Thanks to the top-to-bottom revamp that is Siri AI, Siri is reliably intelligent. Finally. We are still in the midst of beta season, and Apple is yet to confirm whether Siri AI will formally launch with iOS 27 in September or sometime later in the year, but the feature is up to scratch. There are bugs and glitches and edge-case quirks, but on the whole, it wipes the floor with old Siri and is…
Apple: Apple announced that Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors and John Ternus, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will become Apple’s next chief executive officer effective on September 1, 2026. The transition, which was approved unanimously by the Board of Directors, follows a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process. Cook will continue in…
9to5Mac: It’s the end of an era: Apple has confirmed to 9to5Mac that the Mac Pro is being discontinued. It has been removed from Apple’s website as of Thursday afternoon. The “buy” page on Apple’s website for the Mac Pro now redirects to the Mac’s homepage, where all references have been removed. Apple has also confirmed to 9to5Mac that it has no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware. There is no…
9to5Mac: Apple Music has several changes coming in iOS 26.4, starting with a new fullscreen design for albums and playlists. When viewing an album or playlist in the updated Music app, you’ll notice that the track list adopts a background colour that complements the artwork. It’s not always an exact match, but rather a colour that pairs well with and evokes the artwork for that album or playlist.…
Google: Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year. After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most…
Apple: Apple TV will deliver comprehensive coverage of Formula 1, with all practice, qualifying, Sprint sessions, and Grands Prix available to Apple TV subscribers. Select races and all practice sessions will also be available for free in the Apple TV app throughout the course of the season. F1 TV Premium, F1’s own premier content offering, will continue to be available in the U.S. via an Apple TV…
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” The implications of using this Steve Jobs quote to open the September event are interesting, as invoking Jobs is something Apple does sparingly. I assume it is meant to be interpreted as a signal to the company’s unwavering commitment to industry-leading product design, even in spite of recent design team defections…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOJvqhLcVgQ With the current betas of iOS 26, the Camera mode switcher responds to your finger in a way unlike anything else in the system. It actively breaks all the muscle memory you have learned about how touch screens works, and slides in the opposite direction to how you expect it to behave. What is even crazier is, in beta 5, there is a new setting for the…
Six Colors: The new design on the Mac doesn’t feel light and glassy, as it does on iPhone and iPad. It’s just a bit of a muddle. I keep noticing how terrible toolbars look in macOS Tahoe, and toolbars are everywhere on the Mac. Apple’s stated design philosophy is to build interfaces that allow content to flow behind them, showing through (a glass, darkly?). The official line is that this makes…
Something that I really appreciate about the iOS 26 redesign is an emphasis on moving more toolbars and primary controls to the bottom of the screen, bringing them closer to the user’s thumb. Especially for Max-sized phones, starting a search for an old conversation in Messages used to require finger gymnastics to tap on the bar that was placed just below the navigation header. Now, that search…
Bloomberg: Giannandrea’s purported lack of urgency may be as much philosophical as temperamental, though. Conservative about the pace of AI development and skeptical about the value of chatbots, he’s argued internally that there’s little urgent threat from OpenAI, Meta, Google and the rest. Instead, colleagues say, Giannandrea maintains that what users want in an assistant is an interface for…
Bloomberg: Mike Rockwell, head of engineering for the assistant, is replacing much of Siri’s leadership with lieutenants from his Vision Pro software group, according to people with knowledge of the matter. He’s also restructuring teams related to speech, understanding, performance and user experience, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the changes are private. I’m almost glad…
The Information: The service is losing more than $1 billion annually even though its subscriptions grew to around 45 million last year, those people said. Neither figure has been reported previously. One of the people said Apple has spent more than $5 billion a year on content since launching Apple TV+ in 2019, but the company trimmed that budget by around $500 million last year as Cook and other…
Not every new product is backed by a masterminded plotting of consumer need and gap in the market, perfectly synergising alongside the strengths and weaknesses of other products in the lineup. Sometimes, stuff is simply reactionary. Apple probably did market research and found that a slice of its price-sensitive customers would be willing to spend more than the price of an iPhone SE, in exchange…
Apple: For users new or upgrading to iOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence will be enabled automatically during iPhone onboarding. Users will have access to Apple Intelligence features after setting up their devices. To disable Apple Intelligence, users will need to navigate to the Apple Intelligence & Siri Settings pane and turn off the Apple Intelligence toggle. This will disable Apple Intelligence…
The Information: Apple is compromising on other aspects of the slim iPhone’s design to ensure its thinness. For instance, the thin iPhone will only have a single speaker in its earpiece because there is no room for a second speaker at the bottom, which is standard in other models, one person said. The thin iPhone also has a large, centered camera bump on its back containing a single lens as…
iMac The iMac received a bigger-than-expected update this time around, with a new nano-texture display option and an upgraded front camera in addition to the M4 speed bump. I think I prefer the new colours over the old ones, too. The old generation was confidently going for a two-tone style, which I didn’t love. The backs of the new iMacs are a little more desaturated, though, while the lighter…
The iPhone 16 lineup could stand on its own, sporting the new A18 chip, bigger screens, thinner bezels, better cameras, longer battery life, attractive chassis colorways, and the new Camera Control button. Apple Intelligence could have been treated as more like a bonus, with Apple taking the angle of how cool it is that you’ll be getting some fun new AI-powered enhancements arriving every couple…
Bloomberg: Apple Inc. is planning a new version of the Mac mini that will be its smallest desktop computer yet, part of a broader overhaul of the Mac line with AI-focused chips. The new model — due later this year — will mark the first major design change to the mini since it was revamped under Steve Jobs in 2010, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The device will be far smaller…
The really interesting thing about Apple TV+ is that it is not so unsuccessful that it can be called a failure, and yet is also not so successful that it can be heralded as a home run win. It sits in a murky grey area, where no one is quite sure whether Apple is happy with its progress. Some days, I wonder if even Apple themselves can define what the success metrics for TV+ are meant to be. Apple…
You could say that Apple Intelligence takes a handful of ChatGPT-3 chatbot class features, exposes each with a button to press rather than a text box to type in, and weaves in some pretty animations and colourful effects when you invoke them. That’s a curt summary, but it is not wrong necessarily. Everything Apple Intelligence does, we’ve seen before. However, what makes it profound is the…
It has been a while since Apple introduced a new product that was markedly thinner than its predecessor, such that it was a selling point of the device. Throughout the early 2010s, it was almost a meme that every new shiny Apple gadget was touted as thinner. Apple rolled out the thinnest ever marketing blurb for the iPhone 4, the iPhone 5, the iPhone 6, the iPad 2, the iPad Air, the 12-inch…
The New York Times: FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, is close to an agreement with Apple that would give the tech company worldwide television rights for a major new tournament, a monthlong, World Cup-style competition for top teams that will be played for the first time in the United States next summer. The value of the deal might be as little as a quarter of the $4 billion FIFA had first…
Bloomberg: Apple Inc. is in talks to build Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence engine into the iPhone, according to people familiar with the situation, setting the stage for a blockbuster agreement that would shake up the AI industry. Apple is preparing new capabilities as part of iOS 18 — the next version of the iPhone operating system — based on its own AI models. But those enhancements will…
Apple: Web Distribution, available with a software update later this spring, will let authorized developers distribute their iOS apps to EU users directly from a website owned by the developer. Apple will provide authorized developers access to APIs that facilitate the distribution of their apps from the web, integrate with system functionality, back up and restore users’ apps, and more. For…
I was bracing for the critical response and early reviews to the Vision Pro to be dire; a joke, a waste of a time. But the sentiment is actually far more positive than I expected. Amidst the ungainly ergonomics of the first-generation hardware, and the window management omissions of a first-generation operating system, people have found glimpses of greatness. More so for entertainment, but…
Apple: Apple is sharing new business terms available for developers’ apps in the EU. Developers can choose to adopt these new business terms or stay on Apple’s existing terms. Developers must adopt the new business terms for EU apps to use the new capabilities for alternative distribution or payment processing. The new business terms for apps in the EU are necessary to support the DMA’s…
The Verge: Apple will not be making an Apple Silicon version of the 27-inch iMac to replace the Intel-equipped model that it discontinued in 2022. The company is instead focusing the iMac line around the 24-inch model that was first released in early 2021 and just updated with the new M3 processor this fall. Apple PR representative Starlayne Meza confirmed the company’s plans to The Verge. The…
Ever since the first virtual WWDC, I have not been enamoured by the virtual event format — it’s just less fun. In 2020, doing a pre-recorded video was a necessity. Now, it’s a choice. Google, Microsoft and others have done a few live presentations in the last year and it’s engaging, even if I don’t care so much about what they are announcing. In contrast, Apple’s events are lacking that feeling of…
Perhaps one of the most provocative changes Apple announced at its event this month is the abandonment of the ‘Bionic’ moniker for its A-series chips in favour of a ‘Pro’ adjective. The conspicuously veiled truth in choosing that name is the absence, at least to date, of a non-pro A17 chip. For the longest time, Apple would update all of its flagship iPhones with the same, new, chip each fall.…
Apple: “We are happy to report that we had an all-time revenue record in Services during the June quarter, driven by over 1 billion paid subscriptions, and we saw continued strength in emerging markets thanks to robust sales of iPhone,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. Apple’s hardware sales growth has been negligible-to-flat for several quarters in a row. More than ever, their quarterly financial…
During the WWDC announcement, Apple focused on how the keyboard autocorrect system in iOS 17 is powered by machine learning based on ‘transformer’ neural networks, with the aim to enhance accuracy and make the corrections feel more personalised to each user. Having used iOS 17 for a month so far, you can definitely feel the difference. The corrections are better. It feels like it knows what you…
The Apple Vision Pro headset is wowing everyone who gets a chance to try it, with universally positive impressions being published from press who got to have the 30-minute demo experience. In those articles, I’ve noticed a common refrain that I don’t think is accurate. The presented idea is that whilst this particular model is arriving “early next year” as something too expensive for the ordinary…
Apple: Apple today unveiled Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad. Video and music creators can now unleash their creativity in new ways that are only possible on iPad. Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad bring all-new touch interfaces that allow users to enhance their workflows with the immediacy and intuitiveness of Multi-Touch. Final Cut Pro for iPad introduces a powerful set of tools for video…
Humane , the secretive startup founded by ex-Apple software design chief Imran Chaudri, finally went public with Chaudri showing off their device for the first time at the TED conference last week. I’ve seen a recording of the 15-minute presentation, which unfortunately is yet to be officially published online. Chaudri’s talk is centred on the premise that technology (mainly through the…
The New York Times: As the company prepares to introduce the headset in June, enthusiasm at Apple has given way to skepticism, said eight current and former employees, who requested anonymity because of Apple’s policies against speaking about future products. There are concerns about the device’s roughly $3,000 price, doubts about its utility and worries about its unproven market. That dissension…
Homes are varied and complicated and individual to each person. They represent a myriad of diverse problems, and that simply cannot be solved by a one-size-fits-all product. As such, it was competitively unsustainable for Apple to only have one smart speaker on sale, in the form of the HomePod mini. It doesn’t necessarily need a product lineup as diverse as what Amazon has cooked up with the Echo…
Bloomberg: But rivals have increasingly added touch screens to personal computers, putting pressure on Apple to do the same. A Mac resurgence in recent years also has made the business a bigger moneymaker than the iPad – and the company wants to keep its computer line-up as compelling as possible. Based on current internal deliberations, Apple could launch its first touch-screen Mac in 2025 as…
It’s really cool that Apple found a sports league with an unencumbered portfolio of rights, to be able to strike a universal first-of-its-kind all-in streaming package with worldwide availability, no restrictions and blackouts. Fair credit to MLS too: the league thought ahead and purposefully organised its subordinate partners to make this a possibility; they were instructed to ensure all existing…
Apple: iCloud already protects 14 sensitive data categories using end-to-end encryption by default, including passwords in iCloud Keychain and Health data. For users who enable Advanced Data Protection, the total number of data categories protected using end-to-end encryption rises to 23, including iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photos. The only major iCloud data categories that are not covered are…
The Apple TV hardware has two main issues: lagging OS, and price. This week’s hardware refresh naturally didn’t do much to change the software experience — although Siri features a slightly more modernised UI and per-user voice recognition now — but they did tackle the price problem. The previous lineup was $149 for Apple TV HD, a product first released in 2015, and two models of Apple TV 4K…
It’s such an Apple simplification to show the exact same lock screen whether the phone is awake or not. It’s so similar that it is a stretch to even describe it as a “mode”. It’s just your lock screen, dimmed. I like it. It’s the same way the Apple Watch works, it makes sense to me. When you invest in customising your lock screen using all the new widgets, dynamic wallpapers, font and colour…
Bloomberg: Inside the ads group, Teresi has talked up expanding the business significantly. It’s generating about $4 billion in revenue annually, and he wants to increase that to the double digits. That means Apple needs to crank up its efforts. I believe that the iPhone maker will eventually expand search ads to Maps. It also will likely add them to digital storefronts like Apple Books and Apple…
Actually, we fitted smart wall switches rather than independent light bulbs, but it’s the same difference. Smart lights are the go-to accessory to kit out a smart home with. We set some up in our house a few years ago, and an obvious thing to do was to make it so all the lights turn themselves off at night, so we aren’t wasting electricity, all night long, if someone forgets to flick the switches…
The jump to Apple Silicon and the M1 chip was nothing short of astonishing. The Mac got way, way, way, better, quite literally overnight. In the timeline of the Mac, 2020 will be remembered forever (and it’s not about COVID). Even more staggeringly, Rosetta 2 ensured old Intel binaries ran well enough that you generally couldn’t even tell that you were running through an emulation layer. Whether…
Apple: iCloud Shared Photo Library gives families a new way to share photos seamlessly with a separate iCloud library that up to six users can collaborate on, contribute to, and enjoy. Users can choose to share existing photos from their personal libraries, or share based on a start date or people in the photos. A user can also choose to send photos to the Shared Library automatically using a new…
Apple: Currently, when an auto-renewable subscription price is increased, subscribers must opt in before the price increase is applied. The subscription doesn’t renew at the next billing period for subscribers who didn’t opt in to the new price. This has led to some services being unintentionally interrupted for users and they must take steps to resubscribe within the app, from Settings on iPhone…
To me, the Apple brand ultimately stands for high-quality premium products, developed by teams of people that care deeply about what they are working on and have the freedom to sweat the details. Whilst they don’t always succeed, their consistency at achieving that feeling when it comes to hardware design is unrivalled. Every part, every component, every material, appears to have been thoroughly…
Netflix: Our revenue growth has slowed considerably as our results and forecast below show. Streaming is winning over linear, as we predicted, and Netflix titles are very popular globally. However, our relatively high household penetration - when including the large number of households sharing accounts - combined with competition, is creating revenue growth headwinds. The big COVID boost to…
Apple: Apple today introduced Mac Studio and Studio Display, an entirely new Mac desktop and display designed to give users everything they need to build the studio of their dreams. A breakthrough in personal computing, Mac Studio is powered by M1 Max and the new M1 Ultra, the world’s most powerful chip for a personal computer. It is the first computer to deliver an unprecedented level of…