Just as I was heading into the final stretch of review season, TestFlight was updated to reverse an update I wrote about in July. That update added search, which was one of my longstanding wishes for TestFlight. However, for some users, the update also changed the sorting of betas from reverse chronological order to alphabetical, including active betas alongside expired ones. As someone who reviews a lot of apps, that made TestFlight barely usable.

With the latest update, I’m happy to report that the sorting order has been restored to reverse chronological order. The most recently updated betas appear at the top of the list, and when you want to find something older, search is a great option. Returning to reverse chronological order may seem like a small thing, but it’s made a world of difference in keeping up with the apps I test.

Search was near the top of my list of TestFlight wishes for years, and its addition made a meaningful difference to the app’s usability. But I’ve had a lot of TestFlight wishes over the years that are scattered across multiple articles, so I thought I’d share what else I’d like Apple to tackle with TestFlight:

• Performance. I test a lot of apps, which slows TestFlight down on every Apple platform. The issue isn’t as severe today as it was when I wrote about it in 2023, but the slowness is still bad enough to make the app hard to use. Whatever the issue is, I’d love to see the list loading time reduced and scrolling through a list of apps become as smooth as it is in the App Store.
• Add filtering, sorting, and folders. Search is a step in the right direction, but allow me to sort by date, developer, category, and other metadata. I’d also like to be able to filter by installation status, so I can just see the betas I’ve installed or haven’t installed yet. User-defined folders for organization would be a nice bonus too.
• Hide inactive and expired betas. I’ve thought about TestFlight’s expired betas section a lot and can’t think of a single reason it exists from a tester’s perspective. Let me hide or exclude expired and withdrawn betas.
• Fix TestFlight emails and automatic updates. TestFlight email notifications can only be turned on or off on a per-beta basis. Adding a global switch would help a lot with managing these messages. Also, automatic updates of betas have never worked on my iPhone, and I’ve talked to others who have the same problem.
• Restore usable betas after a device migration. Apple’s migration from one device to another has gotten much better over the years, but it still does not migrate TestFlight betas, leaving me with a bunch of broken apps on my iPhone every fall.
• Indicate when a beta has been released on the App Store. This strikes me as easy to request, though I’m sure is difficult to implement, but I’d love to know when a beta has been superseded by an App Store version, so I can grab the stable release if I want and know I can publish a review about an app without having to check the App Store repeatedly myself.

The bottom line is that while TestFlight is once again usable, it could be much better. I recognize that TestFlight isn’t an app used by most people, but like Apple’s own OS beta testing program, TestFlight betas are an important part of developers’ workflow. They provide QA feedback and a promotional channel that the friction encountered by TestFlight users undermines.

I’m glad TestFlight continues to get meaningful updates. I just hope it gets more attention going forward.

I haven’t been this excited about an Apple Watch in a long time. Last week, Apple introduced the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, which will be available at the end of the week. The new Watches feature the S11 chip, which enables a bunch of new features, some of which won’t debut until later this year. At the same time, Apple is dropping support for more Watches than usual.

What we’re witnessing is a reboot of the Apple Watch and watchOS forced by advances in AI. The Apple Watch and its OS found their niche years ago, freeing us from pulling out our iPhones for notifications, tracking our health and fitness, and enabling the occasional Siri request. It was a good and comfortable spot for what by all accounts has been one of the most successful wearables to date, but watchOS also felt stuck in a rut.

Every year we got a few new workout types, a new watch face, and a few other features, but the OS didn’t advance much. What’s different this year is that watchOS 27 is breaking with slower hardware and looking forward to the substantially more powerful S11 chip, which will allow the Apple Watch to expand into all-new areas.

What this transition also means is that there is not just one set of features to track in watchOS 27 this year but three:

• those that arrive today for anyone with a compatible Apple Watch,
• those that arrive at the end of the week that are exclusive to the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, and
• those that are coming later this year.

That makes this more than just a review. It’s also a preview of things to come and a roadmap for where the Apple Watch is heading.

There’s more than usual to cover this year, so let’s dive in and check it out.

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Interface, Navigation, and the Smart Stack

I like Liquid Glass on all of Apple’s devices and didn’t have any issues with its first iteration in watchOS 26. However, with the latest update, my Apple Watch Ultra 3’s UI is ever so slightly more readable. Smart Stack suggestions and notifications don’t bleed through each other as much, and app icons are sharper.

On a small screen like an Apple Watch, you may never notice the difference, but there’s a sharpness throughout the UI that’s reminiscent of the sharpness you see in app icons on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Edges are more defined and colors are diffused less, making everything a little crisper. It’s a subtle change, but a good one.

The watchOS 27 change most users will notice first is the change to the way you navigate through the OS’s UI. The App Switcher is gone, replaced by the simpler Dynamic App Grid. And although I expect the App Switcher will be missed by some, I don’t miss it at all. Sure, it was a little hard to break the Digital Crown double-press habit at first, but as someone who returns to the same handful of apps repeatedly, I find the new design makes more sense.

Before watchOS 27, the App Switcher was invoked with a double press of the Digital Crown. That revealed a Rolodex-style view of your recent apps that you could move among by turning the Digital Crown. The UI served as a shortcut between frequently used apps that avoided returning to the app grid or list views on your Watch, which can be crowded if you have a lot of apps installed.

Now, whether you single- or double-press the Digital Crown, the new Dynamic App Grid appears. At its center is the new Siri app. Below that is the icon to take you to the app list or grid view depending on how your Watch is set up. Apple says that the remaining five icons that circle the Siri icon are placed based on recency and frequency of use.

I’ve been using watchOS 27 all summer, and my recently used apps have barely changed. Currently, those apps include Settings, Alarms, News, Maps, and Moshi, an app I use for monitoring AI agent projects.

I don’t think I’m alone in being a creature of habit when it comes to the Apple Watch apps I use. Having those five apps just one Digital Crown press away is far easier than pressing twice, scrolling to find what I want, and then tapping into an app. Between the Dynamic App Grid and the expanded Smart Stack, there are plenty of ways to get to the apps you use the most, which I love. What the Dynamic App Grid gives up in predictability is more than made up for by the simpler gesture and UI.

watchOS 27 adds a new single tap gesture for selection, which allows you to do a lot more simply with gestures. For example, a double tap gesture with your thumb and index finger opens the Smart Stack to the first card. Double tap again to move to the next card or, if a card has multiple items that can be selected, to the next item on the card. Once what you want is selected, a single tap will open it. The existing wrist flick gesture is then used to return to the watch face.

The Smart Stack is now stacked with more types of cards, too. Apple has added cards for birthdays stored in Contacts, your car’s parking location, a prompt to change an alarm before a holiday, a shortcut to resume a Siri conversation, transit card balances, pinned Messages conversations, Theater Mode, and more. It’s a nice expansion that has made my Smart Stack feel more useful all summer because there’s always something relevant to me there.

The other change announced just last week is the addition of the Siri Modular face, which I immediately installed on my Apple Watch Ultra 3. The watch face displays the top Smart Stack item in a large complication in the middle of your Watch. It’s a nice touch, but because you can’t dismiss the media playback card without turning off Live Activities, that one has wound up on my watch face more frequently than I’d like. Still, when an app like Moshi reports that an AI agent’s task has been completed, it’s nice to be able to see a snippet of the message directly on my watch face. It also strikes me as a great way to keep track of tasks with a deadline from task manager apps like this review’s sponsor, Finalist.

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So, on balance, I like what Apple has done with watchOS 27’s navigation. The Dynamic App Grid takes a little getting used to, but I appreciate its simplicity. The Smart Stack, single tap gesture, and new Siri Modular watch face combine to make the Smart Stack more useful than ever too. Watch interactions are meant to be short, and watchOS 27 nails that goal.

Siri AI and the Apple Watch as Helper

Siri AI is a big part of watchOS 27 just like it is on every Apple platform (except tvOS) this year. As on those other platforms, Siri has a dedicated app on the Watch. The main difference is in how you interact with Siri. On macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, you can speak or type queries in the Siri app. On watchOS 27, the app accepts spoken queries only. That struck me as a little strange at first given that Apple offers multiple ways to input text on watchOS, but the reality is chatbot queries are typically longer than a dashed-off text message, so in practice, the lack of text input is fine.

Siri AI requires an Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Ultra 2 or later, or SE 3, along with a nearby iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence: an iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 or later model. It’s being released as a beta, initially in English only, and won’t be available in the EU for the time being. Apple also says it will introduce usage limits for Siri AI in the future. Those limits will vary depending on factors such as request complexity and system demand. Increased access will be available for a fee. To make a Siri request, you can tap an installed complication, long-press the Digital Crown, or say “Siri” or “Hey Siri.” Once you start a chat with Siri, it retains the context, allowing you to ask follow-up questions without restating everything.

Alternatively, you can open the app where you can see your past chats. The app’s button to start a conversation accepts spoken input only. Type to Siri remains available through Accessibility settings, but it’s a separate way to invoke Siri rather than a text-entry option within the app.

Your query list includes any requests you’ve made on your Apple Watch or any other Apple device, all synced via iCloud. In my experience, sync is fast over a good network connection with chats appearing on my Mac seconds after a response is delivered to my Watch. From the Siri Apple Watch app, you can also swipe left on an entry to delete or pin it, or tap the entry to read it.

Siri AI on the Apple Watch also offers the same personal-context capabilities that let it find information in your email, photos, tasks, and notes and use it to take action in apps. I explored those capabilities and their shortcomings in my macOS Golden Gate review. My experience on the Watch hasn’t been meaningfully different, apart from occasional minor latency, so that review is the best place to dig into my testing.

What changes here is the convenience of having those capabilities on your wrist within easy reach. The nearby iPhone supplies the connection to Apple Intelligence, but the Watch is both the immediate interface and, for many requests, the place where the resulting action occurs.

It’s also worth stepping back to think about what Siri could do before. I rarely used Siri for more than setting timers and alarms, checking the weather, and controlling my lights. However, now, I can tell Siri to remind me to take out the trash tomorrow morning and add a calendar event for a dinner reservation in one breath. That’s not wildly complex stuff, but it’s very convenient, especially when your iPhone is in your pocket or across the room and you think of something you need to do. Siri also has the same broad world knowledge that it does on other Apple devices, allowing you to check recent sports scores, check the news, and answer questions about the world around you.

Not every technology advance needs to be a monumental leap forward. Sometimes the simplest, most convenient small thing has the greatest impact. Siri on the Apple Watch has that potential, although with time, I’d like to see it become independent of the iPhone.

Workouts and Fitness

I’m happy to be the one who gets to tell you that Workout Buddy has been freed from the requirement that you carry your iPhone with you. Users tend to love or hate Workout Buddy. Personally, I love it. Sure, its incredibly chipper voice can grate if you’re heading out for a long walk and aren’t feeling it, but that’s sort of the point. Once enabled, Workout Buddy is there to encourage you with no judgment. It’ll tell you you’re below your average targets with the same cheerfulness as when you’re crushing it.

When Workout Buddy debuted, my disappointment wasn’t with its voice, personality, or the information it offers. My issue was that the time I need a pep talk when exercising is when I’m out on a long run by myself suffering in the summer heat. The problem is that until watchOS 27, Workout Buddy was only available if you had your iPhone with you. That was fine when I went on a long walk, and I’m sure many cyclists were fine, but one of the reasons I got an Apple Watch was to never lug an iPhone with me while I ran, especially an iPhone like my iPhone 17 Pro Max.

With watchOS 27, I’m pleased to report that Workout Buddy works as well over a Wi-Fi or cellular connection as it does tethered to your iPhone and is compatible with walking, running, cycling, hiking, elliptical, stair stepper, HIIT, and functional and traditional strength training. Workout Buddy speaks Mexican Spanish now, too. In fact, it’s an Apple Intelligence feature that works without your iPhone nearby, which gives me hope for more iPhone-independent Apple Intelligence features in future releases.

Workout Buddy also offers more insights about your workout by comparing pace, distance, and workout duration to your recent fitness history. Today, just before I wrote this section, I went for a walk to get some fresh air and was cheerfully told how little I’ve exercised during this crazy iPhone event and OS review writing week. What I appreciate most, though, is that overall, Workout Buddy isn’t significantly more chatty. I don’t want it to turn into a podcast; I just want brief, periodic updates, which it delivers well.

The Workout app’s scrolling has been improved too. I know a lot of people who felt it was too easy to scroll past their intended workout type. That’s generally not a problem for me since I only use a few workout types, but even then, I sometimes overshot my mark. With watchOS 27, there’s a little less momentum built into the scrolling. Even if I swipe as fast as I can muster, I can only manage to move five workouts. A normal, calm swipe advances me just one workout.

Additional Workout and Fitness improvements include:

• more precise post-workout route maps, which, based on my walks and runs, have been very accurate whether I’m among buildings, under trees, or out in the open,
• more accurate measurement of treadmill distances, which I haven’t tried personally, and
• step counts in the Fitness app that now synchronize with those recorded in Health.

There may not be many changes to the workout and fitness features of the Apple Watch in watchOS 27, but I’m nonetheless pleased that I’ve been able to turn on Workout Buddy for my morning runs to help motivate and inform me about my progress.

Apps, Services, and Everyday Improvements

Find My

It never made sense to me that different aspects of the iPhone’s Find My were spread across separate apps on the Apple Watch. I suppose the idea was that splitting the app up made it more atomic and widget-like for the Apple Watch’s small screen, but in practice, I think most people use Find My from an iPhone more than they do an Apple Watch, so the split on the Apple Watch was confusing.

The new Find My app is map-based, just like it is on other platforms. The app defaults to a devices view, and if you have multiple devices with Find My enabled in one location, you can scroll among them using the Digital Crown. Tap the button in the top left corner and you can switch from devices to people or items.

What I love about the new Find My is how true it is to the iPhone app. You’re able to use it to get directions, contact someone, play a sound on a device or item, enable Notify When Found or Notify When Left Behind, set arrival and departure alerts for people, mark devices and items as lost, and use Precision Finding with the iPhone and second-generation AirTag. Precision Finding requires a Series 9 or later or Ultra 2 or later, and locating an iPhone requires a compatible model with Ultra Wideband. Find My is no companion Watch app. It’s the real deal.

Wallet

iOS 27 adds the ability to create passes in the Wallet app. The new feature makes it easy to add library, loyalty, and gym cards that use a barcode or QR code to Wallet even when a service doesn’t offer a Wallet pass. With “Create a Pass,” you no longer need to carry physical cards.

Setting up a pass is easy. From the Wallet app on your iPhone, tap the plus button and choose “Create a Pass.” The next screen explains that you can set up a pass automatically by photographing it or manually by typing in the information yourself. I’ve used the automatic approach with our local supermarket’s loyalty card and one my wife has for Barnes & Noble. Wallet picked up the relevant information from both cards right away. I haven’t tried the Barnes & Noble card, but the card for our supermarket worked perfectly the last time I bought groceries.

The functionality extends to watchOS 27, too. Although you can’t make passes with the Apple Watch’s Wallet app, they appear there the same way cards from other apps are collected there. Tap on a pass in the Wallet app and it expands to show the membership number and name, followed by a barcode, more pass details, and buttons to share the pass with someone or remove it from Wallet. There are third-party apps that do something similar, but for the limited number of cards I have that aren’t already tied to an app or Wallet pass from that app, the new pass generation feature and its integration with watchOS 27 are exactly what I need. On the iPhone, you can also edit a pass’s details and customize its appearance, making your passes easier to tell apart.

Other Apps and Features

Phone:

Call Context is a Phone feature that’s available on both the iPhone and Apple Watch that can surface relevant information from Mail during a call, such as flight details when you call an airline. I haven’t had many opportunities to try this over the summer, but it did pull up a flight for me on my iPhone when I called American Airlines about a flight. I called back later from my Apple Watch Ultra 3, but that time, the flight details didn’t appear.

Shazam:

With watchOS 27, Shazam can listen to music even if your Apple Watch isn’t connected to the Internet and send its acoustic signature to the cloud for analysis and matching when your connectivity resumes. This is not on-device song recognition, but it does mean you can still track a song in the moment and get the results later, which I like.

Unused Feature Notifications:

watchOS 27 proactively sends notifications that it will turn off unused features, such as gestures, Start Workout reminders, and Raise to Speak, to preserve your Watch’s battery life. If you get one of these notifications, you can decline it or turn the feature back on later in Settings. I haven’t seen any of these notifications during my summer testing.

Cycle Tracking:

watchOS 27’s Cycle Tracking expands support to perimenopause and menopause, including symptom logging and educational resources. For anyone 40 and older, changes in logged cycle patterns may prompt a notification suggesting a consultation with their doctor. Apple makes it clear that the notifications the Apple Watch provides aren’t meant to be a diagnosis, but a way of recognizing a pattern that the user may want to raise with their doctor.

Screen Time:

Apple has also redesigned Screen Time controls to help families manage a child’s Apple Watch use, including contact restrictions, app schedules, and app access. I don’t manage any of my grown kids’ devices, so I haven’t tested these updates.

Performance

My experience with watchOS 27 has been a lot like my experience with macOS Golden Gate. The performance enhancements touted by Apple at WWDC are real, but soon become the new normal. I also have just my one Apple Watch to go by, so I’ll share my anecdotal experience with the betas.

My Apple Watch Ultra 3 already had one of the fastest chips available in an Apple Watch, but the performance of watchOS 27 was still noticeably faster from the very first time I installed developer beta 1. That experience is as true today as it was then, but I’m more used to it now. Apps launch faster and more smoothly, and transitions between in-app views are better too. The changes are relatively subtle, but nonetheless noticeable, which I appreciate.

The biggest difference of all, though, has been my experience with Apple Music, Podcasts, and Books. All three apps load content and start playing it faster than before. I’ve also had less trouble connecting both my Powerbeats Fit earbuds that I use for exercising and my AirPods Pro 3. That’s ended a whole connection and playback dance I used to do every time I got ready to go for a jog, which has been wonderful to leave behind.

What I didn’t notice was better battery life. That’s not to say it isn’t better, but with the frequency of beta updates over the summer and my habit of periodically charging my Watch at my desk, battery life seemed about the same as watchOS 26.

Odds and Ends

In addition to what I’ve already covered, it’s worth noting the following changes:

• The Walkie-Talkie has been removed. I don’t think it was used by many people.
• Apple says water detection is more efficient, though in what way is unclear.
• GymKit has been extended to the iPhone with AirPods Pro 3, which allows heart rate data collected by the earbuds to be synced through your iPhone to GymKit-enabled equipment, although I haven’t tried this because I don’t belong to a gym.
• watchOS 27 requires an Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Ultra 2 or later, or SE 3, paired with an iPhone 11 or later or iPhone SE 2 or later running iOS 27. That’s the requirement for the OS itself, but Siri AI also requires an Apple Intelligence–capable iPhone. The update drops support for Series 6–8, the original Ultra, and SE 2, too, although Apple’s Cait Dooley told TechRadar in June that those older models can remain paired with an iPhone and will continue to receive security updates.

Coming Soon to an Apple Watch Near You

I wouldn’t normally touch on unreleased features in an OS release, but so many things were announced during last week’s Surprise and Shine event that I wanted to give readers a quick recap of what’s still to come in watchOS 27, even though I haven’t tried any of these features yet.

When the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 arrive on doorsteps and in Apple Stores on Friday, their owners will be able to enjoy the following additional features:

• Apple’s New Health Sensing System: Both new Watches have redesigned optical and electrical heart sensors, which will allow them to take heart rate measurements every five seconds and HRV readings as often as every five minutes, which is up to a 24-fold increase in HRV measurement frequency compared with previous Watches. Apple says the new sensors will provide more accurate and meaningful measurements.
• Heart Rate and Vitals: On the Series 12 and Ultra 4 Watches, the additional heart rate measurements also enable an HRV section with recovery and overall HRV readings. Vitals also gains access to recovery HRV in its overnight measurements and adds a daytime view.
• Readiness: Readiness is a new app that uses your sleep, vitals, and recent activities to compute a score from 0–10, which the app translates into Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It recommendations.
• Sound Recognition: The new Watches can analyze sounds like a baby crying, alarms, sirens, and doorbells even if your iPhone isn’t nearby. When a sound is recognized, users will be alerted on their Apple Watch.
• Automatic Music Recognition with Shazam: With Music Detection enabled on the new Watches, Shazam will identify background music when you open the Smart Stack, without requiring you to tap the widget.

In addition, later this year, Apple is adding two new features to the new Watches, which you can read about in greater depth in my preview story from last week:

• Live Rewind: Live Rewind, which plays a sound and animation to alert people that it’s been activated, transcribes the last 15 seconds of speech to help with hearing.
• Siri Recap: A summarization feature that will pull key points from conversations and will support only English at first.

Both features are set to debut as betas later this year and require a Series 12 or Ultra 4 Watch paired with a supported iPhone 16 or later, excluding the iPhone 16e, with Apple Intelligence and Siri AI enabled. Both features are opt-in, and Siri Recap can be enabled manually or scheduled by time and location. Unsaved recaps disappear after seven days. Apple says audio is protected by handling processing in a Secure Exclave, but the resulting text can still be saved and shared, and it’s possible for Siri summaries to miss or misunderstand details. Those are things I’ll be looking at carefully when I can try the features for myself.

Finally, later this year, Apple will debut a redesign of the Health app on the iPhone that also incorporates a Health Age feature, movement evaluations, and lab work purchases and scheduling in the U.S.

Shaking off the Cobwebs

It’s funny to write a watchOS review hot on the heels of finishing my macOS Golden Gate review. In some ways, the two couldn’t be more different. My Apple Watch Ultra 3’s screen is about two inches diagonally and is designed to be interacted with in small, fleeting doses. Meanwhile, I’m writing this on my Mac Studio, using a 32-inch OLED display and an OS that’s as hands-on as they get.

Yet at the same time, there’s a similar transition going on with Apple Watch hardware and its OS that reflects a similar thing I see in macOS. Apple silicon lit a fire under macOS, opening up new ways to use Apple’s computers. That’s only accelerated with AI.

watchOS is in a similar place. The Apple Watch is already one of the most popular smartwatches on the planet, giving Apple Intelligence a place on a lot of wrists. Apple is raising the minimum hardware requirements for watchOS while introducing another set of capabilities exclusive to its newest Watches. We’re witnessing a shift from small, incremental watchOS changes to a new category of features. Starting with Live Rewind and Siri Recap, those additions have the potential to define the device’s future.

Today, the watchOS features that are currently available are more modest, typical features. I love the expansion of the Smart Stack, the new Siri app is incredibly useful as an extension of the app on other platforms, and it’s great to have Workout Buddy along for my runs without my iPhone.

In any year, I’d be happy with those and the other updates to watchOS, but this year, they feel like the first course of what I expect will be a great year for watchOS. AI has shaken the cobwebs off of watchOS, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Every OS update has a story to tell. With macOS 27 Golden Gate, that story captures a moment when Apple is faced with multiple challenges, many of which are tied to the rise of large language models.

One of those challenges is obvious. Apple was caught off guard by chatbots, overpromised a response at WWDC in 2024, and has been playing catch-up ever since.

But this isn’t simply a story of missteps or wasted opportunities. There’s more to it than that.

Two years before ChatGPT took the world by storm and began its march to 1 billion monthly users, Apple released the first Apple silicon Macs. Whether intentional or a happy coincidence, Apple silicon’s unified memory architecture fits like a glove for running and fine-tuning LLMs.

macOS’ UNIX roots make it a great fit for AI development, too. From working with Python to coding with agents in Terminal, the Mac offers a familiar command-line environment for developers working with AI.

Apple’s strength in these areas represents a huge opportunity for it and the Mac in the AI era. However, it’s that very industry that’s also fueling the challenges Apple faces.

Developers in the AI industry and power users setting up OpenClaw servers may have juiced demand for MacBook Pros and Mac minis, but data centers have made it hard for Apple to meet the demand for Macs and hold prices steady. Wait times for some Macs stretched into weeks and months this summer, and prices have risen. Still, Apple has continued to barrel ahead with new models, most recently updating the Mac Studio and Mac mini.

The AI industry has also been a drain on Apple’s talent pool, attracting hundreds of employees from across the company. Those departures are the backdrop to Apple’s high-profile trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, which involves former employees now working on AI-focused hardware. The result is a messy, turbulent era for Apple and the entire tech industry.

At the same time, macOS is completing its transition to Apple silicon by dropping support for Intel-based Macs in Golden Gate. It’s a big milestone, but one that pales in comparison to the just-completed CEO handoff from Tim Cook to John Ternus.

Against that unsettled backdrop, macOS 27 Golden Gate has a job to do. It needs to finish the transitions Apple has already begun by:

• cleaning up loose ends from the transition to Apple silicon,
• making good on Apple Intelligence promises of 2024, and
• tightening up the Liquid Glass design refresh that began with macOS Tahoe.

There are many other changes to system apps and other parts of macOS that I’ll explore in this review, too. But these three pillars invite us to evaluate how well Golden Gate builds on Apple silicon’s already solid foundation, delivers on Apple’s 2024 AI promises, and improves the everyday experience of using a Mac.

With that, let’s dig into the details.

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Design

Of the three transitions that shape macOS 27, the Liquid Glass design language is the most recent. Announced at WWDC in 2025, the change drew strong reactions from early users and beta testers. Despite continued criticism in some quarters and vows not to upgrade until Tahoe’s design was “fixed,” I like Liquid Glass, as do most people I’ve talked to about it in my day-to-day life.

However, liking Liquid Glass is not the same as feeling that Apple nailed it with Tahoe. It didn’t. Tahoe’s design felt incomplete. It was as though there had been an all-hands meeting of Apple’s software designers who were given a detailed briefing on how to implement Liquid Glass but then they never talked again. Some apps took an aggressive Liquid Glass approach similar to iOS 26, while other apps felt like they’d barely been touched. In fact, there were even inconsistencies between how Liquid Glass was applied to different view modes in Finder.

Golden Gate addresses those issues with a more cohesive, readable experience. It also gives users control over transparency, addressing one of the core criticisms of Liquid Glass.

Icons

One of the most subtle changes to Liquid Glass is the way it diffuses light. The best place to inspect the difference is by looking at the icons side by side. The edges are darker, and the highlights are brighter, adding a greater sense of depth, while avoiding the softness and blurriness of Tahoe icons. The result is that UI elements are sharper and more readable, which is an accessibility and usability win.

Liquid Glass’ light diffusion update isn’t limited to icons, but because it’s one of the best ways to visualize the change, I’ve collected a few examples that show the change off especially well.

I like the refinement to Apple’s system app icons. What once made my screen look unnaturally soft and mushy is now crisp.

Alongside these changes, many icons have received small tweaks, such as Finder’s rounder nose. There’s also one wholly new icon and several material redesigns.

What Golden Gate does not resolve is the so-called “Squircle Jail” controversy introduced by macOS 26. Starting with Tahoe, Apple mandated that all icon glyphs appear within the bounds of their background tile. Icons that violate the new restriction usually end up shrunken inside a generic “squircle jail” tile, which doesn’t look good.

During the macOS 27 beta period, Paul Kafasis and John Gruber called for Apple to eliminate its icon rule, while Tyler Hall demonstrated a workaround. Nevertheless, “squircle jail” endures.

I can see both sides of this debate. On the one hand, as Kafasis argues, the uniform shapes Apple has imposed make it harder for people with color vision deficiencies to distinguish one icon from another. Former Apple designer Roger Wong takes a different tack, arguing, based on older Mac icons, that gaps in irregularly shaped icons can cause users to miss their click targets. Both arguments go to icon functionality and both have their merits.

On balance, I’m fine with the direction Apple has taken its icons. They mirror the design of icons on the iPhone and iPad, and there’s value in consistency for users who don’t think as deeply about icons as some Apple nerds. We’ve been trained through habit to expect that a squircle is an app. I also think Wong’s argument takes on even greater significance if the rumors that Apple is working on a touchscreen Mac are true.

Finally, the proliferation of SF Symbols in app menus has been reversed, too. You’ll see fewer in system apps, and Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines have been revised to advise third-party developers to use the icons “sparingly and with purpose.” Also appearing in the menu bar is a new Ethernet icon that replaces the Wi-Fi icon when your Mac is wired to a network.

Transparency and Toolbars

Alright, enough about icons. It’s time to think about transparency. Apple’s designers have significantly improved the readability of Liquid Glass elements throughout the system and given users a tool to tweak transparency to suit their own tastes.

I don’t envy Apple’s designers who have to design a UI that works with any app whether it exists today or someday in the future. The first iteration of Liquid Glass worked well with some apps, but fell down in spots, such as when the background of an app was busy and unpredictable. Music with its colorful album art and Photos with its views of photos of literally anything someone might take a picture of are both great examples. As you scrolled through music or photos, both apps’ toolbars often seemed to disappear or become unreadable as colors passed beneath the toolbars. Text-heavy apps like Finder presented a similar problem, sometimes causing the text of scrolling lists of files and icons to compete with the toolbar’s content.

macOS Golden Gate solves this with toolbars that diffuse the content beneath them better at the OS’s default setting. That default is squarely at the midpoint of a slider found near the top of the Appearance section of System Settings. Move the slider’s indicator to the left and more of the background will bleed through toolbars, and move it to the right and the background frosts over to a nearly solid color. The setting is accompanied by a handy preview that shows the effect that each point along the spectrum has.

A great example of the change is Photos, which has regained a toolbar structure that separates buttons from the content scrolling behind them. It’s a welcome change to an app that struggled with a more transparent Liquid Glass approach.

Apple’s solution is a good one. It would have been simple enough to give users a slider and be done with the transparency controversy, but instead its designers took the time to improve the default, too. The new default strikes a good balance between transparency and opacity that I expect most users will never feel the need to change. In contrast, I’ve always liked Liquid Glass’ transparency, so I set it all the way to the left where things are most transparent and never looked back.

Interestingly, I did the same thing on the iPhone and eventually dialed the Liquid Glass back a little. It may be the smaller screen or the fact that I use my iPhone in the bright North Carolina sun so often, but on the Mac, full transparency looks less extreme to me.

Toolbars also benefit from a more unified treatment. With Golden Gate, a continuous bar appears beneath controls automatically when content scrolls under them.

Sidebars, Corner Radii, and Drop Shadows

macOS Tahoe turned sidebars into glass-like slabs that sat on top of a window. I liked the layered look, but many others didn’t. Plus, when one window was obscured by others, it was too hard to tell if what you saw poking out was two windows sitting on top of each other and slightly offset or a sidebar.

The fix is to extend sidebars to the top, bottom, and side to which they’re anchored. The sidebars retain their glassy look and icons have regained their color, but the layering effect is gone. I can’t help but feel like something was lost in the update, but from a practical standpoint, it’s a usability win.

Golden Gate also brings more consistent corner radii to system windows. I honestly never noticed the difference between window corners, but it bothered some users who will no longer be bothered, which is a plus.

Finally, there was something about Liquid Glass that could make it hard to distinguish one window from another. I experienced this with Tahoe myself, especially in Dark Mode. macOS Golden Gate has more pronounced drop shadows, which become the new normal very quickly, but do a better job of defining the separation between windows.

Wallpapers

As always, this year’s macOS update comes with a beautiful set of wallpapers including Golden Gate, a dynamic golden wallpaper with sweeping curves that vaguely resemble the number “27,” and Golden Gate Sunset, a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge with an animated screen saver that’s mesmerizing to watch.

This year, the Mac’s stylized wallpaper also appears on other Apple devices, bringing a shared look across platforms.

Other Tidbits

We’re living through a menu bar app explosion thanks to AI coding agents, making it harder than ever to manage your menu bar. That’s especially true on Mac laptops with a notch. It really doesn’t take much to fill up the available space and end up with icons hidden by the notch or the tail end of an app’s menus.

There are third-party apps like Ice that will manage your menu bar for you, but new macOS releases can break them. That’s why on my MacBook Pro, I’ve historically aggressively managed my menu bar instead. But even then, it can be hard to avoid hitting the notch.

With macOS Golden Gate, Apple has added an overflow control in the form of a double arrow that appears when the notch or menu system is covering menu bar items. Click it and the hidden menu bar items appear to the left of the notch temporarily, so you can interact with them. This is especially helpful if you use all of the available space up to the notch and a new app installs a menu bar item that you want to move where you can see it, but it’s been hidden.

I like what Apple has done with Liquid Glass in Golden Gate a lot. My main reservations last year were the inconsistent implementation and poor legibility in apps like Photos and Music. The result is more coherent and usable, though whether the update is enough to satisfy Liquid Glass’ harshest critics remains to be seen.

The shape of icons matters, but it isn’t the design change that affects my use of the Mac the most. Clearer toolbars, windows that are easier to distinguish, and consistent controls have had a much more substantial impact.

More importantly, though, I appreciate seeing macOS’ design evolve alongside its hardware and the new tasks they’re called on to do. The Mac isn’t a static hardware platform, and its OS shouldn’t be either. I’ll miss the flourish of icons that escape their bounds, but if it makes it easier for more people to move from the iPhone, which is a far larger platform, to the Mac, that’s great. Software is never finished. macOS Tahoe’s design pointed the Mac in the right direction, but was a big enough departure from the past that it had some rough edges. Golden Gate addresses my biggest complaints with Tahoe and has been a pleasure to use all summer.

Siri AI and Apple Intelligence

The Siri app may be the marquee update of Golden Gate, but Apple Intelligence touches nearly every surface of the OS this year. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if, as soon as next year, features that integrate some sort of AI are still categorized under the umbrella term “Apple Intelligence” but are no longer treated as the standalone category that they have been for the past few years.

I say that because what’s striking this year is that everything about Apple Intelligence feels better integrated into macOS. Siri is perhaps the best example of all. What was once a voice assistant remains a voice assistant, but it has its own app now, too. Plus, Siri can be invoked from Spotlight, the Services menu, or simply by highlighting text and querying it with the “Ask Siri” contextual popup. It’s the sort of tight integration that Apple is known for, and its absence made some past iterations of Apple Intelligence feel bolted on.

Before diving into the new Siri app, it’s worth keeping in mind that Siri AI is launching as a beta on Apple’s platforms and is only available in English. Apple has also restricted Siri AI’s use, prohibiting kids under 13 from using it, and it’s not available in the EU on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, but is available on the Mac. The new AI features won’t be available in China initially either.

What’s less clear is what limits Apple will put on Siri AI usage. Apple is offering enhanced access for now, but says cloud-based features are subject to usage limits and expanded access will eventually be a paid feature. The practical impact of these limits is currently unclear. That’s an important thing to keep in mind because my evaluation of Siri AI is as it exists today. Whether it’s worth paying for more than whatever the base usage winds up being will have to be evaluated another day.

I’ll get to all of the Apple Intelligence features you need to know about here and elsewhere in this review, but the best place to start is with the new Siri app because it’s undeniably the epicenter not just of Apple Intelligence, but all of macOS Golden Gate.

The Siri App

What goes around comes around. Siri started life as a standalone app all the way back in 2010. With the release of macOS 27 and Apple’s other OS updates, Siri is once again a separate app, while also remaining deeply integrated in other parts of macOS.

However, the new Siri app isn’t users’ only alternative. Siri’s new smarts have been baked into Spotlight, the Services menu, and individual system apps. That makes Siri more accessible than ever, lowering the friction of getting answers considerably, which is a big improvement over past Siri implementations.

But having Siri answer questions and having it take actions on your behalf are very different things. So, while you can ask Siri just about anything from anywhere, the results you’ll get will depend considerably on the information or actions you’re seeking. Siri’s world knowledge and ability to take actions at your direction are a big leap from the past. If asking world knowledge questions is your primary use case, I expect you’ll like the Siri update. However, if you’re already deep into tools like ChatGPT Work, Codex, Claude Cowork, or Claude Code for automation or assisting you with typical office work, you’re going to hit friction points quickly. That’s why it’s worth exploring what Siri can and can’t do as you think about how it might fit into your everyday work.

There’s a lot of ground to cover with Siri, so let’s get started with the Siri app itself.

The App and How It Works

If you’ve used an app like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity before, you’ll know how to use the Siri app. In fact, it’s far simpler than those apps. The Siri app has a sidebar on the left that displays your past chat threads in reverse chronological order, syncing them among your devices via iCloud Sync. Threads can be displayed as a list or a grid, which shows off images and other rich media in a thread. You can also pin conversations, which then sit at the top of the list or grid regardless of how many other chats you begin, and delete past conversations individually or in batches by selecting multiple chats.

The main part of the Siri app’s window is where you chat with Siri AI, Apple’s updated assistant. From here you can type queries or speak them using Apple’s built-in dictation feature. You can also add files and images to a conversation, start a new conversation or search past conversations. There’s really not anything more to it than that. In fact, the Siri app doesn’t even have its own in-app settings. You’ll find those in System Settings, instead.

System Settings brings together settings for Siri the voice assistant and app. For the app, you’ll find options to:

• open the app to a recent or new conversation,
• keep conversations for 30 days, a year, or forever, and
• show in-app conversation previews of 1–5 lines.

As for Siri’s answers, they’re generated by a combination of on-device and Private Cloud Compute models. The on-device model runs locally on your Mac and Private Cloud Compute (PCC) runs in the cloud. As Apple has explained, only the data necessary to satisfy a request is sent to Private Cloud Compute, where it is inaccessible to Apple:

PCC deletes the user’s data after fulfilling the request, and no user data is retained in any form after the response is returned.

Whether any particular answer is generated by an on-device model or PCC is not highlighted by Apple. That said, I’ve been happy with the speed of the Siri app’s responses. I’ve also tested PCC and tried the Foundation Models framework in a couple of apps I worked on over the summer and have been impressed with PCC’s speed in that context, too.

World Knowledge

Most of the people I know primarily use chatbots the way they used to use Google. They look up facts about the world around them from the hours that the local diner is open to the actor in a movie they’re watching on TV. It says a lot about what’s become of Google Search that a chatbot that sometimes gets facts wrong is preferable to searching the web, but that’s where we are in 2026, and I can’t really blame anyone who just wants an answer without a lot of ads and other nonsense.

If that’s how you’ve used chatbots like the free version of ChatGPT, I expect you’ll like the Siri app. It’s not perfect, but it’s good, and in my experience, Siri’s gotten better over the course of the summer.

In my macOS 27 beta preview story, I likened Siri to Google’s AI Overviews. Since then, Siri has improved, although the differences between services often come down to presentation and personal preference as much as the results themselves.

For instance, while I still find its suggestions for a vacation to Chicago a little uninspired, the results from Google AI Overviews and the free version of ChatGPT are about the same. The results of each service overlapped in places, and each set of results differed in certain ways, but all offered typical tourist destinations. Adding more detail about the kinds of things you’d want to do on a trip helped.

Your experience with Siri will depend a lot on what you want out of it too. I asked Siri for movies starring The Rock and got a list of four notable films and four additional bullet points expanding on the list. ChatGPT’s free service and Google AI Overviews both resulted in much longer lists of movies, but Google’s results were messy and OpenAI showed me an ad suggesting I book a hotel in Chicago based on my previous query. So, on balance, the Siri experience was the best of the three.

Historically, AI models have struggled to answer questions about events occurring after their training cutoff. Web search is used to help models answer questions beyond their training cutoff. Apple says Siri supplements its world knowledge with the web, too, but in my experience, the results aren’t as good as those from other chatbots. For example, Siri sometimes missed recent articles that Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT found.

One nice touch of the Siri app is that some results include rich content. For example, sports scores show the teams’ logos, and clicking a result expands it to reveal additional statistics. The presentation of scores and other information like biographies of musicians and images of landmarks seems pulled straight from rich results introduced in Spotlight with macOS Ventura in 2022. However, unlike those results, which were ephemeral, disappearing when Spotlight was dismissed, these results become part of your conversation history in the Siri app, where they can be retrieved later with search. This goes to show the benefits of a dedicated Siri app instead of just relying on a voice assistant.

Take Action!

There’s more to Siri than just world knowledge, though. One of the headline features Apple promised at WWDC in 2024 was the ability of Siri to take actions for you based on personal context and draw on personal context to provide answers tailored to you.

Siri’s ability to perform actions on documents and other data in an app relies on App Intents, the framework that supports features across Apple’s OSes, from Shortcuts to interactive widgets. In its simplest terms, App Intents lets developers describe their apps’ content and actions, which are like the nouns and verbs of a sentence. The nouns are things like a PDF document, photo, text message, or event, while the verbs are actions like send, edit, or open. Siri interprets a natural language request and connects it to the relevant content and available actions.

That makes it sound simple, but it’s not. There’s a lot that can go wrong from request to action, and for a lot of the summer it did. Siri often failed, and few actions were available besides ones for built-in system apps, but that’s changed.

In the closing weeks of the summer beta season, Siri’s ability to take actions consistently and in apps other than system apps has really come together. That’s not to say it’s perfect or that every app I’d like to see adopt App Intents has, but I’m far more optimistic about Siri taking actions in apps than I was in June.

For example, I have a trip coming up at the end of the month. I asked Siri to remind me what day I’m leaving. It found the email confirming my flight and gave me the date and relevant flight information. Then I asked Siri if I had any plans while I was away and it found a different email confirming that I’m attending OpenAI’s DevDay. Finally, I asked it how long it would take to drive from where I’ll be staying to the DevDay event, and once again, Siri nailed it.

To bring the conversation with Siri together, I asked Siri to summarize the details in a note, assuming it would pick Apple Notes. I was pleasantly surprised to get a menu of options, including Apple Notes, Drafts, Parchment, Finalist, and Cheatsheet, none of which were open on my Mac. I picked Drafts and Siri created a note. The only disappointment was that I asked Siri to open the note and it said it couldn’t, even though it could and did when I asked a second time.

That last failure is instructive because Siri isn’t perfect. You’ll hit roadblocks, even when it comes to things that it has done for you before. How much of that is just the nature of LLMs and how much is attributable to Siri’s integration with apps is impossible to tell, but as with any chatbot, it’s important to recognize that Siri AI makes mistakes, too, so proceed with caution and verify what you’re told.

Another useful tool is Siri’s ability to pull information from whatever is onscreen. That can be an app like Safari that’s built into Golden Gate or a third-party app. In my testing, onscreen awareness works far better from Spotlight than it does from the standalone Siri app. For example, I’ve been able to gather information from multiple apps and summarize them in Apple Notes with no problem. However, when I tried the same thing with the Siri app, it was often confused by floating panels from apps like Dropover.

Your experience with asking Siri to perform actions in apps will vary depending on the apps you use. Siri integrates well with Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Mail, Messages, Maps, and Photos, although not perfectly. Venture beyond those apps and the experience depends largely on how their developers expose content to Spotlight and actions to Siri through App Intents.

Other apps, both from Apple and third-party developers, generally don’t work or only work in limited ways. As I edit this review in Obsidian, Siri is unable to tell me what my most recently edited document is, for example. And, if I ask Siri for the last email I received in Spark, it cheats a little, looking the information up in Apple Mail instead. That’s a useful workaround, but it’s still a workaround. If my MacStories email address wasn’t set up in both places, Siri would have been stuck.

That points out an important caveat about Siri that Apple can’t resolve alone. The ability for it to take actions in apps is limited by the developers who implement it. If you use apps that aren’t supportedf for messaging, email, and calendaring, you’ll miss out on a big part of what Siri can do until they ship support for modern App Intents.

However, what is in Apple’s control and merits more attention is the breadth and depth of Siri AI support for its own apps. For instance, I just asked Siri to name the most recent file in my Downloads folder, and it picked one from three hours and 18 files and folders ago. In my testing, the Siri app couldn’t rename files, move them, or duplicate them, although Apple Intelligence can suggest names in Finder.

The same is true of Apple Music, which needs a lot of work. I asked how many songs I have in my Music library and was told “26.” I have thousands. I asked Siri to play Phoebe Bridgers’ latest album and instead of playing the album in Apple Music, an episode of Switched on Pop began playing, but the Podcasts app didn’t open and the Siri app didn’t show that it was playing something from Apple Podcasts. Once I realized I was listening to a podcast, I opened Apple Podcasts and saw that it was playing an episode about Phoebe Bridgers’ new album. Then I understood what was happening and could stop playback.

As I explained in my Golden Gate preview, this is frustrating because apps like Finder and Music include lots of useful metadata and work with a variety of automation tools. Some support seems to be available via existing Shortcuts actions, but not all of it, and unlike Shortcuts, the Siri app can’t use the command line or AppleScript as a way to extend what the app can do.

That said, I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen so far and optimistic about where App Intents is heading. Where Apple supports App Intents in Golden Gate, the experience has improved rapidly as the beta season comes to a close. It’s not perfect, but it’s reliable enough to make it a good solution for many people. Just as encouraging is the growing adoption by third-party developers, especially the indie developers we cover regularly.

As some of my examples demonstrate, there’s still plenty of room for improvement and expansion for Siri, but what’s out today is worth trying. I think you’ll find that in many cases, Siri will help you work more quickly and efficiently, which I love.

Personal Context

The final pillar of Siri AI that I need to cover is personal context, which is Apple’s way of describing the information Siri can access about you when responding to your queries. As with actions, personal context has improved a lot over the summer. For example, just weeks ago, Siri couldn’t identify my immediate family or find the Illinois address I lived at for over 20 years, but now it can.

However, while it can provide me with a bio of myself and Federico, it often struggles to explain how we know each other. That’s not a problem for other chatbots. After asking Siri how I know Federico in multiple ways across multiple separate conversations, I suspect the problem stems from Siri’s reliance on Contacts to answer questions about people. Coax Siri to investigate more deeply, and you’ll get a more satisfying answer.

Personal context draws from sources like your email, text messages, calendar, photos, and notes. In my testing, personal context is best at finding information about me in supported apps. It’s not as strong at combining that information with the context of my request. That doesn’t make personal context any less useful as a search tool, but to me “personal context” connotes a deeper understanding of who you are and your circumstances.

Here’s what I mean. On Labor Day, I asked Siri to suggest a restaurant I’d like, specifically mentioning that it was Labor Day as a hint that some places would be closed. Siri came up with two spots I like because I had threads in Messages confirming past online orders. It then asked whether I would like to check their hours.

I’m probably expecting too much, but there’s a lot wrong with that response. First, multiple order confirmations in Messages may be a good indicator of places I like, but the scope of the search is too narrow. There are lots of restaurants nearby that I like from which I’ve never placed an online order. However, Siri doesn’t have access to my credit card charges, so it doesn’t know about those places, although it could probably be inferred from driving direction requests and the time I spend at certain places based on Maps data.

Another issue is that I specifically asked about eating out on Labor Day. Most places near me were closed for the holiday, which was the case for one of the two places Siri suggested. Given my specific mention of Labor Day, that should have been taken into account in the first instance. What I’m getting at is that the personal context I’d like Siri to have (and use securely and privately) is much broader and deeper than a search of Messages, Apple Mail, or other apps.

That said, personal context feels like magic when you ask it for a URL or address you know is somewhere in Messages, Mail, or Notes, but you don’t know where. It just finds those things without you having to remember where the data lives. That’s genuinely useful and a great addition to Siri. Still, it’s closer to search than what I consider the kind of context where it would feel like Siri “knows” you. Maybe that’s too creepy for a lot of people, but if done privately and securely, that’s where I hope Siri is heading because it would take Siri to an altogether different level.

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A month ago, I wouldn’t have recommended Siri. Today, I would. It’s good for finding personal information, answering everyday questions, and performing tasks in supported apps. Its limitations still appear somewhat unpredictably, but it has become useful enough to earn a place in my day.

System-Level Apple Intelligence Features

Siri’s New Expressive Voices and Improved Dictation

You can pick one of multiple expressive voices. For American English there are a total of seven voices, two of which are brand new. Other voices include Australian, British, Indian, Irish, and South African English, and both expressiveness and pace can be adjusted with a slider. The UI for this is in the Siri section of System Settings (which replaces Tahoe’s Apple Intelligence and Siri section) and is nearly identical to what you’ll find on the iPhone or iPad.

The new voices are excellent, and I appreciate the ability to dial in the pacing and expressiveness. I’ve found that with my iPhone, I prefer less expressiveness since I hear Siri far more via turn-by-turn directions while driving, but I’ve turned it up a little on my Mac. Likewise, I have increased the pacing a little on my Mac, but kept the default on my iPhone. Apple’s defaults are good, but it’s worth playing with the settings to see if a different configuration suits your tastes for different contexts like it did for me.

That said, I don’t use Siri’s voice features nearly as much with my Mac as I do my iPhone or Apple Watch. That’s because my older M1 Max Mac Studio doesn’t support the voices, and with the MacBook Pro I’ve been using, I’m more likely to be somewhere where I wouldn’t want to speak aloud to my laptop. Perhaps that will change when I update my desktop Mac, but for now, I’m content without the feature.

Apple has improved dictation accuracy, too. You won’t see any difference in System Settings or anywhere else. The changes are all under the hood. On supported Macs, dictation will work better automatically. I’ve tried this with my M1 Max Mac Studio, which doesn’t support the new dictation, and an M4 Max MacBook Pro, which does, and the difference is noticeable. Speaking quickly or quietly leads to frequent dictation errors on the M1 Max Mac Studio, but the M4 Max MacBook Pro reproduced my words exactly, making it a good choice for on-device dictation if you have a newer Mac.

Finder File Naming and Actions

One of the low-key best Siri features of Golden Gate is its ability to suggest file names. If you’ve ever downloaded a PDF of a bill from a website, you probably have a collection of incomprehensible file names filled with seemingly random strings of numbers and letters. With the macOS 27 update, simply highlight the file name and Siri will suggest a couple of names using the content of the file. The feature also works inside document saving dialogs and with folders.

My experience with this feature has been good, but not perfect. Siri generally picks meaningful short titles similar to what I’d come up with myself, but once in a while it has suggested a calendar event instead if my file has a date in its name, which my screenshots often do. That said, this is a terrific feature I know I’ll use a lot.

You can also complete a handful of actions on files from Finder, including sending them via Mail or Messages, using either the contextual Ask Siri popup or Services menu. This is effectively the same limitation I covered above in the Siri app section, which is disappointing if you spend a lot of time wrangling files.

Writing and Editing

Apple’s writing and editing tools have been improved in a variety of ways. Automatic proofreading works well, although I have less use for the drafting and rewriting features. As you type, blue underlining will appear beneath misspellings and grammatical errors, letting you make corrections one at a time.

On my M1 Max Mac Studio, it can take a few seconds for the blue underlining to appear, but in practice, that delay isn’t problematic. I don’t typically go back to make corrections until I’m at a break point in the writing process.

What I like most about the proofreading suggestions is that they’re automatic. The blue lines simply appear, allowing me to quickly identify problem areas and step through them one at a time.

Siri has become a drafter and editor with Golden Gate, too. You can ask it to write something from scratch, adjust its tone, or rewrite something you wrote. While I don’t use AI-generated rewrites in my published work, I do have models create checklists, how-tos, and document workflows for me regularly. Having tried Golden Gate’s new tools to ask about the tone of my writing and do stylistic rewrites, I can report that they work as advertised, but I personally don’t like them. I’ve not seen a rewrite that I think is better than my own writing. However, I have found editing something like how-to instructions for conciseness is helpful.

Curiously, if you use Siri to change the style of your writing, you’ll get the side-by-side comparison of the original and edited version that Pages offers for proofreading, even if you’re using TextEdit or Notes. Why that comparison shows up for editing and not proofreading in some apps is a curious choice, and something I hope is made consistent in a future update.

Siri’s writing capabilities go a little further in Mail and Messages, offering suggested replies in your own voice. I’ve used a lot of apps that offer something similar and have never been comfortable with using them. Apple’s suggestions are on par with other apps I’ve used, but I don’t see myself ever using them.

On balance, Apple’s Siri writing and editing tools have made great strides from their origins. They are better integrated with the OS and system apps, and the quality of the text and edits they produce is better, too. When the tools were first introduced, I wouldn’t have recommended them to anyone. While I wouldn’t substitute them for a careful human editing pass, they’re useful for catching spelling and grammatical errors before you send an email.

Visual Intelligence

Apple has also added a keyboard shortcut for Visual Intelligence. Typing ⌘-⇧-Space invokes Siri, highlighting whatever visible window is under your pointer along with the Ask Siri contextual popup and a suggested action or two. The feature can be used to summarize or copy the text in an app, identify items in a photo, translate something, explain a chart, and more.

The Visual Intelligence shortcut is a cool trick but not one that I’ve used much in practice. More often, I grab a URL, screenshot, text, and other data, dump them into Codex and let it do its thing. The Siri app accepts text, images, and files, but it couldn’t retrieve contents webpages I gave it. So if you want to compare two iPhone models, for example, you’re either going to have to rely on Siri’s world knowledge (which is stronger on iPhones than on particular models of running shoes), extract the website content another way, or rely on something like Visual Intelligence.

Apple Intelligence for Automation

Apple has also brought its on-device and PCC models to the command line via the new fm tool, along with a Python library for accessing its on-device model. That makes it easy to incorporate the models into scripts run from Terminal.

These additions are great to see. There are a lot of automation use cases for Apple’s models, especially when you can process private data entirely on your Mac, so I’m glad Apple has made it easy to build them into your own workflows.

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Apple Intelligence has made great strides this year on the Mac. The difficulty with assessing its capabilities lies in the fact that everyone uses these tools a little differently and any one person’s use case may not work as well as another’s. But having spent the summer with Siri and Apple’s other Intelligence features, I feel like they finally have some momentum. The AI models are capable enough to support the OS features, and they fit more naturally into the fabric of the OS and its apps.

There’s no denying that Siri is light years ahead of where it was just a year ago. It really is a useful tool that you should try. I think you’ll find that there are myriad little interactions throughout your day that it makes better. That’s quite an achievement by itself, but that’s not the only stick by which Siri should be measured.

Apple doesn’t need to match every capability of ChatGPT Work or Claude Cowork any more than Notes needs to match Notion. There’s room for products with different ambitions and audiences. But for everyday questions and tasks, Siri still competes directly with those companies’ free chatbots, and its reliability needs to measure up.

That’s why I hope Apple continues improving Siri AI as quickly as it did over the summer beta season. The AI world doesn’t wait for point releases, and Apple can’t afford to either. My hope is that PCC continues to improve through server-side updates and that on-device models are updated frequently, too.

Apple has built a much more stable foundation for its AI features with macOS 27 and its other OSes. That’s an important first step because it will set the stage for years to come. I’m a fan of Apple’s privacy and security approach and the way it has integrated Apple Intelligence more deeply into its OSes. With Golden Gate, Apple has turned a new page on Apple Intelligence, transitioning from a story of missed opportunities to one about everyday utility. What counts now is whether Apple builds on its progress quickly enough for Apple Intelligence to be relevant.

Performance Improvements

Golden Gate’s performance gains were a big part of Apple’s pitch at WWDC this year. A “Snow Leopard” release had been rumored leading up to Apple’s developer conference, which turned out to be correct. When Federico and I sat down with Apple representatives for a briefing on the improvements along with other press people, it was Apple who mentioned Snow Leopard first. I was surprised, but when I got my hands on Golden Gate for the first time, I immediately understood why Apple leaned into the Snow Leopard vibes. The release really is faster.

This is going to be the shortest section of this review. Not because Golden Gate’s performance improvements aren’t important, but because my assessment is based on everyday use rather than benchmarks. Over the summer, I’ve noticed improvements across both my M1 Max Mac Studio and the M4 Max MacBook Pro Apple loaned me for testing.

Faster speeds have a tendency to start feeling like the new normal very quickly. You get used to them, and before long, it’s hard to tell whether you simply imagined the increases in the first place.

That’s not been entirely true with macOS 27. In fact, AirDrop still feels like magic compared to prior versions. I AirDrop screenshots to my Mac almost daily, and a multi-image send was often painfully slow, taking me out of the flow of putting my screenshots together for a story. Now, it’s so fast that it may as well be instantaneous in most instances, whether I’m sending images from my iPhone, iPad, or another Mac, all of which were on the betas this summer.

Another area that is much faster is browsing networked storage. I’ve hung SSDs and hard drives off of an Ethernet-connected Mac mini in another part of my house. Regardless of the speed of the drive, listing the contents of a large folder across the network can be slow. That’s not been the case with Golden Gate. Accessing the files on my Mac mini server over Ethernet has been smooth and fast all summer long.

Apps launch faster under Golden Gate, too. Not every app launches instantly, especially those built on web technologies, but with native apps, the difference is real and noticeable.

Other noticeable improvements include Spotlight indexing. After installing new betas throughout the summer, I often saw Spotlight indexing the next time I opened it, but it always finished quickly. Just as important, searching that index is much faster, too, with results displaying as quickly as I can type. That was not the case at all with some point releases of Tahoe where Spotlight got so badly bogged down that I went back to third-party launchers for a while.

In addition to speedier searches, Apple rebuilt the search foundation used by Spotlight, Photos, and Mail to ensure it’s more up to date and complete. Mail also adds a new ranking system that surfaces relevant emails in “Top Results,” while Spotlight offers more relevant search suggestions.

The same sort of search speed is found in Messages and Mail. Federico is handling the other new features of those apps in his iOS and iPadOS 27 review, but their search capabilities are worth reiterating here. There’s more to good search than speed, but it goes a long way, and with Golden Gate, I’ve had no trouble finding past messages and emails when searching in Messages and Apple Mail. Both apps have been quick and reliable, although I’m currently using Spark Mail more often than Apple Mail.

Scrolling and animations have felt smoother, too, although I notice the difference less now than when I first installed Golden Gate.

And that leads me to something that I think is important about these performance improvements to macOS 27. We’re living through dramatic price increases in memory and storage fueled by the AI data center boom. That makes improvements that help us get more out of the Macs we already own especially valuable. If an update makes an older Mac feel faster, it makes keeping it another year more appealing. With Golden Gate, Apple has breathed new life into your Mac, making it work more smoothly whether it’s a first-generation Apple silicon machine or a brand-new model. The company’s timing couldn’t be better, and it should be commended for helping users squeeze more out of every Mac it sells.

I also have a bit of advice for everyone who updates to Golden Gate. Bask in the glory of faster app launches, AirDrop transfers, and all the rest. As pronounced as the initial speedups felt when I first installed macOS Golden Gate, most became the new normal very fast, so appreciate them while you can.

Apps

Many of this year’s app updates span Apple’s platforms, so Federico and I have divided the coverage between our reviews. His iOS and iPadOS 27 review covers:

• Calendar
• Camera
• Clock
• Files
• Find My
• Journal
• Mail
• Messages
• Music
• Notes
• Phone
• Photos
• Reminders
• Safari
• Shortcuts

For my part, I’m covering:

• iPhone Mirroring
• Sidecar
• Preview
• Image Playground
• Weather
• Maps
• Podcasts
• Home
• the Mac-only features of Notes and Freeform
• FaceTime

Before getting into the apps, two features announced at WWDC won’t be available at launch: automatic upgrades for weak or compromised passwords and suggested actions in Messages conversations.

iPhone Mirroring

I’m a big fan of iPhone Mirroring. Until Nintendo released a web app, I used iPhone Mirroring almost weekly to listen to Nintendo Music on my Mac. But it’s become more than that. With iPhone notifications turned on so they appear on my Mac, it’s become an old habit to click on a notification, which opens iPhone Mirroring directly to the app that sent the message. I give it a quick check and then move on.

With macOS 27, iPhone Mirroring now supports adaptive layouts. That means you can resize the iPhone Mirroring window to many more sizes than were possible before. The connection to the iPhone Duo announced just last week is difficult to miss. Also, resizing apps like Weather and Reminders gives developers something of a preview of how Apple’s apps adapt to the iPhone Duo’s wider screen.

That said, it’s not a one-to-one comparison. Resizing a mirrored app doesn’t reproduce the Duo’s interface. At the Surprise and Shine Event, Apple also showed controls positioned along the sides of the Duo’s screen for easier thumb access.

Still, seeing widescreen versions of Apple’s iPhone apps over the summer was a fun exercise in imagining what apps on a folding iPhone would look like. Now, with the hardware revealed, it’s merely a more convenient way to experience your iPhone apps on a Mac. And why not? You have a big screen at your disposal, and adaptive layouts let iPhone apps that support them make better use of that display. I plan to use iPhone Mirroring even more as a result.

You can also play DRM-protected video via iPhone Mirroring. It’s not likely to work with every video service, but it’s a step in the right direction. Pretty nifty.

Sidecar

If ever there were an app that screamed “we’re working on a touchscreen Mac!” it’s Sidecar. Sidecar has been a great way to use an iPad as a second screen for your Mac for years now, but it hasn’t seen updates very often since its Catalina introduction.

This year is different because Sidecar now supports touch, letting you interact with your Mac’s interface with your fingers. And you know what? It’s not hard to do. The Mac has smaller UI targets than an iPhone or iPad, but those targets have been getting bigger and the UI more spread out for years. It started with Big Sur, as I noted in my review:

Whitespace is used by Big Sur to make information more glanceable, and windows feel more expansive too.

Tahoe had multiple examples of the trend, too, including taller buttons. macOS 26 also made buttons easier to identify without hovering, which also benefits touch, as I pointed out in that review:

Button groupings are always visible in Tahoe, whereas they only appear on hover in Sequoia.

Sidecar also gives users a chance to discover which Mac interactions work well with touch. And while I wouldn’t use touch for everything in Sidecar, scrolling and poking at buttons and menus is a lot easier than has been imagined in the past. I love that I can scroll a webpage with one finger, tap a Finder sidebar item, and choose toolbar commands without using my trackpad or mouse. So whether Sidecar portends touchscreen Macs or merely makes it easier to interact via a device that was designed for touch from the get-go, I’m here for it.

Preview

I didn’t go into WWDC with “Preview becomes a 3D editing tool” on my bingo card, but here we are. On the surface, it may seem curious, but Preview’s never been about just PDFs. It’s always been capable of editing a wide variety of images. Viewing 3D content isn’t new either, but this year macOS Golden Gate adds 3D editing.

The app allows users to manipulate objects, edit properties and lighting, explore scene hierarchies, and convert or compress assets. Rendering options include Apple’s own RealityKit, Storm, and a new raytracer, all with support for OpenPBR, a standard for describing how materials look and respond to light.

I’m so used to using Preview to do simple things like resize or crop an image or delete a page from a PDF that I was blown away by the depth of what Preview can do with 3D assets. This isn’t the sort of functionality that I expect to have a use for anytime soon, but I’m glad it’s there. It’s part of macOS and gives tinkerers a way to experiment with 3D assets without first learning a dedicated editing app. Making 3D tools more accessible could also encourage more people to experiment with assets for Apple Vision Pro. That’s pretty cool.

Image Playground

I’m not a fan of generative image tools for a host of reasons, and even if I were, Apple’s haven’t been very good to date. Image Playground is substantially better than before, but even its new photorealistic images still look off to me. Generated images of people in my life have an uncanny valley feeling. I can tell who the image is meant to depict, but it’s only a rough approximation of them.

macOS 27’s update is about more than people, though. Image generation now runs on Private Cloud Compute, and the app offers more control over the results. You can preserve the parts of an image you like while replacing individual elements or choosing a different aspect ratio, for example.

In the name of science, I took Image Playground’s new generation and editing tools for a spin. While I’m still not a fan of the images it makes, they are undeniably more realistic. I’ve also been able to remove objects and change their colors reliably, which makes natural language editing more useful than before. I don’t see myself using Image Playground, but it’s there if you want it.

Also, Apple is using SynthID, which was developed by Google DeepMind, to watermark images created with Image Playground, so they can be identified as AI-generated.

Weather

Weather has been redesigned for Golden Gate with a more orderly presentation. In Tahoe, the app featured an hourly forecast that stretched across the entire window (unless there was precipitation) just beneath the current conditions. Much of the more detailed weather data was confined to square tiles. Together it all formed an even rectangle, but the large number of square tiles made the design look a little messy, which also made it harder to scan quickly.

With macOS 27, the details below the current conditions are broken into two columns. The left column features a series of square and rectangular tiles, while the right column is bigger, allowing for more expansive layouts for hourly and daily forecasts and radar, which need the additional space. The bottom of both columns is anchored by a single row of square tiles. The underlying weather data hasn’t noticeably changed, but the new layout makes it easier to scan.

Two other changes are worth noting. There is now a segmented control near the top of the window to switch between current conditions, forecast precipitation, and wind. When each is selected, the hourly and daily forecasts change, as does the radar map. It’s an excellent addition that works equally well on every platform. Apple has also added a new Highlights section to Weather that appears at the top of the app’s weather data and summarizes notable upcoming weather events. Highlights is currently available only in U.S. English.

Maps

Maps’ two marquee features are enhanced Flyover mode and Local Lists. With Flyover, certain cities, including Boston, New York, London, and Chicago, include more detailed 3D renderings of their skylines. Turn on 3D mode and zoom in, and you’ll see what I mean. Apple has enhanced the 3D models for these cities with the help of AI to compose more detailed and realistic cityscapes.

Available in the U.S., Local Lists are a little like Guides, except instead of being hand-curated, they’re generated based on spots that are trending with Apple Maps users, like the list of Manhattan landmarks in my screenshot. The lists update periodically, too.

Other App Changes

Podcasts: Apple Podcasts on the Mac is catching up with the video features available on iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS. You can switch between watching and listening to a podcast on your Mac when a show supports HLS video streaming. Mac users can view the same video using Picture in Picture and can download it for offline viewing, which is great when traveling, too. Also, every Apple platform gains the ability to search from a podcast’s See All Episodes view, making finding back catalog episodes of a show easier.

Home: Home adds tools for finding and understanding HomeKit Secure Video recordings to all compatible Apple platforms, including the Mac. The new features require an iCloud+ plan with at least 2TB of storage, a compatible home hub such as an Apple TV 4K or second-generation HomePod, and an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone, with Apple Intelligence enabled in Home.

Apple uses on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute to describe recorded footage and collect recordings of the same event from multiple cameras. You can also search for clips by the video’s description.

The vast majority of my clips are simply described as “Someone is seen,” which isn’t very helpful as a description or for searching later. Admittedly, those recordings are an unexciting collection of trips in and out of our garage and taking out the trash. However, when it comes to security cameras, mundane footage is exactly what I hope to capture. The question is whether Home can provide useful detail when something out of the ordinary happens, which my testing hasn’t yet answered.

Notes and Freeform

Federico covered Notes in his iOS and iPadOS 27 review, but there’s one small addition to Notes on the Mac worth highlighting: drawing with your finger on a Magic Trackpad or using a mouse. Just select the drawing tool and start scribbling by clicking and dragging on the trackpad or holding down the mouse button and dragging. Drawing with your finger isn’t easy, but Notes does a nice job of smoothing out your squiggles, and I can see this coming in handy as a way to quickly create a diagram or sign your name and paste it into a PDF. The same drawing feature has been brought to Freeform, too.

It’s worth noting that this feature works with touch and the mouse only. You can’t draw on the Magic Trackpad using an Apple Pencil or third-party iPad stylus like the Logitech Crayon.

FaceTime

This year, Apple is expanding Communication Safety to help protect children from images and videos depicting gore and violence. The protection extends to FaceTime on the Mac and iPhone. Apple also says users will enjoy improved FaceTime call quality on poor connections, although I haven’t been able to verify whether those improvements extend to the Mac. Mac users can also select Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan) for Live Captions.

Everything Else

There are a bunch of other little updates sprinkled throughout macOS 27 Golden Gate.

Accessibility

As I wrote in May, Apple is expanding accessibility in macOS 27, including several features powered by Apple Intelligence. Among the features I covered then are:

• VoiceOver image descriptions that allow Image Explorer to describe photos, scanned documents, and onscreen images in greater detail than ever.
• Accessibility Reader, which better handles complex documents, including multi-column layouts with images and tables, and enables summaries and translation.
• Generated video subtitles for everything from video taken with your iPhone to streaming services.
• Better pairing reliability for MFi hearing aids with handoff between devices and a better macOS setup experience.
• Support for the Sony Access controller.

External Displays

For those who use multiple displays and non-Apple displays, there’s good news in Golden Gate. macOS now restores window positions and Spaces and remembers which screen they belong to better than before. This is especially handy when connecting and disconnecting a laptop. I’m a one-display-at-a-time kind of guy, so I haven’t used this feature a lot, but in my limited testing it worked as described.

macOS now supports more resolutions and refresh rates than before. I can now run my 32-inch ASUS display at 4K and 120Hz. HDR can be turned on for photos, video, and Golden Gate’s UI, too.

Everyday Conveniences

There’s a new keyboard shortcut (⌘⇧F) to access Recents in Open and Save dialogs. In addition, Move and Resize controls now work with Open and Save dialogs that are independent windows.

Also, pull to refresh has been added to Safari, Mail, News, and Calendar and is triggered with a downward swipe on your trackpad. It’s another interaction that would feel right at home on a touchscreen Mac.

User Control

The Dock gets a change in macOS 27, too. If you quit an app and it is still running a background process, the indicator beneath its Dock icon turns to light gray. You can stop that activity by right-clicking on the app’s icon and picking “Stop Running in Background.” If you repeatedly stop an app’s background activity, Golden Gate will offer to prevent it from running in the background in the future.

I’m a little torn over this feature. On the one hand, I appreciate knowing which apps may still be using resources after I quit them and like the control this offers. Yet keeping those apps’ icons in the Dock adds clutter, and I don’t think most people will understand what the light gray indicator means. I know I didn’t at first, and I expect that some users might think something nefarious is happening in the background, which isn’t necessarily the case.

macOS 27 adds extensive new Screen Time controls for parents, including Time Allowances for app categories and Schedules for app access during certain times of the day. Ask to Browse lets kids ask permission to visit websites, and there are expanded protections against gore and violence, alongside existing nudity protections. If you have young children, these features are worth a closer look. My kids are all grown, so I haven’t had real-world experience with these controls myself. It’s also worth noting that the new Screen Time features require all devices in your Family Sharing group to be on Apple’s latest series of OSes.

Moving On

macOS 27 Golden Gate can’t run on Intel-based Macs. However, Intel apps can still run through Rosetta. With Golden Gate, you can visit System Settings → General → About → Intel-based Apps → Details to view the list of your Intel-based apps. I had a few old Intel-based apps that I have since removed from my Mac. Apple has also retired AirPort Utility. If you already have it installed, the app won’t disappear, but it’s no longer bundled with clean installs of macOS. Finally, if you want to get ready for next year, encrypted HFS+ volumes will no longer be supported starting with macOS 28.

One Story Ends and Another Begins

When I wrote my macOS 26 Tahoe review last year, I felt like I’d just left the beach for the summer with a book that was promising but that I hadn’t had time to finish. Tahoe added a bunch of great productivity features, but Apple Intelligence was barely out of the gate, and Liquid Glass felt unfinished.

Fast forward one summer, and the vibe is different. This summer, macOS 27 Golden Gate gave Apple the chance to tie up loose ends, delivering a satisfying conclusion to the book I’d started the year before by refining Liquid Glass, improving OS performance, and making Apple Intelligence feel more at home on the Mac. But Golden Gate also feels like the beginning of another story, arriving alongside a change in Apple’s leadership.

John Ternus is often described as a hardware guy, and that tracks with his career at Apple. But during the Surprise and Shine event, what stood out to me was his emphasis on what hardware enables. Introducing iPhone Duo, he explained that Apple started with the experience it wanted to deliver and worked toward the hardware that could make it possible. That’s an encouraging perspective for someone overseeing the future of the Mac.

Apple’s leadership transition comes at a chaotic moment in tech that will shape how people use the Mac. Golden Gate’s priorities are clear. The update makes existing hardware more useful, gives users more control over background activity, and integrates AI in a way that honors the company’s privacy philosophy.

What encourages me is that Apple has begun translating its approach to AI into useful everyday features. Keeping control of my data matters, but so does having useful tools. Golden Gate brings both closer together.

Make no mistake, Apple has a long way to go. It’s not clear at all that this story will have a happy ending for Apple or any other tech company. Apple’s emphasis on privacy and security should be celebrated, but it doesn’t resolve the broader questions AI raises about society, the environment, and our culture.

Siri still needs to be more reliable, and I’d like the Siri app to do more, but I’m rooting for Apple on this one. As much as I get out of tools like Codex and Claude Code for building automations and apps and ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork for running MacStories with Federico, there’s still a lot of data I’d prefer to process on my Mac or through Private Cloud Compute.

As an opening chapter, Golden Gate is a good one. I’m hooked. I want to see what comes next. There are hints of good things to come, from a more capable Siri to touchscreen Macs and other gadgets. It’s going to be messy and chaotic, and I’m eager to see what comes of it.

2027 is going to be a page-turner.

Credits

No project the size and scope of my macOS reviews are created alone. Thanks to:

• My wife Jennifer and my kids, who put up with my end-of-summer crunch every year.
• Federico whose boundless curiosity, contagious enthusiasm for everything “new,” and willingness to question everything and change his mind are rare gifts.
• Silvia for the many things she does for MacStories, not the least of which is the cover of this year’s eBooks.
• Myke Hurley
• Stephen Hackett
• The engineers and designers at Apple who made Golden Gate possible.
• Every Club MacStories member for joining us on our chaotic journey through the tech world.
• And, of course, everyone who reads MacStories and listens to our podcasts. It’s a pleasure to write and record for you every day and share what gets us up in the morning with you.

Today we published not one, but three reviews covering four OSes:

• Federico’s iOS and iPadOS 27 review, which is packed with special interactive touches
• John’s macOS 27 and watchOS 27 reviews

The reviews cover design, new app features and more, which kicks off a big week here at MacStories that includes extra special perks for Club MacStories members. Here’s what we have planned.

For Club MacStories members, we’ve got some exciting perks to help you get more out of the reviews:

• An eBook edition of Federico’s iOS and iPadOS 27: The MacStories Review that you can download and read on your favorite device or app
• 20 additional ready-made shortcuts for iOS 27
• An eBook edition of John’s macOS 27 Golden Gate review
• An eBook edition of John’s watchOS 27 review.

If you’re not already a member, you can join Club MacStories for $5/month or $50/year using the buttons below:

And Club MacStories Plus and Premier members get even more. In addition to the Club perks listed above, Club Plus and Premier members will receive the following:

• Both will get an in-depth Making of the iOS 27 review with a detailed look at Federico’s Notion setup, his MLX local AI workflow, and more.
• Both will also get the custom web app that Federico built, integrating his review research system with Notion.
• Premier members and AppStories+ subscribers will get a special behind-the-scenes look at the role agents played in this year’s review process.

To unlock all of these additional perks, use the buttons below to join Club MacStories Plus:

or Club Premier:

These extras are our way of saying thank you to our Club MacStories members who support us throughout the year. It’s our goal to give members the best experience and most value we can, and we look forward to offering these perks alongside each fall’s reviews.

If you haven’t joined Club MacStories, now’s a great time to give it a try because it comes with a bunch of fun bonuses alongside all the regular benefits. Read on to learn more about the Club and this year’s special extras.

Club MacStories Perks

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All Club members will receive eBook editions of iOS and iPadOS 27: The MacStories Review, macOS Golden Gate: The MacStories Review, and watchOS 27: The MacStories Review that are fully interactive and complete with all the images and videos. This eBooks are DRM-free and yours to read any way you like, on your preferred eReader or eBook app. While the web version is a great way to read the review, we know a lot of Club members value the flexibility of reading it as an eBook, where you can jot down notes, highlight passages, and take a closer look at images.

Club members can access the eBook versions of our reviews via their personal Downloads page.

Club MacStories Plus and Premier members will also get the custom web app that Federico built, integrating his review research system with Notion. And Premier members and AppStories+ subscribers can listen to a special behind-the-scenes look at the role agents played in this year’s review process during the AppStories+ post-show segment.

You can join Club MacStories for $5/month or $50/year using the buttons below:

Club MacStories includes year-round perks too. In addition to the special review season perks, Club MacStories features:

• MacStories Weekly, a weekly newsletter with our favorite iOS and Mac apps, tips and in-depth automation tutorials, exclusive stories, interviews, and more.
• The Monthly Log, a monthly newsletter with behind-the-scenes stories from the MacStories team delivered at the end of each month.
• An ad-free, high-bitrate audio version of MacStories Unwind, the podcast that Federico and John record weekly. MacStories Unwind is a fun exploration of the differences between American and Italian culture and features recommendations for media we enjoy, including books, movies, TV shows, music, and videogames.

Club MacStories Plus and Premier Perks

We’ve got even more benefits in store for Club Plus and Premier members.

Federico is also working hard on a “Making of” story that explains how he used LLMs running locally via MLX combined with Notion to create this year’s iOS and iPadOS 27 review. It was a significant change to the research process that accelerated his writing significantly and can be adapted to other research and writing workflows.

If you enjoy the review and want to learn more about how it came together, this is the way to do it. It’s a peek behind the curtain of MacStories’ biggest project of the year.

Club Plus and Premier members will be able to access the eBook versions of all of this year’s reviews via their personal Downloads page later this week.

Join Club MacStories Plus:

Join Club Premier:

As a Club Plus or Premier member, you’ll also receive access to our vibrant Discord community, bonus columns from Federico and John, an advanced version of the Club website that includes advanced search and filtering controls, custom RSS feeds of Club articles, and more. And, for just $2/month or $20/year more, Premier members get AppStories+ too, the extended, ad-free, high-bitrate audio version of our flagship podcast, which is released early most weeks.

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In case you can’t tell, we love this time of year here at MacStories. After spending the summer putting Apple’s latest OS updates to the test, it’s a thrill to get to share our findings with you and make these software releases a special event for the MacStories community. As much as we appreciate what the new features and enhancements have to offer, it’s conversing about them with you, our readers, that makes this season the joy that it is.

We hope you’re enjoying the week thus far, and we hope you’re looking forward to what’s in store as much as we are. Thank you for reading, and a special thanks to our Club MacStories members who help make all of this possible. Happy reading!

An Apple event can only cover so much. Some of the most useful details turn up in the product pages, technical specifications, footnotes, and summary slides after the presentation ends. We’ve collected our favorite smaller changes from yesterday’s Surprise and Shine event below:

iPhone Duo

• In the hands-on area after Apple’s event, Ben Bajarin reported that the Duo’s hinge crease is barely noticeable, except at specific angles.
• David Imel was impressed by the matte finish on the Duo.
• iJustine has an excellent video showing off multitasking using both the outer and inner screen of the Duo.
• Apple has released a six-video playlist on YouTube and in the Apple Developer app called “Get ready for iPhone Duo” to help get designers up to speed with the phone’s new format. The Human Interface Guidelines have been updated too.
• The vertical strip along the side of the Duo uses App Control icons for what would be tab bars and nav bars on other devices.
• For developers, Apple has released five tech talk videos in the Apple Developer app, including “Raise the bar with iPhone Duo.” Additional materials, workshops, and the Xcode 27.1 beta are coming later this month.
• Continuous Angle API lets developers receive ongoing updates about the Duo’s hinge angle to power interactive effects.
• Developers who don’t update for the iPhone Duo may have their apps letterboxed.

iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max

• The iPhone 18 Pro supports Adjustable Voltage Supply, which works with Apple’s 40W Dynamic Power Adapter.
• The A20 Pro uses Super cores like Apple’s M6 chip and shares its dual Neural Engine architecture.
• iPhone Handoff, which lets you move one phone number between two iPhones, changes your Find My location to the receiving phone and can only be turned off with the help of your carrier.
• The iOS 27 Camera app adds a customizable controls toolbar.

Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4

• Apple published a study that compares its new Apple Watch Series 12 to other wearables, and the results are impressive.
• Your Readiness score changes during the day, adjusting based on workouts and changes in your daytime vitals.
• Audio Intelligence requires more than just a new Apple Watch. Features like Live Rewind and Siri Recap won’t work with the iPhone 16e or iPhone 15 Pro models even though those iPhones support Apple Intelligence.
• Unsaved Siri Recaps are automatically deleted after seven days, and unless saved, Live Rewind transcripts disappear around 30 seconds after your Watch’s screen dims. Siri Recaps can be edited and exported to other apps like Notes.

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You can follow all of our September 2026 Apple event coverage through our September 2026 Apple Event hub or subscribe to the dedicated September 2026 Apple event RSS feed.

Apple’s hardware announcements usually bring a wave of smaller additions to the Apple Store. We’ve gone through the new cases, straps, wallets, and Apple Watch bands introduced alongside today’s products and collected the details below.

iPhone cases and accessories

iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max cases

Apple announced new silicone and TechWoven cases for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. The silicone case is $49 in the U.S. and comes in Burgundy, Olive, Crisp Blue, Navy Blue, Magenta, and Black. The TechWoven case is $59 in the U.S. and comes in Burgundy, Olive, Taupe, Chambray Blue, Mulberry, and Black. Apple is also offering a clear case for $49 in the U.S.

• iPhone 18 Pro Silicone Case with MagSafe
• iPhone 18 Pro TechWoven Case with MagSafe
• iPhone 18 Pro Max Silicone Case with MagSafe
• iPhone 18 Pro Max TechWoven Case with MagSafe
• iPhone 18 Pro Clear Case with MagSafe
• iPhone 18 Pro Max Clear Case with MagSafe

iPhone Duo cases

Apple announced two cases for the upcoming iPhone Duo. The first is simply called the iPhone Duo Case. It will cost $79 in the U.S. and comes in Sand and Navy Blue. The second is the iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand, which comes in Taupe and Navy Blue for $129 in the U.S. Its built-in stand snaps back into place when not in use.

• iPhone Duo Case
• iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand

iPhone Wrist and Crossbody Straps

Apple’s Wrist Strap and Crossbody Strap are available in a variety of colors and attach to select Apple iPhone cases. The Wrist Strap is $29 in the U.S. and comes in Burgundy, Olive, Crisp Blue, Taupe, Magenta, and Black. The Crossbody Strap is $59 in the U.S. and comes in Burgundy, Olive, Crisp Blue, Navy Blue, Taupe, Magenta, Light Gray, Black, and Sand.

• Wrist Strap
• Crossbody Strap

FineWoven Wallet

Apple has also refreshed its iPhone FineWoven Wallet with MagSafe. It costs $59 in the U.S. and comes in Dark Olive, Burgundy, Wildflower Blue, Magenta, Navy, and Black.

• FineWoven Wallet

Apple Watch bands

Apple’s latest band lineup includes new colors and styles across Apple, Nike, and Hermès models. Note that for some bands, the accompanying image only includes representative colors and not all available colors.

Apple and Nike bands

Sport Band

Colors: Black, Burgundy, Magenta, Navy Blue, Olive, Pale Succulent, Sand, Wildflower Blue
Price: $49 (U.S.)

Sport Loop

Colors: Burgundy, Burgundy Plaid, Chambray Blue, Light Umber Plaid, Limestone, Magenta, Olive
Price: $49 (U.S.)

Milanese Loop

Colors: Dark Bronze, Natural, Radiant Gold
Price: $99 (U.S.)

Link Bracelet

Colors: Natural, Radiant Gold
Price: $349 (U.S.)

Nike Sport Band

Colors: After Dark Black, Chalk Calm, Essential White, Green Spark, Pavement Grey
Price: $49 (U.S.)

Nike Sport Loop

Colors: After Dark Black, Chalk Calm, Essential White, Green Spark, Pavement Grey
Price: $49 (U.S.)

Solo Loop

Colors: Burgundy, Navy Blue, Olive, Wildflower Blue
Price: $49 (U.S.)

Braided Solo Loop

Colors: Black, Burgundy, Magenta, Navy Blue, Olive, Wildflower Blue
Price: $99 (U.S.)

Modern Buckle

Colors: Camel, Mulberry, Navy Blue, Sage
Price: $199 (U.S.)

Magnetic Link

Colors: Burgundy, Camel, Midnight, Wildflower Blue
Price: $99 (U.S.)

Apple Watch Ultra bands

Alpine Loop

Colors: Burgundy, Dark Olive, Desert
Price: $99 (U.S.)

Trail Loop

Colors: Burgundy, Dark Umber, Sand
Price: $99 (U.S.)

Ocean Band

Colors: Translucent Black, Translucent Gray, Translucent Kelp
Price: $99 (U.S.)

Hermès bands

Hermès En Mer

Colors: Argile, Bleu Nuit, Bordeaux, Orange
Price: $549 (U.S.)

Hermès Scub’H Diving

Colors: Bleu De Malte, Gris Titane, Vert Vertigo
Price: $549 (U.S.)

Hermès Rocabar Club

Colors: Bleu Nuit/Bleu Brighton, Bleu Nuit/Gris Titane, Bleu Nuit/Orange, Bleu Nuit/Vert
Price: $499 (U.S.)

Hermès Satin Clou de Selle

Colors: Noir
Price: $499 (U.S.)

Hermès Kilim Single Tour

Colors: Bleu De Malte, Béton, Cuivre
Price: $499 (U.S.)

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You can follow all of our September 2026 Apple event coverage through our September 2026 Apple Event hub or subscribe to the dedicated September 2026 Apple event RSS feed.

Two years after bringing noise cancellation to its open-ear AirPods models, Apple is back with AirPods 5. Announced at today’s Surprise and Shine event, the new earbuds offer two models, both with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). For those who prefer AirPods’ fit and the design without silicone ear tips, here’s what’s changed.

The biggest surprise is that both models of the new AirPods 5 feature ANC. When the AirPods 4 debuted, they were $129 for the model with no ANC and $179 for the model that included noise cancellation. Today’s update puts ANC in both models and retains the lower model’s $129 price tag. The second model is $20 more, which buys you a wireless charging case and slightly longer battery life.

According to Apple, the AirPods 5 feature a new acoustic architecture that eliminates up to 50% more external noise than the AirPods 4 with ANC. Transparency mode and Adaptive EQ have been improved, too.

As for that extended battery life on the more expensive model? Apple says you’ll get an additional hour of ANC listening, extending the battery life from four to five hours. With additional charges from the case, Apple claims up to 22 hours of listening with ANC enabled on the $149 model, compared to 20 hours on the $129 model.

The more expensive model also adds volume control to the stem of the AirPods 5, which wasn’t available in either model of the AirPods 4, and the case includes a speaker that works with Find My. Both models have been rated for better water resistance at IP57 compared to the AirPods 4’s IP54 rating.

I’m glad to see both models of the AirPods 5 support ANC and that Apple held the price on the base model. I think $20 for wireless charging, better battery life, and the other advantages of the top model is a great deal too. I’m not going to trade in my AirPods Pro, but the AirPods 5 are a good deal that I expect will sell fast during the winter holiday season.

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You can follow all of our September 2026 Apple event coverage through our September 2026 Apple Event hub or subscribe to the dedicated September 2026 Apple event RSS feed.

At today’s Surprise and Shine event, Apple introduced the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. Both models build on the devices’ existing designs, adding new health and fitness features as well as what Apple calls Audio Intelligence. The star of the Apple Watch show that powers those features on both models is the brand-new S11 chip. Let’s dig into the details of what the new chip and improved sensors means to both models.

Apple Watch Series 12

The new Apple Watch Series 12 comes in 42 and 46mm sizes and is equipped with the new S11 chip. Apple says that enables the device to take sixty times the heart rate measurements and 24x HRV readings compared to the Series 11 Watch. More heart rate measurements and HRV readings mean more accurate and meaningful readings; in fact, better than any other wearable on the market, according to Apple. Apple says step tracking is more accurate, too.

The Series 12 has improved sensors, too. There’s a larger, more power-efficient green LED array for measuring your heart rate every five seconds and a Secure Exclave for processing audio privately and securely. On the outside, the Series 12 features Ceramic Shield 2, making it tougher than the Series 11. The case is now IP6X rated for dust and can be used to six meters of depth. Plus, the battery is rated to last 24 hours during normal use and a 15-minute charge will power it sufficiently to last 12 hours.

HRV readings have been added to your overnight vitals statistics to provide a more complete picture of your health, and Apple has added daytime vitals which you can track during the day. The new health sensing features also enable Readiness, a daily score that uses your vitals to give you a sense of whether your body is ready for a big workout or whether you should take it easy.

The Series 12 comes in a wide array of finishes, too, including aluminum, titanium, and ceramic. The aluminum model comes in Dark Bronze, Light Gold, Black, and Space Gray. Titanium is polished and comes in Radiant Gold and Natural. Finally, Ceramic comes in Pearl White and Night Blue. Aluminum models start at $399, titanium at $699, and ceramic at $899. It’s great to see so many different choices and styles. We’ll have a separate story that covers Apple Watch bands and other accessories on the site soon.

With the richer data delivered by the S11 chip that powers Apple’s new Health Sensing System, the company revealed a wide variety of new software features, including:

• Live Rewind, which with a double press of the Digital Crown displays a transcript of the last 15 seconds of a conversation, allowing you to see what was spoken as text. The feature plays a chime and shows an animation when it’s activated.
• Siri Recap, which can be activated at all times, on a schedule, or on demand via Control Center and produces a summary of conversations.
• Sound recognition using on-device intelligence to detect alarms, a baby crying, sirens, and other sounds.
• Automatic song detection with Shazam.

It’s worth noting that Siri Recap and Live Rewind won’t be available until later this year.

The Series 12 looks to be a big step forward for the Apple Watch. Some years in the past have been hardware-focused, while others have leaned into new watchOS features. This year, users get both in what appear to be meaningful measures, which is great.

Apple Watch Ultra 4

Personally, I’m even more excited for the Apple Watch Ultra 4, which starts at $799. I love its battery life, which is getting even better this year, as well as the fitness features. The Ultra 4’s color options are far more limited than finishes available with the Series 12, with options for natural and black titanium. I realize the Ultra is a more utilitarian watch than the Series 12, but I still wish Apple would expand their case and band choices a little more.

That said, there are a lot of other features to like in the latest model. The battery life is now rated at 50 hours up from 45, and the Ultra benefits from the same chip and sensor improvements found in the Series 12. Plus, in Low Power mode, the Ultra 4 can last for as much as 84 hours, which is truly impressive. Fast charging enables 18 hours of battery life, which is something I know I’ll appreciate when I’m ready to run and find my watch battery nearly spent. The Extended Workout mode for runs, hikes, and walks can last for up to 45 hours, too.

Like the Series 12, the Ultra 4 incorporates the S11 chip and new sensors. That enables Readiness on the Ultra 4 and more meaningful heart rate and HRV readings. Audio Intelligence is part of the Ultra 4’s software story, too, with Live Rewind, Siri Recap, sound recognition, and automated Shazam results available too. So, as with past Ultra models, the big difference between the Ultra 4 and the Series 12 is the display size and battery life, which I expect will come in handy with the watch’s new capabilities.

Health

Finally, the iPhone’s Health app is being updated with a new design and incorporates the enhanced data collected by the new Apple Watch models. There will be a new Insights tab that provides health information based on the data stored in the app. Plus, Health will include a Longevity tab for longitudinal health data and a Health age calculation to give users a sense of their health relative to their age. It’s worth noting that the updated Health app, like Siri Recap and Live Rewind, won’t debut until later this year.

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This is the first year in a long while that i’ve been excited about new Apple Watches. I’d convinced myself that this year would amount to small, incremental changes that wouldn’t justify an update for another year or two Instead, I immediately ordered the Apple Watch Ultra 4. I love the combination of more and better health readings, Readiness, and the new Health app, and I’m intrigued by what I can get out of Audio Intelligence in my day-to-day life. I’ll know soon enough I guess because mine arrives next Friday.

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You can follow all of our September 2026 Apple event coverage through our September 2026 Apple Event hub or subscribe to the dedicated September 2026 Apple event RSS feed.

If you didn’t follow the livestream of today’s Apple Surprise and Shine event, you can replay it on Apple’s Events site or YouTube.

The keynote video can be streamed here and on the Apple TV using the TV app. A high-quality version will also be available through Apple Podcasts as a video and audio podcast. An American Sign Language version of the event keynote is available on the Apple Events page too.

Apple Surprise and Shine Keynote

Product Videos:

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You can follow all of our September 2026 Apple event coverage through our September 2026 Apple Event hub or subscribe to the dedicated September 2026 Apple event RSS feed.

Today, Logitech introduced the MX Keypad. If it looks familiar, that’s because it’s one-half of Logitech’s existing MX Creative Console. However, instead of bundling a 3 x 3 keypad with a dialpad, the MX Keypad is just the keypad for $99.

I reviewed the MX Creative Console in 2024, and I still use it and write about ways to automate tasks with it. It’s an excellent pair of devices, so it’s not surprising that Logitech has adapted the keypad to a new use case.

The MX Keypad’s hardware is identical to the keypad from the Creative Console. In addition to the keypad itself, it comes with a kickstand you can use to prop it up at an angle and connects via USB-C to your Mac. My MX Creative Console review has more detail about the hardware, along with images and a short video.

I like the MX Creative Console a lot, and according to Logitech, so did software developers looking for ways to automate their AI workflows. While Logitech didn’t expressly say why it dropped the dialpad for the MX Keypad, it makes sense to me having used the MX Creative Console for months. Dialpads are great for timeline-based creative work, but less so for development work. Yes, developers might want to use the dialpad to control screen brightness or volume, but by limiting the MX Keypad to just the keypad, Logitech was able to hit a lower price point, making the device more appealing to a bigger audience.

I’ve been impressed by the number of ways Logitech has opened its devices up to automators who like to tinker, too. Similar to devices like the Stream Deck, Logi Options+ lets you build Smart Actions based on keyboard shortcuts and macros. But there’s more than that. If you’d prefer to let someone else do the automation, Logitech runs a Smart Actions marketplace with plugins tailored to certain apps. For developers there’s also a Logi Actions API for building plugins with access to each Logitech device’s full capabilities.

From a developer standpoint, the combination of automation options means the MX Keypad opens up a variety of possibilities like:

• launching agents,
• monitoring agent activity via the device’s dynamically updated keys,
• triggering saved prompts,
• activating voice input, and
• automating many other repetitive tasks.

Logitech is also teaming up with GitHub Copilot as part of the MX Keypad launch, similar to the partnership that was announced with Adobe as part of the MX Creative Console. There’s a Copilot plugin available that adds Copilot controls to the keypad’s keys. Logitech customers can also take advantage of GitHub’s offer for three months of GitHub Copilot Pro+ for free.

Logitech’s MX Keypad is primarily a repackaging of an existing device with a GitHub Copilot deal thrown in to make it a better value. But it’s good to see the company addressing the developer market more directly. Having used the MX Creative Console primarily for automation and development-type work myself, dropping the dialpad from the package to lower the price is a good tradeoff. I use the dial and its other buttons occasionally, but for automation, the keypad is where it’s at, and between Smart Actions and a full plugin SDK you can point your agent at, the MX Keypad is a great choice for automators.

The Logitech MX Keypad is available directly from Logitech and from Amazon.

Designed in California, the Apple history podcast from Myke Hurley and Jason Snell, is now live on Relay with two new free episodes, plus more for Kickstarter backers and Relay subscribers.

Over the summer, Myke and Jason ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for the new show, which will be released as topical series. The first series about the Apple II was released over the summer as part of a preview for the Kickstarter campaign.

Now, the first two episodes of Apple’s Mac OS Crisis are out and available to listen to for free. Those episodes will be followed by five more weekly installments. However, if you backed the Kickstarter or if sign up to support the show via Relay’s website, you get all seven episodes of the series immediately.

The latest series is about:

Apple’s Mac OS crisis in the ’90s, leading to the company acquiring NeXT and bringing Steve Jobs back.

Apple’s Mac OS Crisis also features special guest John Siracusa, who knows a thing or two about ’90s Apple. In addition to the audio-only version of Designed in California, the show is available on YouTube.

It’s been great to see this show come together over the summer. I know it’s been a lot of work, which is clear from the depth and quality of the episodes. I fully expect Designed in California to become the definitive podcast for Apple history nerds.

Perplexity has announced hybrid compute for Personal Computer on Apple silicon Macs. Personal Computer already combined cloud-based Computer tasks with access to local files and apps, but its AI processing was primarily cloud-based. Recently, Perplexity also introduced Portable Computer, a local-first version of Computer that can escalate work to the cloud with a user’s permission.

Hybrid compute approaches the problem from a different direction. Tasks start in the cloud but if a new local classifier detects potentially sensitive information, the user is alerted and asked whether they want to route it to a local model, although users also have the option to let the flagged data be used by a frontier cloud-based model. Gemma E4B, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B, and a Perplexity post-trained version of Qwen3.6 35B are available at launch for that local work, with more models to come in the future.

Tasks that don’t require sensitive information are handled in the cloud by frontier models that also orchestrate the cloud and local tasks. Users select the cloud orchestrator and Perplexity chooses the helper frontier models used.

Another key feature is that hybrid compute works with tasks begun from an iPhone or iPad, too. Those devices could already kick off a session, but now they can also run tasks that use sensitive information locally if your Mac is turned on and running Perplexity.

Yesterday, I got a demo of the feature that walked through three scenarios:

• an attorney researching a legal brief, with sensitive client data on their Mac, allowing them to update it locally,
• an analyst using web-based data to update a confidential slide deck for a presentation about a company’s financials, and
• a small business owner kicking off pricing research from her iPhone that was combined with private pricing data for her business that never left her Mac.

I haven’t tried hybrid compute myself yet, but if it works as advertised, it’s a big step forward for Perplexity, and one that a lot of its competitors are also chasing. AI agents are only as good as the tools and data to which they have access. Tool calling has been a big focus over the last year and more, but data privacy is an equally important issue that needs to be solved before more companies, especially those in regulated industries, adopt agentic tools like Personal Computer. It’s good to see Perplexity tackling this head-on.

Myke Hurley writing on The Enthusiast covers three themes from John Ternus’ new CEO bio that was updated today on the Apple Leadership page:

Number 2:

John has led much of the company’s focus in areas like reliability and durability, introducing new techniques that have made Apple products remarkably resilient

I would not have predicted this angle being so prominent, so I can only assume it’s something that’s important to Ternus. Ultimately, it’s good for customers too — you want your computers to last. Apple has also made inroads into the repairability of its products, which I feel goes hand in hand with this.

Of the three, this is the most interesting to me. I wouldn’t have expected durability to be so prominent either, but in addition to Apple’s repairability push in recent years that Myke highlights, I think this is Apple telegraphing something about the future of its products.

In a world where memory and storage prices have skyrocketed and show no signs of coming down to Earth anytime soon, durability becomes a differentiator that’s more important than ever. When you combine that with the system-level stability and performance efforts Apple has made across its OSes this year, I expect we’ll be hearing a lot more about the long-term value of Apple’s devices this fall.

On today’s episode of AppStories, Federico and I interview Andrew Ambrosino, the project lead for Codex. It’s a great conversation that covers a lot of ground, including:

• the long history and many iterations of Codex,
• the merging of Codex into a new version of ChatGPT based on web technologies,
• Computer Use and Computer History, which came along with OpenAI’s acquisition of Sky last year, and
• what goes into designing for user trust.

Then for AppStories+ subscribers, we dug into Andrew’s Mac origin story and some of his favorite Mac apps.

AppStories is available on Apple Podcasts and all your favorite podcast players, as well as YouTube. AppStories+ is a special ad-free, extended version of AppStories that’s delivered a day early in high-bitrate audio for $5/month or $50/year by itself or as part of a Club MacStories Premier membership that adds our weekly and monthly newsletters, app discounts, and other perks for $12/month or $120/year.

Parker Ortolani on the Pebble Index, the recently released AI smart ring:

Ambient computing is here at home on speakers and in the workplace with apps like Wispr Flow, it’s only a matter of time before we carry it with us everywhere.

The Pebble Index is the best preview of that future. The simple gesture of pressing your thumb to your index finger is unbelievably natural. Especially for quick interactions. I’ve found myself setting more reminders, recording ideas, and keeping lists up-to-date. And I know that everything is being logged on my phone in the Pebble app. Better yet, you can connect the Pebble Index to your other AI tools using MCP. There’s also no reason for skeptics to fret, it’s not always listening for hot words or logging everything it hears.

As Ortolani explains, the device ticks a lot of boxes that other AI gadgets just don’t:

The thing that I think strikes me hardest with the Index is that it’s just so socially inoffensive. It’s a form factor people already love, it’s not distracting, it’s not always listening, and it’s affordable. It could be the first truly noncontroversial AI-first hardware.

I ordered a Pebble Index months ago and it should be coming within the next week or so. I bought it for many of the features Ortolani mentions. It’s on-demand, discreet, and a form factor that doesn’t look out of place. The hardware and software matter a lot with a device like this, but if Pebble has nailed it, I can see it becoming my go-to way to jot down brief notes. I’m excited to give it a try and report back.

Last night, I sat down with my Vision Pro and caught the first part of the Yankees–Red Sox game live in Immersive Video. I wouldn’t call myself a baseball fan these days, but I have fond memories of many summer evenings at Tiger Stadium and Wrigley Field, and I was keen to see how Apple’s immersive broadcast compared.

Having sampled Apple’s other Immersive Video content, but very little of its sports coverage, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Sitting down to watch, I was surprised by how much it felt like I was at Yankee Stadium. Before the first pitch was thrown, the broadcast focused on the Yankees’ starting pitcher as he warmed up. Periodically, the camera angle switched, giving viewers other angles on the pre-game preparations, while the announcers chatted about each team’s season leading up to the game.

Once the game started, the camera switched to positions near each team’s batting circle depending on which team was at bat, occasionally switching to shots behind home plate and in right-center field. During each at bat, a virtual scoreboard showed a 2D feed of the game like you’d see on a regular broadcast bounded by statistics. The additional angle and information were useful for fans, but as someone who was there primarily for the experience, it took away from the immersiveness a little to see a fake scoreboard floating in the sky over the stadium’s right field wall.

That said, the immersiveness was impressive. I found myself looking all around the stadium taking in the sights and spatial audio sounds. The detail was incredible. Fully surrounded by the stadium, I watched as a family walked by with popcorn and drinks and could even read the Poland Spring label on a water bottle in the bullpen.

Then, as I watched the Yankees at bat, I could see someone off camera spitting sunflower seeds in the dirt along the dugout. That sort of minute detail added to the immersiveness of the experience every bit as much as being surrounded by the video feed and soundscape, to the point that when a player entered my view from off camera, I instinctively tucked my legs under me to avoid him tripping over me.

At times, though, I also felt a little too close to the action. It was like I had slipped into a restricted area, an invisible participant, spying on unsuspecting people on the field, waiting for security to discover me and kick me out of the stadium. That feeling was probably driven by the combination of knowing that the broadcast was live and not having watched a lot of Apple immersive sports content, but it was still a little unsettling at first.

As for the game, I didn’t pay very close attention. I don’t follow either team, but it was still fun to watch the game unfold from up close. The dugout camera angles made it slightly harder to see the pitches as they were thrown than it would be from a more traditional outfield camera viewpoint, but it really didn’t take away from the experience.

Ultimately, I only lasted about a half hour. The experience was excellent, but baseball’s pace is just too slow for my taste, so ultimately, I packed up my Vision Pro and caught up on Silo instead.

If you missed the game, it’s available to replay in full along with highlights in the TV app on Vision Pro.

Throughout 2026, Federico and I have been working on a series of software projects and apps with the help of tools like Codex and Claude Code. Some of those are internal tools, but others are the sort of productivity apps from which anyone can benefit. It’s taken a while because we’re picky (and careful), but the time has come to start releasing the apps we’ve been working on.

Federico actually kicked things off earlier this year with RemCTL, an open-source command-line tool that makes every feature of Apple’s Reminders app available from a terminal. That makes it easy to integrate with automation workflows and agents. I’ve been using RemCTL since before it launched publicly, and it’s now deeply embedded in my everyday Codex workflow.

Today, Federico released a Club MacStories+ and Premier preview of NotesCTL, a command-line tool for Apple’s Notes app that is available in the Club Discord community and on the Club Downloads page. Over the past couple of months, he’s reverse-engineered every aspect of how Notes works from the ground up. The result is a command-line tool for power-users that exposes every Notes feature for use with scripts, Shortcuts, and, of course, agents, including:

• tags,
• subfolders,
• pinning,
• rich links,
• attachments,
• checklists,
• headings,
• tables,
• audio recordings, and
• highlights.

With the help of an agent, NotesCTL is great for assembling deep research reports. And with its PencilKit support, you can turn SVGs into native drawings that you can edit and color with an Apple Pencil. It’s great for simple mockups and coloring pages for kids. NotesCTL can also transcribe audio recordings from the Notes app and then search the results. Plus, writers will appreciate the app’s Markdown Exporter.

NotesCTL is nearly ready for public release, but if you don’t want to wait, you can access it today by joining Club MacStories+ or Premier. NotesCTL is the first software project that we’ll be releasing as a beta preview exclusively for Club members, but it won’t be the last. Software never seems ready to ship until, suddenly, it is, and we’ve been working on multiple parallel projects all year that are coming together nicely and will also be released early to Club MacStories+ and Premier members.

We’re excited to share everything we’ve been working on at MacStories for the past several months. NotesCTL is the perfect place to start, especially after RemCTL. Apple’s system apps are excellent, but for power users, they can sometimes feel limiting. Federico’s growing collection of CLIs is MacStories’ answer to those frustrations, one that lets power users enjoy the day-to-day elegance of Apple’s system apps, while extending the apps’ utility when you need it.

NotesCTL is currently available in the MacStories Software section of Discord and on the Club Downloads page where you’ll find it listed under “(2026) NotesCTL Beta Preview” for Club MacStories+ and Premier members and will be released publicly later this fall as an open-source project.

Today, Relay kicked off its annual fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to help combat childhood cancer. In the seven years since the fundraiser began, Relay and its dedicated community of listeners have raised over $4.8 million; a truly amazing figure.

We’d love it if readers joined us in supporting this cause again this year. You can make a donation by visiting here.

The Podcastathon is a big part of the annual fundraiser as Myke Hurley explains on The Enthusiast:

Every year, the Podcastathon for St. Jude is a huge part of our fundraising mission, and we’ve decided that this year we want to turn it into a full-on celebration by having the 12-hour event close out our campaign. So this year we’ll be streaming live on Friday, October 2nd, from the campus of St. Jude.

Also, if you’re not familiar with the story behind Relay’s annual St. Jude Fundraiser, be sure to visit 512 Pixels for the details.

Thanks in advance for checking out Relay’s fundraiser for St. Jude and to all who donate.

Hot on the heels of OpenAI’s addition of a cloud-based browser to ChatGPT Work, Anthropic has added an in-app browser to Claude Cowork in its desktop app. What’s interesting about the two browser implementations is that while both ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork are meant to be used for general knowledge work, Claude Cowork’s browser is something of a hybrid that mixes aspects of OpenAI’s Codex built-in browser with its ChatGPT Work cloud-based browser.

First of all, I do not yet have access to Claude’s in-app browser, so the following is based solely on Anthropic’s announcement and other documentation. Still, the differences are worth understanding since the tools are aimed at different workflows.

Like Codex’s in-app browser, Claude Cowork’s in-app browser is built into the desktop app itself. That ties Claude’s browser to the instance of its app running on your Mac. Turn your Mac off or close the Claude app, and the browser becomes unavailable. Leave the Claude app running, and you’ll be able to control the browser session remotely through the Claude mobile app or the web.

From there, however, the browsers diverge. As you’d expect, the Codex implementation is developer-oriented, with tools to build, inspect, and annotate web pages along with access to a terminal, repos, and diffs. In contrast, Claude Cowork’s in-app browser opens automatically as needed for general-purpose web tasks instead of development tasks.

Also, while both ChatGPT Work’s and Claude Cowork’s browser implementations benefit from being isolated from your other day-to-day browser use outside those apps, their handling of login credentials is a little different. As I wrote in greater detail yesterday, ChatGPT separates the login process from the model’s activity and evaluates the login page for things like phishing schemes. Claude Cowork’s in-app browser offers two ways to log in: manually, or by importing cookies from logged-in sessions in another browser. Currently, Claude supports cookie imports on the Mac from Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, but not Safari. In addition to the security benefits that come with a browser that runs isolated from your everyday browser, Claude also requests permission before acting on a site for the first time, blocks high-risk sites, checks actions against the your requests, and uses the same prompt injection protections as its Chrome extension.

My first-run experience with ChatGPT Work’s cloud browser was a mixed bag but showed promise. Although I haven’t tried Claude Cowork’s browser yet, I’m glad to see Anthropic moving in the same direction as OpenAI here. Isolating agent browsing by bringing the browser into Claude and ChatGPT doesn’t solve every security issue, but it’s a good starting point. I expect we’ll see both Anthropic and OpenAI iterate quickly on this theme in the coming months.