Apple’s annual Back to School promotion went live Thursday in the United States. As a part of the deal, eligible students and faculty members will receive up to a $150 gift card on the purchase of select Macs and iPads. Apple also offers a 20% discount on AppleCare+, its premium support and repair service.

The back-to-school promo runs through September 30, so students and parents have ample time to take advantage of Apple’s discounts.

I loved getting my hands on visionOS 2, the first major software update for Vision Pro that brings a few delightful new features. It’s available in Developer Beta today.

The best thing is Spatial Photos, which uses AI to turn older 2D photos into immersive 3D ones. It’s incredibly good. Guest mode has been improved and new hand gestures make the headset easier to use.

But if you were looking for more than a few new features, well, sorry. But a smaller update makes sense. The headset first launched in February, so a bunch of worthy updates in just six months is pretty good. But does that mean I have to wait another 12 months from now to get the basic improvements I was hoping for? Maybe Apple will have more to announce in September.

Nonetheless, here are my first impressions of Spatial Photos, the new hand gestures, the editable Apps View and more.

iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia and watchOS 11 bring exciting new features, but some of them might not arrive on older iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches, even if you can run the new software. Which features won’t older devices get? We rounded up everything we can find that won’t make it to aging gear.

After spending a few days trying out all the new features in iOS 18, I think it really is one of the biggest updates in a long time. However, hands-on testing shows there’s a lot that needs cleaned up before September, when it’s expected to ship.

The new customizable iPhone Home Screen opens a wide world of possibilities — but you’ll have to wait for third-party apps to update their icons to really make it sing. I’m impressed with the level of customization in Control Center, too, though it’s understandably pretty buggy in this first developer beta. The new Photos app is proving controversial, and I think there are some obvious areas it could be improved, but I like where it’s going overall.

I think there’s a lot to look forward to in iOS 18.

iPad never before included a built-in Calculator app because there wasn’t one Steve Jobs felt was worthy of a tablet. That all changes with iPadOS 18, which boasts a new Apple Calculator app that you can write into with Apple Pencil.

Here’s why it’s something Jobs would be proud of.

The AI capabilities Apple announced at WWDC24 are nowhere to be seen in the first round of betas for iOS 18, macOS Sequoia and iPadOS 18. This despite the new Apple Intelligence features, like the ability to summarize documents or create new emoji on the fly, are the highlights of the upcoming operating system upgrades.

So those eager to try Apple AI can hold off installing these buggy prerelease versions. It’ll only be a disappointment.

iOS 18 will enable your iPhone to show the time even when the battery has run dry. This improvement relies on the Power Reserve function of new iPhones to work.

Thanks to Power Reserve, your iPhone is findable offline, and the NFC chip also works for Express Card functionality.

Apple is not paying OpenAI for ChatGPT access in iOS 18, according to a new report. Neither is OpenAI paying Apple for the privilege of integrating its chatbot into millions of iPhones later this year.

A news story sheds light on the high-profile arrangement between the two companies — and details how it is more than about money.

Apple rose to once again become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company on Wednesday. Its market capitalization passed $3.3 trillion, once again putting the Mac-maker ahead of Microsoft.

This comes just days after Apple dropped to third place when Nvidia’s share market cap briefly rose ahead. But AAPL has been on a tear since announcing plans this week to integrate AI into iPhone, Mac and other products.

Update: Stocks go down as well as up, and when Wall Street closed on Wednesday, Microsoft’s valuation was slightly higher than Apple’s.

Judging by the reaction to Tim Cook’s post on X about Apple Intelligence, the internet is not ready for Siri integrated with ChatGPT. After Monday’s WWDC24 keynote, the Apple CEO posted a link to X about the new AI capabilities coming to Apple devices.

Immediately, dozens of critics — including Elon Musk — piled on. They slammed Apple for working with ChatGPT, which the vast majority of the commenters don’t trust.

“You’ve just ensured that no member of my family will EVER buy another Apple product,” wrote one. “Enjoy your spyfest!”

However, the hailstorm of surprisingly vitriolic and emotional comments seems based on a basic misunderstanding of how Apple Intelligence will work. As privacy-focused as ever, Apple put tons of work into making sure Apple Intelligence will keep your data secure, even from the prying eyes of AI companies it works with.

Here’s why it looks like Apple is doing AI right.