The holidays are upon us, so we’re taking a two-week break from email issues. See you next on 6 January 2025! While you’re in the mood for holiday giving, would you consider becoming a member to help us keep delivering TidBITS to your mailbox each week? This issue focuses on the promised Apple Intelligence features in macOS 15.2 Sequoia, iOS 18.2, and iPadOS 18.2, plus the solid list of other enhancements in those operating systems and watchOS 11.2, visionOS 2.2, tvOS 18.2, and HomePod Software 18.2. Adam Engst then dives into how Apple has integrated ChatGPT into Siri and comes up disappointed. In late-breaking news, Shirt Pocket Software says macOS 15.2 prevents SuperDuper from making bootable backups—hold off on updating or upgrading if you rely on such backups. Notable Mac app releases this week include Airfoil 5.12.4 and Audio Hijack 4.4.5, BBEdit 15.1.3, Default Folder X 6.1.3, Keynote 14.3, Numbers 14.3, and Pages 14.3, Lightroom Classic 14.1, Mellel 6.2, Merlin Project 9.0, Microsoft Office for Mac 16.92, OmniFocus 4.5, Safari 18.2, Scrivener 3.4, and Web Confidential 5.5.
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We will be taking a few weeks off to spend time with family and friends over the holidays. You can expect the next email issue of TidBITS on 6 January 2025. Thanks for reading TidBITS, and we hope our articles enriched your year!
Apple’s December 2024 updates bring substantial changes across the company’s ecosystem, from new Apple Intelligence features to Mail categorization, enhanced Find My item sharing capabilities, and natural language Apple Music searches.
Despite Apple's efforts to improve Siri with ChatGPT integration, Adam Engst finds that the new feature presents more challenges than solutions. Functional hiccups and broader concerns cast doubt on its effectiveness.
Watchlist
Maintenance updates for the wireless audio broadcasting and full-featured audio recording apps. ($35/64 new, free update, various sizes, macOS 14.4+)
Maintenance update focused on bug fixes for the text editor. ($59.99 new, free update, 29.7 MB, macOS 11+)
Fixes various bugs in the Open/Save dialog utility. ($39.95 new, free update, 17.6 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Adds support for Apple Intelligence to the three iWork apps. (Free, various sizes, macOS 14+)
Brings feature enhancements and bug fixes to the photo editor and image manager. ($9.99/$19.99/$59.99 monthly Creative Cloud subscription, free update, macOS 13.1+)
Adds import/export support for comments in Microsoft Word DOCX documents. ($69.99 new, free update, 102.2 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Major upgrade to the powerful project management app adds a new intelligent assistant. ($199 annual subscription, free update for subscribers, 41.3 MB, macOS 12+)
Focused on enhancements and bug fixes for Outlook. ($149.99 new for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update, macOS 12+)
Brings new and re-written Shortcuts actions and enhanced Spotlight results to the task management app. ($74.99 new, free update, 32.5 MB, macOS 14+)
Patches security vulnerabilities for the Web browser. (Free, various sizes, macOS 13+)
Improves support for the Apple Intelligence Writing Tools. ($49 new, free update, 123.6 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Adds a CSV export option for moving passwords to Apple's Passwords app. ($25 new, free update, 7.3 MB, macOS 10.13+)
