< Notes...

If you are running iOS 17 (beta, or final, when it comes out next week), and you don’t see “Live Voicemail” under “Settings → Phone”, change your language to “English US”. “Live Voicemail” is only available on that one, for now.

About iOS 17 relase on 18 September, make sure to turn off the betas (thanks George!) if you participated. Simply go to “Settings → General → Software Update → Beta Updates”. and turn it off.

Such pity to read hateful people’s comments making fun, poking jokes at the new iPhone—I have found them on Reddit, and Mastodon, so far—when they live their sad, pathetic days, with that aberration of an OS that is Android on theirs. Interesting thing is, I have never gone bashing at “the other phones”; it’s always “them” coming to bash iPhones. For me that’s telling.

iOS 17 is releasing 18 September 2023. That is, merely less than a week from today. I have been using it for a few betas now, and it works great! Now, I just want that Journal, but it still reads “Coming later this year”.

My take aways from the Apple Event:

• Apple works on positively impacting the enviroment. Apple truly is extremely environmentally concious.
• Apple Watch is amazing: from looks, to usability, to saving lives. It has it all!
• iPhone hardware (with A16) keeps getting better (now with USB-C). Together with the best phone OS, iOS, it is a pleasure to use.
• iPhones Pro/Pro Max are build with even more premium materials and hardware (including the A17Pro processor, and much more), and much better cameras (3 vs 2, but this it too simplistic, you must see the video for all the details).
• There wasn’t a “one more thing”. I miss it.

It’s happening! Apple’s event is today at 13:00 EDT and, in preparation, I have snacks ready and handy, and have moved my lunch hour from 12:00-13:00 to 13:00-14:00. I will be able to happily snack while I watch it! Are you ready?

It’s that time of the year again, and I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned Apple’s event. It’s coming! Like, day after tomorrow coming. I will watch it, like I do each year, for sure! If you like Apple, and their products, I recommend you watch it too!

Maybe it is the fanatic in me, but Apple doesn’t need to run advertisements. This was prompted by this, which I found on Mastodon.

➝ Via Dan Gillmor.

On iOS 17 Public Beta 5 right now. Each beta has been getting better, so I don’t expect this one to be any different. I am all for surprises, though! 😂

I don’t need, nor want, thinner bezels on an iPhone. I want to be able to comfortable hold it. What I want is an edge-to-edge screen which, sadly, will not come anytime soon. I am sure many are with me on this.

Oh, and keeping its pricing sensible. If it comes at $1,500, I would rather buy a laptop.

Within my family (partner and I, both sides) there are only 4 people using a phone running god-knows-what version of Android. Everyone else is on iOS. Of all my friends there is only 1 on Android. So yeah, I believe this (that the iPhone market has increased, while Android based phone shipments have dwindled) to be true.

Feeling a little bit nostalgic. I am sure it is part of things that happen “before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern”. That kind of thing.

Regarding this, I don’t have the option on my phone for it. I have searched The Tubes, and others are in the same boat. I figure it requires carrier activation, or Apple is throttling the rollout of the feature, or something else. Oh well, it is a beta after all.

Upcoming iOS 17 Live Voicemail is as good as advertised. Some might call it magical, even. I do.

“Live Voicemail gives users the ability to see real-time transcription as someone leaves a voicemail, and the opportunity to pick up while the caller is leaving their message. Calls identified as spam by carriers won’t appear as Live Voicemail, and will instead be instantly declined. With the power of the Neural Engine, Live Voicemail transcription is handled on-device and remains entirely private.”

Running iOS 17 public beta now, as temptation got a hold of me yesterday. It has some glitches, and small bugs (mostly visual), but very, very stable, and usable. Buttery smooth as if it were a release.

I am so tempted to install iOS 17 public beta! If anything for that Journal app, because I will use the heck out of it. Also because George told me “this is the only way we can test”. The fact that he already jumped in isn’t helping. 😅

Ugh, need to learn how to read the fine print. On the Journal app, from Apple, “Coming later this year”. Cry, cry, cry! Still, I think I will jump in.

Feature request for iOS: setting to allow all calls from Contacts to ring through, all others go straight to voicemail. In other words, an allowed list (as opposite to disallowed, duh!).

Today I learned about Unicode’s Private Use Areas. That explains why you can see this symbol  on an Apple device, but can’t on Windows.

If you have an Apple device (iPhone, iPad, Watch, AppleTV, Mac), please update it as soon as possible. This, as with any other security updates, I stress, must be done as soon as you can.

For iPhone/iPad, go to “Settings → General → Software Update”, and choose to install. For WatchOS, go to “Settings → General → Software Update”, and follow the instructions to upgrade. Finally, for macOS go to “System Settings → General → Software Update” (on older versions is a bit different, but you get the general idea).

VisionPro is going to be something. But its true popularity will come down to its pricing, and how many games (yes, games) they get on-boarded. I am hopeful, though.

Update: 04 Oct 2025 @ 17:42:39

It will cost $3,500. When a meal for three on a not-super-fancy restaurant costs $260, it is easy to see how a TV, computer, and high definition camera all in one—and that barely starts to describe VisionPro—will cost that much.

“Rapid Security Responses are a new type of software release for iPhone, iPad and Mac. They deliver important security improvements between software updates – for example, improvements to the Safari web browser, the WebKit framework stack or other critical system libraries. They may also be used to mitigate some security issues more quickly, such as issues that may have been exploited or reported to exist.” — Rapid Security Responses

This is new, at least for me, and interesting. There seems to be more to gain than to lose by installing, and enabling it. Done!

Interesting how my “Technology” section on Google News is mostly games, and Apple news. I wonder if there are forces at play here (of course there are!).