In 2022, Apple introduced a new Apple Home architecture that is "more reliable and efficient," and the deadline to upgrade and avoid issues is today. In an email last week, Apple gave customers a final reminder to upgrade their Home app by February 10, 2026. Apple says users who do not upgrade may experience issues with accessories and automations, or lose access to their smart home in the app entirely. In addition, users who do not upgrade will miss out on newer features like robot vacuum cleaner support, and they will not receive important security fixes and performance improvements. Apple explains how to upgrade the Home app on the iPhone, iPad, or Mac: Open the Home app Tap or click…

Apple's resurgence in China after a three-year slump was supposedly helped by a color, with the iPhone 17 Pro's bright orange option compared to the hue of luxury brand Hermes.Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro MaxDuring Apple's blockbuster Q1 2026 results, revenue from China reversed a three-year slump in sales, increasing 38% year over year. If analysts are to be believed, it may have had something to do with Apple's color selection.Prominently featured in marketing, the Cosmic Orange colorway for the iPhone 17 Pro line certainly catches the eye. But apparently, in China at least, it has been linked to another luxury brand. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Macworld Reports of Liquid Glass’s death were, it seems, greatly exaggerated. According to a new report, Apple has no plans to move on from the divisive software design for at least another year. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman discusses Apple’s plans for iOS 27 this year, and concludes that, other than a new chatbot version of Siri, it will focus on fixes rather than features. And later in the newsletter he clarifies that this means we shouldn’t expect a new look. In the Q&A segment, Gurman responds to a question about recent personnel changes in Apple’s design team and whether that means the company will rethink its user interfaces. (It’s been speculated that…

Macworld Reports of Liquid Glass’s death were, it seems, greatly exaggerated. According to a new report, Apple has no plans to move on from the divisive software design for at least another year. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman discusses Apple’s plans for iOS 27 this year, and concludes that, other than a new chatbot version of Siri, it will focus on fixes rather than features. And later in the newsletter he clarifies that this means we shouldn’t expect a new look. In the Q&A segment, Gurman responds to a question about recent personnel changes in Apple’s design team and whether that means the company will rethink its user interfaces. (It’s been speculated that…

DuckDuckGo has announced new voice chat capabilities for Duck.ai, the private AI chatbot platform it launched last March. The new feature lets users have real-time voice conversations with large language models (LLMs) through an encrypted relay connection. OpenAI provides the LLMs that power voice chats, but DuckDuckGo says that neither it nor OpenAI stores any audio after conversations end. "Voice chats in Duck.ai are private, anonymized by us, and never used to train the underlying AI," the company said in its announcement. OpenAI is also contractually limited in how it can use voice chat data. Here's how DuckDuckGo describes the service: DuckDuckGo protects your audio stream and voice data in several ways, to ensure it can only be accessed by…

Apple has responded to complaints that it abuses its dominant position in the iPhone app market by making four promises to third-party developers about fairer treatment. Developers and others are being asked for their comments on the proposals, and the UK’s antitrust regulator says it will be closely measuring the effectiveness of the measures … more…