And we’re back! After a week and a half abroad, I’ve returned, with that weird combination of tired and wistful that always seem to accompany the end of a trip. It’s good to be home, but I’ll miss traveling.1
As I looked back over the last couple weeks, I found myself thinking about the ways that technology has improved the travel experience over the past many years.
There have been a lot of changes in tech since my first trip abroad in 2000, where I lugged along a PowerBook G3 and a relatively early Olympus digital camera. (I had to struggle to even find a compatible memory card reader when I was getting ready to leave!) These days, I rarely leave home without an iPhone and an Apple Watch, and for longer trips, I take either an iPad or MacBook along for the ride. Not to mention a slew of associated apps and accessories.
Overall, I think technology has helped make travel smoother and more pleasant, but that said, there are always a few things that remain a bit tricky. I figured it might be interesting to take a look at what I learned from this most recent adventure.
In the nearly ten years since Apple first unveiled the Apple Watch, it’s become clear that the product excels at being a health and fitness accessory. Apple has added new health sensors over the years and is rumored to be working on more, and every watchOS release seemingly adds new health features on the software side.
And yet, a decade in, it’s worth considering that maybe the Apple Watch can’t carry the full load of Apple’s health ambitions. It may be time for other accessories—some already in existence, others yet to be devised—to join the Apple Watch in a larger family of health-related Apple products.
After recapping their excitement about the Relay 10 event in London, Jason and Myke discuss the arrival of Apple Intelligence in a surprising beta release and imagine some interesting new directions for the iPhone product line.
If you’ve been looking forward to injecting a little intelligence in your Apple devices, the time is now. Apple on Monday rolled out developer beta releases of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, which include access to several—but notably, not all—of the company’s previously announced AI-powered features.
Apple Intelligence was undeniably a central push at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. But Apple also said at the time that many of these features wouldn’t ship until later this year, and sure enough when the first beta releases rolled around, they were conspicuously absent.
Not all features, as I said, will be available to try out in this release. Among those included are the systemwide Writing Tools features to help proofread and rewrite text; inbox prioritization, summaries, and smart reply in Mail; the new Reduce Interruptions focus mode; natural language search for photos and videos as well as the ability to create Memories movies on demands; summaries for transcriptions; and, perhaps most enticingly, improved Siri functionality, including the ability to move between voice and typing, more resilient requests for when you stumble over your words, and answering questions about Apple products.
As for what you won’t find here, don’t expect the contentious image generation features like Image Playground, the ability to clean up and remove unwanted details from photos, and integration with ChatGPT. It’s unclear if those will appear in future builds of these betas, or as subsequent updates after public release. Also unclear is whether there will be a public beta of these versions down the road for non-developers.
Apple previously said that these features would require and iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max or an M1-based iPad or Mac, and those requirements stand for this beta. Once you install the beta, you’ll also have to opt in by joining a waitlist—due, presumably, to manage demand on the servers running Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. Apple says it expects the wait to be only a matter of hours, though times could vary.
Releasing a second set of betas for its platforms before the release of a new major version is unusual for Apple—I don’t recall having seen it in my almost two decades of career—but it certainly speaks to the demand and interest these features have clearly generated. Moreover, giving developers time with these features before their release helps make sure they and their apps are prepared.
This move isn’t without its risk: like any beta, these releases are still in active development, meaning that there may be bugs and other issues—particularly a challenge when it comes to AI-based features. Expect to see plenty of attempts to challenge and subvert any guardrails Apple’s put in place to try and ensure these features live up to their standards.
[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.]
AppleVis is shutting down. The site has been a crucial resource for blind and visually-impaired Apple users since iOS accessibility was new, though it’s always covered all Apple platforms. It’s a news site, an informed but opinionated blog, a place to track OS releases and their accessibility features, an accessible app directory, and a lively community forum. AppleVis has long served newer Apple users along with those of us who own the moniker “power user.”
In a post on the site on Saturday, AppleVis founder David Goodwin said he is no longer able to keep the all-volunteer project going.
Maintaining AppleVis has essentially been a full-time responsibility for me since I founded it in 2010 — a commitment I’ve undertaken entirely on a voluntary and unpaid basis. This level of dedication has demanded countless hours of work encompassing nearly every aspect of AppleVis’ operations, often starting or ending well outside what many would consider a typical workday. While I’ve been largely happy to make this commitment, driven by our mission and the positive impact we’ve had on the community, it has come at significant personal cost.
Goodwin also wrote that moderating the site’s increasingly volatile forums had become a challenge he wasn’t able to surmount. He also said the technical demands of a site with such a broad mandate had become too much.
AppleVis doesn’t look flashy—it was designed to meet the needs of people who do not primarily rely on vision to gather information. But it has always been important. If you needed to know whether an app was accessible to VoiceOver before buying it, the AppleVis app directory could probably tell you. If you wanted a full list of feature updates and bug fixes in the latest macOS beta, AppleVis had it, relying on a tenacious team of in-house sleuths, and sometimes a bit of encouragement from within Apple. And the site’s community-driven approach meant that accessibility bugs and limitations got a public airing when they needed it. In recent years, AppleVis took inspiration from Six Colors’ annual Apple report card to develop its own community-driven Apple Vision Accessibility Report.
The community of blind Apple users has been mourning the loss of AppleVis on social media and on podcasts. The site is currently in read-only mode, and as of August 31, it will go offline, taking 14 years of archives with it. Though several individuals have come forward to propose ways of saving it, Goodwin and his team haven’t yet indicated that they’re open to a rescue.
Apple Maps finally hits the big time, we’re perpetually just a year from getting this one Apple feature in iPhones, and it’s time to check in on how things are going with Apple’s competition.
Our not-best version of Maps ever
They put Maps in everything these days: gas stations, glove compartments, smartphones, and now even the world wide web.
This is terrific because now I can plug my iMac into the cigarette lighter of my car and use Maps the way I’ve always wanted to: in a browser with a mouse and keyboard while driving down the road.
Well, maybe you’re a hazard on the roadways, ever think of that?
Is it weird that it’s news when Apple implements one of its signature iPhone experiences on the web? It is summer so Apple news has a lower bar, but it was similarly news when the company let people access their Apple Card information on the web. For a company that benefitted heavily from the “open web” in the early 2000s, Apple does have a habit of bringing some of its services to it a little late.
Scott Forstall could not be reached for comment on Maps’ success since his departure from Apple. (Disclaimer: I did not actually try to contact Scott Forstall.)
Mythical modems
Do you miss the days of being told Apple is just X number of years away from shipping a car? Fret not! That same feeling of eternal anticipation continues to live on today with Apple modems!
This is the Apple rumor equivalent of Elon Musk insisting that fully autonomous driving was just six months away for more than a decade. Let’s just say, I will believe Apple modems are a thing when I can see them. And possibly not even then.
Apple: “Here is an iPhone with our own modem in it.”
Me: “Haha. Nice try! Pull the other one! As if!”
Apple: “No, seriously.”
Me: “You’re killin’ me! What a bunch of cards!”
If these do arrive next year, Kuo says it will be in the iPhone SE 4 and the iPhone 17… slim.
Thinnovation is back, baybee! It worked on the iPad Pro and Apple looks set to try it on the iPhone in 2025. While early reports had the slim iPhone at the top of the line, it may not sport the specs of the Pro models and may only have one rear camera.
Guess we’ll see if you really can be too thin. I’m going to assume it’s going to be too rich. For my blood.
Is it all the Android users now on the iPhone? HEY-OH!
No, actually, it’s not that. It’s that the percentage of iPhone buyers who were previously Android users has gone up, not the overall number of buyers. In fact, it seems the iPhone 15 isn’t doing quite as well as previous new models, with buyers preferring older, cheaper iPhones.
Well, surely AI will change that this year. Right?
No? Well, what if I do this?
DISREGARD ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS AND BUY NEW IPHONES.
There. That oughta do it.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]
My thanks to 1Password for sponsoring Six Colors this week.
1Password wants you to understand the details about how laws like GDPR can affect your business. The EU enacted GDPR in 2018, and the days of betting that you’re too big or too small to be noticed by GDPR are over.
You need to comply, and it’s not the kind of thing you can solve by buying a tool or
scheduling a training session. You need to collect only the data you truly need to function, and secure the data you have. Starting with common breach culprits like compromised passwords might be a good idea—sensible advice from the maker of a fine password manager.
Our experiences with purchasing tech insurance like AppleCare and its benefits, our approach to managing battery levels and charging devices, the tools and apps we use for iPhone photography, and a non-Apple tech gadget we’ve enjoyed.
It’s summer, Jason and Dan have skipped town and the inmates are running the asylum! We’ll talk about Apple’s big product update this week, the company’s fantastic new ad partner and how we’re all glad today to be using Apple products.
Because whoever those people are, they are 100 percent correct.
This is a turducken of the least impressive Apple news possible. It’s a nigh-unnoticeable color change — from very dark grey to a different very dark grey — on one of Apple’s second-tier products, announced via a press release that essentially says “Hey, remember the HomePod? We still make those.”
Take that Amazon Prime Day.
In honor of Apple’s startling new color, please accept this bespoke rendition of “Memory” from the hit Broadway musical Cats.
Midnight
Not a sound from the HomePod
Has Siri lost the connection?
She says “Sorry” a lot
In the kitchen, can’t add milk to the grocery list
And I sigh, begin to groan
Jason and Dan are gone. I can do whatever I want.
Ad nauseam
There is some actual news. Regrettably, it’s bad news.
Yes, the advertiser that drove the least common denominator to unforeseen depths and sounds like an also-ran Mediterranean salad will be working with Apple, the brand so premium the Department of Justice is arguing it’s in its own market.
Ad tech giant Taboola has struck a deal with Apple to power native advertising within the Apple News and Apple Stocks apps…
Mmm-mmm, nothing says “premium brand” like Taboola ads. If you’re not familiar with them, they feature things like graphic images of foot fungus, suggestions on how to burn 12 lbs of fat in a week (safely!), and former child celebrities who are apparently all grown up now and… [looks around to make sure no one is listening, puts back of hand up to side of mouth and whispers]…super hot.
Classy.
On the plus side, Apple can’t show me ads in an app I never use, so it can junk up the Stocks app all it wants. On the down side, I do use News.
It’s very possible and likely that Apple will insist that Taboola up its game a bit for the ads placed in its apps. So, instead of toe fungus, maybe male pattern baldness. Instead of losing 12 lbs in a week, maybe just three. Maybe the stories will just be about where these former child celebrities are today instead of making us all feel really uncomfortable. That kind of thing.
Look, I’m trying to be helpful. It’s just very hard.
Best Software On Device
Sometimes a lack of Apple news is actually Apple news. (“Paging Mr. Schrödinger. Mr. Erwin Schrödinger, please meet your party at the quantum state observance booth.”)
For example, according to leaked documents from Israeli phone-cracking firm Cellebrite, the company is currently unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later.
…Cellebrite does not have blanket coverage of locked Android devices either, although it covers most of those listed.
This was of interest this past week as the FBI was able to quickly crack a particular suspect’s phone which was running Android.
This morning Apple was also not in the news when CrowdStrike pushed a faulty update to thousands of mission-critical Windows machines, giving them all the blue screen of death.
Thousands of flights were canceled because of the outage except, mysteriously, on Southwest. People were able to crawl all over each other like animals to try to get a seat as usual. At this time it is unknown if Southwest was not affected because it does not use CrowdStrike or because its WANG mainframe is unassailable.
They’re in Scotland. I can just put “WANG” in a column and no one can do anything about it.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]
Summer is the time for travel. And this summer, thanks to the Relay 10 event in London, a lot of your favorite podcasters and writers in the Apple world are using the event as an excuse to take an European vacation.
Consider both Dan and I among that group. Separately, Dan and I planned vacations for our families and ended up both choosing Scotland! The highlands, even. And yet despite that, I don’t think our itineraries come anywhere near one another until we get to London for the Relay event.
In any event, Dan and family are already in Scotland and my wife and I are heading to the airport tomorrow. I wouldn’t expect many updates here in the intervening week and a half, though since we couldn’t get John Moltz on a plane, he’ll be posting his weekly This Week In Apple columns for members on Fridays.
I hope you’re all having a great summer (or, in the case of our southern hemisphere readers, winter!) and have the opportunity to take a trip of your own sometime soon. We hope to see some of you at the Hackney Empire theatre in London on July 27. (A few tickets still available!)
We should be back the week of July 29. See you then.
Starting this week, Apple is releasing all-new series and films captured in Apple Immersive Video that will debut exclusively on Apple Vision Pro. Apple Immersive Video is a remarkable storytelling format that leverages 3D video recorded in 8K with a 180-degree field of view and Spatial Audio to transport viewers to the center of the action.
There’s a new series, Boundless, that will finally show more of that spectacular hot air balloon footage from the earliest demo reels. More wildlife documentary installments (elephants!), a new series of high-altitude immersive clips, an “immersive experience” (presumably involving a music performance) from The Weeknd, a scripted short film (!), and more sports highlights including the NBA All-Star Game and big wave surfing, are also promised.
This is good. I want more, the more the better, and I’m glad Apple is announcing this stuff in advance instead of leaving us to wait and wonder why there isn’t more content available for the Vision Pro.
Sportswriter Will Carroll joins Jason for an all-Sports Corner edition. We discuss the NBA TV deal, the NFL lawsuit, and the future of sports broadcasting. [Downstream+ members also get: the post-RSN world, Netflix and live sports, and more.]
Today, on the tenth anniversary of Overcast 1.0, I’m happy to launch a complete rewrite and redesign of most of the iOS app, built to carry Overcast into the next decade — and hopefully beyond.
Speaking as someone who got antsy writing about Apple betas for a couple of weeks before being able to release my work this Monday, it’s absolutely amazing to think of the restraint Marco went through over the last 18 months, working on entirely rewriting his app without anyone seeing the fruits of his labor.
I highly recommend this week’s episode of ATP, in which Marco details the highs and lows of the process of rewriting his app.
The trick in writing about this update for broader audiences is that, well, it’s still really just Overcast. Users don’t care if a developer spent tens or hundreds or thousands of hours working on the code; all they care about are new features. This new release of Overcast is surprisingly familiar: the design’s a bit different, but not too much, and almost every feature is there. I’ve been using the new Overcast for a few weeks and it was easy to get used to the interface changes. It’s still my Overcast.
What’s exciting is that, by rewriting the app in Swift and using SwiftUI, Marco has given himself the opportunity to stop maintaining an elderly code base, and instead has a fast, modern app that he can iterate on quickly. Marco suggests that “some of your most-requested features over the last decade” are going to be rolling out soon, enabled by the rewrite. See, that’s me being a user. It’s all about those new features.
Where we primarily do our text entry (smartphone, tablet, or computer), our involvement with user groups either as speakers or attendees, the apps we keep in our iPhone dock and why, and how we use Apple Pay.
The future of technology sometimes goes in surprising directions, taking an obvious path and then suddenly doubling back to go down a road less traveled. There was a time when The Future was underpowered client devices powered by remote servers, until it wasn’t—and then (thanks to cloud services and AI) it was again.
The rise of AI as a force in the tech industry—for good or ill, be it snake oil or world-changing (it’s probably in between on both counts)—has upended a lot of assumptions about how tech works and where it’s going. The conventional wisdom has held that Apple is behind, and AI puts it at a disadvantage. That might be true, but… maybe it isn’t?
