5 major iOS 27 features that will actually make a difference

With all the talk of AI this, AI that, and an entirely rebuilt Siri AI platform, you’d be forgiven for thinking Apple didn’t have anything else in store for iOS 27 at WWDC 2026. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, with a suite of new features and performance improvements across the board.

Even older iPhone users will benefit from many of the new improvements, with Apple confirming iOS 27 support for 2019’s iPhone 11. Many of the features and updates will also come to Apple’s other devices via major updates set to arrive in spring, including iPadOS 27 and macOS 27.

Most of the limelight went to Siri AI and new Apple Intelligence features, in line with the tech industry’s big investments in AI. Not every feature will come to every phone, though. Some of the AI functionality requires more powerful hardware to run effectively on-device.

But for those who simply want a smoother experience, Apple promises that iOS 27 will deliver. Here are some of the major features and updates coming with the new software.

Apple’s digital assistant is reborn as Siri AI

It’s been known for a while now that Apple planned to rebuild Siri with more chatbot-like generative AI functionality. It’s taken a while, but those plans are about to become real, with Siri AI set to launch in beta this year.

Image: Apple.

Similar to features supported by Android phones, Siri AI will aim to provide context-specific responses to queries, retrieving information from multiple apps, on-screen content, and the internet. It will also have a standalone app, capable of storing previous conversations for quick reference.

However, not all phones supported by iOS 27 will get access to Siri AI. According to Apple’s list of compatible devices, you’ll need either an iPhone 15 Pro or any iPhone 16 or newer to power the latest AI features. For iPad and Mac users, any model with an M1 chip will do the job, in addition to the iPad Mini equipped with the A17 Pro chip.

Faster performance for older iPhones

Perhaps the best part of iOS 27 for most people is the promise of smoother performance. Through various tweaks, Apple claims that older handsets and tablets will run better on the latest software. If true, it’ll be a nice change from people complaining about performance drop-offs after installing the latest update.

According to Apple, devices with iOS 27 will launch apps up to 30 per cent faster. Similarly, after taking photos, images will appear in the Photos app up to 70 per cent quicker. As for sharing those photos? Apple reckons sending files between devices via AirDrop will happen up to 80 per cent faster.

Other tweaks include a quicker handover between Wi-Fi and mobile data, quicker transfer speeds between iPads and external storage, while Spotlight, Apple’s on-device search tool, will find results in less time.

Parental controls overhaul for easier screen time

An oft-overlooked aspect of tech is parental controls. Most devices and tech platforms have some form of parental control support, but it’s largely treated as a set-and-forget thing. At WWDC 2026, Apple announced a revamp to its parental controls, along with a standalone website that includes various tips and resources.

Image: Apple.

Screen Time saw the biggest change, making it easier for parents to see their children’s device usage at a glance. Time Allowance is a new addition, providing quick recommendations about how long kids should spend playing games or on social media. It also makes it easier for parents to allocate more or less time as needed and set schedules for the young ‘uns so they’re not late for school after spending too long playing games.

AirPods to support custom EQ settings

As good as Apple’s AirPods are, their lack of customisation compared to other headphones is a drawback. For the longest time, Apple shipped AirPods with its in-house sound profile. If you didn’t like it, tough luck.

Until now, that is. When iOS 27 drops, so too will custom EQ settings for AirPods. It will only include broad tweaking for low, mid, and high frequencies, which is still three more levels of customisation than before.

Liquid Glass gets less opaque

When Apple debuted the translucent look of Liquid Glass last year, it was met with some resistance. It added a distinct style to device interfaces, but according to some users, readability suffered.

Soon, you’ll be able to tweak Liquid Glass to your liking. Don’t like the see-through look? Adjust a slider until it’s completely tinted. Alternatively, you can lean right into the glassy look or somewhere in between.

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That’s just a quick overview of what’s coming with iOS 27 and the rest of Apple’s software updates arriving in a few months. Apple focused on AI a lot, but the performance gains for older devices will be nice. Maybe it’s Apple’s way of helping you hang onto your tech for longer, knowing that tech costs so much due to the global memory shortage.

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One of Apple’s biggest WWDC updates was about kids’ safety

AI features may have been the order of the day at WWDC 2026, with the major Siri AI announcement, but Apple also spent a lot of time talking about on-device parental controls. Data shows that many families don’t use parental controls, despite finding them helpful for managing children’s screen time and online access. Experts also say that parents often find the tools hard to use or don’t know about them. So, Apple’s upcoming update aims to make parental controls easier and more comprehensive.

Core to the update, which will be available with Apple’s iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 this spring, is a reworked version of Screen Time. It’s where people can set time limits on various apps, including how long kids can play games for, or even set personal limits on social media use.

Image: Apple.

The new Screen Time displays a redesigned dashboard that provides an overview of kids’ most-used apps and their average device use. Apple’s update intends to provide more helpful information at a glance, giving parents more information to help establish healthy screen habits.

New features to manage kids’ screen time

Time Allowances is another new addition that aims to give parents flexibility in managing kids’ time spent using apps across different categories, like games and social media. It also lets parents set schedules, so that children can’t access specific apps before or during school, but can let loose afterwards.

Within this section, parents can also see recommended time limits for different types of apps depending on the age of the child, which Apple says is “based on expert research”. For example, it might suggest a one-hour games allocation, while limiting social media use to 30 minutes.

Image: Apple.

To bring it all together, Apple has also launched a dedicated Child Safety website, hosting information and resources to help parents get the most out of the new tools. These tweaks to Apple’s parental controls ecosystem also add to plenty of existing features, like automatically blocking access to age-inappropriate content, managing who children can message, and notifying parents when family members use the passcode to bypass screen time limits.

Adding to the family-based features, Apple recently confirmed that Telstra now supports Apple Watch for Kids in Australia. It gives families a phone-free connectivity option for children without the full responsibility and access that comes with a modern phone.

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How does TCL’s SQD TVs compare to RGB LED technology?

It feels like a new TV technology debuts every year, along with claims about how it blows everything else out of the water. This year, there’s RGB Mini LED (or Micro LED, depending on the brand), while TCL is going all-in on Super Quantum Dot (SQD). There’s a lot to get your head around, so I recorded a quick explainer comparing TV technologies.

To put it as succinctly as possible, RGB TVs use thousands of red, green, and blue LEDs, producing more colour than traditional LED TVs. By contrast, TCL is relying on SQD panels to do the colourful heavy lifting.

When I visited TCL’s factories in Shenzen earlier in the year, I saw firsthand how SQD works. The brand’s SQD TVs, which recently launched in Australia, only use blue LEDs. The SQD panel then produces the colour, relying on fewer backlights, which TCL says results in a thinner and cheaper TV.

It’s fascinating to see how each TV brand approaches colour. I’ll be keen to compare the different tech and see how they all look in real-world conditions.

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Siri AI is Apple playing catch-up, which could be an advantage

When Apple first announced ‘Apple Intelligence’, the company’s suite of generative AI-powered features, a smarter and more context-aware Siri assistant was among its promises. Multiple delays saw this vision slip, while Apple’s competitors launched and updated their own AI features in the two years since. Now, at WWDC 2026, Apple finally confirmed its generative AI software overhaul with Siri AI, a digital assistant made to be more integrated with the on-device experience.

Set to launch as a beta later in the year, Siri AI is a conversational digital assistant that has more knowledge to draw on and can discern on-screen context to provide relevant responses, according to Apple.

For years, Siri has had a fairly limited approach to answering user queries. Asking it to open recent emails from a specific sender likely won’t yield a helpful outcome. Siri AI is meant to change this, being able to dive into your device’s messages, emails, and photos to provide timely and relevant information. It will also work with third-party apps that integrate with Apple’s Spotlight on-device search functionality.

When Siri AI launches following the release of Apple’s upcoming software updates, including iOS 27, it will have its own dedicated app. Consistent with pre-announcement reporting, it’ll give Apple’s digital assistant a chatbot-like interface, providing a history of conversations with Siri that will sync between devices via iCloud.

Siri AI sounds incredibly familiar

While many of Apple’s recently announced AI-based features will be new to iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, those on the Android side of the fence have had access to similar technologies for some time now. Google’s Circle to Search feature, which launched with Samsung Galaxy S24 phones in early 2024, lets users look up anything on their screen, along with providing context-aware actions.

Cracking cross-app functionality has been the white whale of phone companies in the past few years. Getting a device to source information from multiple locations, while surfacing an accurate response, has proven to be trickier than one might think.

Take Google’s Magic Cue feature, for example, which purported to do just that. Launched with the Pixel 10 phones, it was Google’s attempt to automatically bring up relevant information in the right context. Think showing you flight details when on the phone with a hotel, or automatically saving dinner reservations in your calendar and sending a message to everyone attending.

In practice, Magic Cue proved to be an unreliable companion at launch. Similar features from competing devices have made big claims without fully delivering on them.

What Apple showed with Siri AI isn’t anything brand-new. Rather, it’s retreading familiar ground that others have already attempted with varying levels of success. If — and it’s a big ‘if’ — Apple can reliably and helpfully implement Siri AI throughout its devices, it might still have some point of difference.

Until then, a healthy dose of scepticism is what the latest big-ticket AI announcement calls for.

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Rokid smart glasses may be the blueprint to replace smartphones

More smart glasses have arrived in Australia, with the launch of the Rokid Glasses. Now, before you switch off and think smart glasses are just a gimmick, this could indeed be the gadget that ultimately replaces your smartphone.

Set to compete with the likes of Meta’s smart specs, Rokid’s 49g glasses have dual-eye Micro-LED displays, a 12MP first-person camera, open-ear speakers and four microphones in a slimline, IPX4-rated frame. When worn, you can snap photos and up to 1680p videos, chat with the built-in AI assistant, listen to music, and receive phone notifications without reaching into your pocket.

At the Australian launch, I was able to listen to a gentleman speaking Chinese and read the translation appear on the built-in heads-down display. I could ask the glasses to translate a sign in 89 different languages while connected to the internet and six when offline. It was not, however till I took these glasses home that the real benefits started to show themselves.

What can the Rokid Glasses do?

Imagine having an AI agent attached to your head, always ready to answer your questions or interact with the glasses. You can ask the glasses to navigate and then see a basic map and directions to your destination.

I asked the glasses to tell me what they could see, and they described in detail what they and I could see. But imagine if you were sight-impaired and had your environment described to you. I asked the glasses to tell me the number plate of the car in front of me, and it did. I passed a real estate board of a house that had been sold and asked it what price it sold for, and had the price in seconds. Beyond that, you can ask anything you might ask ChatGPT or Gemini today.

If you wear glasses, you can get clip-on prescription lenses as well as a sunglass attachment. While using the handy clip-on batteries, you do watch the battery level go down, similar to what you saw with the first mobile phones, but they will power and recharge the glasses on the go.

Stay tuned for a full review once I get some more hands-on time. For now, Australians can pre-order the Rokid Glasses for $999 from Rokid’s online store until 8 June, including a free power capsule for adding more charge, and the sunglasses attachment. At launch, on 9 June, the glasses then cost $1,099 at retail.

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Dell takes cheeky swipe at Apple with budget XPS 13 laptop

It’s not often you see brands directly calling out competitors in press releases. Usually, risk aversion is the name of the game, with companies referring to other products in the vaguest possible terms to keep the lawyers at bay. Dell sang from a different hymnbook this week, specifically naming Apple’s MacBook Neo no less than four times in its XPS 13 announcement.

That in itself is remarkable, but not quite as remarkable as what Dell is doing with its flagship laptop. Traditionally, Dell reserved the XPS label for its premium, high-end clamshell PCs, but the most recent model fits a different mould. Powered by Intel’s more cost-effective ‘Wildcat Lake’ processors, the new Dell XPS 13 (specifically the DX13260 model) starts at US$699 (or US$599 for students).

Since Dell went through a confusing rebrand, only to restore the XPS name soon after, it seems that all bets are off now. But it’s Dell’s announcement of the new laptop that stands out the most. Introducing the PC as “contending with the MacBook Neo on price, and exceeding it on features”, the press release goes hard on the comparisons with Apple’s cheapest laptop.

Dell XPS 13 goes head-to-head with the MacBook Neo

Dell described the Neo as “a capable machine” that signals a “real appetite for premium quality at accessible prices”. But Dell then went on to list “standard features that you won’t find on a MacBook Neo”.

It mentioned the XPS 13’s 13.4-inch 2.5K touchscreen, multiple USB-C 3.2 ports, quad speakers, and backlit keyboard. Like the MacBook Neo, the XPS is made using a lightweight aluminium material. However, Dell claims that the starting XPS configuration is lighter, weighing 1kg and measuring 12.7mm in thickness.

Dell hasn’t confirmed the XPS 13’s Australian pricing yet; based on quick currency conversion, expect it to cost around the $1,000 mark here. That lower price point applies to the base model, which includes 8GB of LPDDR5x memory and the Intel Core 5 processor 320. According to Dell’s announcement, it will launch soon.

A more powerful XPS 13, using Intel’s Panther Lake Core Ultra chip, is set to arrive in the coming months. Segmenting one of Dell’s most recognisable laptops into two drastically different tiers is a bold strategy. If all goes well, it could mean higher standards for lower-cost laptops across the board.

Chris attended Computex 2026 in Taipei as a guest of Intel.

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Affordable 2K Blink video doorbell launches with new solar panel

Amazon’s budget home security brand, Blink, now has a 2K video doorbell in Australia, with a sharper camera designed to pick up more details. Dubbed the Blink Battery Video Doorbell 2K+, it adds a cheaper alternative to the higher-end video doorbells from Ring, another smart home company owned by Amazon.

At $109 in Australia, the Blink Battery Video Doorbell 2K+ is slightly more expensive than the $89 HD model that launched late last year. Along with the resolution upgrade, the new doorbell has a 140 x 140-degree field of view, a weather-resistant IP65 design, and runs on three AAA batteries.

Like Amazon’s Ring devices, the Blink ecosystem puts most of its features behind a paid subscription. Without one, Blink’s cameras provide notifications to the phone app when they detect motion, and you can quickly check the camera’s live feed.

New Blink Video Doorbell 2K+ | Head-to-toe view…

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Blink Solaris Battery Pack (newest gen…

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But to store video recordings, you either need a subscription, which starts at $4.95 per month, or Blink’s Sync Module 2, an optional $59 add-on that supports USB storage.

In addition to the Video Doorbell 2K+, Blink also launched the Solaris 2K+ in Australia. It’s a small solar panel system that attaches to the Blink Outdoor 2K+ security camera, keeping it powered uninterrupted. According to Blink, as long as the Solaris 2K+ gets 45 minutes of direct sunlight each day, it’ll keep the camera running 24/7.

By itself, the Solaris 2K+ costs $59 in Australia. Alternatively, it’s also available bundled with the Outdoor 2K+ camera for $169. Blink’s new devices are available now locally via Amazon.

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