Game publisher Voodoo (known for free-to-play mobile titles stuffed with ads) has bought the social platform BeReal (known for a scorching hot 15 minutes of fame in 2022) for €500 million. Although BeReal has fallen off the radar since its much-hyped peak, Voodoo says the app has grown to 40 million active users.
“BeReal achieved incredible user loyalty and growth, showing there is a universal need to share real, unfiltered experiences with close friends,” Voodoo CEO Alexandre Yazdi wrote in a press release. “We are very excited to bring our teams together and leverage Voodoo’s know-how and differentiated technologies to scale BeReal into the iconic social network for authenticity.”
If you’ve forgotten, BeReal’s gimmick is that it promotes “spontaneous authenticity” by prompting users to capture dual-camera pictures (a selfie and whatever the rear camera is aimed at) during two-minute windows at random times throughout the day. It won Apple’s iPhone App of the Year award in 2022 as younger users (especially) appreciated its less choreographed user content.
The app’s marketing spiel is that the short and sudden posting window forces spontaneous, unmanicured content (unlike, say, Instagram). On the downside, authenticity isn’t always engaging: Some users complained that its content could get downright boring. (Care to peruse an adrenaline-pumping pic of... somebody looking half asleep as they sit at a computer?)
Although BeReal’s buzz has died down significantly since its 2022 heyday (partially thanks to Instagram and TikTok cloning its gimmick while it was still hot), the company says its user base is growing more than you might expect. Voodoo’s 40 million active users figure is double the 20 million daily active users BeReal claimed in April 2023.
It’s worth noting that Voodoo’s press release on Tuesday describes BeReal as having 40 million active users, not daily active users, suggesting those figures may not be apples to apples. And around the time BeReal claimed 20 million daily active users last year, The New York Times published a report citing an analytics firm that said the app’s daily use had dropped 61 percent from its peak: from about 15 million users in October 2022 to “less than six million” in March 2023.
Left: The original Donut County. Right: Voodoo’s clone Hole.io.
Ben Esposito / Voodoo
No matter whose figures are accurate, BeReal is now in the hands of the French gaming publisher Voodoo. Founded in 2013, the mobile gaming titan’s ultra-casual titles tend to do quite well. By 2022, it claimed to have passed six billion total downloads, and it says its apps trail only Google and Meta in mobile app installations.
Voodoo says Aymeric Roffé, CEO of its social app Wizz, will take over as BeReal’s CEO. The company says BeReal’s founder and previous CEO Alexis Barreyat will “remain involved in BeReal in the short term” before shuffling off to work on new products.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bereal-the-buzziest-app-of-2022-has-been-bought-by-a-mobile-game-publisher-175016152.html?src=rss
Following customer outrage over its latest terms of service (ToS), Adobe is making updates to add more detail around areas like of AI and content ownership, the company said in a blog post. "Your content is yours and will never be used to train any generative AI tool," wrote head of product Scott Belsky and VP of legal and policy Dana Rao.
Subscribers using products like Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Lightroom were incensed by new, vague language they interpreted to mean that Adobe could freely use their work to train the company's generative AI models. In other words, creators thought that Adobe could use AI to effectively rip off their work and then resell it.
Other language was thought to mean that the company could actually take ownership of users' copyrighted material (understandably so, when you see it).
None of that was accurate, Adobe said, noting that the new terms of use were put in place for its product improvement program and content moderation for legal reasons, mostly around CSAM. However, many users didn't see it that way and Belsky admitted that the company "could have been clearer" with the updated ToS.
"In a world where customers are anxious about how their data is used, and how generative AI models are trained, it is the responsibility of companies that host customer data and content to declare their policies not just publicly, but in their legally binding Terms of Use," Belsky said.
To that end, the company promised to overhaul the ToS using "more plain language and examples to help customers understand what [ToS clauses] mean and why we have them," it wrote.
Adobe didn't help its own cause by releasing an update on June 6th with some minor changes to the same vague language as the original ToS and no sign of an apology. That only seemed to fuel the fire more, with subscribers to its Creative Cloud service threatening to quit en masse.
In addition, Adobe claims that it only trains its Firefly system on Adobe Stock images. However, multiple artists have noted that their names are used as search terms in Adobe's stock footage site, as Creative Bloq reported. The results yield AI-generated art that occasionally mimics the artists' styles.
Its latest post is more of a true mea culpa with a detailed explanation of what it plans to change. Along with the AI and copyright areas, the company emphasized that users can opt out of its product improvement programs and that it will more "narrowly tailor" licenses to the activities required. It added that it only scans data on the cloud and never looks at locally stored content. Finally, Adobe said it will be listening to customer feedback around the new changes.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/adobe-is-updating-its-terms-of-service-following-a-backlash-over-recent-changes-120044152.html?src=rss
After over a decade, the iPad finally got a calculator app. Let’s just get one thing straight – Apple just made the calculator glamorous.
Steve Jobs debuted the iPad back in January 2010, that’s a whopping 14 and a half years ago… and mysteriously enough, the iPad never shipped with an Apple-branded calculator app. Whenever pressed on the issue, Apple spokespeople always had the same answer – they didn’t want to release a calculator app just for the sake of it. They wanted to get it right by designing the best-ever calculator app for the iPad. Up until yesterday, all that felt like deflection, that Apple didn’t quite care about calculators on the iPad (after all, it was an entertainment and visual productivity device). Today, however, Apple is vindicating itself after over a decade of judgment. The new iPad Calculator app debuted at WWDC and it’s INCREDIBLE.
The new Calculator app for the iPad comes with a familiar interface, but uses the iPad’s larger screen to its advantage, delivering more oomph thanks to larger real estate. It has a history feature and built-in unit conversions, but if you have an Apple Pencil lying around, the Calculator experience gets MUCH more interesting.
Pair the Calculator with the Pencil and you get what Apple calls Math Notes, a more interactive, personal experience that takes your hand-written notes and graphs and turns them into computable datasets. Write an equation and the calculator understands your handwriting and solves the equation for you. Draw geometry, label the parts, and add a ‘=’ sign and the app intuitively understands what you want to calculate, giving you the answer. It’s like the self-answering Horcrux book from Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets but on steroids. The app understands what you’re drawing/writing and how you’re doing so too. It mimics your handwriting to deliver answers (so when you write 2+2=, it adds ‘4’ to the end in a similar writing style). You can change parts of your calculations and the answers update in real-time. You can turn equations into graphs, change variables, and watch the graph change in real-time too.
This brilliant reinterpretation of the calculator comes thanks to Apple’s integration of the calculator’s features in its Notes app. It’s nothing like anything we’ve seen before. In fact, we’ve seen ChatGPT and Google Bard (or Gemini) fail in this exact area, with their inability to understand graphs or photos of equations, resulting in hilariously wrong answers. The iPad calculator app sidesteps all that by giving you the ability to intuitively take notes and compute calculations using the Pencil. You don’t need to upload an image from a text book, just draw stuff out instead. Now whether the Math Notes will be able to do all this correctly is something entirely different. It could end up making the same mistakes as GPT and Google, or create unique errors that will only be made evident once the Calculator and Math Notes features roll out with iOS 18 this fall. For one, I can definitely say that math teachers are NOT going to be happy about all of this!
WWDC is always where we learn about the year's biggest updates to Apple's operating systems. Given that the iPhone is Apple's most important product, it's no surprise that iOS takes up a major chunk of the attention each June. WWDC 2024 is no exception, as Apple had a ton of new features and updates to go over, many of which concerned AI (or Apple Intelligence, as the company is calling it).
As part of this new era, Siri is getting a major overhaul. The voice assistant will be able to get much more done as it will be more deeply integrated into your apps and have more contextual awareness. You'll be able to use Siri for things like photo editing, rewriting emails and prioritizing notifications. There's the option to type your Siri commands as well, which is a nice accessibility upgrade.
The language models will be able to rewrite, proofread and summarize text for you in apps such as Mail, Notes, Safari, Pages and Keynote, as well as third-party apps. Image generation will be available too in sketch, illustration and animation styles — so you won't be able to generate realistic images using Apple's tech. Image generation is built into apps such as Notes, Freeform and Pages.
Apple
You'll be able to use natural language prompts to search for photos of certain people. There's also the promise of more intelligent search in the browser and (at long last!) transcriptions of calls and Voice Memos to catch up to a feature Pixel devices have had for a while.
Although Apple Intelligence will pull from your personal information to make sure the systems are applicable to you, it will be aware of your personal data without collecting it, according to Apple software engineering SVP Craig Federighi.
Apple is employing a blend of both on-device and cloud-based AI processing. Your iPhone will handle as much of the legwork locally as it can, with more complex operations being sent to Apple's processing centers. That raises some questions about privacy, one of Apple's central selling points to would-be customers (especially after Apple openly took digs at rivals that use cloud servers for data processing), but Federighi gave some answers to those.
For one thing, the company has established something called Private Cloud Compute. Apple says the aim is to wield the power of the cloud for more advanced AI processing while making sure your iPhone data remains safe and secure.
To use these new features on iOS, you'll need a device that has at least an Apple A17 Pro chipset — in other words, an iPhone 15 Pro or one of this year's upcoming models. Apple Intelligence features will be available for free on iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia this fall in US English.
Customization
Apple also focused on customization. You'll be able to make the home screen look more like your own vibe than ever. You'll be able to change the colors of app icons, which can automatically get a different look when you have Dark Mode enabled. Your apps won't need to be locked within a rigid grid anymore either. Your home screen can look almost as messy as you want.
Control Center is getting some big changes. You'll be able to access things like media playback and smart home controls from here. Developers will be able to take advantage of this and offer Control Center management for their apps too. It'll be possible to pin custom controls to the home screen for your most frequently used apps and functions (so you'll be able to switch out the flashlight control for something else, for instance). Custom controls can also be mapped to the physical action button as you see fit.
Messages
When it comes to Messages, there's another nice update in the form of scheduling. When you're catching up on things late at night, you'll be able to time a message to send in the morning, for instance. Those who use emoji reactions in Messages (aka Tapbacks) are getting a nice update too. You'll be able to choose from any emoji instead of the five basic reactions Apple has offered for years.
Text effects (the little animations that show up when you type a certain phrase) are getting an upgrade as well. Meanwhile, Apple will offer satellite messaging support on iPhone 14 and later devices. That's a major update, especially for those who go off the grid often, as messaging will be more useful beyond emergencies. You'll be able to send and receive texts, emoji and Tapbacks via iMessage and SMS.
Apple
There's also a key AI-related change coming to the Messages app. Your iPhone will be able to generate custom emoji based on what you're writing. You might need a PhD in semiotics to decipher some of the "Genmoji" you receive.
There's one other big update for Messages in iOS 18: Apple will add support for RCS (Rich Communication Services) to Messages. RCS is a more advanced messaging protocol than SMS. It enables better media sharing, Wi-Fi messaging, group chats and, crucially, better security thanks to end-to-end encryption. It should allow for more secure, media-rich messaging between iPhone and Android devices.
Apple for years refused to support RCS in order to keep iMessage a walled garden. But after persistent pressure from Google — and more importantly, new EU laws coming into force — Apple promised to start supporting RCS sometime this year. Apple, which is never petty about anything ever, almost completely glossed over the addition of RCS in its the keynote, relegating it to a three-word mention.
Apps
The Photos app is getting is biggest redesign ever, Apple says. It's getting a visual overhaul and one of the key aims is to help you find your photos more easily (filtering out screenshots should be a breeze, for one thing). Your snaps will be organized around memorable moments. Apple Intelligence will power features like Clean Up, which is effectively Apple's version of Google's Magic Eraser tool.
The Mail app will soon be able to categorize emails — just like Gmail has for years. Apple will also organize emails by sender and make it easy to archive or delete every email you get from a certain company. This will be optional, so you can stick to a single inbox if you wish.
Maps, meanwhile, will offer more detailed topographic maps to bring the app more into line with the Apple Watch. This should be useful for planning routes while hiking. As for the Journal app, it will now show stats for things like a daily writing streak.
Wallet is getting a handy new feature that will allow you to send cash without having to exchange personal details. All you need to do is simply tap your phones together. This could be handy for splitting the bill after dinner with a new acquaintance. Tickets saved to Wallet can now include stadium details, recommended Apple Music playlists and other information.
Calendar can show events and tasks from Reminders app, while the Notes app can automatically solve any math equations you enter. The Home app will offer guest access
Another welcome change is the introduction of a dedicated Passwords app. This will work across iOS, iPadOS, visionOS and macOS and make it easier to find saved passwords from iCloud Keychain. Even better, there will also be Windows support via the iCloud for Windows app. Hopefully, this will make it easier for everyone to use a password manager and have unique passwords for every single account — something we strongly recommend.
This being Apple, of course it has some new privacy controls for apps in iOS 18. You'll have the option to lock apps behind an authentication method (i.e., your PIN or Face ID) so that when you pass your iPhone to someone to show them your camera roll, they can't go snooping in your Messages. You can also hide apps — perhaps ones you use for dating — in a locked folder too. Elsewhere on the app privacy front, you'll be able to decide which of your contacts an app has access to instead of giving them absolutely everyone's phone numbers and personal information.
Elsewhere, Apple is bringing Game Mode to iPhone. This aims to boost performance by minimizing background activity, while controllers and AirPods should be more responsive.
During an emergency call, dispatchers will be able to send a request to turn it into a video call or to share media from the camera roll. This, Apple suggests, can help first responders better prepare for an incident. The Health app, meanwhile, has been redesigned to make it easier to access vital info in an emergency.
On the accessibility front, users will be able to navigate their iPhone using eye tracking. You'll be able to set up a custom sound that will trigger tasks using the Vocal Shortcut feature, while Music Haptics aims to give those who are deaf or hard of hearing another way to experience music via the Taptic Engine.
A developer beta of iOS 18 is available today and a public version will roll out in July. As always, iOS 18 will roll out to all eligible iPhones this fall.
If your device can run iOS 17, you'll be able to install iOS 18. The list of eligible devices includes the iPhone 11 and later lineups, along with iPhone Xs, Xs Max, Xr and the second-gen SE.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ios-18-gets-a-revamped-control-center-and-loads-of-home-screen-customization-options-172350046.html?src=rss
Apple is going all in on AI in the most Apple way possible. At WWDC, Apple's annual conference for developers, the company revealed Apple Intelligence, an Apple-branded version of AI that is more focused on infusing its software with the technology and upgrading existing apps to make them more useful. Apple Intelligence will be powered both by Apple’s homegrown tech as well as a partnership with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, Apple announced.
One of Apple’s biggest AI upgrades is coming to Siri. The company’s built-in voice assistant will now be powered by large language models, the tech that underlies all modern-day generative AI. Siri, which has languished over the years, may become more useful now that it can interact more closely with Apple’s operating systems and apps. You can, for instance, ask Siri to give you a summary of a news article, delete an email or edit a photo. The assistant will also be able to take more than 100 actions, such as finding photos based on a general description of their contents, or extracting personal information from a picture of your ID to automatically fill in forms online. Finally, you can type your question into Siri instead of using your voice.
Apple Intelligence will be highlight relevant content in Safari as you browse. You’ll also be able to use it to quickly catch up on priority notifications. And just like Gmail and Outlook, your devices will be able create fleshed out responses to emails and text messages on your behalf. Apple also announced a suite of new features called Writing Tools that uses AI to write, rewrite, proofread and summarize text across the system, useful to draft emails and blog posts, for instance.
Apple
Apple Intelligence will use AI to record, transcribe and summarize your phone calls, rivaling third-party transcription services like Otter. All participants are automatically notified when you start recording, and a transcript of the conversation's main points is automatically generated at the end. You can also use AI to generate images, stickers and custom emoji (which Apple calls Genmoji) in any app.
Apple
Thanks to its partnership with OpenAI, Apple also is baking the base version of GPT-4o — OpenAI's newest large language model — into Siri as well as Writing Tools. Siri can act as an intermediary for user queries to GTP-4o, and Writing Tools can use the LLM to help compose text. Apple claims unless you connect your paid ChatGPT account to your Apple device, the company won't store your requests or other identifying information like your IP address.
Apple Intelligence, which the company says will be in beta at launch, will be restricted to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max and iPads and Macs with M1 (or higher) chipsets. Your device will also need to be set to US English.
Apple's AI features are a long time coming. Generative AI has shaken up Silicon Valley ever since OpenAI launched ChatGPT around the end of 2022. Since then, Apple’s rivals like Google, Samsung and Microsoft, as well as companies like Meta have raced to integrate AI features in all their primary products. Last month, Google announced that AI would be a cornerstone of the next version of Android and made major AI-powered changes to its search engine. Samsung, Apple’s primary smartphone competitor, added AI features to its phones earlier this year that can translate calls in real time and edit photos. Microsoft, too, unveiled AI-powered Copilot PCs, aimed at infusing Windows with AI features that include live captioning, image editing, and beefing up systemwide search.
Many of the new features coming to watchOS 11 are fitness-focused, with a new Training Load feature for the Activities app, pregnancy stats in Cycle Tracking and a brand new Vitals app. Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday showcased all the things we can expect when the operating system update for Apple Watches hits this fall.
The new app, Vitals, synthesizes data gathered overnight to give you a better understanding of your overall health. Apple Watch sensors will monitor details like heart rate, wrist temperature and respiration and combine that with data from the Apple Heart and Movement study so it can track changes over time and give you a heads up when things look outside their normal range. From what we've seen, Apple Watch batteries (outside of the Ultra model) don't quite make it through a night after a full day of use, so it'll be interesting to see how useful the new app will prove.
The Activity app is getting a few new abilities, including Training Load that measures the intensity and duration of your workout to see how it's impacting you over time. Using data from GPS, sensor metrics like heart rate and pace, as well as your personal details like age and weight, the app will determine a rating for each workout from one (easy) to 10 (all out). And if you don't agree with the assessment, you can manually adjust it. In a post workout summary, you can see if you're training above your average or below it.
The Workout app within the Apple Watch will now include a Check In button to let friends and family know when you're heading out and back home safe from a run.
Using your iPhone, you can set more customizations in the Activity app too. Now you can adjust your goals for the day of the week and set rest days while still hanging onto your streaks. The summary screen in the Fitness app on iPhone is customizable too.
The Cycle Tracking app can now give you insights during pregnancy, showing applicable health data as it tracks the duration of your pregnancy. This includes a look at your heart rate, which typically rises during pregnancy, as well as a running timeline of the gestational age. Walking stability alerts during the third trimester can also help you avoid falling issues that sometimes arise. Mental health will also get some attention, with reminders to take a monthly assessments to keep you aware of issues that pregnancy and postpartum conditions can trigger, like depression.
Apple
Smart Stack — the rolling list of active app widgets you access by swiping up from the bottom of the screen — is getting some updates as well. Now instead of just active apps, the Smart Stack will include time sensitive widgets like precipitation alerts before it rains or the translate widget when traveling. That alerted us to the fact that the Translate app is coming to the Apple Watch, with translation support for 20 languages. Live Activities and Check In will come to the Smart Stack, too.
Apple is opening up access to the Smart Stack to third parties. So, for example, you'll see that your Uber is arriving in the widget carousel. Developers will have access to the Double Tap feature as well, for hands-free interaction with more apps.
If you like the Photos watch face, there's good news here too. Machine learning models will help you find the best photos to feature by identifying and scoring the images of your friends and family based on facial expressions and image composition. It can even automatically crop and frame them for you.
Almost as an afterthought, Apple also mentioned the advent of turn-by-turn directions for hiking and walking routes you created yourself.
If you're itching to try out the new features for yourself, you can do so next month if you're part of Apple's beta software program. Developers gained access as of the announcement. And for regular folk, watchOS 11 will be available as a free software update this fall for Apple Watch Series 6 and newer.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watchos-11-includes-a-new-vitals-app-to-see-all-your-key-health-metrics-175600647.html?src=rss
To start, iPadOS is getting deeper customization options for your home screen including the ability to put app icons pretty much wherever you want. Apple's Control Center has also been expanded with support for creating multiple lists and views, resizing and rearranging icons and more. There's also a new floating tab bar that makes it easy to navigate between apps, which can be further tuned to remember your favorites. Next, SharePlay is getting the ability to draw diagrams on someone else's iPad or control someone else's device remotely (with permission) for times like when you need to help troubleshoot.
Apple
After years of requests, the iPad is also getting its own version of the Calculator app, which includes a new Math Notes feature that supports the Apple Pencil and the ability to input handwritten formulas. Math Notes will even update formulas in real time or you can save them in case you want to revisit things later. Alternatively, the Smart Script tool in the Notes app uses machine learning to make your notes less messy and easier to edit.
General privacy is also being upgraded with a new feature that lets you lock an app. This allows a friend or family member to borrow your device without giving them full access to everything on your tablet. Alternatively, there’s also a new hidden apps folder so you can stash sensitive software in a more secretive way.
Apple
In Messages, Tapbacks are now compatible with all your emoji. Furthermore, you'll be able to schedule messages or send texts via satellite in case you aren't currently connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network. Apple even says messages sent using satellite will feature end-to-end encryption.
The Mail and Photos apps are also getting similarly big revamps. Mail will feature new categorizations meant to make it easier to find specific types of offers or info (like plane flights). Meanwhile, the Photos app will sport an updated UI that will help you view specific types of images while hiding things like screenshots. And to better surface older photos and memories, there will be new categories like Recent Days and People and Pets to put similar types of pics all in a single collection.
Audio controls on iPads is also getting a boost with a new ability for Siri to understand gestures for “Yes” and “No” by either shaking or nodding your head while wearing AirPods. This should make it easier to provide Apple's digital assistant with simple responses in areas like a crowded bus or quiet waiting room where you might be uncomfortable talking aloud.
Apple
However, the biggest addition this year is that alongside all the iPad-specific features, Apple’s tablet OS is also getting Apple Intelligence. This covers many of the company’s new AI-powered features like the ability to create summaries of websites, proofread or rewrite emails or even generate new art based on your prompts.
Apple says that to make its AI more useful, features will be more personalized and contextual. That said, to help protect your privacy and security, the company claims it won’t build profiles or sell data to outside parties. Generally, Apple says it will use on-device processing for most of its tools, though some features require help from the cloud.
As its iconic digital assistant, Siri is getting a big refresh via Apple Intelligence too. This includes better natural language recognition and the ability to understand and remember context from one query to another. Siri will also be able to help you use your device, allowing you to ask your tablet how to perform certain tasks, search for files or control apps and features using your voice.
Apple
Some examples of what Apple Intelligence can do is highlight priority emails and put them at the top of your inbox so you don't miss important messages or events. Or if you're feeling more creative, you can use AI to create unique emoji (called Genmoji). And in photos, Apple Intelligence can help you edit images with things like the Clean Up tool. And for those who want the freedom to use other AI models, Apple is adding the option to integrate other services, the first of which will be Chat GPT.
Finally, other minor updates including a new Passwords app for stashing credentials across apps and websites, a new dedicated Game Mode with personalized spatial audio, expanded hiking results in Apple Maps and a new eye-tracking feature for improved accessibility.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ipados-18s-smart-script-uses-machine-learning-to-make-your-handwriting-less-horrible-175306533.html?src=rss
Yesterday's Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote teased a lot of what users can expect this fall when big iOS, iPadOS, macOS and watchOS updates hit their devices. Changes coming include RCS support in Messages, a new Passwords app, a revamped Calculator app for iPhone and iPad and a bunch of artificial intelligence (AI) infusions across the board with the new "Apple Intelligence" system. The latter will bring some of the biggest updates to Apple devices in years, including generative AI image creation, "Genmoji" custom emojis, text summarization and even some ChatGPT integration as well. If you weren't able to catch the news live, here's a rundown of everything announced at WWDC 2024.
Apple Intelligence
Apple
Apple revealed its plans to incorporate AI into its operating systems at WWDC this year. Dubbed "Apple Intelligence," this new generative AI system will appear in iOS and iPad 18 and macOS Sequoia in the form of (what Apple believes to be) practical tools that most people can use regularly. Those features include new writing tools that can help you rewrite, proofread and summarize things like emails and other messages, original emoji and image creation and more. Going hand-in-hand with original image generation is a new feature called Genmoji, which allows users to create their own unique emojis by typing in descriptions and requirements like "T-rex wearing a tutu on a surfboard."
Siri is getting an AI infusion, now that it will be powered in part by large language models. In addition to asking Siri to delete an email or edit a photo, users will also be able to ask the virtual assistant to summarize articles and webpages in Safari and even extract personal information from a picture of an ID so it can fill out an online form for them. The company emphasized the importance of "personal context" with Apple Intelligence, which will enable things like using natural language to search for photos that contain only specific family members or friends.
Apple highlighted how most Apple Intelligence actions will be done on-device to make the system as privacy-focused as possible. For queries that cannot be done locally, the work will be sent to Apple's processing centers. The company also created Private Cloud Compute, a feature that's supposed to utilize the cloud for more advanced AI processing while also making sure your data remains secure.
OpenAI's ChatGPT is also integrated into Apple Intelligence, allowing users to give Apple permission to share their queries with ChatGPT "when it might be helpful." Examples provided include asking for menu ideas that incorporate specific ingredients, or asking for decor advice while providing a photo of a space that needs sprucing up. ChatGPT will also work with the AI writing tools coming to iOS and iPadOS 18 in a new Compose feature. ChatGPT integration with iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia will roll out later this year, and apparently Apple intends to add support for other AI models in the future — meaning its partnership with OpenAI isn't a long-term exclusive.
iOS 18 and iPadOS 18
Apple
The next iPhone software update will roll out to users in the fall and, as expected, one of the biggest changes is support for Rich Communication Service, or RCS. The messaging protocol offers many improvements over SMS including end-to-end encryption, better media sharing and support for proper group chats. Apple previously stated it would adopt support for RCS in 2024 to comply with EU regulations, so it's unsurprising to see it mentioned in iOS 18's forthcoming features. Also new to Messages will be the ability to "tapback" reply using emojis and stickers, text formatting and effects and the ability to send messages via satellite.
iPhone users will have more control over their home screens in iOS 18 thanks to the fact that it will not be a locked grid system anymore. Users will be able to move app icons more freely, plus they'll be able to change app icon colors as well use a tint color picker. In terms of design and layout, this is one of the biggest changes to come to the iPhone's home screen in years and it gives iOS users similar features to those Android users have had for a long time. In the same vein, Control Center will be updated in iOS 18 to include more customization options, and will allow users to program quick controls from third-party apps in addition to the native options.
The Photos app is getting a big redesign in iOS 18, putting an emphasis on intelligently organized groups of photos that revolve around memories, trips and other big events. The new design ditches the old tabbed layout and will usher in a one-page design when you can view all of your photos individually, or view them by Collections. Users will also be able to filter out things like screenshots and receipts that would show up in a chronological format, but would otherwise mess up a tightly curated group of vacation photos.
A couple of new privacy features stand out in iOS 18, namely the ability to lock and hide apps. For the former, users can lock an app so sensitive information stays behind a Face-ID or Touch-ID wall, preventing those who you casually hand your iPhone to from seeing that information. Hiding an app, on the other hand, does exactly what you think: hides a program in a special hidden folder that others won't be able to see.
The Calculator app is getting a big overhaul in iOS 18, including improved unit conversions, a sidebar showing recent activity and integration with the Notes app. But what might be even more notable is the fact that the revamped Calculator app will not only be available on iPhones and Macs — it's coming to iPads for the first time as part of the iPadOS 18 update. Embedded within the iPadOS Calculator app is a new feature called Math Notes, which lets users write out math equations with the Apple Pencil and the app will solve many of them instantly.
iPadOS 18 will also feature a new Tab Bar, which looks similar to the Dynamic Island on iPhones. This bar makes it easier to access essential controls even when you're in apps, and depending on what you're doing, it can show up at the top of the screen or as a sidebar of sorts on the left of the display. The Notes app in iPadOS is getting another new feature called Smart Script, which will make users' handwriting more legible automatically.
macOS Sequoia
Apple
The next iteration of Apple's computer software will be called macOS Sequoia. In addition to many of the AI features also coming to iOS and iPadOS 18 as part of Apple Intelligence, the next macOS update will include iPhone mirroring, which lets users see and control their iPhone screen on a Mac screen. They'll be able to use their keyboard and trackpad to intact with the iPhone screen on their laptop, and they can even open iOS apps directly on their computers without picking up their iPhone at all.
A new Passwords app builds upon the technology of iCloud Keychain to save all of users' passwords and login credentials across devices and platforms (it will be available on Windows in addition to iOS and iPadOS). Along with standard passwords, the new app can save passkeys, verification codes and more, and give users the ability to securely share passwords with others.
Other updates coming in macOS Sequoia include a snap window arrangement tool with accompanying keyboard and menu shortcuts, Presenter Preview, which lets you see what you're about to share with call partners before they see it, and gaming upgrades like improved Windows porting capabilities using Gameporting Toolkit 2. Users will also get access to Image Playground in macOS Sequoia, Apple's AI image generator built into Apple Intelligence. It provides the ability to create AI-generated images in different styles, including animation, illustration and sketch.
watchOS 11
Apple
The next software update for the Apple Watch includes two big changes: Training Load and a new Vitals app. Training Load in watchOS 11 essentially uses many of the health and fitness metrics collected during workout tracking to estimate your effort level each time. Each workout will receive a rating from one (easy) to 10 (all out) that estimates how hard the user worked during that particular session.
The new Vitals app will show Apple Watch users how their captured health data, including heart rate, compares to baseline measurements. This will hopefully allow users to better understand when something might be off and outside the "normal" range.
The Activity app on iPhone is also getting an update to accompany watchOS 11, and will allow users to customize the data they see on the homepage so they can put their most important stats front and center. Cycle Tracking will also get an update to include more detailed pregnancy insights, including gestational age and information about the user's health metrics that may related to pregnancy (like heart rate fluctuations).
visionOS 2
Apple
Until now, Apple's Vision Pro headset has only been available in the US. That's changing soon as the company announced the device's rollout in additional countries including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the UK in the coming months. As far as the headset's software (visionOS) goes, Apple announced that visionOS 2 will add spatial photos, which adds depth to images in the Photos app, new UI gesture controls and improved Mac screen mirroring with support for higher resolutions and display sizes.
AirPods Pro audio updates
Apple
Apple briefly mentioned some software updates coming to AirPods Pro, including improved Voice Isolation, which should help the buds better pick up a user’s voice in noise environments. A new Siri Interaction is coming to AirPods Pro as well: a silent head-nod will allow users to answer an incoming call without saying a word out loud to Siri, and contrast, a shake of the head will decline a call. These silent interactions will also be applicable to messages and notifications.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-intelligence-ai-ios-18-and-the-biggest-announcements-at-wwdc-2024-184422501.html?src=rss
As expected, Apple’s assistant is about to get much more helpful thanks to a load of new AI-powered capabilities. During WWDC, the company previewed a new version of Siri that can take actions on your behalf and understand a wide range of new queries.
The new version of Siri has a better understanding of the apps on your phone and will be able to take more than 100 actions based on your activity and device. For example, you could ask Siri to show you specific photos or memories in your Photos app or to find tracking details for an expected delivery from an email in the Mail app.
Siri will also be able to perform some tasks for you, like adding an address to a contact card, tweak a photo, or share a summary of your notes in an email. Third-party developers will also be able to take advantage of these new capabilities with a new “app intents framework” that will allow them to tap into Apple Intelligence and make certain actions compatible with Siri.
Apple said that Siri’s new AI powers could be a major time saver for otherwise tedious tasks. One example offered by the company was the need to fill in a driver’s license number in an online form. Instead of searching your photos yourself, you could ask Siri and it would be able to find the image of your license, grab the number and fill in the form. Siri can also answer questions based on details from your messages and emails, like remembering your dinner reservations or providing up-to-date flight tracking for a previously-shared reservation.
Apple
Another major change is that Siri will no longer be only a voice-activated assistant. Apple is adding a “type to Siri” feature that makes it a bit closer to the experience of other generative AI chatbots. When you do chat with Siri, the experience should feel more natural as the assistant will be better able to respond to queries when the command isn’t spoken perfectly. Apple demoed how Siri could respond to a request about weather conditions even when the speaker stumbled over their words and misspoke. Additionally, the assistant can provide help and answer about iPhone capabilities, like “I need to scan a document.”
Siri will also be able to take advantage of chatGPT, thanks to Apple's newly-announced OpenAI partnership. For some text-based queries, users can opt to get an answer from chatGPT from within the new type to Siri interface.
Apple didn’t specify when all of the new Siri capabilities will launch, but said the new version of its assistant will be coming to iPhone, iPad and the Mac. The revamped Siri is part of Apple’s push into “personal intelligence,” which Tim Cook described as the “next big step” for the company.
The rumors are true. Apple is adding a dedicated passwords manager app to most of its operating systems. These include macOS, iPadOS, visionOS and iOS. It’ll even work on Windows by accessing the Passwords app via iCloud. That’s pretty neat. There are way too many passwords out there.
The first-party service is powered by iCloud Keychain and will compete with some heavy hitters in the space, like LastPass and 1Password. The simply-named Passwords app will be able to list various user logins and categorize them based on service type. For instance, banking passwords would be grouped differently than social media passwords. The app will also allow users to bypass manual password input by leveraging Face ID, Touch ID and autofill.
It’s worth noting that Apple already had a password manager, but it’s not exactly beloved and has been buried in the settings page. This new app, however, is quite a compelling option for those tied into the Apple ecosystem. The company didn’t say if the app was free or if it would require a monthly subscription.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-brings-a-full-featured-passwords-app-to-the-mac-iphone-ipad-and-windows-181607490.html?src=rss
