Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve‘s return to Arrakis is coming sooner than anyone — including him — thought. The filmmaker stated several months ago that he planned to take a bit of a break between Dune: Part Two and its intended sequel, Dune: Messiah. However, coming off the immense success of Dune: Part Two earlier this year, which received rave reviews from both critics and casual moviegoers alike and earned over $700 million at the box office, it sounds like Villeneuve has thrown his original vacation plans out the window.

Speaking with Deadline, the French Canadian filmmaker revealed that he is going to go “back behind the camera faster” than he thought he would and that his “break” from Frank Herbert’s Dune world is already over. “I’m in the writing zone right now,” he said, referencing the script for Dune: Messiah. Villeneuve did not confirm the specific timeline he now has in mind for the sequel, but he did note that he is likely going to make Messiah much faster than he originally planned.

“Let’s say that I thought that after Part Two that I will take a break, that I will go back in the woods and stay in the woods for a while to recover. But the woods weren’t really suiting me, and I would go back behind the camera faster than I think,” Villeneuve explained. “That’s all I can say.”

The director didn’t reveal during his conversation with Deadline when he intends to actually start filming Dune: Messiah. “These movies take a lot of time to be made, so it’s best not to say out loud when I might shoot,” he noted. He did, however, reportedly react to a potential 2026 start date with a “perplexed” expression. Whether that means he intends to shoot the film before 2026 or at some point in that year remains to be seen. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. did, notably, set a Dec. 18, 2026 release date for Villeneuve’s next “event film.” Assuming that project is indeed Dune: Messiah, Villeneuve would have to start shooting it much earlier than 2026 to meet that date.

The filmmaker did confirm that most of Dune: Part Two‘s core cast members will return in Dune: Messiah, including Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Florence Pugh. Anya Taylor-Joy will also appear in the sequel after making a brief cameo as an adult version of Paul Atreides’ sister Alia in Dune: Part Two. The director went on to remark that Dune: Messiah, which he says will “finish the Paul Atreides arc,” will be “completely different” from its two predecessors.

“The story takes place like 12 years after where we left the characters at the end of Part Two,” he teased. “Their journey, their story is different this time, and that’s why I always say that while it’s the same world it’s a new film with new circumstances.”

Dune: Messiah does not yet have an official release date. Both Dune: Part One and Part Two are available to stream now on Max.

The Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro is the latest ‘GT’ flagship smartwatch from the company, and I’ve had a chance to use it for review purposes. I’ve been using it for about three weeks before typing down my thoughts for all of you to see. Huawei’s ‘GT’ lineup of smartwatches is made for fitness-oriented people who appreciate great battery life. It can easily cater to the rest of you, though, as Huawei refined the design of its ‘GT’ lineup, so those watches do look quite classy at this point.

The watch we’re here to talk about is no exception to the rule. The Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro is a great-looking watch, and not many would disagree with that. I received a ‘Sports Edition’ of the watch, which is basically the variant with a rubber band. There’s also the ‘Classic Edition’ with a red and blue ring, and an all-titanium strap. Other than that, these two watches are the same. This is a 46mm variant of the watch, and there’s also a 41mm model, catered to women, first and foremost, due to its size. With that being said, let’s get down to business.

Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro Review: Hardware / Design

Much like its predecessor, this smartwatch is built to last. Huawei used aerospace-grade titanium alloy for the frame here. Ceramic is used at the bottom of the watch, and Huawei also used very durable glass protection on the front. The company says that it used “ultra-hard coatings and nano-flim waterproof finish”. This is supposed to improve water resistance and corrosion resistance too. The watch is not only IP68 and 5ATM rated, but comes with the IP69K certification this time too.

It’s made for wear and tear

Huawei is so confident in this watch’s build quality and resistance to scratches, that it released a promo video dedicated to it. I, of course, did not test how long will it last under torture tests, but I wasn’t all that careful while using it and did shower with it. I even took it swimming once. Not a scratch on the display or the watch itself. And yes, I did catch a door frame or two with it, for sure.

The 46mm Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro weighs 53 without the strap. Compared to regular smartwatches of a similar size, it’s not heavy at all, compared to the regular Huawei Watch GT 5, is it noticeably heavier. In the general sense, this watch is not heavy at all, just do note that if you get the titanium watch band, you’ll also add quite a bit of heft to it. It actually feels like a perfect weight for me personally. I honestly even forgot it’s on my hand soon after I put it on, but I’m used to wearing watches of a similar size, so… it’ll depend from user to user.

Titanium is prelevant when it comes to build materials

You’ll notice that Huawei stuck with that octagon frame shape, around the display. There are also titanium arms up and down, or lugs if you wish. Considering those lugs are not open up and and down, you can’t really use just about any watch band with this watch. Chances are you’ll be able to attach many of them, but they won’t look as nice as the ones Huawei sells, as those bands are made to fit perfectly with the design of these lugs. The octagonal design does look really nice in real life, I’m not going to lie, though I do prefer the design of the Watch GT 4 and GT 5 more, that’s just me, though.

The rotating crown has excellent haptic feedback

On the right side of the watch you’ll notice two buttons, and also its speaker and microphone. The top button doubles as a rotating crown, and the bottom one is customizable. Both are quite clicky, though the top one has a different feel and more travel, naturally. The top button is really nicely designed, and it’s a joy to use. It offers plenty of haptic feedback, and feels really durable too. Huawei has been doing a great job with those buttons for years, this is yet another welcomed refinement.

The watch band is very comfortable

There is nothing located on the left side of the watch. If we peek under it, you’ll find a heart rate sensor. Also, even though, based on renders, it seems like the bezel of the watch is higher than the display, Huawei did a really nice transition from one to the other, so that it feels very smooth when you glide your finger across it. They’re basically on the same height. Your finger won’t get stuck while you’re swiping around or anything of the sort. This watch offers truly great build, and I even liked the fluoroelastomer strap that comes with it. I like different materials in general, but this one is just so convenient for when the watch is exposed to water, and it’s just so comfortable to wear. It dries up in no time. The same goes for exercising.

Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro Review: Display

Huawei included a 1.43-inch AMOLED display on this smartwatch: It’s a round display with a resolution of 466 x 466. That panel is well-protected, and it does get bright enough, very much so. The automatic brightness setting worked perfectly for me, though you can always disable that and go with the manual slider. Either way, you can get it tuned so that it’s more than bright enough, even when you’re in direct sunlight. The display is also very vivid and has great viewing angles too. The touch response is also excellent here.

The display brightness goes up to 1,200 nits

The peak brightness of this panel, in case you’re wondering, is 1,200 nits. It’s not the brightest smartwatch screen I’ve ever seen, but it’s more than bright enough. Even in direct sunlight, I was able to see everything just fine on it. So, the brightness is also not something you should be worried about. There are a bunch of watch faces included here, and an option to get more, but that’s something we’ll leave for the ‘Software’ section.

Motion sensors work like a charm

The watch also powered on the display every time I needed it to do that. Whenever I swung and rotated my hand towards my face to actually check the time or what’s new, it fired up the display, without fail. That motion works great here, which is not surprising based on my past experiences with Huawei’s smartwatches. The display in itself is excellent. There’s really nothing to complain about. It’s bright, sharp, and offers good touch response. You don’t have to worry about it at all, it’s one of the better ones out there.

Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro Review: Performance

I feel like I’m always repeating myself when it comes to the general performance of Huawei smartwatches. I’ve been reviewing them for years, and the performance was almost always outstanding. Everything you do on this watch will feel snappy, whether it’s scrolling through messages, navigating through menus, or using some of its fitness features. I was unable to get the watch to stutter during daily use. Everything felt extremely smooth, and on top of that, Huawei also improved the animations.

The animations are snappy & fluid

To be quite honest, I never really paid too much attention to animations on previous smartwatches. On this one, I noticed them immediately. Not because they’re annoying or anything, but because they work really well. They are snappy and very smooth. It makes for a nice user experience. When you’re closing down the app drawer, for example, the apps fade away into the middle of the screen. Huawei is actually using various different animations, depending on what you’re doing.

I’ve used this smartwatch for two weeks, and in those two weeks, I was unable to get the watch to even stutter. I don’t know what chip is running it, nor how much RAM there is, but everything is running smoothly.

Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro Review: Battery

Huawei’s GT series smartwatch usually excels in the battery life department. The same is the case with this watch, actually. The Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro offers great battery life. The company claims you can get up to 14 days of battery life, though that’s if you barely use the watch. The company quotes a 9-day battery life for “regular usage”, and 5-day battery life “with Always On Display enabled”. That’s all very nice, but what’s it actually like? Well, I’ve been using the watch for around two weeks before writing this review, and this is my experience…

This watch will easily last over a week for the vast majority of people

I’ve had to charge it twice in those two weeks, but do note that the watch did come with around 60% battery life out of the box, so I didn’t fully drain it twice. I did have all the possible tracking modes fired up, of course, while I also used it three times for the gym, received a ton of notifications, used the GPS function twice, and much more. The Always On Display was not on, though. I never leave it on the watches I use, as the vast majority of people don’t use it. I don’t see the point in it, to be quite honest, as the screen turns on every time I need it to, when I swing the watch towards me, without fail. So why would it be on when I’m not looking at it? That’s just my thinking on the matter.

In any case, with considerable usage, I’d say that Huawei’s estimate is about right, around 1 week’s worth of battery life. If you pick and choose what modes you’d like to turn on, however. Perhaps you don’t need sleep tracking, or continuous heart rate tracking. And perhaps you won’t be using the watch’s GPS function. If that ends up being the case, you can get like extra 3-4 days worth of use. This watch can really be pushed the distance in terms of battery life, it all depends on your usage.

It can be fully charged in about an hour

What about charging? Well, it will take you about an hour to fully charge this smartwatch. It charges via the included charging puck, wirelessly. It magnetizes itself to the charger when you bring it near, and that’s it. That charging speed is not earth-shattering, but it’s not slow either, based on everything we’ve seen. An hour’s worth of charging for over a week’s worth of battery life seems like a great balance.

Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro Review: Software

The Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro comes with Huawei’s proprietary OS out of the box, HarmonyOS. To be more specific, version 5.0 is running here, the latest one. Huawei did issue a number of subtle improvements here, such as the animations, but for the most part, it’s the experience you’re used to. The animations are fast and fluid, and this is the first time I’ve actually noticed them on Huawei’s watches. They were here before, but they’re so well executed here. The entire HarmonyOS experience has been great for me, as the OS is very responsive, there was not even a hint of lag or anything of the sort.

14 watch faces come out of the box, but many more are available

As per usual, you’re getting your watch face front and center. You can change that by long-pressing, or via the Huawei Health app. 14 watch faces come pre-installed, but you can easily get more via the aforementioned application. Tons of them are available, both free and paid ones. If you swipe from top down, you’ll see your quick toggles, while doing the opposite will show you your notifications. Separate widget screens are available if you swipe from right to left, while doing the opposite will show you the weather and a media control widget.

Tapping the rotating crown fires up the app drawer, which has the Apple Watch style with all the apps thrown on the screen at once, and from there you can use the rotating crown to zoom in or out. You can switch this for a regular row of all the apps on the watch if you want, though, no problem. The bottom button on the right is customizable. It’s set for workouts by default, but I always change that to the stopwatch, as that’s something I use a lot on the watch. There are plenty of options, though.

Notifications sync only one way, but that’s mostly a good thing

Now, regarding the notifications. They don’t offer two-way sync, which is actually something I prefer. For example, if you delete a notification from your phone, it will delete it from the watch too. If you do the same from the watch first, the notification will remain on your phone. That way you’ll never miss notifications that you need to respond to, even if you delete them from the watch. That’s the way I prefer to have it, as I never respond from my watch, so… there you go.

The notification cards look great, though there’s room for a slight improvement

Speaking of notifications, the notification cards are great, and they show plenty of information in terms of message lengths. Depending on the app, you can use predefined responses and even type your responses via a keyboard. Emojis are available too, of course. What Huawei still didn’t nail down is the app icons for all the apps. For some apps, such as Viber, the icon is not showing. It was showing on the previous version of HarmonyOS, so I’m not sure what happened there. It won’t show for all apps, is my point, which can be a bit annoying, but it’s not a huge problem. Notifications for all the apps I’ve set arrived instantly, I had absolutely no problems in that regard. You do have to follow Huawei’s instructions and remove Huawei Health from the battery saving list, and so on.

There are not many apps to choose from

If you’re looking to install third-party apps on the watch, well, you can, but there are not many to choose from. So if you need some specific app that you’re used to using on Wear OS, you won’t get that here. The vast majority of people likely won’t care, though, as all you need is included on the watch itself, realistically.

HarmonyOS 5.0 on the Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro is outstanding. It’s a refinement of the previous version, and it’s the best iteration I’ve used yet.

Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro Review: Health & Fitness

This smartwatch is packed with health and fitness features, as you’d expect. The improved ‘TruSense’ feature is back. It’s basically a hub for all fitness features that Huawei has to offer. Do note that this watch now offers 12 blood oxygen channels compared to 4 on its predecessor. It should be able to give you a blood oxygen reading in about 15 seconds, and in my case that proved to be accurate. You’re also getting a medical-grade ECG analysis here, stress level readings, the watch can measure your skin temperature, and so on. Another change that is worth highlighting, however, is the fact that Huawei is now using new glass darkening technology. That will stop the outside light from entering the sensors, which in return should mean more accurate readings. And yes, I did notice that.

Blood Oxygen readings are faster than ever

I was able to get blood oxygen readings in about 15 seconds, give or take. I’m not sure how accurate they are, but I compared it to the results from the Watch GT 4, and I’m getting different results. Skin temperature readings were also different in comparison, while the ECG analysis results were also faster than on the previous model. The sleep tracking also worked as intended, for the most part. I still haven’t found a watch that will manage to pick up when I wake up properly. Why? Because when I wake up, I take my phone off the charger and I scroll through news for about half an hour. My left hand, where the watch is located, is not in motion, and thus it never registers me as being awake. That’s the reason I almost always turn off sleep tracking after I test it. It’s the same thing on every watch I used.

You’re getting access to over 100 sports modes

What about the fitness aspect? Well, there are over 100 sports modes at your disposal. That ranges from indoor and outdoor running, to poo swimming, diving, and golf. Those are just some examples, of course, various different exercises are mentioned here. Do note that the free diving mode is exclusive to this watch. You can use the ‘Running Courses’ feature to draw up a plan for yourself, and even use the RouteDraw feature if you plan on going biking or running. The GPS picked up the signal very quickly, and it was more accurate than it was on the Watch GT 4. It worked really well there too, but at a specific location where it stumbled last time, it did not with this watch. All in all, it was a good experience during my gym workouts and bike rides.

Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro Review: Audio

There are not many of you who use your smartwatches to make calls. If you do plan on doing so, however, you can do it via the Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro thanks to Bluetooth calling. There is a speaker located on the right side of the watch, and also a microphone is included. The sound output from that speaker is better than the vast majority of smartwatches I’ve had the pleasure of using. In terms of smartwatches, it’s really good, in the general sense, not so much. You do have to keep in mind this is a smartwatch speaker. It is more than good enough for making phone calls, though, plenty loud, actually.

The microphone on the watch is not all that bad

What about the input quality? Well, a couple of my friends I talked to via the watch said that I sounded “a bit odd”, but that’s about it. The issues did arise when I was in a noisy environment, but that is to be expected. So just stay away from busy roads and construction work, and you’ll be able to use this watch for phone calls just fine.

Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro: Should you buy it?

Whether or not the Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro is the right watch for you, well, only you’d know that. However, I do hope that this review helped you with that decision. The main strengths of the watch are definitely its build, battery life, and a wide range of fitness and health features. It is a great all-around smartwatch, though, and as long as you don’t mind not having access to Google features and tons of third-party apps, this watch is worth considering. Its build quality is outstanding, and it does everything a smartwatch should really well. It is quite pricey, though, so… it’s up to you to see whether it’s worth it or not… for you.

You should buy the Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro if you:

…like larger smartwatches
…appreciate premium build materials
…often bump your smartwatch against various surfaces
…are a sporty person
…don’t like to take off your smartwatch when showering & swimming
…need accurate GPS
…want the best Huawei has to offer
…require access to offline maps on a watch
…like to take phone calls directly to your watch

You shouldn’t buy the Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro if you:

…need specific apps installed directly on the watch
…want access to Google services

YouTube is testing a new version of its Premium Lite subscription tier in Australia, Germany and Thailand, a Google rep confirmed. It would have limited ads, which the fine print describes as most videos being ad-free, “but you may see video ads on music content and Shorts, and non-interruptive ads when you search and browse.”

The original Premium Lite subscription began testing in Europe in 2021, but it only lasted a few years, being phased out in October 2023. It was very much “lite, lacking the offline or background viewing of the regular Premium subscription.

The pricing model for these early tests in Australia is $9 a month for Premium Lite, compared with $17 a month for full Premium access, roughly in line with the original Lite costs.

— Mat Smith

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Amazon Studios wants another gaming hit.

After the success of Fallout, Amazon wants its next Prime Video gaming adaptation to match that level — and it’s apparently willing to start afresh to do so. Deadline reported that the God of War showrunner and two executive producers have left the project as it shifts direction. The series is an adaptation of the 2018 franchise reboot.

Continue reading.

Moley Robotics wants to bring robots into the kitchen.

It looks like the kind of kitchen purchase the antagonist millionaires of Ex Machina or Knives Out would be tempted by. The Moley Robotics’ X-AiR starts at $105,000. So far, Moley hasn’t installed a single robot but expects the process to begin in the next three to six months — people have bought into the arm already.

X-AiR has no built-in vision or sensing technology. Instead, the robot arm moves around its space from memory, knowing where all the ingredients, oils and tools should be. But while it can cook (with pans and everything), it can’t peel a carrot. Is this a robot that only does the fun part of cooking? We made Daniel Cooper eat tofu.

Continue reading.

Researchers at Archetype AI have developed a foundational AI model capable of learning complex physics principles directly from sensor data, without any pre-programmed knowledge. This breakthrough could significantly change how we understand and interact with the physical world.

The model, named Newton, demonstrates an unprecedented ability to generalize across diverse physical phenomena, from mechanical oscillations to thermodynamics, using only raw sensor measurements as input. This achievement, detailed in a paper released today, represents a major advance in artificial intelligence’s capacity to interpret and predict real-world physical processes.

“We’re asking if AI can discover the laws of physics on its own, the same way humans did through careful observation and measurement,” said Ivan Poupyrev, co-founder of Archetype AI, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “Can we build a single AI model that generalizes across diverse physical phenomena, domains, applications, and sensing apparatuses?”

From pendulums to power grids: AI’s uncanny predictive powers

Trained on over half a billion data points from diverse sensor measurements, Newton has shown remarkable versatility. In one striking demonstration, it accurately predicted the chaotic motion of a pendulum in real-time, despite never being trained on pendulum dynamics.

The model’s capabilities extend to complex real-world scenarios as well. Newton outperformed specialized AI systems in forecasting citywide power consumption patterns and predicting temperature fluctuations in power grid transformers.

“What’s remarkable is that Newton had not been specifically trained to understand these experiments — it was encountering them for the first time and was still able to predict outcomes even for chaotic and complex behaviors,” Poupyrev told VentureBeat.

Adapting AI for industrial applications

Newton’s ability to generalize to entirely new domains could significantly change how AI is deployed in industrial and scientific applications. Rather than requiring custom models and extensive datasets for each new use case, a single pre-trained foundation model like Newton might be adapted to diverse sensing tasks with minimal additional training.

This approach represents a significant shift in how AI can be applied to physical systems. Currently, most industrial AI applications require extensive custom development and data collection for each specific use case. This process is time-consuming, expensive, and often results in models that are narrowly focused and unable to adapt to changing conditions.

Newton’s approach, by contrast, offers the potential for more flexible and adaptable AI systems. By learning general principles of physics from a wide range of sensor data, the model can potentially be applied to new situations with minimal additional training. This could dramatically reduce the time and cost of deploying AI in industrial settings, while also improving the ability of these systems to handle unexpected situations or changing conditions.

Moreover, this approach could be particularly valuable in situations where data is scarce or difficult to collect. Many industrial processes involve rare events or unique conditions that are challenging to model with traditional AI approaches. A system like Newton, which can generalize from a broad base of physical knowledge, might be able to make accurate predictions even in these challenging scenarios.

Expanding human perception: AI as a new sense

The implications of Newton extend beyond industrial applications. By learning to interpret unfamiliar sensor data, AI systems like Newton could expand human perceptual capabilities in new ways.

“We have sensors now that can detect aspects of the world humans can’t naturally perceive,” Poupyrev told VentureBeat. “Now we can start seeing the world through sensory modalities which humans don’t have. We can enhance our perception in unprecedented ways.”

This capability could have profound implications across a range of fields. In medicine, for example, AI models could help interpret complex diagnostic data, potentially identifying patterns or anomalies that human doctors might miss. In environmental science, these models could help analyze vast amounts of sensor data to better understand and predict climate patterns or ecological changes.

The technology also raises intriguing possibilities for human-computer interaction. As AI systems become better at interpreting diverse types of sensor data, we might see new interfaces that allow humans to “sense” aspects of the world that were previously imperceptible. This could lead to new tools for everything from scientific research to artistic expression.

Archetype AI, a Palo Alto-based startup founded by former Google researchers, has raised $13 million in venture funding to date. The company is in discussions with potential customers about real-world deployments, focusing on areas such as predictive maintenance for industrial equipment, energy demand forecasting, and traffic management systems.

The approach also shows promise for accelerating scientific research by uncovering hidden patterns in experimental data. “Can we discover new physical laws?” Poupyrev mused. “It’s an exciting possibility.”

“Our main goal at Archetype AI is to make sense of the physical world,” Poupyrev told VentureBeat. “To figure out what the physical world means.”

As AI systems become increasingly adept at interpreting the patterns underlying physical reality, that goal may be within reach. The research opens new possibilities – from more efficient industrial processes to scientific breakthroughs and novel human-computer interfaces that expand our understanding of the physical world.

For now, Newton remains a research prototype. But if Archetype AI can successfully bring the technology to market, it could usher in a new era of AI-powered insight into the physical world around us.

The challenge now will be to move from promising research results to practical, reliable systems that can be deployed in real-world settings. This will require not only further technical development, but also careful consideration of issues like data privacy, system reliability, and the ethical implications of AI systems that can interpret and predict physical phenomena in ways that might surpass human capabilities.

We’ve already heard plenty in the way of leaks and rumors about the Samsung Galaxy S25 so far, and the latest unconfirmed information to appear has given us some pointers about the colors that the Ultra model is going to be available in.

According to usually reliable tipster @UniverseIce, we’re going to see the Galaxy S25 Ultra show up in Black, Blue, Green, and Titanium. However it’s likely that a few more options will be offered through the Samsung website.

I’ve had a rather fulfilling experience with the iPhone 16 Pro so far, but the start was anything but. During the first setup, the phone froze and I had to start over again while simultaneously dreading the possibilities of lost data or a booting nightmare.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I have repeatedly run into a non-responsive screen issue, prompting me to hit the lock button and start again following an unlock protocol. These stutters plagued me in multiple spots, from the camera app to the Mail app, despite switching from the beta to the stable iOS 18 channel. It seems I was not alone.

Digital Trends searched through dozens of pages on the official Apple Community discussions forums and a trove of posts on Reddit. What we found was a repeating pattern of two major issues — overheating (apparently related to battery drain) and random freezing, especially in the camera app.

Reboots, lags, and app glitches

For some users, the core problem is unpredictable restarts, which raise their head out of the blue. In some cases, the phone reboots while charging without any warning, while others report that it just happens while they are using the phone. “In the process of using it, it suddenly went black,” writes one user on the Apple Discussions forum.

It appears that the random restarts don’t have anything to do with running half-baked public or developer beta software. On the contrary, folks running the stable version of iOS 18 are encountering the problem. Notably, in an overwhelming number of cases, the random restarts happen multiple times on a daily basis.

Another recurring theme is just general lag throughout the UI and buggy animations, something that won’t go away with a regular system restart. But as this report suggests, the hardware shortcut of Power + volume button is also failing its restart protocol in some instances.

“Once, if not multiple times, a day — and it seems like every time I wake up, it does it overnight, and not until I unlock my phone will it push my notifications I got,” says another user complaint on the Apple Discussions page. The screen going totally black is an issue that frequently appears in user reports.

Is the camera app the real culprit?

But the more serious problem appears to be the camera app. Multiple users have shared videos recreating the weird behavior where the camera app freezes while dialing up the zoom level, or simply while hunting for focus lock. For a few people, the app crashes even during the basic chore of clicking a picture without any fancy tools applied.

“I have found that when I try to take pictures with my iPhone 16 Pro Max, it won’t take pictures and the Camera app crashes,” mentions one of the user complaints on the Apple forum. And it seems the fancy new audio mixing feature is also creating problems for early adopters.

For some users, the woes aren’t limited to the camera app. In some cases, the in-app camera UI for other apps such as Messages also makes the iPhone 16 Pro stutter and triggers a screen lock. The issue even extends to the Photos app and the built-in editor system, it seems.

“[The] iPhone 16 pro camera app crashes every now and then when I open it through photo app or through any other app having integration to camera,” reads another report on the Apple Discussions forum.

The camera app issues take a rather vexing form while editing, especially Live Photos. It seems the Photos app automatically closes midway through editing and also discards whatever progress users had made to it. For some users, capturing 4K videos has been the culprit, while others report that ultrawide videos are making things go haywire on their iPhone 16 Pro.

“So, I’m on my second iPhone 16 Pro within five days and still having the same issue — not being able to edit Live Photos if I change the key photo,” writes another miffed owner. Notably, a force reset doesn’t seem to offer any reprieve.

A few other reports mention that the camera app crashes more frequently when trying to click pictures at high magnification levels, around 5x or more. A handful of iPhone 16 Pro owners had a diagnostic test run by Apple support, but the analysis didn’t provide any solution.

The problem isn’t limited to the camera app only, it seems. For a few users, even Siri, Settings, and other native apps are raising issues. Third-party apps such as Amazon are also acting up for iPhone 16 Pro users.

“It has been crashing constantly. The settings app and the calendar app are the worst culprits. Calendar just freezes, you cannot drill down to the day. The settings app just turns black and then crashes. Multiple times the whole phone restarts,” says another report on the official Apple forum.

There are also reports of lag with the built-in keyboard, something to which I can personally attest. On a few occasions, I have noticed that the keyboard simply refuses to type in words, even though the keycaps have recorded the touch strokes.

“I type a lot of notes and documents on my phone and this is definitely a glitch that is slowing down my work,” claims a post from a user who ran into keyboard issues with their new Apple flagship phone.

So far, we are not sure whether the issue is due to a faulty update, or if it results from app-related bugs. Apple has yet to acknowledge the aforementioned iPhone 16 Pro issues and release a fix. We’ll keep you updated as soon as the company doles out any solution via a software update or releases any advisory steps.