In a surprising move, Apple has announced today that it will adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard. The feature will launch via a software update “later next year” and bring a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users.
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Apple also reiterates that iMessage is far more secure and privacy-friendly than RCS. iMessage is end-to-end encrypted, and Apple just took that up a notch with Advanced Data Protection for Messages in iCloud. Meanwhile, Apple says that RCS does not currently support encryption that is as strong as iMessage.
Apple has confirmed to me that blue bubbles will still be used to represent iMessages, while green bubbles will represent RCS messages. The company uses blue bubbles to denote what it believes is the best and most secure way for iPhone users to communicate, which is iMessage.
It’s a disgrace, in my opinion, that E2EE wasn’t a foundational part of the RCS spec from the start, but if Apple is going to support RCS, they should support RCS by-the-spec, not Google’s proprietary version.
I expect there will be things to complain about and bugs to fix when RCS rolls out next year, but I'm happy that we can move past the "should Apple add RCS" conversation and actually start using it relatively soon. My guess is no iPhone user's life will get worse, many will get better, and we'll quickly forget there was ever an enthusiastic debate over this in the first place.
Apple appears to have ample stock of all of its main products as we head into the holiday season, with Apple currently saying that most products can be ordered up until December 21 while still receiving delivery in time for Christmas.
I’m far from being a perfect example of excellent diabetes control — it’s hard without proper discipline. But I have found my iPhone and Apple Watch, along with other wearables like Oura Ring, to be valuable additions to aid me in my diabetes management journey.
If you want to get really basic, you can use a spreadsheet or create a simple set of word-processing documents. Otherwise, you can try what is somewhat inaccurately described as a note-taking app. These apps, at their simplest, store your notes and other thoughts and, at their more complex, are capable of manipulating any and all content you want to drop into them.
Even if you’ve used the Mac for decades, I suspect you have never fully understood the Fn key. Not helping is the fact that Apple sometimes calls it the Function key, but all Mac keyboards already have 12 or more numbered F-for-Function keys! The Fn key first appeared in 1998 in the PowerBook G3 Series (Wallstreet) and has become a fixture in the lower-left corner of laptop keyboards ever since. The Fn key migrated to standalone keyboards only in 2007 with the release of the Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, where it occupies a spot between the Delete key and the Home key. On Apple’s compact desktop keyboards, it reverts to the lower-left corner.
Businesses can lead climate progress by cutting greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain—as much and as fast as we can. We’re approaching our Apple 2030 goal to make every product carbon neutral by reducing emissions from their three biggest sources: electricity, materials, and transportation. Any company can follow that simple blueprint. To address remaining emissions, businesses can drive investment in communities on the front lines of the climate crisis through nature-based carbon removal. I visited a project in Kenya this year that has created women-led grass seed banks, and trained hundreds of local Maasai community members in updated rangeland management techniques to get more value out of the land. Business investment in carbon removal helps make this possible.
Digital keys could become more popular and more ubiquitous after automakers and the consumer tech industry came together to announce the formation of a new working group to develop industrywide standards for ultra wideband (UWB) connectivity.
After already delaying a plan to have an in-house chip ready by next year, Apple is now likely to miss a goal to ship the component by the spring of 2025, according to people familiar with the situation. That would postpone the release until at least the end of 2025 or early 2026 — the final year of Apple’s recently extended contract with Qualcomm.
Is RCS how Apple going to allow interoperability with other messaging systems? If it's good enough for Android, it's good enough for the EU?
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