WWDC 2024: Apple Intelligence, iOS 18, macOS 15, and more – The Verge

Apple Intelligence and smarter Siri’s full iPhone rollout may arrive in the spring

2024-07-07T13:17:48-04:00

Better Siri might be here by the spring. | Screenshot: YouTube

Siri will finally get better in spring 2025 when Apple makes its Apple Intelligence AI system available to everyone via its iOS 18.4 update, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in the latest Power On newsletter. That's more specific than Apple has been - so far, it's only said the flagship AI features will be available next year.

Apple regularly doles out its new features piecemeal, in point updates, across its operating systems. So it's possible, for instance, that Siri will gain the ability (via Apple Intelligence) to do things on your behalf, like dig your ID out of your 20,000-photo-deep library in Photos and copy your driver's license …

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Apple may delay AI features in the EU because of its big tech law

2024-06-21T13:53:13-04:00

Apple says upcoming features like its Apple Intelligence generative AI tools, iPhone mirroring, and SharePlay screen sharing may not be available in the European Union this year, as reported previously by Bloomberg.

Why? The Digital Markets Act (DMA), says Apple, citing the EU law that puts strict requirements on the "gatekeepers" that control massive online platforms to block anticompetitive behavior. Recently, rumors have indicated that Apple and Meta could soon face charges over DMA violations.

According to Apple, the DMA requirements saying those gatekeepers must let third-party companies interoperate with their services could "force" …

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Apple won’t wait until next year for some Siri improvements

2024-06-16T11:33:54-04:00

Siri may do more than make the edges of your iPhone a glowy rainbow when iOS 18 drops this fall. Apple Intelligence features won't be out until 2025 for anyone not testing them in beta this year, but reports suggest that Siri itself will still get natural language updates and other key features before the year is out.

For instance, users will be able to type to Siri without diving into accessibility settings, and it will be more conversational, understanding you even when you trip over your words, according to Mark Gurman in today's Power On newsletter for Bloomberg.

Apple could offer instructions for how to do things in iOS this year. | Image: Apple" data-portal-copyright="Image: Apple">

He also writes that Siri will "have greater knowledge of Apple products, …

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Apple announced RCS with a whimper when it should have been a bang

2024-06-15T09:00:00-04:00

Apple will finally adopt RCS in iOS 18, effectively ending a yearslong fight for feature parity between iMessage and Android. But the announcement wasn't a celebration - you could've blinked and missed it. Instead of showing how RCS will make things better, Apple softly announced support for the standard and focused on all the great features coming to iMessage users - not RCS ones.

Apple didn't go over how RCS adoption will finally let iPhone and Android users send each other high-resolution pictures and videos. It didn't even say how RCS will enable support for cross-platform read receipts and typing indicators. Apple only highlighted the …

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Apple gives Apple Home users something they’ve been begging for

2024-06-14T13:06:31-04:00

With iOS 18, Apple Home users will finally be able to insist the smart home platform use their hardwired Apple TVs as the primary Home hub. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

While Apple barely mentioned its smart home platform during its WWDC 2024 keynote this week, Apple Home users can still rejoice over an update discovered in the first iOS 18 beta: they're getting the option to choose a "Preferred Home Hub." This fixes the problem of your smart home "deciding" to run over Wi-Fi through a HomePod when there's a perfectly good Apple TV using ethernet sitting right there.

Eagle-eyed Redditors on the HomeKit subreddit spotted that, in the iOS 18 beta, there's a new option to select your preferred Home hub instead of relying on Apple's automatic selection, the current choice.

HomeKit users took to the thread to …

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Did Apple just Sherlock our favorite password managers?

2024-06-14T12:30:00-04:00

Password managers are essential. They keep track of your passwords, encourage better security practices, and generally help to manage your life across your devices. They're the kind of feature that really should be built into every device - and Apple is massively expanding their reach with the launch of its new Passwords app, announced this week at WWDC.

We have companies like 1Password and LastPass to thank for the popularity of today's password managers. But an announcement like Apple's puts them in a tough position: now that Apple has a free, built-in Passwords app, is there a future for the third-party apps that defined the space?

So f …

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The much-needed reinvention of the voice assistant is almost here

2024-06-14T08:00:00-04:00

Apple’s Siri voice assistant has a new look and a new brain. | Image: Apple

Voice assistants hold so much promise, but in the decade-plus since Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa first wormed their ways into our lives, their most compelling use is still setting timers. Competition from Google's Assistant (and if we're being charitable, Samsung's Bixby) failed to light the spark of innovation in this space, and in many ways, voice control has regressed. These assistants regularly misunderstand, mishear, and sometimes just don't listen at all. They're a far cry from the proactive, actually smart digital assistants they were originally pitched as.

Enter generative AI: the technology voice assistants need to transform the …

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iOS 18 will let you use Apple Pay on desktop Chrome by scanning a code

2024-06-13T15:23:34-04:00

Apple is introducing a way to use Apple Pay on non-Safari desktop web browsers, as reported by MacRumors, meaning that you'll soon be able to use Apple's payment service to buy things on desktop Chrome, Firefox, and even on Windows PCs.

Apple showed how it works in a WWDC 2024 video for developers. If you're using a desktop browser that isn't Safari and you see an Apple Pay button, you'll be able to click that button to bring up a special code you can scan with an iPhone running iOS 18. If you scan the code, you'll then be prompted to complete the transaction on your iPhone.

On desktop, Apple Pay has so far been limited to Safari on Macs. …

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Finally, the Apple Watch will let you rest

2024-06-13T14:22:02-04:00

Breaking streaks no longer has to be something you worry about. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

When I had covid, I was miserable, hacking up my lungs and confined to bed for several days with horrible brain fog. I don't remember much from that time. I do, however, remember waking up bleary-eyed and feverish to an Apple Watch notification. It said I hadn't made much progress on my rings. I should take a brisk 27-minute walk. "You can still do it," it said. No, I could not.

It wasn't my fault I'd gotten sick, but my 85-day streak was broken anyway. Since then, I've had nasty shin splints, migraines, and multiple cross-country flights that make it hard to hit exercise goals - all excellent reasons to prioritize rest or build some extra …

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The best small updates Apple didn’t mention at WWDC

2024-06-12T13:15:52-04:00

As usual, Apple left plenty of things out while presenting its next big software updates. | Image: Apple

Apple left out a lot of small updates at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this year. It makes sense: the company had a lot to talk about, with a third of its presentation entirely devoted to new AI features. But that doesn't make the features that didn't get airtime any less worth talking about.

From new bezel animations to better ways to manage widgets, there is plenty to discover in the first round of betas for iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and more. Here are some of our favorites so far:

@verge
As usual, Apple left plenty of cool features out of its WWDC keynote. Here are some of our favorites. #wwdc #apple #ios18 #techtok
♬ orig …

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