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This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: iPhone 18 Pro color rumors, iOS 27, iPhone Air 2 camera upgrade, M5 Macs, and more. Here are this week’s Apple rumors. iPhone 18 Pro colors Colors are one of the iPhone features that typically stay in flux until close to launch. But this week, we got our first peek into what to expect from the iPhone 18 Pro color lineup. Leaker Digital Chat Station says Apple is currently testing three different iPhone 18 Pro color options: Coffee Purple Wine Red/Burgundy In a follow-up post, the leaker said he doesn’t expect all three to be used by Apple, but at least one likely will be. My takeaways Apple’s pivot away from more muted, “boring” Pro colors with the iPhone 17 Pro has seemingly been a hit. While I wish the company offered a black version, bold options like Cosmic Orange have proven popular and as a result, I fully expect Apple to continue offering flashy new colors in the future. It’s far too early to have a definitive take on new iPhone colors, but out of the three rumored options, I could see the Wine Red/Burgundy being a fun successor to this year’s Cosmic Orange. iPhone Air 2 could add Ultra Wide camera Digital Chat Station also posted details on another new iPhone model coming next year. He says the iPhone Air 2 will have the same 6.5-inch screen size and basic design as the current Air, but Apple is exploring adding a second rear camera: a 48MP Ultra Wide lens. My takeaways Personally, I almost never used my Ultra Wide camera on previous iPhones. I haven’t missed it in the slightest since buying the iPhone Air. But I know a whole lot of people who love the Ultra Wide and couldn’t give it up for the current Air model. I expect the iPhone Air 2 could prove a bigger hit than its predecessor with an Ultra Wide. Just adding any second camera at all will help it feel more premium, since the current single-camera setup can be off-putting when the cheaper iPhone 17 has two cameras. Mark Gurman at Bloomberg reported over the weekend that iOS 27 will be a big update for Apple Intelligence and AI overall. As part of his overview of Apple’s 2026 plans, Gurman wrote: On the software front, we’ll see iOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27 and other operating systems unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. They’ll be accompanied by major updates to Apple Intelligence and the broader AI strategy My takeaways There are no specific details given by Gurman, but I’m nonetheless excited by the prospect of getting significant AI updates in iOS 27. iOS 26 offered quite a few AI improvements, but was still overall a smaller update for Apple Intelligence than I expected. With Siri’s long-awaited upgrades looking more certain for iOS 26.4 in the spring, following that with a strong AI release in iOS 27 could make for a huge turnaround in Apple’s AI reputation. At least four M5 Macs coming next year Alongside corroborating the existence of a low-cost MacBook arriving in the new year, Mark Gurman also reported this week on Apple’s planned rollout of M5 Macs in 2026. According to Gurman, there are four M5 updates coming: MacBook Air MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max Mac mini Mac Studio In a follow-up report, Gurman said the Mac mini will come in M5 and M5 Pro variants, while the Mac Studio offers M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips. My takeaways All of this makes a lot of sense, including Apple having an M5 Ultra coming after skipping the M4 generation for Ultra chips. My biggest questions are: Will Apple have all of these M5 Macs ready to launch early in the year? Where is the rumored Mac Pro update? Gurman has been reporting that the M5 MacBook Air and higher-end MacBook Pros will launch early in the year alongside two Mac external displays. Apple doesn’t ship new displays often, so ideally the Mac mini and Mac Studio should launch at the same time. But that seems like an awful lot of early-year products. There have been no signs of Apple discontinuing Mac Pro development, but the product’s last rumor said it would arrive in 2025, and that clearly hasn’t happened. Perhaps it will launch alongside the M5 Ultra, and Gurman just doesn’t have enough evidence to report on yet. The new Siri will be powered by Google Rounding out the week’s rumors, Mark Gurman says Apple is close to striking a $1 billion/year deal with Google to have the company’s custom 1.2-trillion-parameter model power the new Siri. The move follows testing of competing models from Anthropic and OpenAI, as well as Apple’s own internal models. While Apple reportedly intends to transition to its own models for Siri eventually, in the short-term at least it will utilize Google’s technology. My takeaways I would have loved for Apple to be able to power Siri with its own tech, but only if it was actually good enough. I’m honestly relieved that the company is willing to partner with a third-party to help make Siri as powerful as it needs to be. Apple’s general approach of building in-house and controlling the full tech stack is an advantage much of the time. But right now, with AI, leaning on an outside partner seems like a great move until the company can better compete with its own models. What are your takeaways from this week’s Apple rumors? Let us know in the comments. Best iPhone accessories
