Zac Hall

Apple has officially announced watchOS 26, the successor to watchOS 11. The new name aligns with iOS 26 (and using the upcoming year to reference each software version). The flagship new software feature for Apple Watch in watchOS 26 is called Workout Buddy, an Apple Intelligence-powered fitness feature.

Apple has officially announced iOS 26, the successor to iOS 18. The renamed software update starts with a new design.

Theater for visionOS premiered a year ago with a clever software launch campaign: exclusively streaming John Gruber’s The Talk Show post-WWDC event live with 3D video.

The Apple Vision Pro app has continued to mature since its debut, adding extensive Plex support and a full-blown immersive planetarium that now hosts the 2025 SXSW award-winning “Resolution” music experience.

Next up, Theater is returning as the exclusive home to The Talk Show Live event stream.

Apple Intelligence doesn’t yet offer a proper chatbot experience, but it turns out Writing Tools can be coerced into behaving as one.

While AI can help us do stuff, AI agents are tools that actually do stuff for us. A new open-source project shows how an ChatGPT-powered agent could complete tasks for us using our iPhones.

I love Mark Gurman’s scoop that Apple plans to introduce iOS 26, not iOS 19, alongside version 26 of macOS, visionOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It’s a different flavor of the same solution I thought about a few months ago but thought might be too much of a reach to share.

Fantastical has always made creating new calendar events easy with natural language input within the app. Now Fantastical is enabling calendar event creation that requires almost no input, and you don’t even have to open the app.

OpenAI has announced the first details about its work with Jony Ive. The announcement includes a video that also answers the mystery of what Jony Ive was filming in San Francisco recently. The effort involves Evans Hankey, who briefly replaced Jony Ive at Apple, and comes in the form of a new firm called io that is merging with OpenAI. Jony Ive, OpenAI employee.

Whether you care about preserving history or just want to see what Apple’s homepage looked like 10 years ago, the Internet Archive is an invaluable resource that’s easy to take for granted. A new project launching today pulls back the curtain on one of its lesser-seen efforts, revealing the real human work behind preserving public records for the digital age.

Epic Games made good on its recent promise by bringing Fortnite back to the iPhone and iPad in the U.S. after a federal court injunction forced Apple to change App Store rules around payments and commissions. Nearly five years after its removal, the game returns with a major change. Still, Fortnite is only available through the App Store in one region, and there are several reasons it could be removed again.

Airbnb is launching an all-new version of its iOS and Android app that’s designed for more than just booking great places to stay. The new app lets you enhance each trip with opportunities to make memories and enjoy unique experiences around your destination. That’s because Airbnb’s major app redesign supports a new initiative called Airbnb Services, a modern take on hotel amenities for the Airbnb era.

Epic Games submitted Fortnite to the App Store for review on Friday. Now what? The version under review offers both Apple’s in-app purchase system and an external payment option via the Epic Games Store. But despite recent policy changes forced by a federal injunction, Apple isn’t legally required to approve the app. Still, rejecting Fortnite could deal Apple a blow in the court of public opinion, especially as its standing with developers continues to slip.

Update: Epic Games says it has submitted Fortnite to the U.S. App Store for review. The ball is now in Apple’s court to approve the app submission.

If Fortnite does return to the U.S. App Store this week, it won’t be before Friday. That’s according to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who shared an update on the long-awaited comeback today.

Jony Ive, Apple’s iconic former design chief, sat down for a rare interview at Stripe Sessions 2025. The hour-long conversation with Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison covers everything from his first impressions of Silicon Valley to the design rituals that shaped his decades at Apple and what’s driving his work today.

Looking for a weekend escape? The first two episodes of Long Way Home, the latest installment in Apple TV+’s best travel series, have just dropped — and it’s the perfect watch if you’re craving a scenic adventure.

There’s a new perk awaiting Apple Card holders this week. Also, one reason to pay for phone service with Apple Card is going away.

Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg News that Apple is developing a chip intended for smart glasses that could come to market in the next two years. However, these smart glasses may not be the highly advanced augmented reality glasses that Apple envisions making someday.

Instead, Apple has set its sights on competing with Meta and its camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses. According to Gurman, the non-AR smart glasses will use a class of chip comparable to what’s inside the Apple Watch today. Based on Apple’s plans to mass produce the chip at the end of next year or in 2027, Gurman believes we could see the hardware arrive in the next two years.

The rumored iPhone 17 Air favors a futuristic design over a thicker and heavier look with more battery. But if everyone just throws their phone in a case, won’t the aesthetic be lost? Maybe not, according to this iPhone 17 Air case test video.

Apple has asked the U.S. District Court in Northern California to pause the enforcement of new App Store rules following its recent loss to Epic Games.