Apple has released the first developer betas of macOS 27.2, iOS 27.2, iPadOS 27.2, watchOS 27.2, visionOS 27.2, and tvOS 27.2.
Registered developers can download the betas via Apple’s developer portal. Or they can be downloaded over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.
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Apple is considering a 2029 return to the server market, perhaps in conjunction with Nvidia, according to The Information (a subscription is required to read the article).
Apple once had an Xserve line of servers, but discontinued it in 2011. It was as rack-mounted server,and could function as a file server, web server or run high-performance computing applications in clusters. A dedicated cluster Xserve, the Xserve Cluster Node, without a video card and optical drives was also available. The Xserve was discontinued in 2011, and replaced with the Mac Pro Server (now discontinued, as well) and the Mac Mini Server (also discontinued).
According to the report, Apple is developing an enterprise AI server for AI developers, businesses and governments that could come in versions featuring either two or four planned M8 Ultra chips. The tech giant has considered using NVLink Fusion to connect M8 chips in its planned AI server, which is not expected before 2029 and could still be canceled or launched without Nvidia technology, according to The Information.
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The federal judge overseeing an antitrust case by Elon Musk’s companies against Apple and OpenAI is demanding to see any settlement agreements that may have led X Corp and SpaceXAI to drop their claims against Apple, reports Politico.
Judge Mark Pittman, a conservative Trump appointee based in Fort Worth, Texas, ordered the Musk-owned businesses on Wednesday to produce for his review any agreements with Apple related to the decision to dismiss its claims against the company, the article adds.
Pittman’s ruling comes after OpenAI moved to compel X to disclose information about its resolution with Apple in the dispute over dominance of the potentially trillion-dollar artificial intelligence market.
On September 14, Musk’s X and SpaceXAI filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss (with prejudice) their claims against Apple in the antitrust lawsuit they brought against the company and OpenAI.
The motion to voluntarily dismiss the claims was filed without any explanation, and noted that X and SpaceXAI will continue to pursue antitrust claims against OpenAI. The court filing provided no specific details or reasons for dropping Apple from the suit.
Filed initially in August 2025, the idiotic lawsuit accused Apple and OpenAI of conspiring to lock up generative AI and smartphone markets. Plaintiffs claimed Apple rigged App Store rankings and integration features to unfairly privilege ChatGPT over xAI’s Grok. Apple maintained its integration was non-exclusive and rankings were unbiased, while OpenAI labeled the suit a campaign of “lawfare.”
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The average smartphone lifespan jumped 10% year-over-year, reaching 32 months (2 years, 8 months) in 2026. According to Reviews.org‘s second annual Smartphone Lifespan Report, U.S. consumers are delaying device upgrades by 12 months beyond their original plans.
Here are some highlights from the report:
People are keeping their phones longer, with the average ownership time increasing from 29 months in 2025 to 32 months in 2026.
Americans plan to upgrade after 20 months, but wait 32 months in practice.
The average American paid $634 for their current phone (median $600).
Most people upgrade for faster performance (21.3%) or better battery life (19.2%), while only 4.9% upgrade for a better camera.
An iPhone 11 or older remains the most common iPhone model in active use (9.4%), followed by the iPhone 13 (8.0%).
iPhone leads overall U.S. ownership at 58%, compared to 42% for Android.
Methodology
Reviews.org surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults on August 15, 2026, via Pollfish. Results were weighted by device type.
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Season six of “Slow Horses,” the Emmy and BAFTA TV Award-winning spy drama, debuts today on Apple TV with the first episode, followed by one episode weekly until October 21.
It stars Academy Award winner Sir Gary Oldman, who has been honored with Golden Globe, Emmy Award, Actor Award and BAFTA TV Award nominations for his outstanding performance in the series. It’s adapted from “Joe Country” and “Slough House,” the sixth and seventh novels in Mick Herron’s CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning “Slough House” book series.
Here’s how the series is described: “Slow Horses” is a darkly humorous espionage drama that follows a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 known unaffectionately as Slough House. Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but cantankerous leader of the spies who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes and who frequently find themselves blundering around the smoke and mirrors of the espionage world. Season six sees the Slow Horses on the run as Diana Taverner embroils them all in a fatally high-stakes game of retaliation and revenge.
The ensemble cast includes Academy Award nominee Kristin Scott Thomas, Emmy Award nominee Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, BAFTA TV Award nominee Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Rosalind Eleazar, Joanna Scanlan, BAFTA Award nominee Samuel West, Ruth Bradley, Tom Brooke, Academy Award nominee Jonathan Pryce and Hugo Weaving, alongside new addition, BAFTA TV Award winner Lenny Rush. Additionally, Olivia Cooke will reprise her role as Sidonie “Sid” Baker in the sixth season.
The first five seasons are now streaming on Apple TV.
About Apple TV
Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $14.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers.
For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free. For more information, visit apple.com/tvpr and see the full list of supported devices.
I hope you’ll help support Apple ]World Today by becoming a patron. Almost all our income is from Patreon support and sponsored posts. Patreon pricing ranges from $2 to $10 a month. Thanks in advance for your support.
A longtime Key Second Assistant Director on “Shrinking,” Apple TV’s series starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford, says she was abruptly fired after a long day of shooting on July 10 by Executive Producer Kip Kroeger because of so-called “different needs of production,” reports Deadline.
In her seven claim compliant filed today in L.A. Superior Court against WBTV, “Shrinking”EP/director Randall Winston doesn’t buy it, the article adds. As the document from attorney Avi Gholian exclaims of the industry vet’s multi-season “Shrinking”stint: “no performance deficiency, misconduct. or business rationale was identified then or anytime thereafter.”
From the Deadline report: Filing earlier today with the California Civil Rights Department before going to the LASC docket, McKoin alleges the real reason she was canned was because of reporting an intentional “sexual abuse” by Winston at the June 22, 2024 Shrinking Season 2 wrap party, She says it was because of that and because of her raising a stink about of “inaccurate time records and pay statements.” Production and WBTV problems that Loot and Young Sheldon alum McKoin and her lawyers assert resulted in zero “corrective action” on the former and a lot of her Shrinking bosses not making a “big deal” about the former.
McKoin says the CAA-repped Winston subjected her “to unwelcome, severe harassment because of her sex, including by grabbing and groping her breast without her consent at a work-related function in the presence of a coworker” at the 2024 party. “Such conduct was sufficiently severe to alter the conditions of Plaintiff employment and to create a hostile, intimidating, and offensive working environment.”
WBTV had no comment when contacted by Deadline about the complaint and the allegations McKoin makes. Representatives for the multi-Emmy nominated Winston did no response when Deadline reached out about the claims against their client.
“Shrinking” has been renewed for a fourth season. The first three seasons are now streaming on Apple TV.
Here’s how the series is described:“Shrinking” follows a grieving therapist (Segel) who starts to break the rules and tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes to people’s lives … including his own.
About Apple TV
Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $14.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers.
For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free. For more information, visit apple.com/tvpr and see the full list of supported devices.
I hope you’ll help support Apple World Today by becoming a patron. Almost all our income is from Patreon support and sponsored posts. Patreon pricing ranges from $2 to $10 a month. Thanks in advance for your support.
Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, has been recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for the September 2026 to December 2029 program term.
Schools apply and are selected for this distinction based on their commitment to continuous innovation in education and using Apple products to inspire, imagine, and impact teaching and learning.
“We feel incredibly fortunate to have been on this journey with Apple for so long. Equipping every Lynn student with the same remarkable technology creates a shared experience and gives them a powerful toolkit to learn, create and explore,” said Lynn President Kevin M. Ross. “Most importantly, Apple shares our commitment to continually asking, ‘What’s next?’ and finding new ways to enhance the student experience.”
Apple Distinguished Schools are centers of leadership and educational excellence, with a clear vision for how technology-rich environments support learning goals. In Apple Distinguished Schools, forward-thinking leaders and their communities work to inspire, imagine, and impact teaching and learning, and they have documented results of academic accomplishments.
About Lynn University
Lynn serves approximately 3,500 students from 100 countries and is ranked among the nation’s most innovative schools by U.S. News & World Report. Its academic model features the award-winning Dialogues curriculum, four-week block scheduling, three-year bachelor’s degrees and integrated Apple technology.
I hope you’ll help support Apple World Today by becoming a patron. Almost all our income is from Patreon support and sponsored posts. Patreon pricing ranges from $2 to $10 a month. Thanks in advance for your support.
Nearly three in four US TV viewers regularly use their smartphones for other media while watching television, highlighting growing competition for audience attention between TV and mobile video, according to new Omdia consumer research.
Omdia’s research shows that simultaneous media use is becoming increasingly widespread across age groups:
Among 55–64-year-olds, simultaneous media use has risen from 42% in 2023 to 56% in 2026
Among 45–54-year-olds, it has increased from 62% to 73% over the same period
Among 35–44-year-olds, the direction is also upwards, from 69% to 76% during that time
The findings highlight how competition for viewers’ attention is extending beyond TV programs and streaming services to the smartphone screen. Short-form video, in particular, is increasingly competing for viewers’ attention even while the television remains on.
“We don’t have a content problem. We have an attention problem,” said María Rúa Aguete, Global Head of Media & Entertainment at Omdia. “Three in four US TV viewers are using their phones while watching TV, and increasingly what they are doing is watching more video. The battle is no longer simply TV versus mobile. Both screens are on. The question is: which one has your attention?”
Short-form and vertical video are playing an increasingly significant role in this shift. Viewers are becoming accustomed to highly personalized, instantly accessible video experiences on smartphones, adding another source of competition for traditional television and streaming services.
For broadcasters, streaming platforms, advertisers and content owners, this changing behavior reinforces the need to consider TV and mobile as part of the same viewing experience, as audiences increasingly move their attention between the two.
“The future isn’t TV versus mobile. It’s TV and mobile,” added Rúa Aguete. “The companies that understand how audiences move between those screens, and how to capture attention on both, will be best positioned to win.”
The findings are based on Omdia’s latest research into changing video consumption habits, the attention economy and the growth of short-form and vertical video, presented by Rúa Aguete at IBC 2026 in Amsterdam.
Since I can’t cover everything, here are some recommended articles from some other neat sites:
° From AppleInsider: The age of the Intel Mac is coming to an end in every sense, as Apple now classifies the last 21.5-inch Intel-based iMac as a “vintage product.”
° From Macworld: Apple TV shows aren’t worth the long wait between seasons.
° From 9to5Mac: New Apple Watch features may require a new legal precedent for privacy.
° From MacRumors: Apple has updated its U.S. trade-in estimates, cutting values for every eligible iPhone while raising them across the iPad and Mac lineups.
° From The MacObserver: Early iOS 27 and macOS 27 user reviews point to smoother performance, but Reddit reports also show bugs and differing experiences across devices.
° From GeekBench: Benchmark results for Apple’s M6 chip and M5 Ultra are available.
° From MacVoices Live!: On the new episode, “Take Control Books Publisher Joe Kissell continues the discussion of the OS27 releases, exploring Apple’s next-generation Siri and Apple Intelligence.
This is an update of an article I ran in August, but it seems timely, so here it is: macOS 27 Golden Gate removes AFP support, ending Time Machine compatibility with Time Capsule after nearly two decades.
However, as MacRumors notes, a GitHub project called TimeCapsuleSMB, created by James Chang, an engineer at Microsoft, offers a potential workaround for owners not yet ready to move on.
That’s cool, but, as I’ve said repeatedly, Apple definitely should consider reviving its AirPort line-up.
History of the AirPort Line-Up
In 2016, Apple discontinued the AirPort Express, the AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule line of wireless router/backup hardware. I think it ranks as one of the top two dumb ideas the tech giant made in discontinuing products. (The other is when it quit making semi-affordable Mac displays. Thankfully, it reversed course on that.)
Apple should revive its AirPort lineup.
In November 2016 Bloomberg reported that this was a move to try to sharpen the company’s focus on consumer products that generate the bulk of its revenue. The AirPort Express, the AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule, which cost US$99, $199, and $299, respectively, made up a small slice of Apple’s revenue and were part of Apple’s “other products” category on its financial statements.
What I want to see
With Apple’s planned entrance into more smart home products (rumored to be a doorbell, tabletop robot, and more) I want to see a WiFi 7 compatible AirPort mesh networking system akin to that of the Eero and Orbi with a base station that doubles as a server hub for Apple’s HomeKit to make smart home devices easy to set up and use.
An Intego blog by Kirk McElhearn from June 15, 2020, perfectly sums up my feelings: A mesh wi-fi system could form part of a broader Apple home network. Imagine if the HomePod, Apple TV, or future Apple in-home devices, acted as a satellite for a wi-fi access point, as well as being a HomeKit hub; this could get more people to buy these media devices, knowing that they would serve more than one purpose.
In addition, the Time Capsule, an AirPort base station with a built-in hard drive, was a great way to ensure that people backed up their Macs. It meant that both desktop Macs and laptops could be automatically backed up without needed to connect an external hard drive. This was not without its quirks, but the technology was seamless. Apple could have extended this backup to iOS devices as well, allowing local backups instead of or in addition to iCloud backups.
Beyond these two elements, it’s Apple’s abdication of the core technology we use to access content on our devices at home that seems surprising.
With all the concerns about privacy and the exploitation of user data, this is an area where Apple could have taken a stance. They could have built their AirPort devices into a mesh wi-fi system, perhaps adding that capability to the HomePod as well, which could give more value to that device. Perhaps Apple has some plans for this in the future, but for now, Amazon has a huge advantage in the smart home market.
I hope you’ll help support Apple World Today by becoming a patron. Almost all our income is from Patreon support and sponsored posts. Patreon pricing ranges from $2 to $10 a month. Thanks in advance for your support.
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