Apple Kicks Off WWDC Conference: Here Are The Key Takeaways (Image: X @Apple )

Apple kicked off its annual developer conference WWDC 2024 on Monday, where the technology giant demonstrated how it is incorporating artificial intelligence into its software suite, including a revamped Siri voice assistant and a partnership with ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

Here are the key takeaways;

ChatGPT integration: After months of mystery over Apple‘s AI strategy, it took a step taken by nearly every other tech company: integrate some OpenAI models into its products for features like text generation. Apple detailed other generative features beyond the OpenAI integration and revealed that it plans to announce support for other AI models in the future.

Introducing AI features along with personal privacy: Apple worked to position new artificial intelligence features as privacy-oriented. Many workloads will be handled on-device, as software engineering chief Craig Federighi said your data shouldn’t be “warehoused and analysed in someone’s AI cloud.”

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Vision Pro update: Apple’s augmented reality headset, which was the centrepiece of its conference last year, is getting a major software update including new ways to make content for the device and control it with physical gestures. Sales of Apple’s highly hyped augmented reality headset have been weak in recent months.

• Spatial Photos Experience: Enhances the immersive experience with support for spatial photos.
• New Gestures: Adds support for new gestures, improving interaction.
• SharePlay in Photos App: Allows spatial personas to engage with shared photos.
• Travel Mode: Includes train support for a better travel experience.
• Higher Display Resolution: Later this year, Vision Pro will support a resolution equivalent to two 4K displays.

  Siri’s makeover: Apple is hailing this year as the beginning of a new era for its voice assistant, great features will include the ability to take actions within apps on your behalf and better natural language processing to commence with.

Also, Includes,

• Natural Interaction: Redesigned for more natural, relevant, and personal interactions.
• Visual Redesign: A new wake visual that glows around the device display.
• Text Input Support: Similar to other AI chatbots, with on-screen awareness.
• Contextual Actions: Drives context from personal content such as photos, messages, calendar events, etc.
• Rewriting Tool: Helps write specialised content with context awareness.
• Smart Reply: For quick replies.

        iOS 18 for iPhone

• Home Screen: Apps and widgets can now be relocated, and the home screen supports customisable colours and new app icons in dark mode.
• Control Centre: Introduces a new group of controls accessible with a swipe-up gesture, showing connected home devices and allowing for quick control customisation. Controls are also accessible from the lock screen, and the Action Button can invoke these controls.
• App Lock: Independent app locking, with hidden apps placed in a secure folder.
• Messages: Includes RCS messaging support, emoji and sticker, scheduled messages, text formatting, integrated text effects, and satellite messaging for iPhone 14 and later models.
• Mail: On-device categorisation of emails into primary, transactions, updates, and promotions (coming later this year).
• Game mode: Mac’s game mode is coming to the iPhone.
• Photos: A comprehensive redesign simplifies accessing memories and organising photos, with built-in intelligence for creating collections.
• Audio: Siri supports gestures such as nodding, voice isolation for AirPods Pro, and personalised spatial audio for gaming, with “Need for Speed Mobile” as the first title to support this feature – coming later this year.
• TV: Apple TV Plus gains an insight feature similar to Prime Video’s in-screen option and support for 21:9 format projectors.

           watchOS 11 introduces several new features 

• Training Load: Tailored for enthusiasts and athletes.
• Vitals App: A new app to view vital health metrics quickly.
• Cycle Tracking: Enhanced with pregnancy tracking features.
• Smart Stacks: Automatically adds widgets like weather and translation.
• Check-In: A new feature coming to the Apple Watch.

          The updates in iPadOS 18 are:

•  Floating Tab Bar: Customisable and movable into a sidebar.
• SharePlay: Allows remote control of someone else’s iPad.
• Calculator App: Finally coming to the iPad, with Apple Pencil support.
• Smart Script in Notes App: Improves handwriting using on-device machine learning, making it smoother and more legible. Posted text appears in handwritten notes format, with support for spell check, text wrap, and copy/paste functions.

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         macOS Sequoia boosts the continuity within the Apple ecosystem:

• Wireless iPhone Mirroring: See and control your iPhone remotely using a Mac. Notifications and audio are redirected to the Mac, with mirroring supported even when the iPhone is locked. Drag-and-drop functionality is included.
• Tile Position: Facilitates quick placement of windows side by side, akin to Windows.
• Background Replacements: Available for FaceTime and Zoom.
• Passwords App: Coming to Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Windows.

        Safari proceeds to lead with a focus on speed, privacy, and user experience:

• Highlights Feature: Uses machine learning to detect and present interesting content.
• Reader Mode: Now includes summaries and table of contents.
• Viewer: Brings videos front and centre with system video controls.

       Apple introduces a new personal intelligence system:

• Generative Models: Designed with privacy in mind, capable of prioritising notifications, summarising content, and generating images using photos from the library.
• Personalised Actions: Across apps and Apple devices, powered by on-device intelligence available on A17 Pro and Apple Silicon from M1 chip onwards.
• Private Cloud Compute: For specialised processing that needs cloud support.

     To watch more on the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, click here: https://apple.co/3MU4