Welcome to 9to5Mac’s top stories of the week, where we recap the biggest news in the Apple world every Saturday. This week, we have new iPhone Fold rumors, CarPlay expectations, and an Apple all-hands meeting. Plus, our usual slate of new podcast episodes, opinion pieces, and much more. Read on for all of this week’s top stories.

Apple releases iOS 26.3 RC, Jeff plays with Moltbot on his Mac mini, Fernando gets his iPhone’s screen fixed, Jeff laments what it’s like to use Apple Pay at drive thrus, why Apple should add native screen sharing from the iPad back to the Mac, and Fernando gets a new MacBook Pro and considers switching to Final Cut Pro.

9to5Mac Overtime is a weekly video-first podcast exploring fun and interesting observations in the Apple ecosystem, featuring 9to5Mac’s Fernando Silva & Jeff Benjamin. Subscribe to Overtime via Apple Podcasts and our YouTube channel for more.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Sponsored by Stuff: Stuff helps you get everything out of your head and into a simple, elegant system—closing open loops and reducing mental stress. Use code 9TO5 at checkout for 50% off your first year.

Apple’s controversial partnership with Taboola to serve ads on Apple News seems to be going exactly as expected. Here’s why.

Apple’s WebKit blog published a post today highlighting the results of Interop 2025, an industry-wide effort to improve cross-browser interoperability. Here are the details.

Apple overhauled the Phone app in iOS 26 with a new design and added several powerful features, including a new call screening option that I don’t ever want to go without.

Apple has updated its App Review Guidelines to expand the list of user-generated content experiences that can be removed from the App Store without notice. Here are the details.

While AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini feature conversational voice mode, the apps don’t exactly work well with Apple CarPlay. That will soon change, it appears, with an upcoming iOS software update.

The new feature, currently in beta, is rolling out to select Premium users in six countries. Here are the details.

Since early 2020, I’ve used abode as my primary security system and have done so across two separate homes. It is now 2026, and in the world of smart home tech, six years is usually an eternity. I continue to get emails asking if I am still using it, or if I’ve jumped ship to some thing. I wanted to take an opportunity to update my review for 2026, discuss how the hardware has held up, and frankly, warn you about which hub you should buy for HomeKit.

This Sunday is the Super Bowl, the biggest TV event of the year in the US. But aside from sponsoring the halftime show, you may not see much from Apple in terms of paid commercials—except for one F1 ad created by Cadillac.

Siri hasn’t yet gotten the big AI upgrades we’re expecting soon, but it sounds like Alexa’s recent AI revamp is already resulting in at least one user running back to the arms of “old” (current) Siri.

Apple has just opened applications for this year’s Swift Student Challenge. Here are the details on how to apply.

What started life as a humble face monitor geared to watching video and playing games wherever you happen to be has now evolved into something drawing ever closer to a Mac-powered Vision Pro.

The Viture Luma Ultra it isn’t perfect, but it is the closest thing I’ve seen yet to what I’d ideally like from a future Apple Vision Air product …

Today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break is now ready to go. Alongside ongoing $100 price drops across the Apple Watch Series 11 lineup with deals from $299, we are also tracking a new Amazon all-time low on AirTag at $17 as well as a the 1TB iPhone 16 Pro Max at $611 off the original list courtesy of Amazon’s premium program. We also have a chance to score a 13-inch M5 iPad Pro 1TB cell model at nearly $400 off, iPad mini deals, and the best price to date on the Apple Crossbody Strap in black. Check it all out below. 

Apple’s ’Services’ business has grown significantly in recent years, leading some users fatigued by an increasing trend toward subscriptions. But Apple’s reported iOS 27 pivot on a planned ‘Health+’ service is good news for the subscription-weary.

Apple TV has become a go-to service for sci-fi fans, with shows like Severance and Pluribus proving big hits. Another popular series is dystopian thriller Silo, which has a season 3 coming later this year. Here’s everything we know so far about Silo season 3.

iPhone 17 Pro Max’s best-ever battery has been a hit with users, and we’ve heard before that iPhone 18 Pro Max will boast an even bigger battery. Now, thanks to a new leak, we know how much bigger.

New emails unsealed this week and spotted by The Verge show Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggesting the company should conduct less research into how its platforms harm users, bizarrely citing Apple as a model to follow.

The email was sent in 2021 following a report from The Wall Street Journal that Meta was more than aware that Instagram was “toxic for teen girls,” and had done in-depth research on the topic.

Alongside the iPhone 17e, Apple also has a refreshed base model iPad in the works. A new report from Macotakara highlights what we can expect from Apple’s update of its cheapest iPad.

Apple continues to explore how generative AI can improve app development pipelines. Here’s what they’re looking at.

According to a new report today, Apple’s next iPhone is launching very soon. Macwelt reports that the iPhone 17e is set to launch on February 19 — one year to the day following the launch of the iPhone 16e.

Bloomberg reports that Apple has recently scaled back its plans for the Project Mulberry initiative following a leadership shakeup at the company’s health organization. Here are the details.

Apple is rolling out a system update for Apple Watches that haven’t upgraded to watchOS 26, but may be experiencing a very specific connectivity issue. Here are the details.