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A "major overhaul" of the Apple Watch's design is due to arrive next year with a new system for connecting bands, according to a known Weibo leaker. In a set of recent posts , the leaker known as " Instant Digital " linked the new claim to older rumors about an "Apple Watch X" model, which was said to introduce a fresh design and break compatibility with the existing watch band system. Citing a post from August 2023, the leaker reiterated that the way the band attaches to the case would change, creating internal space for a larger battery. The leaker went on to advise that anyone planning to buy a new Apple Watch in 2027 should hold off on buying extra bands in the meantime, given that a redesigned case could leave the current attachment system behind. The "Apple Watch X" rumor traces back to a 2023 report from Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman , who said Apple was planning the "biggest overhaul yet" for the Apple Watch's 10th anniversary, complete with a new magnetic band attachment system, a thinner case, and a microLED display. None of this materialized and Apple instead released the Apple Watch Series 10, keeping the existing band system intact with a design that, while tweaked somewhat, scarcely represented a major overhaul. It now looks like this redesign could simply have been delayed, rather than shelved entirely. The timing lines up with how Apple has historically refreshed the standard Apple Watch's design. The original Apple Watch through to the Series 3 shared one design, the Series 4 through Series 6 shared another, and the Series 7 through Series 9 shared a third. The current design arrived with the Apple Watch Series 10 . Following that roughly three-year pattern, a new design would be due to land with the Apple Watch Series 13 in 2027, matching the timeline Instant Digital is now describing. The leaker previously said that the redesign would not appear until 2028 , the year after the debut of the 20th anniversary iPhone. Last year, DigiTimes said that at least one future high-end Apple Watch model would get a " significant redesign ," including exterior changes such as eight sensors arranged in a ring pattern on the device's underside, tied to broader health-sensing ambitions. Earlier this month, Apple was said to be evaluating next-generation OLED backplane technology for the 2027 Apple Watch . This year's Apple Watch Series 12 is not expected to feature a new design, continuing to use the same one introduced with the Series 10 in 2024, which introduced a thinner case, larger display, and a metal back that folds the antenna into the housing. Related Roundup: Apple Watch 11 Tag: Instant Digital Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Caution) This article, " Report: Apple Watch Redesign Coming Next Year With New Band System " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
Apple will try to convince the UK Supreme Court this week to throw out a $502 million judgment in favor of patent holder Optis Wireless. As reported in the Financial Times , the UK Supreme Court this week takes up a dispute that has stretched on since 2019 in both U.S. and UK courts, when Optis first accused iPhones, iPads, and LTE-equipped Apple Watch models of infringing patents covering 4G networking technology. The current UK fight is no longer about whether Apple infringed the patents, but rather what Apple should reasonably owe for using it. Patents deemed essential to a wireless standard must be licensed on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, and the two sides remain far apart on the number. The award is structured as a single upfront payment spanning 2013 to 2027, covering Optis' LTE patents across Apple's cellular hardware. The figure has shifted dramatically over the course of the proceedings. London's High Court had set the bill at $56.43 million in 2023. The Court of Appeal multiplied that roughly ninefold to $502 million last year. To get to that figure, the judges leaned on a separate agreement Optis had signed with Google as a reference point and counted royalties stretching back to 2013, well beyond the six-year window the High Court had favored. Apple wants the justices to reconsider not just the size of the award but how the lower court arrived at it, contending the Court of Appeal "erred in law" and produced a figure it calls "arbitrary." Optis counters that Apple has spent years dodging fair payment and using its scale to drive rates down. Qualcomm has also lined up against the appeal, warning that Apple's stance breaks with established licensing norms and risks discouraging future innovation. The dispute traces back to a pivotal 2020 ruling in which the UK Supreme Court held that British courts can set worldwide patent licensing rates, even though they can only rule on the infringement of UK patents. That decision opened the door for Optis to pursue global damages. After a 2021 High Court finding that Apple had infringed two of its patents, with the potential bill reported to run as high as $7 billion, an Apple lawyer told the court the company could withdraw from the UK rather than accept terms it considered "commercially unacceptable." Apple later backed away from that position. The proceedings in the UK contrast with the parallel U.S. case, where Apple has fared considerably better. In February, a U.S. jury cleared Apple of infringing any of the five patents in dispute, the latest turn in a case that has repeatedly ended in Apple's favor. Two earlier awards, of $506 million and $300 million, were each thrown out on appeal. Optis has signaled the U.S. legal battle isn't finished, saying it expects the District Court and the Federal Circuit to revisit the verdict. Tags: Patent Lawsuits , United Kingdom This article, " Apple's $502M Optis Patent Case Heads to UK Supreme Court " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
AI is now helping hackers find and exploit security issues faster than ever before. Apple says it will no longer wait to include updates in the next scheduled releases of iOS , iPadOS, and macOS. Apple's latest iOS update comprises security updates. Following a trio of security updates to iOS, iPadOS , and macOS , Apple has announced that it now intends to cut the time between discovery of an exploit and the update to address it. Normally some more minor security updates would have been held until the next regular release, but now they should be issued as soon as possible. According to Reuters , Apple says that this is why there was a release of iOS 26.5.2 on Monday. Previously, the company would typically have included these security updates in iOS 26.6, which is expected in July 2026. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Classic game "Bolo" died on Mac more than two decades ago. It's back for modern Macs for free on Steam now, and on the App Store for iPhone later. You need to try it. Bolo, on classic hardware - Image Credit MacMuseum.au Ages and ages ago, when I was still in the Navy and transferring from one duty station to another, my brother was visiting. It was freezing and snowing, and we were basically stuck in the hotel room, with a U-Haul outside with everything I owned in it. In a hotel in Saratoga Springs, we hooked up a very rudimentary network with Farallon PhoneNet connectors between my Classic II and a Mac Portable obtained from, I think, Shreve Systems, and played network games all afternoon. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
