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“Introducing Adaptive Dark Mode”→

As part of the 27.3 betas released yesterday, Apple also introduced a new Safari feature:

We’re excited to announce Adaptive Dark Mode in Safari 27.3 beta. When enabled by a user, Safari adapts light websites and presents them as dark.

In the spring of 2019, Safari 12.1 became the first browser to support dark mode on the web. A lot of people love using dark mode, but not every website has a dark version. Almost 40% of web page loads are from users in dark mode, and yet only 10% of page loads support it. If you love dark mode, you’ve probably hit a site that felt particularly bright. Adaptive Dark Mode is designed to close that gap, providing a consistent dark experience across the web.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because so many third-party Safari extensions for this very task already exist, including the very popular (and a MacStories favorite) Noir. The difference, of course, is that Adaptive Dark Mode is built deep into the WebKit engine itself now, ships for free in Safari, and offers greater speed and performance since it’s not limited by an extension. It sounds like Apple thought of a lot of details here:

At the core of Adaptive Dark Mode is the transformation of color. Sometimes colors are simply decorative, while other times they have semantic meaning. Adaptive Dark Mode determines when to invert colors so elements remain visible or when to leave colors unchanged.

While creating Adaptive Dark Mode, we developed a color matrix to invert the luminosity of colors while preserving hue. It’s used to make light backgrounds dark, and dark text light. When transforming text color, Adaptive Dark Mode aims for sufficient contrast as defined by the WCAG 4.5:1 contrast ratio. Light CSS gradients are also transformed to dark.

And:

It takes the same care with images. Most are left unchanged, preserving their integrity. But many icons and logos can lose contrast when the background color behind them is inverted. So Adaptive Dark Mode inspects SVG images and transforms colors when needed. For bitmap images, it analyzes the pixel histograms and inverts simple black-and-white logos.

Noir and similar extensions had a great run. Between this, the MCP server added earlier this year, and vertical tabs in 27.3, it’s time for me to go back to Safari everywhere.

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Siri AI’s Evolution Is Both Surprising and Obvious

Siri AI in iOS 27.3 beta.

Siri AI in iOS 27.3 beta.

As part of the release of the 27.3 developer betas yesterday, Apple announced a substantial expansion of the capabilities of Siri AI. As you recall from my iOS 27 review two months ago, Siri AI launched with support for a limited subset of app domains based on schemas that Apple specifically optimized for the first version of Siri AI. In a major reversal for a mid-cycle update to Siri AI, that limitation is entirely going away: the updated Siri AI will instead work with any kind of app that supports any custom App Intent – as long as the developers do the work of modernizing their App Intents and integrating with Siri. Effectively, though, any app can work with Siri AI now, and Apple calls this the Siri AI Developer Preview.

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How to Easily Create Multiple Windows for the Same App on iPhone Duo

Multi-window for Safari on iPhone Duo.

Multi-window for Safari on iPhone Duo.

Since Apple sent me a review unit of the iPhone Duo a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been enjoying using the device as a “pocket iPad” for getting work done with a portable, modular setup. I wrote this article about the MacBook Pro with Touch, for instance, primarily from the iPhone Duo at Apple’s Los Angeles event – a fact that was captured in this photo by Chance Miller. (A photo, by the way, that I showed to John Ternus, who is now aware of my modded Apple kickstand.)

I’ll write about my experience with the iPhone Duo, productivity, and apps more and more over the next few months at MacStories. Today, I wanted to share a simple yet useful tip to easily create multiple windows for the same app on the Duo.

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iPad mini (2026) Review: Pushing the Boundaries with Apple’s Smallest iPad

The new iPad mini arrives Friday with a new design, gorgeous OLED display, and an innovative new speaker system. It’s an interesting update that I expect will broaden the mini’s appeal, especially at the high end, which is the Starlight model Apple sent me last week for testing. There’s a lot going on in this smallest of the iPad lineup, so let’s take a look at what’s new and how it changes the iPad mini’s story.

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Apple Reports Q4 2026 Revenue of $114.5 Billion

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple reported its 2026 Q4 earnings, posting quarterly revenue of $114.5 billion. Here are the highlights:

  • Revenue was $114.5B, up 11.7% from Q4 FY25.
  • iPhone revenue was $57.6B, up 17.5%, and represented 50.3% of Apple’s total revenue.
  • Services revenue was $31.6B, up 9.8%, and represented 27.6% of Apple’s total revenue.
  • Gross margin was $54.8B, up 13.4%, with an overall gross margin rate of 47.9%.
  • Net income was $30.7B, up 11.8%.
  • Operating cash flow was $28.1B, down 5.5%.
  • Diluted EPS was $2.10, up 13.5%.

Apple CEO John Ternus had this to say about the results:

Today, Apple is proud to report a September quarter revenue record of $114.5 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago, with iPhone reaching a September quarter record and Services reaching an all-time high, capping off our best fiscal year ever. We’re closing the year with our most ambitious lineup yet. That includes the iPhone Duo, the most transformational iPhone since the original, alongside iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, our most powerful iPhones yet. We also just introduced a whole new generation of hardware for the home and brought Touch to Mac for the first time. Together with the all-new Siri AI, it’s an incredible lineup to carry us into the holiday season.

For additional context, here’s how the results break down:

In Apple’s latest quarter: four of five regions grew, Services reached $31.6B, and gross margin was 47.9%.

iPhone remained Apple’s largest business at $57.6B, and three of five categories grew year over year. Together, iPhone and Services accounted for 77.9% of Apple’s $114.5B in net sales.

iPhone revenue reached $57.6B, or 50.3% of Apple’s total revenue, keeping it the company’s largest consumer business.

Services reached $31.6B at a 76.0% gross margin, accounting for 27.6% of revenue but 43.7% of gross margin.

Products carried most of the revenue at $82.9B, but Services kept 76.0% of every dollar against Products’ 37.2%.

Four of five regions grew, and the Americas contributed the most new revenue at $4.5B, or 37.4% of Apple’s $12.0B in growth.

This was also the first earnings report with John Ternus as Apple’s CEO. Going into today’s call, Apple’s guidance from July called for September-quarter revenue growth of 9–11% over last year’s $102.5 billion, or roughly $111.7–113.8 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $113.46 billion and diluted earnings per share of $2.00, according to Bloomberg’s analyst consensus estimates. Apple’s results came in above that range and exceeded expectations for earnings per share.

Standout numbers include the Mac’s strength, which I expect is attributable to the MacBook Neo, the continued growth of Services revenue, and the broad-based gains worldwide.

OpenAI Adds iCloud Calendar and Mail Plugins and Dot Texting→

OpenAI continues to add features to its ChatGPT app on a regular basis, but there are a couple of recent Apple-specific updates worth mentioning.

First, OpenAI created plugins for Calendar and Mail a couple of days ago. Both features use iCloud and require you to set up an app-specific password to use them. Here’s what OpenAI’s in-app documentation says each does:

  • iCloud Calendar: List iCloud calendars, find events, create or change events, and look up iCloud contacts.
  • iCloud Mail: Search and read iCloud Mail, manage messages and drafts, send email, and look up iCloud contacts.

I’ve been using Google Calendar more the past several months primarily because there was too much friction in getting Codex or my Dot to use my iCloud calendars. I’ve never been fond of Google Calendar, so I set up the iCloud Calendar plugin immediately. I don’t use Apple Mail as often, but it’s come a long way with the latest OS updates, so I set up the iCloud Mail plugin too and plan to give it another go.

Setting up your Dot in Messages.

Setting up your Dot in Messages.

Second, you can now text your OpenAI Dot. The setup process is very simple, which anyone who tried to set up Messages with OpenClaw in the early days will appreciate. Go to your iPhone, tap your Dot, select “Set up texting,” add your phone number, paste in the verification code it sends, and you’re all set. It took me less than a minute to do. Your Dot will even send you a contact card to add to the Contacts app, so its profile picture shows up in Messages.

You may be wondering why you’d set up texting when you have the ChatGPT app and a widget that tie directly into your Dot. It’s a fair point, but for me, the more ways I have to easily make requests of my Dot, the better, and texting gives me a low-friction way to do that that takes next to no bandwidth, ensuring that it will work whether I’ve got a strong cellular signal or not. It’s worth noting that although your Dot is assigned a phone number for texting purposes, the number can’t be used to start a voice chat, which I tried of course.

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