Apple Inc. executive Kim Vorrath, a company veteran known for fixing troubled products and bringing major projects to market, has a new job: whipping artificial intelligence and Siri into shape.
Vorrath, a vice president in charge of program management, was moved to Apple’s artificial intelligence and machine learning division this week, according to people with knowledge of the matter. She’ll be a top deputy to AI chief John Giannandrea, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the change hasn’t been announced publicly.
My sense is that it’s less about Siri and Apple Intelligence being more important than VisionOS, and more about Siri being a mess. More about urgency than importance. But perhaps it’s both more urgent and more important long-term. Either way, assigning Vorrath — perhaps Apple’s best fixer, and without question one of Apple’s best fixers — makes sense.
PowerPoint is still a fantastic way to build a presentation, and while there are new rivals to its throne, it remains surprisingly flexible and easy to use thanks to a robust feature set.
Momenta has issued version 20 of Agenda, adding support for collapsing note sections and text filtering of notes. The date-focused note-taking app now allows you to select any heading to fold that section to hide it away (particularly useful with nested sections within a long list).
Daniel Alm has issued Timing 2025.1, a brief maintenance release with helpful improvements for the time and productivity tracking app. The update adds the capability to create rules based on the day of the week (such as filters showing only times spent on weekends).
You might also want to place an AirTag in a location that’s difficult to reach or requires disassembly to get to, and you’d ordinarily avoid with the knowledge you would need to get to it every several months to replace the battery. That could be useful if you want to put an AirTag somewhere that a thief couldn’t remove it without substantial effort, taking minutes or even hours, but where the AirTag’s Bluetooth signal will still penetrate to reach nearby devices.
This particular API appears to be a direct response to challenges faced by apps with unconventional monetization models, such as Patreon, an online platform that enables creators to offer paid memberships to their audiences. In 2022, Apple required Patreon to adopt the App Store's billing system for in-app purchases.
Apple’s newly released Advanced Commerce API tackles two key challenges: managing large catalogs of in-app purchases or subscriptions, and offering bundled subscriptions with add-ons. While most developers won’t need this API, it’s a significant improvement for apps that do.
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For eligible apps, this API could significantly streamline product management and open up new monetization options. For the broader developer community, it signals Apple’s continued investment in improving the App Store’s commerce capabilities.
iOS 18 adoption is on pace with iOS 17 adoption last year, according to iOS 18 adoption statistics provided by Apple. iOS 18 is installed on 76 percent of iPhones introduced in the last four years, while 63 percent of iPads from the last four years are running iPadOS 18.
Immersive Video on the Vision Pro is one of the product’s must-try experiences, and Apple’s first new release of the year—Man Vs. Beast—arrives next week to take you on a bull-riding adventure.
Apple TV+ has signed its first ever agreement with professional bodies representing the French audiovisual sector committing the platform to investment obligations in local and European productions.
The accord, which does not cover cinema, will see the platform adhere to obligations set out in France’s 2021 SMAD decree governing investment quotas and media windows for all subscription-based, pay-per-view and free VOD services operating in the country.
Apple purchased the property at 815 Boylston Street in the Back Bay neighborhood for $88 million, the Boston Business Journal reported. The deal works out to more than $3,500 per square foot and represents one of the priciest commercial deals in the state in recent memory.
If I were in charge of Apple Intelligence, I will concentrate on improving stuff that helps in the creative process. Writing tools, image generation, and such. The idea is to use generative AI as a tool, to help people do better work. And to make sure it is a real human that presses the button labeled "Send" or "Publish" or "Post".
I will drop stuff that is meant for consumption, where there isn't a real human that 'approves' the generated product. Leave the job of headline writing to other humans.
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