Apple Rewind: Apple turns 50, most repairable MacBook, and WWDC 2026 goes official

The month of March was packed with Apple's new devices, pre-birthday celebration, ads in Apple Maps, and some legal drama.

We're back with another issue of our "Apple Rewind" monthly roundup series on Apple Inc., talking about all the new launches, speculations, and cool rumors you are waiting to hear. In March, Apple launched a platter of new hardware, introduced Apple Business for free, and announced WWDC 2026. Let's get started.

You can check out our previous issues of the 'Apple Rewind' monthly roundup here.

Apple turns 50 years old

Today is undoubtedly one of the biggest days in tech history, as Apple celebrates its 50th birthday. Now a multinational behemoth, Apple was founded in a car garage in Los Altos, California, by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who had to sell their valued possessions to keep the ship afloat in the early days.

Apple CEO Tim Cook started celebrations a couple of weeks ago by publishing a letter, "50 Years of Thinking Different," on Apple.com. The Cupertino giant also hosted live performances featuring popular artists at various locations worldwide, including New York City, London, Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo, Vancouver, Mexico City, Washington, DC, Sydney, Bangkok, and Seoul.

Cheapest and most repairable MacBook

Apple brought a truckload of new product launches last month. The low-cost MacBook Neo is the highlight among them, as it's the cheapest MacBook in the company's lineup. It also got the title of the most repairable MacBook available right now, thanks to very little adhesive and several modular components under the hood.

The $599 laptop reportedly boosted Apple trade-ins post-launch and earned praise from industry experts. It offers Windows 11 support through Parallels Desktop, which said the MacBook Neo delivers better single-core performance than the Dell Pro 14 with the Intel Core Ultra 5 235U processor.

You can read our detailed Specs Appeal article to find out how the MacBook Neo stands against the M5 MacBook Air.

More new MacBooks

As mentioned above, Apple also refreshed the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air with the M5 chip. Its base model now comes with double the storage, which Apple claims offers up to twice the read/write speed. What's more on the table is support for Apple's custom-designed N1 wireless chip, bringing Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

Apple's pricier MacBook Pros now come fitted with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips designed using the new Fusion Architecture, which combines two dies into a single system-on-chip (SoC). MacBook Pro also got 2x faster SSD performance, complementing the performance gains from the new Apple Silicon.

iPhone 17e and new iPad Air

Apple's budget iPhone was updated with much-needed MagSafe support, A19 processor with a C1X modem, and 256GB base storage. Priced at $599, iPhone 17e still retains the single-camera system: a 48MP Fusion camera with 4K Dolby Vision. You can read our Specs Appeal post to know how the iPhone 17e compares against the iPhone 16e.

The iPad Air is now powered by the M4 chip while keeping the external design pretty much the same. Sitting in the middle of Apple's price ladder, it packs 4GB more RAM than the iPad Air M3 and features a faster 120GB/s memory bandwidth. Read our Specs Appeal article to know how iPad Air M4 compares with iPad Air M3.

That said, the budget iPad model has not been refreshed since its last update in March 2025. Meanwhile, the iPad Pro was already updated late last year with the M5 chip.

Good bye, Pro Display XDR

Apple's ultra-expensive monitor, Pro Display XDR, is now a thing of the past because Studio Display XDR has arrived to take its place. The new flagship monitor features a 27-inch 5K Mini-LED Retina display with peak HDR brightness of 2000 nits, an A19 Pro SoC, a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and more.

The company also launched a less expensive second-generation Studio Display with a 27-inch 5K IPS Retina display, peak brightness of 600 nits, an A19 SoC, a 60Hz refresh rate, and more. Overall, it's a minor update over the first-generation Studio Display with improved built-in speakers for "30% deeper base." But at least it stayed true to the rumors that Apple was working on two different monitors.

Apple can remove apps at any time

Apple's legal battle with the free music streaming app Musi finally ended. A California district judge dismissed Musi's complaint with prejudice and held that Apple's developer agreement allows it to remove apps from the App Store at any time "with or without cause."

Apple removed Musi from the App Store in 2024, following complaints from YouTube and other industry players. The Judge also grilled Musi's lawyers for making up facts and issued an order partly granting Apple's motion for Rule 11 sanctions against the law firm.

It's not vibin enough

It was reported that Apple took silent action against vibecoding apps (such as Replit and Vibecode) due to capabilities it cannot make peace with. Apple withheld App Store updates for these apps because they violate its rules that prevent apps from running code that changes their own functionality or that of other apps.

In other words, apps like Replit presented AI-generated apps in a web view, allowing the original app to become something else. Apple is okay as long as vibe-coded apps launch in an external browser instead of in-app view. The company also wants to remove the ability to develop vibecoded apps specifically for the App Store.

Stolen US-made spyware

It was reported that a stolen US-made spyware was repurposed to target iPhone users in war-affected regions. The original surveillance software suite, called Coruna, was developed by L3Harris's technical intelligence division, Trenchant. It was compromised by former Trenchant director, Peter Williams, who was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Coruna exploits fundamental flaws in iOS architecture, chaining together 23 vulnerabilities to target devices. However, Apple originally patched specific flaws on iOS 17 between late 2023 and early 2024. Last month, it pushed new security updates for older devices running iOS 15 and iOS 16.

WWDC 2026 got an official date

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is returning this summer, from June 8 through June 12. Apple announced that the five-day event will have a virtual keynote from top Apple executives and over 100 video sessions and interactive group labs where developers and students can meet Apple engineers.

Alongside regular software updates, Apple is expected to talk about its AI enhancements, particularly its recent partnership with Google to power the upgraded Siri and other Apple Intelligence features. 50 Distinguished Winners from the Swift Students Challenge will be automatically invited to a three-day experience.

Apple Business is now in business

Apple announced Apple Business as a one-stop shop for enterprise tools for its business customers, including mobile device management (MDM), business email, brand management tools, and calendar services with support for custom domains. It consolidates multiple existing offerings, including Apple Business Manager, Apple Business Essentials, and Apple Business Connect, which will shut down once Apple Business launches on April 14 as a free service.

Apple is constantly looking for ways to crunch more cash than yesterday. It was reported that Apple could monetize Apple Maps by bringing ads to the platform, which might show up inside the app as early as this summer.

The company put an official seal on it with its recent Apple Business announcement, stating that ads in Apple Maps will be available in the US and Canada this summer. Apple Business users will be able to create ads on Maps, which will appear when you search in Maps, at the top of results based on relevance, and at the top of a new Suggested Places section in Maps.

Speaking of which, the iPhone-maker pushed a major update to App Store Connect. Developers now have over 100 new metrics to track and highly requested benchmarking tools to get more insights into their apps and games.

What's Apple's cup of tea?

While Apple teased "AI advancements" for WWDC 2026, it's easier said than done considering its recent track record. It was reported that senior Apple leadership knows the company is unlikely to become a leader in the AI race. That's why it wants to stick to what it does best: sell profitable hardware and make money from the services that run on it.

While few people are expected to pay for a Siri subscription, Apple wants to include just about the right number of AI features so people don't jump ship to Android. For one, this means opening the door to third-party AI chatbots and running them with Siri. Apple will be able to take a cut from other companies through the App Store.

Apple recently acquired the popular FCP plugin maker MotionVFX to fuel its creative dreams. MotionVFX offers a massive portfolio of plugins, motion design elements, templates, and other assets, opening the door for Apple to provide more premium content it promised to Creator Studio users.

New games on Apple Arcade

Apple Arcade refreshed its gaming catalog almost every month. Its latest addition brings the acclaimed fishing adventure DREDGE+, where you can experience a haunting maritime journey across foggy archipelagos.

Former App Store Awards-winner, Unpacking+, is a zen puzzle game about removing possessions from boxes and arranging them in a new home. My Very Hungry Caterpillar+ lets you care for your pet caterpillar, which eventually turns into a butterfly. All of these titles will arrive on April 2, Apple said.

Pumping more money

Apple has already committed $600 billion to boost manufacturing on US soil and create more jobs. Last month, the company announced another $400 million investment through 2030, partnering with Bosch, Cirrus Logic, TDK, and Qnity Electronics to manufacture materials and components in the US for Apple products sold worldwide.

AirPods Max 2 and Nike earbuds

Apple's most expensive headphones finally got an upgrade last month. AirPods Max 2 are powered by the H2 chip and feature 1.5x better Active Noise Cancellation than the first-generation. Apple has garnished them with a mix of AI features, including Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, Live Translation, Loud Sound Reduction, Personalized Volume, and Siri Interactions.

Apple-owned audio company Beats by Dre partnered with Nike to launch a co-branded special edition of the PowerBeats Pro 2, featuring different logos on each earbud and a dual-tone design that combines Nike's "Volt" color with matte black on both earbuds.

Shazam gets a new power

Apple's song identification app Shazam can now work with OpenAI's generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT. When you hear a song you don't know, you can use the @Shazam command in ChatGPT or simply ask the AI to identify the current song. ChatGPT then displays a dedicated button to activate your device's microphone. The feature uses the same Shazam algorithm you find on Apple devices to process the audio and return the song name.

iOS 26 gets new features

While we are just months away from seeing the next iPhone update, Apple is busy rolling out incremental updates to the current version. Apple released iOS 26.2/iPadOS 26.2 to the public with a handful of updates to Apple Music, new emojis, and support for AirPods Max 2. A new accessibility setting reduces bright flashes when tapping on elements like buttons.

iOS 26.4 was previously believed to include the upgraded version of Siri, which is now expected at WWDC 2026. Meanwhile, Apple also released iOS 26.5 Beta 1 to developers, bringing ads in Apple Maps, Suggested Places, end-to-end encryption for RCS, and other changes.

Expensive storage

While AI is advancing at lightning speed, one unintended consequence is that consumer electronics are becoming more expensive. That's because memory chip makers have a newfound love for AI data centers, and external hard drives are among those getting affected. You'll have to pay a premium if you buy an external hard drive from Apple, and it could be more than double what it cost a few months ago.

So, these were some of the biggest updates around Apple from the month of March. There will be more issues of the Apple Rewind series in the following months. You can check out other tech updates in our 7 Days and Microsoft Weekly roundups.

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Posted Thursday 2 April 2026 at 5:28 am AEST (my time).

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