Apple today announced that iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey feature system-wide translation, allowing users to translate text by simply selecting it and tapping or right clicking on the Translate option that appears.
iPhone, iPad, and Mac users can also translate selected text in photos as part of a new Live Text feature in the latest software versions.
Apple also announced that the Translate app is available on the iPad starting with iPadOS 15, after launching on the iPhone last year. On both iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, a new Auto Translate feature lets users translate speech without tapping the microphone button in a conversation, and selecting languages is now easier with convenient drop‑down menus.
Thursday February 5, 2026 12:54 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple turns 50 this year, and its CEO Tim Cook has promised to celebrate the milestone. The big day falls on April 1, 2026.
"I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment," Cook told employees today, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "When you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart ...
Tuesday February 3, 2026 7:47 am PST by Joe Rossignol
While the iOS 26.3 Release Candidate is now available ahead of a public release, the first iOS 26.4 beta is likely still at least a week away. Following beta testing, iOS 26.4 will likely be released to the general public in March or April.
Below, we have recapped known or rumored iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 features so far.
iOS 26.3
iPhone to Android Transfer Tool
iOS 26.3 makes it easier...
Tuesday February 3, 2026 12:45 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple recently acquired Israeli startup Q.ai for close to $2 billion, according to Financial Times sources. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone maker Beats in 2014.
This is also the largest known Apple acquisition since the company purchased Intel's smartphone modem business and patents for $1 billion in 2019....
Thursday February 5, 2026 12:22 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld.
The report, citing industry sources, is available in English on Macworld.
Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday, February 19 last year, so the iPhone 17e would be unveiled exactly one year later if this rumor is accurate. It is quite uncommon for Apple to unveil...
Friday February 6, 2026 3:06 pm PST by Juli Clover
In the iOS 26.4 update that's coming this spring, Apple will introduce a new version of Siri that's going to overhaul how we interact with the personal assistant and what it's able to do.
The iOS 26.4 version of Siri won't work like ChatGPT or Claude, but it will rely on large language models (LLMs) and has been updated from the ground up.
Upgraded Architecture
The next-generation...
With image OCR, text translation, and local speech recognition it really feels like we are getting close to having the Universal Translator from Star Trek.
I consider Mojave a stability release, it was rock solid for me from day one. Even High Sierra was a hot mess for the the first month or two. (In my experience)
I understand many found Mojave stable, but I don't know if it was designed specifically with a focus on "under the hood" improvements. If you go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_version_history and search for "hood", you'll find only two OS's that (at least unofficially) are identified as focusing on the latter: Snow Leopard and and High Sierra.
Likely the reason I didn't have the teething pains you did with HS is because I nearly always wait unit about x.3 or x.4 before installing a new OS. That's not just to allow time for Apple time to straighten out their issues; it's to allow for the app developers to do this as well.
What have you found about the performance of Big Sur vs. Catalina? I know there were a lot of complaints about Catalina, but maybe all the significant issues were fixed by 10.15.7.
With image OCR, text translation, and local speech recognition it really feels like we are getting close to having the Universal Translator from Star Trek.
And what’s more, (with the possible exception of translation, some of that may be cloud based) it’s all done on the phone itself, so it can be used offline. It’s pretty dang impressive what Apple has been able to pull off in the AI space, especially with its privacy stance (whereas Google can just throw more computing clusters at any AI problem it encounters).
