Apple's retail store in Santa Rosa, California will be moving from the Santa Rosa Plaza shopping mall to the open-air Montgomery Village shopping plaza later this month.


The new store at Montgomery Village will be holding its grand opening on Friday, January 23, at 12 p.m. local time, according to Apple's website.

Apple will have a much larger space at Montgomery Village compared to its existing location at the Santa Rosa Plaza, and it will of course have a modern design. Many newer stores feature a dedicated Apple Pickup station for online orders.

Elsewhere in California, Apple continues to renovate its store in Carlsbad, north of San Diego. Apple has a temporary location there, at 1925 Calle Barcelona. Apple is also operating out of a temporary store at the South Coast Plaza shopping mall in Costa Mesa, south of Los Angeles, while it renovates its original location there.

Thanks, Filip Chudzinski!
This article, "Apple Store in Santa Rosa is Moving Later This Month" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple's flagship Regent Street store in London, England is temporarily closed starting today for "refurbishment," the company said on its website.


Apple has not indicated when the store will reopen, but a source familiar with the matter indicated that the location will likely be closed for at least a few weeks. It is unclear if Apple is planning any changes that will be visible to customers, but the company has been removing the Video Wall from some of it stores in recent months. Many newer and renovated stores also feature a dedicated Apple Pickup station for online orders.

In some cases, Apple only updates a store's fixtures or back-of-house area, resulting in no visible differences to customers when business resumes.

Regent Street is a world-famous shopping street in the heart of London, making it one of the busiest locations where Apple has a retail presence. At a minimum, hopefully the store will receive a deep clean before it reopens.

Apple first opened its Regent Street store in 2004.
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Elon Musk today expressed concern about Apple and Google partnering on a more personalized version of Siri powered by Google's generative AI platform Gemini.


"This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that [they] also have Android and Chrome," wrote Musk, in a post on X.

Musk serves as CEO of xAI, the company behind Gemini competitor Grok.

It is unlikely that Apple or Google will publicly respond to Musk's comment, but we will update this story if the companies have anything to say.

In case you missed it, Apple and Google today jointly announced that Gemini will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized version of Siri that is set to launch this year. Apple has yet to announce exactly when the revamped Siri will launch, but it is reportedly set to arrive as part of iOS 26.4 in March or April.

xAI filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI last year, accusing the two companies of conspiring to "ensure their continued dominance" in the AI market.


This article, "Elon Musk Reacts to Apple and Google Teaming on Gemini-Powered Siri" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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On iOS 18.2 and later, there is a Share Item Location feature in the Find My app that allows you to temporarily share the location of an AirTag-equipped item with others, including employees at participating airlines. This way, if you put an AirTag inside your bags, the airline can better help you find them in the event they are lost or delayed at the airport.


The feature also works with other item trackers that support Apple's Find My network, such as those sold by Chipolo and Pebblebee.

iPhone, iPad, and Mac users running iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 or later can generate a "Share Item Location" link in the Find My app. Anyone they share the link with can then view a web page with a location of the item on a map. The page will automatically update with the item's latest known location.


The item's location stops being shared "as soon as a user is reunited with their item," or automatically expires after seven days.

Apple today announced that the Share Item Location feature is now supported by 36 airlines around the world, and we expect more to follow in the future.

Below, we have listed all of the airlines that support the feature:

• AJet


• Aer Lingus


• Air Canada


• Air France


• Air India


• Air New Zealand


• American Airlines


• Austrian Airlines


• Breeze Airways


• British Airways


• Brussels Airlines


• Cathay Pacific


• Condor


• Copa Airlines


• China Airlines


• Delta


• Eurowings


• Finnair


• Flair Airlines


• Iberia


• JetBlue


• KLM


• LATAM Airlines


• Lufthansa


• Pegasus Airlines


• Porter Airlines


• Qantas


• Saudia


• Singapore Airlines


• SunExpress


• SWISS


• Turkish Airlines


• United


• Virgin Atlantic


• Vueling


• WestJet

This article, "These 36 Airlines Offer iPhone Feature That Helps Find Your Lost Bags" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today announced that 2025 was a "record-breaking year" for many of its services, including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts.


"Apple services had a banner year, rolling out game-changing features for customers while shattering records," said Apple's services chief Eddy Cue, in a press release. "The numbers reflect the incredible enthusiasm of our customers, whether it's downloading an exciting new app or game, watching the hottest new show with family and friends, listening to their favorite songs, or shopping with peace of mind."

Here are some of the 2025 statistics shared in Apple's announcement:

• App Store had over 850 million average weekly users across 175 countries and regions, and it set a new annual record for U.S. visitors.


• App Store had a record number of visitors between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day.


• Apple TV set a new record for monthly engagement in December, with total hours of content viewed on the streaming service up 36% on a year-over-year basis. This increase was driven by hits such as F1: The Movie and Pluribus.


• Apple Music had its best year ever, breaking records for listenership and new subscribers.


• Shazam generated over 1 billion recognitions per month.


• Apple Pay is now available in 89 markets, and Apple says the payment service eliminated well over $1 billion in fraud globally.


• Tap to Pay on iPhone is now available in 50 markets.


• Apple Maps expanded its Detailed City Experience with 3D landmarks to new locations, like New Orleans, Singapore, and Monaco.


• Apple's Share Item Location feature in the Find My app is now offered by 36 airlines.


• Apple Arcade added more than 50 new games.


• Apple Fitness+ expanded to 28 more countries and regions, and it is launching in Japan early this year.


• Apple Podcasts set annual records for listeners, episode plays, and new subscribers.


• Apple News is the most popular news app in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, and the second most popular news app in the U.K.

For more details about new features added to Apple's services in 2025, as well as various other records set, head to the Apple Newsroom website.
This article, "Here's How 2025 Was a 'Record-Breaking Year' Across Apple's Services" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple and Google today announced that Google Gemini will help power not only a more personalized version of Siri, but a range of future Apple Intelligence features.


"Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology," the companies said, in a statement. "These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year."

Apple is "excited about the innovative new experiences" that the partnership will unlock, but the statement did not provide any details about specific features.

It is unclear if Gemini will help power any existing Apple Intelligence features, such as Writing Tools, Image Playground, and Notification Summaries.

Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and on Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers, with Apple promising industry-leading privacy standards.

The more personalized version of Siri is expected to be introduced with iOS 26.4 in March or April, following a lengthy delay. The new capabilities will include better understanding of a user's personal context, on-screen awareness, and deeper per-app controls. For example, Apple showed an iPhone user asking Siri about their mother's flight and lunch reservation plans based on info from the Mail and Messages apps.


This article, "Google Gemini Partnership With Apple Will Go Beyond Siri Revamp" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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iOS 26.3 will likely be released to the public later this month, but it appears that Apple is preparing to push out another software update in the interim.


Apple's software engineers have started testing iOS 26.2.1, according to the MacRumors visitor logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. The update will likely be released at some point this week or next week.

iOS 26.2.1 should be a minor update with bug fixes and/or security patches.

iOS 26.3 is expected to follow in late January, with key new features in that update so far including a new iPhone-to-Android transfer tool, Notification Forwarding for third-party smartwatches in the EU, and more.
This article, "iOS 26.2.1 Update Coming Soon for iPhones" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today seeded the second beta of iOS 26.3, nearly a month after the first beta. So far, the update includes a couple of new features for iPhones.


iOS 15.3 through iOS 18.3 were all released in late January over the years, so it is thereby likely that iOS 26.3 will be released towards the end of this month as well. The update is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer.

Below, we recap what is new in the iOS 26.3 beta so far.

iPhone to Android Transfer Tool

iOS 26.3 makes it easier for iPhone users to switch to an Android device. A new tool allows you to place your iPhone next to an Android device to wirelessly transfer photos, messages, notes, apps, and more. You can also transfer your phone number.

In the iOS 26.3 beta, the new tool can be found in the Settings app, under General → Transfer or Reset ‌iPhone‌ → Transfer to Android. It is available worldwide.

Notification Forwarding in EU

In the EU, iOS 26.3 introduces both a Notification Forwarding feature and AirPods-like proximity pairing for third-party accessories like earbuds and smartwatches.

Apple was required to make these changes to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act.

End-to-End Encrypted RCS Preparations

As of the second iOS 26.3 beta, Apple appears to be laying the groundwork for carriers to be able to support end-to-end encryption for RCS messages.

More

Starting with iOS 26.3, there is a dedicated section for Weather wallpapers, with three preset options available to choose from. To access them, tap and hold on the Lock Screen and tap on the plus sign in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

February is Black History Month, and iOS 26.3 will likely include the 2026 version of Apple's annual Black Unity wallpaper. Apple also typically releases a new Black Unity Sport Loop for the Apple Watch, and a matching Unity Rhythm watch face.

iOS 26.1 introduced a Background Security Improvement feature that is designed to provide security updates for Safari, WebKit, and some other system items between iOS software updates. Apple has been testing the feature with updates such as "iOS 26.3 (a)" and "iOS 26.3 (b)," but they do not actually contain any security fixes.

Additional new features and bug fixes may be added in later beta versions of iOS 26.3. Overall, though, it will likely be a relatively minor update.

Beta 2

We have not discovered any major changes in the second beta of iOS 26.3 so far.
This article, "Here's What's New in iOS 26.3 So Far" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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