Linked List: March 28, 2023

Tuesday, 28 March 2023

OS Updates: iOS 16.4, MacOS 13.3, WatchOS 9.4, tvOS 16.4, and More ★

I’m linking here to Michael Tsai’s roundup of links pertaining to iOS (and iPadOS) 16.4, but Apple has pretty much released updates to all of their platforms, all the way down to HomePods and the Studio Display.

Some of the features that particularly interest me:

Mastodon links now get unfurled preview cards in Messages, Mail, and Notes, just like Twitter links.
The new “architecture” for the Home app is available again, after being briefly available but then pulled due to bugs in iOS 16.2. It’s a one time upgrade for any homes you’ve set up in Home that is supposed to make everything you do faster and more reliable.
New emoji, but still no “chef’s kiss”. We need to band together and make a chef’s kiss emoji happen.
“Voice isolation” — a feature previously available to VoIP apps like FaceTime and WhatsApp — is now available for regular old fashioned cellular phone calls on iPhone. I’m not sure how normal people would ever discover this, though — the interface to turn it on or off is in Control Center, when you’re on a call. Seems to me it ought to be in the interface for the call itself in the Phone app, like the controls for switching the audio output.

Apple Pay Later Launches ★

Apple Newsroom:

Apple today introduced Apple Pay Later in the U.S. Designed with users’ financial health in mind, Apple Pay Later allows users to split purchases into four payments, spread over six weeks with no interest and no fees. Users can easily track, manage, and repay their Apple Pay Later loans in one convenient location in Apple Wallet. Users can apply for Apple Pay Later loans of $50 to $1,000, which can be used for online and in-app purchases made on iPhone and iPad with merchants that accept Apple Pay. Starting today, Apple will begin inviting select users to access a prerelease version of Apple Pay Later, with plans to offer it to all eligible users in the coming months.

From the small print:

Starting today, randomly selected users will be invited to get early access to a prerelease version of Apple Pay Later via Wallet and through their Apple ID email. Apple Pay Later is available in the U.S. for online and in-app purchases on iPhone and iPad.

I’m curious how slow this initial randomized rollout is going to be, but it makes sense to open it up cautiously.

One note that I either didn’t know, or had forgotten, is that Apple Pay Later is only available for online purchases — either on the web or in iOS apps. I guess that makes sense — competing services like Affirm, Klarma, and Afterpay are only available for e-commerce transactions too (I think?). I just never before thought of online Apple Pay being different from brick-and-mortar retail Apple Pay.

As I wrote back in June, after Apple Pay Later was announced at WWDC last year: “Apple Pay Later appears to simply be in the business of allowing users to split purchases into multiple payments, interest-free, with complete privacy.” I’d say Apple’s advantages in this market are privacy, convenience, and a very well-designed interface within Wallet to manage and track your payments.