Apple’s been late to the party before, such as announcing the Apple Watch with successful wearables already on the market. Today at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Tim Cook and others announced Apple Intelligence to macOS Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18, bringing familiar AI features to only those with the most powerful devices.
Apple Intelligence Announced
These new AI features will be available to the new macOS Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18, but only to those who have an iPhone 15 Pro or an iPad or Mac with an M1 chip. That’s a smaller group of people. Yet, it was also announced that it would be added to more devices later. I suppose it could be similar to the rollout of Windows 11.
With a note that you shouldn’t have to hand over your details to be analyzed be someone’s cloud account, it was explained that Apple Intelligence was built with privacy in mind. Apple will not collect your personal data. It’s run on your device, but if you make a more difficult request, it will run through Private Cloud Data, which accesses larger, served-based models, while continuing to protect your privacy. Data is never stored or made accessible to Apple.
Apple Intelligence brings an understanding of personal context. It understands your relationships with people, locations, dates and times, etc. It makes Siri more deeply integrated, understanding things she never could before, while she takes over your whole screen, instead of as a glistening ball in the corner. There is on-screen awareness, and actions can be taken on screen or in an app. ChatGPT can be accessed as well, but Apple will always ask if you want to use it before going ahead with it.
It also brings writing tools to Mail and other apps that would benefit from it. It allows you to rewrite, change your tone, proofread, and summarize. Smart reply is added as well. Of course, all of these features are available elsewhere, but now you can stay within Apple. You can create images as well, with Apple Intelligence, and can even use “Genmoji,” which allows you to create your own emoji through AI. Use the Image Wand with an Apple Pencil to create an image from a sketch, or erase a background or certain objects from an image.
iOS 18
Including Apple Intelligence, Many of the new features for iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 were already assumed or leaked. For the most part, they are features that will lead to better productivity or connecting.
iOS 18 allows greater changes to the home screen. You can arrange apps and widgets wherever you want on the screen, without a grid. Frame the object in your wallpaper photo, instead of covering it up. There’s a new dark mode and an option to customize apps with a different color. You will have greater control in the Control Center as well. Swipe through for more options. Lock apps so that they can’t be opened or are hidden for the times you need to share your phone.
Messages now allow Tapbacks, allowing you to leave a reaction other than a heart, thumbs up, exclamation point, etc. You can use any widget or sticker. And the one feature I have wanted for years, message scheduling, is finally a part of iOS. Mail will now categories and organize your email into categories. It will do such things as bring all your United Airlines email together. The Wallet app now allows you to send cash to someone by just holding your phones together.
The Photos app has a huge redesign. There is a photo grid on top and an organized library below. It includes a filter button to filter out screenshots or zero in on what you’re looking for. Browse by topic, time, people, memories, trips, etc. There is also a Collections feature. View a collection via a collage, favorite groups of people, etc.
Tip: if you prefer the Android platform, learn how to use iOS apps on an Android.
iPadOS 18
We knew there had to be some great features being added to go along with the powerful new iPad Pro and iPad Air, and we were right. iPadOS 18 includes all of the new iOS features, including Photos, Control Center, and the home screen. Additionally, the Apple apps include a customizable floating tab bar that makes it easier to navigate the different parts of the app. The SharePlay scene allows you to tap and draw on the screen to show the other person what’s on your screen. It also includes permission to remotely control their device.
A long-requested iPad feature is the iPhone Calculator app. It’s arriving on the iPad and has been updated to take advantage of the larger display. Use your Apple Pencil to take Math Notes. You can write out math equations, and they’ll be solved immediately, while the results will update live and be in your handwriting.
Math Notes also works in Notes and Apple Freeform. The Apple Pencil also works with the new Smart Script in Notes. It recreates your handwriting style to be smoother, straighter, and more legible. As you make changes, it will add the changes in your handwriting. If spellcheck changes something, it will be in your handwriting.
macOS Sequoia
macOS Sequoia includes similar changes as iOS and iPadOS, including the new Passwords app. It also includes iPhone Mirroring. Control your iPhone and without needing to take it out of the bag. Click in the dock, wipe through Pages, and interact with it wirelessly. Your iPhone notifications will appear on the Mac as well, alongside your macOS notifications. Your iPhone will stay on the lock screen as well. It works seamlessly with Standby. Arrange the windows as tiles on the screen, similar to Stage Manager on iPadOS.
Safari shows you highlights of a webpage, including directions, summaries, people, etc. You can get a summary of what’s on the page before delving in. It will remove distractions from articles, while providing helpful summaries next to it. It wasn’t mentioned whether it can be disabled. You can also pull out videos to make them more prominent for you, then click away from them to make them appear in Picture-in-Picture.
AI for the Rest of Us
The tagline for all this is “AI for the rest of us.” However, it seems that Apple Intelligence is not really for “the rest of us,” due to the limited number of devices that will be able to use it, at least initially. All of it is available today in a developer beta, while the public betas of all the new OS will be available next month. It will be fully released in the fall. If you’re not comfortable with the changes to Safari, try these Safari alternatives.
Image credit: Apple
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