In 2024, I came to grips with the fact that I’ll never be an E Ink-first reader. Most of my reading is web-based, and I like having all of my reading-adjacent apps available too much to use a Kindle, Boox Palma, or other reading-first device regularly.
That’s why I was immediately intrigued by the Astropad Bookcase, an iPhone accessory that makes reading on an iPhone more comfortable by approximating the ergonomics of a Kindle. The combination is heavier than a Kindle, but it’s a far superior way to read on an iPhone than any other I’ve tried. In just the two short weeks I’ve had the Bookcase, I’ve found myself using it throughout the day, from when I’m catching up on RSS over breakfast, to relaxing in the evening on the couch or in bed with stories I’ve saved in Readwise Reader.
Last weekend, I did an in-depth review and video walkthrough of the Bookcase for Club MacStories Weekly, which covers the hardware as well as the sorts of automations its embedded NFC chip makes possible. Here’s the video component of that story:
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There are two versions of iOS 18 coming out this year.
Or, think about it this way:
Inside Apple, there are two versions of iOS 18. The version I’ve been able to test since June, and which will be the focus of this review, is the debut of iOS 18, which emphasizes user customization and smaller app updates. The other one – and, arguably, the version most are anticipating since WWDC – is iOS 18.1, which will mark the launch of Apple Intelligence in the United States later this year as well as the beginning of a process to roll out more AI features over time.
Technically, iOS 18.1 is going to be a major update to iOS 18.0, which will introduce the first slate of AI features on iPhones and iPads; in spirit, it might as well be the version of iOS 18 that is going to steal the spotlight and become The Conversation in our community for months to come.
However, due to a mix of legal and political reasons, as an Italian citizen, I won’t be able to participate in that discourse just yet. Thankfully, there’s plenty to like in iOS 18 even without Apple Intelligence, especially if, like yours truly, you’re the kind of MacStories reader who cares about apps, minor system tweaks, and making your Home Screen look nice.
This is what my review will focus on this year. There are two versions of iOS 18: I’m going to cover the fun, nerdy one.
I’ve been writing annual reviews of iOS (and later iPadOS too) for ten years now. During this time, I’ve seen my fair share of mobile OS trends, and I’ve observed how Apple judiciously iterated on their post-iOS 7 design language and stoically ignored the majority of the tech industry’s fads, staying the course of their vision for what their ecosystem of devices and OSes should empower people to do.
Never have I been in the position to witness the company finding itself unable to ignore a major industry shift. That’s exactly what is happening with AI. As we saw back in June, Apple announced a roadmap of AI features that will be gradually doled out to users and developers over the iOS 18 cycle. Most of them won’t even be launching this year: I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them just in time before the debut of iOS 19 at WWDC 2025.
What’s even more fascinating is realizing just how much of a priority Apple Intelligence must have been for the iOS, iPadOS, and macOS teams. Let’s face it: if it weren’t for the handful of additions to iOS, which are also cross-compatible with iPadOS, I wouldn’t have much to cover today without Apple Intelligence. This is quite apparent in macOS Sequoia: as John will cover in his review, with no Apple Intelligence, there are only two main features worth analyzing in detail.
Thus, dear reader, don’t be surprised if this will be my shortest annual iOS review to date. Plus, it’s not like I was particularly looking forward to Apple Intelligence anyway.
In any case, as I argued in my preview story back in July, the smaller features that found their way onto iOS and iPadOS this year are still interesting enough to justify a “traditional” review. And it’s not just that these are good features: they’re also my favorite kind, for they’re primarily about customization and apps. From more flexible Home Screens to Control Center finally becoming extensible with third-party controls, some big improvements to Notes and Journal, plus a brand new Passwords app, how could I not be excited about iOS 18?
This intrinsic duality of iOS 18 is the reason why I’ve never felt so ambivalent about a new version of iOS. Or, think about it this way:
Inside me, there are two takes. I fundamentally dislike generative AI tools and, from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think I’m ever going to take advantage of Apple’s features that modify text or create images. At the same time, I’m excited about the prospect of a smarter Siri that is better integrated with apps; and today, with the version of iOS 18 that is shipping to customers, I think there are plenty of smaller features worth appreciating, especially if you’re into customization.
Today, we don’t need to reconcile those two takes. We don’t have to be grownups for this one. We’re just going to dive into what makes iOS 18 a smaller update than previous years, but a fun one nonetheless.
OSes are never truly finished. macOS has been continuously evolving for decades, and it would be foolhardy to declare it ‘finished’ in any sense of the word. It’s not.
However, when you step back and look at macOS over time, trends and storylines emerge from the feature list minutiae of each release. For the past few years, no narrative thread has been more important to the Mac and its operating system than their realignment within Apple’s product lineup. It’s a fundamental transformation of both hardware and software that has taken shape over years, beginning publicly with Craig Federighi’s WWDC Sneak Peek in 2018.
The story begins with a Sneak Peek at the end of a WWDC keynote in 2018.
A parallel story has been playing out with the iPad’s hardware and OS. The iPad’s trajectory has been different than the Mac’s, but today, we find ourselves with two distinct but more closely aligned platforms than ever before. To get there, the iPad has grown into a powerful, modular computer, while the latest Macs now run on the same processor architecture as the iPad Pro and no longer work differently in places just because that’s the way it’s always been.
The journey hasn’t always been easy, especially in the wake of questions about Apple’s commitment to the Mac. The company took those concerns head-on in an unusual meeting with a handful of tech writers in 2017. Still, it was only natural for users to question whether the direction macOS was heading was the correct one.
It didn’t help that those first Catalyst apps that were part of the 2018 Sneak Peek – Home, News, Stocks, and Voice Memos – were rough around the edges and a departure from long-held beliefs about what constitutes a great Mac app. The Mac’s apps had historically been held out as a shining example of the kind of user experiences and designs to which developers who cared about their apps could aspire. Unfortunately, many early Mac Catalyst apps weren’t very inspiring.
The realignment has been rocky for iPad users, too, especially for iPad Pro uses. The Pro’s hardware has been infrequently updated, and the performance of the Apple silicon processors they’ve run on has outpaced what the apps on the platform can do.
Users’ fears have also been fueled by Apple’s institutional secrecy and the multi-year scope of the company’s undertaking. Early communications about Mac Catalyst and SwiftUI left developers and observers confused about the role of each. The situation is more clear today, but at the same time, the question of how to approach building a Mac app is best answered with ‘it depends.’ That isn’t a very satisfying answer. Nor does it help that despite the added clarity, technologies like SwiftUI still have a long way to go to reach their full potential.
Catalina was full of promise, but the road ahead was unclear.
Yet despite the bumps along the road, macOS has made great strides since that 2018 Sneak Peek. With Catalina, we saw the first steps down a path that pointed the Mac in a new direction. Although sometimes messy, the promise of Catalina was exciting because, as I concluded in that review:
There’s no greater threat to the Mac than resistance to change that exists not because the change is worse, but because it’s different.
Catalina was a counter-strike against the sort of inertia that would have doomed macOS eventually, even though at the time, it was more a promise than a destination.
Big Sur’s design changes brought the direction of macOS into sharper focus.
Big Sur picked up where Catalina left off, adjusting course and clarifying where macOS was heading. The update continued the harmonization of user experiences across Apple’s entire lineup, creating a more natural continuum among the company’s products through new design language and updated system apps without abandoning what makes the Mac unique. I don’t mean to suggest that Catalina or Big Sur were unmitigated successes. Theyweren’t, and some of the missteps of those releases have yet to be addressed, but there was no mistaking where macOS was headed after the release of Big Sur.
Monterey harmonizes system app updates across all of Apple’s platforms.
Monterey’s focus is all about system apps, a topic near and dear to me. With the technical building blocks in place and a refined design out of the way, Monterey is one of the most tangible, user-facing payoffs of the past three years of transition. More than ever before, Apple is advancing system apps across all of its platforms at the same time. Finally, everything is everywhere.
However, as much as it pleases me to see the groundwork laid in years past pay dividends in the form of new features being rolled out simultaneously on all platforms, Monterey’s payoff isn’t an unqualified success. Every OS release has its rough spots, but this year, Shortcuts is especially rough. As optimistic and excited as I remain for Shortcuts to be the future of automation on the Mac, it’s too frustrating to use at launch. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed any upside using Shortcuts on my Mac, and it has improved over the course of the beta period, but it still gets in my way more often than it should.
Alright, that’s enough looking back. Let’s dig in and see where things work, where they don’t, and what lies ahead when you install macOS Monterey.
Big Sur is a big deal. The OS picks up where Catalina left off, further rationalizing Apple’s product lineup through design, new ways to bring apps to the Mac, and updates to existing system apps. The approach realigns functionality across Apple’s platforms after years of divergence from their common foundation: Mac OS X. The result is an OS that walks a perilous line between breaking with the past and honoring it, acknowledging the ways computing has changed while aiming for a bold future.
macOS, which OS X has been called since 2016, is a mature operating system, so more often than not its annual updates are incremental affairs that don’t turn many heads. Big Sur is different. It’s an update that promises a future that’s connected to its past yet acknowledges today’s mobile-first computing landscape and harmonizing user experiences across devices.
Big Sur also clarifies Apple’s Mac strategy, the contours of which began to emerge with Catalina. It’s a vision of a continuum of computing devices that offer a consistent, familiar environment no matter which you choose while remaining true to what makes them unique. In practical terms, that means a carefully coordinated design language and a greater emphasis on feature parity across OSes. Conceptually, it’s also an opportunity for macOS to shed the perception that it’s a legacy OS overshadowed by iOS and reclaim a meaningful place in Apple’s lineup for years to come.
Together, the changes to macOS set the table for Apple’s M1 Macs, the next big step in the Mac’s modernization, and easily earn Big Sur its designation of version 11.0.
As Twitter promised two weeks ago, improvements are coming to direct messages. After reinstating the ability to share URLs in direct messages, the company has now added a shortcut to its web, iPhone, TweetDeck, and Android apps (no iPad, it seems) that lets you easily send a tweet privately to someone else.
