We have some major news about the next

big step for Siri in iOS 27. iOS 26.4

launched this week and there's even more

that you didn't know about. WWDC 2026

has been confirmed. A major camera

upgrade is coming for future iPhones and

much more. All in today's episode of

Apple Weekly. Okay, so let's start with

the big announcement this week and that

is that Apple officially announced the

Worldwide Developers Conference 2026.

So, this is where Apple showcases their

latest software and this, of course, is

going to be when we see iOS 27 beta 1

get released. Now, Apple announced this

and it's going to be on June 8th. This

is going to be a big update. Of course,

iOS 27 is going to have the smarter

Siri, the chatbot Siri. It's also going

to be a big update for bug fixes and

stability because it's supposed to be

more like a snow leopard update like we

saw for Mac OS back in the day, which

really refineses the OS and makes it

really stable and smooth to use. Now, of

course, that doesn't mean we're not

going to get a ton of new features

because we are. You guys already know

I'm going to bring you hundreds of new

features here on the channel, but it is

going to focus a lot on stability as

well and getting the the device and the

OS, you know, prepared for the iPhone

Fold as well. So, apparently it's going

to include optimizations for iPhone

Fold. And a lot of you guys have been

asking me this week, are we going to see

new products at WWDC 2026? And I think

there's actually a chance that we could

because there's still a lot of products

that we have not seen yet. So, we're

talking about the Apple TV, the HomePod,

the HomePod Mini, the Mac Mini, and the

Mac Studio. So, all of those have the

potential to be released at this event.

And now, as you guys know, Apple doesn't

always announce hardware at the

Worldwide Developers Conference because

it is mostly a softwarebased event, but

sometimes they do, and we could see that

again this year. But let's talk a bit

more about iOS 27 because this week we

also got a big report from Mark German

over at Bloomberg that details Siri is

not only going to get big improvements

like in the, you know, Siri voice

assistant, but we're also going to have

a standalone Siri app and a new ask Siri

feature. So German said that the updated

Siri is designed to better control

features within iPhone and Macs and tap

into personal data like messages, notes,

and emails to fulfill requests. It also

will be able to complete tasks within

apps, access news content, and search

the open web using Apple built

interfaces, and models. The most

significant change is the ability to

interact with users in a conversational

chat-like format through text and voice.

Now, all of that is kind of what we've

heard before. Not really too much new

there. However, this next part is where

it gets really interesting because he

says Apple is also testing a dedicated

Siri app for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac

later this year. The app's main

interface will display prior

conversations in either a list or a grid

of rounded rectangles with text

previews. Users can pin favorite chats,

save older conversations, search across

interactions, and start new chats via a

prominent plus button. So it sounds a

lot like chat GPT, Gemini, like apps

like that. So we may have a very similar

interface to those applications where we

can see our old chats, you know, can go

back into them and type into it and, you

know, continue that conversation, which

is actually going to be really nice. And

we're also going to see a redesign for

Siri. So he says this, Apple is testing

a redesign interface that replaces the

glowing edges effect introduced in iOS

18. So, we just got that redesign, but

it looks like it's going to be changing

again because he says one new design in

testing places Siri at the top of the

screen within the dynamic island. So, we

may no longer have the Siri glowing, you

know, around the whole screen. It might

just be a more subtle little indicator

in the dynamic island starting with iOS

27. But that's not the only thing that

might be changing design-wise because he

also says that Apple is working to

replace its existing ondevice search

system, Spotlight, with Siri. The new

unified interface helps users find local

content or submit broader queries in one

place. So Spotlight might see a big

change here as well. And then here is

the interesting Ask Siri feature. So he

says Apple is also testing the idea of

integrating the assistant more deeply

across its operating systems with new

entry points. A systemwide ask Siri

toggle will appear in menus across

built-in apps, allowing users to send

selected content into a new Siri

conversation. For example, they could

request more information about

highlighted text or pull up related

emails. There's also a write with Siri

option at the top of the keyboard, which

is in testing right now. This will

service the writing tools menu for

generating and editing text. So, it

seems like there's going to be a lot of

changes to Siri with iOS 27. A full

standalone application, a completely

different interface for when you

actually, you know, enable Siri, the ask

Siri feature. There's going to be a lot

that's changed with Siri and it's going

to get even deeper as well with

thirdparty integrations because we got a

separate report this week that outlines

that Apple is going to open up Siri to

rival AI assistants with iOS 27. It's no

longer going to be exclusive with chat

GPT like we have now. So, the report

says this. Apple plans to open Siri to

outside artificial intelligence

assistants. They're preparing to make

the change as part of a Siri overhaul in

iOS 27. The assistant can already tap

into chat GPT, but Apple will now allow

competing services to do the same. Apple

is developing new tools to allow AI

chatbot apps installed via the app store

to integrate with Siri. That means, for

instance, if users have Google Gemini or

Claude installed, they'd be able to send

queries to those services from within

the Siri voice assistant, just like

they've been able to with chat GPT. The

approach should also allow Apple to

generate more money from thirdparty AI

subscriptions through the app store. And

I think that right there is the key

because last week we talked about how

Apple is quietly winning the AI wars

because at the end of the day, does

anything really matter more than revenue

and profits? You know, in terms of a

public company, Apple is killing it

right now. They're more profitable than

any of these other AI companies who are

sp spending and kind of wasting, not

really wasting, but you know, they're

not profitable with all these AI

efforts. Meanwhile, Apple is doing the

least amount of work on the surface, yet

they're making the most profit from it.

So, that's key here. Again, Apple is

going to be collecting that sweet, sweet

passive income from people subscribing

to these third party AI services, but

because they're doing it on Apple's

platform on Apple's devices, Apple's

getting a cut. Now, German does continue

to say that the change is separate from

Apple's work with Gemini to rebuild Siri

using Gemini models. That arrangement is

related to the underlying Apple

technology for Siri. The extension

system, meanwhile, would allow users to

process requests via the actual Gemini

service, assuming Google enables its app

to do so. Now, that last part there is

key because in both of these reports, we

did not see anything mentioned about the

upcoming Google Gemini integration

because remember, we heard that it could

be coming in iOS 26.5, but it doesn't

appear to be the case because we've not

seen anything about that. So, at this

point, I would not get your hopes up too

high for that Google Gemini integration

with iOS 26.5. Now, let's talk about

some new products that might be coming

pretty soon. And we're talking about the

Apple TV and the HomePod and the HomePod

Mini. So, earlier I talked about how we

might be seeing those at the Worldwide

Developers Conference, but we might

actually be seeing those sooner than

that. And that's because German said in

a recent report that retail inventory of

the full-sized HomePod, the HomePod

Mini, and the Apple TV are running low

at Apple retail stores around the world.

Shortages more often than not mean that

updated products are on the way. Now, he

said that Apple has had fresh versions

of at least the Apple TV and HomePod

Mini ready since last year, but it's

held off on releasing them because the

company is waiting for the new Siri and

other artificial intelligence upgrades.

Those features are still nowhere near

ready. So, if the new hardware is indeed

coming soon, it probably means Apple

just got tired of waiting. He also says

that the new iPad with the A18 chip is

still on track to launch in the first

half of this year. The big change to

that is going to be a move from the A16

to the A18 chip, which means a faster

device and one that supports Apple

intelligence. So, like I've been saying

for the past month, we are not going to

see the new Apple TV or the new HomePods

until that new version of Siri gets

released, which again, according to

German, it's still a ways out. And if

Apple does actually release it, it's

going to be just because they were tired

of waiting. And there's actually not

going to be much changed, you know, at

launch, and we're going to see those

changes come later after the product's

already been out. But let's talk about a

product that got completely discontinued

this week, and that is the Mac Pro. So

yes, Apple officially discontinued the

Mac Pro with no plans to revitalize it

in the future. So they confirmed this

with 9 to5 Mac and they're saying it's

been removed from Apple's website as of

Thursday afternoon and the buy page on

their site now redirects you to the Mac

homepage. So, I think we all know that

the Mac Studio was a big reason for the

downfall of the Mac Pro, which I think

that's good because the Mac Studio is

much cheaper and you get crazy

performance out of that Mac Studio. We

should be seeing a new Mac Studio this

year as well, hopefully at the Worldwide

Developers Conference. Now, let's talk

about a big camera upgrade coming to the

iPhone, not this year, but next year,

and that is going to be a 200 megapixel

sensor. And this news comes from digital

chat station over on Weibo and he said

that next year's iPhone could have a 200

megapixel one over 1.2 inch sensor

similar to the one rumored for Oppo's

upcoming Find X9 Ultra. So of course

like I always say megapixels don't

always tell the full story. Just because

you have a lot of megapixels doesn't

necessarily mean it's going to produce

the best image. But I think with Apple,

you know, with all the stuff going on

internally as well and all their

algorithms software-wise, if we get a

200 megapixel lens, that's going to be

pretty crazy and that's going to be a

pretty big leap for Apple because as of

right now, the most we have is 48

megapixels. Now, here's something that

upset a lot of people this week. So,

Apple officially announced the ads are

coming to the Apple Maps application.

So, Apple officially announced the ads

are coming to the Apple Maps application

on the iPhone and iPad in the US and

Canada starting this summer. So, Apple

says that businesses in the US and

Canada will be able to place ads in

search results and at the top of a new

suggested places section in the app. And

in the press release, it says this. Ads

on maps will appear when users search in

maps and can appear at the top of a user

search results based on relevance as

well as at the top of a new suggested

places experience in maps, which will

display recommendations based on what's

trending nearby, the user's recent

searches, and more. And they do finish

this off by saying that maps with ads is

just as private as maps without ads.

Where you go and the ads you see and

interact with are not associated with

your Apple account. personal data stays

on your device, is not collected or

stored by Apple ads, and is not shared

with third parties. And I think that

part is key because a lot of people are

getting upset over this because of the

scare about their data and everything

like that, which I don't know why

because we know Apple, you know, that's

never been the case. So, you know, ads,

it's not going to be like big takeover

ads. We have to press an X on it. So, I

don't really see a huge issue with this.

I know probably people are going to hate

me in the comments for that, but it's

going to be pretty inconspicuous uh from

what it seems at least. So, we'll have

to wait and see. We'll have to revisit

it when it actually comes out, but for

right now, it seems like it's not going

to be a massive deal in my opinion.

Okay, so let's move on over to our

iPhone and let's start with the Apple

Sports application because this week we

also saw a nice update to Apple Sports

with some changes here. So, it says MLB

fans can now see the probable starting

pitcher for each game. Car numbers have

been added to NASCAR leaderboards. And

you can now disable sports betting odds

in the application. If we go into our

settings here, you can see show betting

odds. You can turn that off completely

now, which is nice. Also, this week we

saw AirDrop roll out to the Samsung

Galaxy S26 series and actually works

really well. So, if you have a Samsung

Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, or S26 Ultra, it's

now natively built in. So, you do have

to go into the quick share settings, but

I've actually used this and it works

surprisingly well. And it's nice that

now we don't need a third party

application to transfer a photo or

transfer something over to somebody on

Android. Now, also this week, we saw

Apple post a teaser trailer for the

upcoming Widows Bay series. So, this is

a new kind of horror thriller series,

and you can see it's coming on April

29th. And if you take a look at what

this is about, it says, "The mayor of a

New England town resolves to turn it

into the next tourist hot spot despite

local warnings that it's cursed." So,

this seems interesting. And of course,

Apple always kills it with their Apple

TV series. So, I cannot wait to see what

this is all about. But, we did see a

little teaser this week. And speaking of

shows, we just saw this week that

Netflix raised their prices again. So if

you have a Netflix subscription, just

know that they raised prices across all

tiers. So the ad plan is now $9 a month.

The standard plan is 20 a month and

premium is 27 a month. Now in a

statement to Variety, Netflix said that

it's updating its pricing because it

delivers more value than ever to

customers. Now, keep in mind Netflix

Premium is now the most expensive

standalone streaming service

subscription out of all of them at $27 a

month. So, yeah, just know if you see

your bill go up more next month, it's

not just you. Netflix did raise their

prices. Let's talk about iOS 26.4

because this week we did see the

official launch of iOS 26.4. We did have

a slightly different build number than

what we had on the RC, which was

interesting to see. And yeah, so this

this update was obviously a very large

update, more than 50 new features and

changes. If you missed my what's new

video, I will leave it linked down

below. But of course, the big ones are

the new emojis, the big changes to Apple

Music, the the keyboard bug fix was a

massive one. But something else happened

with iOS 26.4, and that is that you now

have age verification in the UK. And

this has been a nightmare from what I've

heard. Obviously, I'm in the US, so I've

not experienced this firsthand, but a

lot of people in the UK are having major

issues with verifying their age and

their identity because of iOS 26.4.

There's actually a whole Reddit thread

on this and you can see that according

to these users, it attempts to verify

your age using Apple Wallet. But since

it only accepts credit cards, not debit

cards, you're forced to manually enter

your details or use an ID like a

driver's license or passport. Yet

scanning requires perfect conditions. So

you have to have like no shadows or

anything. And it it just fails. Like it

fails constantly when you try to scan

it, making the whole process really

frustrating and timeconuming and

surprisingly unapplike. So that's been

the experience for a lot of people out

in the UK. So if you are in the UK,

please tell me about your experience

with this whole age verification thing

going on. Now also with iOS 26.4, we saw

some security patches. Now thankfully,

none of them were being actively

exploited. So none of these bugs were

being actively exploited out there in

the wild. However, as you can see here,

there are quite a few that have been

patched with this update. And like I

always say, that is one of the biggest

reasons to always keep your device as up

to-date as possible. Even if they're not

always being actively exploited, it's

always a good idea to just keep your

device as secure as possible. And you

get to that point by updating the

software. And speaking of security, we

also saw an interesting kind of hidden

feature added to Mac OS Tahoe 26.4. And

this has to do with the terminal. So

there's a new security feature that

warns you if you paste certain commands

into the terminal app that may be

harmful. and you'll get a popup that

says possible malware paste blocked. So,

won't allow you to paste that in because

it thinks you could be pasting in

malware into the terminal app. And then

with tvOS 26.4, I didn't really cover

tvOS 26.4 too much, but there is one

interesting change I wanted to point out

and that is that Apple added a new

genius browse section to the Apple TV

app on tvOS 26.4. So, this is a

basically a content discovery feature

that provides recommendations for TV

shows and movies across multiple

suggested categories. So, it could be a

good way to find something new to watch.

Now, as far as the performance and the

battery life goes on iOS 26.4, I think

it is rock solid. I've really had no

issues at all with performance or with

battery life. I don't want to spend too

long here because I already covered this

in the what's new video and in the RC

video. So, I'm not going to waste your

time by saying the same thing over and

over again. But yeah, no issues with

performance, no issues with battery

life, and after reading all the comments

on my 26.4, you know, what's new video,

it seems like a lot of you guys had your

battery drain issues resolved as well.

So, if you did have battery drain or any

type of weird issue with battery or

performance, it seems like those were

resolved with this update, which is a

great sign. Now, if you have a different

experience, by all means, let me know in

a comment down below. I'm really curious

to see, but for me, nothing to complain

about. Now, let's talk about what to

expect next from Apple because next up

is going to be iOS 26.5 beta 1. Now, of

course, we're not going to see the

official 26.5 update until much later,

maybe even into May, but we are going to

see 26.5 beta 1 most likely next week.

Now, like I said, probably on the 30th

or the 31st is when I could see us

getting 26.5 beta 1. By the way, now,

like I mentioned earlier, I would not

get your hopes up for this. I know for a

while we've talked about the Google

Gemini, you know, Siri coming in 26.5,

but again, we've not really seen any

talk about that recently. German has

kind of stopped talking about it

completely and maybe it was never a

Gemini integration to begin with. So,

it's just kind of confusing at this

point and I would just say to not get

your hopes too high for any type of

Google Gemini and Siri integration in

26.5. Could it come? Possibly. Could we

see the the remnants of it, the

beginning of it? Possibly. I'm just

saying don't get your hopes up too high

because the talk about it has kind of

completely fallen off a cliff. So yeah,

26.5 beta 1 could be a relatively minor

update. Usually the.5 updates are really

nothing to write home about. So yeah,

but I think at this point all eyes are

going to be on iOS 27, which as we know

now, June 8th, that Monday, June 8th, is

when we will see WWDC 2026 kickoff. And

that's when we will see iOS 27 beta 1

with the new Siri app, the whole new

Siri interface. Everything's going to

change with Siri and iOS 27. And I think

it's going to be a massive deal. And by

the way, I just did a full 10-minute

screen recording on my 17 Pro Max here,

and I only went down by 1%. So, I talked

earlier about how battery life was

great. I think that's another good

testament to how great it is because, as

you guys know, screen recording also

drains battery pretty quickly,

especially when I'm already low like

this. So, good sign for battery again.

Anyways, let's finish off with another

crazy Air Tag story. So, nothing's going

to touch the crazy Air Tag story from

last week. So, if you missed last week's

crazy Air Tag story, please go back and

watch it. That one was one of the most

insane we've ever done here on the

channel, especially with the video that

came with it. But anyways, this time a

woman in Florida started noticing

something seriously off after breaking

up with her boyfriend of 3 years who is

a 65-year-old part-time prisoner

transport deputy. She said that even

before the breakup, she had already

found Air Tags hidden in her car and in

her adult daughter's car dating back to

2025, which is already insane. But

things escalated after they split up

last month. Not only did she find

another Air Tag on her car, but she also

checked her home security footage and

saw him crawling underneath her

daughter's vehicle, placing one in her

vehicle. And it didn't stop there

because she told investigators that he

kept showing up wherever she was

multiple times, even pulling up in his

official sheriff's office vehicle. So,

at that point, she went to the sheriff's

office to give a full statement to

detectives. But while she was literally

there talking to police, he shows up

again right in the parking lot and even

parks behind her car. So at that point,

deputies step in, investigate the

vehicles, and sure enough, they find air

tags on both her and her daughter's

cars. So when they confront the man, he

actually admits to placing the air tags

on their cars, but he claims that he

wasn't following her, which doesn't

really make any sense at all. So, of

course, that same night, he was arrested

and charged with stalking and unlawfully

installing tracking devices, and he's

currently being held without bond. And

then, just like that, after more than a

decade on the job, he was suspended,

then fired the very next day. And

honestly, without those Air Tags and

without her being brave enough to go to

the police because sometimes these

people can be really dangerous. You

know, who knows how long this would have

gone on or what could have actually come

from all this stalking. So, crazy stuff

out there. Anyways, guys, that's it for

this week's episode. I hope you guys did

enjoy it. If you did, let me know in a

comment down below. And of course, give

it a thumbs up as well if you did.

Appreciate it.