WWDC 2026, the latest version of Apple's yearly developer conference, runs from June 8-12, and by all appearances the company has some important updates to outline. In comparison to Liquid Glass, the design material Apple introduced last year and now uses across all its operating systems, the new features the company is rumored to announce might not be aesthetic, but they could make just as big of a splash. Namely because Apple might finally be ready to show off its second stab at an overhauled version of Siri.

If you're curious to see the company's new plans for yourself, you can watch Apple's WWDC 2026 keynote live on its website, YouTube channel or the Apple Developer Bilibili channel in China. Apple will also host its Platforms State of the Union stream and individual developer workshops on its developer website if you want to learn even more details about the software updates the company will release later this year. Luckily, we do have some sense of what Apple has in store, and it looks like stability improvements and AI are the company's big focuses for the updates coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS and tvOS this fall.

A Snow Leopard-esque approach to stability and performance

Apple released Mac OS X Snow Leopard in 2009, primarily as a way to clean up the performance and refine the new features the company released with Mac OS X Leopard two years prior. The decision to essentially "take a year off" to focus on making everything about the company's desktop operating system feel better was well-received, and Apple is apparently planning to have iOS 27 serve a similar role.

Bloomberg reports that Apple's upcoming update will be "focused on improving the software’s quality and underlying performance" and that the company's "engineering teams are now combing through Apple's operating systems, hunting for bloat to cut, bugs to eliminate and any opportunity to meaningfully boost performance and overall quality." Those fixes will presumably extend to the company's other operating systems, too.

Some of this effort may also be focused on cleaning up the visual changes introduced in Apple's big switch to Liquid Glass. The design overhaul has been controversial among the company's diehard fans, and Apple has already introduced tweaks in updates that arrived after the release of iOS 26 to make Liquid Glass interfaces more legible. Bloomberg reports the company could go a step further in its next updates and add a system-wide slider that will allow users to adjust the intensity of Liquid Glass (visual effects like translucency and reflectivity) they want in the interface.

The chatbot-ification of Siri

While stability and performance improvements will be a major focus of this year's updates, Apple is also rumored to be making some major changes to Siri. When the company first introduced Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, it promised to launch an updated version of the voice assistant that could use your personal context (like the information securely stored on your iPhone) to act across apps. Apple delayed those features in March 2025 and then announced a partnership with Google in January 2026 to use Gemini models to presumably make them possible. 

Those features might finally arrive in this year's updates, but Apple is reportedly also changing how users interact with Siri by making the assistant more like a chatbot, according to Bloomberg. This would make the assistant more interactive and natural to speak to, and could open up other possibilities, like letting users direct Siri to perform two actions at the same time. Developers will reportedly also be able to integrate their own AI assistants with Siri, much like OpenAI has with ChatGPT.

New places to talk to AI

The chatbot version of Siri will be accessible in the usual ways, but also reportedly through a standalone Siri app. The new app will let users prompt the assistant to take care of tasks on their device, search the web and even access news, not unlike current Gemini and ChatGPT apps. Bloomberg writes that the app will also be a way to review past conversations with Siri and receive suggestions of prompts to try with the new chatbot version of the assistant.

Users will also be able to interact with Siri inside Apple's other apps via a new feature called "Ask Siri." This may appear as an option in app menus, and allow you to ask the AI assistant questions about content in the app. It's not clear if this will be as in-depth or capable as Google's Ask Maps or Ask Photos features, but it at least seems like Apple's thinking along the same lines as its partner.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/what-to-expect-from-wwdc-2026-110000086.html?src=rss

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Amazon announced that it is adding new capabilities for ordering food delivery with its Alexa+ artificial intelligence assistant. Users will be able to place orders using natural language on Alexa+ through the GrubHub or Uber Eats platforms, provided they have an Amazon device with a large screen. First, you'll need to connect an account for those delivery services to use the feature. You can ask to see restaurants with a specific cuisine or tell the assistant to go right to a favorite spot. Once you start an order, Alexa+ will also support natural language requests and, if you ask for something generic, the assistant will match it to the most similar item on the menu. It should also support more detailed queries like "what are kid-friendly options?" and be able to submit special requests like "no onions." 

To start, this ordering capability will be available for Alexa+ customers using the Echo Show 8 or larger devices. The screen should reflect your order, with any changes shown in real time. Amazon made the Alexa+ subscription available to all US customers earlier this year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazon-adds-dynamic-food-delivery-ordering-to-alexa-130000065.html?src=rss

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President Donald Trump may have a tendency to put his name on everything, but his administration decided to go with the more authoritative The White House App for his latest pursuit. Now available on the App Store and Google Play store, the official White House App claims to gives Americans "a direct line to the White House."

From the press release, the app provides "unfiltered, real-time upgrades straight from the source." In more practical terms, the White House App is a one-stop shop for official communications from the administration and more. On the app, you can find press releases, livestream announcements and even a photo gallery, along with turning on notifications so you get official communications as soon as they happen.

However, it only takes a few minutes of digging through the app to question its value. The White House App's News tab features a carousel of about 35 articles that seem suspiciously cherry-picked with articles that favor the Trump administration. In the Affordability window, the app points out year-over-year prices that have dropped for things like eggs, milk and bread, but conveniently omits the recent swell in gas prices.

In the Social tab, there's a button to "Text President Trump," which auto-populates a new text with "Greatest President Ever!" before ultimately trying to get you to sign up for a marketing blast. The press release mentioned a way to "send your voice and feedback directly to the Administration" but the app's functionality doesn't seem to promote that. Most notably, there's even a way to submit a tip to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the app's Get in Touch section.

While it's convenient to have all your Trump administration announcements in one place, the White House App is mostly just a portal that ends up opening external websites. Traditionally, official White House accounts on social media platforms are passed on during the transition of presidents. However, it's hard to say what will happen to the app after Trump leaves office, but one only has to look towards the lasting triumph of TrumpRx, Trump Mobile or even Trump University. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-white-house-app-is-just-as-weird-and-unnecessary-as-youd-expect-175354004.html?src=rss

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© The White House / X