TESSAN Universal Travel Adapter: The 140W GaN Charger That Will Power All Your Apple Gear [Sponsor]

If you’ve ever found yourself juggling multiple chargers for your iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and AirPods in a hotel room, you need to check out TESSAN’s 140W GaN Universal Travel Adapter. Its compact design replaces your entire charging setup with a single, intelligently designed adapter that works in over 200 countries, delivering the power you need.

The TESSAN adapter leverages GaN technology to deliver 140W of total power through three USB-C ports and one USB-A port, while maintaining a footprint smaller than most laptop chargers. The top USB-C port delivers up to 100W—enough to fast-charge a MacBook Pro while the remaining ports will intelligently distribute power to charge your other devices simultaneously. The universal plug design features slide-out prongs for U.S., UK, EU, and Australian outlets, eliminating the need to pack multiple regional adapters.

The TESSAN adapter also includes surge protection, over-current protection, and temperature control. Plus, the GaN semiconductor technology generates less heat than traditional silicon-based chargers, making it safer for extended use in cramped spaces.

MacStories readers can get the TESSAN Universal Travel Adapter now on Amazon.

Our thanks to TESSAN for sponsoring MacStories this week. This post includes affiliate links..

One Month with the Aqara G410 Video Doorbell

Last month, after an advanced preview at CES back in January, Aqara released an update to its G4 smart video doorbell dubbed the Doorbell Camera Hub G410 Select. I had been keeping my eye out for this release ever since its announcement, and it just so happened to coincide with the passing of my existing smart doorbell from Netatmo. That was more than enough reason to purchase the G410, and over a month of daily usage, I’ve been enjoying several of the camera’s excellent new features while also wishing for some improvements in other areas.

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Podcast Rewind: European Software and Smoke

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Niléane brings some “classic” headphones, Chris is in possession of The Big Ball, and everyone tries to go a little bit more European.

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon discuss the latest Apple TV hardware rumors and recap Apple Original drama Smoke.

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Philips Hue Adds Flexibility to the Play Line with New Wall Washer Lights

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been testing a pair of Philips Hue Play wall washer lights along with a Play HDMI sync box 8K that the company sent me to test. The wall washer lights are a new and interesting approach to accent lighting for the Hue Play line that I like a lot, but they also come with a premium price tag, so it’s worth taking a close look at what they offer.

Philips Hue's Play wall washer lights. Source: Philips Hue.

Philips Hue’s Play wall washer lights. Source: Philips Hue.

I’ve been using Philips Hue Play lights for a while. I have two Play gradient light tubes in my office; one sits behind a shelf on my desk, providing a backlight to my work environment, while the other is on the top of a tall bookshelf, illuminating what would otherwise be a dark corner of the room. I typically set them to a natural light color using Adaptive Lighting in Apple’s Home app, but they can do fancy gradient colors, too, which can be a fun way to mix things up.

A more traditional Play wall washer setup than mine. Source: Philips Hue.

A more traditional Play wall washer setup than mine. Source: Philips Hue.

But the downside of tube lights is that they take up a lot of horizontal space. That’s where the new wall washer lights come in. They’re cylindrical with a vertical and angled slice taken out of one side, which is where the LEDs are located. Most notably, though, at around six inches tall by a little more than three inches wide, the wall washers work in a much wider variety of places than tube lights. That compact footprint has been perfect for fitting behind my TV, where I’ve already crammed gaming consoles, a Wi-Fi router, and other gear.

Other highlights of the Hue Play wall washers include:

  • ColorCast, Philips Hue’s term for the way the wall washers generate highly saturated multi-colored gradients,
  • 1035 lumens of light, which is impressive for such a small device, and
  • the ability to display white light in a wide 2000–6500 Kelvin range.

The Play wall washers require a Hue Bridge and are compatible with HomeKit, allowing you to use either the Hue app or the Home app to turn them on and off, dim them, and change their colors.

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Who Is Liquid Glass For?→

The Iconfactory’s Craig Hockenberry had an interesting post over the weekend on Furbo.org that struck a chord with me. The post explores the ‘why’ surrounding Liquid Glass contrasting the upcoming iOS 26 changes with the transition from iOS 6 to iOS 7. That earlier change was driven by a need to make app design accessible to more people, which, as Hockenberry explains, seems different from the motivation behind Liquid Glass:

I’m unaware of anyone outside of Apple who’s thinking “we really need to have more fluid glass in our designs”. Of particular note during the introduction is how much time they spend showing off glass blocks and talking about the physical effect itself. While not addressing the most important question: “why do we need this?”

And I’m pretty sure the answer is “we don’t”. The answer is “Apple does.”

Hockenberry thinks the switch to Liquid Glass is being driven by unreleased hardware very much like the iOS 11 safe areas that were instituted before the iPhone X’s notch and Home indicator debuted. It’s a great theory that could easily have people facepalming in the not-too-distant future. I hope he’s right.

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The iOS 26 Features Not Coming to Older iPhones

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Each fall’s major iOS update and its accompanying set of new features have become a staple of the iPhone user experience. iPhone owners – even those who don’t keep up with all the latest Apple news – expect and anticipate these enhancements every year. However, for those who aren’t on the latest-generation devices, it may not always be clear which of this year’s new features you’ll have access to. Even if a device supports iOS 26, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be able to run every system feature.

To save you from having to comb through a bunch of footnotes on Apple’s website or, worse, wait until this fall to find out which capabilities your device will support, I’ve compiled a list of all the iOS 26 features that are limited to newer iPhones. Here’s what you can expect based on the model you’re using.

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Rogue Amoeba: Powerful Audio Tools for Your Mac [Sponsor]

The folks at Rogue Amoeba are back to sponsor MacStories this week. If you’re not already familiar with them, they’ve been notable makers of powerful audio tools for your Mac since 2002. From professionals to hobbyists to everyday consumers, they’ve got tools to help you with audio.

It’s a cinch to make recordings with the flagship product Audio Hijack, which can now even transcribe audio.

Or, take advantage of SoundSource to gain volume control for each app playing audio on your Mac, as well as the power to apply audio effects and even redirect playback to different devices.

If you want to enhance your microphone’s capabilities, Loopback is the perfect tool. With its virtual audio devices, you can combine app audio and your microphone seamlessly, then bring it into Zoom or any other voice chat app. You can even pair Loopback with the Mac’s best soundboard app, Farrago, to add sound effects or background audio to calls and recordings.

Rogue Amoeba offers free trials for all their apps, and you can set them up in seconds. And if you’re running Apple’s beta OS, you’ll be happy to know Rogue Amoeba’s apps already work on Tahoe.

As a MacStories reader, you can save 20% on any purchase through the end of August by using discount code STORIES2508. Visit their store to get started.

Our thanks to the folks at Rogue Amoeba for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Podcast Rewind: A Big Ball and The Buccaneers

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Matt wonders why there are so many face computers, Niléane has an awesome podcast app update, and Chris figures out which of two compelling pitches he gets to buy.

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon break down the variations in video and audio quality across streaming and recap the second season of The Buccaneers.

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Apple Announces Redesigned Blood Oxygen Feature for U.S. Watch Market

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Since 2023, Apple has been locked in a dispute with Masimo over patents related to the Apple Watch’s Blood Oxygen feature. That meant for more than 18 months, Apple Watches in the U.S. were sold without Blood Oxygen monitoring.

Today, the company announced that:

Apple will introduce a redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users through an iPhone and Apple Watch software update coming later today.

The update doesn’t affect watches in the U.S. that already had Blood Oxygen feature or watches sold elsewhere in the world.

According to Apple, today’s update was enabled by a recent U.S. Customs ruling, and:

Following this update, sensor data from the Blood Oxygen app on Apple Watch will be measured and calculated on the paired iPhone, and results can be viewed in the Respiratory section of the Health app.

It’s good to see the Blood Oxygen feature returning to all Apple Watches, and not just future hardware releases. It will be interesting to see how the redesigned feature, which requires an iPhone, compares to the original feature that is no longer available in new hardware.