The new members joining in August are Paul Winstanley and Ted James.
Charles Martin
16
Sun Aug 03 2025, 10:04 AM EDT · 1 minute read
A forthcoming Siri will be better able to leverage built-in services to assist user queries.
Rumor Score
Possible
Apple has formed a new Answers, Knowledge and Information team of engineers to develop in-house AI services, including a new Siri search experience similar to ChatGPT.
In addition to existing Apple staff, the company is now actively recruiting for engineers with search algorithm and engine development, according to Bloomberg.
While the structure of the Answers, Knowledge and Information (AKI) team is new, the goal of a revamped Siri has been ongoing: a long-awaited updated version with more contextual understanding, based on a new large language model (LLM) engine.
This has included speculation that it could be in talks with Anthropic or OpenAI. These technologies would presumably be used to bolster the back-end engine of an AI-powered Siri.
The goal is to dissuade users from leveraging rival services, ranging from ChatGPT to traditional text-based search engines like Google. The Siri team has also been previously reported to be considering several options for quickly revamping its search engine.
Earlier reports have intimated that this revamped Siri experience could debut in the first half of 2026. This makeover would also incorporate the previously-planned "app intent" technology, which integrates an app's content and actions into Siri, Spotlight, and other built-in technology.
It has been previously suggested that — in addition to an improved Siri — Apple could develop a separate app or service called "Knowledge." This proposed app is said to work more like chatbots such as ChatGPT, and function as an always-on service that is activated through routine conversation.
The AKI group is led by senior AI director Robby Walker, reporting to John Giannandrea. Siri development is now headed by Mike Rockwell, Apple's chief of Vision Pro development, so that Giannandrea can focus solely on completing the AI engine before an expected retirement.
This reshuffling of management of the AI division has resulted in some rearrangement and new hires of talent within the division. Apple has dramatically increased spending and recruiting of more talent in an effort to accelerate its AI development goals.
Apple's AI team has been advertising for still more members, saying in ads that its work "fuels intuitive information experiences across some of Apple's most iconic products — including Siri, Spotlight, Safari, Messages, Lookup, and more."
Tue Jul 08 2025, 11:12 PM EDT · 3 minute read
Messages has the capability to record audio you don't want to send to anyone.
Audio recordings are a convenient feature in iMessage that can potentially lead to embarrassing message misfires. Here's how to take control of audio recordings in the app.
Messages is a great app for short text messages and iMessages. It also has a built-in dictation feature in the keyboard, or you can hit the microphone icon in the message composing field for those who want to speak a message and send it out.
It even works with RCS messaging for better communication across platforms.
There's a somewhat hidden way to send audio messages rather than text in Messages, called Raise to Listen. It's on by default on iPhones, but depending on your messaging style, you may want to turn it off.
We'll tell you how it works, where it might get you into trouble, and how to turn it off if you want to.
The "Raise to Listen" feature in Messages allows you to raise your iPhone to your ear to play the most recent message within a couple of minutes of it arriving. You can also raise the iPhone again to dictate a reply without having to press any buttons.
This can be ideal if you get a notification that a new audio message has arrived in the Messages app, but aren't able to read it at the moment. For example, you've received an audio message from someone, and you need to speak at length in your reply.
Despite texting being a primarily keyboard or dictation-based system, there are times when you want to send an audio recording in Messages rather than making a phone call.
Some people prefer to send audio messages due to having difficulty using the iPhone's keyboard, and not having to keep the iPhone to their ear or use earphones.
There are also times when a sound or audio message can convey emotion or tone that is harder to put into words.
When a new audio message arrives in Messages, you can simply raise your iPhone to your ear to hear it. This works within two minutes of the message arriving by default, but you can change that to never expire:
After hearing the incoming audio message, lower the iPhone and then raise it again to your ear if you want to send your own return audio message. When you've finished speaking, lower the iPhone again, and the recording you just made is ready to be sent.
If you want to make an audio message to initiate a conversation or to reply to an audio message after the predetermined response time, you can do that.
Rather than hitting the microphone icons located in the text bubble or the on-screen keyboard, tap the plus (+) button to the left of the text entry bubble.
This launches a list of other options for sending in Messages. You can open the camera, select a photo to attach, use stickers, send Apple Cash, set a timed sending, and various other non-text options.
One of the options is "Audio," and pressing that will immediately start an audio recording in Messages.
Because the "Raise to Listen" feature is on by default, it can, in certain circumstances, unintentionally start recordings you didn't intend to start. Because you have raised the iPhone to your ear to hear the audio message sent to you, if you put the phone down and pick it up again, you might trigger an audio recording.
How to navigate to turn off "Raise to Listen" on iPhone.
Depending on how you hold or carry your iPhone, you may be unaware that Messages is now recording an audio message. This can pick up benign or unintended sounds, and will continue recording for some time.
If you look at the Messages app after an accidental recording has occurred, you'll see the recording waiting to be sent.
You can play it back to check it if you want to, or delete an audio or text message without sending it by double-tapping the message to select it, and then hitting the onscreen delete key to delete it.
If you accidentally sent a message, whether text or audio, you can "unsend" it if you press and hold on the message within a short period of sending it.
The receiving person might still see or hear it, but after you unsend it, the message will no longer appear in their Messages app. So long as you catch it in time.
Given the possibility of accidentally sending an unintended recording as a message, users might consider disabling the "Raise to Listen" feature altogether. This still lets users send audio messages intentionally, but reduces the risk of sending unintended audio messages.
Disabling Raise to Listen still allows you to receive audio messages, but you now have to manually press the play button on them to start and pause them playing.
Since audio messages can sometimes contain sensitive information, it is a good practice to wear earphones when listening to or recording audio messages.
That way, the incoming messages are not heard by others, Your outgoing message can also be spoken softly to avoid bothering nearby people.
ADAM ENGST 14 August 2025
A U.S. Customs ruling has allowed Apple to restore blood oxygen readings for U.S. Apple Watch buyers for whom the feature was disabled in early 2024. For these users, the redesigned approach works by measuring on the Apple Watch, processing data on the iPhone, and displaying results in the Health app.
After medical device maker Masimo’s patent infringement complaint regarding the blood oxygen sensor on the Apple Watch, Apple was compelled in late 2023 to cease selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the U.S. (see “Apple to Stop Selling Two Apple Watch Models in the US Due to Import Ban,” 18 December 2023). Soon after, Apple negotiated a workaround that allowed it to resume sales by throwing a software switch that disabled the blood oxygen sensor for new Apple Watch buyers in the U.S. (see “Apple Disables Blood Oxygen App in New Apple Watches,” 18 January 2024). Hardware remained unchanged, and models with blood oxygen sensors sold before the ban continued to have access to the watchOS Blood Oxygen app. Sales of Apple Watch models in other countries were also unaffected.
Apple has been fighting the legal case all this time and seems either unwilling or unable to settle with Masimo. However, a recent U.S. Customs ruling has enabled Apple to make a technical compromise. Apple says:
Users with these models in the U.S. who currently do not have the Blood Oxygen feature will have access to the redesigned Blood Oxygen feature by updating their paired iPhone to iOS 18.6.1 and their Apple Watch to watchOS 11.6.1. Following this update, sensor data from the Blood Oxygen app on Apple Watch will be measured and calculated on the paired iPhone, and results can be viewed in the Respiratory section of the Health app.
This new iPhone-focused experience won’t apply to earlier Apple Watch units that still have the Blood Oxygen app, nor to units purchased outside the United States.
It’s possible that Apple hasn’t been interested in settling with Masimo because the feature isn’t that important for everyday wellness. As Rich Mogull wrote in “The Paramedic’s Guide to Blood Oxygen and the Apple Watch Series 6” (22 October 2020), those with known lung disease can use it to determine if their condition is worsening, and people who suspect respiratory issues like pneumonia or COVID-19 can use it to decide if they need immediate help. Useful, but not something most people would use regularly.
Rich also said it could theoretically help identify sleep apnea, but he felt the data collected during sleep wasn’t reliable enough. Last year, Apple introduced sleep apnea notifications in watchOS 11, saying that it uses the accelerometer to detect interruptions in normal respiratory patterns, a technique Apple validated in a clinical study.
In short, if you have an Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, or Apple Watch Ultra 2 on which the blood oxygen sensor is disabled, update to iOS 18.6.1 via Software Update and to watchOS 11.6.1 through the Watch app. After updating, you can view blood oxygen data on your iPhone in Health > Browse > Respiratory > Blood Oxygen. Apple doesn’t call out any other changes or security fixes in these updates, so if your Apple Watch isn’t affected or you’re not interested in tracking blood oxygen, you can ignore these updates.
ADAM ENGST 21 August 2025
In a press release that will likely make little difference to anyone, Apple writes:
Apple today announced the expansion of its Self Service Repair and Genuine Parts Distributor programs to Canada, providing individuals and independent repair professionals across the country broader access to the parts, tools, and manuals needed to repair Apple devices.
Given the seemingly minimal uptake of the Self Service Repair program, it’s hard to get too excited about its entry into Canada, the program’s 34th country. Even Apple isn’t all that enthused, pointing out that 80% of Canadians already live within a 30-minute drive of an Apple Store, Apple Authorized Service Provider, or Independent Repair Provider location.
But for those who prefer DIY repairs, deliveries should include the essential piece of repair gear made famous by the Red Green Show: duct tape. “Remember, if the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.” I have extremely fond memories of pulling in the Red Green Show from the CBC when we lived on Tiger Mountain near Seattle, high enough up to get the transmission all the way from Canada.
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ADAM ENGST 30 July 2025
At the beloved MacHack conference of yesteryear, the main event was always the MacHax Best Hack Contest (don’t ask about the different spelling). For their contest entries, some of the top Mac programmers would stay awake for up to 72 hours straight coding. On the final day of the conference, everyone would gather in an auditorium as developer after developer showed off their hacks. Audience reaction was enthusiastically chaotic, with hacks that aimed to improve the overall Mac user experience often being met with derisive cries of “Useful!”
In 1999, Lisa Lippincott’s Unfinder won first place despite facing numerous catcalls, since it was the first time we saw Undo available for non-destructive actions in the Finder, such as moving files; see “The MacHack Hack Contest 1999,” 12 July 1999. (In contrast, asciiMac, the 1998 winner from Alexandra Ellwood and Miro Jurisic, converted the entire Mac interface to ASCII graphics in real time, which no one mocked as useful; see “Moof on the Hoof: MacHack ’98,” 6 July 1998.)
All that’s by way of introducing a new Mac app that would have fit in perfectly at MacHack: TrackWeight, which turns the Mac’s trackpad into a precision scale for weighing small objects. On the face of things, this would seem like a handy feature, but the technical requirements for implementing TrackWeight make it the perfect MacHack novelty app. The problem is that trackpad pressure events are generated only when capacitance is detected on the trackpad surface—in other words, your finger or another conductive object must be in contact with the trackpad. When that’s the case, the trackpad’s Force Touch sensors provide pressure readings that can be calibrated and converted into weight measurements.
It’s nearly impossible to rest your finger on the trackpad, press the Space bar to calibrate, and then add something else to the trackpad to weigh it without changing the pressure applied by your finger. It can be done—I glimpsed a few correct weights while testing—but I spent vastly more time failing to get accurate measurements than succeeding. Neither a pen with a conductive nub nor a plum—both of which could control the pointer—provided a stable weight and conductivity.
I’m rooting for TrackWeight’s developers to figure out a workaround for the required finger pressure so the app becomes actually useful, but until then, it’s mostly an inspired hack that would have earned applause from the MacHack crowd.
ADAM ENGST 7 August 2025
In “Two-Factor Authentication, Two-Step Verification, and 1Password” (10 July 2023), I explained that for true two-factor authentication, you needed to acquire your time-based one-time password (TOTP) from a device other than the one on which you’re logging in. By having 1Password automatically enter those automatically generated six-digit codes for me, I’m instead using two-step verification. That’s much more secure than plain passwords, but not as strong as two-factor authentication because an attacker could compromise 1Password to access both the password and the verification code.
I’m willing to accept that slightly reduced level of security in return for a vastly better user experience, but if you’re not, the Swiss company Proton, best known for the security-focused ProtonMail service and Proton VPN (see “Do You Use It? VPN Use Is Widespread,” 26 May 2025), has introduced a new standalone app for generating two-factor authentication codes. The free and open source Proton Authenticatorworks like Google Authenticator and Authy, enabling you to add accounts that support two-factor authentication and display the six-digit codes they generate.
What sets Proton Authenticator apart from Google Authenticator and Authy is that it runs on more platforms—iOS, macOS, Windows, Android, and Linux—and can sync its accounts between them. Authy used to support both iOS and macOS and sync accounts between them but dropped its Mac support over a year ago (see “Authy Desktop to Reach End-of-Life on 19 March 2024,” 14 February 2024). In fact, Proton Authenticator’s “Mac app” is actually an iPad app, meaning that it doesn’t really look like a Mac app and runs only on Macs with Apple silicon. There also seems to be no way to update accounts using the Mac version; I can’t figure out how to simulate the iPhone version’s touch and hold on the Mac.
Proton Authenticator claims that it can import existing accounts from itself and Proton’s password manager, Proton Pass (which features the same two-step verification capability as 1Password), plus other two-factor systems, including 2FAS, Aegis Authenticator, Authy, Bitwarden Authenticator, Ente Auth, Google Authenticator, LastPass Authenticator app, and Microsoft Authenticator.
However, for Authy and Microsoft Authenticator, Proton Authenticator indicates that they don’t offer export options, so there’s no way to import from them. Why include them in the interface when there’s no chance they could work?
Missing from the import list are 1Password and Apple’s Passwords. 1Password seems like an understandable omission, since I see no way of extracting the two-factor authentication seed. However, Apple’s Passwords does allow copying of a setup URL that contains a secretattribute you can paste in when manually creating a Proton Authenticator account.
otpauth://totp/Example%3A%20ace%40tidbits.com?secret=h62c5sy3kq3fs4rdsdlh3yje&issuer=Example
When creating manual accounts, Proton Authenticator allows you to configure the number of digits it will display and how often they will rotate. For the algorithm, you can choose from SHA1, SHA256, and SHA512, and for the type, between TOTP and STEAM. I honestly have no idea when those might be necessary, but Thag the Security-Conscious Caveman approves.
Other nice touches include:
Overall, Proton Authenticator looks like a solid entry in the burgeoning category for two-factor authentication apps, which—based on a quick App Store search—is flooded with approximately 31,742 entries from aspiring developers who pasted a TOTP library from GitHub into an Xcode project.
All that said, I’m sticking with 1Password.
