avon b7

40domi said:

mattinoz said:

Apple doesn't do toys - if they use Generative AI it will be to make tasks happen for the customer. Not just spew a wall of text with buzzwords that align to a topic with no factual regard for the topic. 

After all, that is what a Chatbot do currently, which is why they are loved by marketing and teams. 
It doesn't seem like it is worth Apple's while to try and get to that next benchmark, but there would be a lot of value in helping developers leverage that work to get there. 
Developer tools in AI rumours make sense for Apple. Any feature that is customer-facing will not be branded AI outside of bullet point on a slide with maybe a nice graphic. 

Totally agree with your comments.
All of the AI features on the Pixel & Samsung are just novelties or just don't work very well.
Examples;
Pixel best take (in theory a very good feature I would like) in practice only works 50% of the time at best and it takes for ever and not very secure because it only works off devise.
Samsung web search from a photo 🤣, has anyone ever really looked at a photo and thought, I wish I could search the web from that?
Samsung AI speech translator (great in theory) but doesn't work 🤣
Android split screen, I have trouble sometimes seeing docs in my split screen on a 14" MacBook, it's impossible on a screen less than half that, which is why Apple hasn't done it!
Always on display, for years Apple resisted it and everyone moaned about it, why did Apple resist it? because of the 15/20% extra battery drain, in a world where everyone moans about the lack of battery life, what happens when Apple finally do it (probably against their better judgement) 90% of users have it turned off 🤣
There are many, many more examples, but I won't go on.

"has anyone ever really looked at a photo and thought, I wish I could search the web from that?"

Absolutely all the time. That's why this feature has been around for years now. It is simply improving over time and more AI backend work is making it better. Also audio identification.

Speech translator, image recognition, photo/movie enhancement etc are fine as long as they get better over time. 

Even at 50% success, it's better than zero and if you're in a situation where you understand zero of a foreign language, you'd jump at the chance of a 50% success rate. 

If you use Siri you are most definitely falling foul to your own criticisms.

AI has improved greatly in a surprisingly short period of time. Short enough for Apple to not even want to pronounce the dreaded two letters to making it Absolutely Incredible for WWDC. That is because Apple got taken by surprise by the whole thing and now, 12 months on can't even think about another 'ML' WWDC. 

Why do you think that is? 

"Apple responded by stating that the claim was misleading."

So, we are to assume the claim, at its core, is correct. If it weren't, Apple would have said outright it was wrong.

"The DOJ's issue with Apple's 30% commission doesn't mention that 85% of developers don't pay any commission, and a vast majority are eligible for a reduced 15% commission. Apple's commission has been tested in court before by Epic, and Apple won on that front."

What happens in one trial isn't necessarily relevant to what can happen in another. 

That 85% don't pay anything is utterly irrelevant. The point is that the remaining share is enough to generate billions upon billions in revenues because there is literally no competition allowed. Everything in that other group goes to Apple because alternative stores are not allowed to exist.

The same applies to the 'reduced' 15%' which only ever came into effect through regulatory scrutiny and complaints. Without that Apple wouldn't have conceded anything.

"However, Apple has no data that shows users desire SMS elsewhere, and it's not a feature used by popular platforms on Android"

Regardless, the point remains and far worse IMO, is how Apple hid 'SMS' within its app. I lost count of the amount of times I had to tell users that what they were sending to Android users was in fact an SMS with all its limitations. Save for a one-off message which didn't even state the words 'SMS' or anything similar, and a warning that the message could incur extra costs. The SMS app should have been separate from iMessage.

"For Apple to offer wide support for any third-party smartwatch would require the company to account for every model, operating system, and more to allow interoperability."

IMO, third party watches are crippled from the get-go by OS limitations which seem to make it necessary for an app from the watch manufacturer to be running at all times to gain a half decent functionality. It will be interesting to see what watch manufacturers say to this.

NFC. 

"Apple claims these aren't anticompetitive measures but a result of how the technology is implemented to protect the user."

This is utter hogwash. The technology is implemented specifically to eliminate competition. Well, it was. It seems that within the EU that is going to change now (again, due to regulatory pressures).

Although people here are at a loss to understand the reasons behind the DMA/DSA, the US, and other markets, could well follow suit. 

Here, in the EU the underlying situation is nothing new. Prior to this, the telecoms industry and the banking sector were also forced to open up with interoperability requirements to critical infrastructure that have been working well for years and more changes come to market regularly. Recently money transfers were required to become 'instant', for example. 

NFC hardware/software combos (with secure enclave and TEE access) have not been an issue on phones that carry those elements. The banks wouldn't support that if security were an issue. 

The reality is that an Android phone can securely support NFC/Wallet transactions from multiple vendors. 

My phone can support Google Pay, Huawei Pay, BBVA Pay and even, theoretically at least, even Apple Pay. An iPhone has only supported Apple Pay, and eliminated competition by simply not allowing it to exist. That is is because there are revenues involved and Apple takes a cut from every single operation and wants the whole pie to itself.

New times require new legislation. The EU is well ahead of the pack here and an AI directive is also progressing well. Previously we had WEEE and RoHS plus the common charger initiative, the battery directive, right to repair, right to be forgotten, consumer protections etc.

I wouldn't say the case against Apple is going to be a walkover for Apple. We'll have to wait and see and perhaps what will be more interesting are the breadcrumbs of information relative to internal communications that might drop along the way. 

As the single point of entry into homes with everincreasing networking needs, routers are the perfect firewall shield point. 

Abandoning Airport based product development was a weird move back in the day. It's even weirder now. 

Routers and associated network gear (home storage/NAS) are perfect candidates for modern day, easily upgradeable solutions with simplified user facing configurations. They are also perfect candidates for AI based protections and superior hardware resources (a perpetual failing of consumer routers). 

Kuminga said:

bulk001 said:

fastasleep said:

bulk001 said:

Only time will tell if you are right. Why don’t you reschedule this post for an update in 2 years. Personally my money is on the DOJ who, you know has actual lawyers and stuff, as opposed to two writers of an Apple blog. 

If only Apple had a few actual lawyers and stuff.

Couple of thoughts, it isn’t Apple’s lawyers that AppleInsider is quoting. I doubt that Apple’s lawyer's see this as this simple or are so cavalier.  Further, Apple couldn’t win a case where Cook made statements on a QER which is typically covered by a catch all disclaimer that is almost lawsuit proof and paid out close to a half billion dollars that AppleInsider then blew off as insignificant. They couldn’t hold off the EU regulations and also just got hit with a 1.84B Euro fine. Their brilliant legal minds also sued a tiny company with a pear logo and ended up having to help redesign their logo given the public blowback. They lost the Apple Watch case and settled with Qualcomm. This is their top notch legal team that they are bringing to this fight?

The EU if you noticed, generally  only goes after American Companies and never their own companies.

'Never their own companies'? 

The vast majority of fines are for EU companies. 

Apple got away with its practices for a decade according to the EU. How is that going after US companies?

There were complaints. Investigations were carried out. A fine was the result. Although Apple will appeal.

In the so called digital era the first movers enjoy accumulated advantages of that status which they have used to stifle, or outright eliminate, competition. 

There were calls from many here for Apple to pull out of the EU, I suppose as some kind of punishment to the EU. 

Here we have a similar situation to that of the EU yet those same voices are not demanding Apple pull out of the country in protest. 

Apple having made concessions over the years to reduce the impact of its practices shouldn't be enough for it to say 'we're innocent and only have our customers' best interests at heart'. 

As the first movers grew, so did the negative impact of their practices. 

That situation should still have the legal spotlight put on it and hopefully see new legislation come through to specifically deal with it. 

It will be interesting to see the defence Apple puts forward and hopefully we will be able to learn of more of the behind the scenes communications that led to certain practices coming into play. 

The legal result of this process is perhaps of less interest, as the true end result (in broader terms) could 'open up the melon' and lead to much needed market change. 

danox said:

danvm said:

danox said:

danvm said:

danox said:

danvm said:

danox said:

Apple is hardly behind but they are on a different path and actually are able to execute on hardware and software Apple doesn't need Google the Tensor is 5 or 6 years behind Apple right now and Google is a long way from running AI locally on their feeble Tensor SOC'S and Samsung is (hopelessly) even further away and Microsoft isn't even in the mobile ball game right now, note Wall Street is clueless about this little detail in their AI Hype train.

AI on the edge is the pathway Apple is on, phoning home and having the end user wait is the path Google, Microsoft, Meta, Qualcomm and Samsung are on. Why? Their SOC'S/OS software are way behind Apple. 

What Apple does need to do/consider is leveraging the full benefit of Apple Silicon, the low power/wattage, speed, UMA memory combined with a OS optimized to the hardware just screams out, the M3 Studio Ultra with 256 gigs (coming at WWDC) or a Mac M3 Extreme (CarPlay wasn't all for nothing) Pro tower with 512 gigs just says welcome to the world of inference on the Mac. Apple is/has been working on software tools to support developers for long time.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/08/apple-explains-how-it-uses-machine-learning-across-ios-and-soon-macos/.  From 2020 before the current AI Hype

https://venturebeat.com/ai/apple-researchers-achieve-breakthroughs-in-multimodal-ai-as-company-ramps-up-investments/

https://daily.dev/blog/mm1-the-advanced-30b-parameters-multimodal-llm-from-apple

Apple has been consistent in their AI/ML on the edge pathway. Apple won't be using Google anymore for AI than they currently use Google maps.

I think that Apple have no option but AI on the edge.  They don't have the datacenters or infrastructure to run AI / LMM as MS, Google or Meta.  And MS is going for AI on the edge too, with the new processors + NPU from Intel, AMD and Qualcomm.  Looks like MS is the one with all bases covered, from edge to the cloud and AI services.  

No Apple in house data centers yet? Servers are low hanging fruit if that list of companies Google, Microsoft, Meta, Qualcomm and Samsung are involved having a in house OS and Apple Silicon SOC'S are far more important to the future of Apple when it comes to creating new profitable ecosystems.

You forgot Amazon on that list getting rid of Intel was a higher priority to Apple and that modem problem with Qualcomm is still on the higher priority list, after all you can't get to that smaller Apple Vision glasses solution without kicking Qualcomm out.

Google, and Meta want user data that is their sole number one interest in cloud based solutions and Samsung is just along for the ride.

In house OS and ASi are important to Apple since they don't have a data center infrastructure in place for AI / LMM.  That's the reason they are talking with Google for Gemini.  That's different from MS, that is ready to announce AI PC's, so they will have their ecosystem with AI from the edge to the cloud. 

New Era of Work | Home (microsoft.com)
Microsoft to hold a special Windows and Surface AI event in May - The Verge

Will the Windows OS work on day one and will the chip be anywhere within 5 years of Apple, and last but not least will any Windows developers do anything with it. The previous Arm/intel Surface was and is a complete flop Microsoft to this day can't get Windows trackpads to work properly.

We'll have to wait until May to see what MS does with Windows and AI in the MS Build event, and how developers support its features. I don't see why developers will not take advantage of AI / NPU in Windows, as they do in macOS.  
Considering Qualcomm have a group of people that worked in the Apple Silicon design group, I can expect the will have a competitive SoC in the next 5 years. And I'm sure AMD and Intel will be pushing for improving their technology too.

And while I agree that the Surface with ARM was a failure, you have to consider, they are not the only Windows device in the market.  Dell, HP and Lenovo sell a lot more Windows devices than MS itself, and they already announce AI PCs with processors + NPU from AMD and Intel.  Later in the year, we'll see devices with Qualcomm processors. 

https://www.dell.com/en-us/blog/dell-technologies-announces-new-latitude-ai-pcs/
https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/ai-pc-thinkbook-laptops-thinkcentre-neo-desktops-productive-creative-power/
https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-releases/2024/hp-unveils-largest-portfolio-ai-pc.html

Regarding your comment on Surface trackpads, have you use them?  They aren't as bad as you think, even though I would agree Apple does better trackpads.  But since the article is about AI, what do you think of Siri?  Apple have it for 14 years, and still terrible. And now they need help from Google to improve their AI / LMM business. Looks like all companies have something to improve, don't you think?

Google is the one paying Apple billions for a default position so I don't think Apple needs them for anything, and Apple as a vertical computer company definitely doesn't need Microsoft for anything either Apple very wisely passed on buying that fiasco search engine Microsoft was trying to offload a few years ago. Life on the edge (practical real world solutions) is the better pathway for Apple. The Apple Silicon M series, LiDAR and R1 chip lead the way.

After the nebulous hallucinating hot air software on AI dies down Microsoft and Google will be standing around with nothing concrete to show for it like Crypto and Bitcoin which was the last hype of nothing.

'Hallucination' is part of certain AI processes. Do you think that if Apple tries to create similar solutions it won't suffer from the same issues?

While new techniques are being used or researched to reduce hallucination it's part of the current parcel and, as the industry has shown, even with hallucination, it's better to have a parcel than not have one. 

Why do you think Apple is likely going to make AI such a focus point at WWDC?

AI is more than 'edge'. And there are even different meanings for 'edge'. 

Tasks will be realised where they can be done with optimum results, all things considered. Sometimes it will be on a phone, sometimes an earbud, sometimes at the ICT Edge and sometimes in the cloud. It all depends on different factors. 

In the future (and probably not too distant future) devices will pool their processing abilities to increase various factors such as processing speed, latency etc. 

Verticality is just a model. Nothing more. Qualcomm took the decision to not make phones. It makes technology solutions. Apple is currently very dependent on Qualcomm technology and IP because it doesn't have its own equivalents.

One model isn't inherently better than the other and Apple isn't as vertical as you think.

If it planned a car it wouldn't have been anywhere near as 'Apple' manufactured as 'vertical' seems to imply. Starting with the battery. Arguably the single most important part of an electric car. That would maybe be an LG, CATL or BYD product and, as both CATL and BYD are heavily involved in the car industry, it is unlikely Apple would have been able to do a better job.