Sequoia

Three betas in, iOS 18 testers still can’t try out Apple Intelligence features

AI, Apple, ios 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, macos sequoia, Sequoia, Tech / Paul Patrick / July 10, 2024

intel inside? —

Apple has said some features will be available to test “this summer.”

Andrew Cunningham – Jul 10, 2024 6: 53 pm UTC

The beta-testing cycle for Apple’s latest operating system updates is in full swing—earlier this week, the third developer betas rolled out for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15 Sequoia, and the rest of this fall’s updates. The fourth developer beta ought to be out in a couple of weeks, and it’s reasonably likely to coincide with the first betas that Apple offers to the full public (though the less-stable developer-only betas got significantly more public last year when Apple stopped making people pay for a developer account to access them).

Many of the new updates’ features are present and available to test, including cosmetic updates and under-the-hood improvements. But none of Apple’s much-hyped Apple Intelligence features are available to test in any form. MacRumors reports that Settings menus for the Apple Intelligence features have appeared in the Xcode Simulator for current versions of iOS 18 but, as of now, those settings still appear to be non-functional placeholders that don’t actually do anything.

That may change soon; Apple did say that the first wave of Apple Intelligence features would be available “this summer,” and I would wager a small amount of money on the first ones being available in the public beta builds later this month. But the current state of the betas does reinforce reporting from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that suggested Apple was “caught flat-footed” by the tech world’s intense interest in generative AI.

Even when they do arrive, the Apple Intelligence features will be rolled out gradually. Some will be available earlier than others—Gurman recently reported that the new Siri, specifically, might not be available for testing until January and might not actually be ready to launch until sometime in early 2025. The first wave of features will only work in US English, and only relatively recent Apple hardware will be capable of using most of them. For now, that means iPads and Macs with an M-series chip, or the iPhone 15 Pro, though presumably this year’s new crop of Pro and non-Pro iPhones will all be Apple Intelligence-compatible.

Apple’s relatively slow rollout of generative AI features isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Look at Microsoft, which has been repeatedly burned by its desire to rush AI-powered features into its Bing search engine, Edge browser, and Windows operating system. Windows 11’s Recall feature, a comprehensive database of screenshots and text tracking everything that users do on their PCs, was announced and then delayed multiple times after security researchers and other testers demonstrated how it could put users’ personal data at risk.

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My favorite macOS Sequoia feature so far might be the old-timey Mac wallpaper

Apple, Mac OS, macOS, macOS 15, macos 15 sequoia, macos sequoia, Sequoia, Tech / Rejus Almole / June 12, 2024

classic —

Combo wallpaper-screen saver is a walk down memory lane for classic Mac users.

Andrew Cunningham – Jun 12, 2024 6: 51 pm UTC

Enlarge / The classic Mac OS wallpaper in macOS 15 Sequoia mimics the monochrome user interfaces used in System 1 through 6.

Apple

I’m still in the very early stages of poking at macOS 15 Sequoia ahead of our customary review later this fall, and there are quite a few things that aren’t working in this first developer beta. Some of those, like the AI features, aren’t working on purpose; I am sure some of the iCloud sync issues I’m having are broken by accident.

I’ve already encountered a few functional upgrades I like, like iCloud support inside of virtual machines, automated window snapping (at long last), and a redesigned AirDrop interface in the Finder. But so far the change that I like the most is actually a new combo wallpaper and screen saver that’s done in the style of Apple’s Mac operating system circa the original monochrome Mac from 1984. It’s probably the best retro Mac Easter egg since Clarus the Dogcow showed up in a print preview menu a couple of years ago.

The Macintosh wallpaper and screen saver—it uses the animated/dynamic wallpaper feature that Apple introduced in Sonoma last year—cycles through enlarged, pixelated versions of classic Mac apps, icons, and menus, a faithful replica of the first version of the Mac interface. Though they’re always monochrome, the default settings will cycle through multiple background colors that match the ones that Apple uses for accent colors.

If you’re too young to be familiar (or if you were using MS-DOS in the mid-’80s instead of a Mac), this Mac theme hearkens back to the days before Mac OS (then Mac OS X, then OS X, then macOS) was called Mac OS. The first seven versions of the software were simply called System or System Software, all the way up through 1991’s System 7. The Mac OS name didn’t appear until the System 7.5.1 update in 1995, and the name was formally changed in the 7.6 update in 1997 (OS updates were obviously released at a more leisurely pace back then).

If you want to poke at a live, interactive version of the monochrome System Software, developer Mihai Parparita’s Infinite Mac project hosts classic System, Mac OS, and NeXTStep versions that will all run in a browser window using ports of various emulators.

My only complaint is that now I want more of these screen savers. As a millennial, my exposure to Systems 1 through 6 was fairly minimal, but I’d definitely take a color version of the screen saver modeled on Mac OS 9, or an early Mac OS X version with shiny candy-colored Aqua-themed buttons and scroll bars.

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Apple quietly improves Mac virtualization in macOS 15 Sequoia

Apple, Mac, macOS, macOS 15, macos 15 sequoia, macos sequoia, Sequoia, Tech, virtualization / Kris Guyer / June 11, 2024

virtual realities —

It only works for macOS 15 guests on macOS 15 hosts, but it’s a big improvement.

Andrew Cunningham – Jun 11, 2024 6: 26 pm UTC

Enlarge / Macs running a preview build of macOS 15 Sequoia.

Apple

We’ve written before about Apple’s handy virtualization framework in recent versions of macOS, which allows users of Apple Silicon Macs with sufficient RAM to easily set up macOS and Linux virtual machines using a number of lightweight third-party apps. This is useful for anyone who needs to test software in multiple macOS versions but doesn’t own a fleet of Mac hardware or multiple boot partitions. (Intel Macs support the virtualization framework, too, but only for Linux VMs, making it less useful.)

But up until now, you haven’t been able to sign into iCloud using macOS on a VM. This made the feature less useful for developers or users hoping to test iCloud features in macOS, or whose apps rely on some kind of syncing with iCloud, or people who just wanted easy access to their iCloud data from within a VM.

This limitation is going away in macOS 15 Sequoia, according to developer documentation that Apple released yesterday. As long as your host operating system is macOS 15 or newer and your guest operating system is macOS 15 or newer, VMs will now be able to sign into and use iCloud and other Apple ID-related services just as they would when running directly on the hardware.

This is still limiting for developers, who might want to run an older version of macOS on their hardware while still testing macOS 15 in a VM, or those who want to do the reverse so that they can more easily support multiple versions of macOS with their apps. It also doesn’t apply to VMs that are upgraded from an older version of macOS to Sequoia—it has to be a brand-new VM created from a macOS 15 install image. But it’s a welcome change, and it will steadily get more useful as Apple releases more macOS versions in the future that can take advantage of it.

“When you create a VM in macOS 15 from a macOS 15 software image… Virtualization configures an identity for the VM that it derives from security information in the host’s Secure Enclave,” Apple’s documentation reads. “Just as individual physical devices have distinct identities based on their Secure Enclaves, this identity is distinct from other VMs.”

If you move that VM from one host to another, a new distinct identity will be created, and your iCloud account will presumably be logged out. This is the same thing that happens if you backup a copy of one Mac’s disk and restore it to another Mac. A new identity will also be created if a second copy of a VM is launched on the same machine.

Mac users hoping to virtualize the Arm version of Windows 10 or 11 will still need to look to third-party products for help. Both Parallels and VMware offer virtualization products that are officially blessed by Microsoft as a way to run Windows on Apple Silicon Macs, and Broadcom recently made VMware Fusion free for individuals.

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