Apple Makes Major Changes For Travelers

Profanity has existed since at least Elizabethan Times, if not longer. Shakespeare generally did not employ curse words (though he sometimes allowed for the occasional flatulence joke) his contemporary Ben Jonson did. (This is a family site, so we won’t cite any examples.)

Adults curse. Some of them curse a lot. Without curse words, it’s hard to imagine that, say, rap music, the plays of David Mamet and HBO as a cultural institution would have quite the same punch. Even though curse words have arguably lost their impact in the social media age and in a culture that has largely gotten more vulgar, there’s still a small thrill in using a word that you’re technically not supposed to utter, for fear of shocking your parents. 

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Of course, as with everything, the proper employment of curse words comes down to situational context. You wouldn’t curse at a children’s birthday party, of course. But a curse word between two friends who understand each other’s general vibe is generally considered a-ok….unless you are Apple  (APPL) . 

If you’ve ever sent a text message via your iPhone that makes (ahem) no ducking sense, you might be inclined to think that Apple’s autocorrect is a bit overzealous, and you’d have quite a bit of company in this regard. And one person who agrees with you is Apple software chief Craig Federigh.

Apple Autocorrect Update Coming

The latest Apple software update, iOS 17, will come with a lot of features. But the potty mouths of the world will be delighted to know that the new autocorrect update will stop slapping you on the knuckles with a ruler every time you want to express yourself. As Federigh noted in a video, “In those moments where you just wanna type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it too.”

Other tweaks to the autocorrect software include the ability to fix multiple mistakes in a sentence at a time, and to cancel suggested autocorrect edits more quickly. By directly tapping a proposed change, what a person originally typed will show up as an option they can keep and send out.

Multiple Errors Corrected at Once 

The software will be able to edit messages at the sentence level, meaning multiple errors can be fixed at a time. Users will also be able to cancel proposed changes more directly: by tapping a changed word, so what a person originally typed will appear as an option they can revert back to. (Intentional misspellings are a part of the modern parlance, after all.) 

The autocorrect software is based on ChatGPT technology, and the suggestions it offers will come from analyzing the words someone most frequently employs or speaks, as the update also applies to voice dictation.

Other updates to the software include the ability to transcribe audio messages and to jump directly to the first text in a lengthy thread. The exact date the software update will be available has not been announced.