Apple WWDC 2024 Live Updates: It’s D-day. At WWDC 2024, in a few hours from now, Apple is poised to unveil its ambitious AI plans for the iPhone, Mac, and a wide range of its devices—its next big thing if you will. Although late to the AI race, Apple’s strategy has always focused on meticulous refinement rather than being the first to market. This approach heightens anticipation for what Apple has been developing behind closed doors.
A cornerstone of Apple’s AI strategy is a reported billion-dollar partnership with OpenAI, aimed at integrating ChatGPT and similar AI capabilities throughout its ecosystem. This includes the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and the Vision Pro. Unlike other brands that have adopted chatbot integrations, Apple is expected to implement these features in a distinctively innovative manner, reflecting internal resistance to conventional chatbot models.
Significantly, Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, is slated for its most substantial upgrade since its introduction with the iPhone 4S in 2011. Leveraging advanced AI and Apple’s precise engineering, this overhaul promises to enhance Siri’s functionality and user experience dramatically. With these developments, Apple is set to redefine its AI landscape, promising groundbreaking advancements across its suite of products.
Apple has partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT 4.0 into its software across iPhone, iPad and Mac. You will be able to access it for free without creating an account. ChatGPT integration is coming later this year. Apple plans to bring more AI models in the coming future.
Apple says AI intelligence makes Siri more natural, relevant and personal. It’s more deeply integrated into the system with a new yellow glow visual look. Type to Siri with double tap bottom on the screen, and switch between voice and text. Siri now holds a great deal of information and has answers to over 1000 questions about an iPhone feature. On-screen awareness is coming to Siri soon to understand things on the screen and take relevant actions.
Apple intelligence announced at WWDC 2024: AI has to be powerful, intuitive, integrated, personal and private, per Apple CEO Tim Cook. Keeping these things on mind, Apple has announced personal intelligence or Apple intelligence. It’s a suit of generative AI features and as widely reported, Apple is kicking off the proceedings with summaries, and images in sketch, illustration and animation. Apple will use on-device machine learning for most tasks which will rely on an A17 Pro and M1 chip or later. For cloud-based tasks, Apple says iPhone users are in control of their data through private cloud compute that are made using Apple silicon and run software with privacy built in. Your data is never stored or accessed by Apple, the company says.
macOS 15 Sequoia announced at at WWDC 2024: The next major update to macOS is officially called Sequoia. It makes “continuity” more magical, Apple says, allowing for conveniences like iPhone mirroring. Presenter preview in video calls on FaceTime and Zoom will allow give you early view before starting a call. macOS Sequoia is also introducing a new Passwords app for password syncing. It also works on iPhone and iPad. macOS will also get Safari highlights to detect and highlight relevant information using machine learning. On to gaming, Apple has announced that Control and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows is coming to Mac.
iPadOS 18 announced at WWDC 2024: Floating tab bar is coming to apps in iPad. But the big news: Apple is finally bringing calculator to iPad. A new Math note experience in the calculator app lets you use the Apple Pencil to create and save notes. The Notes app will be able to do it as well. Another feature called Smart Script that uses on-device machine learning to refine your handwriting when you’re writing in a flow.
watchOS 11 announced at WWDC 2024: Training load announced for Apple Watch. More personalisation coming as well including custom activity rings. Apple has announced a new Vitals app for the Apple Watch for more granular tracking and view important metrics. Cycle tracking can now show gestation state during pregnancy.
InSight announced for Apple TV Plus. Voice dialogue now uses machine learning for better clarity. More convenient subtitles that show up at just the right time. Apple is adding support for 21:9 projectors as well.
AirPods updates include the ability to nudge to decline a call when in a crowded place. Voice isolation announced for AirPods Pro to remove background noise. Personalised spatial audio extended to gaming as well. NFS Mobile will be one of the first games to support it.
Apple has announced a new game mode coming to iPhone with iOS 18. The Photos app is getting the biggest redesign in iPhone history with iOS 18. The app has been unified into a single grid and allows to filter screenshots. A space below the grid has collections to show some of your most favourite photos. A new recent days tab shows recent photos. The Photos app is now customisable, too, so you can sort albums per your liking.
In iOS 18, Apple is updating Tapbacks to allow for any number of emojis. Text formatting will allow you to set message tones. Messages via satellite on iPhone 14 and later announced for iOS 18. On device categorisation is coming to the mail app in iOS 18 for better organisation.
iOS 18 will allow iPhone users to lock/hide individual apps behind a biometric such as Face ID.
As widely reported, iOS 18 will allow iPhone users to customise the Home Screen including arranging app icons the way you desire and an enhanced dark mode. The Control Centre is also getting an update to make it more accessible and personal. Apple has announced a new Control API for developers to create experiences around their apps and services.
Apple has announced that the Vision Pro is coming to eight more countries: China, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
visionOS 2.0 updates announced at WWDC 2024: Apple announced that visionOS 2.0 will propel spatial computing forward. The Photos app is getting a new update to allow creation of spatial photos out of existing 2D photos, plus it is getting SharePlay. With visionOS 2.0, your interactions are more seamless and intuitive. Support for higher resolution and screen size is coming. After plane support, Apple is adding train support to the Vision Pro with visionOS 2.0. The update will make it even more easier for developers to create apps for the headset. New APIs including Enterprise API have been announced. Elsewhere, Apple is also making it easier for creators to make spatial videos for the Vision Pro including Vimeo support. Apple immersive videos are getting enhanced and more content is on the way including Submerged, an Apple scripted short film.
Apple TV Plus updates: Apple CEO Tim Cook announced arrival of new Apple originals coming to Apple TV Plus, its OTT streaming service including Lady in the Lake starring Natalie Portman. The lineup looks incredible, Cook said.
It’s time. Watch this space for all the updates from Apple’s WWDC 2024 live keynote event. We will bring all the news as it happens and give you real-time analysis of all the Apple announcements.
Less than one hour to go before Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top company executives take the stage and reveal to the world what they’ve been cooking on software. iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, as well as Vision OS are set to get their next major update and while Apple is expected to roll them out officially around September, beta rollout should kick off soon after the WWDC keynote event.
At WWDC 2024, Apple is expected to unveil a “smart recap” feature, designed to summarise missed texts, notifications, and various media such as web pages, news articles, and documents. This tool aims to help users manage the often overwhelming barrage of iOS notifications more efficiently.
In addition, the Voice Memo app is expected to receive AI-generated transcription capabilities. Apple also plans to leverage AI to improve other functionalities, including on-device Spotlight search, Safari Internet searches, and writing suggestions for emails and texts. Moreover, AI may be utilised to retouch photos and generate emojis based on text content.
Read full story here: Apple WWDC 2024: From auto-generating emojis to ChatGPT partnership with OpenAI, iOS 18 will be ‘super heavy’ on AI
Apple will reportedly call its suit of AI features as “Apple Intelligence.” It is learnt that, even though it is set to partner with OpenAI for some if not all of its AI features, it won’t just offer another chatbot (ChatGPT) like many other brands. John Giannandrea, Apple’s head of machine learning, reportedly wasn’t in favour of the company putting another chatbot into its devices and so, chances are we may see a different approach. Moreover, Apple isn’t expected to “show off” some fancy AI features and be done with it. It is said that the initial batch of Apple Intelligence features will be more practical, focusing on tasks like summaries and message responses. The other big notable thing to know is Apple’s security angle. Reports suggest that Apple will allow users to opt-in to use its AI features. Algorithms will decide if something can be done locally and the system will prefer to do it that way. Only bigger more complex tasks will tap into the cloud and there, too, Apple is reportedly relying on its own M2-powered servers to keep things in check. It’s a setup like no other and so, even though Apple is late to the AI race, it appears to be putting a concerted effort to ensure, users’ private data stays secure and protected.
AI is not like metaverse, it’s here to stay, is what experts and analysts suggest. Some tech companies have caught the trend early. Microsoft for instance was one of the early movers into making the right moves and getting into right partnerships including one with Sam Altman’s OpenAI. So big was AI’s potential and impact, it triggered a red code inside Google. Google was quick to respond, mostly because, it sits on top of a wealth of Tensor chips and has been doing machine learning for far longer, though to power search. Microsoft’s breakthroughs however forced Google to come out of the shell and roll out gen AI across the length and breadth of its product ecosystem. Elsewhere, Amazon, too, is actively working to enhance Alexa with AI tech to make it better. Apple is perhaps the only big tech company which hasn’t revealed its cards. But this is expected to change at WWDC 2024.
Apple’s annual Swift Student Challenge continues to honour top student coding talent, and this year, it introduced a new category. Out of 350 winning submissions, 50 students were “distinguished” for their exceptional app playgrounds, recognized for their innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity. FE Tech Bytes got to interact with two of Apple’s distinguished winners from India: 22-year-old Akshat Srivastava and 21-year-old Asmi Jain. Be sure to check out our detailed coverage report here:
At WWDC 2024, while AI advancements and Siri upgrades will be top priorities, Apple will also unveil a comprehensive array of features for its entire suite of software, including iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15.
With iOS 18, users can anticipate more personalisation options. Among the noteworthy updates, iPad and Mac users may finally receive a dedicated calculator app, a long-awaited feature.
Read full story here: Apple WWDC 2024 is different — 10 things to expect from Apple’s mega ‘AI event’
In a few hours from now, Apple will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The keynote will start at 10 am PDT (10:30 pm IST). Ahead of its “mega AI event”, Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken to X, the platform previously known as Twitter to tease and hype up the WWDC 2024. “Can’t wait for you to join us at #wwdc24 this morning.” WWDC 2024 is one of, if not the biggest events for Apple in a long time, because it’s here that Cupertino will unveil to the world the future of iPhone and how AI will play a role in that. Apple is a bit late to the party, playing catch up with Google and Microsoft, so all eyes will be on it to see how things pan out.
Last year’s WWDC saw Apple launch a bunch of new Mac hardware including the M2-based MacBook Air 15, and Mac Studio, Mac Pro with M2 Max, M2 Ultra chips. Apple also officially previewed the Vision Pro headset at WWDC 2023. However, at WWDC 2024, it isn’t expected to launch or showcase any new hardware. New Apple hardware isn’t expected until fall, which is when Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 16 series, new AirPods, and Mac devices.
Read full story here: Apple WWDC 2024: Will Apple launch new hardware with AI-powered software?
Apple is reportedly prepping a dedicated “Passwords” app for its devices. Think of it as an alternative to popular password managers like LastPass and 1Password and so needless to say, it will help users manage their login information. The new Passwords app will categorise logins into sections such as accounts, Wi-Fi networks, and passkeys, according to Bloomberg. The app will reportedly support Windows. Expected to debut with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15, at WWDC 2024, it will be able to generate and store passwords, and create authentication codes like Google Authenticator.
Read full story here: Apple prepping new ‘passwords’ app, pegged to launch with iOS 18 at WWDC 2024 — Details
The settings app will reportedly get a makeover in iOS 18 with an interface that is said to be cleaner and more organised. Expect better search, too. The same updates are expected to extend on to macOS as well. Additionally, the iOS Control Centre seems in line to get major improvements, including a new music widget and better smart home controls. The settings app update in particular has been long overdue, hopefully it would be more streamlined rather than the unending list that it is presently.
Read full story here: Apple WWDC 2024: Not just AI superpowers, your iPhone is set to get these big changes with iOS 18
iOS 18 is expected to be one of the most ambitious updates in iPhone history. And while AI will be core to this change, Apple is also looking to introduce a bunch of new features to iPhone with iOS 18 specifically around personalisation. In iOS 18, Apple will reportedly introduce the ability to change app icon colours. This will provide users with more options for personalising their home screens. Another expected feature is the flexibility to arrange app icons as desired and so, you won’t be limited to the existing default grid layout.
Read full story here: Apple WWDC 2024: Not just AI superpowers, your iPhone is set to get these big changes with iOS 18
