Author: Sukhoi, Jiazi Guangnian
After months of waiting, the moment Apple fans have been waiting for has finally arrived.
At 1 a.m. Beijing time on June 11, Apple's 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off. Apple Park in California will showcase "incredible technology and creativity" this week.
Since its first session in 1983, WWDC has been a key platform for Apple to showcase major product updates and communicate with the developer community. The highlight of this conference is "Generative Artificial Intelligence", and AI-related content occupies most of the keynote speech.
At the conference, Apple officially launched a new artificial intelligence system called "Apple Intelligence", which will be integrated into iOS, iPadOS, macOS, etc., and will be expanded to watchOS, tvOS and visionOS in the future. At the same time, Apple confirmed its cooperation with OpenAI. This system also combines OpenAI's technology to achieve collaborative processing between the device and the cloud, while paying attention to user privacy protection.
Almost all native Apple apps, such as camera, calendar, browser, and email, will be enhanced with AI.
Apple is almost the last technology giant to enter the field of artificial intelligence.
Last May, Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out that although AI technology has great prospects, there are still many challenges. In the past year, Wall Street investors have been criticizing Apple for its lack of highlights in the field of AI. In the earnings call in May this year, almost every analyst asked questions about AI, but Cook did not reveal much about future plans.
Cook said he didn't want to reveal too much before the official announcement, but confirmed that Apple is optimistic about the opportunities of generative AI and has invested $100 billion in research and development. Apple started late in AI, but relying on its huge user base and perfect product ecosystem, Apple still has a latecomer advantage. OpenAI also wants to take advantage of Apple's latecomer advantage to seek greater growth opportunities.
In the past few years, the iOS system and other updates released at WWDC have often been criticized as "not very important", and every year WWDC is called "the most boring one in history". Until 2024, as a latecomer to AI, Apple finally brought an epic update to its own products.
If the iPhone allowed mobile phone users to abandon physical keyboards and completely turn to large-size multi-touch screens, then the update released by Apple this time may officially lead the world's 4 billion smartphone users into the next round of changes. AI mobile phones have a new definition.
But Apple's ambitions may go beyond that. Judging from the naming method, it wants to reshape the entire AI.
Let AI become Apple Intelligence.
Epic update Apple
iOS 18: A leap forward in intelligence
iOS 18 is undoubtedly the absolute focus of this conference.
This update not only achieves "reborn" improvements in AI technology, but also comprehensively optimizes the user experience. Especially by integrating large language models (LLMs), Siri's functionality has been significantly improved, making it more intelligent and considerate. Users can edit photos, create personalized music playlists, and even compose and modify documents through Siri only through voice commands, which greatly enhances the practicality and convenience of Siri.
At the same time, iOS 18 introduces Rich Communication Services (RCS), which improves the fluency and interactivity of communication between iPhone and Android devices. Users can enjoy features such as read receipts, real-time input instructions, and emoji reactions when communicating across platforms.
In terms of interface optimization, iOS 18 has completely innovated the control center and introduced a customizable layout, allowing users to freely arrange icons and tools according to their needs. This not only enhances the efficiency of operation, but also improves the personalized experience. The optimization of the settings interface makes it easier for users to find and adjust the required functions, and the search function has also been strengthened, making the operation more intuitive and convenient.
In terms of health monitoring functions, iOS 18 has also been expanded, adding more monitoring functions to help users better manage their health. At the same time, the newly added home screen customization tools and dark mode application options further enhance the user's personalized experience and visual comfort.
In response to the much-discussed privacy issue, Apple has enhanced its privacy protection function in the latest operating system update, allowing users to lock individual apps, ensuring that even if the phone is accessed, these apps need to be unlocked separately to be used. Apple also provides a hidden app folder that can be locked independently to further protect user data security.
Vision Pro officially announced its entry into the Chinese market
Apple's recently released visionOS 2 operating system also brings many updates to the Vision Pro headset.
In this update, the real-time subtitle function can display real-time subtitles of conversations in the user's field of view, making communication more convenient. At the same time, the layout and application sorting of the home screen have also been optimized, making the operation more intuitive.
In terms of applications, the Photos application has added a new SharePlay function, allowing users to share photos between different devices, and even convert 2D images into 3D space photos.
The resolution and width of the Mac virtual display have been improved, giving users a wider, higher-resolution visual experience. The operating system also simplifies gesture control, allowing users to flip through photos with gestures, such as opening their hands to click to enter the home screen, or turning their wrists to check the time and battery level.
VisionOS 2 specifically optimizes developer tools, making it easier for developers to create spatial applications by introducing new frameworks and APIs, such as Tabletopkit and volumetric API. Apple also collaborated with Blackmagic Design to use its camera technology to improve immersive video content and further enhance Vision Pro's spatial content creation capabilities.
In addition, the newly added travel mode adds train support, making it more convenient for users to use Vision Pro on trains. At the same time, Apple also announced that Vision Pro will be launched in three Asian markets, China, Japan and Singapore, on June 28. The price in mainland China starts at 29,999 yuan, and each person is limited to 2 units.
The iPad has a calculator
The release of iPadOS 18 finally brought the calculator app to the iPad, an app that has been on the iPhone for 17 years but has yet to be seen on the iPad.
iPadOS 18 introduces a new accessibility feature inspired by Vision Pro, which is to control the iPad through eye tracking technology, a revolutionary hands-free operation feature. Apple has also strengthened the multitasking capabilities on the iPad, especially the functions of Stage Manager, which is an area that Apple has been researching for several years.
Some people had expected unique features for the M4 iPad Pro, or hoped to start macOS directly from the iPad, but there were no such breakthroughs in this year's update. However, iPadOS 18 has benefited greatly from iOS 18 and added many practical features.
In this update, iPadOS 18 brings some eye-catching new designs and features, such as the combination of the new Apple Pencil and the math memo function, which allows users to write mathematical expressions and formulas directly on the screen and automatically convert them into digital results. This feature not only supports handwritten graphic recognition, but also can perform calculations based on the user's sketches, which is a huge surprise for math enthusiasts.
Apple first installed the new Apple M4 chip on the iPad. It is a chip manufactured using advanced 3nm technology. It has powerful CPU and GPU performance, which greatly improves the display and AI processing capabilities of the iPad Pro.
iPadOS 18 also introduces new ways of interaction, such as screen sharing and floating tab bars.
macOS Sequoia
macOS 15 continues to be named after a California icon, this time "Sequoia." This version has significantly improved user experience and work efficiency, and introduced many AI features of iOS 18, including intelligent system applications and a redesigned system settings interface.
As Apple's oldest and most mature software platform, macOS usually adds relatively few new features each year. However, this year seems to be different, especially in the field of AI. It is equipped with the newly launched Mac with M3 chip. These devices will make full use of Apple's neural engine to bring a series of innovative AI features. In addition to AI, Apple has also updated the Mac's system settings application in response to user feedback.
macOS 15 now allows iPhone notifications to be displayed directly on the Mac, achieving efficient information processing across devices. In addition, this version also adds a dedicated password management application that can not only be used on the Mac, but also synchronize and manage passwords on Windows devices through iCloud for Windows, greatly improving security and convenience.
macOS 15 also enhances the smoothness of multitasking, such as automatically adjusting window size to make full use of screen space. These improvements ensure a high degree of consistency with iOS 18, so users can enjoy a unified and smooth operating experience whether on iPhone or Mac.
Overall, most of the macOS 15 improvements are expected to be just to align with iOS 18's features on the iPhone, such as updates to system apps and a new version of Siri.
Comprehensive upgrade of other platforms
Apple recently launched comprehensive upgrades to multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, watchOS 11, tvOS 18, and HomePod Software 18. Although the details have not yet been fully disclosed, these updates are expected to strengthen the integration of AI functions, thereby improving the intelligence of devices and user experience.
Apple encourages students around the world to showcase their programming talents through the Swift Student Challenge. This year, 50 outstanding students will have the opportunity to visit Apple headquarters and receive a one-year Apple Developer Program membership, which is not only a recognition of their skills, but also a way to inspire them to continue on the road of technological innovation.
Developers in mainland China can now more conveniently register and purchase Apple Developer Program memberships using local payment methods through the Apple Developer app, which will make it easier for more developers to join Apple’s development ecosystem.
Deep binding with AI
At today's conference, Apple finally unveiled its highly anticipated new feature: deeply integrating artificial intelligence into its various applications. This new AI platform is named "Apple Intelligence."
This is a major advancement for Apple in the field of smart devices and will completely change the way users interact with devices.
"Apple Intelligence" will be applied to Apple's iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems, providing a series of advanced tools such as text and image generation, information retrieval and analysis, etc. These functions will work across applications, greatly improving the convenience and personalized experience of users.
Apple CEO Cook said this is a "new journey" and emphasized: "This is an exciting beginning. Apple Intelligence will change the way our products serve users."
It includes context-driven notifications that can identify and prioritize the information that is most important to the user. In addition, "Apple Intelligence" supports natural language understanding, supports analyzing your content and instructions in different applications, can automatically polish emails, summarize memos, and generate images, while supporting text-to-image functions, providing a variety of styles such as sketches, illustrations, and animations.
Apple continues to make every effort to protect privacy. Most data processing is done locally on the device, ensuring the security and privacy of user data. For functions that require cloud computing, Apple uses special Apple Silicon-based servers, and all data transmission is encrypted to ensure the security of information.
Refreshingly, Apple also launched the "genmoji" custom emoji tool, which allows users to create unique emojis according to their needs. This feature demonstrates the personalized service capabilities of Apple Intelligence.
“We’ve been working on this for a long time,” Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, said at the event.
The partnership with OpenAI will allow Apple users to use ChatGPT simply through Siri at no extra cost. Federighi said the AI capabilities will be available to users in beta later this year, with some features not expected until 2025.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended the event and posted on X that he was "very happy" to be working with Apple.
As early as May 26, Mark Gurman, a Bloomberg News reporter who has been following Apple for a long time, broke the news that after two months of negotiations, Apple has reached an agreement with OpenAI to integrate the latter's chatbot ChatGPT into iOS 18. The partnership between the two parties is expected to be officially announced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC24) in June.
But some people also complained about Apple's "sassy" operation: local AI functions require at least 8GB of memory.
Apple has not yet specified when all the features of the new version of Siri will be fully launched, but it has confirmed that the new version of the intelligent assistant will support iPhone, iPad and Mac devices. This improvement is an important step for Apple in the field of "personal intelligence". Cook described this move as the company's "next step", marking their new progress in providing more intelligent personal assistance.
This innovation is likely to spark further discussion and research in the technology and AI fields, especially on how to more effectively meet user needs when integrating hardware and intelligent services.
From car manufacturing to AI
In February of this year, Apple quietly made a decision to abandon the "complicated and confusing" car project and turn its full attention to artificial intelligence.
In 2014, there were constant rumors about "Apple making cars". Ten years later, at a board meeting in January 2024, Apple lowered its autonomous driving target from L4 to L2, and the launch of the car was delayed from 2026 to 2028.
Silicon Valley is currently undergoing a major adjustment, with many large companies laying off employees and shifting resources to the development of generative AI.
Apple also reorganized its team in this wave of adjustments, integrating some software and cloud computing teams of the automotive project into the software department to focus on the development of the operating system, while the autonomous driving and related hardware teams are facing adjustments or reductions. At the same time, Apple's AI team is turning to more machine learning and generative AI projects, and some personnel have been transferred to the Vision Pro team.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a report: "The artificial intelligence strategy is the missing piece of Apple's growth puzzle." Developer conferences are usually not very attractive to investors, but this year is different. Ives believes that this conference will be particularly concerned by investors and may be the most important one for Apple in the past decade.
In fact, as early as 1985, Steve Jobs foresaw the development potential of generative AI, and this forward-looking thinking was ahead of its time.
As technology evolves, AI computing, which was originally driven by GPUs and cloud computing, is rapidly shifting to terminal devices. Unlike Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, Apple does not have a cloud computing business, but it has the most powerful terminal device computing platform. Relying on its huge user base and developer network, Apple is able to create a unique personal AI device experience, which brings it huge market opportunities.
In a May earnings call, Cook emphasized to investors the transformative power of artificial intelligence and Apple's advantages in this new era. He mentioned that Apple's integrated strategy - including the seamless integration of hardware, software and services, as well as Apple chips with industry-leading technology and emphasis on privacy - makes it unique in building a powerful local computing platform. By introducing neural network capabilities through its M-series and A-series chips, Apple has created a hybrid computing architecture from terminal to cloud for its devices.
After all, Qualcomm, Samsung and others are eyeing to subvert its market position by strengthening terminal AI functions, so Apple has to keep up the pace of innovation.
Generative AI still faces thorny issues such as regulation and privacy, and Apple's AI moves are a little slow. But this gives Apple more time to find solutions, and with its integrated advantages in chips, operating systems, applications, and product design, Apple may still maintain its lead in innovative product experience.
Next, user acceptance will be the first big test for Apple AI.