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July 2024
How to Try Apple Intelligence Right Now
Over the weekend, we learned Apple Intelligence, Apple’s brand-name for its generative AI features, would not be shipping with iOS 18 after all, and would instead arrive with iOS 18.1. While Apple won’t officially roll out Apple Intelligence until sometime later this fall, that doesn’t mean these AI features will be totally absent until then. In fact, you can try them out right now—with some big caveats.
On Monday, Apple dropped the first developer beta for iOS 18.1. This version of the beta is meant for registered developers, so they can test out the new software with their apps and services and make sure there are no critical issues with it. While that used to cost $99 per year, in recent years, Apple has opened up the developer beta to anyone interested, meaning you can install the iOS 18.1 developer beta on your iPhone, even if you’re not an iOS developer.
Apple Intelligence is not here for everyone
Some caveats: Apple Intelligence is only available on iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, or iPads with an M1 chip or newer. If you have an iPhone 15 or older, or an iPad without the M-series chip, you’re out of luck. In addition, installing the iOS 18.1 beta isn’t enough to access Apple Intelligence. The company requires you to sign up for a waitlist for the service first before you can experiment with these AI features. There’s no set time for how long Apple keeps you on the waitlist, and Redditors on r/iosbeta had varying experiences: Some were approved instantly, while others had to wait 30 minutes.
As you might expect, this version of Apple Intelligence is in its initial stages of testing, which means it won’t come with all the features Apple advertised earlier this year. While features like Genmoji, Image Playground, and ChatGPT integration aren’t live yet, some key features are. If you install the update, you’ll be able to try Apple’s AI writing tools, new AI features in apps like Mail and Photos, and some AI upgrades to Siri.
It’s also important to note that because iOS 18.1 is in beta, it’s risky to install on your device right now. Beta software is in testing, and unfinished, which means there could be bugs and other issues that would interfere with your normal device use. If you don’t have a spare Apple device to install betas on, make sure to back up your iPhone or iPad if you choose to install iOS 18.1.
Installing Apple Intelligence on your iPhone
Assuming you have a compatible iPhone or iPad, open Settings, then head to General > Software Update. Allow the page to load a moment, then choose Beta Updates. Here, choose iOS 18 Developer Beta, then hit Back. Once this page loads again, you should see Upgrade to iOS 18 under “ALSO AVAILABLE.” Tap this, which should take you to the iOS 18.1 update screen. From here, hit Update Now, then follow the on-screen instructions to install the update.
Once you’re running iOS 18.1, head back to Settings. You should now have an Apple Intelligence option. Tap this, choose Join the Apple Intelligence Waitlist, then hit Join Waitlist on the pop-up.
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Steph Curry and Kevin Durant are enjoying their time playing together again on Team USA.
How to Watch the Paris Olympics on a Meta Quest 3
If you’re not fortunate enough to be in Paris for the Olympics this month, the second best way to watch the games is through a Meta Quest 3 headset, where you can watch Peacock’s coverage of Olympic events in either a virtual theater or on a augmented reality screen. You can stream everything Peacock is offering from its app on the Quest 3, and that means a ton of live events, archived competitions, re-caps, highlight collections, and more.
How to watch the Paris Olympics on Meta Quest 3
Here’s how to watch the Olympics in virtual reality with a Meta Quest 3:
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Navigate to the Meta Horizon Store.
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Search for Peacock
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Download and install the Peacock app
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Sign in or sign up: Peacock’s premium plan is $7.99 a month and includes ads. Ad-free Premium Plus is $13.99 a month.
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Once the Peacock app is open, Olympics coverage should be front and center. Click the “Olympics” tab and go to town.
How good is Olympics coverage on the Meta Quest 3?
I gave Peacock’s Olympics coverage a spin this morning, and I enjoyed having a floating window streaming coverage of the preliminary rounds of a sport I know nothing about while doing real life things—the Olympics are great background entertainment for household chores. Here’s what it looks like when you watch women’s rugby while doing your laundry, for instance:
Credit: Stephen Johnson – Peacock
The full-screening room experience is great for my favorite use of VR video: lying in bed and projecting video onto the virtual ceiling. This more-lazy-than-sitting-on-the-couch style of watching things may turn out to be the killer app of virtual and augmented reality, and the Olympics are your opportunity to give it a try.
Another use for the VR Olympics is being able to watch a different sport than everyone else in the house. You can slip on some headphones and project equestrian events right on top of the TV that’s showing gymnastics, and still be (kind of) hanging out with your wife and watching the Olympics “together.”
Sadly, Peacock’s VR coverage of the Olympics is limited to 2D streams of the content that’s available on their app, so it doesn’t take full advantage of the possibilities of VR with immersive, 3D, sideline coverage of Olympic events or anything like that. Here’s hoping for something like that for 2028.
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Make This Savory Mushroom-Onion Dip for Your Next Party
Onion dip is a dangerous thing. It distracts you with its creamy, cool, umami-forward wiles, and before you know it, you wake up covered in chip salt with your partner accusing you of selfishly eating eight ounces of dip. Well I have good and bad news. If you’re a lover of onion dip, there’s a contender for the most umami-packed dip, and it’s made with mushroom duxelles. The bad news is it won’t solve your sharing issues.
The reason this dip is so dang flavorful is because it combines the umami powers of onions and builds upon it with a heavy dose of mushrooms. Mushrooms aren’t a typical ingredient for dips but it makes a lot more sense once they’ve been transformed into duxelles. Usually the only time duxelles make an appearance in my kitchen is when I’m making mini beef Wellington dumplings (or when I “Wellington” anything, really).
What is duxelles?
Making duxelles is an easy way to get a robust and savory meal component. Duxelles is composed of finely minced mushrooms, shallot, herbs, and garlic that are sautéed in a bit of butter until all of the moisture has evaporated and you’re left with a deeply fragrant, concentrated, mushroom mixture. It’s not something you’d really eat all on its own (but you could, and I’d support you), but more of a component; it makes other things better. Where beef Wellington is concerned, you spread the duxelles out in a layer before adding the tenderloin, and in the end it adds an extra savory boost in every slice. But duxelles is such a versatile mixture, it shouldn’t be imprisoned forever in relation to beef Wellington.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
How to make mushroom duxelles dip
To kick off your duxelles discovery, why not turn it into dip? I make the duxelle in a relatively traditional manner for this recipe. The only thing I modify is the shallot. Normally you’d use a small shallot for a pound of mushrooms, but I swap it out for half of a large sweet onion. I was looking to combine the powers of onion dip with duxelles, so I figured, why not caramelize some onions straight into the mixture? Onion dip is better when it has more onions in it anyway.
This recipe is straightforward, and that’s because building complex flavors doesn’t mean that the method has to be difficult. Once the mushrooms and onions have cooked out all of their water (this can take up to 20 minutes), cool the mixture and then mix it into an equal parts mixture of cream cheese and plain yogurt. Add a packet of onion dip (there’s no shame in a salty seasonings shortcut), and stir until thoroughly combined.
Although you could skip the onion dip seasoning packet and still have an exquisite duxelle dip, I like what onions and mushrooms accomplish when they join forces. As with any dry dip mix, wait at least a few hours for the dry ingredients to hydrate in the dip before eating. Use this dream dip for crackers, chips, and pita bread, tuck it into an omelette, or stir it into hot pasta.
Mushroom Duxelles Dip Recipe
Ingredients:
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1 tablespoon olive oil
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3 tablespoons butter
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8 ounces cremini mushrooms, minced
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½ large sweet onion, minced
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1 clove garlic, minced
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¼ teaspoon salt
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1 sprig thyme
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4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
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½ cup plain yogurt
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A ½ ounce packet dry onion dip
1. In a large skillet, add the oil and butter and melt it over medium-low heat. Add the minced mushrooms, onion, and garlic, along with the salt. Stir and cook the mushrooms down until the water has released. Add the thyme. Continue cooking until the mixture has reduced in size and the water has evaporated. Set it aside to cool. Discard the thyme sprig.
2. Mix the cream cheese and yogurt together in a large bowl. Add the mushroom duxelles and the dry onion dip seasoning packet. Stir it all together. This dip is rather thick, so if you like the dip to be looser, add more yogurt. Cover the dip and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight, to fully hydrate and settle in. Serve with chips.
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Now You Can Access Your Android Files From Your PC
Windows 11’s File Explorer isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of useful features. As it happens, File Explorer isn’t only for exploring files on your PC, but your Android device as well—if you know how to set it up.
Microsoft announced on Thursday that it is now rolling out the ability to see your Android device in File Explorer on your PC. When enabled, you’ll be able to browse all your Android folders and files, which includes actions like:
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Opening files
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Copying Android files to your PC
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Copying PC files to your Android device
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Rename files
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Move files
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Delete files
This is made possible through the Link to Windows app, which lets you pair your Android device with your PC, so you can reply to texts, take calls, and view Android notifications from your computer.
Accessing Android files from your PC
In order to try this feature out on your device, your phone needs to be running Android 11 or newer. You also need to be running the beta version of the Link to Windows app (version 1.24071 or higher), as the current public version of the app won’t work. You can download the beta version from the APKMirror link here. On the Windows side of things, you need to enroll your PC in the Windows Insider Program (any of the four Insider Channels will work here), and you need to be running Windows 11.
Make sure Link to Windows is set up and connected on your phone. (You can follow the instructions in our article here for setup help.) Once all these are in place, go to your PC and head to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mobile devices, then choose Manage devices. Make sure your phone is enabled, then enable the toggle next to Access in File Explorer. Microsoft says if you don’t see this toggle, the feature hasn’t rolled out to you yet.
Credit: Microsoft
As this feature is still in testing, there are some bugs and issues to watch out for. Microsoft says when you delete phone files on your computer, they are sent to a new Recycle Bin folder on the phone, where they’ll be deleted after five days. (The system will tell you it lasts for 30 days, so be aware you don’t have that long before these files are deleted.) In addition, Microsoft says deleted files in this new Recycle Bin may not appear on your PC.
Finally, you may notice some actions you take on your PC might not sync back to your phone. If so, log out of your Windows account on your PC, then log back in.
I Used Strava’s New Heatmap to Find a Stranger’s Home Address
Running and cycling app Strava has a ton of features that help you find new running routes, including segments, the route builder, and the global heatmap. Earlier this summer, Strava began offering a weekly heatmap. It’s great for finding trails and routes that are popular at a given time—but it may reveal information that is more private than what you thought Strava users could see.
Using the weekly heatmap, I was able to browse the map, select a neighborhood that looked like it had one active runner, and find that person’s name and where they lived. To be clear, this person is a stranger to me, and I chose the neighborhood randomly; it took a matter of minutes to find this information. If you live in a big city, you may not have to worry about this, but if you’re in a rural or suburban area, you might want to check your privacy settings. More about those settings below, but first I want to explain what’s going on with the new map.
What is Strava’s weekly heatmap?
Strava offers a number of mapping tools that help you to find places to run or ride. Only paid subscribers can zoom down to street-level views.
As Strava explains here, the weekly heatmap is updated each week, combining data from activities (like runs and bike rides) whose visibility is set to “Everyone.” There has long been a global heatmap as well, but that only tells you what routes are popular in general. The weekly heatmap gives you a real-time view of where people are going now. For example, I could see using this in icy or muddy seasons to see which trails in the county park are still navigable despite the weather.
The problem is that if you browse to less-populated areas, like many rural and suburban areas, there’s a pretty serious privacy issue: if you’re the only person who has been running in your neighborhood lately, your tracks will be the only ones that show up on the weekly map. (On the global map, by contrast, they would blend in with everyone who runs those roads throughout the year.)
How the weekly heatmap can make your lonely running routes stand out
Here’s what I mean. Lately I’ve been running almost daily, and most of my runs occur in the neighborhood around my house. When I saw the weekly heatmap feature, I immediately zoomed in on a nearby park to check out popular trails. But when I panned back to the area where my house is, my own personal running routes stood out in cloudy blue lines.
This is very different from what the global heatmap shows. My running slightly darkens the lines on the global heatmap, but another person wouldn’t be able to pick out my personal running habit just from looking at them.
The weekly heatmap is another story, though. It looks like I and probably one other person share a favorite couple of roads in my neighborhood. Sometimes I run laps up and down a certain road; that road glows brighter than the rest.
Zooming out, I can see other neighborhoods where there’s pretty clearly one person with a favorite route. I can even toggle between the global heatmap and the weekly one, and make observations like “the person who runs [route A] has been running it a lot lately, but their neighbor who seems to start and end at [place B] hasn’t been active.” Do I know these people? Not at all. But I think I know at least one of their names.
Heatmaps + Local Legends may reveal more than you intended
The weekly heatmap gets particularly invasive when combined with another of Strava’s main social features: Segments. A segment is a bit of a route that has a title and a leaderboard. Say there’s a challenging hill in your area; maybe someone decided it deserved a leaderboard, so they create a segment named Neighborhood Hill that goes up that hill.
With Strava’s map tool, you can click on a segment and see who has the fastest time, and also who is the Local Legend—the person who has run it the most often in the past 90 days.
So, as an experiment, I panned around the map and picked a neighborhood far from mine with what looked like a route run frequently by one or at most a few people: a thin, cloudy blue line over just a few roads, without any activity on other nearby roads.
I then asked the map to show me segments in that same area, and sure enough the route included a named segment. I clicked the segment, and it turns out only three people have run that segment in the past 90 days. Two of them ran it once; the other has run it repeatedly.
That last person—the Local Legend—is likely to be the one who ran that blue cloudy route (or collection of routes) over the past week. I looked at the endpoints of that cloudy line, and figured there was a good chance that the LL (as I’ll call them) lives in one of the houses nearest one of those endpoints. To satisfy my curiosity, I looked at the county’s real estate records for houses on that street. And whaddaya know, one of the houses at the end of that cloudy blue line is owned by a person with the same first and last name as our Local Legend.
I wouldn’t have been able to get that kind of precision with just the global heatmap, or just the segments. I may have been able to guess that the LL lived nearby, but I wouldn’t have had any clue which road, much less which house, to look up. But the weekly heatmap led me right to their house.
How to remove your data from the weekly heatmap
Credit: Strava/Beth Skwarecki
If your account is completely locked down, with everything set to private, your data isn’t being used here. But if you have portions of your runs or rides visible to everyone—which is necessary if you want to compete on segments—your data is part of the weekly heatmap. Here are some ways to change that:
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Strava says that activities set to “only you” or “followers” are excluded from the map. However, these activities are not eligible for segment leaderboards. (You can read Strava’s explanation of the privacy settings here.)
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Strava also allows you to automatically hide the start and end points of your activities. This would let you run from your house to a nearby park, and the portion of the run in the park would be public while the portion near your house would not. Read here about how to set that up. Again, the private portion does not appear on the weekly heatmap and will not be eligible for segment leaderboards. Hiding start and end points will help to avoid the scenario above, where I was able to track down a person to a specific house. But it doesn’t change the fact that a stranger could figure out that you run a certain route often.
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Another partial solution is to change your name and profile picture so that they don’t contain any identifying information. This will also make it harder for your friends to recognize you on Strava, so not everybody will want to do that (the social activities are part of the point of Strava).
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Finally, there’s a setting that will remove your data from the global and weekly heatmaps. (It’s too bad they don’t have those as two separate settings.) Go to Settings, and then Privacy Controls, and scroll to Map Visibility. There is a checkbox labeled “Contribute your activity data to de-identified, aggregate data sets.” Uncheck that.
And, yes, Strava considers this information to be “de-identified” even though it is, in at least some cases, trivial to link it back to your name. Such is the nature of big data sets: they contain small, identifiable pieces, far more often than the people who collect the data may realize. The Census Bureau, for example, deliberately adds noise (variation) to data sets it releases publicly, as a form of “disclosure avoidance.” This is a known problem in large data sets, but so far Strava’s main method of avoiding disclosure is to ask users to change their privacy settings if they don’t want to be included. That’s not good enough, in my opinion, but at least now you know where to find those settings.