iOS 26 introduces a new feature that allows users to know the estimated time it takes for their battery to charge when plugged in or on a wireless charger. This allows users to optimize their charging practices and determine the speed of a charger. The estimated time remaining until a full charge can be found in the Battery section of the Settings app. Apple has not yet added a new widget for this feature, but it could be added in the future. The iPhone battery charging estimates are available to developers in iOS 26, with the update expected to be released to everyone this fall.
iOS 26 upgrades CarPlay with new compact view for incoming phone calls
Apple announced iOS 26, and the upcoming software update includes several new features and changes for CarPlay in vehicles. Liquid Glass Design: When you are using CarPlay with an iPhone running iOS 26, the new Liquid Glass design extends to the CarPlay interface. Like on the iPhone, the new look includes more shimmery app icons and translucent user interface elements. New Messages App Features: Starting with iOS 26, you can respond to messages with standard Tapbacks like a heart, thumbs up, or exclamation marks directly through CarPlay. Plus, you can now view your pinned conversations in the Messages app on CarPlay. Compact View for Phone Calls: CarPlay has a new compact view for incoming phone calls, so that you can still see other information on the screen, such as turn-by-turn directions. Live Activities: CarPlay’s Dashboard screen can now show Live Activities, letting you keep track of things like a flight’s arrival time at a glance. Widgets: The regular version of CarPlay now has a customizable widgets screen, for things like calendar appointments and HomeKit accessory controls.
iOS 26 to allow reporting spam voicemails by tapping on new “Report Spam” button for voicemail from an unknown number
iOS 26 has an updated Phone app with several new functions. When you tap into a voicemail from an unknown number, you’ll see a new “Report Spam” button that you can tap if it is a spam call. Tapping on option sends the voicemail to Apple, and you can either report the message as spam and keep it, or report it and delete it. The Call Screening option in iOS 26 intercepts calls from numbers that are not saved in your contacts list, and asks the caller for more information like a name and reason for calling before forwarding the call along to you. The Messages app also has a refined spam reporting workflow in iOS 26. Messages that Apple detects are spam are sent to a specific Spam folder, which is now distinct from the Unknown Senders folder. Messages from numbers that aren’t in your contacts, such as 2FA messages, go in Unknown Senders. Scam messages are sent to the spam folder. Messages from unknown senders and spam messages are both silenced and you won’t get a notification for them, but you will see a badge at the top of the Messages app. You can disable these features in the Messages section of the Settings app, if desired. There is no automatic filtering of spam voicemails, but that is a feature that Apple could use in the future after receiving enough voicemails that people flag as spam.
PayPal USD (PYUSD) plans to use Stellar for real-world payments, commerce, and micro-financing leveraging the network’s speed, low transaction costs, and ease of integration
PayPal plans to make the PayPal USD stablecoin available on the Stellar network pending regulatory approval by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). By potentially expanding to Stellar, PYUSD leverages the network’s speed, low transaction costs, and ease of integration to enhance its utility for real-world payments, commerce, and micro-financing, offering an additional option to Ethereum and Solana. PYUSD on Stellar can be used for fast, affordable cross-border payments and expanded access to essential financial services while bridging the digital and physical world with a vast array of on and off ramps. Users may also benefit from improved daily payment options and financing solutions such as working capital and business loans – use cases already thriving on the Stellar network – ultimately enabling a more seamless flow of value across global markets. An expansion on Stellar would give PYUSD users access to its vast network of on and off ramps, providing additional access through digital wallets, and connected to local payment systems and cash networks. Access to extensive Stellar infrastructure will enhance how people can use PYUSD in their everyday financial activities, from payments to remittances to merchant services. PYUSD on Stellar can also enhance liquidity and financing opportunities through Payment Financing or ‘PayFi’, an emerging innovation in digital finance. Small and medium-sized businesses that face delayed receivables or pre-funding requirements would be able to access new sources of real-time working capital, disbursed in PYUSD. This capital can be used to pay suppliers, manage inventory, or address other operational needs – with instant settlement on Stellar. Liquidity providers can fund these opportunities and earn potential, sustainable benefits from real-world economic activity.
Ripple claims XRP could capture 14% of SWIFT volume within five years driven by a focus on liquidity rather than messaging infrastructure
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared a bold projection: XRP could capture 14% of SWIFT’s volume over the next five years, driven by a focus on liquidity rather than messaging infrastructure. Garlinghouse’s comments reflect a broader ambition within Ripple to challenge traditional financial rails by leveraging crypto-based liquidity solutions. While SWIFT currently dominates the interbank messaging landscape for cross-border payments, Garlinghouse argued that the true battleground lies in liquidity, the ability to move money, not just send instructions. “There are two parts to SWIFT today: messaging and liquidity,” Garlinghouse said. “Liquidity is owned by the banks. I think less about the messaging and more about liquidity. If you’re driving all the liquidity, it is good for XRP… so I’ll say five years, 14%.” By targeting liquidity, Ripple aims to plug into the critical layer of cross-border finance that determines how quickly and cheaply value can move across borders. Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer also highlighted the potential for rapid growth in the tokenized asset sector. “Hundreds of billions of tokenized global assets [will emerge] fairly quickly,” he said, signaling Ripple’s intent to position XRP as a foundational layer in that transformation.
Apple improves app discovery on App Store with new tags that will help surface information that’s often buried in app listings, like the app’s App Store description, category, metadata, or even in its screenshots
Apple is introduceing App Store Tags — labels that highlight specific features and functionalities found in an app. These tags will initially be generated by Apple’s LLMs using various sources, like the app’s metadata. They’ll then be human-reviewed before being applied to apps on the App Store. Apple customers will be able to use these tags when searching for apps on the App Store, where the tags appear alongside the categories on the search page and the apps that appear in the search results. Apple says the new tags will help surface information that’s often buried in app listings, like the app’s App Store description, category, metadata, or even in its screenshots. The tags will help users more easily find the apps that offer the functionality they’re looking for, while also giving developers a better idea about how their apps are being discovered. When App Store users tap on one of the new tags, they’ll be taken to a new page offering a curated collection of all the apps and games that offer similar features or functionality — an extension to the App Store’s existing feature that points users to apps they “might also like,” found at the bottom of individual listings. Developers will also be able to create custom product pages that appear when a user searches for apps using particular keywords.
New macOS 26 Phone app will eventually combine iPhone calls & desktop seamlessly- onboard voicemail function of the iPhone is also accessible from the macOS Phone app
With the introduction of the Phone app on macOS, you can now take and place calls directly from your Mac. The macOS Phone app takes many of the cues from the updated iOS Phone app. The new Unified view is recreated on the bigger screen, with the default appearance being a list of recent calls and favorite callers on the top. These all take advantage of contact photos and posters, if other contacts have employed them. Selecting a recent call will bring up a larger version of the contact poster, along with more information about that person. There’s also an option to Manage Filtering, which on an iPhone would bring up the Settings app with options on how to handle unknown or spam callers. An Edit button lets you change your Favorites list or to select multiple logs in a list for mass deletion. The onboard voicemail function of the iPhone is also accessible from the macOS Phone app. If there is a voicemail recording and transcript available on the connected iPhone, these can be heard and read from the Mac directly. When you place a call by pressing the relevant icon or using the on-screen keypad, or receive a call, a box will appear in the top right corner of your Mac’s display. The buttons on the box offer extra features, including a compact keypad for menu systems. One brings up options for enabling Call Recording, Live Translation, Hold Assist, and Screen Sharing.
Overhauled Shortcuts app in iOS 26 supports Apple Intelligence models for actions like summarizing PDFs, generating recipes, answering questions, and more
Apple overhauled the Shortcuts app in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe, and there are now Apple Intelligence options that users can take advantage of. The app supports Apple Intelligence models for things like summarizing PDFs, generating recipes, answering questions, and more. Here’s what Apple offers, along with the descriptions: Morning Summary – Use Model to describe the day ahead of you. Action Items From Meeting Notes – Use Model to grab action items from meeting notes. Summarize PDF – Use Model to summarize the open PDF in Safari. Is Severance Season 3 Out? – Use Model to find out if something has been released. ASCII Art – Use Model to draw you some ASCII art. Document Review – Use Mode to help you compare and contrast documents. Reminders Roulette – Use Model to punt an unimportant reminder to tomorrow. Get Started With Language Models – A tutorial for Use Model with examples. As the last pre-made Shortcut suggests, you can create your own shortcuts that incorporate Apple’s AI model, and Apple’s offerings serve as examples. When you go to create a Shortcut, there’s a new Apple Intelligence section. You can opt to use an on-device model, a cloud model that takes advantage of Private Cloud Compute, or ChatGPT. There are some pre-determined options, so you can do things like open Visual Intelligence or generate an image with Image Playground. There are several Writing Tools features for adjusting the tone of text, proofreading, creating a list from text, summarizing text, or rewriting text. When you tap on Cloud, On-Device Model, or ChatGPT, there’s an open-ended prompt where you can write in what you want to do. You need to work within the confines of the model that Apple provides, pairing it with other functionality in Shortcuts. You can pull in data from the Weather app, your Calendar, and Reminders, then ask the model to prepare a summary, for example. AI models can be incorporated into any Shortcut.
Stripe buys crypto wallet startup Privy building products on crypto rails; using a single API, clients can spin up wallets rather than use external ones
Payments giant Stripe is acquiring crypto wallet infrastructure startup Privy for an undisclosed fee. The deal is part of Stripe’s aggressive push back into crypto following a six year hiatus, building on its recent $1.1 billion takeover of stablecoin platform Bridge. Privy aims to make it easy for developers to build products on crypto rails. Through a single API, clients can spin up wallets rather than use external ones, sign transactions, and integrate any onchain system. The firm now claims to power over 75 million accounts across more than 1000 developer teams, orchestrating billions in transactions. Among its clients are trading platform Hyperliquid and restaurant app Blackbird. Like Bridge, the startup will operate as an independent product under Stripe.
iOS 26 update allows users to deploy Visual Intelligence on anything on their iPhone’s screen, without requiring them to point the iPhone camera at anything
Apple has made the smallest update to Visual Intelligence in iOS 26, and yet the impact of being able to use it on any image is huge, and at least doubles the usefulness of this one feature. Visual Intelligence involved pointing your iPhone camera at whatever you were interested in. What Apple has done with iOS 26 is take that step away. Everything else is the same, but you no longer have to use your camera. You can instead deploy Visual Intelligence on anything on your iPhone’s screen. This one thing means that researchers can find out more about objects they see on websites. And shoppers can freeze frame a YouTube video and use Visual Intelligence to track down the bag that influencer is wearing. There is an issue that this means there are now two different ways to use Visual Intelligence, and they involve you having to do two different things to start them. The new version is an extra part of Visual Intelligence, not a replacement. Visual Intelligence is replete with different ways to use it, one of which provides a very different service to the rest. Yet being able to identify just about anything on your screen is a huge boon. And consequently Apple increased the usefulness of Visual Intelligence just by not requiring the step where you point your iPhone camera at anything.