Apple released the public beta preview version of its next iPhone operating system, called iOS 26.

This software release on Thursday means that members of the public with recent iPhones can preview how the device’s interface will change in the fall when the software is formally released and pushed to users.

To try out iOS 26, iPhone users in the U.S. and other countries need to enroll on Apple’s website, then they can navigate to the settings menu, select General, then Software Updates and then Beta Updates.

This version of the Apple mobile operating system is one of the biggest changes to the iPhone’s user interface design since 2013, when Apple’s iOS 7 introduced a new, flatter look.

This year’s redesign is called “Liquid Glass,” and it replaces many of the iPhone’s familiar buttons and menus with versions that are translucent and show animations while the user navigates their apps. The buttons are supposed to mimic the look of glass that flows like liquid. Apple relies on public feedback of its betas to tweak and change some of the most radical interfaces it tries out.

Apple has also updated its operating systems for iPads, Mac computers, and Apple Watch to use the new user interface.

Besides the new look, Apple updated the Phone app to combine recent calls and voicemails into one screen. The company has also added more screening tools into the iPhone’s software to filter out spam calls and texts.

Noticeably missing from iOS 26, however, are the major updates to Siri artificial intelligence voice assistant that Apple promised back in 2024. Those features are not expected to arrive anytime before 2026.

Apple, though, has added several clever new features that use AI, including real-time translations inside iMessage and FaceTime, and the ability to visually search using the information inside a screenshot — for example, a user could highlight a lamp inside a screenshot of a news article to find where to buy a similar lamp to one seen online.

The company releases one major software update per year for its iPhones and other devices. They are announced in June, at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and software makers start tinkering with it then. Over the summer, Apple releases a public beta version for early adopters who want to help fix bugs and preview the new features.

Then, alongside new iPhone hardware in the fall, Apple pushes the new software to users, and most people’s phones automatically update to the new iOS.

WATCH: Apple’s foldable iPhone plan

President Donald Trump on Thursday denied claims that he wants to wreck Elon Musk‘s companies and their work with the U.S. government.

“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government,” he said in a post to Truth Social. “This is not so! I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before!”

“The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us,” Trump wrote.

Trump’s response comes as the pair have continued a war of words that began with Musk’s opposition to the president’s signature spending bill, and evolved into the Tesla CEO attacking the president’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In June, the president threatened to cut some of Musk’s government contracts as the two clashed over the “Big Beautiful Bill” and their relationship unraveled.

Musk previously headed the president’s Department of Government Efficiency and funneled hundreds of millions into Trump’s re-election campaign.

On Wednesday, the tech CEO said on a second-quarter earnings call that Tesla could experience a “few rough quarters” due to tariff costs and the expiration of federal electric vehicle benefits at the end of September.

Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that the administration doesn’t want federal agencies to work with Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI.

Her remarks come after the Pentagon announced July 14 that it had awarded xAI and three other AI companies contracts worth up to $200 million each.

Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor SpaceX also has massive contract exposure in the US.

The re-usable rocket maker has received over $22 billion from work with the federal government since 2008, according to FedScout, which does federal spending and government contract research. That includes contracts from NASA, the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, among others, but does not reflect contract revenue from confidential initiatives.

The Trump administration recently reviewed SpaceX federal contracts to see if there was potential for cuts, according to the Wall Street Journal. The review found most were critical.

Musk’s automaker, Tesla, has reported $12.24 billion in sales of “automotive regulatory credits,” or environmental credits, since 2015, according to an evaluation of the EV maker’s financial filings by FedScout CEO Geoff Orazem and CNBC.

This included $439 million in regulatory credit sales during the second quarter of 2025.

Such incentives were largely derived from federal and state regulations in the U.S. that require automakers to sell some number of low-emission vehicles or buy credits from companies like Tesla, which often have an excess.

Regulatory credit sales go straight to Tesla’s bottom line. 

In its quarterly financial filing on Thursday, Tesla mentioned the Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Act” by name in its Risk Factors.

“The loss of previously available tax credits and carbon offset mechanisms may further negatively impact our financial results,” Tesla’s filing said.

The company added that “provisions of the OBBBA could affect battery cell expenses and impact costs for our consumers, negatively impacting demand.”

WATCH: Canaccord Genuity’s Gianarikas: We may have seen the bottom for Tesla, positive acceleration to come

Amazon is turning to the startup world to find a potential fix for one of its thorniest logistics problems.

Retailers of all sizes have in recent years struggled with an uptick in fraudulent returns. The scam involves shoppers requesting a refund, but instead of returning the merchandise, they keep the item and send back an empty package or a box of unrelated junk.

It’s become a costly nuisance for retailers, accounting for $103 billion in losses last year, according to Appriss Retail.

Cambridge Terahertz, a Sunnyvale, California-based startup, has developed a 3D imaging system that can see inside unopened packages, enabling retailers to more easily and quickly spot cases of return fraud.

The company has just closed a $12 million seed financing, led by venture firm Felicis, with participation from Amazon’s $1 billion Industrial Innovation Fund and other investors.

“Amazon handles a lot of boxes, as you can imagine,” Nathan Monroe, CEO of Cambridge Terahertz, said in an interview. “It’s a big problem just knowing what’s inside boxes, knowing how efficiently they’re packed, knowing if what you’ve returned to them is what you said it is.”

Amazon launched the Industrial Innovation Fund in 2022 with a goal of investing in businesses working on technology solutions that could apply to the company’s massive and complex operations network, from the middle mile to the last-mile portion of the delivery process.

Franziska Bossart, head of the fund, said in an interview that Amazon will typically plan to pursue a deeper “commercial relationship” with portfolio companies over time, ranging from piloting the technology to a potential acquisition.

Cambridge’s technology “aligns well with Amazon’s needs” and can have a real impact on its ability to screen inventory for damages and defects once it’s returned or before a package leaves the warehouse.

“The ability to see into boxes, identify contents, along with the compact nature of the system could allow for integration at various points in our operations,” Bossart said.

The fund has backed 20 companies so far. It also sourced Amazon’s acquihire and licensing deal with artificial intelligence robotics startup Covariant last August, Bossart added.

Amazon’s investment track record has come under scrutiny in the past. A 2020 investigation from The Wall Street Journal found the company’s Alexa Fund, which primarily invests in voice and AI technologies, used privileged information gained during meetings to launch its own competing products, citing people and startups familiar with the situation. Amazon previously denied any wrongdoing.

One of the Alexa Fund’s most notable investments was in video doorbell maker Ring, which Amazon later acquired in 2018 for $1 billion.

Cambridge connected with Amazon last year through a pitch competition focused on packaging visibility. Monroe co-founded the company in 2023 after researching terahertz imaging at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The company, which has 10 employees, says it shrunk airport-scale security scanners down to a chip-based system inside a pyramid-shaped device that can fit in your hand. The device was originally conceived as a way to detect concealed weapons by seeing through nonconducive materials, like clothing or packages, in an unobtrusive way.

Cambridge said it has since been approached by companies interested in how the technology can be used in supply chains, manufacturing, aerospace and medical applications.

The startup said it has secured four government contracts, and has had discussions with U.S. Customs and Border Protection around how the technology can be used to detect shipments of fentanyl at the border, a problem the Trump administration has zeroed in on through its crackdown on a near century-old trade loophole known as de minimis.

The capital from Amazon and others will enable Cambridge to ramp up hiring and “fully productize” its 3D imaging technology, Monroe said.

WATCH: Amazon weighs another multi-billion dollar investment in Anthropic