Way back in 2020, a patent application revealed that Apple was considering adding Touch ID to the Digital Crown of the Apple Watch . Leaked code last year appeared to suggest that the new feature might be coming soon.

However, a leaker with a decent track record now says the company has rejected this idea over cost and battery life concerns …

As is often the case with Apple patent documents, the language was deliberately opaque, but the accompanying illustrations pointed very clearly to a Touch ID sensor in the Digital Crown

A paid WhatsApp Plus subscription went live in the Android beta last month and it is now slowly rolling out to iPhone users.

It’s just gone live for a small number of iOS users and is reportedly rolling out to more accounts over the next few weeks …

shared the news.

WhatsApp Plus is a subscription plan now available to a limited number of iOS users […] and it is rolling out to more accounts over the coming weeks.

It doesn’t yet appear to be available in the US. European

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Apple debuted last year at its $599 price point – and it’s been an okay phone since. It got refreshed this year with an A19 chipset, more storage, and MagSafe, but for the most part, its positioning in the market hasn’t really changed. It’s an okay phone at an okay price.

It’s been selling decently, but it hasn’t really been a killer appeal to Android users in the same way that has been for PC users.

Introduced in iOS 15, Hide My Email is an iCloud+ feature that does exactly what it says on the tin – you can create an alternative email address for each individual service you sign up for, and easily cut off said email whenever you’d like. It prevents advertisers from having your primary email address, and gives you better inbox control – a total win-win.

That said, despite being introduced 5 years ago, the feature hasn’t progressed as much as it realistically could have. Here

Apple is preparing to roll out a ‘slight redesign’ for the next version of macOS, according to . The update will feature a refinement of the Liquid Glass design language, cleaning up some of the rough edges seen in the Tahoe user interface.

This will apparently include tweaks to the use of transparency and shadows across the system, which should address some user criticism about poor contrast when using Tahoe apps.

According to Gurman, the Tahoe incarnation of the new design was somewhat unfinished. The macOS 27 follow-up

For the most part, has dominated the tablet market – and that probably won’t be changing anytime soon. In recent years, though, I think many people have been struggling to come up with reasons to buy a new iPad – especially when the previous generations have been so good. While this likely isn’t a huge problem quite yet, I do think it raises some questions going forward.

The iPad lineup, with the exception of the redesign, has remained extremely consistent. There’s at $5

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight . This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact .

Most people believe they’re spending too much time on their phones – but don’t necessarily know how to do better. Developer Florian Schimanke has created to help you with your screen time in different ways. You can get them individually, or you can also at a discounted rate.

This year, Apple is rumored to be doing a code cleanup for iOS 27 , as well as overall having a renewed focus for stability and performance – on top of a plethora of Apple Intelligence features. While this on its own sounds good, I think there’s a higher reason for why we should expect an impressively stable release.

Love it or hate it, agentic coding has substantially sped up the process for developing software. Towards the tail end of last year, the models started to get remarkably good,