Updated on June 22 with details on Apple Intelligence availability in the EU..
A look back at this week's news and headlines from Apple, including the latest iPhone 16 leak, the iPhone's AI range, a new MacBook Pro for Christmas, Apple's open-source AI, when Siri will get Apple Intelligence, an AI supercycle of iPhones. , and what happened to Apple's i?
The Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions surrounding Apple over the past seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Android news on Forbes here.
iPhone 16 case clue
A raft of iPhone 16 cases have been spotted at the show this week. They may not show the innards of the next-generation iPhones, but it does give us more possible information about Apple's native computing plans, as well as the camera and its uses:
“The images once again point to a subtle new design for the iPhone 16, featuring two vertically aligned camera lenses. One theory suggests that this arrangement could be native to Apple's Vision Pro mixed reality headset. Video recording capabilities are adjustable, even on base models. For optimal spatial capture, the lens needs to be aligned horizontally, mimicking the position of the human eye.”
(TechNetbooks).
A laptop keyboard and the Apple logo (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The iPhone's AI limitations
Apple has confirmed that only the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max among the current iPhones will support Apple Intelligence AI. This is down to a combination of memory, processor, and bandwidth on board, as Apple's John Giannandrea explained in a recent “Talk Show” podcast:
“So these models, when you run them at runtime, are called approximations, and the approximation of large language models is incredibly computationally expensive. And so it's a combination of bandwidth in the device, It's the size of the Apple Neural Engine, to actually do these models so fast that you could in principle run these models on a very old device, but it would be so slow that it wouldn't be useful.”
(Forbes).
M4 MacBook Pro before Christmas
Apple took the surprising step of debuting the latest M4 silicon in the iPad Pro instead of any Mac. At some point, the macOS family will see the M4 arrive, and it's likely to be the MacBook Pro that will be first in line:
“The entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro is expected to get the M4 chip, while the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will be updated with the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. The Mac Mini will get the M4 and M4 Pro. Chips MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro models won't be updated with M4 chips until 2025, and it's not yet clear when the iMac will be updated with the latest chip technology. “
(MacRumors).
Apple's Open Source AI Efforts
Although Apple has yet to ship any of its Apple Intelligence AI software to the public, part of its AI efforts are available. Hugging Face is an online open source service that shares machine learning models and datasets. Apple has uploaded 20 more models to the service, adding to the models uploaded earlier this year:
“Apple has taken a significant step forward in its efforts to empower developers with the latest on-device AI capabilities. The tech giant recently released 20 new Core ML models and 4 datasets on Hugging Face, which is a leading community platform for sharing AI models and code.
(Venture Beat).
AI will make the iPhone late to the party.
For the public arrival of Apple Intelligence? It will take longer than expected. While iOS 18 will ship with the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro in September, with releases for older iPhones following, Apple Intelligence may not arrive until as early as 2025:
“Siri in iOS 18 will still have some “new bells and whistles” coming in September, including a new interface that highlights the edges of the screen…[but] We'll have to wait until next year to see the most significant additions to Apple's Siri. The iOS 18 update in 2025 should bring with it the following improvements to Apple's virtual assistant:
(MacRumors).
Apple Intelligence Image Illustration (Photo by Hakan Nooral/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Update June 22: Details on the availability of Apple Intelligence in the EU.
Apple cannot send intelligence to the EU
Speaking to the Financial Times this weekend, an Apple spokesperson explained why Apple Intelligence will not be released in its entirety in the EU. This comes down to DMA interactions with iOS and iPadOS. There is no clear guidance on whether Apple's intelligence satisfies regulators or whether it will lead to further investigations. Importantly, this will not be determined before release. Given the exposure to a significant fine, Apple refuses to take the risk at this time:
“Due to the regulatory uncertainty created by the Digital Markets Act,” Apple said Friday, “we don't believe we'll be able to implement three of these features — iPhone mirroring, SharePlay screen sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence. Gender – will be able to roll out. This year for our EU customers.
(Financial Times)
An AI dream of a supercycle
With the launch of AI for the iPhone (whenever it comes), one expects Apple to sell a lot of AI-enabled iPhones. With so little backward compatibility, will it start a “super cycle” of iPhone sales? Wedbush analysts believe it will:
As Apple's AI strategy is rolled out it will trigger a long-awaited supercycle in Cupertino with 270 million of the 1.5 billion iPhones worldwide in the golden install base based on our estimates. Won't be upgrading their smartphones in over a year:
(9to5Mac).
And finally…
Once upon a time, everything started with “i”. Now, all product names begin with “Apple.” What's going on with it? Naturally, there's been a new Reddit discussion on Apple's branding this week, with plenty of theories as to why, including this one:
“Using Apple in the name is a marketing ploy to ensure brand recognition. Acura found this out the hard way in the '90s when they started naming their cars like Legend and Integra and no other. Knew who made them, renaming their cars RDX, MDX, etc. forced people to re-enter the conversation, I think Apple is doing the same.
(Medium via Reddit).
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