Apple held its annual developer conference on Monday, announcing new software upgrades for all of its devices.
IOS, which is the operating system that runs Your iPhonehas received its biggest upgrade ever.
Apple has added some newness to it artificial intelligenceThis means it’s now more capable and feature-rich. iOS 18 is more customizable than ever, letting you change your home screen and more.
Apple has also announced macOS 15, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, etc.
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New software upgrade on all Apple devices (Apple)
iOS 18: What’s new in the latest software
Apple has officially announced iOS 18. While this software won’t be released to the general public until September, it has some features every iPhone user should be aware of.
The update includes new home screen customization, which gives you theming options for app icons. You can now place app icons anywhere and automatically color the icons with dark mode. You can also swap out the new controls on the lock screen, changing the flashlight and camera icons.
The list of new iOS 18 features is long, but Apple’s new features for iMessage and texting, in general, are worth noting. The app now lets you reply to messages with any emoji or sticker in addition to the old tapback. You can also schedule texts, add effects, and format them with underlining, strikethrough, and more. Plus, iPhone 14 and 15 users can send messages via satellite even without Wi-Fi or cell service. iOS 18 will also include RCS, reminder integration in Calendar, the option to make your home screen icons larger, and more.
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‘Apple Intelligence’: All about Apple’s AI efforts
Apple has been struggling to maintain its dominance in the smartphone market, losing market share to companies like Samsung and facing serious challenges in key markets like China. However, the company’s latest AI capabilities, collectively called Apple Intelligence, could help it overcome these issues.
Apple Intelligence is a “personal intelligence” system that puts generative AI at the heart of the Apple device ecosystem. However, it only works with the latest and greatest Apple devices. To use Apple Intelligence on an iPhone, you need an iPhone 15 Pro or later. On iPads and Macs, you need at least an M1 chip.
Apple Intelligence has introduced solid improvements to the virtual assistant Siri on iPhone and iPad. The new Siri is supercharged with AI, and it understands context, so you don’t have to repeat information. Apple says, “Siri will be able to discover and understand things she never could before.” This is good news for those who have noticed that both Alexa and Google Assistant have outpaced Siri’s abilities for some time.
Siri will have on-screen information about what you’re currently looking at and will have the ability to take in-app actions. For example, if you’re filling out a form asking for your driver’s license number, Siri will be able to automatically find a picture of your driver’s license and pull up the corresponding number to fill in the field on your behalf. The Cupertino, California-based company has also teamed up with OpenAI to let you use ChatGPT within Siri.
Apple Intelligence also brings some new features, such as Writing Tools, which help you rewrite, proofread, and summarize text, and Image Playground, which lets you create images with unique styles like sketches, illustrations, and animations in apps like Messages and Notes.
However, these features also encourage you to alter reality and create fake images, rewrite your words, and read selected summaries of the message you’ve sent rather than the full message.
For example, Apple showed how you can create fake AI images of people in your photos and contacts, such as a birthday photo with a fake version of your friend surrounded by balloons.
Apple CEO Tim Cook calls Apple Intelligence “profound new intelligence capabilities.” I call Apple Intelligence with ChatGPT a leap forward with important privacy and security questions. It may be more private than other services, but it is now encouraging less private activity with your personal data.
Apple Intelligence (Apple)
macOS 15: Mac software upgraded
Along with iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, Apple has also made macOS 15 official. The new software is named after a Californian landmark: Sequoia. This continues Apple’s tradition, as previous versions were also named after Californian locations.
The new OS makes it even easier to connect your Mac and iPhone. Now, you can not only mirror your iPhone screen to your Mac, but also control your iPhone directly from your Mac. You can also drag and drop between macOS apps and the iPhone screen.
Apple has also added a standalone Passwords app in macOS 15 Sequoia, so you can manage your passwords without the need for a third-party app. Safari is now smarter, using AI to automatically highlight useful information like map directions or videos on a web page. macOS 15 also gets Apple Intelligence AI features. It can generate text in apps and help you create images.
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Everything else Apple announces at WWDC 2024
Apple’s WWDC 2024 was packed with new announcements. While I’ve detailed the major things above, here’s everything else the company announced.
1. iPadOS 18: It shares many home screen and Control Center configurations with iOS 18. The iPad operating system has also received several improvements to the way iPad apps work, including a new Calculator app, which was previously missing. In the Notes app, Apple Pencil now offers more powerful handwriting capabilities with the Smart Script feature. If you’re not a fan of your handwriting, you can use this feature to improve its appearance.
2. watchOS 11: This is the latest operating system for the Apple Watch. It offers interactive widgets that provide convenient actions and new watch faces and automatically presents the best photos to “surprise and delight” you, according to Apple’s marketing spin.
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3. tvOS 18: Apple TV has been upgraded with tvOS 18, adding a new Insights section that includes additional information such as actor names and music titles. Apple has also added support for 21:9 formatting for watching widescreen movies.
4. VisionOS 2: Apple also unveiled VisionOS 2, the first major upgrade to its software running Apple Vision Pro. VisionOS 2 improves the Photos app with Spatial Photos and Spatial Personalities for viewing shared photos. It also adds new hand motion commands for easier navigation, such as tapping to access the home screen and twisting the wrist to see the battery level.
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Kurt’s main points
Apple has made significant changes to its software platform to help users get more out of their Apple devices. However, new AI features being locked to newer devices forces consumers to spend more money to buy the latest devices. Apple’s new AI coming to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 has some amazingly powerful tools for putting the information that comes and goes in our lives into a more easily usable context. These tools can also be easily abused to spread misinformation and create simulated realities. I applaud the progress and innovation. At the same time, I’m asking some big questions about this leap in AI.
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What happens when AI is turned to summarizing a story other than your own? What are we losing by allowing AI to think for us, to tell us what we should think about emails, documents, poems, and love letters?
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