Apple News, March 2026

March was one of the busiest hardware months of the year: within just three days a whole wave of new products appeared, followed by the long awaited AirPods Max 2 and a notable legal win in the ongoing case against Masimo. Here’s the roundup.

Big product wave in early March

Instead of holding a keynote, Apple chose to announce a whole string of new products via press releases between March 2 and 4: the iPhone 17e (starting at 599 dollars, with MagSafe and double the storage), the M5 MacBook Pro and M5 MacBook Air, and the new entry level “MacBook Neo” with an A18 Pro chip. The iPad Air (with an M4 chip) and the Studio Display also got updates, topped off by a completely new Studio Display XDR: a 27 inch mini LED screen with more than 2,000 dimming zones and 120Hz.

AirPods Max 2 with H2 chip

On March 16, Apple revealed the first major update to the AirPods Max since their introduction: thanks to the new H2 chip, they get Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, and even live translation for the first time. Active noise cancellation became up to 1.5 times more effective. Price: 549 dollars, in five colors; preorders started on March 25.

Apple wins a round in the case against Masimo

In mid March, a judge at the US International Trade Commission ruled that the Apple Watch’s redesigned blood oxygen feature, which processes sensor data on the paired iPhone instead of on the watch itself, does not infringe on Masimo’s patents. For the older, unmodified version of the feature, the federal appeals court did uphold the earlier import ban.

More details on the Siri/Gemini deal

In late March, new details emerged about the previously announced partnership between Apple and Google, in which Google’s Gemini models become the engine behind a rebuilt Siri. The revamped Siri interface will be tied to iOS 26.4 and is expected to reach the first users this spring.

That was the Apple news for March 2026. See you next month for another roundup.