The WWDC24 Keynote is over, and thus, a long first day of sessions has come to an end. To be completely honest, the real highlight of the event was “Apple Intelligence,” a more private, secure, and simpler way to do AI coming to iPhone 15 Pro and Macs with the M1 chip and later. (Editor’s note: I’m a little bummed Apple Intelligence isn’t coming to A14, A15, or A16, to be honest. I’ll never get a “Pro” iPhone, so there’s no way for me to use these features. At least I have them on my MacBook.)
With this leap, and their partnership with ChatGPT that made billionaire conspiracy theorist and known idiot Elon Musk* squeamish (and eventually Community Noted by his own platform) for whatever reason, I’m certain that Apple has the lead in building AI. Why? Because they’re building it safely and privately, with the user being the most important part. That should be applauded! That’s how it should be done!
*I’m not linking out directly to his tirade, Elon can go pound sand, but enjoy this funny interaction that I wholeheartedly agree with:
Also, Elon uses an iPhone to send out all of his Tweets. So, might be time for him to get a new phone if he hates this Apple Intelligence thing so much! Haha.
Any way, while the AI craze is likely to die out eventually, it’s here to stay for now. My opinion is that technology should be built with user privacy at the forefront of everything, and Apple is one of the leading companies out there when it comes to privacy. Period. Apple is a trend setter, and I’m hoping the rest of the industry follows their lead here. Privacy and security are a really big deal to consumers right now. More so than ever, frankly.
Now probably the thing I’ve been most anticipating (for over a year now) RCS isn’t available on the iOS 18 beta (yet?), which is incredibly frustrating. It’s probably coming in Beta 2 or something, but part of me doubts they’ll add it. But that said, a large number of features announced on stage aren’t available on any of the new operating system betas released to developers today. It’s quite worrying, considering that besides Apple Intelligence, none of these updates are particularly “huge” so-to-speak. But, we must be patient!
Overshadowed
All of that said, this conference was overshadowed by an incredibly bigger issue with Apple right now: their compliance (or alleged lack thereof) with the Digital Markets Act. You still, in iOS 18/iPadOS 18, cannot sideload or install any app you’d like — let alone any third-party storefronts — on the device you paid for outside of the EU. Meanwhile, on Android, you can just install the app and all Google will do is a virus/malware scan to make sure it’s clean. That’s it. No (real) scare screen, no problem.
Apple should’ve unlocked this functionality for everyone and got ahead of the regulators here. It wouldn’t have solved every issue, but it would have at least made it seem like Apple was trying to work in good faith. Alas… it wasn’t meant to be.
I’m a firm believer that if you paid for a thing, you should be allowed to do whatever you want with it. Nobody should stop you, or limit how much you can do that thing, or anything like that. And certainly companies shouldn’t be telling you what you can or cannot run on your device, either. I’m hoping that the Courts and/or Congress will step in and fix that soon.
The Department of Justice here in the States is currently in a lawsuit against Apple, so hopefully we seem them loosening their restrictions (à la macOS). I’m betting we probably will, considering Apple’s partial loss in Epic v. Apple a few years back.
Regardless, as I write this post in my text editor to send out to you, I’ve updated my M2 MacBook Pro to macOS 15 Sequoia. Along with the rest of the Apple fleet I currently have around me, of course! (Can’t do the Apple TV yet since it’s at a friend’s house, whoops.) But as I mentioned, there’s not a lot new to report on right now–but the betas across the board have felt relatively snappy on iPhone 11, 12, Apple Watch Series 6, and MacBook Pro (M2, 2022). I’ll keep you posted, though!