Apple WWDC 2024 RECAP: All the announcements including iOS 18, AI features and more
By Matthew Phelan Senior Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com
Published: | Updated:
Apple's hotly anticipated annual conference for software developers, where the tech giant finally unveiled its plans for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its products, kicked off Monday, June 10 at 1pm ET (10am PT).
DailyMail.com covered the event, Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference 2024, live as it happened. The company has been hoping to jumpstart interest in its flagship product, the iPhone, which has experienced a 10 percent downturn in sales last quarter, to approximately $45.96 billion, its lowest since the pandemic.
Here's are the key takeaways from WWDC's opening event.
more videos
-
- Watch video
Adorable cat born with four ears thanks to a rare genetic mutation
- Watch video
Inventors make first phone chastity belt aims to curb porn addiction
- Watch video
Female Aussie boxer who won against Imane Khelif speaks out
- Watch video
Andi Peters forgets to plug in his mic on Good Morning Britain
- Watch video
Apple made its partnership with OpenAI's ChatGPT official
It looks like Siri's pairing with ChatGPT will be very cautious, making sure that users are aware at all times when they are getting input from OpenAI's famous, and sometimes infamous, AI chatbot.
'We want you to be able to use these external models without having to jump between different tools,' Apple's software engineering SVP Craig Federighi said of the plan to partner with 'the pioneer and market leader, ChatGPT.'
In one example shown, Siri recommended that the iPhone user consult ChatGPT for further dinner recipe ideas, flagging all the way that these new answers were coming from OpenAI's chatbot and advising users to 'check important info for mistakes.'
The caveat seems primed to mitigate ChatGPT and its competitor bots' tendency to 'hallucinate' — a polite tech industry euphemism for when an AI confidently delivers wholly made-up, false information.
Siri's ChatGPT integration will begin with the latest offering, GPT-4o, for free.
Apple promises that, unlike ordinary usage of ChatGPT direct from OpenAI's platform, users' private information and their queries will not be logged or stored.
However, an option will exist to login to your existing ChatGPT account to use the service's pro features, which will log information as per its usual terms of service.
While touting the next few days of WWDC events for Apple's developers, Tim Cook summarized this cautious approach to ChatGPT integration and Apple's new AI offerings in general with an upbeat spin.
'Built in a uniquely Apple way, we think Apple Intelligence is going to be indespensible to the products that already play such an integral role in our lives,' Cook said.
Apple Intelligence will include its own image generating AI, 'Image Playground'
Apple's devices will have their own ability to make Midjourney or Stable Diffusion-style generative images, with some guardrails to keep things safe and on-brand for the family friendly tech company.
Called 'Image Playground,' the app will only be making more cartoony illustrations, likely as a way to minimize the risks of disinformation or worse abuse potential.
Image Playground, the company noted, will also integrate with the Notes app, helping add fun visual flare or helpful, instructive images to your entries.
Image Playground, which will also have a pro version for developers, will also be capable of working with users' camera roll photos and other material to help you make personalized art of yourself, your friends and family.
Apple CEO Tim Cook underlines how careful the company is taking 'Apple Intelligence'
Apple CEO Tim Cook, quite nearly as a veiled dig at the company's rivals, emphasized the company's own strict criteria for when AI is mature enough to be worth integrating into their product's operating system.
Cook outlined five main criteria for what the tech giant is calling 'Apple Intelligence.' The AI will need to be 'powerful,' meaning actually useful, 'intuitive,' meaning easy to use, 'integrated' and 'personal,' meaning that it builds off an awareness of your own private data, while also being 'private,' meaning that Apple won't be harvesting and storing your private information.
From the tutorials, thus far, Apple Intelligence will be focused on coming up with useful reminders for users, offering proofreading and information summarizing help, and generally making Apple's digital assistant Siri smarter and more lifelike.
'Powerful intelligence goes hand-in-hand with powerful privacy,' Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi explained.
As a result, Apple Intelligence will be keeping users' personal information on their devices rather than uploading it to an Apple-owned cloud, promising that their tech will be 'aware of your personal data, without collecting your personal data.'
Apple's new M chips, the company noted, is what allows them to run these complex AI on users' devices, instead of remotely on some gigantic server farm.
'Math Notes' transforms Apple's Calculator app into a living piece of scratch paper
Built with the iPad and Apple Pencil in mind, a new update to its tried and true Calculator app looks like a life-changing way for both students and adults to do basic number-crunching.
Called 'Math Notes,' the feature will add Excel-style calculation functionality to a blank canvas that you then write to directly.
It will let you write equations that will then solve themselves, or build tables for computations in a way that's much closer to how an ordinary person tries to solve a math problem themselves on an ordinary piece of paper.
Time will tell what unexpected glitches may occur, but the ping pong tournament and ping pong physics examples that Apple showed off were impressive.
The era of the 'green text bubble' is coming to a close
It was a tossed-off remark, but the introduction of Rich Communication Services (RSC) text messaging protocal means that Apple's Messages app will be better integrated during communications with Android phones.
More likely than not Apple did not go overboard drawing attention to RCS because it was something of a mandatory update, the company's way of appeasing the European Union’s Digital Markets Act released in 2020, which prevents 'gatekeepers from imposing unfair conditions on businesses and end users.'
Major changes to iPhone's Messages, including 'schedule send' and 'messages via satellite,' promise to be literal lifesavers
Two new features announced just now at WWDC are already garnering raves online.
The first, auto-scheduling for text messages via Apple's Messages app, takes a feature that has made emailing easier for remote work and teamwork and redeploys it for smoothing out personal life interactions also. Apple's example was automating a birthday text, but there's guaranteed to be many ways it helps the average person.
The second, more elaborate innovation, allows users to send messages via satellite when they are out of range of traditional cell phone or wireless internet networks. The added connectivity is likely to literally save lives during natural disaters or accidents that occur in remote areas 'off the grid.'
Apple Vision Pro is going international this summer
In addition to the expected unveiling of the headset's new operating system, Apple has announced that the breathtakingly high-tech and expensive VR goggles will be rolling out across the world this summer.
On June 28, the Vision Pro will hit Asia, going on the market in China, Japan and Singapore.
Then, on July 12, the goggles will be coming to the rest of the west, becoming available in the UK, Australia, Canada, France, and Germany.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is leading with the latest offerings from Apple TV+
After an intentionally cute 'skydiving' intro, Apple's CEO Tim Cook kicked things off with a sprawling teaser for their in-house entertainment streamer's offerings for Apple TV+.
Packed with A-list Hollywood talent, from George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the upcoming film 'Wolfs,' to Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum in 'Fly Me to the Moon,' the tech company seems to be throwing its weight around and spending big to gain an edge on its competitors.
Social media reactions to 'Apple Intelligence' range from awe to ridicule
On the site formerly known as Twitter, Tesla mogul Elon Musk's X platform, reactions to the months of rumors about Apple's plan to brand its own collaboration with OpenAI as 'Apple Intelligence' has provoked everything from blind boosterism to whithering contempt.
Jason Fried, CEO of 37signals which makes project management software Basecamp, told his followers that 'the "artificial" in AI has always felt wrong' as he praised Apple's simple branding exercise as a 'great name.'
Others posted memes clearly meant to ding the company for taking an obvious route they found more unimaginative than elegant or clever.
As one former data scientist for Twitter put it, criticizing the gush of praise for the name, 'You people are so incredibly easy to impress. It boggles the mind.'
What is 'Apple Intelligence' rumored to be and how will it change Apple's Siri?
Nothing official has been said yet about Apple’s agreement with OpenAI to incorporate the Microsoft-owned company's ChatGPT into its well-known iOS voice-based personal assistant Siri, but here's what we know going into WWDC 2024 today.
Apple’s vice president of corporate development, Adrian Perica, has been quietly leading the charge to integrate the two, according to anonymous sources who spoke to the New York Times — with the hope that the end result will be a Siri that's more conversational and versatile.
Unlike its rivals however, Apple's core brand has been built on being intuitive and easy to use for the average person, so the company is the least likely to take any big risks with its AI offering.
'Apple is pretty conservative when it comes to everything, so I don't know that they will "wow" people,' Carolina Milanesi, president of Creative Strategies, a tech research firm, told the Times.
'But they have to do this because it will be how we interact with technology going forward,' she said.
What to expect from Apple WWDC 2024
After months of anticipation, the wait is finally almost over for Apple fans, as the tech giant's annual tech event is about to commence.
Apple says the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which kicks off today at Apple Park in California, will be an 'extraordinary week of technology.'
TOP STORIES
- Archaeologists make 'groundbreaking' discovery at Biblical site where Jesus is said to have performed miracles
- Top aviation expert reveals most likely cause of 'death spiral' that brought down Brazil passenger jet and killed 61 people
- Urgent warning to Britons as spiders the size of RATS invade the UK in their thousands
- Optical illusion reveals if you're empathetic or powerful depending on what you see first
- NASA's astronauts face 'life-altering' changes to their bodies due to being stranded in space by Boeing's faulty Starliner
- Scientists say they may have discovered a shocking cause of autism
- Witnesses reveal how Brazilian plane carrying doctors en route to a seminar narrowly missed crashing into a neighbourhood before it 'fell out of the sky and exploded' to leave 61 dead - as aviation experts determine likely cause of 'death spiral'
- What life is REALLY like on the ISS, as NASA reveals two astronauts are stuck there until 2025 - including bedrooms the size of phone boxes, vacuum-powered toilets, and dehydrated meals (not to mention absolutely NO booze)
- Do YOU see it? Bizarre optical illusion tricks your brain into distorting celebrity faces into terrifying MONSTERS - here's how it works
- REVEALED: Stranded NASA astronauts could be VAPORIZED on terrifying mission to return to Earth in faulty Boeing Starliner spaceship
- Astronauts trapped in space by Boeing's faulty Starliner are given horrifying news about potential return to Earth
- Gmail is DOWN: Google's emailing service hit by worldwide outage
- Common health condition also makes you more likely to be a NARCISSIST
- 'New nightmare unlocked': NASA astronauts who went to space 'for eight days' could be stuck on the International Space Station until 2025 - as concerned fans call the delay 'torture'
- You've got to be kitten! Adorable cat is born with FOUR ears thanks to a rare genetic mutation
- Ex-Apple employee's warning about updating new iOS if you have an older iPhone
- Texas father, 46, died after being ELECTROCUTED by faulty equipment at Tesla Giga factory, lawsuit claims
- You berry believe it! Demand for blueberries in Britain has soared by 27% per cent this year - putting them among the UK's fastest growing fruit
- NASA tells Americans to flee cities if they want to see Perseid meteor shower this weekend
- Disease-carrying tick that kills up to 15% of people bitten is rising across the US - see if your state is at risk
- Addicted to your phone? World's first CHASTITY BELT for smartphones is unveiled - so, would you try it?
- And you thought Mount Everest was big! Incredible interactive map reveals the tallest mountains in the Solar System - with the peaks on Earth dwarfed in comparison to those on other worlds
- iPhone 16 will come in five colours, leak suggests - here are the stunning shades we expect Apple to bring out
- Scientists make deadly discovery in New York City's subways
- Scientists warn Great Barrier Reef could disappear in next 30 years after making startling discovery
- Common backyard plant that can alter your DNA when touched is spreading across the US
- Only people with high IQs can solve this banana brainteaser in 7 seconds
- Clever parrot, Apollo, breaks world record after successfully naming 12 items in just 3 minutes (much to the delight of his 2.8 million TikTok fans!)
- I worked at Apple - these are the little-known game-changing iOS 18 features
- Historic data breach of nearly 3 BILLION people including American's social security numbers leaks to the dark web - here's what to do if you were exposed
- Archaeologists discover world's oldest calendar that could rewrite birth of civilization
- Thousands dead instantly, multiple states showered with lava: What will happen if Yellowstone's supervolcano erupts after 600k-year slumber
- Copernicus' lost compass is FOUND after 500 years: Instrument discovered in a castle in Poland is thought to have belonged to the astronomer who proposed that the planets orbit the Sun
- The robo-dentist will see you now: AI bot operates on a live human without supervision for the first time - and it's 8 times faster than a normal specialist
- Scathing NASA report lays bare how Boeing's disastrous Starliner left two astronauts stranded in space
- The REAL London Underground map? Cartographer creates a 'concentric-circles-and-spokes' version of the famous chart - and claims it's more geographically accurate than TfL's
- Scientists recreate Julius Caesar's perfume using 2,000-year-old recipe that calls for 'gladiator sweat'
- The germs lurking in your microwave: Radiation-resistant microbes are breeding inside our home appliances - including several that could prove DEADLY, study warns
- First fatal Tesla Cybertruck crash kills Texas man after EV veered off-road for 'unknown reason'- as cops probe potential safety faults
- Good news for nervous fliers! Commercial air travel has never been SAFER - with just one fatality per every 13.7 million passengers, study finds
Share or comment on this article: Apple WWDC 2024 RECAP: All the announcements including iOS 18, AI features and more
-
24shares