As they have over the last few years, Apple has unveiled its latest set of acccessibility features that will be arriving on Apple's platforms later this year. The list of items being added this year span all of Apple's platforms, as well as the App Store.

Accessibility Labels on the App Store

It is difficult for users to determine how much accessibility is put into an app without downloading it and testing it. In an attempt to help remedy this, Apple is adding "Accessibility Nutrition Labels" to the App Store. These will work in a similar manner as the Private Nutirition Labels.

The Accessibility Nutrition Labels will provide users information about the type of featurs that are supported within the app. This could be something like VoiceOver, Dark Interface, Reduced Motion, Audio Descriptions and more.

It is not known whether these will be automatically generated, or, if like the Privacy Labels, they will be dependent on reporting from the developer.

New Magnifier for the Mac

One of the more common issues for users is that they may not be able to easily see their surroundings. IF you have an iPhone or an iPad, this is easily accomplished with the magnifier. But now, this is coming to macOS. macOS will have an all-new magnifier that will use the Mac's camera to be able to zoom in on the surroundings.

Along with this, if you have a camera in Desk View, you will be able to read documents, as well as adjusting the brightness and contrast so that you can read the documents.

Accessibility Reader

One feature that is within Safari is the ability to view a webpage without a lot of the extra junk around it, like ads, menus, and side columns, leaving just the text. iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS will be getting a similar system-wide feature called "Accessibility Reader". Accessibility Reader is accessible from any app and even gives you the ability to customize the font, color, and spacing to view text that makes it easiest on you.

New Braille Experience

Not everyone is sighted, and instead these people need a different way, for some VoiceOver works well, but for others, they may need Braille. For those who need Braille, there is a new experience. Users who are connected braille device can easily open apps with that device, or by using the Braille Screen Input screen.

With Braille Access users will be able to quickly take notes in braille format, or even perform calculations using Nemeth Braille, which is a code often used for math and science within the Braille community.

Closing Thoughts

These are just a few of the new features that are coming to Apple's platforms. Some others include things like larger text within CarPlay, Custom Equalizer settings for sound detection, and even more customization for Music Haptics. It is good to see additional accessibility options being added across Apple's platforms. These features allow an even wider range of users to use Apple's platforms in a manner which helps them.

Source: Apple Newsroom

The surgeons behind the game have been busy and have had added another season of questions. Questions for season 5 are now in the app. This brings the total number of questions to 3,390 questions for all five seasons.

Be sure to update the app, and test your knowledge. If you do not have the app, you can check out the questions at https://mashtrivia.app

If there are any issues, be sure to email support. This is can be done via the "About" screen within the app.

Today Apple announced the dates for this year’s World Wide Developer Conference. Those dates will be from Monday, June 9th, 2025 to Friday, June 13th, 2025.

As has been the case for the last few years, it will be a free event and sessions will be streamed. Additionally, as Apple has done the last few years they are also holding a special event at Apple Park in Cupertino, California.

You can apply to attend. There are a limited number of people who will be able to attend the in-person event. Applications are accepted through Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025.

Apply now for an opportunity to join us in person at Apple Park, where you'll watch the Keynote and Platforms State of the Union with fellow developers, meet with Apple experts one-on-one and in group labs, explore the campus, and take part in special activities.

In order to be eligible to apply, you need to be an Apple Developer, or Enterprise Developer. If you are a Swift Student challenge winner between 2023 and 2025, you can also apply. Winner for this year's Student Challenge will be announced on Thursday, March 27th, 2025.

Source: Apple Newsroom

There is an analogy that someone made once, "Life is like a roll of toilet paper, the longer you are around, the faster it goes". I am sure this is mostly accurate. Time is a funny thing when you truly think about it because time, as we know it, is a man-made concept. Yes, it does follow the cycle of the planet and the stars, but overall, what we define as "time" is a man-made idea. Our lives are dictated by the clock. Time is a vague concept that we each experience at our own rates. I am pretty confident that at some points, everyone finds that time drags, and yet at other times, it seems that time goes by in the blink of an eye. While time varies on a moment-to-moment basis, it adds up, and ultimately, a great length of time can pass without truly realizing it.

It is weird to think that my blog is now over 20 years old. I know for a fact that I have had a blog more than 20 years ago because the first post that I have on here states that I started all over, meaning that there was a version before. I attempted to see if I could find an older version, but the first pull of the site by archive.org is a few months after the site started. Over the last 20 years, the site has gone through a number of changes, including hosting providers, software that powers it, the layout, and of course, the type of content that I post.

Infrastructure

The hosting services that I have used have been varied. I started out using a computer and hosting it at home (yes, I’m that much of a nerd). It was also a different time, when ISPs actually permitted things like that. I was using that setup until November of 2006 when I moved to an actual hosting provider, GoDaddy. When I had GoDaddy, it was basically shared hosting of 200MB of storage and 2.5GB of transfer. At the time, it was adequate for my needs. Shared hosting is good in some ways, but limiting in others. Because I needed additional access, I ended up moving to a different hosting provider, called MediaTemple.

I know I ended up moving to MediaTemple, but I honestly do not really know when that was. I suspect that it was sometime around 2008 or 2009. I do not have any bills or emails for them from that time. I used MediaTemple until I ended up switching to another service provider, Linode.

Even though I do not know when I switched to MediaTemple, I do know when I switched from MediaTemple to Linode. I switched back in August of 2013. Coincidentally, GoDaddy ended up acquiring MediaTemple just two months later, in October of 2013. Since August of 2013, I have hosted my sites on Linode. Linode is designed as a virtual server environment. This means that you will need to know how to manage a server. Managing a server is not for everyone, but it is something that I do not mind doing, and it allows for more control over the server, but it also comes with additional responsibility. I do not anticipate switching away from Linode, but it is entirely possible that I might switch at some point, but I do not have any plans to do so. Now, let’s move to software.

Software

A server is just one aspect of a website. It also needs some sort of software to display a website. The bare minimum needed is a webserver, of some sort. Today, there are a variety of web server options, including LightHTTP, Jetty, Apache, and Nginx. When I first started my website, there were many fewer options. Due to its ubiquity, I started with Apache. However, the Apache Webserver has become quite mature, and was initially released in 1996. While I initially used Apache, I have since moved to using Nginx as my webserver of choice. I opted to use Nginx because I found it to be faster than Apache’s HTTP server on the same hardware.

I have been creating websites, and programming in general, since 1997. While I started out creating static webpages, I have, as you might have surmised, moved onto making dynamic websites. My first dynamic sites were using Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP), now called Classic ASP. I went with this because it is what I could easily find resources for at the time. It was a few years later when I switched away from using ASP, to using PHP. Again, I do not recall when this actually occurred, but I suspect it was sometime around late 2004, which would’ve been the PHP 4.3.4 era.

As for software that actually powers the website, that has changed over time. Over the years I have had three different software packages to power my site. I used a piece of software called "Pivot Log" for a couple of years, but then on May 7th, 2007 I moved to WordPress. I continued to use it for more than 15 years, until October 2022.

As outlined in my post Rebuilding the site: Moving away from WordPress that I posted on October 28th, 2022, I published an entirely rebuilt version of my website. Now, it is a statically generated site. This effectively means that the pages are generated once and then published to my web server, which will then serve the pages as they were generated. Static webpages are generally faster than dynamic ones. If you think about it, even briefly, it makes sense. All you have to do is read the page from the a disk. Each file is small, so it should not take very long. Besides the speed, static sites do not require much software upkeep, besides the server software. Static sites, of course, have downsides as well, because any change requires a complete rebuild of the site. Let us now turn to the content of the website.

Content

As mentioned above, there has been a variety of content posted on the site. It has ranged from site-related updates, life updates, news, thoughts, and of course, Apple-related content. When I moved away from WordPress to my current static site, I ended up removing some posts, mostly the Daily Run Down items. The reason I removed these was because many of the links were no longer valid. Additionally, the news posts were of their time and no longer relevant.

Along with this, I did remove some additional posts. These were posts that were videos. These posts were removed for two reasons. Either the views were removed from YouTube or the posts were removed from their source sites; therefore, it was prudent to remove these posts. I also did remove some of my older posts because they are no longer ones that I want on the site.

I am not sure what additional content might be posted in the future. As you might have noticed, the frequency of content has changed over the years. I opted to do a look at the number of posts, and there have been a number of months where I did not post much at all. Most notably between September and November of 2009. But, that was a busy time with buying a house. Other months, though, have been quite busy. October 2015 and October 2021 are the busiest with 41 posts in each month. A majority of the posts for these months were my "Device Availability" posts. These posts are ones that track the current availability of Apple devices. A majority of the time, it is the iPhone, but it has also been the iPad.

I have done my Device Availability posts for a number of years and these are, mostly, automated. The posting is not, but the data gathering is automated. When I first began posting, the data gathering was entirely manual and I ended up switching to automatic retrieval so I could have more detailed information. I have not yet decided if I will continue doing the Device Availability posts the next time a new device is released. If I do, it would need to be a device that can be easily tracked, like the iPhone or iPad. Macs are not easily tracked due to the sheer number of options that Apple has. iPhone and iPads have a number of options, but these are color and size, not processors. Let us now look at distributing content.

Syndication

I have never considered my site to be a "must visit" and destination site. My site is not a news aggregator nor is it popular enough for people to have as their homepage. In order for people to see my content, I need to post it to places. Over the course of time, this has changed.

When I first started my site, Google would be the way that people found my site. And for a while, I do think people used that to find it. However, I also started posting to other sites, in particular, social media.

For the longest time, I posted to Twitter, but that stopped when I stopped using the site due to the change in ownership. Beyond this, they decided to down-rank posts with links in them; thus making it more difficult to get reach for a post. I also used to post to Facebook, but they stopped allowing people to post to their personal Facebook profiles, via the API, back in April of 2018. You can still post to a Facebook Page, but I do not have a Facebook page. I have stopped using Facebook; I deactivated my account back in February after not logging into it for like six weeks.

The other place that I have posted to is Apple News. I use this because a vast majority of my posts are about Apple, so it would make sense. I am not sure if I will continue using this. It is not because it is difficult to create an Apple News compatible file; I have a custom script that will do so. The big reason I do not know if I will continue is because I do not get many views when I post. So, I am not sure if it makes sense to continue to post there or not.

Posting to sites was made a bit easier when I was using WordPress, because there were plugins that took care of the functionality for me. These would post when I hit the "publish" button. Additionally, updates would automatically be made if I updated the posting. Now, I have to handle all of this manually.

These days I post to both Mastodon and Bluesky. I have created custom code that I use to post to these sites. I have two tags in the metadata info of each of my markdown files that will pull the text to use for posting the summarization of what I post.

Since the inception of my blog, one way to consume the posts has been RSS. To this day, my site has an RSS feed. If you have some sort of aggregator, feel free to follow using your favorite RSS reader.

Closing Thoughts

It surely does not seem like it has been 20 years. I honestly do not know if the site will be around in 20 years. If I’m still around, it’s likely that the site will be as well. I do have a few ideas for some changes, but I am not sure when those changes will happen. One thing is for certain: the site has not stayed the same over the last 20 years; it has seen significant changes. It is quite likely that I will continue to post and make changes to the site. 20 years from now, if the site is still around, it will undoubtedly look completely different from its current iteration. But only time will ultimately tell what changes the site will have in the future.

Today, Apple gave an official statement to John Gruber at Daring Fireball about a delay of Apple's more personalized Siri. The quote is:

Siri helps our users find what they need and get things done quickly, and in just the past six months, we’ve made Siri more conversational, introduced new features like type to Siri and product knowledge, and added an integration with ChatGPT. We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.

My Thoughts

Software is not easy. Many developers make it look easy, but it is far from ever actually being easy. Apple's current crop of Apple Intelligence features are, in my opinion, quite lackluster. Out of Apple's list of currently available Apple Intelligence features, only Writing Tools and Genmoji are ones that are any good.

I use Writing Tools mostly as a glorified proofreader, even though it can do more, I never use those features.

Sometimes the official set of emojis are not enough, and Genmoji can help create new emojis for those situations where there is not one that works for you. Genmoji is good in that it is based on Apple's own emoji graphics, so they have full rights to use the emojis to build new ones.

One axiom that I think bears repeating, never buy a product for what it could potentially do. Instead, purchase a product for what it is capable of doing at the time of purchase. Often, purchasing a product for what it could potentially do is a losing proposition. This is because software features can, and often, are pulled before release, as is exemplified with the "More Personalized Siri" with Apple Intelligence.

Source: Daring Fireball

Today Apple unveiled two new Mac Studio models, one with the M4 Max and another with the M3 Ultra. This comes with some big changes. Before we dive into those, let us look at the similarities between the previous models. This is the first time there have been two different-generation chips in the Mac Studio.

Common Features

The two variants have many things in common. The port configurations are the same as the previous model. There is an HDMI port, 10Gbps Ethernet, and four Thunderbolt ports on the back. The M4 Max comes with two USB-C ports on the front, while the M3 Ultra comes with two Thunderbolt ports on the front. This is the same configuration as the M2 Max/M2 Ultra configurations. There is still the SDXC card slot on the front, a 10Gbps connection, and a headphone jack.

The Thunderbolt on the M4 Max and M3 Ultra has gone from Thunderbolt 4 to Thunderbolt 5. Thunderbolt 5 can deliver speeds at 120Gbps, which is 3x faster than Thunderbolt 4.

M4 Max

The M4 Max comes in two variants: a 14-core CPU and 32-core GPU model, and a 16-core CPU with a 40-core GPU. The difference between these two is that the lower-end model is only capable of 36GB of unified memory, while the 16-core CPU model can be configured with 48GB, 64GB, or 128GB of memory.

According to Apple, the M4 Max is 1.6x faster with Adobe Photoshop, up to 2.1x faster building with Xcode, 1.2x faster ProRes transcode in Compressor, and 1.6x faster in Topaz Video AI, when compared to the M1 Max.

The M3 Ultra can support up to six Pro Display XDRs at 6K resolution, eight 4K displays, and three 8K displays.

The M4 Max continues to start at $1999 for the 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, and 36GB of memory, and 512GB of storage. It can be configured up to $5899 for the 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 128GB of unified memory, and 8TB of storage.

M3 Ultra

The M3 Ultra is a brand-new chip. The M3 Ultra is similar to the previous "Ultra" chips, in that it is two M3 Max chips with an interconnect. According to Apple, there are over 10,000 interconnects between the two M3 Max chips. Since there are two M3 Max chips interconnected, the memory configurations are different. You have the option of 96GB, 256GB, or 512GB of memory. The 512GB of memory is only available with the 80-core GPU version.

Similarly, there are slightly different storage options. You have the same, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB options as are on the M4 Max. However, there is a new 16TB option. This is available on both M3 Ultra variants. However, it will cost you an additional $4600 to be exact.

According to Apple, the M3 Ultra is 16.9x faster generating tokens using an LLM in LM Studio, 2.6x faster scene rendering in Maxon Redshift, 1.1x faster base calling for DNSA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW, and 1.4x faster 8K video rendering with Final Cut Pro, when compared to the M1 Max. Of course, there is an even larger performance improvement when compared to an Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.

The M3 Ultra can support up to 8 Pro Display XDRs at 6K resolution, eight 4K displays, and four 8K displays. This is great for those who need it.

The M3 Ultra starts at $3999 for the 28-core CPU, 60-core GPU with 96GB and 1TB storage. It can be configured up to $14,099 for the M3 Ultra with 32-core CPU, 80-core GPU with 512GB of unified memory, and 16TB of storage.

Different Generations

As mentioned above, this is the first time that Apple has offered two different Apple Silicon generations for the Mac Studio. The reason for the difference is that the "Ultra" series of chips does take additional time to produce. In order to be able to get a work chip, all connections between the interposer need to be functional in order to meet the specifications. It takes time to get that done.

It is not known whether or not Apple will introduce an M4 Ultra chip or not. According to ArsTechnica:

When asked why the high-end Mac Studio was getting an M3 Ultra chip instead of an M4 Ultra, Apple told us that not every chip generation will get an “Ultra” tier.

Closing Thoughts

The addition of an M4 Max and M3 Ultra in the Mac Studio is a significant upgrade over the M2 Max/M2 Ultra versions. If you are in the market, then it might be a good time to upgrade. You can pre-order the Mac Studio today and it will begin arriving March 12th, although some model are already later in March.

Source: Apple Newsroom

Today, Apple released a new MacBook Air. The new MacBook Air makes some improvements over the previous model.

Screen and External Displays

The MacBook Air continues to be available in 13-inch and 15-inch models. The 13-inch still has a 13.6-inch screen, and the 15-inch has a 15.3-inch screen. There is a new 12 MP Center Stage camera. According to Apple:

A new 12MP Center Stage camera with improved video quality keeps MacBook Air users looking their best, whether at home, school, or work. Center Stage automatically keeps users centered in the frame as they move around — great for connecting with friends and family over FaceTime or joining an important meeting. It also supports Desk View, which simultaneously displays the user and a top-down view of their desk, making video calls even more engaging for those who want to show off their latest DIY project or present a prototype at work.

One of the shortcomings of the M3 MacBook Air has been rectified. The M3 MacBook Air could only support two external displays while the MacBook Air’s lid was closed. Now, the M4 MacBook Air can support up to two 6K external displays, in addition to the built-in display, meaning that you can have up to 3 displays simultaneously. This can be a productivity improvement for some users.

Processor, Memory, and Storage

There are two different possible GPU configurations. The 13-inch MacBook Air has a 10-Core CPU, and either an 8-Core or 10-core GPU. The 15-inch MacBook Air has a 10-Core CPU, with 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores. There is also a 10-Core GPU.

One of the big improvements over the M4 includes a 20% increase in memory bandwidth, going from 100GB per second to 120GB per second. The amount of memory that is standard is 16GB, and can be configured for either 24GB or 32GB.

The base model MacBook Air comes with 256GB of storage, and can be configured with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB.

Colors

The most noticeable change with the MacBook Air is a new color option. The previous "Space Gray" model has been replaced with a new Sky Blue. The other colors, Midnight, Silver, and Starlight, are also available.

Pricing and Availability

The MacBook Air starts at $999, which is $100 less than the previous model. The 13-inch model ranges in price from $999 for the base model to $2199 for the 10-Core GPU M4 with 32GB of memory and 2TB of storage. The 15-inch ranges from $1199 for its base model to $2399 for 32GB of memory and 2TB of storage. You can pre-order it today, and it will begin arriving on March 12th.

Closing Thoughts

The updated MacBook Air is a minor update, but it is a welcome one. The lower base price may be welcome to some users, while the ability to support two external displays in addition to the built-in display will bring other users. One thing that might entice another set of users is the new Sky Blue color.

Source: Apple Newsroom

Today, Apple announced a new set of iPad Airs and an updated base model iPad. These are both small updates to the devices.

Base iPad

The 11th-generation iPad is a minor update. There are two big changes: one regarding the chip and the second is storage. The base model iPad is now an A16. This replaces the previous model, which had an A15 Bionic. Because the new iPad has an A16, it does not support Apple Intelligence. The second change is that there is now twice as much storage, going from 64GB base model to 128GB storage.

The iPad comes in the same color options: Silver, Blue, Pink, and Yellow. It is available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB models. The Wi-Fi-only models are $349, $449, and $649. The Wi-Fi + Cellular models are $499, $599, and $799, respectively.

You can pre-order it today, and it will begin arriving on March 12th.

iPad Air

Much like the new iPad, the new iPad Air is a spec bump. There are two notable changes. The first is the processor, which is now an M3 processor. This replaces the M2, which was present in the previous iPad Air. The iPad Air continues to come in four different storage sizes: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. The iPad Air is available in four colors: Space Gray, Blue, Purple, and Starlight. As was the case with the previous models, there are two screen sizes: an 11-inch and a 13-inch.

The 11-inch iPad Air is $599 for 128GB, $699 for 256GB, $899 for 512GB, and $1099 for the 1TB model. The Wi-Fi + Cellular model is $150 more, meaning $749, $849, $1049, and $1249 for each storage size.

The 13-inch model starts at $799 for the 128GB, $899 for the 256GB, $1099 for 512GB, and $1299 for 1TB. The Wi-Fi + Cellular models are also $150 more. Therefore, the 128GB model is $949, the 256GB is $1049, 512GB is $1249, and the 1TB model is $1449.

The M3 iPad Air supports the Apple Pencil Pro or the Apple Pencil with USB-C.

You can pre-order it today, and it will begin arriving on March 12th.

Closing Thoughts

The M3 iPad Air and 11th-generation iPad are both speed bump updates, and announcing them via press release is the best way to do it. It is good to see the iPad and iPad Air get regular updates, even if the iPad Air was last updated only 10 months ago. If you have an iPad with a Home button and are in the market for an upgrade, you could look at both the iPad and iPad Air.

Source: Posted: March 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM

Today Apple announced a new iPhone for the iPhone 16 lineup, the iPhone 16e. At first glance, you might think it might be the replacement for the iPhone SE, but I think it is really the replacement for the iPhone 14. The iPhone 16e continues to be the entry-level device. The iPhone 16e shares many features of the iPhone 14, but not all of them.

Screen Size

The iPhone 16e has a 6.1-inch screen. This is a big jump over the previous iPhone SE’s screen size of 4.7 inches, but it is the same as the iPhone 14. The increased screen size also means that there is no longer a Home Button. In its place is more screen, and it now utilizes the same approach as all iPhones introduced after the iPhone X: it uses swipe gestures to navigate.

The screen itself is an OLED Super Retina XDR display. This means that it supports the P3 color space, has 800 nits of brightness, supports HDR, and True Tone.

Processor

Whether you look at the iPhone 14 or the iPhone SE, both of them have the same processor, the A15 Bionic. This is a bit older and would otherwise be able to perform everything that Apple might expect. But now the iPhone 16e has an A18 in it, just like the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. There is one slight difference, the iPhone 16e only has a 4-core GPU, whereas the iPhone 16 has a 5-core GPU. For most users and in most use cases, this will not be noticeable, but it is a difference.

Colors

The iPhone 16e comes in two colors: Black and White. Both of these are matte finishes. These two colors replace the previous Midnight, Starlight, and (PRODUCT) Red. It is possible that additional colors may be added in the future, but for now, these are the only two options. This does mean that Apple does currently sell any (PRODUCT)RED devices.

Apple Intelligence

As has been rumored and expected, the iPhone 16 does support Apple Intelligence. This is due to the A18 chip and the 8GB of memory in the device. The iPhone 16e supports all of the Apple Intelligence features, like Writing Tools, ChatGPT integration, and Visual Intelligence.

Missing Features

Even though the iPhone 16e has the latest features, like the Action Button, it does not have everything that was present on the iPhone 14. For some users, they are willing to make that trade-off, yet for others, these missing items may be deal breakers. The items that are not present on the iPhone 16e are MagSafe, Dynamic Island, and a second camera. Beyond this, there is no Camera Control button, even though it is present on all other iPhone 16 models.

Storage and Price

The iPhone 16e takes the place of the iPhone 14, which means it starts at $599 for 128GB, $699 for 256GB, and $899 for the 512GB version. You can pre-order it this Friday, February 21st, and pre-orders will start arriving on Friday, February 28th, 2025.

Cases

As they have done in the past, Apple has also released some silicone cases, this time in five colors. These colors are Black, White, Fuchsia, Lake Green, and Winter Blue. These are $39 each, and again, do not support MagSafe.

Closing Thoughts

For an entry level phone the iPhone 16e does have some compromises, but it still has a number of features that the current phones have. This includes Emergency SOS, Crash Detection, USB-C, and 5G, just to name a few. For those who need an upgrade, the iPhone 16e could be a great update at a reasonable price. It is indeed more expensive than the previous iPhone SE, but it is the same price as the iPhone 14.

If you are price conscious, and are willing to make a couple of trade offs in terms of features, then the iPhone 16e might be a good choice.

Source: Apple Newsroom

I have said it before, and I will continue to say it: I know building software is not easy; there will be bugs and issues that may crop up from time to time. Even though I am well aware of bugs, that does not mean that I do not get irritated by them from time to time. The latest issue is one that I noticed with the "Heavy Rotation Mix" within my Apple Music library.

In case you are not aware, the Heavy Rotation Mix is a playlist that, as the name indicates, has the songs that you have played a lot of within the last few days. This playlist is a slightly different one, in that it is updated every day.

The issue that I have is that there is a song that I have not listened to on the list. The specific title is "Fighting For" by Evan Honer. Why would this one be in my playlist if I never listened to it? Well, I have listened to a slightly different version of the song; that one is a duet with Hailey Whitters.

You can see in the image below the fact that the title "Fighting For" is not in my library. This is indicated by the "Add to Library" menu item in the popup.

What is even better is that it even says "Remove Download", when that particular title is not actually already downloaded.

The image below is for "girl you’re taking home" by Ella Langley, and it is in my library. This can be identified by the "Remove" menu item, which will ask to remove to either remove the download or delete from the library.

Why?

What I do not understand is how Apple can add a song that I have not listened to. Yes, the title for the two items is the same, but the song is not in my library. It would be one thing if it was a different album, or even if the album artwork was different, but this is not the issue. It is an entirely different song. The two items have different song id numbers. It is beyond me how Apple cannot be bothered to easily check to see if a song is even in a user’s library. My thought is that if the song is not in a user's library, then it should not be included in the playlist at all.

One thing that is not known, almost a year after being introduced, is whether the playlist is updated on a device and then uploaded to Apple's servers, or whether Apple generates the playlist on their servers and then updates the playlist. Regardless of how it is generated, Apple has access to the data, meaning that there is no reason it should not be able to detect items that are in a user's library.

Closing Thoughts

It is not that the version done by Evan Honer on his own is bad; it is a perfectly good song. However, I personally prefer the duet with Hailey Whitters because it puts a different spin on the song. Another example where this is also true is with the song "The Joker and the Queen" by Ed Sheeran. His version is good, but the duet with Taylor Swift makes the song even better.

Apple's music "matching" needs to actually look at the title and the artist, and whether or not it is a live version. In this case, it is not live, but a duet. Which, in my mind, means that due to the fact that there are two artists, it should never match a song with a single artist.

In the grand scheme of things, this is just a minor annoyance. Yet, this is just one of the numerous software quality issues that seem to be creeping into Apple’s software as of late.