Apple Watch's Rumored Low Power Mode 'Still in Development' for watchOS 9
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said an expanded Low Power Mode is still in development for the Apple Watch and on track for release around the same time as the public release of watchOS 9 later this year.
While the Apple Watch already features a Power Reserve mode that displays only the time on the screen to preserve battery life, Gurman said the expanded Low Power Mode would allow for use of apps and other features in a low-power state. Gurman first reported that the feature was in development in April, but Apple did not announce the feature when previewing watchOS 9 at its developers conference WWDC in June.
Gurman believes that Apple could announce the new Low Power Mode at a later date, much like the new Lockdown Mode for iOS 16 was announced after WWDC. watchOS 9 is expected to be released in September alongside the launch of the Apple Watch Series 8, a new Apple Watch SE, and a new rugged/extreme version of the Apple Watch.
Gurman has previously claimed that the Low Power Mode could be a "hardware-exclusive feature," suggesting that it may be limited to the Apple Watch Series 8 and potentially other new models. In his newsletter today, Gurman opined that Low Power Mode may work hand-in-hand with some of the rugged Apple Watch's new features.
Popular Stories
2026 could be a bumper year for Apple's Mac lineup, with the company expected to announce as many as four separate MacBook launches. Rumors suggest Apple will court both ends of the consumer spectrum, with more affordable options for students and feature-rich premium lines for users that seek the highest specifications from a laptop.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
...
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
One thing worth...
In a statement shared with CNBC today, Apple confirmed that Google Gemini will power the next-generation version of Siri that is slated to launch later this year.
"After careful evaluation, we determined that Google's technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we're excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users," the statement...
Elon Musk today expressed concern about Apple and Google partnering on a more personalized version of Siri powered by Google's generative AI platform Gemini.
"This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that [they] also have Android and Chrome," wrote Musk, in a post on X.
Musk serves as CEO of xAI, the company behind Gemini competitor Grok.
It is unlikely...
Apple today seeded the second beta of iOS 26.3, nearly a month after the first beta. So far, the update includes a couple of new features for iPhones.
iOS 15.3 through iOS 18.3 were all released in late January over the years, so it is thereby likely that iOS 26.3 will be released towards the end of this month as well. The update is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer.
Below,...
Apple and Google today announced that Google Gemini will help power not only a more personalized version of Siri, but a range of future Apple Intelligence features.
"Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology," the companies said, in a statement. "These...
iOS 26.3 will likely be released to the public later this month, but it appears that Apple is preparing to push out another software update in the interim.
Apple's software engineers have started testing iOS 26.2.1, according to the MacRumors visitor logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. The update will likely be released at some point this week or next week.
...
The Unicode Consortium has published a draft list of emoji that could come to smartphones and other devices in the future. The list shared by Emojipedia outlines 19 emoji candidates under consideration for Emoji 18.0, which is expected to be finalized in September 2026.
Among the proposed additions are a squinting face emoji, left- and right-pointing thumb gestures, a pickle, a lighthouse, a ...
