Looking back at this week’s news and headlines from Apple and WWDC, including Apple’s fear of AI, iPhone owners losing AI, Apple Private Cloud, a new iPhone game mode, the biggest change to the iPad, and Apple blocking PC emulation.
The Apple Loop is here to remind you of some of the many discussions surrounding Apple over the past seven days. You can also read my weekly roundup of Android news here on Forbes.
Apple CEO Tim Cook (Photo: JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Updates for iPhone and iOS from WWDC
Tim Cook’s team took the initiative this week at the annual Worldwide Developer Conference, where artificial intelligence took center stage. There were also new versions of operating systems that Apple will release to the public in September. Until then, beta testing and developer releases will reveal the software that will power Apple’s iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, including new tools to facilitate:
“Eye Tracking allows people to control the iPhone with just their eyes.19 Music Haptics synchronizes the iPhone Taptic Engine with the rhythm of songs so that those who are deaf or hard of hearing can enjoy the Apple Music catalog.20 And Vocal Shortcuts help people with difficult atypical speech record sounds, which trigger specific actions on the iPhone.”
(Apple).
The Achilles heel of Apple Intelligence
The big item, of course, was that Apple introduced artificial intelligence (or, as the brand team referred to it, Apple Intelligence) into various operating systems. While Tim Cook believes it will benefit users by saving them time, in an interview with the Washington Post, Cook acknowledged Apple’s concerns about AI:
“It’s not 100 percent. But I think we’ve done everything we can do, including thinking very deeply about the readiness of the technology in the areas we’re using it in. So I’m confident it’s going to be very high quality.” But I would say in all honesty it’s not 100 percent, I would never say it’s 100 percent.
(Washington Post)
Limited intelligence for iPhone owners
Apple’s artificial intelligence software has two basic requirements to run on the iPhone. The first is iOS 18, which will be available at the end of the third quarter and will work on iPhones back to the iPhone XR of 2018. It will also require at least the latest A17 Pro chipset. This excludes every current iPhone except the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max:
“Apple said this limitation is a result of the huge amount of computing power required to run the artificial intelligence models that underlie the new features. “The underlying underlying models of these experiences require a huge amount of computing power,” said Apple’s senior vice president John Giannandrea of machine learning and artificial intelligence strategy “This limitation actually provides the amount of computers they need.”
(The Independent).
More AI support for iPad and MacBook
There is less confusion and limitations surrounding Apple’s AI software on the iPad and Mac platforms. Essentially any hardware running any of Apple’s Silicon Mxx lineup, which includes several iPad Air and iPad Pro models and every Mac going back to the 2020 MacBook Air, will have access to the features:
“As for the MacBook Air, it got the M1 chip in 2020. The M1 MacBook Air (2020), M2 MacBook Air (2022), M2 MacBook Air (2023) and M3 MacBook Air (2024) all get the Apple Intelligence goodies that were shown .
“With MacBook Pro laptops, they also got an M1 upgrade in 2020: the 13-inch Touch Bar M1 MacBook Pro (2020) and M2 MacBook Pro (2022) qualify, as do the 14-inch and 16-inch M1 MacBook Pro (2021), M2 MacBook Pro (2023 ) and the M3 MacBook Pro (2023).
(TechRadar).
Apple’s AI server
In all the shiny AI tools, emoji creation and text generation, perhaps the biggest announcement at WWDC came from the team behind Private Cloud Compute. This is Apple’s solution for processing user data in the cloud, balancing the need to process information off-device with keeping that information private. The devil will be in the detail… and the code:
But you don’t have to trust Apple alone on that score, Federighi argued. That’s because the server code used by Private Cloud Compute will be publicly available, meaning “independent experts can review the code running on those servers to verify that.” privacy promise.” The entire system was cryptographically set up so that Apple devices “refuse to communicate with the server unless their software is publicly logged in for review.” “
(Ars Technica).
A new way to play for iPhone
Apple continues to push iOS as a gaming platform, and while the catalog of leading titles is a fraction of other platforms, Tim Cook and his team continue to build the platform in hopes of coming. Debuting in iOS 18 will be Game Mode… when your phone detects that a challenging game is running, it will boot into Game Mode and do the following:
“Minimize your iPhone’s background activity to maintain consistently high frame rates even after hours of gaming; Massively reduce latency when using a Bluetooth game controller; Similarly, reduce latency when using AirPods for audio.”
(9 to 5 Mac).
The biggest change to the iPad
It’s only taken fourteen years, but the iPad software package is finally complete. After the release of Weather in 2022, WWDC saw an iPadOS update that includes a calculator. Did it really take so long to add stylus support?
“At first glance, the app looks a lot like the calculator you might know from iOS. But it also supports Apple Pencil, which means you can write down math problems and the app will solve them with a feature Apple calls Math Notes.” .
(The Verge).
And finally…
While retro game system emulation is now allowed in the Apple App Store (and subsequent installation on your iPhone), retro PC system emulation is still blocked. While the developers of the open source app, UTM, won’t challenge the decision (due in part to Apple’s refusal to allow JIT on iOS), many will be drawn to something a little more subtle… Apple has also blocked the app from appearing in any app stores by third-party applications:
“The open source app was submitted to the store in light of a recent rule change that allows emulators of retro game consoles such as Delta or Folium. App Review rejected UTM and ruled that “PC is not a console.” the fact that UTM says that Apple it also blocks the app from being listed on third-party app stores in the EU.”
(9 to 5 Mac).
Apple Loop brings you the best of seven days every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any news in the future. You can read last week’s Apple Loop here or this week’s edition of the Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.