Apple users looking to improve their security posture? Here’s a guide that I wrote and shared recently.

Gurman: Jon Prosser’s iOS 19 Mockups ‘Aren’t Representative’ of Redesign - MacRumors

To be honest, Prosser’s video gives a very limited peak at iOS 19 redesign. More than 3 min 30 sec of introduction followed by a sponsor segment then followed by a short discussion about four limited mockups. Not his best work.

WWDC25: Still entirely online? No in-person labs or sessions? Only the keynote to be live? Is that it? Oh, and this glassy font, I’m not too fond of that.

So AirPods Max will get new audio features. The fact that only the USB-C model will support this is utterly frustrating, and I wish someone will sue Apple for that. Reason? When Apple launched the USB-C model last year, I don’t recall them saying there were upcoming features that wouldn’t apply to the Lightning port model. It looked like the only difference was the charging port. It appears that’s not the case, or Apple is trying to limit the features artificially to the new model.

Today, I’ve been to an Apple Store in Ottawa, Canada. My daughter in law bought a M4 MacBook Air. I even forgot to check the new blue Air! I wasn’t expecting this: I’m no longer excited to go visit an Apple Store. Times are changing.

BREAKING NEWS: a foldable iPad prototype was found on a table… at an IKEA store in Canada. The prototype was turned on and was running a special version of macOS Touch™. Tim Cook wants it back, but the guy who found set two conditions: you must resign because of Apple Intelligence fiasco, but before you must ask Trump to remove tariffs against Canada. Canadians can be nasty, too.

Here is an observation about Apple Intelligence (yet another one you might say?): Image Playground was announced at WWDC2024. It finally made its debut with iOS 18.2, in December 2024. Since then, we got iOS 18.3, now iOS 18.4 is in beta. Did Image Playground improved? A new image style was introduced, in 18.3, I think. Does it provide better results? Not really. Is it easier to use? Nope. On this subject, I must confess that I personally find Image Playground not to be the best UX Apple ever created. I find it clunky and not always intuitive to use. After two releases, Image Playground is basically the same. Isn’t it surprising, coming from a company who’s playing catch up in AI space? The same questions could apply to Writing Tools. I didn’t test text proofing with each release of Apple Intelligence, but I would bet that it didn’t really improve. Strange.

Om Malik on Apple in today’s world:

Apple has become a complex entity that can’t seem to ever have enough resources to provide the real Apple experience. What you get is “good enough.” And most of the time, I think it is enough – because what others have on the market is worse.

Much worse.

Gruber:

“Tim Cook should have already held a meeting like that to address and rectify this Siri and Apple Intelligence debacle.”

We may not know for sure whether such a meeting will occur or has already occurred. I believe it won’t happen for one simple reason: Tim Cook is not focused on products.

Remember when many tech pundits (and ordinary users, too) were saying that Apple wasn’t really good at services? How about this updated version: Apple isn’t really good at AI.

I’ve been an Apple fan since 1983, and everyone I know—my friends, colleagues, and family—understands my enthusiasm for the brand. Recently, they’ve been calling me more than ever to ask about my thoughts on Tim Cook’s support for Trump. “Apple is becoming like the others; what do you think?” they all inquire. I struggle to express my sadness about this situation. Tim’s poor judgment in supporting the Trump presidency is disappointing. I hope he regrets his decision. Until then, I want him to step down. It’s as simple as that.

The latest post from @gruber@mastodon.social about the delay of Apple Intelligence and the ongoing fiasco serves as a reminder that Apple needs to change soon. It’s another big red flag something is rotten at Apple. Should I mention that Tim Cook’s financial support for the Trump presidential inauguration, whether personal or not, was another mistake? Apple could have and should have acted differently than Meta, Amazon, and others. They did not. We had all the warning signs regarding Trump, and now Tim is associated with this nonsense. There is no possible excuse. It was a poor decision on Tim’s part.

I believe it’s time for Tim Cook to take responsibility and step down.

I love my 2024 iPad Pro, but there is a clear regression in hardware+software for palm rest detection. Each time I put my hand on the screen when taking notes using the Apple Pencil in Apple Notes, the content scrolls up, sometimes not by much, but sometimes quite a lot… I always need to lift my hand, reposition the content and try again. This is utterly frustrating; this is something that I never experienced with my 2018 iPad Pro… this is something that Apple used to be good at.

I don’t know how to feel about the rumored visual redesign of Apple’s upcoming OSes summer releases… I’m still traumatized by the iOS 7 redesign. Not sure what I’m talking about? Here’s a reminder. What I do know is that I like visionOS visuals quite a lot and having that trickled down to the iPhone would be cool. Unifying macOS look and feel with mobile OSes? Not so sure. I also don’t want gamification of these OSes. I know that a younger generation is slowly taking over, and that is fine, but…

For me, Siri evolution, or the lack of evolution, is so tied to Tim Cook’s tenure. A lack of decisiveness from him and his close team led to resources spoiling on the Titan project and to some degree to the maligned Apple Vision Pro. Not all is lost and I agree with this post from Basic Apple Guy, but time is running out and this is another red flag for Tim Cook.

Breaking news: Intelligent Siri delayed. Is it time to sue Apple for all those who bought the “Built for Apple Intelligence” cool aid?

I acquired the skill of programming in Objective-C and developed iPhone applications between 2009 and 2013. Since I had learned programming concepts during my Computer Science degree, I didn’t have to begin from scratch. However, with the advent of generative AI, I can’t help but wonder how my learning experience would have unfolded differently. I think that it would have been significantly expedited while exploring creating different apps beyond the one I was developing.

Is Apple about to get another “Apple Silicon moment” with the C1 modem in the iPhone 16e? I think so. A 24% power consumption reduction for the same performance level is significant in my book.

I’m a frequent user of generative AI, primarily for my work, but also to assist with my activities as a blogger and content creator. I subscribe to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and mainly limit my generative AI use to this service. I realize that OpenAI is becoming my new Apple, as I prefer to concentrate on one service to maximize the benefits of my subscription. I appreciate what they offer, including their services and apps.

However, OpenAI is not the only option, and I should explore other services as well. I don’t want to use Meta’s or Google’s offerings. What else is available? Perplexity? I started using it this morning and I like their offerings, but I’m still on a free plan. Do you have any suggestions besides Perplexity? What about Claude? I’m curious about their respective market shares.

I’m currently testing OpenAI Deep Research on two very specific subjects. So far, I’m quite impressed, not only about the end-results but also with the progress status report during the researching phase. It’s a great way to start looking into specific domains, and it gives many hints as to what to look for. Coupled with OpenAI Canvas, this is a powerful tool for a writer like me.

What a great time to be alive to test those things and see how I can take advantage of all this to be a better human.