The Next Era of iOS and iPadOS

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Hey everyone,
welcome back to Tech Between the Lines!

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I'm Between Two Pixels, and I'm here with
the one and only Finn Circuit.

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Today's episode is, honestly,
a big one-Apple just dropped the iOS 26

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and iPadOS 26 betas, and, uh,
I've barely slept since the keynote.

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There's so much to unpack.

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Yeah,

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you look like you've been up all night,

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kid.

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I'm Finn Circuit, and I'm here to make
sure Between doesn't try to convince

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you your iPhone's about to become
sentient.

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We're talking about what's actually new
in iOS and iPadOS 26 Beta 1-what's

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cool, what's hype, and what's probably
gonna break before it ships.

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I mean,

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it's not sentient...

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yet.

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But seriously,
this is the biggest iPadOS update ever,

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and iOS is getting a total glow-up.

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Let's get into it.

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Okay, first up,

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the Liquid Glass design.

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I know,
it sounds like something out of Star Trek,

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but it's real-Apple's gone full glossy,

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with these wild, almost 3D animations on
the Home and Lock Screens.

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Every swipe feels, like, alive.

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It's not just eye candy, either.

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You can finally customize app icons and
widgets with light or dark tints,

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so your Home Screen can be super minimal
or,

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you know,
totally neon if that's your thing.

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Yeah,

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it's shiny.

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I'll give you that.

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Reminds me of when everyone slapped glass
panels on their stereo systems

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in the '80s.

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Looked great until you got fingerprints
everywhere.

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But, uh, the customization's nice.

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I do like being able to make the icons
less blinding at night.

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The new light and dark modes are actually
useful-no more getting flashbanged

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when you check your phone at 2 a.

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m.Totally!

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And it's not just the Home Screen.

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Core apps-Mail, Safari, Apple TV,

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Music-they all got this cleaner look,

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bigger touch targets,
smoother transitions.

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Even Control Center and Notification
Center are customizable now,

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so you can tweak layouts,
adjust text size,

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or crank up the contrast if you need it.

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It's, like,
accessibility meets sci-fi UI.

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I'll believe it's sci-fi when

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my iPad beams me a coffee.

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But yeah, the new look is slick.

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Just hope it doesn't slow down older
devices-Apple's got a habit of making

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things pretty and then, well,
your phone starts acting like it's running

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Windows 95.

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Messages got a bunch of upgrades too.

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You can set custom backgrounds for
chats-photos,

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gradients, patterns, whatever.

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It syncs across devices, so your group
chat with your D&D crew can finally

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have that pixel art dragon you drew.

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And group chats now have polls!

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Like, you can actually vote on pizza
toppings without a million texts.

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Plus, typing indicators in group chats,

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so you know who's about to drop a hot
take.

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I'll admit,

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the polls are handy.

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Beats the old "reply with a number" chaos.

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But what I really like is the new
filtering for unknown senders.

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Now, messages from strangers or,

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you know, those endless "You've won a
cruise!" texts,

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go into their own folder.

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You can mark them as known, request info,

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or just delete 'em.

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It's not perfect-sometimes it thinks my
dentist is a scammer-but it's

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a start.

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Yeah, and there's even a filter for
transactions and promos,

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so your main inbox isn't just receipts
and random codes.

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Oh, and Apple Cash in group chats-only in
the U.

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S.

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for now,
but it's great for splitting bills.

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I tried it with my roommates, and,

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uh, it actually worked.

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No more "I'll Venmo you later" lies.

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Alright,

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let's talk CarPlay.

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They gave it the Liquid Glass treatment
too,

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so your dashboard looks like, well,

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a spaceship.

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The new compact call view is less
distracting,

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and you get widgets-so you can see
navigation,

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music, and, I dunno,
your next calendar event,

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all at once.

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It's cleaner, but I'm still not letting
my car update itself.

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Last time I did that, my radio thought it
was a toaster for a week.

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Ha!

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But seriously, the widgets and Live
Activities are awesome.

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You get real-time updates-like,

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if you're navigating, you see the next
turn and your playlist at the

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same time.

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Messages integration is better too,

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with Tapbacks and pinned conversations.

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It's not quite Knight Rider,
but it's getting there.

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I just wish they'd let you customize
more-like,

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let me put my weather widget front and
center,

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you know?

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Maybe in iOS 27, kid.

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For now, it's a nice upgrade,
as long as it doesn't crash mid-drive.

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Beta's still a little rough around the
edges.

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Okay,

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this is the big one-Apple Intelligence.

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It's, like, the brain of iOS 26.

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You get Call Screening, so AI answers
unknown calls and asks who's calling.

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It transcribes voicemails, too.

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There's Live Translation in Messages,

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FaceTime,
and Phone-nine languages at launch,

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and more coming.

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Visual Intelligence is wild-you point
your camera at a sign,

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and it pulls up info,
like reviews or menus.

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It's only on the latest iPhones,

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though.

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Yeah, and let's not forget,

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this isn't the first time Apple's
promised "intelligent" features.

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Remember the Newton?

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Or, heck, Siri when it first launched?

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Half the time it thought I was asking for
pizza when I wanted to call

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my wife.

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I'm not saying this stuff won't work,

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but, uh, beta 1's already got some lag
and missing features.

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Apple Intelligence is only on the newest
devices,

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and even then, it's a little...

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let's say, aspirational.

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Fair,
but Genmoji is super fun-you can make your

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own emojis, and Image Playground lets you
generate images in different

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styles, like oil painting or 3D render.

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I made a robot cat in, like, two seconds.

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And intelligent shortcuts-summarize
emails,

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generate images for presentations,

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track orders automatically.

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It's not perfect,
but it's a glimpse of what's coming.

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I mean, yeah, there are bugs,
but that's beta life,

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right?

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Sure, but let's see if it actually ships
on time.

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Apple's been, uh, struggling to get all
these AI features out the door.

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I'll believe it when my iPhone stops
thinking my dog is a sandwich in

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photos.

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For now, it's a lot of promise,

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not a lot of delivery.

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But hey, maybe I'm just old and cranky.

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Alright,

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battery nerds, this one's for you.

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The Battery settings got a total overhaul.

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There's a new interface with a graph
showing your usage over 24 hours

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or 7 days,
color-coded by app and system stuff.

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You can see exactly what's draining your
battery-finally!

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And there's a "Time to Charge" estimate,

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so you know how long till you hit 100%.

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It's pretty accurate with wired chargers,

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but wireless is still a bit iffy.

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I like the new Adaptive Power setting.

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It uses machine learning-yeah,

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I know, more AI-to adjust performance
based on how you use your phone.

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So if you're low on battery,
it'll throttle background apps or dim the

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screen.

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Sometimes it's a little too aggressive-my
screen went dark in the middle

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of a crossword.

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But, uh,
it's a step in the right direction.

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And you can finally customize Low Power
Mode,

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picking what features to turn off.

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About time.

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Okay, iPadOS 26 is where things get wild.

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The new windowing system is, like,

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desktop-level multitasking.

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You can open multiple app windows,

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resize, move, tile them-just flick a
window to snap it next to another.

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There's Exposé to see all your open
windows,

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and Stage Manager's better, especially
with 6K external display support.

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It's honestly the closest the iPad's ever
felt to a real laptop.

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Yeah,

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it's impressive.

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I remember when multitasking meant two
apps in split view,

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and even that crashed half the time.

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Now you've got a menu bar,
quick access to commands,

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and you can assign default apps for file
types.

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The Files app is actually useful now-list
view,

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folder colors, drag-and-drop to the Dock.

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It's almost like Apple finally realized
people use iPads for work,

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not just Netflix.

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And the new Preview app is a game-changer.

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You can annotate PDFs with Apple Pencil,

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fill out forms with AutoFill,
crop and mark up images,

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and it all syncs across devices.

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I tried editing a contract on my iPad,

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then finished it on my Mac-worked like
magic.

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Plus, new audio options-studio-quality
recording with AirPods,

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local capture for high-quality calls,

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and you can pick which mic to use per app.

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It's, like, pro tools for everyone.

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Don't forget,

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apps can finally run background
processes-so you can render a video or

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process a big file without babysitting
the app.

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And the Preview app's Apple Pencil
support is actually good,

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though I still can't draw a straight line.

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The only thing missing is, well,

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a decent export option in the Journal app.

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But, hey, maybe next beta.

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Alright,

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that's our whirlwind tour of iOS and
iPadOS 26 Beta 1.

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There's a lot to love, a few rough edges,

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and, honestly, I can't wait to see what
changes in the next beta.

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If you're brave enough to install it,

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let us know what you think-just maybe not
on your main device.

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Yeah,

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don't blame us if your phone turns into a
paperweight.

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We'll be back soon with a deep dive on
macOS 26-so if you're a Mac nerd,

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stay tuned.

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Between,
try to get some sleep before then,

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alright?

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No promises, Finn.

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Thanks for listening, everyone!