Welcome home! On Tuesday, October 13 at 9:00 Eastern, Apple is holding an event in Tribeca, New York, to announce new products for the home, as reported by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac (and many others!). Rumors suggest we will see a new version of the HomePod with a screen—maybe they will call it a HomePad?—that can act as a central hub for your home. Also expected are new versions of the HomePod mini and a new Apple TV 4K. Lewis Wallace of Cult of Mac suggests we may also see smart home devices like a door lock, thermostat, video doorbell, indoor camera, outdoor camera, floodlight camera, temperature sensor, or more. John Gruber of Daring Fireball discusses the rumor, from Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, that Apple partnered with LG to create those devices. I’ve long been a fan of smart home technology that improves my quality of life, and I’m very excited to find out what Apple has been working on. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- I hate to put too much credence in rumors, but since we are talking about October Apple announcements, I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that Mark Gurman of Bloomberg is predicting that around October 27, Apple will announce a new iPad mini, MacBook Pros with touchscreens (a first for a Mac), and perhaps more, as noted by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac. We’ll see.
- If you haven’t yet upgraded to iOS 27 because you are waiting for your iPhone to tell you to do so, your iPhone apparently waited longer than normal, as noted by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, in an effort to let Apple slow the ramp-up to Siri AI. But according to Joe Rossignol of MacRumors, Apple is now starting to encourage people to upgrade. You really should upgrade because there are so many great features. Indeed, if you haven’t checked out last week’s episode of the In the News podcast (YouTube link), you should because it’s made up entirely of great iOS 27 tips.
- David Phelan of The Independent interviewed Tim Cook to talk about his new job at Apple now that he is no longer CEO. The article also mentions how some creative kids in London got a chance to meet Tim Cook, the King, and Elton John.
- Oliver Haslam of AppleInsider reviews the Apple Watch Series 12.
- Text messages between two iPhones—the blue bubbles—are typically encrypted and secure. But as noted by Glenn Fleishman of Six Colors, there are certain circumstances in which the messages are not encrypted.
- M.G. Siegler of Spyglass explains why someone might want to get the new AirPods 5 instead of AirPods Pro.
- If you use an iPhone 18 Pro Max on AT&T, update to iOS 27.0.1 now if you haven’t already to prevent a problem that could stop your iPhone from making cellular calls, as explained by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac. (That update was released on September 28, 2026.) Note that the iPhone 18 Pro—without the “Max”—doesn’t have the problem because it uses Apple’s C2 modem instead of a Qualcomm modem.
- I’ve long been a fan of TextExpander. I use it on my PC at work, my Mac at home, and my iPad and iPhone. Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac reports that TextExpander now has a free version, a great way to try it out. The free version only supports five snippets, but that is more than enough to try it out and see what you think.
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that Florida won’t adopt Apple Wallet driver’s licenses because Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says: “The convenience of a digital driver’s license is outweighed by the potential for government to abuse it.” Meanwhile, everyone who lives in a state that has long supported a digital driver’s license in Apple Wallet is saying: What in the world are you talking about?!? To be fair, I know some privacy advocates, like the ACLU, have warned that digital licenses could be abused by a government if the government also gained the ability to monitor where you were and what you were doing every time you present a digital license. But the Apple Wallet app specifically does not do that.
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that a new show on Apple TV called Small Prophets has been getting a lot of great buzz. The show debuted in the UK earlier this year, and Apple purchased the worldwide distribution rights. This is the first time that Apple has done something like this.
- And finally, I enjoyed the first season of the Apple TV show Stick, and Season 2 starts on November 4th. The following trailer does give away some details about a big plot twist in Season 2, but my guess is that it is all stuff that we will learn in the first episode, and it is a fun trailer that gets me excited for the new season.