ios 18

apple-intelligence-and-other-features-won’t-launch-in-the-eu-this-year

Apple Intelligence and other features won’t launch in the EU this year

AI, Apple, apple intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, dma, EU, European Commission, European Union, gaming, generative ai, ios 18, macos sequoia, privacy, Tech / /

DMA —

iPhone Mirroring and SharePlay screen sharing will also skip the EU for now.

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A photo of a hand holding an iPhone running the Image Playground experience in iOS 18

Enlarge / Features like Image Playground won’t arrive in Europe at the same time as other regions.

Apple

Three major features in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia will not be available to European users this fall, Apple says. They include iPhone screen mirroring on the Mac, SharePlay screen sharing, and the entire Apple Intelligence suite of generative AI features.

In a statement sent to Financial Times, The Verge, and others, Apple says this decision is related to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Here’s the full statement, which was attributed to Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz:

Two weeks ago, Apple unveiled hundreds of new features that we are excited to bring to our users around the world. We are highly motivated to make these technologies accessible to all users. However, due to the regulatory uncertainties brought about by the Digital Markets Act (DMA), we do not believe that we will be able to roll out three of these features — iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence — to our EU users this year.

Specifically, we are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security. We are committed to collaborating with the European Commission in an attempt to find a solution that would enable us to deliver these features to our EU customers without compromising their safety.

It is unclear from Apple’s statement precisely which aspects of the DMA may have led to this decision. It could be that Apple is concerned that it would be required to give competitors like Microsoft or Google access to user data collected for Apple Intelligence features and beyond, but we’re not sure.

This is not the first recent and major divergence between functionality and features for Apple devices in the EU versus other regions. Because of EU regulations, Apple opened up iOS to third-party app stores in Europe, but not in other regions. However, critics argued its compliance with that requirement was lukewarm at best, as it came with a set of restrictions and changes to how app developers could monetize their apps on the platform should they use those other storefronts.

While Apple says in the statement it’s open to finding a solution, no timeline is given. All we know is that the features won’t be available on devices in the EU this year. They’re expected to launch in other regions in the fall.

Apple Intelligence and other features won’t launch in the EU this year Read More »

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Report: Apple isn’t paying OpenAI for ChatGPT integration into OSes

AI, AI assitants, Apple, apple intelligence, Biz & IT, chatgpt, chatgtp, GPT-4, iOS, ios 18, iPadOS, iPadOS 18, IPhone, large language models, machine learning, macOS, macos sequoia, openai, sam altman / /

in the pocket —

Apple thinks pushing OpenAI’s brand to hundreds of millions is worth more than money.

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The OpenAI and Apple logos together.

OpenAI / Apple / Benj Edwards

On Monday, Apple announced it would be integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI assistant into upcoming versions of its iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems. It paves the way for future third-party AI model integrations, but given Google’s multi-billion-dollar deal with Apple for preferential web search, the OpenAI announcement inspired speculation about who is paying whom. According to a Bloomberg report published Wednesday, Apple considers ChatGPT’s placement on its devices as compensation enough.

“Apple isn’t paying OpenAI as part of the partnership,” writes Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, citing people familiar with the matter who wish to remain anonymous. “Instead, Apple believes pushing OpenAI’s brand and technology to hundreds of millions of its devices is of equal or greater value than monetary payments.”

The Bloomberg report states that neither company expects the agreement to generate meaningful revenue in the short term, and in fact, the partnership could burn extra money for OpenAI, because it pays Microsoft to host ChatGPT’s capabilities on its Azure cloud. However, OpenAI could benefit by converting free users to paid subscriptions, and Apple potentially benefits by providing easy, built-in access to ChatGPT during a time when its own in-house LLMs are still catching up.

And there’s another angle at play. Currently, OpenAI offers subscriptions (ChatGPT Plus, Enterprise, Team) that unlock additional features. If users subscribe to OpenAI through the ChatGPT app on an Apple device, the process will reportedly use Apple’s payment platform, which may give Apple a significant cut of the revenue. According to the report, Apple hopes to negotiate additional revenue-sharing deals with AI vendors in the future.

Why OpenAI

The rise of ChatGPT in the public eye over the past 18 months has made OpenAI a power player in the tech industry, allowing it to strike deals with publishers for AI training content—and ensure continued support from Microsoft in the form of investments that trade vital funding and compute for access to OpenAI’s large language model (LLM) technology like GPT-4.

Still, Apple’s choice of ChatGPT as Apple’s first external AI integration has led to widespread misunderstanding, especially since Apple buried the lede about its own in-house LLM technology that powers its new “Apple Intelligence” platform.

On Apple’s part, CEO Tim Cook told The Washington Post that it chose OpenAI as its first third-party AI partner because he thinks the company controls the leading LLM technology at the moment: “I think they’re a pioneer in the area, and today they have the best model,” he said. “We’re integrating with other people as well. But they’re first, and I think today it’s because they’re best.”

Apple’s choice also brings risk. OpenAI’s record isn’t spotless, racking up a string of public controversies over the past month that include an accusation from actress Scarlett Johansson that the company intentionally imitated her voice, resignations from a key scientist and safety personnel, the revelation of a restrictive NDA for ex-employees that prevented public criticism, and accusations against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of “psychological abuse” related by a former member of the OpenAI board.

Meanwhile, critics of privacy issues related to gathering data for training AI models—including OpenAI foe Elon Musk, who took to X on Monday to spread misconceptions about how the ChatGPT integration might work—also worried that the Apple-OpenAI deal might expose personal data to the AI company, although both companies strongly deny that will be the case.

Looking ahead, Apple’s deal with OpenAI is not exclusive, and the company is already in talks to offer Google’s Gemini chatbot as an additional option later this year. Apple has also reportedly held talks with Anthropic (maker of Claude 3) as a potential chatbot partner, signaling its intention to provide users with a range of AI services, much like how the company offers various search engine options in Safari.

Report: Apple isn’t paying OpenAI for ChatGPT integration into OSes Read More »

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iOS 18 adds Apple Intelligence, customizations, and makes Android SMS nicer

AI, Apple, iOS, ios 18, ipad, IPhone, rcs, Siri, Tech / /

Apple WWDC 2024 —

Mail gets categories, Messages gets more tapbacks, and apps can now be locked.

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Hands manipulating the Conrol Center on an iPhone

Apple

The biggest feature in iOS 18, the one that affects the most people, was a single item in a comma-stuffed sentence by Apple software boss Craig Federighi: “Support for RCS.”

As we noted when Apple announced its support for “RCS Universal Profile,” a kind of minimum viable cross-device rich messaging, iPhone users getting RCS means SMS chains with Android users “will be slightly less awful.” SMS messages will soon have read receipts, higher-quality media sending, and typing indicators, along with better security. And RCS messages can go over Wi-Fi when you don’t have a cellular signal. Apple is certainly downplaying a major cross-platform compatibility upgrade, but it’s a notable quality-of-life boost.

  • Prioritized notifications through Apple Intelligence

  • Sending a friend an AI-generated image of them holding a birthday cake, which is not exactly the future we all envisioned for 2024, but here we are.

    Apple

  • Example of a query that a supposedly now context-aware Siri can tackle.

  • Asking Siri “When is my mom’s flight landing,” followed by “What is our lunch plan?” can pull in data from multiple apps for an answer.

Apple Intelligence, the new Siri, and the iPhone

iOS 18 is one of the major beneficiaries of Apple’s AI rollout, dubbed “Apple Intelligence.” Apple Intelligence promises to help iPhone users create and understand language and images, with the proper context from your phone’s apps: photos, calendar, email, messages, and more.

Some of the suggested AI offerings include:

  • Auto-prioritizing notifications
  • Generating an AI image of people when you wish them a happy birthday.
  • Using Maps, Calendar, and an email with a meeting update to figure out if a work meeting change will make Federighi miss his daughter’s recital.

Many of the models needed to respond to your requests can be run on the device, Apple claims. For queries that need to go to remote servers, Apple relies on “Private Cloud Compute.” Apple has built its own servers, running on Apple Silicon, to handle requests that need more computational power. Your phone only sends the data necessary, is never stored, and independent researchers can verify the software on Apple’s servers, the company claims.

Siri is getting AI-powered upgrades across all platforms, including iOS. Apple says that Siri now understands more context in your questions to it. It will have awareness of what’s on your screen, so you could say “Add this address to his contact card” while messaging. You could ask it to “take a light-trail effect photo” from the camera. And “personal context” was repeatedly highlighted, including requests to find things people sent you, add your license number to a form (from an old ID picture), or ask “When is my mom’s flight landing?”

The non-AI things coming in iOS 18

A whole bunch of little boosts to iOS 18 announced by Apple.

A whole bunch of little boosts to iOS 18 announced by Apple.

On the iPhone itself, iOS 18 icons will change their look when in dark mode, and you can customize the look of compatible icons. Control Center, the pull-down menu in the top-right corner, now has multiple swipe-accessible controls, accessed through a strange-until-you’re-used-to-it long continuous swipe from the top. Developers are also getting access to the Control Center, so they can add their own apps’ controls. The lock screen will also get more customization, letting you swap out the standard flashlight and camera buttons for other items you prefer.

Privacy got some attention, too. Apps can be locked, such that Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode is necessary to open them. Apps can also be hidden and have their data prevented from showing up in notifications, searches, or other streams. New controls also limit the access you may grant to apps for contacts, network, and devices.

Messages will have “a huge year,” according to Apple. Tapbacks (instant reactions) can now include any emoji on the phone. Messages can be scheduled for later sending, text can be formatted, and there are “text effects” that do things like zoom in on the word “MAJOR” or make “Blown away” explode off the screen. And “Messages via satellite” is now available for phones that have satellite access, with end-to-end encryption.

Here's a Messages upgrade that is absolutely going to surprise everybody when they forget about it in four months and then it shows up in a weird message.

Here’s a Messages upgrade that is absolutely going to surprise everybody when they forget about it in four months and then it shows up in a weird message.

The Mail app gets on-device categorization with Gmail-like labels like “Primary,” “Transactions,” “Updates,” and “Promotions.” Mail can also show you all the emails you get from certain businesses, such as receipts and tickets.

The Maps app is getting trail routes for US National Parks. Wallet now lets you “Tap to Cash,” sending money between phones in close proximity. Journal can now log your state of mind, track your goals, track streaks, and log “other fun stats.”

Photo libraries are getting navigation upgrades, with screenshots, receipts, and other banal photos automatically filtered out from gallery scrolls. There’s some automatic categorization of trips, days, and events. And, keeping with the theme of iOS 18, you can customize and reorder the collections and features Photos shows you when you browse through it.

This is a developing story and this post will be updated with new information.

iOS 18 adds Apple Intelligence, customizations, and makes Android SMS nicer Read More »

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What to expect at WWDC 24: Big iOS changes, more Vision Pro, and so much AI

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WWDC 2024 —

There might not be new hardware, but Apple could make up for it with software.

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A colorful logo that says

Enlarge / The logo for WWDC24.

Apple

Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, kicks off in Cupertino, California, next week. As always, it will start with a livestream keynote on Monday morning at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern. We’ll be in attendance reporting on the event, so let’s take a moment to take stock of what we expect to see next week.

But first, let’s note something we don’t think we’ll see: Due to some peculiarities about Apple’s upgrade cycles, as well as a push toward the M4, we’re not actually expecting any major hardware announcements at WWDC this year.

That’s OK, though, because it looks like it’s going to be a big one for software news. iOS has seen relatively modest updates in the past couple of years, but that’s about to change.

AI in the spotlight

Most of the rumors leading up to WWDC have been about Apple making plans to announce tons of generative AI features for its platforms. Part of that is because AI is the hot topic right now, so anything about that is bound to get some coverage. However, according to leaks reported on by Bloomberg, The Information, and others, it looks like Apple is going to make a conscious effort to reposition itself as a leader in AI.

Apple was already doing neat things with machine learning in iOS and elsewhere, like features that make image editing easier, smart recommendations, and more. But there have been major new developments in models lately that allow for many new options, as we’ve seen from others like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft.

We don’t know many details about exactly what Apple will do here beyond it being a focus. The company has published several papers related to new large-language model chatbots, major Siri improvements, image generation, and more, but it’s hard to tell what will become user-facing features.

Possibilities include auto-generated summaries in apps like Mail, new ways to block ads or interact with websites in Safari, GitHub Copilot-like code editing assistance in Xcode, clip art generation for iWork documents, more conversational and larger-scope answers from Siri, new image editing features, expanded accessibility features, new transcription capabilities, and more.

Apple has reportedly been in talks with companies like OpenAI and Google (it even sounds like a deal has already been reached with OpenAI) about augmenting Siri and other parts of the iOS or macOS experience with an external AI chatbot. Apple has reportedly experimented with its own chatbot, but it’s unlikely that one would be far enough along to be a strong alternative to the likes of ChatGPT. At a minimum, expect Apple to partner with at least one company (probably OpenAI) as a provider for out-of-scope answers to queries asked of Siri or in Spotlight.

There have been rumblings that Apple could offer users a choice of multiple AI providers or launch an AI App Store, but we don’t know for sure how it will all take shape.

iOS and iPadOS 18

iOS 18 (and its close sibling, iPadOS 18) will roll out later this year alongside new iPhones, likely in September or October. But WWDC is the first time we’ll get a look at the major features Apple has planned.

Typically, Apple announces most new iOS features during the upcoming keynote, but it might save a couple that are are related to as-yet unannounced iPhone hardware for later.

The rumor mill this year points to an overhaul of both Control Center and Settings, plus the aforementioned inclusion of numerous new machine learning, LLM, or image generation features. One rumored example of how AI could be used in iOS described a new home screen that allows users to quickly recolor app icons to create a consistent color palette across their phone. Apple might even allow users to place icons wherever they want, addressing the irritating “wobble mode” home screen management that we’ve criticized in our iOS reviews for years.

Expect big new features for Messages, too, like new text effects and formatting options. There’s also a strong possibility that Apple will go into detail about RCS support in iOS. Generative AI could allow users to create custom emojis or stickers, too.

There were also a few rumors that Apple will make some visual changes to iOS, borrowing a bit from the visual language we saw in visionOS this spring.

Oh, and one more thing: iPadOS is finally getting a calculator app. We’re not sure why that took so long, but there it is.

What to expect at WWDC 24: Big iOS changes, more Vision Pro, and so much AI Read More »

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WWDC 2024 starts on June 10 with announcements about iOS 18 and beyond

AI, Apple, generative ai, ios 18, Tech, wwdc, WWDC 2024, WWDC24 / /

WWDC —

Speculation is rampant that Apple will make its first big moves in generative AI.

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A colorful logo that says

Enlarge / The logo for WWDC24.

Apple

Apple has announced dates for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). WWDC24 will run from June 10 through June 14 at the company’s Cupertino, California, headquarters, but everything will be streamed online.

Apple posted about the event with the following generic copy:

Join us online for the biggest developer event of the year. Be there for the unveiling of the latest Apple platforms, technologies, and tools. Learn how to create and elevate your apps and games. Engage with Apple designers and engineers and connect with the worldwide developer community. All online and at no cost.

As always, the conference will kick off with a keynote presentation on the first day, which is Monday, June 10. You can be sure Apple will use that event to at least announce the key features of its next round of annual software updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS.

We could also see new hardware—it doesn’t happen every year, but it has of late. We don’t yet know exactly what that hardware might be, though.

Much of the speculation among analysts and commentators concerns Apple’s first move into generative AI. There have been reports that Apple may work with a partner like Google to include a chatbot in its operating system, that it has been considering designing its own AI tools, or that it could offer an AI App Store, giving users a choice between many chatbots.

Whatever the case, Apple is playing catch-up with some of its competitors in generative AI and large language models even though it has been using other applications of AI across its products for a couple of years now. The company’s leadership will probably talk about it during the keynote.

After the keynote, Apple usually hosts a “Platforms State of the Union” talk that delves deeper into its upcoming software updates, followed by hours of developer-focused sessions detailing how to take advantage of newly planned features in third-party apps.

WWDC 2024 starts on June 10 with announcements about iOS 18 and beyond Read More »

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Apple’s AirPods Pro could be getting a “hearing aid mode” later this year

airpods, AirPods Pro, Apple, fda, fda approval, hearing, hearing aids, hearing impairment, ios 18, Tech / /

Cheaper hearing aids —

In development for some time, AirPods could finally get the FDA label this fall.

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AirPods arranged at an Apple Store

Enlarge / Apple AirPods on display at the company’s Fifth Avenue store in New York in Feb. 2024.

Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Apple’s AirPods Pro are getting closer to becoming fully fledged hearing aids and marketed as such, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The move could have a large impact on the hearing aid market, which has already been recently shaken up by over-the-counter models.

Gurman writes that AirPods Pro are due to receive a hearing-aid function in iOS 18, arriving this fall and likely to be announced and outlined at a Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The Wall Street Journal reported in the fall of 2021 that Apple was working toward a future AirPods Pro model that functioned as a hearing aid and would also be able to monitor body posture and even body temperature.

It was not clear from Gurman or the Journal’s reporting whether the hearing aid function would be available only in a new model of AirPods Pro or offered as a software update on prior models. Since the Journal’s report, Apple has released both a second-generation model of AirPods Pro and a refresh of that model with a USB-C port.

“Hearing aid” may also not be technically accurate, depending on Apple’s aims. The US Food and Drug Administration in 2022 provided for a new category of “Personal sound amplification products,” or PSAPs, that do not need to meet the stricter requirements for an FDA-approved hearing aid. This new category offered huge cost savings to people with mild to moderate hearing loss and kicked off a generation of hearing aids that connected to a smartphone over Bluetooth for setup, tuning, and monitoring. These are distinct from over-the-counter hearing aids, which, while still notably cheaper than “professional fit” hearing aids, are still regulated by the FDA.

A study in late 2022 found that first-generation AirPods Pro, with their “Live Listen” feature activated, could meet four of the five PSAP standards and just barely missed a sound-pressure threshold. Notably, the AirPods Pro, tested in relatively quiet environments, helped people hear about as well as hearing aid models that cost up to $10,000, within the PSAP standards.

The next version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 18, is rumored to contain a multitude of features beyond AirPods updates. MacRumors (leaning on Gurman’s subscriber-only newsletter reporting) suggests that generative AI features, RCS support for text messages, and revamps to many core Apple apps are due.

Apple’s AirPods Pro could be getting a “hearing aid mode” later this year Read More »