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macOS Sierra preview: Siri comes to the Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2016

macOS Sierra brings the familiar features of Siri for iOS to the Mac with an attractive user interface, third-party integration and some interesting capabilities specifically designed for the desktop that are not supported on iOS. In addition to standard search queries, you can ask Siri to locate a specific document you worked on last night, add a meeting to your calendar, start a FaceTime call and more.

The Siri interface is interactive, letting you drag and drop items from search results into your documents.

You can even pin Siri searches in the Notification Center with live updating! Here's our quick video preview of Siri for Mac in action and a detailed overview of the supported features that Apple hopes will make you more productive.

Apple executive explains why iMessage isn’t on other platforms

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

In a broad reflective piece on Apple's WWDC keynote, noted tech journalist Walt Mossberg made some interesting comments regarding a recent rumor that Apple was considering bringing its iMessage service to Android. Turns out that isn't happening, and won't be in the near future.

Speaking to a "senior Apple executive," Mossberg says Apple is happy with the 1 billion+ active devices it currently caters to, so it doesn't feel an immediate need to grow its user base by expanding to other platforms. It also still considers its iMessage service a major iOS-exclusive feature.

Apple’s free app of the week: TextGrabber

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion with the productivity app TextGrabber. This means that for the next 7 days, you’ll be able to download the popular OCR translation app for free on both iPhone and iPad—a solid savings of $5.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with TextGrabber, it easily and quickly scans, translates and saves your chosen text or QR-codes from virtually any printed material. All you have to do is take a picture, and TG handles the rest.

No, widgets haven’t been removed from iOS 10’s Notification Center

Andrew O'Hara ∙ June 16, 2016

Widgets are a big deal in iOS 10. In addition to having new capabilities such as increased support for 3D Touch and the ability to play—and even stream—video inline, they now have a dedicated side panel on the Lock screen. Now, some people have voiced concerns about widgets having been removed entirely from the Notification Center on iOS 10.

Luckily, that's not entirely true.

iOS 10 tidbit: “Define” has become “Look Up,” now supports Siri-powered web suggestions

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2016

As a non-native English speaker, I rely on a Define feature which helps me pull up the definition for any selected word in Safari and other apps, as determined by iOS's built-in Dictionary.

With iOS 10, Apple has rebranded this feature as Look Up and it's not just a marketing gimmick: On iOS 10, Look Up's greatly expanded scope now serves up any piece of Internet content that Siri Suggestions support.

iOS 10: app sharing made simple with handy new 3D Touch shortcut

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2016

In the run-up to the WWDC 2016 keynote, Apple announced a major shake up in the App Store with several new features, among them an easier way to share third-party apps with friends and family using 3D Touch.

Now that iOS 10 Preview has released to Apple's registered developers and we've had a chance to spend hands-on time with this feature, we're pleased to report that it works precisely as advertised.

The fine print of deleting stock apps on iOS 10

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2016

In an effort to address one of the longest standing customer pain points with iOS, Apple has officially confirmed that a bunch of first-party apps can be removed from iOS 10 devices. But as it turns out, deleting a stock app won't do what you'd expect.

Apple execs Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi shed more light on the topic on Daring Fireball editor John Gruber’s podcast, “The Talk Show”.

They've confirmed that deleting a stock iOS 10 app only removes its icon from the Home screen and deletes user data associated with the app, leaving actual app binaries intact on your device. Here's why this isn't such a big deal as it might sound and how removing specific first-party Apple apps might affect iOS 10's functionality.

Facebook launches new Home tab in Messenger

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2016

Facebook is trying to “reinvent the inbox” with Home, a new tab in the mobile Messenger app designed to make it easier to start conversations with the service's more than 900 million unique mostly users. David Marcus, Facebook's Messenger boss, said on Thursday that with the new Home tab his company is aiming to make Messenger simpler to use by presenting more relevant information.

iOS 10 tidbit: using 3D Touch to rename folders and seeing their notifications badge breakdown

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2016

iOS 10 makes extended use of 3D Touch-driven gestures on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. For instance, you can 3D Touch the bottom row of icons in Control Center to set flashlight intensity, start the timer, go to your last calculation and jump directly into a Camera mode.

You can also clear all notifications with 3D Touch and now I've stumbled upon another handy 3D Touch shortcut on iOS 10: folder renaming and seeing apps inside a folder with missed notifications.

Opinion: Dark Mode? Apple’s been testing dark interfaces on iOS for years now

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2016

My colleague Andrew first broke news yesterday that Dark Mode resources have been found within iOS 10's Messages app. Now, Dark Mode was expected to make an official appearance in iOS 10, but the WWDC keynote came and went without any mention of this feature.

Now Mac Aficionados tweeted out screenshots depicting a dark interface in other iOS 10 stock apps, including an automatic dark mode in iBooks, in addition to the Clock app, Safari and the iTunes Store.

As it turns out, dark interfaces in these apps (sans Clock) have been present for years, indicating Apple's been testing how users might accept a Dark Mode option on iOS.

CloudClip: Universal Clipboard for your Mac right now

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 16, 2016

Apple's newly-announced macOS Sierra is set to release to the public this Fall as the company revealed at WWDC 2016 this week, and it includes a variety of improvements that will make using your Mac even better than ever.

One of those improvements is Universal Clipboard, which is a Continuity feature that lets you share your clipboard between your iOS device(s) and your Mac.

But what if we told you that you didn't have to wait until the public release of macOS Sierra to enjoy a similar feature on your Mac?

Hacker’s recently-teased browser-based jailbreak reportedly killed in iOS 10

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated November 12, 2018

Only last month, well-known Italian iOS hacker and developer Luca Todesco teased a really nifty browser-based jailbreak that appeared to work on iOS 9.3.2.

Although the jailbreak would never be released to the public, Todesco says that Apple's upcoming iOS 10 release closes an important exploit used in the jailbreak, which was shown off just last month.