June 15 Tech news round up: Apple announces iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15 Sequoia, YouTube ads are getting more intrusive, Apple Intelligence is here to take on Copilot and Gemini

Bitwarden Authenticator adds support for switching from other authenticators

Bitwarden, the makers of the popular password manager service, have updated the Bitwarden Authenticator with a highly-requested feature. You can now switch from other authenticators easily using the new option to import security tokens, aka TOTPs (time-based one-time passwords).

Bitwarden Authenticator allows you to import TOTPs from LastPass, Google Authenticator, Raivo OTP, Aegis for Android, and even Bitwarden Password Manager. Users will need to export a .JSON file from their existing authenticator app, or scan a QR code in Google Authenticator’s Settings > Transfer Accounts page, to migrate to Bitwarden Authenticator.

The app is available for Android and iOS, it is completely free to use, works offline and does not require an account. You will need to back up your data manually to ensure you are not locked out of your online accounts.

YouTube is testing a new way to display ads and bypass ad blockers

Google has been fighting ad blockers on YouTube quite aggressively over the past year, which resulted in annoyances for viewers. Several users have reported that they are getting ads on YouTube, even if they have an ad blocker extension installed in their browser. It turns out that Google has begun testing a new way to display ads. According to SponsorBlock, the ads are being included directly in the video, as server-side ads.

Users say that these new advertisements are unskippable, as the playback controls are not active when the ad is playing. So they are forced to sit through the ads, to watch the video. This seems a little too extreme to get users to buy a YouTube Premium subscription. The developers of the uBlock Origin extension have confirmed that they are working on a fix for the problem.

Apple reveals iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 Sequoia

Apple officially revealed its next gen operating systems at WWDC 2024. iOS 18 brings various improvements to iMessage. Text messages can now be formatted with bold, italics, underlined or strike through. You can add animated text effects to your messages to make your chats more interesting.

Ever wanted to wish someone a happy birthday right at midnight? You can, by scheduling a message to be sent later. iOS 18 supports RCS, which allows you to send high quality images and videos to Android users. Apple has added support for call recording in iOS 18, it will alert the speaker on the other end. It also transcribes the call, along with a summary of the text. You can search the text, copy it over to other apps.

Users will also be able to personalize their home screen and lock screen with new options. iOS 18 offers a way to change the tint color of app icons, make icons larger and hide their labels, and even place icons on the bottom or the side of the screen. Widgets can be resized according to your needs. The Lock Screen’s camera and flashlight icons can be replaced with shortcuts to other apps.

iOS 18 allows you to Lock apps with Face ID, to prevent other users from accessing your content, if you hand over your iPhone to them to show something. Similarly, you can hide apps that you don’t want others to access. The Control Center in iOS 17 can be customized with options that you want to access quickly, and it even supports third-party apps.

iPadOS 18 brings an official Calculator app for iPads, and it is quite impressive. It allows you to create Math notes, i.e. it can compute mathematical expressions, and automatically store the data in the Notes app.

macOS 15 adds support for Window Tiling, which is similar to Snap in Windows 10 and 11. You can pin apps anywhere on the screen, for instance, on either side or corner of the screen, and macOS will suggest tile locations for other apps. Apple’s Safari browser has gained three new features. The Highlights feature displays important information on a web page like summaries, links, directions. The Viewer in Safari can be used to pop up a video, and switches to picture-in-picture automatically when you click away from the video. The Reader mode can be used to view a table of contents of a web page, along with a summary of the text.

The Passwords app for iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 lets you generate secure passwords for your accounts, save Passkeys, and can Autofill your credentials in Apple Safari. It also supports PCs via the iCloud for Windows app. macOS 15 Sequoia is now capable of iPhone Mirroring, which allows you to access your iOS home screen right on your Mac. The feature lets you use your Mac’s keyboard, mouse and trackpad to interact with apps and notifications on your iPhone.

Apple Intelligence is the next big A.I. tool

The biggest news from WWDC 2024 was Apple Intelligence. This is Apple’s competitor to Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. Apple Intelligence uses language models that allow you to generate text, create images, GIFs, and perform actions across various apps in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS 18, including Mail, . You can even use it to create custom emojis called Genmoji. The feature
use on-device processing to protect your privacy.

Unfortunately, Apple Intelligence is only available on the iPhone 15 Pro models, Apple iPad and Macs with M1 and later.

Siri with ChatGPT

Siri is becoming better in iOS 18. Apple’s personal digital assistant now supports natural language queries. You can also type to Siri, if you don’t want to use voice commands, for example, when you are in a meeting. Siri now supports ChatGPT, and can use OpenAI’s services to answer your queries. Apple says that remote server requests are anonymized using Secure Cloud Computing, to protect the privacy of users. ChatGPT subscribers can access paid features through Siri.

Mozilla improves privacy features in Firefox 127

Mozilla has released Firefox 127 with a bunch of improvements to privacy and security features. The browser will no longer load or play HTTP media content on HTTPS pages, if an HTTPS version of the page is not available. The Linux version of the browser reduces fingerprinting data.

The new “Request device sign in to fill and manage passwords” option will make Firefox ask your permission before the built-in pass word manager is accessed, on Windows and macOS. Firefox 127 adds support for DNS Prefetching, which is used by the browser for preemptively loading suggesting domains.