Eric Slivka:
Apple has essentially discontinued Clips, its video-editing app designed to allow users to combine video clips, images, and photos with voice-based titles, music, filters, and graphics to create enhanced videos that can be shared on social media sites.
The app has been removed from the App Store, and a support document on Apple’s site says that the app is no longer being updated and would no longer be available for download for new users as of yesterday.
Deeje Cooley:
I never understood who Clips was for.
Joe Rosensteel:
I would like someone at Apple to explain how the company that has the best smartphone video recording experience can’t make any good video editing apps for smartphones.
Alex Gollner:
The effects, transitions and even transcribing titles in Clips were made in Motion.
Apple didn’t enable third-party toolmaking for Clips.
Benjamin Mayo:
speaking of Apple video editors, iMovie hasn’t received new features for like three years …
Nick Heer:
Before it was pulled offline, it was most recently updated in May 2024.
I am truly curious about the likely lifespan of a few recent Apple apps. How much longer will Invites last? Sports seems like it could be around for longer, but I am a little worried about Classical, which still does not have a Mac app.
Steven Aquino:
I remember covering Clips at the time of its introduction because, as ever, there were accessibility ties. To wit, Apple was boastful of the fact the app could generate real-time captions for its short-form videos; the captions were useful, of course, to Deaf and hard-of-hearing people so as to make dialogue more accessible and inclusive. Back then, I remember thinking how inspired it was given TikTok and Instagram Reels had yet to pervade the mainstream consciousness. Nowadays, the vast majority of these videos I see all have live captions enabled by default, and it’s heartening to notice the change as a lifelong disabled person who, coincidentally, has a level of congenital hearing loss.
Previously:
Clips iOS iOS 26 iOS App Sunset Video
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (via Hacker News):
NSO spokesperson Oded Hershowitz told TechCrunch on Friday that “an American investment group has invested tens of millions of dollars in the company and has acquired controlling ownership.”
Confirmation of the deal came soon after Israeli tech news website Calcalist reported Friday that a group led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds agreed to purchase the surveillance tech maker in a deal valued in the tens of millions of dollars.
[…]
NSO has long claimed that its spyware is designed to not target U.S. phone numbers, likely to avoid hurting its chances to enter the U.S. market. But the company was caught in 2021 targeting about a dozen U.S. government officials abroad.
Soon after, the U.S. Commerce Department banned American companies from trading with NSO by putting the spyware maker on the U.S. Entities List.
Previously:
Acquisition Business iOS NSO Group Security
Juli Clover:
Google today said that Gemini AI is being integrated into the Chrome browser for the Mac and PC. Chrome users in the U.S. will get the functionality first, with Gemini able to clarify complex information on any webpage.
There will be a small Gemini symbol in the upper right side of the browser that will offer options like learn about the page or explore a topic when clicked. By default, the Ask Gemini interface will answer questions about the tab that you have open.
There’s also a big AI Mode button in the address bar to initiate searches.
Tim Hardwick:
Opera today launched its subscription-based, AI-focused Neon browser, which joins a growing field of companies touting agentic browsing capabilities.
[…]
Available to early access users at $19.99 per month, Neon aims to go beyond traditional browsing by using AI to execute tasks directly within the browser. Neon can open and close tabs, compare information across multiple sources, and even complete transactions on a user’s behalf.
Central to Neon’s design is the Tasks feature, which creates self-contained workspaces for different projects. Each Task functions like a mini-browser with its own context, allowing the AI to act across multiple sources without accessing information from other parts of the browser.
Tim Hardwick:
The Browser Company’s Dia app is now open to anyone on Mac. It’s the first time the AI-powered browser has been widely available since its beta launch in June.
Dia is another AI-first browsing experience that’s centered around tab-based chat functionality. The browser includes Skills, which are a mix of user-created and built-in shortcuts for everyday tasks like planning, learning, writing, and coding. Current Skills include summarization, fact-checking, browsing history analysis, outlining, and productivity planning.
Previously:
Artificial Intelligence Dia Browser Google Chrome Google Gemini/Bard Mac Mac App macOS Tahoe 26 Neon Browser Web Browser
Kaushik Gopal (via Hacker News):
You have a drawer full of USB cables. Half are junk that barely charge your phone. The other half transfer data at full speed. But which is which?
[…]
The script parses macOS’s system_profiler SPUSBHostDataType command, which produces a dense, hard-to-scan raw output[…]
[…]
The first version was a bash script I cobbled together with AI. It worked, but was a mess to maintain. Because I let AI take the wheel, even minor tweaks like changing output colors were difficult.
But then he asked Claude to rewrite it to be easier to maintain.
That’s the real story. Not the script, but how AI changes the calculus of what’s worth our time.
Previously:
Artificial Intelligence Cable Claude Mac macOS Tahoe 26 Open Source USB USB-C
