Spotlight and Siri AI move to the Dynamic Island on the new MacBook Pro.
The new MenuBarAgent finally gets its moment.
ALT MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, silver color, Dynamic Island shows a Spotlight window with search results over a file open in Adobe After Effects
macOS 27 paves the way for a touchscreen Mac and a Dynamic Island with the new MenuBarAgent. Some system compact and minimal views already ship.
Siri AI is set to take over the new system aperture with a droplet-like design. Should be a fun day tomorrow!
ALT Five compact system views in macOS 27, rendered in preview pills: AirPods connection, Focus mode activation, AirPods noise cancellation, low battery, and automatic audio switching. Each view has an icon or text label on the left and a status or control on the right.
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macOS 27 adjustments when you use touch, part 4:
Stickies gets some love!
• Tap and hold to show Collapse, Zoom, and Close. (Side note, those window controls are tiny!)
Added in macOS 27.2 beta 1. Touch behavior tested in Sidecar.
macOS 27 adaptations when you use touch, part 3:
Calendar
• Events get touch-specific circular resize handles.
Added in macOS 27.2 beta 4. Touch behavior tested in Sidecar.
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macOS 27 paves the way for a touchscreen Mac and a Dynamic Island with the new MenuBarAgent. Some system compact and minimal views already ship.
Siri AI is set to take over the new system aperture with a droplet-like design. Should be a fun day tomorrow!
ALT Five compact system views in macOS 27, rendered in preview pills: AirPods connection, Focus mode activation, AirPods noise cancellation, low battery, and automatic audio switching. Each view has an icon or text label on the left and a status or control on the right.
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macOS 27 adaptations when you use touch, part 3:
Calendar
• Events get touch-specific circular resize handles.
Added in macOS 27.2 beta 4. Touch behavior tested in Sidecar.
macOS 27 changes to accommodate touch, part 2:
Finder
• The Edit Tags menu adds more spacing between items, making them easier to tap.
Added in macOS 27.2 beta 4.
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macOS 27 changes to accommodate touch, part 2:
Finder
• The Edit Tags menu adds more spacing between items, making them easier to tap.
Added in macOS 27.2 beta 4.
macOS 27 changes to accommodate touch, part 1:
Safari
• Tabs lift and scale as you drag to reorder.
• Tap and hold a tab to open its context menu. The touch menu omits “Ask Siri.”
Added in 27.2 beta 3 & 4.
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Apple shipped the SetupBackground app again in tvOS 27.2 RC, so you should see the Garhwal Himalayas background when setting up your new Apple TV next month.
Spotted on @_inside’s cool virtualization post:
Apple tested the Himalayan Peaks aerial as a Setup Assistant backdrop in tvOS 27 beta 3.
The aerial file appeared in a new SetupBackground app that only shipped in beta 3, and was later removed in beta 4.
This landscape aerial is already available in current tvOS versions.
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No, iPhone Duo doesn’t have 4 inner ambient light sensors. It has 2. Point a flashlight at them to verify.
Most likely an iOS bug. Without a passcode, SpringBoard requests an empty padlock container for AOD. Sleep/wake transitions briefly show it. Also seen in the Duo sim.
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It’s iPhone Duo time! Some camera tidbits, based on iOS 27.1 and 27.2 RC:
Main: IMX954
• Quad-pixel, 1.0µm sub-pixels
• Largest configured readout: 8448 × 6048 (51 MP)
• Output: 12 MP 4032 × 3024, 24 MP 5712 × 4284, 48 MP 8064 × 6048
Ultra Wide: IMX972
• Quad-pixel, 0.7µm sub-pixels
• Same largest readout/photo sizes as Main, but largest readout at 15 fps vs 30.
• Also seen on iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max and iPhone 17/17 Pro/17 Pro Max.
Outer selfie: IMX915 (Boston)
• Largest configured readout: 4896 × 4896 (24 MP)
• Output: 12 MP 4032 × 3024, 16 MP 4032 × 4032 square.
Inner selfie: IMX916 (Reno)
• Quad-pixel sensor with 4896 × 4896 (24 MP) readout no config uses. Every format reads 2448 × 2448 (6 MP).
• Output: 4.44 MP 2432 × 1824, 5.9 MP 2432 × 2432 square.
• Also has “12 MP” 3024 × 4032 mode, upscaled 2× from a 1512 × 2016 crop.
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Update: iPhone Duo may not support Pencil hover. Its iOS 27.2 touch bundle lacks the MaxHoverHeight setting found on iPad.
iOS 27.0 paths no longer activate Siri’s lightweight UI in 27.2 RC. Still, the Duo-specific send button remains.
Sorry for the false alarm folks!
ALT Dark Siri AI input field reads “Explain this.” with an upward-arrow send button, centered on a black background.
iPhone Duo will support Apple Pencil hover, according to iOS 27’s “Lightweight UI” presentation code for Siri AI.
The feature, which shows a Siri icon that expands to Ask Siri and action suggestions, is also coming to iPad.
Here we go:
1/ Lightweight UI is what Apple calls the Writing Tools accessory that shows up with Siri AI enabled. It currently ships with macOS 27.
2/ iPadOS 27 ships with a disabled flag (WritingTools/LightweightUI_iPad) that controls the same feature.
You can enable it in your own apps by overriding UIResponder._isLightweightUIEnabledForWritingTools.
3/ On iPad, the feature works similarly to Mac. Grab a Magic Keyboard and hover over selected text, and the accessory shows up.
4/ Interestingly, iOS 27 RC adds another presentation branch, specifically for iPhone Duo (V68). But iPhone Duo doesn’t primarily support a mouse and keyboard.
5/ Turns out iPadOS also has a hover invocation with Apple Pencil for the feature.
Hence, iPhone Duo should have support for Apple Pencil hover to enable this feature.
This wasn’t guaranteed. iPad 11 doesn’t support hover with Apple Pencil (USB-C).
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Opened or Closed automation triggers in Shortcuts actually ship with iPhone Duo!
Can’t wait to try this tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to test the responsiveness of the triggers on the physical device.
Of course, during a briefing, I just had to check Shortcuts on the iPhone Duo.
There is indeed support for open/closed automations! This makes me so happy.
Will soon automate my Home Screens based on fold state
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You can now choose characters from The Snoopy Show, Frog and Toad, and Stillwater as profile pictures for local Apple TV profiles.
The feature is rolling out in iOS 27.2 and tvOS 27.2.
Hopefully we’ll see more shows included soon!
You’ll soon be able to choose characters from the Apple TV catalog as profile pictures for local Apple TV profiles.
“Choose a character from Apple TV or an emoji.”
The server endpoint continues to serve only emojis, as in previous releases.
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As expected, Edge Light comes to iPhone, but only on the inner display of the Duo.
iOS 27 gates the feature to iPhone Duo, so we’ll see if it expands to other models. Probably needed here to improve camera performance in low brightness.
Edge Light is actually on the inner Display of the iPhone Duo just like the Mac! You can also have it toggle on automatically
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Out of the box, the volume buttons on iPhone Duo don’t change orientation with the display. The Fixed Position Volume Controls setting comes enabled by default, per @reckless.
You can enable dynamic volume buttons in Settings.
Full @verge review: theverge.com/tech/1015028/ip…
iPhone Duo is the first iPhone to get dynamic volume buttons. The buttons adjust their behavior based on the device’s orientation.
iPhone Duo also supports Fixed Position Volume Controls. Available on earlier iPads, the setting keeps each button’s function fixed.
ALT Closed iPhone Duo, Star White color, displaying the Sounds settings page, with “Fixed Position Volume Controls” highlighted in blue and switched off.
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Apple HomeView can be restored using your iPhone, just like Apple TV.
ALT Two iPhone screens show HomeView recovery dialogs side by side. On the left, “Restore Nearby HomeView” says a nearby HomeView is in recovery mode and can be restored using the iPhone, with an exclamation-mark device icon and Continue and Learn More buttons. On the right, “Restore Options” offers System Recovery to update its software, Erase HomeView to remove personal data and reinstall software, or Exit Recovery Mode to restart without restoring; none is selected.
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tvOS 27.2 allows you to shuffle through available Screen Savers throughout the day.
You can also set up Memories & Slideshows or Portraits screen savers on iPhone or iPad without sharing your whole library.
The features were announced in the Apple TV 4K press release.
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You’ll get new audio controls when you set up four HomePods with the new Apple TV.
Speaker Mode: Surround Sound or Whole Room Audio.
Specifically for Surround Sound:
• Spatialize Stereo: Control whether to play a spatially processed mix for video and music. As reported in September, when disabled, normal stereo plays on the front speakers, while rear speakers receive an empty mix. Defaults to On for Video and Music.
• Surround Level: Adjust the rear pair relative to the fronts. Supports −8 dB through +8 dB, in 0.5 dB steps. Defaults to Normal (0 db).
There are no audio options for Whole Room Audio, as it uses stereo channels for both speaker pairs. The channels are assigned diagonally: front-left and rear-right share the left channel, while front-right and rear-left share the right channel.
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audioOS 27.2 confirms that Whole Room Audio (Party Mode) is a secondary “diffuse” rendering mode for surround sound, so you’ll need the new Apple TV 4K.
The feature has an interesting implementation: it gives diagonally opposite HomePods the same L/R stereo role.
Front left → Stereo left
Front right → Stereo right
Rear left → Stereo right
Rear right → Stereo left
So if you turn your back to the TV, you still get the correct L/R placement. You also get both L/R channels if you face sideways.
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Sound Glow will work on HomePod mini 1, HomePod mini 2 and HomePod (2nd generation)!
In HomePod Software 27.2 RC, the LightShowCapability check is “productType > 1,” so only the original HomePod is unsupported.
HomePod 2 will get the Sound Glow announced for HomePod mini 2: “the top of your HomePod lights up with colors that match your album artwork, pulsing in tune with the music.”
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All HomePod models will support the Lock Controls setting, according to HomePod software 27.2 RC.
You should see the setting in the Home app after updating both HomePod and iPhone.
Apple is finally taking ghost touch issues seriously.
You may soon be able to disable touch interactions on HomePod, according to iOS 27.2 beta 4 code.
No details on model support yet. You’ll likely see the new light animation for rejecting touch events discovered last week.
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iOS 27.2 RC adds setup code for surround sound with 4 HomePods and Apple TV 4K (4th gen).
The code was already included in the iPhone Duo 27.2 simulator runtime.
Here’s the splash screen for Home Theater on iPhone.
You’ll use Apple TV to set up and calibrate your surround setup. iPhone will offer to open Apple TV Remote to continue.
When paired with HomePod (2nd gen), HomePod mini 2 speakers can only serve as rear speakers.
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