By Jason Snell

February 21, 2025 10:03 AM PT

New visionOS beta adds Apple Intelligence, Spatial Gallery, iOS apps

During its first year of existence, the Vision Pro kept getting better, adding spatial personas, an extended Mac Virtual Display, and a raft of quality-of-life updates with visionOS 2.0. I’m not worried about this fundamentally speculative and impractical device not being something everyone should rush out and buy; I’d get worried, though, if it seemed like Apple had lost interest in it. A device can only represent the future if its builder is committed to pushing it toward that general direction.

There’s good news on that front, as today Apple is rolling out the first visionOS 2.4 beta. This update (a final version is due in April) adds the Vision Pro to the list of Apple devices that can run Apple Intelligence, and will lean into the power of spatial video, add better ties to iOS, and address some of the weaknesses of visionOS Guest Mode.

The Apple Intelligence aspect is pretty straightforward: If you’ve seen that collection of features on iOS and macOS, you’ll know what you’re getting on visionOS. Writing tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, smart replies in Messages, Photos memory movies based on text requests, priority messages in Mail, chatGPT support, priority notifications, and Math Notes are all there. Apple says that these features will initially be available only in U.S. English, though more languages and features will be added “throughout the year.”

While a lot of us have gotten excited about the potential of Apple’s immersive video format, the truth is that the Vision Pro is also a great viewer of more traditional 3-D video content. And Apple has built a new visionOS app to highlight great spatial content: Spatial Gallery.

Think of Spatial Gallery as something sort of like the TV app, but for spatial videos, photos, and panoramas. The content comes from Apple as well as third-party content sources, and Apple is curating it all itself. The company says the content will be updated on a regular basis, and among the demo content I saw featured was some of 3-D (not immersive) behind-the-scenes content from various Apple TV+ productions such as “Severance” and “Shrinking.”

Just as the Apple Watch has its own app on iOS, so too will the Vision Pro. The new Vision Pro iOS app will be available with iOS 18.4, and will automatically appear on the iPhones of people who have Vision Pros. Of course the app will show off new content and offer tips, but it’s also functional: If you add highlighted media content via the app, it’ll be set to download on the Vision Pro. Similarly, you can use the Vision Pro app to remotely download apps to your Vision Pro, so they’re ready for you when you put the headset on.

Finally, this update (and the corresponding iOS and iPadOS updates) will offer a major upgrade to Guest Mode. When a guest puts on a Vision Pro, a prompt will appear on the owner’s iPhone or iPad, so they can approve it without putting on the headset. The owner can also select what apps to allow the guest to have access to, and can start apps for them. To top it all off, the app also offers the ability to turn on AirPlay so that the owner can see what the guest is seeing.

Vision Pro as a platform has a long, long way to go. visionOS 2.4 is another sign that Apple is still pushing it forward, spotlighting some of the platform’s best features and making it easier to show it off to friends and family.

By Dan Moren

February 21, 2025 8:08 AM PT

Apple is removing its Advanced Data Protection feature in the UK

Following recent reports that the United Kingdom was seeking access to end-to-end encrypted data on Apple platforms, the company on Friday announced that it would be phasing out its iCloud Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature in the UK. As of February 21, users in the country can no longer enable the feature; those users who currently have it on will have to disable it in the near future.

ADP allows users to store their own encryption keys for several types of data that are otherwise encrypted, but for which Apple itself holds the keys, including iCloud Backups, iCloud Drive, Photos, and more. While ADP helps users store that data more securely—including preventing access via law enforcement—it’s not without tradeoffs: it can also prevent Apple from directly helping recover lost data.

“We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy,” said the company in a statement.

According to Apple, this change won’t affect data that is end-to-end encrypted by default, such as health data and iCloud Keychain. That does, however, leave one longstanding loophole: though Apple’s Messages in the Cloud system is end-to-end encrypted, the encryption key for those messages is backed up in iCloud Backups, for which Apple holds the keys. Those are, in turn, accessible to law enforcement under the proper procedures.

Since Apple cannot disable ADP for UK users who’ve already turned it on, the company says it will provide future guidance in the near term for the process to turn it off.

Though Apple also says ADP will continue to be available for users elsewhere in the world, one fact it did not specifically address is that the UK government was supposedly seeking the ability to access this end-to-end encrypted data worldwide—a matter, perhaps, to play out on a larger political stage. Apple’s move on Friday seems to suggest it considers its removal of ADP sufficient to meet the demands of the UK government.

But the fight may not be over. Apple’s statement also reaffirmed the company’s stance on security and privacy. “Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before,” the company said. “Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom. As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”

That last line, in particular, reads as a canary in the event that the company is forced to make further changes that it might not, as per the UK law, be able to actually communicate to its users. And it remains to be seen whether this move establishes a precedent for other world governments to follow in the UK’s footsteps.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Jason Snell

February 20, 2025 9:43 AM PT

How to bulk download Kindle files, while you can

Amazon is making a big change to how it handles serving ebooks to those who have bought them from the Kindle store¹. Starting on Feb. 26, it’s closing the “USB sideloading” hole that allowed owners of older Kindle hardware to download a file in their web browser and transfer it to their Kindle via USB.

This feature was designed for users who had connectivity on their computer, but not on their Kindle. But it’s also been the easiest pathway to get ebook files out of Amazon’s copy protection scheme so that they can be converted to play back on other devices. As someone who switched to Kobo a few years ago, that’s important to me. I bought these books—if I want to read them on something that’s not controlled by Amazon, that’s my business.

While I remain optimistic about the ability of scrappy underdogs to circumvent the copy protection regimes of big tech companies, the fact is that Amazon’s newer file format has been incredibly difficult to crack—hence the value of the USB downloading hole that Amazon’s about to close.

I should be absolutely clear here that if all you do is use a Kindle or the Kindle app, nothing is changing and you’ll still be able to download your books on your devices or in your apps. All that’s happening is that Amazon is eliminating a way to easily download an ebook file directly, which is useful in converting those files to other formats.

If you have a substantial library of Kindle books and want to download them before Feb. 26, you’ll find that Amazon’s website makes it laborious to download them a book at a time. Fortunately, there’s a tool that will automatically download everything.

Most of the books you download from Amazon will come with an older form of copy protection. This is easily circumvented if you have the right software, as well as an older Kindle. (Which you should have, because Amazon should only allow you to download books for sideloading if you have such a device linked to your Amazon account!)

The process involves using Calibre, a free open source ebook library utility I’ve written about a lot. You’ll also need to install the DeDRM tools package, which is designed to remove copy protection from ebooks. When you configure DeDRM, you’ll need to enter in the serial number(s) of the hardware Kindles you own, so they can be used to decrypt the book information.

With this all set up, you should be able to drag files downloaded from Amazon into Calibre, and then export them to other devices or even to read on standalone apps. When my Kobo is connected to my Mac, I can select items in my Calibre library, right click, and choose “send to device.” The files are automatically converted to the Kobo ePub format and placed on my Kobo. It’s really well done.

So now, the bulk download part. I used the Amazon Kindle eBook Bulk Downloader by friend of the site Sam Davis. You will need some Terminal know-how (or the help of a friend who has it). Following Sam’s instructions, I installed bun, ran bun install, added my Amazon username and password to my environment variables via the export command, and then ran bun run start —baseUrl "https://www.amazon.com" since I’m in the United States.

At that point, Sam’s tool took off and downloaded 1,692 items! It took a while, but then I dragged the results into Calibre and now if I ever want to read a book I previously bought for my Kindle on a Kobo or anywhere else that doesn’t have a Kindle app, I can do so.

If you or a Terminal-confident friend want to make sure you’ve got access to your Kindle library on other platforms (such as Kobo), make some time before Feb. 26. And if you’ve already moved away from Kindle and didn’t realize you could still access your old books, maybe this post will give you the inspiration. Better hurry.

By Jason Snell

February 19, 2025 1:24 PM PT

Some first thoughts about the iPhone 16e

On Wednesday, Apple unveiled the iPhone 16e, the replacement for the iPhone SE. (The iPhone SE and iPhone 14 were removed from the Apple price list.) Here are a few things that strike me about this announcement.

So much for a “low-cost” iPhone. At $599, the iPhone 16e is the cheapest new iPhone you can buy, but its starting price is 40 percent higher than the $429 iPhone SE. There’s been a lot of talk about the iPhone SE being an important phone for Apple to use in emerging markets that are much more price sensitive, but after this move, it’s hard to imagine that such a strategy is still in effect. Using older models and this new 16e, Apple now sells iPhones at $599, $699, $799, $899, $999, and $1199.

Apple has generally resisted raising its base prices despite the recent bout of inflation. But this indicates that, on its most important product, it is unwilling to sacrifice margin just to offer a bargain-basement phone in emerging markets.

I’m also reminded of the classic “good-better-best” marketing strategy. In this case, this might suggest that the iPhone 16e allows Apple to say the iPhone 16 lineup starts at $599… but once they get you in the store, they quickly convince you that the $799 iPhone 16 is a better buy for the money. After all, why buy good when you can buy better?

A curious collection of features. Speaking of the differences between the 16e and the standard 16, they’re fascinating. The iPhone 16 is colorful, but the iPhone 16e comes in only black and white. Both have A18 processors that support Apple Intelligence, but the 16e uses a binned version with one fewer GPU. The 16e has an Action Button but doesn’t have Camera Control. It’s got a 48MP camera, but not the additional ultrawide. Portrait mode, Photographic Styles, and the Ceramic Shield glass coating on the front are all a generation older than on the 16. And the display is notched, rather than having a Dynamic Island. Most surprisingly, there’s no support for MagSafe, though there is support for Qi wireless charging.

I’m not at all surprised that the iPhone 16e is a combination of some current iPhone features mixed with a bunch of older, cost-saving bits of tech from previous generations. I am, admittedly, a little surprised at some of the details. (What, if anything, prevents the new Photographic Styles from working on the 16e?)

For the most part, though, this is what we expected this phone to be. It has the internals required to run Apple Intelligence and stay “current” for a few years, but it cuts corners by using past-generation tech like the older OLED display with the notch. It also has that great 48MP camera sensor Apple’s been using lately, which is versatile enough to generate some amazing binned shots, true 48MP shots, or center-cropped “2x zoom” optical shots.

Family resemblance? The omission of MagSafe support is a real surprise. Naming this model the iPhone 16e is smart, in that it ties it to the rest of the iPhone family—but then it breaks basic compatibility with a whole set of modern iPhone accessories. I can only assume that some aspect of engineering this model simply precluded the proper placement of magnets for MagSafe, but it means that the 16e is an outlier compared to most of the iPhones Apple has sold in recent years.

What’s in a name? I like the choice of name, honestly. The iPhone SE name didn’t stand for anything, really, and it made it seem like an outlier outside of the flow of time. (Which it sort of was.) Now it’s firmly part of a particular generation of iPhone. It also increases the likelihood that Apple will update this model more regularly, maybe every two years instead of every year?

The size wars are over, and we lost. For a lot of people, the iPhone SE was a proxy for “a smaller iPhone.” But it never was, really—it was just an older phone design, and since all smartphones have gotten larger over time, that meant that the iPhone SE was smaller. Those days are over—the 16e is just the same size as an iPhone 16. As someone who bought and loved an iPhone 13 mini, let me say it: The days of the tiny iPhone ain’t never coming back. I know, I know, but the market has spoken, and it turns out that bigger phones just sell better. Fans of smaller phones are just going to be unhappy, and I’m sorry about it, but that’s where we are.

This iPhone is memorable for a single reason. As a collection of features familiar from previous and current iPhone models, the iPhone 16e is utterly unremarkable. The model’s historical relevance comes down to a single feature, if you can even call it that: its cellular modem is the Apple C1, the culmination of a story that began when Apple bought Intel’s modem business nearly six years ago.

Theoretically, this allows Apple to control more of its destiny by not being forced to rely on a competitor (Qualcomm) for the lifeblood of its most important product. In the long run, the C1 and its successors could even become a competitive advantage for Apple. But in the short term, we’ll all be watching the 16e’s cellular performance and seeing if any quirks might give Apple a little bit of a black eye. (I’m sure Qualcomm is rooting for that!)

Still, this is why Apple is introducing the C1 with the iPhone 16e: It’s a minor Apple product, even though it’s an iPhone. If its cellular performance lags in any way, the company will be able to shrug it off and point to the fact that the 16e is a lower-priced product. But everyone at Apple will be hoping that everything goes smoothly so that the 16e can mark the company’s break from Qualcomm into cellular independence.

By Dan Moren

February 19, 2025 8:28 AM PT

Apple launches iPhone 16e

Don’t call it an iPhone SE. Apple on Wednesday launched the new iPhone 16e, a more affordable member of the iPhone 16 family that starts at $599, and offers a customizable Action button, Face ID, and support for Apple Intelligence. It’s also, perhaps most notably, the first iPhone to use a modem chip created by Apple, which the company has dubbed C1.

Powered by the same A18 processor that underpins the iPhone 16 (albeit with 4 GPU cores, one fewer than the 16’s version), the 16e also has the same 6.1″ Super XDR display and the same aluminum frame. It also supports satellite connectivity, has Apple’s Ceramic Shield front glass, and a USB-C port supporting up to USB-2 speeds, all like the iPhone 16 line.

But the 16e is also unlike the iPhone 16 in some key ways: for one the 16e has a notch, rather than the Dynamic Island; for another, it features a “2-in-1” 48MP camera system that sports just a single lens, which the Camera app will allow you to use as the same “2x” crop that other iPhones offer. It also lacks the MagSafe charging option of other more recent iPhones, supporting only wireless Qi charging up to 7.5 watts.

The 16e starts with 128GB of storage for $599, with 256GB and 512GB upgrades for $699 and $899 respectively, and is available in white or black. Preorders start at 5am Pacific this Friday, February 21, and will be in stores on February 28.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Dan Moren

February 14, 2025 3:56 AM PT

Have Apple and Netflix finally made an Apple TV deal?

Update: According to The Verge, Netflix has said this integration was in error and is being rolled back. Boo, I say. Boo. As Six Colors contributor Joe Rosensteel wrote, “Netflix deeply regrets accidentally making Netflix a better product for its customers.”

Just yesterday on our Six Colors podcast, I suggested it was high time for Apple and Netflix to make a deal to get Netflix content in the Apple TV app. And it seems maybe, at long last, after years of no movement, finally such a deal is happening?

After hearing from a member in The Incomparable’s Discord that they’d gotten Netflix’s Midnight Mass to show up in their watchlist, I decided to give their method a shot. I searched for the show in tvOS’s unified search, hit the Open In… button, and sure enough was prompted if I wanted to connect Netflix to the Apple TV app.

Yes, please.

Unfortunately, since doing that (and verifying that Netflix does now appear in Settings > Apps > TV under the Connect to Tv section) I’ve been unable to actually get any shows to appear in my own watchlist, despite starting several episodes of various series. If this is indeed rolling out—as other places, such as 9to5Mac, are also now reporting—it’s doing so gradually.

But an end to our long national nightmare might finally be in sight and maybe the TV app will finally fulfill its destiny of being the place to see everything you want to watch. All it needs now is a live TV grid.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]