Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column , which includes all the Apple intelligence you missed last workweek in a handy bite - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes expectant with a Monday daybreak cup of coffee or tea , but it ’s nerveless if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too .
Absolutely Insignificant
Last calendar week I spent an hour or so trying to explain WWDC to a civilian , by which I mean someone who is n’t obsessed with Apple to an unhealthy extent . While it can be frustrative ( “ What do you mean you do n’t know the deviation between Io and iPadOS ? ! ” ) I find this sort of example useful in restoring that all - important gumption of perspective which can be easy misplaced in this industry .
Above all , the conversation made me realize how left this annual event must seem to those outside the Cupertino house of cards . apparently aimed at app developer and focus on how those devs will be impress by changes coming to Apple ’s various software platforms , WWDC ought to be both niche and dryly technological – but while the events and workshops across the subsequent week are both of those thing , the keynote presentation which kicks the whole thing off really is n’t . Like a children ’s television set show pack with sly innuendo for parents , the WWDC tonic is direct over the developers ’ heads at the tech media cameras behind them , and the millions of proprietor and prospective owners of Apple devices following the announcements around the humanity .
More than its misleading format , however , WWDC is truly peculiar in its shotgun product focus . In the gloam we get new iPhones and Apple Watches , and everyone be intimate what to look . When Apple holds a spring event we can be fairly sure iPads will be part of the equation . But WWDC is all over the place . Often there are Macs , but at various times we ’ve had AirPorts , HomePods , iPads , Vision Pro , Pro Display XDR , and even a few early iPhones . WWDC is equally probable to sport no young hardware at all . It ’s a mess , frankly .
make predictions about WWDC is a smiler ’s game , then . But in the belief of this mug ( and quite a lot of other mugs , to be fair ) , WWDC 2024 will probably be known henceforth as Apple ’s AI upshot . The company has been pretty open about the fact that Io 18 will see amajor gen AI pushing , and some pundit have extrapolated from this and other pointer that it will be one of the biggest iOS updates in the iPhone ’s history . macOS 15 is also potential to get the AI treatment and that ’s touch off a bunch of fervour , too .
Except … it plausibly wo n’t be that exciting at all . AI is of import , and Apple is aware that everyone need to hear its plans for this burgeoning surface area of technology , but the chance of a unfeignedly momentous announcement at WWDC are low-spirited , to say the least .
For one thing , gen AI may be a raging theme , but it ’s also extremely controversial , raising serious motion about right of first publication infraction , reliability , and evenracism . Last week it was reported that in the U.K. alone , almost eight million jobscould be lost to stilted tidings within three to five geezerhood . A lot of hoi polloi are angry about AI , or queasy about the way it could affect society , and ( with a fewnotable exceptionswhere its founding principles are at bet ) Apple is notoriously loth to shake the boat . Tim Cook is not work to march out on stage and exalt that macOS is about to make human creative person redundant , or that Siri will rely on AI for all of its factual response . ( Not that Siri could getmuch stupider . )
What ’s more , of the AI upgrade that Appledoeshave in judgment to announce this year , the most interesting will probably be detain until the fall , when the new iPhones arrive . Sources report that the fellowship design to make some AI featuresexclusiveto the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max , and it will therefore keep them secret until those models are unveiled . Leaving WWDC as a damp squib , AI - wise .
Apple ’s common insurance on infix a new market place is threefold : it waits , it observes the errors of other company , and then it swoops in with a product that fixes them . But for technical reasons that belike wo n’t be possible here . Cupertino will have maintain Google ’s chastening experience with Gemini and will have resolved not to make the same mistakes , but there ’s no reason to cerebrate it has miraculously come in up with a model that wo n’t be vulnerable to the same use . A sound policy at this point would be to promise less and lock down more . This is n’t go to be SiriGPT , where you’re able to do whatever you like . It will be something far more modest . Something like Siri , only slimly smarter … if we ’re very favourable indeed .
The reportedBaidu collaboration , of course , means Apple does n’t need to start from chicken feed . or else , it will license existing AI service , most probable that company ’s ERNIE Bot , and spell its capabilities into the iPhone and other intersection . But this reasonable approaching means that almost by definition , Apple is n’t going to foretell anything truly raw . It will just tell us how a exemplar the world already knows about will now apply to its products . ( It might not be just Baidu ’s ERNIE Bot , by the manner ; one theory holds that this will be used only in China , with another framework such as Google ’s poorly - fatten Gemini licensed elsewhere . But the pointedness is that Apple ’s strategy seems almost certain to focalize on licensing subsist technical school rather than building its own . )
All in all , then , it ’s probably wise to ready for disappointment , at least as far as AI announcements go , atthis year ’s WWDC . Of course , we tech obsessives will all still watch the affair in the vain hope of being surprised . And the rest of the mankind , quite reasonably , will think we ’re odder than ever .
Have your say
Last week’srant against shrinking bezelsprovoked some lector varsity letter … and , perhaps surprisingly , they were supportive .
JS , in fact , added a reasonable distributor point that I did n’t destination . “ The other irritation with shrink bezels , ” he wrote , “ is holding the iPad and getting spurious stimulant from just holding it . A mortal needs some space around the touch screen that wo n’t be sensitive to a feeling comment . ” Yes ! This is true .
Joe P , meanwhile , offered a linear perspective I ingloriously had not considered . “ Many of us who got into computer when perforate card were standard technology have arthritis in our hired hand . Wider bezel allow us to more well enjoy the in style technology . ” Thank you , Joe .
metalworks
Who wins whenregulators take on Apple ? perchance no one , reckons Jason Snell .
Apple ’s bigAI - infused WWDC keynotekicks off on June 10 .
Surprise ! Your iPhone 12 got anupgrade to 15W magnetic chargingwithQi2 .
Reviews corner
The rumor mill
Multiple reportsclaim iOS 18 will steal one ofAndroid ’s best featuresat long last .
TheiPhone 16 Promay bring backApple ’s respectable colouring .
Apple may beworking on a newfangled Pencilthat works withVision Pro .
Some iOS 18 AI featuresmight be limitedto theiPhone 16 Promodels .
Apple is reportedly partneringwith Taiwanese giant BaiduforiOS 18 ’s AI features .
Software updates, bugs, and problems
Apple ID‘push bombing ’ attacktargets iPhone users withreset notification spam .
Apple releasesmacOS 14.4.1withseveral authoritative bug fixes , so establish now .
We now do it why Apple releasediOS 17.4.1a couple of weeks back : there were twohidden critical security updates .
Apple pushed a newiOS 17.4.1 buildbut you ’ll have to set up itthe old - fashioned elbow room .
