As a techie, it’s easy to get caught up in the trap of buying the most expensive devices with the most features. And, for the most part, it’s still a problem. That said, I recently made the decision to switch to Apple’s , the budget model with an A16 chip. I’m pleasantly surprised with how incredibly useful it truly is – while costing less than a third of an .

Apple has just released another wave of beta updates for its forthcoming major software versions, including beta 9 for iPadOS 26, tvOS 26, and more.

Contrary to expectations, Apple is rolling out a new wave of developer betas ahead of next week’s “Awe Dropping” event. Here’s what to expect.

Turns out iOS 26 development isn’t quite over yet. After only shipping eight beta versions of major iOS releases over the last several years, Apple has released the ninth developer beta version of iOS 26. We expect the redesigned version of the iPhone software to officially launch in about two weeks.

We have a solid sense of what to expect from the iPhone 17 event next week. Still, there’s a narrative turn happening that will make Apple’s “Awe dropping” presentation feel more new than the typical routine tech announcement.

There are still plenty of notable Apple Labor Day deals still live in our master hub right here, but today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break does have some additional offers that should be on your radar. Firstly, we have an even lower price on the M4 Mac mini with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage at $200 off the list price (now an additional $100 off). Next up we are taking a look at Apple’s 1TB 11-inch M4 iPad Pro Wi-Fi + Cell model at a giant $500 off ahead of the upcoming padOS updates alongside the 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max at $730 off ahead of the iPhone 17 reveal next week. All of that and more awaits down below. 

Amazon has a change coming soon for Prime subscribers: the ability to share Prime’s shipping benefits with members outside your household is ending soon.

We’re just one week away from Apple unveiling its flagship iPhone 17 lineup, and while market analysts have generally been expecting price increases on most new models, the latest report indicates we might be in for good news.

Apple is expected to launch a brand new Apple TV 4K this fall, possibly as early as next week. Coincidentally, Dolby just happened to unveil its major new Dolby Vision 2 standard today, which could be a great match for the new Apple TV hardware.

It seems clear we’re still a year away from the first iPhone Fold, but the rest of the market isn’t standing still. Samsung is planning to launch its first trifold phone this year, and Huawei is already onto its second-generation model.

On a pedantic note, I would argue that as they have two sets of hinges, they are bifold rather than trifold, but the industry seems to have adopted the latter term, so I guess we’re stuck with it now …

A new survey of US iPhone owners claims that almost a third of them would consider switching to either Samsung or Google in order to get a folding phone this year, rather than waiting until the expected launch of the iPhone Fold next year.

There’s a mix of good and bad news for Apple in the rest of the findings, but the headline claim seems a real stretch …

A TransUnion data breach has exposed sensitive personal information for millions of US consumers, including dates of birth and social security numbers.

However, reports of a major Gmail security problem affecting all 2.5 billion users are false, though loosely based on a far more contained incident back in June …

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In this episode of Apple @ Work, Gleb Budman, CEO at Backblaze, joins the show to talk about macOS backups, Legal Hold, Backblaze B2 and AI, and much more!

An Apple helped a West Hollywood man recover his stolen suitcase after landing at Los Angeles International Airport last week. Here’s what happened.

Over the weekend, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber linked to a fantastic collection of early Macintosh programming books (via Michael Tsai). It is a carefully assembled catalog of more than 150 books from as early as 1983, covering everything from AppleSoft BASIC, to gaming programming for the Mac.

Even if you weren’t around for any of that, believe me: this will be worth your time.

While most U.S. users have never used—or even heard of—WhatsApp Status Updates, Meta recently revealed that the tab is now used by 1.5 billion people per day worldwide. And soon, WhatsApp will take a page from Instagram by adding a Close Friends feature.

While we expect Apple to unveil AirPods Pro 3 alongside iPhone 17 and Apple Watch Series 11 next week, there’s one new feature that may not be ready for showtime.

A few months ago, Apple released FastVLM, a Visual Language Model (VLM) that offered near-instant high-resolution image processing. Now, you can take it for a spin, provided you have an Apple Silicon-powered Mac. Here’s how.

As Apple moves to diversify its manufacturing operations, it appears to be leaning on suppliers to shoulder the costs of automating their assembly lines. Here are the details.

Apple is reportedly launching its own AI smart glasses next year, per a Bloomberg report. While Apple is very much so late to the category, I do think there are a number of great value adds Apple could bring to the table – which I’ll be outlining here.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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9to5Mac Security Bite is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Making Apple devices work-ready and enterprise-safe is all we do. Our unique integrated approach to management and security combines state-of-the-art Apple-specific security solutions for fully automated Hardening & Compliance, Next Generation EDR, AI-powered Zero Trust, and exclusive Privilege Management with the most powerful and modern Apple MDM on the market. The result is a totally automated Apple Unified Platform currently trusted by over 45,000 organizations to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.

In an earlier edition of Security Bite, I predicted that Apple would finally announce end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to the RCS Universal Profile at WWDC 2025. That didn’t happen, but Apple did introduce two nice spam-protection tools along with a series of smaller updates designed to make the iPhone safer for everyone. Now that iOS 26 is basically in its final form ahead of wide release in tandem with the launch of iPhone 17, here’s a rundown of my favorite privacy features.

MagSafe wallets are probably the category of MagSafe that makes the most sense to me day to day. I am always going to carry a wallet, so might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone. The is one of the better designed ones I’ve come across from a quality standpoint, so let’s dive into what all it offers.

As well as a refreshed new look for system components like buttons and tabbars, the Liquid Glass redesign of iOS 26 also extends to app icons. For the first time since iOS 7, Apple has redrawn all of the system apps with new artwork. That means a whole new look is coming to your iPhone home screen this fall.

In this post, we share a side-by-side of the iOS 26 app icon and its iOS 18 counterpart, so you can decide for yourself how much of a step forward the new visual style represents.