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The For-Research-Only Edition Thursday, July 18, 2024

Apple Says Its OpenELM Model Doesn't Power Apple Intelligence Amid YouTube Controversy, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

According to Apple, OpenELM was created only for research purposes, not for use to power any of its Apple Intelligence features. The model was published open-source and is widely available, including on Apple’s Machine Learning Research website.

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Apple also tells me that it has no plans to build any new versions of the OpenELM model.

Leaked Docs Show What Phones Cellebrite Can (And Can’t) Unlock, by Joseph Cox, 404 Media

Cellebrite, the well-known mobile forensics company, was unable to unlock a sizable chunk of modern iPhones available on the market as of April 2024, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media.

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For all locked iPhones able to run 17.4 or newer, the Cellebrite document says “In Research,” meaning they cannot necessarily be unlocked with Cellebrite’s tools. For previous iterations of iOS 17, stretching from 17.1 to 17.3.1, Cellebrite says it does support the iPhone XR and iPhone 11 series. Specifically, the document says Cellebrite recently added support to those models for its Supersonic BF [brute force] capability, which claims to gain access to phones quickly. But for the iPhone 12 and up running those operating systems, Cellebrite says support is “Coming soon.”

Awards Season

Emmy Nominations 2024: FX Dominates With The Bear And Shōgun, Apple TV+ Makes Waves Post-Ted Lasso, by Anna Govert, Paste

In many ways, this year’s Emmys are in a strange position. From the fact that we already had one Emmy ceremony this year (2023’s celebration took place in January of this year following last summer and fall’s duel strikes) to the omission of major players like the now-ended Succession or the ineligible House of the Dragon and The Last of Us, it was a toss-up to see who would step in to fill the vacuum left by many of our favorite shows.

Well, we now have the answer, and it’s slightly surprising: aside from FX’s record-breaking 25 nominations for Shōgun and 23 nominations for The Bear, the often-underrated Apple TV+ also dominates the major categories this year, with everything from the star-studded The Morning Show to under-the-radar favorite Loot to the limited series triumph Lessons in Chemistry.

Apple Scores Record 72 Emmy Award Nominations And Sweeps Across Top Categories, by Apple

“It has been an immensely rewarding morning to witness so many talented artists recognized with Emmy nominations across such an extraordinary number of categories,” said Zack Van Amburg, Apple’s head of Worldwide Video. “Everyone at Apple is profoundly appreciative to the Television Academy, and we send our congratulations to all of the nominees.”

Stuff

Apple Shares Humorous 'The Underdogs' Video Featuring iPhone, iPad, Mac, And Apple Vision Pro, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

Apple today shared a humorous new video on its YouTube channel that dramatizes many of the uses of Apple devices, including its Apple Vision Pro spatial computing device.

Microsoft’s Designer App Arrives On iOS And Android With AI Editing And Creation, by Tom Warren, The Verge

Microsoft Designer lets you use templates to create custom images, stickers, greeting cards, invitations, and more. Designer can also use AI to edit images and restyle them or create collages of images.

Beeline Has Become My Favourite Cycling Navigation App, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

But with an arrow pointing directly to my destination, I can make more efficient route choices even in meandering mode. Even better, by trying to follow the arrow as directly as possible, I get to explore routes I’ve never cycled even on journeys where I thought I’d pretty much explored all the possible variations.

Every App Should Be Like This Tea Timer App, by Jordan Gloor , How To Geek

Cuppa is how I wish every app experience was: free of ads, free of corporate tracking, and built to just get out of the way and let you do what you got the app to do. There are robust customization settings enthusiasts like me can tweak, but the defaults will likely serve you well.

Notes

The AT&T Data Breach Shows Why RCS Can’t Be Trusted And The Downside Of Apple Adding Support For It In iOS 18, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

All of the effort spent pushing Apple to support RCS would have been better spent pushing Apple to ship iMessage for Android. And without a supported iMessage client for Android, that role ought to go to WhatsApp, not RCS. WhatsApp is free, secure, and works equally well on all phones.

Meta knows this, and clearly smells the opportunity. Does Apple?

Bottom of the Page

This week, I am reminded of this essay by Joel Spolsky, about developers choosing to rewrite an entire application from scratch, and thus damaging the product by having no new features and enhancements while introducing regressions and bugs.

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Thanks for reading.