Apple just announced the next major software update for iPhones: iOS 26 (a jump from what, until recently, was expected to be called iOS 19), and it’s packed with a whole bunch of new features for your phone. The biggest change is a new design, but there are lots of smaller improvements and additions as well that could make a difference in how you use your iPhone every day.Here’s a bit more detail on what you can expect from iOS 26 when it releases for everyone this fall. If you want to try it early, Apple has already launched a developer beta, and it will offer a public beta sometime in July.A refreshed design across the OSApple has a new design language called “Liquid Glass” that it’s being introduced across all of the company’s devices, not just the iPhone. It’s inspired by the visionOS software used with Apple’s Vision Pro headset, and it features a lot of translucency that Apple says “behaves like glass in the real world.” On-screen elements now use “real-time rendering” that lets them react to movement with highlights and color shifts.It seems like changes from Liquid Glass will touch just about every part of the operating system, including apps, buttons, sliders, the Control Center, and your homescreen. Tab bars will also change because of Liquid Glass, shrinking and expanding as you scroll up and down.Messages is getting better for group chatsIn Messages, iOS 26 is adding a lot of updates that could significantly improve group chats. You’ll be able to customize the background of a chat to give it more personality. To help make group decisions or get an opinion on something, you can create polls. And, at long last, Apple is adding typing indicators to group chats, which should make them feel more lively.Some new Phone features will help you save timeApple is taking some cues from Google by adding a call screening feature and a “Hold Assist” feature that can wait on a call for you. The company is also adding a new unified layout option that combines Favorites, Recents, and Voicemails all into one view.Live Translation can translate calls in real timeApple is adding an Apple Intelligence-powered feature that can translate text on your screen and translate speech back and forth in the middle of a phone call. The company is building the feature into Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, and Apple says its models for Live Translation run entirely on your device for privacy.Some small Apple Intelligence improvementsEven though we’re still waiting for Apple to announce when it will actually release its delayed improvements to Siri, iOS 26 will include some new Apple Intelligence-powered features. Visual Intelligence will let you do searches about and take action on things you see on your screen. With Genmoji, you’ll be able to combine two emoji into one. And Shortcuts will be able to use Apple Intelligence models to improve your workflows.The new Games app is for everything about your gamesApple’s new Games app will provide a centralized hub for everything about your games on your iPhone. The Home tab shows things like updates and events in your games. The Apple Arcade tab lets you browse the company’s catalog of games on the service. The Library tab shows all of the App Store games you’ve ever downloaded. And the Play Together tab lets you see what your friends are up to.

Turn your modern handheld into a makeshift Nintendo DS using Retroid’s clamp-on secondary screen accessory. | Image: RetroidThe Nintendo DS was a wildly successful console, but emulating its unique dual screen design on modern handhelds is a challenge. You can try to squeeze both screens onto a single touchscreen, attempt to completely recreate the DS’ unique hardware, or do what Retroid is doing and release a temporary clamp-on, secondary screen that’s compatible with its handhelds and other third-party devices.The Retroid Dual Screen Add-on is currently available through the company’s online store in black, purple (inspired by the GameCube), and translucent white color options for $69, but are currently sold out. That includes a version designed for Retroid’s own Pocket handhelds including the RP Mini, RP Mini V2, RP4 Pro, and RP5, and the version for third-party handhelds. As long as a device isn’t taller than 115mm and supports DisplayPort over USB-C it should be compatible, but Retroid specifically points out the Steam Deck is not.Featuring a 5.5-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and dedicated brightness buttons on the side, the Dual Screen Add-on attaches to devices with an expanding clamp and can be positioned at three different angles using a “click-stop hinge.” However, the second screen can’t be folded flat against the handheld it’s attached to like with the DS.The add-on features touchscreen functionality, which is supported through the DisplayPort protocol. If your handheld of choice is lacking touch capabilities, hanging the add-on off the bottom will let you play DS games that heavily relied on lower touchscreen interactions. But since Retroid’s Dual Screen Add-on is at its core just an external display for a handheld, what games you can play and how the screen will be utilized is left to the device’s operating system or the emulator you’re using.The add-on weighs around 130 grams, thanks in part to it skipping a built-in battery. It’s powered directly by the device it’s connected to, but it does have its own USB-C port with pass-through charging capabilities so you can keep both the display and your handheld running without killing its battery.

I've been using Google's AI-powered personalized research assistant, NotebookLM, since it was launched as an experimental product, and I've covered it a bunch recently. And honestly? I'm still not over it, and it's easily my favorite AI productivity tool.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally hit the market after what felt like an excruciatingly long wait. I already wrote about my initial impressions of the console and why I love it, but there's something that's been on my mind since even before the console was released. Some have said that the console has no real innovations and the primary addition — mouse controls — is nothing new or interesting in the way that previous Nintendo gimmicks have been.

Apple didn’t just give all of its operating systems a design refresh with the new Liquid Glass material, the Cupertino-based giant also packed in new features and capabilities across the board. And when it comes to iPadOS 26 (yeah, Apple changed its naming scheme too), it might’ve just finally blurred the lines between iPads and MacBooks.

If you’re a Linux enthusiast who uses a Windows machine, chances are you’ve already armed your workstation with WSL. But for folks who haven’t heard of this neat technology, Windows Subsystem for Linux provides a neat way to create Linux environments on your Windows machine without dealing with the performance overhead of a virtual machine or configuring dual-boot settings.

The “Adaptive Power” option will exist alongside “Low Power Mode.”Apple is working on a new “adaptive power” feature in iOS 26 that aims to make your battery last longer. In the iOS 26 developer beta, Apple describes the feature as a way for the iPhone to make “small performance adjustments to extend your battery life,” including by lowering screen brightness and “allowing some activities to take a little longer.”Apple also notes that it may automatically enable Low Power Mode, which restricts background activities, when your battery reaches 20 percent. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman first reported on the possibility of an AI-powered battery optimization feature for the iPhone last month.At the time, Gurman said that the feature will use the “battery data it has collected from users’ devices” to determine which apps it should lower power consumption on. Google has a similar Adaptive Battery feature for Android phones, which it says uses AI to analyze how you use your phone, allowing it to shut off lesser-used apps in the background.The Adaptive Power toggle currently exists alongside Low Power Mode in the Battery > Power Mode section of the Settings menu in the iOS 26 developer beta.Apple plans to release the iOS 26 beta to more users next month before rolling it out to everyone in the fall. Along with a new “Liquid Glass” design, iOS 26 adds a bundle of new features, including updates to the Camera, Phone, Safari, and Messages apps, as well as Apple Intelligence-powered live translation for text messages and calls.

WWDC 2025 is usually a source of good news, but there are some elements to it that can sting. For instance, you've checked out all the new features coming to iOS, only to discover the disappointing truth that all those cool additions aren't making it to your model. As such, before you get too excited, here are all the devices that won't get iOS 26.

With Prey, director Dan Trachtenberg revitalized the Predator franchise and showed us all how wildly thrilling its central conceit could still be with just a little bit of reworking. Prey took the classic Predator story and made it feel new by focusing on the past and framing its alien characters' excursions to Earth as part of a much older deadly tradition. Expanding the Predator series with even more Prey-like narratives seemed like a no-brainer for 20th Century Studios.Though it's a leaner, meaner feature, Hulu's Predator: Killer of Killers takes everything that worked about Prey and condenses it into short and sweet exploration of other chapters from the franchise's past. The animated anthology's Arcane-inspired visuals are gorgeously gory, and its action set pieces are incredibly sharp. Killer of Killers isn't exactly trying to reinvent the wheel, and if you've seen a Predator movie before, little of it will take you by surprise. But as a bloody amuse-bouche meant to whet our appetites before Predator: Badlands hits theaters later this year, Killer of Killers absolutely gets the job done.Set at three different points in human history, Killer of Killers tells the familiar …Read the full story at The Verge.

The PC hardware space can be as superficial or deep as you want it to be. Depending on your patience with details, you can continue to enjoy your PC without ever getting into the nitty-gritty of it. For those who like to dig deeper, there are an awful lot of misconceptions and half-truths associated with popular hardware and performance terms associated with CPUs, GPUs, and other PC components. It's possible you know some things about these terms, but are interpreting them incorrectly. Let's dive deeper into five such aspects to decode their true meaning and implications.

Roku is experimenting with a new homepage that aims to make it easier to jump into your favorite apps and discover new things to watch. The test is rolling out to a small number of Roku users now and adds new sections like Quick Access, which automatically populates with the apps you visit the most.That means if you’re watching Netflix a lot, or often peruse Roku’s selection of action movies across multiple apps, the service will put shortcuts to those destinations beneath Quick Access. Right now, there’s no way to manually remove or add apps to the Quick Access section, but Preston Smalley, Roku’s VP of viewer product, tells The Verge that the company is “trying some different approaches” to this.“One of the things we know that’s going to be really important is that it just needs to work right out of the box,” Smalley said. “We’re definitely trying to see how much control people want, but that’s something we want to hear from customers on.”With the redesign, you’ll no longer land on the left-hand sidebar when you select the “home” button on your remote, either. Now, your cursor will automatically appear within the grid on the homepage, while the panel on the left side remains closed.Roku also moved some of the panel’s options to the main grid, including “Live TV” and “Featured Free,” with the goal of making them easier to find. “We had actually some pretty compelling and delightful destinations, but it was only a minority of people that were finding them,” Smalley said. “What we think will happen with this change, and with what we’re testing, is that more users will actually discover some of these great ways to browse across the platform.”These two options now live beneath “The Best Across Your Streaming Services” section, along with some new tiles, like “Subscriptions,” where you can view all of your subscription-based content, and “For You,” which Smalley said is a “reimagining” of Roku’s “What to Watch” option that serves up personalized recommendations. You’ll also find a “What are you in the mood for?” section that lets you browse shows and movies within different categories, such as “New & Popular,” “Food,” and “Drama.” Though Roku has been experimenting with different types of ads in recent months, the amount — or types — of ads isn’t changing as part of this homepage redesign. The large marquee ad on the right side of the homepage will stay in its place, but Roku is moving two ad placements beneath your “top picks.”“We’re always looking to make the Roku experience just better, more intuitive, more engaging, and even more personalized,” Smalley added. “What we want to do is make sure that the home screen experience fits well with just how you watch TV today.”As Roku continues testing its new design, it may move things around a bit, so you may not see the format exactly as described here. The company plans on collecting user feedback before widely rolling out the change, and will also give users the ability to opt-out of the update during the test.

Apple's WWDC 2025 had new software, Formula 1 references, and a piano man crooning the text of different app reviews. But one key feature got the short end of the stick: Siri. Although the company continuously referenced Apple Intelligence and pushed new features like live translation for Messages, FaceTime, and phone calls, Apple's AI assistant was barely mentioned. In fact, the most attention Siri got was when Apple explained that some of its previously promised features were running behind schedule.To address what many saw as the elephant in the room, Apple's keynote briefly mentioned that it had updated Siri to be "more natural and more helpful," but that personalization features were still on the horizon. Those features were first mentioned at last year's WWDC, with a rollout timeline "over the course of the next year.""We're continuing our work to deliver the features that make Siri even more personal," Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of software engineering, said during Monday's keynote. "This work needed more time to reach our high quality bar, and we look forward to sharing more about it in the coming year."Apple's relative silence on Siri stands outApple has long …Read the full story at The Verge.