The early signs out of Cupertino are that Tim Cook will still loom large at Apple. And the ex-CEO’s new pay package doesn’t dispel that notion. Also: What to expect at the company’s Sept. 9 event and a look at why Phil Schiller is stepping away from his role.

MagBak Elite for iPhone Fold available for sale on their website!

I love Apple's keynotes, and I love seeing what rumours actually pan out to be true. I've seen some keynote bingo cards before, but usually they're just a static image where everyone gets the exact same card. We all win or lose at the exact same time: shouldn't everyone's bingo card be unique?

8 years ago, I made randomised Apple Keynote bingo cards completely within Numbers spreadsheets, and I even posted a few of them here. This "worked fine", but it quickly became obvious that Numbers wasn't meant to make that many real-time randomised index lookups.

So over the last ~4 years, I spent my evenings learning Swift, SwiftUI, and Xcode. And now, after 3 false starts trying to finish this, I'm finally ready to release my Bingo Card Generator!

Features:

- Randomly generated bingo cards: always unique, no 2 cards alike! It's no fun if everyone has the same card and we all win at the exact same moment.

- Download a maintained (by me) set of rumours specific to the September 2026 Keynote, across iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple TV.

- If you don't think a specific rumour is likely at all, deactivate it, and it won't be able to show up in any bingo card. Or, if there are additional events that you think could happen that I have missed, add in your own.

- Create your own datasets! I've made this for Apple keynotes, but it doesn't need to be built just for that! Make your own if you want.

- Runs ~99% offline - download my curated rumours, then go airplane mode and use the app completely offline if you want.

- No ads - I don't like ads. I didn't bother to learn how to integrate them here.

- Completely free: I want this to be as fun and as accessible as possible.

AI disclosure:

I recently became a dad, and currently get ~1 hour a day to do anything not baby/work/life related. I know I'm capable of handwriting every piece of this app myself, and I know it would take me 6-12 months at my current pace (I don't always spend that hour writing code).

Instead, I use a hybrid of human written and AI generated code: I orchestrate the architecture, and get generative AI to write boiler plate, abstract functions, handle UI formatting modifiers.

I don't consider this app vibe coded, because I designed, understand, and reviewed all of the code here. But I won't pretend that everything here was hand written.

This is my first publicly available app, I genuinely hope you enjoy using it. If you do enjoy using it, and think it could/should do more, please let me know: I'd love to improve on this and make it best in class.

Sessionography: Jazz Explorer

Discography is presented in chronological recording order. Every personnel listing is a link to their own discography. Every session timeline can be filtered to hone in on what you are looking for. Every track links to all other recorded versions of that standard.

Features:

Album Page: Sidemen listed on every album
Artist Page: Discography as leader OR sideman
Collab View: Pair artists and see everything they have recorded together
Tunes Page: Every recording of a standard in chronological order
Listen: Everything is playable via Apple Music

Feedback, features request- please keep them coming!

✨ Apple Intelligence summary: Production of the iPhone Ultra reached only a few hundred units daily in late August due to strict quality checks, delaying commercial output. Apple and suppliers work around the clock to meet targets ahead of the 9 September unveiling.

In a new report outlining products in Apple’s pipeline, Mark Gurman says there’s a service component to the company’s Home ambitions. When discussing products planned for launch in 2027, Gurman writes:

It’s going to be a compromised, more expensive product, that has more weaknesses than strengths, and is just a worse version of an iphone that just converts into a worse version of a smaller iPad.

My iphone pro max screen is big enough for 95% of use cases… if I want a bigger screen I just use my iPad or Apple Vision Pro, and if I need to multitask or do proper work, I use my MacBook Pro…

It seems like they want this to do ALL of the things, but it’s just not going to do any of them as well.

Apple has canceled plans for a foldable MacBook and a larger OLED MacBook Pro model, according to research firm Omdia.

In a new research note, Omdia said Apple has scrapped development of a large foldable MacBook that would have measured between 16.1 and 18 inches when unfolded. It was previously reported that this device had already slipped out of its original 2026 production window, with Omdia among the firms tracking it at the time, though under that earlier reporting it was generally described as a large-screened foldable iPad rather than a MacBook.

Apple may introduce an entirely new 13.8-inch OLED MacBook model in 2029, potentially creating a new product tier between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, according to an updated product roadmap from research firm Omdia.

The firm's latest roadmap sandwiches a new 13.8-inch MacBook between the projected time line for the Air and Pro models. The surprise model is said to use a single-stack hybrid OLED panel, rather than the more sophisticated tandem OLED technology that is expected in the upcoming OLED MacBook Pro models, which are set to launch either later this year or early next year.

Apple reportedly plans to release MacBook Pro models with OLED displays by early 2027, and Omdia analyst David Hsieh has predicted that the laptops will have an M5 Ultra chip option.

Given that these MacBook Pro models might actually be branded as "MacBook Ultra" models, it would be fitting if there were configurations with the M5 Ultra chip available. But keep your expectations low, as there has never been a MacBook with an Ultra chip, and a previous report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman only mentioned M5 Pro and M5 Max chips for these laptops.

According to a new OLED adoption roadmap published by research firm Omdia, Apple still intends long-term adoption of OLED panels across MacBooks and iPads, but the transition pace has recently changed, owing to higher memory and component costs.

Previously, Omdia had expected Apple to discontinue its existing LCD-based models sooner, once its 14-inch and 16-inch OLED MacBook Pro models arrive – either this year or in early 2027. 

However, Omdia now predicts that Apple will continue to sell both 14-inch and 16-inch LCD MacBook Pro models in parallel with the OLED MacBook Pro product line into at least 2028, a product strategy arrangement that is said to be based on cost factors.

I had this same problem with my AirPods 3, repeatedly over the years. Not three months into getting them replaced (via warranty) either one of the AirPods, usually the right, then both, gradually became quieter. Apple eventually replaced them with AirPods 4 and I paid for the upgrade for ANC.

Then it happened again. My right AirPod 4 ANC was noticeably quieter than the left, so I assumed it was failing.

Before taking it back to Apple, I tried Apple’s official deep-cleaning method for the AirPods 4 meshes. It involves micellar water, a soft toothbrush, and letting them dry completely.

The difference was huge. The right AirPod sounds normal again, and the volume imbalance is basically gone.

The buildup wasn’t even obvious, so I didn’t expect cleaning to help that much.

If any of your AirPods gets quieter, try Apple’s cleaning instructions before replacing it. Don’t poke the mesh or use compressed air. I was ready to get mine replaced, and one proper cleaning fixed it.