This week in The Proper Weekly, the newsletter has had a lick of paint, why you should stop being polite to AI, the iPhone 17 Air leaks are looking incredible, and more!
The 'new' newsletter
I wanted to start this week by addressing a change that the more eagle-eyed among you may have already noticed; a slightly new look for the newsletter.
I’ve been writing this weekly newsletter since around the middle of 2022, and throughout that time, I’ve been using the same email marketing provider. But over the past six months or so, I’ve received a growing number of reports from readers about technical issues: emails disappearing into junk folders, formatting problems on certain devices, and a few other frustrating quirks.
Combined with a hefty monthly fee for the service, I decided it was time for a change. So moving forward, I’ll be sending the newsletter through the same platform that I use to host my online training courses.
In practical terms, this shouldn’t make any difference to you as a reader. But one added bonus is that newsletters will now also be published as posts on my website, so over time, you’ll be able to browse the archive at your leisure. I’ll include a link to that here, though bear in mind the archive essentially starts from today.
As always, thank you so much for reading and for supporting what I do. And if for any reason you’re receiving this in error, or if you just don’t want to receive it anymore, there’s an unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email. Feel free to click it, no hard feelings.
Siri is getting a Vision Pro style do-over
I mentioned in the newsletter a while ago that some internal changes were happening at Apple in an effort to rapidly improve the increasingly embarrassing state of the Siri voice assistant. The biggest of these changes was the repositioning of Mike Rockwell — formerly head of engineering for the Vision Pro headset — who has since taken up the role of head of engineering for Siri.
According to a report this week from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, it seems Rockwell hasn’t wasted any time making further shake-ups. Under his leadership, the existing Siri management team has reportedly been replaced with several of his trusted lieutenants from the Vision Pro software group. He’s already begun restructuring key teams related to speech, understanding, performance, and user experience, and has brought in top software engineering managers to try and turn Siri’s performance and usability around.
The changes come off the back of repeated project delays and internal engineering issues. And while some might argue it’s risky to lean heavily on a team best known for building a product that, commercially at least, hasn’t hit the mark, there’s no denying that the Vision Pro is technologically impressive — arguably the most advanced hardware and software Apple has released in years. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for Siri.
The big question now is whether this new team can move fast enough for Apple to showcase something meaningful at WWDC this year — or whether we’ll need to temper expectations and look ahead to either the iOS 19 cycle or even a WWDC unveiling next year, with a full release in iOS 20.
Enjoy tips videos, but struggle to remember it all?
You should check out my training portal, iPhone Essentials Plus!
It’s more than 100 lessons for the iPhone, covering every aspect of it, with each lesson containing a video, a step-by-step guide with screenshots, and a downloadable PDF.
Sound interesting? Check it out by clicking here, or tapping the image below.
The true cost of your P's and Q's
When I was a kid, my mum always told me that manners cost nothing — and while that might be true for most of us, it turns out that’s definitely not the case if you’re running the world’s biggest artificial intelligence company.
Earlier this week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman replied to a user on X (formerly Twitter) who asked how much electricity the company loses from people being polite to the chatbot — things like saying please at the end of a question or thank you after getting a helpful response. Altman’s reply? “Tens of millions of dollars well spent--you never know.”
Let’s be honest — Altman’s tone suggests that figure was more of a cheeky estimate than a line from the company ledger. But even if it’s anywhere near accurate, it shows that being polite to a chatbot has a real-world, tangible cost.
Also, "you never know". What does Altman know, that we don't?
Well, articles covering the story this week also referenced an interesting survey from last year, which found that 67% of Americans admitted to using polite language when talking to AI. Of those, 55% said they just felt it was the right thing to do, and 12% admitted they were doing it to appease the algorithm — just in case of a future robot uprising.
Consider me part of the 12%...
Could Perplexity's new AI assistant set the bar for Siri?
While Apple isn’t just playing catch-up with Siri but seemingly throwing everything out and starting again, it has given other companies a real opportunity to show what they’ve been working on. One of the more interesting examples this week is Perplexity’s new voice assistant for the iPhone.
Perplexity isn’t a new name to regular readers. I’ve mentioned it in the newsletter and featured it on the channel a fair few times over the past couple of years. It’s a tool I’ve liked for a while, although I’ll admit it’s not something I’ve used much recently. That might be about to change.
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At first glance, it looks like just another voice-based chatbot. Nothing new there. But in a short demo video, Perplexity showed off a few features that give a glimpse of what Siri should already be doing, or at least what Apple is aiming for in the near future.
The demo begins with a simple request. A user asks where to get good coffee in the West Village. Rather than listing a bunch of café names, the assistant offers a curated selection based on the query and talks the user through them conversationally. It’s a small touch, but it goes a long way.
Things get more interesting when the user asks to book a table. Perplexity can’t complete the booking itself, but it does open the correct restaurant in the OpenTable app with all the reservation details already filled in. All the user has to do is tap confirm. For most people, that’s probably the perfect balance of automation and control.
The video continues with a request to draft an email about the booking. Perplexity creates it directly in what looks like the iPhone’s native Mail app. It’s quick, clear and looks like the kind of workflow many people would actually use.
It’s worth remembering that because of how the Apple ecosystem works, Perplexity won’t be able to fully replace Siri. It simply doesn’t have the same level of access to system functions. But even with those limitations, the assistant feels surprisingly capable.
And with Siri still stuck in the slow lane, this puts real pressure on Apple to deliver something special when their own updated version eventually arrives. Whether that’s later this year or, more likely, sometime next year, remains to be seen.
Would you like PDFs to accompany my videos?
Since late 2022, I've been making accompanying PDFs to go alongside my YouTube tutorial videos, and as I write this, there's more than 125 in the library, covering the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, even Apple TV. Each PDF includes a step-by-step guide to go alongside the video, as well as screenshots. If you're interested, you can check them out for yourself here.
The iPhone 17 Air is looking ridiculous
Now, granted, there’s not a huge amount of story here beyond the headline itself, but it’s still worth talking about. Unbox Therapy, the hugely popular tech YouTube channel, has got his hands on what he claims are early dummy units of the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Air. And if these are even close to accurate, the iPhone 17 Air is going to be ridiculously thin.
The dummy phones featured in the video appear to show the device measuring around 5.5 millimetres thick, making it without a doubt the thinnest iPhone to date. Understandably, journalists are already raising the question of durability, especially considering Apple’s history with the iPhone 6 bendgate saga back in 2014. But I’d like to think they’ve done their homework this time around.
Personally, the idea of a super-slim iPhone hasn’t massively appealed to me in the past. I’ve always leaned more towards function over form. But seeing how this might look side-by-side with the Pro and Pro Max models definitely has me curious. Especially if the iPhone 17 Air ends up keeping most of the features that make the Pro phones so enjoyable to use.
If it strikes the right balance between design and capability, Apple could well have a smash hit on their hands this year.
Tip of the week
Did you know, that when you're using the calculator, it remembers your recent calculations? In fact, you can potentially scroll back months to find a previous result. When in the calculator, tap the History button in the top left corner. From here, simply long press on any result you want to copy. You can either copy the expression (2x2=4) or the result (4).
My new content
10 Tips for the iPhone
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Content I've enjoyed
A great review of Insta360's latest camera
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Check out the iPhone 17 Air
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That's all from me for another week, see you next Friday!
