Apple does more to protect user privacy than any of its competitors in the technology space, so it is not surprising that Apple has been pursuing on-device AI so that everything happens on your device, keeping everything private. Apple’s new Foundation Model is part of iOS 26, and Apple recently discussed how third-party apps can incorporate it into their apps to provide fast, free, and private AI features. If you want to kick the tires on the Apple Foundation Model yourself, I encourage you to try out the free app from Adrien Grondin called Locally AI. This app allows you to interact with an AI on your iPhone—similar to the ChatGPT app—but it uses AI models that are on your device, not in the cloud, so everything is fast, private, and secure. The app lets you download the latest open-source AI models, such as Gemma (from Google) and Llama (from Meta), but I’m mentioning it today because it was recently updated to support the Apple Foundation Model that is included with iOS 26, so you don’t need to download a huge model from Google or Meta to use it. I was impressed to see how incredibly fast and powerful the Apple Foundation Model is, and it makes me hope that more developers will incorporate this in their apps. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- It seems like there is always something new to discover in iOS 26. Tim Hardwick of MacRumors identifies 26 new features that you should check out.
- Apple has already updated iOS 26. Juli Clover of MacRumors describes what Apple changed this week in iOS 26.0.1.
- AirPods Pro 3 have been getting all of the (well-deserved) attention, but Apple has another line of earbuds, the Beats line, and this week Apple released the Powerbeats Fit. As Juli Clover of MacRumors notes in her review, unlike AirPods that fit in your ear and Powerbeats Pro that fits around your ear to be more secure, the new Powerbeats Fit use a wingtip to stay put within your ear. They also feature active noise cancellation. They are $199.99 on Amazon.
- Juli Clover has been using an iPhone Air for the last two weeks, and she describes the good, the bad, and the ugly of the compromises that come with this device.
- David Sparks of MacSparky explains why he thinks Apple developed the iPhone Air.
- Matt Birchler of Birchtree wrote an in-depth review of the iPhone 17 Pro.
- Lux is a company that makes the excellent iPhone camera apps Halide and Kino. The folks at Lux wrote a review of the cameras on the iPhone 17 Pro, and they explain why they are so impressed.
- Wesley Hillard of AppleInsider wrote an in-depth review of the Apple Watch Ultra 3.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that, based on documents published by the FCC and an unboxing video that showed up on YouTube, it looks like Apple will soon release new versions of the iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and Vision Pro. The new models will use an M5 chip to be faster, but are expected to otherwise be essentially the same as the prior models. I suspect that we will see an official announcement from Apple this month.
- I agree with just about everything that Jason Snell says about visionOS 26 in the review that he wrote on his Six Colors website. Everything continues to improve, and it seems obvious that Apple is improving this platform for the Vision Pro so that it will be ready for a next-generation device that will be closer to a pair of glasses.
- Dan Moren of Six Colors reports that he has tried to use a Vision Pro to get work done and the biggest obstacle is the lack of key third-party support, such as the lack of a native Dropbox app.
- The Goodnotes app for iPad has added a bunch of improvements and changed the subscription plans. Mahnoor Faisal of Make Use Of describes what is new.
- Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider reports that Apple has removed the ICEBlock app, presumably because of pressure from the Department of Justice. The ICEBlock app lets users mark on a map where they see ICE activity so that others can avoid that area.
- In an article for The Verge, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal interviews Ford CEO Jim Farley. The interview covers a range of interesting topics, but I’ll focus on CarPlay here. Farley said that while Ford doesn’t like the current version of CarPlay Ultra, and it appears that the reason is that the Apple software controls too much of the vehicle itself, but he has been talking to Tim Cook and still has an interest in letting people use CarPlay in Ford’s cars.
- If you want to record video from multiple angles, you can use Final Cut Pro on the iPad to record video from the iPad’s camera plus up to four iPhones to simultaneously record from different angles so that your final video can switch between different shots. Jason Snell of Six Colors explains how it works.
- Apple announced that Apple TV+ will continue to be the exclusive streaming home for Peanuts for another five years. I switched to the Peanuts screensaver on my Apple TV as soon as Apple released it in December 2024, and I haven’t changed it yet because that screensaver continues to be updated frequently with new, delightful content. I love it, and I’m ready for another five years of it.
- I enjoyed the show Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+, and I was sad to see that Apple cancelled it after only two seasons, especially considering that Season 3 is already written. Hopefully, it will be made one day. In the meantime, a stage version of Schmigadoon! is coming to Broadway in a few months, as noted by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac.
- And finally, John Voorhees of MacStories describes the new shows coming to Apple TV+. Today, Apple releases the movie The Lost Bus, and it sounds like it is good. Next week, I’m looking forward to The Last Frontier. Here is a short video from Apple with previews of the new shows coming to Apple TV+ this month: