Apple iPhone and related items (cont.)

[Saul Goodman]

Apple Intelligence

 

[freshapple]

Apple Intelligence is a smart baby step in the right direction...

I like the look of it

 

[pbsmooth]

and you can only get it on the latest, most expensive phone... so they've unlocked another way to force people to upgrade

presumably, like the chips in MacBooks, they'll aspire to dropping OpenAI like they dropped Intel once they can do it all in-house.

 

[editor]

Apple Intelligence is a smart baby step in the right direction...

A smart and very expensive step.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

and you can only get it on the latest, most expensive phone... so they've unlocked another way to force people to upgrade

presumably, like the chips in MacBooks, they'll aspire to dropping OpenAI like they dropped Intel once they can do it all in-house.

Presumably this is down to the heavy lifting being done on the device itself, rather than cloud based servers?

 

[Kid_Eternity]

A smart and very expensive step.

Expensive?

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I like the look of it

Me too, really like the personal context approach rather than the ‘here have power’ but not much else.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

and you can only get it on the latest, most expensive phone... so they've unlocked another way to force people to upgrade

presumably, like the chips in MacBooks, they'll aspire to dropping OpenAI like they dropped Intel once they can do it all in-house.

It’s a mixture of ram and silicon, on device computing for this stuff requires quite a bit of power. But tbh this is only a short term issue, five years will fly by and basically everyone will have access…

 

[editor]

Expensive?

It only works on the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models. Everyone else will have to buy a new iPhone.

Critics have argued that the decision to not release a slower or less competent version of the AI system for older phones is motivated by profit. “Apple’s decision to limit its Siri and Apple Intelligence features to the latest iPhone 15 Pro appears to be a strategy to force upgrade cycles for iPhones, their key product category,” said Gadjo Sevilla, a senior analyst at Emarketer.

“Consumers could see this as a user-hostile move towards forced obsolescence, although it will be months before all these features are made available,” Sevilla added.

Apple push into AI could spark smartphone upgrade ‘supercycle’

Only most powerful iPhones will meet processing requirements to run new Siri and Apple Intelligence features

www.theguardian.com

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

It’s standard Apple - take something that’s already out there, make it way more user friendly/slick, charge a premium for it.

K_E is right, give it a few years and it’ll be on everything and the initial high cost will be long forgotten.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

It only works on the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models. Everyone else will have to buy a new iPhone.

Apple push into AI could spark smartphone upgrade ‘supercycle’

Only most powerful iPhones will meet processing requirements to run new Siri and Apple Intelligence features

www.theguardian.com

An upgrade super cycle? I think it's as likely as people upgrading a PC to use cortana.

 

[editor]

An upgrade super cycle? I think it's as likely as people upgrading a PC to use cortana.

I think you're wrong.

 

[Saul Goodman]

An upgrade super cycle? I think it's as likely as people upgrading a PC to use cortana.

This is Apple we're talking about, where their fanbase swoon at an extra megapixel, and queue for 3 days to be the first to have it.
I don't think there will be a shortage of people throwing their money at a new phone.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

This is Apple we're talking about, where their fanbase swoon at an extra megapixel, and queue for 3 days to be the first to have it.
I don't think there will be a shortage of people throwing their money at a new phone.

I'm not sure that's really the case any more. I mean of course people will buy it as part of an upgrade cycle, I just can't see it's enough of a game changer for people to upgrade early to get it.

 

[Saul Goodman]

I'm not sure that's really the case any more. I mean of course people will buy it as part of an upgrade cycle, I just can't see it's enough of a game changer for people to upgrade early to get it.

I thought the fanboys needed the latest and greatest, once the coffee shops opened again.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I thought the fanboys needed the latest and greatest, once the coffee shops opened again.

I suspect such people are a vanishingly small percentage of actual phone buyers.

 

[freshapple]

Me too, really like the personal context approach rather than the ‘here have power’ but not much else.

If it could

Me too, really like the personal context approach rather than the ‘here have power’ but not much else.

yeah, if it can sort out my inbox & photos I’d be happy

 

[sim667]

It only works on the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models. Everyone else will have to buy a new iPhone.

Apple push into AI could spark smartphone upgrade ‘supercycle’

Only most powerful iPhones will meet processing requirements to run new Siri and Apple Intelligence features

www.theguardian.com

I mean, only a plonker would buy an iPhone 15 pro or max now when the new model announcement would be in September. But I suspect that’s only for those of us interested in upgrades and ios changes. Someone who’s still plodding along happily on an iPhone 13 with a cracked screen isn’t going to give two shits about AI on a brand new iPhone because the cost will probably be prohibitive for them for another couple of iPhone generations anyway.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I mean, only a plonker would buy an iPhone 15 pro or max now when the new model announcement would be in September. But I suspect that’s only for those of us interested in upgrades and ios changes. Someone who’s still plodding along happily on an iPhone 13 with a cracked screen isn’t going to give two shits about AI on a brand new iPhone because the cost will probably be prohibitive for them for another couple of iPhone generations anyway.

This. Also, the next few years will fly by and the vast majority of iPhone users will have phones that can run it all fine. It’s a fairly trivial issue that no one will be talking about in a few years…

 

[Kid_Eternity]

This is Apple we're talking about, where their fanbase swoon at an extra megapixel, and queue for 3 days to be the first to have it.
I don't think there will be a shortage of people throwing their money at a new phone.

Fan base? You’re talking about Apple in the 90s to early 2000s, it’s a 3 trillion dollar company with over a billion consumers…your characterisation really don’t hold water today…

 

[Kid_Eternity]

An upgrade super cycle? I think it's as likely as people upgrading a PC to use cortana.

Spot on, this is really baby steps into AI, you’re not going to see the average consumer running out to buy a phone to make writing emails easier!

 

[Kid_Eternity]

As an example, here's my situation:

I own an iPhone 12 Pro Max, it still works ok, the camera is still bloody good, but the battery quality is now something like 74% and it's very noticeable at times, especially when battery life is sub 30%. I don't get a full day out of it, more like 4 hours which for someone who works remotely, and stays on top of office type stuff on the move is increasingly intolerable. I got it in 2020, and haven't felt the need to upgrade hugely each year but now the battery is failing and there's some real value in upgrading the idea of Apple Intelligence is tempting. Especially as my MacBook Pro is an M1 Pro meaning it'll have access to AI. My value from owning these devices is hugely predicated on the ecosystem effect; getting the new iPhone in September fits my needs and circumstance pretty well.

Now, I have close friends all all have iPhones (12, 13, 14, and one 15 across about 6 people, and half have Pros mainly because of better camera), they change their phone every 2-4 years and often due contract renewal. They typically ask me about new tech (one of them is considering buying an iPad for example, and for their needs the Air seems about right) but other than that they just get a new phone when they need. Not one has asked me about Apple Intelligence. Contrast with last year half of them asked me a few questions about Vision Pro.

From what I can see is the vast majority of the billion+ Apple users - in particular iPhone users - are in the second group above not in mine. The idea that it's somehow out of order the new stuff is only coming to M series silicon or the newer iPhones (and current Pro I might add!) feels very inconsequential to me. It's deeply incongruent with the nature of technology and progress, nothing lasts, you can't expect old tech to be around for a decade in this space, so lets be fair about how we view this.

As previously mentioned, these storm in a tea cups happen with tech every few years and no one really cares after a short while (how many are still seething because Apple moved to the lightening connecter away from 30 pin or removing the headphone jack?)...

There's a very shrewd reason Apple have used the tagline "AI for the rest of us"; if you're a power user or the type that must have the latest and greatest tech this isn't your moment. It's the beginning of the next decade for people like my friends.

 

[editor]

Pretty much nails it:

 

[pbsmooth]

interesting write-up on Apple vs Open AI. Apple putting Altman in his place.

Let Tim Cook

Last week, Apple announced “Apple Intelligence,” a suite of features coming to iOS 18 (the next version of the iPhone’s software) in a presentation that FastCompany called “uninspired,” Futurism called “boring,” and Axios claimed “failed to excite investors.” The presentation, given at Apple’s...

www.wheresyoured.at

 

[editor]

interesting write-up on Apple vs Open AI. Apple putting Altman in his place.

Let Tim Cook

Last week, Apple announced “Apple Intelligence,” a suite of features coming to iOS 18 (the next version of the iPhone’s software) in a presentation that FastCompany called “uninspired,” Futurism called “boring,” and Axios claimed “failed to excite investors.” The presentation, given at Apple’s...

www.wheresyoured.at

I can't say I find this reassuring

Iff Apple is already training its models on data scraped by AppleBot, using the tool beyond its stated purpose, it would be an act of immense deception. And, if this came to pass, those unwilling to have their online content repurposed as training data for a trillion-dollar tech company would have limited options. Getting an AI to unlearn something isn’t exactly straightforward, and Apple has yet to explain how that might work.

I’ve reached out to Apple for comment here, but it’s unclear how exactly it intends to fulfill the promise of letting publishers opt out of being included in training data, especially if the AppleBot crawler has already fed their content into the model. If I hear back, I’ll update this post.

Though Apple has done a better job than most, it’s disgraceful that yet another big tech company has seen the open internet as its personal property. Despite publishing a remarkable amount of information about its privacy standards and how its models are trained, Apple likely hopes that its privacy-focused media blitz will hide the fact that it’s ripping off everybody’s work just like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic — except it’s doing so in a way that is a little bit easier for the media to swallow because the main selling point of its AI isn’t vomiting out oodles of anodyne business language, unless you’re using, say, the smart reply feature in Mail which drafts a response for you if you’re for whatever reason incapable of writing one.

 

[pbsmooth]

I can't say I find this reassuring

That whole rant is based on an “if” though.
But yeah, the way AI companies are based almost entirely on dodgy data training is one of the larger scams of recent memory albeit classic Silicon Valley/VC crap.

 

[Mr Retro]

I’m looking forward to Apples version of the Oura ring which I will buy as soon as it’s released. I expect it will be announced before a firm date for the Oura 4 is announced and will be about £399 kind of pricing.

 

[mwgdrwg]

I’m looking forward to Apples version of the Oura ring which I will buy as soon as it’s released. I expect it will be announced before a firm date for the Oura 4 is announced and will be about £399 kind of pricing.

Exactly the same price as the Samsung Galaxy Ring then.

You'll probably need an iPhone Pro as well.

 

[Mr Retro]

Exactly the same price as the Samsung Galaxy Ring then.

You'll probably need an iPhone Pro as well.

Yes

Why iPhone Pro? You don’t need it for an Apple Watch

 

[mwgdrwg]

Yes

Why iPhone Pro? You don’t need it for an Apple Watch

Well you never know, you need a Pro for features like AI and a smooth refresh-rate.