Revenue reached an all-time high for Apple’s most recent quarter as iPhone sales experienced an uptick due in part to consumer excitement for the arrival of Apple Intelligence, the company’s heavily advertised set of AI tools. Total sales reached $94.9 billion for the quarter, up 6 percent year-over-year and exceeding the $94.5 billion that financial analysts had predicted. The company’s iPhone business reported sales of $46.2 billion, following disappointing consecutive quarters in the first half of the year. The AI boom resulted in strong quarters for other Big Tech leaders including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft. Continue reading Jump in iPhone Business Results in Record Quarter for Apple

Apple has revealed the new iMac, which features an M4 chip and Apple Intelligence in an ultra-thin case. Refreshed versions of all three MacBook Pros are also powered by M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. With the M4, the new iMac performs “up to 1.7x faster for daily productivity, and up to 2.1x faster for demanding workflows like photo editing and gaming, compared to iMac with M1.1,” Apple says, adding that the neural engine in the M4 makes “iMac the world’s best all-in-one for AI,” with bespoke Apple Intelligence. Apple released iOS 18.1, which also includes Apple Intelligence features, among them writing and summary tools and a “more natural and conversational Siri.” Continue reading Apple Ships iOS 18.1 with New Siri, Debuts iMac with M4 Chip

California-based Ticketmaster, part of Live Nation Entertainment, is the first company to enable new iOS 18 Apple Wallet event features that offer venue maps, parking details, recommended playlists from Apple Music, local weather and links to purchase merchandise, as well as location sharing to help find friends on arrival to live events. Venues and teams can also customize the Ticketmaster experience with links to their app or website so fans can get information about their events from Apple Wallet tickets. The app debuts with the Los Angeles Football Club home game at BMO Stadium on October 19. Continue reading Ticketmaster Debuts Apple Wallet iOS 18 Features for Events

Apple has released a new AI model called Depth Pro that can create a 3D depth map from a 2D image in under a second. The system is being hailed as a breakthrough that could potentially revolutionize how machines perceive depth, with transformative impact on industries from augmented reality to self-driving vehicles. “The predictions are metric, with absolute scale” without relying on the camera metadata typically required for such mapping, according to Apple. Using a consumer-grade GPU, the model can produce a 2.25-megapixel depth map using a single image in only 0.3 seconds. Continue reading Apple Advances Computer Vision with Its Depth Pro AI Model

During yesterday’s Glowtime event in Cupertino, Apple introduced its iPhone 16 lineup with Apple Intelligence features, A18 chip, and new camera control button to access “visual intelligence” functionality. The company also unveiled a redesigned Apple Watch with polished titanium option and new S10 chip; a new Satin Black color for the Apple Watch Ultra 2, alongside a collection of updated bands with darker hues; and two new versions of AirPods wireless earbuds, one touting active noise canceling. The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus models feature aluminum bodies while the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max bodies are made of titanium. The first Apple Intelligence features for the new iPhones will launch in beta next month. Continue reading Glowtime: Apple Unveils iPhone 16, Apple Watch 10, AirPods 4

Apple’s iOS 18 public beta 2 has arrived, with new wallpapers for CarPlay, a newly designed Hidden Apps folder in the Apps Library and the ability to use dark mode widgets in broad daylight, among other updates. Public beta 2 includes iPadOS 18, but does not include Apple Intelligence, which is expected this fall. However, a separate Apple Intelligence preview was introduced this week. In addition, a new Apple research paper leads some to believe its Apple Intelligence AI models were pre-trained in the cloud using Google Tensor Processing Units, leading to speculation that Big Tech be considering alternatives to Nvidia. But Apple has always been an AI outlier. Continue reading Apple Intelligence Preview and Updated iOS 18 Beta Released

Meta Platforms is bringing its Meta AI assistant to Quest 3 headsets in the U.S. and Canada. As part of the company’s ongoing collaboration with Microsoft, Quest 3’s Horizon OS will also get access to real-time information courtesy of Bing search. The update will also bring Meta AI with Vision — already integrated with the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses — to Horizon OS, initially just in passthrough mode. “These changes will begin rolling out in the U.S. and Canada in experimental mode next month — and we’ll continue to improve the experience over time,” Meta explains. Continue reading Meta Brings AI Assistant, AI Vision to Some Quest Headsets

Microsoft has officially moved its AI-powered Designer app out of preview, making the Canva competitor available to iOS and Android users. The app uses text prompts to generate images and designs for items such as logos, greeting cards, stickers and invitations. Powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 image model, Designer is available as an app in Windows and as a free mobile app. New capabilities include the ability to edit existing designs and the addition of “prompt templates” to help users who are starting the design process with a blank canvas. “Just describe what you want to see, and Designer can create it for you,” explains Microsoft. Continue reading Microsoft Designer Adds AI Editing, Launches Mobile Release

U.S. tech companies are fighting back against what they feel are overly oppressive European Union regulations by withholding products from that market. Meta Platforms will not release its next Llama multimodal AI model there, along with future products. Apple last month said certain Apple Intelligence AI features will not be released in the EU. Previously, tech companies would accommodate regional laws by adapting global strategies so they could do business everywhere with the same products. Given the restrictions of the Digital Markets Act and other EU rules, Big Tech is signaling that may no longer be possible. Continue reading Tough EU Laws Prompt Meta, Apple to Withhold New Products

Apple has released a public demo of the 4M AI model it developed in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). The technology debuts seven months after the model was first open-sourced, allowing informed observers the opportunity to interact with it and assess its capabilities. Apple says 4M was built by applying masked modeling to a single unified Transformer encoder-decoder “across a wide range of input/output modalities — including text, images, geometric and semantic modalities, as well as neural network feature maps.” Continue reading Apple Launches Public Demo of Its Multimodal 4M AI Model

The European Commission is expanding its investigation of Apple based on preliminary findings of anticompetitive breach of the new Digital Markets Act (DMA). The Commission has found the App Store engages in “anti-steering” by preventing app purveyors from offering consumers “alternative channels for offers and content.” The Commission also opened a new investigation into App Store developer contracts, citing  the “core technology fee” implemented in January in what was perceived as a workaround to the new European Union rules, saying such policies “fall short of ensuring effective compliance with Apple’s obligations under the DMA.” Continue reading Apple in EU Crosshairs for Anticompetitive Action Under DMA

Apple has entered into a deal with OpenAI to deliver GTP-4o to its devices, which beginning this fall will feature Apple Intelligence, or “AI.” Announced during this week’s WWDC 2024, Apple Intelligence is “deeply integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia,” according to the company. The new AI features will be available to users of the iPhone 15 Pro, or any devices powered by M1 or newer chips “to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks.” Continue reading WWDC: Apple Intelligence Brings AI to iPhone, iPad and Mac