Overview
- Apple began developer betas for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27 (Golden Gate), watchOS 27, tvOS 27 and visionOS 27 and has scheduled a public preview in July with final releases expected in the autumn.
- Apple says the updates deliver measurable speed gains through smarter caching and a revised CPU scheduler, citing app launch improvements up to 30 percent, iCloud Photos uploads up to 70 percent and some tasks “up to 80 percent” faster depending on hardware.
- macOS 27, codenamed Golden Gate, will run only on Apple Silicon by removing Intel-specific code paths so Intel-based Macs are no longer supported.
- Apple published specific lists of excluded devices: multiple 2019–2020 Intel Macs, several 2018–2020 iPads, six relatively recent Apple Watch models and two older Apple TV models will not receive 27-series updates; visionOS 27 runs on the M2 Vision Pro but Apple’s top local AI models require M5 hardware and Siri AI will not be available in the EU at launch.
- The changes mean some users lose feature and security updates and may need to upgrade hardware to get the advertised speed and AI features, and the July public preview will be key for independent testing of Apple’s performance claims and regional AI availability.