iOS 27 includes new iCloud capabilities across several apps like Apple Home, Siri, Photos, and more. There are some direct ‌iCloud‌ improvements like upgrades to photo uploads and sharing, along with some indirect new features.

HomeKit Secure Video Cameras (iCloud+)

If you have HomeKit Secure Video cameras, the Home app in ‌iOS 27‌ has a couple of useful new Apple Intelligence features.

You can get text-based summaries of what's going on, sent as notifications. So when you get a notification for movement, it will say something like "Someone was seen," or "Animal seen."

The text descriptions are also shown in the video playback timeline, and you can search for specific events. Events that take place across two cameras, such as the same person walking from room to room, are paired together to give an overview of action across the home.

‌Apple Intelligence‌ features in the Home app require a 2TB or higher iCloud+ plan, which is priced starting at $9.99 in the United States. The 2TB plan is also the plan required for an unlimited number of ‌HomeKit Secure Video‌ cameras.

‌HomeKit Secure Video‌ cameras have always required an ‌iCloud‌+ plan to store the camera footage in ‌iCloud‌. A single camera can be added with the 50GB plan, and five cameras can be added with the 200GB plan.

To use the ‌Apple Intelligence‌ Home app features, you need a home hub like a HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV 4K, as well as a device that supports ‌Apple Intelligence‌ (iPhone 15 Pro or newer).

‌HomeKit Secure Video‌ cameras can also record up to 4K footage in ‌iOS 27‌, but that feature does not use ‌Apple Intelligence‌.

Apple Intelligence Limit Increase (iCloud+)

Apple said at WWDC that some ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features like image generation with Image Playground will have limits on daily use.

Those limits can be increased with most ‌iCloud‌+ plans. Apple has not given a list of features that will have limits beyond ‌Image Playground‌, nor has it said what the limits will be without an ‌iCloud‌+ plan and with the tiered options.

Siri

‌Siri‌ conversations in the ‌Siri‌ app sync across devices using ‌iCloud‌. The ‌Siri‌ app lets you revisit previous conversations, start new conversations, pin important chats, and continue chats across iOS, macOS, and iPadOS.

Photos

There are several new ‌iCloud‌ features in the ‌Photos‌ app.

• Prioritize Syncing - There's a toggle to force all of your photos to upload to ‌iCloud‌ regardless of battery status. It turns on for 24 hours and then turns off.


• Shared Albums - Android and Windows users can upload photos to Shared Albums. Shared Albums also keep full-resolution photos and videos to support the cross-platform sharing feature.


• Upload Speed - iPhones will now start uploading to iCloud Photos more quickly to make images available across devices faster.

Collaboration

• Link Previews - ‌iCloud‌ collaboration links now show richer previews so you can more clearly see what you've been sent.


• Access Requests - Users can send access requests for items shared via ‌iCloud‌.


• Speed - Apple says users will get faster access to shared content on iCloud.com.


• Links - Creating links to ‌iCloud‌ content is easier with a more accessible share link.

Journal

You can now see the ‌iCloud‌ sync status for each journal entry.

Passwords

The Passwords app can use ‌Apple Intelligence‌ to automatically fix weak passwords in ‌iOS 27‌. It uses ‌iCloud‌ Keychain and Safari to operate.

An Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone is required to use the feature.

Read More

More information on the features in ‌iOS 27‌ can be found in our roundup.

Launch Date

‌iOS 27‌ is available to developers and public beta testers. It will launch in September alongside new iPhone models.
This article, "iOS 27: All the New iCloud Features" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

U.S. President Donald Trump today said on Truth Social that his administration plans to launch an investigation into fines the European Union has levied against tech companies like Apple, Google, and Meta for violating antitrust and Digital Markets Act rules.



Trump called the European Union's conduct "illegal and highly unethical," vowing to get the penalties reversed and planning to institute a "substantial tariff."

The European Union is at it again and, as usual, taking direct aim at GREAT American Companies! After having fined Apple, for no reason at all, 15 Billion Dollars, Meta, 3 Billion Dollars, Amazon 2.5 Billion Dollars, and many others, we have just been informed that Google, a truly advanced and amazing group, has been fined yet another 1 Billion Dollars, without explanation. This brings the Google total to over 18 Billion Dollars! This illegal and highly discriminatory practice started at these high levels during the first year of the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration, but it's not going to continue during the Trump Administration. The United States of America is not a "PIGGYBANK" for Europe, nor will we allow it to be! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that we will immediately initiate a 301 Investigation into the practice of "ROBBING" American Companies and, in turn, the American Taxpayer. The European Union will pay a very big price for this illegal and highly unethical conduct, which I have consistently warned them about. The penalties will be entirely reversed and, we anticipate, a substantial TARIFF to be placed on them at the earliest possible moment.

Apple was fined $570 million in 2025, ‌Meta‌ was fined $840 million in 2024 and $200 million in 2025, and Google was fined $1 billion this week after a $4.5 billion Android fine was upheld earlier this month.

Trump previously threatened European tariffs if the EU did not stop targeting U.S. companies, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative has also threatened to implement fees and restrictions on European services and companies.

Trump has focused heavily on tariffs during his second term, affecting U.S. companies and consumers. A 10 percent blanket tariff Trump enacted earlier this year expired today. The Trump administration implemented new tariffs to replace them, accusing 60 countries of failing to "impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor." The tariffs will affect goods from the UK, China, and the European Union, among others.
This article, "Trump Vows to Reverse EU Fines Against Apple and Other Tech Companies, Threatens Tariffs" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Anthropic today introduced Claude Opus 5, an upgrade to Opus 4.8. Anthropic says Opus 5 was built for daily use, and it offers near Fable 5 performance at half the price. Fable 5 is Anthropic's most capable publicly available model.


Opus 5 scores higher than Opus 4.8 on multiple benchmarked tasks, including agentic coding, novel problem solving, knowledge work, computer use, and multidisciplinary reasoning. It is a "meaningful improvement" over Opus 4.8 for scientific research, and it can produce better visual outputs.

Anthropic says the new model "provides greatly improved performance for the same cost" as Opus 4.8. Opus 5 is better at verifying its work and iterating until it completes a task. It is close to Mythos 5 at finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities, but it was not trained on cyber tasks and it remains "substantially behind" Mythos 5 on exploitation. Mythos 5 is Fable 5 with some safeguards removed. It is limited to a small number of organizations, mostly cyberdefenders and infrastructure providers because of its capability at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities.

Opus 5 is available on all platforms. It is the new default model on Claude Max and the strongest model available on Claude Pro. It is priced at $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens, which is the same as Opus 4.8. Fast mode is also available, running at 2.5x the default speed for twice the base price.
This article, "Anthropic's New Claude Opus 5 Nearly Matches Flagship Fable 5 at Half the Cost" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

With iOS 27, Apple focused on making improvements to iOS performance, optimizing everything from system animations to AirDrop transfer speeds. iPhone performance is smoother and faster on all iPhones able to run ‌iOS 27‌, which includes the iPhone 11 and newer.


There are over 80 ‌iOS 27‌ improvements Apple announced, with 10 of the most useful listed below.

App Launching

Apps launch up to 30 percent faster in ‌iOS 27‌, and that includes Apple's own apps and third-party apps. When you're opening apps dozens of times a day, less loading time adds up and makes the system feel faster.

Apple says it tested the app launching speed improvements using an iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 26.4.2 and ‌iOS 27‌.

Optimized CPU Scheduler

iOS includes a CPU scheduler that manages computational resources across workloads as you use your iPhone. Apple says it optimized the CPU scheduler in ‌iOS 27‌ to more efficiently handle performance-intensive tasks.

Apple extended CPU scheduler optimization all the way back to the iPhone 11, which is part of the reason even old iPhones feel faster with the update installed.

Apple is often accused of making old iPhones slower with new iOS updates, but there are noticeable speed improvements in ‌iOS 27‌ so we likely won't hear that complaint this year.

Better Wi-Fi to Cellular Transitions

iPhones are better at determining when to transition from Wi-Fi to a cellular connection, and from a cellular connection to Wi-Fi. When you're connected to your home Wi-Fi and walk out the door, you'll see less connectivity loss as your device changes networks.

Apple says the iPhone is better about choosing the best available Wi-Fi or cellular connection to help you stay connected.

Rebuilt Search Index

Apple rebuilt its search foundation in ‌iOS 27‌, giving Spotlight, Photos, Mail, and other apps a more comprehensive index of content that stays updated throughout the day.

In the Mail app, there's a new ranking system that surfaces more relevant emails for search queries instead of listing results by date. You'll see up to five ranked Top Results now.

Photo Load Time

When you take a photo and then open up the ‌Photos‌ app, your just-captured image appears more quickly so you can edit it or share it. Apple says photos and videos load up to 70 percent faster in the ‌Photos‌ library, which it tested with a ‌Photos‌ app that had a 50,000-asset library.

Waiting on a photo to unblur when you quickly swap over to the ‌Photos‌ app is a small annoyance, but cutting down on load time makes taking a photo feel much faster.

Recent camera captures are also added more quickly in the Messages app photo picker.

Automatic Message Resending

When a message, photo, or video fails to send in iMessage, your iPhone will automatically retry sending it instead of throwing up a red exclamation point and forcing you to manually try again.

Sending photos and videos when you have a poor connection also does not pause a Messages conversation while the content sends. Each photo or video has its own progress bar, and your texts will still go through while you wait for images and video to upload.

Faster Camera Launch in Low Power Mode

When you have Low Power Mode turned on, the Camera app can launch slowly. That's been fixed in ‌iOS 27‌, and it loads faster than before.

The Camera also draws less power in Low Power Mode.

Faster Keyboard Loading

The emoji and sticker keyboards load more quickly, so there's no longer an irritating pause when you want to use an emoji. The keyboard is something you use frequently, so this is a time-saving improvement.

Mail Badges

If you're tired of unread Mail badges popping up when you have read all your emails, ‌iOS 27‌ addresses the issue. The Mail app badge is now less likely to show an inaccurate number of unread emails.

Bluetooth

Apple says it improved Bluetooth power management in ‌iOS 27‌, an update relevant to AirPods, Apple Watch, CarPlay, speakers, and other Bluetooth devices.

Bluetooth accessories should draw less power for some minor improvements to battery life.

Other Useful Improvements

• AirDrop transfers are up to 80 percent faster, and AirDrop is faster to find nearby recipients


• Text recognition in images and documents is quicker


• Safari has enhanced power efficiency and web apps are faster


• Unlocking an iPhone, scrolling through Home Screen pages and App Library, and scrolling in Control Center are all smoother


• The Lock Screen no longer goes to sleep when you're scrolling through notifications


• Wireless ‌CarPlay‌ is more reliable

iOS 27 Launch

‌iOS 27‌ is being beta tested right now, and can be downloaded by developers and public beta testers. It will launch this fall alongside new iPhone models.

Read More

For more on the new features in ‌iOS 27‌, we have a dedicated iOS 27 roundup.
This article, "10 iOS 27 Performance Improvements You'll Actually Notice" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Driver's licenses and IDs may soon be available in Apple Wallet for iPhone and Apple Watch users who live in Utah. MacRumors discovered signs of a Utah ID in Apple's backend, suggesting Apple is moving forward on implementing support.


Utah already offers a mobile driver's license option through a standalone app, but there is no Apple Wallet integration. Utah's mobile driver's license FAQ page still says that it is still in the initial planning process of adding Utah IDs to Apple Wallet, but it may not be up to date.

The site also says that when Apple Wallet integration launches, iPhone users who already use the mobile app for their Utah ID will be able to download it to Apple Wallet.

Apple announced plans to add Utah driver's licenses and IDs to the Apple Wallet app way back in 2021, but no integration has materialized. Utah was one of the first states Apple mentioned when rolling out the feature.

Other states planning to add support for driver's licenses in Apple Wallet include Connecticut, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Virginia.

Multiple states have already implemented support, as has Puerto Rico.

• Arkansas


• Arizona


• California


• Colorado


• Georgia


• Hawaii


• Illinois


• Iowa


• Maryland


• Montana


• New Mexico


• North Dakota


• Ohio


• West Virginia

Digital IDs and licenses are accepted at select TSA checkpoints across the United States. It can also be used at some business venues and in select apps that require ID verification for services or purchases.

In states that do not support licenses in the Wallet app, iPhone users can add their U.S. passport to the Apple Wallet app with the iOS 26 Digital ID feature.
This article, "iPhone Driver's Licenses May Soon Expand to New State" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

The Health in ChatGPT feature that integrates medical records and Apple Health data is rolling out to ChatGPT users in the United States as of today.


OpenAI announced plans for a health feature that used data from Apple Health and other sources back in January, but it was in beta and was not made widely available.

Health in ChatGPT can draw on health information connected by the user to compare lab test data, summarize changes since a prior appointment, track medications, and explore how sleep, activity, and workouts impact health.

With your permission, ChatGPT can consider relevant information you have connected, such as medications, lab results, recent visits, sleep, and activity, alongside the goals and context you share. This added context can make everyday conversations more useful. For example, ChatGPT can consider a dietary restriction when helping you choose a restaurant, or a recent injury when planning lower-impact weekend activities with your family. You can ask follow-up questions, add context, or correct information that is incomplete or out of date.

OpenAI says the feature is meant to help users understand their health information in context and keep track of what's changed over time. Users can get to the Health section from the ChatGPT sidebar.

Connected medical records and Apple Health information are not used to train OpenAI's models or target ads, nor are conversations that use health data. ChatGPT will ask for permission before using connected medical records and Apple Health information to personalize a response.

For users who would prefer not to connect health records, the Health section in ChatGPT works without them and can answer health-related questions.

Health is rolling out to logged-in ChatGPT users who are 18 years and older in the U.S. on web and iOS. The feature is available to Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans.
This article, "ChatGPT's Apple Health Integration Now Rolling Out to U.S. Users" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Primate Labs today announced the launch of Geekbench 7, the newest version of the popular benchmarking suite for CPU and GPU performance.


There's a redesigned multi-core benchmark in Geekbench 7 that's meant to better represent how applications work in the real world. A workload only runs in multi-threaded mode if the task it models runs multi-threaded in real applications.

Primate Labs says users can expect a multi-core score that's a more relevant measure of how a device performs when doing actual work.

Along with updates to multi-core testing, a revamped GPU benchmark focuses on machine learning and content creation to reflect how GPUs are used today. The GPU benchmark has tests that track faces and apply real-time filter effects to video, upscale images with machine learning, and blur backgrounds in video conferencing streams. New GPU image editing and synthesis tests are available, like RAW image processing, LUT-based video color grading, path tracing, and fluid simulation.

Nvidia's CUDA is once again a supported API alongside OpenCL, Vulkan, and Metal.

The new version of Geekbench uses more challenging data sets to better reflect how people use their computers today. The File Compression and PDF Viewer workloads have more variation, and developer and image processing tests have more assets and different image formats.

Geekbench 7 adds media workloads for testing audio and video encoding, decoding, and processing. The Whisper speech recognition, AV1, and Opus tests mimic video conferencing, screen sharing, and content consumption workloads.

There's also a Game Physics workload that uses the Jolt Physics engine used by popular video games. Primate Labs added an expanded Photo Editor test with a richer set of real-world edits, and the Photo Library workload supports importing and processing image formats like JPEG XL and DNG.

Geekbench 7 is available for iOS, macOS, and other platforms. The app remains free for personal use, and the Pro version is 20 percent off the regular $99 price through August 6.
This article, "Geekbench 7 Launches With Redesigned Multi-Core and GPU Benchmarks" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums