Apple’s iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 explains how to record a phone call when you are talking to one other person, with the recording saved to the Notes app. Apple also lists where call recording is not available: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, the European Union, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, […]
Apple’s iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 explains how to use Live Translation during a call in the Phone app, so you can hear and read a spoken and text translation in your preferred language. Apple says the feature is powered by Apple Intelligence and works on one-on-one calls in the languages Apple lists, on […]
Apple today introduced Apple HomeView, designed to be central to the home and personal to everyone in it. With a stunning 7-inch Liquid Retina display, HomeView brings entertainment, connection, and smart home management together in one place, from playing music and making FaceTime calls to home monitoring and hands-free automations with voice control — all designed with privacy and security at the core. HomeView recognizes users by their faces, adapting so they can access their personal content in Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, Reminders, and Find My.
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Designed to fit in any space, HomeView can be placed on a tabletop as the center of the home or wall-mounted to fit in spaces like the entryway or hallway.
I guess the best part is the price. $299 (not including wall mount) is less than the base iPad and the same as the Apple TV. But I just can’t imagine what I would use this thing for. It does not seem more appealing than an iPhone or HomePod for any tasks. I wouldn’t want to dedicate any kitchen space for it, and the cord is a problem. Why would I not just use an old iPad or iPhone, which are wireless and support apps and standalone video? Maybe it would be interesting if it could do something extra, like act as a Time Capsule.
HomeView does not have FaceID. I asked about this and Apple reps said that first, your home is (reasonably!) presumed to be a safe space. But in order for users to be recognized — by voice or face — they must have a “registered [non-watch] personal device” that supports Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, that device must be present on the home’s Wi-Fi network, and it must have been recently unlocked.
It doesn’t have an App Store. Instead, Apple has a curated selection of apps, including FaceTime, Messages, and Safari. A handful of third-party media apps like Spotify are available, and developers can bring over existing CarPlay apps. If your iPhone already has one of these CarPlay apps installed, it can automatically appear on the HomeView after setup. (There are no video streaming apps like YouTube, Netflix, or Disney+, but if those companies choose to make their apps available on the CarPlay framework, they will show up on the HomeView; for now, you’ll have to consume videos by using the Safari browser.)
Beyond that, though, it seems like HomeView is at least starting life as a very limited app platform. Apple does say that if you make a Siri AI query for your personal content, it will search everything on your iPhone or iPad—and that includes apps that aren’t on the HomeView. So you should be able to query your iPhone apps, but not actually run them.
I do think I want one, but there are a few things to settle besides price and value. For starters, having more screens in the house doesn’t seem like a winning proposition (the HomePods we’ve got work OK for alarms, reminders, etc.), and the American fascination with the kitchen island (which, by the way, needs power sockets in the middle…) doesn’t translate to European flats.
Wait… I just noticed something else from the HomeView video🤔
When she goes to grab the HomeView, you can see her right hand reach out to grab the lower right hand corner of the screen. But then the cut shows her grab the top of the base to rotate it?
Did they not like the cut where the entire base rotates? (This would would have shown the USB-C plug rotate along with the entire unit)
Folks speculating HomeView is the tail end of Tim Cook’s product “leadership,” but 1) Ternus is the CEO and can torpedo it if he thinks it’s a stinker. 2) He’s also the guy who spearheaded iPad’s “what’s a computer?” campaign and the idea that an iPad was a viable replacement.
The biggest issue with Apple’s Home ecosystem is the absolutely garbage Home app. Still, in 2026, there is a tab dedicated fully to buying more smart home gadgets (aka, an ad) within the iOS Home app and it can’t be removed. Yet rooms are buried up top. Pitiful.
This is the ONE THING (“One more thing”?) I’d been hoping to get from
@Apple
in this announcement: they were redoubling efforts on HomeKit/Home.app to make the ecosystem actually work better… annnnnd did not get that impression. At all.
IMHO, as an HomeKit user with dozens of devices in 2 Homes, there is SO MUCH low-hanging fruit that
@Apple
could be working on to improve the UX, it is pathetic.
The original HomePod didn’t come to the EU either for 5 months, and even then it was only in two countries. The original HomePod never came to Ireland at all, before it was discontinued. But if you only listened to the pundits, this is somehow now the DMA’s fault.
It is so convoluted that people will be having trouble understanding it, and if they have trouble understanding it they’ll be having trouble trusting it. Most of what it does involves somehow sucking in the juices from the people’s devices that cohabitate with it.
[…]
That it works at all is impressive, but will people really put their integrity in its hands? Between this and the various “always-listening” features of the recent Apple Watch releases, I’m thinking Apple has gotten a bit too high on its own supply.
Apple overhauled the external display APIs in iOS 27 for unclear reasons and replaced it with a ‘scene accessory’ API, which I believe powers the iPhone Duo’s both-screens-at-once entitlement-gated API.
Enter HomeView, with its ‘CarPlay’ API, which is clearly a stopgap solution that will please nobody.
But if we’re beaming UI from a connected iPhone, the external scene accessory API suddenly looks more promising. That way you could do ‘real’ apps without an App Store.
I do think the basic concept is an intriguing idea. But as an implementation of that concept, my initial impressions are threefold. First, I am unconvinced that anyone in a family would use this for anything other than playing music or podcasts, rather than just using their phones. And if that’s the case, why not just have a HomePod? Apple’s video shows family members taking turns to use the HomeView, rotating it on the kitchen island to face themselves. Why? Why does the mom check her calendar on this, rather than on her iPhone, while the dad is using it to follow a French toast recipe? There’s a real “Why do we need this?” question here and I don’t think Apple’s video answers it, at all.
I don’t have a HomeView yet. But I’m excited to own one.
[…]
I’m confident that Apple won’t show endlessly scrolling promos on that screen.
[…]
Yes, my phone shows those things. Yes, my Apple Watch shows those things. But I like that data being glanceable and not requiring I look at a full-on distraction machine. I’m thinking the HomeView might be the Kindle hardware of tiny bits of data I want.
Apple postponed the HomeView repeatedly — first until spring 2025, then summer, then fall, and then again throughout 2026 before finally unveiling it this past week. And the hardware betrays its age. With thick bezels, an A18 processor and 8 gigabytes of memory, this is clearly a product conceived years ago. Finished units have been sitting boxed up in warehouses for the better part of a year, waiting for the software to catch up.
Apple produced a 3-minute promotional video that purports to show a “typical” family using a HomeView. The ad has drawn criticism from John Gruber and TidBITS readers, who were horrified by the behaviors portrayed, and more to the point, it doesn’t seem to show the HomeView making life any better. Certainly, nothing in that video matches how any “typical” morning has ever gone in our household.
Although we use our HomePods heavily to turn lights on and off and listen to music, it’s hard to think of much else we would choose to do on the HomeView.
[…]
As someone who cooks seriously, I’m skeptical of HomeView’s one-step-at-a-time approach.
I cook a lot and can’t imagine using HomeView for recipes. I always reformat and edit them beforehand. I print them out so I can jot notes as I’m cooking and easily see more than one at once without having to fiddle with a screen.
In an announcement sure to shock the very foundations of the world, Apple rolled out a new Apple Siri Remote with support for Find My with Precision Finding and a speaker that can play a noise, ensuring you’ll never again lose it in your couch cushions for months on end. And also a new Apple TV 4K with Siri AI.
The new Apple TV 4K uses an A19 chip that gives it access to the revamped Siri. For the first-time, the Apple TV also features built-in microphones that let you use Siri without depending on the remote.
The A19 chip features an AV1 decoder, which Apple says will offer high-quality streaming with less bandwidth. And you can now pair up to four second-generation HomePods or four HomePod mini 2 to create a full surround-sound experience—but bear in mind, each pair of speakers, front and back, must be of the same type.
In other big news, the Apple TV is now of the higher 128GB storage tier and comes with a commensurately expensive price: $299. That’s more expensive than the previous model, which Apple raised to $199/$249 just a few months ago, and considerably more expensive than the $129 entry-level cost it offered for the previous model when it was introduced.
The new model is available for pre-order today and will ship on November 13. The new Siri Remote is available separately and is compatible with both previous Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K models; Find My Support will work with the second-generation Siri Remote or later, but for the Precision Finding (via a new Bluetooth Channel Sounding protocol), you’ll need that new fourth-generation model.
In Golden Gate there are currently three sources of records of AI transactions. Those handled entirely on-device appear only to be recorded by Unified log entries, while interactions with Siri are provided in a detailed transcript in the new Siri app.
[…]
Although that transcript includes external references implying that an off-device model was used, no explicit information is given, and entries don’t make clear what information left the device, or whether that was handled by PCC or Apple’s secure implementation in Google Cloud.
Apple’s documentation refers users to the Apple Intelligence Report (AIR) available from Privacy & Security settings. When enabled, this will generate at the user’s request, a report covering the last 15 minutes or 7 days of AI interactions which “may include personal data such as messages and text you enter in intelligent writing tools.”
Because of the peculiar nature of AI large language models (LLMs), Apple has to “talk” to Siri AI just like we talk to ChatGPT or Claude. But what does Apple say in these system prompts?
[…]
The report is formatted in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), which is not meant to be read by humans. However, you can open it in a JSON reader, such as the free JSON Viewer, for a color-coded view that’s easier to examine, or cut and paste it into a text editor or word processor. Reports can get large, though, and JSON Viewer only handles files up to 10 MB. Try OK JSON if you hit that limit ($24.99 with a 7-day free trial). Neither app soft-wraps long lines, so I copy the prompts into BBEdit ($59.99, free mode available) for searching and viewing.
I pointed out that the bulk of most AIRs are privateCloudComputeRequests, metadata for requests processed by PCC, whose main contents are attestation bundles. Those are provided in Protobuf format, and encoded using Base64, making them difficult to access.
However, Apple states that “you can parse, canonicalize, and verify attestation bundles from the Apple Intelligence Report using the pccvre attestation subcommands.” This article explains how you can do that without compromising the security of your Mac, using a Virtual Machine.
Once you’re happy the AIR will be worth browsing, return to that setting and click on the Export Activity button. Be sure to save that AIR with the default .json extension.
[…]
Provided you’re running macOS Golden Gate, download the first beta of my new app AIRer from here: AIRer100
[…]
If there are records in that AIR, they will be listed by time and date, with the oldest at the top, in the left sidebar. Select one of them, and its useful contents will be displayed in the main part of AIRer’s window.
I discovered that macOS 15.3 had enabled a feature that was phoning home every 15 minutes with personal data. And that I said “no” and turned it off.
[…]
And today I discovered that Apple had [in macOS 27] removed the “no” switch.
[…]
Digging through macOS 27 settings I turned off Siri (again). Of course, multiple unkillable Siri processes remain, stealing memory and writing data. For what purpose? Who knows. Note that they removed “Apple Intelligence” from this control.
[…]
All of this garbage was enabled after upgrading to macOS 27 despite me having “Apple Intelligence & Siri” turned off already. That was a rather explicit “no”, no?
Author claims the system setting “Privacy & Security > Apple Intelligence Report > Report Duration” with its 3 options [Off | 15 minutes | 7 days] sends that data to Apple with that frequency. This is wrong - this is a transparency report so that you as a user can see everything that is getting sent to Apple as a part of Apple Intelligence. Nothing additionally is getting sent to apple if you switch this away from “Off”.
To me, the main point of the post was about the missing off switch for Apple Intelligence itself. Bushell was forced into enabling a feature (and storage use) he had specifically turned off, and there is no option to block his data from being sent to Private Cloud Compute. But, yes, the first sentence I quoted from Bushell is wrong. The report feature isn’t periodically sending data to Apple; it’s reporting what was already sent. Turning it off does not add any additional privacy, except from someone snooping the report file directly on your Mac. Apple’s wording explaining the report was confusing but has improved somewhat in recent versions.
Siri AI is a completely reimagined version of Siri that is more personal and powerful. With detailed responses and rich, natural conversations, Siri AI helps users get more done than ever before.
Built on Apple Intelligence, this new version of Siri draws on personal context understanding to help users find what they need in the moment across messages, emails, photos, and more. And with even more systemwide app actions, Siri AI can help users with tasks such as drafting an email from scratch or editing and sharing a set of photos.
[…]
Siri AI already works seamlessly with apps from Apple’s vast ecosystem of developers. Users can continue to take action in the apps they already use with Siri, like texting a friend in WhatsApp or playing a book on Audible. And soon, users will be able to ask Siri AI to draft an email in Microsoft Outlook, search for a homework assignment in Notability, or add a restaurant recommendation to Tripsy.
With onscreen awareness, Siri AI can answer questions or take actions related to the content on a user’s screen. For example, while viewing their favorite sports team’s website, a user can ask Siri to find all the upcoming home games and add them directly to their calendar. And Siri AI can also use broad world knowledge to get up-to-date information on virtually any topic.
And these advantages sum up why I struggled to understand Siri AI at first. Is Siri AI only passable because it has an unfair advantage due to proprietary integrations that other AI models can’t use? Can it stand on its own as a good implementation of AI for most people? Does it fundamentally reinvent how we use our devices, or is it just a lot of hype for a slightly better Siri?
[…]
I find Siri AI’s underlying models to be subpar compared to the competition: for anything beyond a simple knowledge query, I can’t see Siri AI replacing ChatGPT and its superior reasoning modes combined with web search. For simpler queries – the kind that a Google AI overview could also capably answer – the balance of speed and terse formatting is optimal in Siri AI. If I’m watching a movie and want to know how old an actor is, or if I want to know the meaning of a word, Siri AI is perfect for it and I no longer need to reach for ChatGPT or my personal agent in Open Minis. As we’ll see later, I find the Siri app to be extremely barebones and representative of the state of the art for chatbot design…two years ago.
The lack of an “agent mode” for Siri AI stings, and it’s why I can’t replace my beloved Codex or Hermes Agent setups with it.
However, Siri AI eventually clicked for me for the opposite reason: it can do things in and with apps that no other third-party agent can. Yes, they are simpler actions, and, no, results aren’t always perfect; but if you love the Apple app ecosystem and prefer using excellent native apps to cross-platform web ones, Siri AI is a breath of fresh air in the AI landscape right now.
[…]
By and large, what Apple has built works, and as a user of Apple devices and the new Siri AI, you will never see any of its underlying complexity.
For years, I barely used Siri for anything beyond menial tasks like setting timers or alarms. That has changed with iOS 27, as I now repeatedly use Siri for complex requests and to make sense of on-screen context.
Apple may be the last company to embrace AI. But wow, was it worth the wait.
The new AI Siri came out this week as part of OS 27 for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac, and it’s a life changer. A phone changer. It replaces most Google searches, most ChatGPT or Claude interactions, and cumulative hours of fumbling and searching and dragging and copying and finding and tapping and pasting.
[…]
Now that the final version is out, I wanted to see how often it gets things right. It is AI, after all. So I ran it through 125 tests.
By default, Siri uses the Apple models described above, primarily the AFM 3 Cloud model (you can tell the local models can’t do much here because most Siri queries fail if you switch off your Internet connection). ChatGPT is still available in System Settings as an extension, with an option to make it speak using a different voice than Siri’s.
While Apple Intelligence as a whole can’t be turned off, users can opt out of the Siri AI beta at this point if they’d like. If you do this, you’ll be given the option to turn Siri off entirely or to use what Apple now dubs “Siri Classic.” In either mode, the UI for Spotlight reverts to its previous style.
The new Siri experience is so much like Copilot or the AI answers in Google Search that it barely seems worth remarking upon, which is both a comment about how “behind” its rivals Apple is in the AI race and how “caught up” Apple feels now that it has shipped something usable.
[…]
The Siri app isn’t much to look at, but I actually like that about it—I’ve lost track of the number of completely different Copilot apps Microsoft has shipped with Windows 11 and what the capabilities of those versions have been. Compared to that, it’s kind of nice to have a simple, clean, Mac-native app that just presents a chronological list of every question or conversation you’ve had with Siri.
So far the biggest single objection to Golden Gate has been the storage space required to support this. As I’ve shown in my own figures, this could be as low as 10 GB, but is more likely to be around 30 GB. Add to that the 28 GB or so required for the system itself, and that’s a substantial burden on your Mac’s internal SSD.
MacRumors ran an article this morning about this today, and what’s interesting is how different people report different storage sizes for the same devices. Why are some people, running the same operating system, seeing different storage sizes? And why isn’t the size the same on all Macs, at least those running the same processor? My M4 iMac reports 32.22 GB; not that big a difference, but still about 1.6 GB less than my laptop.
I do not think Apple should not have local models. But as it is surely the single largest system component now, consuming about the same space as an entire Sonoma installation, I think it is stingy of Apple to ship 256 GB base storage even on its lowest-priced computers.
I installed Golden Gate a week ago. Since then, I have been noticing an expected battery drain (Siri AI (useless for me), new OS, indexing) that has increased in comparison to Tahoe. This is expected, I know. The thing is that this does not stop, even after more than a week. It has gotten so much worse that the MacBook’s battery is being depleted even while sleeping to zero within hours. It is so bad that it even struggles to get beyond the point of being able to boot when connected to a charger. Eventually, it works, but it is a struggle.
According to pdfu, HomePod Software 27 includes the system behind Siri AI, called “Linwood,” along with new status lights in the Siri AI colors. […] Since HomePod Software 27 is out and Siri AI isn’t available on existing HomePods, it’s possible support will be limited to new HomePod models.
But there’s also a Siri app (on iPhone, iPad, Mac) whose primary function is keeping a running log of your requests. Today, I thought maybe I’d share mine, so you can see what Siri is like in practice.
I’ve deliberately picked a hectic 24-hour period from last week so that you can see the potential. The takeaway is that I’ve largely stopped opening apps. When I need something, I hold in the side button, ask my question, get the answer, and put the phone away. Often, people who witness it can’t believe what they’ve just seen.
I feel like Siri AI has gotten worse since iOS 27.0 was officially released. It feels a bit slower and I seem to get worse answers, sometimes. I asked it for a word today, using it as an interactive thesaurus, and it simply told me it couldn’t. It never did that over the summer.
I’m excited about the new Siri AI. However I’m not feeling the love yet. I’m finding that approximately a quarter to a third of my requests on both my Mac and iPhone produce a spinning white circle as it churns through a list of searches that it’s doing internally, followed by “Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.” This happens for simple requests, for complex requests, and too many requests in between. When it works I feel the magic but boy, I really can’t count on it in all the ways that people are gushing about.
[…]
[If] all processing is supposed to happen on device, does anybody know why we need an internet connection for Siri AI to work for things like “tell me what’s on my calendar tomorrow” or “can you pull up the email with my theater tickets”?
There’s nothing like havin an iPhone in your pocket, an AWU at your wrist, headphones on and telling Siri to call someone, calling, talking, hanging up and then asking Siri to call another person [only] to hear “You need to unlock your phone first!”.
Updates Numbers with a lengthy list of new trigonometry, statistics, and logic functions. ($129.99 annual Apple Creator Studio subscription, various sizes, macOS 26+)
AirPods 5 bring Active Noise Cancellation to Apple’s most affordable current AirPods while pushing the open-ear design closer to capabilities previously associated with more expensive models. The new generation starts at $129 and uses redesigned acoustics and computational audio to remove up to 50% more external noise than AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation.
Apple is also splitting the range into two versions. The standard $129 AirPods 5 include ANC and USB-C charging, while a $149 model adds a Wireless Charging Case, longer battery life, a case speaker for Find My, and volume adjustment directly from the stems.
Both models are available for preorder ahead of their September 18 release in the U.S. and more than 65 other countries and regions.
The changes make the distinction between Apple’s entry-level AirPods and its more advanced headphones less dependent on headline software features. Adaptive Audio, Transparency, Conversation Awareness, Personalized Spatial Audio, Live Translation, and Siri AI are all part of the AirPods 5 experience.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
AirPods 5 push open-ear ANC further
Active Noise Cancellation is particularly difficult to implement in an open-ear earbud because there is no silicone tip forming a physical seal inside the ear canal.
Apple has approached that limitation with a new multiport acoustic architecture, revised computational audio algorithms, and the H2 headphone chip. The company says AirPods 5 can cancel up to 50% more noise than AirPods 4 with ANC.
That improvement does not turn the design into an AirPods Pro-style sealed earbud. AirPods 5 remain open-ear headphones, retaining the fit preferred by people who dislike the pressure or isolation associated with in-ear tips.
The acoustic system has also been redesigned around a wider variety of ear shapes. Next-generation Adaptive EQ continuously adjusts sound based on how each earbud sits, while Apple says the revised architecture produces richer and more detailed playback.
Transparency mode has been updated to reproduce voices and environmental sounds more naturally. Adaptive Audio can move between Transparency and noise cancellation according to surrounding conditions, while Conversation Awareness automatically reduces media volume when the wearer begins speaking to someone nearby.
Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking remains supported for compatible music, movies, and other content.
AirPods 5 are rated IP57 for dust, sweat, and water resistance, making them better suited to workouts and changing weather conditions, although they are not waterproof.
Two AirPods 5 models create a meaningful $20 decision
Apple’s pricing makes the $149 Wireless Charging Case version more than a different charging option.
Standard AirPods 5 provide up to four hours of listening on one charge with ANC enabled and up to 20 hours when the USB-C case is included.
AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case increase those figures to five hours from the earbuds and up to 22 hours with the case while ANC is active.
The upgraded case can charge through USB-C, an Apple Watch charger, or a Qi-certified wireless charger. It also contains a speaker that can assist with locating the case through Find My.
The more expensive model introduces another difference directly on the earbuds. Users can swipe up or down on a stem to adjust volume, bringing a control familiar from AirPods Pro to Apple’s open-ear form factor.
That leaves buyers with a relatively straightforward tradeoff. The $129 version provides the central audio experience, including ANC, without requiring a step up for the main listening features. Spending another $20 adds more convenient charging, slightly longer battery life, Find My assistance from the case speaker, and physical volume adjustment.
Placing either AirPods 5 model in its charging case for five minutes provides about one additional hour of listening.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
Siri AI and Live Translation extend the earbuds beyond music
AirPods 5 arrive as Apple makes voice interaction a larger part of the AirPods experience.
When paired with a compatible iPhone, Siri AI can be accessed hands-free. The assistant can work with personal context from information such as messages, emails, and photos, respond to open-ended questions, and perform supported actions in apps.
Head gestures remain part of the experience. Users can nod to accept certain Siri prompts or shake their head to decline them, allowing calls and notifications to be handled without speaking or touching the earbuds.
Live Translation provides another use for the microphones and ANC system.
After compatible languages are downloaded and the feature is configured through Apple’s Translate app, a user can hear another person’s speech translated through AirPods. Translation can be started through Siri, the iPhone Action button, the Translate app, or by pressing and holding both AirPods stems simultaneously.
When two people are each using compatible AirPods and supported iPhones, both participants can hear translated versions of the conversation in their chosen languages.
Live Translation requires an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone 15 Pro or later, compatible AirPods, current software, and the latest AirPods firmware, with availability varying by language and region. Apple also notes that generated translations can contain errors, making verification appropriate when accuracy is especially significant.
AirPods 5 narrow the gap within the lineup
The fifth-generation model represents a different kind of upgrade from simply adding another listening mode.
ANC is now standard across both AirPods 5 configurations, instead of requiring buyers to choose a separate ANC version as they did with AirPods 4. Apple has then moved the pricing distinction toward charging, battery endurance, Find My hardware, and physical controls.
The earbuds continue to use Bluetooth 5.3 and the H2 chip, with dual beamforming microphones, an inward-facing microphone, optical in-ear detection, motion and speech accelerometers, and force sensors built into the stems.
Each earbud weighs 4.3 grams, preserving the lightweight character of the open-ear line despite the additional capabilities.
The new acoustic architecture may be the more consequential change over time. Open-ear earbuds cannot rely on a tight seal to block surrounding sound, so gains in ANC depend heavily on microphone placement, acoustic design, fit, and real-time processing. Apple’s claim of up to 50% more noise removal over the previous generation represents a substantial step for that format rather than simply matching the behavior of sealed earbuds.
AirPods 5 start at $129, while AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case cost $149. Both reach stores on September 18, giving the open-ear AirPods line a standard feature set that now includes noise cancellation without pushing buyers to a higher-priced model to get it.
The first beta of iOS 27.2 includes Apple's redesigned Health app, giving developers a chance to try out the features ahead of launch later this year.
Apple's developer notes for the feature say the Health app is being tested in this beta, but it won't be in the launch version of iOS 27.2. It will instead come later in the year.
The Health app will incorporate Apple Intelligence to turn data and metrics collected by the Apple Watch into personalized guidance. Here are the new features we can expect:
Insights - The Insights tab offers an Apple Intelligence-generated summary of timely information like your latest sleep metrics or a new peak in VO2 max. There are options to get custom advice on readiness, fitness, heart health, and more in the For You section.
Personal Guidance - Personal guidance is part of the Insights tab. It knows what's important to you, and will make relevant suggestions. Apple says if you're working on your cardio, you might see a suggestion to incorporate intervals into your morning run. Recommendations adapt to each user and their data.
Readiness - The new Apple Watch models calculate a readiness score that takes into account recent activity, vitals, and sleep score. It gives a 0–10 score with recommendations on activity level. Readouts include Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It. Info is shown on the watch, in the Fitness app, and in the Health app's Insights tab.
Fitness - Insights incorporates your daily activity and it updates throughout the day.
Vitals - The Vitals option in the Health app has new overnight views and daytime views. HRV is incorporated as a metric, offering a better look at your ability to recover from stress. It measures overall HRV and recovery HRV.
Longevity - There is a new Longevity tab in the Health app. It uses metrics from your iPhone and Apple Watch to assess overall health across heart health, sleep, mental wellbeing, movement health, metabolic health, hearing, and nutrition. The section shows you how well you're doing in each category, and how each metric is classified against the latest clinical guidance.
Health Age - Health Age is part of the Longevity tab. It uses metrics like VO2 max, resting heart rate, HRV, sleep, and biomarkers from blood work to determine how your health metrics compare to your actual age. It will help you figure out what habits make the biggest impact on your health, and how you can improve.
At-home health assessments like a VO2 max test will be coming to the Health app, taking advantage of the iPhone's camera to track your movements as you follow instructions from a trainer. There will be in-depth physical assessments for measuring flexibility, strength, balance, and movement mechanics in addition to VO2 max.
Apple also plans to eventually offer U.S. users the option to buy a bloodwork panel from Quest that covers more than 50 biomarkers. The test is priced at $119, and users will be able to order it right in the Health app.
Not all of the new features are going to be available in the beta. CNET says ordering labs, personalized health info in the Insights tab, and personalized recommendations will not be available until later in the year. Features are going to roll out progressively.
In iOS 27, the Journal app can suggest writing prompts “based on what you write and any photos or drawings you add to your entry,” and you can add up to three of them to a single entry. The prompts come from Apple Intelligence, and one switch hides them: Settings > Apps > Journal > […]
With Apple Intelligence in iOS 27, dictation uses an on-device model to improve spelling, punctuation and capitalization. Apple says it’s available in English on “iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, or later,” and its feature availability page lists nine varieties of English. That device list is narrower than the one for Apple […]
In iOS 27, when you rename a file in the Files app on an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, Files recommends a name above the keyboard. Apple’s iOS 27 guide also describes Access Requests, an option for shared iCloud Drive links that lets other people with the link ask you to approve their access. Rename a […]
On iOS 27, your iPhone can turn a voicemail into a to-do. With Apple Intelligence, the Phone app shows what Apple calls “Siri suggested actions” based on the voicemail transcript, such as adding a reminder or creating a calendar event. Apple’s iOS 27 guide documents the feature and its off switch, Suggestions in Voicemail, at […]
In Safari on macOS 27, go to the website you want to change, click the Page menu button in the Smart Search field, and choose Describe Extension. Type what you want, and Safari either points you to a matching extension in the App Store or builds one you can try before you save it. Safari […]
In iOS 27, you can make a shortcut without touching the action list. Open the Shortcuts app, tap the Add button, and describe what you want in plain language, and the app “creates and names a shortcut based on your input,” according to Apple’s Shortcuts User Guide. Apple lists “Describe a shortcut in natural language” […]
If you recently installed iOS 27 on iPhone, iPadOS 27 on iPad, or MacOS 27 Golden Gate, you might be wondering where the widely hyped new Siri AI set of features are on your device; a dedicated Siri app, a much smarter Siri AI with chatbot like experience, custom voices, and more. These are all ... Read More
A new section in the iOS 27 privacy policy shows that Apple has reversed its stance on using customers’ data to train its AI models. Previously, the company assured customers that it had no need for customer data, and would figure out how to make Siri AI work well without it.
Apple maintains that it “takes steps to ensure that personal data is not stored or used by Apple.” But as Heisepoints out, and Apple has said in the terms of service for a few years now, the audio material may be listened to by Apple employees after anonymization.
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It also admits that data collected may be reviewed by “review personnel.” It is unclear if “review personnel” are Apple employees or a third-party company contracted to read conversation transcripts, as it has historically been.
Starting today, when a user enables Siri AI, they will see a setup screen asking whether they want to opt in to “improve Siri and Apple Intelligence,” with two options: “Share Audio and Text” or “Not Now.”
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What’s important to note here is that nothing is changing about the type of data Apple collects if you opt in to this setting. What’s changing is that Apple will now use the data to train and refine its Foundation Models, as well as Siri and Dictation like before.
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