Apple's biggest product event of the year happens in September, when the company puts out a new batch of iPhones and Apple Watches and other odds and ends. But in most years, Apple either has another smaller event or just a handful of additional product announcements later in the fall in October or November—usually the focus is on the Mac, the iPad, or both.

It seems like a new iPad Pro could be one of the announcements on tap. Russian YouTube channel Wylsacom has posted an unboxing video and early tour of what appears to be a retail boxed version of a new 256GB 13-inch iPad Pro, as well as an M5 processor that we haven't seen in any other Apple product yet. This would be the first new iPad Pro since May of 2024, when Apple introduced the current M4 version .

The same channel also got ahold of the M4 MacBook Pro early , so it seems likely that this is genuine. And while the video is mostly dedicated to complaining about packaging, the wattage of the included power adapter, and how boring it is that Apple doesn't introduce dramatic design changes every generation, it does also give us some early performance numbers for the new M5.

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On its surface, the flight plan for SpaceX's next Starship flight looks a lot like the last one.

The rocket's Super Heavy booster will again splash down in the Gulf of Mexico just offshore from SpaceX's launch site in South Texas. And Starship, the rocket's upper stage, will fly on a suborbital arc before reentering the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean for a water landing northwest of Australia.

SpaceX will again test the rocket's satellite deployer and reignite one of the ship's Raptor engines in space to adjust the vehicle's path for reentry. These demonstrations will pave the way for future Starship flights into low-Earth orbit. All of the rocket's ascents to date have, by design, ended before reaching orbital velocity.

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Now that iOS 26 , macOS 26 Tahoe , and Apple's other big software updates for the year are out in public, Apple's efforts for the next few months will shift to fixing bugs and adding individual new features. The first of those bug fix updates has arrived this week in the form of iOS 26.0.1, macOS 26.0.1, iPadOS 26.0.1, and equivalent updates for most of the devices across Apple's ecosystem.

The release notes for most of the updates focus on device- and platform-specific early adopter problems, particularly for buyers of the new iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone Air.

The iOS 26.0.1 update fixes a bug that could prevent phones from connecting to cellular networks, a bug that could cause app icons to appear blank, and the VoiceOver feature becoming disabled on devices that have it on. Camera, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth bugs with the new iPhones have also been patched. The iPadOS update also fixes a bug that was causing the floating software keyboard to move around.

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On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act into law, requiring AI companies to disclose their safety practices while stopping short of mandating actual safety testing. The law requires companies with annual revenues of at least $500 million to publish safety protocols on their websites and report incidents to state authorities, but it lacks the stronger enforcement teeth of the bill Newsom vetoed last year after tech companies lobbied heavily against it.

The legislation, S.B. 53 , replaces Senator Scott Wiener's previous attempt at AI regulation, known as S.B. 1047 , that would have required safety testing and "kill switches" for AI systems. Instead, the new law asks companies to describe how they incorporate "national standards, international standards, and industry-consensus best practices" into their AI development, without specifying what those standards are or requiring independent verification.

"California has proven that we can establish regulations to protect our communities while also ensuring that the growing AI industry continues to thrive," Newsom said in a statement, though the law's actual protective measures remain largely voluntary beyond basic reporting requirements.

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Ferrari provided flights from Washington, DC, to Austin, Texas, and accommodation so Ars could attend the Lone Star Le Mans. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

By the time you read this, the World Endurance Championship will be 100 races old. Once centered on the mega-expensive, mega-fast LMP1 hybrids , it's all about the Hypercars now. These are purpose-built, closed-top race cars, with some of the most complex hybrid systems you'll find outside of Formula 1, clad in bodywork that could give the Batmobile a run for its money. These Hypercars are designed to last the distance. During the 24 hours of Le Mans this year, the winning car covered 3,276 miles (5,273 km); for context, an F1 race is usually 190 miles (305 km), and at Monza this year , the race lasted little more than an hour. Here's another difference with F1: When it comes to endurance racing, Ferrari has been winning a lot.

In fact, it's taken victory at Le Mans for three years in a row, scoring a hat trick after 50 years away from this corner of the sport. This year has been even better: Ferrari leads the manufacturer's championship and the driver's championship with the #51 factory car. Its closest rival for the driver's title is another 83 Ferrari, this one entered as a privateer car by the AF Corsa team. When the invite arrived to join the team for its race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to watch it in action and find out the key to that success.

"It has been an amazing challenge for us because after 50 years, it was not simple to restart in the pinnacle of motorsport," said Antonello Coletta, head of Ferrari's endurance racing program. Eighteen months after the car was greenlit, it was racing at Sebring in early 2023, a notoriously bumpy WWII bomber base in Florida that is as hard a test on a race car as any. Later that year, the 499P won Le Mans on its first try .

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A fossil skull from China that made headlines last week may or may not be a million years old, but it's probably closely related to Denisovans.

The fossil skull, dubbed Yunxian 2, is one of three unearthed from a terrace alongside the Han River, in central China, in a layer of river sediment somewhere between 600,000 and 1 million years old. Archaeologists originally identified them as Homo erectus , but Hanjiang Normal University paleoanthropologist Xiaobo Feng and his colleagues’ recent digital reconstruction of Yunxian 2 suggests the skulls may actually have belonged to someone a lot more similar to us: a hominin group defined as a species called Homo longi or a Denisovan, depending on who’s doing the naming.

The recent paper adds fuel—and a new twist—to that debate. And the whole thing may hinge on a third skull from the same site, still waiting to be published.

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Elon Musk’s business empire has been hit by a wave of senior departures over the past year, as the billionaire’s relentless demands and political activism accelerate turnover among his top ranks.

Key members of Tesla’s US sales team, battery and power-train operations, public affairs arm, and its chief information officer have all recently departed, as well as core members of the Optimus robot and AI teams on which Musk has bet the future of the company.

Churn has been even more rapid at xAI, Musk’s two-year-old artificial intelligence start-up, which he merged with his social network X in March. Its chief financial officer and general counsel recently departed after short stints, within a week of each other.

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Subaru provided flights from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon, and accommodation so Ars could drive the new Crosstrek. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

Even at a brief glance, the Subaru Crosstrek clearly prioritizes rugged design and personality over any semblance of aerodynamic efficiency. Subaru’s best-seller also comes only in all-wheel drive, to stay true to customer expectations of all-weather confidence and the appeal of an aspirational adventure lifestyle. And yet, the latest-generation Crosstrek’s new hybrid variant improves power and torque output significantly, while simultaneously resulting in the most efficient Crosstrek to date.

Any consideration of aerodynamic improvements for this generation can best be thought of as minor. And yet, the wheel well vents do reduce turbulence and pressure while more cleanly skirting air around the side panels. And some mild smoothing versus the previous generations include tiny elements like the forward-facing edge of the roof rail mounts. However, reduced plastic cladding on the hybrid Crosstreks that might seem intended to improve airflow counterintuitively came about only because Subaru builds the hybrids in Japan for all international markets, and only Americans prefer going overboard on tacky plastic trim pieces.

More importantly than aero, the Crosstrek now shares a hybrid powertrain with the Forester SUV. If a naturally aspirated 2.5 L horizontally opposed Boxer four-cylinder engine sounds familiar from Subarus over the past four decades, in reality, this hybrid system significantly works over the flat-four versus even current internal-combustion siblings. This year introduces a host of mechanical modifications to the cylinder head, block, camshaft, crank pulley, fuel system, intake, exhaust, cooling, and more. But more importantly, the engine now runs on an Atkinson cycle, which holds the intake valves open longer to reduce piston resistance during the expansion stroke, resulting in reduced power output but improved fuel efficiency.

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Porsche provided flights from Washington to Leipzig and accommodation so Ars could be briefed on the Cayenne Electric. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

LEIPZIG, Germany—Porsche is synonymous with sports cars in which the engine lives behind the driver. From the company's first open-top 356/1—which it let us drive a couple of years ago—to the latest stupendously clever 911 variants, these are the machines most of us associate with the Stuttgart-based brand. And indeed, the company has sold more than a million 911s since the model's introduction in 1963. But here's the bald truth: It's the SUVs that keep the lights on. Without their profit, there would be no money to develop the next T-Hybrid or GT3 . The first Cayenne was introduced just 23 years ago; since then, Porsche has sold more than 1.5 million of them. And the next one will be electric.

Of course, this won't be Porsche's first electric SUV. That honor goes to the electric Macan , which is probably becoming a more common sight on the streets in more well-heeled neighborhoods. Like the Macan, the Cayenne Electric is based on Volkswagen Group's Premium Platform Electric, but this is no mere scaled-up Macan.

"It's not just a product update; it's a complete new chapter in the story," said Sajjad Khan, a member of Porsche's management board in charge of car IT.

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