June 11, 2024, 12:54 p.m.
“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen.”
The word you’re looking for is “sherlocked.”
Back in November 2001, a Macintosh developer named Dan Wood released an app called Watson, meant to be a companion of sorts to Sherlock, a search tool Apple was then shipping with Macs. (Get it — Sherlock and Watson?) Watson let you do a variety of frequent web searches — checking the weather or a stock price, finding recipes, or digging around Amazon — without the need to open a web browser. It cost $29 and it was pretty popular. Apple even gave it one of its prestigious Apple Design Awards for “Most Innovative Mac OS X Application.”
Fast-forward to July 2002, when Apple did its annual reveal of the new updates to its operating system. Among them was a new version of Sherlock — which seemed to include all the features in Watson. In a single on-stage announcement, Apple had eliminated the market for Watson, Dan Wood’s livelihood. All manner of hue and cry followed, but Apple didn’t pay it much mind. Watson sales dried up, and it wasn’t long before Wood was selling its IP and shutting it down.
And thus Watson was the first app to be “sherlocked,” meaning “to obsolete a unique feature in third-party software by introducing a similar or identical feature to the OS or a first-party program/app.”
Of course, Apple back then was not the behemoth it is today. The 2002 version of Apple was worth about $4 billion and had a measly 3% of the PC market; 2024 Apple is worth about $3 trillion and, depending on the day, the most valuable company in the world. So any sherlocking happens on a much bigger scale.
At its World Wide Developer Conference yesterday, Apple unveiled hundreds of new features big and small, but one — a single sentence, dropped an hour and 36 minutes into the presentation — caught the attention of both journalists and developers afraid of being sherlocked.
Recordings, transcriptions, and Apple Intelligence-powered summaries are also coming to the Phone app.
That’s right: You’ll soon be able to use your iPhone to record interviews over the phone. And after you hang up, your phone will transcribe those recordings for you. This is a process that used to take up, conservatively, 172% of journalists’ time and even today requires third-party apps, most of which require a subscription.
Personally, I’ve used TapeACall for the recording part, and it’s never failed me —but two months ago, new owners hiked its annual subscription price from $19 to $79.1 For the transcription piece, I’ve used Otter ($100 a year for more than occasional use) and MacWhisper (free for basic use, €30 one-time purchase for higher quality, but slowish). But if Apple’s going to do the job for free…they’re gonna get sherlocked.2
Of course, Apple’s version might be subpar in various ways. It won’t be officially released until iOS 18 in September at earliest, and since it uses Apple Intelligence, whose release date is a bit fuzzier, it could be longer than that. (There’s a beta version of iOS 18 out, but the call recording feature apparently isn’t in it.) The transcription, at least, will likely be limited to only the most recent and powerful iPhones. Apple will also announce “this call is being recorded” to both parties — something that’s a legal requirement in some states but maybe an annoyance in others. And a footnote on Apple’s site notes a few language and geographic limitations:
Transcription will be available in English (U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore), Spanish (U.S., Mexico, Spain), French (France), German (Germany), Japanese (Japan), Mandarin Chinese (China mainland, Taiwan), Cantonese (China mainland, Hong Kong), and Portuguese (Brazil).
Still, that didn’t stop journalists from celebrating the news.
It is impossible to overstate how much this will improve journalists' lives. https://t.co/pY9M1oa3MS pic.twitter.com/xf0HkIyL2v
— Peter Sterne (@petersterne) June 10, 2024
TapeACall found dead in a ditch: https://t.co/jMTzbLNCIY
— anne loreto cruz (@anne_loreto) June 10, 2024
High time. Raise your hand if TapeACall has failed to capture a major interview and you’ve been in the mortifying position of asking your subject to recreate the contents of a once-spontaneous interview. https://t.co/rUkgBuOCEn
— Jennifer Senior (@JenSeniorNY) June 10, 2024
that steep tapeacall price increase makes sense now. they know they're DOA and trying to score as much cash as possible now to hold on. https://t.co/Edsz8xEe8X
— kristina monllos (@kristinamonllos) June 10, 2024
Otter and TapeACall seeing this https://t.co/Khj7kaddGG pic.twitter.com/eR7tgVY4J5
— Kelsey Reichmann (@KelseyReichmann) June 10, 2024
lmao not on this stagnant media salary. canceled, thx for the mems, tapeacall https://t.co/9zPbPJvFPE
— kathryn lundstrom (@klundster) June 10, 2024
https://t.co/IXcbfzM2Ot pic.twitter.com/OQ5r1nwLM9
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) June 10, 2024
Ever since Otter Pro limited the amount of transcriptions it can do per month to just 10 (for something that costs $120 a year!!), I've been looking for an off-ramp https://t.co/TTeu5FF8MW
— josh terry (@JoshhTerry) June 10, 2024
That sound was everyone cancelling their Otter and Tape A Call plans at once. https://t.co/pTsD1fg4DM
— Rainesford Stauffer (@Rainesford) June 10, 2024
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT FOR SO LONG https://t.co/uL7kCBq9Uy
— Rebecca Fishbein (@bfishbfish) June 10, 2024
GOODBYE OTTER AI AND YOUR DUMB SUMMARIES https://t.co/2o3eijVNtP
— Ursula Perano (@UrsulaPerano) June 10, 2024
There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happens https://t.co/fd6G6OZPnI
— Joseph Zeballos-Roig (@josephzeballos) June 10, 2024
PR people take note, Apple has just found a world-historical way to build good-will among journalists. https://t.co/vwlr7UWlKb
— Jack Herrera (@jherrerx) June 10, 2024
Well, Rev, we had a good run together. I’ll always defend you over Otter anytime https://t.co/A1Ga8URRdV
— Jake Lahut (@JakeLahut) June 10, 2024
CHRISTMAS COMIN’ EARLY THIS YEAR https://t.co/m7uVg7r97T
— Rosalind Adams (@RosalindZAdams) June 10, 2024
Can’t wait to tell Tape A Call to go stick it https://t.co/wqTEacDB22
— Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) June 10, 2024
a world in which i no longer check otter and realize despairingly that it wasn't recording the entire time? do i dare dream? https://t.co/a1hbwMo62Q
— Claire Hao (@clairehao_) June 10, 2024
Otter ceo punching the air right now https://t.co/a29ofVxM3c
— Arit John (@aritbenie) June 10, 2024
Illustrated generated via Midjourney.
- The scale of the price increase varied; some, like me, had been grandfathered into a lower price, and some reported a $69 new price. [↩]
- Android users are free to brag about how their devices could do this a long time ago, but Google banned most call-recording apps in 2022 and the ability to record is highly variable depending on your location and device maker. [↩]
Joshua Benton is the senior writer and former director of Nieman Lab. You can reach him via email (joshua_benton@harvard.edu) or Twitter DM (@jbenton).
