I wish there were a beta 5 for Apple OS27 this week, but alas, no; we’ll have to wait until early next week, I guess. According to this iOS Version History chart, iOS 27 beta 4 stands at 19 days, the second-longest beta 4 period for a .0 release since iOS 6.0 beta 4, which lasted 37 days. I don’t know if this is a good sign. Maybe I shouldn’t try to read too much into this.
Apple’s iCloud File Sharing Left Ex-Employees With Access to Secret Documents:
The former employees said many Apple files they had been shared on over their careers at the company—including planning documents for product launch events—continued to sync to their personal devices through the iCloud storage service after they left Apple. In some cases, they even received notifications about fresh updates to the documents. Some former employees said they were petrified to delete the files for fear that doing so would attract Apple’s attention.
Wow! I work in the banking system and such document life cycle management would be considered lousy at best. I think it’s time for Apple to make iCloud a little bit more business-friendly. The story on the iPhone is better as corporate-controlled apps are using their own partition which can be wiped independantly from the personal partition. But on iCloud? It doesn’t seem to be the case.
Today, while preparing the next edition of my newsletter, I wondered whether managing numerous product lines, with a multitude of variants and configurations, might be harming Apple, especially in the current context of supply chain difficulties. I feel that Apple’s strategy is no longer in tune with the times.
If my non-scientific calculations are to be believed, this week marks the weekly release of Apple’s OS 27 betas. In my case, Beta 4 was a bit of a step back compared to Beta 2 and Beta 3.
Here’s a very compelling argument that Apple will win the AI race… or, more specifically, the personal AI race. Cue this video for all the details. Spoiler if you are lazy: Apple owns the device and the context, they don’t need the most powerful LLM to succeed in the personal AI space.
Another tech journalist has passed away: John C. Dvorak at age 80. I recall reading his column in MacUser magazine during the challenging early days of Apple. Although I wasn’t a fan, I occasionally kept reading his work. I always saw him as a perennial Apple skeptic, perhaps more for the sake of it, but personally, he might have felt more warmly about Apple’s future than he let on. He was often wrong on tech trends and about Apple.
OpenAI’s First AI Device Will Be a Portable Smart Speaker:
OpenAI’s speaker-like product is designed to “serve as a humanlike AI companion that lives in the home,” according to Bloomberg. It will be able to control smart home accessories, answer questions, play media, respond to messages, and more, with the device powered by ChatGPT. It is meant to learn more about the user over time, becoming more personalized and proactive, using GPT-Live to communicate with users.
What will be the onboarding experience? Will it require a smartphone? Can they beat Apple on integrations? How is this OpenAI device going to access my messages? Which messaging service will be supported?
If Siri AI delivers on its promise, what does it mean for app developers? Since 2008, the iPhone experience has been built on top of application-based experiences. Siri AI seems to be offering a bridge between these apps, pushing the application experience behind Siri’s. Not only that, but Apple will ask developers to add support for Siri AI, accelerating the paradox of helping Apple’s bottom line, not the developers’. Interesting read from The Verge, for more context.
Gruber on Musk fixation on Apple and ChatGPT in a recent blog post: Remember Musk’s Suit Alleging a Conspiracy Between Apple and OpenAI? — Daring Fireball
Musk alleges that the top downloads list is crooked too. That’s just projection. If Musk ran a popular App Store he’d put his thumb on the scale to make sure his own apps always top the list. That’s what he’s done with his personal account, and accounts aligned with his politics, on Twitter/X. Because that’s what he would do, he thinks that’s what Apple does.
He’s probably right: Cheaters are often suspicious of others cheating too.
I don’t know if I should trust the news, but it seems that opposition to data centers and artificial intelligence is growing. Nowadays, you have to be cautious about what the media spreads. Controversial topics sell, but they don’t always reflect reality. Still, I get the feeling that frustration is gradually building. 🤨