/hope/dream from TechRadar's Managing Editor, Social & Engagement, Josie Watson:

"I'm betting on this finally being the year Apple gets its act together and delivers a competitive smart home service. With competition hotting up from Google Home and Alexa, a newly bolstered Siri with widgets and better Shortcuts could be the missing ingredient. Except that'll probably mean we need all-new, more powerful HomePods, too..."

And we're off! There's the music...

Tim Cook walks onto the Apple Park green to Harry Styles' "Ready, Stready, Go!"

Was that the last "Good morning!" we'll ever hear from Tim Cook...

Confirmation that we'll be hearing about Siri today... surprise!

Craig Federighi teases upcoming announcements regarding platform improvements, trust and safety, and Apple Intelligence and Siri.

Side note: Federighi's hair really is magnificent, isn't it?

The first big reveal of the day: macOS 27 is... macOS Golden Gate!

Here's Stacey Ford to talk about upcoming macOS upgrades. She says Apple has made macOS "faster, smoother, and even easier to use."

Can yo count all the upgrades in the image above?

Liquid Glass will now diffuse content behind it much more effectively, and Apple is adding a new slider in Settings to adjust Liquid Glass. It's about time.

Every window on macOS will now have the same corner radius, and Apple has also added Liquid Glass effects to app icons.

I mean, that does look pretty cool actually.

Some more eye-catching stats: iPhone and iPad apps will launch up to 30% faster, new photos will appear 70% faster, photos will transfer over AirDrop 80% faster, and file browsing is up to 5x faster. Impressive stuff.

Hang on, did Apple just say... iPhone 11?!

iOS 27 will be available on every iPhone since Apple's 2019 flagship, which matches the minimum software requirements of iOS 26.

Finally, Search is getting some much-needed TLC.

Apple has rebuilt Search from the ground up; iOS 27 and macOS 27 will index your entire data library, so you can better search for photos and emails. Huzzah!

In case you missed it during that feature announcement flurry, iOS 27 will add a status slider for iMessages.

We're moving swiftly on to the Trust & Safety portion of Apple's briefing.

Starting this year, parents will be able to create upgraded Child accounts in iOS. They'll be able to approve which apps their children can download, which websites they can view, who their children can talk to, and how long they can spend on their iPhone or iPad.

In iOS 27, Time Allowances work like Screen Time limits, but are informed by paediatric research, and can be amended to suit different times of day.

Craig Federighi: "We're giving parents powerful, easy-to-use tools to help manage what kids can see and who they can talk to." This is good stuff from Apple.

And here we go with the AI portion of today's keynote.

"Today, we're taking a big step forward with Apple Intelligence."

Gemini mentioned!

Apple has acknowledged its partnership with Google; Gemini models will underpin Apple's upcoming Apple Intelligence features.

Apple believes that companies already investing heavily in AI should "turn the potential of advanced technology into helpful and intuitive products for everyone."

Is that a spot of shade-throwing?

Apple announces Siri AI.

"We've rebuilt Siri with powerful AI at the core," the company says. "Siri is a profoundly more capable assistant, and it's more conversational."

There's a dedicated Siri app, and it'll live predominantly within your iPhone's Dynamic Island.

Apple is showing off its new Siri AI platform by having a conversation about an upcoming Suki Waterhouse gig. This new voice assistant is contextually aware and capable of analysing what's appearing on your iPhone screen at any given time.

Essentially, Siri AI will reduce the need to jump between apps manually. It can search through core iPhone apps like Photos, Maps, and Mail to better answer your query.

Incidentally, Apple is also launching new Siri voices — you'll be able to adjust pace and expressivity based on your preferences.

An important side note there: these Siri AI upgrades extend to CarPlay and AirPods.

I'm not seeing much here that's downright groundbreaking versus comparable assistants like Gemini, but it does seem as if Apple has caught up to the competition with Siri AI.

Here's a look at Siri AI on macOS. Rather than being embedded in the Dynamic Island (which doesn't exist on MacBooks), it'll form part of Spotlight. You can expand Siri queries into dedicated macOS windows, and a new Siri field will appear when right-clicking on files.

We're now getting a look at the dedicated Siri app, which will store your (private) conversational history across your devices. In typical Apple fashion, you can start chatting to Siri on iPhone, move to iPad, and finish the conversation on Mac.

Siri mode in the iPhone's camera app looks like the Visual Intelligence feature that was promised two years ago. Touch the shutter button to let Siri see what you see, and you'll be able to ask contextual questions about your surroundings.

Automatic Proofreading! That's a useful new Apple Intelligence feature. Essentially, you won't have to take action when your iPhone, iPad, or Mac highlights a writing error.

Here's another look at that Siri assistant pop-up on Mac:

Oh, this is nice. Apple Intelligence can automatically organize your Safari tabs into categories.

I hope TechRadar's Global Editor in Chief, Marc McLaren, is watching...

Here's a major Passwords app update: now, you can automatically update eligible accounts to strong passwords, saving you the hassle of changing those passwords manually. Apple Intelligence will also go ahead and re-sign you into accounts with those changed passwords.

Ooo, this is good too: if you're on a phone call and are asked for details regarding a booking or reservation (say, if you're speaking to an airline regarding a flight), Apple Intelligence will surface those details into the phone call interface, so you don't have to navigate away from the call. If it works, that's huge.

Apple is now revealing a big Shortcuts app upgrade that we were hoping and praying for.

Essentially, you can now build Shortcuts with natural language prompts, so you don't have to wade through the complex process of building Shortcuts yourself.

Again, if it works, this could be huge for the accessibility of the feature, which launched way back in 2018.

In iOS 27, Image Playground really feels like what it should have been when it first launched.

For starters, you can now make an image in pretty much any style, including much more realistic ones. It's also being integrated across nearly all platforms, and you can make images in pretty much any size. We'll need to see how it stacks up, but this Apple Intelligence launch feature now looks genuinely usable.

An important note there: Siri AI won't be available in the EU on iOS and iPadOS. That's a lot of customers.

Behold, the (very) big list of Apple Intelligence features coming to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS Golden Gate:

It's interesting that we haven't heard from (or even seen!) CEO-to-be John Ternus during this WWDC 2026 keynote. He is a hardware man, I suppose.

iOS 27, iPad OS 27, macOS Golden Gate, and the rest of Apple's next major software packages will arrive in Fall this year — for those new to this, that means 'in September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro.'

And that's a wrap on Apple's opening keynote for WWDC 2026.

Stay tuned for our breakdown of all the announcements, and I'm working on a handy 'key announcements' list as I type this, so you don't have to wade through my previous 100 posts.

The WWDC 2026 compatibility conundrum

I've just published an explainer on the device requirements for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and Siri AI. To enjoy the full version of the latter — specifically, features like expressive voices and more advanced dictation — you'll need to own an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, or an iPhone Air.

Frustratingly for many, Siri AI also won't be available in the European Union (EU) or China at launch.

Here's Apple's statement on the matter: "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."

Yikes.

Siri's sandbox of information is so limited at times that it's enough to make you want to throw your iPhone into the abyss, but then we'd have to worry about the clueless digital assistant not knowing or understanding what's going on:

Siri: "Wait. Did he just throw us into a ditch?"

Also Siri: "Do you want me to use ChatGPT to answer that?"

Still Siri: "I guess, but why don't I know?"

Siri again: "I can't answer that question."

In the two years since Apple promised a new, exciting, and far more intelligent and self-aware Siri, the rest of the AI world has moved on. The environment Siri might have entered in 2026 is vastly different from the one it faces now.

Understanding the phone in your hand and all the data you share with the device or a cloud-based network is essentially table stakes. Just look at Google's Gemini-infused I/O. It was wall-to-wall AI, and questions about what you might let Google do with your data appeared as an afterthought.

The assumption is that, if you're under the Google umbrella, you will tie together your email, docs, spreadsheets, location, shopping, clothing, eating habits, health, you name it, all in a quest to have an AI that actually understands and works for you.

Time for a different approach

Apple's adherence to the principles of security and privacy is, while laudable, starting to sound, if not quaint, then antiquated.

If you use AI, you expect it to understand your intentions and the context of every request based on the corpus of information it has about you.

Apple's slow, steady, heck, plodding approach to the fast-moving world of AI has done it no favors. Sure, I appreciate caution, but this comes across as stumbling and then dragging an unwilling corpse over a massive suspension bridge. On one side is the safe island of Apple Intelligence, with unsatisfying image creation, a lack of self-awareness, and a dimwitted Siri that relies on powerful friends to feed it the answers. On the other side is the land of Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude.

In that world, call it "AI-landia", rules and caution are for suckers. These AI giants move faster than the speed of thought. Nothing is more important than a better frontier model, especially one that outdoes its nearest competitors.

Don't be fooled by calls for temperance or caution. Any of these AI companies would sell its youngest offspring for the world's best Frontier Model.

In the meantime, I'm sitting here just hours before Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2026) keynote (Monday at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST), feeling less than confident that Apple will finally deliver the goods.

Even with the promised help from Google, which should be providing some Gemini juice to Apple's own frontier models, I remain unconvinced. Apple is cautious to a fault. Recent rumors say it will once again release the next Siri as a beta. Haven't we seen this show already?

Asking Siri a simple question

It's time for Apple to throw caution to the wind, get the new Siri out there as a full release, and then iterate the heck out of it to fix any issues. That's not Apple's way, of course, and for much of its 50-year history, such care has worked in its favor. Now, though, things are different. Apple has never been perceived as falling this far behind in one of the most important spaces in tech history.

Think of it this way. Imagine if, a decade after the explosion of the modern World Wide Web, Apple didn't have a web browser and wasn't even using its own protocols to help you connect and navigate the internet. Maybe they were worried about viruses or that the Internet is such a wild, uncontrolled space.

That never happened, obviously, and mainly because Apple is usually canny about knowing when and how to enter a market. Sure, it can be a purposely late, to let other people fail or falter while it fixes all their mistakes with the near-perfect product (iPod, iPhone, Bluetooth earbuds, smartwatches), but it doesn't partially release half-baked products and then say, "Whoops, hold on, we got it, almost, here it comes, just a minute..." Or at least it didn't…

Generative AI is not a failing or unrealized category that Apple can reinvent and invigorate. Apple knows this, but it just seems stuck or confused.

In search of an Apple that plays out of touch but secretly gets it, I asked Siri, "What should I expect for WWDC 2026?"

Siri: "Do you want me to use ChatGPT to answer that?"

It could have said, "Just wait and see," or "Wouldn't you like to know?"

No wink and nod, no sly, digital grin, just flat confusion and a call on big brother AI, who knows everything.

I'm not encouraged, but I hold out hope.

What do you think? Can Apple save Siri and pull off another industry-shaking surprise? Let me know in the comments.

Not long ago, Google hosted its big software show for the year, Google I/O 2026, and now it’s Apple’s turn with WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) 2026.

This annual developer conference runs from Monday (June 8) until Friday (June 12), but it’s the keynote that’s of most interest to us, as it’s here that the biggest software-related announcements are typically made. This year, these announcements will likely concern iOS 27, macOS 27, and more, with AI featuring prominently.

Below, you’ll find full details of how to tune into the WWDC 2026 keynote, followed by what to expect from Apple's upcoming showcase.

How to watch WWDC 2026

The WWDC 2026 keynote will be held at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, but you don’t need an invite or to be physically present to watch, as it will also be streamed online.

It starts at 1pm ET / 10am PT / 6pm BST on Monday, June 8, which is 3am AEST on Tuesday, June 9 for those in Australia.

You can tune into the stream on Apple’s YouTube page or via the embedded video below. And if you click ‘Notify me’ on that video, you’ll get a reminder when the event is starting.

You’ll also be able to watch the livestream from Apple’s own website, and if you have an Apple device, you’ll also find a WWDC 2026 stream on the Apple TV app.

If you can’t tune in live, you’ll be able to watch a recording later — or just head to TechRadar, where we’ll be covering all the announcements and our reactions to them.

What to expect at WWDC 2026

iOS 27 is likely to be the main focus of WWDC 2026, and we’re hearing that Apple's next major software upgrade will include an overhaul of Siri. Specifically, Apple is expected to make its voice assistant more of a true AI chatbot, and add the ability to use natural language to create shortcuts in the Shortcuts app, as well as a new ‘Create a Pass’ option for Apple Wallet.

Other leaks point to tweaks to the look of Apple’s Liquid Glass interface, design changes for the Camera and Weather apps, improvements to autocorrect, and more. So, iOS 27 looks set to be a major update.

While the focus will probably be on iOS 27, Apple is also likely to show off iPadOS 27, which will probably contain similar features to the new iOS; macOS 27, which could get a Liquid Glass overhaul; and watchOS 27, which is rumored to be getting some new watch faces.

It’s not impossible that Apple will show off some new hardware, too, but the focus is usually on software, and we haven’t heard any rumors of new devices making an appearance at WWDC 2026, so we wouldn’t count on it.

The Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is an underwhelming name for an event that has hosted some of the biggest moments in Apple history — and the next installment kicks off later today.

From Steve Jobs' shock 2005 announcement that Macs would be switching to Intel chips to Tim Cook revealing the Vision Pro in 2023, the event has become a must-watch for tech fans of all stripes, whether you're a developer or not.

The first WWDC back in 1983 was a secretive event that gave insiders a first look at the Apple Lisa. But it wasn't until Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 that the event really started to build into the software and tech showcase it is today.

With outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook preparing to host his final WWDC today, before handing the reins over to John Ternus, we've made a chronological trip down memory lane showing classic photos from the event's modern era to give you a taste of its biggest moments — and also test your Apple memory...

The second Steve Jobs era

The Tim Cook era

Not enough nostalgia for you? Play our Apple quiz...

• Apple’s AI-powered health coach has apparently been delayed
• It’s now not expected until “later in the iOS 27 update cycle”
• The news arrives in a new report from a reputable source

Apple’s WWDC event is just around the corner, which means we can expect a host of software announcements from the tech giant on June 8. One thing fans of the best Apple Watches might have been excited for is Apple's long-rumored AI health coach (AI) — but a new report has just put a dampener on those expectations.

According to Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, Apple’s AI health coach — apparently dubbed 'Project Mulberry' inside Apple — might not be revealed at WWDC after all. That will come as a blow to anyone looking forward to this feature, but it’s not all doom and gloom.

Past rumors have suggested that Apple is building an AI helper that can study your fitness metrics and identify key areas of improvement, then give you tips and plans to help you get there. Another feature might involve using your device cameras to monitor your workouts and give you pointers to step up your posture and performance.

However, Gurman says this fitness coach won’t be shown off at WWDC. Instead, the reporter now doesn’t expect any of Project Mulberry’s features to arrive until “later in the iOS 27 update cycle,” meaning a key delay for the mooted health tools.

Rivals pushing ahead

This news comes after Gurman previously reported that Project Mulberry had been “scaled back,” with the company planning to include its features in its existing tools rather than offering a standalone app. Yet even that delay and restructuring wasn’t enough to get the feature ready for WWDC, at least according to Gurman.

It stands in stark contrast to the Fitbit Air and its Google Health companion app, which features an AI-based Google Health Coach that absorbs your health metrics, sleep data, nutritional intake, medical records and more in order to build a personalized plan to help you feel healthier, sleep better, and more. While Google’s effort has rolled out around the world, Apple’s is nowhere to be seen.

Still, Gurman has some more positive news for fitness fans who live in the Apple ecosystem. For one thing, he believes that watchOS 27 will bring improved heart-rate tracking, which could make the Apple Watch an even better fitness tracker for those who need these features.

As well as that, Apple is expected to overhaul its Health app at WWDC, and while Gurman said the AI fitness coach has been pushed back, he made no mention of similar delays to this Health revamp. That could mean the app gets a little more useful this summer, even if Project Mulberry is nowhere to be found.

Regardless, we’re hoping that Apple’s improved fitness offerings aren’t held up for too long. With rival companies pushing ahead with their own personalized metrics and analyses, Apple has its work cut out to draw level in this area.

• iOS 27 might bring artificial intelligence (AI) to Apple’s Shortcuts app
• It could let you build Shortcuts with natural language prompts
• This would make Shortcuts far more accessible to users

Ever since it debuted in iOS 12, Apple’s Shortcuts app has had enormous potential. Yet it’s never been able to fulfil that potential because the process of creating automated workflows on your iPhone — the purpose of Shortcuts — has always been frustratingly convoluted (something I’ve previously argued against). But that might all change in iOS 27.

According to a new Bloomberg report, Apple’s iOS 27 update will include a major upgrade for the Shortcuts app, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) via the Apple Intelligence platform. And if it works as intended, it could finally make Shortcuts more accessible to iOS users.

Bloomberg explains that Shortcuts’ AI revamp — which is currently being tested by Apple — “lets users create Shortcuts simply by describing what they want them to do.” That stands in sharp contrast to Shortcuts today, which requires you to either manually add each step in your automation or download fully formed ones from Apple or other users.

The report states that, in iOS 27, you’ll be asked, “What do you want your shortcut to do?” You can then enter a simple natural language prompt, and Shortcuts will begin creating your workflow. Within a few seconds, you’ll have your AI-generated shortcut ready to go.

‘It just works’

I’ve long felt that Apple’s Shortcuts platform has been held back by its own complexity. Apple gives you no real guidance on how to create a Shortcut — you’re more or less thrown in at the deep end and left to fend for yourself. With that in mind, I’ve previously argued that Apple needs to create a ‘Shortcuts Academy’ at the very least to help people get to grips with the Shortcuts app and enable them to tap into its real power without feeling overwhelmed.

But by handing the reins over to AI, Apple might have found an even better solution. There would be no need to learn the complicated process of building a potent shortcut, and instead, you’d just need to tell your phone what you want and let it do the heavy lifting. Not only does that lower the barrier to entry, but it’s very in keeping with Apple’s own philosophy of simplifying the user experience. What better example of “it just works” could there be?

Of course, that’s all assuming it does work as intended. Just this week, Bloomberg reported that Siri’s AI features — already delayed by two years — will be labeled as “betas” when iOS 27 is revealed at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this June, suggesting Apple still has to iron out some creases.

But even if Shortcuts’ AI upgrade needs a little more time in the oven, it could shape up to be exactly what I’ve been waiting for. And I’m sure there are plenty of Shortcuts users who feel the same way.

• Apple has sent out invites for WWDC, kicking off on June 8 with a keynote
• ‘Coming Bright Up’ tagline strongly hints at major Siri AI upgrades
• Expect the AI-powered Siri and Apple Intelligence to headline the event

While we’ve known Apple’s WWDC 2026 was set for the second week of June, we’ve been waiting for the Cupertino-based tech giant to formally announce its opening keynote, among other events, and give us our first tease at what’s coming in the form of an invite.

Most importantly, Apple has confirmed that its WWDC 2026 keynote will kick off at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 6 pm BST on June 8, 2026 (3 am AEST, June 9, 2026). This will likely be a pre-recorded special event, like we’ve seen from Apple in the past, but media, creators, developers, and other guests will watch it on a big outdoor screen at Apple Park.

It’s also expected to be Tim Cook’s last event as Apple CEO, with John Ternus taking over on September 1, 2026. In classic Apple fashion, the event will be livestreamed, and TechRadar will, of course, be live-blogging it.

And from the invite itself, I think it’s fair to say that Apple thinks WWDC will be pretty bright this year. Unlike past Apple events, there’s no tagline on the invite itself, but on the developer webpage, it reads “Coming Bright Up.” The invite itself features “WWDC 26” in a silver font with some shading, wrapped in a brightly glowing circle.

That circle could hint at a few things — Apple might have decked out its circular campus with glowing, bright LEDs, and the Special Event is taking place at Apple Park for guests, but it’s more likely hinting at features. It’s essentially two glowing circles — one exterior and one interior — and I’d bet it’s a tease for Apple Intelligence and potentially a glow around Siri, maybe even a new design.

I asked TechRadar’s Editor-at-Large, Lance Ulanoff, and he hinted it might be Siri within the Dynamic Island — and while we won’t know until Apple makes it official, it’s no coincidence that both of our minds went to Siri and how it might be integrated across the next generation of all of Apple’s platforms.

Apple has made it no secret that WWDC 26 will likely be the kickoff and formal update around Apple Intelligence and the more personal, AI-powered Siri, which has been delayed for many months. It was first teased and announced at WWDC 2024, and since then, it has never shipped, was rumored to be delayed, and then was formally pushed back by Apple.

Since then, CEO Tim Cook and other executives, including incoming CEO John Ternus, currently SVP of Hardware, and Greg Joswiak, SVP of Marketing, have all hinted that work is going well. Apple has also partnered with Google to use Gemini’s foundational models to help power its next-gen Apple Intelligence, and likely the new Siri.

Rumors have also heated up, teasing how the new Siri will work, how it will impact a range of applications, and how it represents the next leap for Apple Intelligence.

Either way, it’s highly expected that WWDC 2026 will be the launch point for Apple’s next-generation Siri, which will hopefully deliver on some of the original promises from 2024 and level them up to catch up with the likes of Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT. Privacy and Apple’s Private Cloud Compute will likely remain a key focus, and we’ll see how it's integrated with other updates.

Beyond Siri, you can expect the next generation of all of Apple’s platforms, including iOS, watchOS, macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, homeOS, and visionOS, which should all jump from 26 to 27 as Apple continues with its new naming convention.

We’ll have lots more to unpack in the next few weeks before the event, and then on June 8 at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 6 pm BST (3 am AEST, June 9), TechRadar will be the place to be for our live coverage of Apple’s Special Event and our analysis in the hours, days, and weeks afterward.

In the meantime, vote in our poll below to let us know what you’re most excited for at WWDC 2026, and feel free to comment below with what you’re hoping to see.

• Apple will reveal an AI-powered Siri update at its WWDC show in June
• The company will push privacy as its AI differentiator, a new report claims
• But the new features might be labeled 'betas', despite arriving two years late

As Apple struggles to catch up in the AI race, the company may finally have found a way to make Siri stand out from rivals like ChatGPT and Gemini — by making it more private, not more powerful.

With Apple gearing up for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8, the tech world is wondering how the Cupertino giant is planning to close the gap between itself and its artificial intelligence (AI) rivals. One way, according to a new report, is to stick with something that has always helped Apple stand out from the crowd — but there’s a notable catch to the plans.

Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman believes that Apple will push privacy as the biggest differentiator between itself and companies like OpenAI and Google that also maintain AI-infused products. And that could enable Apple to argue that its pro-privacy approach — one that it has long adopted — is a “fundamentally different” pathway to AI.

One way Apple could do this, Gurman believes, is through building disappearing messages into its revamped Siri virtual assistant. The iOS 27 update that’s set to debut at WWDC will put Siri in a standalone app for the first time, and this app could automatically delete any prompts that you send to Siri. The options will be to keep messages for 30 days, one year or forever; if you select one of the first two choices, Siri will remove your conversations without you having to lift a finger. That could protect you from data leaks and your private info being used to train an AI model.

Apple will also “place tighter limits around how [Siri’s] memory works,” Gurman says, “including restrictions on what information can persist and how long it can be retained.” Apple’s stance is that settings like this should be “built into the system itself,” according to Gurman, rather than being an optional extra as with rival AI systems from the likes of Meta and OpenAI.

The new Siri may emerge with ‘unfinished’ features

Auto-deleting messages are not the only new AI feature due to arrive at WWDC. There’s a whole Siri revamp in the works that should see features announced way back in 2024 finally make it to users’ iPhones. Yet even that two-year delay might not be enough, Gurman warns.

Writing in Power On, Gurman explains that Apple might frame the refreshed Siri as a beta version come WWDC. The reporter adds that “there is a strong chance that this approach will be used in developer beta versions and even when iOS 27 ships this fall.” That’s because Gurman has been informed by his sources that test versions of iOS 27 contain the beta labels for Siri. Given that we are less than a month away from WWDC, those flags could remain when the operating system is unveiled in June.

Proclaiming the upgraded Siri to be in its beta phase would signal to users that the new features are still “unfinished,” Gurman says, and it’s hard to argue with that assessment. With Apple’s competitors pushing further and further ahead in the world of AI, this year’s WWDC will be crucial for Apple to show it has what it takes to hold its own. If the new AI Siri spends too long as a beta, it will be increasingly difficult for the company to do that.

With spring well and truly here and Apple’s first hardware releases of the year out of the door, fans are starting to wonder what we’ll see at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.

The consensus seems to be that iOS 27 will be the main event, with Apple focusing on improving the experience and existing features. That’ll land alongside a much-revitalized version of Siri that (we hope) finally delivers on the Apple Intelligence-infused promises Apple made — and then failed to deliver on — at WWDC 2024.

But despite that, I’m actually hoping for something completely different. In fact, there’s only one thing I’d really like to see at WWDC, and it centers on a powerful but much-overlooked iPhone app: Shortcuts.

If Apple can help this app live up to its potential, I’ll be happy — souped-up Siri or not. It’s the main thing I’m hoping for at WWDC 2026. Allow me to explain why.

Unfulfilled potential

If you haven’t used Shortcuts on your iPhone yet, you’re missing out. The idea of this handy app is to allow you to create automations that carry out a specific job for you. It’s meant to take on tasks that would either be tedious, difficult, or both if done manually.

For instance, you could create a shortcut that, once run, automatically finds all the nearest gas stations or electric charging points compared to your present location — handy when you’re running low on fuel. Or you might build one that, at a certain time, turns on Do Not Disturb mode, switches to dark mode, and opens your favorite reading app for some undisturbed evening downtime.

Right now, Shortcuts is undoubtedly a tool for power users. Some of the automations you can set up using this app are nothing short of miraculous, with many of the best examples being built from hundreds of separate steps and actions.

But the Shortcuts app doesn’t have to be this way. While it of course can be used to make automations so convoluted that few can comprehend them, it can also be turned towards simple, repetitive tasks with only a few steps.

As I see it, one reason why Shortcuts has gained a reputation as a power user tool is due not necessarily to the intricacy of the shortcuts you can create, but the complexity of the app itself.

Unfortunately, Shortcuts is not a user-friendly app. There are no built-in reference guides and no handy tutorials to guide you through the shortcut creation process.

Instead, you get just a handful of pre-made shortcuts with no indication of how to use all that power at your fingertips. You’re more or less on your own, left to fend for yourself and work out how the app works from the get-go.

That’s not a good way to welcome people into the world of shortcuts. If you want to do something sophisticated, you’ve got to either go in blindly and attempt to drum up whatever you can or simply download someone else’s creation from the internet. And when you’re saving random, potentially very powerful shortcuts from untested web links, is that really such a good idea?

I feel this lack of guidance on Apple’s part is holding back one of the best apps on the iPhone. If things were done differently, perhaps Shortcuts would be able to live up to its undoubted promise.

The Shortcuts Academy

Instead of stifling Shortcuts by limiting it to being an esoteric plaything of the druids of automation, I propose something different: the creation of a built-in Shortcuts Academy.

This would live in its own section of the Shortcuts app and give you everything you need to learn the ropes, from creating your first automation to exploring advanced scripting and dense, multi-step workflows. That would give you the tools you need, no matter your level of experience. When you’re ready, you could move on to the next section to continue improving your knowledge.

And with guides on the different use cases for different workflows, you’d quickly gain an appreciation of what Shortcuts is capable of, thereby potentially expanding the base of people who could see a use for the app in their everyday lives.

Sure, things like this already exist out on the web. There are countless blogs, tutorials, and Udemy courses all waiting to induct you into the wondrous world of Shortcuts. The expert resources certainly exist already.

But the work of this arcane caste of Shortcuts whisperers is not the solution I’m hoping for. For one thing, all of these solutions take you away from the Shortcuts app, meaning you’ve got to switch back and forth between apps and devices. It’s not exactly the most streamlined of experiences.

As well as that, going from novice to pro quickly gets expensive when you’re relying on outside sources. Those courses don’t come cheap.

If Apple were to bring something like this in-house, however, users would feel the benefits straight away. This is the kind of thing that Apple would likely offer for free, since Shortcuts is niche enough that charging for the tutorials wouldn’t be worth it. It’s not Apple’s way to charge for something like this anyway, as the company primarily makes its cash from hardware and services. Apple also has an extensive library of online tutorials for its devices and operating systems. Replicating this for an app like Shortcuts is a logical next step.

And if iOS 27 is meant to improve what’s already in the operating system, why not include Shortcuts in that tune-up? After all, it’s been a part of iOS since 2018, while Apple has owned it (under the Workflow name) since 2017. If we’re talking about giving existing features a lick of paint, the nearly decade-old Shortcuts is surely a prime candidate.

Unfortunately, I’ve not seen any indication that Apple plans to do this when iOS 27 arrives this summer. I wouldn’t rule it out entirely, as Apple is often pretty good at keeping its software plans under lock and key. But with many iOS 27 details already leaking out — and information on Shortcuts seemingly totally absent from said leaks — I’m not holding out too much hope.

Perhaps, then, this is a wish too far for this year. But if Apple ever decides to make the Shortcuts Academy a reality, it could be just the ticket for anyone who’s curious about what their iPhone is capable of, but has been put off by Shortcuts’ inscrutable nature. And the more people who get to reap the benefits, the better.

• Apple is reportedly redesigning Siri to support ongoing conversations instead of one-off commands
• The new Siri will integrate across apps and use personal context
• A refreshed interface and chat-style experience aim to make Siri feel more like ChatGPT and other AI tools

Apple will open its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8 with a familiar promise, but one that may finally be fulfilled. The company will unveil a revamped Siri, and finally answer the question posed for several years of whether Apple can finally bring its long-standing assistant up to par with ChatGPT and other more recent AI tools into something that feels current.

The company has spent years refining Siri in small ways, but the upcoming version tied to iOS 27 is expected to be a much deeper overhaul. Early leaked details point to a redesigned interface supporting a shift toward conversational AI, and a broader role for Siri, bigger than it's had, arguably, for years.

Meet the new Siri

The biggest change will be how you talk to Siri. Until now, short, specific instructions delivered one at a time have been the norm. "Siri, what's the weather?" "Siri, set a timer," and so on. Each request exists on its own.

The new Siri is expected to support continuous conversations, allowing users to ask follow-up questions and combine multiple requests in a single interaction. It will be able to carry context across exchanges, which means you can refine a request instead of starting over each time.

This is the kind of interaction people have already grown used to with tools like ChatGPT. The difference is that Apple is bringing it directly into the operating system. Siri will track what you are asking, and adapt as the conversation evolves.

Reports suggest Apple is leaning on large language model capabilities, with support from Google’s Gemini models. Questions that once required a web search or a separate chatbot may now fall within its reach. The result should theoretically be a smartphone AI assistant capable of far more varieties of interactions.

Apple appears to be moving Siri out of its traditional full-screen takeover and into something more integrated. On newer iPhones, the assistant is expected to live within the Dynamic Island, expanding into view when activated.

There are also signs that Apple is building a dedicated app for Siri with chat history and a look familiar to users of many AI chatbots. The more significant transformation is happening beneath the surface.

A reworked AI

Siri is being reworked to operate across apps and services, drawing on personal context and what is currently on screen. This is where Apple’s long-promised ideas about awareness and integration begin to take shape. The assistant will be able to reference messages, emails, and other data to complete tasks that span multiple steps.

In practical terms, that could mean asking Siri to look at a conversation, pull out a relevant detail, and act on it without needing separate instructions.

Siri’s overhaul arrives after a period where Apple has been seen as trailing in the AI space. While competitors pushed forward with conversational systems and generative tools, Apple moved more cautiously. There seemed to be a growing gap between what Siri could do and what users expected based on what ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude could do.

Apple wants to close that gap, though the approach remains consistent as it is integrating these new capabilities directly into Siri, rather than making it part of its newer Apple Intelligence brand. In contrast, Google transitioned from Assistant to Gemini (via Bard). Matching that experience while maintaining Apple’s emphasis on privacy and control is not a simple task, but clearly Apple thinks now is the time to try.

I’ll be honest: I’m a complete Apple Watch fanboy. I’ve been using Apple’s wearable for close to a decade, and I went from reluctant skeptic to total convert the minute I first borrowed a friend’s Watch to see what all the fuss was about. The device is, in my opinion, the best smartwatch money can buy.

That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, though. There are several aspects of Apple’s device that I’m less keen on, from the single-day battery life to the eye-watering price of its straps. And there are two Apple Watch annoyances that top my list of problems: the Wrist Flick gesture and Live Activities. Both are consistent sources of frustration in my day-to-day usage.

With Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) just around the corner, I’m hoping for some changes this summer. Here’s why these two features grate so much for me — and what I hope Apple will do to fix them.

1. Wrist Flick

When it was introduced as part of watchOS 26 in summer 2025, the Apple Watch’s Wrist Flick gesture was pitched as a quick and convenient way to dismiss notifications with one hand. All it took, Apple said, was a speedy backwards flick of the wrist and any on-screen alert would be banished, all without the need to do anything with your other hand.

Yet in practice, I’ve found this gesture to be frustratingly flaky. Sometimes it just doesn’t register my action, leaving my repeatedly rotating my wrist as the notification stays firmly in place, mocking my plaintive irritation. Other times, I’ll raise my wrist to check the alert, but my Watch interprets this action itself as a wrist flick gesture, leading to the notification being dismissed when I in fact wanted to read it.

In other words, I often find that wrist flick doesn’t work when it should and does work when it shouldn’t.

Adding to the problem is its inconsistency. Wrist Flick is not always an issue for me – indeed, sometimes it works perfectly. Most of the time, raising my wrist to check a message does not accidentally invoke the gesture. Yet occasionally it does, with watchOS maddeningly misreading my intention.

That makes it very hard to determine if I’m doing something wrong or if the gesture is just a little buggy. I can never tell when it’s going to work and when it’s not.

Despite that, I love the idea behind it. Like watchOS’s Double Tap gesture, Wrist Flick is a great addition for those times when you’ve only got one free hand and still want to be able to perform an action on your Watch. Ultimately, though, it feels like it needs a little more time in the oven.

Hopefully, Apple will fix it up at WWDC. I don’t need a full-blown wrist flick overhaul. Just a little attention to make it more consistent.

There are reports that iOS 27 – coming at WWDC – will be focused much more on performance and stability improvements rather than new features. Hopefully that applies to watchOS 27, too, with wrist flick getting a spot of much-needed love.

Live Activities

While I’m happy that my Apple Watch can forward texts from my iPhone, record my workouts and start timers on the go, much of the time I just want to use it as a regular, everyday clock. Yet there’s one feature that frequently gets in the way of this: Live Activities.

If you haven’t used Live Activities in watchOS yet, the feature basically works like an automated mini app that mirrors ongoing activities from your other Apple devices. So, if you’re playing music in Spotify on your Mac, for instance, you’ll see a little Spotify ‘now playing’ widget appear on your Apple Watch.

The idea is to give you a way to control what you’re doing on your other devices without having to be physically sat in front of them. In the Spotify example, you could pause your music from your wrist, even if you’re some distance away from your Mac.

That sounds like a pretty handy feature, and it frequently is. But my problem is with how Live Activities tend to take over your watch face – often without you even realizing.

I use an Apple Watch face with four of my favorite complications around its edge: the date, my Watch’s battery level, the temperature, and my activity rings. Tapping one of those complications brings up more detailed information. For that reason, I like to have my Watch face displaying most of the time so that I can quickly use these complications in a frictionless way.

The widgets launched by Live Activities, though, interfere with that. With a Live Activity taking over my Watch display, I have to dismiss it to get to my complications, then bring it back to get the added functionality granted by Live Activities. It’s disruptive for the way I want to work.

As well as that, Live Activities launch themselves automatically – you don’t bring them up manually. Because of that, I often forget they’re there. I’ll raise my wrist to check the time or tap a complication, only to find that the information I need is obscured by something that’s not even happening on my Apple Watch, but is instead taking place on one of my other devices. That makes it feel like my Watch has prioritized something of less importance and relevance to me.

I’m aware that I can disable Live Activities on my Apple Watch – I wrote a how-to guide on disabling the feature, in fact – but the problem is that your only options are severely limited. Essentially, you can either switch off Live Activities entirely or leave them as they are. Yes, you can disable Live Activities on a per-app basis, but you can’t really change how they work. It’s an either-or, on-off situation, with little middle ground.

I would prefer to have an option that sits somewhere between full-blown screen takeover territory and a complete absence of Live Activities. And I’ve got an idea of how that could work.

In fact, that idea comes straight from Apple in the form of Smart Stack hints. These are tiny icons that appear on your Watch when Apple thinks you might want them, such as a workout suggestion right when you’re about to start your daily 8am jog. It’s all arranged through harnessing artificial intelligence to predict what you might want to do with your Watch.

Why not take out the AI guesswork and expand these hints to Live Activities? When you start playing music on your Mac, your Watch could show a little Spotify icon at the bottom of your screen. One tap and the full Live Activity would launch. That would be a good compromise, enabling you to still get Live Activity functionality without the feature dominating your display.

Now, before you tell me this already exists, I know that there’s a toggle called Auto-Launch Live Activities buried in the Apple Watch’s Settings app, and disabling this stops Live Activities starting by themselves. But if you do this, the app that would otherwise trigger the Live Activity is restricted to a tiny icon at the top of your screen – one which I struggle to hit half the time. Smart Stack hints, on the other hand, are a touch larger and therefore much easier to press.

As well as that, the existing situation – tapping the minute icon at the top of your display – launches the full-blown Watch app. A Smart Stack hint, meanwhile, fires up a Live Activity, which often preserves important watch face information like the clock. Personally, I prefer the latter.

Making that idea a reality is something I’d love to see at WWDC. Apple has already laid the groundwork in the form of Smart Stack hints. Now it just needs to open the system up to Live Activities and tweak the feature.

And who knows, perhaps Apple will come up with something even better. For a company well known for its intuitive software, I’m sure it can rustle up something impressive. I’ll be watching with bated breath.

iOS 26 is on the way – Apple’s latest mobile operating system brings major changes to the iPhone platform, such as the refreshed Liquid Glass design language, updated apps, and – of course – a new name.

Though we had expected Apple to launch the next iOS update as iOS 19, we instead saw the reveal of the newly named iOS 26 at WWDC 2025.

It’s not just iOS that’s been rebranded – iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26 are also on the way later this year, bringing annually-branded software to iPad and Mac.

These changes have made a splash. iOS has been numbered ever since its first versions, while iPadOS and macOS had ended up with similar linear numbering by the time last year’s updates.

In all the talk about these new names, there’s one issue that hasn’t got as much attention, and that’s what’ll happen to the hardware.

As we prepare for the 19th generation of iPhone, I’m wondering whether Apple will name its next flagship iPhone 26, rather than iPhone 17 as we've been expecting.

To be honest, this seems like an obvious choice. The iPhone has always been numbered, though these unit numbers have never quite matched the version number of iOS. With the jump ahead to iOS 26, Apple has a chance to sync up its hardware and software naming schemes.

iPhone 26 or just… iPhone?

Of course, Apple could move in the opposite direction, cutting the numbered suffix from the end of the iPhone’s name to bring it in line with the iPad and Mac (which are known by their generation or year of issue, regardless of model).

I think this is a less likely outcome for two reasons. The first has always been stated – Apple has always numbered the iPhone, and Apple isn't known for introducing too many shake-ups at once.

The second relates to how Apple markets the iPhone. It positions its phones as a distinctly personal and portable device, so as the iPhone serves as a status symbol among Apple fans and everyday mobile users alike.

Apple relies on the prestige that comes with having a newer iPhone to shift new handsets as much as it does new features and hardware tools. Just think of how many conversations have included the phrase “which iPhone is that?”.

Prestige alone isn’t a good reason to buy a phone, but it is one people still care about, so I think it’s likely we’ll see the numbering trend continue for iPhone.

Furthermore, the various models of iPad and Mac don’t follow a strict yearly release system in the way the iPhone does, which makes the latter a better candidate for a year-based label.

Personally, I think iPhone 26 has a ring to it. It’s the Apple-like thing to do to bring everything together under one naming scheme – after all, the best iPhones are remembered for their cohesive user experiences and cohesive identity.

What do you think? Should Apple stick with iPhone 17, or go for iPhone 26 this time around? Let us know in the comments below.

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iPadOS 26 is on the way – revealed at WWDC 2025, Apple’s next-generation tablet operating system is the biggest single update to iPadOS we’ve ever seen (Apple’s Craig Federighi said as much during the keynote).

Amongst other new features, iPadOS 26 brings support for windowed multitasking to all currently available iPads, from the cheapest base-model iPad to the pricey and powerful iPad Pro.

If you ask me, that makes now a great time to pick up the base-model iPad. Just a few years back, windowed multitasking was a pipe dream on even the most powerful iPad Pros, and now it’s coming to all models.

With that in mind, it’s a good time for prospective iPad buyers to consider whether they need the power of an iPad Pro or iPad Air, or if the base model, with its upcoming suite of multitasking tools, might be enough for their needs.

The 11th-generation iPad comes equipped with an A16 chipset and 6GB of RAM, as well as 12MP front and rear cameras, an 11-inch display, and support for the Apple Pencil and the Magic Keyboard Folio.

You certainly save a good bit of money by going with Apple’s cheapest tablet, which starts at $349 / £329 / AU$599, compared to the iPad Air, which steps the price up to $599 / £599 / AU$999.

The latest iPad Pro comes in at an even heavier $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 – almost three times as expensive as the base model. And that's for the smaller 11-inch model – choose the larger iPad Pro 13-inch (2024) and it costs even more.

And while the iPad Pro is powerful, the standard 11th-generation iPad is honestly no slouch when it comes to internal hardware, especially for the everyday user. It has the same A16 chipset and 6GB of RAM as the iPhone 15, which we found could handle action games and 4K video editing while testing for our iPhone 15 review.

It also helps that the base model iPad is currently discounted in both the US and UK:

Sure, the iPad’s A16 chipset isn’t at the same level as the iPad Air and iPad Pro’s M-series chipsets, but it’s a solid choice for the things people use tablets for every day – web browsing, watching videos and movies, social media, messaging, and typing up notes and documents. Pair that with the ability to do all of the above in desktop-style windows, and the standard iPad starts looking rather capable.

It’s still true that the iPad Air and iPad Pro, with their desktop class chipsets, increased RAM capacity, and Apple Intelligence support will be a better choice if you’re in need of pro-level power, AI, or heavier multitasking.

And as a disclaimer, we don’t know how well the new window system will run on the base-model iPad. iPadOS 26 is still upcoming, so it shouldn't be the only reason you buy an iPad.

But, personally, I’m not worried. It’d be very unlike Apple to release a feature to a specific piece of hardware if it didn't at least work decently well; we saw this in practice with the limited launch of Apple Intelligence.

With that in mind, I find it really unlikely that Apple would release multitasking tools to the base-model iPad if these new features ran poorly. At this point in iPadOS 26’s development, I’m almost certain that Apple has tested the new tools extensively with a range of iPad hardware.

If you're in the market for a new tablet, be sure to check out our lists of the best iPads and best tablets. Would you consider picking up a base model iPad over an iPad Air or iPad Pro? Let us know in the comments below.

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As June comes to a close and the impact of Apple's WWDC event starts to leave its mark, there's a lingering feeling surrounding Apple's AI approach.

I've been using the iOS 26 developer beta on my iPhone for a couple of weeks now, and while it's still missing some of the upcoming Apple Intelligence features like Live Translation, it's clear (pun intended) that the primary focus of Apple's upcoming software updates is in the Liquid Glass redesign, not AI.

Last week, top insider Mark Gurman reported that Apple execs had "held internal discussions about potentially bidding for artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI." He followed up that report with an excellent edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg that went into the nitty gritty of how Apple could afford to spend big bucks on an AI company, rather than rely on sorting out its internal turmoil to get the iPhone's AI up to speed.

As a Perplexity Pro subscriber and someone who uses the AI search engine regularly, this got me thinking about how Apple acquiring the startup and implementing its capabilities into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS could completely turn its AI strategy around.

It all adds up

Perplexity AI was one of the first companies to launch an AI search engine, and to this day provides one of the best user experiences when replacing traditional Google Search with AI.

For nearly two decades, Apple and Google have had a partnership in place, solidifying Google as the default search engine for iPhone users. That could all be about to change, however, an antitrust lawsuit puts that in jeopardy, and as such, Apple might need to look at providing its own search solution.

Suppose Google's antitrust suit does come into play. What better way for Apple to solve its massive search engine hole than to implement Perplexity, a product that not only provides a search solution but also addresses Apple's biggest AI woes.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on an Apple-branded search engine, and yet nothing has ever materialized. Perplexity is a ready-made offering, with an incredibly smooth interface and user experience, that at this moment in time, provides one of the best consumer AI products on the market.

Gurman estimates Apple has around $300 billion in cash at its disposal, and Perplexity, unlike some other AI products on the market like OpenAI's ChatGPT, would be available for a fraction of that chunk.

Apple could, in theory, purchase Perplexity tomorrow and roll it out to users within just a couple of months, following a rebrand. This wouldn't be new territory for Apple either; the company has made similar acquisitions in the past, most notably when it purchased Dark Sky, the popular weather app, implementing some of its best features into the stock Weather app.

Waiting for Apple Intelligence

Gurman, in his newsletter, emphasized four other reasons besides Google's antitrust lawsuit as to why buying Perplexity AI makes sense for Apple. Valued at around $14 billion, Gurman says Perplexity's reasonable valuation and ability to fill a clear need, Apple's lack of "strong search layer and conversational interface for everyday tasks" makes Perplexity a standout opportunity for a company like Apple, which is looking to make a mark on the AI landscape.

He also claims that the 250-strong team would be the perfect size to incorporate into Cupertino, and like I said above, a consumer-ready product makes perfect sense for Apple at this moment in time.

I've been using Perplexity connected to my iPhone 16 Pro's Action button for months now, and AI search has quickly become my go-to when it comes to finding out information. At the moment, Apple Intelligence's lack of improved Siri and a true functional chatbot completely undermines its AI capabilities, and no matter how good Apple's hardware is for AI, its lack of first-party prowess makes Apple Intelligence feel like an incredibly weak proposition.

With murmurings of Apple looking to Perplexity, it now seems so obvious that an acquisition would seriously boost the Apple Intelligence moniker. Earlier this year, Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Services, spoke during Google's antitrust trial. He said, "We’ve been pretty impressed with what Perplexity has done, so we’ve started some discussions with them about what they’re doing."

Now, months later, there seems to be some more potential to these discussions, and while it might not excite you yet, I guarantee that if a deal were to come to fruition, it would massively increase the AI potential of the iPhone and Apple's other hero products.

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iPadOS 26 is on the way – Apple revealed its next iPad software update at WWDC 2025, and since then the internet has been ablaze with reactions and speculation.

The big ticket items for this year’s iPadOS update pertain to multitasking – all currently-sold iPads (and likely several older models) are due to get support for up to six desktop-style windows at once, as well as a menu bar, and updates to the dock and background processing.

We already recommend the base model iPad and iPad Pro as some of the best tablets you can buy, but this upcoming update has got me thinking about where Apple now sits in the wider tablet market.

It’s no secret that Apple’s tablet hardware is the best on the market – there are simply no other tablets with the raw processing power the iPad Pro and iPad Air's M-series chipsets can offer.

Speaking frankly, the only thing giving other tablet makers a chance has been software – iPadOS has long been held back by a lack of flexibility and unintuitive design, while rivals like Samsung have pushed ahead with innovative features like DeX, which offers a desktop-style experience that works especially well with a keyboard and mouse.

But with iPadOS 26 bringing huge updates, that could all change.

Samsung's options

I recently spent some time testing the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE Plus for an upcoming review, and found it to be a big, premium-feeling tablet that offers a lot of software flexibility at the cost of performance.

In fact, having used the Galaxy Tab S10 FE Plus in a variety of situations, I think the only reason someone should buy one is if they absolutely need its combination of a large 13-inch screen, flexible multitasking, and intermediate price (starting at $649 / £649 / AU$1,099).

iPadOS 26’s windowed multitasking, from what we’ve seen so far, is not as developed or as open-ended as Samsung DeX, but in true Apple style it’ll probably be just useful enough to overshadow Samsung’s offering when combined with the iPad’s hardware power.

That takes away a major advantage to buying a Samsung tablet pretty much instantly.

If you ask me, Samsung should be really quite worried about this, and has one of two options to survive an upcoming iPad renaissance.

The first is simply cutting prices as much as costs allow. Samsung tablets are definitively premium devices, with great build quality and sometimes bigger screens than comparably priced iPads – but they’re still very expensive, and don't perform as well as Apple's tablets.

Like it or not, iPadOS is the standard for how a tablet works, so asking users to shell out almost as much as an iPad costs for a device that isn’t as powerful, runs potentially unfamiliar software, and offers just slightly more utility looks like a pretty mediocre deal.

The second option is stepping up performance without an increase in price – our Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus review and Samsung Galaxy S10 Ultra review found the tablets to be solid performers, but not to Apple’s standards. That’s backed up by our own Future Labs testing data: neither Samsung tablet catches up to the latest iPad Air in single or multicore benchmarks.

A renewed rivalry

Both of these options ask a lot of Samsung, perhaps more than can be delivered in a few release cycles.

But with Apple’s smooth user experience, wider selection of professional apps, more powerful hardware, and upcoming multitasking improvements, I seriously can’t see the point in buying a Samsung tablet right now.

That's not me giving Apple an easy ride either, let me be clear that as someone who personally bought an iPad Pro in 2020, the long wait for proper multitasking on iPad has been very, very frustrating. But having used both iPads and Samsung tablets, I'd still pick the iPad any day thanks to its better app availability and smoother user experience.

And my own experiences aside, there's no denying that iPads are vastly more popular than Samsung tablets. A Forbes report from September 2024 estimates that Apple holds 35.8% of the tablet market worldwide, compared to Samsung's 20.1%. That's going to make the impact of iPadOS 26 feel even more significant, even if the features added are ones Samsung users have enjoyed for years.

That’s not to say there are no benefits to buying a Samsung tablet: One UI 7 is rich with customizable settings, and the aforementioned Dex mode really is fantastic. It’s just that iPadOS 26 is poised to take Apple’s tablet platform to a new level of competition.

I'd like to see a future in which the best iPads and the best Samsung tablets keep clashing head-to-head; here’s hoping Samsung can make the right moves to keep up. Look out for my full Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE Plus review soon.

As ever, the comments section is open for discussion – is Apple destined to take over? Or does Samsung have more of a chance than I think? Let us know below.

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I’d have placed a decent bet on Apple making a big deal about Apple Intelligence at WWDC this year, and from that I’d have predicted that the iPhone 17 would be Cupertino’s first proper AI phone.

The company somewhat fluffed the launch of Apple Intelligence, with AI-powered features for the iPhone 16 family taking a long time to roll out after its launch, and a smarter ChatGPT-centric Siri still absent. With that in mind, I’d have thought Apple would have gone harder on AI at its yearly developer's conference.

I was wrong.

Apple Intelligence was mentioned, but more as a smart virtual icing to a cake consisting mostly of the Liquid Glass design material and feature updates across Apple’s software ecosystem.

So with that in mind it’s arguably hard to draw any big insights into what’ll be in store at the next Apple event, which is likely to be a September one centred around new iPhones. But I think I can have a good stab at what the next iPhone will be like.

It’ll be boring.

Send me now new iOS

My theory here is that the iPhone 17, if Apple does go with that nomenclature, will be a vehicle for iOS 26 with hardware upgrades taking a back seat.

While a lot of the core iOS experience will broadly be the same as iOS 18, the design changes could take a little getting used to; plus there are a host of new features in the native apps that could offer users new ways to do things.

So I suspect Apple won’t do much on the hardware side to get in the way of that experience; there’s not likely to be any big changes to the core iPhone design, camera array or materials.

Depressingly, I even expect the standard iPhone 17 will still have a 60Hz display, as it seems like Apple is one of the few companies who can get away with this and still charge a premium price.

There are some rumors that tout changes such as the use of aluminum for the frame of the iPhone 17 Pro, but I don’t buy them; the rumored iPhone 17 Air could use the lighter material, though I don’t see that phone shaking up the core design of iPhones.

Rather than champion many hardware upgrades, which in recent years have become iterative to the point of being dull, I think Apple will position the iPhone 17 range as a new chapter in getting the most out of a fresh iOS.

And I think a lot of people will buy into it.

The iPhone’s new clothes

Much like changing up an outfit with the addition of a new shirt or coat, or swapping the strap of a watch, redesigned software can make tried and tested hardware seem fresh and new, even if most of those changes are merely aesthetic.

But I think new features like an overhauled Phone app, smart tools for Maps, Wallet and Music, plus new dedicated Games app-meets-hub will make next-generation iPhones feel a lot newer than those that have simply had camera sensor or button upgrades over their predecessors.

I’m particularly intrigued to see how the Games app plays out, as Apple has quietly been strengthening the gaming experience on iPhone, with support for titles such as Death Stranding and a suite of original games in the growing Apple Arcade service, both of which I don’t feel Android has a strong answer for.

Add in a new chip, which is all but guaranteed for the next-gen iPhones, and you could be looking at some impressive stealthy gaming phones.

With that in mind, I can see the iPhone 17 offering a family of phones for people who’ve resisted upgrading to a new iPhone for a couple of years. That’s often the case, of course, but I feel iOS 26 will be more of an upgrade catalyst even though models dating back to the iPhone 11 can run this upcoming iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system.

I'd place a very solid bet that Apple will market the iPhone 17 range as the ideal vehicle for iOS 26, and I'm forecasting that'll suck in a lot of people; let me know in the comments if you don't agree.

All that being said, I’m totally open to Apple surprising me with an iPhone that’s being given a serious reworking or just has a good clutch of hardware upgrades. I don’t personally think this is the year for that – but I don’t think that matters either.

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