Apple releases new Journal app as part of its latest iPhone update. Here’s what it’s like

Published

1 year ago

December 11, 2023

admin

Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers the keynote address during the 2020 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, June 22, 2020.

Brooks Kraft | Apple, Inc. | via Reuters

Apple released an AI-powered journal app for iPhones on Monday as part of its iOS 17.2 update.

The Journal app, which was first announced back in June, uses Apple’s Siri to intelligently suggest topics to journal about. It might, for example, prompt you to write about music you were listening to, or document appointments you had that day and workouts you completed.

The Journal app is one example of how Apple continues to invest in new iPhone features on a yearly basis to protect its iPhone franchise from competition from Google’s Android and other phone makers.

The iPhone is still the most important product Apple makes, accounting for $205 billion in sales in its fiscal 2023, or about 52% of the company’s overall sales. The more that Apple adds features that are used on a daily basis — like its credit card, or its app store, or its iMessage service — the harder it is for most users to switch to a competing phone brand or operating system.

The Journal app also highlights Apple’s approach to AI. Apple’s artificial intelligence software, like what’s powering the Journal app, runs on the device itself, not on a server in the cloud, which has privacy advantages over Google’s and Microsoft’s internet-based approach, especially for sensitive information like health data or travel plans. Apple also doesn’t highlight AI as a key feature in its marketing — it prefers the more academic phrase “machine learning.”

How the Journal app works

Apple’s new Journal app uses machine learning to detect important events users might want to write about.

Screenshot/CNBC

Apple’s Journal app is simple. I’ve been testing it on a beta version of iOS for a month. When you open the app up — you can lock its contents with Apple’s FaceID — you’re brought to a screen with a list of your entries and a single “+” button.

Pressing the plus button lets you start a new entry. At first, it looks like a standard text entry box, like in Apple’s Notes. You can type in some thoughts, add a photo, photos you’ve taken, an audio recording, or drop in a Apple Maps location of where you’ve been. The app automatically timestamps the post.

After you’ve added several entries, the front page of the app fills up with your previous entries and you can browse and edit old posts. You can filter your old entries by those that include a photo, or an activity, or those that are tagged with a certain place. Journal entries aren’t published anywhere, just stored inside your individual Journal app.

Where the machine learning magic appears is under the magic wand icon, or the “moments menu.” When you tap the magic wand icon, it suggests things to write about based on what it knows from your phone, such as the music you were listening to or where you were.

For example, when I pressed the moments tab on Monday, it suggested I write about a recent vacation — bringing up a map of where I was, hikes I did while I was on the trip, music I listened to, and photos I took when I was there. For one entry, I simply recorded an audio file of the waves crashing, so I could return to the moment later. (However, it didn’t realize that I had already fully documented that vacation inside the Journal app.)

The Journal app’s push notifications can also prompt the user. It often sends a push notification when it detects that you’ve done an activity that you might want to reflect on. For example, I recently had to rush to catch a ferry. My watch noted a walking workout, and I was listening to music at the time. Journaling workouts could be very useful for people who are training for marathons or other athletic achievements.

The Journal app also sent me notifications asking whether I wanted to write about the experience. Some days, notifications sent by the app simply asks you to reflect on your day. Apple also includes several prompts designed to spur reflection: “Make an audio recording of your surroundings. Write about what you notice.”

The app can also be social, suggesting to journal about activities with others when it detects contacts nearby.

Apple’s Journal app is basic right now. Nothing it does besides suggestions couldn’t be done in an old-fashioned paper journal, or even a page inside Apple’s Notes app. But the suggestions and integration with Apple’s other services set it apart from more low-tech approaches, and highlight how Apple’s integration of hardware and software means that it can learn what’s important in your life without collecting your data on its servers.

Apple is even making its machine learning model that guesses what might be important to the user available to other apps through a programming interface, meaning that other apps could benefit from Apple’s AI.

Apple needs to continue to improve the Journal app in order to find a place in most people’s everyday routines. It would be better if it could automatically fill out more of an entry, especially ones based on photos or other activities. For now, there’s no export function, which would enable the Journal app to become a more useful place to collect thoughts and ideas that could one day be published.

How to get the Journal app on your iPhone.

The journal app is available in iOS 17.2, which can be downloaded on modern iPhones now. Here’s how to get it:

Open Settings.
Tap General
Choose Software Update.

You may notice some other new features in iOS 17.2. The update also includes the ability to change the default alert sound, sticker reactions in iMessage, and a machine learning feature that blurs photos and other content sent to you that may include nudity.

Technology

Trump aims to cut $6 billion from NASA budget, shifting $1 billion to Mars-focused missions

Published

2 days ago

May 2, 2025

admin

Trump aims to cut billion from NASA budget, shifting billion to Mars-focused missions

The Trump administration has floated a plan to trim about $6 billion from the budget of NASA, while allocating $1 billion of remaining funds to Mars-focused initiatives, aligning with an ambition long held by Elon Musk and his rocket maker SpaceX.

A copy of the discretionary budget posted to the NASA website on Friday said that the change focuses NASA’s funding on “beating China back to the Moon and on putting the first human on Mars.”

NASA also said it will need to “streamline” its workforce, information technology services, NASA Center operations, facility maintenance, and construction and environmental compliance activities, and terminate multiple “unaffordable” missions, while reducing scientific missions for the sake of “fiscal responsibility.”

Janet Petro, NASA’s acting administrator, said in an agency-wide email on Friday that the proposed lean budget, which would cut about 25% of the space agency’s funding, “reflects the administration’s support for our mission and sets the stage for our next great achievements.”

Petro urged NASA employees to “persevere, stay resilient, and lean into the discipline it takes to do things that have never been done before — especially in a constrained environment,” according to the memo, which was obtained by CNBC. She acknowledged the budget would “require tough choices,” and that some of NASA’s “activities will wind down.”

The document on NASA’s website said it’s allocating more than $7 billion for moon exploration and “introducing $1 billion in new investments for Mars-focused programs.”

SpaceX, which is already among the largest NASA and Department of Defense contractors, has long sought to launch a manned mission to Mars. The company says on its website that its massive Starship rocket is designed to “carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”

Musk, who is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration, leading an effort to slash the size, spending and capacity of the federal government, and influencing regulatory changes through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk, who frequently makes aggressive and incorrect projections for his companies, said in 2020 that he was “highly confident” that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026.

Petro highlighted in her memo that under the discretionary budget, NASA would retire the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, the Orion spacecraft and Gateway programs.

It would also put an end to its green aviation spending and to its Mars Sample Return (MSR) Program, which sought to use rockets and robotic systems to “collect and send samples of Martian rocks, soils and atmosphere back to Earth for detailed chemical and physical analysis,” according to a website for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Some of the biggest reductions at NASA, should the budget get approved, would hit the space agency’s space science, Earth science and mission support divisions.

Petro didn’t name any specific aerospace and defense contractors in her agency-wide email. However SpaceX, ULA and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are positioned to continue to conduct launches in the absence of the SLS. Boeing is currently the prime contractor leading the SLS program.

“This is far from the first time NASA has been asked to adapt, and your ability to deliver, even under pressure, is what sets NASA apart,” she wrote.

President Trump’s nominee to lead NASA, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, still has to be approved by the U.S. Senate. His nomination was advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

WATCH: CNBC’s interview with NASA’s astronauts on their nine months in space

Technology

Temu halts shipping direct from China as de minimis tariff loophole is cut off

Published

2 days ago

May 2, 2025

admin

Temu halts shipping direct from China as de minimis tariff loophole is cut off

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Chinese bargain retailer Temu changed its business model in the U.S. as the Trump administration’s new rules on low-value shipments took effect Friday.

In recent days, Temu has abruptly shifted its website and app to only display listings for products shipped from U.S.-based warehouses. Items shipped directly from China, which previously blanketed the site, are now labeled as out of stock.

Temu made a name for itself in the U.S. as a destination for ultra-discounted items shipped direct from China, such as $5 sneakers and $1.50 garlic presses. It’s been able to keep prices low because of the so-called de minimis rule, which has allowed items worth $800 or less to enter the country duty-free since 2016.

The loophole expired Friday at 12:01 a.m. EDT as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in April. Trump briefly suspended the de minimis rule in February before reinstating the provision days later as customs officials struggled to process and collect tariffs on a mountain of low-value packages.

Jeff Bezos discloses plan to sell up to $4.8 billion in Amazon stock

Published

2 days ago

May 2, 2025

admin

Jeff Bezos discloses plan to sell up to .8 billion in Amazon stock

Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, takes the stage during The New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit, at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, Dec. 4, 2024.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to sell up to 25 million shares in the company over the next year, according to a financial filing on Friday.

Bezos, who stepped down as CEO in 2021 but remains Amazon’s top shareholder, is selling the shares as part of a trading plan adopted on March 4, the filing states. The stake would be worth about $4.8 billion at the current price.

The disclosure follows Amazon’s first-quarter earnings report late Thursday. While profit and revenue topped estimates, the company’s forecast for operating income in the current quarter came in below Wall Street’s expectations.

The results show that Amazon is bracing for uncertainty related to President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs. The company landed in the crosshairs of the White House this week over a report that Amazon planned to show shoppers the cost of the tariffs. Trump personally called Bezos to complain, and Amazon clarified that no such change was coming.

Bezos previously offloaded about $13.5 billion worth of Amazon shares last year, marking his first sale of company stock since 2021.

Since handing over the Amazon CEO role to Andy Jassy, Bezos has spent more of his time on his space exploration company, Blue Origin, and his $10 billion climate and biodiversity fund. He’s used Amazon share sales to help fund Blue Origin, as well as the Day One Fund, which he launched in September 2018 to provide education in low-income communities and combat homelessness.

WATCH: Amazon has levers to pull with tariffs