iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 officially announced
Apple unveiled iOS 27 and iPadOS 26 at WWDC 27. The Cupertino company says an optimized CPU scheduler helps make older iPhones more responsive. The announcement highlights several performance improvements in iOS 27. App launches are 30% faster, new photos open 70% faster in the Photos app. AirDrop transfers are now up to 80% faster than before. iCloud shared albums are now shareable with Windows and Android devices.
Users who didn’t like Liquid Glass, which was introduced in iOS 26, will be happy to know that the new update has a slider. This allows you to set the transparency level of the effect, i.e. you can make it more transparent or go the opposite way for a more opaque/fully tinted style. Most of the app icons in iOS 27 have a new look, they are clearer and more detailed.
In a surprising move, ios 27 It supports all phones that can run iOS 26. This includes the iPhone SE 2nd gen, and the iPhone 11 which was launched in 2019. It will be the first iPhone to receive 8 major iOS updates. iPadOS 27 Shares most of the improvements from iOS 27, but has a few improvements that are unique to it. iPad users will be able to resize iPhone apps on their tablets to make them easier to use. The menu bar can be set to display at all times instead of auto-hiding. The status bar now displays the name of the active app. The Files app in iPadOS is up to 5 times faster to browse and transfer files.
Apple announces macOS 27 Golden Gate
Apple also announced macOS 27 Golden GateFollowing its tradition of naming macOS after popular destinations in California. The next version of the operating system is named after the strait that connects San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
Users can now trigger Visual Intelligence on macOS using keyboard shortcuts. A new consistent toolbar appears at the top of all apps, providing quick access to useful options. App windows on macOS 27 have tighter borders, and sidebars extend to the edges of the screen. Safari will organize your tab groups by context, a feature powered by Apple Intelligence. It can also notify you when a web page is updated.
The Photos app is getting spatial reframing and generative AI tools, while the Image Playground app is adding more tools for editing, styles, and offers options to create wallpapers and contact posters.
Could Siri AI Be the Next Big Thing?
The star of WWDC 26 was Apple siri ai. It is now a dedicated app deeply integrated into the OS, and powered by Apple Intelligence. Apple has partnered with Google to leverage the technologies used in the Gemini model to create the Apple Foundation Model. Siri AI uses an on-device model for data processing, and connects to encrypted private cloud computing servers. Apple says the servers do not store any data to ensure users’ privacy.
In addition to recognizing visual content (on-screen awareness), image understanding (creating and editing images), Siri AI supports dictation with better language understanding. AI uses Spotlight’s semantic index to find files quickly. It can connect to the Internet to get the latest information, and use private cloud computing to generate answers to users’ questions. App Actions allow Siri AI to open apps to execute user requests, for example when you ask it to send an email, it opens the Mail app. It can undo sending, create a new contact, read upcoming events in your calendar, make notes, play music and more.
Siri AI is only supported on newer models of devices. The list includes the iPhone 15 Pro and above, iPad models with the Apple Silicon chip, the A17 Pro and newer, all Mac models with the Apple Silicon chip, the A18 Pro chip.
Users in the EU region will have to wait longer to use Siri AI, as Apple has delayed the launch of the feature due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Brave Browser now lets you block auto updates for extensions
The Brave browser is testing a new feature that will allow users to prevent extensions from automatically updating. The option is currently hidden under an experimental flag that you can toggle.
Firefox already has this feature, but like chip.in According to the report, Chromium-based browsers lack the ability to block automatic extension updates. It’s good to see that Brave is giving users more control over how add-ons are updated. Normally, the browser updates all extensions automatically in the background. While this may be good for security reasons, the option to disable auto-updates can be especially useful if you want to revert to an older version of an extension because the new version is worse, or if it has removed features that were previously supported, or even because the extension was sold/acquired by a third party.
But, it is not perfect in its current form. There are a few drawbacks to Brave’s implementation, the first being that users will need to manually check for extension updates, which can be tedious. The second problem is how the browser handles updates. Unlike Firefox, where you can choose which add-ons to update, Brave has an all-or-nothing system, meaning you can’t update add-ons individually, it updates all extensions at the same time. Hopefully, Brave will improve this in the future.
Microsoft’s Xbox strategy is being rebooted
after announcing Price cut for Game PassMicrosoft is making another one Big change in its Xbox strategy. For better or worse, exclusive games are back. Sony recently announced that its singleplayer games will not be launching for PC. Rumors suggest that this was due to the fact that the next Xbox would be able to play PC games, and Sony really didn’t want fans to play its games on rival consoles.
That game can be played between two people, or so Microsoft decided when it announced Gears of War: E-Day As an Xbox console exclusive. This still means that the game will be available on PC and Xbox, but not on Sony PlayStation 5. Similarly, Microsoft also unveiled Clockwork Revolution as an Xbox console exclusive. What’s interesting here is that some journalists had reported that Microsoft had a PS5 version of Gears of War: E-Day ready, and the Redmond company has decided not to move forward with that version. Fans had seen pre-order listings for the game, and even Microsoft’s own videos featured PlayStation branding, but it was later removed. This indicates that the change to make the game exclusive to Xbox was a last-minute decision.
