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The MacRumors Show: iPhone XX? Next Year's Major Upgrades Will Change Everything

17 July 2026 at 19:27
This week's episode of The MacRumors Show looks ahead to the 20th anniversary iPhone, the radically redesigned model that Apple is expected to launch in 2027.



Apple's plans for the device's name remain unclear. The company skipped "iPhone 9" and moved straight to the iPhone X for the device's 10th anniversary in 2017, and it is widely expected to skip "iPhone 19" in the same way. Rumors have referred to the 2027 models as both the "iPhone 20" and the "iPhone XX" as placeholder names, and it is still possible that they will sit above the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max as a separate, higher-tier directly, even though they are more likely to replace them as usual. Apple has reset iPhone branding before with the iPhone Air, whose successor is expected to be the iPhone Air 2.

The 2027 iPhone is rumored to be the biggest redesign since the iPhone X. Apple is reportedly aiming for a near bezel-less design with curved glass that wraps around all four edges and a return to a glass back, in line with the single slab of glass that former design chief Jony Ive long described as a goal. The frame is said to be a thin polished band, potentially in a material other than the aluminum used on Apple's straight-edged models, with the display curving onto the sides rather than following one consistent curve.

Displays that curve down the sides can be prone to accidental touches, an issue seen on earlier Android handsets with waterfall edges, though Apple is expected to engineer the device to work with a case. The extent of the curvature, and how far the display appears to refract at the edges, is not yet clear.

Apple reportedly wants a front with no cutouts, but some of the under-display technology is unlikely to be ready in time, meaning some form of front-facing cutout is expected to persist. Current reporting points to a gradually shrinking Dynamic Island, Face ID components moving beneath the panel, and an under-display camera arriving last, since image quality still degrades when a lens sits behind the display.

Apple is also rumored to be revisiting solid-state haptic buttons, reviving the "Project Bongo" effort that reached prototype hardware years ago before being shelved. Reports have cited several potential motivations, including a cleaner frame with no moving parts, a reduction in the mechanical button failures that account for many AppleCare repairs, and additional internal space for a larger battery or additional haptic engine.

Apple is reported to be developing a custom image sensor that would replace the Sony sensors currently used across the iPhone lineup, following the company's move to bring its silicon, modem, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth chips in-house. The rear camera plateau is likely to remain, owing to the space required by the folded optics used for the telephoto lens.

The anniversary models are expected to share a second-generation 2-nanometer A21 chip, along with efficiency gains and a newer Apple modem. A 6,000mAh battery has appeared in some rumors, though it is unclear whether that figure is based on supply chain information.

Reverse wireless charging appeared in the same report and would let the iPhone top up accessories such as AirPods or an Apple Watch. The underlying hardware is already present, since iPhones can charge a MagSafe battery pack through their wireless coil, but Apple has never enabled the capability for other devices, a feature Samsung has offered on its phones for several years. Its viability on the anniversary model may depend on the larger battery and efficiency gains rumored for the device, given how much charge reverse wireless charging draws from the handset itself.

This year's ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ models are rumored to be a more modest update, with the larger redesign reserved for the 20th anniversary model. It is expected to arrive in the fall of 2027, following the iPhone 18, iPhone 18e, and ‌iPhone Air‌ 2 in the spring. The MacRumors Show has its own YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed to keep up with new episodes and clips.



You can also listen to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or other podcast apps. You can also copy our RSS feed directly into your player.



If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up to hear our discussion about the future of Apple's increasingly tangled high-end MacBook lineup, including the entry-level MacBook Pro and the rumored "MacBook Ultra."

Subscribe to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by interesting guests such as Kayci Lacob, Kevin Nether, John Gruber, Mark Gurman, Jon Prosser, Luke Miani, Matthew Cassinelli, Brian Tong, Quinn Nelson, Jared Nelson, Eli Hodapp, Mike Bell, Sara Dietschy, iJustine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Arnold Kim, Ben Sullins, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Tyler Stalman, Sam Kohl, Federico Viticci, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie.

‌The MacRumors Show‌ is on X @MacRumorsShow, so be sure to give us a follow to keep up with the podcast. You can also email us at podcast@macrumors.com or head over to The MacRumors Show forum thread. Remember to rate and review the podcast, and let us know what subjects and guests you would like to see in the future.
This article, "The MacRumors Show: iPhone XX? Next Year's Major Upgrades Will Change Everything" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Pebble Flow electric RV towed by TELO’s MINI-sized electric truck

14 July 2026 at 17:10

Pebble has answered its most common customer question — what’s the smallest vehicle that can tow the Flow electric travel trailer — with a MINI Cooper-sized electric pickup.

The company posted photos of TELO’s MT1 electric truck pulling its full-size, 5,800-lb Flow trailer, a pairing made possible by the Flow’s own active propulsion system.

Solution to Feynman's reverse sprinkler puzzle also applies to "silly sprinklers"

13 July 2026 at 20:00

Watering your lawn in the summer can be both pragmatic and fun with so-called "silly sprinklers," designed to create amusing loops and spirals of water jets. And there's some fascinating physics at work to boot. Researchers at New York University's Courant Institute conducted a series of experiments with different silly sprinkler designs to find the answer to a longstanding problem in fluid dynamics, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As previously reported, the reverse sprinkler problem is associated with physicist Richard Feynman because he popularized the concept, but it actually dates back to a chapter in Ernst Mach’s 1883 textbook The Science of Mechanics (Die Mechanik in Ihrer Entwicklung Historisch-Kritisch Dargerstellt). Mach’s thought experiment languished in relative obscurity until a group of Princeton University physicists began debating the issue in the 1940s.

Feynman was a graduate student there at the time and threw himself into the debate with gusto, even devising an experiment in the cyclotron laboratory to test his hypothesis. One might intuit that a reverse sprinkler would work just like a regular sprinkler, merely played backward, so to speak. But the physics turns out to be more complicated. “The answer is perfectly clear at first sight,” Feynman wrote in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman (1985). “The trouble was, some guy would think it was perfectly clear [that the rotation would be] one way, and another guy would think it was perfectly clear the other way.”

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© NYU's Applied Mathematics Laboratory

BYD wins 11.3 GWh battery deal for world’s largest solar+storage

10 July 2026 at 14:25

BYD Energy Storage has landed a contract to supply 11.275 GWh of battery storage for Masdar’s Round the Clock (RTC) project in Abu Dhabi — one of the single largest energy storage procurements ever signed.

The RTC project pairs a 5.2 GW solar array with a 19 GWh battery system, making it the world’s largest combined solar-plus-storage plant. BYD’s award covers the majority of that storage.

How Fast Does Information Travel to Earth from the Outer Most Reaches of the Cosmos?

1 July 2026 at 09:54
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have observed extremely distant LRD galaxies, with redshifts greater than 14 at distances greater than 13.5 billion light-years. The question I raise here is how do we see these galaxies and their spectral features if the universe is less than 10,000 years old?

Why Did the US Government Brief Groups of Christian Pastors About UFOs and Aliens?

26 June 2026 at 03:43
In February 2026, President Trump directed the U.S. government to release documents on UFOs, UAPs, and alien life. Questions arise about the nature of these phenomena, ranging from interdimensional entities to possible deceptions involving spiritual beings, echoing long-standing debates on extraterrestrial existence and their implications for faith.

« La Lune, avant de la conquérir, il faut la comprendre » : l’ESA défend une exploration spatiale plus utile

23 June 2026 at 20:07
La Lune s'impose aujourd'hui comme l'enjeu central d'une nouvelle compétition spatiale mondiale. Mais derrière les annonces enthousiastes et les promesses d'une installation durable, quelle est la réalité ? James David Carpenter, responsable du Bureau des sciences lunaires à l'Agence spatiale...

A curious crossover: The Toyota C-HR review

23 June 2026 at 19:19

After a slower start than its major rivals, Toyota has been making up for it with a flurry of new electric vehicles for the North American market. Its first attempt, the bZ4x, was an also-ran, but a new battery pack, more efficient motors, and a NACS charging port transformed the face-lifted bZ into an EV I happily recommend. Then, earlier this year, it followed up with some bZ-related variants. For those who miss the vibe of a station wagon, there is the bZ Woodland, and an all-electric Highlander is nearing the showroom, too. But today's focus is the C-HR, and I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it.

It's the smallest of the bunch, some 6.7 inches (170 mm) shorter than the bZ. But it's still as wide and only a little more than an inch shorter. So if you're put off by the bZ's size and are looking for something diminutive—and based on reader feedback, there are many of you out there—this small SUV will probably still fail to pass muster.

It's not any cheaper than the bZ until you consider that the C-HR is only available with one choice of powertrain: a twin-motor AWD setup with a combined 338 hp (252 kW) powered by a 74.7 kWh battery pack. That same arrangement, with a 223 hp (167 kW), 198 lb-ft (268 Nm) front motor and 118 hp (88 kW), 125 lb-ft (169 Nm) rear unit, costs almost $3,000 more in a bZ than the $37,000 starting price of the C-HR.

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© Toyota

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