Android Authority did a teardown of the recent Gallery app update in OneUI 8.5, discovering that Samsung might soon prompt users to leave OneDrive and opt for the company's own cloud. Partnerships similar to that of Samsung and Microsoft never have any guarantees, and the discovered bits prove that a "native" option is usually a safer and more convenient way to go. For example, for iPhone users, backing up photos in iCloud is the easiest option (even though you only get 5GB for free), and Samsung now wants to do the same.

Here are the discovered lines:

• Keep your pictures and videos safe and synced with all your devices.
• Samsung Cloud now lets you back up photos and videos and sync them across your devices. With this change, support for OneDrive will end
• Gallery will no longer support syncing with OneDrive.
• Back up your Gallery to Samsung Cloud to keep your photos and videos safe and synced with all your devices.
• A new way to protect your memories
• Sync with OneDrive ending soon
• Keep your memories safe and synced

Samsung partnered with Microsoft on using OneDrive as a native photo backup option about six years ago. As a result of that partnership, OneDrive sync was integrated into OneUI, allowing users to back up photos without downloading and installing the OneDrive app (which was pre-installed nonetheless). While removing the native integration will be inconvenient for users, you can continue backing up your photos using the OneDrive app from the Google Play Store.

Source: Android Authority

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Posted Wednesday 24 September 2025 at 5:06 am AEST (my time).

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While it seems like a foregone conclusion that there will be a foldable iPhone, possibly late next year, there hasn’t been much info about what it would look like. In the latest installment of his Power On newsletter Mark Gurman says he’s being told it will look more or less like two iPhone Airs stuck together.

That means it should be pretty thin, though potentially thicker than a Pixel 10 Pro Fold (10.8mm) and Galaxy Z Fold7 (8.9mm) since an iPhone Air comes in at 5.6mm thick. Though Ming-Chi Kuo’s sources suggest the foldable will be quite a bit thinner when unfolded, possibly as little as 4.5mm. Unfortunately, Gurman also expects the foldable iPhone to cost more than the Pixel Fold, starting at at least $2,000, possibly more.

One benefit of basing the foldable on the iPhone Air’s design is durability. While foldables have improved a lot over the years, there are still concerns about how they can stand up to abuse. But Gurman says the iPhone fold will be made of titanium, just like the Air, which both JerryRigsEverything and iFixIt have found to be pretty tough.

iFixIt also gave the iPhone Air a surprisingly decent repairability score of seven. If an iPhone fold could even get close to the same repairability score it would be a pretty big deal. Both the Pixel Fold and Z Fold7 earned repairability scores of three, meaning these phones that are far more fragile than your standard glass rectangle are also much harder to repair.

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Posted Monday 22 September 2025 at 4:53 pm AEST (my time).

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If you haven't been running the beta releases already and own a supported iPhone model, you can get your hands on the new features and changes that have arrived with iOS 26. The update comes with a ton of new features in the Photos app, Safari browser, and other system apps. You can also take HDR-supported screenshots on your iPhone.

This article is part of our series exploring the new features and changes in iOS 26. So, let's talk about some new changes you'll notice immediately after installing the iOS 26 update.

Note: This list is not exhaustive of all the features and changes.

1. 3D spatial wallpapers, dynamic clock

You'll start noticing the changes right on the lock screen. The newly updated dynamic clock on iOS 26 slides behind the subject when you swipe down on the screen to hide the notifications. Thanks to the Spatial Scenes feature in the Photos app, you'll notice some parallax effect in the 3D wallpaper on the lock screen when you tilt your phone in different directions.

2. It could have been iOS 19

Apple skipping version numbers for iOS is something you wouldn't expect. But the company did it in 2025, and not just for iPhone, Apple renamed all of its operating systems to a single version number. So, now we have iOS 26, iPadOS 26, tvOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS 26, and visionOS 26.

This change in the naming scheme aligns with the new Liquid Glass design language across Apple's ecosystem. It also creates consistency as previous Apple-made operating systems carried different version numbers, such as iOS 18, macOS 15, tvOS 13, and watchOS 11.

Calling it version 26 indicates the year when the update is most active. Typically, Apple's OS updates are released in the fourth quarter, which means that the majority of their lifecycle and incremental updates happen in the following year. That's why it makes more sense to call it iOS 26 instead of iOS 25.

3. Liquid Glass

While Apple is lagging behind on the AI front, it's trying to make up for it with other features. Liquid Glass is one such thing, which is in fact the biggest visual update the Cupertino giant has pushed in years, across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

Apple describes Liquid Glass as "a new translucent material that reflects and refracts its surroundings, bringing greater focus to content, and delivering a new level of vitality across controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more."

Liquid Glass is based on visionOS and succeeds Apple's existing design languages, such as Aqua on macOS and the minimalist flat design on iOS/iPadOS. It mimics how a glass would behave in the real world when placed on top of different materials, and borrows colors from its surrounding content.

You can find Liquid Glass in action right away on the Control Center, Home Screen, and Lock Screen, where you can see how the glassy UI elements change the appearance when you swipe in different directions or interact with the tab bars, side bars, buttons, switches, sliders, text, and media controls.

However, not everything is perfect in its first rollout, and Apple faced criticism when it pushed the first draft of Liquid Glass to iOS beta versions. Users complained about imperfect color contrast and high transparency, which made the content difficult to see.

Apple has since made changes to the Liquid Glass in places like Control Center, where it reduced transparency to make the icons more visible.

4. Streamlined search experience

The search bar on older versions of iOS was hidden somewhere at the top of the screen. You had to swipe down on the screen to reveal the search bar in apps like Phone and Settings. With iOS 26, Apple has streamlined the search experience by moving the search bar to the bottom of the display, making it easier to use an iPhone with one hand.

You can find the updated search feature on most system apps, either as a wide pill or a lens icon, depending on the app. However, it's still a work in progress, as Apple has yet to update the Files app with the new interface.

5. Mind the curves

Apple has continued the trend of adding curves to everything. It started with the iPhone X in 2017, when Apple ditched the rectangular screen for one with rounded corners. iOS 26 has an abundance of UI elements and borders that are curvier than before.

The Settings app is one place where you'll notice this change quickly when comparing it with iOS 18, and so is the case with the buttons in the Control Center. You can also see it across controls, toolbars, and navigation buttons within apps that have the Liquid Glass treatment.

6. Updated app icons

With Liquid Glass comes a fresh coat of paint to the app icons on iOS 26 and its siblings. You can find new icons for apps like Camera, Safari, App Store, Reminders, Notes, and others. In addition to that, Apple has also redesigned the icons for the features and options available in the Settings app.

However, another round of criticism has arrived as some users who downloaded the stable version are reporting that Liquid Glass icons look tilted and asymmetrical when used in dark mode.

7. No navigation pill at the bottom

Apple introduced gesture navigation for iPhone almost eight years ago. It seems that the company feels that users are now familiar with navigation controls. After installing iOS 26, you won't find the thin off-white navigation pill or Home Bar (informally) anymore, except on the Lock Screen. It does briefly appear for a couple of seconds when you open any app on the device.

8. The Preview app

iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 have introduced the Preview app, building on the legacy of its macOS counterpart that has existed for years.

Preview app on iOS 26 makes it easier to work with images and PDFs with built-in tools for creating, editing, annotating, and exporting PDF documents. You can find quick access buttons at the top of the screen to create a new PDF or scan a document.

While the Files app can also scan documents, the Preview app is specifically meant to do the job. The app also lets you combine multiple PDFs into a single file and works with the AutoFill feature to add details to forms.

9. The Apple Games app

Apple has baked the new Games app for iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, which essentially gives a new face to the good old Game Center buried in the Settings. It finds all the games installed on your devices and puts them in the Library tab for quick access.

Of course, the Games app integrates with the iPhone-maker's game subscription service, Apple Arcade, which appears as a separate tab. It also supports several Game Center features like leaderboards, multiplayer, and achievements.

These are some of the new features and changes you might notice immediately after installing the iOS 26 update on your device. It's evident that iOS 26 has improved in several areas over its predecessors, like the search experience, which is now streamlined across apps and a better fit for one-handed usage.

Moreover, the Liquid Glass design language is consistent not just across iOS apps, but also across Apple's ecosystem. You'll find the same icons and visual upgrades on your iPad and Mac, marking the start of a new experience for the years to come.

What do you think about Liquid Glass and iOS 26? Tell us in the comments.

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Posted Sunday 21 September 2025 at 3:15 am AEST (my time).

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Following the announcement that it is bringing Gemini to its Google Home smart home platform, it appears the company is updating its Google Home app to incorporate the new features. Android Authority dove into code for the upcoming v3.41.50.3 version of the app and found “a significant redesign.”

While the overall UI doesn’t look like it’s changed dramatically, some usability tweaks streamline the app while putting Gemini front and center.

According to screenshots published by Android Authority and detailed in a YouTube video, you can now “Ask Home” to control your devices by typing or saying what you want to happen or to search your video and home history to get detailed descriptions of what has already happened. This is all accessible through a new Ask Home search bar at the top of the app, which, according to AA, opens a new “Ask Home” conversation screen.

Google had already announced that Gemini for Home is coming to Google’s smart speakers and displays, allowing you to use natural language to control smart home devices with your voice, so it’s logical that this function will also be part of the Home app.

Other updates AA spotted included that the Favorites tab has been renamed to Home, and the Devices and Settings tab has gone from the bottom bar, leaving only three icons . (Devices will now be accessible via a grid icon in the Home tab.)

It looks like you will also be able to add outdoor air quality and temperature as a favorite tile, and there are new icons for video and a thermometer on the Home page. The latter may hint at upcoming Nest hardware, which is slated to launch next month.

I hope this big app refresh will also bring the many features Google has been trialing in its Public Preview program to all users.

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Posted Saturday 20 September 2025 at 3:03 am AEST (my time).

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Adaptive Power relies on Apple's on-device machine learning prowess to analyze your battery usage patterns and charging habits, predicting when you might need some extra backup until your next trip to a charging point.

It works behind the scenes to make performance adjustments, limit background activity, lower screen brightness by 3%, and turn on Low Power Mode when your battery percentage reaches 20%.

The feature is supported on the following iPhone models:

• Enabled by default: iPhone Air, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max
• Disabled by default: iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16, iPhone 16e, iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max

You can manage Adaptive Power by going to Settings > Battery > Power Mode. Here, you can turn on the optional notifications for Adaptive Power to know when it kicks in during the day. The feature will work in the background even if you disable the notifications.

Note that the feature doesn't manage performance when your iPhone needs all of its muscle power, such as when using the Camera app or playing games with Game Mode enabled.

Moreover, Adaptive Power needs at least seven days to analyze your charging habits before it starts doing its job. Speaking of which, the iPhone 17 series devices can now charge from zero to 50% battery capacity in 20 minutes using Apple's new 40W charging adapter.

The iOS 26 update is now available to download on supported iPhone models. If you haven't installed it yet, consider checking out the list of 10 things you should do before installing iOS 26. Apple recently admitted that installing iOS 26, or any major update, may worsen your iPhone's battery life initially. So, if you want, you can wait for a few days before updating your device.

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Posted Thursday 18 September 2025 at 5:13 pm AEST (my time).

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At multiple points over many years, Apple executives have taken great pains to point out that they think touchscreen Macs are a silly idea. But it remains one of those persistent Mac rumors that crops up over and over again every couple of years, from sources that are reliable enough that they shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.

Today’s contribution comes from supply chain analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, who usually has some insight into what Apple is testing and manufacturing. Kuo says that touchscreen MacBook Pros are “expected to enter mass production by late 2026,” and that the devices will also shift to using OLED display panels instead of the Mini LED panels on current-generation MacBook Pros.

Kuo says that Apple’s interest in touchscreen Macs comes from “long-term observation of iPad user behavior.” Apple’s tablet hardware launches in the last few years have also included keyboard and touchpad accessories, and this year’s iPadOS 26 update in particular has helped to blur the line between the touch-first iPad and the keyboard-and-pointer-first Mac. In other words, Apple has already acknowledged that both kinds of input can be useful when combined in the same device; taking that same jump on the Mac feels like a natural continuation of work Apple is already doing.

Touchscreens became much more common on Windows PCs starting in 2012 when Windows 8 was released, itself a response to Apple’s introduction of the iPad a couple of years before. Microsoft backed off on almost all of Windows 8’s design decisions in the following years after the dramatic UI shift proved unpopular with traditional mouse-and-keyboard users, but touchscreen PCs like Microsoft’s Surface lineup have persisted even as the software has changed.

The last major contribution to The Great Touchscreen Mac Rumor Cycle came from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in early 2023. Gurman claimed that Apple was “actively engaged” in designing and testing touchscreen Macs, but that we probably wouldn’t see the fruits of that labor until 2025 at the earliest. Apple still has a little bit of 2025 left to go, but it does seem as though the company is going to miss that time window.

Kuo’s post also makes reference to another perennial Mac rumor: the existence of a low-cost MacBook model that slides in well underneath the $999 baseline that Apple’s entry-level laptops have stuck to for a couple of decades now. Kuo claims this Mac is entering production in the fourth quarter of 2025, suggesting that we could see it in the next few months.

This low-cost MacBook is said to use an A-series iPhone processor to cut costs, and it seems likely that it would be a replacement of sorts for the old M1 MacBook Air that Apple still sells through Walmart for $650 (currently $600). If Apple introduced a low-cost MacBook, one big question would be whether it would remain retailer-exclusive, or if Apple would sell it in its own stores like it has done with its low-cost iPhone and iPad models.

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Posted Thursday 18 September 2025 at 4:32 am AEST (my time).

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iOS 26 became publicly available this week, ushering in a new OS naming system and the software’s most overhauled look since 2013. It may take time to get used to the new "Liquid Glass" look, but it’s easier to appreciate the pared-down controls.

Beyond a glassy, bubbly new design, the update’s flashiest new features also include new Apple Intelligence AI integration that varies in usefulness, from fluffy new Genmoji abilities to a nifty live translation feature for Phones, Messages, and FaceTime.

New tech is often bogged down with AI-based features that prove to be overhyped, unreliable, or just not that useful. iOS 26 brings a little of each, so in this review, we’ll home in on the iOS updates that will benefit both mainstream and power users the most.

Let’s start with Liquid Glass

If we’re talking about changes that you’re going to use a lot, we should start with the new Liquid Glass software design that Apple is applying across all of its operating systems. iOS hasn’t had this much of a makeover since iOS 7. However, where iOS 7 applied a flatter, minimalist effect to windows and icons and their edges, iOS 26 adds a (sometimes frosted) glassy look and a mildly fluid movement to actions such as pulling down menus or long-pressing controls. All the while, windows look like they’re reflecting the content underneath them. When you pull Safari's menu atop a webpage, for example, blurred colors from the webpage's images and text are visible on empty parts of the menu.

When you swipe down to open the Control Center, its icons appear to stretch downward as you slide your finger.

 

Translucent controls are seen here in one of the Pets collections in my Photos app.

Scharon Harding

 

Liquid Glass is now part of most of Apple’s consumer devices, including Macs and Apple TVs, but the dynamic visuals and motion are especially pronounced as you use your fingers to poke, slide, and swipe across your iPhone’s screen.

For instance, when you use a tinted color theme or the new clear theme for Home Screen icons, colors from the Home Screen's background look like they’re refracting from under the translucent icons. It's especially noticeable when you slide to different Home Screen pages. And in Safari, the address bar shrinks down and becomes more translucent as you scroll to read an article.

Because the theme is incorporated throughout the entire OS, the Liquid Glass effect can be cheesy at times. It feels forced in areas such as Settings, where text that just scrolled past looks slightly blurred at the top of the screen.

Liquid Glass makes the top of the Settings menu look blurred.

Credit: Scharon Harding

Other times, the effect feels fitting, like when pulling the Control Center down and its icons appear to stretch down to the bottom of the screen and then quickly bounce into their standard size as you release your finger. Another place Liquid Glass flows nicely is in Photos. As you browse your pictures, colors subtly pop through the translucent controls at the bottom of the screen.

This is a matter of appearance, so you may have your own take on whether Liquid Glass looks tasteful or not. But overall, it's the type of redesign that’s distinct enough to be a fun change, yet mild enough that you can grow accustomed to it if you’re not immediately impressed.

Liquid Glass simplifies navigation (mostly)

There's more to Liquid Glass than translucency. Part of the redesign is simplifying navigation in some apps by displaying fewer controls.

Opening Photos is now cleaner at launch, bringing you to all of your photos instead of the Collections section, like iOS 18 does. At the bottom are translucent tabs for Library and Collections, plus a Search icon. Once you start browsing, the Library and Collections tabs condense into a single icon, and Years, Months, and All tabs appear, maintaining a translucence that helps keep your focus on your pictures.

You can still bring up more advanced options (such as Flash, Live, Timer) with one tap. And at the top of the camera’s field of view are smaller toggles for night mode and flash. But for when you want to take a quick photo, iOS 26 makes it easier to focus on the necessities while keeping the extraneous within short reach.

Similarly, the initial controls displayed at the bottom of the screen when you open Camera are pared down from six different photo- and video-shooting modes to the two that really matter: Photo and Video.

iOS 26 takes the same approach with Video mode by focusing on the essentials (zoom, resolution, frame rate, and flash) at launch.New layout options for navigating Safari, however, slowed me down. In a new Compact view, the address bar lives at the bottom of the screen without a dedicated toolbar, giving the web page more screen space. But this setup makes accessing common tasks, like opening a new or old tab, viewing bookmarks, or sharing a link, tedious because they’re hidden behind a menu button.

The toolbar is hidden in Safari's Compact layout.

Scharon Harding

 

Opening the menu next to address bar brings up toolbar functions.

Scharon Harding

 

If you tend to have multiple browser tabs open, you’ll want to stick with the classic layout, now called Top (where the address bar is at the top of the screen and the toolbar is at the bottom) or the Bottom layout (where the address bar and toolbar are at the bottom of the screen).

On the more practical side of Safari updates is a new ability to turn any webpage into a web app, making favorite and important URLs accessible quickly and via a dedicated Home Screen icon. This has been an iOS feature for a long time, but until now the pages always opened in Safari. Users can still do this if they like, but by default these sites now open as their own distinct apps, with dedicated icons in the app switcher. Web apps open full-screen, but in my experience, back and forward buttons only come up if you go to a new website. Sliding left and right replaces dedicated back and forward controls, but sliding isn't as reliable as just tapping a button.

Viewing Ars Technica as a web app.

Credit: Scharon Harding

iOS 26 remembers that iPhones are telephones

With so much focus on smartphone chips, screens, software, and AI lately, it can be easy to forget that these devices are telephones. iOS 26 doesn’t overlook the core purpose of iPhones, though. Instead, the new operating system adds a lot to the process of making and receiving phone calls, video calls, and text messages, starting with the look of the Phone app.

Continuing the streamlined Liquid Glass redesign, the Phone app on iOS 26 consolidates the bottom controls from Favorites, Recents, Contacts, Keypad, and Voicemail, to Calls (where voicemails also live), Contacts, and Keypad, plus Search.

I’d rather have a Voicemails section at the bottom of the screen than Search, though. The Voicemails section is still accessible by opening a menu at the top-right of the screen, but it's less prominent, and getting to it requires more screen taps than before.

On Phone's opening screen, you'll see the names or numbers of missed calls and voicemails in red. But voicemails also have a blue dot next to the red phone number or name (along with text summarizing or transcribing the voicemail underneath if those settings are active). This setup caused me to overlook missed calls initially. Missed calls with voicemails looked more urgent because of the blue dot. For me, at first glance, it appeared as if the blue dots represented unviewed missed calls and that red numbers/names without a blue dot were missed calls that I had already viewed. It’s taking me time to adjust, but there’s logic behind having all missed phone activity in one place.

For someone like me, whose phone number seems to have made it to every marketer and scammers’ contact lists, it’s empowering to have iOS 26’s screening features help reduce time spent dealing with spam.

The phone can be set to automatically ask callers with unsaved numbers to state their name. As this happens, iOS displays the caller’s response on-screen, so you can decide if you want to answer or not. If you’re not around when the phone rings, you can view the transcript later and then mark the caller as known, if desired. This has been my preferred method of screening calls and reduces the likelihood of missing a call I want to answer.

There are also options for silencing calls and voicemails from unknown numbers and having them only show in a section of the app that's separate from the Calls tab (and accessible via the aforementioned Phone menu).

A new Phone menu helps sort important calls from calls that are likely spam.

Credit: Scharon Harding

You could also have iOS direct calls that your cell phone carrier identifies as spam to voicemail and only show the missed calls in the Phone menu's dedicated Spam list. I found that, while the spam blocker is fairly reliable, silencing calls from unsaved numbers resulted in me missing unexpected calls from, say, an interview source or my bank. And looking through my spam and unknown callers lists sounds like extra work that I'm unlikely to do regularly.

Messages

iOS 26 applies the same approach to Messages. You can now have texts from unknown senders and spam messages automatically placed into folders that are separate from your other texts. It's helpful for avoiding junk messages, but it can be confusing if you're waiting for something like a two-factor authentication text, for example.

Elsewhere in Messages is a small but effective change to browsing photos, links, and documents previously exchanged via text. Upon tapping the name of a person in a conversation in Messages, you’ll now see tabs for viewing that conversation’s settings (such as the recipient’s number and a toggle for sending read receipts), as well as separate tabs for photos and links. Previously, this was all under one tab, so if you wanted to find a previously sent link, you had to scroll through the conversation’s settings and photos. Now, you can get to links with a couple of quick taps. Additionally, with iOS 26 you can finally set up custom iMessage backgrounds, including premade ones and ones that you can make from your own photos or by using generative AI. It’s not an essential update but is an easy way to personalize your iPhone by brightening up texts.

Hold Assist

Another time saver is Hold Assist. It makes calling customer service slightly more tolerable by allowing you to hang up during long wait times and have your iPhone ring when someone’s ready to talk to you. It’s a feature that some customer service departments have offered for years already, but it’s handy to always have it available.

You have to be quick to respond, though. One time I answered the phone after using Hold Assist, and the caller informed me that they had said "hello" a few times already. This is despite the fact that iOS is supposed to let the agent know that you’ll be on the phone shortly. If I had waited a couple more seconds to pick up the phone, it's likely that the customer service rep would have hung up.

One of the most novel features that iOS 26 brings to iPhone communication is real-time translations for Spanish, Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese. After downloading the necessary language libraries, iOS can translate one of those languages to another in real time when you're talking on the phone or FaceTime or texting.

The feature worked best in texts, where the software doesn't have to deal with varying accents, people speaking fast or over one another, stuttering, or background noise. Translated texts and phone calls always show the original text written in the sender's native language, so you can double-check translations or see things that translations can miss, like acronyms, abbreviations, and slang.

Translating some basic Spanish.

Credit: Scharon Harding

During calls or FaceTime, Live Translation sometimes struggled to keep up while it tried to manage the nuances and varying speeds of how different people speak, as well as laughs and other interjections.

However, it's still remarkable that the iPhone can help remove language barriers without any additional hardware, apps, or fees. It will be even better if Apple can improve reliability and add more languages.

Spatial images on the Home and Lock Screen

The new spatial images feature is definitely on the fluffier side of this iOS update, but it is also a practical way to spice up your Lock Screen, Home Screen, and the Home Screen's Photos widget.

Basically, it applies a 3D effect to any photo in your library, which is visible as you move your phone around in your hand. Apple says that to do this, iOS 26 uses the same generative AI models that the Apple Vision Pro uses and creates a per-pixel depth map that makes parts of the image appear to pop out as you move the phone within six degrees of freedom.

The 3D effect is more powerful on some images than others, depending on the picture’s composition. It worked well on a photo of my dog sitting in front of some plants and behind a leaf of another plant. I set the display time so that it appears tucked behind her fur, and when I move the phone around, the dog and the leaf in front of her appear to move around, while the background plants stay still.

But in images with few items and sparser backgrounds, the spatial effect looks unnatural. And oftentimes, the spatial effect can be quite subtle.

Still, for those who like personalizing their iPhone with Home and Lock Screen customization, spatial scenes are a simple and harmless way to liven things up. And, if you like the effect enough, a new spatial mode in the Camera app allows you to create new spatial photos.

A note on Apple Intelligence notification summaries

As we’ve already covered in our macOS 26 Tahoe review, Apple Intelligence-based notification summaries haven’t improved much since their 2024 debut in iOS 18 and macOS 15 Sequoia. After problems with showing inaccurate summaries of news notifications, Apple updated the feature to warn users that the summaries may be inaccurate. But it’s still hit or miss when it comes to how easy it is to decipher the summaries.

I did have occasional success with notification summaries in iOS 26. For instance, I understood a summary of a voicemail that said, “Payment may have appeared twice; refunds have been processed.” Because I had already received a similar message via email (a store had accidentally charged me twice for a purchase and then refunded me), I knew I didn’t need to open that voicemail.

Vague summaries sometimes tipped me off as to whether a notification was important. A summary reading “Townhall meeting was hosted; call [real phone number] to discuss issues” was enough for me to know that I had a voicemail about a meeting that I never expressed interest in. It wasn’t the most informative summary, but in this case, I didn’t need a lot of information.

However, most of the time, it was still easier to just open the notification than try to decipher what Apple Intelligence was trying to tell me. Summaries aren't really helpful and don't save time if you can't fully trust their accuracy or depth.

Playful, yet practical

With iOS 26, iPhones get a playful new design that's noticeable and effective but not so drastically different that it will offend or distract those who are happy with the way iOS 18 works. It's exciting to experience one of iOS's biggest redesigns, but what really stands out are the thoughtful tweaks that bring practical improvements to core features, like making and receiving phone calls and taking pictures.

Some additions and changes are superfluous, but the update generally succeeds at improving functionality without introducing jarring changes that isolate users or force them to relearn how to use their phone.

I can't guarantee that you'll like the Liquid Glass design, but other updates should make it simpler to do some of the most important tasks with iPhones, and it should be a welcome improvement for long-time users.

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Posted Thursday 18 September 2025 at 4:27 am AEST (my time).

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Apple published a new support document that explicitly warns users that installing iOS 26 or any other major update may worsen your iPhone's or iPad's battery life. The good news is that the hit will most likely be temporary, and it is something to expect.

A major iOS update involves a lot of background and foreground processes. Even after your iPhone is back on the home screen, iOS still does plenty of stuff behind the curtain. That includes data indexing, downloading additional assets, updating apps, etc. Thus, you will most likely experience more noticeable battery consumption and even higher device temperatures.

Additionally, Apple is not shy to admit that new features indeed sometimes consume more power. However, the company promises that the impact on performance and battery life should be small. Plus, it will depend on individual cases, with the exact experience varying from user to user.

Here is what Apple says in its official documentation:

Immediately after completing an update, particularly a major release, you might notice a temporary impact on battery life and thermal performance. This is normal, as your device needs time to complete the setup process in the background, including indexing data and files for search, downloading new assets, and updating apps.

 

New features are exciting and help you get even more out of your Apple product, though some may require additional resources from the device. Depending on individual usage, some users may notice a small impact on performance and/or battery life. Apple continually works to optimize these features in software updates to ensure great battery life and a smooth user experience.

If you are concerned about your iPhone's battery life, you can always choose to wait a bit. There is no shame in waiting for a few more servicing updates for iOS 26 that should refine the experience and battery life. Apple is not forcing its latest operating systems on users, and it lets everyone stay on iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 for longer. Waiting for a couple of bug-fixing updates is a strategy that many users opt for, and one of the recommendations we mentioned in our recent "10 things to do before installing iOS 26 on your iPhone" article.

Do you plan to upgrade your Apple devices to one of the new "26" releases? If yes, do not rush to grab pitchforks, and let the system finish its background processes.

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Posted Tuesday 16 September 2025 at 6:39 pm AEST (my time).

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You might have already been running iOS 26 through developer and public beta releases that Apple has pushed over the past few months. You can download the iOS 26 update on your supported iPhone model, which includes the freshly baked iPhone Air and the $2,000 maxed-out iPhone 17 Pro Max. Before installing the update, it's essential to keep in mind several important things, such as backing up your device.

The latest update brings a truckload of new features and changes to iPhones this year. A major highlight is the Liquid Glass design language that Apple is rolling out across most of its operating systems.

You might have noticed that the Cupertino giant has also jumped all of its operating systems to version 26, and there are a couple of reasons behind it.

Apple describes Liquid Glass as "a new translucent material that reflects and refracts its surroundings, bringing greater focus to content, and delivering a new level of vitality across controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more." Rumors of a Glass-like design started floating earlier this year, and Apple ended up suing the leaker, Jon Prosser.

Other than that, you can try out the redesigned Photos app with a two-tab interface, new features in Safari, take HDR screenshots, and new stock wallpapers, among various features and changes. The iOS 26 update brings new AirPods features, such as Live Translation and the ability to turn your AirPods into a wireless camera remote.

Apple has also pushed updates to the Mobile Device Management (MDM) framework on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26. Microsoft highlighted that the improved MDM Migration capability makes it easier to move devices between different MDM solutions like Microsoft Intune, without the need for factory resets or manual enrollment.

While Apple Intelligence powers new features like Live Translation, people are still waiting to try out an upgraded version of Siri that Apple promised them last year.

You can download and install iOS 26 on your device by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Here, you can choose whether to receive the update automatically or install it at your convenience after it's downloaded.

Tell us what you think about iOS 26?

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Posted Tuesday 16 September 2025 at 6:35 pm AEST (my time).

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iPadOS 26 focuses on two key areas of the operating system: multitasking and design. Starting with multitasking, iPadOS now has a Mac-like windowing system, which allows you to have as many windows on the screen as you want. Additionally, iPadOS 26 lets you resize those windows to your heart's liking. Mac's "traffic light" buttons are also now available on iPad, offering familiar window controls, plus there is a menu bar borrowed straight from macOS.

And if you wonder why iPadOS 26 arrived after iPadOS 18, that is not because Apple does not know how to count past 18, but because it wanted to unify its operating systems under one version and tie it to the current year.

For those who prefer the old windowing system, Apple allows switching back to the traditional full-screen iPad experience in the Settings app.

iPad's operating system is now more capable when it comes to background tasks. Stuff like Final Cut export now properly runs in the background, meaning you can do something else while your videos export. The Files app now lets you have colorful folders with emoji, and you can pin folders to the dock. Finally, the Preview app made its way from Mac to iPadOS, offering users a built-in PDF reader and editor.

As for the design, iPadOS 26 now has the new Liquid Glass design language with transparent UI elements that reflect and refract light as you scroll. The lock screen lets you resize the clock to adapt to your wallpaper, and the home screen now has a new transparent icon style.

Here are some other improvements and new features that you will find in your iPad after upgrading to iPadOS 26:

• iMessage: Live Translations, chat backgrounds, spam filters, and polls in group chats.
• Phone App: iPad now has the Phone app with all the features from its iPhone counterpart.
• Games App: A dedicated hub for gaming-related things and a special Game Overlay flyout that allows adjusting system settings, chatting with friends, and inviting people to play without leaving your game.
• Journal App: Another app that made its way from iPhone to iPad.
• Notes: The app now lets you keep transcriptions of recorded conversations and export notes as Markdown files.
• Photos: The app received an updated layout with improved controls.

iPadOS 26 is available for the following iPads:

You can download and install iPadOS 26 by heading to Settings > General > Software Update.

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Posted Tuesday 16 September 2025 at 6:34 pm AEST (my time).

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According to the APK teardown of version 25.37.31 beta of Google Play Services from Android Authority, Google is working on "Authorized Apps", a new feature within Watch Unlock that adds a layer of functionality. When you get a notification on your watch, you will often see an "Open on phone" button.

With this new system, tapping that button will not just unlock your phone but also take you directly to a specific page or section within an app like WhatsApp or Google Messages. Authorized apps are permitted to unlock your phone directly from your watch to continue an activity. This list is initially preloaded, but you can manage allowed apps in Settings, and it can grow if you grant permission to a new app.

Android Authority claims this functionality could be limited to Google's own hardware ecosystem, meaning a Pixel Watch paired with a Pixel phone, specifically a Pixel 4a or newer. It is not clear if Google will decide to bring it to other watches running Wear OS, so we will have to wait and see what the company's plans are.

The Pixel Watch 4, Google's latest addition to the Pixel Watch series, was unveiled about a month ago, alongside the Google Pixel 10 series smartphones.

It keeps the signature circular shape and comes in two sizes: 41mm and 45mm. The watch has an "Actua 360 display", a domed and physically curved screen that provides a larger viewing area.

It also introduces standalone emergency satellite communications on the LTE models. For the 41mm, the price is $349 for Wi-Fi and $449 for LTE, while the 45mm costs $399 for Wi-Fi and $499 for LTE.

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Posted Tuesday 16 September 2025 at 6:33 pm AEST (my time).

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Despite a big number jump from watchOS 11 all the way to watchOS 26 (Apple unified all of its operating systems under one number to match the current year), the update is not the biggest one the Apple Watch has seen. Key updates include the Liquid Glass redesign, sleep tracking improvements, workout improvements, changes to iMessage, and more.

The biggest health change in watchOS 26 is Sleep Score, a new metric that shows the quality of your sleep based on its duration, time, and interruptions. Workout improvements include a redesigned user interface and the new Workout Buddy, a digital coach that gives you insights into your workouts and motivates you throughout them.

As for Liquid Glass, buttons, surfaces, icons, and other elements now have transparency, light reflections, and different kinds of visual candy. Sadly, if you have been waiting for new watch faces, watchOS 26 will disappoint you: there are only two new watch faces for the regular Apple Watch models and two more for those owning one of the Apple Watch Ultra models.

Other improvements in watchOS 26 include updates for Smart Stack, which now offers actions that might be most useful for you right here and right now, suggested smart actions in iMessage, and the ability to dismiss notifications, silence calls, and do other actions with a flick of your wrist. Your Apple Watch can now automatically adapt notification volume to your surroundings, plus you can view and create new notes with the Notes app, which is now available on watchOS.

watchOS 26 is available on the following Apple Watch models:

If you want to update your Apple Watch to watchOS 26, you have to update your iPhone to iOS 26 first (now available for download). After that, head to the Watch app and tap General > Software Updates.

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Posted Tuesday 16 September 2025 at 6:32 pm AEST (my time).

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Apple's design strategy has changed since Jony Ive left the company in 2019. However, the iPhone 17 series represents the cornerstone of Apple's revamped hardware strategy, laying the foundation for a new generation of iPhones that are more durable and designed around customer needs.

As Mark Gurman explains in this week's Power On newsletter, Apple is "rethinking its hardware in a way that we haven't seen in years." Gurman says the first major change to come to iPhones is a focus on durability.

Whenever a new iPhone is released, many YouTubers put it to the test—bending it or checking its screen resistance. While most iPhones in recent years have managed to survive these torture tests, Apple aims to make its best-selling product even more durable this time.

According to Gurman, we can expect fewer screen cracks and other major damage on iPhones, thanks to the stronger glass on both the front and back.

Another major change for the Pro variants comes in the form of enhanced features, including battery upgrades and camera improvements—sweetening the deal for customers. This could represent one of the most significant design shifts in recent years, as Apple has traditionally aimed to make iPhones slimmer and lighter. At the same time, a larger battery could jeopardize those efforts.

Previous reports suggest that Apple is planning at least three years of major iPhone redesigns, with the iPhone 17 serving as the first step. We can expect Apple's first foldable iPhone in 2026, followed by a glass-centric model in 2027, coinciding with the iPhone's 20th anniversary.

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Posted Tuesday 16 September 2025 at 2:35 am AEST (my time).

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The update now only brings new features such as the upgraded Now Bar, Now Brief, Knox Enhanced Encrypted Protection (KEEP), Knox Matrix, Secure Wi-Fi, etc., but also bundles the September 1, 2025, security patch as well. Soon after delivering the update, Samsung has now shared the official timeline for the One UI 8 update.

The company has confirmed that several devices, from flagships to budget phones, will receive the update later this year. According to the official newsroom post, the One UI 8 update will be available for the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy Z Fold6, Galaxy Z Flip6, Galaxy S24 FE, and additional eligible models later this year.

The devices include:

• Galaxy S25 series
• Galaxy S24 series
• Galaxy S23 series
• Galaxy S22 series
• Galaxy Z Fold6
• Galaxy Z Flip6
• Galaxy Z Fold5
• Galaxy Z Flip5
• Galaxy Z Fold4
• Galaxy Z Flip4
• Galaxy S24 FE
• Galaxy S23 FE
• Galaxy S21 FE
• Galaxy Tab S10 series
• Galaxy Tab S10 FE
• Galaxy Tab S10 Lite
• Galaxy Tab S9 series
• Galaxy Tab S9 FE
• Galaxy Tab S8 series
• Galaxy A56 5G
• Galaxy A36 5G
• Galaxy A26 5G
• Galaxy A17 5G
• Galaxy A17
• Galaxy A07
• Galaxy A06 5G
• Galaxy A55 5G
• Galaxy A35 5G
• Galaxy A25 5G
• Galaxy A16 5G
• Galaxy A16
• Galaxy A15 5G
• Galaxy A06
• Galaxy A54 5G
• Galaxy A34 5G
• Galaxy A73 5G
• Galaxy A53 5G
• Galaxy A33 5G

Though the official post did not reveal the exact date or month for the rollout, a community post by a Samsung moderator cleared the air, as they shared the One UI 8 schedule:

• Devices receiving One UI 8 in October
  • Galaxy S24 series
  • Galaxy S24 FE
  • Galaxy S23 series
  • Galaxy S23 FE
  • Galaxy Tab S10 series
  • Galaxy Tab S10 FE series
  • Galaxy A36
  • Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6
  • Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition
  • Galaxy S22 series
  • Galaxy Tab S9 series
  • Galaxy Tab S9 FE series
  • Galaxy Tab Active 5
  • Galaxy A35
  • Galaxy XCover 7 Pro
  • Galaxy A53
  • Galaxy A34
  • Galaxy A25
• Devices receiving One UI 8 in November
  • Galaxy Z Fold 5
  • Galaxy Z Flip 5
  • Galaxy Tab S8 series
  • Galaxy Z Fold 4
  • Galaxy Z Flip 4
  • Galaxy A15
  • Galaxy A16
  • Galaxy A24
  • Galaxy A33
  • Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro
  • Galaxy Tab A9 series
  • Galaxy Tab A11

It is nice to see Samsung extending the One UI 8 update even to budget phones along with the premium models, and not keeping them waiting. Let us know in the comments below if your device has made it to the list or not.

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Posted Tuesday 16 September 2025 at 2:33 am AEST (my time).

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Interestingly, the last generation chipset was called the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and Qualcomm's naming of its new processor, 8 Elite Gen 5, doesn't sound in sync. To clear the air, Qualcomm has published a dedicated post explaining why the company is going ahead with this naming scheme.

The new name suggests that Qualcomm has skipped multiple generations. To their defense, the company says that since this will be the fifth generation processor in Qualcomm Snapdragon's 8-series processors, they added the suffix "Gen 5." In Qualcomm's words;

It might look like we skipped generations, but the truth is simpler — and more powerful. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 marks the fifth generation of our premium 8-series platforms since we introduced our new single digit naming and visual identity. By aligning with Gen 5, we’re reinforcing its leadership position and simplifying how consumers understand our product roadmap.

So, based on the information, here are the names of the entire 8-series chipset:

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• Snapdragon 8 Elite
• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

Leading Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has already announced that the Xiaomi 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max will feature the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. Just like every year, Samsung will also use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor inside their next year's flagship, the Galaxy S26 series. There are also reports that Samsung could use the 2nm process-based Exynos 2600 inside the S26 series.

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Posted Monday 15 September 2025 at 4:35 pm AEST (my time).

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A team at Flinders University has come up with a new way to get gold out of both e-waste and mined rock without using toxic chemicals like cyanide or mercury. Their method, published in Nature Sustainability, could make gold recovery safer for people and the environment.

Gold is important in many areas, from jewellery and currency to electronics, chemical manufacturing and aerospace. But most of the gold supply still comes from mining processes that use cyanide salts or mercury metal. Large-scale mining often uses cyanide to dissolve gold from ore, which can harm wildlife and contaminate the environment. Small-scale and artisanal miners often use mercury, which forms an amalgam with gold before being heated to release the metal. This is the largest source of mercury pollution on Earth and is dangerous for both miners and surrounding ecosystems.

The new process starts with trichloroisocyanuric acid, a chemical already used in water treatment and pool cleaning. When activated with a halide catalyst in salt water, it dissolves gold from ore or e-waste. The gold is then captured using a polysulfide polymer sorbent made from elemental sulphur, a cheap and abundant byproduct of the petroleum industry. This polymer can pick out gold even when other metals are present.

Once the gold is bound to the polymer, it can be recovered in high purity by either heating the polymer (pyrolysis) or breaking it back down into its original monomer building block (depolymerization). The polymer can then be remade and reused. The team also developed ways to recycle the leaching chemical and the water used in the process.

Tests showed the method works on ore, old computer circuit boards and other gold-containing waste. “Our goal is to support these miners economically while offering safer alternatives to mercury,” the researchers said, adding that millions of artisanal miners depend on mercury-based methods.

While the results are promising, the researchers say there is still work to do. They need to scale up production of the polymer, fine-tune the recycling steps and make sure the process is cost-competitive with traditional methods. They also see potential for “urban mining” — recovering gold from e-waste — which could reduce the need for environmentally damaging primary mining.

As the study notes, “Overall, this work provides a viable approach to achieve greener gold production from both primary and secondary resources, improving the sustainability of the gold supply.”

Source: The Conversation, Nature

This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

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Posted Monday 15 September 2025 at 4:33 pm AEST (my time).

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Well, now you can get an idea of how big a whole it would burn in your pocket if you accidentally crack your iPhone Air's screen or need a battery replacement for your iPhone 17 Pro. Apple has updated the price estimation tool on its iPhone Repair and Service webpage to include different repair costs for the latest iPhone models.

Here's an overview of the different out-of-warranty repair costs for various iPhone models as seen on Apple's website:

Note: Apple might revise these costs at a later point in time.

For comparison, these are the respective costs for the iPhone 16 series:

Apple is still charging the same amount for out-of-warranty battery replacements, but wants extra dollars for service types such as 'Other damage.' You'll have to pay considerably less if you have purchased an AppleCare+ or AppleCare One with these devices.

For instance, Apple charges $0 service fee for battery replacement if its capacity drops below 80% while your AppleCare plan is still active. The company charges a per-incident service fee of $29 for screen or back glass damage, $99 for other accidental damage, and $149 for theft or loss.

While AppleCare+ applies to only one device, the recently launched AppleCare One gives you a single payment option to secure multiple devices, including new ones and those you already own (if they are eligible).

Apple is taking pre-orders for the iPhone 17 series and iPhone Air, and the devices will start shipping on September 19.

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Posted Saturday 13 September 2025 at 2:03 pm AEST (my time).

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AirPods Pro 3 carry the same price tag as last year but don't ship with a charging cable inside the packaging. Apple flaunts in its marketing material that AirPods Pro 3 use a mix of sensors to support 50 different workout types and come with an Apple Intelligence-powered assistant called Workout Buddy.

However, wearing your AirPods during workouts or running sessions increases the chances of them getting damaged. You might want to know how much a repair will cost, or you want to replace a lost AirPod.

Apple has updated the price estimation tool on its website to give us an idea about the repair costs for the AirPods Pro 3. This comes alongside the updated repair estimates for the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 series.

Here's a comparison of the estimated out-of-warranty repair costs between different AirPods Pro models:

Note: Apple might revise these costs at a later point in time.

A key takeaway from the price estimation tool is that you won't incur any additional costs compared to the previous generation. In fact, the repair costs for all three Pro models are the same.

When dealing with most cases like battery service or physical damage, Apple's standard policy is to replace the affected item. If you have an AppleCare+ or AppleCare One plan active, it covers unlimited repairs for accidents like drops or spills for a $29 service fee.

According to Apple, the estimated costs are for a single AirPod (left or right) or a charging case. Those with an AppleCare plan pay only "one incident fee to replace a single AirPod or both AirPods, with or without a Charging Case."

AirPods Pro 3 are currently up for pre-order in over 50 countries and regions, including the US. The $249 wireless earbuds will start shipping and land in physical stores on September 19.

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Posted Saturday 13 September 2025 at 2:02 pm AEST (my time).

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The iPhone 17. This year's "standard" iPhone received some long-anticipated changes and upgrades, primarily in the display area. The screen is now bigger, and it supports a 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate with always-on mode. This makes the iPhone 17 the first of Apple's non-Pro models. There is also the more powerful Apple A19 processor, 256GB of base storage, two 48MP rear-facing cameras and the new 18MP front-facing cameras with Center Stage support. The iPhone 17 also has a better battery with faster charging.

The iPhone Air is a new thing for Apple this year. This device replaced the Plus model from the previous generations, offering potential buyers a stylish, ultra-thin smartphone that is only 0.22 or 5.64 mm thick. Unlike the rest of the lineup, it is made from polished titanium and has only one 48MP rear-facing camera. Despite the thinness, Apple crammed the A19 Pro chip inside with a five-core GPU, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. Also, the iPhone Air has a 6.5-inch display with ProMotion, always-on mode, and 3,000 nits of peak brightness.

As for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, the flagship models are thicker than the Air (0.34 inches or 8.75 mm) and made of a special aluminum alloy. Displays remain mostly the same (only the brightness is now at 3,000 nits), while the most important changes focus on a new triple 48MP Fusion camera, the more powerful Apple A19 Pro chip with a six-core graphics, and notably bigger batteries. Apple says that eSIM variants of the iPhone 17 Pro Max can play up to 39 hours of video on a single charge.

And here are detailed specs of each device:

Apple's entire 2025 iPhone lineup will be available for preorder on Friday, September 12. Shipments begin on Friday, September 19.

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Posted Friday 12 September 2025 at 6:39 pm AEST (my time).

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Unlike the iPhone 17, which retained the previous design introduced with the iPhone 16, the iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max has been redesigned. Instead of titanium frames, these phones now use aluminum alloy unibody cases with Ceramic Glass at the front and back. Apple says that the new alloys are lighter and stronger than titanium frames in the iPhone 16 Pro and 15 Pro. The camera module is also new, with the iPhone 17 Pro now featuring a "plateau" with antennas surrounding it.

Displays have not changed much. Sizes and resolutions are the same, except for the peak brightness, which is now at 3,000 nits instead of 2,000 nits (outdoors).

Apple also increased the base storage from 128GB to 256GB, upgraded the processor from the A18 Pro to the A19 Pro with faster CPU and GPU cores, and introduced the new Apple N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

The new camera platform hosts a new array of three 48MP Fusion cameras with up to 8x optical zoom and ProRes video recording with Genlock support. Also, the front-facing camera now has an 18MP square sensor and Center Stage support. This allows you to take portrait or horizontal images while holding your iPhone however you want it. Plus, the smartphone can expand the field of view when it detects another person in the viewfinder. Other new features for the front camera include Dual Capture (record from two cameras at once), Center Stage for video calls and ultra-stabilized video recording.

Finally, Apple equipped its Pro-grade smartphones with larger batteries that promise up to 33 hours of video playback (39 hours in the Pro Max model) and faster charging with a 40W charger (up to 50% in just 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes like before).

Here are the key changes summed up in a list:

• A brighter display at up to 3,000 nits outdoors
• Aluminum unibody with Ceramic Glass back instead of titanium frames
• The new A19 Pro chip with the N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, plus the C1X modem with faster performance and better efficiency
• 256GB base configuration with optional 2TB in the iPhone 17 Pro Max
• A reworked 48MP Fusion triple-camera setup with Dual Capture, ProRes RAW, Apple Log 2, and Genlock support
• A new front-facing 18MP camera with a square sensor and Center Stage support
• Bluetooth 6
• Bigger batteries with faster charging
• More expensive: now starting at $1,099 instead of $999

Here is how the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max compare to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro lineups:

The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will be available for pre-order on Friday, September 12. Shipments begin on Friday, September 19.

Are you buying one?

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Posted Thursday 11 September 2025 at 1:52 am AEST (my time).

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Five years ago today, Microsoft began shipping its infamous Surface Duo to customers that had pre-ordered it in the United States. It was Microsoft's big return to the smartphone market, with a design and form factor that was supposed to set the stage for a new category of devices that featured dual-screens.

Unfortunately, the Surface Duo was immediately met with criticism from reviewers and early adopters, most of which found the device to be incredibly buggy on the software side. The hardware was also mixed bag, with a beautiful premium design, marred by questionable choices around cameras, silicon, and connectivity.

What really didn't help was the price — $1,400 for an experimental device from a company that has a track record for abandoning hardware that can fit in your pocket was a huge ask, and it was one that most people couldn't commit to. That meant Surface Duo was already on the backfoot, fighting an uphill battle for marketshare and revenue.

It didn't take long for Microsoft to realize that Surface Duo was not going to be the hit they wanted it to be. The product was essentially broken at launch and needed more time in the oven to get the software into a state where it wasn't degrading the overall user experience.

However, a trip to Apple.com will make you realize that several old products are missing from the catalog. Here are some of the iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods that the Cupertino giant has discontinued after the Awe Dropping Event:

• iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus
• Apple Watch Ultra 2, Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch SE 2
• AirPods Pro 2

It's an annual ritual for Apple to discontinue older devices after announcing new versions with upgraded specifications. It's an attempt to simplify its product lineup and also encourage users to buy the latest devices.

While Apple includes the version number for products like iPhone and Apple Watch, it simply mentions its wireless headphones as "AirPods" and "AirPods Pro." This could lead to a confusing situation for some buyers.

These discontinued Apple products might still be available at online resellers and authorized resellers, who might continue selling them until supplies last. Such products can also be spotted in the second-hand smartphone market or as refurbished units.

In the long term, Apple starts calling a discontinued product "vintage" after five years from its date of discontinuation. The product is added to the "obsolete" list seven years after it was discontinued.

That said, Apple's current smartphone lineup now includes the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 16e, and last year's base model, iPhone 16. In the smartwatch department, Apple now has the Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Hermès based on Series 11. For AirPods, the company now has AirPods Pro 3, AirPods 4, and AirPods Max.

All the new products announced at the Awe Dropping event are now available for pre-order. They will be up for sale next week on September 19.

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Posted Wednesday 10 September 2025 at 1:02 pm AEST (my time).

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CUPERTINO, Calif.—We're a long way from the days when a new iPhone launch just meant one new phone. It shifted to "basically the same phone in two sizes" a decade or so ago, and then to a version of "one lineup of regular phones and one lineup of Pro phones" in 2017 when the iPhone 8 was introduced next to the iPhone X.

But thanks to Apple's newly introduced iPhone Air, the iPhone 17 lineup gives new phone buyers more choices and trade-offs than they've ever had before. Apple's phones are now available in a spectrum of sizes, weights, speeds, costs, and camera configurations. And while options are great to have, it also means you need to know more about which one to pick.

We've gone hands-on with all four of Apple's new phones, and while more extensive tire-kicking will be required, we can at least try to nail down exactly what kind of person each of these phones is for.

The iPhone Air: Designed for first impressions

From the front, the iPhone Air looks like a normal, slightly-larger-than-usual iPhone.

Andrew Cunningham

 

You have to look at it from the side (and hold it) to get a better sense of why it's interesting.

Andrew Cunningham

 

There's no more iPhone mini, and there's no more iPhone Plus. Now we have an iPhone Air, and it is very much its own thing.

The phone is just over two-thirds the thickness of the iPhone 17, not counting what Apple now calls a "camera plateau" that stretches across the top of the device. It's 0.22 inches thick and weighs 5.82 ounces, compared to 0.31 inches thick and 6.24 ounces for the iPhone 17. You have to go back to the iPhone 12 (5.78 ounces) to find a full-size iPhone that's equally light, and that one had a 6.1-inch screen instead of the Air's more expansive 6.5 inches.

Those don't look like huge numbers on paper, but when you're holding the iPhone Air, it does make a substantial difference. While the camera plateau makes it look top-heavy in photos, in reality, it's light, and that weight is distributed evenly enough that it feels as well-balanced as any of the other iPhones.

The combination of a large-ish screen and light created a strong perception of lightness, compared to the iPhone 17 or especially the 7.27-ounce iPhone 17 Pro. I also found that the shiny titanium frame, while a fingerprint magnet, did slide around in my hand less than an aluminum finish.

It's a phone built to make a strong first impression, whether you're holding it in an Apple Store or just after an Apple event in a throng of YouTubers who are all throwing elbows so that they can film each individual phone in the hands-on area for 20 minutes apiece. But I do worry that living with the Air would be frustrating in the long haul, specifically because of battery life.

The camera plateau might make the iPhone Air look unwieldy, but it feels well-balanced in practice.

Andrew Cunningham

 

Pushing the limits of the USB-C port.

Andrew Cunningham

 

Again, on paper, the numbers Apple is quoting aren't so far apart. The Air is rated for 27 hours of local video playback, compared to 30 hours for the iPhone 17 and 33 hours for the 17 Pro. But there's a bigger gap between the numbers for streaming video—22 hours, 27 hours, and 30 hours for the Air, 17, and 17 Pro, respectively—that suggests that any activity that's actively using the A19 Pro chip or wireless communication is going to drain the battery even faster.

Extrapolate that out two years, when your battery is going to be operating at somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of its original capacity, and a midday charge starts to sound like an inevitability. It's telling that a thickness-and-weight-increasing external battery accessory was announced in the same breath as the iPhone Air.

Apple's official acknowledgement of and solution to the battery life issue is a $99 external battery that attaches with MagSafe and charges the phone wirelessly; by Apple's estimates, it adds roughly 13 hours of runtime on top of what you get from the internal battery.

Doesn't this defeat the purpose of having an iPhone Air, I hear you asking? Maybe so! But it is at least a better aesthetic match for the iPhone than a chunky third-party brick, and one that's pretty easy to detach and put away once it's done its job and charged your phone. It has its own separate USB-C port for charging, and a small status light (orange when charging, green when charged) below the Apple logo. The magnetic connection feels sturdy enough that it would be hard to dislodge the battery by accident, but I can't say that it absolutely couldn't fall off if you were trying to jam the phone into a pocket or bag and caught the battery on something.

I can say that the iPhone Air probably isn't for me, because the main things I want from a phone are more battery life and better cameras—I can appreciate something smaller and lighter, but only if it doesn't compromise that other stuff (I got exactly this kind of upgrade when I jumped from an iPhone 13 Pro to a 15 Pro). That's fine—when you introduce four phones at once, you don't need to appeal to every iPhone user with every one of them. But I do wonder whether people will find the Air more convincing than they apparently found the now-departed iPhone mini and iPhone Plus.

The iPhone 17 Pro: Industrial design

Apple's iPhone 17 Pro.

Andrew Cunningham

 

The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.

Andrew Cunningham

 

If you look at the iPhone Air and you say, "I would actually take a thicker, heavier phone if it had a bigger battery in it," Apple does already make that phone for you.

The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are more of a design departure from the standard iPhones than they have been in years past, with a distinctive aluminum unibody design and a gigantic camera plateau that replaces the old (and already substantial) three-lens camera bump on the older Pros.

Frankly, I'm not in love with the look of this new design—the aluminum unibody design may be good for durability, but it requires Apple to leave cutouts for other wireless-permeable materials all over the phone's body, and the result is a two-tone design and a lumpy profile that gives the impression that form follows function on this one. It's the iPhone equivalent of a polished concrete floor—utilitarian with a trendy veneer. It's a phone I would be happy to put in a case.

It's also a bit disappointing that the iPhone 17 Pro continues the Pro phones' drift back upward in weight—we went from 7.27 ounces to 6.6 ounces from the iPhone 14 Pro to the 15 Pro, then to 7.03 ounces for the 16 Pro, and now right back to 7.27 ounces again. But weight is obviously incidental to other features for many Pro users, and the 17 Pro does at least do cool things that make the increased weight worth it.

The two-toned design, festooned with cutouts, makes the phone look a bit uneven to me.

Andrew Cunningham

 

Another cutout on the top for cellular reception.

Andrew Cunningham

 

The blue color's different sections are somewhat better-matched than the orange one's, but it's still noticeable.

Andrew Cunningham

 

The one feature that's easy to wrap your arms around in just a few minutes with the new phone is the upgraded telephoto camera lens, which shifts to a 48MP sensor that enables Apple's Fusion Camera functionality for telephoto shots for the first time.

If you don't know, the Fusion Camera system shoots 48MP images and then shrinks them to 12 or 24MP, depending on the phone you're using—benefiting from the extra detail captured by the 48MP sensor, but keeping photo sizes manageable. To create "optical zoom," the camera instead crops a native-resolution 12MP image out of the center of that sensor. Quality is reduced somewhat because you lose the benefits of the "pixel binning" process that is used to turn 48MP shots into 12MP or 24MP shots, but you're still capturing native-resolution images without digital zoom.

Adding that to the telephoto lens for the first time doubles the amount of zoom Apple can offer—it starts at 4x zoom, and can go as high as 8x before you start relying on digital zoom.

Standard lens, iPhone 15 Pro.

Andrew Cunningham

 

3x telephoto lens, iPhone 15 Pro.

Andrew Cunningham

 

Default camera lens, iPhone 17 Pro.

Andrew Cunningham

 

4x telephoto lens, iPhone 17 Pro.

Andrew Cunningham

 

4x telephoto lens in 8x mode, iPhone 17 Pro.

Andrew Cunningham

 

We were able to do a bit of shooting with the iPhone 17 Pro's telephoto camera on the Apple Park campus. Compared to my iPhone 15 Pro and its 3x telephoto lens, the default 4x zoom on the iPhone 17 Pro already gets us a little closer, and the 8x zoom option gets you a lot closer. Zoom all the way in to the orange "hello" and you'll notice some fuzziness and less-than-tack-sharp details, but for photo prints or sharing digitally the results are impressive.

The extra weight and unfinished look of the iPhone 17 Pro don't make as good a first impression as the iPhone Air did, but I suspect iPhone Pro users (myself included) will find its larger battery and better camera to be acceptable trade-offs. It will be the easier phone to live with in the long term, in other words.

The iPhone 17: Still the default

In between the industrial chic aesthetic of the iPhone 17 Pro and the lightness of the iPhone Air is the regular iPhone, which looks a whole lot like last year's but might actually get the most noticeable functional upgrades of all three of them.

I'm mainly talking about the ProMotion screen, a 120 Hz OLED display panel with a dynamic refresh rate that can go as low as 1 Hz when the phone isn't being used. Both ProMotion and the always-on screen feature that it enables have been exclusive to the iPhone Pro for years, even as higher-refresh-rate screens have spread through midrange and budget Android phones.

That extra smoothness is tough to give up once you've gotten used to it, and it pairs especially well with the extra motion and bounciness present in Apple's new Liquid Glass interface. Fitting 6.3 inches of screen into a phone the same size as the 6.1-inch iPhone 16 also heightens the edge-to-edge screen effect. And both ProMotion and the larger screen help put some space between the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 16e, Apple's current "budget" offering that comes in just $200 under the price of the regular iPhone.

The other major functional upgrade for people who just walk into the store (or log on to their carrier's website) and buy the default iPhone is that the base model has been bumped up to 256GB of storage, a reasonably generous allotment that should keep you from having too much trouble with gigantic movie files or years-old gigabytes-large iMessage conversations that you just can't bear to delete.

This looks like an iPhone, and it feels like an iPhone, and there's not a lot to convey from a quick hands-on session other than that. In this case, a lack of surprises is a good thing.

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Posted Wednesday 10 September 2025 at 12:59 pm AEST (my time).

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An incoming new iPhone model called the iPhone Air has been one of the worst-kept secrets in tech lately, and now Apple has confirmed it at its annual iPhone reveal event.

The 6.5-inch iPhone 17 Air combines the CPU and GPU of an iPhone Pro with the camera system of a regular iPhone, all in an extra-thin design (5.6 mm), with a treated titanium frame that is likely to appeal to style-conscious users and some business consumers.

Like the iPhone 17, the iPhone 17 Air has a ProMotion display with a variable refresh rate up to 120 Hz—something that was reserved for only the Pro iPhones up until this year. The Air's display also has always-on functionality and claims 3,000 nits of peak brightness. It has Apple's new Ceramic Shield 2 protective coating on both the front and the back, which the company claims will make it more durable and anti-reflective.

On the inside, it has the new A19 Pro chip. That includes a 6-core CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores. During its presentation, Apple dedicated much of its time talking about the A19 Pro chip for the Air, hyping up efficiency improvements. Overall, it claims to offer 20 percent better performance than last year's iPhone 16 Pro.

Notably, Apple has added "neural accelerators to each GPU core," offering 3x peak compute compared to the A18 Pro.

The main system-on-a-chip is not the only place where Apple has put the focus on new silicon. There's a new Apple-made chip, dubbed the N1, that handles Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. And there's also the C1X, a cellular modem that succeeds the C1 from just a few months ago; it purports to be twice as fast as before and to use 30 percent less energy than the iPhone 16 Pro.

Of course, to make an iPhone notably thinner, you have to give something up. It looks like the main sacrifice here is going to be the cameras; the iPhone 17 Air appears to use basically the same camera system as the iPhone 17, rather than the most robust system in the iPhone 17 Pro.

That means just one big lens on the back. The rear camera is 48MP but takes 24MP photos by default, and like the other base iPhones, offers 2x zoom using the same sensor with a cropping and machine-learning solution.

The 18MP front camera gets all the same upgrades as the iPhone 17 did, with a wider field-of-view and four different composition options for varied selfie situations.

Oh, and there's one major camera feature that will appeal to streamers and their ilk: You can simultaneously record video with both the selfie cam and the rear camera.

The iPhone 17 Air will exclusively use eSIM worldwide to save on internal space, and Apple was pretty vague when talking about battery life, saying only that it would offer "all-day battery life" despite its thin form factor. It might be telling that the company dedicated part of its presentation to talking about a new, low-profile MagSafe battery attachment, though, and the only specific number it gave was 40 hours of video playback with the MagSafe battery attached.

The iPhone 17 Air will come in four colors. The Air starts at $999 with 256GB of storage. Preorders start this Friday, and the devices will ship on September 19.

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Posted Wednesday 10 September 2025 at 12:57 pm AEST (my time).

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CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple's basic iPhone 17 is the one most people will use, and the new iPhone Air will get attention for its thin design and novelty. But the iPhone Pro series is still the absolute best the company has to offer, and that continues to be true of the new iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max that Apple announced today.

The new phones start at $1,099 and $1,199 for the Pro and Pro Max, respectively, each with 256GB of storage. Preorders start this Friday, and the phones will be available on September 19.

While the best feature of the iPhone 17 is its screen, the screens are virtually the only thing not to be overhauled for the iPhone 17 Pro, though they do get the more scratch-resistant, anti-reflective Ceramic Shield 2 coating. The new designs have a new aluminum unibody enclosure, with a glass cutout on the back to allow for wireless charging and a huge new camera bump that Apple calls the "camera plateau," stretching all the way across the back.

All three of those lenses on the camera plateau are now 48MP Fusion Cameras. At the default zoom levels, these condense 48MP images into smaller photos, using "pixel binning" to improve quality. But at the higher zoom levels—and the telephoto lens can now go up to 8x—the phone can simply crop a native-resolution chunk out of the center of the image, delivering what Apple calls "optical-quality zoom." Apple has used Fusion Cameras for the Pro's other sensors before, but this is new for the telephoto sensor, which Apple says is also 56 percent larger than the old telephoto sensor.

The inside also contains other improvements. A new A19 Pro chip, the same one used in the iPhone Air, includes a six-core CPU with two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, plus a six-core GPU; Apple also said the chip included more memory than the 8GB that came with the iPhone 16 Pro, though it didn't say how much.

That A19 Pro is paired with a new vapor chamber cooling system that uses de-ionized water to move heat away from the processor and dissipate it through the aluminum frame. Apple says that thanks to the combination of the new chip and new cooling system, the A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro has up to 40 percent better sustained performance than the iPhone 16 Pro.

Battery life has also gotten a bump. Thanks to the removal of the physical SIM tray (and the removal of the internal area where a physical SIM tray could go), Apple has squeezed a larger battery into both Pro phones, delivering "the biggest battery in any iPhone." Apple says the battery should be good for up to 39 hours of video playback.

We're on the ground at Apple's product event in Cupertino and will bring you more impressions of the new phones' look and feel later today.

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Posted Wednesday 10 September 2025 at 12:56 pm AEST (my time).

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