Last year, when Apple previewed the AI tools that it was bringing to the iPhone and other platforms—which it called Apple Intelligence—one of the coolest featured announced by Apple was the ability to help you based on information on your device, including things in your emails, text messages, and even things displayed on your screen. For example, Apple said that you would be able to tell Siri to send an email or take something from your photo album and move it into a Note. Perhaps the coolest example is that Apple said you could ask Siri something like: “Siri, what’s the name of the guy I had a meeting with a couple of months ago at Cafe Grenel?” and it would answer you correctly because it knows what is on your calendar. In fact, Apple thought that last one was so cool that it hired actress Bella Ramsey—one of the stars of the HBO show The Last of Us and the actress who played Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones—to record a TV commercial. I linked to that commercial on September 13, 2024, and noted that I would love if it actually worked this easily. Well, it turns out that my skepticism was justified. Last Friday afternoon—the perfect time for a company to announce bad news that it hopes gets lost in the end-of-the-week news cycle—Apple issued a statement to a few people such as John Gruber of Daring Fireball that Apple would delay the ‘More Personalized Siri’ Apple Intelligence features until “the coming year,” whenever is. Gruber wrote a follow-up piece this week that is critical of Apple for not only announcing but also advertising a feature that was vaporware. Why the delay? Apple isn’t saying, but Federico Viticci of MacStories notes that it could be because of security concerns, and that explanation makes sense to me. Will Apple eventually be able to do what it promised? Perhaps, but there could be some long-term repercussions. Apple previously had a good reputation for not announcing products until they were close to being ready to ship. In light of this situation, how much can we trust Apple in the future when it announces a new feature but is cagey about showing it off? Now to be fair, we’ve all probably been in a situation in which we over-promised because we misjudged how long it would take to do something or we misjudged whether it was possible to do it at all. Apple can regain our trust by being more circummspect in the future about what it promises. And hopefully, that is exactly what Apple will do. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- This has nothing to do with the iPhone, but I was proud to see that TimeOut magazine named New Orleans the best city in the world right now for food based on a survey of over 18,000 people. The number of amazing restaurants in this city is truly astonishing, whether it is a high-end (but very affordable compared to other cities) meal at a restaurant like Commander’s Palace in the Garden District or a delicious banh mi sandwich from the Vietnamese bakery Dong Phuong in New Orleans East, it’s no wonder that Homer Simpson found a thousand little things to love about this city. Kudos to all of the amazing chefs in the Crescent City whose talents earned this designation.
- The brand new iPad Air M3—a perfect device for attorneys and other professionals—is already discounted 7% on Amazon, selling for $559.
- Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet reports that iOS 18.3.2, released this week, is an important update because it patches a serious security flaw in Safari that was already being exploited by hackers.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors recommends the iPhone app Mercury Weather because of its ability to give you a forecast for different cities that you will be visiting in the future.
- Ryan Christoffel explains how the Notes app on the iPhone can now record audio and create a transcript for you and even a summary of that transcript.
- Similarly, Tony Phillips of How To Geek explains how you can use the Microsoft Word app to transcribe speech.
- John Voorhees of MacStories tested the new iPhone 16e for 10 days and concludes that it is “an iPhone stripped to its core in a (mostly) uncompromising way that may not excite gadget nerds but exudes a quiet elegance for half the price of a flagship Pro Max” and is a particularly good camera for taking simple but great pictures.
- Fernando Silva of 9to5Mac describes 10 Apple Watch features that he uses every day.
- I’m not a fan of heavy metal, but I just watched a heavy metal concert, and it was one of the most amazing concerts that I’ve ever seen. The band Metallica announced this week that it is featured in a new immersive video from Apple for the Apple Vision Pro, and the video was released today. The video was recorded in Mexico City, the band’s final stop of its 2024 tour, and Apple had numerous 3D cameras there. At times, you feel like you have a front-row ticket that you could never afford. At times, you feel like you have a ticket that doesn’t even exist—one that lets you stand next to the band members on stage as they perform. Other shots are from overhead cameras. Other shots provide close-ups of the crowds who are loving the concert. It is all very well done and incredibly immersive. The band performs three songs in this 25-minute show. Two of them are new to me (Whiplash and One) but they finish up with a song that almost everyone knows, Enter Sandman, and it is fantastic. Considering how much I enjoyed this concert video for a band that is almost totally outside of my zone of interest, I cannot wait to see something similar for a band that I love. If you are a fan of Metallica, you might want to buy an Apple Vision Pro just to watch this immersive video.
- If you want to try out an Apple Vision Pro, you can go to your local Apple Store or you can go to Lowe’s. Lowe’s? Yes, Lowe’s.
- Next month, Apple will release iOS 18.4. Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac describes the changes coming to the TV app on the iPhone.
- Christoffel also discusses some of the shows coming to Apple TV+ that could be really good: Dope Thief, The Studio (which is getting some amazing early praise), Your Friends & Neighbors starring Jon Hamm, Murderbot starring Alexander Skarsgård, and Stick starring Owen Wilson.
- And finally, I’m a big fan of the show Severance on Apple TV+, and I can’t wait to watch the penultimate episode of Season 2 tonight. At the recent SXSW 2025 conference, Ben Stiller (director and executive producer of the show) talked to Apple VP Eddie Cue to talk about Severance, Apple TV+, and more. It’s a great conversation that I enjoyed watching, and I hope that you do too: