Early April 2025 Items of Note
Lumon Terminal Pro
I haven’t yet watched Severance on Apple TV, but apparently this “product” was based on the television series. You can read all about it here: https://www.famouscampaigns.com/2025/03/apple-introduces-new-product-lumon-terminal-pro/
It was “available” on Apple’s website on April 1. Then vanished.
Severance is on my list of things to watch, but my list is not short, and I keep getting distracted by books.
Apple Security and Feature Updates
Apple introduced operating system updates to virtually everything they are currently selling, plus a few older operating systems. As I mentioned at the last meeting, you are strongly encouraged to update your Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, etc., to the most current operating system it can use, as updates fix critical security issues, add features, and are — free.
- macOS Sequoia 15.4 (About) (Security content)
- macOS Sonoma 14.7.5 (About) (Security content)
- macOS Ventura 13.7.5 (About) (Security content)
- Safari 18.4 for Sonoma and Ventura (About) (Security content)
- iOS 18.4 (About) (Security content)
- iOS 16.7.11 (About) (Security Content)
- iOS 15.8.4 (About) (Security Content)
- iPadOS 18.4 (About) (Security content)
- iPadOS 17.7.6 (About) (Security content)
- iPadOS 16.7.11 (About) (Security content)
- iPadOS 15.8.4 (About) (Security content)
- tvOS 18.4 (About) (Security content)
- watchOS 11.4 (About) (Security content)
- visionOS 2.4 (About) (Security content)
- HomePod 18.4 (About)
Apple Worldwide Developer Conference 2025 (WWDC25)
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference is the largest and most elaborate presentation of their hardware and software each year. As the name suggests, it is aimed at hardware and software developers of Apple’s products, but the Keynote Address on the first day, June 9, 2025, also offers a preview of Apple’s forthcoming technology, and frequently new product introductions. The Keynote is usually far less technical and far more consumer-friendly than the technical sessions that dominate the conference.
In the past, hundreds of thousands of developers competed for a seat at the conference, but since the pandemic, Apple has streamed the conference sessions live, for free, as well as recorded certain parts (such as the Keynote) to be viewed on demand. You can see the Keynote live using a web browser, or over Apple TV, or view it on demand later. More details: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/03/apples-worldwide-developers-conference-returns-the-week-of-june-9/
New Emoji
Your Apple devices can display hundreds of emoji, and after the latest operating system updates, they can now display eight more:
Shovel (useful in many conversational contexts)
Root vegetable (looks like a radish to me):
Sark (flag of Sark, a tiny British territory):
Splatter (again, useful in many conversational contexts):
Face with bags under eyes (that is the official name for this):
Harp (it is specifically an Irish harp):
Leafless tree:
Fingerprint (great way to illustrate Touch ID):
As we discussed at our March 2025 meeting, the easiest way to find these emoji is with the Emoji Viewer; type “sark” to find the Sark flag, “fingerprint” to find the fingerprint, etc. Example:
I was after hiking 🇨🇶 to see the even after for my lunch and eating my because I was by a bird while listening to someone play a but I was a good tourist and left only .