Apple today announced that iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey feature system-wide translation, allowing users to translate text by simply selecting it and tapping or right clicking on the Translate option that appears.
iPhone, iPad, and Mac users can also translate selected text in photos as part of a new Live Text feature in the latest software versions.
Apple also announced that the Translate app is available on the iPad starting with iPadOS 15, after launching on the iPhone last year. On both iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, a new Auto Translate feature lets users translate speech without tapping the microphone button in a conversation, and selecting languages is now easier with convenient drop‑down menus.
Thursday January 29, 2026 10:07 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today confirmed to Reuters that it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup that is working on artificial intelligence technology for audio.
Apple paid close to $2 billion for Q.ai, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone and audio brand Beats in 2014.
Q.ai has...
Sunday February 1, 2026 10:08 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly nine months later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
In his Powe...
Saturday January 31, 2026 10:51 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple recently updated its online store with a new ordering process for Macs, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro.
There used to be a handful of standard configurations available for each Mac, but now you must configure a Mac entirely from scratch on a feature-by-feature basis. In other words, ordering a new Mac now works much like ordering an...
Sunday February 1, 2026 12:31 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
The calendar has turned to February, and a new report indicates that Apple's next product launch is "imminent," in the form of new MacBook Pro models.
"All signs point to an imminent launch of next-generation MacBook Pros that retain the current form factor but deliver faster chips," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on Sunday. "I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated...
Sunday February 1, 2026 5:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips alongside macOS 26.3, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
"Apple's faster MacBook Pros are planned for the macOS 26.3 release cycle," wrote Gurman, in his Power On newsletter today.
"I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated for the macOS 26.3 software cycle, which runs from...
With image OCR, text translation, and local speech recognition it really feels like we are getting close to having the Universal Translator from Star Trek.
I consider Mojave a stability release, it was rock solid for me from day one. Even High Sierra was a hot mess for the the first month or two. (In my experience)
I understand many found Mojave stable, but I don't know if it was designed specifically with a focus on "under the hood" improvements. If you go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_version_history and search for "hood", you'll find only two OS's that (at least unofficially) are identified as focusing on the latter: Snow Leopard and and High Sierra.
Likely the reason I didn't have the teething pains you did with HS is because I nearly always wait unit about x.3 or x.4 before installing a new OS. That's not just to allow time for Apple time to straighten out their issues; it's to allow for the app developers to do this as well.
What have you found about the performance of Big Sur vs. Catalina? I know there were a lot of complaints about Catalina, but maybe all the significant issues were fixed by 10.15.7.
With image OCR, text translation, and local speech recognition it really feels like we are getting close to having the Universal Translator from Star Trek.
And what’s more, (with the possible exception of translation, some of that may be cloud based) it’s all done on the phone itself, so it can be used offline. It’s pretty dang impressive what Apple has been able to pull off in the AI space, especially with its privacy stance (whereas Google can just throw more computing clusters at any AI problem it encounters).
