Category: Apple Insider

After spending several days at Apple’s campus for WWDC, developers seem to feel energized by everything Apple has announced. Here’s my early impression of what Apple has coming.

WWDC is one of my favorite times of the year. I appreciate seeing the features coming to existing hardware and connecting with the developers building the apps.

While most users and media alike had cautious expectations going in after two years of underwhelming AI advancements, I still felt excited. I knew this was going to be the year Apple was going to deliver on what it had previously previewed.

On the day of the keynote, I arrived with the rest of the media and checked in. I was handed my media badge and shuttled into a dedicated media area within Apple Park.

It was similar to years past, but it felt a little different. This time, there was this fresh confidence from the Apple team, and I felt they were ready to deliver.

Watching WWDC from Apple Park

After arriving, I had a few moments to check out this year’s swag. I got a tote, a water bottle, some randomized emoji stickers, and some pins.

The pins were extra cool this year, with Apple giving throwback nods to both Clarus the dogcow and the Apple Jolly Roger flag. Not to mention, an official Little Finder Guy (Fin) pin.

Just ahead of the 10 a.m. PST kickoff, Craig Federighi took to the stage. This is common, but it was different this year as it was Tim Cook‘s final conference as CEO.

Federighi gave a heartfelt speech about Cook on his impressive tenure and how important WWDC always was to Tim, before inviting him onstage to a raucous standing ovation.

Cook spoke for a few minutes, thanking everyone for being there and expressing what the developer community meant to him and how honored he was to have helmed Apple for the last many years. As he teared up, the crowd once again burst into applause on his departure.

As Cook headed backstage, the pre-recorded dub dub video started playing. We in the audience were eager to see what Apple was set to announce. We all had a lot of questions that we wanted answered, like if Siri 2.0 would be in the beta, or even ship this year.

Lots of announcements from Cupertino

There’s no escaping it, the WWDC keynote was a bit odd. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it certainly didn’t have Apple’s typical structure.

In almost every other WWDC keynote, Apple would go through each update, platform by platform. This year, Apple focused heavily on safety, before talking through general improvements coming to all platforms, and then going deep on Apple Intelligence.

As we watched, it felt like there were fewer new features due to the heavy focus on AI. Many enhancements were hiding in a huge word wall that had over 260 individual features listed.

The Apple Intelligence demos in the keynote also felt slow. This felt intentional, though, letting the audience realize they were “live” demos and not something fabricated for the keynote.

Ultimately, we finished the keynote with some excitement in the air. It was exciting that not only was Siri AI real, but it was shipping in the first beta.

Additionally, there were plenty of features we’d get to uncover for ourselves.

And uncovering those new features is just what we did. I came out of the Apple campus to sit at the Apple Park Visitor Center, temporarily converted into a media filing area. I tried to get the beta downloaded as quickly as possible, while also digging through release notes, screenshots, and more to find interesting tidbits.

Turns out, there was a lot.

The 27 updates aren’t small

Since the keynote, I had the opportunity to attend a tech talk, hosted by Craig Federighi and the team, where they went through the new third-generation Apple Foundation Models and their Google Gemini collaboration. I also got plenty of time in demo briefings and to test the beta for myself.

My biggest takeaway so far, which I’m sure many others have also expressed at this point, is that Siri AI is the real deal. It’s shockingly good, and not just a simple skin on top of Gemini.

I had grown accustomed to avoiding Siri entirely, as I knew it was quite unreliable. I’ve slowly started using Siri more and more as I start to realize how much it can do.

At one point, I wanted to save someone’s current address from Find My as their work location on their contact card. I started trying to copy the address, but then realized Siri could do it instead.

I asked Siri to add this person’s current location as their work address to their contact. Siri did just that, only asking me to confirm the change to the contact card.

A local artist was doing a special new drop at 8 p.m. the next day that I didn’t want to miss, and I saw them tease it on X. I went to set a reminder, so I asked Siri: “Look up this artist’s website and remind me to check out their new drop when it’s released with a link to the store,” and it used the info from the tweet to correctly make that reminder.

It’s useful in so many ways, and I feel like I’ve only started using it.

And, everything feels faster. Apple TV didn’t get a ton of new features, but Apple calls out specifically faster app launches, more responsive Control Center, quicker music playback, and faster AirPlay.

The performance gains are consistent across the board. The Vision Pro, for instance, boots much faster than it did in the initial release.

I already want to install it on my partner’s phone, who’s been complaining about the lag. I’m not about to do that, though. I’m not a rookie.

The more I use it, the more little features I start to find. The update adds several practical tools, from keyboard pasteboard suggestions and Apple Watch gestures to keyword support in Photos and 4K camera compatibility in Apple Home.

I loved getting to try out the extension creation in Safari. I just told Safari to create an extension to act as a recipe manager with a clean UI with blue accents, a rating system, comments, and a category for each recipe. After giving me a few App Store options, it went to work writing the code using Apple’s Safari extension APIs.

It came back from Private Cloud Compute (PCC) a few moments later and was ready to go. I created a custom extension that would automatically sync across my devices in less than a minute.

There was also a demo in Xcode that helped us create an entire pin trading app just via Vibe coding. This was complete with camera-based pin identification, animations, and AI tools, which were super impressive.

Not perfect, overdue, but very welcomed

I know a lot of people will be pessimistic about this round of updates. Speed, battery, and performance improvements aren’t exactly sexy features.

But using iOS 27 and the other updates feels different. It isn’t an update that all of a sudden feels bloated on your phone, where you have a few headline features you get to toy around with.

It’s an update you download where your device instantly feels faster, smarter, and more personal. I think a lot of people will end up loving this when it arrives in the fall.

Several months remain to further improve and polish the experience. It is only going to get better over time.

The developers that I talked to at Apple Park were equally as excited. There’s a lot of potential and the ability for many of them to tap into these AI models on their own.

Until then, I’m going to head back to trying to find more new features to play around with.

As is often the case, Apple has leaked its own hardware. Here are the signs that the folding iPhone and MacBook Pro with touchscreen are coming, and where they are.

The release of the first developer betas of macOS 27 Golden Gate, iOS 27, and others was followed by the inevitable deep dive into the changes. All to find out what Apple is planning for the future.

In Sunday’s “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman lays out multiple items that were found in the initial betas relating to inbound hardware. He refers to them as the first real evidence from Apple relating to the iPhone Fold and a MacBook with a touchscreen.

The changes, he insists, are made to support the new form factors.

iPhone Fold

For the iPhone Fold, Gurman first points to the iPhone Mirroring app included in macOS 27. The tool has been updated so it can be stretched wide enough for iPad-like layouts, like an opened iPhone Fold’s main display.

There were also a number of iPhone Fold code references in iOS 27, including mentions of “foldState” and “angleDegrees” and the number of hardware displays. This would directly tie into the iPhone Fold and determining how open or closed the device is.

The last bit of evidence Gurman talks about is the direction from Apple during the WWDC keynote. Developers should be taking a concept known as app adaptability into account, namely making the same app work on a variety of screen sizes.

This could be taken to mean accounting for differences between models and generations. It’s a more extreme concept when you consider the squarer display expected from the iPhone Fold.

Touchscreen MacBook

When it comes to the touch-enabled MacBook, Gurman starts off by pointing out how Sidecar now supports full touch input access across macOS from the iPad. This could really just be a much-needed improvement to how Sidecar functions, but it can be interpreted as a precursor to the supposed MacBook.

He also writes about the tweaks to the macOS user interface to support pull-to-refresh. This is a design idea more common to smartphones and tablets, but it does work with trackpads and mice, with touch support a future possibility.

For both of these points, it certainly plays into the idea of a touchscreen interface. It seems unlikely that Apple would build them into macOS just for a better Sidecar experience.

Lastly, he claims that the new pill-shaped Siri Search and Ask interface on the Mac is something that would work on a Dynamic Island-style interface. He believes that this could be coming as part of a future touch MacBook.

Expected evidence

Normally, when we talk about leakers, we discuss their track record and how much their claims line up with the reality of the situation. When it comes to Gurman, he has a pretty good level of accuracy when it comes to leaks and rumor sourcing, making him one of the top people in the Apple rumor mill.

This time around, it’s not really a piece detailing rumors, but instead collates known facts that have surfaced in the week of availability for the betas. He’s analyzing facts, and pinning the discoveries onto some well-rumored items.

Quite frankly, he is right to do so. Both are well-rumored pieces of kit that are still ever so out of reach of consumers.

When it comes to the touchscreen MacBook, it’s something that has surfaced regularly over the years. But there are rumors about a major MacBook Pro refresh on the horizon that could use it.

Back in February, Gurman insisted that the touchscreen models will arrive by the end of 2026, complete with OLED and using a Dynamic Island at the top center of the screen. Other leakers have also chimed in on the rumors, making a fall launch seem more likely.

As for the iPhone Fold, the general specifications for the model have been rumored for quite some time. It’s even reached the point that dummy units are being produced, which is usually an indicator of an impending launch.

With the iPhone Fold expected in the fall as part of Apple’s split launch strategy, the timing of the physical models is apt.

Ultimately, Apple’s operating systems are due to arrive in the fall alongside a bunch of hardware launches. This is business as usual for Apple, and it has been this way for years.

The company has a culture of secrecy that entails hiding as much as possible from prying eyes until launches happen. But it certainly can’t hide everything, especially when it needs to get developers prepared for those fall product announcements.

They are justifiable leaks. Not only utilitarian in preparing developers, but also helping to stir the pot and excite onlookers for what’s to come.

Whether you rent or own, there are some chores you have to complete on a near-constant basis. The good news is, you can get some help from robots and apps in your Apple Home.

I’m a firm believer in optimizing when possible. If a robot, machine, or gadget exists to speed up or even remove the need for certain tasks, I’m going to implement it.

While we’re still waiting on a robot that can fold your laundry and put it away, there are plenty of robots available that can take on your chore list. Whether it’s mowing, mopping, or changing out the litter box, there’s something available.

I’m also going to discuss managing your Apple Home via apps, at least this time maintenance and stock-specific ones. While my approach leans into Apple apps, there are third-party options that offer interesting capabilities.

This is the fourth story I’ve written in the Owning an Apple Home series. The first covered moving, the second was about whole-home audio with HomePods, and the third was about smart home tech involving pets.

Let’s get into chores, robots, and maintenance in your Apple Home.

Let the robot do it

It may seem obvious, but having a robot step in and complete a chore for you is the ultimate luxury. Thankfully, you don’t have to be filthy rich for the privilege.

You do have to be careful which robots you purchase, though, because they may not meet your expectations if they’re too cheap. Sure, there are plenty of sub-$1,000 options, but they’re not always going to be up to the task.

The way I have approached choosing the right robots so far is to look for basic capabilities like LiDAR navigation, object recognition, and overall performance. You shouldn’t be buying a bare-minimum robot the same way you probably wouldn’t buy the bare-minimum refrigerator or dishwasher.

Robot vacuum and mops

Matter works with robot vacuums and mops. Apple has adopted the Matter version that allows this, but there are very few options available.

The Narwal Freo X Ultra that I use in my home isn’t Matter-compatible and won’t ever be. However, the Narwal app is good enough for the manual controls I need to have it occasionally clean the common areas.

Unlike my previous home, this one has a ledge between the living room, kitchen, and den, so the robot is confined to one half of the home. It can’t scale the ledge, and I have no interest in installing a ramp.

However, that doesn’t make the robot any less useful. It can clean all of the bedrooms, hallway, and living room without interference.

I manually sweep and mop the stone-tiled kitchen, and the den is so small the effort to clean the floor is negligible. I share this to say that a robot helping with any amount of cleaning is worth it.

There are lots of options for indoor robots, and while I won’t be making any direct recommendations today, I will say the $800 to $1,200 range should be good enough for most needs. There are tiny robots that are great for single rooms or single-purpose cleaning, but I haven’t investigated those.

It’s easy to say that a robot vacuum and mop is as essential as any other appliance in your home in 2026. There’s lots of silly marketing speak around these machines, but one thing is definitely true — they’ll take care of cleaning the floors so you don’t have to.

Robot lawn mowers

I recently published a review of my first functional robot lawn mower. There was no telling how it would perform considering my first foray into the space ended disastrously.

Thankfully, my yard in the new home isn’t what you’d call challenging. It’s a flat backyard and a 90% flat front yard with a slope off of one edge.

The Mova mower I tested handled everything without issue other than the hill and one dip in the front yard. After those issues though, it learned and didn’t get stuck again.

I’m willing to bet that some of you reading this have never even considered a robot mower. Let me tell you that it is a lifesaver, especially if you don’t particularly care for mowing or have severe allergies.

Don’t pay a mowing company, just buy a little robot and set it loose weekly for perfectly trimmed grass each week. It can sometimes roll over a weed and leave it standing, and some corners are a challenge, but you’d want to weed-eat after the mower anyway.

The key here is that instead of mowing for an hour or two each week, you have to weed-eat for ten minutes every two weeks. That’s it, chore complete.

Just trust me when I say don’t get tempted by the cheaper options. You don’t want to have to lay a boundary wire no matter how much money it saves you.

Litter robots

Now, if you’ve been reading this series, you know I’ve already discussed the Litter Robot 5 in my pets edition. However, I have to mention it here because it is one of the best chore eliminators I’ve encountered.

Sure, mowing sucks, and mopping isn’t exactly a delight, but cleaning the litter box is a universally hated task. My Litter Robot 5 not only handles the task, it keeps things clean and fresh without any human intervention beyond taking out the trash.

I have three cats, which means topping off the litter box and changing the trash bag about once a week. That’s it.

It’s kind of a genius product when you sit and think about it. It’s just a giant wheel with a motor, a sifting tray, and a big hole to the actual litter waste.

Sometimes the more simple solutions are the best. Really, don’t scoop your cat’s business when you can have a robot do it for you.

Air purifiers

I know an air purifier isn’t a robot, but I wanted to throw this in here since we’re talking chores and cleanliness. A well-placed air purifier can make all the difference in terms of a space’s comfort, odor, and allergen levels.

Since I have three cats and allergy medication can only go so far, an air purifier helps keep things under control. I’ve got the Smartmi E1 hanging right above the Litter Robot to keep the den nice and fresh.

It’s heavily discounted and requires proprietary filters, so I’m a little concerned that it may be discontinued soon, so keep that in mind.

I’ve got another air purifier in my bedroom, the AirVersa Purelle, to keep the dust and cat dander levels in the air down. Thankfully, for both units, it’s very much a set it and forget it technology.

Our house stays fairly clean thanks to the other robots doing their tasks, but the extra bit of help from the air purifiers keeps things feeling extra fresh.

Outside the tech

I wanted to have a small diversion from tech-related talk here to say that maintaining a clean and healthy home goes beyond your little robot helpers. I’ve worked hard to ensure our home is free from toxic chemicals and harsh cleaning agents too.

I don’t want to get too hippie-dippy here, but seriously, we should all stop using those expensive and toxic cleaners like Windex, Clorox, and others. They’re packed with forever chemicals, staining agents, and irritants that only replace the mess with what is basically a slow-moving chemical spill.

We’ve gone all-natural for our cleaning supplies. There are plenty of options out there, but we’ve tried solutions from Branch Basics and Pure and Gentle.

I can also highly recommend the non-toxic air and fabric freshening scents from Grow Fragrance.

Another aspect of maintaining a clean home is ensuring chores are easy to complete. I invested in a Simplehuman trash can that has the trash bag refills readily available via a slot in the back of the can.

There are a million ways to maintain a clean, healthy, and happy home. Robots can cut down on how much time you spend cleaning, the right supplies can keep your home free of toxins, and finally, apps can help you manage everything.

Managing things via apps

Now, I’m all in on first-party Apple apps, so I primarily rely on Apple Reminders and Notes. However, there is a ton of great smart home management apps in the App Store.

I’ll probably do a story on third-party apps in general later, so I won’t get too into that today. Instead, I’ll highlight a few obvious apps related to maintenance that go a bit further than a standard reminder.

For Apple Reminders, it is the perfect place for tracking things like when you last changed a filter, when the next order for trash bags is about to go through, or just managing a grocery list.

I know there are dedicated apps that are better at each of these functions, but I like having everything in one space. I’ve set up a Reminders list just for tracking subscriptions and recurring purchases, for example.

I’ve even created reminders for which rooms I should give a specific deep clean each day. Really, Reminders is a great catch-all for anything that needs to be done on a repeating basis.

Apple Notes has become a haven for home purchase wish lists and maintenance guides. I’ve got a shared list just for what cleaning supplies we use, where to order them from, and cleaning guides for each.

Of course, third-party apps go much further.

• HomeBatteries: see the battery level of devices like sensors, locks, and other reportable devices in one place
• HomeLog: view live network conditions to troubleshoot a product’s connection
• Homepass: manage your HomeKit and Matter codes in one place

I used to use an app called Directive for logging filter changes and such, but it hasn’t been updated in five years. Other apps exist for this, but I find that Reminders is just fine for this task.

If you’ve got a shared Reminders list with your spouse, kids, or roommate, you can take things further by assigning different tasks to individuals. Reminders is a great place to manage chore lists even though it isn’t a well-advertised feature.

Where Apple Home should pick up the slack

The Apple Home app is seriously lacking in design and functionality. I agree with my colleague Oliver here. Apple Home needs an overhaul.

When the smart home was just entering the mainstream around 2014, Apple Home made sense. It was a utilitarian app that simply showed what you had and gave you a button to press.

Today, we’re so far beyond that functionality.

Apple Home is behind on adopting the latest Matter standards. It doesn’t have icons for many products you can add. There are no troubleshooting or maintenance tracking functions, and some things feel absolutely obtuse and arbitrary.

It’s time for a change.

Everything I’ve mentioned in this story today should be managed in the Home app. Chore reminders and assignments, robot schedules, filter replacements, and even weather alerts should all be in Apple Home.

The background for each room doesn’t even sync across devices or to other users.

Apple Home is a mess that needs to be cleaned up. I shouldn’t need a third-party app for viewing battery levels or managing HomeKit codes.

WWDC 2026 didn’t address these complaints, but that doesn’t mean Apple won’t upgrade the home experience at any time. There are rumors of new home-focused products that could be announced at any time, which could warrant a new Apple Home app launch.

Just in time for America’s 250th anniversary, Disney Imagineers tapped Apple Vision Pro to help give one of their most iconic flight rides a patriotic makeover.

Disney has shared a brand-new behind-the-scenes video as part of the Disney Unscripted series on YouTube. This time, the company shows off what it takes to revamp one of its existing attractions.

The attraction in question is “Soarin’, at EPCOT, which has been rebranded to “Soarin’ Across America” for the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Rather than focusing on wonders around the world, or in California for another version of the ride, Soarin’ Across America takes riders on an airborne adventure across the United States.

The reimagining requires a lot of work. From capturing all new aerial footage to crafting an all-new musical score, the project requires filmmakers, musicians, and Imagineers to work together.

In the video, we learn that Disney’s audio media designers donned the Apple Vision Pro to create a digital workspace during the music and sound effects mixing phase.

“So, usually for a Soarin’ attraction, we need to build scaffolding, but that was a ‘no-can-do’ for this project because we were on such an accelerated schedule,” Megan Duncan, one of Disney’s Senior Sound Editors, says in the video.

By using the Apple Vision Pro, a virtual digital workspace easily replaced that scaffolding and extra equipment. Most of the workflow only required an Apple Vision Pro, a custom desk attached to the flight simulator seats, and a small selection of audio mixing equipment.

Because Apple tossed out a slide that has no context outside the keynote, the internet has convinced itself that Siri AI is only coming to hardware released since 2024. That’s untrue.

Apple announced Siri AI as part of the WWDC 2026 opening keynote on June 8. It’ll ship this fall as part of the iOS 27, macOS 27, iPadOS 27, and visionOS 27 software updates.

Siri AI is built on Apple Intelligence and will see the assistant gain new abilities, including a new chatbot-like interface. And it’ll be available on all of the same devices that already support other Apple Intelligence features.

That hasn’t stopped people from taking to social media and forums across the internet to cry foul, though. They want to know why their AI-ready iPhone 17 won’t get the new AI features this fall.

There’s clearly confusion, coupled with the internet’s tendency to go off half-cocked. And we only have to look at Apple’s Siri AI announcement to see where that confusion comes from.

Confusion at Apple’s core (advanced model)

During its Siri AI unveiling as well as in its press release, Apple mentioned its “most advanced on-device model ever.” It then went on to say that this model is only available on a very limited number of devices.

In the case of the iPhone, those devices include the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. For iPad, you’ll need any of the models with an M5 chip or newer with 12GB of RAM. Mac owners with an M3 or newer, but still with 12GB of RAM or more, are also good to go.

Unfortunately, that’s where far too many people stopped paying attention. If they hadn’t, they’d know that the AFM Core Advanced model Apple was talking about is only actually used for two Siri AI features.

One of those features that older hardware won’t get allows users to customize the way Siri sounds, while the other brings improved system-wide dictation.

That’s it. Nothing more, and nothing less.

These are the two features that you need a newer iPhone, iPad, or Mac to use. Everything else under the Siri AI and Apple Intelligence banners will come to existing Apple Intelligence-enabled devices.

That hasn’t stopped people from getting ready to ditch their M1 Pro MacBook Pros, though. Nor has it stopped them from readying the pitchforks because their iPhone 16 Pro Max won’t get the upgraded Siri.

All of this panic, the angst, the anger could have been avoided by simply “Googling Siri AI” and “supported devices.” Maybe these people chose to ask ChatGPT instead, and it just hallucinated an answer for them.

Sidecar in macOS 27 finally allows you to use your finger to navigate macOS apps from your iPad’s screen, without needing an Apple Pencil. Here’s how it works, with one key limitation.

Sidecar is a feature of macOS that lets you extend your Mac’s display onto an iPad’s screen. For road warriors with a MacBook Pro, it was an invaluable way to get a multi-screen desktop while on the go.

While Sidecar has been around for quite a while, it hasn’t really undergone that much of a change. For macOS 27 and iPadOS 27, that seemed to be the case at first glance.

However, Apple has implemented a function that it surprisingly hasn’t included before. You can now directly interact with apps on your Mac desktop.

A touching change

In earlier versions of Sidecar, you could use your finger with your iPad-extended Mac desktop. This sounds obvious, but the implementation wasn’t as intuitive as you’d think.

Sure, you could use multi-touch gestures for various functions, treating the iPad display like a Magic Trackpad. You could do things like copying and pasting by using three-finger gestures, and you could also pinch to zoom if you wanted.

However, you couldn’t really interact with apps directly. You could not tap a button on your Mac desktop, go through menus, or do anything with an app interface at all using your fingers.

You could interact with the apps, but only if you used a trackpad on a connected Magic Keyboard, a mouse, or an Apple Pencil. While the Apple Pencil would be a natural choice for imaging apps, users would be more inclined to use their Mac’s peripherals instead.

With macOS 27 and iPadOS 27, that has changed. Surprisingly with no fanfare from Apple.

If you have Sidecar running, you can now tap bits of the interface, and it will work as if you have clicked a mouse. You can now select items in the macOS interface and in apps without resorting to some form of peripheral.

This makes things more intuitive from a productivity standpoint, since precious seconds aren’t spent reaching for an implement.

It’s not just mouse clicks, as dragging works too. You can now drag a selection box with a finger, much like clicking and dragging with a mouse.

This also extends to resizing windows with a drag of the finger, and even scrolling through lengthy sidebar items.

Everything else is (almost) still the same

While this is a major change to the way Sidecar works, it is pretty much the only one this time around.

Enabling Sidecar in the Display section of Settings works just like it did before. You tap the plus, select the iPad from the list, and it appears to the side of any existing monitors.

Then, you select the iPad and under Use as, select either Extend display or Mirror, and you’re off to the races.

Also unchanged is the ability to do so via the Screen Mirroring functions, though you will want to use the Settings method to enable the sidebar and Touch Bar functionality.

On the iPad itself, the Sidecar interface hasn’t changed. There’s still the sidebar handling essential functions like mimicking the function, Command, and Control keys, the on-screen keyboard, and other elements.

At the bottom, the virtual Touch Bar is available as usual.

What is a little frustrating is that, under testing, it can’t be put into portrait mode, only landscape.

You can still see the rotating iPad representation in the Arrange Displays part of Display settings, but only when you’re just sharing the keyboard and mouse. It does not rotate to portrait from landscape as an extended display.

This is a little annoyance, but like many other first-beta issues, it’s something to be adjusted in future updates.

Finally!

As a productivity aid, Sidecar has always been useful. But, it always had the issue of neutering touch inputs with your fingers.

It always seemed odd that, for a company that prided itself on perfecting touch interfaces, it minimized their usage in Sidecar.

Of course, most people will use the keyboard and mouse or trackpad on their Mac or MacBook, with the Apple Pencil being a secondary interaction tool in this case. Yet finger-to-screen interactions were severely limited, aside from gestures.

With the change made to Sidecar, it’s an update that rights a major wrong about the feature that should’ve been rectified much, much sooner.

Apple is making Photos much more powerful in iOS 27 by adding AI-powered editing tools that can fix framing mistakes, remove unwanted distractions, and reshape images after they’re taken. Here’s what’s new.

New Apple Intelligence features announced during WWDC 2026 let users expand photos beyond their original frame and adjust perspective after capture. These features also allow for more advanced edits directly in the Photos app across iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27.

The update brings capabilities that previously required specialized editing software or third-party apps.

Google, Samsung, and Adobe already offer tools that can expand images, remove objects, and generate new content. Apple is now bringing many of those same capabilities directly into Photos.

Extend can recover photos that feel too tightly framed

One of the most significant additions is Extend, a new tool that uses Apple Intelligence to expand a photo beyond its original boundaries.

Instead of cropping an image, Extend works in the opposite direction. The feature generates new image content around the existing photo, creating additional space that was never captured by the camera.

Users can expand a vacation photo to include more of a landmark or widen a tightly framed portrait to reveal additional background detail. Extend can also rework older photos to fit wallpapers, social media posts, and widescreen displays.

Results will vary depending on the complexity of the image and the amount of new content the system needs to generate. Even so, Extend directly addresses a common problem for smartphone photographers.

Spatial Reframing goes beyond a traditional crop

Spatial Reframing changes the apparent perspective of a photo after it’s been taken by generating new image content around the original image.

Cropping changes a photo by removing parts of an image that already exist. Spatial Reframing changes a photo by generating new content that can make the scene appear as though it was captured from a different viewpoint.

Spatial Reframing preserves the original subject while generating new content needed to create a different perspective. Users can change how a scene appears after a photo is taken without relying on a crop that only removes part of the original image.

Like most AI tools, results can be inconsistent. I’ve successfully reframed a few photos where a different angle improved the composition, but the system can sometimes distort facial features as it generates new image content.

Cleanup makes object removal more convincing

Cleanup can remove unwanted people, objects, and distractions from photos. It’s one of the most practical Apple Intelligence features introduced so far.

Earlier versions generally worked best in simple scenes. More complicated backgrounds could sometimes reveal visible artifacts or make it obvious that an image had been edited.

iOS 27 focuses on improving the quality of those edits. Cleanup can produce more natural-looking results and better reconstruct the portions of an image left behind after an object has been removed.

Cleanup now lets you choose which Apple foundation model handles an edit. Fast prioritizes speed for quick touchups, High Quality focuses on more detailed reconstruction, and Auto lets the system pick the model it thinks is best for the image.

I’m impressed by the quality of the edits. Earlier versions of Cleanup worked best when removing small objects, but the updated tool can now handle much larger edits without falling apart.

A passerby in a vacation photo, clutter behind a portrait, or an unwanted object in a product image can all affect the final result. Better object removal helps users clean up those images without making the edit obvious.

Improved reconstruction helps Cleanup remove unwanted elements while making edits look more natural.

Image Playground shifts from image generation to image editing

Up until now, Image Playground hasn’t been much of a hit with users. Apple intentionally limited the feature to stylized image generation rather than realistic images, which kept the tool within a narrower creative sandbox.

Those restrictions helped differentiate Apple’s approach to AI, but they also made Image Playground less useful for many everyday tasks. In iOS 27, Image Playground can now edit existing images.

Users can select objects within a photo and modify, move, replace, or transform them using natural-language prompts. The update brings Image Playground closer to traditional photo editing workflows instead of focusing exclusively on creating new images from scratch.

For example, you can share a photo to Image Playground and describe the change you want to make. I added a rose to this flower pot just by typing a prompt.

The change marks a significant expansion for a feature that originally centered on Animation, Illustration, and Sketch styles. Those image styles were intentionally stylized and designed to look artificial rather than photorealistic.

iOS 27 also adds photorealistic image generation to Image Playground for the first time. The addition moves the app closer to competing AI image tools that already offer realistic image creation.

Editing existing photos gives Image Playground a clearer purpose. Users can apply AI tools to images they already have instead of generating entirely new content.

Photo editing may become one of Apple Intelligence’s most useful features

Most people edit photos far more often than they generate AI images. Photo libraries already contain years of vacation pictures, family photos, screenshots, and other images that users regularly revisit, share, and adjust.

The new editing tools focus on improving existing photos instead of generating entirely new images. Apple designed Extend, Cleanup, and Spatial Reframing to fix common photography mistakes directly inside Photos.

Cleanup can remove a tourist from the background of a vacation photo, Extend can recover a shot that feels too tightly framed, and Spatial Reframing can improve a composition after the photo has already been taken.

Image Playground, Cleanup, Extend, and Spatial Reframing all apply AI to photos users already want to keep rather than asking them to start with a blank canvas. Fixing a meaningful photo will likely prove more useful for many people than generating a brand-new image from scratch.

The new photo editing features are available now in developer betas of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27. Apple plans to release public betas later this summer before launching the software updates this fall.

Apple didn’t drop a single iPhone from its iOS 27 compatibility list, giving every device that runs iOS 26 another year of major software support.

The new operating system was announced during Apple’s WWDC 2026 keynote on Monday. iOS 27 will be available as a developer beta immediately, followed by a public beta later this summer and a general release in the fall.

Apple did not remove any iPhone models from its compatibility list this year. The company says iOS 27 supports the same devices as iOS 26, including the iPhone 11 lineup first released in 2019.

iOS 27 compatibility list

According to Apple’s compatibility list, iOS 27 supports the following iPhone models:

• iPhone SE (2nd generation and later)
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 15
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 17e
• iPhone 17
• iPhone Air
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max

The move continues Apple’s long-standing practice of supporting iPhones for several years before removing them from the latest version of iOS. Released in September 2019, the iPhone 11 lineup remains eligible for another annual upgrade cycle.

While iOS 27 runs on devices dating back to 2019, not every feature will be available on every supported model. Apple has increasingly tied advanced Apple Intelligence features to newer hardware, particularly devices equipped with more powerful processors and additional memory.

That means some iOS 27 capabilities may remain limited to newer iPhone models even though the operating system itself supports a broader range of devices.

Users can check their device model by opening the Settings app, tapping General, and selecting About.

Apple’s Home Hub could arrive in late 2026, smart glasses in late 2027, and a tabletop robotic arm sometime in 2028. These were all expected sooner, but Apple’s delayed AI upgrades created roadblocks.

In the Apple leaks world, unannounced products that get release windows pushed internally still get labeled as “delayed.” Apple engineers clearly had a release date in mind, and even had a target set, but other product divisions can get in the way.

According to the latest “Power On” newsletter from Bloomberg, three unannounced products waiting on AI upgrades equate to “so many Apple product delays.” These unreleased, unannounced products include the rumored Home Hub, smart glasses, and a robotic arm upgrade to the Home Hub.

Had Apple Intelligence performed as expected and rolled out completely through 2025, the report suggests that the Home Hub would have arrived sooner, the glasses would have been released in early 2027, and the robotic arm could have arrived in 2026 or 2027.

This lines up with previous reporting, however, it is amusing how it is being pitched in this newsletter. Since the robotic arm is technically an accessory or second iteration of the Home Hub, we’re only talking about two product lines affected by AI delays.

The line between being wrong and delay

Just to break down this bit of data further, the rumored Meta Ray-Ban glasses being “delayed” from early 2027 to late 2027 may not even be a delay. Leaker Ming-Chi Kuo was first to say that late 2027 was the goal, and it wasn’t until more recently that Gurman switched to that timeline.

As I’ve reported previously, whatever source Gurman has for the Vision Products Group seems to be a rather poor one. He has consistently missed on nearly every product scheduling leak about Apple Vision Pro and other details relating to the team.

So, this second of two “delays” is actually a course correction. That means the “so many Apple product delays” is actually just one delay — the Apple Home Hub tablet.

That product has reportedly been ready to go for some time, but it makes sense that Apple wants its AI to be better before launch. It can’t afford to have another product built around Siri to be perceived as bad simply because Siri is bad.

There is no mention of Apple’s work on an AI pendant here, which theoretically is also waiting on Apple’s better AI tools to progress. However, it may be too early in development for even Gurman to claim it was delayed.

Apple’s busiest release cycle yet

Apple is clearly building up to enter the smart home market in force with its own product lines. They’ll include the Home Hub tablet, security camera, and doorbell.

That launch could occur at any time, really.

The more interesting story is the one that wasn’t printed here because it can’t be used to suggest some kind of Apple failure. The market for memory and computer parts has become overrun with AI company demand, which means we may not see the remainder of M5 upgrades this summer.

While WWDC is a software-focused event, the company hasn’t shied away from revealing product upgrades and even chipsets at the event. However, the supply chain is so depleted that even Apple has to take a back seat.

Each year we get new advanced pieces of Apple Silicon like the M5 family, five new iPhone models, multiple Mac laptops and desktops, AirPods, Apple Watch, iPads, and sometimes even Apple TV and HomePods. Then there’s the routine upgrades to every operating system Apple develops each year.

Oh, and I guess iPhone Fold might actually be announced in September after a full revitalization of the company’s AI efforts.

We should all be critical of Apple when necessary. But taking a reader question like “Why are there so many Apple product delays lately?” and producing one actual delay in the response is a bit much.

Apple Intelligence was unfortunately delayed in its fullest realized form in early 2025. That created a ripple effect across other potential releases and product strategies.

But this idea that keeps getting pushed of an Apple in conflict, struggling to get products out of the door, directly contradicts the results we can see with our eyes. In a world where consumers have been beaten down with AI at every turn, Apple is thriving with almost zero presence in the space.

Let’s see what they’ve cooked up for WWDC and how that might shift Apple’s position, for better or for worse.

Google has set new browser performance records for Chrome following a year of improvements, with the latest results made using an M5 MacBook Pro.

As one of the main browsers in use today, Google Chrome has engineers working to improve its performance, so it can maintain its position in the market. That work can sometimes lead to massive improvements, even for Mac users.

In a Chromium blog post on June 4, Google declares that its optimizations to Chrome have resulted in it setting records in some industry-standard benchmarks. They are said to be records across all browsers.

For the JetStream 3 benchmark, it managed a score of 469, a new record and a 10% improvement from the start of 2026. At the same time, a test of Speedmeter 3.1 resulted in another score of 61, a 5% year-over-year bump.

The blog post explains that the results were measured using a MacBook Pro M5 with macOS 26.0.1 installed.

Project improvements

Google outlines three areas where work was carried out to improve performance.

The first, JavaScript, adjusted an optimizing compiler to inline “fast paths,” common paths used regularly, helping the engine skip some time-consuming tasks. Inlining async operations like microtask dispatch and await resolution also had a big impact.

Work was also made to improve Google’s heuristics of what JavaScript code to optimize, as well as to implement some missing optimizations in BigInt handling.

For WebAssembly, Google looked into how V8 managed internal data structures. Code generation optimizations helped improve performance for AI, cryptography, and interpreter use cases.

Changes were also made to reuse temporary memory in the compiler more efficiently. There was also work to reduce the overhead of function calls from JavaScript to WebAssembly.

On the rendering engine, Blink, there were optimizations to style resolution and DOM operations using smarter caching and reducing redundant DOM lookups. A fast bailout path reducing checks was introduced for element attribute tracking, while style recalculation delays were minimized and CCSS selector caching was simplified.

Foundational page-loading and text-processing performance was addressed, including making string copying more efficient. Critical performance bottlenecks were also identified in typography and vector graphics rendering.

The team also completed Apple Advanced Typography shaping optimizations and fixed font fallback issues. At the same time, it eliminated heap allocations for glyph width calculations and added a cache to speed up SVG processing for graphics.

A well-timed release

Google’s decision to publish a blog post on optimizations in early June, as well as bringing up the use of the M5 MacBook Pro and Apple Advanced Typography, is quite apt. Especially considering the week ahead.

Apple’s WWDC event is set to start on June 8, with the keynote address happening on the first day. That keynote will focus on software changes coming up in Apple’s operating systems, and will almost certainly touch upon Safari improvements at some point.

As a developer-focused event, a cynic may view Google’s article as trying to spoil Apple’s party and to try to diminish Safari in advance of the keynote. However, since the article is very much a web developer-focused piece, it is doubtful that it will make any real impact in the eyes of consumers.