Apple has unveiled its latest gadgets, including the iPhone 16 line, featuring the new Apple Intelligence artificial intelligence.
The new generation of smartphones has been designed from scratch for AI. Key features include:
- an updated Siri capable of engaging in dialogue, learning, understanding natural speech with pauses, operating across all apps and switching between them, and providing technical assistance with smartphone functions;
- smart photo search in the gallery;
- built-in emoji and image generator;
- notification prioritization and extraction of key data;
- summary creation from emails;
- providing information about an object after photographing it;
- text editing.
A key feature of the new Siri is its ability to gradually learn about the user’s personality and needs to enhance its functionality. For “world knowledge,” the assistant will rely on ChatGPT.
The first Apple Intelligence features will debut in the US in October in English. A December launch is planned for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. In 2025, Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish will be added.
Owners of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will also gain access to Apple Intelligence.
Among other significant changes is a new physical camera control element on the phone’s side and the A18 chip, which makes the iPhone 30% faster than the previous model.
The control button can detect the pressure of a press and respond accordingly: a firm press takes a photo or starts video recording, while a swipe opens settings.
The more premium models have seen the anticipated screen size change—6.3 inches on the Pro and 6.9 inches on the Pro Max, a new A18 Pro chip, and an improved camera capable of shooting video in 4K at 120 FPS.
Apple Watch
The company introduced the Apple Watch Series 10 with more rounded edges, an updated aspect ratio, and a wide-angle OLED screen. The display is 40% brighter when viewed at an angle and 10% thinner than previous models.
The addition of sleep apnea detection is expected soon, pending approval from the FDA. It will also be available in Series 9.
An updated version of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for active lifestyle enthusiasts was also presented.
watchOS with AI
The new watchOS is equipped with AI features:
- the translator will use artificial intelligence for speech recognition and translation;
- on Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra, it can operate without a phone connection;
- AI has enhanced the Smart Stack feature, which uses contextual information to display the necessary widgets;
- the new “Photo” watch face will use a neural network to identify and select photos from the library.
AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2
AirPods 4 are equipped with the new A2 chip. Machine learning has been added for Siri, enabling it to detect head nods and shakes.
A key feature of the AirPods Pro 2 is the hearing aid mode, which amplifies specific sounds, such as speech or environmental noises, in real-time. It will be launched following FDA approval.
Fraudulent Broadcasts
Amid one of the most anticipated events in the tech world, YouTube was flooded with live streams featuring deepfakes of Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, offering to “double deposits” in cryptocurrencies. This required sending BTC, ETH, USDT, or DOGE to a specified address.
AI is getting WAY too good
355k people watching a fake “apple” account on @youtube that’s promoting a massive crypto scam lol
The reason there are so many viewers is because the keynote today at 12pm cst@YouTubeCreators pic.twitter.com/O2ufpxdKnF
— BearPig ?? (@BearPigCentral) September 9, 2024
One such stream was watched by 355,000 people. Other broadcasts also garnered hundreds of thousands of views, though many “viewers” were likely bots to lend legitimacy.
iPhone Price Drops in BTC
Analysts at CoinGecko reported a decline in the price of the new iPhone in bitcoins, noting a downward trend.
In July, Apple released a beta version of iOS 18.1 with Apple Intelligence.
Earlier, the Cupertino company postponed the launch of AI in the EU in 2024 due to “regulatory uncertainty.”