Apple today announced a "major acceleration" of its work to expand the use of recycled materials in its devices.
By 2025, Apple now aims to ensure that:
All Apple-designed batteries will use 100 percent recycled cobalt.
Magnets used in Apple devices will be made with 100 percent recycled rare earth elements.
All Apple-designed printed circuit boards will use 100 percent recycled gold plating and 100 percent recycled tin soldering.
The accelerated time frame comes thanks to a large number of changes the company made in recent years. For example, Apple's use of recycled materials for printed circuit boards was spearheaded by an exclusively recycled supply chain for gold in the plating of the main logic board for iPhone 13. Since then, it has increased the use of circuitry made with recycled materials in the iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods Pro, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and HomePod. In 2022, a quarter of all cobalt found in Apple products came from recycled material, up from 13 percent in 2021, paving the way for the transition to 100 percent recycled cobalt by 2025.
In 2022, around 20 percent of all material shipped in Apple devices came from renewable or recycled sources. The company said that the change brings it closer to the aim of eventually making all products using only recycled and renewable materials and advances its goal to make every product carbon neutral by 2030.
Apple also flagged that its Material Recovery Lab in Austin, Texas have started using AR video projected directly onto work surfaces to show recycling partners how to disassemble devices. In addition, the company said that by 2025 it will completely eliminate plastics from its packaging. Following the adoption of fibre alternatives to screen films, wraps, and foam, 96 percent of Apple packaging is plastic-free. The company says it is now working to replace the labels, lamination, varnish, and other "small uses" that make up the remaining 4 percent.
Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by Juli Clover
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code.
In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by Juli Clover
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak.
As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station.
According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
Monday December 15, 2025 4:23 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3's testing is happening over the holidays, it is a smaller update with fewer features than we've seen in prior betas.
We've rounded up what's new so far, and we'll add to our list with subsequent betas if we come across any other features.
Transfer to Android
Apple is making it simpler...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. iOS 26.2 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation iPhone SE.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Monday December 15, 2025 7:41 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...
I’m glad that Apple continues to innovate in regards to expanding these recycling efforts as well as improving upon efforts to mitigate climate change by reducing Apples’ suppliers’ carbon footprint to zero by 2030:
