Apple has struggled to keep up with the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google with its AI technology, with the long-promised Siri upgrade repeatedly delayed. It's now trying to fix that: At WWDC 2026 today, we got details of the biggest Apple Intelligence upgrade since it launched, with a focus on understanding users and keeping data private.

The updates will roll out across iPhones, iPads, and Macs, and was announced by Apple's senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi—who started with a dig about some AI companies moving too fast and neglecting the priorities of users (not a bad way to reframe Apple's previous problems with AI development).

As we knew already, Apple has partnered with Google to develop its new Apple Foundation AI Models, though you won't see a Google logo or "powered by Gemini" message anywhere. Apple has tailored the Gemini models for its own purposes and says there's now improved understanding across text, voice, and images.

Apple's new AI models will understand you better. Credit: Apple

There are four central components to these new models: Personal context (knowing about you and your preferences), world knowledge (drawing in data from the web and other sources), actions (being able to complete tasks inside apps), and on-screen awareness (knowing what you're doing on your device).

Some of the examples Apple showed for personal context included knowing about upcoming birthdays, favorite recipes, and locations you've visited. All of this information could be pulled into AI responses or routines to make them smarter.

Different models will run on devices and in the cloud, and be kept fully private—so not even Apple will be able to see your data and AI interactions. As has always been the case since Apple Intelligence launched in 2024, Apple uses what it calls Private Cloud Compute to only process data in the cloud when it's absolutely necessary, and to delete the data right after the processing is done.

World knowledge has also been improved in the new models. Credit: Apple

These privacy protections are audited by third-party security specialists, Apple says, so you can be sure your data isn't being analyzed or kept. The company is clearly going to continue to lean on privacy as a way of differentiating itself from its competitors.

In terms of the specific benefits you'll see from these new AI models, you should get smarter, faster responses in apps and in the newly upgraded Siri app. These technologies are going to power Apple AI across all of its products—enhanced by a new System Orchestrator that was flagged up by Federighi—and will work everywhere from enhancing photos to dictating text.

Of course, this isn't the first time Apple has hyped up future upgrades coming to its Apple Intelligence technology—we won't be able to assess these changes fully until they're pushed out into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

At today's WWDC event, Apple announced it's bringing custom equalizer controls to your AirPods with iOS 27. The company's earbuds have had their own adaptive EQ prior to now, but you haven't been able to set the EQ yourself.

Credit: Apple / YouTube

The new custom EQ feature will be found in the AirPods' settings once they roll out. In typical Apple fashion, the controls are relatively simple and easy to use. You'll see a graph of low, mid, and high tones, and you can drag simple handles to raise or lower these tones. It's not quite as robust as some other EQ interfaces, but it doesn't really need to be for most users.

The custom profile will live alongside Apple's recommended EQ profile. Unfortunately, it looks like you won't be able to set multiple custom profiles to swap between, but given how easy it looks to tweak them, this likely won't be much of an issue.

Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo went ballistic on New York Democrats for pushing a new bill that will change the term “mother” to “gestating parent” in state documents.

“That’s disgusting, OK! That is DISGUSTING!” Bartiromo vented on Sunday Morning Futures.

She went off on the bill — which was passed by the state Senate last week and will now head to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) desk for approval — after her guest, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), brought it up. Bartiromo put her hand to her head and laughed for a moment, before jumping in and ripping it to shreds.

“I saw that, Oh my God!” Bartiromo said.

“We’re not supposed to say mother and father now?!” she continued, before calling it disgusting. “What a mother goes through — a woman goes through to have a child and to raise that child, and parents — now we have to take that away from them? Calling them mother and father?!”

Tenney agreed with her, saying it was an “absurdity.”

She said it’s one of many reasons native New Yorkers are fleeing to “places like Florida, where there’s freedom and common sense,” because the Democrats are so “off the rails.” Tenney pointed to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner (D) as two top examples of the bad politicians the Dems support.

Fox News reported on the bill last week, saying “‘mother’ becomes ‘gestating parent,’ ‘father’ becomes ‘non-gestating parent,’ and ‘paternity’ becomes ‘parentage.'”

That report added:

Democrats who drafted the legislation claimed the wording shift would promote “inclusivity,” while critics claim the change is unnecessary, with the legislative session having ended for the year on Thursday… Hochul said during a news conference that she isn’t familiar with the proposal, but promised to review it.

“I have until the end of the year to review them and make a decision, so I won’t be commenting on pending legislation,” Hochul said.

Watch above.

The post ‘Disgusting!’ Fox’s Maria Bartiromo GOES OFF Over NY Democrats’ Bill Which Would Purge the Words ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ from State Law first appeared on Mediaite.

White House Border Czar Tom Homan slammed liberals who compare ICE agents to Nazis, with Homan saying those twisted claims have spurred a massive spike in death threats against immigration agents.

Homan vented about anti-ICE rhetoric during an interview with President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump on Fox News on Saturday night.

Trump asked Homan for his take on Democrats using their “stale tactics” of calling immigration enforcement “racist” and questioning the character of agents during DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s congressional testimony last week.

“How do attacks like though, impact the moral of the agents on the ground?” Trump asked on her My View show. “The people who day in and day out are putting their lives on the line, because it’s not just that they are attacking Secretary Mullin — they are attacking the entire agency.”

“I’m an equal opportunity deporter,” Homan answered. “I don’t care what color they are or what country they’re from.”

He said ICE agents have booted illegal immigrants from 161 countries — including many Asian and European countries. Homan reiterated he did “not care” where they were from, before bashing those who compare ICE to Nazi Germany.

“When you keep using those [terms] — the Nazi, secret police, racist [claims] — that instills violence,” Homan continued. “That’s why death threats against ICE officers are up 8,000%.”

Homan added that Democratic lawmakers who call ICE “racist” or compare agents to Nazis, it empowers “the small percentage of people on the left who are already nuts” to commit violence.

His comments come after several Democrats have ripped ICE since Trump returned to the White House last year.

Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker (D) compared Trump’s ICE raids to Nazi Germany last fall, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) compared “racist” ICE workers to the KKK, just to point to a few examples.

Watch above via Fox News.

The post Tom Homan Fumes Over ‘Nazi’ Rhetoric About ICE — Claims it Spurred 8,000% Surge in Death Threats first appeared on Mediaite.

Comedian and pundit Bill Maher claimed that acts like “C Plus C Music Factory” dropping out of President Donald Trump’s “Freedom 250″ concert series makes Democrats look like they don’t love America.”

On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the interview guest was former Vice President Mike Pence, 48th Vice President of the United States and author of “What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience.”

The panel guests were Senator Chris Murphy, Democratic senator from Connecticut and author of the new book “Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America”; and Susan Rice, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, former U.S. National Security Advisor, and former Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

During the panel discussion, Maher derided the acts who dropped out (C+C Music Factory [pronounced “C and C Music Factory”] declined but group member Freedom Williams expressed openness to performing) — but Sen. Murphy explained that the artists initially believed event was nonpartisan:

BILL MAHER: Okay, let me ask another issue. There is something called the Great American State Fair Festival that was planned. Now this is not the same thing as the UFC event on the White House lawn. Don’t get them.

AMB. SUSAN RICE: Or the race car track going around the city.

BILL MAHER: Yes, but there’s lots of exciting stuff in Washington going on. No, the UFC thing.

Look, we have a redneck president. I’m sorry. We’re just going to have to get used to–.

AMB. SUSAN RICE: From Manhattan.

BILL MAHER: From Manhattan, a redneck–. He just does redneck things. OK, this is one of the things I don’t give a shit about.

But this other thing was not planned as a specific Trump thing or a specific MAGA thing. And they had some acts lined up, not the greatest. The Commodores. Morris Day and the Time, they were pretty good.

AMB. SUSAN RICE: Commodores were good in the day.

BILL MAHER: Very good, very, yes, that’s sure, that, that is Lionel Ritchie, right?

AMB. SUSAN RICE: Yeah.

BILL MAHER: Okay. Well, he’s not with them anymore. Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, Young MC, Cc, C plus C, Music Factory, Milli Vannilli, I would not have left them on.

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I think it was just back — I think it was just Vanilli.

BILL MAHER: Right, yes, it was this, right, because the other member discredited for lip-syncing.

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Vanilli’s the good one now.

BILL MAHER: They all pulled out. This is a question about what looks best for the Democrats, because I don’t think that looks good.

It looks like you are just what people say about you, you don’t really love America. It looks you think Trump is more important than the country itself.

Now it’s just a big MAGA rally, this whole thing, because they all pull out. So now it’s Trump and Lee Greenwood. Um, wouldn’t it have been better to play this gig? It’s a month-long gig, lots of people, like, just celebrating America. Can’t we all just celebrate America itself and leave Trump out of it?

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, and listen, my kids are excited about the DC race, right? Like, I mean, there is stuff, listen, that’s obviously a ton of people love the UFC. There’s going to be people that are excited about this, but here’s what happened.

There was a nonpartisan, a political effort to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. And instead of just letting that effort go forward, Donald Trump took it over, right, to create a parallel set of events.

My understanding is these artists thought that they were going to the non-partisan effort. And then when they found out that it was just a predicate to a Trump rally, they didn’t want to be part of it.

I think this would have been a lot better for the country if Trump had decided to just let professionals, let people who just care about celebrating America with no political agenda be part this.

I agree there’s no reason to overly politicize this, but Trump decided to politicize it by essentially shutting down the citizens who were leading it and turning it into a big MAGA event.

Watch above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

The post Bill Maher Bashes Acts Like ‘C Plus C Music Factory’ For Dumping Trump 250 Event: ‘Don’t Love America’ first appeared on Mediaite.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Conservative commentator and Fox News host Mark Levin raised concerns Friday about a reported civil nuclear agreement being negotiated between President Donald Trump’s administration and Saudi Arabia, sharing an article outlining warnings from lawmakers and nuclear policy experts who fear the deal could weaken long-standing nonproliferation standards.

Levin posted a screenshot of the Jewish Insider report to X along with a simple question to his followers: “Everyone ok with this?”

The report detailed a proposed civilian nuclear cooperation agreement that is reportedly nearing completion and could soon be submitted to Congress. If approved, the arrangement would allow the U.S. to share civilian nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia as the kingdom expands its nuclear energy program.

The proposal has drawn scrutiny because, according to critics cited by Jewish Insider, it may not require Riyadh to adopt safeguards that have traditionally accompanied U.S. nuclear agreements. One major point of contention is whether Saudi Arabia would be permitted to enrich uranium domestically rather than agreeing to forgo the practice entirely.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who has long opposed U.S. nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia, expressed concern over the reported framework.

“There’s only one reason not to have non-militarization safeguards, and that’s militarization,” Sherman told the outlet.

“The idea that allowing Saudi Arabia to move toward a nuclear weapon defies history,” he added. “A Saudi nuclear weapon leads to worldwide proliferation. Egypt and Turkey would feel that they need to match that, and then where’s Argentina and Brazil going to be?”

Elliott Abrams, who served as U.S. special representative for Iran during Trump’s first term, argued that civilian nuclear assistance should not include capabilities that could bring countries closer to producing a weapon.

“The U.S. should be helping other countries with nuclear power, but should strongly avoid helping them learn the fuel cycle and move closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon,” Abrams told JI.

The post Mark Levin Sounds Alarm Over Trump-Backed Saudi Nuclear Deal: ‘Everyone OK With This?’ first appeared on Mediaite.

Screenshot via YouTube

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) warned the Democratic Party against embracing candidates who “clearly are not in line with our values” when asked about Adam Hamawy’s Democratic primary win in New Jersey on Tuesday night.

Moskowitz spoke to The Free Press about Hamawy’s past and his likely November victory in a heavily blue district.

“The idea that we’ve expanded the tent to the point that we’re putting people in that clearly are not in line with our values, I think, is a real long-term mistake,” Moskowitz told The Free Press’s Audrey Fahlberg.

Fahlberg reported that Moskowitz also said the issue of what committees Hamawy should join is something to be addressed after the election.

Hamawy has sparked controversy and drawn intense scrutiny over his past associations with the so-called Blind Sheikh, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995 as part of the investigations into the first World Trade Center bombing. Hamawy served as a defense witness during the trial.

Hamawy, a plastic surgeon and former U.S. Army veteran, has also come under fire for having volunteered in a Gaza hospital, which was later learned to be a Hamas operations center in the recent conflict there.

On Wednesday, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) called for Hamawy to be investigated by Congress, “How in the hell has a defense witness in the 1993 WTC bombing, with ties to Al-Qaeda been nominated by the Democrats to serve in Congress?”

“If elected in November, Congress should fully investigate his ties to terrorist organizations and determine whether he is fit to serve,” concluded Lawler.

The post Jared Moskowitz Sounds Off on Controversial Dem House Candidate: ‘Not in Line With Our Values’ first appeared on Mediaite.