In the News

For the past week, I have been using a new Apple Watch Series 12. The battery life improvement has been substantial, not only because Apple has improved battery life with each new generation of the Apple Watch, but also because the battery in my former Apple Watch was past its prime. That has been nice. But the features I’m most curious to try in the 2026 Apple Watch models are Audio Intelligence features, such as Siri Recap and Live Rewind, which aren’t available yet. However, one Audio Intelligence feature already works: Music Recognition with Shazam. The Apple Watch Series 12 (and Ultra 4) is always listening to see if music is playing. If it is, it automatically recognizes the song, without you having to do anything. Simply scroll up to see the Smart Stack, and you will see a Shazam widget that already knows what music is playing. No need to wait. It’s a useful, neat feature, and it makes me eager to try the additional upcoming Apple Intelligence features. One thing I didn’t like about my new Apple Watch was that it randomly restarted at some point each day. It turns out, this was a bug affecting a lot of people, and as Marko Zivkovic of AppleInsider notes, Apple released watchOS 27.0.1 on Wednesday to fix the bug. (The update seems to have fixed the bug for me.) And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Battery life is fantastic on the iPhone 18 Pro Max—so much so that it actually exceeds international shipping restrictions. But as Jess Weatherbed of The Verge notes, Apple came up with a solution. The firmware on new iPhones keeps the battery capacity below a 20Wh limit while units are shipped. Once a user activates the iPhone, the battery is restored to its full capacity of over 21Wh. As Weatherbed further notes: “If the user needs to send off their phone for repair or resale, the charging limitation can be restored using the ‘Prepare to Ship’ feature, which caps charging to 80 percent for 14 days. The restoration feature can be found under the settings menu by opening General settings, tapping Transfer or Reset iPhone, and then Prepare to Ship.” Very clever.
• I know that I did it, but most people won’t upgrade from an iPhone 17 Pro to an iPhone 17 Pro. The improvements are nice, but far from essential. But if you are considering it anyway, Jeff Parsons of Tom’s Guide explains what is improved.
• Jason Cross of Macworld reviews the iPhone 18 Pro, and says that it is “just like last year’s iPhone, but faster and with a slightly better camera. That’s it.” There are a few more improvements—like the improved Dynamic Island, better battery life, and Apple Reference Image—but for the most part, I agree with him.
• If you have an iPhone 18 Pro and you notice that it sometimes freezes and reboots, Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reports that Apple has figured out the cause of the problem and a software update to fix it is coming out next week. (I haven’t seen this bug on my new iPhone.)
• If you go to an Apple Store right now, you might notice that each one has a tiny sign that says “hello” in script, but you have to look hard to find it. Amber Neely of AppleInsider says that they are a way for iPhone 18 Pro users to try out the telephoto feature. I didn’t notice it when I picked up my iPhone 18 Pro Max at my local Apple Store a week ago, but now that I look back at a picture I took while waiting in line to enter the store, sure enough, it is there.
• If you want to use two iPhones—such as an iPhone 18 Pro and an iPhone Duo—don’t use AT&T if you want to take advantage of the new iPhone Handoff feature that lets you share a single phone number across two devices. Jeff Carlson of CNet reports that AT&T has no current plans for supporting this feature.
• Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac shares a video from Adrián Santos that compares the size of the upcoming iPhone Duo and an iPad mini. They are similar, but the iPad mini is a little bigger.
• Christoffel also says his favorite new features of the Apple Watch Series 12 right now are the faster processor, new health features, and faster charging.
• Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac notes that the new Macs that Apple announced last month are now available: the Mac mini M6, the Mac mini M5 Pro, and the Mac Studio with M5 Max or M5 Ultra. I’m typing this on my new Mac mini M5 Pro, which I received this past Tuesday, and it is so very fast.
• In addition to releasing new iPhones, new Apple Watches, and new AirPods, Apple also released a ton of accessories in the past week. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac shows off all of the new Apple accessories on a single page.
• If you want to use over-the-head headphones from Apple, you have two choices: the Beats 360 vs AirPods Max 2. Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider compares the two. In short, the Beats 360 are less expensive and better for the average user; the AirPods Max 2 are more expensive and better for audiophiles and/or people who want a more refined style.
• Apple announced that it opened Apple Music Hall, a beautiful, state-of-the-art, live music venue in London. It looks great, and artist performances can be recorded in spatial audio. I hope Apple also records some immersive video for the Vision Pro in this venue; Apple has released only a few immersive music videos so far, but they are amazing.
• October is right around the corner, and Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac explains what is coming to Apple TV next month, including a new comedy series called Small Prophets, as well as new episodes of Slow Horses.
• The Apple TV show The Savant, which was originally scheduled to air in 2025, has been on again, off again, since then, presumably because some people thought the show could be deemed inappropriate after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Nellie Andreeva of Deadline reports that the show is now scheduled for release in Spring 2027. Apple still hasn’t said anything officially.
• And finally, Mouloud Achour of the French program Clique TV on CANAL+ had the opportunity to interview Apple’s new CEO John Ternus for 30 minutes last week. The video (which is in English) is interesting not only because of the products Ternus discusses—everything from the iPhone Duo to the Vision Pro—but also because it gives us all a chance to get to know the new CEO a little better. Worth watching.