Apple takes the AI leap, new customisation options in iOS 18

Apple on Monday unveiled a range of AI-enabled features and software enhancements for its devices, including the iPhone, in a bid to bolster sagging sales.

The announcements at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2024) were aimed at showing investors that Apple was making progress in AI at a time when tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet have overhauled their offerings by leveraging advanced AI technologies.

Here are the key announcements from the event:

Image: Apple

AI FUNCTIONALITY

• Announced "Apple Intelligence", a slew of generative AI-powered features within native applications as part of the latest operating systems for iPhones, Macs, and iPads.
• Siri: can now retrieve information from messages, emails, calendar, and photos, as well as third-party apps, to answer a wider range of queries and accomplish tasks. Users can also interact via text.
• ChatGPT integration: Apple is incorporating the technology so that its systems can better understand images and documents, and for users to compose and edit text messages.
• Most AI processes will run on the device, while more complex tasks will be handled by Apple's servers under a new offering called Private Cloud Compute. It will use its own server chips to help power AI features on all its devices.
• Apple Intelligence will be available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later.

OPERATING SYSTEMS

• IOS 18 for iPhone offers the ability to arrange apps and widgets in any open space on the home screen, customise the lock screen and control centre, which gets media playback controls.
• MacOS Sequoia offers iPhone Mirroring, which allows the phone's screen to be viewed and interacted with on Mac computers.
• With iPadOS 18, Apple's tablet finally get a calculator app with additional capabilities.
• Math Notes calculator allows users to type or write out mathematical expressions and see them instantly solved in their own handwriting.
• Smart Script features make handwritten notes more legible.
• WatchOS 11 gets Vitals app, which shows important health metrics at a glance, and a training mode to better show how workouts impact the user's body.
• Announced VisionOS 2 with improved gesture controls and spatial photos.

APPLICATION UPDATES

• Messages can now be sent via satellite for the times when cellular and Wi-Fi connections aren't available.
• Mail app can now automatically sort emails into personal, marketing, and transactional.
• Safari gets a Highlight feature that can surface key information about a web page such as bringing up the location of a restaurant or listening to an artist's track right from an article.
• In Notes and Phone apps, users can now record, transcribe and summarise audio.
• Announced new image-generation tool Image Playground.
• Improved search in Photos app, and announced a new ability to find specific moments in video clips.