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Now that Apple’s recent slew of hardware releases are behind us, we got some news on the software side last week. First, the company publicly announced that it was delaying the smarter, more personal version of Siri that’ll be powered by Apple Intelligence. Then, rumors sprang up again that Apple was giving an extensive visual update to its software platforms, including iOS 19 and macOS 16 which are expected to be revealed at WWDC in June.

The sources for this redesign rumor are solid. Jon Prosser dropped a video on his YouTube channel Front Page Tech back in January where he said that he had seen a redesigned Camera app for the next version of iOS that had a number of interface changes that made it feel more like a visionOS app. His thinking is that Apple wouldn’t redesign a core app like Camera without bringing changes to some of the rest of the OS, as well.

Mark Gurman at Bloomberg followed up on that, reporting that iOS 19, iPadOS 19 and macOS 16 “will fundamentally change the look of the operating systems and make Apple’s various software platforms more consistent.” He also specifically mentioned visionOS, which runs Apple’s wildly expensive ($3,500) Vision Pro headset, as an inspiration for the new design.

This rumor could definitely have legs. Even though visionOS doesn’t feel radically different to Apple’s other software, it does make sense that the company would unify visual themes across all its platforms and devices as it usually does. But at a time when the company is struggling mightily with its Apple Intelligence rollout and delaying a new Siri (which feels to me like the most significant update the company could deliver), slapping a new coat of paint on iOS and macOS feels like a distraction at best and misguided priorities at worst.

The delay to a more intelligent Siri is a major blow to Apple’s AI ambitions. Since it was first introduced at WWDC 2024, it’s been the single thing that might make me upgrade my phone to one that works with Apple Intelligence. The promise is an assistant that has a better understanding of the apps on your phone and can use them more extensively on your behalf; it can do things like automatically adding addresses to a contact card. Another example Apple showed was asking Siri to find an image of your driver’s license, take the ID number on it and put it into a form you’re filling out. It’ll also have more awareness of what’s on your screen and better natural language understanding.

That, of course, is all just a promise right now. Apple commentator John Gruber, who typically takes a fairly positive view of the company, absolutely ripped the company a new one over the Siri delay. He says that at WWDC 2024, he and other members of the press saw controlled demos of Apple Intelligence features, but no proof of a smarter Siri — thus far, all we’ve seen are product videos showing what it could do. In retrospect, Gruber says that a smarter Siri is nothing more than “vaporware.” “They were features Apple said existed, which they claimed would be shipping in the next year, and which they portrayed, to great effect, in the signature ‘Siri, when is my mom’s flight landing?’ segment of the WWDC keynote itself,” he says. “Apple was either unwilling or unable to demonstrate those features in action back in June, even with Apple product marketing reps performing the demos from a prepared script using prepared devices.”

Apple’s presentation of Siri at WWDC 2024 can be seen above.

It’s a bad look for Apple, and was made worse when Bloomberg published a piece showing the turmoil inside the Siri team following the delay announcement. The publication reported that Apple senior director Robby Walker held an all-hands meeting for the Siri team saying the delays have been “ugly and embarrassing,” and that the decision to promote these features to the public before they were ready compounded the issues. To be fair, Apple has shipped a few Siri improvements since the fall (most significantly the addition of ChatGPT), but they’re not things that have radically changed the voice assistant’s most glaring weaknesses.

Additionally, Gurman’s sources claim that we won’t see these features until sometime in 2026 at the earliest, long after iOS 19 would be released. With all that in mind, these redesign rumors feel like a fresh coat of paint to distract people from the structural issues with Apple Intelligence as a whole and the delays on a massively important feature.

The timing also feels strange. While Apple hasn’t embarked on a full-scale redesign of iOS since it released iOS 7 way back in 2013, the company has made small but significant changes and refinements nearly every year since that have added up to software that’s far more customizable and refined than it was more than a decade ago. Since iOS 14 in 2020, Apple added home and lock screen widgets, major customization features for lock screen visuals, and the wild notion of not having all your apps aligned to an inflexible grid. Apple also added the ability to color-tint the icons to match your background image (or just make them any color you want, dark or light). These all add up to an iOS that is a lot more visually customizable than ever before.

Android has had these features for years, so I’m not praising Apple for being some paragon of user freedom. But it’s clear from these changes that Apple is finally interested in giving users more control over how their phones look. With all this as well as many smaller visual tweaks the company has made over the years, it’s fair to say that iOS 18’s design language has evolved far beyond what we saw with iOS 7’s complete and abrupt makeover.

As for macOS, Apple has given it several notable visual updates over the last decade or so. In 2014, OS X Yosemite largely brought over the flatter design from iOS 7 that removed skeuomorphic elements that had littered iOS and the Mac for years. Apple continued to tweak it over the following years before giving it another big visual overhaul in 2020 with macOS Big Sur. That was the first OS that supported Apple’s M-series Macs and as such the company dropped the OS X branding and moved to macOS alongside the new design.

While I was initially skeptical of a major macOS visual refresh, I am a little surprised to remember that it’s been almost five years since Big Sur launched — maybe we’re right on schedule for a visual refresh. And in recent years, Apple has wanted to keep its platforms as aligned as possible, both from a feature perspective as well as how they look. It’s not hard to imagine designers wanting to unify things across platforms again.

Given that the user interface is literally how we interact with all these devices, a design refresh can certainly keep things feeling new, even if the functionality hasn’t changed much. And without a smarter Siri to look forward to at WWDC this year, a fresh coat of paint might be Apple’s best option to make its next software updates feel new. That said, I don’t mean to suggest that the people working on the visual design of Apple’s software platforms could or should abandon their work and rush a better Siri out the door — the skill sets and priorities of those two teams are surely completely different. But at the very least, Apple’s going to have to more forcefully address the elephant in the room that is Siri than it has before it can try selling us on a new design.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-should-focus-on-fixing-siri-not-redesigning-ios-again-164446205.html?src=rss 

You can save on some of our top picks for the best security cameras as part of a sale on Blink gear. For instance, the Blink Mini 2 is available for $20, which is half off the list price. It matches a record low.

A two-pack of the Blink Mini 2 is down to $38 as well. That’s not quite a record low, but you’ll still save $22 due to the 46 percent percent discount.

We reckon the Blink Mini 2 is the best budget security camera around. You can adjust the webcam-style camera to a variety of angles. It’s weather-resistant, so you can place it outside if you have a special power adapter. The camera picks up decent (but not great) images, particularly those captured in the infrared nighttime view. It also has a built-in LED spotlight.

Since Blink is an Amazon company, of course the Mini 2 ties into the Alexa ecosystem. You’ll just need to have a Blink account before you can actually use it. As you might expect, you’ll be able to view images captured by the Mini 2 via the Alexa app on an Echo Show, Fire Tablet or Fire TV but, curiously, not iOS or Android. To see the captures on your phone or tablet, you’ll instead need to use the Blink app. You’ll get some extra features — such as cloud storage and people and pet detection — if you sign up for the Blink Subscription ($3 per month for one camera, $10 per month for any number).

Elsewhere in the sale, a five-pack of the Blink Outdoor 4 cameras is half off at $200. This is our recommendation for the best security camera for Alexa users. Having five of them should be enough for many folks to keep an eye on everything that’s going on around their property.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-blink-mini-2-security-camera-has-dropped-to-only-20-171417083.html?src=rss 

Alphabet is letting its laser-based internet company Taara fly and be free, according to reporting by Financial Times. Google’s parent company is spinning off the service from X, its moonshot incubator system (not to be confused with X the social network.)

Taara uses light beams to provide high-bandwidth internet and phone services to hard-to-reach areas of the world. This places it in direct competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink network of satellites.

Taara now has two dozen staff members and is “hiring aggressively.” It has secured backing from Series X Capital. Alphabet will retain a minority stake, but it remains tight-lipped regarding seed funding details or potential financial targets.

“They’re going to be able to get connected quickly to market capital, bring in strategic investors and generally be able to scale faster this way,” said Eric Teller, X’s Captain of Moonshots.

Taara already operates in 12 countries throughout the world and has provided supplemental service during events like Coachella. The tech works by firing beams of light to and from various terminals. Alphabet says the system can transmit data at 20 gigabits per second over an area of around 12 miles. The company also says that these systems are relatively easy to build and maintain, especially when compared to satellites in space.

It has its origins in an Alphabet-created concept called Loon. This was a modified version of the same idea that shot beams of light to and from groups of balloons floating on the edge of space. There are strict governmental and regulatory hurdles to flying thousands of balloons near space, however, so it wound down in 2021. Loon’s loss was Taara’s gain, as the newer entity uses the same lasers.

Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Taara’s general manager and a lead engineer, says that the next step is to develop a silicon photonic chip that will eliminate the need for many of the mirrors and lenses currently positioned on system terminals.

The newly-minted startup has a long way to go to catch up to Starlink, which has over four million subscribers worldwide. Taara doesn’t even sell subscriptions directly to consumers. Instead, it partners with existing telecommunication companies like T-Mobile to extend their networks to remote locations.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/alphabets-starlink-competitor-taara-is-spinning-off-into-an-independent-company-154653176.html?src=rss 

Although the future of TikTok remains uncertain, the app continues to get new features. The latest is called Security Checkup, which is a centralized dashboard designed to help you protect your account.

You can find the tool by going to Settings and privacy > Security & permissions in the TikTok app. The idea behind Security Checkup is to make it easy for you to do things like link a phone number and email address to make sure you have a backup login method, turn on two-factor authentication, set up a passkey and enable biometric login options such as facial recognition.

In addition, you’ll be able to see which devices are logged into your account, so you can revoke access for any that you don’t recognize or no longer use. Handily, TikTok will flag any unusual behavior that it detects on your account and you can review any oddities here.

We’ve seen other major platforms introduce similar features in the past. Instagram, for instance, rolled out a tool that’s also called Security Checkup back in 2021. Still, it’s better late than never to add handy features, especially when it comes to helping users secure their accounts.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktok-rolls-out-a-security-checkup-tool-to-help-protect-your-account-152819724.html?src=rss