Apple has some minor updates for all its operating systems, and the releases include iOS 17.6, iPadOS 17.6, tvOS 17.6, watchOS 10.6, and macOS Sonoma 14.6.
Apple’s notes for these updates simply say they include bug fixes, security updates, or optimizations. However, there are a few hidden features.
macOS 14.6 reportedly enables multi-display support in clamshell mode on the M3 MacBook Pro, allowing users of that device to use two external displays at once. That was already possible on the M3 Pro and M3 Max variations. Apple had previously released a similar update to bring that functionality to the M3 MacBook Air.
iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6 have added a feature called Catch Up, which is targeted at sports fans who use Apple’s TV app.
The feature allows users to watch a quick sequence of highlights that have been produced so far from an in-progress Major League Soccer game before joining the live feed.
That’s about it, though. These are minor updates, and they are likely the final ones other than security hotfixes until Apple begins rolling out its annual updates, such as iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia 15, later this fall.
Those updates are expected to include several new features, though the biggest—Apple Intelligence, a suite of generative AI features—will not arrive until iOS 18.1, which was just released as a developer beta for the first time.
iOS 17.6, iPadOS 17.6, tvOS 17.6, watchOS 10.6, and macOS Sonoma 14.6 are available to download and install on all supported devices now.
Enlarge/ Apple Intelligence was unveiled at WWDC 2024.
Apple
As was just rumored, the iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 developer betas are rolling out today, and they include the first opportunity to try out Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of generative AI features.
Initially announced for iOS 18, Apple Intelligence is expected to launch for the public this fall. Typically, Apple also releases a public beta (the developer one requires a developer account) for new OS updates, but it hasn’t announced any specifics about that just yet.
Not all the Apple Intelligence features will be part of this beta. It will include writing tools, like the ability to rewrite, proofread, or summarize text throughout the OS in first-party and most third-party apps. It will also include new Siri improvements, such as moving seamlessly between voice and typing, the ability to follow when you stumble over your words, and maintaining context from one request to the next. (It will not, however, include ChatGPT integration; Apple says that’s coming later.)
New natural language search features, support for creating memory movies, transcription summaries, and several new Mail features will also be available.
Developers who download the beta will be able to request access to Apple Intelligence features by navigating to the Settings app, tapping Apple Intelligence & Siri, and then tapping “Join the Apple Intelligence waitlist.” The waitlist is in place because some features are demanding on Apple’s servers, and staggering access is meant to stave off any server issues when developers are first trying it out.
Enlarge/ Google, like most of us, has a hard time letting go of cookies. Most of us just haven’t created a complex set of APIs and brokered deals across regulation and industry to hold onto the essential essence of cookies.
Getty Images
Google has an announcement today: It’s not going to do something it has thought about, and tinkered with, for quite some time.
Most people who just use the Chrome browser, rather than develop for it or try to serve ads to it, are not going to know what “A new path for Privacy Sandbox on the web” could possibly mean. The very short version is that Google had a “path,” first announced in January 2020, to turn off third-party (i.e., tracking) cookies in the most-used browser on Earth, bringing it in line with Safari, Firefox, and many other browsers. Google has proposed several alternatives to the cookies that follow you from page to page, constantly pitching you on that space heater you looked at three days ago. Each of these alternatives has met varying amounts of resistance from privacy and open web advocates, trade regulators, and the advertising industry.
So rather than turn off third-party cookies by default and implement new solutions inside the Privacy Sandbox, Chrome will “introduce a new experience” that lets users choose their tracking preferences when they update or first use Chrome. Google will also keep working on its Privacy Sandbox APIs but in a way that recognizes the “impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising.” Google also did not fail to mention it was “discussing this new path with regulators.”
Why today? What does it really mean? Let’s journey through more than four and a half years of Google’s moves to replace third-party cookies, without deeply endangering its standing as the world’s largest advertising provider.
2017–2022: FLoC or “What if machines tracked you, not cookies?”
Google’s big moves toward a standstill likely started at Apple headquarters. Its operating system updates in the fall of 2017 implemented a 24-hour time limit on ad-targeting cookies in Safari, the default browser on Macs and iOS devices. A “Coalition of Major Advertising Trade Associations” issued a sternly worded letter opposing this change, stating it would “drive a wedge between brands and their customers” and make advertising “more generic and less timely and useful.”
By the summer of 2019, Firefox was ready to simply block tracking cookies by default. Google, which makes the vast majority of its money through online advertising, made a different, broader argument against dropping third-party cookies. To paraphrase: Trackers will track, and if we don’t give them a proper way to do it, they’ll do it the dirty way by fingerprinting browsers based on version numbers, fonts, screen size, and other identifiers. Google said it had some machine learning that could figure out when it was good to share your browsing habits. For example:
New technologies like Federated Learning show that it’s possible for your browser to avoid revealing that you are a member of a group that likes Beyoncé and sweater vests until it can be sure that group contains thousands of other people.
In January 2020, Google shifted its argument from “along with” to “instead of” third-party cookies. Chrome Engineering Director Justin Schuh wrote, “Building a more private Web: A path towards making third party cookies obsolete,” suggesting that broad support for Chrome’s privacy sandbox tools would allow for dropping third-party cookies entirely. Privacy advocate Ben Adida described the move as “delivering teeth” and “a big deal.” Feedback from the W3C and other parties, Schuh wrote at that time, “gives us confidence that solutions in this space can work.”
Google’s explanatory graphic for FLoC, or Federated Learning of Cohorts.
Google
As Google developed its replacement for third-party cookies, the path grew trickier and the space more perilous. The Electronic Frontier Foundation described Google’s FLoC, or the “Federated Learning of Cohorts” that would let Chrome machine-learn your profile for sites and ads, as “A Terrible Idea.” The EFF was joined by Mozilla, Apple, WordPress, DuckDuckGo, and lots of browsers based on Chrome’s core Chromium code in being either opposed or non-committal to FLoC. Google pushed back testing FLOC until late 2022 and third-party cookie removal (and thereby FLoC implementation) until mid-2023.
By early 2022, FLoC didn’t have a path forward. Google pivoted to a Topics API, which would give users a bit more control over which topics (“Rock Music,” “Auto & Vehicles”) would be transmitted to potential advertisers. It would certainly improve over third-party cookies, which are largely inscrutable in naming and offer the user only one privacy policy: block them, or delete them all and lose lots of logins.
After years of controversies over plans to scan iCloud to find more child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), Apple abandoned those plans last year. Now, child safety experts have accused the tech giant of not only failing to flag CSAM exchanged and stored on its services—including iCloud, iMessage, and FaceTime—but also allegedly failing to report all the CSAM that is flagged.
The United Kingdom’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) shared UK police data with The Guardian showing that Apple is “vastly undercounting how often” CSAM is found globally on its services.
According to the NSPCC, police investigated more CSAM cases in just the UK alone in 2023 than Apple reported globally for the entire year. Between April 2022 and March 2023 in England and Wales, the NSPCC found, “Apple was implicated in 337 recorded offenses of child abuse images.” But in 2023, Apple only reported 267 instances of CSAM to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), supposedly representing all the CSAM on its platforms worldwide, The Guardian reported.
Large tech companies in the US must report CSAM to NCMEC when it’s found, but while Apple reports a couple hundred CSAM cases annually, its big tech peers like Meta and Google report millions, NCMEC’s report showed. Experts told The Guardian that there’s ongoing concern that Apple “clearly” undercounts CSAM on its platforms.
Richard Collard, the NSPCC’s head of child safety online policy, told The Guardian that he believes Apple’s child safety efforts need major improvements.
“There is a concerning discrepancy between the number of UK child abuse image crimes taking place on Apple’s services and the almost negligible number of global reports of abuse content they make to authorities,” Collard told The Guardian. “Apple is clearly behind many of their peers in tackling child sexual abuse when all tech firms should be investing in safety and preparing for the rollout of the Online Safety Act in the UK.”
Outside the UK, other child safety experts shared Collard’s concerns. Sarah Gardner, the CEO of a Los Angeles-based child protection organization called the Heat Initiative, told The Guardian that she considers Apple’s platforms a “black hole” obscuring CSAM. And she expects that Apple’s efforts to bring AI to its platforms will intensify the problem, potentially making it easier to spread AI-generated CSAM in an environment where sexual predators may expect less enforcement.
“Apple does not detect CSAM in the majority of its environments at scale, at all,” Gardner told The Guardian.
Gardner agreed with Collard that Apple is “clearly underreporting” and has “not invested in trust and safety teams to be able to handle this” as it rushes to bring sophisticated AI features to its platforms. Last month, Apple integrated ChatGPT into Siri, iOS and Mac OS, perhaps setting expectations for continually enhanced generative AI features to be touted in future Apple gear.
“The company is moving ahead to a territory that we know could be incredibly detrimental and dangerous to children without the track record of being able to handle it,” Gardner told The Guardian.
So far, Apple has not commented on the NSPCC’s report. Last September, Apple did respond to the Heat Initiative’s demands to detect more CSAM, saying that rather than focusing on scanning for illegal content, its focus is on connecting vulnerable or victimized users directly with local resources and law enforcement that can assist them in their communities.
Boundless premieres tonight, taking Vision Pro users on a hot air balloon ride in Turkey.
Submerged will be Apple’s first fictional short film for Vision Pro.
Users will get a glimpse into the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend.
This cryptic image teases The Weeknd’s Vision Pro “experience.”
The new series Elevated will tour places of interest around the world from above.
Apple is partnering with Red Bull for a surfing documentary.
Wild Life returns with an episode about elephants in a wildlife preserve.
Today, Apple announced a slate of more than a dozen upcoming Immersive Videos for its Vision Pro spatial reality headset. The first, titled Boundless, launches tonight at 9 pm ET. More will follow in the coming weeks and months.
The announcement follows a long, slow period for new Vision Pro-specific video content from Apple. The headset launched in early February with a handful of Immersive Video episodes ranging from five to 15 minutes each. Since then, only three new videos have been added.
On March 28, Apple released a highlight reel of Major League Soccer plays from the season that had ended months prior. A second episode of Prehistoric Planet, Apple’s Immersive Video dinosaur nature documentary, went live on April 19. Likewise, a new episode of the Adventure series titled “Parkour” landed on May 24.
The MLS video played more like a short ad for Apple’s MLS programming than anything else, but other Immersive Videos have impressed with their quality if not their creative ambition. They’re all short videos that put the viewer inside a moment in space and time with either animals or people doing their thing. The videos are high-resolution, and the 3D is generally well done. The production values are high, even if the narratives are light. They come across as tech demos, as much as anything, but they are impressive.
Tonight’s Boundless episode will allow viewers to see what it’s like to ride in a hot air balloon over sweeping vistas. Another episode titled “Arctic Surfing” will arrive this fall, Apple says. Sometime next month, Apple will publish the second episode of its real wildlife documentary, simply titled Wild Life. The episode will focus on elephants in Kenya’s Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Another episode is in the works, too. “Later this year,” Apple writes in its newsroom post, “viewers will brave the deep with a bold group of divers in the Bahamas, who come face-to-face with apex predators and discover creatures much more complex than often portrayed.”
More on the way
In September, we’ll see the debut of a new Immersive Video series titled Elevated. Apple describes it as an “aerial travel series” in which viewers will fly over places of interest. The first episode will take viewers to Hawaii, while another planned for later this year will go to New England.
Apple is additionally partnering with Red Bull for a look at surfing called Red Bull: Big-Wave Surfing.
In addition to those documentary episodes, there will be three short films by year’s end. One will be a musical experience featuring The Weeknd, and another will take basketball fans inside the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend. There will also be Submerged, the first narrative fictional Immersive Video on the platform. It’s an action short film depicting struggles on a submarine during World War II.
It’s good to see Apple finally making some movement here; the drought of content after the launch didn’t inspire confidence in the platform. Many people with mixed reality headsets use them a bunch for a few weeks but either fail to find ways to fit them into their daily habits or run out of compelling content and taper off before long. To keep people invested in visionOS, Apple needs to keep a rapid cadence of new content that users look forward to at least every week. Otherwise, some users will see their headsets sit on shelves, forgotten.
When I reviewed the Vision Pro, I assumed that the Immersive Video episodes would roll out weekly. That hasn’t proven the case, and it still doesn’t look like it will. Apple is going to have to invest more in content (and take more risks with that content, moving beyond short tech demo documentaries) to make the Vision Pro stick with customers.
Enlarge/ Apple seeks to continue to augment its library of original films like Argylle with films from other studios.
Apple TV+ has carved a niche for itself with strong original programming, and while it’s still far behind the likes of Netflix in terms of subscribers, it has seen a fairly strong initial run. To build on that, Apple is talking with major studios about ways to complement its slate of original programming with films from other companies in order to expand and extend the service’s appeal.
That’s according to Bloomberg reporters Lucas Shaw and Thomas Buckley, who cite people familiar with Apple’s workings. Those sources say Apple is “having discussions” with more than one large film studio about bringing more movies to the service.
Apple previously experimented with this by licensing around 50 movies and making them available on the service for limited runs over the past several months. That experiment seems to have gone well, leading Apple to begin laying the groundwork for expanding on that.
That test run was just in the United States. Bloomberg claims the focus this time is international, with the possibility of new films not just in the US but in other regions, too.
Hollywood studios have reportedly been anticipating this move. As you may have noticed amid the numerous subscription service price hikes, media companies have begun putting greater emphasis on profitability after the conclusion of a long period where subscriber growth at any cost was the goal. Licensing deals like this can help with that new goal.
It’s worth noting that while Apple has found some big successes in terms of series (Ted Lasso, Severance, The Morning Show) it has struggled to make as much of an impact with its movies. Despite big stars and budgets, the films have not always made as much cultural impact as the shows.
That means that bringing in films from studios with a more proven record can be a win-win: It will help Apple bolster the TV+ subscription service while generating revenue for film studios that are struggling to keep up in the new era.
Services like TV+ are a growing part of Apple’s business, which has historically been focused on hardware sales. In the second quarter of its 2024 fiscal year, the services bucket accounted for $23.9 billion in quarterly revenue, which is more than half the revenue generated by iPhone hardware sales.
Apple’s next-generation operating systems are taking their next step toward release today: Apple is issuing the first public beta builds of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15 Sequoia, tvOS 18, and HomePod Software 18 today. Sign up for Apple’s public beta program with your Apple ID, and you’ll be able to select the public beta builds from Software Update in the Settings app.
We covered the highlights of most of these releases when they were announced during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, including more home screen customization in iOS and iPadOS, window tiling and iPhone mirroring in macOS,RCS text messaging support across all of Apple’s platforms, and more. But Apple still isn’t ready to show off a preview of its Apple Intelligence AI features, including the text and image generation features and a revamped Siri. Many of these features are still slated for “later this summer” and will presumably be available in some form in the final releases this fall.
Most devices that can run iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS 14 Sonoma will be able to update to the new versions, including owners of the last couple generations of Intel Macs. But a handful of older phones and tablets and the 2018 MacBook Air are being dropped by the new releases. The watchOS 11 update is also dropping the Series 4 and Series 5 models as well as the first-generation Apple Watch SE.
Apple is also not releasing a public beta build of VisionOS 2, the first major update to the Apple Vision Pro’s operating system. Users who want to try out new Vision Pro features ahead of time will still need to opt into the developer beta, at least for now.
Beta best practices
The first public betas are similar—if not identical—to the third developer beta builds that were released last week. Apple usually releases new developer betas of next-gen OS releases every two weeks, so we’d expect to see a fourth developer beta early next week and a second near-identical public beta build released shortly after.
Apple’s developer and public beta builds used to be more clearly delineated, with a $99-per-year developer account paywall put up between general users and the earliest, roughest preview builds. That changed last year when Apple made basic developer accounts (and beta software access) free for anyone who wanted to sign up.
Apple still issues separate developer/public beta builds, but these days it’s more of a statement about who the betas are ready for than an actual technical barrier. Developer betas are rougher and visibly unfinished, but developers likely have the extra patience and technical chops needed to deal with these issues; public betas are still unfinished and unstable, but you can at least expect most basic functionality to work fine.
Regardless of how stable these betas may or may not be, the standard warnings apply: Make a good backup of your device before updating in case you need to restore the older, more stable operating system, and don’t install beta software on mission-critical hardware that you absolutely need to work correctly in your day-to-day life. For iPhones and iPads that connect to iCloud, connecting the devices to a PC or Mac and performing a local backup (preferably an encrypted one) can be a more surefire way to make sure you keep a pre-upgrade backup around than relying on continuous iCloud backups.
Enlarge /Space Cadet Pinball has never been so portable… or so tiny!
One month after PC emulator UTM was rejected from the iOS App Store, the developers have announced that a new “UTM SE” version is now available for free on the App Store. But the app’s performance is severely hampered by Apple’s restrictions on so-called “just-in-time” (JIT) compilation, limiting the app’s suitability for effectively emulating many PC games.
Built on the generic command-line emulation layer QEMU, the open-source UTM boasts support for “30+ processors,” from x86 and PowerPC to RISC-V and ARM64. The App Store listing promises you can “run classic software and old-school games” through both a VGA graphics mode and text-based terminal.
Don’t expect a seamless, RetroArch-style path to playing Space Cadet Pinball on your iPhone, though. The UTM developers link to pre-configured settings downloads for versions of Windows going back to XP, alongside guides for getting those OSes up and running on iOS. But users will need to bring their own legitimate Windows installation ISO and go through the cumbersome process of installing the OS as well as a version of SPICE tools to help coordinate access through iOS (downloading pre-built, UTM-compatible Linux builds seems more straightforward).
Slow by design
Even after that, don’t expect high-level performance from this new emulator. That’s because UTM SE must abide by App Store restrictions prohibiting apps that “install executable code.” As such, the App Store version is a “JIT-less” build that uses a Tiny-Code Threaded Interpreter (TCTI) to interpret each original line of code being run rather than fully recompiling it at runtime for smoother performance.
A video shows how the lack of JIT recompilation slows down GameCube emulation on DolphiniOS.
The lack of that JIT recompilation means the “SE [in UTM SE] stands for Slow Edition,” as moderator CZ pithily put it in the UTM Discord. “This is us telling you gaming on UTM SE is not happening.” At least one user who tested running Linux via UTM SE confirmed it is “dog slow” and “a gloopy experience.” Those who want full performance out of UTM can still install the regular, non-SE version of the app via sideloading or an alt store.
You may remember that the developers of GameCube/Wii emulator DolphiniOS cited the lack of JIT recompilation as the reason their app can’t run at a functional frame rate through the iOS App Store. However, similar restrictions haven’t stopped emulators like Delta from running classic gaming consoles up through the Nintendo DS at a playable frame rate, suggesting that UTM SE might be sufficient for older MS-DOS or Windows 95-era titles.
Apple is struggling to attract fresh content for its innovative Vision Pro headset, with just a fraction of the apps available when compared with the number of developers created for the iPhone and iPad in their first few months.
The lack of a “killer app” to encourage customers to pay upwards of $3,500 for an unproven new product is seen as a problem for Apple, as the Vision Pro goes on sale in Europe on Friday.
Apple said recently that there were “more than 2,000” apps available for its “spatial computing” device, five months after it debuted in the US.
That compares with more than 20,000 iPad apps that had been created by mid-2010, a few months after the tablet first went on sale, and around 10,000 iPhone apps by the end of 2008, the year the App Store launched.
“The overall trajectory of the Vision Pro’s launch in February this year has been a lot slower than many hoped for,” said George Jijiashvili, analyst at market tracker Omdia.
“The reality is that most developers’ time and money will be dedicated to platforms with billions of users, rather than tens or hundreds of thousands.”
Apple believes the device will transform how millions work and play. The headset shifts between virtual reality, in which the wearer is immersed in a digital world, and a version of “augmented reality” that overlays images upon the real surroundings.
Omdia predicts that Apple will sell 350,000 Vision Pros this year. It forecasts an increase to 750,000 next year and 1.7 million in 2026, but the figures are far lower than the iPad, which sold almost 20 million units in its first year.
Estimates from IDC, a tech market researcher, suggest Apple shipped fewer than 100,000 units of Vision Pro in the first quarter, less than half what rival Meta sold of its Quest headsets.
Because of the device’s high price, Apple captured more than 50 percent of the total VR headset market by dollar value, IDC found, but analyst Francisco Jeronimo added: “The Vision Pro’s success, regardless of its price, will ultimately depend on the content available.”
Early data suggests that new content is arriving slowly. According to Appfigures, which tracks App Store listings, the number of new apps launched for the Vision Pro has fallen dramatically since January and February.
Nearly 300 of the top iPhone developers, whose apps are downloaded more than 10 million times a year—including Google, Meta, Tencent, Amazon, and Netflix—are yet to bring any of their software or services to Apple’s latest device.
Steve Lee, chief executive of AmazeVR, which offers immersive concert experiences, said that the recent launch of the device in China and elsewhere in Asia resulted in an uptick in downloads of his app. “However, it was about one-third of the initial launch in the United States.”
Lee remains confident that Vision Pro will eventually become a mainstream consumer product.
Wamsi Mohan, equity analyst at Bank of America, said the Vision Pro had “just not quite hit the imagination of the consumer.”
“This is one of the slower starts for a new Apple product category, just given the price point,” he said. “It seems management is emphasizing the success in enterprise a lot more.”
Nonetheless, some app developers are taking a leap of faith and launching on the Vision Pro. Some are betting that customers who can afford the pricey headset will be more likely to splurge on software, too.
Others are playing a longer game, hoping that establishing an early position on Apple’s newest platform will bring returns in the years to come.
In two weeks, iPhone users in the European Union will be able to use any mobile wallet they like to complete “tap and go” payments with the ease of using Apple Pay.
The change comes as part of a settlement with the European Commission (EC), which investigated Apple for potentially shutting out rivals by denying access to the “Near Field Communication” (NFC) technology on its devices that enables the “tap and go” feature. Apple did not develop this technology, which is free for developers, the EC said, and going forward, Apple agreed to not charge developers fees to provide the NFC functionality on its devices.
In a press release, the EC’s executive vice president, Margrethe Vestager, said that Apple’s commitments in the settlement address the commission’s “preliminary concerns that Apple may have illegally restricted competition for mobile wallets on iPhones.”
“From now on, Apple can no longer use its control over the iPhone ecosystem to keep other mobile wallets out of the market,” Vestager said. “Competing wallet developers, as well as consumers, will benefit from these changes, opening up innovation and choice, while keeping payments secure.”
Apple has until July 25 to follow through on three commitments that resolve the EC’s concerns that Apple may have “prevented developers from bringing new and competing mobile wallets to iPhone users.”
Arguably, providing outside developers access to NFC functionality on its devices is the biggest change. Rather than allowing developers to access this functionality through Apple’s hardware, Apple has borrowed a solution prevalent in the Android ecosystem, Vestager said, granting access through a software solution called “Host Card Emulation mode.”
This, Vestager said, provides “an equivalent solution in terms of security and user experience” and paves the way for other wallets to be more easily used on Apple devices.
An Apple spokesperson told CNBC that “Apple is providing developers in the European Economic Area with an option to enable NFC contactless payments and contactless transactions for car keys, closed loop transit, corporate badges, home keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty/rewards, and event tickets from within their iOS apps using Host Card Emulation based APIs.”
To ensure that Apple Pay is on an equal playing field with other wallets, the EC said that Apple committed to improve contactless payments functionality for rival wallets. That means that “iPhone users will be able to double-click the side button of their iPhones to launch” their preferred wallet and “use Face ID, Touch ID and passcode to verify” their identities when using competing wallets.
Perhaps most critically for users attracted to Apple’s payment options convenience, Apple also agreed to allow rival wallets to be set as the default payment option.
These commitments will remain in force for 10 years, Vestager said.
Apple did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. Apple’s spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that no changes would be made to Apple Pay or Apple Wallet as a result of the settlement.
Apple’s commitments go beyond the DMA
Before accepting Apple’s commitments, the EC spoke to “many banks, app developers, card issuers, and financial associations,” Vestager said, whose feedback helped improve Apple’s commitments.
According to Vestager, Apple’s changes go beyond the requirements of the EU’s strict antitrust law, the Digital Markets Act, which “requires gatekeepers to ensure effective interoperability with hardware and software features that they use within their ecosystems,” including “access to NFC technology for mobile payments.”
Beyond the DMA, Apple agreed to have its compliance with the settlement “ensured by a monitoring trustee,” as well as to provide “a fast dispute resolution mechanism, which will also allow for an independent review of Apple’s implementation.”
Vestager assured all stakeholders in the European Economic Area that these changes will prevent any potential harms caused by Apple seeming to shut other wallets out of its devices, which “may have had a negative impact on innovation.” By settling the yearslong probe, Apple avoided a potentially large fine. In March, the EC fined Apple nearly $2 billion for restricting “alternative and cheaper music subscription services” like Spotify in its app store, and the suspected anticompetitive behavior in Apple’s payments ecosystem seemed just as harmful, the EC found.
“This reduction in choice and innovation is harmful,” Vestager said, confirming that the settlement concluded the EC’s probe into Apple Pay. “It is harmful to consumers and it is illegal under EU competition rules.”
The beta-testing cycle for Apple’s latest operating system updates is in full swing—earlier this week, the third developer betas rolled out for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15 Sequoia, and the rest of this fall’s updates. The fourth developer beta ought to be out in a couple of weeks, and it’s reasonably likely to coincide with the first betas that Apple offers to the full public (though the less-stable developer-only betas got significantly more public last year when Apple stopped making people pay for a developer account to access them).
Many of the new updates’ features are present and available to test, including cosmetic updates and under-the-hood improvements. But none of Apple’s much-hyped Apple Intelligence features are available to test in any form. MacRumors reports that Settings menus for the Apple Intelligence features have appeared in the Xcode Simulator for current versions of iOS 18 but, as of now, those settings still appear to be non-functional placeholders that don’t actually do anything.
That may change soon; Apple did say that the first wave of Apple Intelligence features would be available “this summer,” and I would wager a small amount of money on the first ones being available in the public beta builds later this month. But the current state of the betas does reinforce reporting from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that suggested Apple was “caught flat-footed” by the tech world’s intense interest in generative AI.
Even when they do arrive, the Apple Intelligence features will be rolled out gradually. Some will be available earlier than others—Gurman recently reported that the new Siri, specifically, might not be available for testing until January and might not actually be ready to launch until sometime in early 2025. The first wave of features will only work in US English, and only relatively recent Apple hardware will be capable of using most of them. For now, that means iPads and Macs with an M-series chip, or the iPhone 15 Pro, though presumably this year’s new crop of Pro and non-Pro iPhones will all be Apple Intelligence-compatible.
Apple’s relatively slow rollout of generative AI features isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Look at Microsoft, which has been repeatedly burned by its desire to rush AI-powered features into its Bing search engine, Edge browser, and Windows operating system. Windows 11’s Recall feature, a comprehensive database of screenshots and text tracking everything that users do on their PCs, was announced and then delayed multiple times after security researchers and other testers demonstrated how it could put users’ personal data at risk.
Enlarge/ A screenshot of tvOS 17. Recent betas have included evidence that Apple is working on a touchscreen-enabled version of the interface.
Andrew Cunningham
Apple’s tvOS betas are usually among its least exciting; the Apple TV’s operating system has changed so little in the last decade that the most exciting thing to happen to it in recent memory is an extra column of icons.
But this week’s tvOS 18 beta 3 release includes a hidden feature that might be exciting for smart speaker enthusiasts, if not for people who still want their Apple TV boxes to develop exciting new capabilities. 9to5Mac has discovered a touchscreen interface (codenamed “PlasterBoard”) inside of the latest beta, a sign that Apple is testing alternate input mechanisms for software that is currently manipulated via remote control and voice.
Last week, MacRumors also discovered a reference to a device called “HomeAccessory17,1” in Apple’s beta software, a naming convention similar to the “AudioAccessory” device identifiers that Apple uses for HomePod speakers. Together, these developments suggest that Apple is working on a version of the HomePod with an integrated touchscreen, a device that rumors have suggested could launch in 2024 or 2025. The company has reportedly been working on a smart home device with a screen since at least 2021.
MacRumors also points out that the 17,1 model identifier could imply that the new HomePod is being powered by Apple’s upcoming A18 chip—model identifiers across Apple’s product lineup are normally tied to chip generation rather than product generation, which is why the Vision Pro (for example) is called “RealityDevice14,1” rather than “RealityDevice1,1.” Using an A18 will presumably give a new HomePod the necessary speed to support upcoming Apple Intelligence features, including a new and improved version of Siri.
All HomePod speakers have been running a forked version of tvOS since version 13.4 of the HomePod software was released in early 2020, which is why HomePod-related leaks seem to be showing up in tvOS-related code. This would also explain why Apple would use tvOS as the basis for a HomePod with a screen rather than a version of iPadOS.
Apple’s take on an Amazon Echo Show
A version of tvOS running on a tablet-style device could use more than just a touch-driven interface to reach its full potential—a tvOS version of Safari would be useful for browsing recipe sites or casual reading while you’re doing something else, for example. However, what Apple adds depends on the form that the screen takes.
Some rumors have suggested that it would be a circular panel that replaces the swirling LEDs on the top of current-generation HomePods, but Bloomberg’s normally reliable Mark Gurman has described the display as “iPad-like,” suggesting that it could look more like a version of Amazon’s Echo Show. Amazon advertises its Show devices as digital photo frames, miniature TVs, and general kitchen aids, and Apple’s pitch for a screen-ified HomePod would likely feature a lot of the same uses.
Amazon has already released multiple generations of Echo Show devices, and Google has made a couple of stabs at the category, too. A HomePod with a screen, whether released in 2024 or 2025, would be far from the first of its kind. However, the HomePod wasn’t a cutting-edge product when it was released either, and it’s still managed to carve out a niche.
We don’t know what a HomePod with a screen might cost, but assuming it includes a HomePod-esque speaker, an iPad-esque screen, and a cutting-edge iPhone processor, it seems likely that it will be priced well above the $299 Apple currently charges for the full-size screen-less HomePod. Apple’s original $349 HomePod flopped partly because it was priced too high relative to competitors and because it didn’t do a whole lot—a speaker that did more things could probably be priced higher without drawing as much criticism.
