iOS 26 release date expected at Tuesday's Apple Event: Check to see if your iPhone is compatible for the update

We're almost there: The Apple iPhone 17 event is tomorrow, Tuesday, September 9. We expect to see new additions, like the iPhone 17 Air, among other devices. The company has titled the event "awe dropping" and if all goes as expected, we should be able to download iOS 26 and iPad 26 sometime next week.

Coming with those OS updates are substantial changes to your iPhone and iPad's software. You may have already heard about "Liquid Glass," which (intentional or not) is sort of like Apple's take on the old Windows Vista design language. That's the most notable change, but we spent two weeks test-driving many of the other features included in the update — you can check out our hands-on iOS 26 preview for more impressions, or you can try the software out yourself by downloading and installing the latest public beta. The public beta is ...