In his Power On newsletter, Gurman said that Apple now plans to make the Image Playground feature for generating images and the Genmoji feature for generating custom emoji available in iOS 18.2, which will likely be released in December.
Here is how Apple describes Image Playground:
Produce fun, original images in seconds with the Image Playground experience right in your apps. Create an entirely new image based on a description, suggested concepts, and even a person from your Photos library. You can easily adjust the style and make changes to match a Messages thread, your Freeform board, or a slide in Keynote.
Here is how Apple describes Genmoji:
Make a brand-new Genmoji right in the keyboard to match any conversation. Provide a description to see a preview, and adjust your description until it's perfect. You can even pick someone from your Photos library and create a Genmoji that looks like them.
The first Apple Intelligence features will be available starting with iOS 18.1, which is likely to be released to the public in October. These features include new writing tools for generating and summarizing text, notification summaries, suggested replies in the Messages app, the ability to record and transcribe phone calls, a new "Clean Up" tool in the Photos app that can quickly remove objects from a photo, and a few others.
Apple Intelligence will require an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.1 or later. The features will initially be available with device language set to English only. Apple said more languages will follow over the next year.
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past.
The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC.
It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2.
watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3.
Mac users can download the macOS Sequoia update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15.
With...
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Update 4/2/25: Apple has updated an AirPods support page to indicate that the AirPods Max (USB-C) firmware update version 7E99 is now "coming soon." The original article continues below.
Apple today released a new firmware update for the USB-C version of the AirPods Max headphones. The new firmware is version 7E99, up from the prior 7A291 firmware the device was previously running....
This makes sense after the rollout of the Google tool and everyone realized there weren’t sufficient guardrails in place to prevent (or at least reduce) the likelihood of generating offensive content from the tool. They’d rather have it locked down up front as opposed to having to tweak it afterwards.
While fully sensitive to "offensive," who can be the judge of that? Artistic expression at its best has no boundaries. As someone decides to set boundaries, art is "pinched" down.
I have zero desire to be exposed to "offensive" images myself... but my definition of what is offensive will likely differ from yours which will differ from the next guy. Someone's "absolutely offensive" is someone else's cutting-edge, "amazing" art(istic expression).
Trusting a corporation to police it will be getting their definition of offensive... which seems likely to lean as far to the "safe" for any and all eyes as possible... which means pinching the boundaries much tighter than you or I or the other guy might pinch it. I don't believe that is best... even if in one read, it might seem so to many. There are people who can be offended over what will seem like (towards) nothing to the masses. Filter offensive for them (also Apple product buyers) and I suspect the frustration with the tool being too "tight" for the masses will be criticized for overdoing it... especially with other options available with standards not set so tight.
This makes sense after the rollout of the Google tool and everyone realized there weren’t sufficient guardrails in place to prevent (or at least reduce) the likelihood of generating offensive content from the tool. They’d rather have it locked down up front as opposed to having to tweak it afterwards.
Apple should cancel the whole AI thing. Most people don’t feel comfortable with the whole idea and it will cause more problems in every way possible. Fixing Bugs is way more important and adding easier features.
You are going to get left behind if you do not embrace AI.
I've been using Office 365's AI feature for a while. It's such a mixed bag and I'm left feeling I really don't think AI is the big breakthrough that people want it to be. It's very hard to describe why.
On the one hand, it can do amazing things, and is ideal for some narrow circumstances. Want the outline for a report? Word will create it instantly, tailored to your subject area. Ditto it can create presentations. In Excel it can create pivot tables and charts by analysing data for interesting tidbits. The main Copilot chat tool can search all your docs and chats to find when something was mentioned.
It's very impressive. But it's somehow not actually that useful.
The first problem is that we need features in apps to be cast iron reliable. And AI just isn't. It's pretty good. But it has a habit of letting the user down. It's like having a ********ting friend. You might enjoy being in their company, and you may love what they say. But at the end of the day, you're a fool if you trust or rely upon them.
The second issue is that in the rush to get the AI products to market, nobody has really understood what they are.
Computers until now have been do-it-with-me. Steve Jobs said a computer was like a bicycle for the mind, and this was perfect. A computer enhances human intelligence. You can do the same things but better, and faster.
AI is a different type of computing. It's do-it-for-me. To use the bicycle metaphor, the computer will now steer the bike. All you have to do is point it in the right direction and pump the pedals to make it move. Hmmm...
It's reducing the necessity of the human's abilities, but the human is still right there. This is the fundamental issue.
Computers work great when they do-it-with-us.
They're problematic when they do-it-for-us. Nobody has yet realised this and I suspect a bubble is about to burst.
I think a lot of people in the tech industry over-estimate how much the "typical" user cares about AI. No one I work with would care at all if an iPhone was marketed as an AI device.
