Thread

1. zzyzxd · 1790017858 · focus · HN ↗

   I would never have figured out the toggle for writing tools is in `Settings -> Screen Time -> Content & Privacy Restrictions -> Siri -> Writing Assistance`

   1. fooker · 1790018343 · focus · HN ↗

      It's searchable

      1. Forgeties79 · 1790018647 · focus · HN ↗

         Normally I'd say that's at least somewhat valid but Apple also has a nasty habit of coming up with new names for things everyone else had a name for for 30 years already. Then they do bizarre things like when I tried to help my mom with her airpod settings the other day - searching "airpod" gave no hits. I mean...what?

         1. fooker · 1790018894 · focus · HN ↗

            Searching for "airpod" in settings brings up - Accessibility, "Headphones/AirPods/Beats", Conversation Boost, Noise Cancellation, Press and hold duration, Press speed, Transparency mode

            Not sure what went wrong for you, these results seem pretty much on point.

            1. Forgeties79 · 1790019008 · focus · HN ↗

               This literally happened yesterday. It tried to bring me to a safari search and I got no other hits. Could've been just a buggy moment with search who knows.

               1. BlobberSnobber · 1790020975 · focus · HN ↗

                  I tested it just now. My AirPods are connected to the iPhone, and searching “AirPods” gives me the accessibility settings for them, not the actual AirPods’ settings. I have to open the Settings app and then they’re up there, but it’s ridiculous that they don’t show in the search.

                  1. pixl97 · 1790023380 · focus · HN ↗

                     Great, Apple hired the team from Microsoft search too.
            2. dd8601fn · 1790023847 · focus · HN ↗

               That doesn’t surprise me. Search in Settings is sketchy.

               The other day “login” didn’t produce Login Items. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you tried it right now and it worked fine.

      2. m463 · 1790019374 · focus · HN ↗

         It (purposefully?) doesn't find everything.

         For instance (this is just sequoia, but same for ios) searching for "improve" finds:

         "improve assistive voice features" (I turned it off)

         and diagnostic & usage data with: "improve siri & dictation" (I turned it off)

         but under spotlight, it doesn't find "help apple improve search" (I turned that off too)

      3. zzyzxd · 1790023847 · focus · HN ↗

         There are reasons graphical interfaces exist. Otherwise why don't we hide everything behind one single search box? And unless you are a die-hard Apple fan, you may not always know the correct feature name to search for.
      4. roboror · 1790027266 · focus · HN ↗

         That's putting a bandaid on an infected wound.
      5. FireBeyond · 1790031438 · focus · HN ↗

         If I want Siri to talk faster do I go to:

         - Accessibility > Siri > Siri Speaking Rate

         or

         - Siri > Voice

         Because in iOS 27 these two are absolutely not the same thing, and the one you probably want is the latter.

   2. dburkland · 1790018350 · focus · HN ↗

      The settings menus in recent iOS & macOS releases have been an absolute mess.
   3. cco · 1790018560 · focus · HN ↗

      Even worse, once you're there, you toggle _on_ "Content & Privacy", and then what?

      What does the toggle on for "Image creation" mean? Is that now restricted? Or is toggle off mean it is restricted?

   4. buzer · 1790020637 · focus · HN ↗

      And people complained about Symbian menus...
   5. plufz · 1790021256 · focus · HN ↗

      Wow insane.
   6. kevmo · 1790022958 · focus · HN ↗

      Ah yes, bad design, something Apple is famous for.

      This is obviously intentional.

   7. wdr1 · 1790025040 · focus · HN ↗

      It's a common pattern in Apple products. They make it hard to turn off settings they really don't want you to turn off.

      Another example is advertising. Apple made it easy for you to turn off advertising tracking for non-Apple things.

      Apple made it very confusing to turn off advertising tracking for Apple things, including having a different setting for this to begin with.

      1. tpmoney · 1790032731 · focus · HN ↗

         > Apple made it very confusing to turn off advertising tracking for Apple things

         Is it not Privacy & Security -> Apple Advertising -> Personalized Ads?

      2. reustle · 1790035293 · focus · HN ↗

         Love or hate Omarchy, it's movements like that which are finally going to convince diehard macos users to consider a more open and controllable OS. Small annoyances can be ignored, but after a while, there is too much noise.

         I am sure my Macbook uses a RNG to decide whether or not I can use touch ID to unlock.

         1. csomar · 1790049035 · focus · HN ↗

            Instead of funding a skin UI for Linux, that money could have been used better to fund Asahi Linux.
         2. nearlyepic · 1790050134 · focus · HN ↗

            How is this remotely related to omarchy? Nobody cares about your dotfile collection run by a racist and his racist friends.
   8. derefr · 1790029528 · focus · HN ↗

      Apple's assumption seems to be that the only reason you'd want to turn the LLM features off as a consumer is that you're a parent and you don't want your children interacting with LLMs. So they put it where "parent trying to lock down their child's computer" settings are.

      (If you look, most other toggles that appear under "Content & Privacy Restrictions" are for similar things: things Apple provides no more-visible setting to disable; because they think you have "no reason" to turn these features off; because these features are, at least in Apple's opinion, "unobtrusive" [i.e. only really doing something if explicitly activated] and "costless.")

      In contrast, I presume the underlying setting identifier, as appears in `defaults` and/or MDM profiles, has a more sensible hierarchical prefix based on what potential risks an organization would see in a roll-out of LLM use.

      ETA: yes: the macOS settings domain for "LLM stuff" is `com.apple.applicationaccess`, and the declarative-configuration namespace is `com.apple.configuration.intelligence.settings`. Neither of which has anything to do with parental controls per se (though `com.apple.applicationaccess` is generally where MDM settings related to preventing employees from using "potentially insecure" device capabilities live.)

      There's also the declarative-configuration namespace of `com.apple.configuration.external-intelligence.settings` ...which is a bit of a bass-ackwards use of their own declarative configuration model, since if it had been `com.apple.configuration.intelligence.external.settings` instead, then the settings in the enclosing "intelligence" namespace would serve as fallback defaults for the external-intelligence specific settings. Ah well.

      1. sota_pop · 1790122450 · focus · HN ↗

         Or is their base assumption that their primary os users are children?

         MacOS certainly feels like a toy to me in many regards.

   9. varispeed · 1790029633 · focus · HN ↗

      Probably it is under Privacy because one day it will be transcribing everything you say and sending to government.

      They already gave idea with client side scanning and now UK government will mandate that.

      The next step is conversations.

   10. [deleted] · 1790034643 · focus · HN ↗

       [deleted]

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