On Wednesday, Apple rolled out developer betas of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS 15.2, which run Apple Intelligence features previously seen only in Apple’s own marketing materials and product announcements: Three different kinds of image generation, ChatGPT support, Visual Intelligence, expanded English language support, and Writing Tools prompts.
OS 18.2 includes a new "Default Apps" section that can be found in the Settings app, which can be used to manage your default apps for the iPhone. This is a feature that Apple promised would be coming to the European Union, but it is actually available worldwide in the latest beta.
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In the United States, you can use the Default App interface to choose your preferred Email, Call Filtering, Browser, and Passwords, and Keyboards. The sections for Messaging and Calling don't list anything other than Messages, FaceTime, and Phone, respectively, but you can set FaceTime or Phone as the default calling app.
Mail Categories organize your incoming emails into different sections. Important emails are shown in a "Primary" category, with orders, newsletters, social notifications, and deals organized into three other sections.
Apple is introducing a new feature to iMessage in Australia that will allow children to report nude images and video being sent to them directly to the company, which could then report the messages to police.
The change comes as part of Thursday’s beta releases of the new versions of Apple’s operating systems for Australian users. It is an extension of communications safety measures that have been turned on by default since iOS 17 for Apple users under 13 but are available to all users.
Apple is taking the rare step of upgrading its entire line of Mac computers to the same generation of chip – the M4 – which will speed up performance and better handle artificial intelligence (AI) tasks. The refresh will include new MacBook Pros, Mac minis and iMacs coming next week.
The M4 MacBook Air line is scheduled to be released after a December software update, so the new machines are likely to arrive between January and March, the sources said.
You likely have never heard of Babel Street or Location X, but chances are good that they know a lot about you and anyone else you know who keeps a phone nearby around the clock.
Reston, Virginia-located Babel Street is the little-known firm behind Location X, a service with the capability to track the locations of hundreds of millions of phone users over sustained periods of time. Ostensibly, Babel Street limits the use of the service to personnel and contractors of US government law enforcement agencies, including state entities. Despite the restriction, an individual working on behalf of a company that helps people remove their personal information from consumer data broker databases recently was able to obtain a two-week free trial by (truthfully) telling Babel Street he was considering performing contracting work for a government agency in the future.
Apple is steadily adding more states to its list of compatible Apple Wallet digital ID partners. The latest to join is Iowa, joining seven other states that support driver’s licenses via iPhone and Apple Watch.
Adobe is attempting to lure illustrators to join its creative software platform by making its dedicated drawing and painting app entirely free for everyone. Fresco is essentially Adobe’s answer to apps like Procreate and Clip Studio Paint, which all provide a variety of tools for both digital art and simulating real-world materials like sketching pencils and watercolor paints.
Snapchat's update also includes Camera Control support on all iPhone 16 models to quickly access the app's camera view using that button.
The latest bit of tech novelty from Astropad is a case that turns a smartphone into a book — or at least the approximate dimensions of one. It’s a bit of plastic that lets one hold a smartphone the way they would a Kindle.
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There’s also an NFC chip inside, which will trigger a “companion app” on a nearby phone. That doubles as kind of a bookshelf for various reading apps. It can also be used to trigger Do Not Disturb settings on compatible devices.
The video platform has launched an app for Apple's Vision Pro that allows users to view, create and share spatial videos.
What this probably means is that the iPad mini is probably powered by chips that failed to qualify to be used in the iPhone 15 Pro but are being used–with one GPU core disabled–in the new iPad mini, rather than being thrown away. From a cost-savings and waste-prevention point, it’s a savvy move by Apple. But I can understand being a little less enthusiastic about being powered by another Apple product’s rejects, and it also seems to set a definitive cap on how many iPad minis can be made: Once they reach the bottom of the A17 Pro bin, that’s probably the end of this version product.
A new report from The Information cites “multiple people” involved in making parts for Apple’s Vision Pro headset to say that production plans have been scaled back in recent months. This follows a Tim Cook interview published this weekend by WSJ. Magazine, where he said, “Obviously I’d like to sell more,” but acknowledged that “At $3,500, it’s not a mass-market product.”
The regulator said Apple failed to send tens of thousands of consumer disputes of Apple Card transactions to Goldman Sachs. When Apple did send the disputes, the bank did not follow numerous federal requirements for investigating the disputes, according to a press release from the regulator.
Goldman will pay $64.8 million. Of that total, $19.8 million will go back to consumers, while the bank will pay the other $45 million in penalties to the regulator. Separately, Apple will pay the CFPB $25 million for its role in marketing and servicing the Apple Card.
It sure looks like Apple Intelligence is coming along quite nicely, for something that everyone thought Apple was way too late than their competitors.
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