Apple released watchOS 27 on September 14, bringing a new Audio Intelligence feature set to its latest Apple Watch models, but as a result, owners of previous models are set to lose out doubly in the process.


Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models later this year will get Live Rewind, a feature that provides a transcript of any spoken audio that was picked up by the device in the last 15 seconds. To activate the feature, users need to double-click the Digital Crown.

Unforunately, this double-click action is the same one that in watchOS 26 switches between the current app and the previously used app – or indeed the watch face and the last used app.

It's a neat way of multitasking on your Apple Watch without tapping the display.

Needless to say, this feature will no longer work for anyone upgrading to Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models when the devices are released on September 18. Apple has reserved the double-click action for when its new Live Rewind feature is activated later this year.

However, what's arguably more frustrating is that owners of older Apple Watch models who update to watchOS 27 will also lose the ability to jump between apps using the Digital Crown double-click.

After updating to watchOS 27, the Digital Crown double-click no longer works to switch between apps. All it does is bring up the new dynamic app grid, which is the same behavior that a single click offers. This is despite the fact that the new Live Rewind feature is hardware-bound to the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. Owners of previous models are simply out of luck in both senses, losing a useful function while also missing out on the new feature that usurps it.

It also throws up another problem for new Series 12 and Ultra 4 owners: What if people don't want to go near the Live Rewind feature and its privacy implications? Apple could have made the double-click action work to switch between apps as it does in watchOS 26, while also providing an option to assign the action to Live Rewind if that's preferred.

Apple currently doesn't provide options to resolve the situation for either group of users, so all we can do is provide feedback to Apple and hope the company hears enough demand for it to change course in watchOS 27.1 or a later update.

Pre-orders for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 are available now ahead of a Friday, September 18 launch.
This article, "PSA: watchOS 27 Removes This Useful Feature From Your Apple Watch" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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In iOS 27, available now, Apple has made some changes and additions to the iPhone's stock Camera app, including the addition of a new Siri mode.


Available in addition to the Video, Photo, and other camera modes, Siri mode can be accessed by swiping across the mode carousel at the bottom of the screen.

The new mode uses Visual Intelligence to identify objects in the frame and provide information about them. It can be used to identify plants, animals, food, and more. If it's food you want info on, for example, it can tell you what it is, and how many calories are in it.

Other examples Siri mode can be used for include capturing a photo of an event flyer and adding a date to the Calendar app, text translation, splitting a bill, and more.

In Siri mode, a button on the right lets you search Google Images, and a button on the left lets you ask a specific question. So you can ask for help to cook the food in the frame, for instance.

Apple has also tweaked the way the camera interface works in other ways. Quick access tools for activating flash, Live Photo, and Night mode are now located at the top-center of the UI, while the full set of tools can be accessed from the bottom-right instead of the top-right. It's also possible to customize which controls are displayed at the top of the screen.

Apple made iOS 27 available to download on supported iPhone models on September 14, a few days ahead of the launch of new iPhone 18 Pro models on September 18.
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If you're upgrading to macOS Golden Gate and you have an AirPort Time Capsule, Time Machine won't be able to back up to it. macOS 27 removes support for AFP, the legacy file-sharing protocol that Time Capsule relies on for Time Machine backups. Said backups now exclusively use the SMB protocol, which Apple's discontinued Time Capsule hardware does not support in the form required by macOS 27.

Apple warned users about the change back in June 2025 when macOS Tahoe began displaying a warning that Time Capsule backups would no longer work in the next macOS. Users still backing up to one will need an alternative, such as an external drive or a modern NAS.
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The EU will ban children under 13 from using social media platforms, some gaming platforms, and AI chatbots without parental supervision. The ban is set to be outlined in the Kids Act, which will be published on Thursday, reports Financial Times.

"No social media under the age of 13. No personal account under the age of 15," said the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in a speech on Wednesday. "Europe has the power to act. It is us who decide the rules, not big tech."

According to a draft proposal seen by FT, children under 13 will only be allowed access with supervision from a parent, while children between 13 and 15 will need parental consent to create accounts with parental controls and other restrictions like time limits.

Meanwhile, social media companies, online gaming services, and AI chatbots will be required to introduce safeguards to protect children from abuse and addictive behavior, and companies that offer AI companions and chatbots services will have to avoid designs that encourage unhealthy emotional attachments or expose them to harmful interactions.

Affected companies will also be required to verify the age of users with an official age verification app. Failure to comply with the rules could result in fines of up to 6% of their global annual revenue.
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In a move that should be welcomed by parents and guardians of young children, Spotify has announced a new feature that lets you keep kids' and family music played on the service out of your taste profile.


Starting today, Spotify is rolling out a new toggle in the app's settings that prevents kids' music from affecting your personalized recommendations. This includes, for example, songs you play on repeat from your kids' favorite animated movies, theme songs from family TV shows, nursery rhymes, and more.

When you turn the new setting off, you can still search for, listen to, and build playlists of kids and family music, but those streams won't affect what Spotify suggests for you.

In other words, things like Discover Weekly, Daily Mix, and Wrapped will more accurately reflect your taste. Not only that, the setting applies retroactively, so kids music you've already listened to won't count toward your Wrapped top song or artist, for example.

The following steps show you how to turn it off in the Spotify app on iOS and Android:

1. Navigate to Settings and privacy by tapping your profile picture in the top-left corner.


2. Select Content and display.


3. Switch off the toggle next to Include kids and family music in taste profile.

Spotify says it may take up to 48 hours for these changes to be reflected in your personalized recommendations.
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Apple TV shows swept the board at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards last night as the streaming service received 29 wins overall to become the most awarded network of the year.


It was Apple TV's best-ever Emmy Awards haul, thanks to the likes of Widow's Bay, Pluribus, Slow Horses, Margo's Got Money Troubles, Palm Royale, and Mr. Scorsese.

Widow's Bay was the most awarded show of the night, sweeping all major categories with 14 wins in total, including Outstanding Comedy Series. It becomes the most Emmy-awarded comedy series of all time. The show also took the most awards for a comedy series in a single season.

Elsewhere, Pluribus won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Rhea Seehorn and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for Vince Gilligan, while drama Slow Horses won Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for Saul Metzstein.

Apple TV has now reached most Emmy-awarded network status faster than any other streaming service over seven Emmy seasons. It's also now home to the most Emmy-awarded series for the second year in a row, following last year's wins for The Studio. Apple TV has won Outstanding Comedy Series awards for four of the last six years, thanks to Ted Lasso, The Studio, and now Widow's Bay.

See Apple's press release to learn more about every win Apple TV received on the night.
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12 years ago today, Apple published a web page with one job: to make a U2 album go away. On September 9, 2014, at Apple's iPhone 6 event, Tim Cook revealed that "Songs of Innocence" would be given to every iTunes customer for nothing. The album was directly linked to accounts, and devices set to "download automatically" got it without asking.

Complaints quickly followed, and on September 15, Apple was forced to respond with a one-click page that stripped the album from accounts. Users were given a month to reinstall it at no cost. Apple said 26 million people ultimately downloaded the full album. Bono apologized a month later. The web tool is no longer active, but an archive of the support page is available here.
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If you have installed iOS 27 on your iPhone or iPadOS 27 on your iPad (download it via Settings ➝ General ➝ Software Update), Apple left a fun little easter egg for you to discover.


Open the Settings app, then tap through to Appearance ➝ Liquid Glass. Scroll to the bottom of the "Welcome to Apple Park" sample images, and when you hit the last image, keep dragging up with your finger until the word "Moof!" appears in the search bar overlay and the image changes.

Say hello to Clarus. A bitmap image of the famous dogcow was originally used to demonstrate page layout in the classic Mac OS, indicating to users which orientation the paper would be in when it was printed. The original glyph it was based on was created by Susan Kare for the Cairo dingbat font that came with the original Mac in 1984, but it became the official mascot of Apple's Developer Technical Support.

When Apple was a fledgling company, Mac developers regularly left fun little Easter eggs in software, but not so much these days. While surprises can still be found, they are a lot more subtle, and exist more as a nod and wink to Apple's origins rather than anything edgy or unauthorized. If you're interested, several have been found in macOS over the years.
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Samsung Display has signed a three-year exclusive supply agreement with Apple to provide foldable display panels for the iPhone Duo and future models, reports Chinese leaker Instant Digital.

The iPhone Duo is the first device on the market to feature Samsung's M16 OLED material set, said to bring improvements to brightness, color performance, lifespan, and power efficiency over previous OLED generations. Apple will reportedly pay around $250 per panel, making it one of the device's priciest components.
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If you're wondering why the under-screen camera on the iPhone Duo's inner display isn't placed in the top-right corner, Chinese leaker Instant Digital has provided an explanation.

"The iPhone Duo's under-display camera wasn't placed in the top-right corner of the inner screen because of engineering difficulties," said the leaker in a Weibo post this morning. "The next generation will likely move it there, aligning it perfectly with the outer screen's camera." That sounds like a real engineering challenge, since the opposing rear cameras are the thickest things in the whole phone, but let's wait and see.
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Hidden beneath the 7.6-inch inner screen of the foldable iPhone Duo is an under-display FaceTime camera. The long-rumored feature is a first for Apple, yet the company hasn't provided as much detail about it as the device's other cameras.


For example, unlike the 12-megapixel sensor on the outer front display and the two 48-megapixel lenses on the back, Apple has not revealed the megapixel count of the under-screen camera. Apple's tech specs page for the iPhone Duo offers the following details about its capabilities:

• Under-display FaceTime camera


• Center Stage for video calls


• ƒ/1.8 aperture


• Tap to zoom and rotate


• Ultra‑stabilized video


• 1080p video recording at 30 or 60 fps


• Animoji and Memoji in FaceTime


• Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos


• Lens correction


• Auto image stabilization


• QuickTake video at 1080p at 30 fps and 60 fps


• Spatial Audio and stereo recording


• Wind noise reduction


• Audio Mix

Apple says the under-display camera records video at up to 1080p at 60 frames per second, compared to 4K at up to 60 fps for the outer front camera and 4K at up to 120 fps for the Main rear camera. This means the sensor is at least 2 megapixels – the minimum necessary to shoot 1080p video. However, its apparent inability to shoot 4K video may suggest it is less than 8 megapixels. Given that Apple has kept quiet, perhaps it's closer to 2 megapixels.

The under-screen camera's f/1.8 aperture is faster than the outer camera's f/2.2 aperture, which makes sense since it is probably helping to compensate for light lost through the display. Of course, Apple has not detailed the resulting trade-offs in image quality. How it affects photos and video is only likely to become clear once we get more time with the device.

According to a December 2023 report, LG Innotek was developing an under-display camera for Apple using a "freeform optic" lens array designed to reduce distortion and compensate for brightness loss. Again though, we don't know if this is the camera that made it into the iPhone Duo.

Another thing to note is that the display layer over the camera appears to lack the anti-reflective nano-texture coating found on the rest of the screen, resulting in a glossy dot. The screen also likely covers the lens with a lower density patch of pixels.

Regardless, the difference means the camera's location is less discreet than one might expect depending on the angle of ambient light. Apple even subtly acknowledges this in its marketing materials with a circular shadow on the screen, but going on the video below and the variable reflectivity, the effect can be more pronounced than the company is letting on.



Samsung has grappled with the same issue. The Korean company previously used under-display cameras in models including the Galaxy Z Fold6, before switching to a conventional 10-megapixel punch-hole camera with the Galaxy Z Fold7. This is Apple's first attempt at under-screen camera technology, so future iterations of the Duo may be better at hiding what can appear like a small smudge or blemish in the display – depending how you look at it.

Apple says preorders for the iPhone Duo will go live at 5:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday, October 16, with availability beginning Friday, October 23.
This article, "Apple Isn't Revealing the iPhone Duo's Under-Screen Camera Resolution" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple at its annual fall iPhone event has revealed that the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models will be available in four new colors.


Apple describes the new colors as a Deep Black, a refined Silver, a new Glacier Blue, and Burgundy – calling the latter a "sophisticated and unique new color" that's obviously meant to be a successor to the iPhone 17 Pro's Cosmic Orange.


In addition, the rear aluminum and Ceramic Shield glass area are now more color-matched compared to the iPhone 17 Pro models, which had a noticeable glazed effect on the rear of the devices.



Apple is still describing the design and features of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, with the Apple event ongoing as we write.

More details to follow...
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Apple will open pre-orders for at least the iPhone 18 Pro models on Saturday, September 12 at 12 a.m. Pacific Time, claims the X account "ShrimpApplePro," which has accurately leaked some details about Apple devices in the past. Under Apple's typical launch plan, pre-orders begin the Friday immediately following the event, but this year that would be September 11, and Apple has historically avoided the date.

German outlet Macwelt previously claimed a September 12 pre-order date for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Meanwhile, the foldable iPhone Duo is unlikely to be available until October at the earliest – per Bloomberg's Mark Gurman – so pre-orders for it may come later.
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Apple's online storefront has gone down ahead of the "Surprise and Shine" Apple event taking place later today, where several new products are expected to be announced.


Apple is expected to announce new iPhone 18 Pro models and its all-new foldable iPhone Duo, as well as Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4, and AirPods 5. The company could also announce the release dates of its next major software updates including iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate, and it may even preview other upcoming new products.

MacRumors will have in-depth coverage of today's Apple event, which kicks off at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, including a live blog on our website and posts via @MacRumorsLive on X. For a full rundown of everything we expect to see, be sure to check out our guide.
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Apple's foldable iPhone Duo will come with Apple Pencil support, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman previously claimed that Apple had prototyped a dedicated Apple Pencil for its foldable iPhone that was "stubbier than the versions for iPads" and "designed to magnetically attach and charge on the side of the device," but he said it was unlikely that the accessory would be released.

Gurman's latest report mentions only "support for the Apple Pencil stylus" for the iPhone Duo, so it seems that the company has settled on a different approach.
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Apple Pay will launch in India by this October, reports Business Standard, citing people familiar with the matter. Apple Pay will support major credit card networks like Visa and Mastercard, but it won't support transactions via the country's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at launch.

Apple would need clearance from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for that to happen, plus it would need to partner with a sponsor bank for routing the transactions. Negotiations are said to be ongoing.

Bloomberg reported in February that Apple has been in talks with major Indian banks in a bid to get Apple Pay up and running in the country this year.
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Macworld reports that iOS 27 beta 5, released to developers on Monday, contains hidden code revealing six unreleased iPhone models – although you've probably heard of them before.


The following references are said to have been found alongside references to existing iPhone models, in system files associated with the iPhone's battery drivers and Battery Intelligence features:

• V62 — iPhone Air 2


• V63 — iPhone 18 Pro


• V64 — iPhone 18 Pro Max


• V67 — iPhone 18


• V68 — iPhone Ultra


• V69 — iPhone 18e

It's the first time the full iPhone 18 lineup has been mentioned in code found in an iOS 27 beta. To be clear, the discovered references are the codes in bold, excluding the names (which are inferred) but these internal Apple identifiers have appeared in previous leaks or have been used by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his reporting, allowing them to be matched to the expected iPhone models.

Apple has not publicly confirmed the existence of any upcoming iPhone 18 models, but regular readers will know that they have been heavily rumored for several months now.

Apple is taking a different launch approach to the iPhone 18 series this time around, with a split-launch strategy that will see the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone Ultra unveiled in September. For the first time, the regular iPhone 18 will be launched in the spring of 2027 alongside the iPhone 18e and iPhone Air 2.
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Apple this week expanded support for its Apple Account Card in the Wallet app to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Malta. The Apple Account Card option for Wallet started rolling out in 2022, and Apple has been gradually expanding the feature to more countries since then.

What is the Apple Account Card?

So what is it, exactly? The card displays the balance associated with a user's Apple Account (formerly Apple ID), and it can be used to make purchases in any brick-and-mortar Apple Store and online at Apple.com. It can also be used to buy apps in the App Store, as well as subscriptions and other Apple services.

It's also where the credit goes if you use it to redeem an Apple Gift Card. An Apple Account Card can also be topped up using a linked debit or credit card (via the "Add Money" option in Wallet).

It's NOT an Apple Credit Card

Note that an Apple Account Card is different from Apple Card, the latter of which is a straightforward digital and physical credit card for making financial transactions at contactless payment terminals (via Apple Pay), as well as in stores, restaurants, and other locations where Apple Pay isn't yet accepted.

Comparatively, an Apple Account Card is a digital-only card for money available in your Apple Account balance. There's no credit line, no interest, and no rewards attached. Neither is there a physical version of the Apple Account Card. You can't send money to a friend with it, and the balance isn't something you can cash out.

Apple Account Card – Supported Regions

As well as the regions mentioned at the start of this article, Apple Account Cards are supported in the following countries:

One thing to note: Paying in person at an Apple Store with an Apple Account Card (by double-clicking the side button and holding your iPhone to the reader) isn't available in every country or region, and neither are all of the card's other features. Apple hasn't yet said whether the four new regions that it most recently expanded to will get the full range of usage options.

Add an Apple Account Card to Wallet

To add an Apple Account Card to your iPhone's Wallet app, open Wallet, tap the plus (+) button, then tap Add Apple Account. Tap Continue, then give it a few moments while it's linked to your Apple Account. Once it's in your Wallet, your balance and any recent transactions will appear below the card.
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