As part of iOS 26's interface changes, your iPhone lock screen can take on a new look with spatial photos available as the background image for your phone and an adaptive time feature that adjusts the look of the on-screen clock to fit with the other visual elements. We go through all the iOS 26 lock screen changes.

What these changes mean for you is that your technology experience may differ drastically depending on which type of phone you buy in the coming years.

Visual Intelligence is getting a new screenshot search feature in iOS 26, giving the iPhone it's own version of Google's Circle to Search.

Testing with developer and public beta versions went smoothly for even the oldest supported models. But there are safety measures if upgrading to the beta or release version goes awry.

iOS 26 brings a new translucent "Liquid Glass" look, the latest on-device Apple Intelligence perks (real-time translation and a smarter Visual Intelligence search ), and phone and text upgrades like built-in call screening and in-chat polls.

We’ve been playing around with the developer betas of Apple’s latest software, and now that we’ve spent time with iOS 26, Liquid Glass and more on actual devices, we have thoughts. From representation in Genmoji and Live Translation adventures to Apple Intelligence musings,