iOS 26.4 launches later this month, and it’s a big update for new iPhone features. Here are my four favorite iOS 26.4 features that are coming soon.

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Apple may have updated several iPads and Macs late last year and just last week, but there are still a number of new devices expected to arrive later in 2026.


Most of Apple's remaining launches for the year are likely to follow the company's typical fall schedule in September and October, but we could always see additional announcements outside of the 2026 fall season.

We've rounded up a list of everything that we're still waiting to see from Apple in 2026.

1. Low-Cost iPad – Apple is working on a new version of the low-cost iPad that was expected to arrive last week, but it was conspicuous in its absence from Apple's announcements. There are no design changes expected, but Apple will upgrade it with a A18 chip or A19 chip for Apple Intelligence.



2. New Mac Studio - An update for the Mac Studio should arrive in the middle of the year, but no external changes are expected. The refresh should see an update to the M5 Max chip and either an M4 or M5 Ultra chip.



3. New Mac mini – New Mac mini models are in the pipeline and are expected to arrive sometime after the Mac Studio refresh. The ‌Mac mini‌ will probably offer M5 and M5 Pro variants, but no design changes are expected.



4. New iMacs – Also likely coming after the Mac Studio debut, new iMacs could have a refreshed color palette this year and are almost certain to get the M5 chip.



5. Foldable iPhone – Apple's rumored new book-style foldable smartphone, featuring a display in both folded and unfolded states, is expected to arrive in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.



6. iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max – We get new iPhones every September, but Apple will adopt a split-launch cycle this year, and we are expecting only Pro/Max models alongside the new foldable iPhone – so no regular iPhone 18 or iPhone Air 2 this year.



7. Apple Watch Series 12 – We usually get new Apple Watch Series models alongside new iPhones in the fall, but we're expecting only internal changes this year, with noninvasive blood glucose monitoring thought to still be a few years away.



8. Smart Home Hub – Apple is said to have delayed the launch of its planned smart home hub until September, due to ongoing issues with the revamped version of Siri.



9. New Apple TV 4K – The new Apple TV 4K appears to have been held back until the updated version of Siri is ready later this year. Rumors suggest that it will get an A17 Pro chip for Apple Intelligence along with Apple's N1 networking chip, but no major design updates.



10. New HomePod mini – Like the Apple TV 4K, Apple is believed to have a new version of the HomePod ready to go, but it may be being held up by issues with the revamped version of Siri that Apple has promised later this year. The ‌HomePod mini‌ is expected to get a newer Apple Watch chip and it could also adopt the N1 and an updated UWB chip.



11. High-end AirPods Pro – Apple plans to unveil new AirPods Pro this year equipped with tiny infrared cameras, allowing them to be connected to Apple Intelligence, specifically Visual Intelligence. It is unclear when Apple plans to announce the new AirPods Pro, but September or October is most likely, based on historical patterns.



12. OLED MacBook – A new, high-end MacBook, potentially called "MacBook Ultra," is believed to be arriving around the end of the year, featuring a touch-capable OLED display.

What We Might Not See This Year

The Apple Watch Ultra was refreshed in September 2025. Another update will not arrive until September 2026 at the earliest, but Apple has not always refreshed the Ultra on a yearly basis. It's not yet clear if we're getting a refresh in 2026 or if Apple will skip this year completely while it works on incorporating noninvasive blood glucose monitoring technology.

The same goes for Apple Watch SE, in that Apple has not updated the more affordable model on an annual cycle. The latest model, Apple Watch SE 3, debuted in September 2025, so Apple might skip updates this year – although we've yet to hear either way.

Software Updates

In three months, Apple will unveil its next generation of software at its June Worldwide Developers Conference, where it typically previews the major updates coming to its platforms. The event will offer an early look at the features planned for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27.

These updates are notable because they bring new capabilities to existing devices without requiring users to purchase new hardware. Apple will introduce the software in June, but the final versions are expected to be released to the public in September.

Read More

MacRumors maintains an upcoming products guide that outlines both near-term releases and devices expected further down the road. It's updated frequently, providing you with a useful reference for keeping track of what Apple is currently developing and what may launch next.
This article, "12 New Apple Products Still Expected This Year" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Remember that leaked Sonos speaker from just over a week ago? It’s now official, and there’s a second new Sonos product announced today too.

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Our editor-in-chief Chance Miller has been testing the MacBook Neo for just under a week, and his review described it as “a truly great Mac at an unbelievable price.” Other reviewers clearly share his view. While there are of course compromises, everyone agrees that this machine leaves all of the Windows competition in the dust …

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Apple CEO Tim Cook today shared a short promotional video on social media highlighting Apple's new role as the U.S. home of Formula One.


The clip takes place around Apple Park and shows Cook driving a small campus buggy along the ring road before pulling up beside Dutch racing driver Max Verstappen. The scene plays out like a Formula 1 pit stop, with the buggy stopping at a makeshift pit area labeled "Tim Box Box," a reference to the radio phrase used by F1 teams to call drivers into the pits.

During the stop, a rapid tire-change sequence unfolds, parodying the high-speed choreography of real Formula 1 pit crews. After the brief stop, Cook accelerates away from the pit box.

The light-hearted video is part of Apple's wider promotional push around its new Formula 1 broadcasting partnership. Beginning with the 2026 season, Apple has become the exclusive U.S. broadcaster of Formula 1 races through the Apple TV app, which now carries every practice session, qualifying session, Sprint race, and Grand Prix live and on demand.

Apple has been heavily promoting the partnership across its ecosystem, including features in the Apple Sports app, race coverage integrations in Apple News, circuit maps in Apple Maps, and audio race broadcasts on Apple Music.

The promotional clip also comes shortly after the start of the 2026 Formula 1 season, which opened with the Australian Grand Prix. Apple says ‌Apple TV‌ subscribers in the United States can watch the entire season with 4K video, Dolby Vision, and multiple onboard camera feeds.
This article, "Apple CEO Tim Cook Takes a Pit Stop in New Video to Promote F1" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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The first reviews of the MacBook Neo were published today by selected publications and YouTube channels, ahead of the laptop launching on Wednesday.


Available in Blush, Citrus, Indigo, and Silver, the MacBook Neo is powered by a version of the A18 Pro chip from the iPhone 16 Pro. The laptop is equipped with a 13-inch display, up to 512GB of storage, and a non-configurable 8GB of RAM.

MacBook Neo is Apple's most affordable MacBook ever, and most of the reviews so far call it a great value. In the U.S., pricing starts at just $599, or at an even lower $499 for college students and qualifying educational staff.

The big question: is just 8GB of RAM enough? Most reviewers say yes.

Reviews

The Verge's Antonio G. Di Benedetto said the MacBook Neo's 8GB of RAM is "totally adequate" for "the everyday productivity stuff the Neo is meant to handle":

The MacBook Neo zips through the light workloads it's designed for. The A18 Pro chip actually outperforms Apple's M1 MacBook Air (and most Windows laptops) in single-core processing benchmarks, the spec most vital for the everyday productivity stuff the Neo is meant to handle. That's why this $600 laptop excels at light tasks like web browsing and working on Google Docs. The Neo's 8GB of RAM and slow 256GB storage are totally adequate for living this life, but the machine does feel a little slower at the fringes if you know where to look — like how clicking the Applications folder on the dock sometimes takes a second for the icons to populate.

The relatively paltry RAM and storage prevent the Neo from performing as well in heavier creative apps as the MacBook Airs and Pros, but that's fine.

CNET's Matt Elliott ran Geekbench 6 on the MacBook Neo, and the laptop's A18 Pro chip achieved scores of 3,541 for single-core CPU performance and 8,958 for multi-core CPU performance. This means the MacBook Neo's peak performance tops Macs with the M1 chip, while the single-core number is approaching the M4 chip, so the MacBook Neo should feel particularly "bursty."

Mac Model	Multi-Core CPU Score
MacBook Pro (M5 Max)	29,233<
Mac Studio (M3 Ultra)	27,726
MacBook Pro (M4 Max)	25,702
MacBook Pro (M4 Pro)	22,490
Mac Studio (M2 Ultra)	21,410
MacBook Pro (M3 Max)	20,960
Mac Studio (M1 Ultra)	18,434
MacBook Air (M5)	17,073
MacBook Pro (M3 Pro)	15,260
MacBook Pro (M2 Max)	14,740
MacBook Air (M4)	14,731
MacBook Pro (M2 Pro)	14,451
MacBook Pro (M1 Max)	12,345
MacBook Pro (M1 Pro)	12,345
MacBook Air (M3)	12,020
MacBook Air (M2)	9,709
MacBook Neo (A18 Pro)	8,958
MacBook Air (M1)	8,342

Bloomberg's Chris Welch praised the MacBook Neo's aluminum design, display quality, and the dual speakers on the left and right edges of the laptop:

Even for consumers who stick to more casual computing, the Neo's aluminum build, crisp screen and well-balanced speakers are going to make this a no-brainer purchase for millions. In your hands, the device looks, feels and sounds every bit like a Mac.

Tom's Guide ran its usual battery test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits of display brightness, and the MacBook Neo lasted for 13 hours and 28 minutes. The publication said this is "fantastic endurance for a laptop in this price range," topping the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3's 8 hours and 39 minutes. However, it falls short of the latest MacBook Air, which lasted for 15 hours and 28 minutes in the test.

Additional reviews were published by Ars Technica, WIRED, and 9to5Mac, among others.

Videos

This article, "MacBook Neo Reviews: Is Just 8GB of RAM Enough?" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple TV is now home to Formula 1 races in the US, and to promote the partnership, Tim Cook just shared a new video where his Apple Park golf cart gets an F1-style pit stop.

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The first MacBook Neo unboxing videos were shared today by selected YouTube channels, ahead of the laptop launching on Wednesday.


Regardless of whether you choose Blush, Citrus, Indigo, or Silver, the MacBook Neo comes with a white USB-C charging cable in the box. In all regions except the UK and the EU, Apple's 20W USB-C Power Adapter is also included in the box. As has been the case for a few years now, however, Apple stickers are no longer provided.

We have rounded up some of the unboxing videos below.








This article, "MacBook Neo Unboxing Videos Shared Ahead of Launch Day" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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I bought my first Mac in 2007: a black polycarbonate MacBook. To this day, I think it’s the most consequential purchase I’ve made in my life.

Last week, Apple introduced MacBook Neo. It’s a fascinating Mac, and not just because of the price. After using it for the past six days, I think it’s set to drive a new wave of people to the Mac ecosystem. Here’s why.

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Limited time: Pre-order MacBook Neo at Best Buy and score a $25 gift card.

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Verizon today has the AirPods Pro 3 available for $199.00, down from $249.00. This is a match of the all-time low price on the AirPods Pro 3, which has been hard to come by on Amazon in recent weeks.

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

This model of the AirPods Pro launched in September 2025 and has 2x better Active Noise Cancellation than the previous generation, better audio quality, a revised fit that's meant to improve comfort and stability, Live Translation for in-person conversations, and heart rate sensing for workouts.



Keep up with all of this week's best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.

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This article, "AirPods Pro 3 Hit All-Time Low Price of $199" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Rode has announced a new product for video producers called the Rodecaster Video Core. Rode calls its new hardware the “ultimate all-in-one content creation tool, seamlessly integrating professional-grade video and audio production into a single, compact console.”

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Tech columnist David Pogue's new book Apple: The First 50 Years is available in hardcover and digital formats starting today.


In time for Apple's 50th anniversary on April 1, the 608-page book explores the first five decades of the company's history. Pogue interviewed 150 key people who shaped Apple into what it is today, including the company's co-founder Steve Wozniak, former CEO John Sculley, former design chief Jony Ive, and others.

While many aspects of Apple's history are well documented, the book's official description promises "new facts that correct the record":

In time for Apple's 50th anniversary, CBS Sunday Morning correspondent David Pogue tells the iconic company's entire life story: how it was born, nearly died, was born again under Steve Jobs, and became, under CEO Tim Cook, the most valuable company in the world. The book features full-color photos, new facts that correct the record and illuminate its subversive culture, and fresh interviews with the legendary figures who shaped Apple into what it is today.

Pogue is a CBS Sunday Morning correspondent, and he spent many years writing about Apple and technology for The New York Times and Macworld. An excerpt from his book, focused on the late Steve Jobs, is available on the CBS News website.

Pogue has been on a media tour to promote his new book, so there are lots of interviews and excerpts coming out. He recently sat down for an extended interview with Apple's CEO Tim Cook, and he made an appearance on CBS Mornings this week.


Pogue will also be interviewing Apple's former marketing chief Phil Schiller on March 18 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, at SXSW 2026 in Austin, Texas.

Apple was officially founded on April 1, 1976. The company has yet to announce any plans to celebrate its 50th anniversary in a public-facing manner, but it will likely mark the occasion in some way over the coming weeks.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment.
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It’s been predicted that Apple could sell four to five million MacBook Neo machines this year, with even hardcore Windows fans seeing the appeal of switching.

A new market intelligence report today suggests that the new machine could become even more attractive later this year as competing laptops become more expensive …

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Apple's Mac lineup will soon span a wider price range than ever, from the new $599 MacBook Neo to a rumored top-of-the-line MacBook "Ultra" expected later this year. However, new research suggests the broader laptop market could be heading for a painful price adjustment.


According to TrendForce, surging memory and CPU costs could push mainstream laptop retail prices up by nearly 40% in 2026. The firm modeled a laptop with a $900 MSRP and found that DRAM and SSD (normally around 15% of a device's bill of materials) have ballooned to over 30% following several quarters of sharp price increases. That alone could force retail prices up by more than 30% if brands want to hold their margins.

Intel has raised prices on entry-level and older-generation laptop CPUs by more than 15%, notes the report, with further hikes planned for mainstream and higher-end platforms in the second quarter. When combined, memory and CPU could end up accounting for 58% of laptop component costs, up from roughly 45%.

Apple designs its own silicon, which gives it considerable insulation from Intel-driven CPU volatility. The MacBook Neo's A18 Pro chip, for instance, is produced by TSMC under Apple's direct supply agreements. But Apple is not immune to memory market pressures – DRAM and NAND flash costs affect Macs across the line, from the Neo's fixed 8GB of RAM to the high-capacity configurations in the MacBook Pro.

Just last week, Apple removed the 512GB memory upgrade option when purchasing a Mac Studio, with the machine now maxing out at 256GB. The latter option also got a price rise – it used to cost $1,600 to go from 96GB to 256GB on the high-end M3 Ultra machine, but now it costs $2,000.


TrendForce notes that "tier-one brands" with deep supplier relationships are most well-positioned to deal with the price squeeze. That bodes well for Apple, but killing off the Mac Studio upgrade option shows it's not completely invulnerable to broader market pressures.
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Apple is pitching the MacBook Neo at people who’ve never owned a Mac before, and it’s reaching out to them in the place it thinks it will find this new generation of potential Mac users: TikTok.

The company has been running a series of quirky ads on the video streaming platform, some of them featuring an adorable little Finder guy …

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Apple celebrates its 50th birthday this year, having originally been founded on April 1, 1976. Coinciding with that anniversary, veteran technology reporter “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent David Pogue is out with a new book that goes in-depth on the company’s history, Apple: The First 50 Years.

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Apple last year shifted a substantial amount of iPhone production outside of China despite the fact that it has to pay a premium to do so.

The company reportedly hit a significant milestone, reaching the halfway point in its objective to split iPhone production equally between China and India …

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Apple boosted iPhone production in India by around 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its flagship devices there to avoid tariffs on China, reports Bloomberg ($).


Apple assembled about 55 million iPhones in the country across 2025, up from 36 million a year earlier, according to the publication's sources. The shift is part of Apple's broader effort to mitigate risk from U.S.-China trade tensions and reduce dependence on a single country for production.

Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones globally. A Canalys report last year claimed India has overtaken China as the leading manufacturer of smartphones shipped to the United States.

The California-based company has leaned heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's production-linked incentives aimed at turning India into the world's factory. The subsidies have helped offset some of the structural cost disadvantages that manufacturers face in India, including the lack of a China-like robust supply chain and logistics challenges, according to Bloomberg.

Although the cost gap has narrowed, assembling electronics and manufacturing components in India still remains more expensive than in countries such as China and Vietnam. Consequently, companies including Apple and Samsung are continuing to push for additional government support.

The companies are currently in discussions with the Indian government about a new round of incentives aimed at boosting export growth. The report notes that India's existing production-linked subsidies for smartphones are set to expire on March 31, and with the U.S. Supreme Court recently striking down some tariffs affecting China, officials in New Delhi are under pressure to act quickly to ensure the country remains cost-competitive.

Apple now assembles all models in the latest iPhone 17 lineup in India, including the higher-end Pro and Pro Max variants. Manufacturing partners in the country – including Foxconn, Tata Electronics, and Pegatron – also produce older devices such as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 for both domestic sales and export markets.
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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 & 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.

In this episode of Apple @ Work, Kevin Pickhart, Executive Chairman of Pharos, joins the show to talk about the hidden security risks lurking in office printers, and why zero-trust security needs to include print workflows, not just endpoints and networks.

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German media agencies and publishers are urging the country’s antitrust watchdog to reject Apple’s proposed changes to App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and impose a fine on the company. Here are the details.

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OpenAI’s recent contract with the U.S. Department of Defense sparked backlash from users, briefly pushing Claude to the top of the App Store. Here are the details.

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Apple is continuing to test the iOS 26.4 beta, and the latest update is now available for developers and public beta testers. As testing goes on, there are fewer new features in each beta, but today’s release adds new emoji characters and a few other changes.

New Emoji

Apple added new emoji characters, including trombone, treasure chest, distorted face, hairy creature, fight cloud, orca, and landslide.


There are also new skin tone modifiers people wrestling and dancers with bunny ears, as well as a gender neutral option for the ballet dancer emoji.

Reduce Bright Effects

Apple renamed the prior Reduce Highlighting Effects Accessibility setting to “Reduce Bright Effects,” and explained what it does.


Apple says the feature "minimizes highlighting and flashing when interacting with onscreen elements, such as buttons or the keyboard.

RCS Encrypted Messaging

Apple has removed the RCS end-to-end encryption beta in the fourth beta of iOS 26.4 after testing it in the prior three betas. Apple already said that end-to-end encryption for ‌RCS‌ would not launch in the iOS 26.4 update, and would instead be introduced in the future.

Apple tested end-to-end encryption for iPhone-to-iPhone ‌RCS‌ conversations, and iPhone-to-Android conversations. iMessage communications are already encrypted, but in a future iOS update, full implementation of ‌RCS‌ encryption will mean that iPhone-to-Android text message conversations have the same level of encryption.

New Device Support

iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 beta 4 are the first betas that are able to be installed on the new iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air.

More New Features

We have a list of all features found in prior betas in our iOS 26.4 feature guide.
This article, "Everything New in iOS 26.4 Beta 4" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Starting today, users can ask Shazam to identify a song without having to leave ChatGPT. Here’s how it works.

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