This week’s feature article examines Apple Intelligence, the collection of AI-based features the company unveiled at WWDC and plans to roll out slowly throughout the next year. We also look at Apple’s quiet announcement that it will be renaming Apple ID to Apple Account, a minor change that will nevertheless drive tech writers to distraction. David Shayer rejoins TidBITS to share his eventual solution to an out-of-control SMS text spam problem: Nomorobo. Finally, we briefly acknowledge Apple’s discontinuation of the Apple Pay Later service. Notable Mac app releases this week include 1Password 8.10.34, Arc 1.47, BusyCal 2024.2.5, Little Snitch 6.0.1, and Zoom Workplace 6.1.
Starting later this year, Apple will replace all instances of “Apple ID” in its operating systems and documentation with “Apple Account.” Documentation that covers multiple versions of Apple operating systems will become more awkward.
SMS text spam was driving David Shayer crazy, and with the US election season heating up, the problem was only getting worse. After trying various strategies, he managed to rein in the problem with Nomorobo.
Apple devoted a large part of its WWDC keynote to Apple Intelligence, a collection of new AI-driven features that it plans to introduce throughout the next year in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 Sequoia.
Watchlist
Enables you to generate recovery codes for family accounts directly in the app. ($35.88 annual subscription, free update, 4.8 MB, macOS 10.15+)
Introduces a Live Calendar feature compatible with Google Calendar. (Free, 387 MB, macOS 12.1+)
Adds support for syncing tags and their assigned colors over iCloud. ($49.99 new, free update, 68.2 MB, macOS 10.15+)
Maintenance update for the network traffic management utility following its recent major upgrade. ($59 new, $39 upgrade from previous licenses, free update, 36.1 MB, macOS 14+)
Brings various improvements and bug fixes to the video conferencing app. (Free, 123.3 MB, macOS 10.13+)
