Apple is scheduling another “Apple Event” for September 9, at 10 a.m. PT. This event will be keenly watched by tech gurus, import/export experts, tariff watchers, Wall Street junkies, and almost everyone else, as it will be Apple’s first big technical extravaganza since the tariffs went into effect.
Expected are details on the release of new software: macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26 for the iPhone, iPadOS 26 for the iPad, watchOS 26 for the Apple Watch, tvOS 26 for Apple TV, and visionOS for the Apple Vision Pro. These various operating systems have been in beta testing for months, and iPad enthusiasts, in particular, are eager to get iPadOS 26, which is a radical step up for the iPad.
On the hardware front, rumors say that Apple will announce at least a couple new versions of the iPhone. There have been sporadic reports of other hardware announcements, but it is unclear how much of that is based on fact and how much is based on wishful thinking.
You can watch the presentation on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac using the Apple TV app, or, if you have an Apple TV, you can watch it live on your TV. It will also be available as a recording a few hours after the event, if Apple follows past practices.
Click on the image to see Apple’s announcement, which tells you less than what is written above.
Awe dropping event on September 9, 2025, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
Take Control Books has released many new books, or revisions to previous books, over the past few months. It is important to note that you get free updates to Take Control Books until the release of a new edition. In other words, if you have the 3rd Edition of Take Control of Your Cat, you get versions 3.1, 3.1.1, 3.2, 3.3, etc., up until they release the 4th Edition. Not that they’d ever produce a book about controlling cats, since they don’t publish fiction.
I’ve had many questions about these topics over the past few months. The nice thing about Take Control Books is that you can buy, download, and start reading them immediately. You can read them on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, using Apple’s Books app. And they don’t take up any space on the coffee table or your desk.
Mac Basics 1.0 (this is a general survey of everything Mac, and covers pretty much all of the utilities we’ve been covering the past several months, plus much more, including an appendix on migrating to the Mac from Windows),
If I seem to mention Take Control Books frequently, there is a reason. Once upon a time, Amazon listed thousands of books about the Mac and iPhone. Today, Amazon still has many Apple titles, but a great many of those listed are for obsolete Macs, iPhones, iPads, or obsolete software. It also doesn’t help that Apple devices usually come with just one sheet of basic instructions telling you little more than what the buttons do; the original Mac came with several complete books.
Some games are a game (there is a goal, you win, etc.), and some games are toys (no plot, no goal, but fun). Townscaper is a toy: you build buildings, islands, bridges, cathedrals, castles, apartment complexes — whatever strikes your fancy.
You can play Townscaper on the web for free. Just point your browser at the website,
and start clicking around. Fun. Addictive. It is also one of the few video games I can play just as well as my seven-year-old grandchild. For almost everything else, she reigns supreme.
The web version requires an Internet connection, but there is a version for the iPad that works without access to the Internet, perfect for keeping your brain alive in a clinic waiting room or waiting for a significant other to do whatever it is that they want to do and you don’t. The iPad version costs something like $4.95 (it costs a developer money to put something on the Apple store, and the trivial cost reimburses them for the effort), but if you like the web version and have an iPad, it is a modest purchase.
Screenshot of Townscaper on an iPad. I was experimenting with building bridges, creating buildings with open frames, building ridiculous balconies, and other fun things while sitting in a clinic waiting room. While it isn’t obvious from the still image, you can rotate your creation, zoom in and out, and generally have great fun building fantasy structures. There are seagulls, too, but you have no more control over them than non-digital seagulls.
On a more serious front, Take Control Books has updates to titles of interest. Take Control of Untangling Connections, 3rd edition, covers USB, Thunderbolt, HDMI, Displayport, Ethernet, and audio connections, cables, compatibilities, and other things. If you have a tangle of cables around your computer, this book will tell you what the cables do, how to use them, why they are not interchangeable, which ones you can do without, etc.
Take Control of Apple Media Apps covers Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Apple TV, Apple Books, and the various complexities of consuming books, music, audio, and video on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. As someone who has a couple thousand books in Apple Books and over a thousand albums in Apple Music, take my word for it: you can organize things and make life easier.
Keep Safe Using Mobile Tech is a new book aimed at a growing problem: keeping your private information safe on your iPhone, iPad, laptop, etc. You have a wealth of health information on your Apple Watch and iPhone, a wealth of private information on almost every Apple device, and a vast trove of financial information spread across apps, passwords, and documents on all your devices. Knowing how to maintain access, how to keep your information secure, and how to prevent accidentally sharing what you don’t want to share — these are not simple tasks. But they also are not beyond your abilities, if you know how, and this book aims to teach you how to take control.
Take Control Books has also released updates to Take Control of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, as well as Take Control of Sequoia. As these are updates, not new editions, you can download a free update quickly through their website. The update, among other things, talks about new capabilities via Apple Intelligence and some feature updates to various applications.
A new, much more powerful set of 24″ iMacs with a new M4 chip, coming with a standard 16 GB of memory (up from the past 8 GB). I recommend that if you get one, you opt for the model with four Thunderbolt 4 ports (instead of the baseline two) and get a minimum of 1 terabyte of storage.
a new Mac mini with an M4 or an M4 Pro processor and a standard 16 GB of memory (up from the past 8 GB). I would recommend at least one terabyte of storage. The upgraded M4 Pro model also offers Thunderbolt 5 ports (up to 120 GBb/sec) instead of Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gb/sec) ports. The mini comes without a display, keyboard or mouse, but is otherwise currently Apple’s fastest desktop machine.
a new set of MacBook Pro with an M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max processor and a standard 16 GB of memory (up from the past 8 GB). I would recommend at least one terabyte of storage. The higher-end models have Thunderbolt 5 ports, and you can add up to 128 GB of memory.
Apple Intelligence
a software update that allows the AirPods Pro 2 to offer a hearing test, and hearing protection, and function as a clinical-grade hearing aid.
software updates that bring the first elements of Apple Intelligence to certain models of iPhone, iPad, and Macintosh laptop and desktop machines.
a new iPad mini (technically introduced last week)
Software updates
iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1: brings Apple Intelligence to higher-end iPads and iPhones, plus has function bug fixes and security fixes to phones dating back to the iPhone XS.
iOS 17.7.1 and iPadOS 17.7.1: function bug fixes and security fixes to iPhones dating back to the iPhone XS.
macOS Sequoia 15.1: brings Apple Intelligence to Apple Silicon-based computers and function bug fixes and security fixes to machines running macOS Sequoia.
macOS Sonoma 14.7.1: brings function bug fixes and security fixes to machines running macOS Sonoma.
macOS Ventura 13.7.1: brings function bug fixes and security fixes to machines running macOS Ventura.
watchOS 11.1: brings function bug fixes and security fixes to Apple Watches running watchOS 11.
tvOS 18.1: brings function bug fixes and security fixes to Apple TVs running tvOS 18.
visionOS 2.1: brings Apple Intelligence and function bug fixes and security fixes to Apple Vision Pro.
HomePod 18.1: brings function bug fixes and security fixes to HomePod. HomePod software is not something you can check in an obvious way; see Apple’s directions on updating.
It is only Wednesday, and there is a possibility Halloween could bring something new, too.
shows several other mailing lists, covering everything from accessibility features, how to write programs in AppleScript, how to configure Macs and Apple devices for use in the federal government, and other even more obscure topics.
But what if I want to know more?
If you want to get very geeky, you can apply for a free Developer account,
which gives you access to Apple programming tools, where you can build applications, write scripts, and do odd things, some even useful.
If you are curious about programming, but aren’t sure if it is for you, know that most Apple software is written in a programming language called Swift. It has nothing to do with a famous singer. You can play with Swift using Swift Playgrounds, available for iPad and for Mac. You can read about that here:
