Updated June 22nd with details about Apple Intelligence availability in the EU..
A look back at this week’s Apple news and headlines, including the latest iPhone 16 leak, iPhone AI limitations, new MacBook Pros for Christmas, Apple’s open source AI, when Siri will get Apple Intelligence, the iPhone AI supercycle, what happened to the i in Apple, and more.
The Apple Loop is here to keep you up to date on some of the many discussions surrounding Apple over the past seven days, as well as Forbes’ weekly digest of Android news.
iPhone 16 Case Tips
A number of cases have been spotted for the iPhone 16 which will be on display this week, and while they may not reveal the insides of the next-generation iPhone, they could provide more information about the camera and its uses, as well as Apple’s spatial computing plans.
“The photos reveal a subtle design tweak to the iPhone 16, featuring two vertically aligned camera lenses. One theory is that this arrangement is to support the spatial video recording feature of Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset, even in the base model. To best capture space, the lenses need to be aligned horizontally, mimicking the position of the human eye.”
(TechNetbooks).
Laptop keyboard and Apple logo (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The Limitations of iPhone AI
Apple has confirmed that of the current generation iPhones, only the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max will support Apple Intelligence AI, due to a combination of on-board memory, processor and bandwidth, which Apple’s John Giannandrea explained in a recent “Talk Show” podcast.
“Executing these models at runtime is called inference, and inference on large language models is computationally very expensive. So to run these models fast enough to be useful requires a combination of device bandwidth, the size of the Apple Neural Engine, and device power. In theory, very old devices could run these models, but they would be so slow that they would be useless.”
(Forbes).
M4 MacBook Pro before Christmas
Apple took the surprising step of debuting its latest M4 silicon in an iPad Pro rather than a Mac. The M4 will eventually come to the macOS family, but the first model to do so will likely be the MacBook Pro.
“The entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro is expected to feature the M4 chip, while the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will be updated to the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. The Mac mini will feature the M4 and M4 Pro chips. MacBook Air, Mac Studio and Mac Pro models won’t be updated to the M4 chip until 2025, and it’s not yet clear when the iMac will be updated with the refreshed chip technology.”
(MacRumors).
Apple’s Open Source AI Initiative
While Apple hasn’t yet shipped its Apple Intelligence AI software to the public, some of the company’s AI developments are public. Hugging Face is an online open-source service that shares machine learning models and datasets. Apple has uploaded 20 more models to the service, in addition to the ones it uploaded earlier this year.
“Apple has made great strides in its efforts to bring cutting-edge in-device AI capabilities to developers. The tech giant recently released 20 new Core ML models and four datasets on Hugging Face, its leading community platform for sharing AI models and code.”
(Venture Beat).
AI will be late to the iPhone party
When will Apple Intelligence be available to the public? It looks like it’s taking longer than expected. iOS 18 will ship with the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro in September, followed by older iPhones later, but Apple Intelligence might not arrive until early 2025.
“Siri in iOS 18 will still get some ‘new features’ in September, including a new edge-illuminated interface…”[but] We’ll have to wait until next year to see Apple’s most significant enhancements to Siri, as the iOS 18 update in 2025 should bring the following improvements to Apple’s virtual assistant:
(MacRumors).
Photo illustration of Apple Intelligence (Photo: Hakan Nural/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Updated June 22: Details of Apple Intelligence availability in the EU.
Apple Intelligence may not ship in the EU
In an interview with the Financial Times this weekend, an Apple spokesperson explained why Apple Intelligence hasn’t been fully released in the EU. It comes down to the interaction of the DMA with iOS and iPadOS. There’s no clear guidance on whether Apple Intelligence will satisfy regulators or lead to further investigations. Importantly, none of this will be determined before release. Given the potential for hefty fines, Apple refuses to take the risk at this time.
“Due to regulatory uncertainty created by the Digital Markets Act, we don’t expect to be able to bring three features – iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay screen sharing enhancements and Apple Intelligence – to EU users this year,” Apple said on Friday.
(Financial Times).
AI dreams of a super cycle
With the launch of AI for iPhone (whenever it comes out), Apple is expected to sell a ton of AI-enabled iPhones. With little to no backward compatibility, will this trigger a “super cycle” of iPhone sales? Analysts at Wedbush believe it will happen:
“…As Apple’s AI strategy unfolds, it will spur a much-needed super cycle in Cupertino, with our estimates showing that 270 million of the world’s 1.5 billion iPhones will not upgrade their smartphones for four or more years.
(9to5Mac).
And finally…
Back in the day, everything started with an “i.” Now, all of their product names start with “Apple.” What’s going on? Naturally, this week there’s been a new Reddit discussion about Apple’s branding, with plenty of theories circulating as to why. Here’s one of them:
“Having Apple in the name is a marketing ploy to ensure brand recognition. Acura got burned in the ’90s when they started naming their cars Legend and Integra and no one knew who made them. Renaming them RDX, MDX, etc. has forced people to put ‘Acura’ back into the conversation. I think Apple is doing the same.”
(Medium via Reddit)
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