The MacRumors Show: Hands-On With iOS 27, Brutal watchOS 27 Cuts, and More
On this week's episode of
The MacRumors Show, we continue unpacking
WWDC 2026 and take a closer look at
iOS 27,
macOS Golden Gate, and Apple's other new software updates coming this fall.
iOS 27 supports the same iPhones as
iOS 26, including the iPhone 11 and second-generation iPhone SE, giving the update the widest device compatibility of any iOS release to date.
macOS Golden Gate drops Intel Macs entirely, confirming the end of an era that Apple flagged a year earlier when it said
macOS Tahoe would be the final release for pre-Apple silicon machines. Four models that ran Tahoe miss out: the 16-inch
MacBook Pro (2019), the 13-inch MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports (2020), the 2020
iMac, and the 2019 Mac Pro. Golden Gate is also
the last version with full Rosetta 2 support, meaning the translation layer that keeps Intel-built apps running on Apple silicon will disappear entirely after this release.
iPadOS 27 raises its hardware floor to the A14 Bionic or
M1 chip, cutting the fifth-generation
iPad mini, the eighth-generation
iPad, the third-generation
iPad Air, the first-generation 11-inch
iPad Pro, and the third-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
watchOS 27 makes the steepest cuts in Apple Watch history, dropping the Series 6, Series 7, Series 8, original Ultra, and second-generation SE in a single wave and effectively erasing three years of device support at once. The only models that remain compatible are the Series 9, Series 10, Series 11, Ultra 2, Ultra 3, and SE 3.
tvOS 27 drops two Apple TV models, the
Apple TV HD from 2015 and the first-generation Apple TV 4K from 2017, leaving only the second- and third-generation Apple TV 4K boxes supported.
In iOS 27, notifications now slide in from the left edge of the screen rather than dropping down from the top, and reaching Notification Center requires swiping down from the top-left corner instead of the center, freeing up that gesture for
Siri. Other changes include colorful sidebar icons, real-time widget updates when an app is already open, extra-large
Home Screen widgets, and web audio that no longer interrupts other system audio.
The centerpiece of the update is
Siri AI, which replaces Spotlight with a "Search or Ask" interface accessed by swiping down from the center of the display. Siri is designed to tone-match a user's own writing style when composing messages. Apple's pill-shaped Siri indicator is seemingly a hardware workaround for current
Dynamic Island constraints, and a smaller Dynamic Island on the
iPhone 18 Pro could allow the indicator to
become a true circle. On the Apple Watch, Siri AI requires pairing with an iPhone that supports
Apple Intelligence. In the European Union, Siri AI is available on macOS and visionOS at launch but not on the iPhone or iPad.
Apple Intelligence is also getting
smarter Writing Tools and a composition assistant in Mail and Messages that adapts to how a user typically communicates with different contacts.
Apple has overhauled Genmoji, adding a "Describe a change" interface for iterating on existing creations and the ability to start a new
Genmoji from an existing emoji, a photo, or a person tagged in the user's photo library.
Image Playground similarly adds support for multiple aspect ratios for wallpapers, Contact Posters, and social media images, alongside new photorealistic image generation.
Visual Intelligence, meanwhile, gets a new primary entry point called Siri Mode, though holding down Camera Control still works as an alternative. The feature is expanding to the iPad and Mac, and now supports importing multiple calendar events from a single photo of a flyer, as well as importing contacts directly from a photographed business card.
On the Mac, macOS Golden Gate extends toolbars and sidebars to the edges of the screen with a more consistent, tighter corner radius across windows.
iPadOS 27 adds undo and redo for Home Screen edits, extra-large widgets in Today View, an optional persistent menu bar, and
Visual Intelligence support for screenshots combined with
Apple Pencil highlighting. Notes gains an
Image Wand tool that generates photorealistic images from rough sketches, the Siri app gets a dedicated sidebar with full windowing support, and Shortcuts adds support for Magic Keyboard triggers.
watchOS 27 drops the Walkie-Talkie app entirely, with the feature missing from both the app list and Control Center in the first developer beta, while adding new Smart Stack suggestions, more accurate step tracking, and a consolidated
Find My app.
visionOS 27 lets users activate Siri simply by looking at its on-screen bubble rather than requiring a button press, and adds a redesigned Control Center along with new curved windows.
tvOS 27 brings a redesigned Podcasts app, Hi-Res Lossless audio support in
Apple Music, and on-device processing for
HomeKit Secure Video.
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If you haven't already listened to the
previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up to hear our discussion about all of the major announcements Apple unveiled at
WWDC 2026, including Siri AI, new Apple Intelligence features in apps, and system-wide performance and design improvements.
Subscribe to The MacRumors Show for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on
MacRumors, often joined by interesting guests such as
Kayci Lacob,
Kevin Nether,
John Gruber,
Mark Gurman,
Jon Prosser,
Luke Miani,
Matthew Cassinelli,
Brian Tong,
Quinn Nelson,
Jared Nelson,
Eli Hodapp,
Mike Bell,
Sara Dietschy,
iJustine,
Jon Rettinger,
Andru Edwards,
Arnold Kim,
Ben Sullins,
Marcus Kane,
Christopher Lawley,
Frank McShan,
David Lewis,
Tyler Stalman,
Sam Kohl,
Federico Viticci,
Thomas Frank,
Jonathan Morrison,
Ross Young,
Ian Zelbo, and
Rene Ritchie.
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