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Commentary: The new Apple Watch models bring improvements across the line, but one stands out, and it's not the one you would expect.
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 Apple today released updated firmware for the AirPods Pro 2 and the AirPods 4, introducing support for the new AirPods features that are included in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe.
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The event is slated for September 30, and the timing puts Amazon back on track for its usual fall preview of its latest wares. Amazon skipped its typical fall event last year in favor of a smaller Kindle-only unveiling.
The Amazon invitation shows what appears to be Alexa's telltale blue light ring, along with the famous Kindle logo, so it seems like new Echo devices and Kindle tablets are safe bets.
The upcoming event will mark the first full-on Amazon Devices fall showcase since the arrival of Alexa , the AI-supercharged version of Alexa. Alexa made its splashy debut back in February following a lengthy delay, and it's been rolling out ever so slowly over the past several months.
Amazon's big fall hardware event will also be the first to feature Panos Panay, the former Microsoft executive who took over Amazon's Alexa and Echo divisions. Panay, who succeed outgoing Amazon exec David Limp back in September 2023, hosted a scaled-down Kindle event last fall, as well as the Alexa reveal earlier this year.
Several of Amazon's most popular Echo devices are due for a refresh, including the ever-popular Echo Dot. The fifth-generation Echo Dot made its debut back in 2022, most notably with the new ability to act as an extender for Amazon's Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers.
The four-year-old Amazon Echo Show 10 with its swiveling display is also ripe for a re-do, as
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Apple may see further fallout over its failure to comply with a court order that led to last week's contempt ruling. A class action suit filed on behalf of developers claims that Apple's actions cost Pure Sweat Basketball (and other developers) revenue during the period it was found to have violated the original court order. "Had Apple complied with the injunction, as required, Pure Sweat would have been able to sell subscriptions to its app directly to its customers," the law firm, Hagens Berman, alleges.
The original 2021 court ruling forced Apple to allow App Store developers to direct user to other payments systems so that they could bypass the 30 percent of of in-app payments taken by Apple. The App Store was supposed to stop preventing developers from including buttons or links in their apps and metadata that would allow allow users to make purchases outside the App Store environment.
However, developer Epic Games accused Apple of "malicious compliance" with the ruling because it still charged a commission of up to 27 percent on any sales made through links to external payment systems. It also said Apple came up with onerous restrictions on external buttons, among other violations.
In her ruling last week, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Apple "chose the most anticompetitive option" at every turn. She even alleged that Apple lied under oath to hide the truth about its actions and referred the case to a US attorney for a criminal contempt investigation.
"The court ultimately held that Apple will
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