The first bits of Apple Intelligence are starting to show up on people’s phones. The features in iOS 18.1 are fairly basic: summarizing messages, writing emails, that kind of thing. Apple is already letting developers play with iOS 18.2, though, which looks like a much more substantial update. Meanwhile, the company is about to launch a bunch of new M4-powered and AI-focused Macs, and launched the iPad Mini this week. It’s a lot happening all at once, and it’s a lot to make sense of.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we try and make sense of it. The Verge’s Richard Lawler joins us as we talk through the small changes in 18.1 and the much bigger changes in 18.2, debate whether Tim Cook can really use every Apple product every day, and wonder what might be coming from Apple’s week of Mac announcements.

After that, we get into the other news in the world of AI. Anthropic built a model that can use your computer for you, which is both cool and horrifying and is also the main goal of practically every company in AI. Humane made its AI Pin cheaper, is working on licensing its operating system to other companies, and has some big questions to ask. Perplexity is under fire for copyright reasons. Watermarking AI images still doesn’t work. It’s all a lot.

Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about the Boox Palma 2, T-Mobile changing the “lifetime” deal it made with older subscribers, and the silly fight against the FTC’s new click to cancel rule. Please, don’t make us make phone calls.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Apple AI:

• Apple iPad Mini 2024 review: missing pieces
• iOS 18.2 will let everyone set new default phone and messaging apps
• Apple’s first iOS 18.2 beta adds more AI features and ChatGPT integration
• Where are the iPhone’s WebKit-less browsers?
• Apple teases ‘week’ of Mac announcements starting Monday
• Apple is preparing an M4 MacBook Air update for early next year
• Tim Cook says he usese every Apple product every day — how does that work?
• From The Wall Street Journal: Tim Cook on Why Apple’s Huge Bets Will Pay Off

And in other AI news:

• Anthropic’s latest AI update can use a computer on its own
• Humane slashes the price of its AI Pin after weak sales
• Apple is ‘concerned’ about AI turning real photos into ‘fantasy’
• Google Photos will soon show you if an image was edited with AI
• News Corp sues Perplexity for ripping off WSJ and New York Post
• Character.AI and Google sued after chatbot-obsessed teen’s death
• Kevin Bacon, Kate McKinnon, and other creatives warn of ‘unjust’ AI threat
• Google open-sourced its watermarking tool for AI-generated text

And in the lightning round:

• David Pierce’s pick: The Boox Palma 2 has a faster processor and adds a fingerprint reader
• Richard Lawler’s pick: Seniors are PISSED that T-Mobile won’t honor its “lifetime” price guarantee.
• Nilay Patel’s pick: Guess who’s suing the FTC to stop ‘click to cancel’