Exciting Additions to Apple Music in iOS 26.4 for iPhone: An In-Depth Summary

iOS 26.4 is filled with fresh features and modifications, including five updates for the Music app. Here’s all that’s new for Apple Music in iOS 26.4.

## #1: Playlist Playground

iOS 26.4 leverages Apple Intelligence to introduce a new Playlist Playground feature in Apple Music. When you create a new playlist in the Music app, you’ll now find the option to submit a prompt for AI to automatically generate a playlist. The Music app also offers suggested prompts to help you begin. You can always manually add or remove songs as you wish and make subsequent requests, but Playlist Playground delivers a convenient launchpad for new playlists.

## #2: Redesigned albums and playlists

Apple has revamped the design of albums and playlists to a new, fullscreen layout in iOS 26.4. Now, the artwork for an album or playlist will dictate the styling of the entire background of the track list and other user interface elements. If an album features a dominant blue hue in its artwork, a matching shade of blue will probably cover the entire screen. Complementary colors are sometimes utilized as well, like a black background when the artwork includes shades of white and gray.

Last year, Apple debuted a new Ambient Music feature for Control Center. It allows you to quickly and easily start playing music tailored to one of four moods:
– Chill
– Productivity
– Sleep
– Wellbeing

Now, in iOS 26.4, the same Ambient Music feature can be accessed through a new Home Screen widget. Small and Medium widget sizes are available.

## #4: Add songs to several playlists simultaneously

iOS 26.4 allows you to effortlessly add a song to multiple playlists at once. When adding to a playlist, there’s a new selection button in the bottom-right corner. Tap it, and you’ll be able to choose several playlists at the same time. It’s a minor change, but very useful for instances when you want to quickly add to different playlists.

## #5: Concert details

Apple has integrated concert details directly into the Music app in iOS 26.4. Artist profiles in the app will now display ‘Upcoming Concerts’ when concert information is accessible. You can scroll down further to review all upcoming performances. Tap on a specific concert, and the app will provide a link to purchase tickets, along with details on the venue, start time, and more.

Which iOS 26.4 features in Apple Music are your favorites? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Apple Music is priced at $10.99/month, or you can subscribe to it as part of the Apple One bundle.

Berkshire Hathaway Reduces Apple Stake After Warren Buffett’s Retirement

In recent SEC filings submitted this week, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has once again reduced its investment in Apple. Concurrently, the firm revealed a new $350 million investment in the New York Times.

These transactions occurred in the last quarter of 2025, which also marked the conclusion of Buffett’s tenure at Berkshire. At 95, Buffett announced his retirement last year. As of January 1, Greg Abel has taken over as CEO of Berkshire.

“There’s never been anyone like Warren, and many individuals, myself included, have drawn inspiration from his insight,” Tim Cook stated when Buffett declared his retirement plans. “Knowing him has been one of the greatest honors of my life. And there’s no doubt that Warren is leaving Berkshire in capable hands with Greg.”

As pointed out by Reuters, Berkshire divested 4% of its Apple shares during Q4 2025. Nevertheless, Apple remains Berkshire’s largest investment at $62 billion. “Berkshire’s filing does not specify whether the investments were made under the direction of Buffett, Abel, or portfolio manager Ted Weschler,” the report indicates.

Berkshire commenced its acquisition of Apple stock in 2016. At its zenith in 2023, Berkshire Hathaway held over 915 million shares of Apple, comprising more than 50% of the firm’s portfolio and valued at approximately $174 billion.

Buffett has diminished his holdings on several occasions over the past few years as part of a broader strategy to accumulate cash.

In an interview last year, Buffett quipped that “Tim Cook has generated more profits for Berkshire than I’ve ever done.”

Aside from decreasing its Apple investment, Berkshire reentered the newspaper sector and purchased 5.07 million shares of the New York Times. It also lowered its position in Amazon.

Rivian Launches New Apple Watch Application with Vehicle Controls, Digital Key, and Extra Features

### Rivian Apple Watch App: An In-Depth Look

Shortly after releasing the Rivian Digital Key update, Rivian introduced a specialized Apple Watch app, elevating the user experience with proximity-oriented features. This new app functions as a counterpart to the Rivian iPhone app, offering vital vehicle controls right from your wrist. The app features customizable quick controls, easily viewable vehicle status, and digital key capabilities, tailored to the vehicle model.

#### Key Attributes of the Rivian Apple Watch App

The Rivian Apple Watch app is formatted to enhance vehicle controls for the watch’s smaller screen. Users are able to execute several key actions straight from their wrist, such as:

– Locking or unlocking doors
– Ventilating windows
– Activating the alarm
– Modifying cabin temperature
– Setting a desired state of charge with the Digital Crown

Users can personalize up to four quick controls for immediate access to commonly used functions. Specific dedicated pages are accessible for distinct controls and features, including climate control, battery and range data, Gear Guard access, and Rivian location information. The design is consistent with the iPhone app, ensuring a familiar interface for current Rivian owners.

#### User Experience

Initial access to the Apple Watch update showed a smooth integration with the existing Rivian iPhone app. Users simply need to update the iPhone app to the latest version for the Apple Watch app to appear automatically. The controls operate seamlessly, requiring no setup, and customizing the primary four controls is easy.

A notable feature is the Apple Watch complication, which enables users to show the current battery status of their Rivian vehicle. This capability not only allows quick retrieval of battery details, but also acts as a shortcut to the app, which is handy for users who might leave their phones behind when getting into their vehicles.

#### Digital Key and Entry Procedure

The keyless entry process differs by vehicle generation. For Gen 1 vehicles, users can unlock the vehicle through the app and start driving once the app is open. Conversely, Gen 2 vehicles support passive entry, automatically unlocking as the driver approaches, akin to smartphone-based digital keys. This capability greatly improves the ease of accessing the vehicle.

#### Accessibility and Concluding Thoughts

The Rivian Apple Watch app is officially available for download. Users can check their app store to access the new functionalities. This addition represents a significant improvement for Rivian owners, providing capabilities similar to the iPhone app but in a more user-friendly format. The battery status complication proves particularly advantageous, delivering instant information at a glance.

In summary, the Rivian Apple Watch app marks a meaningful advance in merging technology with vehicle access and control, establishing it as an important feature for Rivian owners.

Apple Glasses: The Perfect AI Partner for All-Day Use

# Apple Glasses: The Future of AI Companionship

Anticipation surrounds the launch of Apple Glasses next year, with new reports suggesting they will act as “an all-day AI companion.” This cutting-edge technology is set to transform our engagement with the world and the way we access information.

## Latest Apple Glasses Report Offers Details on Features

Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has shared insights on three AI wearables in development by Apple: smart glasses, a pendant, and AirPods equipped with cameras. The spotlight is on Apple Glasses, engineered to serve as an all-day AI companion, adept at comprehending what users are observing and doing in real time.

Some of their features include:

– Identifying the ingredients in a dish
– Noting real-world landmarks during navigation
– Adding details from an event poster directly to a calendar
– Assisting users in locating items on their grocery lists

The glasses will incorporate built-in cameras to capture the user’s perspective, delivering intelligent help as necessary. This signifies a growth in visual intelligence capabilities, presented in a more user-friendly design.

## Why Apple Glasses Sound Like the Future

A thrilling feature of Apple Glasses is the potential decrease in the need to take out an iPhone while on the move. Users can maintain a connection with their environment and engage with Siri hands-free, thanks to integrated microphones and speakers.

AI will facilitate new features that are impractical with just an iPhone, or at least less convenient. A major concern about smart glasses has been their social acceptance. Will a sufficient number of people feel at ease wearing AI glasses in public? This issue might clarify why Apple is also working on a pendant.

However, similar to how AirPods evolved from being perceived as peculiar to becoming ubiquitous, stylish glasses that do not look excessively technical could aid in normalizing their usage.

Apple must also tackle its AI limitations, emphasizing the importance of its collaboration with Google. This alliance enables Apple to concentrate on product design while tapping into Google’s AI proficiency.

As AI chatbots have become increasingly vital in everyday life, it seems likely that a product like Apple Glasses will similarly gain traction. Initially, smart glasses might appear strange, but as more people embrace them and enjoy the ease of having AI on hand, they could be seen as essential.

Possessing an AI companion that perceives what you perceive signifies a monumental advance into the future of technology.

Linux 6.19 Release: Key Changes for Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS Architectures – CNX Software

Linux 6.19

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 6.19 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML): No big surprises anywhere last week, so 6.19 is out as expected – just as the US prepares to come to a complete standstill later today watching the latest batch of televised commercials. The betting man would expect them all to be AI-generated, but maybe some enterprising company decides to buck the trend? Doubtful, but there’s always a slight chance. But for anybody outside the US, maybe taking the newest kernel out for a spin instead is an option? I have more than three dozen pull requests for when the merge window opens tomorrow – thank you to all the early maintainers. And as people have mostly figured out, I’m getting to the point where I’m being confused by large numbers (almost running out of fingers and toes again), so the next kernel is going to […]

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Geniatech DB3506: A Comprehensive Rockchip RK3506 Development Board and 3.5-Inch Industrial SBC – CNX Software

Geniatech DB3506 development board

Geniatech DB3506 is a full-featured Rockchip RK3506 development board and 3.5-inch SBC designed for industrial control, human–machine interface (HMI) systems, IoT gateways, and other embedded applications. The board combines the tri-core Arm Cortex-A7 SoC with 256 MB to 1 GB LPDDR3 RAM and 256 MB or 512 MB NAND flash options, offers HDMI and RGB touchscreen display interfaces, dual Fast Ethernet, dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0, optional 4G LTE via a mini PCIe slot,  two USB 2.0 ports, and a range of headers for CAN bus, RS-232/RS-485, Audio, GPIOs, and more. Geniatech DB3506 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3506 CPU 3x Arm Cortex-A7 cores Arm Cortex-M0 real-time core GPU – 2D GPU only with hardware-accelerated 2D rendering No VPU, no NPU System Memory – 512MB LPDDR3 (option for 256MB or 1GB) Storage – 256MB NAND flash (option for 512MB) Video Output HDMI output 50-pin RGB display FPC interface up to 1280 × 1280 @ 60 […]

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Creating an Indie Hit in Godot with Jay Baylis and Tom Coxon – Software Engineering Daily

Cassette Beasts is a turn-based monster-battling RPG that lets players record creatures onto cassette tapes and transform into them during battle. The game was an indie hit, and is also one of the most successful games built with the open source Godot Engine. Jay Baylis and Tom Coxon are the creators of Cassette Beasts at

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Turbopuffer with Simon Hørup Eskildsen | Software Engineering Daily

Vector search has become a foundational technology for AI applications, enabling everything from semantic code search to contextual retrieval for large language models. However, a major challenge with vector databases has been the cost as data storage scales. Turbopuffer is a vector database that focuses on speed, cost and scalability. It was created by Simon

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Workflow Orchestration with Orkes and Agentic – Featuring Viren Baraiya on Software Engineering Daily

Modern software systems are composed of many independent microservices spanning frontends, backends, APIs, and AI models, and coordinating and scaling them reliably is a constant challenge. A workflow orchestration platform addresses this by providing a structured framework to define, execute, and monitor complex workflows with resilience and clarity. Orkes is an enterprise-scale agentic orchestration platform

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NVIDIA Invests in Intel, Meta’s Demo Mishap, and Anthropic’s Rapid Expansion – Software Engineering Daily

SED News is a monthly podcast from Software Engineering Daily where hosts Gregor Vand and Sean Falconer unpack the biggest stories shaping software engineering, Silicon Valley, and the broader tech industry. In this episode, they cover NVIDIA‘s $5B investment in Intel and $100M stake in OpenAI, Meta’s stumble with its AR glasses demo, and the

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