Zac Hall

Apple has released a revised version of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 beta 4 for iPhone and iPad. This is the second revision to an iOS 26 developer beta version, following a small revision to iOS 26 beta 1 for some iPhones.

Social media has been fragmented since Twitter got X’d and cleared the path for Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and others. Still, Apple personalities like Tim Cook still rely on sharing company news, often exclusively, on X. Others seem more fond of Instagram. It’s a lot to follow, especially if you’re off one or more social media networks.

AppleCare is taking a page from the Apple One services bundle and introducing a bundle of its own. AppleCare One is a new way to pay for additional warranty status on all your Apple products, and the window to add coverage is more generous than ever.

In addition to introducing AppleCare One, Apple is making a significant change to how some individual AppleCare+ plans are offered.

Ever forget to add AppleCare to your iPhone, iPad, or Mac in time? Apple is dramatically changing the grace period for adding AppleCare+ on most products starting today.

Apple’s headline iOS 26 features like Apple Intelligence and redesigned apps tend to get all the attention. But some of the most useful changes are easy to miss. These underrated iOS 26 updates quietly improve the iPhone experience in ways that don’t make the keynote but still matter in everyday use.

From smarter AirPods behavior to new journaling tools and better battery estimates, here are 13 updates you might have missed.

iOS 26 beta 4 is out now for iPhones on the developer beta release cycle. Below we’re collecting all of the iOS 26 beta 4 changes compared to the previous version.

Apple changed a few Liquid Glass elements in iOS 26 developer beta 3 and got a lot of online feedback. Now we’re on to iOS 26 beta 4, which will surely be compared under the microscope in as much detail in this season of change.

Everybody’s working for the weekend, but Microsoft Outlook clocked out early. The mission-critical email service is facing a widespread, hours-long outage.

We’re less than 60 days out from the start of the 2025 NFL regular season, and football fans have something new to get ready for kickoff. Many NFL team iPhone apps are coming to Apple CarPlay, starting with three team apps that are already live.

Synology is synonymous with NAS, or network-attached storage, and there’s good reason for that. The DiskStation line of products is reliable and robust with a great community that supports consumer and professional use cases. More recently, Synology has reached beyond traditional NAS solutions with BeeStation, a private and family cloud storage solution. I’ve recently been testing the BeeStation Plus, a somewhat less capable, but much more approachable, product, and the DiskStation DS925+, a traditional NAS with a familiar product name to us at 9to5. Both are great in their own way. Here’s how they perform and compare.

Apple made an interesting omission in yesterday’s chief operating officer transition announcement. Design, which previously reported to COO Jeff Williams, will soon report to CEO Tim Cook, but the press release stopped short of explaining where Williams’ other product responsibility will go when he leaves.

I’ve tested a few BenQ products lately. My favorite has been their Mac monitor with Apple Studio Display specs and a more affordable price. The most fun? A new category for me: projectors. The GP520 4K HDR model BenQ loaned me to test alleviated my concerns about the practicality of a projector instead of a TV.

Jeff Williams, often considered Tim Cook’s successor, is leaving Apple. Sabih Khan, a 30-year veteran of the company, is Apple’s next chief operating officer. Does Khan taking Cook’s old job make him CEO-designate? Jeff Williams retiring certainly clears the path for Khan to climb up the succession planning ladder. However, I would wager that Apple’s CEO succession plan isn’t changing.

How dead is FireWire support in macOS Tahoe 26? As dead as the iPod, as far as the Mac is concerned, which is at least a little sad. Stephen Hackett checked.

In classic 512 Pixels fashion, he’s conjured together a real world demonstration using a battle-tested FireWire 800 cable-connected drive, two Thunderbolt adapters including a Thunderbolt 2 to 3 dongle, and a Mac. Woof.

Sorry or you’re welcome? Apple’s new Liquid Glass visual element is getting any icy design change in some places before it reaches customers. iOS 26 developer beta 3, which will likely be iOS 26 public beta 1 later this month, reduces the transparency effect in a number of places like navigation bars in certain apps. In the example above, the top shows beta 2 while the bottom shows the current look in beta 3.

iOS 26 beta 3 is out now for iPhones on the developer beta. Below we’re collecting all of the iOS 26 beta 3 changes compared to the previous version.

Four weeks have passed since Apple unveiled iOS 26 and the major software redesign coming for iPhone. Now it’s time to start testing the third developer beta preview and see how performance and polish have improved. iOS 26 also includes loads of new features and functionality in addition to the new Liquid Glass-inspired look and feel.

T-Mobile has been testing a beta version of its T-Satellite service with customers for several weeks now. Starting next month, the beta period will start to wind down as satellite connectivity officially launches as a paid service. Beyond the commercial launch, T-Mobile has also announced when the service will expand beyond text message support to include data.

Apple has added a new toggle to show the menu bar background in macOS Tahoe 26 beta 2. The option was added after beta 1 arrived with no menu bar background and no toggle to restore it.