March 2026

Apple recent announcements

Apple announced new products all of last week and held a special event on March 4.

In summary: Apple introduced the new iPhone 17e, iPad Air with M4 chip, the new MacBook Air with M5, the new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the new MacBook Pro featuring M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, updated the Studio Display, introduced the new Studio Display XDR, and announced the new MacBook Neo with A18 chip, starting at $599.

iPhone 17e

iPhone 17e had been rumored and now it's here: the new entry-level iPhone from the current family of `iPhone17-something.' It uses the A19 chip, has Magsafe and more. It starts at $599.

Compare iPhone 17e to some other iPhones, using Apple's Compare page. You can adjust the comparison choices as you wish.

Reviews of the new iPhone 17e are coming in, concluding this is a success as an entry model. Here is one by Brian Tong:

iPad Air with M4

Apple unveiled the new iPad Air with M5, powered by M4, and with increased RAM.

MacBook Neo

Starting at a surprising price of $599 (or $499 with a student discount), it is the new entry-level macbook by Apple. It comes in 4 colors, has a 13" Liquid Retina display, all-day battery life, durable aluminum design, A18 Pro chip, seamless AI, and Apple Intelligence.

`We're certainly not making any compromises on the design', said Apple's vice president of industrial design Molly Anderson, in an interview with Dezeen design publication. "It's undeniably a MacBook, we're certainly not making any compromises on the design and that's really important."

Jon Gruber reviews the Macbook Neo.

new Apple displays

Take a look at the Studio Display vs. the Studio Display XDR Display

Apple at 50

Apple will turn 50 on April 1, 2026.

David Pogue interviewed Tim Cook for CBS this past Sunday. Read teh article and watch the interview.

Among other things, Tim Cook talked about the two things that are essential to Apple: people and culture. "Yes, we have a lot of intellectual property and so forth, and that is important, but it's people that create that intellectual property," said Cook. "It's the culture that creates the innovation with the intellectual property." "I think it's very difficult to replicate culture," added Cook. "It takes a long time, because you have to hire the right people. And then those people have to hire the right people, and you have to build a complete organization."

David Pogue wrote the book Apple: The First 50 Years: you can find it at any bookstore, including at Barnes & Noble, or at your neighborhood bookstore, or at Amazon.

Podcast interview Fifty Years of Apple with David Pogue, by Mac Power users, is definitely worth listening to.

other Apple and iOS news

Strong iOS 26 adoption: about 74% of iPhones introduced in the last 4 years are currently running iOS 26, reports Apple on their Dev Support website. This showcases Apple's ecosystem strength in pushing updates and users embracing them. And it makes it easier for 3rd party app developers.

February 24, 2026 would have been Steve Jobs' 71st birthday. Tim Cook posted:

A quote from Steve Jobs: `We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.' — Steve Jobs

Apple announced that the company is accelerating U.S. manufacturing, with Mac mini production coming later this year. `Mac mini will be made at a new facility in Houston, and a soon-to-be-launched training center will support advanced manufacturing skills development.'

(cont'd) Currently, the Mac mini is assembled in Asia, primarily in China and Vietnam. Tim Cook,said: `Apple is deeply committed to the future of American manufacturing, and we’re proud to significantly expand our footprint in Houston with the production of Mac mini starting later this year,' `We began shipping advanced AI servers from Houston ahead of schedule, and we’re excited to accelerate that work even further.'

iPhone and iPad approved to handle classified NATO information, announced Apple. `Following rigorous security testing and extensive evaluation by the German government, iPhone and iPad become the first consumer devices approved for use with classified information in NATO restricted environments.'

According to Bloomberg, 1 in 4 iPhones are made in India, reports Macrumors.

Apple Music Launches Ai Transparency Tags, reports Music Business. Apple sent a newsletter to industry partners explaining how it will roll out the new set of metadata. The system covers four categories including artwork, track, composition (lyrics), and music video. Apple describes the tags as optional for now, noting that if omitted, no AI is assumed. Apple said it defers to content providers to determine what qualifies as AI-generated, and that it treats the tags similarly to genres, credits, and other existing metadata, reports Macrumors, saying this is a different approach from Deezer's approach which attempts to detect AI but sometimes makes mistakes.

iOS apps

Do you have several cookbooks but cannot remember where to find a recipe for a side dish you made a while ago? What if you want to look up a few ideas for how to roast vegetables across all your cookbooks? Enter CookShelf. CookShelf lets you quickly create a digital library of your cookbooks, effectively creating a searchable database and a table of contents. You can easily scan barcodes of your books within seconds. Once you have your collection, you can search for "roasted carrots" or "chocolate cake" or Caesar salad" and get the page numbers where related recipes can be found across all your cookbooks. Additionally, the results show you the ingredients involved, so you can quickly assess whether you want to look up that recipe or not. Furthermore, the app shows you cookbooks you don't have that contain a recipe you are looking for. CookShelf does not give you the actual recipe. You still need to refer to your cookbook to read the recipe. The app offers a 2-week free trial, followed by an annual subscription of $39.99 (cancel any time), or 1-week free trial followed by a monthly fee of $4.99 (cancel any time). If you cancel before the free trial ends, you will not get charged. Olga gave a demo of this app.

Remember Dark Sky, the popular weather app? It was acquired by Apple in 2020, and over time, the native iOS weather app incorporated parts of the old Dark Sky app's capabilities but in a broader design. Well, the original creators of Dark Sky have now left Apple and created a new weather app: Acme Weather, reports 9to5mac. The app offers a 2-week free trial, and it's $25/year after that. It offers widgets, an Apple Watch app, and unique weather notifications.

Carrot Weather adds The Weather Channel data, new dynamic interface, more, reports 9to5mac. Recall that Carrot Weather offers various layouts, including `inline Dark Sky' that emulates the old Dark Sky look.`

Carrot Weather also Introduces CarPlay App and Automatic Live Activities recently.

Users of 1Password have been notified of a price hike coming soon. Here’s how to switch from 1Password to Apple Passwords, reports 9to5mac. Olga discussed pros and cons.

Vectorworks announced its acquisition of Morpholio.

Morpholio announced they have been acquired by Vectorworks. `Morpholio has become part of the amazing Vectorworks family, bringing our suite of mobile design tools together with a true thought leader in design technology. Importantly, our core team will remain in place, while providing you with the strength, scale, and infrastructure of Vectorworks. Together, we share the mission to empower designers with intuitive tools that support creativity and innovation from sketch to BIM.. . . For Morpholio, finding the right long-term home meant aligning with a partner that shares our values regarding the impact of design and the responsibility to shape the future of the built environment. We are so excited to be a part of something bigger that will empower our team and ensure that we continue to deliver bespoke solutions that are grounded in the very close relationship we have with our community.'

Morpholio from Vectorworks: Your FAQs answered.

tips & tricks

Optionally change liquid glass. With iOS 26 and later, you get liquid glass UI by default. It works well with some wallpapers and backgrounds and less well with others. If you want to avoid the liquid glass look in iOS 26.1 and later, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass > Tinted

Screen & Silence Spam callers. With iOS 26, you get better control of Go to Settings > Apps and find the Phone app. Go to the section titled Screen Unknown Callers, and select one of the 3 available options: None (no screening), or , or Always.

Share your WiFi password with house guests. iOS makes it very easy to do without having to spell out the pasword. Go

gadgets & accessories

you can buy AirPods Pro with a $50 discount at Verizon online and also Amazon ($199 instead of $249), reports Macrumors.

Lutron has just introduced Smart Shades & Blinds and supports Apple HomeKit.

next iPUG

Our next iPUG meeting will be on Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 7 pm AZ Time and PT.