In the News

Apple is well known for providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be marginalized. That means devoting time and resources to accessibility features for speech, vision, hearing, mobility, and cognitive disabilities, often resulting in features that are beneficial for everyone—such as iPhone and iPad features that I use regularly. And it also means creating a culture of inclusion and encouraging diversity in its hiring not only because it is the right and just thing to do but also because when your products are created by people with different viewpoints and backgrounds you are more likely to come up the next great idea. Unfortunately, it has always been true and remains true today that there are some people, including people in power, who oppose this. Michael Liedtke of the AP reports that during the Apple shareholders meeting that took place this week, a conservative organization opposed to diversity efforts submitted a shareholder proposal for Apple to abolish its diversity and inclusion programs. Apple opposed that proposal, and it was rejected by 97% of Apple shareholders. Reuters reports Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said at the meeting that Apple’s “strength has always come from hiring the very best people and then providing a culture of collaboration, one where people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives come together to innovate.” Apple is not alone; Miranda Jeyaretnam of Time magazine wrote this week that other companies suporting DEI efforts notwithstanding the latest wave of opposition include Microsoft, Delta Airlines, and JPMorgan Chase. But Jeyaretnam also notes that some are giving in to the pressure such as Google, Amazon, and Meta. Students of history know that doing what is right is not always what is easy, so I’m glad to see that Apple is sticking to its convictions on these issues. And now, the other news of note from the past week:

• The new iPhone 16e goes on sale today, and we now have reviews from a few folks who got pre-release units from Apple. Cherlynn Low of Engadget says that while it is nice to get an iPhone that starts at $599 instead of $799, the shortcomings in the camera and the lack of MagSafe are big omissions, and the iPhone 16 at $799 “is a better buy for most people.”
• Allison Johnson of The Verge had a similar reaction: “I’d rather have a cool magnetic accessory system and a neat quick-glance display feature built into my phone than Apple Intelligence, especially for $600. It doesn’t quite add up for me, but maybe the math looks a little different for you.”
• Nicole Nguyen of the Wall Street Journal says that the iPhone 16e is “a decent choice for anyone who just wants the basics” and “who give priority to price of specs,” but also notes that for those folks, an older model being sold at a discount might be “the best bang for your buck.”
• Patrick Holland of CNet says that when you look at what Apple included and what Apple omitted from the iPhone 16e, it is “a weird value proposition. It’s new, but it’s old. It’s affordable, but not cheap.” But he ultimately concludes that “it’s a good phone and will be a solid upgrade from older iPhone models.”
• The most in-depth review of the iPhone 16e that I read was the review by John Gruber of Daring Fireball. He discusses all of the omissions to make this product less expensive but notes that the target market of the iPhone 16e is not the people who read his website but instead their friends and family members who just want a decent phone. I agree with that 100%.
• The one new feature in the iPhone 16e is the Apple-designed celluar modem called the C1. In an article for Six Colors and Macworld, Jason Snell says that while the C1 itself is nothing special, it shows that Apple eventually plans to beat Qualcomm at its own game.
• David Sparks of MacSparky offers a similar take in his post Why the C1 Chip Matters More Than You Think.
• William Gallagher of AppleInsider discusses one of the first tests of the new Apple C1 modem, noting that Apple is correct to say that it is up to 25% more power efficient than previous modems.
• Apple announced this week that its relatively new Hearing Aid feature for the AirPods Pro 2 is now available in the United Kingdom.
• One feature no longer available in the UK is Advanced Data Protection, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains why: a reported demand by the UK government that it be allowed to access encrypted data of Apple customers.
• Those reports of what the UK demanded—the first one of which seems to be this February 7, 2025, article by Joseph Menn of the Washington Post—say that the UK was demanding not only access to encrypted data for customers in the UK but for customers everyone in the world. Zoe Kleinman of the BBC reported this week that Tulsi Gabbard, the new director of US National Intelligence, is saying that if these reports are true, then the UK’s demands are an “egregious violation” of privacy for U.S. citizens and might also violate agreements between the US and the UK.
• Two weeks ago, I noted that Apple introduced a way to migrate all of your purchases from one Apple Account to the other one so that you can just use a single account for everything. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that there are tons of restrictions on who can use it and that he cannot get the tool to work for me. Although I have two Apple Accounts and I would love to have one, I’m planning to wait on the sidelines on this one for a long time. I’ve heard too many stories like this one.
• Adobe released Photoshop for the iPhone this week. It is a cool app with some useful features like quickly replacing the background of an image, adjusting the color and light in a specific part of an image, a tool to remove something from an image (the Clean Up feature in Apple Intelligence for the built-in Photos app can do something similar), the ability to add to an image with AI Generative Fill, and more. I started trying out the app last night, and it is very powerful but also fairly easy to use.
• Amazon unveiled the new Alexa+ this week, and Ryan Christoffel noted that it has some AI features that would be great on an Apple TV, such as the ability to jump to a specific scene of a movie and personalized movie and TV recommendations. I suspect that Apple is working on a next generation of the Apple TV to include features like this.
• Speaking of possible future Apple products, Christoffel notes in another article that the upcoming iOS 18.4 will include a new Food section in Apple News, and he wonders if the reason why is that providing recipes would be a perfect feature of a new HomePod-like product with a screen sold by Apple to use in a kitchen.
• Whether or not it is included on a possible future new home device from Apple, the upcoming Apple News+ Food section sounds pretty great. Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that it will include “tens of thousands of recipes, stories about restaurants, tips for healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more” from “top food publishers such as Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats.” When Apple first released News+ in 2019, I wasn’t sure how useful it would be, but I now find myself reading it just about every day. News+ does a good job of automatically surfacing articles of interest to me, and it is a great way to search for other articles from a wide range of sources on other topics. With the addition of a Food section, News+ will become an even better value.
• iOS 18.4 will also include new features for CarPlay. José Adorno of BGR reports that one new feature is the ability to display a third row of apps if you have a larger screen in your car, such as the 14-inch screen offered in a Toyota Tundra.
• There was lots of good news this week for users of the Apple Vision Pro. I reported a few days ago that visisionOS 2.4 will be released in April and will feature a new Spatial Gallery app. Additionally, Mike Fleming, Jr. of Deadline reports that Apple TV+ has a new documentary coming out on May 30 called Bono: Stories of Surrender. That film about the U2 singer and songwriter will have not only a regular version but also an immersive version designed for the Apple Vision Pro.
• Andrew Orr of AppleInsider reports that visionOS 2.4 will also make it substantially easier to let a guest use your Apple Vision Pro thanks to a new iPhone/iPad app.
• Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that an Apple Watch helped to save the life of a man in Texas when it notified him of an irregular heart rate and detected Afib.
• Off and on for a while now, you were able to purchase a four-pack of AirTags from Amazon for a record-low price of $69.99. Now the price is down to $67.99, a new record low (as shown on Camel Camel Camel). I suspect that Apple is clearing out inventory so that it can release a second-generation AirTag with new features, but the current AirTag is so useful that I wouldn’t discourage anyone from taking advantage of this sale if you have something that you want to be able to track.
• I enjoyed this interview by Sarah Bahr of the New York Times with actor Tramell Tillman, who plays Mr. Milchick on the Apple TV+ show Severance.
• And finally, Steve Jobs would have turned 70 years old this week, and the Steve Jobs Archive shared a Steve Jobs video clip from 2007 that is one of my personal favorites. By almost any measure, Tim Cook has done a fantastic job leading Apple since Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, but I was thinking of Steve Jobs when I watched the recent SNL50 show and found myself laughing at another Steve: Steve Martin. Between the opening monologue on that special and his hit show Only Murders in the Building, Steve Martin is doing some of his best work ever at age 79. If Apple could have had the benefit of another two decades or more of contributions by Steve Jobs, the results could have been something special for all of us. The video clip released by the Steve Jobs Archive is nice because you can see Steve Jobs speaking, but I prefer the slightly longer version that Apple played (audio only) at the beginning of its special event on September 12, 2017, which was the first presentation in the Steve Jobs Theater on Apple’s campus and was the occasion when Apple introduced the revolutionary iPhone X. I encourage you to hit play on the below video and listen to the first 90 seconds: