Jeff Richardson

Are you ready for a new iPhone? Two years ago, I predicted that Apple would announce the 2026 iPhone on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. My prediction was based on Apple’s pattern for selecting the date for iPhone announcements since 2013. This week, Andrew Orr of AppleInsider reported that, based on an internal memo seen by Bloomberg, Apple is giving its U.S. retail employees the opportunity to enter a lottery to come to Cupertino, California, to assist with the next iPhone announcement event, and Bloomberg believes that this event will take place on September 9th. I’ve had my calendar marked on September 9, 2026, for a while now, and you may want to do the same. If you want to plan even further ahead, I’d earmark Wednesday, September 8, 2027, and Tuesday, September 12, 2028. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• If you purchase a new iPhone after the announcement on September 9th, you may want to trade in your current model to reduce the overall price. William Gallagher of AppleInsider noticed that Apple has just increased what it is willing to pay you if you trade in a device. For example, Apple is now offering you an additional $70 (up to $630) if you trade in an iPhone 16 Pro.
• Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac reports that, according to Counterpoint Research, an all-time high of 29% of the smartphone market is comprised of smartphones that cost $600 or more. And of that premium smartphone market, Counterpoint Research believes that 65% of it is the iPhone.
• Long before the iPhone, Apple sold the Newton. William Gallagher of AppleInsider wrote this week about the Newton’s history. It’s a good read.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that SpaceX is planning to create its own cellular service to compete with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Instead of cell towers, the company will use base stations paired with Starlink dishes. Interesting.
• I was surprised to see this article from John Gruber of Daring Fireball, based on a report from James Hibberd of The Hollywood Reporter, that BMW is showing an ad for the new Spider-Man movie on car dashboards. That is the last thing I would want to see, and it is an example of why I trust Apple’s CarPlay more than I trust car manufacturers. That said, it was just a week ago that I was talking about how Apple has been slowly increasing ads on its platform (such as the upcoming ads coming to Apple’s Maps app), so maybe Apple would consider doing this, too. Although I hope not.
• What if you want to use CarPlay but you are on water instead of land? Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that MasterCraft Boat Holdings is adding CarPlay to its upcoming Crest and Balise Pontoons.
• What if you are listening to a podcast in CarPlay and you want to jump ahead or back? Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that, in iOS 27, you will be able to drag the playhead forward or backward to scrub through the podcast—a feature long supported on other platforms.
• A study reported in AJO International (a companion title to The American Journal of Ophthalmology) found that when surgeons wore an Apple Vision Pro while performing eye surgery, they were able to perform the surgeries 19% faster. Additionally, the surgeons preferred performing surgery with these devices because they made surgery more comfortable, as they could maintain a more neutral head and neck posture. If I were having an eye operation, I would definitely want my surgeon to be more comfortable and for the surgery to take less time.
• If you use a Fitbit, you can now sync the data to Apple Health. Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that the latest update to the Google Health app for iOS—the app that syncs with the Fitbit—can now sync to Apple Health.
• The first episode of the new season of Ted Lasso is now available on Apple TV. I haven’t watched it yet—my wife and I are saving it for tonight—but Jason Snell of Six Colors has seen the first half of Season 4 and says that “each episode made me laugh out loud, a lot.” It looks like new episodes are released every Wednesday.
• In other Ted Lasso news, there was a look-alike contest in New York last night. Here are some videos from the event on Instagram.
• In other Ted Lasso news, although I haven’t watched Season 4 yet, I did do an Apple Fitness+ workout this week in which all of the instructors were dressed up like members of the team in Ted Lasso, and many of the songs were related to the show. It was fun.
• And finally, I loved the Apple TV show Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and this video showcases the incredible actors in that show. I don’t recommend this video if you haven’t watched the show yet because it contains spoilers. But if you have watched the show, this video is fun, and it reminds me how much I enjoyed the series:

I’ve previously discussed the difficult situation that you can face when you cross the border into the United States with an iPhone or other electronic device, especially if you are an attorney. A recent news item in the New York Times has me thinking about this again.

Adeel Hassan of the New York Times reports that when a U.S. citizen was asked by customs officers upon entering the country to hand over his Android smartphone and its password, he gave them a special “password” that wasn’t a password at all. When typed, that word activated software to erase his smartphone. This isn’t something that the Android (or iPhone) can normally do, but he installed an open-source operating system on his smartphone to add this feature.

The government responded by prosecuting him under 18 U.S.C. § 2232, a statute that—among other things—makes it a felony to destroy evidence. Section (a) of the statute is titled “Destruction or Removal of Property To Prevent Seizure.” It provides:

Whoever, before, during, or after any search for or seizure of property by any person authorized to make such search or seizure, knowingly destroys, damages, wastes, disposes of, transfers, or otherwise takes any action, or knowingly attempts to destroy, damage, waste, dispose of, transfer, or otherwise take any action, for the purpose of preventing or impairing the Government’s lawful authority to take such property into its custody or control or to continue holding such property under its lawful custody and control, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

As I read the statute, I find myself thinking about 1Password’s Travel Mode feature on the iPhone, a feature that has been available since 2017. This is a feature that you enable using the 1Password website (not your iPhone app), and here is how 1Password describes the feature: “It enables you to temporarily remove vaults that contain sensitive information. The vaults you choose aren’t just hidden – they’re entirely removed from your devices, including the 1Password browser extension. If a police officer or customs agent asks you to unlock your phone, they will only see the vaults you’ve marked as safe to travel. When you turn off Travel Mode, the removed vaults will automatically reappear in the 1Password app the next time you connect to the internet.”

I can imagine an argument that this is a feature that “destroys, damages, wastes, disposes of, transfers, or otherwise takes any action” on a vault on an iPhone, and thus if the feature is utilized because a person intends to “prevent[] or impair[] the Government’s lawful authority” to look at the contents of the 1Password vault, using this feature could expose someone to a fine or imprisonment of up to five years, or both, under 18 U.S.C. § 2232.

Of course, I can also see arguments to the contrary. One might argue that the data hasn’t been destroyed; it still exists on the 1Password website. Thus, one might argue that turning on Travel Mode is like deciding to leave something at home rather than taking it while traveling. A person might also defend the use of Travel Mode by explaining that they used it for a different purpose, such as to prevent a thief from stealing the iPhone at an airport or to prevent access by a government official from another country. Moreover, one might argue that the statute does not apply in a particular circumstance because there was no lawful authority to look at the contents. According to the New York Times article, that is an argument that this person asserted; he argued that “he was targeted because of his political activism against Atlanta’s plan to build a police and fire training center within a 1,000-acre stretch of urban woodland.” And as Gaby Del Valle of The Verge notes, courts are split on whether customs agents can conduct searches without a warrant. Additionally, an attorney might also argue that there was no lawful authority because a vault contains confidential attorney-client communications or attorney work product. I suspect that there are other possible defenses.

Do I think that the use of 1Password’s Travel Mode always implicates this statute? Absolutely not. But can I imagine an argument being made that it does apply in certain circumstances? I can, especially in the current political climate. I understand why some people might prefer to just use a burner phone when traveling internationally, one that doesn’t contain private data at all, so there is no need for a Travel Mode feature.

When you believe that you have a right to privacy and the government disagrees, things can become complicated.

A few days ago, Apple released the results for its 2026 fiscal third quarter (which ran from March 29, 2026, to June 27, 2026) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. Apple’s fiscal third quarter is usually a less interesting quarter for Apple—it’s not like we often see interesting new products released in April, May, or June—but this call was notable. First, it was the very last earnings call overseen by Apple CEO Tim Cook: his 90th call. Starting September 1, John Ternus takes over as Apple’s CEO. Second, it was a record third quarter for Apple. They may not sound notable because, for many years now, Apple’s financial results have been excellent virtually every quarter. But it was notable this time because Tim Cook is going out on top. The first time that Tim Cook led one of these calls as CEO was the 2011 fiscal third quarter. As I noted in my report at the time, Cook announced a record-setting quarter for Apple with sales of $28.57 billion. It is now fifteen years later, and this time Cook announced a record-setting quarter for Apple with sales of $109.4 billion. To put this in perspective, Apple’s 2011 revenue was $108 billion for the entire fiscal year; now, Apple is making more than that in a single quarter—and not even the fiscal first quarter, the one that is typically the highest because of holiday sales. Those numbers are pretty impressive, but the main reason I’ve been reporting on these calls for so many years is that the calls often provide insights into Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad. If you want to get all of the nitty-gritty details, you can listen to the audio from the announcement conference call on the Apple website, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors. Apple’s official press release is here. Here are the items that stood out to me.

iPhone

• iPhone revenue for the quarter was $54.3 billion. That’s up 22% from a year ago, when it was $44.6 billion. And it is a new record for an Apple fiscal third quarter.
• Apple CFO Kevan Parekh noted that the number of iPhones in use worldwide is now at an all-time high.
• Parekh also noted that Morgan Stanley has deployed over 20,000 iPhone 17 devices to its employees as part of a shift from employee-owned to corporate-owned devices for liability and security.
• Prices for iPhones and other Apple products are rising due to shortages and price increases in the memory market. Cook said that, at this point, he expects memory prices to continue rising, and Apple is evaluating what to do about it.

iPad

• iPad revenue for the quarter was $6.2 billion. That’s down slightly from a year ago, when it was $6.6 billion, and down even more from two years ago, when it was $7.2 billion.
• Parekh noted that the number of iPads in use worldwide is now at an all-time high. He also noted that over half of the people who purchased an iPad this quarter were purchasing their first iPad.

Other

• Apple’s improved AI is coming out very soon—I presume next month. Cook said: “I think it’s a very big idea to have AI that’s private, that’s based on your personal context, and that’s integrated across the operating system, and so we couldn’t be happier with how things are going.”
• Cook said revenue for the category Apple calls Wearables, Home, and Accessories was $7.9 billion, up 6% from a year ago.
• Cook said that this past quarter, Apple saw a record number of people upgrading an Apple Watch compared to any other fiscal third quarter.
• Cook said that services revenue was $30.7 billion, which is up 12% from last year and a record for a fiscal third quarter. However, that is less than last quarter, when it was $31 billion, and as noted by Jason Snell of Six Colors, this is the first time in more than three years that Apple’s services revenue was not up sequentially.
• Cook noted that Apple TV has now earned an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony—sometimes called an EGOT—and said Apple reached that milestone faster than any other streamer in history. The show that earned Apple a Tony was the Broadway version of Schmigadoon!, and I think Apple TV canceled the TV version of that show way too early. Is it too much to hope that the success on Broadway will cause the show to come back to TV?
• Cook noted that Widow’s Bay earned 19 Emmy nominations, more than any other new show this year.

Before long, you are going to pay for a new Apple product: an iPhone, an iPad, an Apple Watch, or even a Mac. How should you do so, and does the new Apple Upgrade program make sense for you? That’s the first topic that Brett and I address in this week’s episode of the podcast. To our surprise, the new Apple Upgrade program is better than we expected and will make a lot of sense for many people. We also discuss efforts that some notable people are making to convince John Ternus to take a new approach to in-app ads when he takes over as CEO of Apple one month from today. Next, we discuss Find My products, why the best feature in the brand-new iOS 26.6 is something you cannot use right now, some notable third-party products, and more.

In our In the Show segment, we discuss the enthusiasm for the return of Ted Lasso in just a few days.

In our In the Know segment, we focus on the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown. Brett explains why and when you should switch the orientation, and I discuss using it to trigger Siri.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice. You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

This week, Apple unveiled its new Apple Upgrade program, which replaces the former iPhone Upgrade program. As the name implies, one change is that the program now applies to more than just iPhones. This program lets you lease a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch. You can select a 12- or 24-month lease for iPhone and Apple Watch, or a 24- or 36-month lease for iPad and Mac. The word “Upgrade” is in the title because the idea is that at the end of that period, you give back your device and start a new lease for a new one. Juli Clover of MacRumors lists the details of the program. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac emphasizes that this is a lease and not financing, so at the end of the period, you don’t own your device. However, you can pay a buyout fee at the end of the period to purchase the device, and there are no extra fees for doing so; if the device cost was $1,000 and your monthly payments over the period added up to $600, just pay the additional $400 at the end, and the device is yours. John Gruber notes that if you get an iPhone through this program, you are required to use one of the big three carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon, but other than that, he says that “there seemingly is no catch with the new Apple Upgrade program,” so it is worth considering if you don’t want to (1) pay the entire cost up front or (2) finance the purchase over 12 months using an Apple Card, which Apple lets you do with no extra fees. There are other options that can often reduce what you have to pay for a new Apple product: you can trade in an older device (and Apple sometimes gives you a pretty good value for that), or you can look for sales at stores like Amazon or when Apple offers very occasional sales, such as Black Friday, or you can often find a good price when you purchase a device from a cellular carrier and you agree to stay with that carrier for a period of time. Even so, the Apple Upgrade program looks like something that will be a good option for many folks. Paying over time is often easier than paying up front, and being able to do so without paying any fees is fantastic. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• This past Sunday, my wife and I decided to start watching the Apple TV show Lucky, but when we selected the first episode, there was no button to play the episode. Indeed, there was no button to play anything. It was almost like I wasn’t an Apple TV subscriber. It turns out that Apple was having a widespread outage affecting lots of different Apple services. And as Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac reports, Apple had a second, similar outage on Wednesday, July 29. Apple’s network services have been so stable for so long that this really surprised me when I saw it on Sunday—I assumed that I was doing something wrong or experiencing some error on my end. Hopefully, Apple has now figured out the problem, and it won’t happen again.
• My daughter is about to start college. To help her keep track of her items, I purchased some Find My products for her. First, I purchased a four-pack of Apple’s AirTag (second generation) (my review), which is currently at an all-time low price on Amazon of $89.00. Second, for her wallet, I purchased a eufy SmartTrack card (my review), which is also at an all-time low price on Amazon of $16.88. If you need Find My devices, whether for yourself or someone else, these are great deals on great products.
• As Apple prepares the CEO transition from Tim Cook to John Ternus on September 1, a number of people are hoping Ternus reverses Apple’s decisions to add advertising to many of its services. John Gruber of Daring Fireball discussed this a few weeks ago. This week, Jason Snell of Six Colors shared an interesting analogy to hotels that choose to offer the “good soap” because they know that, in the long run, it is better to offer customers a higher-quality product even if they give up some short-term profit. And Gruber noted this week that ads in software are like the Intel stickers on laptops: something that Steve Jobs refused to allow because it degraded the customer experience, even though Intel surely would have paid money to Apple had it included them. Leadership transitions provide an opportunity for change, and like Gruber and Snell, I hope that Ternus makes this change.
• When iOS 27 comes out later this year, it will let you use AI to give you answers based on information on your device while keeping that information private. Similarly, app developer Joshua Langberg reached out to me this week to tell me about a new app he created called Bibliome. It is a Mac app that uses on-device AI to organize and answer questions about your PDF library, and it is private because it runs entirely on your device. It also has an iPhone app that can scan documents and add them to the library. While I haven’t used this app, I like the idea of what it is doing, and I hope to see more products like this in the future that take advantage of AI to surface useful information while preserving privacy.
• For the improved AI in iOS 27 to understand what is on your iPhone, the information on your iPhone is indexed. This week, Apple released iOS 26.6, and as Zac Hall of 9to5Mac notes, one feature is that it is starting to index your iPhone now. That way, when you upgrade to iOS 27, the index will be ready, and you won’t have to wait to take advantage of the improved AI. What a clever idea.
• William Gallagher of AppleInsider shares the story of a Cincinnati man whose life was saved due to the Apple Watch’s fall detection feature.
• Andrew O’Hara of AppleInsider reviews the Twelve South Valet mini, a good-looking leather-lined tray that can hold and charge an iPhone along with other items: keys, a wallet, etc. It is $129.99 on Amazon.
• Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac recommends the Aecooly USB-C Phone Fan, a device that connects to your iPhone’s USB-C port and uses a fan to cool you off. It is $12.99 on Amazon.
• Season 4 of Ted Lasso begins in a week, on August 5th. But the premiere was held this week in Los Angeles, and as Nellie Andreeva of Deadline reports, it was attended not only by the actors but also by Apple’s current CEO, Tim Cook, and its CEO starting next month, John Ternus. Cook said that he plans to watch this season just like he watched the last season: using his Apple Vision Pro. Ternus stated: Season 4 of Ted Lasso begins in a week, on August 5th. But the premiere was held this week in Los Angeles, and as Nellie Andreeva of Deadline reports, it was attended not only by the actors but also by Apple’s current CEO, Tim Cook, and its CEO starting next month, John Ternus. Cook said that he plans to watch this season just like he watched the last season: using his Apple Vision Pro. Ternus stated: “There’s so much great content on Apple TV, and now is just the perfect time for us to keep the momentum up, keep bringing in incredible storytellers and creative folks to keep making it better.” Ternus added that he is looking forward to his new role: “I’ve been at Apple for 25 years, I love Apple, and to have this opportunity is beyond words.”`
• And finally, here is the new trailer for Season 4 of Ted Lasso. Not really many spoilers here for those who have any idea what this next season is about, but if you want to watch something with zero spoilers, you can instead watch a video showing every shot on goal from the first three seasons of Ted Lasso. The trailer:

Do you purchase a new iPhone every year? If so, is the Apple Upgrade program right for you? That’s the first topic that we discuss in this week’s episode of the podcast. We also discuss the reasons for Apple’s new lawsuit against OpenAI, the good and the bad of AI services that provide summaries of your conversations, three incredibly useful new features in iOS 27, a cute eReader, the status of Apple’s blood oxygen patent lawsuit, new prices for Apple One, and more.

In our Where Y’At segment, we discuss the Notify When Left Behind feature of the Find My app and how the Apple Watch came to the rescue for yet another person in an accident.

In our In the Show segment, we discuss the new movie on Apple TV, The Dink, and the upcoming Season 4 of Ted Lasso. (Last night, my wife and I watched The Dink; she thought it was just so-so, but I enjoyed it because it made me laugh.)

Finally, in our In the Know segment, we discuss the Apple Notes app. Brett discusses different ways to lock a note, and I discuss the two different ways to find information in a note.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice. You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

As I started a videoconference with opposing counsel this week to discuss a litigation discovery dispute, the first one to try to join my conference was not a person but instead an AI bot associated with a different attorney in the case who was not even attending that conference. That AI bot tried to listen in, record the conference, and create a summary of our communications. I’m a big fan of AI. I use it frequently in my law practice, and it helps to provide even better legal representation for my clients. But I immediately rejected the AI bot’s attempt to join that conference. I know that AI can hallucinate, and the last thing I want is a supposed written summary of the conversation that appears definitive when it contains mistakes. Additionally, when attorneys use AI notetakers, there are ethical implications to consider—some of which are discussed in this post by Carolyn Elefant of MyShingle. Still, I know this type of technology can be very helpful in certain circumstances. For example, when I attended ABA TECHSHOW earlier this year, attorney Paul Lawless of Bell Orr in Bowling Green, KY, told me—and then described for everyone in the podcast—how he uses the Plaud Note Pro AI Voice Recorder to listen in on a deposition and then quickly create a first draft of a deposition summary, ready for him to edit and then send to his client almost immediately after the deposition. I know that an iPhone alone can perform a similar function with the right app. I mention all of this today because there was a report this week by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, reported by Joe Rossignol of MacRumors, that Apple is testing something similar for its store. If both the Genius Bar employee and the customer opt in, the conversation can be transcribed and then made part of the repair session, which could help fix the customer’s problem. When used appropriately, AI transcription and summarization technology can be very helpful. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Every year, I get a new iPhone. I either trade my old iPhone back to Apple (always receiving a nice trade-in payment to offset the cost of my new iPhone) or pass it to a family member. Some people who get an iPhone every year prefer to use Apple’s iPhone Upgrade program, which Apple has offered for more than a decade. Dan Moren of Six Colors discusses that program and the rumor that Apple might replace it with a different program that Moren fears could be much less appealing.
• Moren also reviews the Xteink X3, a tiny e-reader that can attach to the back of an iPhone.
• Glenn Fleishman of Six Colors discusses the Notify When Left Behind feature of the Find My app.
• Ben Patterson of PCWorld explains why he is so impressed by the upcoming Siri AI: it does a great job of providing you with the information that you need, and then it gets out of your way.
• In a long and interesting article on his Daring Fireball website, John Gruber explains why he believes that Apple filed its lawsuit against AI, including what Apple is really seeking.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that the TV app in iOS 27 will offer the option to automatically download the next two episodes of a show you are watching (and then delete them when finished) so that you are always ready to continue watching the show, even if you have a poor Internet connection.
• Adam Engst of TidBITS discusses Apple’s increased prices for Apple Music, Apple One, and AppleCare+. The cost of Apple Music has increased by one dollar to $11.99/month, and some Apple One bundles are also more expensive. Apple One Premier—the top-of-the-line offering that I use—is now up two dollars to $39.95/month.
• Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac notes that Apple’s Wallet app in iOS 27 gains a useful new feature for people who use the Apple Card credit card: a recurring transactions section, making it easier to keep track of subscriptions and other repeated payments.
• Christoffel also discusses a really useful new feature in iOS 27: if you have any item copied to your clipboard, a paste shortcut will appear above the keyboard when you open a new text field, making it quick and easy to paste. I suspect that I will use this one a lot.
• In 2020, Masimo sued Apple over the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen monitoring feature. The jury ruled in Masimo’s favor, and Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac reports that the federal district court judge denied Apple’s effort to overturn the jury verdict this week. Apple will appeal.
• Although some car manufacturers, like GM, don’t want to let drivers take advantage of Apple’s useful CarPlay technology, Ford embraces it. Dan Moren of Six Colors reports that Apple announced yesterday that Apple Maps will become a key part of upcoming Ford EV vehicles, with full support for CarPlay.
• I keep an eye on the topic of AI smart glasses because I think this type of product has real potential, and I think that Apple may well come out with a good version. Unlike Apple, which never discusses unannounced products, Google is happy to talk about what it is working on. Mark Spoonauer of Tom’s Guide interviews Juston Payne, who is in charge of this at Google, to discuss the future.
• When Apple introduced the MacBook Neo, it also introduced a cute character that the Internet has dubbed “Lil’ Finder Guy.” In a post on LinkedIn, Apple art director Sofia Coelho shares a few pictures showing the development of Lil’ Finder Guy.
• The newest movie on Apple TV, which debuts today, is a comedy from Ben Stiller starring Jake Johnson called The Dink. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that the early reviews are very positive.
• Ted Lasso is returning to Apple TV next month. Lacey Rose of The Hollywood Reporter wrote a great article, based on lots of interviews with folks associated with the show, about the show’s history and what will be different in the upcoming Season 4. If you are a fan of the show, this article is worth reading.
• And finally, here is a short video from Apple that shares the story of a man who crashed while mountain biking and, fortunately, his Apple Watch called for help to save the day.

The public beta of iOS 27 is now available for anyone to try. That means we now also have a lot more information about the features of iOS 27. Brett and I start this week’s episode of the podcast discussing the improvements to Siri, the interesting things that Apple is doing with AI, the ethics of using the AI expand feature in Photos in iOS 27, and other new features coming is iOS 27. We also discuss the upcoming ads in the Maps app, the upcoming emoji coming to your iPhone in early 2027, amazing iPhone photography, and more.

In our In the Show segment, we discuss a new show on Apple TV this week (Lucky) and a new movie coming to Apple TV in September (Mayday).

In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a real-world experience using a driver’s license in the Wallet app when passing through TSA, and I share my daughter’s favorite tip for the Reminders app—a tip that I also use quite a bit.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice. You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

In iOS 27, the Photos app will gain the Extend feature. It lets you zoom out on a photo, using AI to fill in the information on the four sides of the photo to expand your picture beyond what the camera captured. For some uses, such as adding nothing of consequence to the background simply to make a picture fit better as a lock screen image, I think the feature will be useful and not very controversial. For other uses, it may seem downright icky—such as if it generates new objects or even people who were never in the original photo. David Pogue wrote an interesting post discussing the ethics of this new feature and sharing pictures of the good, the bad, and the ugly. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• Speaking of ethics, Tim Hardwick of MacRumors discusses a Financial Times story about how Meta may add a feature to its smart glasses that would capture images of everything the wearer sees, even when not taking pictures. The idea is that this allows the smart glasses to better understand what you are seeing, so it can provide helpful information, but, of course, there are also privacy implications—especially given Meta’s track record. The rumor is that Apple is developing its own smart glasses, and if so, it will have to grapple with these privacy issues as well.
• You no longer need to be a developer—or pretend to be one—to preview the new Apple operating systems coming this fall. For example, Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that the iOS 27 public beta is now available. As always, I don’t recommend installing beta software on a device you depend on, such as one you use for work. But if you have a device just for fun and want a sneak peek into the future, you can now get that.
• Dan Moren of Six Colors wrote an extensive review of the iOS 27 Public Beta—which is also a preview of what is coming to all of us this fall.
• Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider identifies new features coming to the Apple Watch this fall in watchOS 27, including the Dynamic App Grid when you press the Digital Crown, the improved Smart Stack, Workout Buddy that can work without an iPhone close by, new Settings, Siri improvements, and more.
• Jonathan Reed of MacStories also wrote an extensive overview of watchOS 27.
• Devon Dundee of MacStories wrote an extensive overview of visionOS 27.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that the AutoMix feature in Apple Music—which can create transitions between songs similar to what an experienced DJ might use—will become significantly improved in iOS 27.
• In another post, Miller discusses many other small but useful features coming in iOS 27.
• Sarah Perez of TechCrunch reports that when Apple starts to incorporate ads into its Maps app, certain categories of ads will be excluded, including “home services businesses, like plumbing, electrical, locksmith, HVAC, pest control, roofing, and general contracting services, among others.”
• Anurag Chawake of Cult of Mac notes that other categories banned from the Maps app include “bail bond and criminal pretrial surety bond services, as well as cryptocurrency ATM operators.”
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports on some of the new emoji coming in early 2027.
• Jeremy Gray of PetaPixel shows off some of the winning pictures from the 2026 iPhone Photography Awards.
• A new show starts on Apple TV this week: Lucky. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy, and Rajat Saini of The Mac Observer says that it is about a skilled con artist trying to escape her criminal life.
• And finally, Apple TV released a trailer for a movie coming to the service on September 4, 2026, called Mayday. It stars Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, and it looks like it could be quite funny. Here is the preview:

The streetcar line that runs on St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world. When it began in 1835, it used steam power. After the Civil War, streetcars were pulled by horses. In 1893, overhead lines carrying electricity were added, and electric streetcars have been used since then. There are currently five different streetcar lines in New Orleans, but the one that runs on St. Charles Ave. is the oldest and my favorite. It can take you to and from Uptown New Orleans, Audubon Park, Tulane and Loyola universities, the Garden District, and downtown (next to the building where I work). It ends at Canal Street, where the French Quarter begins. When you visit New Orleans—and you should! This is a great place to come for business or pleasure!—you should know about Le Pass, the useful app for riding the streetcar.

I’ve ridden the streetcar countless times. When I was in middle school, it gave me the independence to get around the city when I was much too young to drive. (If my memory is correct, the cost was 60 cents.) When I first started practicing law in the mid-1990s, my wife and I shared a car, and I often rode the streetcar back and forth to work for $1.00. In 1999, the cost of a ride increased to $1.25, and it hasn’t changed since then. Tourists ride the streetcar all the time because it is useful, historic, and fun. I used to warn my friends visiting New Orleans to bring exact change for the streetcar; you could use a five-, ten-, or twenty-dollar bill, but you wouldn’t get any change.

There have been numerous attempts over the years to marry the streetcar with an iPhone app. In 2012, the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority launched an app that was supposed to let you track the location of streetcars and buses in real time. That system did not work very well, and in 2018, it was replaced with an app called GoMobile. In 2022, that app was replaced with the current app, called Le Pass.

I’ve taken quite a few streetcar rides this summer because my daughter is using my car before she leaves for college. That has given me multiple opportunities to use this app. For me, it has worked great.

First, it is wonderful that you no longer need to worry about having cash or exact change. You can purchase tickets in the app and pay with Apple Pay. A single ride costs $1.25 (with no additional fees). There are many other fare options, such as a Jazzy Pass for unlimited rides (with prices such as $3.00 for one day and $8.00 for three days).

When you are ready to ride the streetcar, tell the app to activate the ticket. At that point, you will have two hours to use the ticket. To use the ticket, simply board the streetcar and show the screen of the app to the streetcar operator. You don’t need to scan or anything like that.

When you are waiting for a streetcar, the natural question is: when will the next streetcar arrive? During the day, streetcars typically arrive every 10-15 minutes, and this app can give you precise information. The app displays your current location on a map, an icon to show you where the next streetcar is located, and useful information such as the number of stops before the streetcar gets to you, an estimate of how many minutes will pass before it arrives, and information on when the streetcar’s location was last checked via GPS (typically every 30 seconds or so).

Like other transit apps, this app will also help you to plan a journey between two locations. I’ve focused on the St. Charles streetcar line in this post, but Le Pass works with all of the streetcar lines, all of the New Orleans bus lines, and it can also help you use buses in the neighboring Jefferson Parish, a Greyhound bus, the ferry to cross the Mississippi River, and even electric bikes that you can rent. For example, if you want to use public transportation to get from the French Quarter to the airport, this app can help you.

Finally, while you are riding, the app can provide useful information, such as when to exit the streetcar. (Other apps like Apple’s Maps app and Google Maps can provide similar transit information.)

When I was a teenager, I would have been blown away by an app that I could use to pay for streetcar rides and track the streetcar. Of course, at that point in my life, I would have been blown away by any app, let alone the iPhone itself. I love that the Le Pass app makes it so easy to pay for and track a streetcar, bus, and other modes of transportation in New Orleans. If you are headed to New Orleans, download this app.

Click here to get Le Pass (free).