It’s time for WWDC 2024! Every year, Apple kicks off its Global Developer Conference with hours of back-to-back announcements, such as the long-awaited revamp of Apple Intelligence and its intelligent AI assistant Siri. We expected a lot of this to revolve around the company’s AI ambitions (and here it is), and we weren’t disappointed. We’ll also bring you news on Vision Pro and plenty of feature updates.
Here’s how to adjust.
As usual, developers can expect hardware and software updates, as well as other things we expect to be released early. Brian Hitter also moved into equity. Now you can sit back and relax as the team breaks down the most important stories into easy-to-understand summaries.
ChatGPT on Siri
Apple brings ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot experience, to Siri and other Apple apps based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 and other generative AI models. Read more
It’s a playground for images and emojis
An Apple Intelligence-powered feature in iOS 18 will allow iPhone users to create AI avatars of their messages — a feature that works similarly to AI-powered Bitmoji. The goal, of course, is to make your “everyday conversations more entertaining.”
Apple Intelligence knows who you’re talking to in message conversations. So if you want to personalize this chat with a custom AI photo, you can quickly create one Read more
Apple TV+
For those of you who use Apple TV+, there’s a new feature called Insight. This feature allows viewers to see the cast names and song titles displayed on screen. Lauren Forrestal writes that it’s similar to Amazon’s X-ray technology, which gives Fire TV users an overview of an actor’s biography and behind-the-scenes information while watching TV shows and movies.
What makes Insight special, though, is its Shazam-like feature that highlights songs playing in TV shows or movies and gives users the option to add them to Apple Music playlists for later listening. Read more
Siri
Apple has also made some improvements to its smart assistant Siri. This includes adding some generative AI features that make Siri feel more natural and personal. There is also a new glow light. Siri can also deal with speech impediments and understand context better. And if you love to write, you can now. Read more
Apple is smart here
The new feature is called Apple Intelligent (AI, get it?). The company has promised that the feature will be enhanced with its core security and provide a highly personalized experience.
“Most importantly, it understands you and anchors you in your personal context, like your routines, relationships, communications and more,” CEO Tim Cook noted at WWDC on Monday. “And of course it has to be built from the ground up with data protection. All this is beyond artificial intelligence. It’s personal intelligence that is Apple’s next big step.” Read more
Password application
While you can use your iCloud account to store passwords and sync across your devices, figuring it out wasn’t that easy. Now the company has launched a password app. Some features include a new column on the left that lets you more easily navigate your password collection. For example, you can see all your passwords, only Wi-Fi passwords (a new addition), or passkeys or codes that aren’t associated with any website or service. Read more
Smart Script on iPad
New “Smart Script” feature that cleans up your handwriting when you write in notes with Apple Pencil. Apple says it makes handwriting your notes smoother and easier. This feature improves the look of your writing as you type by using machine learning on the device to recover your handwriting from your notes. You will find your handwriting smoother and clearer. Read more
Calculator for iPad
Who would have thought that a calculator would liven up a developer conference? Well, Apple’s new calculator app for the iPad has everyone excited.
Finally, the Standing Tips Calculation app for iOS is available on the big screen. This feature takes advantage of the extra screen space to provide new features that the company was unable to include in the iPhone. The biggest access here is to add math notes. The add function calculates the effect for you. Read more
Mac Sequoia
The latest version of the operating system is called MacOS Sequoia.
The biggest feature of this new operating system is iPhone mirroring. With MacOS’s Continuity feature, you can now mirror your iPhone’s screen and control it directly from your Mac. Your Mac’s notifications will put you in iPhone mirror mode, and your iPhone’s sound will also come through your Mac, but your paired iPhones will remain locked in mirror mode. Read more
Let’s take a closer look at the iPhone mirroring process. While Apple hasn’t detailed many use cases for the feature, Sarah Perez writes that it will make it easier to demo apps via video call or in person, allowing users to switch between a presentation slideshow and a live iPhone app-demo. . By running it as if it were another application on your Mac. Read more
Satellite news
This new feature works similar to Apple’s Emergency SOS feature. If you have no signal, you have the option of finding a satellite to transmit data. However, you have to point the phone in the right direction and there’s an overlay above your messages to remind you Read more
Photo-app
Apple introduced new Photos apps as they appear in the next version of iOS software. The new app offers new navigation, new organization features, and more ways to discover your favorite photos, including friends, family, pets, travel, and more.
A few things you should know: The new design reduces image search time by putting everything you need at your fingertips.
One big change includes consolidating the app into a single view, with a photo grid at the top and a library organized by theme at the bottom. Read more
Click here to earn money
One of the more interesting additions is “tap-to-pay,” which, more or less as it sounds, allows users to pay for things by tapping a pair of iPhones.
As Brian Hitter writes, this feature is actually a result of Apple Pay’s old tap-to-pay feature. Likewise, the new addition will likely take advantage of the device’s NFC functionality. Apple notes that the feature transfers money without sharing any personal information, which is a nice added element of privacy. Read more
iOS 18
Users can now lock the app when handing over their phone, for example to show someone a photo or let them play a game. When you lock an app and someone tries to tap your phone, they’ll be asked to authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or their passcode. While the App Lock feature is enabled, information from the app will not appear in other places, such as searches and notifications Read more
Apple has shared some early details about its upcoming major release of iOS, its operating system designed specifically for the iPhone. As expected, a lot of it involves artificial intelligence. Remember when the codes were locked to the network? Well, they can now be placed anywhere on your home screen so that they don’t obscure your wallpapers.
“iOS 18 is a major release that offers more ways to personalize your iPhone, stay connected and relive special moments,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering. Read more
Speaking of icons, most of these updates include long-requested features, such as the ability to place app icons and widgets anywhere on the home screen, as well as support for dark mode icons in different color schemes. Read more
VisionOS 2
VisionOS 2 brings productivity improvements and “new immersive experiences.” One of them allows you to “personalize” photos from regular photos using artificial intelligence technology. Another option is a new navigation option: VisionOS 2 lets you jump to the home screen with a simple tap or swipe of your hand to bring up the Control Center with notifications, shortcuts and more. Read more
One of the biggest announcements is the ability to convert existing images into spatial images. The new feature uses machine learning to generate additional angles. This represents a change from the current method, which requires photos to be taken on the iPhone 15 Pro or Vision Pro. Read more
For those outside the US, the Vision Pro headset will be available in eight new countries. Read more
Useful AI, not flashy AI
Apple has fallen behind its competitors in the AI race and may feel it has to do whatever it takes to please fans and shareholders. But that doesn’t mean overdoing the features. Read more
Generative Artificial Intelligence
For the smart assistant: While the company is rumored to be moving many employees into the generative AI space after its electric car explosion, all signs point to Apple giving up a big lead on the competition. Therefore, the most logical thing is to partner with an influential force like OpenAI. Read more
Maybe not the iPhone 15: Some other rumors suggest that if this generative AI works, a limited number of older devices will also be able to run the system, including iPads and Macs with an M1 chip or later, as well as the iPhone 15 Pro. That means the standard iPhone 15 can be left out in the cold with this device. Read more
