The iPhone was updated to iOS 26.5 this week. As noted by Jason Snell of Six Colors, one change was to support end-to-end encryption RCS for phones and carriers that support it. This means that if you are communicating with a “green bubble” friend and everything is configured correctly, your messages are encrypted, just as they always are with your “blue bubble” iPhone friends. This is nice, but as Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider notes, it can be confusing to figure out whether your green bubble communications are encrypted or not. I think there are also some kinks to work out. This week, I tried to type a message on my iPad to someone on Android. In the past, that has always worked fine—my iPad passes the message to my iPhone, which then sends it via SMS or RCS. But after I upgraded this week, I got an alert that my messages didn’t go through. (They did go through when I re-typed them on my iPhone.) Almost all of my text messages are sent to people who use an iPhone, but there are exceptions. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac notes that another change in iOS 26.5 is that when you use the Maps app and tap the search bar, you are shown two recommendations you might be interested in. At some point soon, the Maps app will start including ads, and perhaps they will go in the same section.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews Indigo, a new app that works as a client for both Mastodon and Bluesky. You can have a single timeline for both services, and if something is posted on both, you see it only once (with an indication that it was cross-posted).
- David Sparks of MacSparky discusses the new CARROT Weather feature that provides multi-model forecasts so that you can see predictions from multiple weather models at once. I’ve used it a few times over the last few weeks, and it works well.
- New York attorney Niki Black recommends her top iPhone apps. The only one she recommends that I use is 1Password, but I use that one every day, throughout the day.
- If you had planned to purchase the new $1 coin from the U.S. Mint with a picture of Steve Jobs on it, it is too late. As noted by Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac, the coins sold out almost instantly.
- When I recently reviewed the Anker Prime Wireless Charging Station, I noted that it is excellent, and the only disadvantage compared to its competitors is the price. But right now, the device is selling for only $104.99 on Amazon, a big discount from the $149.99 MSRP. Highly recommended if you want an excellent 3-in-1 charger that is also portable.
- David Snow of Cult of Mac notes that Twelve South has made a new $29.99 device called PowerClip. It is a small battery (about the size of dental floss) that has built-in USB-C cords. You can clip it to something like a backpack, and you always have a 2,000mAh emergency power bank if you need it.
- A Wi-Fi router is typically something that you purchase once and then forget about for a long time. But Russia has not forgotten about them, and the FBI and NSA have announced that Russia has been hacking into TP-Link home and small-office routers since 2024. As Joe Supan of CNet reports, federal agencies recently obtained a court order allowing them to remotely reset thousands of routers without notifying owners, as a temporary fix. But these units remain vulnerable, so if you are still using one of the affected units, now is the time to unplug it and purchase a new one.
- Tim Hardwick of MacRumors reports that hackers have attacked Foxconn factories in the United States that produce products for Apple, and the ransomware group claims to have stolen confidential Apple project files. Yikes.
- Most of the chips that Apple uses in iPhones are produced by Foxconn in China. But Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac notes a new report that Apple is already starting to have some chips produced by Intel in the United States.
- If you have a newer iPhone and you need help in an area with no cell service, you can use satellite communications to text emergency services, request roadside assistance, message friends and family, and share your location. Oliver Haslam of AppleInsider reports that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have teamed up to allow you to do even more with satellites—but to be honest, the press release is pretty vague about what additional services will be available. Are they talking about voice calls? I guess we’ll see.
- David Snow of Cult of Mac reports that the Apple TV show The Studio is now the most-awarded new comedy in history.
- In today’s installment of life-imitates-art, the actor who plays soccer player Dani Rojas on Ted Lasso signed a contract to play professional soccer for the El Paso Locomotive FC, as reported by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac.
- The new Apple TV show Margo’s Got Money Troubles is excellent. The season finale is next week, but Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac reports that Apple has picked up the show for a second season.
- I don’t believe that this is a spoiler, but stop reading this bullet point now if you haven’t yet watched For All Mankind on Apple TV and you want to be extra cautious. In the alternative history depicted in this wonderful show, Apple developed the Newton, and it became a hit. Thus, in the current Season 5 (which takes place around 2012), the smartphones used by the characters are called Newtons, but they are similar to the iPhone, with features like swipe-to-unlock. Tom Pritchard of Tom’s Guide discusses the Newton models depicted in this show, noting: “For All Mankind’s Newton is eye-catching, and obviously an iPhone analogue to anyone who looks at it, but looking closer reveals a bunch of cool details that phone nerds like myself can appreciate.”
- And finally, here is a new video from Apple that shows college students using Macs to come up with great ideas. But even as someone whose college days are long past, the video speaks to me as well. Virtually every day, I find myself working through the best way to do something until I have that eureka moment when the path is clear. Perhaps the video will speak to you as well: