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The Apple Research team has published a pretty interesting study that investigated whether AI models can estimate heart rate from stethoscope recordings, even though they weren’t specifically trained with that purpose in mind. The short answer is: yes. And this is great news. Here’s why.

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: surprise Apple Glasses launch timing, iOS 26, HomePad’s arrival, and more. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.

Apple has big changes planned for the iPhone 17 lineup, headlined by the addition of the all-new iPhone 17 Air. Meanwhile, a new report today corroborates a change we can expect for the cheapest iPhone 17 model: a slightly larger screen.

Severance season 3 is actively in the works, but that’s apparently not the only new development brewing. In a new interview, Ben Stiller revealed that two spinoff ideas are being explored by Severance’s creative team.

A new Apple-funded study performed by Analysis Group says that the United States App Store “facilitated over $400 billion in developer billings and sales in 2024.” This marks 2.9x growth in the ecosystem since 2019, according to the study.

Most Mac users stick with their machines longer than they want to. Not because they love the slowdowns — but because upgrading is expensive, and reselling takes time most people don’t have.

That’s where Upgraded comes in.

It’s a smarter way to stay current — without the upfront cost or the trade-in hassle. You get a new MacBook, pay monthly (starting at $33.28/mo), and every 2 years, you’re eligible to trade up. It’s simple, clear, and now even more accessible.

And now that we’re approaching WWDC 2025 and macOS 26, it’s a great time to upgrade your Mac hardware and ensure you can run all of Apple’s new features.

Most of the hype surrounding iOS 19—I mean, iOS 26—focuses on the big redesign that’s rumored. But looking past design changes to actual functional upgrades, three of the best iOS 26 features are, perhaps surprisingly, powered by Apple Intelligence. Here’s what’s coming.

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Have you ever looked down at your Apple Watch on your wrist and thought to yourself, “I wish I could play my Game Boy games on here”? Yeah, neither have I. But now that I know it’s possible, I can’t stop playing or showing it off. My 6-year-old self would think I was crazy if I told him I could play Pokémon on my wrist in the future. But it’s 2025, and now this is possible and even works exceptionally well. Here is how to do this.

One of the bigger leaks from Bloomberg is that what we’ve all been anticipating as iOS 19 will instead be branded as iOS 26 (aka 2026).

In other words, Apple is switching from sequential naming to year-based naming. I think that’s a great idea – but not the silly car-maker business of using next year, for a very practical reason …

Yesterday, Bloomberg broke the news that this year’s software update for the Mac will be macOS 26 rather than macOS 16. The update is expected to bring a sweeping redesign to the Mac, and now we have the first rumors on which models will be able to update to macOS 26.

The ongoing saga of potential tariffs on iPhones continues. After Trump threatened Apple with an additional 25% tariff on iPhones, the worst-case scenario could see the cost of the most expensive model in the line-up exceed $4,000.

However, a federal court has ruled that the president doesn’t actually have the legal authority to impose tariffs at all, let alone the most extreme ones he has threatened, and has vacated the executive orders issued so far …

Mozilla has announced that it will shut down Pocket, its popular read-it-later app, on July 8, 2025. This means that unless the Digg acquisition offer turns into something, its users will have until then to find an alternative read-it-later app.

If that’s you, here are five potential replacements, although I know none of them will ever be able to fill that Pocket-shaped hole in your heart.

Just when it seemed like the internet had finally moved on from obsessing over Apple’s iPhone naming conventions… here we go again.

In early April, Opera showcased AI Browser Operator, a first look at its vision for agentic browsing in the AI era. Now, the company is detailing what that actually looks like: rather than being just a feature, Operator is part of an entirely new browser called Opera Neon.

After President Trump threatened to slap Apple with a 25% tariff on iPhones made outside the U.S., one of his top economic advisors is now downplaying the potential fallout of the proposed tax.

Apple introduced a major Control Center overhaul in iOS 18. But its work on the iPhone feature was far from done. Here are all the ways Control Center has gotten better with recent iOS updates.

Apple is planning a huge shakeup to its naming scheme for software updates. Bloomberg reports that this year’s iOS update won’t be called iOS 19 after all. Instead, Apple is planning to call it “iOS 26” as part of a new year-based naming strategy.

Here’s exactly what that means for all of Apple’s platforms …