AI April 2026
Global headlines curated by our intelligent agents.
Latest News
AppleΓÇÖs R&D spending hits new record as AI investment ramps up
AppleΓÇÖs spending on research and development hit an all-time high in the companyΓÇÖs latest quarterly results, reflecting an industry-wide continued push into AI development.
Will AI lead to more accurate opinion polls?
It's cheaper and faster to collect people's opinions using AI, but will it make polls more accurate?
Apple's Q2 2026 Earnings Call: 11 Key Takeaways
Apple held its earnings call for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2026 today after announcing its best March quarter ever. Apple saw revenue of $111.2 billion with double-digit growth across every geographic segment and across every product category. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple CFO Kevan Parekh provided insight into iPhone sales, Mac sales, RAM supply issues, and more. We've rounded up the most interesting takeaways from the call.
9to5Mac Daily: April 30, 2026 – OpenAI smartphone, more 
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts...
Apple's memory stockpile is holding for now, but price rises still loom
Apple's ability to prevent memory prices from increasing the cost of iPhones and other products won't last forever. Tim Cook has warned that it's only going to get harder to do so.
Apple Says Mac Studio and Mac Mini Will Be in Short Supply for Months
During today's earnings call for the second fiscal quarter of 2026, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the Mac mini and Mac Studio could be hard to get for months to come. "We think, looking forward, that the Mac mini and Mac Studio may take several months to reach supply demand balance," Cook said. Apple underestimated demand for the Mac mini and the Mac Studio.
Apple says supply constraints for Mac mini and Mac Studio to persist for several months
On its quarterly earnings call today, Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the ongoing supply shortages for AppleΓÇÖs pro desktop Macs....
Apple Expects 'Significantly Higher Memory Costs' in June Quarter and Beyond
Apple had higher memory costs during the March quarter, and the impact is expected to get worse as the year goes on. Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple is expecting "significantly higher memory costs" in the June quarter, and beyond June, memory costs will "drive an increasing impact" on Apple's business. Cook said the higher memory costs have been partially offset because the company is selling existing inventory that it has stockpiled.
OpenAI may be teasing its next iPhone app launch with these clues
ChatGPT remains the top downloaded app on the App Store, and it sounds like OpenAI will launch a new iPhone...
Even Microsoft Seems to Know Gaming on Windows 11 Isn't Great These Days
It's no secret that gaming on Windows 11 has been a little rough in recent years. Performance and usability problems have been plaguing the OS for a while now, but it seems like Microsoft is finally trying to do something about it. Microsoft has kicked off an internal initiative codenamed Windows K2, according to Windows Central. Rather than being a version of Windows itself, this project seems to aim to change the design philosophy of future Windows updates instead. Over the past several years, Microsoft has been focused on releasing new features as fast as possible, which has led to some incredibly awful updates. Just look at Recall, a Copilot+ feature which uses AI to save screenshots of literally everything you do on your PC so that you can reference them later. Back in 2024, Microsoft tried to rush that out super quickly, only to have to hold it back due to obvious security issues. With K2, Microsoft slowing things down a bit and trickling out updates with a higher bar of quality. We've already seen evidence of this program, with the recent AutoSR update coming to the Xbox Ally X nearly six months after its release. Microsoft could have just shipped the feature without making sure it worked properly ΓÇô after all, it's been available for Windows ARM systems for more than a year. Hopefully this means that Microsoft will have some semblance of restraint when comes to shoving new features into Windows 11. Or, at the very least, less frequent updates that make you restart your gaming PC.Microsoft Wants PC Gaming BackPC gaming on Windows is obviously still huge, with Microsoft's operating systems making up for 92% of gaming PCs, according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey. While Windows does have a comfy majority, Linux gaming is growing at an incredible rate, thanks in large part to the Steam Deck, and other handhelds that are now running SteamOS or Bazzite. Just last month, the amount of people running Linux on their gaming PCs has gone up 3% to 5.33% of Steam's install base. Certainly a big part of that is there are more devices out there that come with SteamOS these days, but right now Linux just has better gaming performance than Windows, especially on low-end hardware. It seems like Microsoft is aware of this. As Windows Central reports, Microsoft is now looking at SteamOS as the benchmark for gaming performance, trying to match its performance with comparable hardware. Hell, even in my testing, I've definitely noticed that handheld gaming PCs running on Valve's operating system have a bit of a lead, which is why the Lenovo Legion Go S can still hold its own against the Xbox Ally X and the Legion Go 2 despite having a slower chip. Microsoft paying more attention to its operating system's efficiency and performance is a good sign, but it'll be some time yet before we see whether or not this renewed push for quality pays off. However, Windows 12 is lurking somewhere on the horizon, so hopefully Microsoft carries this K2 initiative forward to its next major OS launch.Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
iPhone 17 Is Apple's Most Popular Lineup Ever
Apple's iPhone 17 models are its most popular iPhones to date, Apple CFO Kevan Parekh told the Financial Times. Both Parekh and Apple CEO Tim Cook attributed Apple's stellar Q2 2026 performance to iPhone sales. "The iPhone 17 family is now the most popular line-up in our history... we believe we gained market share during the quarter," said Parekh. Cook told Reuters that iPhone demand was "off the charts," and that supply was constrained despite the impressive sales.
Congress keeps kicking surveillance reform down the road
ΓÇÿThis is no way to run a banana stand.ΓÇÖ
iOS 27 to bring AI inside the Camera app, Tim Cook’s biggest mistake, iPhone shutdown problem 
Benjamin and Chance discuss whether bringing visual intelligence inside the Camera app is a good idea, as rumored for iOS...
Gemini notebooks expand beyond the web with mobile rollout
Gemini on mobile is finally getting this feature from the web app.
OpenAI explains why ChatGPT was obsessed with goblins for a while
ChatGPT was mentioning goblins unusually frequently for a while, and now OpenAI has (kind of) explained why.
Elon Musk confirms xAI used OpenAIΓÇÖs models to train Grok
He said it was “partly” true that the company had used model distillation to improve xAI’s models.
Meta is running get-rich-quick ads for its AI tools
Manus, integrated into Meta, paid creators to tell you not to get a part-time job.
OpenAI explains why ChatGPT developed a goblin fixation, and how it solved the issue
OpenAIΓÇÖs GPT-5.5 upgrade to ChatGPT and Codex appears to be going smoothly, especially compared to the rockier GPT-5.0 release last...
Roblox Announces New AI-Powered Graphics Overhaul, and Fans Aren't Happy
Roblox is embracing AI in order to radically overhaul the look of the game, though some fans aren’t happy with it. 
Google expands Gemini AI rollout to cars with Google built-in: HereΓÇÖs what you can do
Google is bringing Gemini to more cars with Google built-in, offering natural language vehicle controls and owner's manual integration.
Gemini is rolling out to cars with Google built-in
ItΓÇÖll take a few months though.
HereΓÇÖs how the new Microsoft and OpenAI deal breaks down
Inside the big Microsoft and OpenAI changes
The Xbox Ally X's Fancy Upscaling Tech Is Available to Xbox Insiders Today
When the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X was first announced, one of its biggest promised features was AutoSR, or automatic super resolution. And now, almost seven months after the handheld launched, the feature will be available to Windows insiders today. AutoSR functions similarly to Nvidia's DLSS or AMD's FSR, in that it takes a lower resolution image and upscales it to a higher displayed resolution. Just like these other solutions, AutoSR would be using an AI model to upscale your games, but instead of using special cores in the GPU, it's using the Xbox Ally X's NPU, or neural processing unit. Unlike other AI upscaling methods, AutoSR should work on pretty much any game. Because it isn't implemented on a per-game basis like DLSS, AutoSR works at the driver level, so potentially any game running with DirectX should be compatible. According to the DirectX blog about the technology, offloading the upscaling to the NPU allows for a larger model, which means greater preservation of detail, with a bit of a cost to latency. Microsoft also claims that its AutoSR model is more memory-efficient than other GPU-based upscalers, which are a bit more demanding on memory bandwidth. This is important, because handhelds like the Xbox Ally X don't have a ton of memory bandwidth to spare. However, rather than just kicking off for everyone using the Xbox Ally X, AutoSR will only initially be available to folks who connect their handhelds to an external display. That's mostly because the higher resolution of a TV is hard for the Z2 Extreme to handle, so game-agnostic upscaling should go a long way to making games run a bit faster. Microsoft claims that this new technology can improve 1440p performance by about 30%, which could be the difference between a stuttering mess and a playable game. Either way, I'll be trying out this technology myself when the update goes live later today. And hopefully, Microsoft will allow this to be used in handheld mode soon ΓÇô there are more than a few games that don't exactly run super well at 1080p on the Xbox Ally X, after all. Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
'AirPods Ultra' Rumored to Feature a Major Upgrade Over AirPods Pro
In a social media post this week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated that Apple is planning to release new AirPods with cameras "for Siri". Last month, Gurman said these AirPods will likely be priced above the current AirPods Pro 3, which Apple sells for $249. As a result, he said Apple is likely considering using "AirPods Ultra" branding for the camera-equipped AirPods. "AirPods Ultra" would not have typical cameras for capturing photos and videos.