Jay Peters
A new Tiny Wings update!
One of the best-ever iOS games just its first update since 2021, as spotted by my colleague Parker Ortolani. Both the standard and Apple Arcade versions of the game have been refreshed.
iOS
iOS is Apple’s operating system for the iPhone and iPad. It’s also the basis for tvOS for the Apple TV and watchOS for the Apple Watch. It’s even beginning to infiltrate the Mac in some ways. Apple has worked hard to keep iOS private and secure, and it has a huge ecosystem of apps via its official App Store. Some have argued that it is too locked down, but the trade-off is that it’s fast and stable for most users.
Umar Shakir
Here’s what it’s like to watch a personal spatial video in a Vision Pro headset.
Apple’s upcoming mixed reality headset can play back stereoscopic 3D video shot on iPhone 15 Pro, and CNET’s Scott Stein got to load up some of his own spatial videos on a Vision Pro and watch them:
[My mom] sort of raised her eyebrows a bit, and the way she looked at me in 3D — at a scale close to normal size, with her seeming to make eye contact — made me feel like I was almost there. It made me want to climb through that fuzzy-bordered window and join my family again on the other side.
Umar Shakir
So now I know I have too many iMessages backed up.
In the new iOS 17.2 update, you can easily see how many messages are backed up to iCloud alongside how much storage they’re taking up by going to Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Show All > Messages in iCloud.
I’m not sure if I truly need to hold on to these forever. What is your iMessage backup looking like?
Jay Peters
The top free iPhone game in 2023 is... Monopoly Go.
Yes, really, according to Apple’s list of the top apps and games in 2023 (in the US). I shouldn’t be surprised; Monopoly Go came out in April but has already earned more than $1 billion in revenue. It even got more downloads than Roblox, which took second place!
You can see Apple’s full list on its website.
Emma Roth
Apple is pushing some upcoming features back to 2024.
While Apple previously said you’d be able to stream to hotel TVs using AirPlay later this year, an update on Apple’s iOS 17 page says the capability is coming in 2024. The company has similarly confirmed suspicions that Apple Music’s new collaborative playlist feature won’t be coming until next year.
Emma Roth
Apple had Day One sign off on the launch of Journal.
Paul Mayne — the founder of the Day One journaling app some claim Apple “sherlocked” — is quoted in the announcement for the iOS 17.2 launch of Apple’s Journal app:
The Journal app is an exciting development for us because it introduces the benefits of digital journaling to a wider audience and ushers in a new chapter for the practice. We have integrated the Journaling Suggestions API into the Day One app to give our users an even richer experience that puts privacy at the forefront, and we can’t wait for them to try it.
Jon Porter and Wes Davis
Wes Davis
Senator Elizabeth Warren weighs in on Beeper’s fight with Apple.
Senator Warren, who often calls out anticompetitive big tech behavior, weighed in today on Apple’s blockage of Beeper’s Android iMessage workaround.
She’s right that SMS is less secure than Apple’s encrypted iMessage platform. Things could improve with RCS on iPhones, if Apple works out encryption for it.
Wes Davis
Beeper has propped its server relay iMessage solution back up.
After Apple seemingly blocked its iMessage for Android solution, the company posted that Beeper Cloud is “now fully working with iMessage.”
But that’s not its famed “breakthrough” Beeper Mini approach that runs directly on Android phones and sends messages straight to Apple’s servers — that’s still broken. Beeper co-founder Eric Migicovsky told The Verge in an email that Beeper Cloud uses Pypush and doesn’t use Mac servers owned by the company.
Update December 9th, 2023, 1:55PM ET: Updated with input from Beeper co-founder Eric Migicovsky.
Jon Porter
Spotify denies it’s bringing in-app payments back to iOS.
Code was spotted in Spotify’s iOS app suggesting the service might re-enable in-app payments, but the company says they’re not coming back.
“We have no plans to switch IAP [in-app payments] on at the moment,” Spotify’s global head of corporate and policy communications, Farshad Shadloo, tells The Verge.
Spotify removed the feature in 2016 to avoid Apple’s up to 30 percent commission on digital in-app purchases, and earlier this year migrated old subscribers off the payment method.
Jay Peters
It seems like iOS 17.2 actually won’t add collaborative playlists to Apple Music.
Apple announced collaborative playlists for Apple Music at WWDC, and while it appeared in some iOS 17.2 betas, it’s not present in Tuesday’s iOS 17.2 release candidate, 9to5Mac reports. Barring an unexpected surprise, you shouldn’t expect to see collaborative playlists in the final release.
Apple’s iOS 17 website still says the feature is coming “later this year,” but at this rate, I doubt that’s going to happen.
Jay Peters
iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2 are out with some important security fixes.
The updates fix two WebKit vulnerabilities that “may have been exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 16.7.1,” according to an Apple support page. macOS Sonoma 14.1.2 is out, too, with fixes for the same vulnerabilities.
About the security content of iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2
[Apple Support]
Umar Shakir
Sounds like a feature iOS should have had ages ago.
Apple iOS 17.2 beta 4 update adds a feature that will finally allow you to change the default notification sound on your iPhone, as reported by MacRumors. The update includes a new “Default Alerts” option under Sounds and Haptics, meaning that app sounds that aren’t ringtones, text messages, voicemails, emails, calendars, reminders, or otherwise pre-assigned can be changed.
And for the silent phone fans, you can change the default haptic feedback for notifications, too.
Wes Davis
Sideloading and other changes are coming to iOS in the EU soon.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote for Power On newsletter subscribers today that “highly controlled” iOS sideloading is coming “in the first half of next year.”
Europe requires that “gatekeepers” like Apple make such changes by March 2024. It’ll be interesting to see what “highly controlled” means. I wouldn’t be surprised if sideloading is no walk in the park.
Gurman also mentions changes are coming to Messages, but it’s important to keep in mind that Messages the app and iMessage the service are different things. The EU is currently investigating whether iMessage counts as a “core platform service” under the regulation.
Emma Roth
Today I learned that iOS 17 can help you decipher laundry symbols.
If you ever wondered what those symbols mean — and, like me, never bothered to look them up — now you can get that info right from your iPhone. (Thanks to 9to5Mac’s Fernando Silva for alerting me of the feature)
Jay Peters
I don’t think that’s what snow is supposed to look like, Apple.
iOS’s Lock Screen weather widget is apparently showing some users a file icon instead of snow, as reported by 9to5Mac. Are you seeing this, too? I’ve asked Apple what might be going on.
Emma Roth
Apple is still taking too much commission from in-app subscriptions, Dutch regulator says.
The Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) ruled in July that Apple is charging “an additional and inexplicably higher fee,” to companies that offer in-app subscription services, such as Tinder and Match, according to a confidential decision seen by Bloomberg.
Last year, Apple proposed decreasing the in-app commission it charges dating apps in the Netherlands from 30 percent to 27 percent. But the ACM’s decision reportedly stated that isn’t enough, potentially forcing Apple to lower its fees further.
Jay Peters
Apple, just let us do tapbacks with whatever emoji we want.
I had been optimistic about the new sticker reactions, but based on Jason Snell’s writeup about them in the iOS 17.2 beta, they don’t sound great.
Emoji reactions are one area where Google Messages has Apple beat.
iOS 17.2 beta sticker reactions: 👎🏻
[Six Colors]
Victoria Song
iOS 17.1 fixes bug that exposed iPhone MAC addresses.
In iOS 14, Apple introduced a privacy feature that was supposed to hide iPhone MAC addresses whenever you joined a network. As Ars Technica points out, that’s important since MAC addresses can be used to track individuals across networks. But while the feature partially obscured your MAC address, the real one was still broadcast to other connected devices on a network. The good news is the bug appears to have been fixed in iOS 17.1, which was publicly released on Wednesday.
There’s not likely to be a lot of fall out, but it’s a good reminder why updating your software is important.
Emma Roth
Apple is adding more stuff to the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action button.
The iOS 17.2 beta adds a new translate option for the Action Button on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. According to 9to5Mac, using the shortcut lets you translate a spoken conversation via Apple’s Translate app. That makes for a total of 10 different Action Button options so far.
