iOS 27.2 beta testing, more

0:00Welcome to 9.5 Mac Daily for Thursday, September 17th, 2026. I'm your host, Chance Miller. We are sponsored this week by Stuff, the Clean and Powerful to-Do List application. Leading off today, Apple is working on plans to make enterprise servers powered by the M8 Ultra Chip. The report specifically says that Apple plans to offer these AI-focused servers for sale and not just use them internally. The report comes the information which says Apple has been developing the server with plans to sell it to AI developers, other businesses and governments. The product under consideration would come in two versions, a smaller one with two of Apple's planned M8 Ultra Chips clustered together, and a bigger one with four M8 Ultra Chips. Apple has said to have been working on this project for around a year and new CEO John Ternis supports the effort.

1:02This Apple product isn't currently expected to hit the market until 2029 and it could still be canceled or proceed without certain technology. For example, Apple is considered connecting these M8 chips together using an Nvidia set of products called InV-Link Fusion. This includes switches, chiplets and software that help chips communicate with each other in data centers. Ternis reportedly has seen an opportunity for Apple's chips in the booming environment for AI compute needs. Apple already builds its own servers for its own private cloud compute infrastructure, which is its processing technology for AI tasks that are too big to run locally on iPhones and Macs. For most of its current servers, Apple is still using an internally developed connectivity technology, but that technology is believed to be too slow and too expensive to use at large scale. The information also says that partners have gone so far as to ask Apple for access to these

2:02private cloud compute servers, but the company has denied those requests. Again, these new M8 Ultra powered server chips aren't expected to be released until 2020-29 at the earliest. Next of the day, Apple released iOS 27 this week, and the company also has since revealed that there are two features that were included in the iOS 27 BATAs that have since been removed. Apple updated its website to reflect that it has pulled the new suggestions and messages feature as well as Apple intelligence-powered password changes. The company says these two features will be released in a future software update for iPhone. The change also applies to other platforms, including iPadOS 27 and MacOS 27. As a refresher, suggestions in the Messages app use the context of a user's conversation to add things to reminders, notes, or calendar with just a single tap. The new passwords feature builds on the password's app ability to alert you to weak or compromised

3:07passwords, but now with the ability to update them on your behalf. So at least in the iOS 27 BATAs, the feature worked by going directly to websites where your password was weak or compromised, and updating them automatically on your behalf. Apple explained that the feature uses Apple intelligence and Safari to agentically do these changes. It can even go as far as automatically auto-filling two-factor authentication codes. There's no additional details on when these two features were returned to iOS 27, nor has Apple given any explanation for why they were removed in the first place. We are sponsored this week by Stuff, the clean and powerful to-do list application that makes organizing long lists effortless and checking off tasks satisfying. Stuff is made by one person who cares deeply about your experience with your to-do list, and there's a specific feeling to an app built by someone who made it for themselves.

4:08The animations are right, the widgets are functional, it just feels like magic. Stuff works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You can create tasks by typing, talking, or using your camera with shared lists, drag-and-drop dependencies, and more. It's simple enough for your grandma, but powerful enough for someone like you. You might have caught that stuff was even featured by Apple during last week's iPhone 18 Pro event. So when you finish this episode, search Stuff on the App Store, and get more stuff done with Stuff. My thanks to Stuff for sponsoring. Running out today, Apple has released the first beta of iOS 27.2. The update follows the release of iOS 27, but it also jumps over iOS 27.1 completely. Apple actually announced iOS 27.1 at last week's iPhone event, saying that it's the software update that will come pre-installed on the iPhone Duo when it's released on October 23.

5:11Apple presumably wants to save iPhone Duo specific code until closer to the new hardware's release next month. If it were to start publicly beta testing iOS 27.1, it would include all of those changes and new features for iPhone Duo, and potentially reveal details about the device that Apple still wants to keep under wraps. So instead, it's made the decision to jump to iOS 27.2. This allows developers and eventually public beta users to test new features, while also allowing Apple to keep that iPhone Duo specific code under wraps for the time being. Then all of the devices will presumably converge in a future update, perhaps in iOS 27.2.X update or iOS 27.3. Then from there going forward, all iPhone models will be on the same branch of iOS 27. As for what's new in iOS 27.2, the big change is that it introduces the new health app

6:11that Apple first showcased last week at the special Apple event. Apple says the new health app has been redesigned to dynamically respond to a user's data using Apple Intelligence with a new insights tab that surfaces timely health information and a new longevity tab that analyzes a user's longitudinal health for deeper insights. The longevity tab includes features like health age, which shows users how certain metrics are tracking relative to their actual age. Those features are now available for beta testing in iOS 27.2, and there are still more features to come to the new health app, including the ability to order diagnostics directly from Quest in the health app, as well as other personalized recommendations. And also despite its availability in this beta, the new health app isn't expected to actually ship as part of iOS 27.2, but rather this is Apple's starting to test the revamp

7:11gathering feedback before eventually shipping it to the public later this year. There ups up another episode of 9 to 5 Mac daily. As always, you can find all of the latest Apple news on 9 to 5 Mac.com, follow along with me on threads at Chance H Miller, and we'll be back tomorrow for a new episode of 9 to 5 Mac daily.