Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines from across the Apple world, including 1000 iPhone 18 Pro Photos, iOS 27 and macOS 27 changes, benchmarking the new M6 chipset, the iPhone Duo future, Apple’s image verification, and a classic Mac meme returns.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Apple in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes .

One Thousand iPhone 18 Pro Photos Later...

In all the talk of folding displays, AI improvements and new CEOs, what’s happened to the basics? And by basics, that means the iPhone 18 Pro’s new camera? Jason Schneider looks at over 1000 photos taken to answer that question, and it’s the accessible Pro Controls that make the difference:

“Going back to my iPhone 17 Pro’s older camera interface and weaker Photographic Styles options felt jarring, which speaks volumes about how meaningful Apple’s changes to the 18 Pro are, even if they didn’t sound like it at the keynote. Apple’s updates sounded incremental on paper, but in practice, the photographic experience feels markedly improved.”

Apple Intelligence Will Come Of Age With iOS 27 Launch

With the retail release of the new iPhone 18 Pro models, the latest version of iOS is now available to the public. iOS 27 brings in a wealth of features and updates. Perhaps most critical is the rollout of Apple Intelligence as the iPhone plays catch-up with now-standard Android implementations. Forbes Contributor David Phelan takes a closer look at iOS 27 , starting with that AI upgrade:

“There’s a lot in this release, which isn’t surprising given it’s the beginning of the new cycle. Top of the feature list is Siri AI, the new and more capable version of Siri that is smarter, can draw on personal context and offers new voices and a dedicated Siri app for the first time. You can use Siri mode in the camera, write with Siri and more. These features are compatible with iPhone 16 models and later, plus iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.”

macOS 27 Arrives, But Intel Is Left Behind

Also launched is macOS 27, although the brand new Macs aren’t coming until later in October; the new code is arriving now to ensure the cross-platform capability with iOS 27 is available. It also marks an important step for Apple as it no longer supports any Mac using Intel’s architecture. MacObserver has the details :

“macOS 27 Golden Gate installs only on Apple silicon, so “M1 or later” excludes no Mac that can run the release at all. If your Mac is on macOS 27, it has already cleared the bar. The people this line actually rules out are Intel owners, and macOS 27 drops Intel Macs for every other reason too.

Benchmarking The New M6 Chips

The latest Apple Silicon, the Apple M6, is showing up in online benchmarks, giving us our first look at the potential upgrade across the core Mac family. The MacRumors team look over the numbers :

“If this single Geekbench 7 result is accurate, the M6 chip has up to around 12% faster single-core CPU performance and up to around 27% faster multi-core CPU performance compared to the M5 chip. Note that the M6 chip is in the new Mac mini, while the M5 chip scores are based on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, but performance should be similar.”

Is The iPhone Duo The Future Of Phones?

The iPhone Duo’s pre-orders and retail sales will begin in October, but there’s already talk that it will not only define what it means to be a foldable, but also what it means to be a smartphone. David Phelan thinks the principle is sound :

“I think Samsung has overcome durability and material issues in the eight years that it’s been making foldables — I’ve been using multiple Galaxy foldables over the years and they have stayed strong and pristine with no problems… Apple’s mantra, don’t do it first, do it right, seems to be coming true for the iPhone Duo, even if it has taken the company eight years to deliver it.”

Image Verification In A Way Only Apple Can

How do you verify a photo is an honest photo intoday’s world of AI editing and generation? Apple has published detailed research on its Apple Reference Image system, which enables that verification. There’a lot of detail here, but the upshot is simple (Apple’s research paper, via Daring Fireball) :

“Other industry solutions require a photographer or institution to vouch for an image using their own credentials. We are concerned this puts some photographers, such as those operating in conflict zones, in a difficult position; it should not be necessary to forgo anonymity in order to prove image authenticity.

“We built Apple Reference Image to avoid using an explicit, public credential for photographers, and to avoid even implicit public association between different photos taken by the same sensor. The final reference image is instead signed by Apple’s signing service, after validation by PCC. That signature is backed by Apple’s strongest technical guarantees.”

Those cheeky coders are at it again, leaving a classic Mac meme in the latest macOS updates. This time around it’s Clarus the Dogcow, lurking inside the settings for the liquid glass UI. There you will find a dummy web page, and lurking at the bottom... Benjamin Mayo has our history lesson :

"For those unfamiliar with the history, Clarus the Dogcow relates back to an icon created by Susan Kare for the original Mac, as a glyph for the Cairo font (the classic Mac’s icon font, similar to Windows’ Dingbats). It has essentially no utility; it’s just a bit of fun."

Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here , or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes .