Month: June 2024

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

Apple's new iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 updates are mostly good news for users of older Apple devices—with the exception of 2018's sixth-generation iPad, the new updates will run on all the same hardware that can run iOS 17 and iPadOS 17.

For iPhones, that will cover everything from the iPhone XR/XS and newer, including the second-gen iPhone SE; the seventh-gen iPad and newer; the third-gen iPad Air and newer; the fifth-gen iPad mini and newer; all 11-inch iPad Pros; and the third-gen 12.9-inch iPad Pro and later. Here are the full support lists:

• 

  The iOS 18 support list. [credit: Apple ]

It's a bit odd that the seventh-gen iPad makes the cutoff while the sixth-gen model does not, given that both use the same Apple A10 processor. But the seventh-gen iPad has 3GB of RAM instead of 2GB. This is the same amount as the third-gen iPad Air and fifth-gen iPad mini—apparently that extra gigabyte is crucial for running iPadOS 18's new features.

• 

  The AIs are learning to cooperate! Siri talks to ChatGPT. [credit: Apple ]

Reports of Apple signing a deal with OpenAI are true: ChatGPT is coming to your Apple gear.

First up is Siri, which can tap into ChatGPT to answer voice questions. If Siri thinks ChatGPT can help answer your question, you'll get a pop-up permission box asking if you want to send your question to the chatbot. The response will come back in a window indicating that the information came from an outside source. This is the same way Siri treats a search engine (namely, Google), so how exactly Siri draws a line between ChatGPT and a search engine will be interesting. In Apple's lone example, there was a "help" intent, with the input saying to "help me plan a five-course meal" given certain ingredient limitations. That sort of ultra-specific input is something you can't do with a traditional search engine.

Siri can also send photos to ChatGPT. In Apple's example, the user snapped a picture of a wooden deck and asked Siri about decorating options. It sounds like the standard generative AI summary features will be here, too, with Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi mentioning that "you can also ask questions about your documents, presentations, or PDFs."

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

On Monday, Apple debuted "Apple Intelligence," a new suite of AI-powered features for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia that includes creating email summaries, generating images and emoji, and allowing Siri to take actions on your behalf. It's achieved through a combination of on-device and in-cloud processing, and Apple says it focuses on privacy. Apple says that Apple Intelligence features will be widely available later this year and will be available as a beta test for developers this summer.

The announcements came during a livestream WWDC Keynote and a simultaneous event attended by press on Apple's campus in Cupertino, California. In an introduction, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company has been using machine learning for years, but the introduction of large language models (LLMs) presents new opportunities to elevate the capabilities of Apple products. He emphasized the need for both personalization and privacy in Apple's approach.

At last year's WWDC, Apple avoided using the term "AI" completely, instead preferring terms like "machine learning" as Apple's way of avoiding buzzy hype while integrating applications of AI into apps in useful ways. This year, Apple figured out a new way to largely avoid the abbreviation "AI" by coining "Apple Intelligence," a catchall branding term that refers to a broad group of machine learning, LLM, and image generation technologies. By our count, the term "AI" only appeared once in the keynote: Near the end of the presentation, Apple executive Craig Federighi said, "It's AI for the rest of us."

Enlarge / Apple Senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi announces "Private Cloud Compute" at WWDC 2024. (credit: Apple)

With most large language models being run on remote, cloud-based server farms, some users have been reluctant to share personally identifiable and/or private data with AI companies. In its WWDC keynote today, Apple stressed that the new "Apple Intelligence" system it's integrating into its products will use a new "Private Cloud Compute" to ensure any data processed on its cloud servers is protected in a transparent and verifiable way.

"You should not have to hand over all the details of your life to be warehoused and analyzed in someone's AI cloud," Apple Senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said.

Trust, but verify

Part of what Apple calls "a brand new standard for privacy and AI" is achieved through on-device processing. Federighi said "many" of Apple's generative AI models can run entirely on a device powered by an A17+ or M-series chips, eliminating the risk of sending your personal data to a remote server.

Enlarge / A grab bag of new features in macOS 15 Sequoia. (credit: Apple)

Most owners of aging Intel Macs got a bit of a reprieve today when Apple announced macOS 15 Sequoia—this new macOS release will run on the vast majority of the hardware that can currently run macOS 14 Sonoma. Intel Macs released between December of 2017 and 2020 are mostly eligible for the new update, though newer models with Apple Silicon chips will be needed to support some of the new features.

Apple's full support list for Sequoia is as follows:

The support list for macOS 15 Sequoia. (credit: Apple)

Generally, all of these Macs include Apple's T2 chip, a co-processor installed in late-model Intel Macs that bridged the gap between the Intel and Apple Silicon eras. There are two exceptions. The biggest is the 2018 MacBook Air, which did come with an Apple T2 but also shipped with a weak dual-core processor and integrated GPU that Apple has apparently decided aren't up to the task of handling Sequoia. The other is the 2019 iMac, which for whatever reason shipped without a T2. Apple says the iPhone mirroring feature does require the T2 chip, so it presumably won't work on the 2019 iMac.