The “Sherlock”: what is this bad practice that Apple is regularly criticized for ?

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Apple Intelligence, the series of new features based on generative AI that the firm will deploy starting this fall, more or less stole the show from the other new features announced at the WWDC conference. However, Apple presented quite a few interesting new features for its products, in addition to new AI features. And among these, there is the new Passwords application which will be available on macOS Sequoia.

Apple already made it possible to synchronize passwords and access keys on its various products. But thanks to the new application, it will be easier to access and manage sensitive information. In any case, for many media, Apple has just made a “Sherlock” to third-party password management applications available on its platform, such as 1Password, LastPass, etc.

Sherlock is a practice that is regularly criticized against Apple, when it decides to integrate a feature into its platform that was accessible to users via third-party products. For example, in an article, the XDA site explains that Apple also made a Sherlock to the Camo application, which allows you to use the camera of an iPhone as a webcam on Mac, when the firm launched the Continuity Camera feature (which offers exactly the same functionality).

But where does this term come from ?

You’re probably wondering where this term comes from that the media uses when Apple makes a third-party app useless by offering the same features on its platform. Sherlock is the name of a search application that Apple offered on Mac OS X. In 2022, the company introduced the Mac OS X 10.2 “Jaguar” version. And this update for Macs also includes a new version of the search tool: Sherlock 3. The company described this version as “Apple’s all-new Internet services tool that shows a personalized view of the information users access most, such as stock prices, maps, and restaurants.”

The problem is that the new Sherlock looked a little too much like a utility called Watson, which was offered by the company Karelia. Since then, this incident has been regularly recalled by the press, when Apple launches a new version of macOS and this new version includes new features that can make third-party applications useless.

• Many media consider that with the launch of macOS Sequoia, which includes the new Passwords application, Apple is making a “Sherlock” to password management apps like 1Password
• This term is regularly used by the press, following the launch of Sherlock 3 for Mac OS included functionality similar to a Mac utility called Watson

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