Of all of the updates coming from Apple this Fall, iPadOS 26 is the one that interests me the most because Apple is making it much easier to be more productive with an iPad. While a number of folks have written about this over the last two weeks, I think that the best article comes from Federico Viticci of MacStories. In this article, not only does Viticci describe the new features coming to the iPad, including all of the new options when you are working with multiple apps at one time, but he also interviews Apple VP Craig Federighi to discuss Apple’s new philosophy on the iPad, which is what prompted all of these substantial changes. If you enjoy using your iPad to get work done, it’s a great read. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- The more that I and others think about the announcements that Apple made last week at WWDC, the more enthusiasm I see. To be fair, it’s not universal. Some folks are not a fan of Liquid Glass, and now that I have had a chance to look at it myself, I understand the concern that it might make some buttons harder to read. But perhaps Apple will improve that over the next few months during the beta process. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball predicts: “Legibility problems will be addressed. … I expect a lot of visual changes over the course of the summer, and significant evolutionary tweaks in the next few years.” More importantly, the new features that Apple did announce demonstrate that—as noted by Dan Moren of Six Colors—Apple is playing to its strengths.
- Apple is introducing a more advanced speech-to-text technology in its upcoming software releases. Developers can use this to convert speech to text in their apps, and John Voorhees of MacStories reports that Apple’s new technology can transcribe much faster than other technologies such as Whisper, which is the OpenAI speech-to-text model. It will be interesting to see how developers take advantage of this in their apps.
- Michael Burkhardt iof 9to5Mac identified five of his favorite features of the upcoming iOS 26 including custom ringtones and AutoMix in Apple Music.
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac discusses the changes coming to the Reminders app in iOS 26. For example, using Apple Intelligence, Reminders can create intelligent sections within your lists and sort your tasks into those sections. Also, you can choose a default time zone to use for all of your reminders—even if you travel and find yourself in a different time zone.
- If you cannot find your own favorite feature in iOS 26 from among those examples, Rajesh Pandey of Cult of Mac identifies 20 lesser-known features of iOS 26.
- Need more? Joe Rossignol of MacRumors identifies 100 new features in iOS 26.
- The original iMac was the product that helped to save Apple from bankruptcy in the late 1990s. It was also a computer that I loved to use. (I had the iMac DV model.) Spigen decided to honor that product by releasing the Apple Watch Classic C1 Charger Stand, which charges your Apple Watch while looking like an iMac. Very cute, and only $19.99 on Amazon.
- Speaking of chargers, as I have written before, I’m a big fan of the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe. I use it every day in my office, and I typically take it with me as I travel. It makes it easy to charge an iPhone, AirPods Pro, and an Apple Watch. I paid $150 for it, but it is currently on sale on Amazon for $103.99, the lowest price that I have ever seen it.
- The most notable change coming in iPadOS 26 is the ability to multitask with windows on an iPad the same way you would do so on a computer. Why did it take Apple so long to do this? Andrew Cunningham explores that question in this article based on an interview with Apple VP Craig Federighi.
- Riley Hill of Slate Pad reports on the changes in iPadOS 26 that provide more options for recording audio—something especially useful for podcasters.
- Jacob Krol of Tech Radar has tried out the beat of iPadOS 26, and he likes it, concluding that “it’s the upgrade we’ve been waiting for that feels distinctly like an iPad.”
- Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that when the new releases come out this fall, you will be able to sign in to a supported app on one Apple device (such as an iPhone) and be automatically signed in to the same app on your other device (such as Apple TV)—without having to type your username and password again.
- Hartley Charlton of MacRumors reports that the upcoming watchOS 26 will be able to use a standard 64-bit ARM architecture on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2, and explains why this makes it possible to enhance app performance on the watch.
- In an article for Computerworld, Mike Elgan notes that a big disadvantage of current videoconferences such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams on a computer is that eye contact is difficult or impossible, but new technology such as the Apple Vision Pro can solve that.
- Myke Hurley notes on his new website, The Enthusiast, that Apple is promoting its upcoming movie F1 by releasing an immersive video of Brad Pitt driving a lap of the Yas Marina F1 circuit.
- Julian Chokkattu of Wired reports that Apple has developed a new camera. But it is not a camera that you can buy; it is a special camera created using iPhone parts that was made specifically for filming the F1 movie.
- If you want to go to a theater to watch Apple’s F1 movie, Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that there is a $10 discount that you can get when you use the Fandango app to purchase tickets.
- There are not many changes to tvOS 26, but there are some differences. Joe Rosensteel of Six Colors reports on what is new.
- It has been rumored for a while now that Apple was working on a new hardware device for the home. Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reports that there is code in the beta of iOS 26 that seems to reference this unannounced device.
- Moreover, developer Steve Troughton-Smith notes on Mastodon that Apple’s new interactive snippets feature seems like something that Apple has created for this unannounced home device.
- Adriana Elgueta of the BBC reports that when the police were unwilling to help a couple reclaim their stolen Jaguar, they retrieved the vehicle on their own thanks to an AirTag. The most interesting part of this article to me was that the sophisticated thieves had managed to bypass a built-in immobilizer on the vehicle, but their efforts failed because of a $25 AirTag.
- It’s such a shame that I’m an iPhone user because that means that I won’t be able to purchase the upcoming $499 Trump Android smartphone, which Kevin Breuninger of CNBC reports will include a gold-colored metal case etched with an American flag. Sigh.
- And finally, on Apple TV+ this weekend, in addition to watching the comedy Stick (which I am enjoying), you can see the debut of the movie Echo Valley, starring Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney, and the second season of The Buccaneers, a show that I haven’t seen yet but I know that my wife enjoys it. Here is a sizzle reel showing many of the shows that are coming soon to Apple TV+: