after this year's WWDC, it is going to be really hard to be an Apple hater. They showed off a laundry list of new features and quality-of-life improvements across their platforms that finally address some of my most long-standing gripes and introduce me to ideas that I never knew that I needed. Shazam but for TV and movies? That sounds shamazing. A reader mode that doesn't block ads but rather defocuses them? Yes, please. RCS text message support? I mean, sure, as long as I can still tell who the disgusting green bubbles are. Wait, T9 dialing? Are you kidding me? This is amazing. And how about an AI-enhanced Siri that can find that email that someone sent me? The list is seriously so long and legitimately exciting that it was hard to find a spot to segue to our sponsor, iFixit. Laptops aren't cheap, so why would you run out and buy a new one when iFixit can help give your old one a new lease on life? Check out their

replacement parts and guides at the link in the video description. Let's kick off with what's new with Siri, starting with the ability to talk to Siri via text. Finally, I don't need to look like a jackass yakking at my phone just to quickly set a reminder. I still will, of course, because my hands being full is the main reason to use a digital assistant, but hey, it's the thought that counts. Speaking of Siri, can finally understand when you pause and can't remember what you were going to say, or if you just mess up, rather than needing to start a new prompt. It's things like this, assuming they actually work this time, that should really help bring the experience closer to what we were sold back with the iPhone 4S. And it's not just Siri either. New AI-enhanced functions are now built into all of Apple's operating systems that allow you to quickly generate smart replies, proofread, or rewrite messages, and summarize content, which is incredibly useful. Probably the most useful tool for me though is reduce interruptions, which

uses Clues to figure out what notifications are likely to be actually important, versus which ones are probably not so much. It's kind of like Focus mode, but more automatic. But how is all of this working? Well, Apple claims that their machine learning algorithms primarily run on device, as they always have. But because of the increasing complexity of these tasks, Apple's implementing what they call Private Cloud compute, a system whereby information relevant to the task and only that information is sent to Apple's servers to supplement the computer that's in your pocket or on your wrist. Apple explicitly pointed out that these servers run Apple silicon, which means, I don't know, maybe exer is coming back, probably not, but you can't blame a girl for hoping. Whatever silicon is involved, Apple was very careful to make it clear that they cannot read your information, even going as far as to dedicate whole sections of the hour and a half long presentation to explaining how the system works. Now, assuming that you trust Apple more than you do Microsoft, their recall-like features might be pretty useful. And like recall, most of the

functionality is already on your iDevice in a more limited form. For example, you can already search for people's faces or for appointments in iMessage, but now you can do so in a more natural, open-ended way. Apple didn't explain how metadata for these new capabilities is handled, where it's stored, and whether local apps can access it, but they did invite independent experts to audit the process. According to Apple, iDevices and Macs will refuse to connect to a private Cloud Server unless it's been publicly logged for inspection. In general, it was clear that they wanted to avoid any comparisons to Microsoft around the issues of privacy and security. This extends even to the integration of chat GPT in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. A little more on those later. For example, if a prompt is deemed to be too complicated for Siri, it will ask you before sending it to OpenAI, and it will escalate your device's IP address. On the subject of OpenAI, you can link your OpenAI account if you want to.

access paid chat GPT features, but by default, it is free with no account required. And Apple's agreement with open aai requires them to not store requests. Moving on, gen emojis are an interesting, if eerie, concept. But what's cooler is Apple's new tool, Image Playground, that underpins it. It can be used to create images out of simple prompts, and its integration applications like Apple Notes allows you to quickly and easily turn just a basic sketch and maybe a simple word cloud into a finished image. For now, it's available in three different styles, but I would expect that to expand in the future. Now let's shift gears and talk about what I am most excited about, iOS 18, and its ability to do what Android has done since basically forever. That's right, my friends, T9 dialing, baby. Just kidding, um, they did add that, but they added so much. You can finally arrange your apps and widgets however you want to. If you've got a nice picture you want to set as your wallpaper, but key parts are covered with those stupid

app icons. You don't have to deal with that anymore. Also, they barely touched on this during the presentation, but you can now resize your apps, which is great if you were in your prime when the first iPhone came out but aren't as dextrous as you once were. They've also got their new dark mode to make those icons black, but what's even cooler is their new customization sheet that lets you tint them with whatever color you want. And I get it, this is a minor thing that doesn't serve a purpose other than to make your device look a little more you, but look, if you're going to list customization as something that you love about Android, you don't get to suddenly not care about it when Apple has a cool idea like their new personalization for control center. Not only can you swipe to new groups of controls like for media playback or for your smart home, but you can add more controls to each group through the new controls Gallery. You can resize them, you can change the layout, and thanks to the new controls API for

devs, you're going to see third-party app controls as options that you can just add wherever you want, just like you can add pins wherever you want. Our keyboard pins are back on LTT store.com. Overall, this is amazing. I mean, it feels like Apple is finally starting to get why so many people prefer Android devices. I mean, obviously, they're still nowhere near as open as the competition, and I would love to see features like these. I don't know, 10 years ago, but late is better than never. And on that note, similar to the competition, you're going to be able to do stuff from the lock screen now, like take a note, instead of being locked to just the camera and flashlight buttons. Man, that's a really big one. Oh, speaking of phone locks, another feature Apple has always been big on has been security and privacy. So, of course, we're getting more of that with the ability to lock and hide individual apps. What's really cool is that any info from a locked app won't even appear in other places, like in

search or notifications so finally I can lend yvon my phone without her seeing a random grinder notification. Wait, who put that in the script? We don't talk about that. No, I'm joking. Obviously, I'm more of a Scruff guy anyway. But in all seriousness, this is a great feature for personal privacy or even just parents who lend their phone to their kids and don't want their stuff messed up. On the subject of personal privacy, you can now choose which contacts an app can see when it requests access so you can avoid your weird uncle on Instagram or what have you. And you can keep your Bluetooth accessories private and hide them from anything else that might be on your network like your computer or your TV. It's funny because I don't think I've ever asked for that, but now it just seems like a brain-dead obvious thing, like notifying someone when a call is being recorded should also obviously be a thing. Texting is also getting some love with super cool features for messaging like satellite messaging on

iPhone 14 and up. When you're off grid and scheduled send. Dude, I love scheduled send. I use it all the time with Gmail and teams. And they've added support for text formatting like bold, metallics, text effects using any Emoji or sticker for tap acts. And at long last, RCS or Rich Communication Services messaging support. Wow, I feel like that was a lot. And there's more. Moving on to mail, it's getting some love as well with the ability to categorize everything. Something that Gmail has been doing for a while now, but still nice to see here. And it's nice to see topography in the maps app and the ability to properly plan hiking trails, including turn-by-turn directions. Apple Pay is also getting just about the coolest thing ever, tap to cash, so you can perform quick private user-to-user transactions along with third-party browser support. Even with some of the stuff we're not getting to, too, like the ability to stall in people out of your photos or game mode, which reduces background sessions and reduces response time for Bluetooth accessories like.

headphones and controllers. It really feels like Apple has absolutely knocked this out of the park. But wait, there's more. Switching over to Mac OS, they're making it a lot more appealing to switch over to Mac OS. Sequoia adds some major improvements to using your eye devices together with continuity. Need to answer a message on your iPhone but too lazy to get up and go grab it? With iPhone mirroring, Apple's answer to Microsoft phone link, you can. It is fully interactable, and whether you're docked or in standby mode or your iPhone is just sitting on the kitchen table, the only person who can see what you're doing is you. And they have finally done it, guys. You get suggested tile layouts when you drag a window to a corner or to the edge of your screen. It's a feature Windows has had natively for a while now, and I'm very, very happy to see it here. The same goes for their new presenter preview and background replacement capabilities for FaceTime and Zoom. Uh, there's a new passwords app for Keychain.

that stores all your passwords, passkeys, and verification codes. Okay, that was just like before, but now it's on all devices, including Windows, via iCloud for Windows, which should make dipping your toes into the ecosystem just a little bit easier. It's even available for the Vision Pro. Haha, that's right, Apple hasn't given up on it. There's not a lot to talk about with Vision OS 2. There's ultrawide monitor mirroring now, and you can turn 2D images into 3D ones, but mainly it seems like Apple just really wants people to develop for the Vision Pro with a bunch of new developer API support. With that said, they are making spatial content a lot easier to make with a new professional workflow and an EOS R7 spatial lens for Canon. All of this still super expensive, but we'll have it and all the other Apple products we mentioned today in the link down below. We'll also have the new iPad with its stunning tandem OLED screen. We did a short circuit on that recently.

couldn't believe my eyes pads get it anyway. It's confirmed to be getting a ton of new support with iPad OS 18. Um, there's a lot of overlap, obviously, with iOS 18. I like the customization features we talked about earlier, as well as the new floating tab bar that morphs into the sidebar. Um, and just about everything's getting new animations to look cool and flashy, but what's huge, huge on iPad OS is the fact that it's finally got a calculator. Yeah, okay, that doesn't seem like the kind of thing that I would normally get excited about, but along with math notes, this thing fcks and it's also available on Mac OS. There's way too much to cover about their calculator in this video, but I think it's safe to say that if you're going to school for anything math and graphing heavy, it is going to be an absolute GameChanger. Another big deal is the remote permissions capability that your friendly Neighborhood Family it guy or girl is going to love. That's right, no more endlessly repeating instructions.

over the phone to help grandma or Grandpa access the photos they hid in some random folder. Now you can just ask for remote access and do it yourself. Got to love it. That is assuming that your grandma can figure out how to allow remote access. And when you pick up your Apple TV remote, you now get the ability to run 21 by 9 widescreen projectors for a full-frame cinematic experience. Okay, we didn't have much of a segue into that, but that's a cool feature if you're lucky enough to have a 21 by 9 widescreen projector in screen. If not, you can still access the other big new tvOS feature by pulling out what Apple's calling Insight, which will provide you with shot-by-shot information on actors and background music. It's actually a lot cooler than it sounds when you see it happening in real time. And if you guys need to mute that music or rewind that scene, close captions will come up automatically to keep your latest binge going strong. And if you just want to hear what

the actors are saying you can toggle on their new dialogue enhancer. Nothing groundbreaking here, but little tweaks nonetheless. Love to see them. If tweaks to Apple TV make you uh roll your eyes and shake your head, then Siri would have taken that personally as a command. The AirPods Pro will finally be able to respond to Siri prompts like incoming calls or text messages silently with just a nod or shake of the head. That means that in a noisy environment, you can answer a call with a nod, and the upgraded voice isolation tech will kick in and hopefully let the person on the other side hear you and not the jackhammer that is working on the street that you're trying to cross. Safari's got a couple of new features too, like highlights, which uses machine learning to highlight relevant information as you browse. It's neat, but I'm not nearly as sold on it as I was on the new redesigned reader view, which now removes distractions from articles, gives you a table of contents, and includes a summary. I can't help but wonder what ad

Service delivery networks. Go, sorry, excuse me, um, kind help, but wonder what they're going to think about all of this. Is it technically not blocking ads if they just defocus them? R tray is interesting. Anywh, who guys, there's so much more. They've updated their game porting toolkit, they've made improvements to Safari, they've updated the Health app and watch OS in general, and last but not least, uh, there's the segue to our sponsor, iFixit. Repairing your laptop might seem like brain surgery, but with iFixit, it doesn't have to be. All you need is a steady hand and iFixit guides, high-quality tools, and reliable replacement parts. Let's break it down together. First, match your laptop and its issue with one of their step-by-step repair walkthroughs, then pick up the exact component you require. You can trust iFixit to carry pretty much anything you can think of. Got a dead battery? Hey, they've got brand new replacements. Got corrupted storage? They've got SSDs of all shapes and sizes. And then finally

every surgeon needs a good set of instruments, and iFixit toolkits are meticulously assembled to provide exactly what you need for your repair. See, that's not so bad. So, go check out iFixit using our link in the description to give your busted laptop a new lease on life. If you guys enjoyed this video, I'm going to throw it at LM. G/F Flowplane, where Emily and Jonathan from our team did a reaction, sort of more stream of consciousness conversation. You guys can check out over there.

Hey Siri, I’m Giving You A Second Chance

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