- AppleInsider assistant editor - Co-host on the AppleInsider Podcast -10-year US Navy veteran - Champion of features no one's heard of
Out now is a new episode of iPad Pros with @HilliTech! We dive into our experiences with iPadOS 26.
https://ipadpros.net/2025/07/03/episode-227-ipados-26-with-wes-hilliard/
PocketCasts: https://pca.st/episode/6fae0b65-2993-4de2-a855-2845f7cb237c
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ipad-pros/id1264565547?i=1000714927303
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/+AAJiG1n5c-o
Basic Apple Guy wallpapers are now featured & bundled into Widgetsmith! 🤝
Kinda wild to say this… but my work is now featured in Widgetsmith! Huge honour to be part of an app that’s on millions of homescreens! I'm grateful beyond words.
@appleinsider Gotta love when all the reporting on this takes some anonymous annoyed Apple employee at their word to ride the DOOM™ train instead of looking at this critically. Third-party AI running in Private Cloud Compute servers? Yes. Apple abandoning Apple Intelligence for Siri? No.
But that's not as fun of a headline I guess.
A rumor around Apple's AI initiatives suggests the company could turn to third parties instead of relying on its own Apple Intelligence for an upgraded Siri, but there's likely a different story.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/06/30/apple-rumored-to-be-in-talks-with-anthropic-and-openai-about-powering-new-siri?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon
Apple's week June 20: this ad killed my family
https://www.hilli.tech/apples-week-june-20-this-ad-killed-my-family/
@flargh Preach. Only the tech-o-sphere cares. And everyone else? It ranges from "huh, neat, $10" to "What is this? Swipe"
@callin my Sony TV isn't connected to the internet. I use an Apple TV.
But the point is moot. I agree Apple shouldn't have sent out the notification without providing a toggle beforehand.
@gruber @callin @daringfireball Just as you replied here, I posted more thoughts on Bluesky. You're right, this was a poor move optically. The feature itself is harmless, but the execution without a toggle, without user choice, that's the issue.
They should never have sent out the notification without letting users have an option to opt out beforehand. And when the promotion feature launches officially in Wallet, Apple should present the toggle immediately and ask.
@callin If my Sony TV was connected to the internet and I had the app installed with notifications turned on because I used it for that purpose, sure. But I don't so it can't. 🤷♂️
Out now is a new episode of Vision Pros with @HilliTech all about our first week on visionOS 26.
https://visionpros.fm/2025/06/26/episode-44-visionos-26-with-wes-hilliard/
PocketCasts: https://pca.st/episode/7a1e9e91-ba05-4901-ab39-00eeb1a81dad
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/+ABCbs06gLBQ
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vision-pros/id1691900104?i=1000714069795
@callin @daringfireball @gruber Apple telling me about buying movie tickets that would be stored in Apple Wallet, via Apple Wallet, by making a payment with Apple Pay to see a movie made by Apple seems like a pretty obvious kind of synergistic vertical integration that makes sense. As an Apple user that was going to see the movie, it was useful.
Uber telling me I should try Chick-fil-a next time I order food is not the same thing.
Though, I'll be fair to Uber Eats, they've added a toggle that will let users turn off the promotional notifications. That's better than a lot of these apps. Apple's toggle exists in iOS 26, so it is unfortunate they would run the new notifications for Wallet app now. Just poor timing and optics.
The core of my argument is that there's nothing wrong with Apple informing customers about its services. And yeah, this was a silly promotion for a film in theaters, but wasn't that the whole idea behind the services push? Ecosystem value?
@daringfireball @gruber Surprise, I'm the idiot fanboy/whatever that didn't see this as a terrible thing. However, that doesn't mean I don't agree with your points. The notification itself was very odd.
I wonder if this was meant to be an a/b test for the feature coming to Wallet in iOS 26 because it wasn't sent to everyone. I expect the toggle exists because we're going to get more of this from Wallet in the future. The wording and trademark logo are dumb though, I'll agree with that.
But the premise of giving users access to discounts to services and products related to the ecosystem? I'm for it. This promotion saved me $10. It was easily dismissed too.
I don't see this as some kind of slippery slope or abuse of power. Uber showing ads for restaurants when it should be telling me when my food is arriving, that's a step too far.
@mgs I take your point (it's a good one and I agree with the premise. Apple needs to tread carefully here) But I am also the weirdo who likes this kind of brand synergy and wants to know when I can save money.
The slippery slope thing is real, for sure. But if Apple can walk that line and stick to the kinds of ads that promote its products and services, I see no problem with it. This is a far cry from web ads showing shampoo products when you open the Settings app, but people seem to see no distinction.
Also, being able to turn it off is (iOS 26) and should be part of it. Unfortunate that they tried this without the toggle available to most consumers though.
Apple Wallet has begun advertising Apple Pay promotions via notifications, and while iPhone users are losing their mind, they can toggle the feature off starting in iOS 26.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/06/24/apples-f1-ad-in-wallet-wont-hurt-you-but-it-might-save-you-10?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon
I... I am a hero.
@mattpilott must have been an editing issue too. That's a toggle in a lot of editing apps.
@mattpilott We're aware of the audio issues. The background voice you heard after WWDC was a result of William's headphones leaking audio, and we've addressed that. The white noise seems to be something related to William's space. Just something we're trying to figure out in edits. We're working to get the bets results every time, but sometimes these issues creep up all at once.
As far as levels being too low, I'm not sure how we keep having this problem. It's something to do with how William processes the audio.
Apple's week June 20: living with the betas
https://www.hilli.tech/apples-week-june-20-living-with-the-betas/
@stroughtonsmith @marcoarment I wrote about the outage and supposed it was related to how Apple confirmed they update the models over the air. It seemed that an update went out to dev testers and it froze mid download, making everyone see a "Apple Intelligence is downloading" message in Settings.
It broke across every operating system except macOS for me.
Shortly after Apple reached out to me about the outage, it was resolved. 🤷♂️ Never got a confirmation on what happened of course.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/06/19/its-not-just-you-apple-intelligence-is-down
