Arkadiusz Świętnicki

Tag: Apple Vision Pro

  • WWDC 26 Keynote first impressions

    Table of Contents

    1. Introduction
    2. Key takeaways
    3. Different than previous times
    4. Area 1: refinements
    5. Area 2: Safety & security
      1. new allowance system
      2. Expanded permission system
      3. Improved content filtering
      4. Rebuilt Screen time UI
    6. Area 3: New Siri & Apple Intelligence
      1. new Siri AI app
      2. Rebuilt Visual Intelligence
      3. Safari super powers
      4. Shortcuts in natural language
      5. No Polish Siri, no Siri AI in the EU!
    7. Wrap up

    Introduction

    I have completely reconstructed my WWDC consumption workflow. What follows is the fruit of that reconstruction. I don’t try to compete with the giants, such as the guys from 9to5 Mac, or Macrumors, or anyone else. I am a mere free wolf, a humble servant of the society, a little bit too arrogant, wanting to discuss what happened at the keynote today.

    Key takeaways

    Just so we don’t waste time, here are things which, in my opinion are the most important. If you are interested in short, bullet point list that’s it, read, comment and go on with your day

    1. Apple LISTENED! The 27 releases seem to be much like the Snow
      Leopard release from back in the day. A few new features, many
      improvements and fixes.
    2. Apple took great care to add new features to Screen Time and
      related parental control features. It is now possible to create
      schedules, which allow your kiddos to have a bit more freedom on
      weekends, for example, or maybe disable phone completely during
      school days. I’m sad and crying for you my young friends.
    3. Still no Polish Siri, no new Siri in the EU: we all know how is the
      EU, no need to comment more. For those of you who were hyped, great
      disappointment. I couldn’t care less.
    4. New macOS is called “Golden Gate””. I love that name as its
      hopefully a gate to a better era.
    5. This is the last WWDC hosted by Tim. Again, I hope for a better
      tomorrow.

    Different than previous times

    For many previous years, the keynote was clearly divided between iOS, iPadOS, macOS, VisionOS and possibly other announcements such as gaming. This year was different, general areas first, with platform-specific features as a side note. I didn’t quite like it but I fully understand why it is like so. The 27 releases of the Apple OS seem to be mainly bug fixes, with some features sprinkled here and there. I am very happy with it, aside from omnipresent AI.

    Area 1: refinements

    Last year was massive in terms of systems redesign. The new Liquid Glass UI, loved by a small group, hated by many. This year is big for Liquid glass, as new customizations have been added, effectively making it possible to completely disable liquid glass, aka. make the system completely opaque. Moreover they brought back color for app icons, removed floating sidebars and fixed other annoying things. Keep in mind this paragraph is written by a completely blind person, thus my info can be inaccurate. Let me know how much I’ve fucked up. Liquid glass is not the only piece though, as Apple claims to have improved the performance by a notable margin. Whether they have delivered its hard to tell as of yet but here are some quasi-facts to hopefully get y’all excited.

    • As much as 30% increased app startup time.
    • 5X transfer speeds on iPadOS.
    • All new CPU scheduler which should improve performance on older devices.
    • Improved memory consumption.
    • Improved battery efficiency on Apple Watch.

    It seems that Apple wants to fix the foundations and many issues which have been reported by users throughout the 26 life cycle. From the very brief time I have spent with the beta releases, its indeed a rather bug-free experience as of now. Let’s pray for the best.

    Area 2: Safety & security

    This part of the keynote was focused on parental controls and safety of kids. Its heartwarming to see a company which at least pretends to care about such important things. All in all the features listed are numerous, how they work in practice remains to be seen but here we go.

    new allowance system

    This system allows parents to divide their kids’ smartphone time between different categories, such as communication, gaming or the dreadful social media. So imagine the child has 2 hours of phone use, of which only 40 minutes can be spent on say, YouTube or Tiktok. Depending on how its implemented and how easily it can be bypassed this can be a very good and beneficial option to control toxic habits, while allowing the child to explore other possibilities given to them by technology.

    Expanded permission system

    In earlier versions the kid could ask the parent for downloading (purchasing) an app and that was basically it. Now the system includes “ask to browse” which allows the parent to whitelist certain websites once the young one asks for it. The system is also extended so that parents can approve certain media, like movies or music, or the IAP.

    Improved content filtering

    The apple operating systems could previously detect nudity and other sexually-inclined content in apps like Messages or Face time. The system has been expanded so that gore is also filtered. No more severed limbs doing somersaults amits skull shrapnels and the brain, which is good in my opinion. Kids have enough of this in the current time.

    Rebuilt Screen time UI

    The Screen Time UI has been rebuilt to support quick adjustments and better understanding of data. Now it is possible to quickly add time with a dedicated slider.

    Area 3: New Siri & Apple Intelligence

    Easily the largest part of the Keynote was about AI (Artificial stupidity in my book). Before we start I’d like to say that Apple is the first company who managed to impress me with their AI. Even the previous version which was considered a flop by many was something I sometimes used. Subtle,. unobtrusive, and fast – the opposite of all other AI companies I had to deal with. This year APple really doubled down on this and reworked the foundations of Siri as well as introduced new frameworks to make the AI magic in 3rd party apps. Here are the most notable changes.

    new Siri AI app

    With the introduction of the APple Intelligence-powered “Siri Apple had also created the all new Siri AI app which aggregates all your conversations, allowing you to start More complex conversations with the chat bot, as well as perform actions such as attaching a file or copying the conversation for later use.

    Rebuilt Visual Intelligence

    Visual Intelligence was Apple’s take on the popular “Describe what I see” tools. The previous version was heavily limited and available through a dedicated mode. This year, Apple doubled down on Visual Intelligence and integrated it with Camera and the new Siri to provide it with world knowledge, app actions capabilities and more! Even VoiceOver users like myself can benefit from this, as Visual Intelligence is now integrated with VO’s image exploration mode which I will describe in detail in a later article.

    Safari super powers

    Have you ever dreamed of making a Safari extension but you were too busy or too lazy to learn the required skills? Well wonder no more as Apple Intelligence allows you to create simple extensions by just writing a prompt. think about it; forms auto filling, specialized data extraction… Possibilities seem to be endless now.

    Shortcuts in natural language

    It is also possible to create Shortcuts in natural language. I have tested this function briefly and I must say I am pretty impressed with it so far. I didn’t take any care to write a good prompt, I just wrote what I want to achieve and the model created a more or less working shortcut. Of course as with all such tools, the more experience you have with traditional tools, the easier it will be for you to describe your desires for a model.

    No Polish Siri, no Siri AI in the EU!

    You heard that right. The new Siri has no new languages, including my native Polish, but what’s even worse it is not possible to use all of this on an EU iPhone. Fortunately however Mac is too little market share to be a concern, so we can use all of those features on our Mac, assuming we set it to English.

    Wrap up

    This year seems to be something that us, the Apple fans were waiting for a long time now. Pause and reflect on what works and what doesn’t, improve on what already exists instead of piling up features on broken foundations. Can we call 2026 the year of Snow Leopard? This remains to be seen, but the foundations for this privilege are very solid.

  • Using the visionOS App Store in an unsupported region

    The Vision Pro is an incredible device. With its advanced gesture detection system, eye tracking and spatial audio capabilities, the third party developers have basically an endless canvas to create interesting experiences for users. However the Vision Pro is available only in selected countries and while it is possible to purchase it all over the world, using the App Store is not so easy. In this short guide I will try to show you an easy way to use the App Store without compromising on your iCloud and continuity features.

    Step 1: signing out of your current App Store account

    Before the fun begins first we need to sign out of your Media and Purchases account. Please keep in mind this will remove all of your existing subscriptions from the device such as Apple Music or Apple TV+. If you are ready please follow the instructions below carefully on your Apple Vision Pro.

    • Open the Settings app.
    • Click on your name at the top of the list.
    • Click on the “Media and purchases” button.
    • Click on “Sign out” at the bottom of the page.
    • When asked, confirm your choice.

    Step 2: Create an US-based Apple Account

    While you can create the new account in any supported country; my tests show the USA is the country with the most apps available, hence this is what we’ll be doing in this guide. However in case you’re interested, here is the list of all the supported countries. if you are ready, please follow the instructions below on any supported device, such as an iPhone, iPad or a Mac.

    • Visit the Apple Account creation website.
    • For the “Country/region” field, choose USA.
    • For the “E-Mail address” field, please use a different E-Mail address than you use for your main Apple Account.
    • For the “Mobile number” field, you can use the same number as you use for your main Apple account.
    • In the next step, please confirm your mobile number as well as the E-Mail address. This step is necessary in order to use the App Store.

    Step 3: obtaining an American address

    In order to be able to download apps from the App Store, you need to have a valid address. While I know people who had success with setting theirs to things like an Apple Park or even the White House, I’d recommend using a normal address. There are services online which will generate a valid-looking street and house number. I have tested some of them and the best one I found is here. After opening the website you have your shiny new address, together with a phone number which you don’t need. In case the address is already used you can click on the “Reshuffle” button and a new one will be generated.

    Step 4: adding the address

    We are almost done. Now we have to set this address as our default shipping address. Of course please do not ship any physical items there as they will get lost in the void. If you are ready please follow the steps below on any supported device.

    • Sign in to your new account by visiting this page.
    • Open the hamburger menu and click on “Payment and shipping”
    • Click on “Add a new payment method”.
    • Fill in the details, but leave the credit card data empty. Non-american credit cards cannot be used!
    • Click on “Save”.

    Step 5: entering the App Store

    Now we are ready to login to our new account. If you are ready, please follow the below steps on your Apple Vision Pro.

    • Open the App Store.
    • After receiving the message stating that you are not signed in to your Apple account, please choose “Use a different Apple account”.
    • Enter your new account details on the subsequent screen.
    • Finally, confirm your identity by entering the 2FA code you will receive on your phone or mail inbox.
    • After confirming your identity, the App Store will be fully ready to use.

    As you can see, creating an Apple account and bypassing the region restriction is not as difficult as it may seem at first glance. Below I include some other tips that may come in handy for you.

    Appendix A: a note for VoiceOver users

    At the time of this writing (visionOS 26.0.1) a bug in VoiceOver makes it very difficult for a blind user to enter the 2FA code on the second Apple Account. If you are using VoiceOver please follow the steps below on your Apple Vision Pro before signing in.

    • Open the Settings app.
    • Navigate to “Accessibility” -> “Pointer control”.
    • Switch the Pointer Control method from “Eyes” to “Head”.
    • Begin the login procedure as shown in the previous step.
    • When the 2FA prompt appears, hold your thumb and index finger together to enable the exploration mode.
    • Point your head towards the numbers.
    • With the other hand, press your index finger against the thumb to click the numbers.
    • Once all numbers are entered, the screen will close by itself.

    Appendix B: purchasing apps on the Vision Pro

    While you can download free apps without a problem, obtaining paywalled content poses another challenge. However the method to bypass it is rather easy. You can purchase an Appstore gift card for yourself, recharge your Apple Account and use this money to purchase apps and other content. Always remember to purchase gift cards from an official source to avoid scams. You can purchase a gift card directly on your iPhone, iPad or Mac by visiting the App Store and choosing an appropriate option.

    Conclusion

    Accessing the App Store on your Vision Pro is a straightforward process even if you live in an unsupported country. If you follow the steps outlined in this guide your experience should be smooth and fun. There are many apps available for the Vision Pro, so I hope that you can find something to entertain yourself or help you in your daily duties. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, let me know down in the comment below.