Year: 2024

Apple Intelligence is available today on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Apple Inc October 28, 2024 1

October 28, 2024

PRESS RELEASE

Apple Intelligence is available today on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Users can now tap into Apple Intelligence to refine their writing; summarize notifications, mail, and messages; experience a more natural and capable Siri; remove distracting objects from images with Clean Up; and more

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced the first set of Apple Intelligence features for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users is now available through a free software update with the release of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks while taking an extraordinary step forward for privacy in AI. Today marks the availability of the first set of features, with many more rolling out in the coming months.

“Apple Intelligence introduces a new era for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, delivering brand-new experiences and tools that will transform what our users can accomplish,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple Intelligence builds on years of innovation in AI and machine learning to put Apple’s generative models at the core of our devices, giving our users a personal intelligence system that is easy to use — all while protecting their privacy. Apple Intelligence is generative AI in a way that only Apple can deliver, and we’re incredibly excited about its ability to enrich our users’ lives.”

“Apple Intelligence unlocks exciting new capabilities that make your iPhone, iPad, and Mac even more helpful and useful, from Writing Tools to help refine your writing, to summarized notifications that surface what’s most important, to the ability to search for almost anything in your photos and videos by simply describing it,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “And it’s all built on a foundation of privacy with on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute, a groundbreaking new approach that extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud to protect users’ information. We are thrilled to bring the first set of Apple Intelligence features to users today, and this is just the beginning.”

Systemwide Writing Tools

Deeply integrated across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, Writing Tools allow users to refine their language by rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text virtually everywhere they write, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.

With Rewrite, Apple Intelligence allows users to choose from different versions of what they have written, and adjust the tone — professional, concise, or friendly — to suit the audience and task at hand. Proofread checks grammar, word choice, and sentence structure while also suggesting edits — along with explanations of the edits — that users can review or quickly accept. Users can also select text and have it summarized in the form of a digestible paragraph, bulleted key points, a table, or a list.

More Natural and Conversational Siri

Siri becomes more natural, flexible, and deeply integrated into the system experience. It has a brand-new design with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active on iPhone, iPad, or CarPlay. On Mac, users can place Siri anywhere on their desktop to access it easily as they work. Users can type to Siri at any time on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and can switch fluidly between text and voice as they use Siri to accelerate everyday tasks. With richer language-understanding capabilities, Siri can follow along when users stumble over their words and maintain context from one request to the next. In addition, with extensive product knowledge, Siri can now answer thousands of questions about the features and settings of Apple products. Users can learn everything from how to take a screen recording to how to easily share a Wi-Fi password.

More Intelligent Photos App

The Photos app is even more intelligent with many new capabilities. Natural language search gives users the ability to search for just about anything by simply describing what they are looking for, like “Maya skateboarding in a tie-dye shirt.” This works across videos, too, so users can search for something that happened in a specific segment of the video and go right to it. Search also offers smart completion suggestions to help users quickly complete a search.

For those times when an unwanted object or person ends up in the frame of a photo, the Clean Up tool gives users a way to remove distracting elements while staying true to the moment as they intended to capture it.

The Memories feature now gives users the ability to create the movies they want to see by simply typing a description.¹Using language and image understanding, Apple Intelligence will pick out the best photos and videos based on a user’s description, craft a storyline with chapters based on themes identified from the photos, and arrange them into a movie with its own narrative arc.

New Ways to Prioritize and Stay Focused

Staying on top of emails has never been easier. Priority Messages, a new section at the top of the inbox in Mail, shows the most urgent emails, like a same-day invitation to lunch or a boarding pass. Across their inbox, users can see summaries without needing to open a message, and for long threads, they can tap or click Summarize to view pertinent details. Additionally, Smart Reply provides suggestions for a quick response and will identify questions in an email to ensure everything is answered.

Apple Intelligence helps users prioritize and stay in the moment with notification summaries that allow users to scan long or stacked notifications with key details right on the Lock Screen, such as when a group chat is particularly active. A new Focus, Reduce Interruptions, surfaces only the notifications that might need immediate attention.

In the Notes and Phone apps, users can now record, transcribe, and summarize audio. When a recording is initiated while on a call in the Phone app, participants are automatically notified, and once the call ends, Apple Intelligence generates a summary to help recall key points.

Many More Features to Come

New Apple Intelligence features will be available in December, with additional capabilities rolling out in the coming months.

Apple Intelligence will add new ways for users to express themselves visually. Emoji will be taken to an entirely new level with the ability to create original Genmoji by simply typing a description, and can also be personalized using a photo of a friend or family member. Image Playground will allow users to create playful images in moments. Image Wand will make notes more visually engaging by turning rough sketches into delightful images. When a user circles an empty space, Image Wand will create an image using context from the surrounding area.

In December, Writing Tools will get even more powerful with the ability for users to describe a specific change they want to apply to their text, like making a dinner party invite read like a poem, or adding more dynamic action words to a résumé. And users will have the option to access ChatGPT’s broad world knowledge within Writing Tools and Siri, allowing them to benefit from its image- and document-understanding capabilities without needing to jump between tools.

Also coming in December, a new visual intelligence experience will build on Apple Intelligence and help users learn about objects and places instantly, thanks to the new Camera Control on the iPhone 16 lineup.² Users will be able to pull up details about a restaurant in front of them and interact with information — for example, translating text from one language to another.³ Camera Control will also serve as a gateway to third-party tools with specific domain expertise, like when users want to search Google for where they can buy an item, or benefit from ChatGPT’s problem-solving skills. Users are in control of when third-party tools are used and what information is shared.

In the months to come, Priority Notifications will surface what’s most important, and Siri will become even more capable, with the ability to draw on a user’s personal context to deliver intelligence that’s tailored to them. Siri will also gain onscreen awareness, as well as be able to take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps.

Breakthrough Privacy Protections

Designed to protect users’ privacy at every step, Apple Intelligence uses on-device processing, meaning that many of the models that power it run entirely on device. For requests that require more processing power, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of Apple devices into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence. When using Private Cloud Compute, users’ data is never stored or shared with Apple; it is used only to fulfill their request. In a first for the industry, independent experts can inspect the code that runs on Apple silicon servers to continuously verify this privacy promise — an extraordinary step forward for privacy in AI.

Users can choose whether or not to enable the ChatGPT integration, which is available as part of using Siri, Writing Tools, or visual intelligence with Camera Control. Users can access ChatGPT for free without creating an account, and privacy protections are built in — their IP addresses are obscured and OpenAI won’t store requests. For those who choose to connect their account, OpenAI’s data-use policies apply.

Availability

The first set of Apple Intelligence features is available now as a free software update with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, and can be accessed in most regions around the world when the device and Siri language are set to U.S. English.

Apple Intelligence is quickly adding support for more languages. In December, Apple Intelligence will be available for localized English in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K., and in April, a software update will deliver expanded language support, with more coming throughout the year. Chinese, English (India), English (Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, and other languages will be supported.

Apple Intelligence is available on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad with A17 Pro or M1 and later, and Mac with M1 and later.

About Apple Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s six software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple TV+. Apple’s more than 150,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Create a Memory Movie is available on iPhone and iPad, and will be available on Mac in the coming months.
Camera Control is available on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Information about places of interest will be available in the U.S. to start, with support for additional regions in the months to come.

Apple Developers: Enhancements to Test Flight now available

Apple Inc October 28, 2024 1

Apple has finally updated its Test Flight app that allows developers to send betas of their apps to other testers.

Beta testing your apps, games, and App Clips is even better with new enhancements to TestFlight. Updates include:

Redesigned invitations. TestFlight invitations now include your beta app description to better highlight new features and content your app or game offers to prospective testers. Apps and games with an approved version that’s ready for distribution can also include their screenshots and app category in their invite. We’ve also added a way for people to leave feedback if they didn’t join your beta, so you can understand why they didn’t participate.
Tester enrollment criteria. You can choose to set criteria, such as device type and OS versions, to more easily enroll qualified testers via a public link to provide more relevant feedback on your invite.
Public link metrics. Find out how successful your public link is at enrolling testers for your app with new metrics. Understand how many testers viewed your invite in the TestFlight app and chose to accept it. If you’ve set criteria for the public link, you can also view how many testers didn’t meet the criteria.

To get started with TestFlight, upload your build, add test information, and invite testers.

Via: Apple, Inc.

Apple continues focusing on blood-sugar tracking and more

CompuScoop Staff October 28, 2024 1

Summary (By Apple Intelligence):

Apple conducted a trial of a blood sugar tracking app for prediabetic employees, aiming to educate them about food’s impact on blood sugar levels. The app may eventually be integrated into Apple’s non-invasive glucose tracker, which has been in development for over a decade.

Apple, aiming to expand its presence in the healthcare sector, conducted a trial this year of a blood sugar tracking application. The app, designed to assist individuals with prediabetes in managing their dietary choices and adopting lifestyle modifications, was piloted on a select group of employees. According to Bloomberg News, citing sources familiar with the matter, Apple’s broader strategy involves integrating blood-sugar features into its future health products.

Although Apple currently has no plans to release the app, there’s a possibility that it may eventually incorporate the technology into its non-invasive glucose tracker, a project that has been in development for over a decade.

During the trial, the participating employees underwent a blood test to confirm their prediabetic status. This means that while they currently don’t have diabetes, they are at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. As part of the evaluation process, they actively monitored their blood sugar levels using various market-available devices and recorded glucose fluctuations in response to their food intake.

The primary objective of the system is to educate consumers about the impact of specific foods on blood sugar levels, with the aim of inspiring positive changes that could potentially prevent diabetes. For instance, if users recorded consuming pasta for lunch and subsequently experienced a rise in their blood sugar, they could be advised to modify their diet by either avoiding pasta or opting for a protein-rich alternative.

While the research conducted during this trial was not directly related to Apple’s ongoing efforts to develop a non-invasive glucose monitor, it could potentially contribute to the company’s understanding of how to manage this ambitious health initiative. The non-invasive glucose monitor represents a significant advancement in the fight against diabetes, as it aims to analyze a person’s blood without the need for a prick of the skin.

Apple offers $1 million for hackers to test Apple Intelligence’s Private Cloud Compute

CompuScoop Staff October 27, 2024 1

Apple has opened up its Private Cloud Compute (PCC) to researchers, offering up to $1 million to anyone who finds a hole in the secure cloud platform that supports its Apple Intelligence features. The first handful of Apple Intelligence features are about to roll out sometime this week.

[W]ith Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker processes as much data as possible on the device. For more complex requests, Apple’s Private Cloud Compute runs on the the company’s own silicon servers. Built with custom Apple silicon and a hardened operating system designed for privacy, Apple calls PCC “the most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI compute at scale.”

“In the weeks after we announced Apple Intelligence and PCC, we provided third-party auditors and select security researchers early access to the resources we created to enable this inspection, including the PCC Virtual Research Environment,” Apple explained in a new blog titled Security research on Private Cloud Compute. At the same time, the iPhone maker is expanding its Apple Security Bounty to include PCC, with “significant rewards” for reports of issues with its security or privacy claims.

Apple’s bug bounty for PCC is pretty generous. For major holes, which it categorizes as allowing “remote attack on request data,” it is offering $1 million for arbitrary code execution flaws. Meanwhile, access to a user’s request data or sensitive information outside the trust boundary offers a still rather generous $250,000 reward.

For attacks requiring a “privileged position” — access to someone’s iPhone — Apple is offering $150,000 for flaws allowing access to a user’s request data or other sensitive information about the user outside the trust boundary.

Via: Forbes