Every January, CES takes place in Las Vegas. Given the fact that Apple themselves never partakes in CES, it’s not necessarily a super important event for me to go to. That said, it’s always fun to see what’s going on in the tech world, and also see what Apple-adjacent products are coming to market.

I’ll be rounding up some of my favorite products that I got to see. Some of them aren’t coming to market imminently, though most of them are on the horizon.

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Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

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If you’ve ever found yourself looking into the sky and wondered “huh, that plane looks a little interesting’ – Zephy is a fun plane tracking tool that uses your iPhone’s gyroscope to show you what exactly is around you. It’s rather nifty.

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In just a few short months, we should hopefully get our first look at an all new AI-infused Siri. After unveiling it over a year and a half ago, Apple’s vision for an all new Siri faced many engineering challenges – and is yet to hit users devices. That should be changing soon, though.

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Roborock is launching a limited-time promotion on its latest F25 series floor cleaners, offering meaningful discounts on both the impressive flagship F25 Ultra and the more affordable F25 GT. Starting today, these deals make Roborock’s newest wet and dry cleaning technology affordable for everyone.

From January 10 through January 23, the Roborock F25 Ultra is available for $300 off at $499.99. The Roborock F25 GT is also discounted, priced at $189.99 (reg. $299), from now through January 18.

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Amazon and Best Buy this weekend have all-time low prices on the Apple Watch Series 11, with $100 discounts across numerous models of the smartwatch.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

You can get the 42mm GPS Apple Watch Series 11 for $299.00, down from $399.00, and the 46mm GPS model for $329.00, down from $429.00. On Amazon, you'll find four of the 42mm GPS models on sale at this all-time low price, and three of the 46mm GPS models on sale.




If you're shopping for cellular models, you can find record low prices on multiple models this week on Amazon. The 42mm cellular Apple Watch Series 11 has hit $399.00, down from $499.00, and the 46mm cellular model has hit $429.00, down from $529.00.




Head to our full Deals Roundup to get caught up with all of the latest deals and discounts that we've been tracking over the past week.

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This article, "Apple Watch Series 11 on Sale for Record Low Price of $299 ($100 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Even without any announcements from Apple, CES dominated tech news this week with a host of upcoming products and technologies being demonstrated at the annual expo in Las Vegas.


Other news in the Apple world this week included official word that the Apple Card will shift from Goldman Sachs to Chase, while iOS 26 appears to be showing extremely slow adoption rates amid the controversial Liquid Glass redesign, so read on below for all the details on these stories and more!

Top Stories

CES 2026 Hub: Highlights From the Show

The annual consumer electronics show CES was once again held this week in Las Vegas. AI and robots were some of the high-profile areas of focus this year, and even though Apple itself doesn't officially attend the show, we still saw a variety of more traditional products that are always popular with Apple fans.


One of the products shown at the show that appears to be more directly relevant to Apple came from Samsung, which briefly showed off its new crease-less foldable OLED display panel. The panel is rumored to be destined for Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone expected to debut later this year.

Another item at CES that has proven popular is the Clicks Communicator, a new Android smartphone intended to be carried as a second phone for focus on communication rather than consumption, with Clicks calling it akin to a Kindle's relationship to the iPad.

Check out our CES 2026 news hub, and head over to our YouTube channel for our daily videos from the show floor.

Apple Card Will Move From Goldman Sachs to JPMorgan Chase

After over two years of rumors, the move is now official: Goldman Sachs is giving up the Apple Card business with JPMorgan Chase to become the new partner for Apple's credit card and savings account business.


The transition will take around two years to play out, and in the meantime Apple Card customers can continue using their cards as usual.

iOS 26 Shows Unusually Slow Adoption Months After Release

iOS 26 is showing unusually slow adoption among iPhone users months after release, according to third-party analytics.


Usage data published by StatCounter for January 2026 indicates that only around 15 to 16% of active iPhones worldwide are running any version of ‌iOS 26‌. Historical comparisons highlight how atypical this adoption curve appears. StatCounter data from January 2025 shows that roughly 63% of iPhones were running some version of iOS 18 about four months after its release. In January 2024, iOS 17 had reached approximately 54% adoption over a similar timeframe, while iOS 16 surpassed 60% adoption by January 2023.

Logitech Blames 'Inexcusable Mistake' After Certificate Expiry Breaks macOS Apps

Logitech users on macOS found themselves locked out of their mouse customizations this week after the company let a security certificate expire, breaking both its Logi Options+ and G HUB configuration apps.


Logitech devices like the MX Master series mice and MX Keys keyboards stopped working properly as a result of the oversight, with users unable to access their custom scrolling setup, button mappings, and gestures. It wasn't long before the Logitech subreddit was awash with frustrated reports as people discovered their configured peripherals had suddenly reverted to default settings.

Logitech quickly issued updates to address the issue, but they require a manual update as the problem left the auto-updating feature unusable since the apps were unable to open.

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health With Apple Health Integration

OpenAI this week announced the launch of ChatGPT Health, a dedicated section of ChatGPT where users can ask health-related questions completely separated from their main ChatGPT experience.


For more personalized responses, users can connect various health data services such as Apple Health, Function, MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, AllTrails, Instacart, and Peloton. Once connected to Apple Health, ChatGPT will be able to access your health and fitness data, including movement, sleep, and activity patterns.

Low-Price 12.9-Inch MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Reportedly Launching Early This Year

Apple plans to introduce a 12.9-inch MacBook in spring 2026, according to TrendForce. The Taiwanese research firm says this MacBook will be aimed at the entry-level to mid-range market, with "competitive pricing."


TrendForce did not share any further details about this MacBook, but the information that it shared lines up with several rumors about a more affordable MacBook, which is expected to be equipped with a version of the iPhone 16 Pro's A18 Pro chip. Apple is expected to release the laptop by March or April of this year.

For more on this budget MacBook, check out our recap of everything we've heard about it so far.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!
This article, "Top Stories: CES 2026 Highlights, Apple Card Moving to Chase, and More" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage and protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.

For an IT Director in 2026, you are probably overwhelmed with AI tools and strategies that promise to answer every question, so you never have to read a support document again. The problem can often be with data sources. If I ask a third-party LLM why a specific configuration profile setting is failing to work as you want on macOS, they are likely to guess based on data scraped from Reddit threads or other random places. We don’t need more AI chatbots guessing at Apple IT solutions. I believe the next major feature for Apple Business/School Manager should be an IT Knowledge API that allows device management service vendors to bake Apple’s official, real-time troubleshooting data directly into their products.

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Today marks the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the MacBook Pro, unveiled by Steve Jobs as a "One More Thing" segment at the end of his Macworld San Francisco keynote on January 10, 2006.


The MacBook Pro was an evolution of the previous PowerBook as the professional-level laptop in Apple's lineup, but with the shift from PowerPC chips to Intel Core chips, Apple decided to launch a rebrand. The ‌MacBook Pro‌ was initially available only in a 15-inch size, with a 17-inch model following a few months later. A 13-inch aluminum MacBook debuted in October 2008, and after just one generation it was folded into the ‌MacBook Pro‌ lineup in 2009.

The original ‌‌MacBook Pro‌‌ came in two configurations, both with 15.4-inch widescreen displays at a resolution of 1,440 × 900 pixels. As announced, the entry-level model priced at $1,999 featured a 1.67GHz Core Duo processor, 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM, and an 80GB hard drive, while the higher-end model priced at $2,499 offered a faster 1.83GHz Core Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 100GB hard drive.

By the time the ‌MacBook Pro‌ started shipping a month later, however, Apple had already upgraded the available Core Duo chips to 1.83GHz in the base model and 2.0GHz in the high-end configuration, while also introducing an even higher-end 2.16GHz build-to-order option.

With its lengthy 20-year history, the ‌MacBook Pro‌ has gone through a lot of changes over its lifetime, adopting key features like a built-in webcam, MagSafe power connector, aluminum unibody construction, high-resolution Retina displays, and more.

Other features were not so well received, including the revolutionary Touch Bar in place of traditional function keys and the butterfly-mechanism keyboard that proved prone to failures and resulted in an extended repair program and multiple class action lawsuits.

In 2020, the 13-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ was one of three Apple products, alongside the MacBook Air and the Mac mini, to receive the M1 chip, marking a generational shift for Apple away from Intel processors and into its own custom Apple silicon. The move freed Apple up from having to follow the cadence of Intel chip releases, and it allowed Apple to further tighten the integration between hardware and software, leading to significant leaps in performance and efficiency.

Looking toward the future, the next big revolution for the ‌MacBook Pro‌ appears to be coming fairly soon, with rumors indicating we should see a major redesign for the higher-end models with OLED displays, touchscreen support, and perhaps an iPhone-like Dynamic Island cutout in the display in either late 2026 or early 2027. Apple is said to also be planning for thinner and lighter designs, making Apple's most powerful laptops even more portable.
This article, "Apple's MacBook Pro Turns 20 Years Old" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Two months after reporting that the industrial designer who introduced the iPhone Air at Apple’s September event had left for an unnamed AI company, Bloomberg has now shared details on where he went.

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Following a short beta period, The Omni Group has officially launched OmniOutliner 6.

It features multiple powerful improvements and new features that will make any outlining task even more streamlined and helpful, even for the non-practicing outliners out there. Here are the highlights.

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iOS 26 introduces two brand new apps for iPhone users, one of which is called ‘Apple Games.’ Here’s what the Games app does, including recent iOS 26.2 updates.

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I love the idea of a fully automated smart home setup where my lights turn on exactly when I need them, and the thermostat adjusts itself without me even thinking about it. In practice, however, there are times when you simply want to push a button for things to happen. For guests, babysitters, or when I don’t want to use my iPhone, physical controls remain the gold standard for interaction.

This week, let’s take a look at the Flic Hub LR and the new Flic Duo as a nice way to control your Apple Home scenes and devices.

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Years ago, Apple introduced a brand new Home app architecture for improving accessory reliability and enabling new features. The deadline for users to upgrade was originally last fall, then got pushed to February, and now Apple is reminding users of the deadline once again.

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Back in late 2022 and early 2023, Apple rolled out a new architecture for its Apple Home platform to deliver improved performance and compatibility, although the rollout came with some hiccups that forced Apple to pull and later re-release the upgrade.


Three years later, Apple is now on the verge of ending support for the old version of the Home architecture, which may result in access to the entire Home platform being blocked for some users if they do not or cannot update. The deadline for updating was originally announced as fall 2025, but in early November, Apple announced that it was pushing back the deadline to February 10, 2026.

It appears Apple will be sticking with that deadline, as the company is sending out fresh reminder emails today to users who have yet to upgrade to the new version of Apple Home.

This email serves as your second reminder that support for the earlier version of Apple Home will end next month on February 10, 2026.

If you do not update to this new version of Apple Home, your access to your home within the Home app might be blocked, accessories and automations might not work as expected, and you will not receive important security fixes and performance improvements. Updating to the new version of Apple Home can also enable new features, such as guest access, support for robot vacuum cleaners, Activity History, and more.

Users can update to the new version of Apple Home within the Software Update section of Home Settings in the Home app. If you have already completed these steps, or "This home and all accessories are up to date" is shown in Software Update, then you are already on the current version and there is nothing more you need to do.

Notably, the new version of Apple Home requires a minimum of iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13.1, tvOS 16.2, and watchOS 9.2, and older devices that have not been or cannot be updated will lose access to the Apple Home after updating. This requirement has not sat well with some users who may use older devices as dedicated Home control devices, so many of these users have put off upgrading their Home architecture for as long as possible, but it now appears the reprieve is coming to an end.
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Apple has 20+ products in the works for 2026 launches, including four new iPhone models—one of which is expected to arrive very soon.

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We’re excited to introduce a new way for the 9to5Mac community to engage: 9to5Mac Forums. Here’s how it works and everything you need to know.

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In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, Ben Ray Lujan, and Edward Markey have requested that Apple and Google remove X Corp's X and Grok apps from their app stores over recent incidents of "mass generation of nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children."


X has come under fire over the past week amid reports of Grok's AI image generation capabilities being used to create images depicting women and children in bikinis or underwear. In response, X appears to have scaled back the ability for Grok to generate images in response to X posts by non-paying users, but The Verge notes that the tools remain available to paying subscribers and through the dedicated Grok tab in the X and in the standalone Grok app.

The senators argue that the "harmful and likely illegal depictions" are in violation of Apple's and Google's app store terms and that the two companies must remove the apps until the policy violations are addressed.

. . . Apple's terms of service bar apps from including "offensive" or "just plain creepy" content, which under any definition must include nonconsensually-generated sexualized images of children and women. Further, Apple's terms explicitly bar apps from including content that is "[o]vertly sexual or pornographic material" including material "intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings."

Turning a blind eye to X's egregious behavior would make a mockery of your moderation practices. Indeed, not taking action would undermine your claims in public and in court that your app stores offer a safer user experience than letting users download apps directly to their phones. This principle has been core to your advocacy against legislative reforms to increase app store competition and your defenses to claims that your app stores abuse their market power through their payment systems.

The senators request a written response to their letter by January 23.
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Apple this week secured another victory in its ongoing legal dispute with heart monitoring company AliveCor, after a federal appeals court upheld a 2024 ruling that found Apple's changes to the Apple Watch were lawful product improvements rather than anticompetitive behavior.


The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision that rejected AliveCor's antitrust claims. AliveCor had argued that Apple illegally monopolized the market for heart rate analysis apps on watchOS when it replaced its Heart Rate during Physical Observation (HRPO) algorithm with its heart rate neural network (HRNN) algorithm in watchOS 5.

AliveCor claimed that Apple changed the algorithm so that its ECG KardiaBand could no longer identify irregular heart rhythms – as part of an alleged effort to "eliminate opposition" in the heart rate analysis space – and requested that it reinstate the old algorithm.

Apple argued that AliveCor did not have the right to dictate Apple's design decisions, and that the request to support the older heart rate technology would require the court to be a day-to-day enforcer of how Apple engineers its products. The court ultimately agreed with Apple.

The Ninth Circuit has now affirmed Apple's victory. "The undisputed evidence shows as a matter of law that Apple's refusal to share HRPO data was not anticompetitive," the court wrote. It added that even if some form of heart rate data access were essential for competing in the market, AliveCor's claim would still fail because Apple provides app developers with access to the same Tachogram API data that Apple's Irregular Rhythm Notification feature uses.

The appeals court also rejected AliveCor's argument that Apple had a duty to share its proprietary data with competitors. The ruling said that antitrust laws generally impose no obligation for companies to deal with their rivals. It also noted that such a requirement "would implicate the same concerns regarding incentives to innovate and judicial competency that the Supreme Court has articulated."

The decision is Apple's second major win against AliveCor within the last year. In March, the Federal Circuit confirmed the invalidation of three AliveCor patents related to heart rate monitoring, vacating an International Trade Commission ruling that could have led to an Apple Watch import ban.

AliveCor said at the time of the court's original ruling that it was "deeply disappointed" by the decision and would continue to explore all available legal options, including potential appeals.
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Your iPhone uses preinstalled Apple apps by default for system actions like opening links, making phone calls, and more. But iOS lets you set new default apps in a variety of categories, and the available options expanded in iOS 26. Here are the details.

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The iPhone Air is the most exciting iPhone Apple has released since the iPhone X. It’s thin, lightweight, and amazingly designed, and for the first time in a long time, it’s different. Apple’s iPhone lineup has felt increasingly redundant. The iPhones have all looked and felt the same since the iPhone 11 lineup. So, excuse the pun, but the iPhone Air has been a genuine breath of fresh air. It prioritizes feel, design, and experience over chasing specs, and that is what makes it special. I put my main SIM card in the iPhone Air and, initially, I loved it. But after living with it day in and day out, two issues slowly but consistently stopped me from fully committing.

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My Mac history is … fairly lengthy, starting with the original Macintosh when it launched way back in 1984. I’m not sure I could even reliably count the number of models I’ve owned since then.

For most of the time since, I’ve owned one Mac at a time. There was a previous period when I owned two Macs, and a return to that approach last year has really paid off …

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Today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break is now ready to roll down below. We have a chance to score Apple’s most affordable iPhone 16 Pro models at up to $320 off alongside its 16GB/1TB M5 MacBook Pro at nearly $200 off. Moving over to the wearable side of things, you will find Apple Watch Series 11 at up to $100 off right now alongside some solid price drops on a series of official bands too – the latest black and blue Trail Loops, the black and natural Milanese Loops, and this ongoing all-time low on the Anchor Blue Apple Watch Sport Loop. Everything else awaits below. 

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Three U.S. Senators have asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to temporarily remove X and Grok from the App Store due to “sickening content generation” in recent days.

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