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43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
I Tried iOS 26 for a Month. These 3 Features Stand Out Most
Apple released the first public beta of iOS 26 on July 24, more than a month after the company announced the next iOS version at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. That means developers and public beta testers can try the upcoming iPhone features before others get them this fall. And this is an important iOS version for Apple. According to Bloomberg, some Apple investors are frustrated with the company's delay in artificial intelligence features. Apple is also facing an antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice that alleges the company leveraged the iPhone's dominance to enrich itself while smothering competition. So in order to bolster confidence in the company and shore up investor funding, Apple really needs iOS 26 to be a slam dunk. I've lived with the developer betas of iOS 26 for more than a month -- checking out new features, including the customizable snooze timer. Here are my thoughts on the update so far. Before we go any further, remember that this is a beta version of iOS 26. Because this isn't the final version of iOS 26, the update might be buggy for you, and your device's battery life may be affected, so it's best to keep those troubles off your primary device. If you want to try the beta out, I recommend downloading it on a secondary device. Plus, being a beta version, it's also possible that Apple could add more features to the update before the final version of iOS 26 is released this fall. Liquid Glass design is impressive -- mostly When Apple first introduced iOS 26's Liquid Glass at WWDC, people online were torn about the design. Some were excited about it, but others were concerned about readability with the new design -- myself included. But after Apple tweaked iOS 26's Liquid Glass design during the beta process, it's now a pretty nice display scheme. The way color and images refract through the glass-like panels on my home screen is impressive, reminding me of glass block designs. It's kind of like when a movie renders CGI liquid really well. You know it's not real, but it can be hard to tell the difference between the digital and real thing. In early beta versions of the software, I had a hard time reading some menus when they were in front of other text. The glass was too glass-like, making all the words looked jumbled together. At the time, I toggled on both Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast to dull the glass effect. But now, the glass design looks good without turning on additional settings to make things legible. The "glass" menus in apps such as Messages are also much better and easier to read now. My one complaint about the design is the new option to turn your apps Clear. This option is like the Tinted one introduced in iOS 18 and it removes all color from the app icon. Every app icon and widget turns semi-translucent, too. But since every app is the same color, as soon as I take my glasses off, I can't tell which is which without touching my homescreen to my nose. I don't use the Tinted option for a similar reason, but the Clear option could make it difficult to recognize apps if your background is particularly busy. If you have a visual impairment, you might have trouble with the Clear option. Messages keeps getting better When Apple launched iOS 18 in 2024, it brought new features to Messages, including RCS messaging, more Tapbacks and a Send Later function, which I really enjoyed and thought made texting more fun. The iOS 26 beta adds even more fun enhancements to Messages. The new chat backgrounds are a great way to differentiate between chats, and typing indicators in group chats are a nice way to see who is and isn't active at any given moment. Plus, message filters are nice to have; they filter out spam and scam messages without notifying you. That way, any messages from "recruiters" or the "IRS" don't even hit my inbox. You can change the settings to allow notifications from certain unknown numbers, too, such as messages with verification codes or receipts, so you aren't blocking all unknown senders. The Games app is a nice touch, but could use some work I cover Apple Arcade and some other mobile gaming services such as Netflix Games, and sometimes I like to play Xbox Cloud Gaming on my iPhone. So when Apple said it would have a dedicated Games app in iOS 26, I was pretty excited. But it fell short in a few areas for me. The main thing I like about the Games app is that it acts as a hub for all the games attached to your Apple ID. So while I deleted certain games such as Downwell from my device to make room for others, I can still find those games in the app if I ever want to dowload and revisit them. (And I totally want to revisit Downwell.) However, the app isn't always helpful with some older games attached to your account. For instance, I downloaded Crazy Taxi onto an older iPhone before Sega removed the game from the App Store, and the game appears in Games on my newer device. But since Crazy Taxi was removed from the App Store, if I try to download the game onto my new device, I get a continuously-rotating pinwheel, like it's trying to load. So now, despite Apple attaching Crazy Taxi to my account, I can't play it. Instead, it taunts me with its inaccessible soundtrack full of the Offspring and Bad Religion. And while Games stores information about all the mobile games attached to your account, it isn't integrated with other gaming services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming or Steam.I use a shortcut to open Xbox Cloud Gaming on my iPhone, so I understand it not registering as a gaming app -- but Steam is clearly a gaming app, and yet Games doesn't recognize it. In the future, I'd like for Games to recognize these other services, or at least have the option to add them to the app so everything gaming related is in one neat spot. The beta is packed with features… but it has room for improvement While Liquid Glass, Messages improvements and the Games app are a few of the new features in the iOS 26 beta you can try now, I came across a few issues in the beta, which is to be expected. Some of these problems were more noticeable than others, and these are the ones I hope Apple will address first. The most prevalent issue I ran into was that after unlocking my iPhone with Face ID, my lock screen would stay in place for a split second before switching to my home screen. When I slowly swiped up on my lock screen after unlocking it, I could see the Liquid Glass layer slide up over my lock screen background but not pull my background with it. In past iOS versions, when you swiped up on your lock screen after unlocking it with Face ID, your lock screen background would roll up your screen to reveal your home screen. But in the beta, the Liquid Glass layer moves while your background doesn't. While this never caused my iPhone to crash, it was really annoying. I also had issues with Visual Intelligence -- both the new screenshot search and the previous way of searching for images. Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhones can use Apple's AI to perform a Google Image search for items in screenshots and photos. I used it to look up some home decor items and shoes from images on Instagram. The search function usually found what I was looking for, but dismissing the search menu felt clunky. After performing a search, I'd try to swipe the menu down -- like dismissing a keyboard in Messages -- but it would bounce back, even after dragging it all the way down the screen. Only after dragging it down again would it finally disappear, and having to do that multiple times was frustrating. I bring up these issues to remind you that iOS 26 is still in beta, so running into these hiccups isn't that unusual. Betas are meant to test features, make improvements and find bugs so they can be patched out. Apple said it will release iOS 26 to the general public this fall, so there's plenty of time for the company to address these issues and any others that might appear in future betas. For more on Apple, here's what you need to know about iOS 26 and everything the company announced at WWDC 2025.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
iPhone 17 Air tipped to make 3 big compromises vs iPhone 17 Pro — here's what you're giving up
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Like Samsung and its Galaxy S25 Edge, Apple will reportedly chase a thinner phone design when it releases the much-rumored iPhone 17 Air later this fall. A likely replacement for the iPhone 16 Plus, the Air could deliver a thinner phone to the iPhone 17 lineup, but not without making a few key compromises. That's what regular leaker Fixed Focus Digital claims in a Weibo post, anyway. The leaker says that the iPhone 17 Air will be very similar to the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro, but with three big sacrifices in the name of a thinner phone. 'It has almost all the configurations of the Pro, but it cuts one core in the GPU part, and the screen and battery are not as good as the Pro,' Fixed Focus Digital wrote in the machine-translated post, adding that they were 'quite optimistic' about the iPhone 17 Air. What this means is that the iPhone 17 Air will still feature an A19 Pro chipset, as we expect to see in the Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but that it will have five GPU cores instead of the six found in the Pro models' chipset. The Air would still be more powerful than the standard iPhone 17, which is supposed to have a standard A19 processor. Battery & screen sacrifices Fixed Focus doesn't specify, but they also mentioned that the screen and battery are supposed to be steps back from what the iPhone 16 Plus offers.. Current rumors have the iPhone 17 Air featuring a 6.6-inch OLED display, a skosh smaller than the iPhone 16 Plus' 6.7-inch panel. The same leaker previously claimed that the Air would have a 120Hz screen but not a ProMotion display, so it won't have a variable refresh rate. A thinner phone usually means a smaller capacity battery — that's one of the compromises Samsung had to make with the Galaxy S25 Edge. But Apple may go even smaller with the iPhone 17 Air's power pack as reports claim the phone will either feature a 2,800 mAh battery or a 2,900 mAh cell. Either outcome would be smaller than the 3,900 mAh battery in the S25 Edge. The iPhone 16 Pro was able to fit a larger 3,582 mAh battery in the phone. We haven't seen many rumors on battery size for the iPhone 17 Pro, but it could rely on better power efficiency to get more life out of the battery. That's not all Even compared to the standard iPhone 17, the Air model is expected to have a more limited camera setup. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes the Air will only feature a single 48MP rear lens, and leaked renders of the iPhone 17 Air seem to bear that rumor out In contrast, the standard iPhone 17 should have the same 48MP primary lens and a 12MP ultrawide as the iPhone 16. Meanwhile, the Pro models could feature an upgraded 48MP telephoto lens in their rear camera array. Add it all up and it feels like the iPhone 17 Air is making a lot of major compromises to reach a very specific aesthetic over actual performance. Even so, Fixed Focus Digital believes the phone will be a hit, so it will be interesting to see how people respond to iPhone 17 Air when it arrives. That could be very soon as the iPhone 17 series is likely to launch in September — just a few weeks from now. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button. More from Tom's Guide Meet the iPhone of 2035 — it's the 'mainframe on your body' Apple Watch 11 — here's the 5 biggest rumored upgrades Apple just revealed what the 'all-glass' iPhone of the future could look like — and it's something to behold
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Thinking of Buying Tesla Stock? Here Are 2 Red Flags to Watch
Key Points Tesla's heavy reliance on Elon Musk adds significant leadership risk. Increasing competition from established automakers and Chinese EV makers is pressuring Tesla's dominance. Investors need to be comfortable with Tesla's high valuation. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has long been the front runner in the electric vehicle (EV) revolution in the U.S. Its innovation, brand strength, and rapid growth have made it a favorite among investors. Yet, despite its impressive track record, there are two big risks that investors should carefully consider before buying Tesla stock today. 1. The Elon Musk factor Elon Musk's leadership is often cited as Tesla's greatest strength -- and, paradoxically, one of its most significant vulnerabilities. Musk's vision and hands-on approach have driven Tesla's technological breakthroughs and ambitious expansion. However, this heavy reliance on a single individual introduces what investors refer to as "key man risk." If Musk were to step back from daily operations or shift his focus to other projects, Tesla might face challenges in maintaining its momentum. Though Tesla's management team has grown stronger, few executives command the same vision, drive, and public attention as Musk. Recently, Musk's increasing involvement in political activities has raised concerns about potential distractions or reputational risks for Tesla. While the company has remained operationally strong, these developments underscore the uncertainty around its future leadership continuity. While Tesla's success lies not only with Musk but also with his team, which has executed well on his vision -- no one can build a trillion-dollar company alone -- there is still no clear successor (or a viable management team) . The silver lining here is that the Tesla board has become more serious about finding one in recent months, largely due to the CEO's active involvement in politics. For investors, this means that Tesla's fortunes remain closely tied to Musk's presence and decisions -- a factor that adds a layer of risk to the investment. 2. Intensifying competition Tesla might have been an early mover in the EV industry, but its dominance is no longer guaranteed. The industry landscape is rapidly evolving, with legacy automakers and new entrants accelerating their electric ambitions. Companies like Ford and General Motors are aggressively expanding their EV lineups. For instance, Ford plans to introduce a $30,000 midsize truck by 2027. That price is significantly lower than the average for an EV, and Ford is investing $5 billion in its EV production to make it happen. GM, on the other hand, is working hard on next-generation battery technologies to improve range, charging performance, and cost. Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers such as BYD are growing their international footprints, particularly in Europe, where Tesla experienced a nearly 27% sales declinein July 2025. BYD's battery technology, government support, and competitive pricing make it a formidable challenger. In addition, a host of EV start-ups are innovating in battery tech, autonomous driving, and new business models, further intensifying competition. While Tesla is not sitting still -- it is working on becoming the lowest-cost producer by cutting prices to grow sales volume and achieve economies of scale -- there is no guarantee that it can maintain its market share over time. In short, it's no longer the only player in town. What does this mean for investors? Tesla's story remains compelling: It's a pioneer with a powerful brand, innovative products, and potential optionality with some of its long shot bets (robotaxi, humanoid robots, etc). But the key man risk surrounding Musk and the escalating competitive landscape are real concerns that investors can't ignore. If Tesla continues to innovate more rapidly than its rivals, the company could sustain its growth trajectory. However, any leadership changes or slips in market position could hurt the business and its share price. While these two risks don't necessarily call for the sale of the stock, they do mean that investors should think carefully before buying the stock today. Tesla stock trades at a significant premium valuation to other carmakers. For perspective, Tesla has a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 12.9, compared to GM's 0.3. Unless you're comfortable with the risks and the high valuation, buying the stock today may not be a prudent decision. Don't miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $467,985!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $44,015!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $668,155!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join , and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.*Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Lawrence Nga has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends BYD Company and General Motors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Thinking of Buying Tesla Stock? Here Are 2 Red Flags to Watch was originally published by The Motley Fool
