Current:Home > ContactApple Intelligence a big draw for iPhone 16 line. But is it enough? -Streamline Finance
Apple Intelligence a big draw for iPhone 16 line. But is it enough?
View
Date:2025-04-26 07:44:23
The return of college and NFL football may mark the start of fall for many people, but in the tech world, it’s Apple’s annual September launch event that denotes the new season. Every year, the company trots out its latest iPhones and wearable devices, like Apple Watch and AirPods, and waxes poetic about its latest hardware advances.
This year, however, things were a bit different. Sure, Apple did unveil a family of iPhone 16s, the Watch Series 10 and several new AirPod models, but the real focus was software − specifically, the company’s Apple Intelligence AI features. First announced at the WWDC developer conference in June (see “Apple's WWDC showcases AI to make daily tasks easier” for more), Apple Intelligence provides a number of capabilities powered by generative AI that are designed to make the experience of using your iPhone (any of the new iPhone 16s or last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max) better and more intuitive.
What does Apple Intelligence bring to the phone?
Chief among these capabilities is a new version of Siri designed to be much smarter and more relevant than earlier versions. You can use it to more easily find information on your phone − such as when you can't remember whether a recipe was sent to you in a text or email or included in a shared document. In addition, it now has the ability to “see” and understand what you’re doing on your phone and can provide useful guidance on next steps. Or, if you want to know how to take advantage of a particular feature − such as turning on a personal hot spot or taking a panoramic photo − Siri now has that intelligence built in.
The Siri experience has also changed thanks to a colorful glowing light around the edge of the screen when it’s engaged. Apple also added the ability to type into Siri if you’d rather not speak and, if you do speak, to have Siri better understand your requests, even if you change things midstream.
On the photos side, Apple has added a Clean Up feature that lets you easily remove an element (or person) from your photos, similar to what Google has offered on its Pixel phones for more than a year now. One unique Apple feature is the ability to create custom genmojis by simply typing in a description − this is bound to be a hit, especially among enthusiastic emoji users.
Like other AI offerings, Apple has integrated tools for creating animation-style images from a text-based prompt or simple drawing. It also has enhanced the ability to do specific text-based searches of images − simple requests have been possible for a while on other iPhones − to make it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for. You can also request that your iPhone make custom slide shows with a text description, giving you more control over that capability.
On the text-based side of things, Apple offers text generation for documents and email, the ability to change the “tone” of the writing, text summarization capabilities and more. Again, most of these are available via other cloud-based AI Large Language Models, but by integrating it into the iPhone, Apple will be bringing this capability to many more people.
One of the more clever and unique text-based capabilities Apple introduced can summarize and prioritize your emails in the Mail app and notifications on your home screen. So instead of just seeing the first two lines of an email or notification, you can quickly see a summary of the crucial information − and in a prioritized order. For people who deal with lots of emails, texts and other notifications, this could prove to be a huge timesaver. Plus, it’s exactly the kind of simplified advancement that many people were hoping Apple could bring to the world of AI. Of course, it’s also probably something that other companies will quickly replicate, but in these early days of AI, improvements in how features get implemented are important.
Will Apple's AI sell iPhones?
The real question when it comes to Apple Intelligence, however, is: Will it be compelling enough to get people who own older iPhones to upgrade to one of the newer AI-capable models? From my perspective, the jury is still out on this question for several reasons. First, many of these capabilities will roll out over the course of several months and they’re initially limited to English language only, so they don’t have an immediate payback for everyone (and will limit their adoption around the world).
Second, as people get used to using some of these AI capabilities on the device, they may want to start using some of the more advanced capabilities offered by cloud-based providers. Thankfully, Apple does have an arrangement with OpenAI’s ChatGPT that’s free of charge, allowing people to start investigating those more advanced options. Still, many owners of older iPhones may find that some of the cloud-based services are good enough − or even better for some applications − and won’t feel compelled to upgrade to a new iPhone. In Apple’s defense, many of its Apple Intelligence features run directly on the iPhone and don’t send any data to the cloud, which improves privacy, but it seems many people don’t care as much about privacy as you might imagine.
Ultimately, the Apple Intelligence capabilities are an important first step, especially because of the huge audience of iPhone users, but they are only the beginning. AI-based features will not change things overnight, and even Apple knows the integration of these capabilities is going to take years. Still, if you’re eager to begin exploring AI, Apple is providing a broad range of AI-capable phones and some genuinely useful AI features to get that process started.
USA TODAY columnist Bob O'Donnell is president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech. The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.
veryGood! (27414)
Related
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- You'll Be a Sucker for Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner's Matching Goth Looks at Oscars After-Party
- Fan Bingbing Makes Rare Appearance at 2023 Oscars 5 Years After Mysterious Disappearance
- Twitch, the popular game streaming service, confirms that its data has been hacked
- Taylor Swift makes surprise visit to Kansas City children’s hospital
- Their Dad Transformed Video Games In The 1970s — And Passed On His Pioneering Spirit
- U.S. border officials record 25% jump in migrant crossings in March amid concerns of larger influx
- AI-generated song not by Drake and The Weeknd pulled off digital platforms
- Chuck Scarborough signs off: Hoda Kotb, Al Roker tribute legendary New York anchor
- What The Ruling In The Epic Games V. Apple Lawsuit Means For iPhone Users
Ranking
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- Tiny Tech Tips: The Best Wireless Earbuds
- POV: Chris Olsen, Tinx and More Social Media Stars Take Over Oscars 2023
- Most of the email in your inbox isn't useful. Instead of managing it, try ignoring it
- Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
- The Little Mermaid Trailer: Melissa McCarthy Transforms into Ursula Alongside Halle Bailey’s Ariel
- Lyft And Uber Will Pay Drivers' Legal Fees If They're Sued Under Texas Abortion Law
- Why The City Will Survive The Age Of Pandemics And Remote Work
Recommendation
Appeals court scraps Nasdaq boardroom diversity rules in latest DEI setback
Elizabeth Olsen Is a Vision During Her Rare Red Carpet Moment at Oscars 2023
Whistleblower tells Congress that Facebook products harm kids and democracy
The DOJ Says A Data Mining Company Fabricated Medical Diagnoses To Make Money
NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
Whistleblower's testimony has resurfaced Facebook's Instagram problem
More than 1 in 3 rural Black southerners lack home internet access, a new study finds
Emily Blunt's White Hot Oscars 2023 Entrance Is Anything But Quiet