Safari might not be the most exciting part of macOS, but Apple isn't giving its web browser the cold shoulder. The latest version includes a number of useful improvements, including better privacy controls, encryption features, and the ability to create "apps" from any web page. 

The splashiest feature might be the new web apps feature. This puts a website in your dock, just like any other app and opens it with a minimal interface that helps mask the fact that you're just using a webpage in a browser. If this sounds similar, that's because it's almost exactly like shortcuts in Google's Chrome which can also put a link, complete with a favicon in your dock and opens the site in a simple frame with none of the normal browser controls. 

The more important improvements though are to privacy and profiles. Now private browsing blocks more trackers and your fingerprints from sites so they can't identify you. You can also now lock private browsing sessions behind your fingerprint, so you can step away from your computer without worrying that someone can sneak a peak while you're shopping for a gift or having to close your session.

Profiles allow you to separate your browsing by topic or context. So you could, for example, keep all your work tabs in a separate Safari window that has its own cookies, extensions and favorites. Then you can quickly switch to your personal profile to pick up where you left off trolling eBay for deals on vintage cameras. 

Lastly, users will be able to share passwords or groups of passwords through iCloud Keychain with end-to-end encryption. The latest version of Safari will be available later this year as part of macOS Sonoma which will be launching in beta next month.

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

As usual, Apple is unveiling a major set of updates for iPadOS. This year, we're on to iPadOS 17, and as expected it features a host of changes that have already been shown of for the iPhone in iOS 17, plus some updates specific to the tablet. 

For starters, widgets are now interactive, which means you can update them and take actions without necessarily jumping right into the app. You can start playing music via the Music widget, check off reminders, update smart home features and so forth.

Unsurprisingly, iPadOS 17 is also getting the lock screen redesign that Apple pushed to the iPhone last year with iOS 16. This lets you add widgets to the home screen, assign different focus modes to specific wallpapers, change the fonts of the clock and text and more. There's also a pretty cool Live Photo feature that animates your wallpaper when you wake the iPad. 

Apple is also bringing the Health app to the iPad for the first time. Naturally, it syncs data from the Health app on your phone and Apple Watch, but it looks like you can use it standalone as well if you don't have that other hardware.

PDF support is coming to the Notes app, which might not sound like the most exciting thing ever. But Notes is a pretty powerful app, and having it host PDFs for annotation could be quite useful. There's even a live collaboration feature that lets two people work on a shared PDF at the same time, and changes are reflected as both of you work.

Stage Manager is getting some improvements, too, giving you more flexibility for placing windows. This feature was a key bit of iPadOS 16, and it's good to see that Apple is answering some requests that people have had over the year.

Naturally, a lot of the same updates that are coming to iOS 17 will be here, as well. That includes an improved Messages experience, customizable contact posters, and the brand-new Journal app. 

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

Apple has a new diary app landing on iOS devices. Simply called “Journal,” the app is meant to help you keep tabs on daily moments you might want to remember or otherwise reflect on. The app is set to debut later this year following the rollout of iOS 17.

The app’s existence was reported in April by The Wall Street Journal, which compared it to Day One, a journaling app that’s been popular for more than a decade. But Apple’s Journal app could also be much more powerful than the offerings from third-party developers.

In addition to offering a diary-like interface where users can record notes about their day, the app will also allow people to easily keep tabs on their daily activities. Because the app can pull details from other apps, like Messages and Podcasts, it can automatically suggest moments you may want to reflect on.

For example, if you completed a workout using the Fitness app, or listened to a new podcast episode, Journal could remind you of these activities in its “intelligently curated” writing prompts and suggestions. Or if you took a trip to the beach, Journal could automatically pull in any related photos similar to the “memory” collages created in the Photos app.

The company also plans to offer an API for developers who want to tie their apps into Journal’s curated suggestions. Those kinds of integrations between apps could prompt privacy concerns, but the company said it created the app with users’ privacy in mind. The app is end-to-end encrypted, with all information stored locally on users’ devices. Users can also control which apps will have details appear in Journal’s suggestions.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

Apple has introduced iOS 17, and some of its most important changes revolve around fundamental apps. Incoming calls can now include custom posters for certain contacts, and you'll get Google-style live transcripts. Messages, meanwhile, offers easier replies, audio message transcripts, in-line location info and a "check in" that automatically lets people know if you've arrived or are delayed. There's a revamped sticker interface that lets you turn emojis into stickers, add effects and even add stickers to third-party apps.

Sharing is easier, too. NameDrop lets you share contact details just by bringing your iPhone close to someone else's device. You can share photos that way, too, and leave AirDrop transferring content even when you have to step away. A developer framework will expand access to sharing in other apps, too.

Even typing is better. New AI modelling improves keyboard autocorrection, and you'll see in-line predictions for what you're writing. If there's an unfamiliar word, iOS 17 will recognize it over time.

And yes, rumors of a life journaling app are true. The new Journal app lets document how you're feeling, complete with suggestions for writing prompts based on events like trips. Developers can tap into these suggestions.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

Reddit's potential threat to third-party apps is prompting a high-profile protest. Dozens of subreddits, including major examples like Earthporn, LifeProTips, ReactionGIFs and Videos, have declared they're "going dark" (that is, going private) starting June 12th in response to an API pricing increase they believe will shut out third-party clients. Some will resume public access after 48 hours, but others will "permanently" isolate themselves until Reddit addresses their concerns.

The protesters are also calling on users to message Reddit administrators, leave negative app reviews and boycott the social site. At the same time, they want participants to be "restrained, polite, reasonable and law-abiding" — threats and other rude behavior won't win people over, according to the organizers.

We've asked Reddit for comment. Christian Selig, the creator of popular client Apollo, says the API pricing would cost him $20 million per year. The developers of other apps, such as Narwhal and Reddit is Fun, have also warned that they can't afford the new prices and will likely shut down soon as a result. In the past, Reddit maintained that its pricing is "as equitable as possible" and that it was working to improve the efficiency of apps and reduce their costs.

As The Vergeexplains, moderators are as worried about the price change as users. Third-party Reddit apps frequently include customizations and other features that don't make their way into the official app, including moderator tools that help keep subreddits in check. Developers also fear the new API structure would prevent displaying not-safe-for-work content and limit ads that are key to making revenue.

This isn't the first time Reddit communities have fenced themselves off in protest. In 2015, the IAmA subreddit went private in objection to the sudden firing of communications director Victoria Taylor. In 2021, dozens of subreddits made a similar move to draw attention to COVID-19 misinformation that was allowed to spread on the platform. Reddit's responses have been mixed. It banned one community and quarantined 54 others after the misinformation protest, but those actions were for abuse rather than the disputed content.

Reddit's decision comes a few months after Twitter banned third-party apps and severely limited free API access. In both cases, the strategies effectively force users to rely on official apps, where companies can control more of the experience and generate more money from ads and (in Twitter's case) subscriptions. The fear, as you might guess, is that this leads to a stagnant platform where outsiders can't improve on the core formula.

Ever since Apple released the first iPad in 2010, a common refrain is that the tablet is great for consumption, not creation. Right from the start, Apple tried its best to battle that perception. The first iPad came with fairly capable versions of the company’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote productivity apps, and the more powerful iPad 2 was released alongside tablet-specific versions of GarageBand and iMovie.

Since those early stumbles, years of advancements in software and more capable hardware — like the iPad Pro — have forged Apple's tablet line into an extremely capable creative tool. In fact, since Apple started putting its M1 and M2 chips in the iPad Air and iPad Pro, it hasn’t been totally clear what all that power is for. Apple provided an answer to that question a few weeks ago when it announced versions of its Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro for the iPad.

I’m not a movie-maker, and I’ve only dabbled in digital audio workstations, but I was nonetheless intrigued to see how successful Apple was at bringing them to the iPad and how well they performed.

Logic Pro

Of the two apps, Logic Pro requires less horsepower. It’ll work on any iPad with an A12 Bionic or newer processor, which covers a lot of devices: Pros from 2018 onward, Airs from 2019 or newer and even the basic iPad, starting with the 2020 release. I tried it on a current-gen 12.9-inch iPad Pro with an M2 chip as well as an older 11-inch iPad Pro from 2020 with the A12Z chip. In both cases, the app was extremely responsive as I blasted through demos that showed me how to create beats with the step sequencer, play and tweak the huge variety of software instruments included, build tunes with Live Loops and more.

That said, there’s no doubt this app is best with the largest display possible. As anyone who has worked with a DAW before will know, there are a lot of elements to manipulate and the screen can get very crowded quite quickly. (Even using most DAWs on larger laptop screens can feel pretty cramped.) If you’re serious about using Logic Pro as a significant part of your workflow, you’ll want the biggest iPad you can get. You can also use M1 and M2 iPads with an external display and Stage Manager multitasking, but a big draw for these apps is portability, something you can’t take as much advantage of when hooked up to a monitor.

In addition to the wide variety of built-in instruments and samples, you can plug instruments directly into the iPad and record them. I hooked up my guitar with an IK iRig HD 2 and was immediately impressed with the huge variety of different tonal options available. Off the bat, I didn’t notice any latency when running my guitar live through different effects and amp presets. There are a ton of those to try, and you can dig into each to see exactly what effects are being applied and modify them to your liking.

The app also shows you the signal chain, so you can move things forward or backward and see what differences that makes. Finally, you can route the signal through multiple different amp and effects chains at the same time, so you can simulate sending your guitar tone into both a clean amp with some chorus and delay as well as a distorted stack, which added some great texture.

Apple helpfully included a demo song with Logic Pro that contained a total of 36 tracks across multiple vocals, pianos and synths, guitars, bass and drums. I was able to manipulate this all in real-time as the song played back – for example, I could drop a new instrument patch on the keyboard track to change the tone and it would render near-instantly. You can also add effects in real time, like when I decided to drop a heavy metal stack simulator on a “smooth and gentle” keyboard track.

I also quickly dabbled in third-party Audio Unit Extensions. Since iPadOS is much more closed than macOS, the only way to load up a third-party plugin is to download its app from the App Store. If the AU isn’t offered there, you’re out of luck. The good news is that they’re completely plug-and-play – Logic Pro automatically detects if you have compatible AUs installed and displays them in the interface. There are AUs in the App Store from major companies like Eventide, Baby Audio, FabFilter, Moog and more.

You can use Logic Pro with a keyboard and trackpad, but I found that Apple did a great job of making it touch-friendly. There are a ton of things that you can do in the app that easily lend themselves to a touch interface – things like drum machines or triggering samples, as well as dragging and dropping tracks or adjusting sliders in the mixer. The Beat Breaker and Step Sequencer tools are two more examples of manipulating audio where touch felt extremely natural. While the interface is filled with virtual knobs, Apple smartly lets you drag your finger up and down rather than requiring you to “turn” the knob to adjust it. Overall, the interface feels well-tuned to a touch interface, and there were few if any times it wasn’t an ideal way to control things – though there is a definite learning curve to the huge amount of customization you can do here.

Naturally, the Apple Pencil works here as well. For the most part, it just acts as another way to work with the app, but given the amount of interface elements, it can provide a little more precision over your finger. One feature where the Pencil shines is with automation curves. It’s simply much easier and more intuitive to draw these changes with the Pencil rather than doing it with a mouse cursor or even with your finger.

One of the more compelling things about Logic Pro is its price. For $5 a month or $49 a year, you have access to everything the app can do (Apple is also offering a 30-day free trial before committing). On the Mac, you’re looking at a $200 one-time purchase. If you’re unsure about whether the app will meet your needs, this is a pretty low-risk way to try it out. Any projects you make on Logic Pro for the iPad can be easily transferred back to the Mac app, as well. The Mac app still has the advantage of wider third-party Audio Unit Extension (AU) support – on the iPad, you’re limited to apps and plugins you can find in Apple’s App Store. And moving Logic projects between the iPad and Mac won’t be nearly as smooth if you’re using the desktop app with third-party AUs that aren’t available on the iPad – you’ll have to render those tracks to audio before moving to another platform. Beyond this potential issue, Logic Pro for the iPad still looks like a pretty powerful and portable music-making tool.

Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro isn’t Apple’s first time making video editing software for the iPad. Like GarageBand, iMovie was first released along with the iPad 2 in 2011. Also like GarageBand, iMovie has improved significantly over the years to become a surprisingly capable video-editing tool, but there’s also no doubt that Final Cut Pro is significantly more powerful.

Final Cut Pro has the same pricing model as Logic Pro: $5 a month or $49 a year, after a one-month trial. Again, that feels fair for such a powerful tool, though I do wish both apps had a one-time purchase option too. But before you plunk down your cash, you’ll need to make sure your iPad is up to the task – only iPad models with an M1 or M2 chip can run Final Cut Pro. Only the most recent iPad Air and the iPad Pro models released in 2021 and 2022 have the necessary horsepower. And given the complexity of a video-editing app, you’ll be best served running this on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

As I said earlier, I’m no movie-maker. But Apple’s 30-second demo project included in Final Cut Pro is complex enough to see what the app is capable of. It includes more than a dozen different video clips, several voiceover tracks, some audio effects, title cards and a few music tracks. I didn’t notice any slowdowns while scrubbing through the project timeline, applying effects to different video clips, rearranging and editing various pieces of footage and exporting a finished video file to the iPad’s storage.

The layout will be familiar to anyone who has used Final Cut Pro on the Mac, with a timeline across the bottom showing everything in your project, along with a preview window and a clip viewer up top. You can resize all these elements depending on what you want to focus on, and you can pinch to zoom in and out of the timeline for more granular editing. There’s also a virtual jog wheel that shows up on the right side of the screen by default so you can scrub through the project with fine precision, or give it a more forceful spin to move back and forward quickly.

There are some handy Apple Pencil features, as well. If you have the M2-powered iPad Pro, you can hover the pencil over your timeline and move forward and backwards. Naturally, you can also make edits and trim clips and do basically anything you can with your fingers with the Pencil, which offers a little more precision in my experience. There’s also a new “live drawing” feature, where you can record yourself sketching or writing and have that animation play in the video, either on its own or overlaid on top of another clip. It’s a fun and potentially powerful tool that visual artists should be able to take great advantage of, and there are lots of other potential use cases here as well. It’s the kind of feature that could be very useful when creating demonstration videos or educational resources, or something a coach could use to mark up game footage for players to review, just to give a couple examples.

The latest iPad Pro and iPhone models also let you capture video in the ProRes format, which means you can shoot footage and edit it directly on an iPad Pro. You can also combine and sync multi-camera footage and then tap through it to choose the best angles as you go. But people who know more than me about video editing have also pointed out a number of missing features in Final Cut Pro for the iPad, like familiar keyboard shortcuts for editing as well as things like some video stabilization tools.

Considering that Final Cut Pro for Mac costs $300 (a cost that’ll get you six years of Final Cut Pro on the iPad), it’s not surprising that the feature set isn’t exactly one to one. Though, using the name Final Cut Pro obviously carries some expectations that you’ll be able to do the same things with this iPad app that you can on the Mac. Still, I think that any video editor who likes using an iPad and has familiarity with Final Cut Pro could find the iPad app to be a useful tool, but probably not their only one. That also applies to Logic Pro; both apps feel like potentially great on-the-go options for professionals. And given the affordability of both apps, enthusiasts who want more power than they can get from iMovie and GarageBand should find a lot to like here as well.

Apparently, the introduction of Windows Copilot signaled the end of Cortana on Microsoft's desktop OS. In a new support document first spotted by Windows Central, the tech giant has announced that it will stop supporting the standalone Cortana app for Windows in late 2023. Microsoft launched Cortana as a voice assistant for Windows mobile devices back in 2014. It was supposed to be the company's answer to Apple's Siri, and it even predates Amazon's Alexa, but it never quite achieved their level of recognition and popularity. 

Over the year, Microsoft scaled back its plans for the voice assistant until it discontinued its Android and iOS apps back in 2021. The company even removed it from partner manufacturers' devices, such as smart speakers. For Windows, in particular, Microsoft changed its status as a baked-in digital assistant and spun it out into its own app for computers. That's the app we're bidding farewell to by the end of the year. 

In its announcement, Microsoft pointed out that users will still have access to "powerful productivity features in Windows and Edge, which have increased AI capabilities." It specifically mentioned the new Bing that's now powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 technology. Microsoft introduced the Microsoft 365 Copilot tool that can create content within Office apps with text-based prompts in March. 

And then in late May, the company revealed at its Build developer conference that it's making AI a deeply integrated part of Windows 11 by putting a Copilot tool in the platform's sidebar. Users can ask it to perform tasks within the OS, such as changing the computer background, or even editing photos and summarizing documents, without having to launch apps or to search for particular settings. Most likely, very few people will be missing Cortana. Those that do use the assistant can transition to using Copilot, which will be available as a preview version for Windows 11 starting this month. 

Don't worry if your favorite shop or gym doesn't have a digital membership card, as you'll soon have a way to create one yourself. Google Wallet will soon add the option to save passes to wallet by taking a photo of the card. So long as there's a barcode or QR code, you can replicate it on your Android phone for convenience and a backup.

Google is also matching Apple in supporting digital IDs. As of today, Maryland residents can add their driver's licenses and ID cards to Wallet on any device using Android 8 or newer. Arizona, Colorado and Georgia residents will have the option in the months ahead. You can already use the Maryland IDs for TSA PreCheck lines at some airports, but an upgrade later this year will let you use digital IDs to verify online accounts or book cars through Turo.

Health insurance cards are also coming to Wallet through Humana in the US and the UK government's HMRC app. As these cards include sensitive info, you'll have to verify through a phone sign-in (such as your fingerprint) whenever you want to use them. Later this year, you can add corporate badges to Wallet.

You'll also have a way to get your passes through Google's Messages app when RCS is enabled. You can check in to a flight or train ride using a chatbot and get a Wallet pass without leaving the app. This will initially be available for travelers through Spanish train operator Renfe as well as Vietnam Airlines, while gourmands can reserve restaurants through platforms like TagMe.

BeReal was Apple's iPhone app of the year for 2022, but buzz around the social media app (that forces you to post daily selfies) has died down of late. Now, the French company has introduced "RealChat" private messaging, allowing it to boast a feature found on most major social media apps, TechCrunch has reported. 

The function is one of the most requested, the company said. You can only message another user if you're friends with them on the platform. For a message to be deleted, both parties have to do so — deleting your own message won't delete it from a friend's app. The chat system will reportedly feature blocking and reporting features. 

BeReal has an interesting and somewhat messy approach to social media. It sends notifications at a different time each day, prompting you to quickly share photos taken with your phone's front and rear cameras simultaneously. You have a two-minute window to do so, forcing you to share spontaneous moments without spending extra time to make sure the photos are perfect. Friends are notified when you're late or revise a post.

Earlier this year, BeReal refuted an analytics report that engagement on the app had fallen significantly, saying it still had 20 million daily active users. The company admitted that while it's been busy behind the scenes, it hasn't released many new features of late, so "people have been guessing what we've been up to and how things are going, and not always accurately. 

Over the past couple of months, though it has launched an integration with Spotify showing what you're listening to when you post, along with the Bonus BeReal feature that lets you post more than one BeReal if you post on time. As with other social media apps, the RealChat feature looks like a way to boost time spent on the app and allow friends to comment privately on posts.

Instagram is, once again, trying to explain how its recommendations work in an attempt to dispel “misconceptions” about how the app’s algorithm works and whether or not the company engages in “shadowbanning” of certain creators. In a new blog post from Instagram’s top exec Adam Mosseri, he offers one of the most detailed explanations to date on how the app ranks content in various parts of the app.

“Instagram doesn’t have a singular algorithm that oversees what people do and don’t see on the app,” Mosseri explains. Instead, he says, there are multiple algorithms and ranking systems underpinning different aspects of the app, like Explore, Reels, Stories and search. Each of these uses a variety of signals to determine how content is ranked for each user.

For example, the order of posts in your main feed is determined by your past activity, as well as previous interactions with the person who made each post. Likewise, Stories posts take into account viewing history as well as “closeness,” or “how likely you are to be connected as friends or family.” On the other hand, recommendations in Explore are largely based “posts you’ve liked, saved, shared and commented on in the past,” but are more likely to come from accounts you’ve never interacted with.

One of the more interesting sections of Mosseri's blog post is titled “addressing shadowbanning.” Mosseri notes that there isn’t a universal definition for the word, but acknowledges that many creators “use the term to imply that a user’s account or content is limited or hidden without a clear explanation or justification.” And he says that the company is working to increase transparency around when creators’ content or accounts are blocked from the app’s recommendations.

Specifically, he calls out the app’s “account status” feature, which can alert users if one of their posts or their account is considered “ineligible” for recommendations. The feature also offers an appeals process. While it’s not the first time Instagram has addressed the issue, which has been the subject of much speculation and conspiracy theories over the years, there has been a notable shift in the way the company is talking about “shadowbanning.”

In a similar post from two years ago, Mosseri wrote that “the truth is most of your followers won’t see what you share, because most look at less than half of their Feed.” Now, he says Instagram is working on increasing transparency in cases when a creator’s content isn’t widely distributed due to a policy violation. “If anything makes your content less visible, you should know about it and be able to appeal,” he wrote.

He added that Instagram is testing “new notifications to help creators understand when the reach of their reel may be limited due to a watermark” (the company has tried to discourage users from posting recycled TikToks to Reels for years).

While some creators may still find these explanations unsatisfying — and there are more than a few who fall into that camp, judging by the comments on Mosseri’s own Instagram post — the new details underscore just how central algorithmic recommendations are becoming to Instagram. While the app re-introduced an optional chronological feed, Mark Zuckerberg has said his goal is to transform Instagram and Facebook into a “discovery engine” more focused on recommendations than posts from friends.