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Technologies

Liquid Glass, Live Translation, and All the Other Important New iOS26 Features Coming to Your iPhone

iOS 26 is changing a ton of iPhone features, from messaging to the photos app. Here’s what to expect when it ships in the fall.

While we still don’t know what new hardware the iPhone 17 models might be packing, we have seen the big changes coming to iPhone software with iOS26. Liquid Glass delivers a significant design refresh, and that’s just where Apple is starting. The Photos app is getting a functional redesign, while Messages and Phone apps are putting power back in your hands by delivering features around hold, and screening calls. Apple Intelligence is still contributing as well, even if Siri has been delayed.

The next version of the operating system is due to ship in September or October (likely with new iPhone 17 models), but developer betas are available now, with a public beta expected this month.

Transparent new Liquid glass design

After more than a decade of a flat, clean user interface — an overhaul introduced in iOS 7 when former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive took over the design of software as well as hardware — the iPhone is getting a new look. The new design extends throughout the Apple product lineup, from iOS to WatchOS, TVOS and iPadOS.

The Liquid Glass interface also now enables a third way to view app icons on the iPhone home screen. Not content with Light and Dark modes, iOS 26 now features an All Clear look — every icon is clear glass with no color. Lock screens can also have an enhanced 3D effect using spatial scenes, which use machine learning to give depth to your background photos.

Dynamic and adaptable lock screen

Translucency is the defining characteristic of Liquid Glass, behaving like glass in the real world in the way it deals with light and color of objects behind and near controls. But it’s not just a glassy look: The «liquid» part of Liquid Glass refers to how controls can merge and adapt — dynamically morphing, in Apple’s words. In the example Apple showed, the glassy time numerals on an iPhone lock screen stretched to accommodate the image of a dog and even shrunk as the image shifted to accommodate incoming notifications. The dock and widgets are now rounded, glassy panels that float above the background.

Camera and Photos apps go even more minimal

The Camera app is getting a new, simplified interface. You could argue that the current Camera app is pretty minimal, designed to make it quick to frame a shot and hit the big shutter button. But the moment you get into the periphery, it becomes a weird mix of hidden controls and unintuitive icons.

Now, the Camera app in iOS 26 features a «new, more intuitive design» that takes minimalism to the extreme. The streamlined design shows just two modes: Video or Camera. Swipe left or right to choose additional modes, such as Pano or Cinematic. Swipe up for settings such as aspect ratio and timers, and tap for additional preferences.

With the updated Photos app, viewing the pictures you capture should be a better experience — a welcome change that customers have clamored for since iOS 18’s cluttered attempt. Instead of a long, difficult-to-discover scrolling interface, Photos regains a Liquid Glass menu at the bottom of the screen. 

The Phone app gets a revamp

The Phone app has kept more closely to the look of its source than others: a sparse interface with large buttons as if you’re holding an old-fashioned headset or pre-smartphone cellular phone. iOS 26 finally updates that look not just with the new overall interface but in a unified layout that takes advantage of the larger screen real estate on today’s iPhone models.

It’s not just looks that are different, though. The Phone app is trying to be more useful for dealing with actual calls — the ones you want to take. The Call Screening feature automatically answers calls from unknown numbers, and your phone rings only when the caller shares their name and reason for calling.

Or what about all the time wasted on hold? Hold Assist automatically detects hold music and can mute the music but keep the call connected. Once a live agent becomes available, the phone rings and lets the agent know you’ll be available shortly.

Messages updates

The Messages app is probably one of the most used apps on the iPhone, and for iOS 26, Apple is making it a more colorful experience. You can add backgrounds to the chat window, including dynamic backgrounds that show off the new Liquid Glass interface.

In addition to the new look, group texts in Messages can incorporate polls for everyone in the group to reply to — no more scrolling back to find out which restaurant Brett suggested for lunch that you missed. Other members in the chat can also add their own items to a poll.

A more useful feature is a feature to detect spam texts better and screen unknown numbers, so the messages you see in the app are the ones you want to see and not the ones that distract you.

Safari gets out of its own way

In the Safari app, the Liquid Glass design floats the tab bar above the web page (although that looks right where your thumb is going to be, so it will be interesting to see if you can move the bar to the top of the screen). As you scroll, the tab bar shrinks.

FaceTime focuses on calls, not controls

FaceTime also gets the minimal look, with controls in the lower-right corner that disappear during the call to get out of the way. On the FaceTime landing page, posters of your contacts, including video clips of previous calls, are designed to make the app more appealing.

New Music app features

Do you like the sound of that song your friend is playing but don’t understand the language the lyrics are in? The Music app includes a new lyrics translation feature that displays along with the lyrics as the song plays. And for when you want to sing along with one of her favorite K-pop songs, for example, but you don’t speak or read Korean, a lyrics pronunciation feature spells out the right way to form the sounds.

AutoMix blends songs like a DJ, matching the beat and time-stretching for a seamless transition.

And if you find yourself obsessively listening to artists and albums again and again, you can pin them to the top of your music library for quick access.

New Games app is a reminder that yes, people game on iPhone

The iPhone doesn’t get the same kind of gaming affection as Nintendo’s Switch or Valve’s Steam Deck, but the truth is that the iPhone and Android phones are used extensively for gaming — Apple says half a billion people play games on iPhone.

Trying to capitalize on that, a new Games app acts as a specific portal to Apple Arcade and other games. Yes, you can get to those from the App Store app, but the Games app is designed to remove a layer of friction so you can get right to the gaming action.

Live translation enhances calls and texts

Although not specific to iOS, Apple’s new live translation feature is ideal on the iPhone when you’re communicating with others. It uses Apple Intelligence to dynamically enable you to talk to someone who speaks a different language in near-real time. It’s available in the Messages, FaceTime and Phone apps and shows live translated captions during a conversation.

Maps gets more personal

Updates to the Maps app sometimes involve adding more detail to popular areas or restructuring the way you store locations. Now, the app takes note of routes you travel frequently and can alert you of any delays before you get on the road.

It also includes a welcome feature for those of us who get our favorite restaurants mixed up: visited places. The app notes how many times you’ve been to a place, be that a local business, eatery or tourist destination. It organizes them in categories or other criteria such as by city to make them easier to find the next time.

New CarPlay features

Liquid Glass also makes its way to CarPlay in your vehicle, with a more compact design when a call comes in that doesn’t obscure other items, such as a directional map. In Messages, you can apply tapbacks and pin conversations for easy access.

Widgets are now part of the CarPlay experience, so you can focus on just the data you want, like the current weather conditions. And Live Activities appear on the CarPlay screen, so you’ll know when that coffee you ordered will be done or when a friend’s flight is about to arrive.

Wallet improvements

The Wallet app is already home for using Apple Card, Apple Pay, electronic car keys and for storing tickets and passes. In iOS 26, you can create a new Digital ID that acts like a passport for age and identity verification (though it does not replace a physical passport) for domestic travel for TSA screening at airports.

The app can also let you use rewards and set up installment payments when you purchase items in a store, not just for online orders. And with the help of Apple Intelligence, the Wallet app can help you track product orders, even if you did not use Apple Pay to purchase them. It can pull details such as shipping numbers from emails and texts so that information is all in one place.

New features powered by Apple Intelligence

Although last year’s WWDC featured Apple Intelligence features heavily, improvements to the AI tech were less prominent this year, folded into the announcements during the WWDC keynote.

As an alternative to creating Genmoji from scratch, you can combine existing emojis — «like a sloth and a light bulb when you’re the last one in the group chat to get the joke,» to use Apple’s example. You can also change expressions in Genmoji of people you know that you’ve used to create the image.

Image Playground adds the ability to tap into ChatGPT’s image generation tools to go beyond the app’s animation or sketch styles.

Visual Intelligence can already use the camera to try to decipher what’s in front of the lens. Now the technology works on the content on the iPhone’s screen, too. It does this by taking a screenshot (press the sleep and volume up buttons) and then including a new Image Search option in that interface to find results across the web or in other apps such as Etsy.

This is also a way to add event details from images you come across, like posters for concerts or large gatherings. (Perhaps this could work for QR codes as well?) In the screenshot interface, Visual Intelligence can parse the text and create an event in the Calendar app.

Some iOS 26 updates Apple didn’t mention

Not everything fits into a keynote presentation — even, or maybe especially, when it’s all pre-recorded — but some of the more interesting new features in iOS 26 went unremarked during the big reveal. For instance:

  • If you have AirPods or AirPods Pro with the H2 chip, you can use AirPods Camera Remote to start recording video on your iPhone by pressing and holding one of the AirPods.
  • You can choose your own snooze duration of between 1 and 15 minutes for alarms.
  • Audio recording options have expanded, enabling high-quality recording during conference calls and high-definition recording in the Camera app with AirPods and AirPods Pro that contain the H2 chip.
  • Accessibility features include an «all-new experience designed with Braille users in mind,» more options for the Vehicle Motion Cues feature to avoid motion sickness and «a more customizable reading experience.»
  • Reminders uses Apple Intelligence to «suggest tasks, grocery items and follow-ups based on emails or other text on your device.»
  • The Journal app supports multiple journals, inline images and a map view that tracks where journal entries were made.
  • Parental controls have been updated in unspecified ways, including «enhancements across Communication Limits, Communication Safety and the App Store.»

iOS 26 availability

The finished version of iOS 26 will be released in September or October with new iPhone 17 models. In the meantime, developers can install the first developer betas now, with an initial public beta arriving this month. (Don’t forget to go into any beta software with open eyes and clear expectations.)

Follow the WWDC 2025 live blog for details about Apple’s other announcements.

iPhone models compatible with iOS 26

iOS 26 will run on the iPhone 11 and later models, including the iPhone SE (2nd generation and later). That includes:

  • iPhone 16e
  • iPhone 16
  • iPhone 16 Plus
  • iPhone 16 Pro
  • iPhone 16 Pro Max
  • iPhone 15
  • iPhone 15 Plus
  • iPhone 15 Pro
  • iPhone 15 Pro Max
  • iPhone 14
  • iPhone 14 Plus
  • iPhone 14 Pro
  • iPhone 14 Pro Max
  • iPhone 13
  • iPhone 13 mini
  • iPhone 13 Pro
  • iPhone 13 Pro Max
  • iPhone 12
  • iPhone 12 mini
  • iPhone 12 Pro
  • iPhone 12 Pro Max
  • iPhone 11
  • iPhone 11 Pro
  • iPhone 11 Pro Max
  • iPhone SE (2nd generation and later)

Technologies

OpenAI Says It’s Working With Actors to Crack Down on Celebrity Deepfakes in Sora

Bryan Cranston alerted SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, when he saw AI-generated videos of himself made with the AI video app.

OpenAI said Monday it would do more to stop users of its AI video generation app Sora from creating clips with the likenesses of actors and other celebrities after actor Bryan Cranston and the union representing film and TV actors raised concerns that deepfake videos were being made without the performers’ consent.

Actor Bryan Cranston, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and several talent agencies said they struck a deal with the ChatGPT maker over the use of celebrities’ likenesses in Sora. The joint statement highlights the intense conflict between AI companies and rights holders like celebrities’ estates, movie studios and talent agencies — and how generative AI tech continues to erode reality for all of us.

Sora, a new sister app to ChatGPT, lets users create and share AI-generated videos. It launched to much fanfare three weeks ago, with AI enthusiasts searching for invite codes. But Sora is unique among AI video generators and social media apps; it lets you use other people’s recorded likenesses to place them in nearly any AI video. It has been, at best, weird and funny, and at worst, a never-ending scroll of deepfakes that are nearly indistinguishable from reality.

Cranston noticed his likeness was being used by Sora users when the app launched, and the Breaking Bad actor alerted his union. The new agreement with the actors’ union and talent agencies reiterates that celebrities will have to opt in to having their likenesses available to be placed into AI-generated video. OpenAI said in the statement that it has «strengthened the guardrails around replication of voice and likeness» and «expressed regret for these unintentional generations.»

OpenAI does have guardrails in place to prevent the creation of videos of well-known people: It rejected my prompt asking for a video of Taylor Swift on stage, for example. But these guardrails aren’t perfect, as we’ve saw last week with a growing trend of people creating videos featuring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. They ranged from weird deepfakes of the civil rights leader rapping and wrestling in the WWE to overtly racist content.


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The flood of «disrespectful depictions,» as OpenAI called them in a statement on Friday, is part of why the company paused the ability to create videos featuring King.

Bernice A. King, his daughter, last week publicly asked people to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her father. She was echoing comedian Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda, who called these sorts of AI videos «gross.»

OpenAI said it «believes public figures and their families should ultimately have control over how their likeness is used» and that «authorized representatives» of public figures and their estates can request that their likeness not be included in Sora. In this case, King’s estate is the entity responsible for choosing how his likeness is used. 

This isn’t the first time OpenAI has leaned on others to make those calls. Before Sora’s launch, the company reportedly told a number of Hollywood-adjacent talent agencies that they would have to opt out of having their intellectual property included in Sora. But that initial approach didn’t square with decades of copyright law — usually, companies need to license protected content before using it — and OpenAI reversed its stance a few days later. It’s one example of how AI companies and creators are clashing over copyright, including through high-profile lawsuits.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)  

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Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 21, #863

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Oct. 21, #863.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.


Today’s NYT Connections puzzle has a diverse mix of topics.  Remember when you see a word like «does» that it could have multiple meanings. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Deal me in.

Green group hint: I can get that.

Blue group hint: Hoops.

Purple group hint: The clicker.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Playing cards.

Green group: Takes on.

Blue group: N.B.A. teams.

Purple group: Things you can control with remotes.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is playing cards. The four answers are aces, jacks, kings and queens.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is takes on. The four answers are addresses, does, handles and tackles.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is N.B.A. teams. The four answers are Bucks, Bulls, Hornets and Spurs.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is things you can control with remotes.  The four answers are drones, garage doors, televisions and Wiis.

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Technologies

Ninja Gaiden 4 Review: The Comeback Fans Have Been Waiting For

PlatinumGames and Team Ninja revive the franchise with pure adrenaline.

With 2025 coming to a close, so is the «Year of the Ninja» for video games. What kicked off in a big way with a surprise remaster of 2008’s Ninja Gaiden 2 Black and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, now ends with the release of Ninja Gaiden 4. 

Developed in partnership with longtime series studio Team Ninja and action game specialists PlatinumGames, Ninja Gaiden 4 is the first new 3D entry in the franchise since 2012, following the retro 2D release of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound in July. As expected from a series known for its fast-paced slashing action, Ninja Gaiden 4 delivers plenty of stylish combat — but not much beyond that.

Ninja Gaiden 4 introduces a new protagonist, Yakumo, who replaces longtime series hero Ryu Hayabusa. It’s a similar move to what publisher Tecmo Koei did with Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. As part of the Raven clan, a rival of Ryu’s Dragon clan, Yakumo doesn’t differ that much from the series’ previous main character. Don’t worry, Ryu fans: He does show up in the game. 

Yakumo’s quest in Ninja Gaiden 4 is to defeat the Dark Dragon, an evil deity who has been the series’ primary villain. Standing in Yakumo’s way is the Divine Dragon Order, which defends the beast and controls the futuristic Tokyo setting of the game. 

Does the story make a lot of sense? Not really, except to fans who already know the ins and outs of the Ninja Gaiden lore. Does that matter? Absolutely not, because all you need to know is where to go to slice up more enemies, which Yakumo is stellar at. 

Go Ninja Go

To say Ninja Gaiden 4’s action is fast is almost an understatement, which is to be expected. The series was already focused on rapid combat that requires quick reactions, even prior to PlatinumGames’ involvement. The developer took on Ninja Gaiden 4 after revolutionizing the hack-and-slash action game genre with the Bayonetta series and games like Nier: Automata. 

If you’ve played plenty of hack-and-slash games, Ninja Gaiden 4’s combat formula will be familiar. Yakumo has weak and heavy attacks, and chaining these together creates your standard combos. The more enemies he defeats, the more money and points he gets to unlock new moves and weapon skills. Some of the new moves extend Yakumo’s combos for longer sequences of attacks and against more enemies, while others are defensive, allowing him to unleash a powerful riposte after parrying an enemy attack.

Yakumo starts off his journey with his twin blades, but he finds more weapons throughout the game. A favorite of mine is the Magashuti staff that has a long reach to attack multiple enemies as Yakumo spins it around himself. 

Where Yakumo differs greatly from Ryu is his Bloodraven form. Unleashed when attacking with the left trigger held down, it changes Yakumo’s weapon to do greater damage. The Magashuti, for example, will take the form of a giant hammer whenever Yakumo uses his Bloodraven form. Certain enemies and bosses have armor that can deflect or reduce the power of Yakumo’s attack, so you’ll need to switch to Bloodraven form to break that armor. 

All of these mechanics make for unrivaled action. Players who spend enough time practicing will engage in beautiful dances of slashing weapons. The fact is, there are times when the action feels just a bit too fast, even for my veteran gaming reflexes. Trying to maneuver to certain areas or to talk with a non-playable character sometimes had me jumping off walls while hardly touching the controller. It almost takes more work to keep Yakumo still, especially after unlocking so many of his skills. There was also an instance when I did a finishing move to an enemy, and the animation pushed me out of bounds, causing me to have to reload to my last checkpoint. 

Arguably, the biggest frustration for me was the lock-on button. It was not intuitive at all, as it had no rhyme or reason for what it was locking onto. Even when I was fighting just the boss, it still never fully locked onto it as every other action game does. 

Also, what might be a bit of a downer for some Ninja Gaiden fans, this entry in the franchise is noticeably the easiest of the bunch. Thanks to healing items and equipable accessories, I died maybe once or twice per chapter. If a certain boss kills you too many times, the game will give you free items and even an NPC to help. For those who want more of a challenge, there’s a higher difficulty option available, but players with reasonable skill should be able to coast through the game otherwise. 

A Feast for Ninja Eyes

Another mainstay of the Ninja Gaiden franchise is the beautiful visuals. As the game takes place in a futuristic Japan, the development team really leaned into the cyberpunk-like look of a city bathed in neon and glass. 

This excels in the moments when Yakumo has to traverse in the most ninja ways, such as sliding on the train rails high above the city or gliding on rushing winds that blow through the mountain pass. These are the moments where you don’t have to worry about enemies attacking or creating the fanciest combos. You can just look around and take in these beautiful graphics. 

Combine these visuals with an excellent soundtrack and solid voice acting, and you have a presentation worthy of being included in the Ninja Gaiden series. 

Despite these quality elements, Ninja Gaiden 4 is a good reboot but not revolutionary. PlatinumGames resurrected the franchise 13 years after the last main entry, but didn’t take it in any different direction that would give this mass appeal to the gaming public. It’s an exciting 7 to 8 hours to beat, but I didn’t feel like jumping right back in.

Ninja Gaiden 4 will not be up for Game of the Year, or likely even considered one of the best games in the series, but that doesn’t matter. This is a game for anyone who just wants to feel like a badass ninja carving up enemies in the blink of an eye, because sometimes that’s all you want. 

Ninja Gaiden 4 will be released on Oct. 21 for $70 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. It will be available for Xbox Game Pass on day 1. 

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