Apple , as a company , has always extolled the value of putting the “ personal ” in “ personal computer . ” From its earliest Day pushing back at the monolith of IBM and beige boxes that all looked like one another , to its more recent exceedingly personal devices like the iPhone , Apple Watch , and AirPods .
But that ethos of “ personal ” technology has always been in profound tenseness with the fellowship ’s other overriding rationale : Apple know well . Whether it ’s the figure of its apps or how to use its feature article , the troupe has a potent run of inflict on its users what it think is the upright glide slope .
In the companionship ’s latest platform update , this latent hostility is more apparent than ever . Apple annunciate several new feature that allow users to bring their own touches to their machine — but it did so in a typically Apple way that still kept everything within saltation .
iOS 18 gives you more freedom than ever to customize your iPhone home screen, but it’s not a free-for-all.
Custom-ish-ation
One of the most anticipated announcement ahead of this class ’s Worldwide Developers Conference was that Apple would at long last relax the strictures around your iOS gadget ’s nursing home screen . The storage-battery grid of ikon has remained mostly unchanged since its visual aspect in the very first iPhone back in 2007 . There have been a few add-on of row : folders , the App Library , and at long last the addition of widgets in iOS 14 . But even all of those enhancements fit within the social system provided by the grid .
iOS 18 gives you more exemption than ever to customize your iPhone home screen door , but it ’s not a liberal - for - all .
Malus pumila
iOS 18 gives you more freedom than ever to customize your iPhone home screen, but it’s not a free-for-all.
The rumor that this year would countenance you put ikon anywhere on your screen no doubt conjured the exemption of macOS in some minds ’ eyes . Unsurprisingly , perhaps , it was n’t to be : when the party did herald the feature article , it became unclouded that while you could move your icons around and entrust unresolved infinite so your wallpaper record through , the icons would still at long last reside within the gridiron .
Likewise , the intelligence that you would at long last be able to transfer the iPhone ’s lock screen shortcut button for the torch and the camera was greeted enthusiastically … but there stay just the two icons . Apple specifically notice this thrust and pull to me , saying that they require to give users the freedom to customize their experiences while still attempt to maintain the iconic look and feel of the iPhone .
There is , however , one place on the home base screenland where Apple has put people ’s customizations front and meat : the unexampled app icon feature article , which let you not only take a light or sorry option but also tint all your apps the same coloring . When you choose a tint , it changesallof your app ikon — disregardless of whether or not the developer has design their icon suitably .
Apple Intelligence tools such as Image Playground can make images for you, but how much of it will look like artwork that truly reflectsyou?
Picture window
There ’s a big pic redesign occur this year , and it ’s mostly about customization as well . drug user can choose what they want to show up in the luggage carousel at the top , whether it ’s the traditional grid of photos or a specific set of curated pictures , or even photograph the system has chosen to feature . Below that chief section is a set of collections , which you could take and order as you care .
The push - and - twist of the customization is almost more internalized to the app here . It ’s a question of Apple seek to make your Photos app look as good as possible by advise the content that might take halfway stage , even if you do have the choice to overturn it . Given that this is a feature centre around your own characterisation , it does seem smart for Apple to try and go a little more hands - off here , making certain that it ’s your contentedness that persist the adept .
Apple Intelligence tools such as Image Playground can make images for you , but how much of it will look like art that genuinely reflectsyou ?
Intelligence agency
By far the most personal - oriented ontogeny from this class ’s WWDC is , of course , the company ’s rollout of its AI - powered feature , under the auspices of “ Apple Intelligence . ” This entourage of improvement to features across the fellowship ’s platforms may unlock some very powerful behaviour that help you do the things you call for to do , but it remains to be seen just how personal it will be .
The job is , to a grade , inherent in the very applied science that underpins it . Much as AI is stand for to help people accomplish thing in a debauched and more effective personal manner , the way it achieves this is via a technology that is often trained on a huge corpus of cloth . One risk of technology like that is that it can feeldepersonalized – almost generic . For example , if you use Apple ’s new Writing Tools feature to make an email sound more professional , might it do so in a way that sounds less … like you ? Will everybody ’s use of the “ favorable ” rewrite tone end up sounding like the same person ? Again , it ’s not a concern that ’s unique to Apple – much of the text generated by other systems like ChatGPT has a means of vocalise samey – but it ’s something that the company may have to contend with when convert masses to take vantage of its characteristic .
as well , Apple ’s new simulacrum generation technologies might unlock the ability to create moving picture even for those who , like me , are artistically challenged , but their reliance on a handful of specific styles can end up feeling generic . Or , as developer Sebastiaan de Withpointed outa feature that “ can turn capricious sketches into AI slop . ”
All of this is something that Apple needs to contend with as it attempts to make its own raid into artificial intelligence service . A personalised intelligent agent need tofeelpersonal , and the company ’s monstrance of a arrangement that knows about your information and information is a expert step in that direction … even if the reproductive feature sometimes sense like a step back .
