Podcast Rewind: The watchOS 26 Public Beta, Audio Experiments, and an Alien Intervention

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Chris wants to talk about OS 26 (but Liquid Glass is OFF LIMITS), Matt found a slick new security camera, and Niléane challenges the gang to downgrade their audio setups.

MacStories Unwind

This week, John is joined by Jonathan Reed to recap the watchOS 26 public beta and share a trio of comedies old and new, along with Brendon Bigley’s new project and a classic monster movie deal.

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon highlight the second season premiere of Apple Original comedy series Platonic and the debut of historical drama Chief of War.

Read more

Apple Expands Its U.S. Manufacturing Commitment

In February, Apple announced plans to invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. Today, that commitment was increased to $600 billion. In the company’s press release, Tim Cook said:

Today, we’re proud to increase our investments across the United States to $600 billion over four years and launch our new American Manufacturing Program. This includes new and expanded work with 10 companies across America. They produce components that are used in Apple products sold all over the world, and we’re grateful to the President for his support.

One of the first deals announced is an expansion of Apple’s relationship with Corning to make all cover glass for the iPhone and Apple Watch at a Corning plant in Kentucky. That deal is part of what Apple calls its American Manufacturing Program, in which Coherent, GlobalWafers America (GWA), Applied Materials, Texas Instruments (TI), Samsung, GlobalFoundries, Amkor, and Broadcom will also participate. Apple says the program builds on its deal to buy rare earth magnets from MP Materials, a July 2025 deal that was announced shortly after the unusual sale of $400 million of MP Materials’ preferred stock to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Apple continues to be under a lot of political pressure to make its devices in the U.S., despite its prior financial commitments to make components in America. Another $100 billion over four years is a lot, but I suspect this won’t be enough. Instead, I expect we’ll see more of this type of announcement, given how quickly the first half a trillion was followed by another $100 billion.

Podcast Rewind: Public Beta Thoughts and an AYANEO Extravaganza

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and John share their experiences with iPadOS and macOS 26, which are now available as part of Apple’s public beta program.

On AppStories+, Federico and John discuss the state of engagement bait posting about Apple and how it’s affecting the discourse about the company and its products.

This episode is sponsored by:

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, Brendon KONKRs AYANEO’s two-day announcement-fest and is joined by John and Federico for diversions into 3DS repairs, the GPD Win 5, Gamescom, and more.

On NPC XL, which was released last week, Brendon, John, and Federico talked about the recent Nintendo Direct and shared a Switch 2 accessory update.

Read more

MacStoriesDeals Returns with Hand-Picked Bargains on Gear and Media

Today, we’re bringing back MacStoriesDeals, an outlet for sharing deals with the MacStories community. You can follow our curated collections of gadget and media deals here:

Long-time readers may remember the MacStoriesDeals Twitter account, which we stopped posting to almost seven years ago. We used that account as a way to share the deals that we came across. Over time, though, Apple slowed its app affiliate spending and then ended it altogether in 2017. That’s when MacStoriesDeals went from a useful resource for readers that also made us a little extra money to a chore we couldn’t justify spending the time on any longer.

However, times change. Today, affiliate linking is bigger than ever, and MacStories’ coverage has grown to encompass more gadget reviews and stories, our Setups page, and other media coverage on MacStories Unwind and NPC: Next Portable Console. Plus, with the latest automation tools at our disposal, we can do more with MacStoriesDeals than we ever did before with less effort, which is why we’re bringing it back.

There are plenty of other social media accounts and websites out there that aggregate deals, but MacStoriesDeals is going to be a little different. As we’ve noted in our Prime Day coverage the past couple of years, we only recommend deals for gear and media we’ve tried and brands we trust. In other words, these aren’t just any deals; they’re deals we think are worth your time and consideration based on over 25 years of collective editorial experience.

The links you’ll find on MacStoriesDeals are affiliate links, usually from the U.S.-based Amazon and Apple storefronts, that will earn us roughly 2-7% when you use one and buy something. Of course, that will be disclosed in the posts, as it already is in the MacStories Privacy Policy. Affiliate link revenue is a small part of MacStories’ annual income, but with the changes the Internet and online media are undergoing, every little bit helps us continue to bring you MacStories’ unique perspective on the Apple universe and beyond. Rest assured, our approach to MacStoriesDeals is the same as it is everywhere at MacStories: we aren’t going to promote deals we don’t believe are worth your time and attention.

We’re excited to be revitalizing MacStoriesDeals. It was a great resource for readers looking for bargains in the early days of the site, and we aim to make it so again. We’re also working on ways to do more for readers with MacStoriesDeals in the months ahead.

Thanks for supporting everything we do at MacStories. We hope MacStoriesDeals adds a little more to the experience and you consider following along with the deals we recommend on Mastodon and Bluesky.

JSAUX FlipGo: An Award-Winning 16” Dual Touchscreen Monitor For Your Mac [Sponsor]

The promise of portable dual monitors has always been compelling, but the execution has consistently fallen short, until now. JSAUX’s FlipGo 16” Dual Touchscreen Monitor breaks new productivity ground for Mac users. Unlike some alternatives, the FlipGo Pro leverages both DisplayLink technology and native connectivity to deliver true dual-screen functionality on Apple silicon Macs with a single USB-C cable.

At its core, the FlipGo represents thoughtful engineering applied to everyday workflows. Its two 16-inch IPS panels deliver genuine 2.5K resolution (2560×1600 total resolution), 100% sRGB color accuracy, and 500 nits brightness. The key innovation lies in the FlipGo’s versatility: switch between UltraView mode for a single expansive workspace, DuoViews for independent dual screens, or ABC mode to create a true triple-monitor setup when combined with your MacBook’s display. You can learn more about the benefits of a foldable dual-screen setup in John’s review of the similar non-touch version of the FlipGo Pro here.

Build quality of the FlipGo Pro is superb and is a big part of why it won an iF Design Award and Red Dot award in 2024. The aluminum construction feels substantial without being cumbersome at 1.6kg, while the magnetic mounting system secures everything when the screens are attached to their stand. Even the hinge mechanism is made from premium materials, making it perfect for professionals to take on the go daily.

For those who value integrated workflows, the FlipGo’s built-in USB hub functionality provides two USB-A 2.0 ports and an additional USB-C port, effectively expanding your MacBook’s connectivity while powering the displays. When connected to external power, it even provides reverse charging to your laptop — a thoughtful touch that eliminates battery drain during extended sessions.

Ready to transform your mobile workspace? Order the JSAUX FlipGo 16” Touchscreen today.

This post includes affiliate links. Learn more here.

Podcast Rewind: Oasis at Wembley Stadium, Floating Sidebars, and Golf

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Niléane has to let loose on Liquid Glass, Chris runs into the arms of the iPad, and Matt challenges the gang to bring their hottest takes. An episode full of spice!

MacStories Unwind

This week, Federico recounts his trip to London to see Oasis play Wembley Stadium, and John recommends the new Fantastic Four movie plus a great deal on a classic comedy.

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon preview the public beta of tvOS 26 and recap Apple Original comedy series Stick.

Read more

Apple Reports Q3 2025 Financial Results

Apple’s third-quarter 2025 earnings are out and Apple reported revenue of $94 billion, a 10% year-over-year gain. The diluted earnings per share was $1.57 an 12% year-over-year gain.

Tim Cook had this to say:

Today Apple is proud to report a June quarter revenue record with double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac and Services and growth around the world, in every geographic segment. At WWDC25, we were excited to introduce a beautiful new software design that extends across all of our platforms, and we announced even more great Apple Intelligence features.

Going into today’s earnings, Reuters reported that the Wall Street consensus was for 4.2% growth in revenue to $89.34 billion, reflecting ongoing concerns over tariffs and the slow rollout of Apple Intelligence features.

Today’s results are substantially better than expected, led by double-digit gains for iPhone, Mac, and Services sales. Apple’s board of directors has authorized a $0.26/share dividend, too.

Thoughts on iPadOS 26: Hello, It’s Good to Be Back

iPadOS 26.

iPadOS 26.

Apple released the first public betas of iOS and iPadOS 26 last week, and I’m going to cut to the chase with this story: although I’m still wrapping my head around Liquid Glass and trying to understand where this new design language will land, iPadOS 26 has fundamentally revolutionized my workflow in just a little over a month. While talking to Craig Federighi at WWDC, I did get the sense that Apple was approaching the iPad platform from a different – perhaps more humble – perspective, with a newfound willingness to listen to power users and find a better balance between the simplicity of the iPad and its flexibility. Actually using iPadOS 26, however, has far exceeded my expectations – which pushed me to completely rethink my desk setup (again) and the apps I use around the iPad Pro and iPadOS 26.

Conversely, I’ve been struggling to understand iOS 26 and the role of Liquid Glass. I’ve documented my issues with Apple’s new design with a variety of examples recently, but the truth is that at this point in the beta cycle, I don’t know what to write about Liquid Glass yet. For this reason, despite my many attempts to write this story over the past few weeks, I’ve decided to take a different approach.

Today, I only feel comfortable sharing my opinion about iPadOS 26, and I’ve chosen to delay my analysis of iOS 26 until later this year. I’ve found it incredibly challenging to form an opinion on Liquid Glass and iOS 26 when everything is still so in flux and being adjusted on a beta-by-beta basis. I feel like sharing what I think about Liquid Glass right now would be a fruitless exercise, or shortsighted perhaps, one way or another. Instead, since I find iPadOS 26 to be more of a known entity at the moment, I’ve decided to focus on that and how this software update is changing the way I work. The time will come for me to write about Liquid Glass and Apple’s vision for the future of its software design. Today, though, I’m all about the iPad.

It’s been an interesting month since WWDC. This year more than ever, I have a feeling that Apple isn’t done tweaking its OSes and much will continue to change between now and September. But for now, as always, let’s dive in.

Read more

macOS Tahoe: The MacStories Public Beta Preview

Author’s Note: Apple released the public beta of macOS 26 Tahoe last Thursday, two days after developer beta 4. Instead of rushing a preview of Tahoe to publication at the risk of missing important aspects of the release, I chose to spend the time necessary to thoroughly test Tahoe first.

A year ago, the macOS Sequoia public beta debuted with a long list of caveats. Many of the features that had been shown off at WWDC 2024 weren’t in that initial public beta release or even the initial macOS 15.0 release, and some features, like a smarter Siri, still haven’t shipped. That made Sequoia feel incomplete.

The release of macOS Tahoe 26 promises to be different. The features highlighted during WWDC 2025 are all in the public beta. Some are more polished than others, but everything is there to try today. With its surprisingly long list of new system apps, changes big and small at the macOS system level, and, of course, Liquid Glass, Tahoe’s public beta release is a fun one for users who like to explore Apple’s latest macOS innovations as early as possible.

I’m not sold on every feature, but it’s still early, and this is a beta, so I’ll reserve my final judgment for the fall. However, there’s a lot coming in macOS Tahoe, which makes it worth taking a closer look at today, so let’s dig in.

Read more