Hello, is this thing on?
I’m still here, we’re still here, Apple’s still here, so let’s roll!
First off: If you haven’t, go ahead and update your Mac, iPhone and iPad to the latest version of whatever OS that it’s capable of running. On a Mac, that’s under Apple Menu > System Settings > General > Software Update; on an iPhone or iPad, Settings > General > Software Update. The latest version of macOS is Sequoia 15.5, and the latest version of iOS/iPadOS is 18.5; if you have older models, you might not be eligible for these, so just install whatever it lets you (if you’re not current already), and start budgeting for a new machine. While these upgrades almost always complete without incident, I still recommend that you have a backup (on a Mac, with Backblaze, CrashPlan, Time Machine, or Carbon Copy Cloner; on an iPhone or iPad, with iCloud). If you’re not sure, call us! And, if you’re jumping several versions forward, you may or may not run into a few issues after the upgrade; we can help if you do. If you are low on space on your iPhone or iPad, it can still be upgraded with the help of a Mac; ask us.
Apple News:
Recently, Apple held their annual developer conference. Here’s my own highlights of what they announced. There are quite a lot!
The visual appearance of macOS, iOS, and iPadOS is going to change. Apple does this every so many years — the last time was with macOS 11 Big Sur, in 2020 — and, as when a magazine undergoes a layout facelift, it will be annoying and disorienting at first and then you’ll get probably used to it (unless they do a really bad job). And then, if you ever look at an older version, it will look dated. If history is any guide, plus ça change. There will be translucency and layers and other graphical changes that Apple is calling “Liquid Glass,” but it is unlikely you’ll use your devices any differently than you do now. (Though you’ll actually be able to colorize your folders!) It’s not worth going into these visual changes now, because they’re likely to morph over the next several months as Apple continues to work on the software during beta releases; when the official releases for each device come out in the fall, I’ll think about it harder then. If, when you see it, you dislike it, it will be possible to disable it and revert to the appearance you’re currently familiar with.
In the fall, the next versions of macOS, iOS, and iPadOS released will all be numbered version 26. As in, the year 2026. They release these yearly, in the fall, so I guess they decided their operating systems are like a Chrysler, but in honesty this will simplify things, rather than trying to remember the separate version numbers many of these have now. (They ought to renumber the iPhone to match, while they’re at it! But as far as I know that’s not happening.) You’ll need an iPhone 11 or newer to run iOS 26, though it won’t support every last feature. In addition to the number, macOS will continue to have an additional name taken from a California place, with version 26 being “Tahoe.”
(For historians such as myself: previous macOS releases were numbered 10.0 through 10.15, then 11 through 15. Previous versions were the entirely different “classic” Mac OS of the 80’s and 90’s, starting at 1.0 and ending at 9.2.2. Versions 10.0 and later, along with every other current Apple operating system such as iOS, are all descendants of Steve Jobs’ NeXTSTEP, developed at the little-noticed company he founded, called NeXT, during his 1985-1996 “exile years” away from Apple, and which Apple bought in early 1997—while I was working there, in Cupertino!—when their years-long in-house efforts to develop a modern, next-generation operating system collapsed catastrophically, and the company had to scramble to keep pace with Microsoft, who were having success in enterprise with the then-sophisticated Windows NT while eating Apple’s consumer lunch with the inferior but cheaper Windows 95. NeXTSTEP was itself built upon Unix, a mature but very technical operating system; one of the great achievements of Mac OS X, as it was then called, was hiding all the Unix underneath an easy-to-use interface familiar to Mac users, while maintaining operability of previous-generation Mac OS software long enough for developers to completely rewrite their software for the new platform.)
Version 26 of macOS will be the final version to support any Intel-based Mac models (and, of those, only a very few models released in 2019 and 2020). Version 27 and forward will only support Mac models based on Apple processors — that is, those based on M-series chips, first introduced in late 2020, which Apple refers to generally as “Apple silicon.”
If you have an Intel-based Mac, it’s probably time to start thinking about a new Mac in the next year or so. You can check under Apple Menu > About This Mac, and if it says anything about “Intel” or “Core,” then it’s an Intel processor in there. The good news is that the Apple silicon-based models, even the cheapest ones, are much better than their predecessors, and represent a substantial performance upgrade. If you have been holding out because you have a 27-inch iMac, which the company no longer makes, you might discover the current 24″ iMac to be totally fine; or you can buy the 27-inch Apple Studio Display and pair it with their tiny Mac mini desktop computer.
It’s also possible to run a later version of macOS than Apple supports on an older machine via an open-source project called OCLP; we can’t officially support it, but, if you’re tech-minded, I’m just letting you know it exists. (I used it to run macOS 14 Sonoma on my own 2014 iMac, largely without issue; that machine was supposed to top out at macOS 11 Big Sur.)
Rosetta 2 (which allows software for Intel-chip Macs to run on Apple-chip Macs) will continue to run on macOS 26 and 27, with no commitments after that. Most developers have by now updated their apps to run “natively” on Apple-chip Macs without requiring Rosetta 2, but if you’re using some specific software that’s no longer being updated, you’ll eventually need to find an alternative, or use a workaround like a virtual machine running an older version of macOS (we can help with that).
Spotlight on macOS is being dramatically changed. Spotlight is the feature that lets you find stuff on your computer (e.g. when you perform a search in Mail or Finder). It’s powerful, but has long been buggy—for example, omitting mail messages you might be looking for. Who knows if those problems have been solved or not—let’s hope so—in what Apple is touting as a massive reconceptualization of Spotlight. In macOS 26 Tahoe, Spotlight will prioritize items the machine thinks are important to you based on your usage habits and what you’re doing at the moment; provide keyboard shortcuts for quick operations like composing new email; and provide a mini-system, available regardless of what application you’re currently using, for performing common activities. One improvement I’m excited about in new Spotlight is being able to go back to earlier contents of the clipboard—where things go when you copy-paste. (Third party apps have been offering this capability for 30+ years, but I digress.) And, as part of the Spotlight revamp, Apple is also replacing Launchpad (which lays out macOS apps in a similar manner to iOS/iPadOS) with an App Library which resembles the rightmost page of an iPhone or iPad. If you use Launchpad, I imagine this will take some getting used to.
I’m wary of these changes; Spotlight has been the devil I’ve known for decades now, and I’m worried that, as is all too often the case in tech, “new and does more” won’t necessarily mean better, and might even mean worse. But, if they fix Spotlight’s bugs, and it legitimately becomes more useful, I’m all for it. We’ll know soon enough!
iPadOS is going to get more like macOS, with apps that can do stuff in the background, resizable windows, close/minimize/maximize buttons, a menu bar, and a pointer arrow (when using a mouse). I have long found the multitasking / multi-window features of iPadOS to be wildly unintuitive, to the point of not really being able to understand them even when I try, and I only know a few people who use them. Some of the existing methods (Split View and Slide Over) will be replaced with a more Mac-like concept of actual resizable, positionable windows for each app. We’ll see how well Apple executes this; it has felt like they come out with some new, confusing method of multitasking on iPads every couple of years, replacing what came before. Hopefully what they do this time is well thought out, and makes iPads more capable for power users. There are also a number of other changes that bring the iPad experience closer to that of a Mac (rather than the other way around, fortunately). Being a diehard Mac user, I doubt I’ll be converted myself, but these sound like real improvements for iPad users.
More background music and sounds. One nifty feature buried in the recent versions of iOS/iPadOS is music and ambient to chillax, work, or fall asleep to with a single button, accessible from the Control Center; more of these background sounds are being added.
The Preview app for macOS is coming to iOS/iPadOS. Preview is one of the Mac’s hidden gems, a very powerful tool for viewing, marking up, and manipulating PDFs and images. While some of these features have been in iOS within apps, such as when you’re looking at a PDF in full screen mode from Files or Mail, there will now be a dedicated app. I’m excited about this!
“Live Translation” for Messages, FaceTime, and phone calls: This could be amazing for traveling, when interacting with someone who speaks a different language. Messages will show you a translation; FaceTime will show you translated captions in real time; phone calls will actually offer voice translation on the fly. If done well, this could be cool af. (This makes use of Apple’s much-derided Apple Intelligence, with translation “models” stored on your device — which could eat into storage space, meaning you might want to not buy your next iPhone in its smallest capacity.)
The Phone app will let you screen callers, and wait on hold for you until someone comes on the line. The call screening will automatically ask the caller for the name and the purpose of their call, and then you get to decide if you want to pick up. As for the wait on hold feature, well, if it means I don’t have to listen to 45 minutes of hold music when I call (fill in the blank), I’m all for it.
The Files app on iOS/iPadOS will be more Mac-like. It wasn’t that long ago that Apple tried to hide the existence of documents and folders entirely on iPhone and iPad, but a few years ago, the introduction of the Files app has been how you manage them, including support for iCloud Drive; third-party storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive; and local (non-cloud) storage. Unfortunately, the Files app has always been anemic, doing the barest minimum of what it needs to, and not that intuitively. Hopefully this new update, which supports things like folder expansion, will be more capable.
You’ll be able to store your passport in Wallet. It doesn’t replace the need for your physical passport when you travel internationally, but if you don’t yet have a REAL ID, you can use your Wallet at TSA for domestic travel instead of your driver’s license. It can also be used for age verification at supported websites and retail stores. You’ll also be able to store your driver license if you live in certain handful of states, but New York is not yet one of them; California is one of them, though. (For New Yorkers, there exists the NYS Mobile ID app, and you can allegedly use that at TSA checkpoints instead of the physical card…if your driver’s license is REAL ID compliant.)
Notes app is coming to Apple Watch. I’m not a watch guy, digital or otherwise, but I do use Notes heavily, and I can imagine this being really helpful to Notes users with an Apple Watch. Also cool: you’ll be able to record, and transcribe, a phone call directly to Notes.
Better call quality, “studio-quality” audio, remote camera trigger, and other features for AirPods. These will be provided via automatic software updates for existing AirPods (with some features for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 only); no new AirPods models are being announced at the moment. I love my AirPods Pro 2, so I’m looking forward to these enhancements.
Flight tracking, terminal maps and other useful stuff next to your boarding pass in Wallet. I like to fly, so I like this.
More car manufacturers supporting digital car keys in Wallet. I don’t drive much and our car has a six-disc CD changer as far as technology goes, so I don’t really care, but when we eventually get something newer, it seems slick to just have the key in your iPhone.
iPhones will have an “adaptive power” option, which is sort of like an on-the-fly “low power mode” like dimming the screen or slowing down background activities that gets automatically switched to when your iPhone is doing something battery intensive, so that you don’t drain as quickly.
Many other tweaks and improvements within apps. They don’t seem significant enough individually to detail here, but I hope in aggregate they’ll contribute to an overall better Mac, iPhone, and iPad experience. (If Apple does them well and doesn’t take away perfectly good existing ways of doing things.)
What about Apple Intelligence? I’ll have more to say about this at some point in the future, but suffice to say that Apple Intelligence, the company’s privacy-oriented spin on generative “artificial intelligence” they announced a year ago, has been something of an embarrassment, with few users finding value from it, and various promised features (such as a “personalized” and hopefully smarter Siri) not having come to fruition. This doesn’t say much about generative AI as a whole, but it’s raised questions about Apple’s ability to keep up with the times. without being able to put their considerable money whether their mouth is, Apple could have done better to stay on the sidelines, rather than overpromising and underdelivering, given that their whole brand is about polish. This year, Apple has backed off from presenting Apple Intelligence as some sort of transformative life-changer (which was dumb, because it was never going to be), instead mentioning it repeatedly as the technology behind many of the new capabilities of macOS/iOS/iPadOS 26. They’ve also opened it up to developers to leverage in their own apps.
As generative AI technology (which I’ll also have more to say about someday) becomes more integrated into products we use, I’ll just say that I’ve found it both very useful and even magical for many things, and simply untrustworthy when it comes to delivering dependable information. Technology improves, but as things currently stand, even the best paid models that the industry has to offer are predictive algorithms, without actual knowledge, meaning that they are gonna get facts wrong a non-trivial percentage of the time while stating them with total authority. (A quick glance at the AI summaries above Google searches will demonstrate this in a hurry; I’ve come to completely ignore them.) You don’t get to put your human brain to the side just yet, and I encourage you to use it when engaging with generative AI based on Large Language Models (which, to date, is all commercially available AI, including Apple Intelligence). So if Spotlight becomes oriented around Apple Intelligence to offer you “better” and more situational results, keep your eyes open for what it omits or includes wrongly because its predictive algorithm threw the dice wrong that time. Hopefully, given the drubbing they’ve received in the press, Apple will execute carefully and well, and use the technology within its useful limits, and not push it to places where you can’t depend on it.
There’s much more to say, but that’s enough for now, don’t you think? If you have any questions about any of Apple’s announcements, or want to know what Mac to buy, or just want to talk, we’re here for you. Enjoy your summer!
(June 2025)