While we’re still waiting for the new Apple Intelligence-infused Siri to arrive on our iPhones, a new report claims Apple’s plans for its digital assistant go far beyond the scope outlined so far. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is working on a new AI-powered web search feature for Siri to rival OpenAI and Perplexity.

The tool, dubbed “World Knowledge Answers” internally, is not a large-scale LLM (Large Language Model) chatbot, but rather relies on web crawling, search, and an LLM to provide answers from the web. According to the report, the system is meant to launch in spring 2026 as part of the big Siri overhaul, and would compete with ChatGPT, Google’s AI search answers, and Perplexity when it comes to getting up-to-date information from the web. Apple may later bring the same system to Safari and Spotlight on the Mac.

The report says the technology behind the new tool “could come in part” from Google. Apparently, the two companies came to a formal agreement just this week in which Apple will test a Google-developed AI model to power the future Siri upgrade. Perhaps coincidentally, a judge ruled this week that the two companies’ lucrative partnership to make Google the default search engine on iPhones is allowed.

The new search experience will have an interface that “makes use of” text, images, video, and local points of interest. There will also be AI summaries for longer results.

This new search capability is just one part of a planned multi-faceted overhaul of Siri to take place next year. Also planned is the ability to understand and act with knowledge of the user’s personal context, to read and understand what’s on the screen, and to take actions within apps using an extensive set of app interfaces called “intents.”

All of this is currently planned for the OS update that should correspond to OS 26.4, due for release in the spring. There are other related AI features coming later, including a big visual redesign for Siri, an AI-powered health and wellness feature as part of a paid wellness subscription, and a big Siri update for home devices to make them more conversational.

Apple has officially announced its “Awe Dropping” special event for September 9, where we’ll get our first look at the iPhone 17 lineup. As usual, the company didn’t reveal anything beyond the date and tagline, but the invitation artwork and Apple’s history of easter eggs give us a few strong hints about what’s coming.

Here are five takeaways from Apple’s event invite that just might confirm details about the iPhone 17 and beyond.

A jaw-dropping iPhone design is coming

This year’s tagline, “Awe Dropping,” seems to tease something visually striking, jaw-dropping if you will. For months, rumors have pointed to Apple introducing a new, ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air model to replace the unpopular Plus model. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to mark the most radical change in iPhone design since the iPhone X and kick off a three-year-long iPhone overhaul.

If Apple really wants to drop jaws, a radically thinner iPhone design certainly fits the bill.

The iPhone 17 lineup will have bold new color options

As reported exclusively by Macworld, Apple has planned many new colors for the iPhone 17 models, ranging from a new iPhone 17 Pro in orange to various shades of blue. If you weren’t certain of the new colors before, the event invitation artwork appears to be a clear confirmation that the rumors are right.

According to our sources, both the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air will be available in a light shade of blue. Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will come in dark blue and orange. More traditional colors, such as black and white, are also expected.

Well, the Apple logo shown in the event artwork essentially features all the new colors we mentioned, which is a pretty clear sign that these are indeed the new colors for the iPhone 17 lineup. So you can start figuring out which one you want now.

The iPhone 17 Pro is getting new cooling system

According to rumors, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a new vapor chamber cooling system to keep the device at an optimal temperature even when running intensive activities such as games. This not only ensures greater comfort when holding the phone in your hand but also helps to sustain peak performance.

Interestingly, if you watch the Apple logo animation in the artwork, it looks suspiciously like a heat map, with shades of intense red and cool blue swirling around the edges. Could this be Apple confirming the new cooling system for the iPhone 17 Pro models?

New colorful wallpapers are coming

Sometimes, Apple’s event artwork means only one thing: new wallpapers. And that may be the case this year. For instance, the stylized Apple logo created to promote the September 2023 event was based on the wallpaper shipped with the iPhone 15 Pro.

Perhaps this year’s iPhones will feature dark wallpapers with a heat map effect, or swirling blue and orange. Or something interactive like the image on Apple.com. Go try it out—move your finger, mouse, or Apple Pencil over the Apple logo and the colors will morph and mingle with your movements.

iOS 26 and Liquid Glass are a big deal

Speaking of the interactive event logo, as you drag your finger around, it’s hard not to see that the effect looks a lot like what happens when you swipe your finger across Liquid Glass elements in iOS 26.

Apple typically releases new versions of iOS to the public the week after its September event, and this year should be no different. Perhaps the invite is nothing more than a tease for the new interface coming to everyone’s iPhones in a few weeks.

In fact, just this week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Liquid Glass is more than just a 2025 redesign. It’s the start of a 3-year iPhone supercycle that will include a new folding phone and culminate with the launch of the 20th anniversary iPhone in 2027. That phone is expected to have curved glass that mimics the evolution of the Liquid Glass interface over the next three years. So Apple would definitely want to draw attention to Liquid Glass now.

Mark your calendars

Apple’s invites are always carefully designed, and this one is no exception. From new colors to the heat-map-like cooling teaser, there’s a lot hiding in plain sight. We’ll know for sure on September 9, but if history is any guide, Apple just gave us a pretty good preview of what’s coming.

Of course, Macworld will have full coverage leading up to the keynote as well and all through the event. So stay tuned!

Apple has announced its annual iPhone event will take place on Tuesday, September 9, at 10 am PT. This event, which Apple is marketing with the tagline “Awe Dropping,” should be where the company unveils the iPhone 17 lineup and new Apple Watches. We may also see the introduction of AirPods Pro 3, updated Apple TV hardware, or an updated HomePod mini.

The event will be streamed on YouTube, Apple TV, and Apple’s events website.

Expected and possible product announcements

These are the products we expect Apple to announce at the “Awe dropping” event.

• iPhone 17: Available in Black, White, Steel Gray, Green, Purple, and Light Blue, the iPhone 17 will sport an A19 processor and a 24MP TrueDepth camera on the front.
• iPhone 17 Air: This new iPhone model will replace the iPhone Plus. Expected to be less than 6mm thick, it should be the thinnest iPhone ever. Available in Black, White, Light Blue, and Light Gold. 
• iPhone 17 Pro: Even more powerful thanks to the A19 Pro and 12GB RAM, the Pro model will have a 48MP Telephoto camera and a new thermal management system for better peak performance. It will come in Black, White, Gray, Dark Blue, and Orange. 
• iPhone 17 Pro Max: Expect superior battery life thanks to a 5,000mAh battery, and other specs should be similar to the iPhone 17 Pro.
• Apple Watch series 11: Don’t expect many changes here, other than a possible spec bump thanks to a new processor.
• Apple Watch Ultra 3: Again, a processor upgrade is the big change here, though it may offer satellite cellular connectivity.
• Apple Watch SE 3: Little is known about the new model, but with the existing model still based on the Apple Watch Series 4 (minus ECG), it could see a dramatic redesign.

There are a few more products Apple is expected to release this fall that could also be unveiled at the September 9 Apple Event:

AirPods Pro 3: The third generation of Apple’s popular Pro earbuds are expected to add heart rate monitoring (similar to PowerBeats Pro 2), a new H3 chip that offers better active noice cancelling and superior sound quality, and a refreshed design with shorter stems. Apple may also announce a Live Translation feature that may also work with AirPods Pro 2.

Apple TV 4K (4th gen): A processor upgrade to an A17 Pro is the big rumored upgrade. It could enable Apple Intelligence features on the set-top-box.

Homepod mini: An update to the HomePod mini should give it a faster processor, but we don’t know what else will change. The HomePod mini hasn’t been updated since its debut in 2020, other than with new colors in 2025.

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One of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A -0.13%) (BRK.B -0.06%) CEO Warren Buffett’s best investments of all time was Apple (AAPL 1.21%). At one point, Apple stock made up about 50% of Berkshire’s investment portfolio. However, Buffett started selling off Apple stock in fourth-quarter 2023, and he has steadily decreased his position ever since.

He didn’t sell any from third-quarter 2024 until now, so this further selling is noteworthy for Berkshire and Buffett. The question is, does Buffett know something that we don’t, or is there something else going on here?

Apple’s stock is no longer cheap

Apple is the leading consumer tech brand in the U.S., and it has a strong customer base outside the U.S. as well. When Buffett first took a position in first-quarter 2016, Apple was an undervalued company despite its broad audience. That call turned out to be one of the best investments of Buffett’s career, but to label Apple undervalued now is ignorant.

Apple’s trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has climbed steadily over the past decade and is currently near its highest level.

AAPL PE Ratio data by YCharts.

Over that same timeframe, Apple experienced some healthy growth, but it’s currently growing at the same pace it was when it had a far more reasonable valuation.

AAPL EPS Diluted (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts.

Apple’s stock is trading at a premium without the growth to back it up, and this is likely part of the reason Buffett is selling Apple stock. It’s also telling that Buffett hasn’t made any big purchases with the proceeds of his Apple stock sales, as it indicates that he likely sees most stocks trading at too expensive a premium to warrant buying now.

But there’s also the thought that Buffett is setting up the portfolio for his successor.

Buffett may be freeing up more cash for the incoming CEO

At the end of the year, Warren Buffett will step down as Berkshire’s CEO, and Greg Abel will succeed him. If Buffett gets the investment portfolio to a more balanced position and leaves him with a ton of cash, Abel will be able to run things as he sees fit without needing to undo a bunch of decisions that he may not have agreed with.

With Berkshire’s cash and short-term investments totaling $344 billion, Abel will have a massive cash pile to use to make investments.

Time will tell whether Abel follows in Buffett’s footsteps or makes more aggressive or conservative decisions, but it’s hard to imagine being more conservative than Buffett is with how much cash is on the balance sheet.

Apple is still a massive chunk of Berkshire’s portfolio, making up about 22% of the total value. But its second-largest holding, American Express, makes up 19% of the total value, and it’s not far off from overtaking Apple as Berkshire’s largest investment.

Considering how expensive Apple is for its relatively slow growth, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few more sales announced in the coming quarter. But we’ll have to wait for another three months to find out about that. If you’re an Apple investor sitting on huge gains, I think taking heed of Buffett’s action is a smart idea, as there are far more attractive investment opportunities out there than Apple.

Keithen Drury has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

A new report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg tells us that Apple is working with Google to test out a custom version of Gemini that could power Apple’s next-gen Siri voice assistant in the cloud.

The report says Apple is in “early discussions” and that Google is currently training a version of its Gemini AI assistant that can run on Apple’s cloud infrastructure. This is similar to the partnerships Apple has explored with Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Apple is creating a next-gen, “LLM Siri” using its own models while at the same time developing an infrastructure that could see the new Siri powered by a third-party AI model. We wrote about that effort here.

According to Gurman’s report, Apple is still “several weeks away” from deciding whether to go with Apple’s own internal models for the new Siri or to employ tech from outside partners.

Apple is employing a “bake-off” approach, pitting the internally-developed next-gen Siri (code-named Linwood) against a next-gen Siri powered by external models (code-named Glenwood). The company has not yet decided which external technology is best, nor has come to financial terms with them. Supposedly, Anthropic’s Claude was the early favorite, but Anthropic demanded such a steep price that Apple started reaching out to other companies for alternatives.

This work to use Google’s Gemini is separate from the previously-reported effort to add Gemini as another option for general queries in Apple Intelligence. Today, ChatGPT is the only supported third-party AI for these sorts of general knowledge queries, but Apple has plans to add Gemini as another option. This new report, by contrast, is about Google developing Gemini-based “brains” to serve as the foundational model for the new Siri, running on Apple’s servers.

Early last year, Apple made the bold, court-mandated decision to remove the blood-oxygen feature from the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the U.S. over a patent dispute with medical technology company Masimo. Since then, all new watches (including the Series 10, which launched several months later) have shipped with the sensor disabled, eliminating a feature available since the Series 6.

Now, Apple has re-enabled the blood oxygen feature for Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 users. In a press release titled, “An update on Blood Oxygen for Apple Watch in the U.S.,” Apple says, “Users with these models in the U.S. who currently do not have the Blood Oxygen feature will have access to the redesigned Blood Oxygen feature by updating their paired iPhone to iOS 18.6.1 and their Apple Watch to watchOS 11.6.1.”

Apple says the update, which arrived Thursday, was enabled by a recent U.S. Customs ruling. To apply the update, open Settings on your iPhone and go to General > Software Updates and follow the prompts. After your iPhone has updates, open the Watch app on your iPhone and select General > Software Update, then follow the instructions to update your Apple Watch.

The new feature will now measure and calculate sensor data on the paired iPhone, and results can be viewed in the Respiratory section of the Health app. Previously, users could take a blood oxygen measurement at any time with the Blood Oxygen app as well as track occasional background measurements. It’s not clear whether this update will take away the ability to take instant readings on the watch.

Older watches that still have the blood-oxygen feature enabled will not be affected by the update, Apple says.