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- Wednesday February 12
- 03:15 pmGot iPhone, Apple Watch or AirPods? Join Apple’s biggest health study yet.
The comprehensive new Apple Health Study aims to better understand how technology and physical and mental well-being intersect. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)03:07 pmAdobe Firefly now lets anyone create 5-second AI video in 1080p HD
Adobe is today expanding access to its AI video generator, Firefly. Anyone can now create 5-second video clips in 1080p HD free of charge … more…03:06 pmCleaner One Pro Review: one of the best Mac cleaners
Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Quick, stable performance combined with a handy user interface made navigation and customization easy. The modules work as advertised, and handle duplicate files and cleanup well. Excellent Dropbox Scanner utility, which helps make it unique. Cons Some UI elements could be tightened and improved upon The Menu Bar option offers access to tools that the standard interface doesn’t (namely the Dropbox Scanner tool), which is a bit awkward. Our Verdict Cleaner One Pro proves a handy utility wherein the included modules do their jobs well, while the unique Dropbox Scanner tool helps scrounge through and remove dozens of gigabytes of Dropbox file crud, making you wish this utility was available for other cloud-based services. There’s something good here, the price is right, and outside of a few user interface tweaks that could be perfected, this is worth downloading, installing, and looking into. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Price When Reviewed$19.99 a year for 1 device (usually $24.99) Best Prices Today: Cleaner One Pro for Mac Retailer Price Trend Micro (1 year, 1 Mac) $19.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Cleaner One Pro for Mac is easy to download and install: just snag either the free copy or sign up for the tiered subscription, install the software, give it permission to access your hard drive, and you’re set. See how Cleaner One Pro compares to other Mac Cleaners in our round-up of the Best Mac Cleaner software. The software requires Mac OS 10.12 (Sierra) or later to install and run, and is available in both free and paid subscription-based tiers. For the free tier, the software offers basic scanning and no user limits while requiring no credit or debit card to be stored with Trend Micro. The Basic tier, which currently retails for $19.99/£19.99 a year (then $24.99/£24.99 a year) requires a payment method to be stored with Trend Micro, offers support for one device, access to additional tools, and easy uninstallation if desired. The Advanced tier retails for $29.99/£29.99 a year currently (then $59.99/£46.99), requires a payment method to be stored with Trend Micro, and offers support for five devices, macOS and Windows support, quick uninstallation, and access to additional tools. There is a version on the Mac App Store that retails at $19.99/£19.99 or $29.99/£30.99 on a yearly subscription. There’s also an iOS version. Cleaner One Pro’s handy menu-based information tab offers a quick view of useful system information.Foundry Once installed and run, a clean, animated user interface invites you in. Like similar tools, Cleaner One Pro is designed around an assortment of modules along with its overarching Smart Scan, which looks over your storage, diagnostics, and applications, while the other modules (Junk Files, Big Files, Disk Map, Startup Manager, Duplicate Files, Similar Photos, App Manager, and File Shredder) attend to their own tasks when activated. The modules, in turn, performed well during testing, and were able to locate large files and duplicates that could be disposed of. The Smart Scan, as expected, goes through a general overview of storage, diagnostics, and applications to suss out garbage files and make recommendations as to what tools to use. 6.66GB of duplicate photos were just deleted via the Similar Photos module.Foundry The Junk Files module hunts down the usual system logs, uninstalled application leftovers, language files, unused disk images, installer packages, browser caches, broken login items, old updates, and document old versions, but in this case surprised me in locating about a dozen World War II Online update installers that’d been cached and helped clear 40.3GB of drive space. The Disk Map module worked as expected, offering a nice layout and concise display of what’s eating up your Mac’s hard drive. The Startup Manager offered an excellent peek under your Mac’s hood, especially in terms of launch agents, the module allowing you to activate or deactivate individual components. The application also offers an interesting Adware Startup Items option, which picks out potential adware that might need to be deactivated. The Duplicate Files, App Manager, and File Shredder modules work as expected, File Shredder allowing you to drop files and folders in as needed and securely deleting them, even if there’s no way to gauge exactly how secure the delete process happened to be. If there was one element that caught my eye, it was the Dropbox Scanner tool, which hooked into my Dropbox account, compared files and file sizes, and offered a quick means of cleaning up larger files, which helped clear dozens of gigabytes of space and proved to be pretty unique as a feature. Other nice touches included easy access to technical support to quickly file a ticket, report a bug, or suggest a new feature, and the Smart Scan feature helpfully points out whether or not a macOS update is available for download and installation, which is a helpful add-on. Customizing the Smart Scan module and choosing which tests to perform.Foundry Yes, there are a few things that could stand to be improved upon in Cleaner One Pro, and the application doesn’t quite know if it wants to be primarily accessed through the macOS Menu Bar or the standard home screen. The impressive Dropbox Scanner tool proves accessible only through the Menu Bar, which is a bit of an odd choice. I would have liked to have seen some user interface changes, such as a “Select All” checkbox to quickly encapsulate a vast number of files that need to be removed. It may be a feature or a bug, but the activation key, once purchased, can’t be copied and pasted and needs to be entered manually. An actual free trial would be nice to see as opposed to a promised 30-day money-back guarantee, but Trend Micro’s tech support got back to requests quickly when reached out to, which is a bit more personal attention than expected from a giant software company. Finally, the More Tools module simply hooks into advertising for Trend Micro’s additional utilities (Antivirus One, Unzip One, Trend Micro VPN, and AdBlock One), which feels like necessary baggage but still a bit irksome. Should you buy Cleaner One Pro for Mac? Trend Micro has created an excellent utility that achieves its goal of standing out in a crowded Mac utility marketplace. What’s present with Cleaner One Pro is useful, lives up to its description, and an elegant user interface makes it easy to navigate the program, customize settings, quickly view extraneous apps, files, and login items, and prune your Mac down more effectively. It’s also to Cleaner One Pro’s credit that the application doesn’t try to make itself a mega-suite and do everything under the sun, including antiviral scanning and protection or act as a VPN, although Trend Micro readily advertises those products for sale. Cleaner One Pro offers a useful set of Mac cleaning tools for a good price, and if you’re looking for something reliable in this field, it’s worth your consideration.02:51 pmTrump administration pulls NHTSA chief from Apple
President Trump has nominated an executive from Apple to run the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. more…02:51 pmApple’s full product lineup could soon arrive on Amazon…sort of
Amazon is a go-to retailer for many users, but if you’re shopping for Apple devices, you’ll only find certain products for sale. Soon, that may change—sort of—thanks to a new Amazon test. more…02:32 pmApple aims to get technology helping with all health issues
Following very many specific studies and research collaborations, Apple has announced a new program that takes a holistic overview of health.Enrollment screen for the US-only Apple Research appPreviously, Apple has collaborated with medical researchers on issues ranging from menstrual cycles and even pickelball, to hearing loss and also sleep tracking. Now the company says it wants to research overall health issues, and has launched a new Apple Health Study in collaboration with the Brigham and Women's Hospital."We've only just begun to scratch the surface of how technology can improve our understanding of human health," Calum MacRae, MD, PhD., a cardiologist, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and principal investigator of the Apple Health Study at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said in a statement. "We are excited to be part of the Apple Health Study, as it will continue to explore connections across different areas of health using technology that so many people carry with them every day." Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums02:30 pmSolar charging + 10,000mAh battery = never worry about a dead phone again
This solar-powered beast is built for adventure and ready to keep your devices alive. Save on SolPro 10K Fast Charge Solar Power Bank. (via Cult of Mac - Apple news, rumors, reviews and how-tos)02:24 pmBring Siri home with this super rare HomePod mini $20 discount
Macworld If you want a smart speaker with great sound and a small footprint, you can’t go wrong with a HomePod mini even at its full $99 MSRP. But today it’s an even better value: Best Buy is selling the HomePod mini for $80, savings of $20. This HomePod mini rarely ever goes on sale, so if you’ve been waiting for a price drop to get one, now’s the time to do it. Apple’s compact smart speaker is a great way to bring Siri into your home—which is quite likely the main reason you’re looking into getting one of these—allowing the smart assistant to play music for you, set timers, look up things online, send messages, make calls, and so on, even when your iPhone is across the house. “If you’re looking for an everyday music player, weather forecaster, simple question answerer, and light switch, it’ll work a bit better than one of the super-low-priced alternatives, especially if you’re already invested in the Apple universe,” our review reads. We gave the speaker a 3.5-star rating in our review, appreciating its design and size, decent audio, and excellent volume. We would have given it a higher score had similar speakers not been a lot more affordable—and this price cut helps out a lot there. So get Siri home with the HomePod mini for $80 at Best Buy, an extremely rare discount. Buy now at Best Buy02:18 pmApple announces new Apple Health Study that uses iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods
Apple is launching a holistic health study that aims to determine how Apple products “play a role in advancing and improving physical health, mental health, and overall wellbeing.” Enrollment for the brand new Apple Health Study opens today in Apple’s Research app — version 6.0 is out today — for participants in the United States. Here’s more about Apple’s most ambitious health study to date. more…02:16 pmHere are the Mac apps and utilities I couldn’t live without
My colleague Zac Hall yesterday shared the Mac apps he currently uses, and it got me thinking about the Mac apps and utilities I couldn’t live without. Some are major apps, like Final Cut Pro, but there are a bunch of utilities I use on a regular basis that I’d really miss if I didn’t have them … more…02:12 pmNew holistic Apple Health Study launches today in Apple Research app
On Wednesday, Apple is launching the Apple Health Study, which aims to further understand how technology — including iPhone, Apple Watch… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.02:07 pmU.S. iPhone users can no longer find the Gulf of Mexico on Apple Maps
Macworld The body of water previously known in the U.S. as the Gulf of Mexico—and still known as that in many other parts of the world—will henceforth be labeled as “Gulf of America” for U.S. users of Apple Maps. The jingoistic decision to rename the gulf was made by President Donald Trump on January 20 amid a slew of executive orders. However, the president’s powers to rename geographic features are limited. He is able merely to direct federal agencies to adopt the new name, while official international usage lies outside his purview, and individuals and companies throughout the world can continue to call the gulf whatever they like. Under such circumstances, the proprietors of major mapping services may be unsure how to proceed. Apple Maps, Google Maps, MapQuest and so on have millions of overseas users who will be baffled and dismayed by such a change and are not bound to follow the president’s whim when applying geographic labels. At the same time, U.S.-based corporations are understandably reluctant to alienate either the governing party or the large sections of the populace who voted for it. Ideally tech giants would love to stay out of political squabbles entirely and avoid offending anyone. One approach would be to simply have the names on digital maps reflect data provided by an official body: follow, for example, the usage of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and its Geographic Names Information Service (GNIS). On that basis, it was understood that Apple Maps and Google Maps wouldn’t change the name of the gulf until the GNIS did so first, which could take months. Well, things seem to have sped up. The GNIS has been updated to reflect the president’s order, and earlier this week Google responded by changing the label in Google Maps. Users of the service in the U.S. now see the label “Gulf of America,” while users in Mexico see “Gulf of Mexico.” Everyone else sees the old name with the new name in brackets. (If that seems like contemptible fence-sitting, do note that it isn’t unprecedented. Mapping services have long done a similar balancing act for places like Taiwan.) For a U.K. viewer, Google Maps currently shows both names.David Price / Foundry While MapQuest and Bing Maps have not changed the label at time of writing, Apple quickly followed Google’s and the GNIS’s lead and switched to the usage “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, as first spotted by Bloomberg. Sources report, however, that Cupertino is embracing the new name more fully than Google, and at some point in the future intends to make the change for international users too. For now, here in the U.K., a search for “Gulf of America” takes me to the place in question but still shows a label referencing Mexico. An interesting wrinkle is that, while the GNIS has updated its database, the USGS maps are still catching up. These still say Gulf of Mexico, albeit with a note at the top of the page saying “Per Secretarial Order 3423, the Gulf of Mexico has been renamed to the Gulf of America. The display map for the Gazetteer application is in the process of being updated to reflect this name change.” It seems that Google and Apple have both rushed to follow Trump’s orders quicker than his own federal agencies. Or perhaps they simply have more advanced mapping systems. David Price / Foundry Such enthusiastic compliance may be disappointing from a company widely perceived to embody progressive values, but nobody can be surprised. Tim Cook contributed $1 million of his personal fortune to Trump’s inauguration fund and appeared in several photos as an attendee of the inauguration. He’s not about to let ideological differences sour Apple’s relationship with the White House and put its prospects in jeopardy, especially when the threat of tariffs looms over everything Apple sells. And let’s not forget, the current regime is not above taking petty revenge on those who oppose even its smallest edicts.02:02 pmChina’s Alibaba surges on news of Apple Intelligence partnership
Alibaba's stock price surged as the Chinese e-commerce giant made progress in its partnership with Apple to roll out Apple Intelligence… The post appeared first on MacDailyNews.02:00 pmKandji announces Vulnerability Management aimed at delivering a stronger security posture for Apple in the enterprise | 9 to 5 MacKandji announces Vulnerability Management aimed at delivering a stronger security posture for Apple in the enterprise
IT and security teams often struggle with visibility into vulnerabilities, leading to long remediation timelines. A McKinsey report shows that 37% of companies take over three months to resolve vulnerabilities. Today, Kandji is announcing a solution that eliminates that delay by allowing IT and security teams to detect and remediate vulnerabilities within the same platform, reducing operational slowdown and minimizing downtime. more…01:24 pmSurfshark VPN review
Macworld At a GlanceExpert's Rating Pros Simple to use No device limits Great for streaming services Cons Prices could increase after your plan expires Our Verdict SurfShark is a great VPN option that’s as easy to use as the best of them, while maintaining security across an unlimited number of devices – something we don’t see often. As with the likes of NordVPN, it leans heavily on two-year pricing, which can be problematic when VPN legislation and privacy protocols can regularly wax and wane. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Retailer Price Surfshark (Monthly) $2.19 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Price When ReviewedStarter plan from $2.19 a month for two years + 3 free months. Usually $15.45 a month. Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Surfshark (Monthly) $2.19 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket We’ve updated this review for 2025. The joy of VPNs becoming more popular is that services spring up all over the place aiming to be worth your time and money. One such option is SurfShark, which remains a reliable, affordable option that there’s a good chance your favorite tech YouTuber has endorsed at some point in time. SurfShark has more than 3000 servers spread across 100 countries, making its network one of the widest and most varied of any VPN, as well as a backbone of excellent apps across just about any operating system, Apple or otherwise (although I did find it slowed my MacBook down a little during testing). Surfshark has a VPN app for Apple TV too, which should simplify the process of accessing region-locked content on that device. It supports multiple protocols and excellent encryption, as well as a privacy-minded no-logs policy that’s regularly audited – something even big hitters like NordVPN can’t guarantee. So, whether you’re looking to buy a product from another country, access a different country’s selection of streaming service libraries from the comfort of your home, or want to just keep your data private when using coffee shop Wi-Fi, SurfShark is well worth a look. For more options take a look at our round-ups of the best VPNs for Mac, best VPNs for iPhone and best VPNs for iPad. You can sign up for Surfshark here. Surfshark Features & Apps Create a persona to use on sites you don’t entirely trust or want to be linked to your email or payment information.Foundry As with many of its competitors, SurfShark offers three tiers of features at varying price points. The most basic option, aptly named SurfShark Starter, offers VPN functionality as well as an ad blocker and the option to generate a proxy email address and personal details for sites you don’t feel comfortable about giving your information to. SurfShark One, which the company refers to as the ‘Best choice’, adds email and payment detail breach alerts, as well as personal data security reports, antivirus and other malware protection, while the One+ plan adds data removal from company databases and people search sites (in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and EU). It’s a comprehensive feature set, but while SurfShark certainly tempts with a price starting at just $2.39/£1.79 per month at the time of writing, it’s tied to a two-year bundle. With VPN legislation seemingly always in flux, there’s a risk in tying into anything longer than a year – and there’s no guarantee the price won’t go up after any length of membership. Once it’s installed, it’s easy to get connected to one of its dizzying array of connections – simply click the country on the left column and it’ll start connecting immediately. The macOS app offers light and dark modes, and you can opt to have it shown in the dock or the menu bar which is a nice touch (although I always prefer the latter). As well as an iOS app there is an app for Apple TV. I also took the iOS version of SurfShark for a spin and was pleased to see features like MultiHop and Dedicated IP are baked in. Many mobile apps are watered-down versions of their desktop VPN offerings, but there’s even the Alternative ID function here. Surfshark Performance SurfShark is easy to get to grips with, even for VPN newcomers.Foundry When I reviewed SurfShark previously, I found the performance to be inconsistent with results others had seen, but since then my own network has seen an upgrade and I’ve moved to a more recent MacBook model, so we wanted to run the test again. You’ll notice connection speed fluctuations with a VPN more with a slower connection than with a superfast one, but my use case falls somewhere in the middle. With WireGuard, SurfShark is, quite simply, the slickest VPN around, removing very little speed from my connection. In fact, testing on around an 800 Mbps connection (up from the last time we tested), the drop was to around 720 to 750 Mbps which is still absolutely fantastic and tears away from the opposition. OpenVPN is better for compatibility, though, and after the fine folks at Surfshark asked us to crunch the numbers again, I’m pleased to say things are much swifter than when I tested before. OpenVPN still sees a steeper drop, but it’s still running at anywhere between 400 and 450 Mbps. Whichever protocol I used, I was able to flick between streaming libraries with ease, do a bit of shopping for digital goods, and there were no real issues – at least in so far as connectivity. In my prior testing, SurfShark’s Mac app felt as though it was grinding my daily login to a halt, but on the M3 MacBook Air whatever issue was there before seems to be fixed, with no discernible performance drop (thank goodness). Surfshark Privacy & Security Antivirus Scan: Scan for unwelcome files and viruses on your Mac.Foundry Geoblocking aside, those protocols also offer varying degrees of encryption, all end-to-end to keep your data secure at source and in transit. The Kill Switch feature is billed as a “safety net”, and like a safety net, it’s something you’ll hope to never use – but you’ll be glad if you have to. It’ll shut down your connection if your VPN connection falters, preventing personal data from sneaking out to bad actors. It won’t reconnect automatically, which in this case is a good thing. Surfshark is headquartered in the Netherlands and has undergone a series of security audits in recent months. A “no logs” policy is hard to prove (how can a company show you it doesn’t have your data if it never collected any in the first place?) but Surfshark’s process means it logs a small amount of data that’s then scrubbed from its servers with 15 minutes of closing the connection. This data isn’t attributed to a user by name, so a user ID and connection time are all that’s logged, and then those are removed. Search Function: The Surfshark Search offers ‘truly organic’ results, but these can be hit and miss.Foundry The Antivirus Scan is handy, too, and it’ll run scheduled background scans if you leave the app open. Two beta features, Ransomware Shield and Webcam Protection can stop your personal folders and hardware camera from falling into the wrong hands respectively, and the app will constantly look to update its database of viruses to cross-reference files. While Google’s algorithm continually tries to eat itself, Surfshark offers a handy tracker-free browser within the app that moves to your browser of choice. This “private” search is intended to surface “truly organic results”, but in my testing it was hit and miss, oscillating between YouTube videos, old Reddit posts, and the articles I was genuinely looking for. Surfshark pricing and plans As mentioned earlier, two years is a long time to be tied into a VPN, but to its credit, SurfShark’s prices are so low that it almost feels worth the risk. $2.19/£1.69 per month (for 24 months, plus three three months) is very little indeed, and while that doesn’t offer some of the more advanced security features, even the priciest tier is only $4.29/£3.09 at a month for 24 months (plus three free months). Just note that Surfshark frequently adjusts these savings, so you may find it costs fractionally more or less. We round up the best VPN deals separately. Alternatively, if you don’t want to be stuck in a plan you can sign up on a monthly plan. Monthly plans range from $15.45/£12.29 to $20.65/£14.99, depending on which features you opt for. You can sign up for Surfshark here. It’s one of the cheapest options out there, and that may just make it worth a look even if you’re looking to use train Wi-Fi while commuting each month, even if you don’t end up springing for one of the pricier plans with additional features. Still, there’s no guarantee it’ll stay as cheap as this when it comes to renewal. Verdict I’d always advise against a two-year plan for any VPN, but the price of Surfshark’s cheapest plan is so cheap over that time that it remains tempting. It certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s a remarkably privacy-focused, secure VPN that’s easily capable of getting around geo-blocked content, too. Whatever you’re looking to use a VPN for, there’s a good chance you’ll get what you’re looking for with SurfShark.01:00 pmWeb Raiders Unleash Global Brute Force Attacks From 2.8M IP Addresses
The Shadowserver Foundation reports that the campaign, which has been ongoing since January, involves as many as 2.8 million IP addresses daily, targeting VPN devices, firewalls, and gateways from vendors like Palo Alto Networks, Ivanti, and SonicWall. The post appeared first on TechNewsWorld.12:14 pmApps sold location data for US military and intelligence personnel serving overseas
It was discovered last year that location data for US military and intelligence personnel serving overseas was being sold by a Florida-based data broker, but the source of that sensitive data was unclear at the time. It’s now been revealed that the data was captured by a variety of mobile apps with revenue-sharing agreements with a Lithuanian ad-tech company, and then resold by an American company … more…11:40 amIndonesia wins as Apple considers manufacturing iPhones there
Four months since Indonesia banned sales of the iPhone 16 and demanded increasing investment from Apple, it is reported that the company is talking to its suppliers about building the iPhone locally.iPhone 16 & iPhone 16 Plus — still banned in IndonesiaIndonesia banned sales of the iPhone 16 in October 2024, shortly after the range was launched. It did so because Apple had fallen short on its commitment to invest in the country, a commitment that had previously exempted it from stringent import requirements.A series of offers from Apple of direct investment and more creation of its development centers, was followed by a series of rejections by the Indonesian government. Now according to Nikkei Asia, Apple is in talks with its suppliers about potentially manufacturing the iPhone in Indonesia. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums10:30 amApple Intelligence’s biggest problem isn’t the Intelligence–it’s Apple
Macworld Everyone knows that Apple is playing catch-up when it comes to Apple Intelligence. The company’s shipping AI models seem to be way behind the cutting edge, as OpenAI grows, Google pushes forward, and newcomers hit the scene. I’m sure Apple is pouring everything it can into building better, more modern models, and we’ll hear about that effort in detail in June at WWDC. But what troubles me most about the Apple Intelligence rollout isn’t that Apple was caught flatfooted by the AI hype train and is struggling to catch up–it’s that Apple’s implementation of AI features also feels slapdash and rushed. Apple doesn’t have to end up with the best large language model around to win the AI wars. It can be in the ballpark of the best or partner with the leaders to get what it needs. But it can’t fail at the part that is uniquely Apple: Making those features a pleasure to use, in the way we all expect from Apple. Right now, that’s where Apple is failing. Apple’s best shot at AI’s worst The worst thing about AI is that since much of it springs from the concept of a text-based language model, AI interfaces tend to be empty text boxes that you have to type something into. I can’t believe we’re back here. This is serious pre-1984 thinking, 40 years after Apple put a stake in the heart of the command-line interface. Giving users an empty text box and expecting them to know what to say to get the result they want is a colossal user-interface failure. An empty text box is cruel. (And no, having to carefully issue abstract commands via voice is not a good alternative, nor is forcing users to laboriously correct mistaken output with additional text entry.) The future of AI functionality needs to be built on a good user interface design that offers simple visual tools to step users through the process. This is where Apple can really make its mark, and I’m happy to report that in one area, it has really done it: image generation. Image Playground may make some questionable images, but Apple is on the right track with the app’s UI.Foundry I’m not a fan of the images Image Playground generates, but I have to give Apple credit for the interface it’s placed on top of its image-generation model. When you use Image Playground or create a Genmoji, Apple offers a proper interface that–while including a text box for suggestions–also offers a bunch of options you can scroll through and tap to add different suggestions and styles to the party. The stuff you enter in the text box is tokenized into floating elements. It’s an actual interface, and it works pretty well. Users don’t need to know about how the image-generation model is being run beneath the surface. Just let us make pictures. And then there’s the rest The image-generation interface really is Apple’s best take on AI design. Unfortunately, other Apple Intelligence interface elements don’t fare so well. The truth is, I don’t think macOS 15 and iOS 18 have exposed how far Apple is behind in AI as much as it’s exposed how short a time Apple’s designers had to create proper interfaces for all of that AI. Let’s take Writing Tools, which can proofread, rewrite, and modify text. On the Mac, Apple’s APIs and apps have an existing system of spelling and grammar checking that offer a floating palette that lets you navigate through all the errors. On all its platforms, misspellings and grammar issues can be underlined and then tapped on for corrections. Writing Tools seems to have been grafted on in parallel with this system. As Pixel Envy’s Nick Heer points out, it “manifests as a popover, [which] works a little bit like a contextual menu and a little like a panel while doing the job of neither very successfully.” Not only is the Writing Tools interface brittle and messy, but it’s not integrated into any other text tools that Apple has built into its operating systems over the years! This is where we can really see how Apple’s engineers and designers had to rush to implement as many Apple Intelligence features as possible for year one. AI-based writing tools should have been integrated into Apple’s overall approach to spelling and grammar, but instead they’ve been shoved into their own silo. As a result, they lack a lot of the niceties one might expect–for example, when you ask Writing Tools to proofread or rewrite something, it just changes your text and then lets you toggle between the edited and unedited text. AI-based writing tools should have been integrated into Apple’s overall approach to spelling and grammar, but instead they’ve been shoved into their own silo. Contrast that with an existing, AI-powered proofing app, Grammarly, which (even in its very limited Grammarly Desktop version on Mac) underlines errors in your text editor of choice, displays suggested changes when you click or tap, and displays paragraph-long edits with strikethrough and color highlighting to indicate changes. Hammer now, hammer later The famous saying is that when you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. It’s clear that when Apple began its crash program to add Apple Intelligence to its operating systems, the goal was not to solve user problems but to insert AI features anywhere it could. This is the antithesis of Apple’s usual philosophy of solving problems rather than adopting the latest technology, and it has burned the company in some high-profile ways. The most obvious is its use of an LLM to summarize notifications, including news updates. Many apps (including news apps) send way too many notifications, and it would be helpful to users if their phones could alleviate the pain. I’m sure Apple’s software people have been discussing this issue for years. There are several ways they could have approached the problem, including building a new interface element for the Notification Center that rolled up multiple bubbles into one. A priority score attached to each notification would allow Apple to select the top ones to display, with a new interface to unroll the rest. There are many ways to solve this problem—not just for news apps but also for other kinds of apps like security cameras and smart locks. However, most of them would be complex and involve modifying the Notification Center interface or Apple’s push-notification cloud service. They might even require developers of third-party Apps to adopt them. In short, it would take time. Instead, Apple rushed: Given the drive to ship AI features, it shoved a nosy summarization LLM into Notification Center. It was probably the wrong tool for the job, but all Apple’s engineers were given was a hammer. We’re not too many months away from the unveiling of the next round of Apple Intelligence features. Will Apple continue its reckless, messy sprint to catch up, or will it try to be a little more measured? This first wave of Apple Intelligence features are so rough, they desperately need some polish and reconsideration. Will they get it? Or will we be living with half-baked Writing Tools for years because the parties responsible have moved on to the next hurried feature drop? The implementation of Image Playground gives me some hope that Apple still understands its biggest advantage when it comes to building AI: a focus on making users’ lives easier. But the rest of Apple Intelligence has me quite concerned that we’re in for a messy few years.10:15 amApple completes acquisition of Pixelmator, Photomator image editing applications
Back in November, graphics company Pixelmator Team announced that the firm was involved in an acquisition agreements with Apple. The company has officially confirmed that it is now part of Apple. The confirmation was delivered through a software update for the Pixelmator and Photomator apps on iPhone and iPad. The announcement was followed by a […] Source