The latest In Touch With iOS with Dave he is joined by Jill McKinley, Chuck Joiner, Jeff Gamet, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius. Episode 398 covers Apple's 2025 App Award winners, the Podcast of the Year, new updates for iOS/iPadOS/visionOS 26.2 RC, and a redesigned native ExpressVPN Mac app. The panel reviews major AI news—including Claude 4.5, ChatGPT's shopping feature, and the possibility of ads—while debating the privacy concerns around ChatGPT integrating with Apple Health. Other highlights include Apple's foldable iPhone patent, Apple Music Replay, accessibility features, and a big week for Apple Arcade with Subway Surfers+. A funny, insightful, wide-ranging episode with lots of community engagement and tech analysis.

The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com

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Summary

In this episode of In Touch With iOS, Dave and an all-star panel—Jill McKinley, Marty Jencius, Jeff Gamet, Chuck Joiner, Eric Bolden, and Guy Serle—jump into a packed week of Apple news, updates, AI breakthroughs, and plenty of humor.

The show opens with a discussion about the frigid weather sweeping across the country, before moving into Apple's newly announced App Award Winners. The panel covers winners across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Vision Pro—including the iPhone App of the Year Timbo and Vision Pro winner Explore POV—with commentary on design choices, spatial computing innovation, and whether they personally use the selected apps.

Next, the 2025 Apple Podcast of the Year—The Rest Is History—leads the group into a conversation about podcast quality, history storytelling, and the growing depth of Apple's podcast ecosystem.

Updates to visionOS 26.2 RC are discussed, including expanded Travel Mode for buses and cars, support for spatial accessories (like Logitech's stylus), and improvements to Freeform. Eric even admits the new features were compelling enough for him to install the beta.

Updates for iOS/iPadOS 26.2 RC also make news, adding the Liquid Glass lock screen slider, Reminders alarms, new AirPods Live Translation support in the EU, and Podcasts app refinements. Jeff warns listeners to hold off on macOS Tahoe due to persistent audio issues, reinforcing that stability still matters more than flash.

The show then pivots into a major AI segment featuring:

    •    Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5, touted as the new coding champion among AI tools

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