At WWDC25 this year, Apple announced a pair of new features to vastly improve the phone calling experience for iPhone users. Hold Assist does exactly what it says on the tin, and manages calls for you while you’re placed on hold – getting rid of the need to listen to dreaded hold music.

The other feature, Call Screening, has much larger implications, and dealing with spam phone calls may become an issue of the past.

After two years under Instagram head Adam Mosseri, Meta is officially handing off Threads to a new leader. Here’s what the change could mean for the app’s future.

In a quick live stream today, OpenAI announced ChatGPT agent, which improves on its promising, but limited Operator feature announced a few months ago. Here’s how it works

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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Another wave of streaming service price hikes may be on the horizon: Peacock just announced a $3 increase for each of its plans, which makes its ad-supported option more expensive than almost all of its competitors.

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: all the latest rumors about the iPhone 17 lineup and iOS 26.

Benjamin and Chance react to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman report on what Apple is planning to ship over the course of the next twelve months, as well as the details of a near-term refresh for the Vision Pro including a more comfortable strap. Apple launches a new Emoji puzzle in News+, AirPods marketshare is revealed in a new study, and Apple sweeps the Emmy nominations.  

And in Happy Hour Plus, Benjamin and Chance talk more about the recent controversies surrounding Liquid Glass. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join.

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Today is World Emoji Day, and the organization that decides which new emoji your iPhone gets has announced this year’s latest crop. Here are the new emoji that will be added in an upcoming version of iOS 26.

Apple has just released a new video advertising Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16, with one feature spotlighted: Clean Up. The humorous message of the video? Be careful what you remove from photos.

Recent weeks have brought a flurry of rumors related to color options for the iPhone 17, including Air and Pro models. Among the most surprising leaks: the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max may come in a new orange color, along with blue and more. Here’s the latest report, plus renders of what could be coming.

According to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, Apple is among the companies that have submitted a bid for the rights to the iconic Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, starting in 2026.

In an interview with CNBC, Manfred said that Apple, NBC, and ESPN have all submitted bids for the Sunday Night Baseball package.

Today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break deals are kicking off with a new low on the silver 24GB 13-inch M4 MacBook Air with 512GB SSD at $165+ off to join some notable back to school MacBook options. We are also highlighting the Space Black 11-inch M4 iPad Pro at $300 off the list price alongside some ongoing Prime Day pricing on Apple Watch Series 10 cell models at nearly $120 off and Apple’s regularly $99 140W USB-C Power Adapter down at $50. Plus, you’ll find the Sonos Ace headphones still down at the $299 Prime Day price ($150 off) alongside plenty of charging and other accessory offers down below. 

Apple TV+ has already premiered what’s arguably the best comedy of the year so far: The Studio. But now Seth Rogen has another TV+ debut coming soon—the return of hit comedy Platonic—and it looks better than ever.

A report yesterday suggested that the two iPhone 17 Pro models could get an anti-reflective display, after Apple’s suppliers managed to overcome production difficulties.

I do love anti-reflective displays, and still have very fond memories of my all-time favorite Apple one from way back in 2004, but an iPhone one would have only moderate appeal to me …

Genmoji launched last December in iOS 18.2 as a new Apple Intelligence feature for creating custom emoji. And in iOS 26, Apple has upgraded Genmoji with several new capabilities that will hit your iPhone soon. Here’s what’s new.

I’m sufficiently old and grumpy to have resisted the use of emoji for a long time, wondering what was wrong with, you know, words – but I did find myself assimilated in the end.

The tiny colorful substitutes for vocabulary now make up a growing percentage of our communication, especially since Apple allowed any emoji to be used for tapback reactions ..

More Apple chips are set to be made in the US as TSMC said it is busy accelerating the construction of its second and third Arizona plants, fulfilling a promise made back in March.

The chipmaker is bringing more advanced processes to the US earlier than initially expected, allowing it to make chips for more recent Apple products …

A new report suggests that many people who belong to Gen Z use Find My and other apps to permanently share their location with groups of friends.

A study earlier in the year found that 40% of Gen Z adults share their location with three or more people, and a new piece found it was common to location-share with double digit numbers of friends …

Apple is expanding its collection of Apple News+ Puzzles with yet another new game. This time, Apple is tapping into something we all know and love: emoji.

The new Emoji Game was initially announced as part of iOS 26 at WWDC. The game, however, is now rolling out to all iPhone users running iOS 18.4 and later as well as iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4.

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.

Sponsored by 1Password: For a limited time, get $20 off the easiest way to stay secure online with 1Password—featuring a new passkey feature that lets you go passwordless on compatible apps and sites.