Skip to content
Tech News
clear
Topics: Today This Week This Month This Year

Apple delays several new features and the foldable iPhone Duo until later dates

Apple's latest product event introduced hardware like the Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4, AirPods 5, iPhone 18 Pro models, and the foldable iPhone Duo, but not everything ships immediately. While the Watch and AirPods models arrive September 18 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone Duo won't ship until October 23, and several Apple Intelligence features—including expanded Siri AI language support—won't roll out until later in 2026.

Apple's new Watch AI features add always-listening audio transcription and recap tools

At its latest hardware event, Apple unveiled new Apple Watch capabilities including Audio Intelligence, Live Rewind, and Siri Recap, which use on-device AI to detect ambient sounds and transcribe spoken conversations. The features combine accessibility benefits, like alerting deaf or hard-of-hearing users to sirens or crying babies, with more invasive capabilities like live transcription of nearby speech.

Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 add AI listening features with on-device privacy safeguards

Apple's new Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 include four opt-in 'audio intelligence' tools—sound and music recognition, conversation recap, and a 'Live Rewind' feature that transcribes the last 15 seconds of ambient speech. Apple says these features rely on the microphone but don't record or store raw audio, processing most data locally via a new secure chip component called the Secure Exclave, with any cloud processing handled through Apple's Private Cloud Compute system.

Apple's New Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 Add On-Device Audio Intelligence Suite

Apple unveiled its Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro line and foldable iPhone Duo at its 'Surprise and Shine' event, highlighting a new Audio Intelligence system for the watches. The feature set includes ambient sound alerts for things like sirens and doorbells, a Live Rewind tool that transcribes the previous 15 seconds of speech via a crown double-tap, and a Siri Recap function that summarizes key conversations for later reference.

Apple Watch adds always-listening AI features, signaling smart glasses privacy approach

Apple unveiled the Watch Ultra 4 and Watch Series 12 with two new agentic audio features, Live Rewind and Siri Recap, which let the watch continuously process ambient sound to summarize conversations or replay recent audio. This shifts the Apple Watch from a primarily health-focused device toward one that functions as an ambient AI assistant on the wrist.

Apple publishes privacy explainer for new Siri Audio Intelligence features

Apple released a document detailing how its newly announced Audio Intelligence features—Siri Recap, Live Rewind, Sound Recognition, and Music Recognition—process audio without storing or exposing raw recordings. The company says these features rely on a hardware-isolated 'Secure Exclave' in the Apple Watch's S11 chip, which processes sound locally and never creates an accessible audio file. Any data transferred to iPhone is encrypted between Secure Exclaves, and users must manually activate features like Live Rewind and choose what text to retain.

Apple set to reveal iPhone 18 Pro, foldable iPhone Duo, AirPods 5 at today's event

Ahead of Apple's 'Surprise and shine' event, leakers and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman detail expected announcements including the foldable iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro with a smaller Dynamic Island supporting three Live Activities, a mechanical aperture on the Pro Max, and faster charging. AirPods 5 are also expected, offering versions with and without wireless charging cases plus improved noise cancellation, while camera-equipped AirPods have reportedly been pushed to next year. Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro are expected to open September 12 at the usual 5 a.m. PT time.

LibreOffice 26.8 tops 1 million downloads in a week after touting its lack of built-in AI

The Document Foundation's LibreOffice 26.8, released August 26th, surpassed 1 million installer downloads in its first week, excluding updates via Linux repositories, making it the suite's most downloaded release ever. The foundation followed up with a post explaining that it deliberately excludes generative AI by default, citing principles like user control, no data leaving the device, no telemetry, and no vendor lock-in, while still allowing community plugins for those who want AI features.

Today's top topics: iphone duo openai apple elon musk anthropic meta spacex ai agents amazon microsoft
Browse all topics →  ·  Today's trending topics →