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Apple Intelligence, Enhanced

Apple Intelligence, Enhanced

this might change your mind.

Brandon Butch
October 25, 2024 • 📖 Read time: 9 minutes

Welcome back!🍎
Here’s the latest with Apple.

Apple launches new Apple Intelligence features
New M4 Macs confirmed
& more!

📊 Poll

Last week, we asked: Would you buy Apple’s AR glasses (if they were under $1000)?

Here were my favorite replies:

Yes - “I had a hard time deciding yes or no. I would buy them if they became mainstream. One downside is the cost of owning a watch, phone, iPad, and Mac is already a lot. It would have to add compelling value. One of the things that the Vision Pro lacks is the usefulness. It only has 2 hours of battery life, is wonky to use, and doesn’t have compelling features yet. AR glasses would have to be more than a gimmick to be compelling. If they become more mainstream, that will happen. I would buy over Meta, because their income stream is data sales, whereas Apple is hardware and subscriptions. Apple has committed to privacy. That’s a huge thing to me.

No - “As a retired software engineer, I would be tempted purely for the technology. At my age (72), I want to be with others (family, friends, and pets) as much as possible, and I see this device as causing the opposite effect. But in special business sectors (medical, design, and engineering), they already are making a huge impact and will be a must in the not-too-distant future”

This week: Do you see yourself using Apple Intelligence on a daily basis? If so, which feature? More on this later.

Will you use Apple Intelligence daily?

🗞️ The Latest

⚙️ Major Apple Intelligence Upgrades

Image Playground

This week, Apple released the first developer Beta for iOS 18.2 and it contains several new, highly anticipated Apple Intelligence features. Here’s what to know:

Image Playground is a new standalone app that allows you to create stylized images based on prompts and/or images in your camera roll.
- You can add different themes, costumes, and accessories to your creation (as shown above) and the image will update automatically every time you add something new.
- I’ve created dozens of images that reference different faces and Image Playground has nailed it on almost all of them. It’s amazing how accurate these animated images turn out!

Genmoji

Genmoji allows you to create your own emoji in Messages!
- React to the context of the message with a custom emoji, no matter how crazy it seems!
- For example, I created an emoji of a cat wearing an apron and sunglasses while eating a taco.
- These emoji will be saved as stickers and can be used in future conversations.

ChatGPT ‘Compose’

ChatGPT integration is a huge one. This works the same way as Siri - you ask a question and if Siri can’t give you an accurate response, it will pass the query on to ChatGPT.
- You don’t need a ChatGPT account, your IP address is obscured, and no data is stored. So there are no obvious privacy concerns.
- There’s also a “Compose” feature within Writing Tools, where you can ask ChatGPT to write anything for you.
  - I wrote a prompt for a lighthearted and humorous birthday party invite, and it delivered something far more amusing & original than I could have come up with.

Mail categorization

The Mail app has been revamped to separate your mail based on categories: promotions, transactions, and updates.
Important emails will show up in the new default mailbox called “Primary.”
You can tap on any of the categories (or swipe over) to see ‘All Mail’. You can also easily revert back to the pre-iOS 18.2 Mail UI using the menu within Mail.

Visual Intelligence

Visual Intelligence is an iPhone 16-exclusive feature that allows you to point your phone at an object (like a bike or a car) and reverse image search on Google to see what the object is. It’s basically Google Lens.
This can also be used for restaurants. If you put a restaurant in the viewfinder and tap, it’ll show you the menu and hours.
The feature also includes ChatGPT. You can ask it to describe what is being shown in the viewfinder/image and you can ask for additional details after it answers you.
Below is the full video detailing all of the new features and changes in the update.

My take: Wow, what a massive first Beta. iOS 18.2 is shaping up to be a far more significant update than iOS 18.1.

Image Playground and Genmoji will be major hits for all, but especially for the younger crowd. It’s far more complex and fun than anything we’ve seen from Apple before - it’s not even comparable to Memoji. However, I think the ChatGPT integration will shock people with how useful it is.

Expect more coverage of these features over the next few weeks. The final version should be out in December.

🍎 New Macs Incoming

Apple

We’ve been talking about it for months but now we have confirmation from Apple: M4 Macs are being announced next week! Here’s what to expect:

There will not be an Apple Event for the M4 Macs, despite previous reports.
Instead, Apple will do something they haven’t done since 2019: a multi-day release rollout!
Starting on Monday, Apple will unveil new M4 Mac products for consecutive days, likely on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
These products will be announced via press release and potentially be accompanied by a video.
We are expecting the M4 MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, and USB-C Magic accessories.
Apple is set to announce 3 variants of the M4 chip next week: M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max.

My take: This is exciting! After all of the speculation and leaks over the past month or so, we knew the M4 Macs were coming but now it’s confirmed to be right around the corner!

The new Mac mini is expected to be the star of the week since it’s the only Mac getting a redesign.

Keep in mind, Apple’s earnings call is on Thursday and the new Macs might ship (and be available in stores) on Friday, Nov. 1st.

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