I heavily use the free version of Perplexity app on all my devices (mobile, laptop and pc). I don't know any alternatives to Perplexity if Apple would buy them and revamp the product.
M$ had all the means at their disposal to build such a tool but failed.
can only hope that if the buy happens, that they keep that 'free version' (aka not logged in mode) 1:1 as it is today, and competitive (or better) than others. otherwise i fear the big #RIP and soon we'll be using company level accounts to these LLMs.
i do fear a crappier outcome if they sell out
Apple took away DarkSky, no reason to think they wouldn't also do this to Perplexity.