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I’m running the iOS 26 beta, and I gotta say, I don’t much like the new “unified” Phone app. Remember that? The iPhone app used for making and receiving calls that no one uses these days?
Then again, I didn’t much like the old Phone app, either.
The new app dispenses with the three main tabs from the old design — Favorites, Recents and Voicemail — and unifies them into a new main tab called Calls.
For sure, this makes it easier to see all the calls you ignored or sent straight to voicemail. And it makes it dead easy to listen to voicemails and return calls, when before you had to dance around tabs to do this.
But I don’t like the look of the Favorites section up top. For me, it gets clipped because I have more than the standard eight favorites. It’s the first thing I see when I open the Phone app, and for irrational reasons, it really bugs me.
Love it or hate it, the new design is about to be foisted on all of us when Apple releases iOS 26 in the coming weeks.
Meantime, here’s how to live with the new design — and how to get rid of it if you don’t like it.
Also in today’s newsletter:
I’m a robovacuum enthusiast. Our robovac is the only thing keeping the Kahney household from being buried in dust and dander, but it can’t climb stairs. Eufy just showed off a solution for that: The company’s new MarsWalker is a separate stair-climbing robot that transports your robot vacuum from one floor to another.
The long-awaited folding iPad is starting to move from concept to actual production — but there’ll be another foldable first. Here are the details.
Anker had a big hit with a beefy portable power bank that just got even beefier. This one will power a small city!
This looks like a good deal: Get access to many of the latest cutting-edge AIs without subscribing to each one separately.
Apple Arcade continues to expand with the addition of NFL Retro Bowl ‘26 and Jeopardy! Daily.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
A message from Pacaso
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Institutional investors back startups to unlock outsized returns. Regular investors have to wait. But not anymore. Thanks to regulatory updates, some companies are doing things differently.
Take Revolut. In 2016, 433 regular people invested an average of $2,730. Today? They got a 400X buyout offer from the company, as Revolut’s valuation increased 89,900% in the same timeframe.
Founded by a former Zillow exec, Pacaso’s co-ownership tech reshapes the $1.3T vacation home market. They’ve earned $110M+ in gross profit to date, including 41% YoY growth in 2024 alone. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.
The same institutional investors behind Uber, Venmo, and eBay backed Pacaso. And you can join them. But not for long. Pacaso’s investment opportunity ends September 18.
Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
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Tweets of the day
i guess we can’t use this meme this year
— #Holly - I like tech (#@AnxiousHolly)
11:14 AM • Sep 3, 2025
Google Maps vs Apple Maps 😅
— #Stepan (#@stepangrit)
10:28 PM • Sep 2, 2025
Crazy to think we used to get all of this in the iPhone box.
— #Private Talky (#@privatetalky)
1:27 AM • Sep 3, 2025
Wallpaper of the day
Aerial wallpaper ✔️
— #Vuk Andric (#@vukandric)
6:29 PM • Sep 4, 2025
One more thing ...
Most people never pick up the phone and call, most people never ask, and that's what separates, sometimes, the people that do things from the people that just dream about them. You've got to act.
Today’s poll
Do you like the new Phone app?
Results from yesterday’s poll: Instagram on iPad: Do you care anymore?
Best reader comments
Subscribe to The Weekender — Get the week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.