None of that was coming from Apple, though. I don't think they can be held responsible for hype that gets put on them.
IMO these are all solid moves into AI integration without getting carried away by hype and doing things that will have very middling results.
My understanding is people knew Apple Intelligence existed before this event.
Is it accurate to say Apple wasn't involved at all in touting it? All external parties? Sounds wrong to my ear
- https://buttondown.com/ainews/archive/ainews-talaria-apples-...
- https://buttondown.com/ainews/archive/ainews-apple-intellige...
That means Apple has a much simpler problem: they don’t need to convince you that AI as a concept is worth hundreds of dollars, they just need to convince you that the hundreds of dollars you were already going to spend on a smartphone should go to them instead of Samsung or Xiaomi.
Anecdotally I tried to get my dad to a iPhone 14 and shift from Android, he basically kept using his Android and never switched,so my mom is using that device now(along with an Android) not too happily just cause no else one is using it and will switch back to Android fully next upgrade. There are plenty of people who simply prefer the Android interface or by now so used to it that don't want to change and vice-versa. I myself use and need both and cannot imagine exclusively committing to one ecosystem.
Even reminders is pretty bad:
"Hey Siri, add celery to the shopping list" "Okay John, I've added celery to the shopping list list (sic)."
Shopping list: - Celery
"Hey Siri, remove celery from the shopping list" "Okay John, I've added celery to the shopping list list."
Shopping list: - Celery - Celery
This is not meeting expectations.
Although somewhere I'm sure we can find an '80s pop-culture vehicle that predicts those shortcomings as well.
This is a killer feature. Everyone can understand the usefulness of just describing the video moment you want to find. Digging through years worth of photos and videos looking for that one specific moment can be a huge chore when you want to show it to someone.
"You're holding it wrong" - Steve Jobs
You know when you go to a restaurant and the menu is like 3 different cuisines, it's 12 pages, and each page has 20+ items?
The Intelligence section of the presentation felt a bit like that.
Generally, I was surprised how lightly Intelligence featured into the keynote: it wasn't a standalone talking point, nothing on the Apple site talks to it directly. It's conspicuous, given that they've dedicated hardware real estate to it ... and the hype cycle.
I go to a restaurant and look at the menu/see a commercial on TV, I can usually order the item now (other than films).
Apple Intelligence - certain feature(s) (can't recall now) are US-only in November, rolling out to other English-speaking countries in December. No idea when non English-speaking countries will get that feature.
Who knows what Apple Intelligence features are in the device on day 1?
Where were you when they were coming up with "when a friend texts a song name to you, remind them they can play it in Apple Music"??!
2) i actually do think dedicated visual intelligence button IS a killer feature. suddenly phone is ai's view into the world. yes probably v1 today will disappoint. but 5 years from now the kids will laugh when we say we had to take photos and upload them to an app back in our day. or manually enter in any information from the real world into our calendars and emails and texts.
I view users moving through interfaces in a mass abstracted form like electrical or hydrological currents. My job is to widen the pipes.
My impression of my non-tech friends is that they aren't too dumb to follow instructions, they just don't enjoy operating a computer like I do, so they are more okay with their choices being restricted if they don't have to waste time doing something they find boring.
Not everything is available like on a rooted Android of course, but I can at least create a Shortcut script and give it to any iOS user regardless of their technical expertise and they can utilize it, which is leagues ahead of the situation amongst non-rooted Android and non-technical Android users.
Apple has lost its way, just look at how the "normies" and the "neckbeards" responded to the Vision Pro. Apple doesn't know how to innovate anymore, just how to market, and mass produce things, which is honestly good enough to keep making money for now.
Such people are likely confused. The AVP makes sense as a high end POC and dev kit. It takes a minute for a new modality of computing to make sense to people, even for Apple's own devs to figure out how people can use it, to iterate the OS and default app suite for a few years.
Vision pro was an over-hyped dev kit that offers a taste of the future. That’s it.
They aren’t that dumb to think calling it now Apple intelligence powered will make Siri work
This is the perfect use of AI, at least for me.
Normies struggle with the nuance of devices. They understand what they want, they don't understand steps, like start here then do this, then go here and copy this, then go there. This SKIPS all the steps. This is huge for them, but (probably) just mildly convenient for others.
Google Googles did this 13 years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Goggles
It remains interesting to me how much we have been able to do, already, with technology. But discoverability, walled gardens, and <hand waving>marketing/positioning/hype</hand waving> have obscured awareness/adoption.
Where's the innovation in word processors?
At this point, we're often talking about regression. Apple removed the audio output from its best-selling music player. It removed TouchID. It removed the SIM slot.
You know what would be "innovative?" Making a goddamned phone that can withstand being used for its primary purpose. The failure of the iPhone's design has been confirmed by millions upon millions of people, who have concluded that they must bury their "thin, elegant" phones in bulky, tacky cases. You have to shake your head at Apple's breathless announcement of NEW COLORS!!!! when the vast majority of them will never be seen.
Then there's the fact that Apple ignores an entire market: men who don't wear cargo pants all day every day. Maybe some of us don't want to look like a schlub with a TV tray jammed into his pocket (again, made even worse with a dumb case).
Edit: and currently, that looks to be you and the entire iPhone engineering team
Possible with current tech? Hell no. But within the realms of reality for handhelds to do this in the next 15 years? I think so. Probably less valuable over health and other potential device functions, I don’t think about these things and so I wouldn’t know.
Thus, we are not at a point where portable computers should be considered ‘mature’ from an innovation standpoint, even if current innovation is slow.
It's a button that'll be in the hands and pockets of >1 billion people soon.
Each press allows these billion people to connect with a supplier of Intelligence. Whether it's ChatGPT, Google's search, Apple AI or whatever supplier. Apple controls the hardware.
Just think of Apple's contract with Google that nets them $20 billion a year in profit. For comparison, Walmart, Amazon, NVIDIA, Volkswagen, VISA, all had about 20 billion in net income in 2023.
Or think of the appstore as an analogy. Apple controls the gateway between consumer and supplier, and gains from it. This action button will be no different.
With the months of nonstop and over-the-top hype of "Apple Intelligence" these all seem underwhelming.
Even in the idealized world of demoware there's no killer feature, not to mention that none of it is even available to real customers yet.
I was expecting something only Apple could do with their vast ecosystem of IP and partnerships, the must-have cool new thing that would stimulate a leap in demand for iPhone.
It's hard to see how any of this is enough to trigger a new upgrade cycle instead of just waiting until battery life goes to shit or the screen cracks so you have to upgrade.