iOS 27 for iPhone and iPadOS 27 for iPad will be released on Monday, September 14. That’s pretty soon, and while you don’t have to update right away on the release day, you still might be interested in preparing your devices for installing the next major system software update for iOS and iPadOS.
Since iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 are heavily focused on performance improvements, you’ll almost certainly see a benefit when updating from the OS 26 releases, and plus there are nice refinements to Liquid Glass interface, and new Siri AI features too.
Let’s take a look at the steps you’ll want to take to be sure you’re ready for iOS 27.
Apple has released iOS 27 RC build #24A435 for iPhone, along with iPadOS 27 RC for iPad. The RC (Release Candidate) build is often the final version of the beta cycle, absent any major issues, that matches the release version to the general public. This being makes sense given the official iOS 27 release date is set for next Monday, September 14.
iOS 27 includes significant performance improvements, as well as enhancements to features like Spotlight search, and Mail search. There’s also new Siri AI features and Apple Intelligence capabilities, along with a dedicated Siri app. Visually the Liquid Glass interface gets a nice revamp as well with refinements to icons, and a slider to adjust the intensity of the Liquid Glass interface look and transparency. Many other smaller changes and features are also included in iOS 27, the full release notes are included further below.
Apple has released MacOS 27 Golden Gate as a Release Candidate (RC) build #26A428 for all users enrolled in the beta testing programs for Apple system software. A Release Candidate build typically signals the end of the beta testing process, absent any significant last minute issues, and can sometimes match the final Golden Master (GM) build. Given that MacOS 27 Golden Gate has a September 14 release date, it is reasonably likely that is the case here.
MacOS 27 Golden Gate includes notable performance enhancements and improvements to the operating system, including increases in speed, stability, and functionality of core features like Spotlight search, Mail Search, and more. There are also visual refinements to the Liquid Glass interface including tweaks to various icons and user interface elements, and a slider to adjust the intensity of Liquid Glass. You will also find a dedicated Siri app, new Siri AI and Apple Intelligence features, and a variety of other new features and changes throughout the new Mac operating system. Full release notes are included below.
Additionally, iOS 27 RC/GM, iPadOS 27 RC, WatchOS 27 RC, tvOS 27 RC, and visionOS 27 RC, are also available for beta testers as release candidate builds.
Apple has revealed the all-new iPhone Duo as part of the iPhone 18 lineup, featuring a dramatic new design with a foldable screen. When closed, the device looks much like a standard iPhone, but that iPhone transforms into an iPad mini-like device when opened, and is sure to be a popular mobile form factor moving forward. The iPhone Duo is a premium device and priced accordingly.
Separately, Apple also released the iPhone 18 Pro, along with new AirPods Pro, and new Apple Watch models.
Apple has announced the all new iPhone 18 Pro series, including iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. The latest iPhone features a faster processor with more AI capabilities, and there are significant camera improvements, and longer battery life. You’ll also find new color options available across the line.
Apple has released iOS 26.6.2 for iPhone and iPadOS 26.6.2 for iPad. The software updates provide a fix to address an issue with updating software updates over a cellular connection.
There are no concurrent software updates available for other devices or Apple hardware.
If you were a Windows user of the 90s and 2000s, you might remember defragmenting hard drives, a sort of hocus-pocus Windows maintenance maneuver that had legitimate function where it would gather files spread across a drive and put them in a tidier order to make reading them faster. While someone with a lot of files and a significantly fragmented drive could benefit from the procedure, defragmenting Windows 98 (and Windows 95) became a sort of panacea for any issue with a PC, and people undoubtedly overused the tool. Then along came SSDs and defragging sort of went the way of the Dodo.
If you miss pointlessly defragmenting your Windows PC, a silly little webapp lets you recreate the experience, complete with simulated disk reading sound effects and progress bars. This is completely pointless but novel and a bit nostalgic, and it can make for a laugh of few.
There are many situations where you may wish to get a list of all Homebrew packages installed on a Mac, specifically that were installed using Homebrew, and not anything else.
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If you’re not familiar, Homebrew is a popular command line package manager for Mac, and many advanced Mac users use it to install additional software into Terminal or even GUI apps with Homebrew’s cask.
Let’s review two different ways to determine what packages were installed on a Mac using Homebrew.
The Unknown Senders Messages screening feature of iPhone can be really useful if you find yourself getting bombarded with frequent unwanted messages from unknown contacts, but it can also be a hindrance and cause you to miss some messages you may want to receive. If you find yourself missing messages due to the message screening feature for Unknown Senders, you can turn off the feature on iPhone.
There are many reasons to turn this feature off, but a few common reasons are you are giving your phone number out to new people, you are selling something on FaceBook Marketplace or Craigslist and are not seeing the incoming messages about your thing for sale, or you’re just missing messages from people who are not saved into your contacts. Whatever the reason, read along and you’ll have Screen Unknown Senders disabled in moments.
Everyone uses their Apple Watch for different purposes, whether it’s having a nifty tech gadget on their wrist with all sorts of communication tools, as a fitness and activity tracker – which is my primary use case, or simply as a watch to check time and other useful information.
Since my own Apple Watch is mostly optimized for fitness and activity tracking purposes, that’s also what most of my utility of the watch is geared around. But there are a few other features of Apple Watch I use constantly as well, so I wanted to share a few of those tips too. And as always, we want to hear from you and what your regular Apple Watch usage and tips are, so share those below!
Omarchy is a new curated Linux distribution that offers a pre-configured keyboard driven environment and window manager. It’s lightweight and highly customizable, with system integrated AI tools, making for a unique take on operating systems. With Omarchy gaining quite a bit of attention, you might be curious in giving Omarchy a test run, but perhaps you’re not yet ready to commit an entire computer to running the new Linux distro, or don’t want to tinker with a VM.
And that’s where Try Omarchy comes in, an unaffiliated project from @martiano. It offers an entirely self-contained virtualized version of Omarchy Linux that’ll run as an independent app on MacOS.
So, if you’re curious and want to give Omarchy Linux a test run on your Mac, with minimal effort? Give Try Omarchy a look:
Apple has released iOS 27 beta 8 for iPhone, along with iPadOS 27 beta 8 for iPad. The latest beta build first arrives for developer beta testers, but the matching public beta build typically soon follows so keep an eye out for that as well.
Though the betas are intended for advanced users for testing purposes, anyone can technically install iOS 27 beta on iPhone or iPadOS 27 on iPad. Given these are later betas, the experience is fairly well refined, but should still be placed into the beta category where bugs and unexpected behavior may be encountered. I have been running the betas on my primary hardware for a while now and it has been a mostly positive experience, but most people should wait for the final version when it arrives in near future.
iOS 27 has a primary focus on performance enhancements and feature improvements, and there are efforts made for visual cleanup as well. You will find improved system performance, better search functionality including Spotlight and Mail search improvements, new Siri AI features, a dedicated Siri app that is sort of like a chatbot, refinements to various system icons, improvements to the Liquid Glass interface including a slider to adjust transparency, and various other changes and tweaks.
Apple has issued the 8th beta version of MacOS 27 Golden Gate to users participating in the developer beta testing program. Typically the matching build arrives as a public beta soon after, so if you’re on that beta track keep an eye out for an update soon too.
MacOS 27 Golden Gate is nearing completion, with an assumed release date sometime in September. MacOS 27 Golden Gate has a heavy emphasis on performance and system improvements, where you’ll find improved Spotlight search, Mail search, system search, and more. You’ll also find new adjustments and tweaks to the Liquid Glass interface including a slider to control the intensity of the transparent effects. There are new features as well, including new Siri AI capabilities, and a dedicated Siri app which is sort of like a chatbot.
Any user can jump ahead into the OS if they feel like it by installing MacOS 27 Golden Gate beta onto their Mac if they’re comfortable with the beta experience. I personally went all in on the MacOS 27 beta and it has been a mostly positive experience for me, but every user is different.
Continuing on our journey through retro classic computing experiences, here’s another fun one reborn for retro gamers in the modern MacOS era: Chonkcraft.
Remember Warcraft 2, the award-winning classic real-time strategy game from Blizzard circa 1995? You’d play as Orcs or Humans, build a village and an army, and then command that army through battles as you takeover a map. You could play the Human or Orc campaign, or, in what were often absolute riots of entertainment and chaos, against your friends online in 4v4 matchups, making it one of the earliest popular online PvP RTS games. Warcraft 2 was a big hit for both classic Mac and PC, and it’s easy to see why. Perhaps you have wished you could play Warcraft 2 on your modern Mac with Apple Silicon and modern MacOS, only to find out that Blizzard does not offer this, and there’s a whole host of hoops to jump through to get it running through emulators… but not anymore, thanks to Chonkcraft!
Chonkcraft is a modern Warcraft II game engine that plays the original game media files, preparing the artwork and audio for you, and ready to play the classic game with one simple launcher on your modern Mac or PC.
If you’re a longtime Mac user you might recall the popular After Dark screensaver series of Classic Mac OS, which featured a fun range of screen saver options including the infamous Flying Toasters, Mowing Man, Boris the Cat, Bad Dog, Bouncing Ball, Art Critic, Nightlines, and many more. Many of these screensavers were just plain cool, while others were quirky, goofy, and outright silly, and they graced the screens of Classic Macintosh computer labs and home computers from 1989 throughout the 1990s. While those years are long gone (sigh), a fun project called Afterglow lets you run those classic After Dark screensavers on your modern Mac, even in MacOS 27 Golden Gate.
Relive those 1990s Macintosh memories with Afterglow, it’s free and a fun trip down memory lane, whether you used classic Macintosh computers back in that era, or you’re just a curious retro computing enthusiast.
Afterglow will ask you for the original After Dark files, but you can also use the app to browse InternetArchive where you can download them directly, so just choose the version(s) of After Dark you want to download to your Mac and enjoy.
To use Afterglow After Dark screensavers on modern MacOS, go into the apps Settings (Afterglow menu > Settings) and choose to install the screen saver.
If you chose to download multiple After Dark packs, you’ll have a whole bunch of classic screensavers to choose from.
You can enjoy the original Flying Toasters screensavers, complete with the audio and karaoke lyrics (~ “Flying out of the sun… the smell of toast is in the air” ~)
You can watch Boris the cat chase butterflies and cause general mischief on your Mac:
Watch Mowin’ Man mow your desktop and a virtual lawn on your screen:
And don’t forget Bad Dog, the virtual puppy who digs holes and chews on your desktop files. I used to always wish that Bad Dog could be combined with Boris the Cat for total desktop mayhem, alas my childhood screen saver dreams remain in my dream.
These type of retro Mac and computing revival projects are a lot of fun, and we enjoy sharing them here. You might recall that a few years back someone rebuilt After Dark on the web and we shared a tip on how to make that into your screensaver, but AfterGlow makes it much easier, and has access to a more complete screensaver collection.
If you were a classic Macintosh user, don’t miss Afterglow, it’s wonderfully nostalgic and makes for a fun modern MacOS screen saver collection too.
If you’re a MacBook Air or MacBook Neo owner, there’s one accessory that I consider an absolute must-have; a USB-C hub. Why? Because it considerably expands the port options available to you, it’s not cumbersome, and the good news is that they’re also pretty cheap at around $25. What’s not to like?
A good USB-C hub will expand your port options beyond what the MacBook offers by default, and my particular MacBook Air USB-C hub of choice is the Anker 7-in-1, which includes an HDMI port, two USB-A 3.0 ports, a USB-C data port, a USB-C charging port, an SD card slot, and a MicroSD / TF card slot. It’s simple, affordable, and lightweight, making it a fantastic accessory.
Arguably the biggest downside to the MacBook Air or the MacBook Neo is its lack of ports for accessories and expansions, with both computers having just two USB-C hardware ports and a headphone jack. And for the MacBook Neo and older MacBook Air models, one of the USB-C ports is typically used for charging, which further reduces your available port options. But what if you want to use an external display? What if you want to connect your MacBook to a TV via HDMI to watch videos? What if you have some older USB-A hardware or flash drives laying about that you want to put to use? What if you have some SD cards or a TF card that you want to use with the Mac? By default, you won’t have those options, but with the addition of the simple and cheap USB-C hub, you will have those capabilities available to you right away.
There are many other USB-C hub options out there, but I personally like the Anker because it’s small and lightweight so I can easily throw it in my laptop bag when I’m on the go, plus it’s very affordable. It’s also from a popular brand, which helps to have thousands of positive reviews behind it, and while our intended purpose is for a Mac, it also works on a PC if you need to use it elsewhere.
Personally I wish Apple made a USB-C of their own like this, I think it would be a big hit. But while they don’t offer a 7-in-1 hub like Anker does, they do have the $70 Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter, but that only has one USB-A port, one HDMI port, and a USB-C power passthrough port, so it’s not much of an expansion in comparison, and it’s also nearly 3x the price of the Anker.
Do you use a USB-C hub to expand the port options for your MacBook Air or MacBook Neo? Do you have a preferred model? Are there any accessories that you consider must-haves for your Mac laptop? Share your thoughts and hardware in the comments.
Apple has scheduled an event for September 9 at 10 AM PT, titled “Surprise and shine” on their homepage and invitations. The event will be streamed for anyone to watch on Apple.com as well as YouTube.
Typically, Apple uses the September event to unveil their new iPhone models, along with other updates to hardware, and to announce the public release dates of upcoming system software.
This will also be the first Apple event led by new incoming Apple CEO John Ternus, as Tim Cook is set to hand over the reigns on September 1 of this year.
Rumors suggest Apple will unveil the new iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro, along with a much anticipated high end foldable dual-screen “iPhone Ultra”, “iPhone Fold”, or “iPhone Duo”, though like the device itself, the colloquial names are simply rumors as well. There are also rumors that Apple will use the event to update Apple Watch to Series 12, introduce updates to Mac hardware including the possibility of a touch screen MacBook Pro, and there are swirling rumors of a new Home device that is based around Siri AI. As with all rumors, it’s best to take these with a grain of salt until Apple announces anything officially, and it’s possible that some of these rumored devices could arrive at a later date, or never.
The event will also land users with official public release dates for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, MacOS 27 Golden Gate, watchOS 27, and tvOS 27. Apple has previously only said that the OS 27 suite will be released in the fall.
Interested users can add an invitation to their calendar if desired via Apple.com, or visit Apple.com on September 9 to watch.
The iPhone is loaded with so many features that it’s easy to overlook some of the most useful tricks we all use everyday. With that in mind, I’m going to cover seven of the iPhone tips that I use every day, which I find genuinely useful.
This is a collection of iPhone tips that are simple, practical, and broadly applicable, the type of features that are routine in my daily iPhone usage, and hopefully might be useful in yours too. And going beyond my own usage, we’d love to hear your own routine iPhone tips and tricks too, so feel free to share those in the comments, and to provide feedback on these tips as well.
